THE PRACTICE OF OBEAH, OR NEGRO WITCHCRAFT--CHARMS--THEIR KNOWLEDGE OP
VEGETABLE POISONS--SECRET POISONING.
Obeah, a pretended sort of witchcraft, arising from a superstitious
credulity, prevailing among the negroes, has ever been considered as a
most dangerous practice, to suppress which, in our West India colonies,
the severest laws have been enacted. The Obeah is considered as a potent
and most irresistible spell, withering and paralyzing, by indiscribable
terrors and unusual sensations, the devoted victim. One negro who
desires to be revenged on another, and is afraid to make an open and
manly attack on his adversary, has usually recourse to this practice.
Like the witches' cauldron in Macbeth, it is a combination of many
strange and ominous things. Earth gathered from a grave, human blood, a
piece of wood fastened in the shape of a coffin, the feathers of the
carion crow, a snake or alligator's tooth, pieces of egg-shell, and
other nameless ingredients, compose the fatal mixture. The whole of
these articles may not be considered as absolutely necessary to complete
the charm, but two or three are at least indispensable.[136]
It will of course be conceived, that the practice of OBEAH can have
little effect, unless a negro is conscious that it is practised upon
him, or thinks so;[137] for, as the whole evil consists in the terrors of
a superstitious imagination, it is of little consequence whether it be
practised or not, if he only imagines that it is. But if the charm fails
to take hold of the mind of the proscribed person, another and more
certain expedient is resorted to--the secretly administering of poison
to him. This saves the reputation of the sorcerer, and effects the
purpose he had in view.
An OBEAH man or woman (for it is practised by both sexes) is a very
dangerous person on a plantation; and the practice of it is made felony
by law, punishable with death where poison has been administered, and
with transportation where only the charm has been used. But numbers
have, and may be swept off, by its infatuation, before the crime is
detected; for, strange as it may appear, so much do the negroes stand in
awe of those _Obeah_ professors, so much do they dread their malice and
their power, that, though knowing the havoc they have made, and are
still making, they are afraid to discover them to the whites; and,
others perhaps, are in league with them for sinister purposes of
mischief and revenge.
A negro, under the infatuation of Obeah, can only be cured of his
terrors by being made a Christian: refuse him this boon, and he sinks a
martyr to imagined evils. A negro, in short, considers himself as no
longer under the influence of this sorcery when he becomes a christian.
And instances are known of negroes, who, being reduced by the fatal
influence of Obeah to the lowest state of dejection and debility, from
which there were little hopes of recovery, have been surprisingly and
rapidly restored to health and cheerfulness by being baptized
christians. The negroes believe also in apparitions, and stand in great
dread of them, conceiving that they forbode death, or some other great
evil, to those whom they visit; in short, that the spirits of the dead
come upon the earth to be revenged on those who did them evil when in
life. Thus we see, that not only from the remotest antiquity, but even
among slaves and barbarians, the belief in supernatural agencies has
been a popular creed, not, in fact, confined to any distant race or
tribe of people; and, what is still more surprising, there is a singular
and most remarkable identity in the notion or conception of their
infernal ministry.
In the British West Indies, the negroes of the windward coast are called
_Mandingoes_, a name which is here taken as descriptive of a peculiar
race or nation. There seems reason, however, to believe, that a
_Mandingo_ or _Mandinga_-man, is properly the same with an Obi-man. A
late traveller in Brazil gives us the following anecdotes of the
_Mandinga_ and _Mandingueiro_ of the negroes in that country. "One day,"
says Mr. Koster, "the old man (a negro named Apollinario) came to me
with a face of dismay, to show me a ball of leaves, tied up with a plant
called _cypo_, which he had found under a couple of boards, upon which
he slept, in an out-house. The ball was about the size of an apple. I
could not imagine what had caused his alarm, until he said that it was
_Mandinga_ which had been set for the purpose of killing him; and he
bitterly bewailed his fate, that at his age, any one should wish to
hasten his death, and to carry him from this world, before our lady
thought fit to send him. I knew that two of the black women were at
variance, and suspicion fell upon one of them, who was acquainted with
the old _Mandingueiro_ of Engenho Velho; therefore she was sent for. I
judged that the _Mandinga_ was not set for Apollonario, but for the
negress whose business it was to sweep the out-house. I threatened to
confine the suspected woman at Gara unless she discovered the whole
affair. She said the Mandinga was placed there to make one of the
negresses dislike her fellow-slaves, and prefer her to the other. The
ball of _Mandinga_ was formed of five or six kinds of leaves of trees,
among which was the pomegranate leaf; there were likewise two or three
bits of rag, each of a peculiar kind; ashes, which were the bones of
some animals; and there might be other ingredients besides, but these
were what I could recognize. This woman either could not from ignorance,
or would not give any information respecting the several things of which
the ball was composed. I made this serious matter of the _Mandinga_,
from knowing the faith which not only many of the negroes have in it,
but also some of the mulatto people. There is another name for this kind
of charm; it is called _feitiço_, and the initiated are called
_feitiçeros_; of these there was formerly one at the plantation of St.
