THE SUBTLE ENTITIES USED BY AFRICAN MAGIC

 

On this matter, the expert in African magic, Miad Hoyora Korahon, mentioned the following:

 

« There remains a phase of Obeahism to be looked into, that occupies different ground from any of the examples I have yet cited, save partly the initiation of the schoolmaster which did not come off.

 

Obeahmen reputed to have dealings with high grade elementals (?) stand apart from the rest of their kind. They are always credited with hag-powers, but they do not seem to make money by their arts in any way, except occasionally when they act as “bush-doctors,” who prescribe and supply remedies drawn from wild plants, the virtues of which are in most cases known only to themselves.

 

I have reason to believe that their knowledge of these drugs is frequently extensive, and that amongst them are some of great value as medicines, while others possibly are of value in the domain of “Occult Botany.”

 

Such men are scarce, and reliable information relative to their branch of Obeah is, of all, by far the most difficult

to obtain.

 

 

My attention was first attracted to this phase by the following curious details given me by H.H. (a fairly educated black man boat-builder) and M.H., his wife.

 

They went to Demerara in 1875 and spent some time there. During that time, while living in lodgings in George Town, M.H. lost a gold ear-ring, and was in much trouble over it. The landlady of the house said if Mrs. H. would come along with her, she would take her to a friend whom she felt sure would find the lost ear-ring for her. On being taken to this friend, Mrs. H. found her to be a stout-built, fair-colored woman of about 40 years of age.

 

When the landlady and Mrs. H. entered the house, the woman came forward and said, “How are you Mrs.?

 

I see you have brought Mrs. H. along with you to see me!”

 

And then to Mrs. H., “You have never seen me before, but I have seen you often, and I like both you and your husband H.H. very much, —you must bring him to see me— and you’ll find the ear-ring you’ve some to ask me about in the corner of your window-sill when you go back.”

 

Mrs. H. was considerably surprised by this speech, but after some further conversation, during which Mrs. H. promised to come back in a day or two with her husband to pay Miss J. (that being the woman’s name) a visit, they went home and the ear-ring was found at once in the place mentioned by Miss J.

 

Some days after that the H.’s paid their promised visit to Miss J. She then asked H. whether he would not like to know what was going on in his home during his absence? (he had by this time been some 18 months in Demerara).

 

On receiving an affirmative answer, she gave him a great many details of what had happened there since he left, mentioning several births and deaths and their dates. Most of these details were verified by letters which arrived within a few days after.

 

During this visit Miss J. asked Mrs. H. to come and stay with her for a while, to help her in her house-work, about which she mentioned that she had a good deal of cooking to do. H. was to come and see his wife as often as he pleased, but they were to live strictly apart during the time.

 

H. opposed this arrangement, but as his wife was anxious to oblige Miss J., he gave in; and at the end of that week Mrs. H. took up her abode with Miss J.

 

Miss J.’s house was in an enclosed garden, in one of the outskirts of George Town. Behind the house there was a detached kitchen, with one or two extra rooms, one of which Mr. H. occupied, and on one side was a small duck-pond with a wire fence round it, which pond Miss J. was very particular about keeping clean. At the other side, in view of the kitchen, was the house entrance gate in the enclosure.

 

Mrs. H. says that Miss J. had plenty of money, and she sent her out to market every morning, when she had to buy enough meat and other provisions for about ten persons. Miss J. spent part of each day in preparing these for the table, which was always set for seven, a little after sun-down.

 

After that the house was shut up, and the lamps lighted, Miss. J. remaining inside. In the porch was placed a corked bottle of wine, and another of rum, with glasses, and in the kitchen, and each of the out rooms a similar set of articles, —for “her friends”— as Miss J. said.

 

This programme was gone through every day. Mrs. H. never saw any one come into the house to eat these dinners, and no person could have got in or come out without being seen by her, but still she could hear voices talking with Miss J. every evening up till about 12 p.m., though looking in through the jalousies never a person could she see but Miss J.

 

Every morning the dinner of the night, before apparently quite untouched, was removed and given away to any beggars who came about the house, as also the wine and rum from the different rooms. Any remainder of the food was fed to a number of ducks and fowls which Miss J. kept.

 

Miss J., on various occasions, offered food off the table in the morning to Mrs. H., who, however, on attempting to eat it, found it perfectly tasteless, and after one or two attempts she would have no more of it. On being offered to H., he found the same objection to it; and to him.

