Browse:DOCTOR AND DOCTOR: TWO OPPOSING SYSTEMS OF THOUGHT (Volume 1, entries 639–796)
DOCTOR AND DOCTOR: TWO OPPOSING SYSTEMS OF THOUGHT
Volume 1, entries 639–796. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 639
They claim that a woman, his wife, can take private hair, hers and his, and tell whether he's out having a good time with another woman. When he begins to use another woman these hairs will come together like different kinds of knots [groups]. She puts these hairs in a pan of water. If he isn't, each hair will float to itself.
Entry 640
To tell de diff'rence, yo' kin git yo' some sugah an' git chew a glass of watah an' yo' say a prayer ovah it an' yo' read in de Bible in de Book of Psalms - de 21st an' de 32nd of Psalms, an' you read that an' yo' put a little sugah in that watah an' yo' drink it, an' yo' kin tell the diff'rence. Yo' do that fo' 'bout nine days.
(Any particular time of the day - it doesn't make any difference?)
In de mawnin's best.
(How would you tell by that that you are tricked or just ordinarily sick?)
If yore sick, this watah will do yo' good; an' if yore tricked, why it won't do yo' any good. Yo' see things is done from de power of God. An' when yo pray yore prayer, pray it in faith fo' help. [Memphis, Tenn., (938), 1517:16.] [What I said in the Introduction must be repeated here. The difficulty of indexing hoodoo material makes every title or label incomplete. Always the Index must be consulted.] [The preceding subsection, Diagnosis, showed doctor and layman seeking in- formation in primitive ways discarded by modern thought; Ways still under the control of the spirits whose activities previously we had been following. One of these ways told us "whether to go to a doctor - a medical doctor either (or) a root doctor (see No. 551, p.167)." This reference, not to mention others, indicates a basic difference between medical doctor (Doctor of Medicine) and root doctor; it also implies a limitation in the therapeutics of scientific medicine. Let us begin with the doctor.]
The informant directs Bible/Psalms reading in an unverified diagnostic account; the following indexing commentary is editorial.
Entry 641
You getting a medical doctor, a medical doctor and you say [for example] I'm sick - I feel bad and I'm hurting and hurting or something. You get a doctor and the doctor will come. He'll come maybe once or twice and he'll tell you, after his medicine don't take no 'fect, tell you, say, "You have to get somebody else know more than I know." Then you got'a wander around and first thing you goin' find your mind on hoodoo, and you goin' get a hoodoo den. Well, a hoodoo, den he goin' come and tell you, 'Yeah, there's something done to you. You say, "Well, I want you to git it off. How much you charge me?" "Well, I charge four or five or ten dollars." Well, you goin' give him four, five or ten dollars and he goin' get it off. Well, he's the same one what put it on you. [Yet, see margin-title, Doctor Unable to Cast and Cure Same Spell.]
The account hypothetically contrasts failed medical treatment with promised paid removal; neither outcome is verified.
Entry 642
Ah tell from experience that when ah was sick and that when ah've taken medical medicine it made me sicker. And after ah went to the doctor and ah went to the root doctor and he was treating me for hoodoo I commenced gettin' better. (I see.) When you are fixed, when you take medical medicine hit use'ly make you worser; prob'bly, if you continue with it, it will kill you. That's what it will do.
Entry 643
Your doctor medicine would natch'ly turn agains' yeh - it wouldn't do yo' no good. Ever'time de doctor would come and de more medicine you would take from 'im would make yo' more iller, see. And then after [afterward] yo' would either git more ill and if you did never change you would die. Then yo' find de medicine begin to git worse and worse on yo', why yo' have to change and git some herb doctor.
Entry 644
Take the toenail, fingernail, lock of the man's hair; parch it well and make a powder and put over his food. That'll make the man's ambition be for her prack'ly [practically] all the time. And in that length of time it will give him some ailment in the stomach and no physician in the United States can reach the sickness unless it is one that knows exactly what he has got. And [besides] it's outside the medical trade, you see. Over sixty-five percent of our men now by having those kind of women have bad stomachs - rusty stomachs from dat. [This could be the only time I heard the word physician in hoodoo. Rusty stomach, a boiler that becomes rusty, used only here.]
Entry 645
See, yo' kin take yore chamber lye - take dat chamber lye an' - person take hit to a red ants' bed. Yo' take it an' yo' po' it into somepin an' yo' takes some [corn] meal an' make it up as a dough, an' yo' take it to a red ants' bed an' yo' sprinkle it in dat red ants' bed, an' jest long as it in dat ants' bed, yo' see, dem antses will work dat dough up - up an' down dat-a-way. Well, dat'll create germ to work inside of a person, an' jest work, work, work, till it kills 'im. Well, yo' see de doctors don't know whut dat is. De doctors will be working on it fo' one thing, but still it's dat germ - de cunjuration. [For this germ theory, see No. 654.]
Entry 646
[Out of many persons speaking against doctor and his medicine (see Doctor, not Doctor, in Index) - one person, the only one, spoke favorably:] I know a woman right here in Northampton, she was sick and swoll up for at least eight years, and she accused her next door neighbor. This other woman told the whole general public she had never done nothing to her. She [the sick woman] went to Berkley and got a fortune teller. When she came back she found a bottle down under her door. This bottle was full of little snakes. Then she moved. And she began to take doctor's medicine and it wasn't long before she was on her feet again.
Entry 647
[Why medical medicine or doctor medicine is worthless in hoodoo, a believer explains:] I say all de - most all de sickness now, it's not natch'l.
(What does it come from?)
Vitchcraft. (Why do people do that?) Jis', some of 'em jis' begrudgin'. Some of 'em get, you know, be begrudgin' of anything you have an' dey'll poison you. Some want cheh husban', dey poison yah; an' some want cheh job, dey poison yah. (Have they any good rootworkers up there in Rocky Mount [North Carolina, home of informant]?) No, sir. Dere is some up dere kin do somepin to yah but dey can't cure yeh.
(Where do people go then?)
Dey come to town heah.
(Any good ones down here?)
Yes sir, purty good. I reckon de best ones is in South Carolina.
(What do they usually charge to cure you?)
Some of 'em twenty-five to thirty dollars - a good price.
Entry 648
[Since sickness is not natural but a condition caused by witchcraft, the doctor claiming to understand and control it lives in a world of magic and false knowledge. To illustrate this, take the word poison in No. 647:] Well, ah kin tell yo' two-three little stories about that. Mah mother onest, she was hurted - she was dressed by mah father and she suffered and she swole up jest big as a bale of cotton, dat big, and they didn't know anything to do for her. All doctors could not do anything fo' her. So there's a ole lady name Miz Chapman, she came to our house since we lived dere.
(Where was she living then?)
In Orrville, Alabama. An' dis lady come in an' she says, "Pore thing," say, "you're poisoned - you were dressed by yore husban'." An' she begin to rub her and rub, and fin'lly de swelling went down, and she give us medicine to take to get her up. And she tole us - it was on the ninth of the month, which it was de first of the month then when this happened - said, "This woman that hurt chew will come in an' ast yo' how yo' feel." And so on that day this woman walked in de room and ast her - ast mah mother how she feels. Mah mother tole her fine and she walked out.
(How did your father dress your mother?)
It was some stuff that this woman put on hr - it was poison, some kind of perfume dat dis woman puts on mah father, yo' see, and de minute dat it hit mother - de one that it was for [see No. 653], it throwed her into fits.
(Where did she put this perfume? On what part of the body?)
Put it under his arms. (What else did that woman do to get rid of this, besides rubbing - did she do anything else?) She give her a bottle of medicine to take.
Entry 649
She was goin' with a woman's husband. She asked her to give him up, but she wouldn't do it. She talked to her three times and told her. She wouldn't, you know. And she says, "I'll make you leave." This woman told us after she [woman going with husband] was dead. She [wife] said she taken a penny and taken the skin off of a red onion. She rubbed it all together. You know a penny is poison. And she put that penny up and she let it dry right dry and make a powder of it. She dressed her husband with it - dusted his clothes. And when he went back [to the other woman] - see, it got on her. And it turnt her jis' as wrong side out. No doctor couldn't git it back. It turnt her wrong side outwards. She died. Jis' turnt her whole womb and everything. It came out. That's what I call trickin' 'em. [Cf. No. 10, p.7.]
Entry 650
Mah brother-in-law [was] poison once. Dis man [was] drivin' a truck an' dat [same] man poison him, an' de [boss] man fi'ed [fired] him an' put mah brother-in-law in dis othah man's place, so dis man couldn't git [back] de job dat mah brother-in-law got [therefore he] want put him out de way, kill him or somepin. Well, he say, "Ah kin git him out de way." He didn't bothah [my brother-in-law] yo' know. So he went to a man, he know some roots dat would - de rootworker tolt dis othah man, give him tuh do it tuh mah brother-in-law, give him some grease [dressed with roots] tuh put on de truck; yo' know, on de automobile, on de truck do'.
