The West Indian Supernatural World: Belief Integration in a Pluralistic SocietyAuthor(s): Jane C. BeckReviewed work(s):Source: The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 88, No. 349 (Jul. - Sep., 1975), pp. 235-244Published by: American Folklore SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/538884 .Accessed: 04/04/2012 16:17

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JANE C. BECK

The West Indian Supernatural World Belief Integration in a Pluralistic Society

FOR THE PAST FOUR YEARS I have been engaged in studying the supernatural be- lief complex in the British West Indies. When I first began my field work, I was aware that there were small isolated groups of whites living alongside the black West Indians, and I thought it would prove interesting and enlightening to make a study of the two groups. Both have a similar economic level-indeed, both have a similar life style. Color seems to be the chief difference between them.

These whites originally spread through the West Indies from Barbados and are therefore known as Bajans. During Cromwellian times, many prisoners of the Civil War, both Scottish and Irish, were deported to the island of Barbados. They settled in "Scotland," the one hilly district of that island. Their ranks were swelled by soldiers stationed in the islands, indentured servants, and convicts deported from England, Scotland, and Ireland. From Barbados other communities were formed. A group went to St. Vincent and settled on Dorsetshire Hill, another went to Mount Pleasant on Bequia, and another to Mount Moritz on Grenada. All the settlements are located on high hills, so that, according to tradition, any- one's approach can be marked. All three communities are closely related through family ties, and inhabitants of one are readily welcomed at any other.

My first contact with such a group came in Grenada with an introduction into the community of Mount Moritz. The more I heard about what a closed society it was, the more I had dreams of finding the "ideal folk community"-a white backwater, possibly preserving beliefs of nineteenth-century, maybe even eigh- teenth-century, Britain. I had spent the previous five years in Britain and Ireland studying such beliefs, and hopes of discovering them in older forms rose. As my mind raced on I became convinced I knew what I would find. However, the words of Herbert Halpert returned to haunt me: "Never go into the field with pre- conceived notions."

During the course of this project I collected material from a number of in- formants, but for this paper I have decided, for three reasons, to present the supernatural beliefs of one man.' First, I find the beliefs this man holds are gen- erally representative of other Bajans. Second, he is the oldest informant I worked

1I owe my thanks to the Wenner-Gren Foundation for its support of this project.

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with (he was born in I874), and therefore he might be expected to cling to be- liefs less influenced by any acculturative processes. Finally, I developed a greater understanding of his supernatural world than I did with that of almost any other individual I worked with. It is this man's beliefs that I would like to examine- in terms of an entire West Indian complex of supernatural belief.

George Graves was born of Bajan parents (his father a native of St. Vincent, his mother from Barbados) on the island of St. Vincent, and ten years later he moved with his family to Grenada where they were among the first settlers on Mount Moritz. Among other new settlers came his future wife, a young girl of seven at the time, arriving with her family from Barbados. Life was especially hard in those early days. Grenada was all bush; wages were a shilling a day. To survive, a man had to be a jack-of-all-trades. When we first met the Graveses, George was ninety-seven, his wife ten years his junior. He sat lounging on the top step, a hat shading his eyes from the evening sun. As conversation turned to the old days he warmed to his subject, saying delightedly, "Nobody comes and talks to me of the old days any more."

In the early days Mount Moritz had been a Bajan stronghold with only a couple of "colored families" on the other side of the hill. Since then there has been some interracial marriage, but Mount Moritz is still thought of as a "white community." The older people especially are reluctant to see their children marrying or co- habiting with blacks, and prejudice against the blacks still runs strong. The Graveses are no exception. They reluctantly admitted that their grandson had married a black, "but he left her. He's gone off to Jamaica in the military- couldn't stand the stench [of her]."2

With such an introduction I was not at all prepared for what I began to find- that George Graves held many of the supernatural beliefs common to the black West Indian. As his stories unfolded there was no doubt in my mind that, al- though he was white and from a supposedly "isolated" background, he shared with his black neighbors a whole complex of supernatural belief. As might be ex- pected, some concepts he holds are entirely of Anglo-Irish provenience, but more usually these are blended and much of what appears to be black West Indian belief has been accepted. Let me now describe some of the creatures that George Graves believes in and compare them with those of the black West Indian.

One of the first creatures Mr. Graves discussed at length was the mermaid. He

explained that he had actually seen one when he was a much younger man.

