JAMAICA 229 



These people, notwithstanding their imitation of their 

 English masters in dress, habits, and religion, are still sav- 

 ages in their minds and culture, though QOl savage in the 

 sense of cruel or vindictive, for the negro has traits of char- 

 acter entirely differenl Prom those which we ordinarily 

 attribute to savages, judged by the standard of the tradi- 

 tional American red man. Notwithstanding the outward 

 semblance of the christian religion, they only assume its 

 mere conspicuous phases. They find in church attendance 

 a satisfaction of their gregarious tendencies, and in religious 

 rites, especially those of the evangelical denominations, 

 an opportunity to sing and shout and sway in rhythmic 

 motion, jusl as their ancestors did in the voodoo cere- 

 monies of the African forests. The ethical, moral, and 

 spiritual teachings of the earnest preachers pass through 

 their simple minds like water through a sieve; only the 

 ceremonial and emotional phases impress them; an empty 

 bottle, a potent power of evil, if set down at the door of 

 a congregation, would send it into paroxysms of fear. On 

 the road to and from the church, the rustling of the wind 

 through a ceiba-tree, which in their humble minds is the 

 dwelling-place of jumbies, 1 will offset all the sermons of the 

 day. 



Even educated young Avomen in the normal school 

 recently fainted from fear at sight of some trembling 

 mercury which had been spilled upon the floor during an 

 experiment. Obiism was more potent than science. It 

 is believed that the "goat without horns 1 ' is still sacrificed 

 by these people : and when a child is lost in Kingston, black 

 hearts pale with the terrible thought that the obi-doctor 

 has appropriated him for this purpose. In the mountains 

 and valleys they still meet, led by some hideous obi-man, 



to sacrifice the rumpled cock or human child, or sway and 

 dance until they fall in trances. Civilization should, in- 

 deed, be thankful that the Btrong arm of England keeps 

 these savage instincts iii subjection, and that it- more 



1 Jnmby, a Bynonym of chippy the " harnl " (haunt) <>f our Southern o< g 