Entry 651
You go down in the field and git manure, but you have to git a certain kind of manure. You have to git bull manure, not cow manure. Git that and wrap it in a red handkerchief. He claimed he was tricked. He let someone use his hammer and something they put on his hammer got on his hand and kept him from work. [This proves that he was poisoned.] Some one of these two-headed people that he was dealing with told him he had to git some bull manure. Well, I was jist a boy and they sent me to go git it. I go and git that bull manure and go and git some pokeberry root. Get the he pokeberry root. There's two kinds, a he and a she. The he one is white and the she one is red. The she one has a red skin on it, she come up out the ground. They git that and mix up with this manure together and cook it together and put that on him [his arm] and bind it down. He got so he went to work again.
Entry 652
Ah heard that if a person bit chew that had them blue gums, you would spread that [see later] over it an' it would kill de sore, but yore [the biter's] teeth would drop out or something of that kind like that.
(Well, what do the blue gums have to do with it?)
Well, dey claim that would poison yo'. (The person with the blue gums would poison you. And this chicken manure will take it off. What kind of chicken manure?) Black.
Entry 653
[Before I forget, I must return to the woman poisoned by perfume (No. 648). Why was her husband immune? He was dressed for his wife; the dressing no matter how poisonous, being harmless to him (cf. No. 10, p.7). Intention is almost everything in hoodoo and magic. A good example follows:] I was living in a street here in Norfolk, and the undertaker - you know I'm a jackleg carpenter - the undertaker told me to put a pair of steps to his door, and I had to dig down fer 'em. I come across a Eye-sh [Irish] potato that had nine needles in it and nine pins. And de woman dat was passing back- ward and forward over 'em was sick all de time - two of 'em died in dat same house, and both the woman was takin' sick. And I come across it with my hoe, you know, when I was making de foundation to put de foot of steps down. And I called and asked her, "What is this?" She come and looked and she cried, "That thing is the cause of my family being ruined!" A I'sh potato and nine needles and nine pins in it. And as that grow, the sap of it, the scent of it, or some- thing other in that house - some of 'em [persons] drop off. She says, "What you going to do with it?" I put my hand on it, 'cause I weren't scared of it, you know, 'cause I didn't believe in such things. I put my hand on it and I counted nine [needles and nine pins] with it in my hand. And I couldn't get a soul dere to touch it.
(No one would touch it?)
Nobody - couldn't get 'em to touch it. Then I thought to myself, I says, "I wonder if dis here thing goin' do me no harm?" Then a thought came to me, "It warn't put there for you and it would not harm you." I took it up in my hand, pulled the peelin's offen it and throwed de I'sh potato away and stuck the pins in my coat. But - it will certainly do you harm, if it is planted fer you.
Entry 654
One time I came out of the door, that was before we moved to Norfolk City [from County of Norfolk into Norfolk, Va., about 1885]. Right at the door was a snake-shed [the whole skin shed by a snake]. It was filled with sand. My mother was looking out the door. I thought it was a snake. My mother looked and said, "That ain't no snake." I said, "Yes it is, mother." 'No, that ain't no snake. Get some paper." She wouldn't touch it herself. She made me pick it up. You see, if that was for me, it wouldn't hurt nobody but me. If you touched it, it would be all right - it wouldn't hurt you. Mother thought it was for her. That's why she made me get it on that paper. You see, some woman was mad at her. She [other woman] said, "Never mind, I'll cross your path soon." I have heard them say that a lot of times. [This is called a bad mouth.] Then they put some- thing down for you to walk over. She was afraid I would drop it, "Don't you let that fall!" Then she said we would go to the bridge. She wouldn't let me go by myself. She and I went together. She did not cross it, the place where that snake Was, but went way around. She wouldn't walk behind me. She walked a way on the other side of the road. When we were halfway there [to the bridge] she said, "It came from the devil, let it go back to him." She made me go right out on the middle of the bridge, right in the middle of the channel, and throw that snake-shed right in the water. When she came back she bought a pound of salt and sprinkled that salt all over the place [where the snake-shed had been found], to kill the germs I guess. [For these germs, see No. 645.]
Salt is narrated as bought and sprinkled; killing germs is the narrator's guess.
Entry 655
[Poison, then, is any substance charged with evil intent, often assisted by the Word of God or magic rite. Some substances are unnaturally though not toxicologically poisonous - the most deadly of all being graveyard dirt:] I heard a church member said dere's a ole man in de church where he were a member - he ain't got much confidence in 'em now 'cause dey did dat - ole man da'd [that would] git mad at anybody at church; you know, he'd fall out with 'em. Well, he'd go to de graveyard an' reach his han' as far in dere as he could, an'.he'd git some dirt jis' off, jis' as near de coffin as he could, an' wrap it up, [and] bring it on back. Well, he'd put it in somepin thin, cheesecloth or somepin or othah, an' put it in each pocket, in his coat pocket. An' so he'd go to church, you know, until de preacher git to preachin', you know, an' dat de people git to shoutin', why he jis' git to shoutin' an' go right aroun' near dis person [he's 'mad with], you know, an' fis' let dis dus' - it would jus' fly so it'll, a 'hole lot of people would inhale it, an' dey'd git so sometimes dey'd git to coughin'. Well, dey say, if you git enough of it, it'd kill 'em. [Wilmington, N. Car., (215), 208:1; Darien. Ga..1896.1
Hyatt's opening definition of poison is editorial framing. The informant introduces a church member's report and later says 'dey say'; the toxicity and death claims remain source-reported. The final printed citation is incomplete.
Entry 656
And this ole man - he died a sinnerman, but he had played cards up until about one o'clock that night and he was found dead in bed the next morning. So - I don't know what they kin do with it - but when we went to the cemetery to bury this man, there were three women out there, out here in Calv'ry cemetery.
(Calvary cemetery.)
There was three women out there and each one of these women had a cigar box. But there's people visits the cemetery all the time and nobody pays no mind, so - but these women was not presentable to be at the funeral, or out there expecting the funeral or anything, they Was slack and slouchy. So, right where I was standing the undertaker came and snatched these boxes from 'em, and say, "What do you wanta do? kill everybody in Norfolk!" Well, then the people began to - I looked myself - he'd taken these boxes and each one of these boxes had dis dirt in it. Said [someone] you had to get dirt from a sinner man's grave to do ever what was to be done. I don't know what it was.
(I see - they were trying to get some of this dirt.)
Yes, they had it.
The eligible evidence is the narrator's account of dirt in boxes; the later sinner-man grave claim has unresolved attribution.
Entry 657
[Closely associated with graveyard dirt and also dangerous is goofer dust. Since descriptions of this substance are usually brief and inadequate, I begin with an account by a doctor:] An' agin we carry de dust wit us [probably John the Conker], we carry de Adam and Eve root and whut we call goofer dust. (What is goofer dust?) Goofer dust is dust right from de cemetery, but it's gittin' out from undah de footstone - whut ah mean, de footboard yo' see. Yo' go down undah dere an' git de dust out from undah dere. Yo' tie it up an'. Yo' go tuh run - yo' cross runnin' watah an' yo' bless it in de watah. Yo' carry it through de watah an' de watah puts whut chew call a Christian spirit on it. An yo' carry dat an' during de time yo' gamblin' yo' keeps yore mind on de gamblin', it's true, but chew let chure mind think about whut chew got - de dust in mah pocket. Think about yore dust. Den luck will come.
(Do you combine the dust with this Adam and Eve root?)
No, dat's separate.
(This is separate. All you need is the goofer dust for luck in gambling?)
Yes. (But you have to get it in a special way - from under the footboard of the grave?) Yessuh.
(Then you have to carry it through running water?)
Dat's right.
(You just carry this dust loose in your pocket?) )[He had said, "Tie it up."]
Yo' give it a spirit of imagination wonder - den yo' carry it in yore pocket. [So far as I can recall, this is my only example of graveyard dirt being carried across running water - a brillant operation, a daring use of the magic of the contrary or opposite, because everyone knows that the spirit in this grave- yard dirt can not cross running water. Yet, if the doctor says, "You bless it in de watah...carry it through de watah...de watah puts...a Christian spirit on it," that is just what happens. A doctor's intention can violate any magic law in hoodoo or create a new law. This is actually a baptismal rite. All graveyard dirt being of uncertain spiritual quality for our doctor, he gives it a Christian spirit. Spirit of imagination wonder = power = the primitive mana.] (Now what about that Adam and Eve root? Do they use that in any special way for luck in gambling?) Well, yo' use Adam an' Eve root - chew carry it fo' luck in gamblin' an' luck in any kinda thing; use it in anything, business or anything.
(How do you do that - just carry it loose in your pocket?)