I saw the mermaid and we tried our best, but she wouldn't leave her comb. The lady was settin' down like this so-and she had her comb. And her hair it was blond-her hair here, and she combing her hair. But there was one thing we were frightened of, [that] we wasn't clever enough. ... If we could have frightened her and let [made] her leave the comb we'd have got some money out of her-for whatever you ask her for, she got to give it to you to get back her comb. Oh, yes! You could have got millions from her. She goin' to give you the millions to get back that comb. Yes. They're pretty-looking people, combing this pretty hair. And there were four of us. And we got a stone now and we wanted to frighten her. But we couldn't get her to put down the comb. She wouldn't put down the comb. When she did see us she made one plunge in the water-in deep water

2 All quotes are transcribed from taped interviews.

THE WEST INDIAN SUPERNATURAL WORLD 237

and we run to the water and we start pelting stones at her. But I saw her plain, plain, plain.

He elaborated.

When you see the river coming down heavy, you hear music coming down that river-- cause we used to live just above the river. You'd hear this music playin'--comin' down. How you think she playin' music? Upon a table. Sat upon a table and table sailing, coming down with her. And she playin' this music goin' down. I never seen her do that but the Creole said that it was a table she used to sit on when she come down and she say all down, the big river was bringing that table-all down, it wouldn't turn so. It wouldn't turn-right away down, and when she reach down the music stop playing and she--the table, gone. But I saw the mermaid personally.

Although I have never heard of a mermaid coming down a river as in the above anecdote, I think it is plain that Mr. Graves's concept of the mermaid is similar to that prevalent in the British Isles. The creature combing her long, blond hair and bequeathing treasures rather than lose her comb belongs to a different tradition from that of another mermaid of Grenada who is said to inhabit the Grand Etang. This creature is known as Mamadjo, thought to be a corruption of Mama d'eau, "Mother of Water," but which may also be a corruption of the Yoruba term, Yemoja, "Mother of Fishes," an important water deity.3 Black Grenadians pro- pitiate her four times a year with rum, unsalted rice, sheep, and fowl. The cere- mony is performed in a traditional manner with drumming and dancing. In return, the mermaid blesses the crops with rain-all very reminiscent of the Yemoja-water-mother concept of African tradition. I asked Mr. Graves about this version of the mermaid, and he allowed, "Oh, yes, it's there. They say it's there. If it dies or goes away the lake will dry up." However, he seemed to visualize it as being similar to the mermaid he had seen-a different image of Mamadjo than that held by black Grenadians.

I would suggest that this is evidence of two differing beliefs merging. Beliefs in water spirits were brought to the West Indies by both blacks and whites. These separate beliefs have become a composite mermaid-worshipped and feared by some; looked upon as a harmless, treasure-giving creature by others; and seen as sharing both attributes by still others.4 Today, all West Indians, black and white, will tell you similar stories of her.

Other supernatural creatures that Mr. Graves believed in were much closer to typical West Indian belief. Here the best example is the ligaroo. Among black West Indians the ligaroo, a corruption of the French loup garou, is an evil person capable of taking different animal forms. It flies at night, appearing as a ball of fire, and it can suck the blood of its victims. This blood it uses to keep itself young or to sell to the devil as payment for being able to practice certain evil arts. The ligaroo is closely associated with the sucoyan (corruption of succubus). Some say that the ligaroo is the male, the sucoyan the female, although in most cases the terms are used interchangeably. Mr. Graves's notion was that a ligaroo could be either a man or a woman. At night the individual removes its skin and flies off to do

3 A. B. Ellis, The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa (London, 1894), 43-46. 4 Horace P. Beck, Folklore and the Sea (Middletown, Conn., 1973), 232.

238 JANE C. BECK

its business. At the same time it might take the form of some animal. One can see the combining of the formerly distinct concepts of loup garou (changing ani- mal form) and succubus (flying and sucking blood). Today, these two concepts are so thoroughly intermingled that the creatures are seen as interchangeable.

Mr. Graves and his wife claimed to have seen the ligaroo on numerous occa- sions. Two incidents he related express the full extent of his belief.

