The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1899-11-20
WEST INDIAN WIZARDS
ARE TO BE FOUND IN FORESTS.
TOWNS, HAMLETS AND
VILLAGES
IN THE WOODS OF TOBACCO

Human Sacrifices Som etimes OHered
by CannibaI Priests-SuperstItio
Beliefs Brought From Africa
COmmOn-Firm Faith in the Eff
cacy of the Obeah Mans Charms
The papa and Mamma LOi."
The West Indian forests are full of
wizards, witches and conjurers, and not
the forests only, but the plantations, the
towns, the hamlets In the mountains and
the villages by the sea. They are not.
many Of them, of the vicious sort, but
comparatively mild and inoffensive,
though now and then one is met that is
dangerous and had better be avoided,
says the Washington Star.
One Of the strangest of my expert
ences was when in the woods of Tobago,
an island not far from Trinidad, on the
South American coast. 1 found myself
not only completely surrounded by wiz
ards charms, but compelled to use them
myself as a protection or counter charm.
had an old-time negro named Baffour as
guide and assistant, who knew the for
ests and everything they contained. We
and to obtain them it was thought nee
essary to establish a permanent camp
in the heart of the woods to last several
months. My black friend built little
hut in which We lived, a hut made of
palm 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, vans and such trop-
ical vegetables as would yield their in
crease in a short time Then he captured
q few agoutis, or wild hares obtained
somewhere a cock and pair of hens, and
we were as snugly established on our lit
tie 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 secur-
ity was false, for one day on returning
hcme from long hunt in the woods we
discovered the imprint of big, bare, hui
man foot in various parts of our garden
We were very much disturbed Of course
and speculated upon the motives that
might impel one to invade our retreat
finally agreeing that they could not be
other than sinister.
PROTECTED BY A CHARM.
Oats a brack mans footstep,' said
my old guide, wagging his woolly head
IAN he ain here fer no good, nohow
But fix him, sab. I done put chahm ON
him dat make him neber come here gin
no mo-"
The next night as I took walk through
the garden I came across a stick about
LONG Cl wi In hn
soir at the upper end of which was hung
a parrots head, red rag, rude imita-
ton of a man Whitfield out of a sweet
potato and a rusty nail, which latter was
stuck through the chest of the potato
man.
whats this nonsense?" / demanded Of
Balfour. pull it up and throw 1t away"
DAT, sah is de obeah chahm, an
please massa, don't t'row. 1t way, fer it
EN- necessary to perfect de gyarden. Yis-
/ sab, it am de truf dat man what make
lie footsteps done steal all lie provisions
eff We don put out obeah chahrl, sab. 1t
am de truf, eff we don let q nlau know
dat we hab chahm 'g1nst him he done
run way wiz ebrytings we had, an pr
APPS cut our t'roats, too, but when he see
dat he know 1t ain no use an he done
run way hisself."
His argument was unans Werable, so
let the stuff remain, and at all events,
our garden was unmolested thenceforth.
and I have no doubt this exemption was
owing to the obeah charm.
The practice of obi, or obeah, l later
found upon investigation, is indeed a spe
cies of demonology or devil worship,
| though the word is undoubtedly derived
from OBJ or Aub, the ancient Egyptian
for a serpent. In fact, those who have
attained the greatest proficiency in the
art and who are today the most feared,
as the sorcerers of the Haitian highland.
are declared 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 rep
resent Satan by those WHIP 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
or in a lonely locality. What he docsn t
reallysknow the incredulity of the negroes
supplies, as they invest him with every
| kind of knowledge and especially endow
him with supernatural talents. lie may
| be a marked man to all the negroes on a
! wholly unknown to any white person
within that area. Around all his doings
| IS drawn veil OF mystery, as he works
| only at night, and performs his mean
| Iations 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
| maica, who owned large plantation in
| that island, suddenly became aware that
| his slaves were dying at a rapid rate,
| and that of those who remained alive
| more than half were bloated and terribly
| debilitated. This condition of affairs pre-
vailed for several years, until the planter
| lost, first and last, by this mysterious
| malady more than 100 negroes. He
strongly suspected that obeah was at the
| bottom of it, but could not verify his sus-
| picions, as neither the we'll nor the sick,
nor even those he questioned when at
| the point of death would admit as much.
| AT last an old negress came to him one
! day and said that she knew she had not
| long to live, and she felt herself bound to
| impart to him the terrible secret in, hope
| that the deaths of many others might be
| averted. She then confessed that her
! stepmother, a "Popo" negress, more than
eighty years of age had put obeah on
her. and that she had put it on all
! those who had died also, as well as upon
| many others who were suffering from the
| mysterious, Illness. No sooner were the
| other negroes acquainted with the con-
| fession the old woman had made and
! realized that no harm could come to them
from revealing their knowledge than they
| all FASTENED to verify all she had said.
| SAFE FROM BLACK WITCH.
How the hIoclx 11ftob induced l,ar viz