Quicksilver

“Take de quicksilver, yessuh, an’ sprinkle it ovah yore house from dis corner to dis corner” A Wilson, North Carolina informant gave that as the way to keep ghosts out. They could not cross it.

Quicksilver is the restless substance of conjure. It runs, it will not hold still, and it makes those it touches run too. Hyatt’s informants used it to guard a house, to drive a person off down the road, to keep a man and to bring a thief back with what he stole.

What it is

True quicksilver is liquid mercury. But Hyatt warned that among his informants the word meant several things, and the real metal was the rarest of them.

• Liquid mercury, bought from the druggist and kept in a capsule or a bottle.
• Tin foil, the silver paper wrapped around tobacco and cigarette packets, also called silver paper.
• Mirror silver, the backing scraped off an old looking-glass.

Hyatt noted that the important idea was in the name: the five letters q-u-i-c-k. Whatever form it took, it carried speed and motion.

The informants knew the difference and said so. One Fayetteville informant, asked what he meant, answered plainly: “Well, ah call dat liquid silvah” (Hyatt 7829 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1412). A Sumter informant meant the other kind, “de silvah dat be roun’ a cigarette package”, folded and put under the tongue (Hyatt 3282 · Sumter, S. Car. · informant 1364).

What Hyatt’s informants said

As protection, quicksilver formed a line nothing could cross. A Mobile informant buried it under the doorstep with a stick of dragon’s blood so no one would bother the home (Hyatt 1429 · Mobile, Ala. · informant 650).

A Wilmington informant wore it in both shoes: “Nuthin will harm you, nuthin can hurt chew by walkin’ across anything” (Hyatt 1430 · Wilmington, N. Car. · informant 241). Hyatt read this as reversing work, the silver throwing evil back on itself.

The same informant said the opposite could be done. A cross mark was drawn across the road, quicksilver laid in it and covered, and the one who crossed over it would have to crawl until the spell was taken off.

Running and drifting

Most of all, quicksilver was used to move people. Mixed with foot tracks and thrown in a river, sprinkled in shoes, or poured on a doorstep as an enemy walked away, it set them wandering.

• A foot track mixed with sulphur, red pepper, gunpowder and quicksilver, thrown over the right shoulder into the river without looking back (Hyatt 5493 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1396).
• Shoes dressed with graveyard dust, quicksilver and gunpowder to make the wearer leave (Hyatt 7898 · Waycross, Ga. · informant 1144).
• Quicksilver sprinkled before the doorstep as a person leaves, calling their name and telling them not to come back (Hyatt 2220 · Memphis, Tenn. · informant 954).

Other uses

• Keeping a man. Quicksilver sealed in a small perfume bottle with his name, kept in the mattress on his side (Hyatt 8691 · Algiers, La. · informant 1577).
• The thief. Quicksilver and beaten dragon’s blood worked onto the thief’s step with both names, to make him drag back the stolen goods (Hyatt 8907 · New Orleans, La. · informant 872).
• Candles. A named candle burned in a saucer of cinnamon, sugar, steel dust and quicksilver, so the person comes and does what you want (Hyatt 2920 · New Orleans, La. · informant 851).

In their own words

“see dey cain’t come ovah quicksilver”

(Hyatt 1428 · Wilson, N. Car. · informant 1495)

“Dey say dat will run yuh.”

(Hyatt 5493 · Fayetteville, N. Car. · informant 1396)

“jes’ keep yo’ always on de go”

(Hyatt 7898 · Waycross, Ga. · informant 1144)

How it’s worked today

Liquid mercury has largely left the root shop, because it is now restricted in many places. Workers who still use the old ideas keep to the substitutes Hyatt’s informants already knew: tin foil, mirror silver and the name itself.

Quicksilver remains central to the idea of run-devil and drive-away work, and the quick-moving nature of the metal is still invoked in powders, oils and condition formulas for speed.

Some old-line workers still seal a little mercury in a capsule, a walnut shell or a bottle for gambling luck and protection, kept closed so it cannot run.

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.