got abroad somehow that it was Stiffing who fetched the skeleton key for Lady Laura, that -that black night, and a number of rude boys set upon Stiffing one spring evening; they hooted her and pelted her and chased her, called her a skeleton, and altogether behaved very badly.”

"But if she did fetch the key, Lady Laura sent her for it."

"Oh yes, but boys and men, when they set upon a body like that, my lady, they only think of the victim before them. Stiffing wouldn't stop in South Wennock after that, but gave up her place."

"How shamefully unjust!" exclaimed Lucy.

Her indignation had scarcely spent itself when Frederick Grey entered, and Judith retired.

“Did you think I was lost, Lucy?”

There is no more to tell. And I thank you, my readers, for your interest in coming with me thus far. It is well to break off when the sky is sunny: better to leave sunshine on the memory than storm.

(Conclusion.)

MY GRANDFATHER'S NARROW
ESCAPE.

A STORY OF "OBEAH."

"FIRST of all," said my grandfather, "do any of you happen to know what an Obeahman is?"

Only one or two of those present had heard anything about "Obeah" or its professors.

"I thought not," mused my grandfather. "Well, you won't enter into the interest of my story unless I give you some explanation beforehand of this remarkable negro superstition. The Africans indulge in a sort of Ari

y?"

"That's how it was. John's young ones hid my hat, in fact; and Charles Lycett and his wife were spending the evening there. I don't know what good wishes for luck they don't send to Lady Lucy Grey," he added, drawing her before him, and keeping his hands on her waist.

Lucy laughed.

"What brings you alone?" he asked. "Where are they?"

"Laura went up-stairs to bed, and just now she called Jane. Frederick, Jane has been giving me a lecture."

"What about?"

is under the dominion of a demon, whose destructive tastes must be propitiated by offerings and prayers, much as the Eumenides were wont to be appeased by euphemistic titles and worship. This demon, whose name is 'Obeah' or 'Obi'-the latter spelling is, I assume, the more correct-exhibits his malignity chiefly in bewitching his unfortunate victim, who pines away under this fiendish influence and miserably dies, unless Obeah's wrath be turned aside by the intervention and mediation of one of his inspired priests and prophets. These 'mediums' are called Obeah-men' and their functions are not confined, by any means, to the merciful interference between the demon and his victim to which I have just alluded. These idle dreamers are not unfrequently em

tion was not needed: do you think it is?"

He snatched her closer to him: he covered her face with his warm kisses.

"Once, in this room-I have never told you, Frederick-I passed some miserable hours. It was the night following the examination of Mr. Carlton; of course it was altogether miserable enough then, but I had a fear on my own score, from which the others were free I thought the disgrace would cause you -not to have me."

enemy; and, such is the superstitious dread of, and belief in, the communicated power of the Obeah priest, that the person bewitched wastes away and dies, as I have often seen, sometimes from credulous fear, and sometimes from secret poisoning. The only English equivalent superstition is, I fancy, what country folks call the 'evil-eye.' And the effects of Obeah influence are very similar to those which have occasionally been noticed in people supposed to be 'bewitched' in this country. Of course, where this parallel can be drawn, we must understand that the person influenced is merely affected by credulous dread, and not by secret foul-play. The juggling Obeah-prophet is nothing without his professional apparatus, and whenever his aid, propitiatory or offensive, is invoked, he is careful to present himself in as strikingly hideous an exterior as can be produced by paint, feathers, and grease in various combinations. When he has disfigured himself

sufficiently by these appliances, he arms himself with his 'wand' and issues forth aggressively or mediatorially according to order. This potent 'wand' is nothing more than a calabash, or small gourd, mounted upon a short bamboo stick, and filled with beans or shells, the rattling of which inside their receptacle is the 'patent safety' against Obeah's malevolence. If the patient be merely one sick of a natural disorder, the Obeah-priest, who is received by the sorrowing relatives of the invalid with great reverence and awe, proceeds to exorcise the evil spirit by frightening him out of the dwelling he is presumed to invest. This process, which is accompanied by the most diabolical howlings, yelling, and rattling of beans, is prolonged in proportion as the case be urgent or only in its first stage. The Obeah-man, however, is seldom prevailed upon to exercise his art until he has made himself pretty well certain of the result of the disease he is to oppose. If he perceives it is most likely that the patient will shortly die, he abridges his exorcisms, and declares that Obeah will not be propitiated. This announcement of itself tends to hasten the sick man's dissolution, and the priest gets the merit due to his craftiness. Should it be apparent that recovery will ensue, the priest exerts himself, and when he perceives the critical point to have been turned, pronounces his verdict for health accordingly. If the question of life or death be very doubtful, the Obeah-man will shriek, and howl, and dance, and rattle his calabash night and day till the case is determined; if the patient dies, the priest will say that Obeah would not be appeased; if he lives, there is the great triumph of Obeahcraft! The satisfied priest will descend from the tree where he has been perched all night making its hours hideous by his devilish incantations, which are always conducted 'fortissimo,' and fanning himself as if exhausted (and no wonder) by his struggle with the fiend, will strut up and down in professional importance, exclaiming, with Molière's mock doctor, "This cure has cost me infinite trouble!'

