, 1873-08-09

There were several points which struck
me much In this little CONVEX alton, which
| have not attempted to give teXtually,
though preserving the tone as nearly as
possible. First, it interested me to OBJ
serve how entirely this savage possessed
the instructive Sympathy-using the word
in its strict scnse-that distinguishes The
creole negro. Though quite unconscious
what was meant by the words OF his first
two loves, he had comprehended, by mere
sympathy, that great importance attached
to his answers, and that TO ask what was
meant by 'elccti0n,' 'heretic,' and so on,
would be destructive to his chance. This
quality OF reading a persons mind when
his words are utterly beyond understand
inc, is common with negroes, and, l think,
is the secret of that liking which most tro-
picaI residents bear to them in the abstract.
1t IS the same gift which an intelligent dog
possesses in a less degree.
Another and more novel subject of re-
Election was the free use Joe made of Obi's
name, that dire dissylIabIe which none
willingly pronounce in the West Indies.
When a laundering stranger, chokeful of
questions and bits of haIf-knowledge, asks
his host about Obi and his worshippers,
there is loud laughter in the household
may be laughter q little too loud. Obi,
my dear sir = repeats the host. There is
no such thing among us, and never was
never, You have your bugbear for chill
dren in England, and we have our Obi here
the same idea under a different name.
It's enough to make one die of laughter to
hear you English people take our Obi Sc
%riousIy. | might as we'll as you 'the
truth" about the giant Cormoran, or the
black man who lrightens your children to
bed So have respectable gentlemen ex-
pressed themselves to me who write. But
long before Joe thus openly made illusions
to the dread superstition. l knew how
much to believe OF the creole planters ca
ger denial.
Let Joe speak for himself and for his
horrid faith. do you say, joe I asked,
that the dreadful monster you call Obi
commanded you to obay the Christian min
lister 2
lie always does so, sir Joe answered.
Never Obi tell a man to 60 against the
minister
But you yourself said that Obi wasn't
good" Joe had no reply to this. He
looked at me, and ground the but Of his
rifle into the soil. At length he repeated
Never Obi tell q man to go against the
minister
On this l reAec ed for an instant. Joe's
words explained IN some degree a mystery
that has perplexed very many persons who
know the existence of Obi-ism, but cannot
understand how a race so simply pious as
in the negro-I speak of the race, mind
can reconcile the practice Of a devilsh SUI
perstition with the enthusiastic belief of
evangelical Christianity. But Obi is equal
to this difficulty. Never he tells a man
to go against the minister. But where
the minister has not spoken, on doctrines
and deeds the -ood man would shudder to
contemplate, there Obi is master.
You speak Of consulting him. Does he.
live in the woods round here, and do you
him in the flesh ? I asked.
i haven't seen Obi in the flesh these ten
years not since [ landed at Greytown.
Once [ see him upon the Blue Mountains
behind Kingston. There isn't an Obi in
this part of America that I kn0w of, SIR