Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1886-05-27
OBJ EAH POISONING.
A Superstition Which Flourishes in All of
the West Indian Islands.

A Super stition Which FIourishes in All of
the West Indian Islands.
''Obeah is the dread of nine negroes
out of every ten in the West Indies,n
said the Trinidad gentleman, whom, for
the sake of convenience, l shall call
Mr.. Smith. 1T is nuisance to them
and to the whites, but all the efforts of
the various governments to crush it out
have been unavailing. 1t has as many
believers now as ever, Notwithstanding
the education of many of the blacks,
and wherever there is any conflict be-
tween the two races it is still dangerous
/ can not tell you the derivation of the
word. Obeah (Which. as you must
have noticed, is always pronounced
.oby') is not an imaginary being or
tangible thing, but simply the name of
the wretched system of Juggling and
poisoning. Certain men among the
negroes set up for 1Obeah men,, and
profess to be able to do marvellous
things. l suppose there are five hum
dred 'Obeah mem ON this island, to
whom the other colored people 90 for as
sistance and advice They haveto pay
for this assistance, SO the conclusion is
inevitable that the Obeah men go into
it as matter of business, seeing way
to make an easy living out of the super
stition of their comrades. They are
naturally shrewd fellows, who know
how to give some impressMeness and
plausibiltv to their nonsense. There
is something like system in the 'Obeah
worship but it has SO many varia-
tons that it is difficult to trace. 1t is
substantially the same IN all the islands,
with such differences 9s each performer
chooses to invent. In every island, for
instance, three white cocks heads are
used to bring trouble to an enemy.
There is no variation in that. Though
there is great deal of the Obeah busi-
ness in Trinidad. this island is by no
means one of the worst. 1t t1ourishes
more in Hayti than anywhere else. In
Jamaica it is very much on the increase.
There is no doubt that it came original
" from Africa. Nearly every African
negro il the West Indies is IA firm be-
lever in it There is great deal of 1t
IN Sierra Leone. and there tiourishes
in its worst form, that of poisoning. Its
home i'm the West Indies is ST. Vincent.
There it is carried to greater extent
rthan anywhere else, and old Obeah men
for a consideration teach the secrets OF
the trade to BEGINNERS and make them
accomplished prisoners and jugglers.
Pupils of these humbugs have spread
through the other islands, and "a st.
Vincent Ofesss.l man is considered an
expert. Theme is very little poisoning
done by them in the West Indies now
(unless it may be in Hayti). because
there is no oecssion for it. In the slave
times it always had to he guarded
agains5.
Som. of the Cbexh men are very ex-
pert in preparing psisons. They have
several kinds, to be ased according to
circumstances One of the worst OF
them is Eaade from the root OF the cas-
sava. Tley express the juice and allow
If To ferment, and quantities OF small
worms are soon seen in the liquid. one
of which taken into the stomach Is
almost certain TO cause death. One OF
the worms is concealed under thuInp
nail. which is allowed to grow long Tor
tbe purpose. and the operator IN hand
inc his victim cup of coffee or some
dish of food manages TO drop me worm
into IL In Jamaica almost every negro
has growing in his garden numbers OF
arsenic bean plants. which are neither
usefuI for food nor handsome In APP
nearance. but the beans are very pol
sonous. 1t is said. too, that dangerous
,,o;son is made from the liver and gall
If the alligator. The Obeah men
arg also too handy in the manufacture
of narcotics They could procure !