"Of course, on these triumphant occasions, the Obeah-craft receives a new impetus, and its fame and creed are more than ever established. This propitiatory process is, however, the picturesque side of Obeah-worship: very different is the obverse. The priests are an idle, ill-conditioned, and depraved class, and seek an occasional addition to the income which is derivable from the exercise of their priestly functions only, by hiring out their services to revengeful blacks, and supplying poisons to those who would be rid of an obnoxious wife, child, friend, or master. It is seldom, however, that the aid of poison is called in when

the person to be influenced is a negro; for, as a general rule, the tidings that so-and-so has bewitched him is enough to affect fatally any black man's health. Such intense horror have the negroes of Obeah, that my son has effectually preserved his fowl-house from depredations by calling his negroes together and making them witness the following dark proceeding. Taking each fowl from the hand of some by-standing servant, my son will pluck a feather from its plumage, and, when all the birds have been submitted to this process, the little heaps of feathers are publicly interred; the trembling negroes being further impressed by hearing this awful incantation pronounced over the buried spoil,

Croft Deletok Abaneb Exafna Tembybe Cyrutz. Which hexameter is no more nor less than the first line of Gray's 'Memoria Technica,' and has reference to various historical events of importance, beginning with the creation of the world. This stupendous line, however, when delivered ore rotundo and with becoming solemnity, never fails to ensure safety to my son's fowl-house, while those of less ingenious owners suffer considerably. It has often amused me,' said my grandfather, addressing me, to watch the means your father sometimes devizes for keeping the black servants in awe and order on his estates. Occasionally he will address an of fender in some foreign language, at the same time stretching out his hand as if in denouncement; he generally recites a few lines of Homer as being heavy and sonorous, and the wretched negro will retire, petrified and alarmed, to take counsel of a friend, in something after this manner, 'Hi! budda (brother), what come to young massa now? he cuss me in French.' Only the other day, your father, in his hurry, could not recall his favourite Greek denunciation, and supplied the deficiency by a ridicu lous string of anatomical names. The recipient of this mysterious abuse vanished at once, but was overheard soon after in the following conversation with a friend:-'Hi! I nebber hear such cuss!' 'What he say?' I ain't know what he say!' 'Man, he must have cussed you down you troat.' 'Ah, I ain't like for anyone cuss me in my inside.' And so on; for a negro hates nothing so much as being addressed in language which he doesn't understand. In these mysterious words lurk Obeah; Obeah is everywhere, around and about him, and Obeah is to be avoided. Well, now you know something about Obeah and Obeah men,' resumed my grandfather, 'I will hasten on to tell you of a narrow escape I had many years ago from the machinations of an Obeah priest. While I was manager of Newton Estate in the

parish of Christchurch, Barbados, my duties extended to the occasional supervision of the various gangs' or droves of negro workmen employed in agriculture. The estate of which I was manager belonged to a Mr. Lane, my generous and considerate patron, who, besides my board and lodging, gave me a Poet Laureate's remuneration of three hundred a year and a cask of wine; my position, therefore, was no inferior one. Offences of all sorts which were committed on the estate were put before me regularly, and I dispensed justice accordingly. On one occasion, I remember, a negro, named Theophilus, was brought up to me by the watchman of the estate, charged with some theft or assault-I forget now what the particular offence was,-and I was called upon to sentence him. He was a large man, with more daring and 'fierté' in his manner than was usually observable in slaves. I inquired who and what he was.

"He was 'driver' of a gang, and carried a whip of authority over some eight or ten work

men.

