Superstition, Custom, and Ritual Magic: Harry M. Hyatt's Approach to the Study of Folklore Author(s): Wayland D.

Hand and Frances M. Tally Reviewed work(s): Source: Journal of the Folklore Institute, Vol. 16, No. 1/2 (Jan. - Aug., 1979), pp. 28-43 Published by: Indiana University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3813985 . Accessed: 18/01/2012 17:02
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SUPERSTITION, CUSTOM, AND RITUALMAGIC: HARRYM. HYATT'S APPROACH THE STUDYOF FOLKLORE* TO Wayland Handand FrancesM. Tally D. Students folklore of usingHarryMiddleton Hyatt's Folk-Lorefrom AdamsCountyIllinois the firsttime soon learnthatthis impressive for collection fromAmerica's heartland notwhatthe titlesuggests. is, is It rather,an exhaustive compilation popular of beliefsand superstitions for the area specified,togetherwith a considerable numberof folk legends and customsand a reasonably surveyof folk medical full beliefs and practices. more detailedexamination the Adams A of Countycorpus revealsthat, in additionto the usual kind of short entries characteristic thegenre,manyfolkbeliefsareillustrated of with extendednarrative accounts. Likewise, customs rituals set folk and are downin greatdetailwithregardto time,circumstance, the purand pose and meaningof the particular covered.In the main,all of item these AdamsCeuntynarrative traditions-whether legends,or customs and rituals were takendown verbatim and are properlyenclosedill quotation marks. WhenHyatt begantheAdams County collection theearly1930s in therewereonlya fewpublished collections folklore of fromindividual statesandregions,andfolklore a discipline notconceived the as was in comprehensive thatit waslateron in the 1930sandthe 1940swhen way folklorebecamean academic FleldirlAmerican universities coland leges.Disregarding Allsopp's two-volume Folklore Romantic of Arkansas,
* Theauthors indebted HarryMiddleton are to Hyatt,AnnePogge, his secretary research and assistantof manyyearn,and to MichaelE. Bellfor supplying muchof thefactualdatauponzlwhich study thiss rests.
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which came out in 1931s1and which was not well known to folklorists, there were only three other titlesin print that could serve as models for a general state or regional collection of folklore. These were Arthur Huff Fauset'sFolklore from Nova Scotia(1931),2 Hudson's sampling of folklore from Mississippi,3 the excellent collectionof folklore from and Marylandwhich the American FolkloreSocietybrought out in 1925.4 The Nova Scotiaand Marylandvolumeswere in Hyatt'slibrary,but the Mississippi collection,done in an earlyoffset printing processfrom the author'smanuscript,was alwaysdifficult to Elndin the book trade, and Hyatt did not know it. Hyatt'sdifficultyin selecting a more descriptivetitle is not hard to understand. In these general collectionsof folklore mentioned above, and in several others for various states across the country that have been published down to our own time, one would be hard put to formulate what could be regarded as the normal limits and the proper coverageof folklore as a field.5In Hyatts time as now, folklore was too often made to stand for just about anything that didn't pass muster as scientificfact, had no objectivereality,or lacked a literaryor historical pedigree. The conception for the title of Hyatt'sown collection apparently came from Whitney and Bullock, even though the Marylandvolume does offer a somewhatbroader panoramaof the field of folklore than does Hyatt'sIllinoiscollection. One of the earliestcollectionsof popular beliefs and superstitions,Kentucky Superstitions Daniel Lindsey by Thomas and LucyBlayneyThomas, a volume of 3,954 items published by the Princeton University Press in 1920, was the practicalworking guide and field manual for Folk-Lore from AdamsCounty Iltinois. As for collectionsof folk beliefs and superstitions,which were his sole concern, Hyatt knew and used the standardcollectionsof Bergen which had appeared before the turn of the century,6 and Fogel's excellent PennsylvaniaGermanstudy that was publishedin 1915.7For his work in Negro folklore, Hyatt depended heavilyon Puckett'sFolk Beliefsf the Southern Negro,8which came out soon after the young clergyman had entered the Episcopalianministry, and had begun to broaden his intellectualbase from comparativereligion to ethnology and anthropologyand finally to folklore. Hyatt waslater to appreciate Vance Randolph'smemorableOzark Superstitions ( 1947),9and to secure the final two volumes of the Brown Collectionwhich provided for the first time a referencing medium for American popular beliefs and superstitions, in addition to presenting an estimable collection for North Carolina,l second in size for the country only to HyattSs own

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Wayland Hand andFrances 7 ally D. M.

