The mother gave her evidence in a state of great excitement; several of her female neighbours confirmed it, and it amounted to this-that the prisoner's wife had no children, and was jealous of the complainant on this account; that she had persuaded her husband to obeah her children one after another, till they had all died, and had now put obeah on herself, in order to prevent her having any more. Dr. Maglashan took the utmost pains to sooth her excitement, and persuade her of the error she was labouring under. Here there was no charge of poisoning, but of killing by the supernatural agency of obeah: I also endeavoured to convince her of the delusion; but it was only when I called on the man to declare, that, even if he had the power to put obeah on her, which was impossible, he would never do it, that she appeared at all satisfied, or the friends who accompanied her. In this instance the man bore an excellent character, and there was no earthly ground for the charge: nevertheless, in former years he might have been hanged on such a charge for an obeah man. The excellent old gentleman, whose name I had occasion to mention in this case, has since died: happy would it be for Jamaica, if the local magistracy consisted solely of persons like this venerable man; for one more humane, more intelligent, and in every respect more efficient than this gentleman, who, I believe, was one of the oldest inhabitants of St. Andrews, I have not met with. There are two descriptions of obeah; one that is practised by means of incantations; and the other, by the administering of medicated potions--in former times, it is said of poisons, and these practitioners were called myal men. A negro was tried some years ago at Spanish Town, for practising obeah, under the following circumstances: Dr.- being about to get married, a person of colour, who up to this period had been his housekeeper, had recourse to an obeah man, to break the Doctor's attachment to his betrothed lady: suspicion of what was going on brought the Doctor to the house; and on his entrance, he found the customary obeah dance going on, both repeating incantations, the necessary part of the ceremony, ablutions, and the administering of a potion having taken place. In this dance the principal part of the initiated person's vesture is dispensed with: there was an iron pot in the centre of the room, round which the dancing was going on, and in it was a cock's head, serpents' eggs, blood and grave dirt. The principal facts were deposed to on the trial, by the Doctor: the man was condemned for life to the workhouse, and he died in jail about 1827. Many instances of this kind, and under similar circumstances, have occurred. In the criminal record-book of the parish of St. Andrews, I find the following obeah cases: 1773. Sarah, tried "for having in her possession cats' teeth, cats' claws, cats' jaws, hair, beads, knotted cords, and other materials, relative to the practice of obeah, to delude and impose on the minds of the negroes."-Sentenced to be transported. 1776. Solomon, "for having materials in his possession for the practice of obeah."-To be transported. 1777. Tony," for practising obeah, or witchcraft, on a slave named Fortune, by means of which, said slave became dangerously ill."-Not Guilty. 1782. Neptune, "for making use of rum, hair, chalk, stones, and other materials, relative to the practice of obeah, or witchcraft."-To be transported. The description of the ingredients in the above indictments, made use of in these African incantations, reminds one forcibly of the ingredients for the charmed caldron of the Weird sisters For a charm of powerful trouble, Like a hell-broth boil and bubble:" while the dancing round the iron pot of the obeah man and his associates recalls the pranks of the old beldams who and "Round about the caldron go," "In the poisoned entrails throw." One of the necessary ingredients for the obeah ceremony, is either the head, feathers, or claws of a fowl; but there is nothing held in so much estimation for obeah rites, as a perfectly white cock; and if it happens to crow while the ceremony is going on, it is reckoned a good omen, and the fetish who presides over the ceremony is supposed to be propitiated. The omen of the African wizard resembles the one expected by the Scotch witches: "Thrice must the brinded cat have mew'd, There are two obeah ordeals in use here, which I do not remember to have seen mentioned in any work: the first is called THE BOOK ORDEAL. To find out the person who has committed a theft, all parties present are called upon to open a Bible, 10th chapter of Kings: they then place a key between the leaves, and tie it in the closed book with a slender thread; the key is held between the tips of the two second fingers; the book is then struck after a portion of the 50th psalm has been read, and if the person is present who committed the theft, the key will remain in the hands of the holder, and the book will fall to the ground. This is a singular instance of an African superstition ingrafted on Christianity. THE BROOM ORDEAL is practised by cementing two layers of light broom, with ashes mixed with water: the suspected person is then placed on a stool, and calls on God to show who is the guilty person. The slight broom wicker is then pressed round his throat: if it happens to give way, it is a proof that he is innocent; but if the pressure should cause him to fall from the stool, that circumstance is an evidence of his guilt. ge Obeah is evidently a practice of Oriental origin. In my Eastern Travels, in speaking of the Jewish sorcerers, I have stated that the Hebrew word Shoelobh, a consulter with familiar spirits,' signifies also 'Pytho, or the spirit of divination;' obh, signifying a bottle,' which was probably made use of in divining. In Bryant's Mythology, in his etymology of this word, there are the following remarks: "A serpent in the Egyptian language was called, ob, or aub." "The woman of Endor was termed Oub or Ob, translated Pythonissa." "And Oubaios was the name of the basilisk or royal serpent, the emblem of the sun, and an ancient oracular deity of Africa." Edward's observations on the derivation of this word deserve attention:-"The neral term," he says, "in Jamaica, denotes those Africans who in that island practise witchcraft or sorcery; comprehending, also, the class of what are called myal men, or those who, by means of a narcotic potion, made with the juice of an herb said to be the branched callalu, a species of solanum, which occasions a trance, or profound sleep of a certain duration,-endeavour to convince the deluded spectators of their power to reanimate dead bodies.". The influence of the terror of obeah over the negroes some twenty or thirty years ago, was almost incredible: even at the present time it is greatly dreaded by the least instructed of the negroes. In this, as in many other matters, the exertions of the missionaries have been evidently beneficial to the negroes: obeah no longer has the - power of producing mischief to the extent it formerly did. The dread of it is greatest amongst the Africans. Some of the Creole negroes affect to laugh at it; but when I have seen their courage put to the test when they have been menaced with obeah, or they think it has been set for them, the old superstition takes possession of their fears. When I lived in St. Andrews, in one of my morning rambles between my house and Mr. Hall's, I found a piece of dirty rag tied up like a bag, about the size of a walnut. It contained some dried brown leaves broken into small bits, shreds of red wood rolled up, mixed with hair and some dirt. This was obeah, that in all probability had been set for some person. I took it home and had it placed over the door of an old Mulatto woman,-a very troublesome old lady, who carried water for us, and who had a 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. 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. After some time, I relieved the old lady's apprehensions, on the score of being obeahed; but had it not been 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. The fetish is the African divinity, invoked by the negroes in the practice of obeah. When they take an 1 |