266 Timehri. 
the doctor by the year to attend their family. There was a family whom I 
attended on these terms. When the contract time had lapsed and there had 
been scarcely any sickness in the family the head of the family thought it hard 
to pay the amount due for my attendance. There used to be a great fashion 
of crowding up a sick room. On one occasion, which I remember well, I came 
into a sick room and found every seat in the room occupied, and the spectators 
gazing at the patient as people gaze at a criminal in the dock. I told them that 
they were like a lot of carrion-crows, but that they would not get the carcase, 
as the patient would recover. She recovered. 
I may mention a few customs of the people. The Sunday funeral isa great 
institution. I have heard of an old man who was likely to die before Sunday. 
Every effort was made to prolong the old man’s life until Sunday. The 
wedding is a great function in this as well as in other countries. The essen- 
tial requisite is that bride and bridegroom shall drive to church. The wake is 
very popular here. At the wake the grief of the bereaved is mitigated by a 
resort to stimulants and amusement. There is a festive air about the pro- 
ceedings. I have heard of a wake at which the widow received a proposal of 
marriage, and told the candidate for her affections that she had already made 
other arrangements! The Burial Society is a very favourite institution. The 
greater the mortality the greater the prosperity. When a member dies the 
surviving members subscribe. The amount subscribed exceeds the immediate 
requirements, and the amount in excess is deposited with the treasurer to the 
credit of the fund. I will say a few words about the belief in Kinna. This is 
a very general belief in this colony—one family cannot eat fowl, another family 
cannot eat pork. I remember one person who could not eat pumpkin. The 
origin of the belief is totemism. Every family hasa totem. Those who have 
the same totem are said to be akin to each other, hence the term Kinna. This 
belief extends far beyond the borders of the colony. It is believed that those 
who consume their totem are visited with the penalty of disease, which may be 
death. Totemism is closely allied to the customs of tattooing. Tattooing shows 
the totem class to which the tattooed person belongs. 
Obezhism is firmly believed in by many people in this colony. Under cover 
of obeahism, poisoning is supposed to have occurred here, and Berbice had a 
bad name in former days in this respect. Obeahism and Voodism are closely 
allied. The word Voodooism is not generally used in this colony as it is in Hayti. 
Hayti is the hot-bed of Voodooism. Voodooism is serpent worship. In the 
Voodoo Temple a non-venomous serpent is kept and worshipped. | Voodooism 
is obeahism in full foree. In Hayti the sacrifice of the “ goat without horns ” 
takes place. In his ‘‘ Haphazard Notes” Mr. Magistrate Thorne says—“ When 
I was a Magistrate in Leguan, obeah was a great institution.” 
The Water Mamma. In this colony it is called knife-mamma. In Grenada 
it is called Mamadjo. The Grand Etang in Grenada is supposed to be the home 
of a water-mamma. A favourite dance in this country was the Water-Mamma 
Dance. There used to be a Water-Mamma society. The Cen-cen of Paris 
was very properly compared with the Water-Mamma Dance. 
The “ Old Hag’’ isa very wide-spread superstition here, and it is believed in 