When we was children, an old neighbor livin' below us-the garden below-had a

lovely cow-a lovely cow. The cow begin to come boney, can't get along. The fellow come up now to my father and say, "Mr. Graves, O God, Mr. Graves. The people giving me hell down there, man. Look, look at me cow. The cow, niggard." Now the old man, he can do a lot of things too, you know. He said, "All right. I goin' to stop the cow for

you." "Do anything you like." The old man get a kind of thing now--boil it-boil up a whole kerosene pan full of that thing. Strong. "Now you go and bathe that cow and don't miss no part of her atall, atall-her nipples. From her nose go down." It's such a

high scented thing that now when the ligaroo come, he can't board the cow. We now were wicked little boys, you know-powerful wickedness. We get out-look our face there and the cow down here and we could stan' up there and see the cow. Why myself and my brother Natty, you see, Willie, and Frederick-four of us--we said well we got to see that ligaroo. So we see this fire coming. Every night we used to see this fire coming. Natty say, "The fellow coming. This fellow coming. Looky yonder, looky yonder- coming. See fire coming." And he come. When he get to the cow, he can't board the cow, man. He go round the cow. He go round the cow. Can't board the cow atall. And you see he suck the blood. He want to suck the blood. When we get weary watching we

say, "Hi, you ligaroo, nastiness. Get away from there, you. What you want to do-you want to kill the man's cow. Get away. You can't go there tonight." And the ligaroo- down the hill. Now we know who the man was too, you know-a fellow called old Bill Mudders. He was nasty.

When a grown man, George Graves was himself called on to protect a neighbor from a ligaroo.

Another fellow down the hill-lived on my mother's place down here-called Eric Day. He used to have the cows all about in the bush, you know. One day he say, "O God, Mr.

George, come, come, come, man. O God, man, I can't stand it--come, come." I killin' myself laughing. I go down. He said, "O God, man, me wife dead. That bist [beast, the

ligaroo] come. When that bist come so, he struck my wife. He suck my wife and most

kill my wife." "Ah hush, Eric man, that's nonsense." I say I'm goin' to stop it. He said, "O God, O God. I can't stand it again." I go and I bring asafetida, and I made him go buy a pack of black pins and black thread and black ribbon. And I get this dutch grass in the road. Flat it up and put those pins in it. Put two over each window, each door. When the beast come the pins are juking him and he can't come. Next morning he send down

waiting for me. "O God, come, Mr. George. Come! Come! Come! The bist, man, the bist, man, the bist! O God, man, when the bist come, when he get here-'Nyah! Nyah! Nyah!' he said. O God, the bist he gone." I say, "Your bist, he can't come in tonight. He gone. He gone." I sat down. I pippin' [peeping] I pippin'. I pippin'. I see go down. I say, "Bist, come. I here for you tonight." He say, "The beast go all round. The beast come back again. He come back, come round the house. He begin to bawl. He begin to

THE WEST INDIAN SUPERNATURAL WORLD 239

bawl-b-a-a-a-l-b-a-a-a-l." He say, "You beast, you bawl, bawl again." Look, I had no joke. He can't trouble his wife again. He say, "O God, Mr. George, I'm comin' and givin' you a whole week's work in the garden. I'm bringin' me hoe and me cutlass and me fork and I'm givin' you a whole week's work in the garden." And I say, "No, no, no. Don't worry about that. I stop it. It can't come."

Mr. Graves described those who became ligaroos as "desperate people" who "destroy people and do all sorts of evil things" and went on to explain how it was possible to become a ligaroo. How you think they used to learn to be ligaroos ? They want money. You were a mistress of a wild sort of thing, [here he is referring to an obeah man or woman] so they would come to you. And you would give them a kind of a thing--one is for good, one is for bad. And if you take the bad--the red one, the red seed, you catch fire, and that seed made a ligaroo.

It is worthwhile to include here a comment made by Mrs. Graves: "In olden days they used to call them hags-because it say they take off their skin, put it down, and they go flyin'." In Britain and Ireland such hags were believed to be witches in league with the devil and were known for "riding" people at night." It is an easy step from the hag to the ligaroo or sucoyan. Today, the tales the Graveses tell of the ligaroo are no different from any a black West Indian would relate. The Graveses fully believe that this wicked being sheds its skin and flies through the night on errands of evil, and, like the blacks, they believe that if by chance you can find the skin and put salt on it, when the ligaroo returns he will not be able to get back into the skin and will cry out desperately, " 'kin, 'kin, you no know me?" In the morning the creature will be discovered for what it is.

