There were also a great many egg-shells filled with a
viscous or gummy substance, the qualities of which were neglected to be
examined; and many little bags filled with a variety of articles, the
particulars of which cannot, at this distance of time, be recollected."
Shakespeare and Dryden, have left us poetical accounts of the
composition of European _Obies_ or charms, with which, and with more
historical descriptions, the above may be compared. The midnight hours
of the professors of Obi, are also to be compared with the witches of
Europe. Obi, therefore, is the serpent-worship. The Pythoness, at
Delphos, was an Obi-woman. With the serpent-worship is joined that of
the sun and moon, as the governors of the visible world, and emblems of
the male and female nature of the godhead; and to the cat, on account of
her nocturnal prowlings, is ascribed a mysterious relationship to the
moon. The dog and the wolf, doubtless for the same reason, are similarly
circumstanced.
[138] The superstition of Obi was never generally remarked upon in the
British West Indies till the year 1760, when, after an insurrection in
Jamaica, of the Coromantyn or Gold Coast negroes, it was found that it
had been made an instrument for promoting that disturbance.
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