Witchcraft Among the Negroes [pp. 666-667]

b66 WITCIICT~AFJ' AffOWU ~ff~' w~q~oims.
[DECEMBER 14,
WITCHCRAFT AMONG THE
NEGROES.
LL over the South, wherever the Afri can has been settled, be has carried
with him the belief in and practice of the
necromancy known in Africa as obi, and
throughout the South er~~ States as voodooism, or "tAckin~."
In vain have religion and the white man
waged war against this relic of barbarism; it
still flourishes, hydra-headed, and ever and
anon the newspapers raise an outcry as some
fi~esh instance of its power and diabolical
results is brought to light.
The negro witches have little in common
with the witch of our story-books; they never
ride broomsticks, or resort to the thousand
and one petty arts of ti,e Saxon or Celtic
witch. Theirs is a far deeper and deadlier
sorcery-a power which the negro firmly
believes can waste the marrow in the victim's bones, dry the blood in his veins, and,
sapping his life slowly and surely, bring him
at last, a skeleton, to his grave.
Nor is this all a fable: there are hundreds
of graves in the So'~th on which might be
placed the epitaph, "Died of obi."
"Well, honey," said a shrewd old ne~ress
to me once, when I had been exerting all the
eloquence I possessed to convince her of the
nothingness of fl~is terrible bugaboo-" well,
honey, dey mout jes' es well kill you es shear
you ter deth."
I3otent among their charms is that of the
"evil eye," which, fixed on a man by one of
these witches, has power to thwart every undertaking in life.
His axe will not cut; his hoe will not dig;
his plough share will be broken against the
rocks; his cow will go dry; plant he crops,
they will not come up; and, whatsoever he
doeth, it shall not prosper.
Mention has been made, in a former article, of this terrible scourge of voodooism, and
the modes in which it is practised; but no
mere words can describe the hold which it
has on the mind of the Southern negro. Once
convince him that he is "tricked," and, unless
he be able to procure a "trick-doctor" whom
he considers more skilful thai, the witch under whose spell he has fallen, no human power
can save him-he believes that he must die,
and die he will; a whole college of physicians
could not save him.
A man was sick nigh unto death; his
wife went to a witch-doctor, and received orders to open his pillow. She did so, and within
it she found half a dozen or more tiny conglomerations of feathers, closely resembling
the plumes on a hearse. These were burnt
and the man recovered. Another, very ill,
was given an ointment with which to rub his
stomach and chest. At the end of two days
he vomited several hairy worms, and was
cured. I know colored people who would
swear to the truth of these statements, and
I have myself seen the little plumes; indeed,
learned men have taken the trouble to try to
account for these last by natural causes.
This dread of" tricking" is a grievous cross
to the Southern house-keeper, since it sometimes interferes with her changing servants,
as often they dare not take each other's
places.
I had myself a cook of whom I was anxious to get rid. The woman had no desire to
leave, and told every other servant whom I
tried to secure that she did not mean to go.
I finally engaged one, and fl~is dread of obi
was nearly the cause of my losing her. I was
forced to notity the two women and their husbands that I wo'ild not and should not keep
the former, if I had either to do 50 0 to cook
for myself. Lven then my new cook remained
under protest; and red pepper and salt-potent countercharms for voodoo-~ere freely
used in my kitchen for the next week or two.
It is pitiful-it is mournful-to see as we
Southerners have often seen, strong men pining away under the influence of this superstition, taking medicine with a sorrowfiil smile,
whispering perhaps, in awestruck tones, the
dreadful secret that they are "tricked," and
dying, at last, in spite of all that medical skill
could do for il~em.
I have known a young athlete, a brawny
Hercules, whose strength was the glory of the
plantation, who would shoulder a barrel of
flour, and then, picking up a keg of nails,
walk briskly up-stairs and deposit his burden
with a grin, and who was as proud of his
muscle as any wresiler of old; I have seen
him laid on his bed with paralysis creeping
from one member to another, until at last he
could only move his eyes and tongue-dying
by inches of a disease which the first physicians in the three counties around could do
nothing to check ~r cure, and for which he
and hiS fellow-slaves had only the one word
of explanation - "tricked." The doctors
held a post-morlern examination, and reported, "Singular internal discoloration, probably
death by lead-poisoning in whiskey," when
the poor fellow scarcely ever drank, and of
numbers of~sots in the neighborhood not one
was affected in like manner.
