ks. If we was mean dey
would tell us "Old Raw Head and Bloody Bones" would git us. Grand
mammy told us ghost stories after supper, but I don't remember any of
dem.

I never did know I was a slave, 'cause I couldn't tell I wasn't free.
I always had a good time, didn't have to work much, and allus had
something to eat and wear and that was better than it is with me now.

When de War was over old Master told us we was free. Mammy she say,
"Well, I'm heading for Texas." I went out and old Master ask me to
bring him a coal of fire to light his pipe. I went after it and mammy
left pretty soon. My pappy wouldn't leave old Master right then but
old Master told us we was free to go where we pleased, so me an' pappy
left and went to Texas where my mammy was. We never saw old Master any
more. We stayed a while in Texas and then come back to de Indian
Territory.

Abe Lincoln was a good man, everybody liked him. See, I've got his
picture. Jeff Davis was a good man too, he just made a mistake. I like
Mr. Roosevelt, too.

Oklahoma Writers' Project
Ex-Slaves

HENRY F. PYLES
Age 81 yrs.
Tulsa, Okla.

Little pinch o' pepper----
Little bunch o' wool----

Mumbledy--Mumbledy----

Two, three Pammy Christy beans----
Little piece o' rusty iron----

Mumbledy--Mumbledy----

Wrop it in a rag and tie it wid hair,
Two fum a hoss an' one fum a mare----

Mumbledy, Mumbledy, Mumbledy----

Wet it in whiskey
Boughten wid silver;
Dat make you wash so hard your sweat pop out,
And he come to pass, sho'!

That's how the niggers say old Bab Russ used to make the hoodoo
"hands" he made for the young bucks and wenches, but I don't know,
'cause I was too trusting to look inside de one he make for me, and
anyways I lose it, and it no good nohow!

Old Bab Russ live about two mile from me, and I went to him one night
at midnight and ask him to make me de hand. I was a young strapper
about sixteen years old, and thinking about wenches pretty hard and
wanting something to help me out wid the one I liked best.

Old Bab Russ charge me four bits for dat hand, and I had to give four
bits more for a pint of whiskey to wet it wid, and it wasn't no good
nohow!

Course dat was five-six years after de War. I wasn't yet quite eleven
when de War close. Most all the niggers was farming on de shares and
whole lots of them was still working for their old Master yet. Old
Bab come in there from