Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1883-02-16
THE NEGROES OF JAMAICA.
Their Peculiarities-HOw They Enjoy
WOrk-Their Pet SuperstitiOns and
Interesting Customs.
BMfaEO NO2Lrier.

Buffalo Courier.
A Young lady who has been travelling
with friends in Jamaica, writes the fol-
lowing interesting letter on the peculiari-
ties of the negrOs of that country to the
Sunday Courier:
The negroes of Jamaica are exceed
ingly indOlent. This may of course be
ascribed to the climate and the system of
slavery under the yoke of which they
were so many years. They are large and
powerful looking, but owing to their
aversion to work are not as strong as YOU
would fancy. The men as a rule are
very lazy, and it is not infrequent
to see a huge negro seated ON a very
small donkey while his wife walks
alongside carrying a large bundle. The
wife very often supports the family while
the husband lounges about and has good
time-in fact, is gentleman of leisure"
They are a very happy hearted people,
and no matter how poor or badly treated,
they are always ready to laugh and sing.
They work in gangs; that is, when the
grass needs cutting, ten or twelve men,
women or children are placed under an
Overseer, who tells them what to do. They
stand In row and each one has q strip
of ground about yard wide, which they
do not leave until finished. They use cut
lasses for everything, from cutting grass
to fighting and eating. During the mango
and orange season they do not like to
work, for they can steal enough fruit
to live on. When they are compelled to
work they prefer working only on We'd
nesday, Thursday and Friday, seeming to
think if they give you their services for
three days they should have the rest of the
week free. The dress of the women con-
sists of loose under garment, with a
long dress over it. They tie cord around
their waists through which they pull
their skirts, making a huge bunch about
their waists. This dress, however, with
the addition of bright bandanO turban,
makes them look picturesque, and one
could scarcely wish to see prettier sight
than q gang of these women at work.
They do the same work as the men,
break stone, pick pimento, cut grass,
walk well owing to the prevailing
custom of carrying heavy weights on the
head. They do not walk gracefully, ac-
cOrding to our definition of the word, but
with free, swinging motion that suits
them well. Their huts are wattled with
roofs made of cOcOanut leaves. There is
usually but one room in which the whole
family sleep, When they retire for the
night they wrap their heads up in piece
of cloth and sleep that way. / believe
physicians account for the numerous cases
of consumption this way. 1t is curious
to see them when they are sick with fever
and headache. We, when situated SIM
ilarly, seek a darkened room, but
they lie out of doors in the brOiling
sun all day. They never wear shoes
except on Saturday and Sunday. Satur-
day is the marketiday, and they always
make gala day Of it. Driving to church
on Sunday morning you see them dress
ing on the road. They carry their clean
clothes and boots in a bundle, and as they
drew near to the town diYest themselves
of whatever garments they have on
and proceed to array themselves most
gaudily, to the great envy of some
of their less fortunate companions.
They are very superstitious, and it is
almost impossible to get negro to pass
gr aveyard after dark for fear of the dup
pies ghosts). They are very much afraid
Of what they term obeahism. During
slavery great many cases required Of
the slaves having died of fright because
some one had put ssobeah" ON them,
Even now this superstition has so great
hold on them that if you tell them you are
an Obeah man or know one, you can make
them do anything. To put Obeah on a
man you must do this: Get an old glass
bottle, fill this with everything you can
think of-feathers, broken glass, bones, a
little earth, paper, etc. Hang this over
your victims door while he is sleeping.
When he awakes and sees it he will
do anything to have it taken away
Another way to do it is to sing a lot Of gnin,
telligible words oyer bush near the
house. The language is supposed to be
English, but they mix it up so that it is al
most impossible to understand them. They
never heat anything, but ''put it to hot.'
In asking favor, 81 beg a massa Iemme
do so;" 81 beg a massa lemme go to town,
Pll soon back come:' EsMake take Young
massa, missus," etc. This is very easy to
make out when it is written, but when
you hear them for the first time speaking
quickly and in cultural tone of voice, it
sounds very different. They have
numerous proverbs, which are sometimes
very good. Here are few specimens:
''Cockroach never so drunk he
go cross fowl yard.'' E'When cock
roach give dance dey no ak fowl" These
are very easy of comprehension, but the
following is more intricate: "Rocky tone
river bottom never know when sun hot"
This implies that the buckra (white foIkl
are TOO hard upon the negroes, making
them work out in the sun, that they al
ways stay Ia the house in the middle of
the day, and consequently do not know
how very hot the sun is, They do not
like improvements of any kind, and are
content to plod on in the same groove year
after year. There is an amusing story of
lawn mover that gentleman tried to
introduce. He had great difficulty
in procuring it, and after he got
it tried patiently to instruct his
men in the use of it. At last, thinking he
had instructed them sufficiently, he left
them to use it by themselves. At first
they pushed it to and fro very rapidly sew
eral times, then carefully lifted il on to
the next patch and repeated the perform
ance, As it did not seem to work right,
one Of she men had a brilliant idea and
turned it over; but it would not work
then at all, and they had to give it up,
and. pulling out their cutlasses, fell to
work with renewed vigor born of the
trouble they had had with the mower.
A Good Man Gone Wrong.