THE SKETCHER.

Otago Witness, Issue 2103, 14 June 1894, Page 41

THE SKETCHER.

OBEAHISM IN JAMAICA.

The Obeah man of the West Indies is one of the hardest of criminals to catch and convict, because his victims and their friends are afraid to testify against him. He has only to catch and bottle their shadow, as they firmly believe, to have them completely in his power. Obeahism has had a deep hold upon the negroes of Jamaica for centuries, and it is more common there than in any other part of the West Indies, except Hayti and St. Vincent. It is often mistaken for a savage form of religion, but it is not. •As we- know it in Jamaica, it is a desire for revenge, and a means of reaching it. It is necessary to know something about the people who practise Obeahism before its difficulties and dangers can be appreciated . We have in Jamaica about 600,000 inhabitants, of whom not more than 15,000 are white, or one in 40. The remainder are 450,000 blacks and 135,000 coloured persona. A- large majority of the 585,000 persons not white are scattered throughout the island, living in rural districts, of ten in the mountains. In the smaller inland towns the people are substantially all black or coloured, the white population being too small to estimate.

Throughout the island are many large estates, inhabited usually by one white family, and from 40 to 50 coloured families. The black and coloured people thus fill up the Government schools and churches, and the few whites are widely scattered. The coloured people are all nominally Christianised, but in reality nine in ten of them are firm believers in Obeahism. We have a way down there of separating the pure black from the coloured people or mixed races in our census reports, but I include all mixtures of African blood under the head of coloured persons.

Our coloured people are perhaps the poorest, and at the same time the most independent, people in the world. They have little, but their wants are few. Much of the land is too mountainous for cultivation on a large scale, and the country negroes buy a small patch for a few shillings and find materials for a dwelling house ready to hand.

Two or three days' work will build the walls of one of their little houses out of loose stones, and a day or two more will put a thatch roof over it. " Water comes from the nearest spring, bananas and other fruits grow rapidly, and starvation is almost impossible.

There are thousands of these little negro homes all over the island, and their occupants live and die in the deepest ignorance. It is not the fault of the Government, for good schools have been provided for more than half- a century. The children often learn to read, but after they leave school they have no incentive to use their knowledge, and forget all .that was taught them.

These country people — a large majority of the population — form little settlements or scattered towns, and the Government provides them with churches, but while the people profess to be Christians, and occasionally go to church, they have much more faith in the Obeah man than in a preacher. If not more faith, they have at least more fear of him, and sometimes not without reason.

The Obeah man is always rather smarter than his companions. He is bright enough to see an easy way to provide himself with a few luxuries, and he must be able to make his comrades believe in him.

The Obeah man is in no sense a prisst or spiritual guide. He is a compounder of poisons, and at this he is ordinarily only too skilful. He has no temple, and pretends to* no sacred rite * beyond a few simple incantations that he adds for effect. He works as much as any_p£ his companions, either on bis own little place or on the neighbouring estate, and he does not often even pretend to have inherited his powers from an ancestor. He picks up the trade, and in a small way makes it profitable.

It is an easy • matter for any ordinary bright negro to establish a local reputation as an Obeah man. You must imagine him living in one of the little houses I have described, working either in his own fields or on the plantation, familiar with the needs and desires of all his companions.

He provides himself with some of the stock belongings of an Obeah man — three white, roosters' heads, among the first — and drops a sly hint her* and there. One of his neighbours has injured him, perhaps, and the neighbour's chickens suddenly die, or his donkey falls seriously ill.

A little home-made poison does it, and if he is smart there is no danger of his being caught. His companions begin to regard him with awe, and to fear him. From that moment he is a recognised Obeah man.

Before long some man who had been working in the plantation house— a coloured man, of course — comes to him with a tale of woe. He has been discharged without a cause, and instead of paying him in full the master has referred him to the magistrates, who have sent him away with only a fraction of his wages. He wants revenge. " You want him fix out 1 " the Obeah man asks. " I ketch him shadow, then him go dead."

No ; it is not so serious a case as that, the man says. He does not wish to have his employer killed. But can he not be frightened into paying what he owes ? Or perhaps some of his horses or cattle might ba killed ?

" You leave him to me I " the Obeah man replies ; " I make him scare."

la a few days the owner of the plantation walks out to bis gate, and finds lying in the path three white roosters' heads. He is startled, for he knows that they mean mischief.

