The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1899-11-16
WIZARDS OF WEST INDIES.
mr. TO BE FOUND IN FORESTS,
Tvs HAyTLETs AND VILLAGES.

.,u,op sacrifices Sometimes offered
nv CannibaI Priests-superstitiOus
peIiefs Brought From Africa Com
Firm Faith in the Efficacy of
10 Obeah Mans Charms.
From the Washington Star.
West Indian forests are full of wiz
witches and conjurers, and not the
- only. but the plantations. the
The hamlets in the mountains and
~ ,irases by the sea. They are not,
of them. of the vicious sort but
.,,,naratively mild and inoffensive,
',.1sb now and then one is met that is
,,ogsrous and had better be avoided.
me Of the strangest of my experiences
when in the woods of Tobago, an
'.,,,5 NOT far from Trinidad on the South
,-,erioan coast, 1 found myself not only
.,,nIetely surrounded by wizards
harms. but compelled to Use them my
If as a protection or counter charm. I
had an old-time negro named Balfour as
,.t5a and assistant, who knew the for
sic and everything they contained. We
rers in pursuit of rare birds and beasts,
and IN obtain them it was thought neces-
cary 10 establish a permanent camp in
tbs heart of the woods to last several
oontbs Ny black friend built a little
hut in which we lived, a hut made of
,,Iro logs and matched with palm leaves,
and after clearing a space on the sloping
hillside in front, he planted it with ed
does. sweet potatoes, yams and such like
tropical vegetables as would yield their
increase in a short time. Then he captur-
"a a few agoutis, or wild hares obtained
somewhere a cock and pair of hens, and
Ne were as snugly established on our little
farm as though we had lived there for
Years We were so far from all other
human habitations that l felt perfectly
secure in our solitude.
Well. it seems that my sense of security
was false, for one day on returning home
from a long hunt in the woods we dis
covered the imprint of a big bare human
foot m various parts of our garden. We
were very much disturbed, of course. and
sreculated upon the motives that might
mpel one TO invade our retreat, finally
agreeing that they could not be other than
sinister
Protected by a Charm.
Oats brack mans footstep" said
my Old guide, wagging his wolly head,
an he ain here fer no good, nohow But
l fix him, sab. l done put chahm on him
dat make him neber come here gin
10 mo-"
The next night as I took a walk through
the garden 1 came across a stick about
four feet long stuck slantwise into the soil
at the upper end of which was hung a par
rots head red rag, rude imitation of
man. whitfield OUT of a sweet potato, and
rusty nail, which latter was stuck
through the chest of the potato man.
whats this nonsense?" 1 demanded
Of Balfour. Pull it up and throw it
away
"Dat, sab. is de obeah chahm, an please,
massa, don trow il way, fer it am necus-
sary to perfect de gyarden. Yissah, ii am
de truf dat a man what make de footsteps
done steal all de pervisions eff we don put
out obeah chahm, sab. II am de truf, ct
We don let a man know dat we hab chahm
'girst him he done run way wiz eberytings
We had. an p'raps cut our t'roats, too. but
when he sees dat he know it ain no use
4 an he done run way hissef."
His argument was unanswerable, so I let
the stuff remains, and at all events, our
garden was unmolested thenceforth, and 1
have no doubt this exemption was owing
to the obeah charm.
The practice of obi, or obeah, I later
found upon investigation, is indeed spe-
ces Of demonology or devil worship,
from oh or Aub, the ancient Egyptian for
a serpent. In fact, those who have at
tanned the greatest proficiency in the art
and who are to-day the most feared, as the
L sorcerers of the Haytian highland, are de-
clared serpent worshipers. Even as the
serpent was the visible presence OF the
| evil one in the original Garden of Eden, so
at present he is selected to represent satan
by hose who worship the fallen archangeL
The African "Obeah Man"
The priest of obi or the "obeah man."
Is always an African by birth or descent,
some hoary-headed and taciturn old negro
who has some knowledge of medicinal
plants and poisons and who resides alone
in a lonely locality. What he doesn' t
really know the incredulity of the negroes
/ supplies, as they invest him with every
4 kind of knowledge and especially endow
him with supernatural talents. He may
be marked man to all the negroes on
! large plantation or in a wide district, yet
wholly unknown to any white person with
4 In that area. Around all his doings Is
drawn veil of mystery, as he works only
at night and performs his lamentations
only between the hours of sunset and
dawn.
Apropos of the loyalty of the negroes
to this wizard of their race, it is related
that certain gentleman residing in ia
malca who owned a large plantation In
mat land suddenly became aware that his
Il slaves were dying at a rapid rate, and
4 that of those who remained alive more
IMAM half were boated and terribly debili-
tated. This condition of affairs prevailed
1or several years, until the planter lost,
/ hrst and last, by this mysterious malady,
| more than 100 negroes. He strongly sus-
pected that obeah was at the bottom of
IT, but could not verify his suspicious, as
neither the well nor the sick, nor even
.hose he questioned when at the point of
death would admit as much. At last an
oid negress came to him one day and said
tlat she knew she had not long to live and
sne lett herself bound to 1mpart TO him
me terrible secret in hope that the deaths
VI many others might be averted. She
men confessed that her stepmother, a
Iopo' negress, more than so years of
ose' mad put obeah on her" and that
one mad put it on all those who had died
uso' as well as upon many others who
we're suffering from the mysterious ill
nesS NO sooner were the other negroes
"vqualnted with the confession the old
t%ollan had made and realized that no
'alH could come to them from revea1fpe