THE DEVOTION OF THOMAS NED. 191 



tobacco plant growing wild somewhere, and no miser 

 e^er watched his gold as Thomas Ned did his hoarded 

 supply and the prospective "smokes" on the stalk. 

 The rains fell, and the sun came out after the show- 

 ers ; the nights succeeded the days, and it was all the 

 same to us, for we were busy and happy, each with 

 his own employ. 



It followed as a matter of course, after the advent 

 of Thomas Ned, that he took charge of my planta- 

 tion and assisted materially in the agricultural opera- 

 tions, and latterly I had left the management of the 

 garden chiefly to him, because of his special knowl- 

 edge of the native plants and their culture. He had, 

 indeed, manifested a desire to have me keep away 

 from the garden, which I thought strange, but attrib- 

 uted to nothing more than a natural desire to take 

 sole charge of a work in which he particularly de- 

 lighted. But one evening, as we were strolling 

 through the garden, and noting with pleasure what 

 great advancement the various plants had made, I 

 came across something that made me turn upon my 

 man Friday with a demand for an explanation. It 

 was nothing more than a stick stuck up slantwise in 

 the center of the garden, and dangling from the top 

 a strange assortment of "trash," such as a parrot's 

 head, a red rag, a halfpenny, and a small bag of 

 rice. 



I knew at first glance what this stuff signified : it 

 was an Oheah cha/rm^ such as the African wizards use, 

 to put a spell upon their enemies. This witchcraft 

 of Obeah, a survival of the African serpent worship. 