Joam, who became so much dreaded, that his master sold him to be sent to
Maranham."
Speaking of the green-beads (_contas verdas_) which are another object
of superstition in South America, and of the reliance placed upon them
by the Valentoens, a lawless description of persons among the colonists
of Brazil; the same author gives us this further view of the
_Mandingueiros_ and their charms. "These men," says he, "wore on their
necks strings of green beads, which had either come from the coast of
Africa, bearing the wonderful property of conveying in safety their
possessors through all descriptions of perils, or were charmed by the
Mandingueiros, African sorcerers, who had been brought over to the
Brazils as slaves, and in secret continued the prohibited practice of
imparting this virtue to them. Vincente had been acquainted with some of
the men, and was firmly persuaded of the virtues of the green beads.
When I expressed my doubts of the efficacy of the beads, against a
musket ball well directed, his anger rose; but there was pity mingled
with it."
Labat brings these stones from the Orellana, or river of the Amazons. "I
was informed," says our author, "that _Contas verdas_ came from Africa;
but some have found their way from the Orellana, and been put into
requisition by the _Mandingueiros_." Mr. Southey has also given an
account of the "green stones of the Amazons," in his history of Brazil,
vol. 1. p. 107.
In another place, some traveller presents us with the _Mandingueiros_ in
the new character of charmer of snakes. "The Mandingueiros are famous,
among other feats, for handling poisonous snakes, and can, by particular
noises or tunes, call those reptiles from their holes, and make them
assemble around them. These sorcerers profess to render innoxious the
bites of snakes, to persons who submit to their charms and ceremonies.
One of the modes which is adopted for this purpose, is that of allowing
a tame snake to crawl over the head, face, and shoulders of the person
who is to be _curado do cobras_, cured of snakes, as they term it. The
owner of the snake repeats a certain number of words during the
operation, of which, the meaning, if they contain any, is only known to
the initiated. The rattle-snake is said to be, above all other species,
the most susceptible of attention to the tunes of the Mandingueiros."
The above accounts I should not have related upon the authority of one
or two authors, I have heard them repeated by several individuals, and
even some men of education have spoken of the reputed efficacy of the
tame snakes of the Mandingueiros, as if they were somewhat staggered in
their belief of it. "These men do certainly play strange tricks and very
dexterously." The same writer also observes, "One of the negroes whom I
had hired with the plantation of Jaguaribi, had one leg much thicker
than the other. This was occasioned, as he told me, by the bite of a
rattlesnake; he said he had been _cured_ from the bites of snakes by a
certain _curador de cobra_, or Mandingueiro, and had therefore not died;
but that as the 'moon was strong,' he had not escaped receiving some
injury from the bite."
Beaver, in his African Memoranda, says, "There is another sort of people
who travel about in the country, called Mandingo-men, (these are
Mahommedans;) they do not work; they go from place to place, and when
they find any chiefs or people, whom they think they can make anything
of, they take up their abode sometime with them, and make _gree-grees_,
and sometimes cast seed from them for which they make them pay."
On this, and other occasion, the word _gree-gree_ is applied to a house
whence oracles are delivered: but it is also used for a charm or obi.
