150 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[No. 69. 



On this matter, a curious phenomenon to inves- 

 tigate would be, the process by which the unton- 

 sured neophyte is converted into the bonneted 

 doctor ; the progress and stages of his mind in the 

 different phases of the practice ; how he begins by 

 deceiving himself, to end in deceiving others ; the 

 first uninquiring ignorance; the gradual admission 

 of ideas, what he is taught or left to imagine ; the 

 faith, of what is fancied to be so, the mechanical 

 belief ; then the confusion of thought from the in- 

 trusion of doubt and uncertainty ; the adoption of 

 some undefined notions ; and, finally, actual un- 

 belief; followed by designed and systematic injus- 

 tice in the practice of what first was taken up in sin- 

 cerity, though even this now perhaps is not unmixed 

 with some fancy of its reality. For this must be 

 the gradation more or less gone through in all such 

 things, whether Obeism, Fetichism, the Evil Eye, 

 or any sort of sorcery or witchcraft, in whatever 

 variousness of form practised ; cheats on the one 

 hand, and dupes on the other : the primum mobile 

 in every case being some shape or other o^ gain to 

 the practitioner. 



It seems, however, hardly likely that Obeism 

 should now be " rapidly gaining ground again " 

 there, from the greater spread of Christianity 

 and diffusion of enlightenment and information in 

 general since the slave-emancipation ; as also from 

 the absence of its feeding that formerly accom- 

 panied every fresh importation from the coast : 

 as, like mists before the mounting sun, all such im- 

 postures must fade away before common sense, 

 truth, and facts, whenever these are allowed their 

 free influence. 



The conclusion, then, would rather be, that 

 Obeism is on the decline ; only more apparent, 

 when now seen, than formerly, from its attracting 

 greater notice. M. 



Ohealdsm. — In answer to T. H.'s Query re- 

 garding Obeahism, though I cannot answer his 

 question fully, as to its origin, &c., yet I have 

 thought that what I can communicate may serve 

 to piece out the more valuable information of your 

 better informed correspondents. I was for a short 

 time in the island of Jamaica, and from what I 

 could learn there of Obeahism, the power seemed 

 to be obtained by the Obeah-man or woman, by 

 working upon the fears of their fellow-negroes, 

 who are notoriously superstitious. The principal 

 charm seemed to be, a collection of feathers, coffin 

 furniture, and one or two other thiutTs wliich I 

 have forgotten. A small bundle of this, hung over 

 the victim's door, or placed in his path, is supposed 

 to have the power of bringing ill luck to the un- 

 fortunate individual. And if any accident, or loss, 

 or sickness should happen to him about the time, 

 it is immediately imputed to the dreaded influence 

 of Obeah ! But I have heard of cases where the 

 unfortunate victim has gradually wasted away, and 

 died under this powerful spell, which, I have been 



informed by old residents in the island, is to be 

 attributed to a more natural cause, namely, the 

 influence of poison. The Obeah-man causes a 

 qusir\t\ty of grovnd glass to be mixed with the food 

 of the person who has incurred his displeasure ; 

 and the result is said to be a slow but sure and 

 wasting death ! Perhaps some of your medical 

 readers can say whether an infusion of powdered 

 glass would have this effect. I merely i-elate what 

 I have been told by others. 



While speaking of the superstition of the negroes, 

 I may mention a very curious one, very generally 

 received and universally believed among them, 

 called the rolling calf^ which, if you wish, I will 

 give you an account of in my next, D. P. W. 



Pillgarlick (Vol. ii.,p. 393. ; Vol. iii.,pp. 42. 74.). 

 — It seems to me that the passage quoted from 

 Skelton by F. S. Q. completely elucidates the 

 meaning of this word. Let us premise that, ac- 

 cording to all principles of English etymology, 

 pill-garlick is as likely to mean " the pillar of 

 garlick" as to be a syncopated form of '■' pilVd 

 garlick.^' Now we see from Skelton's verse that 

 in his time the peeling of garlick was proverbially 

 a degraded employment — one which was pro- 

 bably thrust oft" upon the lowest inmate of the 

 servants' hall, in an age when garlick entered 

 largely into the composition of all made dishes. 

 The disagreeable nature of the occupation is 

 sufficient to account for this. Accordingly we 

 may well suppose that the epithet " a poor pill- 

 garlick " would be applied to any person, in 

 miserable circumstances, who might be ready 

 to undertake mean employment for a trifling 

 gratuity. 



This, I think, satisfactorily answers the original 

 question, " Whence comes the expression ? " The 

 verse quoted by F. S. Q. satisfactorily establishes 

 the orthography, viz., pi^^ garlick. A Query of 

 some interest still remains — In what author do 

 we first find the compound word ? R. D. H. 



Pillgarlick (Vol. ili., p. 74.).— That to pill is 

 merely another form of the word to peel, appears 

 from the book of Genesis, c. xxx., v. 37, 38 : 

 '' And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and 

 of the hazel and chesnut tree : and pilled white 

 strakes in them, and made the white appear which 

 was in the rods. And he set the rods which he 

 had pilled before the flocks," &c. 



On first seeing your correspondent's Query, it 

 occurred to me that perhaps " poor Pillgarlick " 

 was in some way akm to " Pillicock," of whom 

 Edgar, in King Lear, records that " Pillicock sat 

 on Pillicock's hill ;" but the connexion between 

 these two worthies, if any, I confess myself quite 

 iniable to trace. 



I conceive that Pillgarlick means " peeler of 

 garlick," i. e. scullion ; or, to borrow a phrase from 

 a witness in a late case at the Middlesex sessions, 



