Browse:Names for Doctors: Daddy Snakelegs (Volume 1, entries 845–846)
Names for Doctors: Daddy Snakelegs
Volume 1, entries 845–846. Source context: THE DOCTORS AT WORK: REPORTS FROM LAYMEN → THE DOCTORS THEMSELVES: BIRTH TO DEATH: DESCRIBED BY LAYMEN. Entries listed under this heading in the source volume.
Entries
Entry 845
(Goofer dust? What is that supposed to be?)
Goofer dust is made up out of - lawd, lemme tell you somepin - goofer dust - they say now - this old man what I was telling you about they got at the station house [who] disappears. He says he gets a blacksnake before it mate - ketch him long about in March, jes' long about March. Hang him upsides down [tail up, head down] and cut his throat and let his blood drip and have his blood drip into a jar. They take that blood and you kin mix it with whiskey if you wanta, and put that back in a dark corner. Take this snake and let him dry up and after he dry up, you grind that black- snake - the whole skin and all, and make a powder. Well, that's what the root doctors call goofer dust.
(Oh, that's goofer dust - that powder from the snake?)
From the snake.
(Well, what do they do with that blood, then?)
Well, that blood they got, if there anybody you got anything against them and dey come in or go anywhere, they just take about a tablespoonful of that and put it in whiskey - put it in a pint of whiskey. (And you say this is the remedy that this old cunjure doctor used. What did you say his name was - Alexander?) Ole man Alexander.
(Did they have any special name for him?)
Call him Daddy Snakelegs.
(Daddy Snake - Snakelegs.)
Snakelegs - cause he could run so fast and he could disappear.
(I see - because he could disappear.)
Yeah, then he had a friend and he disappeared - the law was looking for him and he would get on dat horseback - muleback and the law be close to him as here to the corner. He'd get up and just touch that horse and make him git up, say, "Git up, Ole Sal." They tell me that sech a dust would rise behin' him that they lose sight of him and couldn't never - has never found em.
(Couldn't see him for life?)
Couldn't see him.
(From the dust.)
Couldn't see from this dust. And they couldn't tell what sort of dust it was cause where he was riding, they say it was no dust at all. ["428 - Plunkie [doctor] - Ex [excellent] - woman 68 - b. Richmond - knew Alexander conjurer" - Numbers Book 340-442.]
Entry 846
["High John the Conquer, the Root man, the Gall of the Earth, that is what this high man or doctor called himself, wore large earrings and lived at Dames Quarter (Somerset County, Eastern Shore of Maryland). Deal Island, Md.,
(?), 27:1" - Introduction Notes. See in Index Doctors, names of.]