Browse:Hoodoos Town (Volume 1, entries 2736)
Hoodoos Town
Volume 1, entries 2736. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → SHRINES: ALTARS - CANDLES - SAINTS; NEW ORLEANS AREA → (1) ALTARS. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 2736
(What kind of name did you say? Algiers is what kind of name?) [I had not yet been to Algiers.] Jest dat ole antique name - you understand what I mean, of being a Hoodoos town. You know what I mean. That's that [town] cross the river at New Orleans, you know - jest got that ole antique name there. (Well, those hoodoos, are they any good?) Oh, some people very good, yeah. Ah've did some wonderful work there in Algiers. I was with Helen, and Maud, Frances - the Seven Sisters they call 'em. Yeah, they's very good girls - they are very good inter- pretaters. They had a mental capacity - all those girls did, and [Someone? one of the girls] is one of the best card readers in the country. [I doubt the existence of the original Seven Sisters as seven individuals; but. the idea of them, like that of Dr. Buzzard, was widely known and copied. Even Seven Brothers were invented (see below), perhaps from the seventh son of the seventh son, and of course there had to be a Seven Sisters root (p.645).] (I see. Well, I suppose there are just as good outside? You get some people just as good away from there?) Oh sure. The town don't make the mental capacity of a man - either de State [Louisiana] don't make that. It's just an old wife's saying away back in old antiquity - saying Algiers - 'cause that's the first originator, understand me, of de hoodoo proposition. Yeah, years back prior to me and yours birth, yeah.
The informant discusses hoodoo work and Algiers reputation. The work, origin and practitioner accounts remain attributed, with editorial doubts preserved.