Illinoiscollection. Hyatt'sinterestin Negro folklore, Flrst awakenedby Puckett,continued to grow during this period, with systematicreadings in MelvilleHerskovits,Zora Neale Hurston, and other collectors and writers in the field of black folklore. Hyattwas never an academicfolklorist,and made no pretenses to being one, even after his epochal Adams County collection had come out and had gone into an expanded second edition thirtyyearslater.1 1 His interest in the study of man sprang from his love of primitive religion and mythologyand from his study of the primalinstinctsthat are manifest the world over, even among people in enlightened
socletles.

Hyatt came to folklore as part of a larger concern with cultural history,but especiallywith an interestin primitiveman, and with manSs preoccupationwith the forces that rule his life. This involvementwith primitive religion led Hyatt to seek answers to life's most profound questions.These answerscame only in part from his study of comparative religion; further light had to be gained from a study of systemsof magic that operated outside accepted religious creeds. This part of Hyattssscholarlytrainingcame largely from self tuition, priIlcipally in the fields of anthropology and ethnology. To this end he acquired a select library,and sought the help and guidanceof professionalsin the field whenever he could. During his student days at Oxford, for example, he was in touch with Fellows of the Royal Anthropological Institute in London. Reading, reading, and more reading was the prescriptionfor one who had had little formal classroomeducation in these two fields that focus on man at the most fundamental level. Anthropology and ethnology, of course, were natural corollaries to Hyatt's grounding in comparative religion, mythology, and literary history. Taken together, these various fields placed at Hyatt's command the necessarytools to study culture in its broadestramiElcations, and to perceiveuniversalprinciplesthat underlie all human activity.In this regimen of systematicreading, he was conversant, for example, withJacobGrimm'sDeutsche Mythologie (1835),12and with E. B. Tylor's Primitive Culture,l3 relishing the famous English anthropologist'sbasic formulationsand his trenchantexpository style. Hyatt made constant use of Frazer'sGolden Bough,l4and it was from this great comparative work, perhaps more than from any other, that he came to think of cultural phenomena as being world-wide in their distribution. Far from being disturbed at the fact that items from modern civilized society were juxtaposed to materialsfound among primitives, Hyatt found in this parallelisma confirmationto the view that basic human

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feelingsevokesimilar responses allsegments society irrespective in of of differingwaysof life. Criticisms against Frazer's workfor itslackof "psychic unity" not beenraisedin Hyatt's Frazer's had day. Folk-lore in the OZd Testament also laid a stronghold on the whosetheological training pastoral and discipline werenot tooconfining to admitfolkloreto the cultural equationat the levelof religion. Among Englishfolklorists, Hyattread and admiredEdwinSidney HartlandS he organizedhis categorization folklorealong the and of lines of Charlotte SophiaBurne's Handbook FoZkZore.l6 work of This derivesin part,of course,from SabineBaring-Gouldis '4Story Radicals," ultimately and from the formulations J. G. von Hahnin his of Griechische albanesische und Marchen.l7Hyatt possessedsome of the volumesof the ;'County Folk-Lore Series8' the Folk-Lore of Society. It wasin this filneseriesof field textsand published extracts underthe captionGoblindom"that he read aboutthe workof the devil and witches,as well as aboutother creatures lowermythology. of These readingswere augmentedby recourseto the writingsof Montague Summers witchcraft the standard on and worksof Margaret Murray. Of allthe worksmentioned above,howevers none madea deeper impression uponhimthandid Arthur Bernard Cook's masterful work on Zeus.t8Here it was that he saw the weddingof mythology and folklore,and the author'ssuccessful of archaeology, use epigraphy, philology, iconographyliterary history,and the manyother toolsin the classicistSs armamentarium bringto bearon everyproblem that a full and meaningfulanalysis. Hastingst Encyclopaedia Religionand of Ethicswasa constant companion hisreadingl9andit wasthismagnifin icent workof scholarship opened up sourcebooksand formal that bibliographies his reading.Earlier,before he ever came to the for formalstudyof primitivereligion Hyatthad read ErnstHaeckels Riddle theUniverse, work biology embryology sharpened of a of and that his mindandopenedhisvision.Thiscontroversial workon evolutionaryprinciples development notto deterhimfrompursuirlg of was the ministry. spiritualpreceptors, whomhe confessedhis doubts His to aboutthe claimsof religion,bade him to continuewith his clerical duties,and urgedhim to keep an open mindas he proceeded. During young Hyatt'sbrief Chicago period at the Western TheologicalSeminary,1917-1918,he came under the tutelageof a scholar the fieldof Semitic in Studies hada profound who influence on him,particularly regards as religious worship natureshrines trees, at springs, caves,mountain peaks,and so on. Hyattknewof the workof PaulCarus otherwriters and associated thiscontroversial with scholar
young clergymanl5

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Wayland Hand and FransesM. Tallw1 D.

