Daily Ohio statesman. [volume] (Columbus, Ohio) 1855-1870, 1867-08-28

love, their powers to their descendants.
The pretended or believed conjurers are
generally; called obi men or obi women,
and are greatly dreaded by the negroes,
who believe them to be oracles and apply
to them for the cure OF disease; to obtain
revenge for injuries, to punish their ene-
mics. to discover thieves and other Offend
ers, and to lind lost money or goods. Even
the existence and place of residence of an
obi man is kept secret, and one must either
be of dusky hue or spy to learn anything
of his whereabouts; and after that knowl-
edge is obtained, sort, of freemasonry
keeps away the merely curious from his
awful presence. The mode of operations
Is never the same; different uoodooers, or
obi men. having their particular forms of
incantation. But in most cases 1t consists
in the use of a fetch. This is an article
manufactured from any substance that
whim or imagination may select, aud
shaped into q fancied semblance of the hu-
man form. Besides the artificial fetiches
there are natural ones, such as stones and
mountains, but they are only venerated by
peculiar sects, and are even then not held
IN any great estimation, some of the wor-
shippers even despising them. -t-y
The artificial fetiches are either preserved
by the obi men or are purchased from them,
and anybody possessing one becomes in
certain degree an obi man also. In Ash
antee every person who has regard for his
earthly and future welfare has a fetch,
and chiefs have numbers of them. In the
West Indies and the Southern States the
practice OF fetichism since the introduction
of negroes has been attended with serious
consciousness. The horrible massa cres in
st. Domingo would probably never have
occurred had it not been for the ascendan-
cy which the obi men had gained over the
black population. In the forests of the is
lands thousands of naked negroes nightly
assembled to join in the mystic rites, and
dancing around the boiling cauldron of
blood, alligatoTs' teeth, poisonous serpents,
and st. angled babies (they acknowledged
the rule of the Obi, and swore to advance
his power,) their hearts were set on fire,
and when the priests gave the bidding,
they rushed to slaughter, and reveled in
blood and ravishment. Such was the pow
.er that fetichism had over the
negro mind, and such the conse-
iquences of the monstrous creed, that in
1850 law was enacted in the island of
Jamaica making it criminal offence to
practice it; but nevertheless the blood
chilling murders of St. Domingo followed.
Although the cause of the Haytie insur-
rections is ascribed to the political oppres-
sion. OF the blacks, there is no doubt that
their rising against the whites was first in
cited and afterwards encouraged by their
conjuring priests. Not year ago it was
stated that this barbaric religion and its
1observances seemed to have taken a fresh
hold of the negro mind in the South. Num-
bers of the colored portion of humanity
met in remote and secluded places in the
woods, and there after reducing themselves
to the condition of Adam before his expul-
sion from Paradise, indulged in all that was
horrible and indecent. At this moment in
the swamps and forests of the South are
performed the most hideous and strange
rites that deviltry. can contriye, and the late
scene at the Jefferson Market Police Court
admonish us that such observances, if not
in their original terror, may be, and per-
haps are, practiced in our midst. And when
charms tail, will not there be more potent
and effective measures employed?
The blacks have yet another strange su-
perstition or religion. They believe in re-
lieious organization, which approaches, if
it does not entirely reach, perfection, call
ed the "Angel Band" The members of
this band are under the direction and su-
pervision of various mighty ones, whom
they believe know all their thoughts and
actions, whether they are present or absent.
Punishment is prescribed at pleasure by
the elect, and the criminal receives it with
out opposition. 1t is in fact but metho-
distical modification of uoodooism and is a
trit1e modified by somewhat greater in
telligence and little more Information.
In any case, however, when these wild no.
tons of the negroes begin to obtrude upon
public notice and to obstruct the regular
performance of the laws and the admins
ration of justice, it is befitting to begin to
inquire how far such an insanity may take
them, and what results may follow.
The Galueston Bulletin protests against
croakers in the reign of yellow fever. 1t