 

Miss J. frequently offered both wine and rum out of the bottles which had been placed as described: she pressed him to drink as much as he liked of both, —as her “friends liked to see people merry”— but when the bottles of rum and wine were uncorked, H. found both liquors had scarcely any taste and no strength in them, so did not care to drink much.

 

 

Near a window of the dining room in Miss J.’s house lay a large mat; and each morning when the table was cleared, there were found on this mat a number of pieces of gold and silver money (in the coinages of various nations).

 

These Miss J. would not touch, nor would she allow Mrs. H. to do so, till she had lifted them with a flour-scoop, and thrown them into a basin of water, into which some wood-ashes had been put. After being well washed in this, Miss J. used to take charge of them.

 

Miss J. frequently gave presents, sometimes of money, to the H.'s, and talked very much of her friends, but would never say who or what they were, except that they “came from the sea.”

 

Talking about them to H. once, she pointed to the duck pond above referred to, and said “that is the road my friends come and go by.”

 

She told the H.’s that she had been born and brought up in Demerara, but that at the age of twenty-one she had been taken away somewhere by her friends, and remained with them seven years, at the expiry of which time they sent her back “to work for them.”

 

The only occupation Miss J. seemed to follow, was that of doctor, and sick people came to consult her regularly; she gave them medicine and got fees from them.

 

She said ‘her friends’ used to tell her at night who was coming next day, and all particulars about each person. One day she told H. “there is a letter for yon from so and so, in the mail which will arrive tomorrow.”

 

On the morrow H. called at the Post Office for the letter, without getting it; he went a second time with the same result. Miss J. sent him back a third time, saying, “It is impossible for my friends to be deceived,” that time he got it: and it verified certain things she had already told him.

 

 

After staying with Miss J. for about six weeks, Mrs. H. had enough of those “Friends” whose voices she heard every night, though she could not understand what they said, and whom she could never catch sight of; so she left and went back to live with H. and they soon after left Demerara and returned here.

 

Miss J. is apparently still alive, as the other day H. came to me and told me that a man had come from Demerara, and brought him a kind message from her.

 

The H.’s think Miss J.’s “friends” were “spirits.” So do I, but I never heard before of any similar arrangement with elementals as they presumably are. It is an unusual idea altogether for a party of “spirits” to sit down regularly every evening to a mundane dinner.

 

But the H.’s are perfectly positive that no persons could have got into or left that house without being seen, and ordinary beings would scarcely have satisfied their appetites with the mere gout of the viands and liquors.

 

It will be seen lower down, that Miss J.’s “friends” have representatives in other places, though their liking for mundane refreshments has not yet transpired.

 

 

 

And below I mention other examples of encounters between humans and elementals.

 

In this colony, in the village of J___, there is a black girl, who has twice disappeared: once for two days, and once for three days, and who, at the end of both periods, was found lying insensible on the bank of a lagoon there.

 

All she can be got to say on the subject is that “the” ‘Fair maids’ took her away, and that they treated her well.

 

That they arc white people and live in fine houses: that they offered her food, etc., which she would not eat, as she believed if she had done so, they would have been able to keep her, and she would never have got home any more.”

 

 

There are also two Obeah-doctors in this locality who are said to be instructed by these “Fair-maids.” These men live in different parts of the country, and I am not aware that there is any connection between them; but there are stories of white women with long black hair being seen in consultation with them, who abruptly vanish on being observed.

 

One of them disappears occasionally for two or three days at a time, and the other has been in the habit of disappearing for like periods at intervals ever since he was a boy of 7 or 8 years of age. The latter has been repeatedly seen in conversation with such beings near a certain large silk cotton tree.

 

But beyond this, and the fact that such black men who know of their existence, profess the greatest respect for these “Fair-maids,” I have been unable to obtain any reliable information whatever on the subject.

 

There are points of difference between Miss J.’s “friends” and the “Fair-maids” of these latter persons; these are, that if the “Fair-maids” had had any inclination for mundane liquors and cookery, it would have been heard of; while those credited with their acquaintance are said to abstain both from flesh diet and spirituous liquors.

 

Miss J.’s “friends” were never visible, except presumably to herself; “the Fair-maids” of the others seem to have been seen by many people, whose descriptions of their appearance tally very well with each other.

 

Finally all the “friends” and “Fair-maids” are credited with teaching the use of herb-medicines.

 

 

Paracelsus speaks of human beings living at times with elementals; and in Scotland, down to within the last two centuries, —and perhaps later— there are repeatedly recurring cases of persons being “carried away by the fairies.”

