Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1907-05-01
DRIVES OUT SPIRITS
HOW "Hoopoo DOCTOR" TREATS
HIS PATIENTS.
Negro People Mostly Are Firm Believ.
ers in His Power to Save from
Effects of Being Con-
jured by Enemy.

Other doctors may cure you II you
are stricken with some disease, but
there is only one doctor who can cure
you if you are really '.hoodooed."
The ''hoodoo doctor" is a tall, gaunt
and cadaverous looking negro with
wealth of long wavy hair, and he lives
in the West side, says the Kansas City
Star. He is a familiar figure on the
streets of both cities, and invariably
carries little black hand satchel.
The hoodoo doctor is held in awe by
nine-tenths of the negro population
and his services are in demand by the
people of his race.
You may laugh at us for believing
in our hoodOo DOCTOR" said enc colored
woman, but what is the difference be-
tween him and the divine healers of
white folks ?"
The negro people, Or at least great
majority of them, are firm believers in
the powe.' of the evil spirit and so so
far as to credit some of their race with
the power to ''conjure" an enemy, or
enc of whom the conjurer is jeal-
Gus.
When such person pays social
call to supposed friend the first thing
necessary after the visit, according to
the hoOdoo doctor is to throw coarse
salt over the floor of the room in which
the alleged cOnjurer has visited, and
then, with a vigorous movement,
sweep the salt east and west and north
and south, the while the sweeper NUT
hoodoo doctor and to his patients.
The next step is to send for the hoo
doc doctOr-the quicker the better, in
order that the conjurer may not have
time to get in his deadly work or to
work any material harm TO the health
or the happiness of his victim.
When the hoodoo doctor arrives
upon the scene he goes through the
salt sweeping process again and calls
upon the evil spirits to depart in
stanter. His visits are preferably
made at night, but where this is i'm
practicable the room wherein lies the
victim of the dread hoodoo is darken-
ed. The hoe'ioO doctor then proceeds
to rub his patient-always in the dark
and the evil spirits he robs out of
conJured patient are said to be mar
velous in size and hideous to behold.
After the rubbing process is over the
hoodoO doctor prepares connection
of hard boiled eggs, fresh grass in sum-
mer or the dried article in winter. a
handful of twigS and several other
mysterious and more or less unpala-
table ingredients, the connection Sc
cret known only TO the hoodoo doctor
This he feeds in tablespoon doses up-
tt he is assured that the work of the
conjurer has been destroyed and his
ratient free from all the wiies to
which victims of the evil spirit are
heirs.
Once a negro has been hoodooed he
is apt to have recurrent attack at
any time, always being more Or less
susceptible to the wicked conjurer.
Thus is the hoodoo doctor in such
great demand.
People cam be hoodooed in different
ways" said the hoodoo doctor. "They
can be fixed so they can amount to
anything on have any success in bust
ness or love or be -abfe- to keep in fair
ly good health, and they just got to
get that hoodoo out of 'em before they
ever will be any good. That's what S
the matter with lots of the white folks
failures, only they think they are too
smart to bother with the hoodoo doc
tor"