The Mad Bull’s Blog, Version 3

One of the things it seems that people believe about Jamaicans is that they practice voodoo… No way, sah! We don’t deal with voodoo at all. That would give us pins and needles, mon!

Obeah is more our bag! “Science” as we also call it nowadays.

A co-worker was telling me of the experiences of a past neighbour of hers, from the days when she used to reside in ultra rural St. Mary. Her neighbour’s husband died, and then some months after, she began hearing sounds on her zinc roof during the night. Awful scratching noises, which would keep going, on and off all night, keeping her awake, tormenting her. Some of her friends suggested to her that she was being antagonised by some duppies!

At first, she scoffed at the idea, but as time passed and the noises continued unabated, she began to believe that these noises might be caused by supernatural forces… She consulted with her friends more and more, and eventually, they convinced her to go and see a lady said to be versed in the ways of the supernatural who lived in the neighbouring district. One of them told her that she had even spoken to the woman about her, and that the woman was amenable to seeing her. Eventually, she bowed to the pressure. She went to the woman and told her of the noises in the night.

The woman told her to go away and she would pray for her. She was to return in a week. This she did.

After she left, the obeah woman called her associate and told him to follow the woman home. He was to observe where she lived, see who came and went, see who she spoke with, try to determine if she was quarrelling with anyone in the district… in short, find out whatever he could about her, without being obvious. This he did.

He came back to the “scientist” after three days and told her what he knew. He told her of her friends and acquaintances and that she seemed to be on good terms with everyone. He described her house to the obeah woman. She was a poor woman, and she lived in a fairly small board house with a zinc roof. She kept a clean house and yard. She didn’t have a beautiful garden, but she kept the place neat and tidy, even to the point where she swept the bare dirt in her yard. (You know, I’m convinced that this practice causes these dwelling places to lose the grass in their yards. They never have grass!). While she didn’t have lots of flowers or hedges or plants, she did have one plant growing in the yard. It was a huge orange tree, growing right up against the small house, and with some branches overhanging the house, shading it from the sun. It was the one healthy looking plant on the entire premises, almost as though it had sucked up all the nutrients in the yard, so that nothing else could grow.

The obeah woman gave her associate an igloo and told him to go and buy some bags of ice from a gas station in the next parish. That night, she sent him out with the ice to drive around to the womans house. After midnight, he was to throw the ice unto the woman’s roof, so that she would hear the loud noises and be afraid. He did as he was asked. The woman was frightened awake to the most godawful noises in the middle of the night. She feared that the duppies were finally going to force their way in and kill her, so she hid under her bed and prayed the rosary over and over until morning. The old woman sent the associate out on the same errand two more nights that week.

Early on the Monday morning after the week expired, the woman went back to the obeah woman, looking more agitated than ever. The obeah woman greeted her and asked her a question before she could say anything. “So, de duppy dem bin going on real bad de last few nights, nuh true?” (So, haven’t the duppies been going on really terribly the last few nights?) She wrought her hands and replied “Yes, mother…” in a frightened voice. She told the obeah woman that it sounded as though the duppies were throwing rocks onto her roof, as though they wanted to break in, but that when she went outside in the morning, she couldn’t find even one stone!

The obeah woman said that she had seen that the duppies hated her in her dreams, but that she had had a vision and she knew how to help her. She told the frightened woman that she would need to use the fresh blood of a goat and five chickens. She would also need about three pounds of salt. She then asked her if she had an old red panty. (seen by the associate as the woman hung out her washing) She told her to wear it for a couple of days (everyone knows that duppies are afraid of the color red) and that she was to bring that along too. Then the woman would have to pay her J$10,000.00, and she would pray for her and make some offerings, and the duppies would go away…

The woman left and went and borrowed money to pay the obeah woman. She used up her savings and she bought the goat and the chickens. She gathered the necessary items before the Wednesday night and she returned to “Mother”. Mother took the goat, the chickens, the salt, the red panty and the money and told her that she was going to help her. She told her that she was to return the next night.

She sent out her associate with ice once more that night. The woman came to her the next day, almost at her wits end from lack of sleep. “Mother” told her that she had triumphed over the duppy. She said it would never return, but that she was to chop down the orange tree at her house, because duppies really loved oranges, and she didn’t think that anyone had a spell strong enough to make the duppies stay away if there was such a nice orange tree on the premises.

Though she liked the orange tree a lot, the woman’s fear of the duppy drove her to do as the “scientist” had asked. As soon as she got home, she paid a young man living nearby to chop down the orange tree, and you know what? The duppy never, ever returned. My co-worker tells me that her neighbour still sings the praises of “Mother” to this day, but that she knows how the woman got rid of the duppy. “How?” I asked. “Nothing more than the orange tree was rubbing on her roof in the night breeze. Cho! Me neighbour too fool fool!” she replied.

I asked her if she never told the neighbour of her suspicions about the obeah woman. “No, man.” she replied. “Hey, everybody have to eat a food, you know. Plus, it doesn’t pay to cross “Mother”.” As she said this last bit, she looked over her shoulder, as though she feared that someone or something might be listening…

Tags: Entertaining Stuff //