He knows, too, that they will not be alone, and he looks about and soon sees an empty bottle hanging from a neighbouring tree. It is a hint that the bottle is intended to catch his shadow ,- a serious warning that

must not go unheeded. Then he sends for the police, perhaps you think ? But, unfortunately, he does nothing of the hind. You must remember that his family have lived for generations among these Obeah workers, and have, if not bsJief in them, at least some fear of them. He has seen such warnings before, and knows that unless IQ acts quickly the consequences will be seriona. The planter's first step is to find out whom he has offended. He remembers the incident of the man who was discharged, and sends for him. But until the man comes, and is reconciled, the planner is in a state of mind. He does not know how deadly the grudge may be. His own life, the lives o£ all his family may be at stake. The water jars must be emptied and cleaned, for they may contain poison. All the food mußt be carefully watched by some trusty servant, but the servants are all negroes, and he does not know whom he can trust. The milk must be watched from the moment it leaves the cows until it reaohes the table. He believes himself to be in danger every moment from poison. At length the discharged man arrives, and the planter makes overtures to him. Not a word was said about the roosters' heads or the empty bottle ; it would be worse than useless to speak of them, for the man would, of course, pretend total ignorance. But the withheld wages are. paid in full, and something more, and the man declares that he is satisfied. Within a few hours the roosters' heads and the bottle mysteriously disappear, and the planter feels safe again. This is only a mild case, for you must not imagine that the Obeah man would hesitate to poison the planter if he were paid to do it. I will tell you presently how he would go about that. You may wonder why the planter, knowing who is the Obeah man of his neighbourhood, does not prosecute him. He knows how useless it would be.

If there are any witnesses at all they are coloured people, who are far more afraid of the Obeah man than of the law, and could not be made to 1 testify truly. Then he feels a little dread of the Obeah man himself — — such is the force of association.

To take a stronger case, suppose that the aggrieved person wishes to have his enemy killed. This is not at all ah unusual thing. It will cost him more money, but he will have his revenge; and it is not such a heinous crime after all, in the eyes of a Jamaica negro, to kill one of the race that has oppressed his people for generations. The Obeah man does not make light of the difficulties that stand in his way. He explains the risks, and says he must be well paid for taking them. To begin operationp, he is very likely to put the Obeah upon a dog, a cow, or some other domestic animal — for you must understand that Obeah is a purely imaginary thing, a condition rather than an object, and 'the animal it is put upon is said to be " set for, Obeah." The client is then compelled to bring plantains and other fruits and eatables, ostensibly to propitiate the animal that has been so set, but in reality, of course, for the benefit of the Obeah man. After he has extracted as much as possible in this way from his client, the Obeah man really sets to work, for he is not altogether a humbug ; when he engages to kill he will kill.

Poisoning is a much easier matter for tropical negroes than you would think, on account of the large number of poisonous vines and bushes with which they are familiar.

Then the way drinking water is kept helps them very much. Every house has its -big porous earthen jar, in which the drinking water is kept, and through which it gradually trickles into a smaller jar,beneatb. A handful of brinvilliers leaves dropped into the water jar will in a few days put an end to a whole family. It is not hard to have these leaves put into the water, because the Obeah in an knows all the servants in the house, and some of them are very likely to have put themselves in his power, and must do as he tells them. Whether they are in his power or not, they are all very much afraid of him.

The Obeah man must know his victim when he undertakes to operate upon a white person. Most of the planters, of cctarse, are too intelligent to have any fear of his supernatural powers, however much they may fear his poisons. Some of them make short work of the alleged sorcerers. I have known a courageous planter who found the white roosters' heads in his yard to go direct to the Obeah man and give him a tremendous beating, have him arrested, and kept him in gaol so long for lack of bail that he was never molested again, although it was impossible to prove anything against the man.

When it is a coloured person for whom the Obeah is to be set, the prccess is much simpler. One of the most frequent complaints in the country districts is dysentery, and the Obeah man can produce all the Bymptoms of dysentery in a whole family without difficulty. It is done by mixing small quantities of pounded glass with their food, and if this is continued long enough t!ie result ia death.

The symptoms are so nearly like those of dysentery that nothing short of an autopsy will reveal the truth, % and in the Jamaica mountains an autopsy is a very unusual thing ; so the poisoner goes unpunished. The first warnirjg of a coloured man is usually the finding of a little packet in his bed, or any place where he is pretty sure to find it, containing a tootb, a bit of glass, and a few hairs.

This is sometimes varied with a bottle containing parts of a toad, a spider, some rusty nails and dirty water. The coloured man, unless ha is more than usually intelligent, gives himself up for lost when he finds these ..things. He knows that sickness or death will overtake himself or some of his family or at least that his donkey or poultry will die. — New York Sun.