Evening Republican, Volume 21, Number 174, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 9 August 1917 — Obeahmen Are Mercenary. [ARTICLE]

Obeahmen Are Mercenary.

The stock-in-trade of the Obeahmen is as bizarre as their inventive minds. In their magic bags they carry about wjth them ground bones of the dead, needles and black thread rubbed with tallow, a looking-glass, cards, powder, quicksilver, and an evil-smelling gum reputed to be of the devil. By ringing the changes on these mixtures they work their wonders and impose upon their victims. Curing diseases of the mind and of the body is merely a side issue with them. Protecting fruitgardens and chicken runs are their specialty. One thing they have in common that is, the mercenary habit. They sell their “power” to the highest bidder. Consequently, as the nigger’s wealth, so his health and prosperity. All that the Obeahmen stipulate is that payment must be made according to the magnitude of the miracle to be wrought. They are, accredited with having knowledge of secret African bush 'poisons. But this is an exaggeration. lyhen they hdve recourse to this desperate extreme they are content to use arsenic rat-poison, or finely powdered glass.