at the Open Court PublishingCompanyin the Illinois metropolis,but never did meet Carus. Hyatt'sreligious studies involvedreadingsin the great religionsof the world, but the only intensive study he himself made was on the AbyssinianChristiancommunity.His TheChurch Abyssinia, of whichwas published in 1928, exemplifies Hyatt'sinterest in things remote from his own American heritage. What he perceived as common cultural manifestationsin various parts of the world must also be repeated, at least in kind, he thought, by waysof life to be encountered among his own fellow Americans,and among his own beloved kin. lt was Hyatt's study of genealogy and familyhistory,as a matterof fact, that led him into anthropologyand folklorein the Elrst place. By the time he entered divinityschool in 1917, young Hyatt had compiled over two thousand pages of family history. His interviewsinvolved not only relativesand townspeople,but young people and children as well. It was at the level of stories and storytellingin his study of family history that Hyatt got into folklore; it was this same experience with family roots and valuesften exemplifUled verse, song, and story that led him as an in older man to collect the folklore of his native town and county. There wasone other importantexternal factor that led directlyto his study of local culture in Adams County. It was the creationin 1932 of the Alma Egan Hyatt Foundation,a fund granting institutionwith far-flung scientific interests, ambitious publicationprograms, and an illustrious panel of Fellows from all over the world. This scholarly enterprise constituted a grand backdropfor the study of comparative religion and mythology, and for the investigationof comparativeculture in its broadest outlines. Under the auspices of the foundation, HarryHyatt,now in his prime years,pursued his thesis of the recapitulation of universal principles and of the recurrence of basic human traitseverywhere.In 1932 he began to collectintensivelythe folkloreof a single area. His native Adams County, where he and his own people were well known proved to be an ideal laboratoryfor the testing of his thesis of the local reflection of universal manifestations. Business of the Hyatt Foundation, of which he was the director and the moving spirit, kept him in New York, but he was able to make frequent trips to Quincy, and to train his sister, Minnie Hyatt Small, widowed some twenty years earlier, to begin work on the Hyattcollection. The richnessof the materialwas at once apparent, and what had initiallybeen a modestintentionnow broadenedinto a majorundertaking. Standingat some 2,500 entries by 1933, the Adams Countycollection was reckoned to be the third largest in the country.20 Fired on by

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material that and the expanding collection, by the newand important now wascomingto viewweekbyweek,thecollectors, joinedbyanother Rothgeb, Hyattsister,EmmaHyattRothgeband by a niece,Frances numberof 10,049entries. compilethe incredible could eventually activityin and Minnie Hyatt Small'saccountof the collectirlg readsalmost aroundQuincybetween1932and 1934,or thereabouts, disappointfor likea diary** Incentive the venturewasHarryHyatt's produced the stateof for mentthattherehadbeenno bookof folklore Illinois,despitethe factthatmanystatesby thattimehad set aboutto By populartraditions. settingan initialgoalof collecttheirrespective collection the 4C000 entries,Hyattand Smallwouldsurpass Kentucky of and of superstitions theThomases, wouldgo wellbeyondcollections and countryand Whitney BulGerman of Fogelfor the Pennsylvania Minniebegan by settingdown folk beliefs and lock for Maryland. from her motherand grandmother. traditions had remembered she maid andthen she wentto fromher German Soonshe wascollecting duringthe CivilWar.At visita womanwho had livedon a plantation a timeshe hadrecorded hundreditems The next the end of a week's week she collectedfrom an old Germanwomanwho broughtvegehusband,who knewall tablesto her house, and from this woman's that had to do with the bethose kindsof witchstories,particularly witchment cows.This man knewa witchin Melrosejust southof of while Quincy, whocameto the fenceone dayto offerhimsomecookies but The he wasplowing. mantookthecookies, burnedthemsoasnotto vegetablepeddleralso put spell.This German fall under the witchis women,buttoldherto avoid Minnie touchwithsomemoreGerman in a certainone who couldcauseher harm,perhapsturn her into a cat. however,becauseby then Minniehad Things workedout all right7 a informant without reference an madea pointof notvisiting unknown of her froma friend.Thiswitchreferred to anotherwomansuspected friend.Minnie astonished was was beinga witch who,in reality, a family To atthe number peoplewhowerethoughtto be witches. pleaseher of foot to keep from fallingvictimto informants carrieda rabbit's she hoodoo.By this timeshe hadcome to takea reasonedviewof everya witchsuspicions little. to the thing,andhadlearned discount rampant In a month'stime the AdamsCountycollectionhad grownto two hundreditems. One womanwho disavowedknowingany old-time itemsin responseto beliefsat all, found herselfrecitingtwenty-two
Her * See "Letter MinnieHyattSmallto HarryM. HyattDescribing oJC 97-119. from AdamsCountyIllinois,"pp. Work Folklore on

