doubtful. Phillips says, the quantity of it necessary to produce death, in one case, will cost the price of four slaves.

Negroes are said to have frequently committed suicide, by the practice of "dirt-eating." I believe those who practise it are, in all cases, labouring under a disease of the stomach, which depraves its functions. The clay they chiefly eat, is a species of marl, white and friable, a greasy soluble earth, which Brown says, is "the most certain poison, and, when used for any length of time, is so absorbed in the circulation, as to obstruct all the minor capillaries of the body, and to be found even concreted in the glands, and the smaller vessels of the lungs, so as to be sensibly perceptible to the touch." It is probable that the knowledge of many of the poisons of these islands has been derived from the natives by the Maroons: one of the Charaib poisons was extracted from a climbing plant, which was preeminently termed bejuque-the Charaib word for liane. That prepared from the juice of Manchioneel-tree was formerly used by the natives for poisoning their arrows. Tavernier states, that the Indians, by concentrating their poisons more or less, could cause death to ensue at any desired period: the negroes are said to have had the same power. According to Ramusio, the most virulent of the poisons in use amongst them was the ejected saliva of a particular serpent, when irritated. The barbarous use of poisoned arrows was never had recourse to, perhaps, on an occasion less to be regretted than when the first Spaniard in the New World, the Count of Fogeda, fell by a poisoned arrow in pursuit of gold.

The sensitive grass plant which abounds here, according to Piso, is one of the poisons which kill slowly making people cachectical, short-winded, and melancholy till they die."

The Manchioneel-tree, Raynal calls the most deadly in its poison: it generally grows on the sea-shore, and renders the water of a dark-brown colour, for a consi

derable space in its vicinity; which colour arises from the tanning, and not from any poisonous ingredient, as is commonly imagined. It is said, the poison, which is the milky juice that exudes through incisions from between the bark and the trunk, when dried, preserves its deleterious properties for a hundred years. The Indians used it for their arrows: the rain that drops from the leaves after a shower, is said to raise blisters on the skin; and the air is so contaminated underneath its branches, that it is dangerous to sleep under its shade, Humboldt perceived the faint, sickly smell of its malaria at some distance from it: the great antidote to this poison is salt.

Cassava, the flour of the Manioc or Jatropha Manihot, is prepared from the tuberose root of the plant. In its raw state it is an acrid poison. When the roots attain their proper size, they are plucked up; they are scraped, washed, and grated: the poisonous principle is in all probability destroyed by the process of roasting the coarse grains: in this state the flour is converted into cakes; and thus an active poison becomes an article of wholesome diet. Brown says that salt of wormwood is a sure antidote to the poison of the Manioc. The roots yield a quantity of starch called tapioca, which is exported by the Brazilians in large grains. The common Acacia or Acacee bush, which abounds in the lowlands, and goes here by the name of Cashaw, is productive of more fatal accidents to cattle than any other plant. In dry weather the cattle feed on the tender shoots without injury, though the milk is supposed to be rendered rank by this food: horses, likewise, in dry weather, may be fed with impunity on the pods, of which they are extremely fond, provided they do not get water for some hours afterwards. Brown says the pods are impregnated with a sticky astringent gum, which may be easily extracted. In Egypt there is a preparation made from the immature pods of the Acacia, called Acacia veravel, which is used as a demulcent. There is a variety of opinions

here as to the nature of the poison of the Cashaw pods. Some say that the germ of the beans developes itself in the stomach of the horses; there is one thing very certain, that in dry weather, and when the horse is kept for some time without water, the poison is inert: when the poison has begun to act, I have known strong lime-water produce immediate relief; but frequently there is no time for the remedy. I purchased a horse of my friend Capt. O. of a Thursday, in perfect health, and on Saturday he was dead, from eating Cashaws. There is a plant more suddenly destructive to horses than the Cashaws-namely, Nightshade, which I have seen produce fatal effects in the course of half an hour. There are farriers who pretend to have an infallible antidote to this poison. In the first instance a very strong solution of common salt should be administered.

In my next letter I will give you some account of the superstitious practices and incantations connected with the use of ingredients generally supposed to be of a poisonous nature.

I am, my dear Sir,

Yours, very truly,

LETTER XXVII.

OBEAH.

TO DR. WEBSTER.

MY DEAR Sir,

R. R. M.

Kingston, Sept. 8, 1834.

An obeah man was lately committed to the Spanish Town prison for practising on the life of a negro child. It appeared in evidence that he went to a negro hut, VOL. II.

and asked for some fire to light his pipe; that he was seen to put some bush (herb) into the pipe, and then placing himself to windward of the child, commenced smoking, so that the fumes were directed by the wind towards the child. Immediately after he went away, the child was taken alarmingly ill: the father pursued the man suspected of obeahing, and brought him back. He was accused of being an obeah man, of having injured the child; and being threatened with violence if he did not take off the obeah, he consented to do so, and, accordingly, performed certain ceremonies for that purpose: the child improved and he was suffered to depart. The improvement, however, was only temporary: he was again sent for, and with a similar result.

I have copied the account of his examination by the attorney-general, from the original document. He confessed that he was a practiser of obeah; that he did it not for gain or vengeance, but solely because the devil put it into his head to do bad. He had learned the use of the bush from an old negro man on -estate, where master had been poisoned by old man. It was a small plant which grew in the mountains, but did not know the name of it: (he gave some of the dried leaves to the attorney, who showed them to me for examination; but they were so broken that nothing was to be made of them.) He said it did him no hurt to smoke this plant; but whoever breathed the smoke was injured by it: he had no spite against the father or mother of the child, no wish to injure them. He saw the child, and he could not resist the instigation of the devil to obeah it; but he hoped he would never do it any more: he would pray to God to put it out of his head to do it. Such was the singular statement made to the attorneygeneral by the prisoner; and, the attorney informed me, made with an appearance of frankness and truth which gave a favourable impression of its veracity.

My opinion in this case was, that, notwithstanding the confession of the man, and the evidence against him, the plant was innoxious in the way it was admi

nistered. I did not conceive it possible to smoke a poisonous substance with impunity, which was yet capable, when the fumes of it only were partially inhaled by another, to produce fatal effects. The man's own confession, however, was subjected to my opinion. The confession appeared to me to be of less importance than the evidence against him. There was hardly an unfortunate witch hanged in England or Scotland for many a year, that was not convicted chiefly on her own confession; and it need not be stated how such confessions were obtained. On farther inquiry into this case, I discovered that the threat of the torture of thumbscrewing had been had recourse to by the father of the child and other negroes before the confession was made. But why should an innocent man persist in a confession of guilt extorted from him in a moment of terror, when he is no longer subjected to its tyranny? To this I answer-The impression of great terror is not so easily effaced, even by the removal of the cause that inspired it; the importance of the means in self-defence adopted for its dissipation becomes an exaggerated sentiment, which dupes the enfeebled mind, and actually converts a deceit into a delusion. It was said by Warren Hastings, when he listened to his impeachment in the House of Commons, that such was the overwhelming effect of the language in which the atrocities ascribed to him were couched by his accuser, that he actually believed himself at the time the guilty wretch he was represented to be. If such an effect could be produced for a moment on the mind of an enlightened man, by an accusation that involved not life or limb, a graver accusation that placed both in jeopardy might well have a permanent influence on the uncultivated intellect. The man was not prosecuted.

A negro was brought before me and Dr. Maglashan, one of the local magistrates, previous to August, charged with obeahing the only child of a negro woman, after having caused the death of three others of her children.