Subject:Goofer
Entries
Entry 6814
Well, jis' lak if people has some kinda goofah dust aroun' yo' take salt - cookin' salt - an' sulphuh an' sprinkle it aroun' wit chamber lye. Mix dat tuhgethah an' sprinkle it aroun' in yore house. Dat would kill it.
(Kill off this goofer dust.)
Dat put down fo' yo'.
Entry 10001
Den ah heard dat when show people come tuh town an' dey winnin' a gang of money out dere [at the show-grounds], yo' know, dey have some of dat stuff. Well, yo' kin put a frog in yuh pocket an' go on out dere an' win all de money yo' want. Dat'll keep down dat. Whut chew call dat stuff?
(What do they call that now? It's a powder of some sort?)
Dey call it, yes sir. Some kinda powdah dey use. Ah jis' can't think of de name of it. (Is it goofer dust?) Yes sir, dat's right! Well, dey [the show people] sprinkle dat down roun' de place dere an' yo' can't do no winnin'.
Entry 11721
(What is goofer dust?)
Well, it's not a particular thing. It's sompin jes' lak whut chew say, a reefer. It's not a twig, it's mo' of a flour [ = powder-like] but it's ground, ground into a powder, an' they use it fo' sprinklin' fo' luck an' they throws it on peoples' po'ch fo' bad luck. (What is a reefer?) reefer is somepin lak a cigarette; dey smoke reefers - uh-huh, jes' lak hops.
(Drugs?)
Uh-huh.
Entry 11722
Yo' go in de woods an' we got whut de call de devil's snuff - yo' see dat haven't yo'.... Yo' take dat an' powder it up an' yo' use dat with chure lodestone... [Having turned off the machine too quickly I repeat his answer to t the microphone.] (They call that goofer dust down in Louisiana.) Yes.
Entry 11723
Fix it up an' go in de cemetery an' git some dirt an' fixes it up.... (That is all you put in it?) No sir, yo' put sulphur an' put dis table salt an' red peppah, grind it fine, an' yo' take it an' sprinkle it anybody's track - sprinkle it ovah dere - say dey'll leave an' dey won't come back no mo'.
(You call that mixture goofer dust?)
Yes. [This informant gave an unusual account of how to sell self to the devil, No.375, v.1.]
Entry 11725
They claim they get a whole lot of stuff and put in there, High John the Conqueror, nimphel[?] weed [etc.]. Put all of them weeds together and beat them up good, and call that goofer dust. You are walking along in the mud and you put your whole footprint down there. They claim they can sprinkle that dust in there and make you butt your brains out. [Fredericksburg, Va., by Ediphone 39.]
Entry 11727
Dat goofer dust is made from incense. Yo' take dis lucky incense an' yo' kin burn it an' poun' it up in a can yo' know. Git it out somewhere roun' yore neighbor's an' sprinkle it, yo' know, roun'. Dat makes all of 'em come influenced to yo', yo' know.
Entry 11728
Well, them's if you would have - the police were trying to raid your place, or something like that, and you were selling whiskey. Well, in an in- stance just like that, well, they'd come and raid your place at one particular time. Well, in their absence - [I mean] just as they would leave, well, you could take the goofer dust and just sprinkle it on the floor and sweep your house as they went out, and they wouldn't bother you no more.
(I see.) [Goofer dust here is principally the salt and pepper previously mentioned.] [Vicksburg 1042:8.]
Entry 11729
Well, if dey git holt of yore han'writin', ah tell yo' whut dey kin do wit chure han'writin'. Dey kin blind yo'.
(How could they do that?)
Well, hit's nuthin but dey send yo' same lettah back to yo' wit dust in it.
(What kind of dust do they put in it?)
Goofer dust.
(How is that goofer dust made?)
It's made outa - it dark brown, looks jes' lak dat dere [informant points at something].
(What are the ingredients of goofer dust?)
Ah don't know dat.
Entry 11730
Dey claim dey kin do anything, yo' see: goofer, conjurin'. [I turn off machine too quickly, restart it to pick up what was missed.] (What is goofer dust, you say?) Sech as people claim dey kin give yo' a lucky han', conjura- tion.... [Again I stop recording too quickly.]
(What do they call that?)
Goofer.
(They call them goofer people?)
Yessuh.
(Around here?)
In other words, some calls 'em goofer, some calls it conjuration - lak dat. Several different names [cf. "Some call it hoodoo, some call it goofer, ' No.675, p.226, 1.24; but see margin title GOOFER DUST, Pp.222-227, v.1].
Entry 13259
(What is goofer dust?) Well, whut dey call goofer dust is - dey takes sulphur, red pepper an' a red onion an' sew it up in a red piece of flannel an' dat's whut chew call goofer dust. [Normally of course this is a hand.]
(What do you do with that then?)
Take it an' wear it in yore pocket, jes' wear it all de time in yore pocket.
(What is it supposed to do for you?)
Well, it'll make yo' lucky an' successful. [This of course is not normal goofer dust, a dust; but if it is for informant, it is.]
