Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

the true source of the malady: Obi had been set for them. The evil, however ridiculous it might be thought, was alarming.

That such of you, my good readers, as have not heard of this strange superstition, may understand it, I shall first quote the following account of it from Edwards's History of the West-Indies.

"When a negro is robbed of a fowl, or a hog, he applies directly to the Obeah man or woman; it is then made known, among his fellow blacks, that Obi is set for the thief; as soon as the latter hears the dreadful news, his terrified imagination begins to work: no resource is left, but in the superior skill of some more eminent Obeah-man. Should he still fancy himself affected, sleep, appetite, and cheerfulness forsake him; his features wear the settled gloom of despondency. Dirt, or any other unwholesome substance, becomes his only food, he contracts a morbid habit of body, and gradually sinks into the grave.

"The Obi is usually composed of a farrago of materials, most of which are enumerated in the Jamaica law, passed in 1760; namely, blood, feathers, parrots' beaks, dogs' teeth, alligators' teeth, broken bottles, grave dirt, and egg-shells."

The superstitious negro is too much terrified to communicate his sufferings: were he to be so daring, he imagines the evil would be more dreadful. Having once suspected the malady that carried off my friend's slaves, we soon discovered these suspicions to be true.

By diligent search, we obtained information of who it was that practised Obi. Among better informed people, haggard old women have been the terror of the simple: an old negro woman, of an almost horrid aspect, but although she was eighty, of extraordinary bodily faculties, had put Obi upon several of the negroes. It was a lucrative trade, and her chief stimulus was avarice.

We repaired to her hut, forced open the door, and saw the inside roof of thatch, and every crevice of the walls stuffed with rags, feathers, bones of cats, their skulls, teeth, and claws, with glass beads, eggshells, and viscous substances to unite them all. A large jar was found under her bed, containing balls made of earth and these materials; and in other parts little bags, likewise stuffed with similar articles.

It was determined immediately to burn the house, and all it contained; which, though it terrified the negroes at first, entirely relieved them from their fears, as the old woman was banished by law from the island.

SONG.

SHE sung, while from her eye ran down
The silv'ry drop of sorrow:

From, grief she stole away the crown,
Sweet patience too did borrow.

Pensive she sat,

While fortune frown'd,

And smiling woo'd sad melancholy.

Keen anguish fain would turn her heart,
And sour her gentle mind;
But charity still kept her part,

And meekness to her soul did bind.

She bow'd content,

Heav'd forth one sigh,

Sang, wept, then turn'd to melancholy.

Careless her looks around her hung,
And strove to catch each dewy tear ;
The plaintive bird in pity sung,

And breath'd his sorrow in her ear:
Amaz'd, she look'd,

And thank'd his care,

Than sank once more to melancholy.

THE USE OF THREE WIVES.

"For woman kind was never in the wrong,"

DRYDEN'S WIFE OF BATH,

THE great Theodore Beza was etymologically a triumvir, that is, he was married three times. He died at Geneva, 1605. The following lines were written on his three marriages by one Stephen Pasquier.

Uxores égo tres vario sum tempore nactus,

Cum juvenis, tum vir factus, et inde senex, Propter opus, prima est valides mihi jemeta sub annis,

Altera propter opes, altera propter opem.

In age, youth, and manhood, three wives have I tried,
Whose qualities rare all my wants have supplied;
The first, goaded on by the ardour of youth,
I woo'd for the sake of her person forsooth ;
The second I took for the sake of her purse;
And the third-for what reason? I wanted a nurse.

INTERESTING ANECDOTES RELATIVE TO THE ROYAL TIGER OF BENGAL.

(From the splendid work entitled the "Wild Sports of the East," by CAPTAIN WILLIAMSON, just published in folio.)

TIGERS very rarely make their attacks on open plains; though instances have occurred, within my knowledge, where they have proceeded half a mile, or more, from any cover, and made dreadful havock among travellers and peasants; acting as if intent on destruction only. We must not conclude that such conduct is in their ordinary course of practice, but may, no doubt, fairly attribute such a deviation from the marked character of the animal, to momentary anguish, or to resentment, induced by an unsuccessful skirmish with one of its own species when, being chased from the jungles, the defeated party bends its course towards any living object, teeming with revenge, and eager to give loose to its rage. The Tiger is of all beasts of prey the most cowardly; its treacherous disposition induces it,

almost without exception, to conceal itself until its prey may arrive within reach of its spring, be its victim either bulky or diminutive. Size seems to occasion no deviation in the tiger's system of attack, which is founded on the art of surprising. We find, accordingly, that such as happen to keep the opposite side of a road, by which they are somewhat beyond the first spring, often escape injury; the tiger being unwilling to be seen before he is felt. Hence it is rarely that a tiger pursues; but, if the situation permit, his cunning will not fail to effect his purpose: he will steal along the road's side among the bushes parallel with the traveller's course, until one of the many chances which present themselves, of finding him within reach, induces to the attack. Often, where the country is rather too open to allow his proceeding in this manner, the tiger will take a sweep among underwood, or through ravines, in order to meet the traveller again at a spot whence he may make his spring.

Tigers are extremely partial to such sites as command a road, selecting one rather less frequented, in preference to one that is much in use. In the former they are certain of finding as much as will answer their daily wants. If, however, the haunt be on a public road, it is usually at some spot covered with grass or bushes, especially the prauss, and in the vicinity of some ample cover, supplied with water, to which the prey can be dragged. There, in some low, opake spot, the sanguinary meal is consummated in gloomy silence.

« AnteriorContinuar »