Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1882-10-14
NEGRO SUPERSTITION.

The G-5y,,;ngs of Death Which Birds Carry
into a Homse-Hoar the Forest Birds Gire
Tomem c Headache ts sIyeortng Hair
Cosn6i:.ys iatO Their Ecsts-Ihe Negroes
Feul. Of the C0njurer.
[Lynchburg VA Correspondence Philadelphia
Press.
Whilst superstition is very general
trait, [ believe I may say that the negroes
are, of all races, the most superstitious.
They have as many omens as the ancient
Romans; some of these being connected
with birds. somewhat like the Roman au-
guries. For instance, if a forest bird
takes refuge indoors. as sometimes hap
pens in great storm. negroes look upon
this as a certain announcement that death
will soon visit some member of the house
hold. I remember one day seeing bird
fly through a window that had been left
open to air the room, during very severe
winter, in my childhood. An awe-stricken
expression fell on the face of my sable
ssmammy," who was present. She shook
her head, looked gloomily around,
AMI, by strange coincidence, not month
elapsed before death occurred in our
household, though, of course, it might have
happened, and has happened thousand
times, that forest birds have taken refuge
indoors without any such result following.
We note only the rare chance fulfllment,
and not the frequent failure of the omen.
A young Southern lady visiting Northern
city one spring, remarked to her hostess
one day on the occasion of a wild bird fly
ing into her room during a storm-"That
would throw negroes in the South into
CONSERVATION. They always look on a
circumstances"
Before the day was over the Dung lady,
by a coincidence, received int lligence of
the death of her fathers sister.
Negroes also take it as sign of death if
the whip poor-will" comes into the porch
and utters his note. A great many of them
it sinful to shoot them, probably because
the Holy Spirit manifested itself as dove
at the baptism of our Lord.
Another superstition they have about
birds is, that if they get hold of the comb
ings Of your hair and twist them into
their nests you will have a headache in
consequence. Once when was complain
ing of headache in the presence of a negro
girl she said: you ought to burn up all
the combings from your hair and then
your headache would stop. The birds get
hold of the hairs you throw away and twist
them into their nests, and that makes your
head ache"
They used to have mortal terror of be-
ing conjured, and this feeling, though on
the wane, is not yet entirely extinct, I be-
ieve. Certain negroes, generally old wo-
men, got the credit of being conjurers, in
slavery times. and if they stuck up two
sticks der the window of any of their
fellow servants against whom they had a
grudge that negro was considered doom
ed. I knew negro woman who fell into
a decline and pined away under the belief
that she was conjured, and her master
could only break the spell by sending her
off to a hospital, where she spent six
months.
They have many signs and superstitions
connected with corpses and funerals. Moth
ing would induce any of them to sweep
beneath bed on which corpse was laid
If grave proves too short they always look
on that as a sign that another member of
the family will soon die. Their morbid
love of seing corpses and attending fun
erals is very marked characteristic with
them.
Their movements are very much regu-
lated by the moon, like the tide. For in.
stance in planting vegetables, killing hogs,
making soap, and various other opera
tions, they are careful to select time
when the moon is supposed to be favor
able. Irish potatoes are always planted
by them ''on the dark of the moon," as
they call it, and hog killing is also done
under similar auspices.
Negroes are very prone to having Wis
ions, and nearly all of them profess to be
favored with these while they are being
converted-a process consisting of two
stages: First the anxious state, called
seeking" and secondly the jubilant state
called coming through" when the
religious aspirant is immersed and
avows conviction of having
had all his sins washed over the mill dam
I may add however, that the religious sent
iment, allied as it is with superstition anG
ignorance, is a very sincere one with ne
, groes.
= l know of negro "a half insane one,
too) who extricated himself very ably from
a dilemma by the aid!of vision. This ne
gro. partially insane, but not considered
sufficiently so to be placed in confinement
roams about the streets of Lynchburg an6
the adjacent country wearing bright fan
tastic garb and sticking gay feathers il
his head whenever his alterations come on
A few years ago he stole (if we can apply
that term to an irresponsible creature) and
killed heifer belonging to one of hi:
brethren, an influential elder in the church
who convened meeting and Indignantly
summoned him to answer for the offense
The accused listened very coolly to the in
dictment against himself, and without de-
nying the charge replied: ''The fac
is, brethren, the way I came tt
kill that heifer was because 1 had vision
saw an angel who told me, Arise, Peter,
slay and eat and 1 was bound to do as he
told me, so just killed the heifer." 81
fenced, If not convinced, his accusers dis
banded.
recall another instance of a negro ex.
planning away his conduct by means of &
vision. One winter, some ten or twelve
years ago, when our Legislature, with ;
sprinkling of sable representatives, was
sitting in Richmond, an important rail
road bill, involving the interests of sever
al Northern capitalists, was before the
house. There was negro member, who
q