The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1902-12-28
W GREAT "CONJER."
The Spell Laid by a Negro Woman
Reputed to Be Witch, as Mar
rated in the Desert.
~ j. ". kENN%RD.
Copurf0h,, 1907. by j. X. Wlsol.

The answer was sharp, blunt. explosive;
IL might have been Extensively so. If the heat
had not tempered ones Guarrelsomeness.
As Il was looked in lazy mlzemen'
at Roberts, stretched in his hammock
What had said? VIVA, was there in INV
innocent. II slightly inane suggestion to
provoke such an outbreak
whats that for. old man. inquired
1T length.
whats what fori'
THAT rough touch me-if-y ou-dare way
Of answering a simple question.
why he began in a hesitatin9 sort
Of fashion. didn't know that there was
anything out of the usud In the way
spoke. I suppose that Nust have been
thinking OF something else, and spoke out
without realizing what ] said or how ]
said it.
He was lying. of course. knew II,
and he knew that knew II. There was
some strong cogent reason back OF that
sNo' which shot it out like bullet from
q rife.
But II he didn't choose to give IL 10 me.
! couldn't exactly force il from him. One
can't we'll fight his friend for mere matter
Of accent-particularly when that friend
10 tho only white man within a hundred
miles.
But. though closed. the incident fingered
in my mind. Ifound it curiously impossible
to forget it.
thought back over Roberts's life-what
] knew OF II personally and what he had
told me--for n possible clue We had
grown up together in a pleasant lit'le
Southern town After the college period We
had drifted apart, he into the law and into
medicine. and we hadn't met since school
days until a month ago
Long treatment II other folks nerves
had somewhat shattered my own, and
was taking an extended vacation in a jour
ney around the world. Imagine my de-
light to run across Roberts out in that
fascinating region. least ~ Suez, Where
the best Ia like the worst. Where their amt
no Ten Commandments. An man can raise
. thirst
He had come from nowhere in particular:
was going nowhere in particular: simply
initiating a certain discreditable Parsonage
mentioned in the Book Of Job. in going
to and fro in the earth, and walking up
and down in it,"
That being the case, wouldn't he join
me In q trip I was projecting across the
hT0Odn penlIlsuld, Will HOTses anu kuiucs
from Alden to Bassorah. at the head OF
the Persian Gulf? Yes. he would and
he did.
So there you have us. Nothing remains
to be said on this point except the little that
Roberts told me about his life since our
separation. He had studied law and prac-
tsed for time with success in his native
town: but. coming into a large fortune
how. he didn say-he had given up work.
and had passed years in the gentle and
delightful vagabondage possible only to
those who are long Of purse and short Of
family responsibilities and obligations.
He had never married: his parents were
long since dead; he had been an only child:
even Of uncles. aunts and cousins. with
whom every properly constituted Southern
family is abundantly supplied. he had none
He was curiously. almost pathetically. alone
in the world.
It was the evening Of the second day after
that Roberts himself referred to the matter.
We had made camp, eaten our dinner, and
we're now lying in our hammocks. smoking
through the brief lstern twilight.
About that snappish answer Of mine, the
other night he began. hesitatingly. .Of
course. It must have seemed strange to have
me speak a. did in answer to your innocent
question. and you couldn I help wondering
why did It.
Are you in the mood for a strange story"
he continued. with sudden change Of
manner. Il must tell it to somebody. and
you're the only one know who'd care a rap
about it. or about me. But warn you in
advance that it will be strange one"
Ny dear fellow, in twenty years OF
doctoring one Is apt to hear many a strange
story.
.Here goes. then. In the first place,
do you remember Marin Lie, my black
nanny in the old days?'
.Sure; and how we youngsters used 70
hate her. and pretend to tease you. to make
her swear and threaten US with no end OF
Ills; Queer old bunch she was;
YOU'RE right, queer enough; But she
was devoted to her family, and to me in
particular. Yok know--or perhaps you
dont-thAt she was one Of my fathers
slaves before the war, When the rest
took their liberty and left, she came right
Lnlmm or no Linkum, she b'longed to
Mars Henry an Mis- Emily. and she was
gwine to stay wild dem.
And stay she did. My father was killed
IN battle q month before ! was born; and in
those trying days suppose that my mother
would have died too. IL it had not been for
Marin Lize.
sShe was everything. servant, cook
hundress. nurse, doctor and companion
Her courage never failed. and her spirits
never tagged.
From my birth I was her idol. No
sacrifice was too great to give me pleasure,
and no toll too irksome il by it she could
servo me. verify believe that she loved
me better than my own mother did
But somehow I never liked her. I
was always afraid Of her and instinctively,
even In childhood / recoiled from her.
As l grew older that feeling increased
until her very presence was intensely
hateful to me. fought against It, under
the consciousness OF my obligation to her,
but there it was. couldn't get rid Of It,"
Know just how you felt" broke in:
Il felt the same way myself. There was
something weird and uncanny about her;
unwholesome--that's the word l want"
Yes, he'assented, that's a good word
for 1t. An unwholesome influence seemed
TO 60 out from her in some way. l found
~ I grew older that her own people were
afraid Of her, on account Of her power to
CONFER them"
Ito WHAT"
Confer, or coniure bewitch. They
conidcred her witch. a hoodoo doctor.