 

I may instance the celebrated Thomas (The Rhymer) of Erceildon, a renowned seer, prophet, and poet, whose date is about 1286.

 

He is said to have been carried off by the fairies and kept by them for seven years, when he was allowed to return to mundane life for a time, but was again recalled — this time for altogether by the appearance of a “White-Roe.”

 

Coming down to more modern date, the Rev. Robert Kirk, Minister of Aberfoyle (Circa 1660), who translated the Psalms of David into Gaelic, and was the author of a curious, and now very scarce book called “The Secret Commonwealth” of which there was a reprint in 1815, on the manners and customs of Fairies and hoc genus.

 

In that book the particular sort of “Fairies” which I am fain to identify with these “Fair-maids,” are referred to in these words:

 

“For in the Highlanders there be many fair ladies of this aerial order, who are called “Leannain Sith” (by translation = Fairy-sweethearts).

 

Mr. Kirk speaks of them in no very complementary terms, — for which they took their revenge. In the work called “The Scottish Highlands,” when the legends relative to Mr. Kirk are treated at length, there is the following description of the Leannain Sith:

 

“According to Highland legend the Shi’ach (fairies) are believed to be of both sexes, and it is the general opinion of the Highlanders that men have sometimes cohabited with females of the Shi’ach race, who are in consequence called Leannain Shi.”

 

These mistresses are believed to be very kind to their mortal paramours by revealing to them the knowledge of many things both present and future, which were concealed from the rest of mankind.

 

The knowledge of the medicinal virtues of many herbs, it is related, has been obtained in this way from the Leannain Shi'. The Daoine Shi’ of the other sex, are said in their turn to have sometimes held intercourse with females of mortal race.”

 

Mr. Kirk, though a Presbyterian (?) Minister, was —mirabile dictu— apparently a real, though perhaps untrained occultist, and probably a wielder of the “second-sight.”

 

His book is very quaint, and has a savor of Paracelsus about it, and for its correct dicta on some points of occult theory, such as astral bodies, repercussion, second-sight, elementals and elementals of various kinds, etc., the invention of which has been sapiently ascribed to certain occultists of the Theosophical Society, merits some attention in these pages, which I hope to see given at no distant date.

 

 

However, to return to Mr. Kirk. He disappeared in 1688 at the age of 42. “It is said, (while) he was walking one evening on a little eminence to the west of the present Manse, which is still reckoned a ‘Dunshi' (fairy hill) he fell down dead; but this is not believed to be his fate, for “he afterwards appeared to a relative,” and telling him he was not dead, but “carried into fairy-land,” desired him to have a certain ceremony, which he prescribed, performed, upon which he would be “restored to human society.”

 

When the proper occasion occurred, the performance of the ceremony was neglected, Mr. Kirk was not restored, and “it is firmly believed that he is at this day in fairy-land.”

 

But, whether Mr. Kirk be there or no, the above description of the Leannain Shi’ fairly agrees with the little I have heard of the “Fair-maids” of this part of the world.

 

To show that the existence of this “Daoine Mah” (good people fairies) was not merely a romantic fancy of the Highlanders of that time, —however much they may appear to resemble the “Undines,” etc., of “The Count de Gabalis”— it is on record that in October 1675, the Bishop and Synod of Aberdeen were engaged in considering “divers complaints that some under pretence of trances and familiarity with spirits, by going with these spirits, commonly called the Fairies, (Shi'ach), hath spoken reproachfully of some persons, where of some are dead and some living.”

 

The Synod threatened both the “seducers and consulters with censure,” etc. (V. Aberdeen Session Records.)

 

Under what category are these “Leannain Shi’ach” and “Fair-maids” to be classed?

 

They cannot be “Devas,” whom “man can neither propitiate nor command.” They are evidently not the “Dhakini’s” of Indian Occultists, who for all their reputed “kindness to mortals,” have, according to a high authority, “no mind,—animal instinct” only.

 

If they are elementals at all, they must be of a very high grade, having some resemblance to the genie of Arabic story, and little or no likeness to the “familiar-spirits” of the witches and wizards of the Middle Ages; yet, as they are evidently possessed of much more than mere animal instinct, or even average human knowledge, I am driven to class them as “Spirits” as distinct from elementals and elementals, but I solicit any suggestions tending to elucidate this point from my more learned and experienced brothers.

 

(Cid's observation: I am inclined to think that they are elementals but from a realm higher than the realm of nature spirits.)