"They themselves," (the natives of the coast) says the author, last
quoted, "always wear _gree-grees_, or charms, which they purchase of the
_Mandingoes_, to guard them against the effects of certain arms, or of
poison, and on which they place the utmost reliance. They have one
against poison; another against a musket; another against a sword; and
another against a knife; and, indeed, against almost every thing that
they think can hurt them. Mandingo priest, or _gris gris_ merchant, that
is, a seller of charms, which carried about a person, secure the wearer
from any evils,--such as poison, murder, witchcraft, etc. To this priest
I had made some handsome presents, and he, in return, gave me twelve
gris gris, and assured me that they would inevitably secure me from all
danger, at the same time he gave me directions how to dispose of them.
Some were to be carried about my person; one secretly placed over each
archway; another kept under my pillow, and another under the door of the
house I was then building." The Byugas hold these people in great
reverence, and say that they 'talk with God.'
Mr. Long, in his history of the West Indies, states that, under the
general name of Obi-men is also included the class of _Myal_ men, or
those who, by means of a narcotic poison, made with the juice of an herb
(said to be the branched Calalue, a species of solanum) which occasions
a trance of a certain duration, endeavour to convince the deluded
spectators of their power to reanimate dead bodies.
Additional particulars of this superstition preserved by Labat,
Edwards, and others, are to be joined with those now produced;[138] but
after all, the questions to be solved are, whether Obi, Mandinga, and
_gree gree_, are usually words of similar import, and whether those who
are conversant in them are all alike, priests of one system of religious
faith and worship, or whether the one does not belong to the worship of
a good power, and the other to that of an evil one.
It is remarkable, that while the Etymology of _Obi_ has been sought in
the names of ancient deities of Egypt, and in that of the serpent in the
language of the coast, the actual name of the evil deity or _Devil_, in
the same language, appears to have escaped attention. That name is
written by Mr. Edwards, _Obboney_; and the bearer of it is described as
a malicious deity, the author of all evil, the inflictor of perpetual
diseases, and whose anger is to be appeased only by human sacrifices.
This evil deity is the Satan of our own faith; and it is the worship of
Satan which, in all parts of the world constitutes the essence of
sorcery.
If this name of _Obboney_ has any relation to the Ob of Egypt, and if
the Ob, both anciently in Egypt, and to this day in the west of Africa,
signifies "a serpent," what does this discover to our view, but that
Satan has the name of _serpent_ among the Negro nations as well as among
those of Europe? As to how it has happened that the serpent, which, in
some systems, is the emblem of the good spirit, is in others the emblem
of the evil one, that is a topic which belongs to a more extensive
enquiry. This is enough for our present satisfaction to remember that
the profession of, and belief in sorcery or witchcraft, supposes the
existence of two deities, the one, the author of good, and the other the
author of evil; the one worshipped by good men for good things, and for
good purposes: and the other by bad men for bad things and purposes; and
that this worship is sorcery and the worshippers sorcerers.
It will be seen above, that since African charms are to prevent evil,
and others to procure it, the first belong to the worship, and are
derived from the power, of the good spirit; and the second are from the
opposite source. It is to be concluded, then, that the superstition of
_Obi_ is no other than the practice of, and belief in the worship of
_Obboney_ or _Oboni_, the evil deity of the Africans, the serpent of
Africa and of Europe, and the old serpent and Satan of the scriptures;
and that the witchcraft of the negroes is evidently the same with our
own. It might indeed be further shown, that the latter have their
temporary transformations of men into alligators, wolves, and the like,
as the French have their loups-garoux, the Germans their war-wolves,
wolf-men, and the rest.[139]
The negroes practising obeah are acquainted with some very powerful
vegetable poisons, which they use on these occasions, and by which they
acquire much extensive credit. Their fetiches are their household gods,
or domestic divinities; one of whom is supposed to preside over a whole
province, and one over every family. This idol is a tree, the head of an
ape, a bird, or any such thing, as their fancy may suggest. The negroes
have long been held famous in the act of secret or slow poisoning.