The belief that a creature can shed its skin is a well-known motif in both African and European belief. In Africa the belief has to do with multiple souls- the soul representing the personality leaves behind the empty skin of the body.6 In the British Isles there are numerous stories of a mermaid or seal woman who sheds her skin at night, only to discover one night that it has been stolen by a man. The man then becomes her husband, and she is unable to return to the sea until one day she finds the hidden skin.7

Another supernatural creature feared by the black West Indian is la jablesse from the French la diablesse, "she devil." A jablesse is thought to be a woman temptress who leads people astray. She is usually clad in a long dress which hides her feet. Her cloven left foot is her distinguishing mark. Frequently, this creature carries her victims to inaccessible spots, and only after she leaves them can they be found by friends and relatives. In the British Isles there is a somewhat similar be- lief in the jack o' lantern, an apparition usually appearing as a ball of light and known for leading night travelers astray.8 Although Mr. Graves does not claim to have ever seen a jack o' lantern, his father told him of them, and it is obvious from

5 Maria Leach, ed., Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology and Legend (New York, 1950), vol. I, 472. 6 H. Debrunner, Witchcraft in Ghana (Accra, 1961), 20. 7 See David Thomson, The People of the Sea (London, 1954); Gwen Benwell and Arthur

Waugh, Sea Enchantress (New York, 1965). 8 Leach, vol. II, 535.

240 JANE C. BECK

the following descriptions that the jack o' lantern and la jablesse have merged somewhat.

In St. Vincent they have a kind of a thing they call jack o' lantern. They would lead you away. My father always talkin' about that. Them say that they've got horse feet. Just like a human being-it's like a beast mixed up with human. My father say many times he meet one-when he was coming up to Cane Hill, Belair, and all about there. He say many times he meet 'em up. And he was a man nothing could trouble him. They was afraid of him.

He tells the story of a black neighbor--or as he qualified it, "He was not really a nigger, he was a fair man, but his wife was charcoal."

Yes, I knew the old man, good, good. And he comin' from the work. A lady took him

by his hand and she led him along on Cherry Hill. He was up on the top of that place and he made-a fell right down. His back all broken. Yes, I knew he used to drink but he say, "that evenin' I never took one in town-and I came over the bridge and a lady walked up to me and she hold me hand and so we started to walk and when I found

myself I was up on top of that hill."

Apparently the old man never recovered from his fall. For a time he suffered a good deal but was able to recount what had happened to him. Finally, however, death put an end to his misery, and he is to this day thought to have been killed by la jablesse.

The world of Mr. Graves is peopled by numerous spirits or jumbies, however since he is "not coward" they do not bother him. Yet he will willingly recount

story after story concerning these spirits.

I have seen plenty of spirits. There are plenty of spirits that have tried to scare me. But the motor car and the cleaning up of the place have driven them away. When I was a

boy, when there were no rock stones to roll-nobody to roll a rock stone. And I goin' down and I hear a big rock stone rollin' down through the coco behind me. And I

watchin', I watchin'-then I hear a little chicken-you know how a chicken goes "chee, chee, chee, chee," I say, "All right, I'm here." This spirit could never frighten me.

As a young man he spent a lot of time out late at night, and, although he used to see spirits, they could never harm him.

Coming up one night very late, very late-somewheres about eleven or twelve o'clock. And I got, coming up to an old cashew tree, something like-it daunted me-you know, like I couldn't come. A couple of weeks before that the same spirit led away three labor- ers-that was an uncle of mine, a godfather of mine, and a third man-led them all up through the coco-all about. But when I got-comin' to the cashew tree-like a dart

came on me but I wasn't frightened. There was one thing I used to do. I used to walk with a sharp knife in the coffee. When I comin' to the cashew-rain. Something went waverin', waverin'. So I took out my knife, then my revolver. And I shoot. And I heard click, click, and I fastened. Nobody troubling me again. I shot him away. It was a

haunted place. All kind of evil spirits around it.

Both the Bajans and the black West Indians maintain that dreams are important revelations. Dream messages, particularly from dead relatives, are reverently re-

THE WEST INDIAN SUPERNATURAL WORLD 241

ceived and often sought after by the black natives. These dream messages may once have been a part of an ancestor cult in West Africa. Now they function to allow the world of the supernatural to operate on the natural world, thereby rein- forcing cultural beliefs, regulating social behavior, and underscoring traditional sanctions." White natives attach no such special significance to dreams of dead relatives; however, they do generally consider dreams important, and they do ac- cord special attention to dreams.

Mr. Graves is no exception. He explained to me that whenever "I have my anvil out and I lay down, it show me what goin' to happen." He explained that his dream was "a callin'." One night he dreamed that his cattle needed hay and that something was wrong with one of them. So he set out in the middle of the night- "I felt a call to come."

