Keeping the Law Away

“Kill a black cat an’ bury him under yore do’ step, ‘cept don’t let nobody see yo’.” That was one Brunswick man’s answer when Hyatt asked how to keep the law away (Hyatt 1730 · Brunswick, Ga. · informant 1223).

Few questions came up more often in Hyatt’s interviews. The people he recorded in the 1930s ran whiskey, kept gambling houses, sold numbers and rented rooms by the hour, and the police were the one visitor they could not afford. Hoodoo answered with a whole body of work aimed at the officer.

What it is

Law work is protection magick with a single target: the police, the sheriff, the revenue man, and the court that follows them. It was rarely about innocence. Most of the informants who described it were plainly talking about bootlegging and running a house.

The aim came in three strengths:

• Keep the officer from coming to the place at all.
• If he comes, make him blind to what is there.
• If he comes in, make him leave quiet and polite, and keep the case out of court.

What Hyatt’s informants said

The work was concentrated at the door. A Memphis informant nailed a horseshoe over the front door with a red onion tied in its mouth, and was firm about the direction: “Yo’ mus ‘ always turn it up – dat’s always tuh turn de law aroun’, see.” (Hyatt 2519 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 948).

In Mobile, mullein leaves went under the four corners of the rug. The officer could walk straight in, but as for the whiskey, “Dey kin come dere but dey can’t find it.” (Hyatt 2143 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 676).

In Algiers, across the river from New Orleans, an informant broke two chicken eggs at her own feet, right behind her, so the law could not find her wherever she was (Hyatt 1172 · Algiers, La. · informant 1575).

The variations

• Nails. One nail over each window, dressed with sulphur and graveyard dirt and talked to before it was driven (Hyatt 2146 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1452).
• The luck bone. A chicken bone from the backbone nailed over the door, with tacks under the sill, to keep the law off and the case out of court (Hyatt 1776 · Richmond, Va. · informant 368).
• Thrown mixtures. Witch hazel, red pepper and salt thrown out behind the officer as he passed the door (Hyatt 2448 · New Orleans, La. · informant 783).
• Sweetening the house. Sugar, cinnamon and water dashed around the place (Hyatt 2426 · New Orleans, La. · informant 845).
• Floor washes. Van-van, lye and bluing to scrub the banquette, then plain water thrown out three ways for nine mornings (Hyatt 2559 · New Orleans, La. · informant 877).
• Roots in the mouth. Chewing blacksnake root like gum, so officers on their way to the house would turn back (Hyatt 1738 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1390).

The broom

If the law would not stop calling, the same New Orleans informant who used sugar and cinnamon gave a heavier piece of work. An old broom had its binding strings cut loose, a whole box of salt was poured into the straw, and it was wrapped in a white rag and set behind the door.

The detail she insisted on was the position: “Set the handle down and the straw part up.” (Hyatt 2426 · New Orleans, La. · informant 845).

The upside-down broom is an old sign for getting rid of an unwanted visitor. Here the visitor wore a badge.

In their own words

“white – white – white – white as snow”

(Hyatt 2559 · New Orleans, La. · informant 877)

“Yes, dey even cain’t fin’ yo’ wheresomevah yo’s at.”

(Hyatt 1172 · Algiers, La. · informant 1575)

“dey would turn roun’ an’ nevah git there.”

(Hyatt 1738 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1390)

How it’s worked today

Law-keeping is still one of the busiest corners of hoodoo. The bootlegger has become the small business owner, the street seller and the person with a court date, but the logic at the door is unchanged.

Workers still dress nails and drive them over windows and doors, still wash floors and steps from the back of the house out to the street, and still carry roots in the pocket. Commercial Law Keep Away oils and powders descend directly from the mixtures Hyatt recorded.

Court work, which aims to win the case once the officer has already been, is a related but separate branch.

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.