Page:The Folk-Lore Journal Volume 1 1883.djvu/295

 Rh neighed louder than thunder, and gained upon the fugitives every moment. Despair left the princess no choice, and she violently dashed her phial upon the ground. Instantly the water which it contained swelled itself into a tremendous torrent, which carried away every thing before it—rocks, trees, and houses; and the horse and his rider were carried away among the rest. There was an end of the headman and Dandy! The princess then returned to court, where she raised a strong party for herself, seized her two sisters, who were no better than their father and had assisted him in his witchcraft; and, having put them all and their partizans to death by a summary mode of proceeding, she established herself and her husband on the throne as headman and head woman. It was from this time that all the kings of Africa have been uniformly mild and benevolent sovereigns. Till then they were all tyrants, and tyrants they would all still have continued if this virtuous princess had not changed the face of things by drowning her father, strangling her two sisters, and chopping off the heads of two or three dozen of her nearest and dearest relations."

Lewis says an indispensable requisite for a Nancy-story is that it should contain a witch, or a duppy, or some other marvellous personage. Elsewhere (p. 290) he says: "I have not been able to ascertain exactly the negro notions concerning the Duppy; indeed I believe that his character and qualities vary in different parts of the country. At first I thought that the term Duppy meant neither more nor less than a ghost; but sometimes he is spoken of as "the Duppy," as if there were but one, and then he seems to answer to the devil. Sometimes he is a kind of malicious spirit who haunts buryinggrounds (like the Arabian ghouls), and delights in playing tricks on those who may pass that way. On other occasions he seems to be a supernatural attendant on the practitioners of Obeah, in the shape of some animal, as familiar imps are supposed to belong to our English witches." In illustration of the last-named characteristic Lewis gives the following Nancy-story:—

"Sarah Winyan was scarcely ten years old when her mother died and bequeathed to her considerable property. Her father was already dead, and the guardianship of the child devolved upon his sister, who had always resided in the same house, and who was her only surviving relation. Her mother indeed had left two sons by a former husband, but they lived at some distance in the wood, and seldom came to see