obealiman is credited with exercising his power; and as he is believed to be able to put a "duppy" on a person, so it follows that another of the trade has to be called in to exorcise the "diippy so called into being. It is difficult in these cases to say whether the obeahman professes to act as a person in league with the Evil One, or rather as a medicine-man or ignorant quack. He fre quently prescribes decoctions, usually harm less, of his own brewing from the native herbs that grow in the bush round his hut, as part of his treatment, but it appears to be essential in all cases that certain absurd ceremonies and incantations should be gone through: and it is to .these latter rather than to the medicines that the patient looks for his cure. . . . A gruesome case now under investigation affords an extreme illustration of the obeahman's mode of treatment in cases of this na ture. The original statements on which the police took criminal proceedings, bald as they are, will tell the story better than any description of my own. James Bailey stated: "... Mrs. Tyson asked me, 'What is the matter with the girl?' I replied, 'She is sick with pain in her head,' and she say that two women duppies are on her. Mrs. Tyson replied, 'I will get her bet ter if you pay me 123.' I consented, and paid her the I2s. Then she sent Thompson to a shop to buy a white pocket-handkerchief and a vial of ink and a quart of fine salt. When Thompson came Mrs. Tyson opened the vial of ink and poured it down Sarah's throat, then take the salt, scrubbed her head, face, and the bottom of her feet with it, and said, 'The ink and salt will make the duppies leave your sister.' Before doing this Mrs. Tyson and a tall man named Pa-Pa flogged my sister severely in the head and all over her body with some green lime and redwood sticks about the size of my finger and about a yard in length. . . . She gave her about eight floggings and wet her during the day and night. I saw Sarah sitting on the floor in Mrs. Tyson's house. She looked excited and weak. . She grew worse after we
reach home. She could not take anything' to eat or drink, and continued in that condi tion until she died about 4 p. m. on Septem ber 23d." Robert Samuels, while telling the same story, adds that after the payment of the I2s. "Mrs. Tyson took up a Bible and read it. After that, they sing, and whilst they were singing Mrs. Tyson began the flogging. Af ter the flogging they put her (Sarah) in the sun to stand from about 12 noon until about 4 p. m. . . . On September i4th Mrs. Ty.son sent Thompson to buy a tin of blacking. She and Pa-Pa took it and blacked Sarah's face with it, giving her some to eat. On the night of September i5th Mrs. Tyson called Sarah to prayer. She was stubborn and would not move. Mrs. Tyson and Pa-Pa held Sarah by her feet, turned her head down, and dropped her on her head, and wet her. Whilst Mrs. Tyson wetted her Pa-Pa placed one of his feet on her neck to keep her down. After they wet her, they left her same place lying on the floor until next morning." . . . Other purposes for which the services of an obeahman are requisitioned are those in which some supernatural aid or protection is nee,ded to ensure success in some lawful ob ject. I remember one case in which an obeahman was asked to ensure a man's horse winning a race that it was being trained for. The measures recommended, however, after the fee was paid, were so ab surd that the owner of the horse became in dignant, and instead of following them re ported the rascal to the police. In another the obeahman advised a young woman how she could get married to the gentleman she wanted. In the same way he is constantly being called in to advise how best a man's growing crops can be protected from the depredations of the prowling thief. In many a provision or vegetable ground I have seen suspended from a tree an old pint bot tle, containing probably dirty water, or placed on the ground an old tin with some such relic in it as a bone or a rag. It seems hardlv credible that the thieves, who in spite