No,- yo' sews it in a lil' bag an' carries it. It's put up lak a little fuzzy nut of some kind. [This is a hand.] Now, when people talk of putting de goofer on yo', they do that to either run yo or bring yo' undah dere control. Lotta people say, "Well, we'll goofer sech an' sech a person because ah cares fo' dem" - cause dey care fo' a person, prob'bly loves 'em an' wants dem tuh be around all de time. Lotta po' people use dat word goofer. Dey has somebody workin' fo' 'em pract'lly all de time, settin' up. Yo' know it's a lotta people has a ole man settin' around. He ain't fittin' fo' nuthin' but tuh work an' dey jes' wanta git whut support dey kin git outa him, so dey puts de goofer dust on him. Dey ties him so he can't git away. He wants tuh go free yo' see, but dat stuff is workin' on his conscience an' mind so strong so dat he jes' hang all round dere. An' dey git dat goofer dust tuh workin' - prob'bly bury it undah de step, in de back yard or somewhere else. Conceal it from him where he won't know nuthin' about it an' jes' keep it right dere, an' long as dey hold it dere dey got him.
Baptismal rite is the editor's characterization of the water-blessing account; the informant's descriptions remain separate.
Entry 658
(Have you ever heard of goofer dust?)
Yessuh, ah've heered tell of that.
(What is it supposed to be?)
Well, ah heered - it was a preacher preachin' round town one time, dis town now, by de name of [So-and-So] an' he practice - he wus practicin' root doctorin' an' he had people fooled an' dey thought he wus a preacher. He had a big church down heah on mah street on West Street. So he had a church down heah by de name of de Temple. So he wus a great preacher. He wus from some parts up No'th. His name was [So-and-So] an' so he taken an' he practi'lly had all de wimmins in de church, practi'lly kept him up - he wus buyin' cars an' ridin' round. An' dis man an' his wife dey go to dis church 'cause he figured dere wus some- thin' good in dis man - he figured there wus somethin' to dis man. Well, him an' his wife had several fusses, an' she went back an' she went back an' told dis preacher 'bout it. Well, dis preacher said, "Well," said, "dat's all right. Ah'll fix dat up." Says, "Yo' come roun' aftah church tuhnight." So she come on out from de church dat night an' when she came out dere he tole her whut tuh do - had her tuh bring some salt 'long wit some sulphur an' some turpentine. So she brought dat stuff tuh him an' he tuk dis stuff an' he gone to a graveyard dat night. Some people had died in his church an' he went to de graveyard an' tuk some of de dirt from de west side - de west side is dat way from de west side corner of de grave. He tuk dat an' he fixed it all up into jes' somethin' lak a powder. An' he went - ah know dis fo' mah ownself, co'se ah stayed roun' dere an' ah seen him on de street. An' he went tuh dis man's house an' sprinkle dis stuff all round de porch dat nex' mawnin'. An' he tole dis woman, said, "Yo' let him come outdo's first. Don't yo' come out." See. Say, "Let him git outdo's first." So he tuk dis stuff an' sprinkled it all round de front porch an' on de side of de front porch - sprinkled it round 'nuff so he could walk in it when he come out. Well, he came out an' he walked in dis stuff. Well, he'd gone on tuh work an' he come back an' dey had a big fuss about it. He tole her dat he wus goin' leave dis time. So on dat Thursday night dey had a big fuss about it - dat he didn't want her tuh go to dat church or somepin othah. But it seemed dat his mind wus wandering from whut he [preacher] had done. So he tole her, says, "Well, ah'm goin' leave heah - dis game wit de preacher. So dat Friday mawnin' he packed up his things an' left. Aftah dis preacher died outa [left] heah - it's been 'bout a yeah ago - he died. Dey stayed apart as long as dis preacher lived an' after, a long while aftah de preacher died, den him an' his wife wus stayin' tugethah right on Plum Street.
(What did they call that stuff that he sprinkled around?)
Well, he said it wus some kind of goofer dust. Ah understood dat he had turpentine an' dis graveyard dirt an' salt in it. Three diff'rent things he had- three or fo' diff'rent articles he had mixed up in dat.
(What did he sprinkle that around the porch for?)
He sprinkled it roun' dere so he could break him an' his wife up.
Entry 659
(What is goofer dust?)
Dey tell me - now if - goofer dust is jes' lak if yo' have loved somebody - this is whut they tell me, if yo' loved 'em an' they have died an' been dead fo' a number of yeahs, then yo' goes to this graveyard where they's been buried an' yo' dig right down underneath dis bo'd, or undah - jes' lak it was a rock [tombstone] dere of some kind. Yo' git the dust from there an' yo' sprinkle it on yo' jes' lak yo'd wanta go fo' somebody. Then yo'd sprinkle it on the next person that chew wanta love. That will make them fall in love with yo'.
(You get this dirt from under the headstone or the headboard of the grave?)
Yes. Jes' lak if yo' loved 'em, but'yo' have to be in love with 'em. (You goofer them you say. [I am repeating what informant said while machine turned off.] What do you mean by goofer them?) Well, ah don' know dat.
(If I wanted to goofer somebody, what does that mean?)
Yo'd have tuh git this dust - now dey tell me.
(Well, is that doing them good or doing them harm?)
Well, yo'd be making them love yo' - see, jes' lak somebody dat chew had loved has died an' then yo' - (Put a goofer on you. [Again I repeat what was said while machine off.] What does that mean?) Dat means dat's chew be in love wit me - jes' lak if ah would wanta make yo' love me, den ah'd have tuh continue jes' keep it on yo'. (Do the people around here in Fayetteville ever speak about putting the goofer on you?) Yes.
(Were you born around here?)
Yessuh, ah wus born in [something].
[I am rather insistent and not too satisfied.]
(Because that is something that I never heard of in any other part of the country: It seems to be just the usual thing around here.) Yes. [I comment at a later date, "I want more evidence for this."]
Entry 660
Well, dey say for ninstance, dat you go to de cemetery and de first seven grave dey come to, at de foot of de seventh grave, dey git down about seven inches and get out some of de dust. See. Den you take it home and put it into some salt and den you make seven steps into de home.
(Into whose home?)
De home dat you wanta put de bad luck on, see. And den you begin de seven steps back you begin sprlnkling yo' [your] whut dey call goofer dust. See, dat's de beginning of de hard luck. An' den to offset it it's practi'lly de same way.
(How do they do that?)
It's de same graveyard dust, see, to offset it. And den to make it stronger, why you puts salt into de four corners of de home and you make a wish to each corner and name dem. You see, dat's where you have salt. And den some people dey so much suspicious towards salt dat dey won't loan salt. I myself, you know, I won't loan salt. I'd rather give you a nickel and let cha buy some salt.
The account reports an intention to put bad luck on a home and a separate counterprocedure; neither is verified.
Entry 661
Dat's whut we call dat graveyard clay, goofer dust.
(You mean that's what you call it down here?)
Yes slr.
Entry 662
They take graveyard dirt, they say, and make goofer dust out of it and gave you a lingering cough.
Entry 664
It's suppose to be dirt come out de bur'in' groun'. An' yo' git little roots right from the root of a tree in de bur'in' groun' - jis' cut de root off de tree. An' yo' take an' keep dat an' let it git kin'a ole, yo' know. Yo' take dat an' ball it up lak dat [demonstrates].
(Grind it up by rubbing it in your hands.)
An' yo' take it [with the graveyard dirt] an' den you sprinkle it right roun' de front cher [someone's] house an' yo' [that person] have bad luck. That's goofer dust.
Entry 665
(What is goofer dust?)
Well, goofer - dis stuff a graveyard dirt, red peppah an' black peppah. Ah call all dat stuff - yo' kin git a snail an' powder him - all of 'em goofer dust.
(Why do they call it goofer?)
Call it goofer - it do things dat yo' cain't jis' ordinary things can do.
Entry 666
They claim they'll make it from bones, dried bones from people. They call it goofer dust at home. They sprinkle a little goofer dust in your tracks and you're sure goin' wrong.
Entry 667
Rattlesnake dust. You know, if the rattlesnake die in the dust [snake shed?] you sprinkle that all around and moving powder.
(They call that goofer dust, rattlesnake dust?)
It's a rattlesnake dust.
Entry 668
They claim they take serpents heads and grind them up and powder them up and they supposed to bury that under your doorstep. That's goofer dust. That's supposed to cunjure you. You're supposed to walk over that.
Entry 669
(Goofer dust is what?)
Jest a - yo' see yo' git a snake - yo' kin take a rattlesnake an' dry his haid up, pound it up, an' den yo' kin go to work an' use dat as goofer dust. Kill anybody.
Entry 670
(Goofer dust - what is goofer, what is that?)
Goofer dust is snake haid, scorpion haid, lizard haid - listen, snake haid dust, scorpion dust an' lizard dust. Dat's whut yo' call goofer dust. Yo' git them things an' yo' kill 'em an' yo' cut de haids off an' yo' dry that. After yo' dry that, yo' powder that up. That's whut dey call goofer dust.
(Do the people around here talk about putting the goofer on you?)
Yes.
(What do they mean by that?)
Well, dey mean do yo' harm - when de say goofer dey mean do yo' harm. Dey don' mean tuh do nuthin' good to yo'.
(That's just doing you harm; they want to goofer you?)
