Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 5 February 1892 — Balls of Feathers. [ARTICLE]

Balls of Feathers.

In the extreme South, more especially in Louisiana, and in New Orleans, worst of all, where French, Spanish, Italian and African—all races peculiarly susceptible to occult mfluences—predominate, superstition runs riot. Perhaps the most peculiar of the many methods adopted to work upon the superstitious negroes was the insertion by apparently supernatural means of balls of feathers into pillows and. bed. The closest scrutiny failed to discover rip or newly sewed seam 1n bed or pillow tick, and yet the balls were found buried In the mattresses and among the soft feathers of the pillows. They were made of soft, highly colored feathers, brilliant and gaudy, scarlet and gold, bright blue and vivid green, and were about the size and shape of an orange. A peculiar odor was exhaled, and when lightly struck an almost impalable powder arose. One of the queer objects when cut in halves showed therein such an-assortment as Shakspeare puts into his witches’ caldron, as they brewed in darkness and. tempest