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DEVELOPMENT OF OBEAH IN JAMAICA 6 страница

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"The Obeah credulous entertain the greatest dread of anything supposed to be an Obeah, an egg seen on the road, or anywhere, supposed to be placed designedly, would not be touched; they would not walk near it. It would be accounted madness to step over an egg or any parcel wrapped up with a string, found in the yard or on the path. They will not walk near it, but take a circuitous way to avoid it. Even money would not be picked up if there was a suspicion that it had been used by the Obi man in washing some diseased person and cast in the road to transfer the disease to the person picking it up. But of all things an egg is perhaps the most dreaded. The story is told of an old woman giving her parting advice to her son going far away from home; 'James, my bwoy, you do go wa fra mi, alla warra you da go, no li, no tief, no swa, but if you do even tief, my bwoy, no tief fole egg; because if you do tek people's fole egg, my bwoy, dem tek narra fole egg go trowa same ina sea, same fassion de sea rowl as so you belly bottom da rowl.' That is: 'James my boy, you are going far away from me; but wherever you go, do not lie, do not steal, do not swear, but if you do even so forget yourself as to steal, do not steal a fowl egg, because if you do the person from whom you steal the fowl egg will take another fowl's egg and throw it in the sea, and as the sea waves roll so will the bottom of your belly roll'...

"Very frequently Obeah is used to bring about an influence over the mind of another, in order to gain some advantage from or over the person. It is a sort of hypnotism. This they call, 'Turn him yeye,' that is "Turn his eye,' the eye in the phrase meaning his mind or will, or the controlling of his actions. This frequently happens in law-suits. The Obi man at times is retained as well as the lawyer and the former is considered as indispensable, if not more so, than the later. The Obi man sometimes not only works on the case at home but also goes to the court with his client for the purpose, as, they call it, of 'Topping de mouts'--stopping the mouths, of the prosecutor and his witnesses and influencing

{p. 206}

the judge and jury. This is understood to be 'turning dem yeyes.'

"There is a 'Turn him yeye' Obeah, which is the equivalent of the 'Love Potion' in witchcraft: the Jamaicans call it 'De tempting powder.' Men and women use this 'Turn him yeye' Obeah in fits of jealousy. A Lady Clara de Vere must be very careful about breaking the heart of some country swain. He might get a 'Tempting powder' from the Obi man and put it in her tea and then she will fall madly in love with the broken-hearted swain. It is said that the making of this love potion is unspeakably filthy and disgusting....

"Here is a case of an Obi man undertaking to force an undesirable lodger to leave a man's house: 'An old Obi man heard a respectable Negro proprietor say that he wished he could make a lodger leave his house as he was a nuisance. The Obi man offered to manage it for a price. The proprietor must get two white fowls, a white shirt, a pint of rum, some black thread, a bundle of wood, two nails and a hammer. It was then arranged that they meet at the proprietor's house. The proprietor pretending to agree, went and told the police. At the appointed time he concealed two policemen in some coffee bushes where they could see all that went on. After some weird incantations, the Obi man drove one nail into the front door and another into the back door of the house, tying the black thread from nail to nail. He then produced a flask filled with a mixture of oil, rum and fowl's blood and lubricated the string, at the same time monotonously chanting. The remnants of the liquid he threw into the fire. The next part of the ceremony was to kill the two white fowls and sprinkle their blood on the floor. The Obi man then demanded seventeen shillings and three bangles, remarking at the same time, "I gib dat fellow one day fe clear out, if him don't go, I catch bin, shadow and him go fe tru." The detectives then stepped in and arrested him.'"[96]

In rejecting the Slave Act of 1826, one reason assigned was. as we have seen, the restriction placed on preaching and teaching

[96. A. J. Emerick, Obeah and Duppyism in Jamaica, p. 190 ff.]

{p. 207}

on the part of the slaves, as it was claimed that "amongst some of the religious bodies who employ missionaries in Jamaica, the practice of mutual instruction is stated to be an established part of their discipline."[97] The deleterious effect of such practice is shown in an earlier protest of the Jamaica Assembly against the rejection of the Slave Act of 1807, as we find it in the Report of the Committee of the Assembly dated November 16, 1809,[98] how two dissenting ministers while making application for a license before the Magistrates of Kingston in August, 1809, admitted freely: "That they had been informed that their predecessors did, upon many occasions, conduct themselves improperly, and did inculcate improper notions in the minds of the slaves."[99] Too frequently well-meaning ministers of the gospel, especially in the first days among the slaves, easily were misled to believe that what was in reality nothing but fanatical emotionalism consequent on the arousing of the spirit of the old African religions, was to them an awakening of the spirit. Even for the experienced it is hard at times to distinguish between the hysterical dementia of an old-time camp-meeting and the obsession of Myalism in a degraded form.

