, 1876-10-18
OBEAHIsM IN DOMINICA.
fFrom the Dominican.)

RNAD ~ lis S4OP vi 1uCSuhY HOEuILl2, 20
Sept. when he was suddenly startled out Of
sleep by a sensation Of cold to discover a
labouring man from st. Paul named
Alexls-a notorious thief-rolling O bot
Gle containing some dark, badly smelling
stuff over his limbs. On being ~interro.
gated Alexis quickly declared that he had
been sent to obenb or cast a spell over
DuVerney by one Tavernier, a rival shop.
keeper on the other side of the street.
The latter, on information to the police,
was quickly arrested, and Alexis, who in
the meantime had escaped, was also
taken up later in the day. The matter is
being investigated by Mr.. Lockhart, the
Magistrate for Roseau, and Tavernier,
who was released the same dav on bail.
and who protests his innocence, has re-
tanned the only counsel in the island, Mr..
Latouche, to enter actions for false inn
prISonment against all hose concerned IN
his arrest, This affair, SO disgusting in it's
debasl0g absurdiry, throws . Iulil light
on the amount of ignorance and superstI-
ton which still obtains in the country,
thlrty-eight years after emancipation /; and
the questions naturally suggest them
selves, What have the Churches been doing
all this time 7 and where is the work of the
schoolmaster /?
1t is certainly wonderful how rapidly,
amongst people without q historic civil
z%ation, left to the influence of an uncultur-
ed clerical caste, the lowest class of the
population will infect those above * with
us degrading superstitions and ignorant
beliefs. Obeahism, deviI-worahip, or fo-
tlshlsm is the African religion introduced
here with negro slavery, and in the prac.
tlce OF which the slaves, sven when nomi-
nally converted to Christianity, constant
ly and secretly INDUCED. Obeah revenged
the accumulated wrongs Of q cruel master.
and many were the tragedies quietly enact.
ed IN various corners of the island during
the old slave days, but Of which there are
no written records, though they live in
tradition and in the memory OF ancient
slaves. Since the abolition Of slavery the
belief in incantations and spells in con.
nectl0n with obeah has extended to tho
social stratum above the labourers and
1T IS by no means rare for the services of
the obeah man to be put in requisition by
very respectable people in cases of sick
ness and OF money or political difficulty.
1ndeed' there IS a sugar estate in the is.
lana where, not many years since, the
white manager, who, strange to say, was
a European, the coloured overseers, and
the black labourers all honestly believed
in the power of obeah.
at the present time the most renowned
professors of the black art in the island
are the small remnant of the aboriginal
CARDS located on the windward side of
the country. These mobile savages" have
engfafted the African art on their own
native demonology, and revenge themselves
for the loss of dominion ia Dominica by
tieeclng the settlers who have pushed
them aside. An active industry is car.
RED on by the Carib " Medicine Men at
Sallbia in the manufacture of love phiIters.
charms against death by land or sea, in
taIlble preparations for running the bust
ness or happiness af a rival, killing his ami
mails, or spelling his crops, while an equal
ly profitable business is made by itinerant
CARDS in breaking spells, pointing out the
places where treasure is hidden, curing
cattle unnaturally sick. &c. But perhaps
the most profitable of the customers of
the wise men at Salibia are gentlemen
from the n~eighbouring island of Martinique
who come clandestinely to obtain charms
against death or wounds 10 some approacb-
inn Huol ord o~o oloJ -