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Crack 'Crack' Encyclopedia of American Popular Beliefs and Superstitions Donald Ward, Editor-in-Chief Center for the Study of Comparative Folklore and Mythology UCLA Los Angeles, Ca 90024. CRACK. In many European- and African-American folk belief systems, cracks in the earth, in walls or between walls and doors, or in sidewalks or floors frequently indicate fissures in metaphysical boundaries between this and some other - often nefarious - world. Employing sympathetic magic, people may interact with such boundaries. These clefts in the boundaries may be divided intro three general types: the most common, which deal with health and the family; those concerning either placating or taunting the supernatural spirit world; and those which manipulate the physical environment.
Health/family Stepping or standing on cracks is usually believed to bring ill fortune or health to yourself or a member of your family. This tempting of fate is familiar to many - sometimes in the form of a hopscotch or walking rhyme - as involving a negative magic; stepping on a break causing a break. A well-known folk culture exemplar is: Step on a crack Break your mother's back Clearly, this famous rhyme has permeated the realm of popular culture as well: e.g., the pop group Devo's Top 40 song 'Whip It' employed the familiarity of this rhyme; Gary Larson's The Far Side 1992 Off-the-Wall Calendar offered a depiction of a building full of convalescing older women with the legend 'At the hospital for mothers whose children stepped on sidewalk cracks' beneath it for Sunday, 10 May 1992 (Mother's Day).
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Variants to the victimized may include one's father, grandfather, grandmother, uncle, or self. To the above rhyme is sometimes added: Step in a hole Break your mother's sugar bowl (see also the sympathetic magic of 'the spirit world,' below). And/or occasionally: Step on a line Break your mother's (father's) spine. Or perhaps: If you step on stones You break your father's bones. Step on a space, Break your father's face.
Some rhymes are amended to: Skip on a line Break your mother's spine, Skip in between Everything is keen. Other reported counteractive charms entail going around a tree or post while saying 'bread and butter,' stepping on seven cracks in a row, or walking over the crack again after stubbing your toe on it.
Stepping on cracks may also be portents of other ill fortune for the careless individual. It may bring on heartbreak, a headache, a general or unspecified illness, a spanking, bad luck, poor performance at school, or even death.
Stepping on cracks may also prevent one from marrying; when being married, one should stand parallel to the cracks in the floor. The magic of cracks may also be used by the knowledgeable for health advantages. Dowell American Culture Studies B.G.S.U. Bowling Green, OH 43403 1 Puckett, Ohio, nos. 3471, 7818, 7819; West Viginia, WVF 8 (1958): 40; Gelber, Colorado, no.12647; Clark, SFQ 26 (1962): 208; Hendrix, Roosters, no.
170; Hines, WF 24 (1965): 14, no. 122; California, Connecticut, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota (UCLA Archive); F.B. Dresslar, Superstition and Education (Berkeley, 1907), 5:94; Allisor, JAF 63 (1950), no. 2 Hendrix, Roosters, no. 170, Beckwith, College Girls, no. 22b; Puckett, Ohio, no.
3 Florida (UCLA Archive); Texas (NTSU Archive). 4 California, New York (UCLA Archive); Puckett, Ohio, no. 5 Puckett, Ohio, no. 6 Puckett, Ohio, nos. 7827, 7828, 8249.
7 Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota (UCLA Archive); Puckett, Ohio, no. 8 Illinois (UCLA Archive); Hines, WF 24 (1965): 14, no. 9 Puckett, Ohio, no.
10 Gelber, Colorado, no. 11 Illinois (UCLA Archive). 12 Connecticut (UCLA Archive). 13 Clark, SFQ 26 (1962): 208.
14 Puckett, Ohio, no. 15 Puckett, Ohio, no.
16 Texas (UCLA Archive). 17 Puckett, Ohio, no. 18 Hand, 40:105, 1958.
19 Puckett, Ohio, no. 5372; Berlin, Germany (UCLA Archive); F.B. Dresslar, Superstition and Education (Berkeley, 1907), 5:91; Browne, Alabama, 4298; Hand, CFQ 4 (1945): 429, no. 56; Tallman, Belief & Legend, Nova Scotia, 87, no.
Waugh, 'Canadian Folk-Lore from Ontario,' JAF 31 (1918): 4-82, no. 471; Wilson, 'Luck,' TFSB 32 (1966), 107:19. 20 Puckett, Ohio, nos. 1499, 3500, 3501, 3579; WBE. 21 Puckett, Ohio, nos.
26923, 26929; H.M. Hyatt, Folk-Lore from Adams County Illinois (New York), 1935, no. 10178; Fife, Ontario, Canada, 1957; Koch, Kansas, no. 22 Puckett, Ohio, nos. 13921; Gelber, Colorado, no. 23 Bergen, Current Superstitions, MAFS 4 (Boston and N.Y.), 1896, no. 357; Texas (UCLA Archive); V.
Randolph, Ozark Superstitions (New York, 1947), 188; W.J. Fielding, Strange Superstitions. 24 Hyatt, Adams Co., 2nd ed., no. Woodhull, Ranch Remedies. 26 Roberts, 'Louisiana superstitions,' JAF 40 (1927), 144-208, no. 27 Saxon, Gumbo Ya-Ya, no.
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28 Brown Collection, no. 29 Puckett, Ohio, no. 30 New York (UCLA Archive); Puckett, Ohio, no. 16123; Hand, 106, Fall, 1959. 31 Greenway, Illinois, Spring, 1961.
32 Hand, 106, Fall, 1959. 33 Puckett, Ohio, no. 34 California, North Carolina (UCLA Archive). 35 Puckett, Ohio, no.
36 Brown Collection, no. 37 Harrison, 'Kentucky Slaves,' KFR 17 (1971), 57; Jones, 'Little People,' NYFQ 18 (1962), 248.
38 Hoffman, 'Stregas.,' NYFQ 3 (1947), 325-6; Autobiography of Brently York, 8. Swiaiek, Lad Nadraoski, 473. 40 Hand, XL 105, Spring, 1959. 41 Costa Rica (UCLA Archives). 42 Puckett, Ohio, no. 43 Puckett, Ohio, no.
44 Koch, Kansas, no. 45 Puckett, Ohio, no. Waugh, 'Canadian Folk-Lore from Ontario,' JAF 31 (1918): 4-82, no. 47 Brown Collection, no. Wintemberg, 'Items of French-Canadian Folklore,' JAF 81 (1908): 18, no.
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49 Puckett, Ohio, no. 50 Puckett, Ohio, no. 51 Storaker, Menneskot, no. 52 HDA viii, 964. 53 Beliefs. Clarkville i.S. TFSB 28 (1962), 40, no.