Subject:Blackroot
Entries
Entry 7737
Git graveyard dirt an' put it in a bag wit blackroot an' black dirt - de kind yo' buy from lak places lak de island black dirt - an' blackroot. An' put dat in a bag an' go out in de voods at twelve a'clock at night fo' three an' foah nights at de time an' pray tuh evil spirits, etc. [In the southern United States black- root is the perennial plant (Chaenolobus undulatus) with black tuberlike root- stocks used medicinally by herb and root doctors.l
(Down on what island? Where do they sell this black dirt?)
Right on de island ovah dere. Yo' have tuh git dat special shuah [sure] becuz dat is why dey call it black dirt. [This black dirt is top soil washed down from higher land during the years.]
Entry 1124
My father was sick and we had the doctor come attend him and the doctor tended him and he couldn't diagnose his case. So we changed doctors and the [second] doctor waited on him about two weeks or more. He didn't seem to do any good and we changed to another [third] doctor. And we got him and he said, "Well, I don't see I kin do any good for him, becuz I think he's poisoned." [Would a Doctor of Medicine say this? See my comments in Introduction.] So a ole lady told me to go an' see a ole man by the name of Simmons. And I went and got a ole man by the name of Simmons and he came there and he talked to my father and he told me, he said, "Come on boy and go in the woods with me." And he got some whut they call blackroot - that's a weed that grows in the woods, a round root, right black, something like a little potato - and red oak bark. [For oak, see No. 1060, p.402, also margin-title OAK later, and Index. Black- root is a name for a number of plants, the present one probably being Chaenolobus undulatus, indigenous to Southern U. S. A., and having black tuberlike rootstocks.] And he sent me to the drug store while he's boilin' them to get him five cents Worth of bluestone and alum mixed. And he boil that and he made a tea out of that and he strained it, let it cook and he told him to take two swallahs of it three times a day. And the first swallahs - the first two swallahs - that my father taken of it he vomit somepin jis' as green as grass [a usual expression for vomit caused by inside cunjuration]. Then he got kin'a relief on the nex dose he taken. He didn't vomit. But on the third one he vomit again. Then [this third time] he vomit up somepin there - it look somepin like jelly. Then he commence to gettin' a little better and finally he kept on takin' it until he did get so he could get out.
Entry 12767
You know - well, dis about - about Adam-an'-Eve. You see Adam is two buttoag [2 root bulbs attached] rep resent two buttons - is locy buttons. I don't know exactly what harm in dem but dey says dey is locy but- tons, Adam-an'-Eve. Well you get dem an' get dis John de Conkah - says dat lucky - and somepin like rattlesnake master.
(Rattlesnake master?)
Yes, sir, is round I think. Dere's [also] sweet root, it's de ost stringy- lookin' root. See, you drink dat, dat's medicine. Jes' Ltke aaybody's got a pain in his stock [stomach?] dat ease de pain. Well, dat's all I know what dat intended for. Dat suppose be for medicine. I know black root and white root, dat's for colds. You cut dem up together, see and bile dem and see, you make medicine outen dat. Rhubarb and some kind of...
Entry 12769
(What do they do with that if they get hold of your blood?)
Dey kin git a hold of yo' blood an' have yo' kind of paralyzed; or have your blood stuffed, by taking it an' putting it in a certain place. An' yo'll have to use prickle feet an' bloodroot an' blackroot to run dat bad blood back, an' to run dat evil blood what de [they] wanna put dat stuff in. (What do they do with your blood, if they get hold of it?) Oh, dey cud take dat blood an' have silver plate put in it [put your blood in a silver plate]. By dat's chure blood an' yo' drawin' out de silver plate, an' yo'll have someone near, close to yuh, to give dat blood back to yuh, after yo' done draws it wit de silver plate. To have plates to be drawin' in yo', some of yo' close relatives.
(How can you get that blood back in you, then?)
They drink it. (And how do you fix these plates up to get that bad blood out of you again? How do you fix those roots up?) Well, you take de prickle feet an' yo' set it in whiskey. Yo' take de blood- root an' yo' set 'at in whiskey - right on de prickle feets. Yo' set de black- snake root right on de prickles feet root, an' drink it three spoonful a day.
(That gets the bad blood out of you?)
Take de bad blood out. (Well this fellow that gets your blood, what does he do to make it bad blood?) Set it in a silver plate. After he set it in de silver plate, de blood draws in de silver plate. Den he begin to scrape. Put hot water on dere, a little water, an' it draws dat back an' it start back to yuh by some kind of drink yo' use. Yo' best friend will give you dat. He cannot give it to yo', 'cause he cannot git to yuh. After he git dis blood, he'll have to git someone else to git to yuh.