SOUTH AMERICA. 
131 
and flies and alights three or four yards before you, second 
as you walk along the road, crying, u Who-are-you,- 
who-who-who-are-you,” Another bids you, “ Work- 
away, work- work -work -away/’ A third cries, 
mournfully, u Willy-come-go. Willy-Willy-Willy- 
come-go.” And high up in the country, a fourth 
tells you to “ Whip-poor-Will. Whip-whip-whip- 
poor-Will.” 
You will never persuade the negro to destroy these 
birds, or get the Indian to let fly his arrow at them. 
They are birds of omen, and reverential dread. 
Jumbo, the demon of Africa, has them under his 
command ; and they equally obey the Yabahou, or 
Demerara Indian devil. They are the receptacles 
for departed souls, who come back again to earth, 
unable to rest for crimes done in their days of nature; 
or they are expressly sent by Jumbo, or Yabahou, 
to haunt cruel and hard-hearted masters, and retaliate 
injuries received from them. If the largest goat¬ 
sucker chance to cry near the white man’s door, 
sorrow and grief will soon be inside ; and they ex¬ 
pect to see the master waste away with a slow con¬ 
suming sickness. If it be heard close to the negro’s 
or Indian’s hut, from that night misfortune sits 
brooding over it; and they await the event in terrible 
suspense. 
You will forgive the poor Indian of Guiana for this. 
He knows no better; he has nobody to teach him. 
But shame it is, that in our own civilized country, 
the black cat and broomstaff should be considered as 
conductors to and from the regions of departed spirits. 
K 2 
