The sun., 1908-04-05

In spite OF the fact that there ~ AN
against working obeah some Of the white
planters themselves resort 10 II, or 70 show
Il u, In order 20 protect their crops from
the Wholesale stealing Of the negroes they
conspicuously display at the edge OF their
fields articles which are recognized charns;
such a. O skull, or q bottle Of dead cock.
reaches, or a little cofin full Of pieoss Of
bone feathers and hair The negro believes
that these charms viii Az him " he tres
pastes -
There h a simpler way Of warning or
mafaudsrs; At least Il 10 not against the
law, as the placing Of Obeah charms IL,
Tie planter whose crops have bedh dls-
turbed has only 10 remark nOnchAlantly in
the hearing of the neaross '0h, | don't
Carel I've got the footprint.
Before long the terrified culprit will come
10 WIth full oOnfssslon The belief 10 that
il the soil IL taken up and burned that par
ticilar darky win never steal again. and
for the excellent reason that he will be
dead and buried 20 soon that he won't
get another chance.
The negroes are very shy about admitting
TO white folks that they believe In obeah
As for ansWering questions about special
beliefsthey become most unoommunicative
81 the first display Of curiosity.
II they don't pretend absolute ignorance
Of me whole sub ject--' 'DoAh know nuttln
bout dat. OATS sumph' | nevuh did
hear ofi'--they say bhlntly: '"Talnt good
fur white folks 10 know bout such things''
Most Of them when questioned by white
folks declare that they don't take any
stock in obeah, but II you ask them TO cut
down silk cotton Tree they'll back Oh 10
q blue funk. silk cotton trees are the
chosen residence Of 'duppies' aud jun
bies," aud they are therefore the objects
Of negro's respectful consideration,
The obeah man is a very shreVd person
For instance. when he Ia approached on
the subject OF buried treasure he lS always
prepared to divulgs the exact locality where
Il Ia 10 be found He iS not afraid at being
discredited for no adds 10 hiS directions
the information that the place 10 guarded
by a -dnppy,' which he describes with
horrible minutensss Of detail
Or perhaps II is huge snake which has
charge Of the treasure. In either case II
will be perfectly hopeless 10 attempt ne.
Rotiations unless the treasure seeker will
agree TO give hhS soul to the duppy or the
snake .-. .....
While y0Odooism 10 by no means Sc com.
mon here. az At least not as frankly ad-
mitted, the negroes Of the South still believe
In conjuring. their animals are stil trioked
and they have q thousand superStitions
about human beings. birds. animals. the
moon, the wind-svery detail Of daily life,
n fact. For instance, any popularity Of
personal appearance is supposed TO be the
sign OF some hidden power.
To be conjured-or cunjured. ~ il is
pronounced-is bad enough, But to be
coniured by blue gummed negro Is almost
fatal, and 20 he coniured by a blue gummed
negro with one bluo eye and one black one
is absolutely deadly.
The rain crow Ia the centre OF a whole
cloud Of superstitions. For instance, Il you
happen to be seeing spirits and have no
taste for il, take a rain orow's egg, break
Il in water and wash your face In it.. That
will cure you Of any ordinary attack Of
seeing things,
A we'll known way Of making oneself
proof against -oonjure' is to put red pepper
in ones shoes and a silver coin between
ones toes. Nobody but 4 darky could
stand the red pepper. but they don't seem
10 mind Il and have even danced In pepper
lined shoes. turning 4 peaceful party into
ledlAm Of sOnorous kerchoos
II may he a useful hint that II negro
finds a coat or any article Of dress neatly
folded, with a stick lying across it, he will
be loath TO appropriate il. This, however,
does not apply TO the Northern negro, who
is much freer from superstition than his
Southern brother IL,
II anything ia made into a nat, tight
bundle and fastened by pins crossing each
other diagonally-like this, Kit will be
pretty safe from a superstltlous darky
The \ is often used by them. II is the
binder. making charm or preCaution
doubly efectusl
While the terms obeah and voodooism
are used more or less interchangeably,
the two cults are not altogether the same
0bsah il rather worse than vOodooisn.
It il a more desperate resort. It's venge-
ances are more deadly, its practices more
revolving
In the negro republic, it is asserted,
human sacrifices are not uncommon in the
celebration Of the obeah rites, Hayti Ia
the hotbed OF the worst form Of obeah wor-
ship-a fact which was given by the man
first quoted in this article as proof OF his
statement that the negro left TO himself
| will return 10 his old beliefs and practices.