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 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 2764
Well, my wife, she was what you call goofer dust. [For Goofer Dust, see pp.222-227.] It was put down on the step for her. In the morning she used to have to go to work very early, you know. And in the morning she come out be- fore leaving-time, come out to clean up the step - didn't have any idea that any- one was harming her, was out to harm her. She stepped in some stuff - it was very white. And that night she came home and she said - that evening late she kind of got a little ailing in her head, you know, hurting. Didn't pay.much attention to it. Well, probably for a week or so later she didn't pay any atten- tion and finally it begin to swell on her. It swell and she went to the doctor and the doctor never could reach her sickness in no way. Well, she was talking to an old lady. Well, this old lady is kinda two-head, a two-headed woman. So she told her, she said, "Daughter, you're hurt." She said, "Your leg is not infected in no way; you never stepped on nuthin or caused a bruise to have this swelling, or something like that." She say, "I want you to go to somebody that can do you some good." She didn't tell her to come to her. So she sent her across the river to a woman by the name of Miss Helen.
(Miss Helen?)
Madam Helen.
(Madam Helen. All right.)
She sent her over there and she goes over there, and the minute she got in there, the woman didn't asked her her name or nuthin, she told her just what she came in there for. She told her, say, "You're hurt." She says, "There's a woman wants your husband," she say, "and she figure by hurting you in some way like that that he'll go off and leave you because you are not able to work." You know. [The husband is telling this.] Well, the woman she told her, she say, "Now, I can take care of you." She say, "I'll charge you $20," she say, ''$20 and I'll put you sound and well again." She say, "And if you want to, I can put it across back on the people." Well, she say, "No, all I want to do is get my- self straight," she say, "I don't have to worry about her." So, I taking her back over there - it was every Wednesday she had to go there. Every Wednesday she had to go there 'fore nine o'clock in the morning - 'fore nine o'clock. Well now, she had a dominic hand. You know what is a dominic hand?
[I did know, though there is momentary confusion here.]
(A hand?)
A dominic - dominic hand.
(A dominic hand?)
[I evidently thought he was talking about a hand made from a domino.]
Yes, kind of like a checker - black and white.
(All right.)
[I knew what he was talking about.]
Sells it. It's a dominic hand. She took this hand. She didn't ring it like some people ring it; she just pops his neck.
(She broke his neck.) [I am repeating his his.]
[At this point my transcriber knew what informant was talking about and over every preceding word hand typed the word henl The word hen was often pronounced han or han or something else. When people were closer to country life than they are today, the word dominic was fairly common. A variation of the word appears in the following couplet: "Dominicker [speckled] sky; storm close by" - FACI, 1st ed.. 1935, No. 540, p.21. I guestion the preceding word 'sells in the text: "Sells it. It's a dominic hand [hen]." As soon as hand is replaced by hen, the word sells is nonsense. The word should be spelds [= splits from Scotland] - see one of the remedies under margin-title Zippy Tull. My informant rightly feeling that I would not understand the word spelds, changes it to pops.]
(She broke his neck.)
Popped it, yeah. She popped his neck and she catches this blood - she holds the chicken up like that [demonstrates] and let the blood drip. She let the blood drip into a little cup-like. And she takes this blood and she puts to it sulphur - it's yellow, sulphur, and some molasses and mixes 'em, turns it into a salve-like. It turns into a salve and she takes this leg and she strokes this leg down with that. Every Wednesday she do that, she stroke this leg down. She don't kill the hen every Wednesday, though. She make enough salve from that to apply. We didn't have to go but for nine Wednesday - it was nine Wednesdays she had to go. And for nine mornings what she had to do - get up every morning be- fore the sun rise, and get her some running water and bathe this leg. She bathed this leg down and after bathing this leg down, then she take a complete bath in this household ammonia and saltpeter. See. This is supposed to take the condi- tion off of her. See? And walk to the east and take a glass of water, make the sign of the cross and throw it over her left shoulder and walk away. Well, she did that for [nine mornings].
(Did she do that before she went to see Madam Helen?)
No, that was when she went to her. She told her what to do.
(No, but she did that each time just before she went over to see Madam Helen?)
Yes, she had to do that before she go there - every morning, see.
(Oh, she did that every morning?)
Yeah, every morning she do that, for nine mornings straight, but she still had to go over there nine mornings. See? That was to help to take this condition off of her. See? And after she did that for nine mornings, well, she stopped, but she continued to take this bath. See, she warned her and told her forever to take this bath because if some more harm was to come to her and if she would take this saltpeter and household ammonia and bathe herself in it, and some running water, that no evil could come to her. You understand? It would guard her - it would be some kind of a safeguard to her. Saltpeter is supposed to have, be pro- tective for all such lines of hoodooism.
(And you wife got well?)
Yes, sir, she's well and working today:
(I see. Now, what your wife got hurt with. Was it goofer dust?)
Goofer dust, yeah.
(What's that?) [See, Goofer dust, pp.222-227, and Index.]
That's a hoodoo - it's a powder. You call it goofer dust. They take it - they puts it down and you're supposed to walk on it and if you walk on it, and it get on you, it will work through the sole of your shoe and it will commence to swelling. And it will make you drag, sick - sick, you know, sick with your leg - just cause it to swell and pain.
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 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 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 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.]