“I took measure of the man, and bethought me of a fitting punishment for him. I soon decided. 'Take his whip away from him,' I said, ‘and give him a hoe like the rest of the gang.' This was done immediately, and a suc cessor to Theophilus was soon appointed. I had not very long to wait for an opportunity of seeing the effects of my too well-judged punishment. Shortly after this occurred I was elected to serve as one of the three local magistrates for the parish of Christchurch, and assumed my dignity in due form, without, however, throwing up my post of manager at Newton. One day an Obeah-man was brought before myself and my colleagues, charged with a variety of offences, amongst which the count of suspected murder figured most threateningly. It appeared that he had 'bewitched sundry cattle, sheep, and poultry, thereby causing their death; and, moreover, it was rumoured that the decease of one or two of the negroes in the parish was attributable to his evil influence. This was the grave accusation; and as we discussed the evidence for and against him, matters began to look very black indeed, for the priest. My two colleagues seemed to have already decided on his guilt, and the jury looked to the judgment to be given in condemnation. I was not so certain of the bearing of the evidence, and, fancying that there was a weak point somewhere, went very carefully through the evidence before me. This second reading persuaded me that there was not sufficient evidence to hang the Obeah-man, and, when judgment was called for, I dissented from the opinion of Mr. Harding and my other

colleague. Hope brightened up the face of the wretched priest, and I could perceive his nervousness and agony of suspense while I recapitulated the evidence, and explained that I could not give judgment against the man, when to my mind the required proofs of his guilt were not satisfactory. I therefore stood out, and ultimately prevailed in getting my colleagues to remit the sentence of death, and dismiss the charge of murder; for I was, myself, fully persuaded that there was not sufficient legal evidence to justify a capital sentence. You will now hear how I had cause not to regret my carefulness in this matter. Some weeks after this affair of the Obeah priest had occurred, I was driving to Newton from Bridgetown, where I had been engaged in making some purchases for the estate, and my road led between two large plantations, in which the sugar-canes were standing to the height of eight or ten feet, forming a wall on either side of my gig. I was hastening to pass through this spot, for I knew well enough that such places as these, where retreat whilst on horseback or in a vehicle was impracticable, were usually selected by ill-spirited negroes for attack. Rapidly, but with caution, therefore, I was driving on, when suddenly a man leapt out of the cane-piece some twenty yards in front of me, and cried out,-'Stop, sir! stop massa! I beg you stop!' I made up my mind to drive on at all hazards; and hastily seizing a pistol out of the front pocket of the gig, I slackened the reins and touched my horse smartly with the whip. In another minute I should be upon him, over him, or past him. The man, perceiving his danger, darted into the cane-piece again, and, as I passed him, one glance satisfied me that my supposed assailant was no other than the Obeahman whose life I had been the means of saving a short time previously, as I have told you. No sooner had I swept by than the priest leapt out into the path again, and cried out as before. 'Stop, young massa! stop! I want you!' I couldn't refrain from throwing a glance behind me, and I instantly perceived that my pursuer was unarmed. This, at first, reassured me, but in another moment I reflected that probably there were others concealed near me who only waited for my gig to be stopped, on any pretext, in order to attack me with greater impunity; and I should have soon got clear of this road and my supposed danger had not the Obeah-man cried out again,- 'Stop! young massa, stop! I want to save you life!' This staggered me, and caused me to draw rein. ́ The Obeah-man came at full speed after me, i reiterating his former cry, with this startling last addition. I hesitated a moment, and then, with mingled doubts and fears, pulled up..

'Surely,' I thought, 'the service I have so lately done to this creature must be remembered by him in my favour—perhaps he tells the truth-perhaps I am running into danger of which he is aware, and would, in gratitude, give me warning.' Before I had done with my conjectures the Obeah priest was standing panting and out of breath by the side of my gig. 'What is it?' I asked; 'why do you stop me?' 'Massa,' answered the man, with difficulty speaking, so exhausted was he by his long run; 'massa, you save my life once, I now save you life.' 'What do you mean?' I asked in some trepidation. 'I mean I will save you life as you save mine. Take me wid you, I tell you all about it as you go along. I save you life myself' (he kept on repeating this phrase incessantly) 'as you save mine.' 'What am I to do?' said I, looking earnestly at the priest as I spoke to see if he flinched, as negroes often will at the fixed gaze of a white man, who suspects them. He confronted my gaze and replied, 'Take me wid you, massa, and write down what I got to tell you; take me wid you, and I save you life.' As he still kept to this request, I acceded at last, and permitted him to join me in the gig. We soon reached Newton, and when pen, ink, and paper had been procured, and the witnesses he desired had been called for, the Obeah-man disclosed the secret to me. I won't trouble you with an account in his own words, but will briefly give the purport of what I took down from his dictation. It seems that Theophilus, the driver whom I had degraded, had never forgiven the author of his punishment, and after long brooding over various methods of obtaining his revenge, had called in the aid of the all-powerful Obeah priest. Most fortunately for me the man whose services he sought to obtain against me was no other than the priest whose life had been spared at my intervention and by my vote. Gain, however, being prominent with this man, he agreed to supply Theophilus with a poison which should make away with me, and offered to show his employer how to mix the powder in the jug of water, to which I always used to apply in the evening, before quitting the manager's house for my own. He accordingly received his reward, and in return handed Theophilus a paper of powder, with full directions as to how, when, and where to administer it to me. Theophilus took the powder, and in due course mixed it with the water which used to stand in a jug by my side. Then, at a safe distance, he watched till he saw me raise the jug to my lips and drink its contents. He must have been disappointed at seeing no ill effects following upon my drinking the water; but had he known what the contents of the