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Thus it went with the which Mrs. Small had shared. Minniewasable to meet beliefs some friends, community.Finally,through be not only a treasure trove of German to who proved elderly an blackwoman, in introducing superstitions, but was instrumental woman was to beliefs and folk This circle of friends. to members of her own time and Minnie right off, and Minnie returned fifty contribute new items woman's repertoire before the old lady to collect much of this again opened up many attendanceat the funeral sick took and died. Minnie's people of Quincy. effect; contacts among the black new and Sailors Home with good She collected at the Soldiers to outlying Washington Park. For trips Rothgeb. among bench sitters in also taken by her niece, Frances she places was occasionally publictransportationfacilities,especby trips Out-of-town were made made of collecting trips to Melrose and Mention is the ially railroad. and to Coatsburg,some fifteen new to the south and east of Quincy, Payson up-river, provided a whole northeast. A trip to Bay Island, valuableitems. Harry Hyatt has miles additional and came from adventure, brought in Adams Countycollection although the bulk of the county, that said in from all parts of the and environs, materialcame Quincy miles in all. comprises some 840 square with each new experierlce, and which grew The passion for the work so as to be off club and social activities Sunday found herself breaking Even Minnie in her newly-found work. to able spend more time and Mrs. Small could frewere given over to collecting, porches in different parts afternoons notes on front be quently seen taking down of the poorer parts of she made her way to some town. Eventually of by unaccompaniedwoto places not ordinarilyfrequented and of Quincy town, Lane in the backwatersections shacks, men.Dump City and Hog fishermen?s her. She collected in shop to werenot out of bounds for in a blacksmith's saton an old wagonwheel on for his stories. and one occasion blacksmithwho was fabled Broadway to recordthe sayings of the on notorious establishment she had heard Once she even went to a from a woman there that collectsome unusual itemswas steadfastlysupported by Harry, who, about. In these efforts she Eastand the South, wasto shun no place the lateron in his researchesin of blackfolklore for it would be fruitful as a source at all if he thought his projectedHoodoowork. unusualways.An old blackwoman, for had a Referralscame in the most with an Irish woman who put Mrs. Small in contact Along with the longer items in example, of stories. rich there is a particularly stockin tradelabeled "Negro"or "German," which are often the collection

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good number marked "Irish."These entries came from this first contact. By the time MinnieSmallhad collected the first 4,000 items, many of the informants had died, and few remained when the Adams County collection was actually published in 1935. After the magic number had been reached, a goal of 1,000 additionalitems was established. This process was repeated at the urging of Harry until 8,000 items were in hand. In due course the magic number had risen to 10,000 items. This materialincluded, of course, numerous items that Harry had collected before ever enlisting the help of his sisters, but which he did not work into the Adams County collection until he started to classifythe materialas the great compendium began to take shape. The basicstockwas augmented by many a choice item which he continued to collect in his own comings and goings about Quincyon his frequent trips back home from New York. He solicited successfullyin stores, public buildings, and churches, and even on the streets, but found that there were often too many distractions when groups of people would gather around on the corner to listen. It was during a sustained collecting trip in the northern part of Adams County after the appearanceof Folk-LoretromAdams CountyIllinois, vol. I (hereafter abbreviatedas FACI), that, sensing the wealth of folklore around him, Hyattdecided to bring out an enlarged second edition.2l Minnie Hyatt Small's help in bringing out the Adams County collection is duly acknowledgedin the preface to FACI I (p. XVI), but Hyatt still continued to praise her work. Recently he summed up her contribution with some heartfeltand nostalgicwords:"Shewas the greatestassistant I ever had."22 The successof the collectingventure of the Hyattswould not have been possible without the good will which the Hyatt family enjoyed through the reputation and wide circle of friends of Samuel Seger Hyatt ( 1855-1924), sire of the Hyattclan. The elder Hyatt had worked long years for a tobaccofirm in St. Louis,commuting backand forth to Quincy on weekends. When the company later changed hands he returned to Quincy, sold insurance, and finally went into politics. He served in the Illinois legislature for a seven-year period, 1917-1924, and had also represented his fellow townsmen in Quincy in various municipaland civiccapacities.At one time he served on the city police with liberalcauses, and with commission.Samuel Hyatt'sidentiElcation the common people gave him a broad constituency and won him countless friends. Young Harry himself served as a deputy police officer one summer, an experience which gave him his first opportu-

