Question
Varieties of this activity like the “seven finger high-glister” are practiced by Maudy Ghamus and Gamby Gholar in a cave home to a giant, lazy snake. In a book titled for this activity, moaning and groaning in the walls of Marrabo McSwayn’s new kitchen leads it to be torn down and its wood used for a schoolhouse. A practitioner of this activity helps solve his own murder before actually being shot by a railroad man in a Rudolph Fisher novel. The title character learns this activity in the (*) Great Dismal Swamp in Blake; or the Huts of America by Martin Delany. A collection titled for this activity includes “Po’ Sandy” and a story in which a man anxious to protect his crop of scuppernong asks Aunt Peggy to make it poisonous to interlopers. For 10 points, Uncle Julius tells stories like “The Goophered Grapevine” in a Charles Chesnutt collection titled for a woman who practices what magical art? ■END■
ANSWER: conjure [accept cunjuh, conjuration, conjuring, or word forms; accept goopher or word forms until “goophered” is read; accept The Conjure Man Dies or The Conjure-Woman; prompt on hoodoo or rootwork; prompt on magic, spellcasting, fortune-telling, or synonyms]
<JB, American Literature>
= Average correct buzz position