I go up on the hill. I had to go in that direction. And when I got to the cow and checked the way the chain was tied-well she was all right. I made it up all round that place. Come up on the hill, you know-had a cow tied there. She all right. I say, "Well, some- thing gone wrong." And I made all the way down through the bush and I got over to where the bull was and I was just in time to save him. When I reach I see the bull-I hear it. He had tangled around the tree and went back. His two front feet were up in the air and his two hind feet were scratchin' and diggin' and rain fallin'. I say, "Well, if I cut you loose you goin' over and pop your back. I ain't cut loose now. I goin' a chip, chip, chip-one little bush, one little bush." When I see his four feet stand good I cut it there and I get him up on top. And I come home. I come home and it all rain. I couldn't pass in the ravine atall.

Dreams telling of the location of treasure or its acquisition are firmly believed by both black and white natives. In European folklore, buried treasure was often bequeathed to an individual by a dead person; less frequently a dream would re- veal its location. However, in the Lesser Antilles the discovery of buried treasure takes one general form among all natives. A person has no right to dig for treasure unless that treasure has been "given" to him in a dream by a dead person, some- times by a helpful relative, sometimes by the spirit of the guardian of the treas- ure. "The guardian of the treasure" is a reference to the belief that pirates buried a corpse along with any treasure so as to have a dead man's steadfast watch over the treasure until the pirate might return for his riches.

Mr. Graves was convinced that treasure could only be received through a dream. He recounted his regret at having once missed the opportunity to get some money in this manner.

It was given to a young woman-tol' the young woman to take your grandfather and come take me [George Graves] and go. It was an easy, easy thing. We could of went and we could of got this money. But she went and tol' people. Yes, from the time you speak about it, it sink. Foolish as she was, when they come to me, I tol' 'em, "That's foolishness. No use, I'd be wastin' time."

He spoke of others who had been more successful, having followed the traditional procedure, and of those who had suffered because they had possessed the audacity

9 Jane C. Beck, "Dream Messages from the Dead," Journal of the Folklore Institute, 1o (1973), 173-186.

242 JANE C. BECK

to dig a treasure that had not been given to them in a dream. "You see they did not give them the money. Nobody gave it to them. And they went and they dug it. Everyone died off." He elaborated:

You see they laid down the money and they left the hole open. You should dose the hole up. O God, a big hole, man. A big hole. A big thing like a tomb. I do believe they killed people and put them there. I do believe it. J D- , he died off. J- W- he died off and H- he died off, one after the other. Just like you would sus-

pect something, and they went and broke the tomb and there were money in the tomb. The money came to no use to them. They were family but they never concerned each other. You know, they didn't mingle together because this one had a colored woman and old H , he had a white woman.

One cannot discuss the supernatural in the West Indies without a consideration of obeah. Obeah is most frequently considered to be the West Indian offshoot of African witchcraft or sorcery (certainly, it has many elements relating it to such

sources). Given George Graves's heritage, I did not expect him to know much about the practice of obeah. Thus, I nodded understandingly when he announced

emphatically, "This business-witchcraft business-obeah. Nobody will tell me about obeah. I don't believe in none of that sort of thing." He then proceeded to relate how a woman had tried to work obeah on him. According to Mr. Graves, it was only because he was strong and unafraid of such things that he had been able to recover. Apparently his wife had not had such strong faith for she had expected him to die.

When I was so sick, somebody tol' me, a woman came to the hospital. They had me

strapped in the bed like that. And a woman came in. And she say, "Mr. George, you in bed yet?" She say, "What the matter with you? Did you come here to die?" As soon as she came down and began to look for me. I know, I tol' her, somebody's behind me

[Somebody is practicing obeah on mel. Next morning, morning didn't break good be- fore the same woman was back again. "Good morning, Mr. George. Still alive?" I say, "Now I goin' to tell you something. All you old niggers can do as you like but nobody can do Mr. George anything." From that day that woman never come.

Although he fervently denied his belief in obeah, Mr. Graves stated significantly,

This damn thing called obeah. Well, obeah was to kill me--kill anybody, but it won't kill me. One morning I come down these steps here. And as soon as I got on the plat- form, to my surprise I saw a lot of white powder sprinkled all around the steps-all around. I watched and I laughed. I just took up my shoe and hit it and dropped it down. I say, "Well, if they ain't got nothin' else to do, they better find something to do."

