Black Cat Bone
(to traditionally to be done on Good Friday)
from the Book of St. Cyprian:
"Cook the body of a black cat in boiling water with white seeds and wood from the willow until the meat is loosened from the bones. Strain the bones in a linen cloth and, in front of the mirror, place the bones, one by one in your mouth, until you find that you have the magic to make you become invisible. Keep the bone with the magic property and, if you want to go somewhere without being seen, place the bone in your mouth."
by Zora Neale Hurston (1931) in the Journal of American Folklore:
“Make a coffin one-half foot long. Dress a small doll in black and put the doll in the coffin. W rite the victim’s name on paper and put it in the coffin under the doll. Don’t cover the coffin. Dig a trench much longer than the coffin. Take a black cat and put it in the grave. Cover the open grave with cheese-cloth and fix it so the cat can’t get out. Take a black chicken and feed it one-half glass of whiskey in which a piece of paper with the victim’s name has been soaked. Put the chicken in with the cat and leave them there for a month. They will die. Then put the coffin in and bury it with a white bouquet at the head and foot.” (Hurston, 1931 as cited in Haskins, 1990, p. 116).
from Harry Middleton Hyatt’s Hoodoo-Witchcraft_Conjuration Vol.2, p.1358:
"An' now it's a bone in his left hin' laig - dat straight bone from de top part of de left hin' laig - y' git dat bone out of him [away]. But yo' jes' want dat bone out de left hin' of de laig.
An' now, it's a straight bone, yo' see, an' it has lak a little joint lak at de top. Now, yo' take a knife or somepin an' yo' cut dat little joint off dat it has at de top. Yo' see, yo' cut it off round at de top.
Now, into dat bone - yo' stuff dat bone. Yo' see it's hollow on de inside of it. Yo' take dat bone an' yo' stuff dat bone.
[Here is a new type of black cat bone {see pp.74-97) dressed or magically prepared {see p.92f.) by an expert.]
Yo' git a powdah, yo' understan', whut dey call five-fingah grass, an' yo' stuff it into dis bone. Yo' git steel dust an' yo' git dat genuine lodestone an' see dat it be 'live. An' jis' make it into dust, an' put dat down into dat bone. Yo' put all dat down into dat bone an' yo' take a piece of cotton - yo' understan', dis cotton dat chew use - an' yo' stuff de top of dat bone. Yo' stuff dat aftah yo' done stuff all de ingredients in dat boen - yo' take a piece of cotton an' yo' stop it at de top, jis' a piece of absorbant cotton.
Yoo' understan'?
Now, yo' keep dat, carry dat bone, an' it must be concealed into a pocket, lak in a wallet or into somepin - jis' keep it oil [oiled] - an' it must be on yore person all de time. An' nobody else must nevah touch dat bone but chew
(What is that lucky for, now?)
Into any game, any kinda games, a crap game, or yo' could go to a lottery game - any kinda game dat chew undertake tuh go into."
Algiers, LA; Informant #1583, Nahnee the "Boss of Algiers"
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