"So late as 1861," as Gardner remarks, "during the revival, as it was termed, a party of young women, in a state of religious excitement, went to the house of a reputed Obeah man, residing in one of the suburbs of Kingston, and brought him, with all the implements of his art, to the parade. His box contained not only nearly all the abominations mentioned, but... in the midst of all, sad to say, was a number of class tickets, indicating that he had been a member of a religious body for a good number of years."[100] Thus not only the persecuting Myalists but their victim the Obeah man as well, could be church members in good standing, during this weird stage of Revivalism.

And if the zealous, well-meaning Methodist missionaries were so easily deceived, why should we be surprised in our own day

[97. Slave Law of Jamaica and Documents relative thereto, p. 146.

98. Ditto, p. 249.

99. Note:--The full petition may be found, l. c., p. 252 f.

100. Gardner, History of Jamaica, p. 188.]

{p. 208}

that such egregious blunders are made at times by chance visitors to Jamaica or even by the more experienced folklorist who spends a few hurried months in the island interviewing the very class of individuals who are least likely to furnish correct information, since they feel themselves called upon to deal with the whole question as a foolish superstition of the low and ignorant, and usually too, out of local pride, gloss over or deny the real workings of Obeah.[101]

[101. Note:--Cfr. Martha Warren Beckwith, Black Roadways; a Study of Jamaica Folk Lore, Chapel Hill, 1929. Miss Beckwith opens her chapter on "Obeah," p. 104, with the following paragraph: "We have seen that all Jamaica Negroes believe in a spirit world. Many think that there are mischievous spirits who have the power to take animal shape and go about making themselves troublesome to men; these they say are the ghosts of evil men. Even the ghosts of good men, whose souls the Christian religion teaches them to look upon as happy in heaven, may come back to their friends on earth 'to keep holiday,' and may at times be hovering about the house where they have lived on earth. There is a general inclination today to associate these hauntings with the 'shadow' of the dead which lingers about the grave and which, if properly solicited may be persuaded to take a part in human affairs. This 'shadow,' which is the duppy, may be tempted out of the grave by a member of the dead man's family and 'set' upon someone against whom the exorciser has a grudge, or it may be made to perform other services to his disadvantage. The practice of this power over the shadow world is called obeah, and the so-called obeah religion depends on the belief that such spirits may be employed to work harm to the living or may be called off from such mischief. 'Working' obeah means to 'set' a duppy for someone; 'pulling' obeah means to extract the obeah set by another." Miss Beckwith tells us in her Foreword, p. vii: "Between the summers of 1919 and 1924 I made four visits to the island of Jamaica." If these four short visits had been lengthened out into four full years, she would not have been so ready to settle off-hand the difficult question of just what is Obeah, and her conclusions would unquestionably have differed greatly from what she has written. Again, p. 106, she asserts absolutely: "Obeah is merely sympathetic magic." In her foreword, too, p. vii, she states: "When the confidence of the people has been won and my own knowledge widened, I could question them about beliefs and customs. To three such informants I am especially indebted--to Wilfrid Bonito of Richmond (but brought up in Manderville), etc." Her friend, then, must have been amusing himself at her expense at times, if we may judge from the following, p. 108: "The real Obeah man, says Wilfrid, must kill one of his own family--it may be an infant. Wilfrid did not say so, but I suppose in this way the Obeah man secures the duppy who acts as his 'familiar' or 'control.'"]

{p. 209}

 




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VOODOO IN HAITI 1 страница | VOODOO IN HAITI 2 страница | VOODOO IN HAITI 3 страница | VOODOO IN HAITI 4 страница | VOODOO IN HAITI 5 страница | ORIGIN OF OBEAH | DEVELOPMENT OF OBEAH IN JAMAICA 1 страница | DEVELOPMENT OF OBEAH IN JAMAICA 2 страница | DEVELOPMENT OF OBEAH IN JAMAICA 3 страница | DEVELOPMENT OF OBEAH IN JAMAICA 4 страница |


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