From: ggeorge@bu.edu (Gerry George)
Newsgroups: soc.culture.caribbean
Subject: Re: Jumbies, Duppies, and Spirits
Date: 13 Nov 92 22:23:31 GMT
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5


Bediako Ntodi George (karib@next10wor.wam.umd.edu) wrote:
: Spirits of the Caribbean.  Let's see how many of these you recognize. Do   
: you know which countries they're from and what they are? :-
:  
: Duppy (real easy)	Googaralli
: Rolling Calf		Hydaralli
: Steel Donkey		
	isn't this the Bajan version of a duppy - an industrialized one?
(according to Paul Keens Douglass)

: Bacooman
: Moose
: Loogaroo
: Soucouyant
	Yeah we "have" those in St. Lucia.  NO, I haven't seen one - at least
	not to my knowledge.
: Ole Higue
: Female (pretty hard)
: Cribeau
	We use that term, but it doesn't mean a spirit.  It usually is used
	to refer to a "real bad" criminal type.  Adapted from "Crimo - short
	for criminal.
: Dutchman
: Moongazer
: Massacourou man
: Bush Dai-Dai
: 
: I'll give my definiton of a Bacooman.  From my understanding, the Bacooman  
: is a short BLACK man, with no knees and a huge round head (Don't ask me  

We call them "Bolom".  Same type of thing though.

: how he walks!).  He's kind of like a genie in that he can be used as a  
: slave.  However, unlike a genie you must feed him bananas and milk  
: regularly or he will turn against his master.  He will do your bidding as  
: far as getting gold, and food and other riches and he'll also kill for  
: you. He always kills by giving you one smack, so hard it turns your head  
: around.  I also understand that the only way to get rid of him is to  
: somehow trick him into jumping into a green rum bottle, then taking him  
: out to sea.  The sea usually gets rough until you throw him out of the  

 [stuff deleted]

: jumped out of there! Look, I'm just talking what I hear!  Is there anyone  
: out there who knows how to make a Baccoo?   

Why do you want to make one of those????  Lawd, all'yuh have some serious 
plans, boy. Nah let de exams get you down so, nuh. :>

More spirits:

La Diables (pronounced la-ja-bless).
	Lots of people have professed to have seen this one (yeah right!).  She
has a cow foot, and is a very pretty woman.  Usually run into her at country
dances.  So if yuh go to dance a country, watch de woman foot, dem.

Dwen (I think), or Maseledes(sp).
	It's feet are turned round to the back.  Don't know much more.

Mama D'lo (pronounced as glow).
	Lives in the sea.  I guess this si our version of the mermaid.

L'homme Pain (pr. as nom pen).
	Loosely translates to Bread man.  Steals children by offering them 
bread or sweets, and then carries them away.  So, tell yuh children, nah tek
nutten from no strangers an dem.

Gaje' (the je' sound is like in ZaZa Gabor - sorry) also called Gens-gaje'.
	This is the regular spirit.  Actually a person who practices the "off-
color" arts.  Normally flies at night, or turns into some animal.  Certain 
kinds of people (such as people with an extra finger, among others) cannot 
see them or be harmed by them.  One thus involved is said to be gaje'-ing.

the soucouyant is the same as in Trinidad, and probably other palces.  Maybe
it migrated.... :)
They suck people's blood, and leave a mark similar to a hicky - nice excuse,eh?
and are reputed to take off their skin - If you catch their skin lying around,
you could spread pepper and salt all over it.  Interesting when they try to
put it back on.

We have some more, but can't remember them off hand. 

Gerry George