If doubts and difficulties envelope the discovery of poisons, whose
distinguishing character is the rapidity of these effects, how much
greater must be the uncertainty when we are required to ascertain the
administrations of what are called slow poisons. This subject, indeed,
is so closely entwined with popular superstitions, that it is difficult
to separate truth from falsehood. In Italy, for example, it was formerly
said, that poisons were made to destroy life at any stated period--from
a few hows to a year. This, however, turns out to be a mere fiction;
and, it is well understood, that we know of no substances that will
produce death at a determinate epoch. The following case of the late
Prince Charles of Augustenburgh, nevertheless, shows that the idea of
slow poison is still very prevalent, even among the physicians of
continental Europe.
Prince Charles of Augustenburgh, Crown Prince of Sweden, and the
predecessor of Bernadotte, in that station, fell dead from his horse on
the 22nd of May, 1810, while reviewing troops in Scania. His death,
during that stormy period of public affairs, excited great attention,
and an opinion soon spread abroad that he had been poisoned. The king
ordered a judicial investigation; and it appeared that Dr. Rossi, the
physician of the late Prince, had, without directions, proceeded to
inspect the body twenty-four hours after death; that he had performed
this operation with great negligence, omitting many things which the law
presented, which the assisting physicians proposed, and which were
essential to render it satisfactory; and finally, that the coats of the
stomach, instead of being preserved and submitted to chemical analysis
were, according to his own acknowledgment, thrown away. The royal
tribunal adjudged him to be deprived of his appointment, and to be
banished from the kingdom. This decision would not of course, diminish
the suspicion already excited; and among other physicians, who were
consulted on the case, M. Lodin, professor of Medicine at Lynkoping,
presented two memoirs, in which he stated it as his opinion, that a
_slow poison_ of a vegetable nature, and probably analogous to the _aqua
tofania_, had been administered to the Prince, and that this had caused
the apopletic fit of which he died. His reasons were:
1. That the Prince had always enjoyed good health previous to his
arrival in Sweden, and, indeed, had not been ill, until after eating a
cold pie at an inn, in Italy. He was shortly after seized with violent
vomiting, while the rest of the company experienced no ill effects.
2. The Prince was naturally very temperate.
3. Ever since he arrived in Sweden he had experienced a loss of
appetite, with cholic and diarrhoea; and
4. That on dissection, the spleen was found of a black colour and in a
state of decomposition, and the liver indurated and dark coloured.
Whilst during life he had experienced no symptoms corresponding to these
appearances. Dr. Lodin confessed, however, that he was unacquainted with
the effects that indicate the administration of a slow poison, but
thought the previous symptoms were such as might be expected from it.
For the credit of the profession, this conjectural opinion met with
decided reprobation from other medical men. It appeared that the Prince
had, for several days previously, been subject to giddiness and pain in
the head, and that all the symptoms were readily referable to a simple
case of apoplexy, while the appearances on dissection showed that rapid
tendency to putrefaction, which is frequently observed in similar cases.
The public are highly indebted to professor Beckman for a very elaborate
article, in which he has concentrated nearly all that is known
concerning _secret poisoning_. Of this we shall here present our readers
with an abstract, as peculiarly adapted to the demonology of medicine,
aided with some facts from other sources.
Professor Beckman considers it unquestionable, that the ancients were
acquainted with this kind of poison, and thinks that it may be proved
from the testimony of Plutarch, Quintilian, and other respectable
authors. The former states that a slow poison, which occasioned heat, a
cough, spitting of blood, a consumption, and weakness of intellect, was
administered to Aratus of Sicyon. Theophrastus speaks of a poison
prepared from aconite, which could be moderated in such a manner as to
have effect in two or three months, or at the end of a year or two
years; and he also relates, that Thrasyas had discovered a method of
preparing from other plants a poison which, given in small doses,
occasioned a certain but easy death, without any pain, and which could
be kept back for a long time without causing weakness or corruption. The
last poison was much used at Rome, about two hundred years before the
christian era. At a later period, a female named Locusta, was the agent
in preparing these poisons, and she destroyed, in this way, at the
instigation of Nero, Britannicus, son of Agrippina.
The Carthagenians seem also to have been acquainted with this act of
diabolical poisoning; and they are said, on the authority of Aulus
Gellius, to have administered some to Regulus, the Roman general.
Contemporary writers, however, it must be added, do not mention this.
