Detroit evening times., 1942-06-28

plant and acting like hydrocyanic acid which
will kill Immediately it is inhaled"
1t was all over before midnight and we
had buried him at the foot OF the hill, the
lantern casting a sickly glow over the pro-
ceedings and the three of us shiverine with
chill that did not come from the blue Carib-
bean.
Next day fear of "the duppy" which is a
ghost to the jamaican Negro caused the
servants To shun- both the dining room and
the storc-room Of the plantation | stopped
IN for tea Of cheese fruit and Sauterne all
OF which we got from the storc-room our
selves.
This is very bad Or. Emmons said mood
lily we ate iR-the library. This noon, stones
were thrown into the dnng-room window
and when we went out TO investigate there was
nobody there.
by the time we returned 10 the house an
old broken vase was sitting in the middle
of the dining room table. Ju.ju II held
some water with what looked like laundry
bung in it, dead cockroach and piece of
red flannel floating on top of the water
feather from my pet macaw also adorned this
amazing bouquet, so l suppose the bird Will
die next"
effort to hide his nervousness, went on: 1t
may mean that l have offended the natives
by performing the autopsy, Someone may be
putting Obeah either on me or on my whole
family. And after the demonstration we've
just had of what an Obeah curse can do I
hardly need say that don't like it.
If l were sure it was just l they were
after, might be tempted TO stick it out--in
the interest of science. But l can't expose
Mrs Emmons and the baby - and So we're
moving, Inez We're leaving for Kingston
today, and as soon as possible we're going
back TO the States"
AS his voice died away in the still room a
feeling of waiting. and Of being watched by
unseen eyes, came over me.
While ne and his wife and the nurse packed
their most essential belongings. ! wandered
into the dnng-room and examined the bou-
quet. Before last night I would have con-
sidered it the work of child or of a native
with the mentality of child Now it's quality
Of childshness seemed 10 make ii all the more
sinister.
was to be similarly impressed many
times again during my visit to the island,
became more and more familiar with Obeah
and its paraphernaa. II is supposed 10 ac-
compish its devils work through the crudest
Of objects: dolls, pins, hanks of hair candles,
ribbons, gew-gaws. Their seeming innocence
and triviahty make them the best possible
cloak for evil. and TO my eye at least, lend
them a gruesome piquancy,
No harm befell Dr Emmons and his fam
lily. They got TO Kingston safely, and from
there shipped back TO the States. I received
a letter from him after his arrival, saying that
his own escape had convinced him that the
immaterial, or magic side of Obeah less
important than its very material side, the
side where the poisons lay.
wasn't so sure for by then l myself had
witneg ed showers of stones that seemed TO be
thrown by no human hand doors broken in by
no human agent that could see, men who ap-
peared TO be knocked down and slain by
shadows.
Poison figured in none of this, and I'm sure
it wasn't done by mirrors
I've just labelled it for my own benefit:
phenomena observed and unaccounted for
Very unscentific."
1t is only fair however, for me TO point
out that tourists TO Jamaica have no reason
TO fear this sort of witchcFaft - for they
never come in contact with the Obeah mer
and I've never heard Of a case in which any
one tried to make a tourist a ju-ju victim.
THE AMERICAN WEEKLY