Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1894-11-21
NEGRO 100000 NOTIONS.
Did Shakespeare Get His Idea of th
 Witches Broth Prom Asricas

Did Shakespeare Get His Idea of the
 Witches Broth Prom Asriens
 Twas ruminating about this pecul- iar superstition of the na '~ce. Ono of their color has been very sick ir this town, and it gotspread among sem that he was conjnred. or con Ju'd," as they speak it, and right there comes in the difference be- tween the blacks and the copper col ored and mulattoes. The belief in ''copjuring" seems to be confined mainly to the black negro. Old Aunt Ann declares that he was ''conju'd as sho as you're born, for he is turnin right green. It was these same black Africans who had all the su- perstitions about Br'er Fox and Br'er Rabbit. We had allcolors among our slaves when was a boy, but it was only the black. broad nosed and thick hpped ones who told us stories by the cabin fires at night. They only had love for the marvellous, and their descendants have it yet.
 They believe in hoodoo. or voudoo, and conjuring. They have 8 strong emotional religion, and if the spirit throws them down in faint it is a sure sign they've got it good What it IS they get I don't know, but it suits them, and there does not seem to be any change in their mode of worship. Education has not made any that we can perceive. Some white people are affected the same way, but it is the exception and not the rule. With the negroes it seems to be spasmodic. Its affects have no good influence after the spasm is over. We used to say of one of our servants: Becky Is going to cut up today. She fell down in a trance fast night at meeting and had to be carried out" And she did cut up She was the nurse of four children, and they had to keep away from her until she got over her fit. She was accused of being a conjurer, and a black negro named Luke swore out a warrant for her, and Tom Perry, the squire, issued it just to see what Luke could prove. He said that she made him sick in the back and kept him sick, and he handed the squire a dime that she had given him for a chicken and pointed out spot on it that was the sign-the proof that she had conjured the money before she paid it to him. That was all.
 What do you wish done with herG" said L
 ''She have to swaller de dime, " he said, "and dat break de spell. l tried rabbit foot, and I bury lizard under dedoor, and plat de old mares mane when de roosters crow for mid night. but it don't do no good. Is dyin every day"
 But Luke got well, and Becky didn't ''swaller dc dime" either.
 One of my fathers negro women got jealous of Minty, the cook. and determined to poison or conjure her to death. Minty got sick, and my father told Juno to make her some chicken soup. She got from an old bag red scorpions head, a lizards leg, bats wing, a betty bug and three or four centipeds-or thou sand legs, as we call them-and the tail of green snake and had the horrible mess cooking Tn @ saucepan when my mother happened in to see how Minty was and took the top of the pan to look at the soup. Juno confessed that she had been gather ing material for that soup a good while, and she wasn't much disturbed at the discovery. She declared that Minty had ''conju'd" her husband, and I reckon she had. So my father had to separate the families. Now, did Shakespeare get his witches caldron and it's venomous contents from the old Africans of Englandl
 EIllet of feuny snake
 In the cRldron boil and bake.
 Eyeof newt and toe of frog.
 Wool of bat and tongue of dog.
 Adder's fork and blind worm sting,
 Lizards leg and owlet's wing.
 Atlanta Constitution.