San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1888-10-16
pity,ngly and surreptitfously, nailed issOme-

pityingly and surreptitfously, nailed itsome-
where on 'marster's" premises
Old negro nurses teach their charges that
the tangles which after q nights sleep are
apt to appear In the hair are knots tied by
witches, and everybody In the southern
states Is familiar with the darkies' belief
that witches ride horses and mules in the
dead Of night, exhausting their strength.
To ward OFF the approach of any of the |
foul sisterhood silver dimes and five cent |
pieces with a hole in them, strung on cord |
and suspended from the neck, are unrivaled |
Odds and ends Of bones strung together, and |
blessed by q Voudoo priestess, constitute |
Cirigri, which is a marvellous foil against the |
Evil One. In southern Louisiana there are
large numbers Of negroes who believe that
certain other negroes have commenced with
Satan, receiving from him a liberal endow.
ment of his diabolic powers These are
known as 'cunjur niggers," who can "hou-
doc" you To incur the i'll will OF one OF
them Is grievous misfortune.
As every negro, even the most debased, Is
sure Of salvation, and speaks with confidence
Of his place In heaven, where he will set at
dc same table ez de white folks, 1t Is not
strange that he revels In signs portending
death. His heaven, like the Mussulrnan's, IL
one Of sensual delights, and corpses ana fun
erals are to him great Joy. To put black
pin into a childs dress, to try on any ones
mourning garments, to open an umbrella In
the house, to break looking glass, to carry
a spade through the house, are all signs OF
death To drive a nail after dark, except In
making coffin, will bring death; and any
man 50 unfortunate as to bury three wives
will bury six. A spider seen in the morning
brings good luck; at noon, disappointment;
and in the evening, bad luck.
If accidentally garment be put on wrong
side out, and If it be worn that way until
noon. and then turned, the wearer will have
good luck. To give q knife or scissors to q
friend Is to sever friendship, except, indeed, q
bent pin be given In return, which averts the
impending rupture The Roman Catholic
negroes Of southern Louisiana will not cut o
banana crosswise, because through its center
runs dark streak, which IL cut transversely
presents the appearance of a cross. To avoid
this sacrilege the fruit must be broken.
They accept the Bible literally, and as they
receive 1t in most grotesque form from their
preachers" it is little wonder that their con-
ception of things spiritual is distorted With
out pang Of conscience they will eat tho
chickens from neighbours hen roost, the pigs
from his pen, the melons from his patch"
but cannot be induced to commit the unpar-
donable sin of eating dove.
If black cat enters your house you will
receive money; an itching palm denotes the
same thing, while an itching sole signifies
that you will travel Should your right ear
burn, then some one is talking in your favor;
but if it be the left, the tongue Is evilly en-
treating you, and you must Immediately
wish that its owner may bite it. Should you
succeed in splitting in your right ear, you
silence your enemy. Ii knife, fork or
scissors in failing sticks up in the floor, pre-
pare for visitors; also if a black cock crows
three times IN succession at the back door,
The possession Of q frizzly hen means good
luck to the owner, while two frizzly hens de-
note a measure Of prosperity which rouses
the jealousy Of "ole Satan"
There is ludicrous belief that to step over
the outstretched legs Of any one will stop his
further growth. But the evil spell will work
backward, for by stepping back over the
legs they resume their suspended work Of de-
velopment.
No work in garden or field can be done with
out regard to lunar phases An old auntie in
my family would never make soap except in
the full of the moon, and then the soap must
be stirred only one way. Her soap stick, OF
rare virtues and great age, was believed to
have certain occult powers, which made 1t
popular among the soap making sisters.
Ask a negro man why he wears a brass
ring in one ear, and he tells you it will cure
sore eyes. Chills and fever are cured by
swallowing cobweb pills, and the pain from
any insect bite is instantly removed by rub
bling the puncture with three kinds Of grass.
What folly to endure warts when by rubbing
them with piece Of stolen fat bacon, and
then burying it secretly, the warts will dis
appear in a few days So, too, why weary
the flesh with looking for lost article when
you need only to thr ow something away to
find the thing mislaidl Your mind, however,
must be fixed upon the thing lost to succeed,
so that here one of the elements of the faith
cure seems to come in. Any lady who throws
away the combings after dressing her hair
will suffer with headache, for the birds weave
this hair into their nests
The young generation of negroes, who arc
now skimming over the contents of q multi
tude of text books with high sounding names,
are in bond to the same superstitions which
enchain their fathers. Not all of the mental
and moral philosophy set down in the books
with which they are burdsned can break the
thrall cast by the witch and the 'cunjur
man." while the study Of the higher mathe-
mates has not yet developed that reasoning
faculty which exercises the incarnate devil
with all his gallimaufry of evil spirits into
the limbo Of unbeliaf-Harper's Bazaar.
Satan's Legal Rights.