Yeah, dat's jes' doin' yo' any kinda harm.
Entry 671
Ah have heard that goofer dust is jes' diff'rent roots for whatevah kinda work it is yo' wanted tuh do or anything bad; dat's de kind of roots dat chew would git. Dere's some kinda root - devil grass root.
(It has no other name?)
No othah name. Take devil grass an' snake's head an' grind it up togethah an' make a powder out of it. See, fo' instance, if yo' wanted tuh hurt someone or somepin othah lak dat, an' sprinkle it in dey hat, de bandin' of dey hat. It Would run 'em blind. Do different things with it.
Entry 672
(What is goofer dust?)
Well, now yo' take goofer dust - dat's jest whut chew might call cunjuration, jest lak yo' take a snake shed. Yo' know snake shed. Yo' take dat snake shed an' yo' put it up somewhere where it will dry - git right good an' dry. An' yo' take it an' pound it up - jest pound it up. Well, now yo' kin take dat an sprinkle it ovah anything - anything a person eat or drink. Well, yo' see, dat's puttin' goofer dust in 'em - dat's whut chew call de goofer dust. Jest lak a man go out huntin' a job - walk up where a big work gwine on, "Wanta see de boss." Says, "Well, ah'm de boss heah." All right, yo' walk up to him, "How are yuh, Captain?" Say, "All right." Says, "Captain, ah'm lookin' fo' a job." Well, he might answer, "Well, whut kin yo' do?" "Well, Captain, ah kin do so-an'-so." He might be fulled out. "Well, ah'm kinda fulled out." But yet an' still yo' got some dis goofer dust right on wit chew. See, yo' kin take dis goofer dust an' yo' kinda rub it on yore hand dat-a-way, rub back yore ear, back of yore ears three times. Walk right up to him regardless to how many mens he got. He goin' give yo' a Job - if yo' don't stay dere but three days he goin' give yo' a job, he can't let chew pass.
(You say this goofer dust is just a snake shed ground up.)
Jest a snake shed. [Almost anything is possible but snake-shed dust is most unusual when seeking a job.]
Entry 674
(Do these people talk about goofer dust down here? In New Orleans what is it supposed to be?) Well, ah tell yo', it's so many things kin answer in de place of it - ah wouldn't wanta tell yo' no story.
(Any kind of dust is goofer dust?)
Yes, any kinda stuff lak dat in hoodooism is de goofer dust.
Entry 675
(What is goofer dust?)
Goofer dust? Well, goofer dust is just - it just a kind that people use. At any time you use anything from hoodoo - some call it hoodoo, some call it goofer. But anything [any time] that you use a dust that you use to sprinkle - like if you come to me and say, "I'm upsetted in my home it seems like things ain't going right. I want you to give me something to sprinkle my home wdth, see if I can bring peace." Well, I'll give you something that you go into your house. I give you anything to scrub, that would cause peaceful power. Well, you just take that and sprinkle it round. People call that goofer dust. Well, that just the common term they got - the term that is ordinary used is hoodoo.
Entry 676
(What do they call goofer dust?)
Well, you can get steel dust - mostly any dust, you understand, that you mix.
(They call that goofer dust?)
Yes sir, dat's the meaning of goofer dust.
Entry 677
Dat's somepin de same thing dat ah have jes' told yo' - whut chew make UP, peppah an' salt.
(That's all goofer dust - any kind of dust?)
Yeah, any kind of dust.
Entry 678
Take that charcoal - brick dust and charcoal. You know, anything you beat up and make a dust out of it, that goofer dust.
(I see.)
Entry 679
That's tis' this fine dirt.
(Goofer dust is almost anything put down.)
Anything that would be to have influence - like you get from dis dirt dauber nest and de pepper I told you about and mix it up, that would be goofer dust.
(Well, what is goofer supposed to be?)
What they mean is to make you goofy.
(Oh, it's goofy dust?)
So now, say, for instance I want you to lose your memory, if you were going. to court or something with [against] me - it would get you where so you would prob'bly forget what you's talking about.
Entry 680
(What is goofer dust?)
Dat's whut yo' also buy from one of dose order houses, yo' see. It's supposed tuh put whut chew might call tricks on a person. Dat's supposed to be, aftah yo' obtain it, put it in de mattress of a person where dat dey have tuh sleep on, an yo' supposed to jis' go away - jis' pine away.
Entry 681
I have heard that cunjure doctors put goofer dust in your shoes to put affliction on you and sometimes it causes you to have a bad foot, a sore foot. It'll never be healed, a swelling or something, unless you go to another cunjure doctor. And he will give you another dust supposed to fight this dust and try to get it out of your system.
Entry 682
The way I have heard it, that a hoodoo bag is a bag that one carries and it contains a dust called goofer dust, and whatever they put it on they can conquer. Some wear it in their bosom and some in their pocket. They get these goofer bags from root doctors or cunjure doctors. You give them a certain sum of money. Some call them roots, some call them rabbit's foot. Some people wear these roots around their legs sometimes for luck.
Entry 683
Yo'.take de dust from a ant hill an' sprinkle it on anybody, it will make dem be in bad condition an' give 'em bad luck, because a ant will rustle fo' his food. Well, dey will practi'lly git lazy an' dey won't try tuh feed demselfs. [Here is contrary or opposite magic.] Dat always keep dem from han' tuh mouth all de time. Dey nevah has anythin'.
(You take that dirt from the ant bed - out of the ground.)
Jes' de dirt from de ants - jes' lak, yo' know how dey is, weaves up dere dirt aroun' dere little hole. Well, yo' jes' rakes dat dirt into a piece of papah or on a piece of pastebo'd an' take an' put it in a cloth an' carry it on wit chew. Wherevah anybody is doin' fine, doin' well in life, throw dat dirt an' dat starts dem tuh travelin'. [Here is similar (sympathetic) magic - ants travel, your victim travels.] Dey jes' continue tuh goin' an' always will be from hand tuh mouth an' nevah has anything.
Entry 684
[Because some of the preceding goofer dust was made from heads of snakes, scorpions and lizards (Nos. 668-670), here is the place to include a similar dust or powder - one creating live things in you. The basis for these beliefs is man's ages-old observation that live things get into his body as well as the bodies of animals:] I re'lly believe dat, in a way, because - now, you take a snake, blood from a snake or reptile or scorpion or lizard, and if it lay in you long 'nuff, I re'lly believe dat it'll form. It'll form and come to live thing jes' like a egg will hatch. If you keep de egg long enough it'll transform from a egg to a live chicken, if you keep it warm. And I believe dat blood of de serpent will, if you git it in you, it'll lodge in you; but consequently [subsequently] it might pass on through you and not lodge in you. But I believe if it will lodge in you, it'll transform, 'cause if a snake bite a dog and after while you happen to kill dat dog, dat dog will have a - I'm talkin' about now what [I hear], I ain't talking about what some- body say, I'm talkin' about what I seen - dat dog will have a whole lot of little snakes round his livah, little somepin like snake worms. See. And dey say dat's 'cause de snake done bit de dog so much and dere so many worms dat 'cumulated roun' his livah dat de dog died. See. Well, dat affection from de snake: bite went to his livah, see. We cured de snake bite on his leg - you could see it - but dey couldn't cure it on his livah. And dat whut de people say, if a dog died from snake bittin' so much, "An' you all cured de snake bite but you cut-him open and see his livah is full of snakes." Well, I believe dat if a person would git any part of a snake, blood or anything in you, if it git to stay in you, I believe it would 'coomulate.
Entry 685
Ah was belonging to de Household of Ruth and ah was goin' dere to make some candidates we did. Ah was their wardess - that was, turning folks in, git de pass an turn 'em in. Well, de lady dat was in dere she was keeping books - secretary. Well, by me knowing how to write better than her, dey moved me from that do' an' put me secretary. An' she got mad wit me about it. Den whilst ah was in de entry room, dey sent me dere to help fix dose candidates. Well, after ah did dat ah seen her wit mah shoes, though ah didn't think anything of it.
(Where were your shoes then?)
They were at the chair where ah got up from to go to the entryroom.
(You had your shoes off?)
Ah'd taken dem off because mah feet was worn out from working all day and Walking there dat night. An' when ah put mah shoes on -
(Why didn't you say something to her when you saw her with your shoes?)
Ah didn't say anything 'cause ah didn't think anything - she was talking 'bout de shoe - her and dis ole man - ole-timey man - ole cunjurating [man] - was talking about de shoe being a cute-made shoe. So when ev'rything was ovah, dey had this festival downstairs for the help of the lodge. So ah'd gone down and all de balance when dey turned out up dere, we went down to de tables.
(This Sister Ruth business is the female side of the Odd Fellows?)
Yes, sir. An' ah got down [took ill] there - after dat was over and ah'd gone out to git in de car [someone was taking her home] then ah took de chill. Well, after the chill was over ah begun, yo' know, throwing up. Mah head ached all through dere. Well, ah woke up next mawnin' with a fever. Well, ah had de fever five days. An' after dat mah legs swoled about dat large an' mah foot - not but one - was about dis high. It shine lak glass. Den it became pi-ded [pied] - jest like a snake - brown and clar-water-looking - pided.
