The James T. Callow Folklore Archive

Belief

The pishtace are nocturnal murderers of Indians. The pishtaco murder Indians in order to obtain human fat to be sold as lubricants for machinery and to be used in pharmacuticals.

The legend derives from 16th and 17th centurey Spanish practices of using human body fats as treatment for wounds and diseases. the people who tell this tale are poor Indians and the pishtaco are usually wealthy industrial men in the area. The tale helps draw lines of social class.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

Where learned: Journal of American Folklore ; The Pishtaco: Institutionalized Fear in Highland Peru

Keyword(s): BODY ; Cultural ; Culture ; Fat ; FEAR ; HORROR ; INDIAN ; INDUSTRY ; Kill ; Lubrication ; Machinery ; MEDICINE ; MURDER ; Native American ; Peru ; Peruvian ; Pharmaceutical ; Pishtaco ; Poor ; Social Class ; Wealthy

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Society

The author, Lee Hardin, argues the case that Greenwich Village in New York was the first of America's Bohemian communities, that the west coast bohemian villages were offspring of Greenwich Village.

Data entry tech comment:

Motifs added by TRD

Where learned: Journal of American Folklore ; Folk Music Revival

Keyword(s): BELIEF ; Bohemian ; Greenwich Village ; NEW YORK ; Social Class ; Social Group ; West Coast

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Language: Rhyme

Little Sally Walker, sittin in a saucer,
Rise, Sally, Rise.
Now winking eyes, Now you shake it to the East,
Shake it to the West, Shake it to the very one that Sally loves the best.
Around and around and around she goes,
Where she stops, nobody knows.

Submitter comment:

Hand Clapping Game

Data entry tech comment:

Entered by TRD
 

Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE

Keyword(s): Clapping ; GAME ; Language ; RHYME ; Sally ; Social

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