Mountain Home bulletin. (Mountain Home, Idaho) 1888-1889, 1888-12-15
NEGRO SUPERSTITION.
AFRICAN FETIcHISM SoFTENED BN
CONTACT WITH CIVILIZATION.

AFRICAN FETicHIsM SoFTENED BY
CONTACT WITH CIVILIZATION.
Charms Worn for Protection Against the
Evil One-The Belief In witches and
"Cunjur Niggers" = Signs Portendins
- Death--various Ludicrous Notions.
The contact of the African with a mighty |
civilization modified and softened his fetich. /
ism, and today his superstition is OF differ
ent fiber. He is firm believer in a personal
devil, and accepts him with all time honored
stage properties-horns, tail, cloven foot and |
red hot ,pitchfork. For protection against |
this awful one the negro wore the greatest
number Of charms. To ward of his famiiars
the witches, every negro nailed to his cabin
door a horseshoe. This charm, however, had
no power unless it had been accidentally
found. The "white folks at dc big house"
were often presented with one Of these witch
defiers, and IL they failed to it, the giver.
pityingly and surreptitiously, nailed it some
where on 'msrstsr's" premises
Old negro nurses teach their charges that
the tangles which after a 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 u hole in them, strung on cord
and suspended from the neck, are unrivaled.
Odds and ends of bones strung together, and
blessed by Voudoo priestess, constitute a
Grigri, 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 chou
doc" you. To incur the ill will Of one OF
them is a 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
de same table ez de white folks" it Is not
strange that he revels in signs portending
DEATH His heaven, like the MussulInan's, Is
one Of sensual delights, and corpses and fun
erals are to him great joy. To put black
pin into a child's dress, to try on any ones
mourning garments, to open an umbrella In
the house, to break a looking glass, to carry
spade through the house, are all signs of
death. To drive nail after dark, except in
making a coffin, will bring death; and any
man so unfortunate as to bury three wives
will bury six. spider seen in the morning
brings good luck; at noon, disappointment; !;
and in the evening, bad luck
II accidentally a 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 knife or scissors to a
friend is to sever friendship, except indeed, a
hxa I'M. &c thr
impending rupture. The Roman Catholic
negroes of southern Louisiana will not cut
banana crosswise, because through its center
runs a dark streak, which If cut transversely
presents the appearance of cross. To avoid
this sacrilege the fruit must be broken.
They accept the Bible literally, and as they
receive it 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 the
chickens from neighbor's hen roost, the pigs
from his pen, the melons from his patch, I"
but cannot be induced to commit the unpar-
donable sin of eating dove.
Ii 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 II 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 OF
scissors in falling sticks up in the foor pre-.
pare-for visitors; also il black cock crows
'three times in succession at the back door,
The possession Of a frizzly hen means good
luck to the owner, while two frizzly hens de
note measure OF prosperity which rouses
the jealousy of ''ole Satan"
There Is ludicrous belief that to step over
the ontstretched legs Of any one will stop his
further growth. But the evil spell will work
backward, for by stepping back over the
fegs they resume their suspended work of de
velopment.
No work in garden or field can be done With
out regard to lunar phasea An old auntie il
my family would never make soap except IL
the full Of the moon, and then the soap mus
be stirred only one way. Her soap stick, o
rare virtues and great age, was believed t.
have certain occult powers, which made i
popular among the soap making sisters
Ask negro man why he wears q bras
ring in one ear, and he tells you it will cur
sore eyes. Chills and fever are cured b,
swallowing cobweb pills, and the pain from
any insect bite is instantly removed by rub
bing the puncture with three kinds Of grass
What folly to endure warts when by rubbin,
them with piece Of stolen fat bacon, an,
then burying it secretly, the warts will dis
appear in few days SO, too, why wear,
the flesh with looking for o lost article whel
you need only to thr row something away +
find the thing mislaidl Your mind, however
y must be fixed upon the thing lost to succeed
SO that here one Of the elements of the fait
. cure seems to come in. Amy lady who throw
away the combings after dressing her hal
will suffer with headache, for the birds wesv
this hair into their nests
Tho young generation Of negroes, who ar
now skimming over the contents of q multi
tude Of text books with high sounding name.
are in bond to the same superstitions wbic
enchain their fathers. Not all Of the ments
and moral philosophy set down in the book
with which they are burdened can break th
thrall cast by the witch and the s'cunju
man." while the study Of the higher matht
matics has not yet developed that reasonin
faculty which exercises the incarnate dew
with all his gallimaufry Of evil spirits int
tho limbo of unbelief.-Harper's Bazaar.
Satan's Legal Rights.
A London correspondent writes from Fir
land that a property holder in one of th
interior towns of the province left will b,
Ill m hp flayi