(Different colors.)
Well, dis ole man came 'long while ah hobbled to de mailbox - half crawled an' got down dere to git mah mail, and he said, he says, "Daughter whut's de matter?"
(This wasn't the same old man that was at the lodge?)
No sir, hit was one dat always went to cure dose things. He jest askin' me whut's de matter, an' he said, "Well, ah'm goin' give you something that chew kin git somebody that chew got confidence in to make you some tea to bath that laig, an' 'tween now an' de morning you'll see whut's in it.
(Tell me just how this tea was made.)
Well, she [a woman made the tea] tuk it an' put it in a little pot about dat high - de weed.
(What did she make it of?)
Well, ah didn't know mahself - he give me de weed, yo' know, but dey called it John de Conker, but ah didn't know it, an' she made de tea.
(Just out of this one thing?)
Dat one bunch of weeds [probably more than one kind of root], and give me tuh bath mah feet and bath it three times, 'fore de sun got tuh set. Then, when de sun begun tuh set, he tole me tuh tell her to throw it [toward] de sunset, an' ah'd see befo' day whut was in dat leg.
(You had to bathe that leg before the sun set. Then what do you do?)
When it begun tuh set, throw de water out. An' she throwed it fo' me - ah couldn't walk then, ah had to stay where ah bath-ed it at. An' dat night 'bout two 'clock she woke me up an' ah crawled to de fireplace and blowed up a light wit some matches - made up a light and looked down an' dere were five - looked lak young dirt daubers but dey were log sawyers - dey had dat little brown tip on der haids, flat, an' ah took a little white rag an' throw 'em in de fire. Well, Dr. Jedge Hopper [M.D.?] - ah sent fo' him an' he came an' put me some medicine on dere an' - it was red as blood - an' tole me tuh wrap it up. An' de next morning when ah got up dem places where them things Was healed together, an' from that on, why they begin tuh heal. [Here is the perfect situation to help a person be hoodooed - a tired woman, excited and important by lodge promotion, sees the displaced and hostile woman holding the shoe while talking to a well-known cunjurating man. Normally this Would have caused a suspicion if not a fear, but the flattery about the cute- made shoe, the second compliment of the evening deceived her. Our tired woman goes downstairs and overeats and vomits. There was no other explanation - she had been hoodooed.]
Entry 686
This was in Washington [D. C.], and this man was from King George [Co. Va.], and he married a woman from Washington, and he had lots of girl friends. And after he was married he started home with his wife to King George. And she was well, perfectly well when she left Washington on the boat as they thought, and when they went to get off the boat at the wharf they had to bring her off. And she went to his home and lived a month and nineteen days and then died. And after she was strouded [shrouded] and laid out, a water dog crawled out of her mouth alive, and her son killed it. Some of those women [in Washington] did it. Of course some of them done it.
Death is reported after a month and nineteen days at home; the account does not name an illness.
Entry 687
Well, they take a snake, whatsoever it be - if they put a snake in you, it'll be a snake; if you git a frog, it'll be a frog; if a bug, why it'll be a bug. Well, I've seen 'em git de bugs, frogs and snakes, put 'em on a tin and burn 'em up. And after you burn 'em up, you take de bone from de snake and dat frog, you know, mash dat ashes up and make a powder out of it. And they'll put dat in your whiskey or in your tea or in your coffee or whatsoever they kin git it in, jis' so they kin git it in you. And nine day after it git in you, you'll begin to feel a little pain aroun' yore stomach, and dat stuff begin to be full of germs. And if you don't git somepin and git it out right away, inside twenty- nine day you'll begin to pass these bugs and frogs and snakes.
(How can you get that out?)
Why, you kin git silkweed [= milkweed]. You take that silkweed wit a quart of Water and you boil it and you put that turpentine in it.
Entry 688
It was years before I could stand to have anybody tell it to me. Years ago [1896] there was a woman that had something that began to move in the side of her leg and she went on for days and weeks and finally it went into months. And it seems that the moving became larger. First the doctor said that it was her blood. And then they kept waiting. And then the woman said, "Why does my blood move in this particular place and does not move anywhere else?" So she bathed it, rubbed it. And they did everything they knew. Finally, it got so large that you could see the shape of it just above her ankle. They began to bind certain chemicals to her leg which seemed to weaken the movement of whatever it was. So they poulticed it with things that blistered the skin and bound it very tight above. And all of a sudden one morning when she woke there was a little snake on her bed that had come out of her leg from where the blister was made. Then the doctor came and investigated. But he [M.D.] never liked to admit to the conjuration. While the older people that had been working on it told him that it was something that had been put on her leg by a witch. They say that that Was really true. I could have seen the person. Another occasion [a different storyl, pretty much like that, where the lizard came out of the end of the woman's toe. Either of these things I could have seen in South Carolina, if I had just gone to the next little town.
Entry 689
I wus hurt in beer. I had a snake put in me. Whure it stretch out, it's from mah knee up by mah adam [abdomen]. An' he would quiver. An' his haid wus near 'bout big as mah fis'. You could see it plainly. Mah father taken me from here to Covington, Louisiana. We met a ole Indian man out dere by de name of Gill [or Magill]. He went in de country, he got a whole lot of peppah grass called de shoutin' pussy. [This is surely the shepherd's-purse (Capsella bursa- pastoris), an' introduced herb from Europe, bearing pouchlike pods.] Dey taken de root of dat, dey boil dese. Dey boil blackberry root brier, poke salad root brier, bramble root - dat comes in a big root near 'bout big as dis fingah here. Dey boil dat togethah. Dey bathe me in dat. Aftern dey taken me out of it, dey taken dese pine tags - you git dat pine straw while it's green - an' dey wrap mah whole side up in dat. [Pine tags are leaves (needles) and usually mean new growth.] Den he went to de drug store an' he got bitter aloes, he got bitter apple. He put dat bitter apple in whiskey an' he gave it to me with lodestone an' a little gunpowder. He gave me a big dose of dat. De next two or three days I don't know whut de nex' stuff he gave me, but anyway it wus red [bloodroot?]. An' I passed dat thing in a slop jar, an' it wus somepin like a - it had no skin on it - like a snake. It jis' seem somepin like a jelly, but it was long when dey taken it out de slop jar.
Entry 690
An' then it's a snake. Why, yo' kin kill a snake an' put de snake out an' let him dry where it's real hot. Yo' don't have tuh bake the snake an' git the powder an' put it in water or a person eat it. In nine days it will turn to a snake. If it's in yo', why there'll be a live snake in yo'. An' aftah de snake gits grown, why he will crawl around in yo' - he usually go to yore throat an' choke yo' tuh death. But now it is a way tuh git that snake out of yo'. Yo' take yo' some - yo' git chew some green chinaberries an' yo' boil it an' make a tea out of it.
(You mean the leaves - just the berries on that little chinaberry tree?)
Uh-huh - an' sulphur. Lemme see, dere's de chinaberries an' yo' make a tea of it. Yo' strain this watah off it an' yo' puts this sulphur in it - an' blackroot; yo' boil de chinaberry an' de blackroot together an' yo' strain it. Then yo' put this sulphur in it an' a person kin take it an' it will tear dis snake all tuh pieces an' cause 'em to pass it - or yo' kin heave it up or yo' kin pass it otherwise. That will git the snake out of yo'.
Entry 691
If you get snake dust inside of you, in twenty-four hours you'll have live snakes in you. [This must be record time!]
Snake dust is named in a conditional twenty-four-hour claim; its composition and effects are unverified.
Entry 692
Of course, I've heard of many things, but I know of one real happening, myself.
(Will you tell it to me?)
Well, in 1918 I was in Darlington, South Carolina.
(Darlington.)
South Carolina. And there was a woman there - it seems that she had run with another woman's husband. See. And this woman [wife] located her where she lived and she came up - she wasn't very far from where I was stopping - and when she came to this house this woman ran, you see, and told the girl that was there, told her she was near. So she came in and she stops and said she'd sit down there and said she was going to wait for her awhile. Where she sit down there, this woman's trunk was there and it was open. So she asked the girl in the house, she said, "Whose nice clothes?" And the girl tells her they was Miz' Dower's... Yes, I'm from there [North Carolina] too - Wilmington.
(I see. Oh, you are from Wilmington?)
Uh-huh, from Wilmington heah, but I went from here down to Darlington - it's my home.
(Oh, Darlington's your home?)
