Knoxville journal. [volume] (Knoxville, Iowa) 1874-1986, 1875-12-02

| and female. in these islands that there Is
| hardly room for an insect with that pro-
! pensity.
The black and yellow creeper'' of St.
/ Cr6yix. TersticLa fareoId, sometimes called
yellow breast,'' is apt 10 betoken sick
ness or trouble If he freauents house.
| But he only does this in ut. Croix, not
| having a bad name in other places, except
among planters He certainly has the
| reputation Of stealing sugar, whence an
| other name of his, the sugar bird. !"
| Even this is, however. questionable. Per
| haps he much rather goes after the flies
| that attack the sugar than after the sugar
| itself.
The gentle little " ground dove or
| :. turtle dove, as they call him in Bar
| BADGES. Cl,am9petia tnoclasta, is, on the
other hand. an innocent bird in St Croix,
| whereas his going on the top Of house
/ Ia a sure sign Of death TO one Of the in
mates in Barbadoes The bird which is
the great prophet of evils is the
black witch, . OF old witch" Crete
| p}saga ami.
Everywhere in the West Indies super
stition prevails among servants in refer
ence 10 spiders. No; that the insect is
l unlucky, but quite the contrary. The
| mischief Is in killing him. The house
maid .aay sweep down any cobwebs, de-
! stroy ruthlessly any web, however old II
! be, but the spinner Of the web she VIII al
| low TO escape. Woe betide her If with
/ broom or other instrument, and whether
| Willingly or unwittingly, she Kill spider.
/ She l. then certain 10 break some piece OF
crockery or glass in the house. The con
| nection IL undcubted But what the con-
4 suYy s~ fe.Ff Th.ut
ton is very old one.
A long procession of black ants in a
room is bad sign, especially ii among
them there be those large ones with white
wings which are called "parson ants, +"
from the resemblance to clergyman in
| his surplice They always, OF course, sig
nifty funeral from the house before long
| The feeling Is by no means uncommon
| that 10 talk much Of the heaAh Of a
| family is a way TO bring sickness on
| them. In the course Of pastoral vista
/ ton the clergyman will perhaps say, in a
| house where there is large family, that
he never has occasion 10 go to that house
| for visitation Of the sick, 50 healthy is the
household. He will be respectfully but
very decidedly asked not 10 speak too
much about 1t, as il has been noticed that
| II this DE done sickness comes upon the
family soon after.
| There IL another superstition, deeply
rooted in st. CroiX, that 10 add any build
| ing 30 your house-a wing or any small
er sheds sure 10 be followed by the
| death Of some member Of the family. Is
| IL possible that the origin Of this was the
| feeling that 1t was "A vain show, this add
ing 10 houses, and therefore deserved pun
! ighmentg
TO something of the same feeling may
also be referred the dislike that exists in
certain West Indian islands to repairing
an Enclosure within which the remains
of the family lie. If you do 50, it is like
! iy that soon il must be taken down
again for the entrance Of another member
Of the family. II is not improbable that
the original feeling here was that one had
right 10 take il for granted that his fam
| lily burying,place could not be wanted
again directly.
But If the aforementioned superstitions
are the development in wrong direction
Of certain right feelings the same can not
/ be SAID of the absurdites which have now
TO mention.
The mere turning upside down Of The
calabash that is used to bale the passage
boats in st. Vincent Is fearful thing, be-
tokening sure destruction TO the boat, and
impcriling the lives of the passengers.
And In ST. Croix it is terrible only to
open an umbrella over your head in a
house IA sure way to bring trouble either
on yourself or on some one in that house
Any reason for this | must leave to some
more fertile imagination than my own 10
suggest.
AS might be expected, there are West
Indian superstitions enough connected
with particular days, notably with Good
Friday. Il may be known among Us that
eggs LAID on Good Friday will never spoil
but the virtue of Good-Friday bitters il
hardly known here. Any bitters made on
that day have not only the ordinary proper.
ties Of such a compound, but are invalua-
bic cures for disease. So firm IL this be
lief that there is among the negroes quite
a general making OF bitters on Good
Friday. which are put up and specially
kept to be used IN cases Of dire illness
Well would il be for the West Indies, u
say the truth, If the upper classes believed q
little less in :" bitters' as an article Of diet,
and confined themselves more strictly to
the merely medictnai use of them.
In concluding this sketch of West In
dian superstitions / cannot torbear men
tioning one which met with among the
negroes of st. Croix, and which Is, al
least, beautiful one. IL Is the belief
that the baptism Of children ought always
to be performed with rain.water. In GO
| ing 10 house for the private baptism OF a
sick child and finding only well-water
have been requested to wait until some
rain water could be got from neighbor-
ing house. The explanation was given
me simply enough by man; "Tis de
rain-water does come down from heaven"
These people have a notion that the
spring water, being " OF the earth, earthly"
| Is hardly the fitting vehicle for enrolling
children as members Of Christ's church
and subjects of the kingdom of heaven.
| One would like to deal tenderly with such
poetical superstition, and almost wish
| To retain IL rather than otherwise. --Hdr-
per's Bazar.
PROVIDENCE, r. L., has 1907 inhab.
itants and 1920 dwelling houses, avtrag
| ing 1.G2 families to the dwelling and IS
persons 10 the family. The whole State
| has 2JS, $50 inhabitants, ,S75 dwelling.
houses and 81, 245 families, making an av-
eragc Of 46T persons to the family. All
but 6,21i are white, and the females arc to
the males rs l32,637 to 125,602 OF the
| inhabitants 1SB (.ftp were horn within the