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WaylandD. Hand and Frances M. Tally

nity as a young man to come into contact with people whose lives were lived somewhat on the margins of society. The success of Folk-Lorefrom Adams County Illinoiswas immediate, and Hyatt almost at once made plans for a revised and an enlarged edition, as we have said. The order and classiElcation the new edition of remainedessentiallyintact,but frequent headings within the text itself made the second edition easier to use. Items with both positive and negativeaspectswerejoined into single entries, and other economiesof presentationwere effected. In one instance,for example, twenty-seven individualstatementswere combinedinto a single treatment.Wherehe could, Hyatt gave the ethnic backgroundof the informant, and if the item has special interest, he was at pains to quote it verbatim,without refining the language in any way. Since Negroes had been completely assimilatedin that part of Illinois, there is no Negro dialect as such in the entries. The introduction of technical words in the headings of FACIII are of Hyatt'sown doing. These are scholarlyflourishes, to be sure, and the use of the term embryo for an unborn babyin the matter of sex determinationmust derive from his thinkingin the dayswhen he read the great embryologist Haeckel. The most notableenlargements in FACIII are made in areas that interested Hyattin an intimateand personalway,notablyin sectionson witchcraftand magic, folk medicine,birth,infancy,childhood, and the like. One can see Harry MiddletonHyatt, the scholar,at his best in the treatmentof witchcraftnear the end of the volume. His treatment of the "WitchWreath"(pp. 855-873), for example, is exhaustive, and the section on "Protection Against Witches" (pp. 873-918) is a classic example of the use of the backgroundand detail necessaryto present legerlds in a matter-of-factand believable way. Likewise, numerous entries under "Spirits" in realitymore legends than folk beliefs per are se, because these accounts are full of the detail required by legend to addressthe need for historicaland geographicalfixity.23 hese ghostly T transactionsoften occupy from a third to a half of a page, and a few in FACII run to a full page. A few representativeillustrationsfrom FACI II show how faithfully these requirements of legend narrative for credibility are met: 15619. "I lived in a house at Twenty-Sixth and Maineyearsago. It is torn down now and the MadisonSchool is on the grounds. That house was haunted...."; 15594. "Years ago up on Honey Creek out in the woods near Mendon an old woman died. She had some money and had buried it in the cellar...."; 15476. "My husband and his first wife were living in a haunted house out near Plainville...."; 15467. '4Wehad a friend that lived down in South

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werelivingup yearsago. . . .";15433."We twenty nearQuincy Bottom yearsago (1903) hereon a farmin the NorthBottomaboutthirty-five near Meyer....", and so forth.The witchstoriesoften exhibitthis will for sameconcern detail.Twoexamples sufficeto showtheneedfor this a propersettingand moodfor the tale:16190."Iremember well. CampPoint Fiftyyearsago (1889)thereweretwo farmers(between fifty livingrightcloseto eachother... .";16203."About andClayton) yearsago (1885)out nearMillCreekBridgean old womanlivedon a hill, and everyonethoughtshe could put a spellon you...." spreadof the that It is in theselongeraccounts the geographical Adams Countycollectionis best seen. Dozens of small towns, not tripsand collecting Small's Hyatt with in mentioned connection Minnie are forays, foundin entriesthemselves out-of-town occasional Harry's acas a wayof providinga settingfor legendsand other narrative one and towns settlements notesthe followcounts.Amongthesesm-all Fall ing: Mendon,Melrose,Ursa, Liberty, Creek,Meyer,Plainville, Barry,La Grange.Numerous Kingston,Kinderhook, Marblehead, townsin adjoiningIllinoiscountiesare mentioned,as well as many These Riverin Missouri. acrossthe Mississippi townsand settlements indicated. properly entriesare always out-of-state to Hyattwas attracted these AdamsCountylegendsand other and dealingwithdeath,ghostlore, the realmof the accounts narrative he elements; was and magical supernatural theyinvolved deadbecause magic,and to likewiseattracted the storiesdealingwith witchcraft, of vividcounterparts secularmagic,were miracles, Religious conjury. and of seenin the beliefsandcustoms conception birth,buttheywere the throughout wholebodyof loredealing to be seenmoreparticularly withthe humanbodyand folk medicine.Sacredmagicwasvisiblein at and and animal planthusbandry, couldbe notedalsoin theweather seedtimeand harvest. took It wasclearto Hyattas the greatAdamsCountycollection that miracleand magic,takentogether,was the one intrinsic shape elementthat set folk beliefand customapartfrom all otherkindsof folklore.Magicand ritualwere merelyextensionsof these two basic couldbe discerned objects and principles magical forms,and magical folkbeliefandcustom. from springing in the wholecorpusof folklore It wasin this worldof magicand fantasythat he cameto know,for acts.Fordifferent out timesof daytocarry ritual of instance, thespecial acts choicesrangedbetweenmidnight, or kindsof customary ritual therewereimportant Likewise, or dawn,midday, sundown. cockcrow, suchasFriday, mustobserve, feaststhattheofficiant daysandreligious

