Northern tribune. [volume] (Cheboygan, Mich.) 1875-1885, 1883-09-01
IN iAtercstiua Example OF Negro Su.
perstitiOn.


tau, well-dressed colored man of
quiet demeanor entered the Jefferson
Market Police Court this morning A
portly negress leaned on his arm. The
man begged Justice Patterson pardon
for coming to ''cote." and said his wife
had been ''wuf1less'' for long time,
that something allied her, and what it
was she would explain.
The man pushed the woman forward,
and then, folding his arms, watched her
pityingly.
The woman said that she and her
husband numbered their friends only
among the white people. This, and
the fact that they had always been able
to provide comfortably for themselves,
had made jealous the colored folks
among whom they were compelled to
live. This jealousy had revealed itself
in insults and in constant annoyances.
A few months ago they found it neces-
sary to change their address from Har-
rison Street to Thompson Street. Here,
for awhile, they lived in peace, but
lately the same state of things had
arisen. Two young colored men es-
pecially were among their most persis-
tent prosecutors. One of these men
had an evil eye. He would lounge in
front of her house, in her hallway and
around the adjacent corners "layin''
for her. When they met he would
wave his left hand in the air three
times, while his right hand would per-
form evolutions close to the sidewalk.
After these cabalistic signs his eye
would assume frightful expression
and glare at her.
At this point the mans interest be-
came intense. He leaned forward with
extended arms, and while his eyeballs
protruded from their sockets, and
frightened expression passed over his
face, he repeated several times in a
husky voice.
"T'was de witches, jedge; twas de
witches what am shrivelin' up her breff
an her po' body"
Continuing, the woman said that
after each of these meetings she used
to stagger home, heartsick and weary,
and. for hours afterward bugs and
snakes and vermin covered every part
of her body, and her efforts to rid her.
self of these things would be so great
that fit of exhaustion, from which
she would suffer for several days,
would set in. She succeeded, after
much difficulty, in getting ''fetish."
and went out on the war-path. In the
street she met the colored man, and
rubbed the fetish against him. He
screamed aloud with terror and pain,
and disappeared. For while she was
untroubled, but few days ago bugs of
a frightful kind appeared upon her per-
son and rendered her existence miser-
able. She took her fetish and started
to leave the room, when, as she opened
the door, she met two white men who
had been engaged in sprinkling white
powder in front of her door. She
struck them with the fetish, but they
laughed her to scorn, and after "squin-
tin wild de left eye an a droppin' de
eyelid ober de odder eye," which caused
her infinite pain, the pair walked "wid
de stump oh de debbil down de stair"
AS they emerged into the sunlight, she
noticed that one had a red and the
other yellow valise. Her fetish was
no protection against white persons,
and she asked that they be arrested.
They could easily be found by the hue
of the valises which they carried.
"Ef yer glib her jestice, yo' 'onah,
I'll call on de good Lawd ter Dress you
cherry night -"
can at mawnin' an at noon," in
terrupted the woman.
Justice Patterson advised the pair to
change their place of abode, and then
if the trouble continued they might call
and see him again.
Z Together they left court. On the
sidewalk they stopped and carefully
surveyed Sixth Avenue up and down
before they ventured to start home
ward. N y. EUening Post.