Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1902-07-12
WEST INDIAN sUPERsTITIoNs.
The Native Blacks Have "a Belief in
the Vampire and in the
"ROIIing Calf"

The French islands have two super
stitions which are not found in some
others of the West Indies, says the
New York Commercial Advertiser.
These are a belief in sort of were
wolf or vampire, which lives on the
blood of wayfarers. upon whom it
leaps when they are abroad in the
night time, or of sleepers whom 1t
finds in lonely huts; and second be-
lief in what is known as the British
islands as the rolling calf" mon
ster with blazing eyes, which prowIs
At night, clanking a chain which hangs
about its neck, and at whose touch
men die. The following description is
given of the typical obeah-man:
There is something so indescribably
sinister about an obeah-man's appear
ance that he can always be picked out
by anyone who has had much to do
with negroes. Dirty, ragged, unkempt,
diseased. deformed, there is yet about
him an air of cunning authority. His
small, cruel, piercing eyes peer vicious
" at the witnesses arrayed against him
in court, for all the world like those
of a cornered rat. Black men may
be seen to turn as gray as ashes under
the terror of that baleful gaze, and
often it is only with the greatest diff
Guilty that discriminating evidence can
be dragged out of them. The wiz
ards awesome presence, however, does
not appaI an unsentimental British
Judge. He orders him twelve months
hard and a sound fogging. Frequent
Iy the obeah-man appeals against his
sentence to the higher court, and in
Jamaica it is not at all unusual for
him to get off on some technical point,
owing to the defective drafting of the
law. Of course, he tells the ignorant
negroes that he procured freedom by
his magical powers, and thus their SUI
perstition is strengthened"
British law Furnishes obeahs with
fogging and imprisonment. Neverthe-
less, obeah is practiced by the white
planters almost as a matter of neces-
sity. in order to brighten the negroes
and prevent them from stealing the
produce of the plantations.
You may walk through your friends
''cocoa-piece" or banana plantation,
and notice a skull stuck on the top of
stick, a small bottle full of dead
cockroaches tied to a branch, or a
miniature black coffin placed on
little mound. "Hullo, old mani" you
say; working obeah-eh?'' III come
and see you fogged at the jail" He
| tries to laugh it off shamefaced1y, say
ing that there is really nc other way
to make "those wretched niggers"
keep their thieving hands off the
crops. That is true. 1t is needless,
however, to go to the trouble of plac-
ing these things about the plantation.
If some night prowler has stolen your
best vans or bananas, all you need do
| is to say next morning, in the hearing
of the negroes: Its all right; don't
care. I've got the footprint" You
will see them whispering among them
selves in an awe-stricken way, and
presently one will come up to you, near
| " weeping with terror, and confess
himself the thief. The superstition is
that if you digLout the earth upon
which the robber has impressed his
foot and throw it into the fire, he will
waste away and die unless he gives
himself up and takes his punishment.