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WaylandD. Hand and Frances Mt Tally

GoodFriday, Easter, Day,St.John'sEve,AllHallows, thelike. May and Phases the moon,signsof the zodiac, the weather of and itselfusually figuredin thesecalculations. crucial For exertions personseeking the helpmustbein properphysical shapeandin therightframe mindto of enlistoutsidepowers. Whether magical the officein question shouldbe carriedout on a fastingstomach, amidsexualabstinence, by withor drawalto a sequestered spot all of these things were part of the magicalequation.Placeand orientation were important was the as distinction betweenactsinvolving movement towardthe left or right, or directionsforwardor backward, clockwise counter-clockwise. or Numinous places should be sought out: crossroads,boundaries, cemeteries, churchyards, bridges,mounds, caves,streams, waterand courses.Indoorsone spokeof cellars, attics,closets,and areasunder porches,no less thanunderthresholds, ratherthan morefrequently usedparts thehouse.Success a magical of of undertaking mightreston secrecy silence,or, bywayof contrast, or mighthingeon the recitation of verbalcharms, on onomastic or magic.In thesecustomary observances and in these ritualacts one discernsa curioussyncretism of sacredand profaneelements. Apotropaic measures combat to ghosts, witches, thecreatures lowermythologys example,mayinvolve or of for objects madeof iron,a substance venerated fromheathenantiquity to thepresent orsimple day, stones,pieces earth,or sticks wood.Side of of bysidewiththesemagical objects thebeliever's in arsenal, however, the Christian cross,prayer books,andotherholyutensils likewise be are to found.Shinypebbles foundin the brook,unspoiled nature's in bosom fromthedawnof time,or a knotsloughed froma grizzled areused oak, in magical ritualswiththe sameassurance rosaries, as mezuzahs, and other man-madereligiousamulets.A cast feather from a birdbuzzard, magpie, or whatever-similarly, be employed owl, may along withthe mostneatlyembroidered scapularies prayer and cloths.As a manof the cloth,knowledgeable the miracles sacredobjects in and of the church,ReverendHyattwas quickto sense also the immanent powerof natural objects, to realize the sametimehowcomplete and at had been the blendingof sacredmiracleand profanemagicwithin partsof the Christian community. Perhapsthe greatestcontribution Hyatt'scollectingand reof search,however,particularly the Hoodoovolumes,is the notable in enlargementof the medical pharmacopeia,24 the systematic and cataloguing the natural man-made of and objects employed magical to ends. This greatworkrevealsfor the filrst time the pervasiveness of magic magical and thinking representative in segments blackAmerof

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ica. Important note in thisregardis the factthatcollateral to workin the fieldof popular beliefsandsuperstitions thiscountry in showsthat the beliefin magicis sharedin varying waysby peoplefromall ethnic backgrounds. the greatcollections Of nowbeingedited,the Newbell Niles PuckettCollection Ohio PopularBeliefsand Superstitions, of completewithan ethnicfindinglist,willput the Negrocomponent in its properperspective providethe basefor interracial and studiesin folkcustomandritual.Hyatt's influence theseongoingstudies on over the pastfortyyearshas been great.The AdamsCountycollection as wellas the moreambitious Hoodooventurehavebeenlogicalpartsof one grandand consistent effort. WhenHarryMiddleton Hyattvisitedthe Centerfor the Studyof Comparative Folklore UCLAin 1973therewasampletimeto talk at withhimaboutthe AdamsCounty collection abouthis interestin and popularbeliefsand superstitions. wassoon apparent he cared It that littlefor the commonrun of superstitions. They piquedhis interest onlyif theyinvolved magic symbolism, if theywentto theheart and and of human fear and apprehension, less than to elation and the no exaltationof the human spirit. He frequentlyremarked,"I'mnot interested the commonstuff!"Fromthis mentaland spiritual in perspective, fromthe courseof his scholarly and development career and sincetheappearance thefirsteditionof theAdams of County work,the answer clearas to whythe collecting reasearch the Hoodoo is and for volumesbecame the consllmingpreoccupation Hyatt'slife. He of wanted producefor America bodyof primitive to a thoughtandmagic that could comparewith materials this kind, found not only in of differentpartsof Europe,but elsewhere the world. in Withthisthoughtin mind,andwiththe richgarnerings Negro of folklorein Illinoisas a basisfor moreintensivepenetration the into field? Hyatt began to collect Negro folklore in New Jersey and elsewhere alongthe easternseaboard. Soonhe wouldventurefarther south,and wouldultimately collectblackfolkloreall the wayto the Gulf.Thisexciting venture, whichinvolved almost a dozendifferhalf ent collecting tripsbetween1936and 1940,is treatedelsewhere the in pagesof thisspecial issueof theJournal. thisconnection, In however, it is important notethatthe staging to groundfor theseextensive collecting tripsof the late 1930sand up untilthe outbreak WorldWarII of wasnot locatedin anyteemingblackmetropolis the East.Rather, in it mustbe affirmedthatthe basisfor Hyatt's futureworkhadbeen laid, andthe courseset,in a ruralcountyin Illinois.Hereit wasthathe and his fellowcollectors workedamongthe descendants about2,000 of

