140 THE NORTHERN MOUNTAINS. 



been taken prisoner, sacked lier magic castle, and levelled 

 it Avitli the ground. AYlietlicr tliey did, or did not, find 

 skeletons of cliildron buried under the floor, or what they 

 found at all, T could not discover; and should be very careful 

 how 1 believed any statement about the matter. But what 

 they wanted specially to find was, the skeleton of a certain 

 rival Obeah-man, who having, some years before, rashly 

 challenged Madame to a trial of skill, had gone to visit her 

 one night, and never left her cottage again. 



The chief centre of this detestable system is St. Yincent, 

 where so I was told by one who knows that island well 

 some sort of secret College, or School of the Prophets Diabolic, 

 exists. Its emissaries spread over the islands, fattening 

 themselves at the expense of their dupes, and exercising no 

 small political authority, which has been ere now, and may 

 be again, dangerous to society. In Jamaica, I was assured by 

 a Xonconformist Missionary who had long lived there, Obeah 

 is by no means on the decrease ; and in Hayti it is probably 

 on the increase, and taking at least until the fall and death 

 of Salnave shapes which, when made public in the civilized 

 world, will excite more than mere disgust. But of Hayti I 

 shall be silent ; having heard more of the state of society in 

 that unhappy place than it is prudent, for the sake of the 

 few white residents, to tell at present. 



The same Missionary told me that in Sierra Leone, also, 



