LIFE AMONG THE VIRGINIAN NEGROES.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume III, Issue 147, 25 February 1876, Page 7

LIFE AMONG THE VIRGINIAN NEGROES.

rOIbOXS AND MEDICINES. Th vt the ignorant negroes poihon each other few people acquainted with the lower grades of the race can doubt. Indeed, a colored "doctor" is now serving out a term in the Virginia Penitentiary under sentence for poisoning a negro woman. Many of them have knowledge of the properties of every tree and plant, leaf and root, found in their native fields and forests. From these they distil healing balms or deadly poisons. I have known a violent sprain cured in a day by a lotion prepared by an old negro woman, who refused to tell the secret of its composition, and a severe cold disappear like magic before a dose of a bitter black tea whereof the patient knew nothing &aye that it " was made out of a root," the sole information the gi\er designed to vouchsafe. One of their poisons is distilled from the Jamestown as eed ; another from the deadly nightshade ; yet another is common green glass beaten fine and sifted through muslin. This is administered in food or drink, and the flinty particles, working their way into the intestines, cause lnflamation and lingering death. Most of the deaths from Voudou are, however, the result of sheer imagination, and the story told by Abercrombie of the Scottish student who, while in perfect health, was rendered ill simply by imagining himself so, rinds a frequent parallel among this race. They believe fully in the power of the evil eye, and it is only necessary to convince one of them that its baleful influence is upon him to produce all its accredited effects. Not to every negro is given skill in Voudou, and if one not so gifted desires to bewitch his neighbor he must sppk a Voudou man or woman for the purpose. The wise one will perhaps give him a mixture wherewith to anoint his enemy's tools or door-sill ; perhaps a packet to bury under his doorstep or in his daily path ; perhaps, surer still, a subtle poison acting by slow degrees. Of the poison an idea has already been given. The ointment is probably a mixture rivalling tlic witches' cauldron in Macbeth. " Eye of newt and toe of frog." The packet may contain a " bloody hand," done on white paper, in the blood of some animal, or a charcoal sketch supposed to represent the victim. This is wrapped around a dead toad, a snake's head, lizard, or some such reptile, to which is added a little earth from a graveyard and anythmg from the person of the victim that can be obtained — such as a lock of hair, nail clippings, or a fragment of clothing. This constitutes the magic employed, and the negro who believes himself the object of such arts may bo left to his own fears for the rebt. There is many a grave in the South which has been filled by just such agency. He who is fully convinced that the Angel of j Death is upon his track has a short lease of life, and strong men " F.xde away like snow when it is thaw," under the power of this fearful superstition. They shudder in its grasp ; they scarcely dare speak of it, and they yield themselves its victims with the apathy of despair. White men are impatient of their belief in it ; to us it seems so childish, so wholly incredible ; but to them it is the inheritance of their African origin, to which they have clung j through all these years, guarding it from the ridicule of the whites jas the devotee guards his religion. Argue with them about it and 1 you receive the answer, " White folks don' b'lieve in these things, but they kills, colored iolks all do same,"' and your arguments fall I on deal cars.