Dr. James T. Callow publications
Browse by
Questions or comments on this site? Please email davidsor@udmercy.edu.
The James T. Callow Folklore Archive
Your search for SMI returned 32 results.
IT'S BAD LUCK TO STEP OVER A BROOM.
Submitter comment: MRS. REAVES LEARNED THIS SUPERSTITION FROM HER GRANDMOTHER
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE ; Arkansas ; FORT SMITH
Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bad luck Broom Sweeping |
Date learned: 07-21-1968
IT'S BAD LUCK TO SIT ON A BED.
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE ; Arkansas ; FORT SMITH
Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bad luck Furniture (bed, table, chair, etc.) |
Date learned: 07-21-1968
IF A WOMAN COMES TO YOUR HOUSE BEFORE A MAN ON NEW YEAR'S DAY,
YOU'LL HAVE BAD LUCK WITH YOUR CHICKENS THAT YEAR.
Submitter comment: MRS. REAVES TOLD ME THIS AT OUR HOME JULY 19, 1968. WHEN
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE ; Arkansas ; FORT SMITH
Date learned: 07-19-1968
IT IS BAD LUCK TO LAY A MAN'S HAT ON THE BED, UNLESS YOU
TURN THE CROWN DOWN.
Submitter comment: MRS. REAVES TOLD ME THIS SUPERSTITION ON JULY 21, 1968. IT IS
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE ; Arkansas ; FORT SMITH
James Callow Keyword(s): POSITION DIRECTION
Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Bad luck Furniture (bed, table, chair, etc.) BELIEF -- Bad luck Clothing (dress, hat, shoes, suit, etc.) BELIEF -- Conversions Clothing (dress, hat, shoes, suit, etc.) |
Date learned: 07-21-1968
FESTIVAL-MUSIC
THE UPPER CUMBERLAND FIDDLERS' CONVENTION AND FOLK COUNTY
FIDDLERS' JAMBOREE AND CONTESTS WERE HELD AT THE DEKALB COUNTY
COURTHOUSE. THIS IS AN ANNUAL EVENT HELD IN DIFFERENT PLACES EACH
YEAR. THE COMPETITION BROUGHT MUSICIANS FROM AS FAR AS KANSAS,
GEORGIA, AND OHIO. THERE WERE 14 CATEGORIES OF COMPETITION
INCLUDING THE FIDDLERS' SOLO WHICH HAD 40 ENTRIES. THE COMPETITION
STARTED THAT MORNING AND ENDED AT 2 A.M. SUNDAY MORNING. IT WAS A
UNIQUE EXPERIENCE FOR ME AND EVEN MORE INTERESTING FOR A MUSICIAN
WHO COULD REALLY APPRECIATE THE SKILL OF THE PLAYERS, NONE OF
WHOM WERE PROFESSIONAL. PEOPLE IN THE CROWD KEPT COMMENTING THAT
"THIS IS ALMOST AS GOOD AS THE GRAND OLD OPRY!" THAT THEY HOLD IN
VERY HIGH REGARD. SINCE I'VE ATTENTED THE OPRY SEVERAL TIMES, I CA
SAY THAT I'D MUCH RATHER GO TO A FIDDLERS' CONVENTION ANY DAY.
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; SMITHVILLE
Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Festival |
Date learned: 07-01-1972
FOR A STY ON THE EYE, GO TO THE CROSSROADS, STAND IN THE
CENTER, AND REPEAT, "STY, STY, LEAVE MY EYE. GO TO THE
NEXT ONE PASSING BY."
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE ; Arkansas ; FORT SMITH
Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Body part Senses Eyes, evil eye BELIEF -- P646 P646.750 |
Date learned: 07-20-1968
THERE WAS A LADY IN FORTH SMITH WHO LIVED AT 1313 13TH STREET,
AND HER HUSBAND STABBED HER WITH A BUTCHER KNIFE ON THE 13H
DAY OF THE MONTH. STRUCK HER SO HARD HE BROKE THE KNIFE OFF
IN HER RIB CAGE.
THIRTEEN WAS REALLY UNLUCKY FOR HER.
Where learned: Arkansas ; FORT SMITH
Subject headings: | 686 Specific number by specific number being described BELIEF -- Death Funeral Burial |
Superstition
Superstition: Bad Luck:
A howling dog means someone will die shortly.
Submitter comment:
[Informant] learned from her grandmother.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [P880] crossed out and replaced with P870
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; DETROIT ; J L HUDSONS COMPANY
Keyword(s): BAD LUCK ; BELIEF ; DOG ; Howling ; OMEN ; SUPERSTITION
Subject headings: | Observation |
Entertainment: Game
Childhood Game:
When they were kids, they had a game called "Step on a crack and you'll break your mother's back." They would run along the sidewalk but not step on the pavement cracks or they would "break their mother's back" and lose.
Data entry tech comment:
Motifs added by TRD
James Callow comment:
Original BN [C870] crossed out. Replaced with current classification.
Where learned: HOME
Keyword(s): Entertainment, Tabu, Game, Childhood ; RHYME
Subject headings: | Ballad Song Dance Game Music Verse -- Game Verse C750.520 |
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
Subject headings: | BELIEF -- Product or activity of man or animal |
A LEGEND
IT WAS SAID THAT AT MIDNIGHT ON NEW YEAR'S EVE,
THE COWS ARE ON THEIR KNEES AND THE CHICKENS HANG
FROM THE ROOST BY THEIR CLAWS.
Submitter comment:
MRS. REAVES TOLD ME THAT THIS WAS A LEGEND WHICH HER
GRANDMOTHER TOLD HER WHEN SHE WAS A GIRL IN FORT
SMITH, ARKANSAS.
Where learned: TENNESSEE ; NASHVILLE ; Arkansas ; FORT SMITH
Subject headings: | CUSTOM FESTIVAL -- December 31 New Year's Eve BELIEF -- Animal |
Date learned: 08-13-1968
DIET
FIVE POUNDS CAN BE LOST IN THREE DAYS BY EATING HARD
BOILED EGGS AND DRINKING WATER.
Submitter comment:
INFORMANT FOUND THIS ABSURD.
Data entry tech comment:
Updated by TRD
Where learned: MICHIGAN ; LINCOLN PARK
Keyword(s): BELIEF ; DIET ; HEALTH ; WEIGHT ; Weightloss
James Callow Keyword(s): DISBELIEF
Subject headings: | 686 Thirds / Thrice / Three / Triple Food Drink -- Food BELIEF -- Street Trip Relations between relatives, friends, host and guest Social class Rank |
Date learned: 10-11-1971