Evening Republican, Volume 23, Number 186, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 August 1920 — FOIL DEATH-DEALING VAMPIRE [ARTICLE]

FOIL DEATH-DEALING VAMPIRE

West Indian Superstition That Seema to Have Been Borrowed From French Peasant Lore. Superstitions of the most interesting variety are to be mrt with every where in the Caribbean islands among the negro population that was transplanted from Africa into the West Indies. In Grenada, where the Loupgarou of the French peasant has tn easy going West Indian manner of speech become the Loogaroo, which is of the vampire class, whose desire is for human blood, sucked from a sleeping man, woman or child, there Is a superstition that to keep it away from the huts of men it is necessary to sprinkle a good deal of rice or sand overnight in front of the door. According to the superstition, the Loogaroo, keen on sucking human blood, stops and begins to count every grain before going any further, morning coming before the counting is completed. Thereupon the unhappy Loogaroo must retire. In Jamaica they do not talk of Loogaroo, but there are plenty of duppies. Duppy, roughly speaking, means ghost, but there is a slight difference, for the duppy can walk the earth, while the spirit or soul remains in its apppointed place.