LITERATURE.

Globe, Volume IV, Issue 348, 24 July 1875, Page 3

LITERATURE.

HOW HAM WAS CURED. [From Lippincott's Magazine.) This was in slave times. It was also immediately after dinner, and the gentlemen had gone to the east piazza. Mr Smith was walking back and forth, talking somewhat excitedly for him, while Dr Rutherford sat with his feet on the railing, thoughtfully executing the sentimental performance of cutting his nails. Dr Rutherford was an old friend of Mr Smith's who had been studying surgery in Philadelphia, and now, on his way back to South Carolina, had tarried to make us a visit.

' You see,' Mr Smith was saying, ' about a week ago one of our old negroes disd under the impression that he was ' tricked' or bewitched, and the consequence has been that the entire plantation is demoralised. You never saw anything like it.' 'Many a time,' said Dr Rutherford, and calmly cut his nails.

' There is not a negro on the place,' continued Edward, ' who does not lie down at night in terror of the Evil Eye, and go to his work in the morning paralysed by dread of what the day may bring. Why, there is a perfect panic among them. They are falling about like a set of ten-pins. This morning 1 sent for Wash (best hand on the place, and behold Walsh curled up under a haystack getting ready to die. It's enough to So, as soon as you came this morning, a plan entered my head for putting a stop to the thing. It will be necessary to acknowledge that two or three of them are under the spell, and it is better to select those who really fancy themselves so. • Rosalie !' I appeared at the window. ' Are any of the house-servants " witched?"

* Mercy is,' said I, ' and I presume Mammy is going to be. 1 saw her make a curtsey to the black cat this morning.' ' Well, what is your plan ?' inquired Dr. .Rutherford.

Mr Smith seated himself on the piazza railing, dangling his feet there-against, rounding his shoulders in the most attractive and engaging manner, as you see men do, and proceeded to develop his idea. I was called off at the moment, and did not return for an hour or two. As I did.

I heard Dr Rutherford say, ' All right! Blow the horn ;' and the overseer down in the yard Blew a blast as loud and shrill

As the wild-boar heard on Temple-hill—-an event which at this unusual hour of the day produced perfect consternation among the already excited negroes. They no doubt supposed it the musical exercise set apart for the performance of the angel Gabriel on the day of judgment, and in less than ten minutes all, without exception, had come pell-mell, helter-skelter, running to .' the house.' The dairymaid left the churn, and the housemaid put down her broom; the ploughs stood still, and when the horses turned their heads to see what was the matter they found they had no driver ; she also who was cooking for the hands ' fled from the path of duty' (no Casabiauca nonsense for her !), leaving the ' middling' to sputter into blackness and the corn-pones to share its fate. Mothers had gathered up their children of both sexes, and grouped them in little terrified companies about the yard and around the piazza-step?. Edward was now amoung them, endeavoring to subdue the excitement, and, having to some extent succeeded, he made a signal to Dr Rutherford, who came forward to address the negroes. Throwing his shoulders back and looking around with dignity, he exclaimed, ' I am the great Dr Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston ! I was far away in the North, hundreds of miles from here, and I saw a spot on the sun, and it looked like the Evil Eye ! And I found it was a great black smoke. Then I knew that witch-fires were burning in the mountains, and witches were dancing in the valleys ; and the light of the Eye was red ! lam the great Dr Rutherford, the witch-doctor of B oston ! I called my black fccat up and told her to smell for blood, and she smelled, andshesmelled, and she smelled! She smelled, and she smelled, and she smelled ! And presently her hair stood up like bristles, and her eyes shot out sparks of fire, and her tail was as stiff as iron !' He threw his shoulder back, looked imposingly around, and repeated: —' I am the great Dr Rutherford, the witch doctor of Boston ! My black cat tells me thut the witch is here —that she has hung the deadly nightshade at your cabin-doors, and your blood is turning to water. You are beginning to wither away. You shiver in the sunshine ; you don't want to eat; your hearts are heavy and you don't feel like work; and when • you come from the field you don't take down the banjo and pat and shuffle and dance, but you sit down in the corner with your heads on your hands, and would go to sleep, but you know that as soon as you shut your eyes she will cast hers on you through the chinks tin the cabinwall.'

' Dat's me?' said Mercy—'cat certnyis me!'

' Gret day in de mornin,' mas' witch-doc-tor ! How you know ? Is you been tricked ?' inquired Martha, who, having been reared on the plantation, was unacquainted with the etiquette observed at lectures. Wash groaned and shook his head from side to side in silent commendation of the doctor's lore.

' My black cat tells me that the witch is here ; and she is here !' (Immense sensation among the children of Ham.) 'But,' continued he with a majestic wave of the arm, ' she can do you no harm, for I also am here, the great Dr Rutherford, the witch-doctor of Boston!'

' Doctor,' inquired Edward in aloud voice, ' can you tell who is conjured and who is not?'

' I cannot tell unless robed in the blandishments of plagiarism aud the satellites of hygienic art as expunged by the gyrations of nebular hypothesis. Await ye!' He and Mr Smith went into the house.

The negroes were very much impressed. They have excessive reverence for grandiloquent language, and the less they understand of it the better they like it. ' What dat he say, honey ? asked old Mammy, ' I can't heer like I used ter.'

