52
ANECDOTE.
and the younger sister also departed for " that bourne from whence no traveller returns." Whether any post mortem examination of the bodies took place I am unable to say, but report attributed their deaths to the milk they used being poisoned. This terrible crime does not, it is true, rage to the extent it once did ; but even in these days of freedom, Obeah men and women are still to be met with, and many negroes consult them when they have lost anything, are suffering from protracted pain, or when they wish to injure any one they may have quarrelled with. One of the Antiguan magistrates related to me the following circumstance, which had recently occurred. A man who had formerly lived with him as groom, but who for some time past had suffered severely from an ulcerated leg, brought a complaint before him, against another of his sex. It appeared the defendant was one who practised Obeah, to increase his worldly store ; and the other poor fellow, ignorant, and depressed in spirit from the almost incurable state of his leg, was induced to apply to him for advice. The Obeah man agreed to cure him, provided he received ten dollars for his pains. This the infirm man was unable to do, but said he had a surtout and a pair of black trousers at home, and if he would take them in place of the money, he would go and fetch them. The offer was accepted by the conjuror, the surtout and trousers were put into his hands, and the ceremony commenced. The diseased man was ordered to seat himself upon the ground, while Mr. Conjuror took a calabash of some liquid, and poured it upon his head, rubbed it very hard, and then putting his mouth to that part called the “ crown of the head," sucked it for some time, and producing a tooth, said he had extracted it by those means, and that his leg would soon get well. Some weeks having elapsed, and the limb still continuing in the same state, the man began to think he had been imposed upon, and consequently brought the case before the magistrate, in hopes of getting his surtout and trousers returned.