Uh-huh, I went right in 1918. So, this woman put her hand in this trunk. Then she gets up and leaves. Well, we heard of the happenings of this woman putting on these clothes after the woman left. She dressed and she went down town and she - well, she just stripped herself down town. So the whole town - it was small town, so it just spreaded all at once. So just the day before I was leaving, I says, "Well, I'm going to see for myself. I heard so much." So I went. And she had something live in her leg. It was really in there and she had a dime tied - you know how people wears a dime round their leg on a string* Well, she would pat her leg up in the knee - about the flesh part of her calf and that thing would straighten out and move and go down that leg and whilst it Would be going under the string, it would draw the string so tight that the dime would just flap over, over, over, like that [demonstrates]. They had doctors to her and they didn't do any good. So then they sent and got a man, a old hoodoo doctor, and he asked everybody come in her house would they bring him a dime. [The doctor was taking up a free-will offering.] And he had sulphur and sweet milk and something - I don't know what, but that's what he give her to drink, he said to keep the thing from going any further up until he could kill it. Well, I left there the next day - I didn't get to see that before I left. And I went down and seen that part and that was all I seen about that. Now, what become of her - I know they was to operate on that leg, but I don't know when because I were leavin'. So I just left.
Entry 693
If somebody wants tuh grow a snake into yo', dey gits de blood of a snake an' let it dry into de haid an' jes' sprinkle it into somepin to eat. Well, y yo' eat dat stuff an' it goes down into yore system; well, dat bound to bring little snakes. Well, now ah'm goin' tell yo' whut will kill dat. Yo' go into de woods an' git chew some rattlesnake master, a little bit of sulphur an' some whiskey, an' yo' steep it. Yo' give 'em dat. Well, dat makes 'em vomit it up - well, dey vomits dose snakes up.
Entry 694
[Snake blood was formerly much used in cunjuration (No. 4, p.4), especially blood dripping down through the tail. So common was this practice that they say the snakes of Currituck County, North Carolina, have no tails because cunjuremen cut all of them off. I heard this from Madam Griffith (see my interview of her or Index), born in Currituck and a large girl when the Civil War began.]
The snake-blood use is editorial narration attributed to a source; the tailless-snakes explanation remains a reported claim.
Entry 695
You go to the drug store, they got what you call dried tadpoles there and if you get them internal, they'll come to life and breed there and you'll have to go to a cunjure to get them out.
Entry 696
I can tell you about my mother. My mother was fixed eighteen months suffering with the stomach trouble. The doctors that attended her, they Couldn't do her no good. Her oldest boy Went up in Glouster [County, Va.] and seen a doctor which was a root doctor. And when he [son] came home he [doctor] looked at my mother and he told her her sickness wasn't natural [see No. 647]. He [son] said it must be [true] because the doctor said so. He [doctor] goes to work and gave her a little pill. She taken this pill and swallowed it and water behind it, and in a few minutes there came what you call a sea nettle she vomited. There came a little small thing that looked like a snake. It was a bowl he [doctor] had, a glass bowl and when she got to vomiting just about two and one- half inches deep, the stuff in this sea nettle looked like worms. She got well. She lived about twelve years longer. He got five dollars. [Old Point Comfort, Va., (32), Ed.; on Gwinn Island, Va.,1908.]
Entry 697
Her first husband's sister had two daughters and this younger girl married. But when she married this young man there was quite a bit of confusion. They didn't want her to marry this young man, so she married this man any Way. And after some considerable time everybody thought she was pregnant, but she stayed right under the care of a physician. And she didn't seem to revive, So the physician just gave her up. So her mother got very interested in her, she got interested. So she went to this same Woman down in [Augusta] Georgia. And when she took this girl to this doctor [recommended by the Augusta woman] it was too late that night for her to see him, so of course they had to go over until the next morning. So the next morning they went again to call on him. So he said to this girl, he said, "Well, you're in right bad shape," he said, "but you'll have to eat breakfast with me this morning." So he got an egg and he broke this egg, and he put the white of it in one dish and the yolk in another. And he whipped this [white of the] egg up to a froth and he took something and shook over it. She says she thought it Was salt. She don't know what in the world it was. And he said, "Now, you eat this and I'll watch this" - he's speaking of the yolk of the egg. He handed this plate to the girl, and a fork, and told her to eat it. She ate that and he watched the egg [yolk]. And when she had finished eating this white of the egg, why this yolk had turned as white as the white Was. So he said to her then, he says, "How do you feel now?" She said, "Well, I'm not hurting like I was, but I don't feel very good." So she leant over and he says, "What's the matter?" She say, "I'm having such cramps." So she said to him, she said, "I'll have to go to the bathroom." So he rung his bell and a woman came in. So he turned around and got a sanitary plate - one of these paper plates - and give her and told her, "Now, you use this instead of the commode. You use this." So she took that. And she said when she went to herself and her bowels passed, this plate was just piled up with long and short warms [worms], just as long as one could stay on there. And he told her in the meantime, he said, "Now you watch your action." So she went on out and that was the results from the medicine. So then she went back again to him. She told him. And he said, "Well, you didn't get frightened did jeh?" She said to him, she say, "I'm so nervous, '' she say, "I never saw any- thing like that." And he said, "Well," he say, "you're in bad shape- But after you were able to pass those warms [worms]," he said, "now I can cure you." So he gave her some medicine. And she's a perfectly well woman today, but she doesn't have any children. He said this thing that was put on her interfered with her organs and so she doesn't have any children.
Entry 698
I'll tell you whut I heard by mah gran'mama. She wus hurt an' she wus hurt in peas an' rice. An' she started jis' as she got this, you know two or three days after, she started to swellin' all up in her laig, all up in her hips an' all. An' there's a ole root doctor came aroun' an' he tole 'em, he said, "If you git a root doctor," he say, "he kin fix you up" - to my gran'mama. An' so he said that he knowed whut wus de matter with her. An' so he give her two doses of sulphur. An' after that he got some whiskey an' sulphur an' a root dey call John de Conker, an' take an' boil this John de Conker in this whiskey an' add this sulphur to it an' he give this three times a day. About the fifth day or the sixth day she got deathly sick. Well, they got scared then an' stop givin' it to her, but the root doctor came back by to see 'em an' tol' 'em, "No, don't stop." He say that was workin' on her. An' so, after she went on an' took it, after she got deathly sick, a snake, a little green snake, an' a scorpion - I don't know whut that is, I've never seen one, but this is my gran'mama that's tellin' us - an' so this came from her. An' so she got all right for three months. She was all right, walkin' aroun' jis' like you or I, all right. An' so roun' 'bout two months later this swellin' started again. They went an' got this ole root doctor an' he give her the same medicine agin. Told 'em continue to give to her. In jis' about two or three more months she got all right.
Entry 699
This wus uncle's wife. She started one day to limpin' in her right leg. She said her leg wus hurtin' her so bad she couldn't do this an' she couldn't do that. She couldn't hardly walk on it and she couldn't cure it wit that medicine. She'll feel somepin jumpin' an' runnin' - claimed that's a jumpin' an' runnin' in her laig, an' she couldn't tell whut was the matter. So a little bit after that you could see that. She held it up so ever'body could look at it. That started to run up her to her knees and run right back down to near her ankles - jis' like that, jis' as plain that you look at it. An' in that time she wus havin' fits. So ole man Henderson Bird, she sent for him. He wus a root doctor. We'd call it a witchcraft doctor. He's from Camden, South Carolina. He come there an' he give her a dose of medicine an' he anoint dat laig down with somepin - it look like mercurochrome, a red liniment. He didn't told whut it wus but he told how it could happen. He said if you ketch a scorpion or a snake, jis' like you wan'a put a snake in a person, you kin kill the snake an' cut his haid off an' hold him up an' drop that blood into some water into a bottle an' stop that bottle up; that in nine days it'll be a snake or a scorpion, jis' whutever it wus [you killed]. An' he say that's whut they dose her. They dose her in some coffee with that scorpion blood. [Wilmington, N. Car., (295), 219:1+85; near Camden, S. Car.,1900.]
Entry 700
In some cases you kin take some dragon's blood and spirits of turpentine and a little silver and mix it all up together and make a pill out of it - kind of a ball. Give 'em one of them every half a hour from - until they have taken three, six or nine. When they have taken three or de first one, they will quiet down - three they will become normal and go to sleep. When they have taken the nine, they will sleep good for a while and then they will wake up and wanta vomit or go to the toilet. Then you take a little sweet milk, which I won't say what it is you put in it - something you use - jest one something that yo' put in that sweet milk and give 'em a drink of it. An' they no quicker then [than] swallow it then in the space of five or ten seconds they start vomiting. They bring it up. Well, now in the course of time these things are in yuh, de flesh has a tendency to bring alive that powder in de same form of the animal - hatch it out. And when it comes out of yo' it come out as though it were young antses or young Wasps jest hatched - have no use of they wings, they tender and all that.
Entry 701
They say some people had frogs. I don't know whether you ever heard tell of frogs that been put in 'em. See. The doctors couldn't do 'em no good. They didn't know what they had their ownself. Well, there was a old lady, she's dead now - reckon you've heard tell of her, Mother Catherine.
(Mother Catherine?)
