Willis Easter
From:
Texas
WILLIS EASTER, 85, was born near Nacogdoches, Texas. He does not
know the name of his first master. Frank Sparks brought Willis to
Bosqueville, Texas, when he was two years old. Willis believes
firmly in "conjuremen" and ghosts, and wears several charms for
protection against the former. He lives in Waco, Texas.
"I's birthed below Nacogdoches, and dey tells me it am on March 19th, in
1852. My mammy had some kind of paper what say dat. But I don't know my
master, 'cause when I's two he done give me to Marse Frank Sparks and he
brung me to Bosqueville. Dat sizeable place dem days. My mammy come
'bout a month after, 'cause Marse Frank, he say I's too much trouble
without my mammy.
"Mammy de bes' cook in de county and a master hand at spinnin' and
weavin'. She made her own dye. Walnut and elm makes red dye and walnut
brown color, and shumake makes black color. When you wants yallow color,
git cedar moss out de brake.
"All de lint was picked by hand on our place. It a slow job to git dat
lint out de cotton and I's gone to sleep many a night, settin' by de
fire, pickin' lint. In bad weather us sot by de fire and pick lint and
patch harness and shoes, or whittle out something, dishes and bowls and
troughs and traps and spoons.
"All us chillen weared lowel white duckin', homemake, jes' one garment.
It was de long shirt. You couldn't tell gals from boys on de yard.
"I's twelve when us am freed and for awhile us lived on Marse Bob
Wortham's place, on Chalk Bluff, on Horseshoe Bend. After de freedom
war, dat old Brazos River done change its course up 'bove de bend, and
move to de west.
"I marries Nancy Clark in 1879, but no chilluns. Dere plenty deer and
bears and wild turkeys and antelopes here den. Dey's sho' fine eatin'
and wish I could stick a tooth in one now. I's seed fifty antelope at a
waterin' hole.
"Dere plenty Indians, too. De Rangers had de time keepin' dem back. Dey
come in bright of de moon and steals and kills de stock. Dere a ferry
'cross de Brazos and Capt. Ross run it. He sho' fit dem Indians.
"Dem days everybody went hossback and de roads was jes' trails and
bridges was poles 'cross de creeks. One day us went to a weddin'. Dey
sot de dinner table out in de yard under a big tree and de table was a
big slab of a tree on legs. Dey had pewter plates and spoons and chiny
bowls and wooden dishes. Some de knives and forks was make out of bone.
Dey had beef and pork and turkey and some antelope.
"I knows 'bout ghostes. First, I tells you a funny story. A old man
named Josh, he purty old and notionate. Every evenin' he squat down
under a oak tree. Marse Smith, he slip up and hear Josh prayin, 'Oh,
Gawd, please take pore old Josh home with you.' Next day, Marse Smith
wrop heself in a sheet and git in de oak tree. Old Josh come 'long and
pray, 'Oh, Gawd, please come take pore old Josh home with you.' Marse
say from top de tree, 'Poor Josh, I's come to take you home with me.'
Old Josh, he riz up and seed dat white shape in de tree, and he yell,
'Oh, Lawd, not right now, I hasn't git forgive for all my sins.' Old
Josh, he jes' shakin' and he dusts out dere faster den a wink. Dat
broke up he prayin' under dat tree.
"I never studied cunjurin', but I knows dat scorripins and things dey
cunjures with am powerful medicine. Dey uses hair and fingernails and
tacks and dry insects and worms and bat wings and sech. Mammy allus tie
a leather string round de babies' necks when dey teethin', to make dem
have easy time. She used a dry frog or piece nutmeg, too.
"Mammy allus tell me to keep from bein' cunjure, I sing:
"'Keep 'way from me, hoodoo and witch,
Lend my path from de porehouse gate;
I pines for golden harps and sich,
Lawd, I'll jes' set down and wait.
Old Satan am a liar and cunjurer, too--
If you don't watch out, he'll cunjure you.'
"Dem cunjuremen sho' bad. Dey make you have pneumony and boils and bad
luck. I carries me a jack all de time. It em de charm wrop in red
flannel. Don't know what am in it. A bossman, he fix it for me.
"I sho' can find water for de well. I got a li'l tree limb what am like
a V. I driv de nail in de end of each branch and in de crotch. I takes
hold of each branch and iffen I walks over water in de ground, dat limb
gwine turn over in my hand till it points to de ground. Iffen money am
buried, you can find it de same way.
"Iffen you fills a shoe with salt and burns it, dat call luck to you. I
wears a dime on a string round de neck and one round de ankle. Dat to
keep any conjureman from sottin' de trick on ma. Dat dime be bright
iffen my friends am true. It sho' gwine git dark iffen dey does me
wrong.
"For to make a jack dat am sho' good, git snakeroot and sassafras and a
li'l lodestone and brimstone and asafoetida and resin and bluestone and
gum arabic and a pod or two red pepper. Put dis in de red flannel bag,
at midnight on de dark of de moon, and it sho' do de work.
"I knowed a ghost house, I sho' did. Everybody knowed it, a red brick
house in Waco, on Thirteenth and Washington St. Dey calls it de Bell
house. It sho' a fine, big house, but folks couldn't use it. De white
folks what owns it, dey gits one nigger and 'nother to stay round and
look after things. De white folks wants me to stay dere. I goes. Every
Friday night dere am a rustlin' sound, like murmur of treetops, all
through dat house. De shutters rattles--only dere ain't no shutters on
dem windows. Jes' plain as anything, I hears a chair, rockin', rockin'.
Footsteps, soft as de breath, you could hear dem plain. But I stays and
hunts and can't find nobody nor nothin' none of dem Friday nights.
"Den come de Friday night on de las' quarter de moon. Long 'bout
midnight, something lift me out de cot. I heared a li'l child sobbin',
and dat rocker git started, and de shutters dey rattle softlike, and dat
rustlin', mournin' sound all through dat house. I takes de lantern and
out in de hall I goes. Right by de foot de stairs I seed a woman, big as
life, but she was thin and I seed right through her. She jes' walk on
down dat hall and pay me no mind. She make de sound like de beatin' of
wings. I jes' froze. I couldn't move.
"Dat woman jes' melted out de window at de end of de hall, and I left
dat place!
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