Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1895-07-05

trouble, and 30 on ad infinituTn. TO
nearly every act Of daily life an omen 10
| attached. The most trivial circumstances
presage good or evil fortune. The peiiei
In signs and prognostics Is found In the
folklore OF all races. and has been trnns-
lated from the days OF primitive man
through many generations to the present
In Virginia, negroes to this day hang
the bodies OF snakes on fences IN time
Of drought TO bring rain. j recall SIM
liar practice In Louisiana, only the snake
was turned on its back. This supersu-
ton existed In ancient Egypt. whence
possibly, II spread along the African
coasts. The common saying. take
hair Of the dog that bites YOU. IL as
old as the Scandinavian Edda, where
IL is written dog hairs heal dog bites.
A writer describing some OF the prac-
tices among the negroes of New Orleans,
who professed the arts OF voudouism'
says:
"ln childhood my spirit has shivered
with terrified enjoyment-a sort OF
ecstatic fright, az it were-at the solemn
assurances Of my dusky nurse-a Creole
negrcss--that she felt pins and needles
stickin' her. And twas dat yaller
FRANCHISE a-hoodooin' her. And when
| saw with my own scared eyes the small
image. bearing q grotesque resemblance
in its turbaned and plump outlines 10 my
own dear 'Maum,' and with every part
OF its waxen anatomy stuck fun OF pins.
why. OF course. | became devout be-
lever at once In Franchises guilt. What
measures were taken to dispose OF the
little image-for which ! secretly longed-
I was not permitted to know, but II
disappeared. and with IT the pricking
sensations my 'Maum' had endured
another time a long string Of beads
bright and gay IN hue. all sizes and
fantastic in shape ~as found upon the
gate knob. 'Maum' was again 'hoodooed
and great tribulation OF spirit ensued.
Innumerable visits were made TO the
vOudou doctor-an ancient African. with
wooI-like infection, and black face
scanned with freckles-before she was
freed from the evil that lurked In each
bright-hued bauble. There Is no doubt
that a chemical analysis would have de-
tected poison in the eaudy coioring.
Perhaps the .nore peculiar OF the
many methods adopted to work upon the
supersttious negroes was the insertion.
by apparently supernatural means, of
balls of feathers into pillows and beds.
I have myself examined these creations
and marvelled at the skill displayed in
their manufacture. The closest scrutiny
failed 10 discover rip or newly-sewed
seam In bed or pillow-tick. and yet the
balls were found buried in the mattresses.
and among the soft feathers of pillows.
They were made of soft highly-colored
feathers. brilliant and gaudy. scarlet and
gold. bright blue and vivid green. and
were about the size and shape of an
orange. 4 peculiar odor was exhaled. and
when lightly struck an almost impalpable
powder arose. An inquisitivc Jack of the
family cut one of the queer objects In
halves. and we found therein such an
assortment as Shakespeare put into his
witches caldron as they brewed in dark
ness and tempest:
I'ilet OF n fnny snake.
Eye Of newt and toe OF frog.
Wool Of bat and tongue OF dog,
Lizards leg. and owlet's wing.
Certainly there were all sorts Of hor
rible. unnameable objects. The soft.
whitish powder that arose in high clouds
when the balls were touched was un-
doubtedly some subtle, insdious poison.
the secret of It's composition perhaps.
handed down from the alchemy of tn,
ancient Egyptian, and its constant in
halation during sleep was to cause a
slow. lingering. and eventual illness with
out apparent cause 10 beset the unfOrtu-
nate victim selected"
the practices here described. and which
are familiar to residents of New Orleans
are peculiar TO the voudou sect, and
relict of African barbarism. but here is
u passage which | find in Clodd's Growth
of Myth:
1.-The practice OF burning or hanging in
etfigy. by which a crowd expresses its
feelings towards any unpopular person.
is relic Of the old belief i'm a sym
-,
his image. When We hear OF North
American Indians making images of
their foes. whose lives they expect 10
shorten by piercing these images with
their arrows, We remember that these
barbarOus folk have their repres natives
among us in the DevOnshire peasant who
hangs in his chimney a pigs heart. stuck
all over with thorn prickles. so that the
heart of his enemy may likewise be pierced.
The practice among the DyaAs OF Bornoe
Of making a wax figure OF the foe. so
that his body may waste away az the
wax is melted, will remind the admirers
of Dante Rossetu how he finds a kin
dred mediaevel superstition. the subject
Of his poem. Sister Helen while they
who prefer the authority OF sober prose
may turn 10 the stOr house of the curl
Gus, Brands Popular Antiquities Brand
quotes from King James. who. In his
"Daemonology,' tells us that the devil
teacheth how TO make pictures Of wax
or clay, that by roasting thereof the
persons that they bear the names Of may
be continually melted or dried away by
Continual sickness and also cites An
dreWs. the author of a Continuation of
Henry's Great Britain who. speaking
Of the death Of Ferdinand. Earl of Derby,
by poison. in the reign of Elizabeth. says:
The credullty of the age attributed his
death 10 witchcraft. The disease was odd.
and operated as a perpetual emetic. and
a waXen image, with hair like that Of
the unfortunate Earl. found In his cham
ber reduced every suspicion 10 GER
taintv.'"
Volumes have been written on the SUI
perstitiOns attached To precious stones
from the remotest antiquity, and many
of which survive to the present. Thus
there are persons who will not wear an
opal. in the belief that il is an unlucky
stone. but anciently il was not so held
ON the contrary, Albcrtus Magnus as
serted that the opal brought JOY To the
heart of its owner and made him an OBJ
ject Of love. The sapphire was the holy
stone. dedicated by the pagans to
Apollo. and later II became the Episcopal
stone by decree Of Innocent Ill in the
twelfth century. The ruby in the Brah-
man traditions lighted the homes Of the
gods; ii warns Of danger by turning dark
or obscure OF the glorious diamond
symbol of Justice, constancy and inno-