Yes, sir. They went to her. She was living way down in St. Bernard Parish. [The State of Louisiana is divided into parishes instead of counties. St. Bernard Parish, nearly touching New Orleans, extends eastward to the Gulf of Mexico. It is almost surrounded by water and full of coastal islands. I like the informant's nostalgic words ''living way down in." Mother Catherine must have lived in a naturalist's paradise long since surely taken over by automobiles, pleasure boats and weekenders.] They went to her and she told them what to do. She gived them descriptions of what to get. Now they got - the first thing they got was this root they call sasafax [sassafras]. That was only to make a tea and to purify the blood. She told 'em, say, "Get you some sasafax and boil that sasafax, put it in a bottle and get you some whiskey and put on top of it. You drink that sasafax for nine mornings and after drinking the sasafax for the nine mornings," she told 'em, she says, just like this, "you get you some asafitadee, get that, take a silver dime and scrape it and get the dust from it with a bottle milk, and you use that for nine days." That would be eighteen days. And cured her within the eighteen days time. Got the frogs out of her stomach, you understand.
(I see. Mother Catherine is dead now, isn't she?)
She's be dead quite a spell now.
Entry 702
Old Miss J. was mad at me one time and she said, someone overheard her, she was going to fix me. So she got a bottle and she placed a snake and a little frog all in this one bottle and buried it under my doorstep. Lucky for me a man told me it was there. And I know what to do for that. I went out into the woods and got me some old black oak tree bark and turpentine and came back to the house step and placed it on the step. Next morning when I woke up and that bottle was right on the ground. There was a snake in there, a frog in there. [This must have been powerful drawing medicine to draw a buried bottle out of the ground.] And I said, "Mercy, what can that be?" Then I took some salt and turpentine and put it on the bottle to keep from being cunjured with those germs. So I took the bottle and shook it and out came the snake and frog. And I said, "That won't do. I don't know they might come back." So I put this salt and turpentine on the frog and he curled up, and I put the salt and turpentine on the snake and he died. So that stop that cunjure. [In case the reader was a little sleepy during this remarkable rite or awed by the powerful drawing medicine, may I point out there was no buried bottle under the doorstep; the man-told-me-it-was-there threw the bottle under the door- step during the night. The powerful drowing medicine was suggestion and a trick. We will come to a small collection of tricks later.]
Entry 703
I knowed a fellow and he lost all control of himself. They cut up horsehair as fine as he could cut it and put that up in his food and after that Was internal it formed snakes. They commenced to destroy him. This doctor took them out. He gave him saltpeter, olive oil, poke root and other things, and mixed them all together and gave him and perished those snakes and they crawled out of him.
Entry 704
I'll tell you about my own mother. My mother drank some water after a person had been at her home. Thirty minutes after this person had gone she was taken very ill. And her sister from the South was visiting her. The first thing she did was to put silver in hot water and give it to my mother to drink. Then she asked for a gourd what grow on a vine, and she opened this gourd and took the insides of the gourd out, and make tea and give it to my mother. As soon as she gave it to her she just vomit. In this, she vomit up, was live worms this man put in the water. People in the country have water buckets outside of the house with a top on. He goes out of the house and puts these worms in the bucket - he dried the worms and powdered them - and my mother came right on behind him and took a drink of water. The same man killed his mother-in-law. He didn't like her. He goes to the spring and brings a bucket of water back and asked her would she have a cool drink, something he had never done before. And she took a drink and was taken ill. All worked on her and nobody could do her any good. Just before she died she said to her daughter, "I've never swallowed what that man gave me." It was in her so she never could get it down.
Entry 705
Yo' take graveyard dirt - go git de dirt off a sinner's grave an' git it right off his heart lak dat, an' take red peppah an' sulphah an' bread salt, an' put all those togethah an' sew that up into red flannel an' lay it away in de yard, in de east corner of de yard. [This is a hand.] Dat will do de work fo' dat. Dat will kill 'em or run 'em away, either one. Or dey kin take, if yo' hurt, an' dat.will cure it. Take that an' make a tea out of it an' let 'em drink that, an' that will cure 'em. (Anybody that has been tricked, you mean - cunjured? You take all this and make a tea out of it? You take the graveyard dirt - everything?) Yes, make a tea of it. If yo' got things in yore well, that will kill 'em.
(You use that to kill live things in the water in the well?)
Yes, jes' lak dey wus in mah well. Ah come home back to mah house. An' mah well, I jes' had it clean out an' dere wus Wigglers [in it again]. Ever' wiggler dere wus dat long - big as mah fingah an' jes' as thick in de watah, jes' as thick as dey could be. Yo' could heah 'em poppin' jes' lak dat - clak-clak. An yo' couldn't even see 'em. An' dat wus tuh kill me.
(Someone put them in there?)
Yeah, a doctor put 'em in dere tuh kill me.
(Did he put the live ones in?)
Yeah, he put 'em in dere an' dey come alive. He put de dust in dere an' dey come alive. But ah have sense enough to know how tuh kill dem.
(What did you do?)
Ah went an' got dat same dust whut yo' heah me talkin' 'bout from de graveyard offen a sinner's grave. An' ah come back dere an' ah put dat sulphah an' dat red peppah togethah an' tied it up in a new piece of cloth an' ah dropped it down in de bottom of dat well. Dey wus daid in two hours.
(That killed them out?)
Yeah, dat killed 'em.
Entry 706
A cousin of mine wus tellin' me that somebody give her somepin in her whiskey an' it 'cumulated lizard an' things in her laig. Yo' could see 'em runnin' up an' down her laigs. She went tuh several people, yo' know, tuh try to git well. So first an' last she got a man dat wus [a doctor] an' he went out in de woods an' got several diff'rent roots an' give 'em to her. An' he tole her tuh put 'em in a half a gallon of water.
(He boiled these roots down you say?)
Yessuh.
(And then what did he tell her to do?)
Take a swallow fo' nine mawnin's outa dat. An' so aftah she done dat, he tole her dat it wus at de corner of her house - somepin dat wus put down, too, fo' her. An' she went there an' dug it up. It wus in a red flannel sack [a hand] an' he tole not to take an' open that but jes' keep it. So the next time she went, he gi'd her another bottle of roots, jes' about dat high, an' she boiled them down to a pint of watah an' she drunk them. An' he tole her on that ninth mawnin' that she would vomit them up an' she done that. She vomit them up.
(The lizards?)
Come right out her mouth.
Entry 707
Milk from a black cow will kill poison. Jes' lak yo' goin' wit mah husban'[!] - lak ah wus goin' wit chure husban' [wife!] - well, yo' takes a rattlesnake an' parch him - parch de rattlesnake an' takes hearts own perfume an' put it in there an' some graveyard dirt. An' ah put it on yo' an' she [my wife] smells dat, dere comes a livin' object in her body of de rattlesnake, an' she takes some of dat black cow's sweet milk an' a dime. She take de dime - yo' know how yo' kin file it an' dat silver come off dere, an' put it in dere an' drink it, an' cure her. [The perfume is used as a lure.]
Entry 708
Well, jes' lak if ah wants tuh hurt chew - put a snake in yo'. Well, yo' kin go out - yo' know in de fall of de year snakes shed, yo' know. Yo' go out an' git de snake hide. Well, dey don't call it hide but ah call it. De snake he comes out of it - he leaves it. Yo' take dat an' yo' pound it up lak a powder. Well, yo' take dat powder an' yo' put it in a bottle of heart's perfume an' ah'll go tuh yo' ah'll have dis perfume an' ah'll put it on mah han'ke'chief - put nine drops an' ah'll be jes' playin' with yo'. Well, when dat perfume dry in yo', dat's de snake is gone in yo'. Now, if ah want tuh heal yo' an' git that snake out of yo', ah'll take nine dimes an' take a file an' file off every one of the nine dimes an' put it in sweet milk an' dat'll kill de snake an' run him out of yo'.
(What do you do with that sweet milk then?)
Yo' drinks de sweet milk - dat's in order fo' de snake tuh pass from de body. He can't stand milk.
Entry 709
The shed from a snake, a woman taken that an' - a woman right across from the neighborhood and she didn't like her, jealousy - an' she taken that snake shed an' takes it the month of May, an' powders it, ground it. An' this woman, that she wanted to give it to, was crazy about clabber, but she didn't have no clabber. An' that woman put this here snake shed in that clabber and that woman drinked it. She didn't think there wus nuthin': to it because she'd been drinkin' it all the time. An' in about two months that woman was full of snakes. An' the woman said the way was to git them out of her, after they got this man. They sent an' git this man after the medical doctors couldn't do her any good. They sent an' get this two-head man that know all about it. An' he said she so far gone that he don't know if he could do her any good or not, but he d git the snakes out of her. So they taken that woman an' tied her like a yoke sort-a-like, a block an' tackle like, at the head of the bed - put her feet up, put her haid down, with a cup of milk under her haid. An' those snakes fallen down. I think he said it was twenty-five of 'em about six inches long jis' drop out of her in that cup of milk. But they couldn't save the woman. She died from it.
