26 
NATURE NOTES. 
days ago and leant on the table which took INIatthew and me an 
hour and more to rig again with the help of a bucket and stone 
jar after all. When I get home this evening he is hanging 
about — standing off and on. INIister William extorts interest. 
He is the living image in black of the Editor of the Erechthcum 
— so black that it would be a waste of ink to pour it over him. 
One cannot resist a certain deference to INIister William as well 
as interest in him. The untutored Matthew, of course, does 
not share this feeling, and thinks only of the table. The aim- 
lessness of INIister William is exhibited in his raiment. His 
braces are of elaborate construction and great strength, being 
composed of numerous strings arranged like the shrouds of a 
ship, and where they are attached to the trousers, rove through 
bone deadeyes in place of buttons. They are utterly dispro- 
portionate to their function, like those organs in the animal 
economy which so distress the subjective naturalist at home. 
If they held up anything to speak of one might not wonder at 
this exhibition of ingenuity and durability. One feels that the 
trousers have decayed away from the braces — and one trembles 
for the future. There is one big patch anyhow, though it shows 
signs of exfoliating from the rest — so big is it, relatively, that 
Mister \Wlliam must have had a narrow escape from having a 
new pair when it was sewn on. The men showed a disposition 
to make game of Mister William while I was indoors, and I 
heard fragmentary entertaining things as to his rig. When 
they were gone he appeared with some plantains and a chicken, 
for the sale of which he was evidently the agent of someone 
else. This business settled, it was plain he had something on 
his mind. While Matthew was cooking the chicken. Mister 
William confided to me that a man near Grand Ance had “ set 
strong Obeah ” for him, and that was the cause of all his woes. 
This was the first and last time I ever heard personally of the 
business from a negro, though it was at all times easy to dis- 
cover traces of this potent hidden devilry. I told him that the 
Chief of Police had a short way with Obeah men, and advised 
him to go to him — but this was of no use. He saw in me the 
kind of fellow who could produce a rival spell of the right sort 
from among my collections. As he looked at me I almost told 
the Editor of the Erechtlieum that the Royal Society alone had 
control of my duplicates. It was as clear as maybe that Mister 
Whlliam thought my object in putting so many snakes, lizards, 
and the like into bottles, was the working of magic and spells. 
Mister William took away with him a “ strong Obeah ” (in 
point of smell), and if he drew the cork from it anywhere near 
the Grand Ance man, I do not doubt as to its efficacy. It was 
“white” magic in one sense, at all events. 
In the great forest behind us there are many jumbies or 
ghosts incarnate in birds, reptiles, and other animals. Such are 
sacred, and no black man, woman or boy would either touch or 
be a party to the ill-treatment of one of them. Matthew, who- 
