166 Timehri. 



but he may also take the form of an old woman, an animal, a headless 

 cock, or an inanimate object. He haunts bridges, ditches and wells. 

 Bakroes are not very malicious unless molested, but they allow themselves 

 to be used by the obiaman in his evil practices." 



" The Leba is the spirit of Miseiy. She is described as having the 

 appearance of an old woman whose body is completely covered with rags. 

 She is bowed down with a heavy burden of debts and sins, a portion of 

 which she is constantly attempting to pass to the unwary wanderer who 

 approaches her Especially children fall an easy prey to her cunning. 

 The presence of leba in a person manifests itself by loss of appetite, list- 

 lessness — a feeling as if the body were carrying an unnatural weight. At 

 first, amulets are applied and all kinds of light objects such as dry leaves 

 or pieces of cork are worn by the sufferer with the idea of reducing the 

 heavy weight. But if these means fail the patient might submit to the 

 wiweri-watra (herb-water) treatment, which is administered by the 

 obiaman." 



Thunderbolts. — In the same Jom - nal Messrs. A. P. and T. E. Penard 

 give an interesting account of the notions of the Surinam negroes in 

 regard to stone artifacts. The idea that they come down with heavy 

 rains is common in Europe and possibly it has not originated here. I 

 have known people in Demerara to hold them in veneration but in 

 Surinam they are used as charms and medicines. 



" A woman told us that she had completely cured herself of rheuma- 

 tism by bathing every morning at five o'clock in a tub of thunder-stone 

 water. Another woman said that she had cured three of her children of 

 convulsions by means of powder made froru a thunder-stone. A man 

 said that he had cured himself of a severe lameness in the back and con- 

 gestion of the lungs, by the use of thunder-stone water mixed with some 

 water in which an ass had snorted, and a little sand taken from the spot 

 on which an ass had rolled, and that his back had not only gained its 

 original strength, but had become as strong as that of the ass." 



" They are potent factors in driving away evil spirits." 



" Not only do thunder-stones drive away the bad things, but they 

 attract the good. An acquaintance once saw a man fishing, who used 

 instead of the usual lead weight or common stone, a thunder-stone, which 

 he believed attracted the fish to his line. He would not sell the stone 

 although he was offered a goo J price for it." 



Even the Indians have generally forgotten that they once used them 

 as tools and weapons, but the Piaimen have esoteric knowledge of many 

 things not known outside. The Messrs. Penard have got some peeps into 

 this arcana and promise to publish the results, which we hope they may 

 do within a year or two. As a specimen they give the Aula or word of 

 the Thunder with the following translation : — 



" I am the Thunder ; the terror of the earth reflects my one-ness, 