Some of these old crones possess a marvellous knowledge of the nature and properties of every10]plant indigenous to the South.
They have an herb for every ache or pain,
and frequently prepare little bags filled with
dried roots or leaves to be worn around the
neck as a charm against disease or the "evil
eye."
Some of the cures which they work are
really wonderful. I was sick once-had taken
violent cold, aching in every limb, and was
booked, I felt sure, for an attack of pneumonia, or perhaps worse. My "mammy" had
a noted herb-doctor for a friend, and brought
me a cup containing a dark, bitter decoction.
What it was I have no idea, but I took it from
mammy with the same faith with which,
when a baby, I had taken catnip from the
same hand.
In ten minutes I was in a perspiration,
and free from fever; in five more I was fast
asleep; and the next morning waked as well
as ever, and without a trace of cold; but I
never could find out the name of my mcdiclue.
Not far from the Virginia farm-house in
which I was raised, just on the edge of my
fither's plantation, an old woman, renowned
as a witch, owned a cabin and little bit of
ground.
She had a crippled daughter, whose lameness was the result of white swelling in infitucy, but tl~e negroes scouted such explanation of the matter.
White swellin',`deed! " said one of my
mother's sable handmaid ens to l~er mistress
one day, with a toss of her turhaned head
which spoke volumes-" whfte swollin',`deed
Yowl white folks kin b'lieve dat'! Her mammy lef' summun her trick-miachers layin'
roun', en de chile tread on um!"
A cousin and myself were one day sent to
carry some wool to this woman to be spunfor she spun beautifully, and my mother often
employed her
Our body-guard consisted of two colored
girls, one an irrepressible mulattress, the
other a quiet, demure little black girl, excessively timid.
The house was a double log-cabin, wfth
twe rooms. We were invited into the first
while the old won'Jan went into the inner
chamber to get the yarn which she had already spun.
Emmeline, the mulatto girl, was in a
saucy humor, and amused herself by some
pert remarks about the "old witch," which
distressed her companion so much that I had
to order her to hold her tongue.
Going home, 1:mmeline probably hurt her
leg in climbing the rail-fence around the little
yard-at all events, she soon began to complain of the limb, which grew inflamed, and
swelled so rapidly that, before we were halfway home, she could scarcely walk. Both
girls were much alarmed, and Emmeline,
weeping, begged piteously to know if I
thought she would be lame for life.
I had been reading Scott's "Lay of the
Last Minstrel," and, recollecting his ac~~unt
of the superstition that no enchantment is
proof against running water, I made Emmeline bathe her leg for about half an hour in a
branch which lay in our path. Imagination
and cold water combined served to relieve
her, but she, no doubt, believes to this day
that she was "tricked," and considers me a
marvel of learning, because I knew how to
deal with her case.
Shortly after the close of the war, a near
relative of the writer was teaching in the
mountains of Virginia. On the farm of the
gentleman in whose family he resided were
two laborers, Jim and Sam, the former a
pleasant-featured mulatto, rem ark ably intell igent for a negro, and extremely popular among
his acquaintances; the other an ugly, black'
negro, with a hang-dog expression. Sam had
with his own color the reputation of "voodooism," and many stories were told of his
prowess in the "black art."
One day Jim was taken sick, and it was
whispered in the negro-cabins that Sam had
"tricked" him. The doctor was called in,
but could not classify his disease, although
the poor fellow was visibly drooping, and
complained of pain in the back and limbs,
accompanied by great languor, and his pulse
was as feeble as an infant's.
The doctor's medicines did him no good;
indeed, it is doubtful whether he took them;
and the case excited great interest in the
white family, and was freely discussed among
them.