Jack, the Talking Hand

“Now Jack, tell me de troof.” A Snow Hill informant remembered a worker holding a small bottle up by a string and talking to it like a man, waiting for it to bow (Hyatt 588 · Snow Hill, Md. · informant 98).

That bottle was a Jack. Hyatt gave the device its own section in his diagnosis material, and he called it by the nickname his informants’ descriptions suggested: the talking hand.

What it is

A Jack is a hand, a small packet or object, hung from a string and asked questions. It answers by moving: it swings, spins, bows, rocks or points. Or it stays still.

Hyatt noted that the device was usually called Jack but went by other names too, and that he never once heard it named for a woman. Informants called theirs John, Samuel, William or Sam. One St. Petersburg man called his after the root inside it, John de Conker (Hyatt 585 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 1012).

Hyatt was clear that a Jack is not a ouija board. It is a personal, living object with a spirit in it. It belongs to its owner and works for its owner alone.

What Hyatt’s informants said

An eighty-one-year-old Fredericksburg man remembered a paper-mill worker who made and sold flannel balls on strings. The worker named his John and asked it each day to be his guide and warn him of anything in his way. John told him who was working for good and who for harm (Hyatt 581 · Fredericksburg, Va. · informant 44).

In Hampton an old man kept a long red-flannel bag he called Jack. Asked whether someone had been hurt, the bag spun like a top if the answer was yes and hung still if it was no (Hyatt 582 · Hampton, Va. · informant 31).

A Richmond woman described making a Jack to find out where her husband was at night. She sewed a tiny red-flannel figure, named it after the man, held it by the thread before her eyes and talked to it. If he was where he said he was, “Jack will swing back and forwards to you.” If not, it stayed solid still (Hyatt 584 · Richmond, Va. · informant 431).

How a Jack was made

The forms varied widely:

• A red-flannel bag or ball on a string, the commonest form (Hyatt 582 · Hampton, Va. · informant 31).
• A flannel packet holding John de Conker root and nine pins, perfumed to feed it, used to point to buried money (Hyatt 585 · St. Petersburg, Fla. · informant 1012).
• Pepper, salt and a penny or dime sewn in red flannel, called a lucky hand (Hyatt 587 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1393).
• A small bottle of dark matter hung by a string at its neck (Hyatt 588 · Snow Hill, Md. · informant 98).
• A carved wooden figure, weighted at the bottom, that rocked rather than swung (Hyatt 583 · Wilmington, N. Car. · informant 159).

A Charleston root doctor told Hyatt his original Jack was a bag holding Indian conquer root and devil’s shoestring, which answered questions by swinging out (Hyatt 11264 · Charleston, S. Car. · informant 519).

What it was used for

• Finding people. Where a husband was, which way a traveller had gone, how long they would be away. The Wilmington figure rocked toward the direction taken; “If it would make two bows, he said it wus a hour each bow” (Hyatt 583 · Wilmington, N. Car. · informant 159).
• Warning of enemies. A Charleston informant said the bag grew hot when an enemy was near, and you held it by the string and asked it directly (Hyatt 586 · Charleston, S. Car. · informant 509).
• Diagnosis. Whether someone had been hurt by work, and whether anyone was doing harm.
• Treasure. Pointing the way to buried money.
• Decisions. The Fayetteville lucky hand was asked whether to leave the country, and “whatevah it says, yo’ do” (Hyatt 587 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1393).

In their own words

“Come on, Jack, any enemy around me? Any enemy coming toward me?”

(Hyatt 586 · Charleston, S. Car. · informant 509)

“Jack don’t you lie to me, now.”

(Hyatt 588 · Snow Hill, Md. · informant 98)

“I will talk to it just like I was talking to you.”

(Hyatt 584 · Richmond, Va. · informant 431)

How it’s worked today

The Jack survives in rootwork as the pendulum, though many practitioners still prefer a hand of their own make over a shop-bought crystal.

A working Jack is still built like the old ones: roots, coins or curios sewn into red flannel on a string, named, fed with perfume or whiskey, and asked yes-or-no questions. Swinging toward the asker, circling, or hanging dead still are read as answers, much as Hyatt’s informants read them.

It is still kept close, handled only by its owner, and treated as a spirit helper rather than a tool.

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.