paper were which the Obeah-man had given him for my destruction, he would have been still more disconcerted. I didn't die, for the powder which had been dissolved in the water was simply arrowroot. The poor wretch in whose behalf my interference had been so fortunately and, I must say, justly urged, had too much gratitude in his heart to conspire against my life. So he substituted arrowroot for something more deadly, and saved my life in return for his own acquittal.”

"What," interrupted one of my grandfather's hearers, "became of the murdererTheophilus?"

"Ah," said my grandfather, "here comes the most wonderful part of my story. Long before the law had time to complete his punishment, he died miserably in prison-swollen, bloated, and diseased-a victim to the Obeah priest's influence. Not content with saving me, he 'bewitched' my enemy."

ANA.

R. REECE, Jun.

POISONING BY TOBACCO.-A very curious case of poisoning by the absorption of tobacco through the skin was mentioned, at a recent meeting of the Académie des Sciences, by M. Cl. Bernard, who received the information from a M. Namias. A smuggler had placed | a quantity of unmanufactured tobacco next his skin, and the heat and perspiration produced by walking caused the poisonous properties of the tobacco to enter the system, the consequences of which were very serious.

HOUNDS IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY.One of the earliest packs of fox-hounds on record was that kept by the then Lord Ardell of Wardour, between the years 1690 and 700; and the family are in possession of memoranda proving that they occasionally hunted then from Wardour Castle, in Wiltshire, and at Breamore, near Salisbury, now the seat of Sir Edward Hulse, but then the occasional residence of Lord Arundell. These hounds were kept by the Arundells until about the year 1745, when the sixth Lord Arundell died. After his decease they were kept by his nephew, the Earl of Castlehaven, by whom and his successors they were hunted until the death of the last Earl of that name, about the year 1782. The pack was then sold to the celebrated Hugo Meynell, Esq., of Quorndon Hall, Leicestershire; and it is probable that they contributed largely to the establishment of that gentleman's fox-hunting fame, and have been the progenitors of some of the Quorn hounds of the present day.

I DON'T know how people feel who have seen a ghost; perhaps it would be a relief to them to find that the white garment shrouded a broomstick; but for myself, I once saw a figure in a sheet which it would be an infinite relief to me to believe a ghost. I saw this figure, man or woman I know not, five years ago, when I was lodging in the second-floor of a house in Bloomsbury Street, and within a few doors of Oxford Street. There were at that time unfurnished rooms to be let on the second floor of the opposite house. The blinds were not drawn down, so that, before the windows were too dirty, I could see into two of these empty rooms. That opposite my own was an inner room, lighted by two windows, and entered only from the adjoining small antechamber, and this, which also looked into the street, had one window. The great bill,

TO LET, UNFURNISHED,

was there for so many months that it grew yellow with age and grey with dirt, and it was

hanging in a hopeless and impotent manner by a single wafer when the rooms were taken : at least I concluded that they were taken, for the bill disappeared altogether, and was not replaced. In the course of a few days the windows were cleaned, and a bed and two chairs were placed in the inner room. There were no curtains and no carpets, nor, so far as I could see, any other furniture in these two rooms. But there was some one in the bed, very ill I imagined, for although I saw the figure move from side to side, I never saw it sitting up, or saw the bed empty, or saw the face so as to recognise if it was that of man or woman.

In any case I should not have been able to see much of these opposite neighbours, for I was only at home in the morning and evening, and they had other rooms besides the two I have mentioned.

About a fortnight after the lodgers came, I was sitting near my window in the early morning, when my attention was attracted by a figure at the window of the ante-room oppo