The principal poisons known to the ancients were prepared from plants,
and particularly aconite, hemlock, and poppy, or from animal substances;
and among the latter none is more remarkable than that obtained from the
sea-hare (_Lepus marinus_ or _Apylsia depilans_ of the system of
nature). With this, Titus is said to have been dispatched by Domitian.
They do not seem to have been acquainted with the common mineral
poisons.
In the year 1659, during the pontificate of Alexander VII, it was
observed at Rome, that many young women became widows, and that many
husbands died when they became disagreeable to their wives. The
government used great vigilance to detect the poisoners, and suspicion
at length fell upon a society of young wives, whose president appeared
to be an old woman, who pretended to foretel future events, and who had
often predicted very exactly the death of many persons. By means of a
crafty female their practices were detected; the whole society were
arrested and put to the torture, and the old woman, whose name was
Spara, and four others, were publicly hanged. This Spara was a Sicilian,
and is said to have acquired her knowledge from Tofania at Palermo.
Tophania, or Tofania, was an infamous woman, who resided first at
Palermo and afterwards at Naples. She sold the poison which from her
acquired the name of Aqua della Toffana (it was also called _Acquetta di
Napoli_, or _Acquetta_ alone), but she distributed her preparation by
way of charity to such wives as wished to have other husbands. From four
to six drops were sufficient to destroy a man; and it was asserted, that
the dose could be so proportioned as to operate in a certain time. Labat
says, that Tofania distributed her poison in small glass phials, with
this inscription--_Manna of St. Nicholas of Bavi_, and ornamented with
the image of the saint. She lived to a great age, but was at last
dragged from a monastery, in which she had taken refuge, and put to the
torture, when she confessed her crimes and was strangled.
In no country, however, has the art of poisoning excited more attention
than it did in France, about the year 1670. Margaret d'Aubray, wife of
the Marquis de Brinvillier, was the principal agent in this horrible
business. A needy adventurer, named Godin de St. Croix, had formed an
acquaintance with the Marquis during their campaigns in the
Netherlands--became at Paris a constant visitor at his house, where in a
short time he found means to insinuate himself into the good graces of
the Marchioness. It was not long before this Marquis died; not, however,
until their joint fortune was dissipated. Her conduct, in openly
carrying on this amour, induced her father to have St. Croix arrested
and sent to the Bastile. Here he got acquainted with an Italian, of the
name of Exili, from whom he learnt the art of preparing poisons.
After a year's imprisonment St. Croix was released, when he flew to the
Marchioness and instructed her in the art, in order that she might
employ it in bettering the circumstances of both. She assumed the
appearance of a nun, distributed food to the poor, nursed the sick in
the Hôtel Dieu, and tried the strength of her poisons, undetected, on
these hapless wretches. She bribed one Chaussée, St. Croix's servant, to
poison her own father, after introducing him into his service, and also
her brother, and endeavoured to poison her sister. A suspicion arose
that they had been poisoned, and the bodies were opened, but no
detection followed at this time. Their villainous practices were brought
to light in the following manner:--St. Croix, when preparing poison, was
accustomed to wear a glass mask; but, as this happened once to drop off
by accident, he was suffocated and found dead in his laboratory.
Government caused the effects of this man, who had no family, to be
examined, and a list of them to be made out. On searching them, there
was found a small box, to which St. Croix had affixed a written paper
containing a request, that after his death "it might be delivered to the
Marchioness de Brinvillier, who resides in the street Neuve St. Paul, as
every thing it contains concerns her, and belongs to her alone; and as,
besides, there is nothing in it that can be of use to any person except
her; and in case she shall be dead before me, to burn it, and every
thing it contains; without opening or altering any thing; and in order
that no one may plead ignorance, I swear by God, whom I adore, and all
that is most sacred, that I advance nothing but what is true. And if my
intentions, just and reasonable as they are, be thwarted in this point,
I charge their consciences with it, both in this world and the next, in
order that I may unload mine, protesting that this is my last will. Done
at Paris, this 25th May, in the afternoon, 1672. _De Sainte Croix_"
Nothing could he a greater inducement to have it opened, than this
singular petition, and that being done, there was found in it a great
abundance of poisons of every kind, with labels, on which their effects
proved, by experiments on animals, were marked. The principal poison,
however, was corrosive sublimate. When the Marchioness heard of the
death of her lover and instructor, she was desirous to have the casket,
and endeavoured to get possession of it by bribing the officers of
justice; but as she failed in this, she quitted the kingdom. La
Chaussée, however, continued at Paris, laid claim to the property of St.
