W.(I.)

_Obeism._--Can any of your readers give me some information about _obeism_?
I am anxious to know whether it is in itself a religion, or merely a rite
practised in some religion in Africa, and imported thence to the West
Indies (where, I am told, it is rapidly gaining ground again); and whether
the _obeist_ obtains the immense power he is said to possess over his
brother negroes by any acquired art, or simply by working upon the more
superstitious {60} minds of his companions. Any information, however, on
the subject will be acceptable.

T.H.

Mincing Lane, Jan. 10. 1851.

_Aged Monks._--Ingulphus (_apud Wharton, Anglia Sacra_, 613.) speaks of
five monks of Croyland Abbey, who lived in the tenth century, the oldest of
whom, he says, attained the age of one hundred and sixty-eight years: his
name was Clarembaldus. The youngest, named Thurgar, died at the premature
age of one hundred and fifteen. Can any of your correspondents inform me of
any similar instance of longevity being recorded in monkish chronicles? I
remember reading of some old English monks who died at a greater age than
brother Thurgar, but omitted to "make a note of it" at the time, and should
now be glad to find it.

F. SOMNER MERRYWEATHER.

Gloucester Place, Kentish Town.

_Lady Alice Carmichael, daughter of John first Earl of Hyndford._--John