 

Whatever they may be, they are “informing-spirits” as far as they go, and they hold in this incomplete catalogue of Obeah-witchcraft, the honorable position of being the sole item of which no evil is alleged, — their fancy for carrying off a mortal now and then, notwithstanding.

 

_  _  _

 

 

Before quitting the subject of Elementals, there are some other points which merit a little attention.

 

The elementals reputed to be used by Obeahmen, —such as Pebu, in my first chapter— are very different beings from the “Fair maids,” and are of much lower grade in the scale of being, having no more than animal instinct.

 

There is a belief among Obeahmen in regard to the use of such entities, which is somewhat at variance with the teachings of Eastern Occultism on the subject, while, curiously enough, it is supported by the traditions of ancient Western occultists.

 

The received theory as to the danger of intercourse with elementals, is that in the hands of any other persons than adepts, elementals, once made use of, generally end by becoming masters of their masters, — very much to the detriment of the latter.

 

The Obeahmen hold that elementals are much like what some of Mr. Glarke-Russel’s sea-captains say the British sailor is, — apt to become troublesome or dangerous if not kept hard at work!

 

Though I have no actual example of this in regard to Obeahmen to relate, I may mention that, according to Scottish tradition, the great Michael Scott,* —not to speak of many other ancient occultists, such as Lord Hay of Yester, Lord Foulis, etc.— had several “Diels” (elementals) in his employment, and one of them at least had such a great capacity for labor as to give his master some trouble to find him steady enough employment to keep him out of mischief.

 

But tradition says that it ended this way:

 

Thinking to keep it employed for some time, Scott set it to split the Eildon Hill into three, that, as already related, was accomplished in a single night. Next, he was set to lay a line of “stepping stones” from Scotland to Ireland; this was also promptly accomplished.

 

(Whereof the Deil's Dyke “on the Ayrshire Coast, and the Giant’s Cause­way” on the opposite side, are said to be the yet existing remnants).

 

There, by an effort of ingenuity, Scott found it really lasting work.

 

He set it to make and coil ropes out of the sand on the sea-shore, and that luckless elemental is said to be still at it! Except, indeed, he may have been recently “ taken on” by Mr. Keely of Philadelphia (V. “P.T.S.,” No. 9, p.4, lines 3, 4 and 5).

 

 

Some old Eastern magicians seem to have been of the same way of thinking, as in the “ Arabian Nights,” a fisherman hands up a copper jar in his net, whereon is impressed ‘Suleiman his seal’!

 

On its being opened a frightful elemental comes out of it, which the fisherman, —luckily for himself— manages to bottle up again. Suleiman being apparently of a more scientific turn of mind than Scott, and rather than be troubled to keep that elemental in work, quietly hermetically sealed it up in the jar, and put it past where it was not likely to give much more trouble.

 

If there is anything in that, Experimental Occultism in the Elemental department is not quite so much fraught with danger as we have been taught, and Obeahism may be credited with one useful idea.

 

These ordinary elementals seem to have been made use of here some years ago, in a way not unknown in India. I am told that there used to be several persons here, known as “Vituas,” who appear to have been much of the same persuasion as Hassan Khair Djinni.

 

On market days and other occasions, the Vituas would buy goods from the people, who put the coin received for it into their bags or pockets, and on looking for it a few minutes after, they would discover it had vanished!

 

Gone back to the Vitua who gave it. The Vituas also used to enter shops, and handle numbers of small articles, under pretence of examining them prior to buying.

 

They would perhaps purchase one, but next morning every article so handled would be missing.

 

To prevent this, garlic, salt, and other ingredients were advised to be carried in the bags and pockets, and mixed with the goods, and this precaution is said to have had such good effect, that the Vituas’ little business was spoiled, and they left to seek some other field of action where the use of those potent ingredients was not quite so well known.

 

Garlic and salt, and some other ingredients that I have not been able to find out, seem to serve the black men instead of the Horseshoes, Rowan, Holly and Elder branches, ashbeds, etc., which in Europe were reputed to keep witches in check, or to form neutral auric dams through which the powers of such like beings could not act. »

(Theosophist, June 1891, p.543-552)

 

 

 

 

 

 

To make it rain

 

The most famous use of elementals is to make it rain at will wherever one wants, and I talk about African rainmakers in more detail in the chapter before this one.

 

 

 

 

 

Other uses

 

And just like the occultists of the East and the West, the practitioners of African magic also use elementals for many of their activities, such as: to develop powers, perform amazing feats, harm people, etc. And as I find more information about it, I will put it on the blog.