Asafetida

“They carry assafitidee in a bag round their neck to pertek ’em from hoodooism” (Hyatt 1105 · Jacksonville, Fla. · informant 555). That one line holds most of what asafetida meant in the South.

Asafetida is a dried gum resin sold for pennies at any old drugstore, and it stinks. Hyatt’s informants spelled it a dozen ways: asafitadee, assafitidee, asafetidy, asfitidee. They used it to guard the body, drive out living things, keep off the law, and in some hands to drive people out.

What it is

The resin came in lumps or sticks, or as a powder. A package was about a nickel. A Fayetteville informant described it simply as “dat ole stinkin’ stuff dat chew take” (Hyatt 1499 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1447).

That smell is the point. Hyatt notes on one rite that asafetida was a bad or good smell for the devil (Hyatt 10111 · New Orleans, La. · informant 832). Whatever was working against you was meant to be unable to stand it.

The asafetida bag

The commonest use by far was a bag worn on the body. The combinations varied:

• Asafetida, pepper and salt sewn into a bag round the neck to keep people from hurting you (Hyatt 1106 · Charleston, S. Car. · informant 495)
• Asafetida, bluestone and gunpowder worn next to the skin, with the body anointed morning and evening with gunpowder and whiskey (Hyatt 1327 · Vicksburg, Miss. · informant 749)
• Silver cut from a dime, sulphur and asafetida, sewn up and worn round the neck (Hyatt 555 · Charleston, S. Car. · informant 535)
• Porcupine vine root, a silver dime, asafetida and a saint’s medal in red flannel (Hyatt 6867 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 651)
• New ice cream salt, asafetida and John de Conker in a bag about the neck to hold off a spell (Hyatt 9643 · Savannah, Ga. · informant 538)

A Wilmington informant wrapped three sticks in a black rag and wore them in his clothes. Like any hand, it had to be fed, “once a week with yore urine an’ once a week with whiskey” (Hyatt 1110 · Wilmington, N. Car. · informant 189).

In Wilson, North Carolina, asafetida bottled with sulphur protected against things laid down for you: “Say yo’ kin walk ovah anything” (Hyatt 1109 · Wilson, N. Car. · informant 1468).

Driving out live things

Asafetida was a cure for conjured illness. A Wilmington informant gave scraped silver, then asafetida in whiskey nine mornings before sunrise, to make a snake in a woman’s body turn down and pass (Hyatt 712 · Wilmington, N. Car. · informant 196).

In New Orleans, the healer Mother Catherine was remembered for asafetida with silver dime dust and milk for nine days, which got the frogs out of a woman’s stomach (Hyatt 701 · New Orleans, La. · informant 832).

An old shoe burned with sulphur and asafetida made an ash said to cure asthma (Hyatt 1499 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1447).

The law, luck and the courtroom

• Anyone running a house and selling whiskey could sew asafetida in new homespun and wear it round the waist to keep the police away (Hyatt 2405 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1446).
• A nickel’s worth soaked in vinegar went to the courthouse with a man facing charges (Hyatt 8952 · New Orleans, La. · informant 867).
• For a trial, a bag of lodestone, camphor balls and asafetida was wet with gasoline. When the judge talked, you talked to your bag (Hyatt 9097 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 936).
• Asafetida in red flannel, fed with urine, was carried for luck in gambling (Hyatt 10674 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 961).

Turned against others

The same stink could be laid on an enemy.

• Bath water buried with bluestone, sulphur and asafetida would keep the owner perishing away (Hyatt 29 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 701).
• Cayenne, asafetida and sulphur in the four corners of a room drove the occupants out (Hyatt 10673 · Richmond, Va. · informant 350).
• Asafetida and boracic water sprinkled in an enemy’s path made them lose their job (Hyatt 10671 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 1518).
• Graveyard dirt, gin and asafetida sprinkled round a couple’s door was the other woman’s work to break up the home (Hyatt 7728 · Richmond, Va. · informant 365).
• Chamber lye, asafetida and ten needles under the doorstep kept a man at home while his woman went out (Hyatt 13366 · Norfolk, Va. · informant 459).

It went into love work too. A Memphis informant described a woman rolling asafetida into little pills and giving them to a man as medicine when he fell sick, to take him in (Hyatt 3694 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 1540).

In their own words

“He can’t stand asafitadee.”

(Hyatt 712 · Wilmington, N. Car. · informant 196)

“Dey said absolutely dey can’t come about chew.”

(Hyatt 2405 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1446)

“they’ll have to move out. Can’t stay there.”

(Hyatt 10673 · Richmond, Va. · informant 350)

How it’s worked today

Asafetida is still sold as a gum, a powder and a tincture, and it is still one of the strongest-smelling items in a rootworker’s cabinet.

It is used in protection bags and in uncrossing and jinx-breaking work, and is burned on charcoal to drive out unwanted spirits and influences. Workers who use it often follow it with a sweeter incense once the space is cleared.

It also turns up in crossing, moving and break-up powders, beside sulphur and cayenne, just as it did in Richmond and Memphis.

Learn the work

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Source: Harry Middleton Hyatt, Hoodoo – Conjuration – Witchcraft – Rootwork, 5 vols., 1970-1978. Numbers refer to Hyatt’s own item numbers; the town and informant number follow. Written by Hoodoo Witch in our own words, with short quotations from Hyatt’s informants for reference.