mortal aversion for Johnny Crows whenever she was indisposed. Her antipathy to this black angel of death, Captain Mason and myself were often in the habit of rallying her about: one day she lost patience, and told me it was only for buckra the Johnny Crows were flapping their big. wings.

The Johnny Crows made me feel the less repugnance to give the old woman a fright in order to give the other negroes a lesson: the dirty bag of evil augury was placed over her door so conspicuously that it was sure to be discovered. It was discovered. A volley of moans and groans, and devotional ejaculations, gave us intimation of her having found it: "Her enemies had found her out they had set obi for her; it could be placed there for nobody else." The other negroes were nearly as much frightened, with the exception of a servant-boy who was in the secret. soon relieved the old lady's apprehensions after some time, on the score of being obeahed; but if it were not for the boy's testimony, I think she would hardly have believed me: as it was, it was very difficult to convince her of the folly of her fears.

I

The fetish is the African divinity, invoked by the negroes in the practice of obeah. When they take an oath, they say they "take the fetish; " and when they worship, they "make fetish." I

believe the word is peculiar to the dialect of Guinea, and signifies a charm or incantation,' as well as a divinity.

They have a singular idea that, if they swear falsely on the fetish, their stomachs will burst, their faces will be scratched, and their fingers will drop off; and, what is still more, a great many of them have the same apprehension, coupled with their ideas of the obligation of an oath in the Christian Scriptures. A Mrs. Panther, a whitedbrown lady, brought a negro girl before me, to give evidence against one of her apprentices. I inquired of her if the girl, who was about seventeen or eighteen, knew the nature of an oath? She seemed a little hurt at a question which, she thought, implied a doubt of the girl's being duly instructed. I repeated the question, however; and, to the great discomfiture of Mrs. Panther, and the no small surprise of a crowded court, the poor girl replied, "Massa, if me swear false, my stomach (I will not vouch for this word) would burst, my face would be scratched, and my fingers drop off." I could not avoid complimenting her mistress on the result of the pains that had been taken with the poor girl's improvement, and the case was dismissed for want of better testimony.

I have heard the same idea expressed respecting the obligation of an oath on two other occasions. The negro Sharp, who was one of the chief

planners of the late rebellion, reluctantly confessed the part he had taken in the conspiracy, and the form of oath administered to the negroes, when they came to be sworn in, at a house on Retrievo estate, some weeks before Christmas. A bible was brought, and put on the table. The person to be sworn got up and said, "If ever I witness any thing against my brother and sister concerning this matter, may hell be my portion!".

Edwards mentions a mode of administering an oath, which, I heard, in the late rebellion was practised by the negroes, either by the immediate descendants of Africans, or those not attached to the religious societies of any Christian sect.

"Human blood, and earth taken from the grave of some near relative, are mixed with water, and given to the party to be sworn ; who is compelled to drink the mixture, with an imprecation that it may cause the belly to burst, and the bones to rot, if the truth be not spoken. This test is frequently administered to their wives, on the suspicion of infidelity; and the resemblance which it bears to the trial of jealousy, by the bitter water, described in the book of Numbers, is a curious. and striking circumstance."

Formerly, the influence of obeah practitioners was very great over the negroes. Hundreds have died of the mere terror of being under the ban of obeah. A little bag, with a few trumpery and

harmless ingredients, hung up over a door, was sufficient to break down the health and spirits of the stoutest-hearted African. The Koromantyn rebel who was capable of facing death in its most appalling form without a murmur, has been often driven into rebellion by the terror of an obeah bag, and an intimation that he had not taken the fetish, or the oath of fidelity to a new conspiracy. In 1760, an obeah instigator to rebellion was put to death. During the twenty years subsequent to this period, a great many negroes were hanged for obeah crimes. Those charged with them were generally old, mis-shapen, or deformed negroes, of African origin. In the slave law, passed 1831, the capital crime of obeah is defined to be, the administering of any poisonous or deleterious ingredient, such as pounded glass, although death may not ensue therefrom.

So

But the ingredients that are now in use for obeah purposes are harmless substances: cats' claws, parrots' beaks, grave dirt, &c. strung up in little bags, over people's doors; and the charmers are generally old women, whose wrinkles are their chief titles to the character of wise women. long as these poor bodies were hanged and flagellated for the exercise of their African sorcery, obeah flourished-like some other things, which, the more they are persecuted, the more they prosper; but when humanity came to the aid of legis

lative wisdom, and softened down some of the most prominent barbarities of former enactments-that especially respecting obeah, the practice was deprived of the principal source of the reverence it exacted, when the exposure of its absurdities was divested of the cruelties which made a merit, in former times, of persisting in them. But though judicial barbarities were practised in Jamaica within the last forty years, which have been unknown to Europe for upwards of a century, and executions for witchcraft or obeah, and torturing practices (though not by course of law, by means of thumb-screws,) been had recourse to,-even much later, instances have occurred in Great Britain, within the last thirty years, in which the mob have endeavoured to revive the savagery of the law, and have taken into their own hands the punishment of the crime of witchcraft. Dragging an unfortunate old woman through a pond-pelting another with stones, till nearly murdered, have been practised with impunity. Sir Walter Scott mentions an instance known to himself:-" In a remote part of the Highlands, an ignorant and malignant woman seemed to have meditated the destruction of her neighbour's property, by placing in a cowhouse, or byre, as we call it, a pot of baked clay containing locks of hair, parings of nails, and other trumpery. This precious spell