A NIGHT S ADVENTURE.
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adventure. He said, that after getting a little way out of the town, a string of jumbies met him, dressed all in white, who held up their bony fingers at him in a menacing manner. He was very much alarmed, he said, but determined to proceed as fast as he could, without looking behind him ; for if by any chance he had happened to turn his head, they would have immediately strangled him. Finding they could not get this advantage over him, they went behind him, and "whispered soft and low"—“James! James!" Although not over-pleased at this salutation, he thought it best to bear it in silence, and hurry on as fast as he could. At length he came to a pond, known by the name of "Tom Long's Pond," which is always reckoned a favourite resort for jumbies—a kind of Vauxhall of theirs, I suppose. Here he met with another troop, who joined their comrades in tormenting him, until our poor benighted traveller hardly knew what to do. Fear overcame him, the perspiration streamed from off his brow, and his excessive emotion caused “ each particular hair to stand on end, like quills upon the fretful porcupine." In this awful situation, he remembered, that if he dispossessed himself of his upper garment, turned it before the jumbies' faces, and then put it on again, wrong side out, they could not hurt him. He tried this remedy ; and as soon as his dress was altered, his unpleasant companions gave a loud scream, fled from him in every direction, and left him to prosecute his walk in silence and solitude. This is James's version of the circumstance I, who wasan unknown, but attentive listener, could not help asking (so wishful was I of gaining information upon this important subject) if there was any great merit in turning his coat. "Oh, yes!" was the reply; "jumbies can never hurt you, if you can only have strength to turn your jacket." So, it appears, that whatever may be the character of jumbies in other respects, they shew their good sense in disliking turncoats.