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Wayland Hand andFrances Tally D. M.

Negroes who had found their way to Quincy and other partsof Adams Countyafter the CivilWar.Hyattwas right in believing, of course, that a more intricate system of belief and magic could be found in urban settings where the pressures of life were more intense, and where resort to clandestinewaysof life and even to criminalactivitywas more likely. From this point of view, it is interesting to note that whereas considerableghostlore and witchcraftin the Adams County collection was gathered in small towns and settlements throughout the county, most of the hoodoo and blackmagicappearsto havecome from Quincy itself. Far from being a large city, Quincy, even in the 1930s with its somewhat fewer than 40,000 inhabitants, neverthless exemplified some of the social complexity and malaise found in larger urban centers in Illinois and elsewhere in America. It is too difficult to trace out the individual threads of black folklore held in common by Hyatt's Negro informants in Adams County and his blackcontacts in the South, but one can see a striking replicationof AdamsCountymaterialin the more intricateand diffuse five-volumeHoodoo work. When the index to Hoodoo, laboriouslycompiled by MichaelEdwardBell and FrancesM. Tally, is complete, it will be possibleto confirm these impressions.The proposed index of FACI II by Frances Tally, begun by Harry Hyatt himself in the 1930s, will open up both worksfor closer scrutiny,and will make availableample materials for the study of black folklore in both rural and urban Americansettings.In his visionto collectand record these basichuman documentsbefore their relevanceto present-dayAmericanculture was recognized, Harry MiddletonHyatt proved to be decades ahead of his time as a scholar and social thinker. As a prolegomenon to the great Hoodoo work,and as an indispensablecompanion piece for the study of black folklore in the United States,Folk-Lore Adams from County Illinois in its own right is a major source book for the general study of American popularbeliefs and superstitionsin the United States.As indicated in the title of this article,magic and ritualare crucialprimitivecomponents that have persistedto our own time. Belief, custom, ritual,magic, and legend are fields to which Harry MiddletonHyatt was to devote a scholarlylifetime. Universitzy California of LosAngeles,California

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NOTES 2 Arkansas, vols. of l Frederick William Allsopp, Folklore Romantic Society, 1931). (New York: The Grolier from Nova Scotia, Memoirs of the 2 Arthur Huff Fauset, Folklore American Folklore Society, 24 (New York: The American Folklore Society, 1931). mimeoFolk-Lore, of 3 Arthur Palmer Hudson, Specimens Mississippi graphed (Ann Arbor, Mich.: Edwards Brothers, 1928). 4 Annie Weston Whitney and Caroline Canfield Bullock,Folk-Lore from Maryland,Memoirs of the American Folklore Society, 18 (New York: American Folklore Society, 1925). Memoirsof 5 Collectionsfrom Iowa:EarlJ. Stout,FolklorefromIowa, the American Folklore Society, 29 (New York: American Folklore the Society, 1936); New York: Emelyn ElizabethGardner,Folklorefrom Hills, New York(Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan Schoharie Illinois S Press, 1937); Illinois:John W. Allen, Legends Loreof Southern (Carbondale:Southern Illinois University, 1963); Kansas: Samuel J. Sackett and William E. Koch, KansasFolklore(Lincoln: University of NebraskaPress, 1961); and Georgia:Ronald G. Killionand CharlesT. Folklore(Atlanta: Cherokee Publishing of Waller,A Treasury Georgia kept pretty much to the early models of Whitney-Bullock Co., 1972) and Fauset.The Georgiacollectionwasmade under W.P.A.auspicesin the 1940s. In Harold W. Thompson's anthology of New York State folklore, Body,BootsS Britches(1939; reprint ed., New York: Dover of Publications,1962), and Horace Beck'sFolklore Maine(Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1957), an attempt was made to reach a wide popular audiby Folklore, ence. The most recent attemptat a regional surveyis Oregon Suzi Jones (Eugene, Oregon: University of Oregon, 1977), which, following recent trends in American folklife studies, emphasizes the Collection folklore of materialculture.The multivolumeFrankC.Brown of North CarolinaFolklore,7 vols. (Durham, North Carolina: Duke University, 1952-1964), was to dwarf efforts made in other states.This big set represents thirty years of collecting, ca. 1910-1940, and was edited by a staff of nationally known scholars. Treatment of the folklore was in the best scholarlytraditionsof the emerging discipline of folklore in the United States. Memoirs of the American Superstitions, 6 Fanny D. Bergen, Current FolkloreSociety,4 (Boston and New York, 1896) and PlantandAnimal Lore, Memoirs of the American Folklore Society, 7 (Boston and New York, 1899).

