RACE PROBLEMS IN THE WEST IM'll.s 395 



drugs to their masters from motives of vengeance. All 



the whites of the West [ndies believe that they do so, and 

 weird stories are told of planters who have thus sickened 

 and died. 

 Another strong feature of obiism is the belief in 



haunts. The negroes helieve that not only the spirit but 

 the person of the dead, in a modified form, returns to 

 trouble the living. These more nearly correspond t<> the 

 shades of the ancienl Creeks, having body aud substance, 

 than to our conception of spirits which are without them. 

 These shades are known in Jamaica as "duppies," in 

 Martinique as "zombi," in Antigua and Barbados as 

 " jumbies,'' and in America as "harnts." They are some- 

 what related to the myths of the will-o'-the-wisps, for 

 Jamaica duppies, at least, have fiery eyes ("D is for 

 Duppy; him eye shine like fire"), and the darkies are in 

 dread of moving lights at night. Duppies and their kind 

 are supposed to inhabit certain trees, especially the giant 

 ceiba, which in Jamaica is particularly feared by the 

 negroes on this account ; and they will not cut or injure it, 

 except after threats or violence, and even then they must 

 first be made drunk; and while felling it they chant a 

 song, "Me no cut you, massa; he cut you." Dead chil- 

 dren are especially liable to return as duppies to haunt the 

 mother, who, even though she may have been the ten- 

 merest of creatures, always recalls some act of omission or 

 commission on her part which will cause the child to 

 return and punish her. To prevent this, they are very 

 particular to put heavy weights upon the graves; other- 

 wise they will awake some night to find the duppy sitting 

 upon the foot of their bed. 



Obiism, in its most primitive form, is accompanied 

 by a few crude rites. Its believers are supposed to meet 



at night in some wild and secret place, where the obi- 



doctors or priests perform incantations, and the believers 

 sing and dance themselves into wild trances (such as the 

 dance on the Place Congo in New Orleans, described by 



