CUSTOM OF WITCHES AMONG SLAVES.

The witches among slaves were supposed to have been persons who worked
with them every day, and were called old hags or jack lanterns. Those,
both men and women, who, when they had grown old looked old, were
supposed to be witches. Sometimes, after eating supper, the negroes
would gather in each other's cabins which looked over the large
openings on the plantation, and when they would see a light at a great
distance and see it open and shut, they would say, "there is an old
hag," and if it came from a direction in which those lived whom they
called witches, one would say, "Dat looks like old Aunt Susan;" another
would say, "No, dat look like man hag;" still another, "I tink dat look
like ole Uncle Renty."

When the light had disappeared they said that the witch had got into the
plantation and changed itself into a person and had gone about on the
place talking with the people like others until those whom it wanted to
bewitch went to bed, then it would change itself to a witch again. They
claimed that the witches rode human beings like horses, and that the
spittle that ran on the side of the cheek when one slept, was the bridle
that the witch rode with. Sometimes a baby would be smothered by its
mother, and they would charge it to a witch. If they went out hunting at
night and were lost, it was believed that a witch had led them off,
especially if they fell into a pond or creek. I was very much troubled
with witches when a little boy and am now sometimes, but it is only when
I eat a hearty supper and immediately go to bed. It was said by some of
the slaves that the witches would sometimes go into the rooms of the
cabins and hide themselves until the family went to bed and therefore
when any one claimed that he had gone into the apartment before bed time