Croix, was seized and imprisoned, confessed more acts of villainy than
was suspected, and was in consequence broke alive upon the wheel, in
1673,--The Marchioness fled to England, and from thence to Liege, where
she took refuge in a convent. Desgrais, an officer of justice, was
dispatched in pursuit of her, and having assumed the dress of an Abbé,
contrived to entice her from this privileged place. Among her effects at
the convent there was found a confession, and a complete catalogue of
all her crimes, in her own hand-writing. She was taken to Paris,
convicted, and on the 16th of July, 1676, publicly beheaded, and
afterwards burnt.
The practice of poisoning was not, however, suppressed by this
execution, and it was asserted, that confessions of a suspicious nature
were constantly made to the priests. A court for watching, searching
after, and punishing prisoners was at length established in 1697, under
the title of _chambre de poison_, or _chambre ardente_. This was shortly
used as a state engine, against those who were obnoxious to the court,
and the names of individuals of the first rank, both male and female,
were prejudiced. Two females, la Vigreux and la Voison were burnt alive,
by order of this court, in February, 1680. But it was abolished in the
same year.
Professor Beckman relates the following, as communicated to him by
Linnaeus: "Charles XI, King of Sweden, having ruined several noble
families by seizing on their property, and having, after that, made a
journey to Torneo, he fell into a consumptive disorder, which no
medicine could cure. One day he asked his physician in a very earnest
manner what was the cause of his illness. The physician replied, 'Your
Majesty has been loaded with too many maledictions.'--'Yes,' returned
the king, 'I wish to God that the reduction of the nobilities' estates
had not taken place, and that I had never undertaken a journey to
Torneo.' After his death his intestines were found to be full of small
ulcers."
There has been a great diversity of opinions as to the nature of these
poisons. That prepared by Tofania appears to have been a clear insipid
water, and the sale of aqua fortis was for a long time forbidden in
Rome, because it was considered the principal ingredient. This, however,
is not probable.
In Paris, the famous _poudre de succession_ (also a secret poison) was
at one time supposed to consist of diamond dust, powdered exceedingly
fine; and at another time, to contain sugar of lead as the principal
ingredient. Haller was of this last opinion. In the casket of St. Croix
were found sublimate, opium, regulus of antimony, vitriol, and a large
quantity of poison ready prepared, the principal ingredients of which
the physicians were not able to detect. Garelli, physician to Charles
VI, King of the Two Sicilies, at the time when Tofania was arrested,
wrote to the celebrated Hoffman, that the Aqua Tofania was nothing else
than crystallized arsenic, dissolved in a large quantity of water by
decoction, with the addition, (but for what purpose we know not) of the
herb _Cymbalaria_, (probably the _Antirrhinum Cymbalaria_). And this
information he observes, was communicated to him by his imperial majesty
himself, to whom the judicial procedure, confirmed by the confession of
the criminal, was transmitted. But it was objected to this opinion, that
it differed from the ordinary effects of arsenic, in never betraying
itself by any particular action on the human body.
The Abbé Gagliani, on the other hand, asserts that it is a mixture of
opium and cantharides, and that the liquor obtained from its
composition, is as limpid as rock water, and without taste. Its effects
are slow, and almost imperceptible. Beckman appears to favour this idea,
and suggests that a similar poison is used in the East, under the name
of _powst_, being water that had stood a night over the juice of
poppies. It is given to princes, whom it is wished to despatch
privately; and produces loss of strength and understanding, so that they
die in the end, torpid and insensible.[140]
The following extract will show that secret poisoning has penetrated
into the forests of America. "The celebrated chief, _Blackbird_ of the
Omawhaws, gained great reputation as a medicine man; his adversaries
fell rapidly before his potent spells. His medicine was arsenic,
furnished him for this purpose by the villainy of the traders."[141]
FOOTNOTES:
[136] Various etymologies have been suggested for the word obi. Mr.
