Forest and Stream. 
A Weekly Journal of the Rod and Gun. 
Copyright, 1904, by Forest and Stream Publishing Co. 
Tkrms ^sVmok T h^: s - aCopy -[ NEW YORK, SATURDAY, OCTOBER 8, 1904. {^ii^SSrs^^l. 
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CONCERNING THE DUFFY. 
He saw a Duppy. This is without doubt the only 
reasonable and truly scientific explanation of the phe- 
nomenon described by our correspondent, I. H. W., in the 
account of his night adventure in Brazil. He has been 
moved to tell his story by the appearance of the ignis 
fatuus flickering in our Natural History columns. But 
the Duppy is no real ignis fatuus, although it emits a 
weird light and goes bobbing up and down in dark places. 
Some of us perhaps have scanty or no knowledge of 
Duppies, and may be inclined to pooh-pooh their exist- 
ence ; but any such skepticism is due to a neglect of early 
education. There are hundreds of thousands of human 
beings living on this earth to-day who have implicit faith 
in the existence of the Duppy, and to whom it is a very 
real and very terrible factor of the outdoor world. They 
have imbibed a knowledge of it indeed as a part of their 
ABC. For two centuries the black mothers of Jamaica 
have taught their children the alphabet by a set of rhymes, 
which, so far as we need give it for the present purpose, 
runs as follows, "assinoo" meaning donkey, "and 
"buckra" meaning. white man: 
A is for Assinoo; see how him stan'! 
B is for Buckra, bery bad man. 
C is for Pussy; him name Maria; 
D is for Duppy; him eye shine like fire. 
Early impressions last through life. The child taught 
to believe in the Duppy, whose eyes shine like fire, after- 
ward sees the dreaded apparition in the dancing will-o'- 
the-wisp and the phosphorescent glow of dead wood in 
the darkness of the forest. The Duppy, Jumbi or Zombi, 
is known all through the West Indies; its favorite haunt 
is in the ceiba or silk cotton tree. Charles Kingsley tells 
us .that in Trinidad the giant ceibas are popularly re- 
garded as magic trees haunted by spirits; "there are too 
many Jumbies in him," the negro says. Wherever the 
ceiba is found- — and it is found in Brazil — within its shel- 
ter the Duppy is sure to make convenient and congenial 
perch, thence to emerge in human form divine, or in shape 
of some animal, or as a composite apparition such as 
that which was seen by our correspondent, having a body 
like a calf and a head like a dog. One might reason that 
the simplest and most sensible expedient would he to ex- 
terminate the ceiba-inhabiting Duppies by destroying the 
trees which harbor them; but to meddle with a ceiba is 
just the one thing a West Indian negro will not do if he 
possibly can avoid it. In Trinidad it is held that if one 
cuts down a ceiba he is sure to die or come to some harm 
within the year ; and in Jamaica, when a negro can be in- 
duced to fell a ceiba, he first pours over the roots a pro- 
pitiatory libation of rum, and as he swings his ax, sings 
a deprecatory song, ascribing the responsibility to that 
instrument — "Me no cut you, massa, he cut you." 
The ceiba or silk cotton tree is indigenous to the West 
Indies and Brazil, and to Africa. When the negroes 
brought as slaves from Africa to the West Indies found 
the familiar tree in their new home, naturally they 
ascribed to it here the same weird nature it had there, 
and peopled it with like uncanny spirits. Of the many 
shapes assumed by the Duppies of the African forests, one 
of the most horrid is the Sasabonsum, which Mary 
Kingsley describes in her "Travels in West Africa." This 
particular spirit lives in or under the great si-Ik cotton 
trees, around the roots of which the earth is red. The 
red earth identifies a silk cotton tree as being the residence 
of the Sasabonsum, as its color is held to arise from the 
blood that drips off him as he goes down to his under 
world after a night's carnage. All silk cotton trees are 
respected because they are held to be the roosts for 
Duppies, but the red earth ones are feared with a great 
fear, and no one dares to pass by them or to camp near 
them at night. Sasabonsum is a friend of witches. He 
js of enormous size and of a red color. He waylays un- 
protected wayfarers in the forest at night, and either eats 
them or sucks their blood. Sometimes a victim escapes, 
crawls home to describe the appearance of the Duppy, 
and expires. Considering what a frightful creature an 
African Duppy is in its native lair, and what it does to its 
victim, we are of opinion that the hero of the Brazilian 
adventure may well have thanked his stars that he got off 
so easily from the one he encountered, and escaped with 
a scare. 
