Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/230

 2o6 Collectanea.

Folklore of the Negroes of Jamaica. II.

(^Continued from p. 94. See Prefatory Note, p. 87.)

If an owl screech over a house three times some one in that house will die. To prevent this you must cry out " Pepper and salt for your mammy."

If your dog howls during the day or night it sees a duppy, and some one in that house will die.

If a scissors or knife drop from you and stick upright in the ground you will have a strange visitor.

If you are walking along a road through a wood and hear a noise as of something cracking you should look back, for there are two duppies following you, a good and a bad one ; and the good one is trying to attract your attention, and if you look back it shows you are the good one's friend, and no harm will come to you.

When a person dies the water in which the body is washed must be put on one side, and as the funeral leaves the house it must be dashed after the hearse, otherwise the duppy will haunt the house.

To prevent a horse winning a race, collect the dirt from the hoof and wrap it up with assafoetida in a cloth tied with the wild slip plant. Put this under a very heavy weight, and the horse will be sure to lose the race. If the owner of the horse, however, collects the dirt first, the charm will not work, provided he throws the dirt away on the day of the races.

To take off a duppy, let the person on whom it is set sit on a Bible and jump three times over a fire. A goat or some other animal's blood must be shed on the fire and the flesh partaken of by all present.

Do not put your hat on a bed, for misfortune will surely over- take you.

If the blinds of a jalousie drop in a house about mid-day, duppies are in the house and are then leaving ; it also denotes that you will have visitors.

If you have a death in your house turn all the looking glasses to the wall or cover them, for if the image of the dead be reflected it will cause another death in the family.