Long, in a paper transmitted several years since, by the agents of
Jamaica to the Lords of the Committee of Privy Council, and by the
latter subjoined to the report on the slave trade, expresses himself on
this subject as follows: "From the learned Mr. Bryant's commentary on
the word OPH, we obtain a very probable etymology of the term; 'a
serpent,' in the Egyptian language, was called _Aub_ or _Ob_."
'_Obion_,' is still the Egyptian name of a serpent.' 'Moses, in the name
of God, forbids the Israelites to inquire of the demon _Ob_, which is
translated in our Bible, charmer or wizzard, _Divinator aut
sorcilegus_.' The woman of Endor is called _Oub_ or _Ob_, translated
Pythonissa; and _Oubaois_ (he cites Horus Apollo) was the name of the
Basilisk or royal serpent, emblem of the sun, and an ancient oracular
deity of Africa. Their etymology, if admitted, connects the modern
superstitions of the west of Africa, with the ancient ones of the east
of that continent, from which source they have also been spread in
Europe. They are humble parts of the great system which is adorned with
the fables of Osiris and Isis; and they comprise not only the Obi of
Africa, but the witchcraft of our own country. That superstition is
every where connected with the worship of the serpent, and with the moon
and the cat. Skulls and teeth of cats are among the principal
ingredients of the African charms or _Obies_.
[137] Mr. Long gives the following account of the furniture of the house
of an Obi-woman, or African witch in Jamaica: "The whole inside of the
roof, (which was of thatch) and every crevice of the walls were stuck
with the implements of her trade, consisting of rags, feathers, bones of
cats, and a thousand other articles. Examining further, a large earthen
pot or jar, close covered, contained a prodigious quantity of round
balls of earth or clay, of various dimensions, large and small, whitened
on the outside, and variously compounded, some with hair and rags, or
feathers of all sorts, and strongly bound with twine: others blended
with the upper section of the skulls of cats, or set round with cats'
teeth and claws, or with human or dogs' teeth, and some glass beads of
different colours. There were also a great many egg-shells filled with a
viscous or gummy substance, the qualities of which were neglected to be
examined; and many little bags filled with a variety of articles, the
particulars of which cannot, at this distance of time, be recollected."
Shakespeare and Dryden, have left us poetical accounts of the
composition of European _Obies_ or charms, with which, and with more
historical descriptions, the above may be compared. The midnight hours
of the professors of Obi, are also to be compared with the witches of
Europe. Obi, therefore, is the serpent-worship. The Pythoness, at
Delphos, was an Obi-woman. With the serpent-worship is joined that of
the sun and moon, as the governors of the visible world, and emblems of
the male and female nature of the godhead; and to the cat, on account of
her nocturnal prowlings, is ascribed a mysterious relationship to the
moon. The dog and the wolf, doubtless for the same reason, are similarly
circumstanced.
[138] The superstition of Obi was never generally remarked upon in the
British West Indies till the year 1760, when, after an insurrection in
Jamaica, of the Coromantyn or Gold Coast negroes, it was found that it
had been made an instrument for promoting that disturbance. An old
Coromantyn negro, the chief instigator and oracle of the insurgents of
the parish of St. Mary, in which the insurrection broke out, who had
administered the _Fetiche_ or solemn oath to the conspirators, and
furnished them with a magical preparation, which was to make them
invulnerable, was at that time apprehended and punished, and a law was
enacted for the suppression of the practice, under which several
examples were made, but without effecting for many years, any diminution
of the evil sought to be remedied.
[139] In Kosters's travels in Brazil, we read of a negro who was
reported by one of his fellows to become occasionally _lobas homen_ or
wolf-man. "I asked him," said the author, "to explain; when he said,
that the man was at times transformed into an animal, of the size of a
calf with the figure of a dog;" and in the African memoranda is an
account of a negro who professed and even believed to have the power of
transforming himself into an alligator, in which state he devoured men.
Upon being questioned by Captain Beaver, he answered, "I can change
myself into an alligator, and have often done it." But though these may
be genuine African superstitions, and not such as have been introduced
by the Portuguese, yet it is certain there is no part of Europe to which
they do not equally belong.
[140] Beckman, vol 1, p. 74 to 103.
[141] See Major Long's expedition, vol. 1. p. 226.