' He says |he will be back soon Mammy* and tell if any of you are tricked,' said I; and just then Edward and the doctor reappeared, bearing between them a pine table. On this table were arranged about forty little pyramids of whitish-looking powder, and in their midst stood a bottle containing some clear liquid like water. Dr Rutherford seated himself behind it, robed in. the black gown he had used in the dissecting-room and crowned by a conical head-piece about two feet high, manufactured by Edward and

himself, and which they had completed byplacing on the pinnacle thereof a human skull. The effect of this picturesque costume was heightened by two large red circles around the doctor's eyes—whether obtained from the juice of the pokeberry or the inkstand on Edward's desk need not be determined.

In front of the table stood the negroes, men, women and children. There was the preacher, decked in the clerical livery of a standing collar and white cravat, but, perhaps, in deference to the day of the week, these were modified by the secular apparel of a yellow cotton shirt and home-spun pantaloons attached to a pair of old "golluses" whicb had been mended with twine, and pieced with leather, and lengthened with string, till, if any of the original remained, none could tell the color thereof nor what they had been in the day of their youth. The effect was not harmonious. There was Mammy, with her low wrinkled forehead and white turban, and toothless gums, and skin of shinning blackness, which testified that her material wants were not neglected. There was Wash, a great stalwart negro, who ordinarily seemed able to cope with any ten men you might>ee,nowlookingso subduedand dispirited, and of a complexion so ashy, that he really appeared old, and shrunken, and weak. There was William Writ, the plough boy, affected by a chronic grin which not even the solemnity of this occasion could dissipate, but the character of which seemed changed by the awe-struck eyes that rolled above the heavy red lips and huge white teeth. There was Apollo—in social and domestic circles known as 'Poller—there was Apollo, his hair standing about his head in black tufts or horns wrapped with cotton cord to make it grow, one brawny black shoulder protruding from a rent in his yellow cotton shirt, his pantaloons hanging loosely around his hips, and bagging around that wonderful foot which did not suggest his name, unless his sponsors in baptism were of a very satrical turn. There were Martha, and Susan, and Minerva, and Cinderella, and Chesterfield, and Pitt, and a great many other grown ones, besides a crowd of children, the smallest among the latter being dressed in the dishabille of a single garment, which reached, perhaps, to the knee, but had little to boast in the way of latitude.

There they all stood in little groups about the yard, looking with awe and reverence at the great Dr Kutherf ord, who sat behind the table with his black gown and frightful eyes and skull-crowned cap. ' You see this little heaps of powder and this bottle of water. You will comeforwardone at a time and pour a few drops of the water in this bottle on one of these little heaps of powder. If the powder turns black, the ferson who pours on the water is 'witched, f the powder remains white, the person who pours on the water is not 'witched You may all examine the powders and see for yours* Ives whether there is any difference between them, and you will each pour from the small bottle.'

During a silence so intense that nothing was heard save the hum of two great ' bumblebees' that darted in and out among the trees, and flew at erratic angles above our heads, the negroes came forward and stretched their necks over each other's shoulders, peering curiously at the little mounds of powder that lay before them, at the innocent-looking bottle that stood in their midst, and the great High Priest who sat behind. They stretched their necks over each other's shoulders, and each endeavoured to push his neighbour to the front; but those in front, with due reverence for the uncanny nature of the table, were determined not Jto be forced to near it, and the result was a quiet struggle, a silent wrestle, an undertone of wriggle that was irresistibly funny. Then arose the great High Priest : ' Pvange ye !.' Not knowing the nature of this order, the negroes scattered instanter, and then collected en masse around Mr Smith.

'Kange ye! range ye !' repeated the doetor with dignity, and Edward proceeded to arrange them in a long, straggling row, urging upon them that there was no cause for alarm, as, even should any of them proved, 'witched, the doctor had charms with him by which to cast off the spell. * Come, Martha,' said Edward ; but Martha was dismayed, and, giving her neighbour a hasty shove, she exclaimed : • You go fus', Unk' Lumfrey; you's de preacher.' Uncle Humphrey disengaged his elbow with an angry hitch; ' I don't keer if lis ; go 'long yose'f.' •Well, de Lord knows I'm 'feered to go,' said Martha; ' but ef I sot up preaching', peers to me I wouldn' be 'feered to sass witches nor goses, nor nuffin' else.' ' I don't preach no time but Sundays, an' dis ain't Sunday,' said Uncle Humphrey. ' Hy, nigger!' exclaimed Martha in desperation, 'is you gwine to go back on de Lord cos 'taint Sunday? How come you don't trus' on Him week a-days ?' ' I does trus' on Him fur as enny sense in doin' uv it; but ef I go to enny foolishness, fus' thing I know de Lord gwine leave me to take keer of myse'f, preacher or no preacher same as ef He was ter say, ' Dat's all right, cap'n ; ef you gwine to boss dis job, boss it;' an den whar Ibe ? Mas' Ned tole you to go; go on, 'an' lemme 'lone.' 'Uncle Humphrej,' said Edward, 'there is nothing whatever'to be afraid of, and you must set the rest an example. Come !' Uncle Humphrey obeyed, but as he did so he turned his head and rolled—or, as the negroes say, walled—his eyes at Martha in a manner which convinced her, whatever her doubts in other matters pertaining to theology, that there is such a thing as future punishment. The old fellow advanced, and under direction of the Great High Priest poured some of the contents of the bottle on the powder indicated to him. and it remained i white. (To he continued.)