ISSUE 78, CHICKENS, Part 2: Magic Chickens
Magic Chickens
Most chickens possess feathers that lay flat along the contours of their bodies. But a recessive genetic trait causes feathers in certain chickens to curve up, standing out from the body. No single variety of chicken has a proclivity toward this gaudy, tousled look. It can occur in most any breed. Individuals with this ruffled feather look are called Frizzled Chickens. Even Silkies have a curved feather form, and are called Sizzles. They were always treated as special birds in the farmyard—family pets, or “show birds” to provoke neighbors’ conversation.
In the Gullah-Geechee community they had additional significance. In areas where conjure craft and root doctoring were common, Frizzled Chickens protected one against hexes. Because conjure craft requires material objects (mojo hands, goopher dust bags, curse objects) to be placed in the vicinity of an intended victim in order to work hurt upon him. Rev. I. E. Lowry, who preached extensively against superstition, explained the role of the Frizzled Chicken in a 1909 newspaper interview: “A frizzled chicken in the yard will be sure to find it and scratch it up: hence the conjurer’s plans and aims will be frustrated.” The South Carolina’s Gullah had an interest in Frizzled Chickens is attested in the extensive display of these birds at the “Negro State Fair” in Batesburg in the early 20th century. Frizzled Chickens were not bought or sold or eaten. They were “Good Luck Birds” and exchanged hands only by gift. This belief in the power of the Frizzled Chicken surfaces in South Carolina court proceedings in the early 20th century. Bessie Johnson charged suspect Conjure Woman Addie Thompson in a Columbia Court administrated by City Magistrate Fowles [!] of burying a “hand” on her premises. She had to resort to the court because she “had no frizzled chicken to find and scratch it up and thus break the spell”. If a Frizzled Chicken suddenly molts all its feathers, that was reckoned a sure sign she had eaten a conjure bag.
Gullah-Geechee may not have eaten the flesh of Frizzled Chicken, they did consume the eggs, for some Frizzled Chickens were excellent layers. The later Cornelia Bailey of Sapelo Island told me of one dish, when I asked her about Frizzled Chicken Eggs. She called it “The Sun of Glory.” You crack open the egg and separate the white from the yoke. You take a teaspoonful of mayonnaise and mix it thoroughly with the white. You take a ceramic cup, put the mixed whites in, then place the yolk in the center. Bake it in the over for 20 minutes—the whites will puff into clouds and the yolk nestled as the sun in the center. This was a food meant to impart power. Since it used pre-prepared mayo, it must have been devised sometime early in the 20th century when prepared Mayo began appearing on store shelves.
About the shells: “There are in plantation lore ways to try fortunes with eggs and eggshells. An eggshell of salt eaten in silence on May eve will bring a dream of the man the eater will marry. An egg roasted whole in front of a fire will portend good or evil to the wise in sure lore by the “sweat o’ blood” the fire draws from it” (1906).
Sources: “Frustrates Voodoo Man,” Charleston Evening Post (November 12, 1909), 1. “Frizzled Chickens can break spell of Voodooism,say Negroes,” Augusta Daily Herald (November 18, 1909), 1. Martha Young, “Plantation Poultry Sayings,” Springfield Republication (April 29, 1906), 2. Burnette Vanstory, “Don’t Eat Chicken, put it to Work,” Atlanta Journal Constitution (September 15, 1968), 34.