The horrible funk this Brazilian apparition threw the 
wayfarer into gives strong confirmation of the theory that 
it was a real and true Duppy. When a West African en- 
counters a Duppy, Miss Kingsley says, "he is a thousand 
times more frightened than puzzled over the affair. He 
does not want to 'investigate' to see whether there is 
anything in it. He wants to. get clear away and make 
ju-ju against it." This is precisely the terror engendered 
by an encounter in Brazil. "I was too frightened to ask 
the apparition or whatever it was where his wealth was 
stored," writes I. H. W., "my only anxiety being to get 
out of the locality as soon as possible, not even looking 
behind to see if 'el luz' was visible and bobbing." 
We repeat, then, that the reasonable and scientific 
answer to the riddle our correspondent has set tx> be rid- 
dled is that he saw a Duppy. If after the evidence ad- 
duced there be a skeptic to deny the Duppy in part or 
in toto, we recommend to him to consider that in this, 
as in other phenomena, natural, supernatural, and un- 
natural, much depends on the point of view. What a 
thousand men cannot see in the light, one man can see in 
the dark. The spirit in the ceiba is, like the ceiba, a 
product of latitude and longitude. Negative evidence 
might disprove the existence of the ceiba-inhabiting 
Duppy, but the same sort of evidence would disprove the 
ceiba as well. All the negative evidence in the world 
would not destroy the belief of the child who has learned 
with his alphabet, "D is for Duppy, him eye shine like fire." 
He may perhaps unlearn it, but when the time comes he 
will learn it again. An amusing story is told by Miss 
Kingsley of a native minister who had been away in the 
Apollonia district on mission work. One evening he and 
a friend were strolling along a beach which was reputed 
to be the haunt of witches, and where the night was so 
dark that only the surf breaking on the shore was visible. 
They saw a flame coming toward them ; after a minute's 
doubt knew it was a witch, and feeling frightened, 
hid themselves among the bushes. As they watched, it 
came straight on and passed them and disappeared in the 
distance. "My informant laughed at himself," adds Miss 
Kingsley, "and very wisely said, 'One has not got to be- 
lieve those things here ; one has to in Apollonia.' " 
THE OUTLOOK FOR GAME. 
We continue to-day the "Notes from the Game Fields," 
of which the first installment was printed last week. 
These reports, in response to our inquiries, have come 
from a very wide extent of territory; indeed, they may be 
said to cover the game regions of the country. They 
have been sent to us from game commissioners and game 
wardens ; they are official, and may be accepted as intel- 
ligent and authentic. And they make a remarkable show- 
ing; for with barely an exception they tell of an increase 
of game and a good outlook for the season's sport. 
Reading between the lines, one may find in them what 
is more significant and gratifying and important than 
the mere condition of the game supply. It is the grow- 
ing popular sentiment which in larger degree than ever 
before approves and sustains the game protective system. 
This is something which was certain to come with time, 
and with the showing of results. Once achieve a condi- 
tion wherein the fruits of protection are patent, and its 
benefits demonstrable by the actual substantial evidence 
of a fostered game supply, and at that moment the battle 
is won, opposition is disarmed and public support is 
assured. 
