Helping yourself with the Bible

For as long as conjure men and women have been doing jobs for other people, “ordinary” people have been doing little tricks of this and that for themselves. Back in the 1940s, and again in the 70s, Harry Middleton Hyatt toured the South to collect as many of these tricks as he could. He came back home with three fat volumes (seriously, almost 1000 pages each) of material. Some of these things may be fairly modern — less than 100 years old; others, of course, are much, much older.

For instance:

• Go and buy a Bible. Do not open until you get it home. Once you get inside, find Psalm 17, take the Bible to the center of your garden. Face East, walk 17 steps, and read the Psalm aloud, “and then close the book. “And no harm will befall your home or nothing will happen to your wife.”
• Sleeping with the Bible under your pillow is supposed to rid you of ghosts. If you open it and read Psalm 37 first, it will also rid you of unwanted (living) people — but try natural means to get rid of them first.

Sometimes, a devout person can actually wear out a Bible — the binding is loose, pages may actually fall out, etc. Save those pages!

• If you take one of those pages and wrap salt in it and leave it in your rental property, you will have no trouble finding a good tenant.
• If you include a little red pepper with the salt, say a heartfelt prayer, and have it in your pocket during the interview, it will be much easier to find a job.

If you’re squeamish about actually removing a page from the Bible, as I am, you might try photocopying the page. Many people say that a copy isn’t as strong as the original, but I have done good work with photocopied pictures and signatures before. It’s certainly worth a try.