't give 'em a
thought. Anyhow Liza went on with the girl 'til one afternoon while she
was comin' from the store she seed Lewis and Edna goin' in a house
together. He come home 'bout three hours later, and when Liza asked him
why he was so late he told her they had to work late. He didn't know she
had seed him and she never told him.

"After this she started watchin' him and Edna, and she soon found out
what folks had been tellin' her was true. Still she never told Lewis
nothin' 'bout it. She told Edna 'bout seein' 'em and asked her to please
let Lewis alone. Edna made up some kind of s'cuse but she never let him
alone, and she kept goin' to Liza's house. When things finally went too
far, Liza spoke to Lewis 'bout it and asked him to leave Edna alone. He
did, but that made Edna mad and that's when she 'cided to kill Liza.
Lewis really loved Liza and would do anythin' she asked him to.

"One day Edna come to see Liza, after she had stayed away for 'bout
three weeks, and she was more lovin' than ever. She hung around 'til she
got a chance to put somethin' in the water bucket, then she left. People
can put somethin' in things for you and everybody else can eat or drink
it, but it won't hurt nobody but the one it's put there for. When Liza
drunk water, she said it tasted like it had salt-peter in it. When she
went to bed that night, she never got out 'til she was toted out. She
suffered and suffered and we never knowed what was wrong 'til Edna told
it herself. She took very sick and 'fore she died she told one of her
friends 'bout it and this friend told us, but it was too late then, Liza
was dead."

COMPILATION RICHMOND COUNTY--EX-SLAVE INTERVIEWS

FOLK REMEDIES AND SUPERSTITION

Written by:
Louise Oliphant
Federal Writers' Project
Augusta, Georgia

Edited by:
John N. Booth
District Supervisor
Federal Writers' Project
Augusta, Georgia

Belief in charms and conjurs is still prevalent among many of Augusta's
older Negroes. Signs and omens also play an important part in their
lives, as do remedies and cures handed down by word of mouth from
generation to generation.

If a wrestler can get dirt from the head of a fresh grave, sew it up
in a sack, and tie it around his waist, no one can throw him.

To make a person leave town, get some dirt out of one of his tracks,
sew it up in a sack, and throw it in running water. The person will
keep going as long as the water runs.

To take a hair out o