356 



powder, which produced apparent death upon their 

 companion, and as they never employ the means 

 used for his recovery, of course the powder once 

 administered never fails to be lastingly fatal. It 

 must be superfluous to mention that the Myal-man 

 on this second occasion substitutes a poison for a 

 narcotic. Now, among other suspicious articles 

 found in Adam's hut, there was a string of beads 

 of various sizes, shapes, and colours, arranged in a 

 form peculiar to the performance of the Obeah- 

 man in the Myal dance. Their use was so well 

 known, that Adam on his trial did not even attempt 

 to deny that they could serve for no purpose but 

 the practice of Obeah ; but he endeavoured to 

 refute their being his own property, and with this 

 view he began to narrate the means by which he 

 had become possessed of them. He said that they 

 belonged to Fox (a negro who was lately trans- 

 ported), from whom he had taken them at a Myal 

 dance held on the estate of Dean's Valley; but as 

 the assistants at one of these dances are by law 

 condemned to death equally with the principal 

 performer, the court had the humanity to interrpnt 

 his confession of having been present on such an 

 occasion, and thus saved him from criminating 

 himself so deeply as to render a capital punishment 

 inevitable. I understand that he was quite una- 

 bashed and at his ease the whole time; upon 

 hearing his sentence, he only said very coolly, 

 "Well! I caVt help it!" turned himself round, 



