Subject:Root doctor
Source uses of the practitioner designation root doctor, preserving editorial regional terminology separately from references in instructions.
Entries
Entry 11239
The root doctor regardless of his various titles was usually called "high man on Deal Island and elsewhere on the Eastern Shore of Maryland, the land between Chesapeake Bay and the Atlantic Ocean. There are other examples of this name in HOODOO. [Deal Island, Md., (107), 20: last item on record.]
Entry 11241
Send a letter to a root doctor [explaining your troubles or ailment] and he will send letter back telling what to do.
Entry 11243
"Years ago root doctors were better." This is my original note in pencil made from the original cylinder several months after it was recorded in 1937. I am now attaching it to the final manuscript. What informant says is true. I met a few oldtime root doctors, but even they had been influenced by commercialism and pseudo science. For a mixture of these two, see MY FIRST DOCTOR, Pp.933-948, v.2.
The printed quotation is presented within Hyatt’s later account of a pencil note made from a cylinder. The remaining passage is his commentary; it is not all one informant statement.
Entry 7206
It wuz about twenty yeahs ago ah got off de train in a very small town an' ah went tuh find a place tuh stay. Ah went tuh 'nothah place where dere wuz a double tenement house, 'nothah fellah an' mahself. Didn't know dis fellah. Ah met 'im on de train. Ah greeted 'im. He says, "Yo' gittin' off heah." Ah say, "Ah'm changin' heah." We went tuh de station tuh see whut time de train would leave de nex' mawnin'. So we blundahed roun' tuh try tuh find place tuh stay at, an' finely, so-an'-so, an' went tuh a house. She has a room heah an' a room heah. Ah knocked on de do' an' tole de lady dat ah wanted tuh stay. She says, "Yes, de change is fifty cents an' twenty-five cents. So, ah not knowin' de fellah an' he didn't know anything about me. He said tuh me, "Fellah, do yo' drink?" Ah tole him, "No." He said, "Whut do yo' do fo' a livin'?" Ah tole him ah wuz a plasterer. He says, "Well," he says, "do yo' play cards?" Ah tole him, "No." An' so he says, "Yo' got any money?" Ah tole him, "No." He says, "Well, ah tell yo', ah'm up against it." He says, "Ah got a funny story ah wanta tell yo'." He said, "Loan me twenty cents." Ah give it tuh 'im. He went an' got 'im sompin tuh eat an' come back wit a dime an' he say, "Ah wanta git chew tuh pay mah room rent." Ah wuz afraid, an' paid it. De lady tole me, she said, "Somehow," says, "de Lord tole me depend on yo'." She say, "Ah don' know dat othah fellah." Ah say, "Ah don't eithah." She says, "But ah'm leavin' in de mawnin' at five a'clock an' goin' tuh work." [Ah] say, "When yo' leave, slam de do'." So jis' when she left, about five minutes aftah she left, ah heard a rattlin' on de next do' an' dis boy woke up an' say, "Yo' heah somebody knockin'?" Ah say, "Yes." An' befo' we could answah, de woman nex' do' came in, open de do'. Her daugh- tah came home, she say, "Ah'm worried tuh death." We say, "Whut's de mattah?" She say, "Sam, he work in de meat yard an' he stole some meat an' he buried it by de branch, " an' she say, "de law is lookin' fo' him." An' dey talked it ovah an' she left. So dis boy says tuh me, says, "Did jew heah whut she said?" Said, "Yes." He said, "Yo' wait a minute, ah'm goin' git some money." Ah said, "No, ah'm goin'." Said, "No, yo' wait." Said, "Yo' sit right heah an' listen whut ah say." He puts on 'is clothes an' gits up an' goes outen do', outa de house an' come back an' knocked. He went out about five minutes an' came back an' knocked on de do'. He knocked on de do' an' he said tuh dis ole lady, said, "Good mawnin', madam." She says, "Good mawnin'." He says, "Ah don' profess tuh be a medical doctor, neithah a surgical doctor, but ah do profess tuh bein' a herb doctor." He said, "Ah came tuh yo' dis mawn- in' tuh tell yo' a strange case." He said, "Some of yore folks are in trouble an' de trouble is buried by a runnin' stream of watah." She said, "Come in, son,"' she said, "Jesus sent yo', ah know." He walked in an' sat down, an' he tole her evahthing whut happened, whut he heard through dat wall. He say, "Now, ah tell yo' whut ah'll do," says, "yo' gimme twenty dollahs an' ah'll fix it so de sheriff or nobody won' tetch 'im." He began tuh git out de herbs tuh show 'er, an' gave her some an' wrapped 'em up. She give him de twenty dollahs. Now, dere's nuthin in de worl' could make her believe, but nuthin, but he's a root doctah. She believed 'im. Den he came tuh me an' says - so ah wuz ready tuh go [leave town] - "Whut did yo' do?" Ah knew all along. Well, ah found out he wuz a crook, wanta see whut he says. "Well, she give me ten - she give me twenty." He say, "Heah's five." Say, "Ah tell yo' whut chew do." Ah says, "Yo' kin take yore twenty, ah'll keep nuthin." Well, ah caught a train an' left him dere.
The narrator reports the woman’s belief that the man was a root doctor, while describing him as a crook.