The one feature of the modern system of game protec- 
tion which has been more effectual than any other, or 
than all others, to save and renew the game supply, is the 
prohibition of the sale. The present prevailing favorable 
condition of the game covers is in large measure a direct 
result of the adoption of the Forest and Stream Plat-, 
form Plank that "the sale of game should be forbidden at 
all seasons," If ever there wag a triumph of an idea, there 
was one here. Proposed at a time when the marketing of 
game was practically universal — provided there was any 
game to sell; and when it was conjectured even by the 
most strenuous advocates of the idea that a realization 
of it could not be expected for many years to come, the 
principle is now universally recognized as basic in any 
sufficient system of protection. 
But game laws aside, and beyond all human agencies, 
there are certain influences and conditions which make 
for or against the game supply of a season; and of 1904 
we may say that it is a good game year, just as we write 
of a good apple year or a good wheat year. 
RAILROADS AND ILLICIT GAME TRAFFIC. 
In a communication of a North Carolina correspondent 
in our last issue, renewed attention was called to a com- 
mon evasion by railroad employes of the laws which for- 
bid the export of game. The northern demand for quail 
for hotel, restaurant, club and private tables, is so great 
that all sorts of tricks and expedients are resorted to by 
the shippers to get the birds across the State lines. One 
way is to enlist the agency of train crews, who receive 
the game in one State and deliver it in another. This 
has been going on for years; but there is no excuse for 
its continuance. The railroad officials have the matter 
wholly in their hands. They can put a stop to the illicit 
traffic at once and completely, and there is not the 
slightest question that they would take the necessary 
steps to do so if their attention were called to the sub- 
ject and the facts were put before them. The proper 
course for an individual who may have cognizance of 
illicit game transportation by railroad employes, would 
be to communicate directly the facts to the higher 
authorities of the road implicated, and we much mistake 
the temper of the officials if the result would not be a 
speedy correction of the abuse. Train crews are em- 
ployed to- run trains, not to act as fences for a contra- 
band traffic. 
PEBBLES OF THE PAVE. 
A gang of pavers is paving Broadway. They set the 
heavy granite blocks in place carefully, but not too care- 
fully, nor without circumspect appreciation that another 
paving contract in the not remote future is among the 
things to be hoped for. The cracks between the stones 
are filled with pitch and gravel. The heaps of gravel 
allure the small boy. A youngster stuffs his pocket with 
pebbles. They are good to throw at cats. That night he 
bombards the cats, and there is an end of it. • Another boy 
fills his pocket with pebbles. They interest him. He 
notes their shapes and shades, and wonders at them. His 
curiosity is aroused. He wants to know all about them, 
where they came from, how they were formed, the where 
and the why and the how. of it. ■ He studies up the sub- 
ject. The study gives him a taste for geology. Eventually 
he becomes a mineralogist, discovers a gold mine, and 
dies a millionaire. This story shows by what trifling in- 
cidents our lives are governed. It also indicates the 
difference in boys. It is, moreover, a true story as to the 
first boy; and as to the second boy, except that he has 
not yet been born. 
POISONS IN THE FIELD. 
Three species of laurels are injurious, chiefly to sheep 
and cattle, and not always to them, though they have a 
bad reputation. Chickens which have fed on laurel leaves- 
are said to absorb the poison, and, if eaten by human be-> 
ings, to be very dangerous. Occasionally one hears of ill 
effects resulting from eating a grouse that has fed on 
laurel leaves, but we do not know that anything has ever 
been done toward investigating the effect of this food on, 
the flesh of wild game. Honey made from the flowers of 
the laurel is said to be poisonous. 
Jimson weed is common about cities in vacant lots, and 
in the country, growing at the edge of the barnyard. It is 
a large, rank plant, with white flowers three to four 
inches long, reminding one a little of. the morning glory. 
The seed pods are four-valved, prickly,; and contain a 
great number of seeds, at first white, but, as they ripen 
growing brown, and finally changing to black. Children 
ar.e poisoned, by eating the fruit, chewing the stems, or 
sucking the flower, 
