OBEAH. 133 



business tlioroiiglily for him. ]Sro\Y the Coolie well under- 

 stood what doing the business thoroughly for an Obeah- 

 nian involved ; namely, the putting Brinvilliers or other 

 bush-poison into his food ; or at least administering to him 

 sundry doses of ground glass, in hopes of producing that 

 " dysentery of the country " which proceeds in the West 

 Indies, I am sorry to say, now and then, from other causes 

 than that of climate. But having an affection for his master, 

 and a conscience likewise, though he was but a heathen, he 

 brought iho. bottle straight to the intended victim ; and the 

 Obeah-man was now in durance vile, awaiting farther 

 examination, and probably on his way to a felon's cell. 



A sort of petition, or testimonial, had been sent up to the 

 Governor, composed apparently by the hapless wizard himself, 

 who seemed to be no mean penman, and signed by a dozen 

 or more of the coloured inhabitants : setting forth how he 

 was known by all to be far too virtuous a personage to 

 dabble in that unlawful practice of Obeah, of which both he 

 and his friends testified the deepest abhorrence. But there 

 was the bottle, safe under lock and key; and as for the 

 testimonial, those who read it said that it was not worth the 

 paper it was written on. Most probably every one of these 

 poor fellows had either employed the Obeah-man them- 

 selves to avert thieves or evil eye from a particularly fine 

 fruit-tree, by hanging up thereon a somewhat similar bottle 



