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A to Z of Anansi the spider.
Although I haven't included any stories about witches in my book, in "Miss Ophelia's Daughter," Miss Ophelia is accused of being one.
There are lots of stories of witches and sorcery in the Caribbean. Mischievous and evil spirits roam the islands at will. In the Jamaican stories there are duppies which were thought to be spirits or supernatural apparitions. A duppy could even be the devil.
In the Virgin Islands there were stories of jumbies, mischievous and sometimes malevolent spirits, that could cause all kinds of problems.
People used to shut up their windows and doors at night to keep the jumbies out. If a person had a particular fear they would scatter 99 grains of rice outside around the house. The jumbie would see the rice and start picking it up then spend the entire night searching for the hundredth grain.
If a person had to walk at night he or she always wore a hat because the belief was that a bat - a jumbie carrier - would fly in your hair and leave a jumbie behind which would make you crazy. People also walked without any kind of light and wearing dark clothes so as to blend into the darkness and avoid being seen.
W is for Witches and other supernatural beings.
Although I haven't included any stories about witches in my book, in "Miss Ophelia's Daughter," Miss Ophelia is accused of being one.
There are lots of stories of witches and sorcery in the Caribbean. Mischievous and evil spirits roam the islands at will. In the Jamaican stories there are duppies which were thought to be spirits or supernatural apparitions. A duppy could even be the devil.
In the Virgin Islands there were stories of jumbies, mischievous and sometimes malevolent spirits, that could cause all kinds of problems.
People used to shut up their windows and doors at night to keep the jumbies out. If a person had a particular fear they would scatter 99 grains of rice outside around the house. The jumbie would see the rice and start picking it up then spend the entire night searching for the hundredth grain.
If a person had to walk at night he or she always wore a hat because the belief was that a bat - a jumbie carrier - would fly in your hair and leave a jumbie behind which would make you crazy. People also walked without any kind of light and wearing dark clothes so as to blend into the darkness and avoid being seen.