Entry 710
Well, being hurt now, I been hurt myself - my self experience. Well, I loves beer and so one night I had come out de field from picking berries, I had never picked any befoah, and I said to my husband I wanted some draft beer. Well, he went and got it. A lady lived next door to me, she said, "Since you is so tired, I'll go get de glasses." She sprinkled some snake dust in de glass settin' outdoors on de porch and de moon shinin', not seein' it you know, I drank it. I didn't know it until I was taken sick and got somebody [doctor] to wait on me and he told me about dis beer drinking - how it was fixed. And you see dat created young ones in me. Well he came, he told my husband to go to a dairy an' get some fresh sweet milk - put it in a tub. And I disrobed myself and sit over it and all them things came out of me. And he said, "Don't drink sweet milk while dere in you, 'cause fast as you get de old ones out, creates young ones."
Entry 711
Jes' lak somebody's got a snake or a frog in dey foot, somepin lak dat, yo' go to a stockyard an' yo' git chew a cow dat's jes' dropped manure. Pick it up in a shovel an' carry it home an' git chew fo'teen pods of red peppah - red peppah. Then yo' git chew thirteen pods of green peppah befo' it turns red. Yo' set down an' cut it up in round pieces in dat fertilizer. Yo' put three han'ful of table salt in dere - cookin' salt. Yo' put it on a fiah an' put yo' a quart, from a quart to a half a gallon of watah in dere an' boil it. Yo' git yo' a fiannel rag an' place dat roun' dat person's foot an' whut's in dat feet is comin' out in two day's time. But chew must put it on there hot an' yo' change it three times a day - mawnin', noon an' night. An' if it's a frog in dere or snake, it's comin' out.
[Informant now tells how the snake or frog was put in the person's foot.]
When yo' git 'em that way, ah tell yo' whut chew do. Say, fo' instance, yo' take a person's name an' yo' take de size - de numbah of de shoe dat he wears an' yo' write that on a aig, a fresh yard aig - it matters [not] whut kinda aig it is, jes' so it's fresh. It's got'a be a yard aig, though. Write that on there. Yo' take that an' carry it an' bury it undah dere front steps. If dey got a front po'ch, bury it undah de front po'ch, if dey ain't got no steps. An' when that begin tuh form in that aig - when that aig begin tuh form, den it will begin tuh form in yore instep or your feet. Dat de onliest place it's gon'a be, is right on de instep right in heah. It'll begin tuh form there. When it grows tuh be de full length of that aig, it's in yore feet de same way.
(You put something in that egg did you say?)
Jes' write dey name on dere, whut chew want, an' yo' must bury dat aig - bury it in somepin that it ain't gon'a rotten, lak a fruit jar. Yo' see, yo' take a rubbah - same lak yore wife put up fruit, put rubbers on the jars. Yo' put that aig down in there. See, it don't break it - put it down in there nice an' put the name on there whut chew want. See. Then yo' put the top on it an' go to these person's house - if yo' cain't git in there, pay somebody to do it - an' dig a hole an' put dat down dere an' cover it up an' level it off good. An' when dat frog or dat snake begins tuh form in dat aig, it will form in yore foot, de same way. Well now, de onliest way dat chew kin git rid of that, if de doctah don't operate on yo', is to take dat fertilizer - dat cow fertilizer. (What would you write on that egg, for example? Suppose you wanted to do that to me. What would you write on that egg?) Well, ah would try an' git chure name - jes' git chure name an' says, "Perform in his instep, right or left feet, frog or snake or lizard." See, den ah plant it down dere. But it's got'a be a fresh aig - matters [not] whut kinda hen it come from, but it's got'a be a fresh yard aig.
Entry 712
This girl had two snakes in huh.
(Did she get them out?)
Yes, sir.
(What did they do to get them out?)
Give huh some silvah - jis' take silvah an' scrape it an' give huh five doses of silvah on de young moon. An' 'en, aft' she done dat, she took asafitadee on some whiskey an' give 'er some asafitadee nine mawnin's befo' de sun rise. Well, you see, aftah she do dat, dat'll make dis snake turn down [in the body so that it can be passed through the bowels]. He can't stand asafitadee. [Wilmington, N. Car., (196), 101:4; near Darlington, S. Car.,1921.]
Entry 713
Ah got hurt. I walked over it. An' one man worked on mah laig one time an' he say I had some snakes in it, but I didn't have - not snakes, some worms. An' the nex' man worked on me, he tied a rattlesnake hide above mah knee an' rub mah laig down with some oil, but whut the oil wus I don't know. An' the laig didn't never bust open after he had worked on it, an' I went right on to walkin' an' go anywhere I wanted to go an' been walkin' ever since. [This is like cures like. The snake not being able to pass above the knot in the rattlesnake hide, was gradually rubbed downward (downward magic) and out through the foot - sometimes the big toe.]
Entry 714
There wus a woman that had gotten poisoned an' of course I knowed, you know, jis' whut to do, you know, for to save her, you see. An' I got me some stuff, you know, some swamp root an' some silkroot [silkweed] an' I put that together, you know, an' cut it all up, an' balled [boiled] it an' give it to her to drink. Of course she wus re'l bad off sick. An' so I gotten that an' made it, choo see, right away an' give it to her. An' she commence to gettin' relief, you know, after it worked. It jis' went right on through her, you know, an' she commence gettin' relief. So after that I told 'em to not to give her nuthin' heavy, you see, food to eat. Jis' give her fresh sweet milk, you know, to drink; but put de milk on an' let it boil, you know, an' skim it. An' she gotten all right.
(How did they poison her?)
Well now, she had inhaled, 'twas some dust I think, some - I think it wus snake dust. You see it jis' look like it wus jis' a powder. They throw it, choo know, an' she - it went through in her mouth.
(How do they make that snake dust?)
Get de snake an' put 'em in de fire, you know, an' burn 'em, you know - jis' have it on a tin, you know, an' burn 'em, you know, jis' like you burn a bone, you know, down into a powder, you know. An' den take it you see, an' jis' throw it aroun'. You inhale it, you see. It's re'l strong. Jis' put any other little powder in with it, choo know, to make the scent, to make you smell of it, choo see. Well, that go all through your system. [The informant, a healer, a native of Willard, N. Car., denies title of root doctor.]
Entry 715
Mah mothah, she tole me once dat huh sistah, huh oldest sistah - dey all wus livin' in de house togethah - one mawnin' she woke up an' 'uh laig wus all swollen. An' dey taken 'uh tuh tuh-three doctahs - livin' in de country - didn't seem to do 'uh any good. An' aftah while huh laigs - hard knots came in it, in huh laigs an' nuthin' wouldn't do 'er no good. So an' ole man tole 'em about a doctah, some kin'a root doctah, an' dey got 'im to come to de house. An' he taken up a bottle from de front doah an' one from de back doah. Den he make some liquid medicine. Whut was in de bottle wus red flannen, strands of hayah (hair), an' fo' brass-eyed needles. It wus in each bottle. An' whut he done, he taken tuh silvah dimes an' balled [boiled] dem. He gave 'uh de water to drink off it an' she throwed up dose black things. They couldn't make out whut dey wus. Den he got some runnin' huckleberry - grows down on de ground, it don' have a huckleberry, it's jis' de vine named dat - den some alter [alder] tags. It's a bush grows an' has little tags on it jis' about dat long. An' dey made a - yo' know, ball [boil] it an' got enough water to bathe in and bath-d 'uh all ovah in dat. Taken dese bottles an' burn 'em in some cayenne peppah, jis' un- stopped 'em an' burned 'em; jis' sprinkle de cayenne peppah ovah 'em an' set 'em - you know, put enough trash tuh 'em to burn an' burn 'em up. An' in about a day or tuh she got well.
Entry 716
[The roots of everyday life and botany become roots in witchcraft and hoodoo - roots filled with magic and mana. Some of the mystic atmosphere about them has been described by a layman (No. 15, p.17). Later the professional point of view will be given to us by Doctors Lindsey and Johnson of Richmond as well as others. Roots appearing in cures (see preceding margin-title Live Things in You) or (see hands later) are considered beneficial, but roots buried with evil intent for you to walk over can cause all sorts of pains and troubles:] I used to hear this old man talking about those roots so much it scared me. We used to live not far from him. He used to be always talking about them kind of roots. He was a root doctor. I wasn't scared of him when I was small, but when I got larger and commenced to know something I stayed away from him.
Entry 717
If they put something in the ground [root or anything] and you walk over it, that ground when you walk over it will come up just like that [demonstrates]. (Rise up like a wave.) [This elderly woman, a girl of good size when the Civil War began was born and had lived for years near Woodville, Mississippi.]
The informant conditionally describes walking over something in the ground; the wave comparison comes from the interviewer.
Entry 718
I have heard an old man say that he once went to a camp meeting and on his way home he walked over a root. And as soon as he walked over the root, a pain came into his leg so terribly that he had to hop all the way home. I do not recall how he got rid of this ailment but I do know that he thought someone had put a spell on him.