burlesque.

* * * * *


SHADOW CATCHER.


I was present, some years ago, at the trial of a notorious obeah-man,
driven on an estate in the parish of St. David, who, by the overwhelming
influence he had acquired over the minds of his deluded victims, and the
more potent means he had at command to accomplish his ends, had done great
injury among the slaves on the property before it was discovered. One of
the witnesses, a negro belonging to the same estate, was asked--"Do you
know the prisoner to be an obeah-man?"--"Ees, massa, shadow-catcher, true."
"What do you mean by a shadow-catcher?"--"Him ha coffin, (a little coffin
produced,) him set for catch dem shadow." "What shadow do you mean?"--"When
him set obeah for summary, (some body,) him catch dem shadow and dem go
dead;" and too surely they were soon dead, when he pretended to have caught
their shadows, by whatever means it was effected.

_Barclay's Slavery._


* * * * *


THE FUNDS.