Archeology and Anthropology. 1139 
told me that the pine woods were inhabited by creatures called 
“ Yayhoos” (Query, has the name come from Dean Swift?), big, 
black, hairy beings who walk about in “schools,” the biggest first, 
“and if they catch you, they tear you.” The only way of putting 
these creatures to flight was by waving a torch at them. There 
were also small, black beings like little men, who were called “ little 
people,” who lived in the branches of the pines, and if one pointed 
a finger at them, one fell down a cripple. These had been seen by 
the father (of course, dead) of my informant. These superstitions 
would appear to relate to the gorillas and monkeys of the West 
Coast of Africa, and to have been handed down from the original 
African slaves to their children. The pine woods were also said to 
be inhabited by “ mermaids” of both sexes, the name being used 
indiscriminately, who occupied themselves in the traditional way 
combing their hair. 
An eerie story was told me by my old host. Once, in his father’s 
time at one of the southern settlements, a woman left two of her 
children at home while she went to the fields. On her return, she 
found that the younger, a mere infant, had disappeared, and that 
the elder could not say what had become of it. The well was 
searched, and parties of men hunted through the bush, but for 
some time without result. On the third day, however, some of the 
men heard cries, and forming a ring they gradually reached the 
spot whence the cries came. There they saw an awful sight; the 
missing child was held by a thing without head or arms or legs, 
and more like one of the great, brown ants’ nests than iter 
else. When it saw the men, the thing appeared to be afraid, anc 
threw the child on to a mass of *‘ love-vine,” trailing from a neigh- 
boring tree, and then made off into the bush. The men, horribly 
frightened, took to their heels, except one, who took up the child 
from the ground to which it had fallen, and carried it home. The 
child’s body had become like jelly, and it only lived a day or two, 
This story appears to be “ made out of whole cloth,” and the con- 
ception of an ant’s nest, headless, eyeless, limbless, yet capable of 
seeing, moving, throwing, is grotesque even for a negro imagi- 
nation 
The negroes of the Bahamas show far fewer effects of white influ- 
ence than those of the United States, or even of the other West 
India Islands. Even in New Providence they have customs which, 
I fancy, are not found in the South, such as the fire-dances, the 
election with great ceremony of queens of the Congo, Yuruba, and 
Ebo tribes, ete. A belief in Obeah is prevalent, and probably also 
Voodooism, but it is excessively difficult for a white man to obtain 
any information on the matter, in New Providence, at least. In 
Andros there might be fewer difficulties in the way, for the con- 
fidence of the negroes there is easily won, if they be well treated. 