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Wayland Hand cmdFrances Tally D. M.

7 Edwin MillerFogel,Belaefs Superstitions thePennsylvania and of Germans,AmericanaGermanica 18 (Philadelphia:AmericanaGermanica Press, 1918). 8 Newbell Niles Puckett, FolkBeliefsof the Southern Negro (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1926). 9 Vance Randolph, OzarkSuperstitions (New York: Columbia University Press, 1947). This has since been reprinted in paperback as Ozark Magic. 10 Popular BeliefsandSuperstitionsfiom NorthCarolina, WaylandD. ed. Hand, 2 vols. (Durham,North Carolina:Duke University,1961-1964), constituting vols. 6-7 of the FrankC. BrownCollection NorthCarolina of Folklore. 11 Harry Middleton Hyatt,Folk-Lore Adams from County Illirzois, Memoirs of the Alma Egan Hyatt Foundation(New York:Alma Egan Hyatt Foundation, 1935). 12 Hyatt knew Grimm'sgreat work in the translationof James Steven Stallybrass, vols. (London: G. Bell and Sons, 1880-1888), made from 4 the 4th ed. of 1875-1878. 13 Edward Burnett Tylor, PrimativeCulture: Researchesinto the Development Mythology, of PhilosophyReligion Art and Custom, vols. 2 (London: J. Murray, 1871). 14 James George Frazer,TheGolden Bough,3rd ed., 12 vols. (Londc)n: Macmillanand Co., 1911-1915). 15 James George Frazer,TheFolk-Lore theOld Testament: in Studies in Comparative Religion Legend, Law, 3 vols. (London: Macmillanand and Co. 1918). 16 CharlotteSophia Burne, TheHandbook Folklore, ed., rev. and of new enl. (London: Sedgwick & Jackson, 1914). 17 J G. von Hahn, Griechische albanesische und Marchen(Leipzig: W. Engelmann, 1864). This rare collection has come to us in Paul Ernst's two-volume edition (Munich and Berlin: G. Muller, 1918). Sabine Baring-Gouldadapted von Hahn'searly classificationof folktale types as an appendix to WilliamHenderson'sFolk-Lore theNorthern of Counties of Englandand theBorders(London: Longmans, Green & Co. 1866). 18 Arthur Bernard Cook,Zeus:A Study Ancient in Religion,3 vols. in 5 (Cambridge:The University Press, 1914-1940). 19 James Hastings, ed., Encyclopaedia Religionand Ethics, 13 vols. of (Edinburgh: T. T. Clark, 1908-1926). 20 Folk-Lore from AdamsCounty Illinois, 2nd ed., p. 940. 21 HarryMiddletonHyatt,Hoodoo ConjurationWitchcraft - Rootwork, 5 vols.>Memoirs of the Alma Egan Hyatt Foundation (Quincy Ill.:

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Alma Egan Hyatt Foundation, 1970-1978), 1:XIV. Biographical information on Hyatt and the Adams County collection appears in cerwork.This one must take almostas a matter tain partsof the bigHoodoo of course, for in Hyatt'sown mind, intensive work among the blacksin the East and South was really nothing but a continuation of the work begun yearsearlierin Adams County, Illinois.We follow Hyattin using from the abbreviationFACI I and FACI II in referring to Folk-Lore AdamsCounty Illinois. 22 With characteristicgenerosity, Hyatt has also made laudatoryreferences to the workand devotion of Anne Pogge who workedat his side . during the long and demanding workon Hoodoo Similarsentimentsof appreciationhave been expressed for the workof MichaelEdwardBell in completing the index to Hoodoo,and explicating the big corpus of black American folklore as a doctoral dissertationat Indiana UniverSity.

In FACI I the caption is "Spiritsand Ghosts." volumes are unusuallystrong in scatology,and this set The Hoodoo provides a significant updating of Christian Franz Paullini'sHeilsame Dreck-Apotheke (Frankfurt: Friederich Knochens, 1696), no less than constitutingan appendage toJohn G. Bourke'sstandardmodern work on Scatologic Ritesof AIINations(Washington,D.C.: W. H. Lowdermilk and Co., 1891).
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