Notes from The Hex Murder by Forrester Hazard

Authors

• Alfred L. Shoemaker

Document Type

Notes

Files

Date

1950

Keywords

Forrester Hazard, Hex Murder, hex signs, pow-wow, vinegar barrel, fairy rings, braucherie

Description

These handwritten notes, compiled by Alfred L. Shoemaker circa 1950, refer to passages in the book The Hex Murder by Forrester Hazard. Shoemaker notes references to superstitions, braucherei and hex magic as discussed by characters in the book. One example refers to the custom of stirring up a vinegar barrel when a mother is dying.

Corresponds to:

Packet 2-20

Transcription

A. L. Shoemaker

Pete Adams, reporter

The Hex Murder by Forrester Hazard, Lippincott, 1936

p. 128 "Those signs are painted up on the houses and barns. Don't many people believe in them, but it's a sorta custom 'round here. I got one on my own barn at home."

p. 161 Dr. Schneider. "These pow-wowers don't know any medicine and they're fakes, but they do know their psychology. These people, these Krugers, are fear-ridden. If they believe in charms, give them charms, anything to banish their fear."

p. 165 Mrs. Kruger says to her son after her husband's death: "Henry, she called, go for to shake the vinegar barrel."

p. 166 "It's the custom," the sheriff explained, "to stir up the vinegar barrel when a mother is dying, so that the 'mother' in the vinegar won't die too."

p. 192 "About Reifmayer, sheriff, what do they say about him?" "For one thing they say he rides at night, but I don't take no stock in that." "Rides?" "Yes, rides horses through the air at night. That's how hexers get around far and from place to place."

p. 193 "What's a hexa-dong?" "You've seen those rings in the grass. They call them fairy-rings sometimes."

p. 196 "Doc, on your Gospel oath, do you believe in this hex stuff," the reporter pinned him down. "Certainly not," the physician fumed. "The belief in hexers and pow-wowing has set back progress a hundred years in at least two counties of Pennsylvania. It is arrant, rank superstition without the slightest basis in fact."

p. 200 "brancher" instead of "braucher"

Language

English

Rights Statement

This item is available courtesy of the Ursinus College Library Special Collections Department. It is not to be copied or distributed for commercial use. For permissions which fall outside of educational use, please contact the Special Collections Department.

Recommended Citation

Shoemaker, Alfred L., "Notes from The Hex Murder by Forrester Hazard" (1950). Alfred L. Shoemaker Folk Cultural Documents. 309.
https://digitalcommons.ursinus.edu/shoemaker_documents/309