EQUAL TO THE EMERGENCY

Hebe:  “Unc Isrul, mammy says, hoocume de milk so watery on top in de mornin’.”

Patriarch:  “Tell you’ mammy dat’s de bes’ sort o’ milk, dat’s de dew on it, de cows been layin’ in de dew.”

Hebe:  “An’ she tell me to ax you what meck it so blue.”

Patriarch:  “You ax your mammy what meck she so black.”

Here are some of Casie’s little rhymes that he entertained the neighbor children with: 

Look at dat possum in dat holler log.  He hidin’ he know dis nigger eat possum laik a hog.

Hear dat hoot owl in dat tree.  Dat old hoot owl gwine hoot right out at yew.

Rabbit, rabbit, do you know; I can track you in de snow.

One young man lingered at the gate after a long visit, but a lots ob sweethearts do det.  His lady love started to cry.  He said, “Dear, don’t cry; I will come to see you again.”  But she cried on.  “Oh, darling don’t cry so; I will come back again, I sure will.”  Still she cried.  At last he said:  “Love, did I not tell you that I would soon come again to see you?” And through her tears she replied:  “Yes, but I am afraid you will never go; that is what is the matter with me.  We must all go.”

Uncle Joshua was once asked a great question.  It was:  “If you had to be blown up which would you choose, to be blown up on the railroad or the steamboat?” “Well,” said Uncle Joshua, “I don’t want to be blowed up no way; but if I had to be blowed up I would rather be blowed up on de railroad, because, you see, if you is blowed up on de railroad, dar you is, but if you is blowed up on de steamboat, whar is you?”

Casie tells me of some of his superstitions: 

If you are the first person a cat looks at after he has licked hisself, you are going to be married.

If you put a kitten under the cover of your bed and leave it until it crawls out by itself, it will never leave home.

If you walk through a place where a horse wallows, you will have a headache.

If a woodpecker raps on the house, someone is going to die.

If an owl screeches, turn the pocket of your apron inside out, tie a knot in your apron string, and he will stop.

If a rabbit runs across the road in front of you, to the left, it is a sign of bad luck; if it goes to the right, it is a sign of good luck.

If you cut a child’s finger nails before it is a year old, it will steal when it grows up.

If you put your hand on the head of a dead man, you will never worry about him; he will never haunt you, and you will never fear death.

If the pictures are not turned toward the wall after a death, some other member of the family will die.

If you see a dead man in the mirror, you will be unlucky the rest of your life.

Name of Interviewer:  Velma Sample Subject:  Slavery Days