a room with a hoodoo elder while dressed in white. Light a black candle at each of the white candles. Then knock down all of the candles. Then pinch out the black candle. This is the recorded initiation ceremony for Father Watson, and must be completed before Hurston is allowed to view any of the other rituals Watson performs. To Punish write the man’s name on a piece of paper and put it in a sugar bowl. Add red pepper, black one nail, fifteen cents of ammonia and two door keys. Leave one key on the side of the bowl. Every day at noon, turn the key against the side of the bowl, adding vinegar. To Help a Person in Jail Collect dirt from the graves of nine children. In the altar room, add three teaspoons of sugar and Sulphur. Turn a set of underclothes and a set of tan socks inside out, and cover with graveyard dirt. Go the jail house and read the Thirty-fifth Psalm every day. When the course comes to trial, have the accused wear the clothes sprinkled with graveyard dirt. Write the prisoner’s name, the judge’s name, and the district attorney’s name three times and have the accused wear it in his shoe. Cover his clothes in rose geranium, lavender oil and verbena oil. Rub down the jury box. Take a beef tongue and split it using nine needles and nine pins. Pin the names of the opposition witnesses with the split tongue and some red pepper. Smoke them in a chimney for 36 hours. Ask the spirits for power more equal to a man. Reception Mules and Men received mixed reviews when it was first published, eventually fading into obscurity before being rediscovered by Alice Walker in 1975. Because of Hurston's unique style and use of "frame stories" inside Mules and Men, it was generally popular with common people who found the story more approachable than other anthropologies of the time. The character Hurston presents, unassuming and non-threatening, allowed her to write about Black folklore in a way that would not upset white audiences at the time. Indeed, some white reviewers found the book a "straightforward, nonthreatening depiction of the humorous and exotic side of Black culture in the rural south." Hurston's Black contemporaries were less effusive in their praise, noting that the book presented a somewhat rosy picture of Black life in the