Many of the original stock of slaves had been imported from amongst the Mandingoes, and Foulahs, from the banks of the Senegal, the Gambia, and the Rio Grande, the most refined and intellectual of the African tribes; and from the Congoes of Upper and Lower Guinea, the most inferior of the African race. The latter class brought with them all the vices and superstitions of their native land, and these had been cultivated in Jamaica. The worst of these superstitious ideas was obeism, a species of witchcraft employed to revenge injuries, or as a protection against theft and murder, and in favor for gaining the love of the opposite sex. It consisted in placing a spell or charm near the cottage of the individual intended to be brought under its influence, or when designed to prevent the depredations of thieves, in some conspicuous part of the house, or on a tree; it was signified by a calabash or gourd, containing among other ingredients, a combination of different colored rags, cats’ teeth, parrots’ feathers, toads’ feet, egg-shells, fish-bones, snakes’ teeth, and lizards’ tails.[45] Terror immediately seized upon the individual who beheld it, and either by resigning himself to despair, or by the secret communication of poison, in most cases death was the inevitable consequence. Similar to the influence of this superstition was that of their solemn curses pronounced upon thieves, but which would be too tedious to detail here. All of the Negro physicians of the olden times professed to have the gift of obeism, and were feared far more than they were loved. Dreams and visions constituted fundamental articles of their religious creed. Some supernatural revelations were regarded as indispensable to qualify for admission to the full privileges of their community. Candidates were required, indeed, to dream a certain number of dreams before they were received to membership, the subjects of which were given them by their teachers. The meetings of this fraternity were frequently prolonged through nearly half the night. The ministers enjoined on their followers the duty of fasting one or two days in the week, and encouraged a weekly meeting at each other’s houses, alternately, to drink “hot water” out of white tea-cups (the whole of the tea-table paraphernalia corresponding), which they designated by the absurd and inappropriate epithet of “breaking the peace.” To such a deplorable extent did they carry these superstitious practices, and such was the degree of ignorance on the part of both minister and people, that, in the absence of better information as to what was to be sung in their religious assemblies, they were in the habit of singing the childish story of “The house that Jack built.”