As his wife continued this discussion, I realized that the person who had at-

tempted to do her husband in was none other than his own full brother. A man

with the same heritage as George Graves was actually thought to be practicing obeah by sprinkling the white powder outside his brother's house with the in- tention at the very least of causing him to fall sick, at the most, of causing his demise. Being white is not necessarily a barrier to the belief in or the practice of obeah.

This was further evidenced by Mr. Graves's discussion of the sea devil. Among

THE WEST INDIAN SUPERNATURAL WORLD 243

black West Indians obeah is practiced both on land and sea. Almost everything on land is considered to have its counterpart in the sea; however, since the water is considered more hazardous than the land, greater precautions must be taken upon it. For example, since oils are believed to be stronger than powders or es- sences, they are therefore used for sea work. As the obeah man must contend with the devil on shore, so he must vie with the sea devil on the water. This creature is very formidable, appearing first as a small fish or multi-colored creature, gradu- ally increasing to terrifying proportions, and growing red in color. If he comes in anger, he will capsize a boat and take a life as his due.

Although George Graves does not claim to have ever seen the sea devil, he as- sured me that such a creature exists.

When you went fishing and you didn't pay the sea-this thing come around here--and you didn't pay him. He'd capsize the boat or do something. Well, there must be some who saw it, because a fellow down here used to go fishing and done tortured the sea and didn't pay it. He threw things into the sea to catch fish. They say he can't go to sea atall. You see he dirtied the sea too much. He done things wrong. The other day I met him up down there and I asked him, "You're not fishing again ?" And he say, "No, no, no, no! I can't go fish again. If I go, I don't live."

He commented that the fisherman's plight was simply that he had done wrong by working obeah. "If you do no wrong, no wrong will take you."

Thus, although George Graves did not practice obeah and although he staunch- ly denied that it could harm him, he did acknowledge its existence and admitted it had been a factor in his life. Just as he had no fear of spirits, so he had no fear of the workings of obeah. The reason for this is simple. He was born with a caul, and he therefore concluded nothing could harm him.

From the above discussion it is obvious that George Graves, a Bajan living in the white stronghold of Mount Moritz, holds many beliefs that have been in- fluenced by those of his black neighbors. What can account for this? There are a number of possible answers. For one thing, despite racial barriers, there is more contact between blacks and whites than is at first obvious. Generally speaking, the blacks and the Bajans are living identical lives; they share the same economic level, they are often united while eking out their subsistence living, and they live in simi- lar houses. Furthermore, contact is not always casual. As indicated already, inter- racial marriages do occur, even though they often cause disruptions in family life.

Moreover, at the same time the blacks and whites are sharing a similar life style, they also share similar items of belief. I have tried to show the integrating of beliefs which have originated in different heritages, for example the European mermaid and the African water goddess merging to become a West Indian mer- maid, and the Anglo-Irish old hag and the African multiple-soul belief combining to become the ligaroo-sucoyan. From the heritage of both groups comes the belief in numerous evil spirits; for both, the night is peopled with fearful creatures causing the most courageous man to quake at one time or another unless he is pro- tected by some powerful guardian of his own. Among both groups dreams are held in great respect and are often the topic of lengthy discussion. As for obeah, this too would be comprehensible and usable to those of an Anglo-Irish back-

244 JANE C. BECK

ground. Like the obeah man or woman, the traditional European witch could both kill and cure using magical spells, charms, incantations, roots, and herbs.

Thus the similarity of life style and belief level allow for an understanding be- tween the two groups despite the racial barrier and what Richard Dorson terms "ethnic separatism."'0 However, the basis of all these similarities can be found in the emotion of fear, in this case each group's trepidation at the supernatural. This fear pierces almost all elements of ethnic separatism. Since both groups do have the same functioning level of belief, there will be no ridicule when one relates an experience with some supernatural creature. Further, if this creature is described in terms familiar to the listener, after a while, there will tend to be a merging in belief, as evidenced by the ligaroo-sucoyan and by the mermaid traditions. The jablesse and the jack o' lantern are further evidence of a tendency to integration. The jack o' lantern is now garbed in a long dress and sports a cloven hoof. Among the younger blacks and Bajans there is general confusion of these two concepts, and the names are used interchangeably, although "la jablesse" is used more fre- quently. New creatures have been introduced and accepted, for it is too risky not to believe in them, hence the sea devil. The level of belief was ready for such a creature. Although George Graves has never seen it, he has no doubt of its existence.

There has been giving and taking by both groups, and what has emerged is a uniquely West Indian supernatural world, one shared by black and white natives alike. People may speak of the "plurality" of the society in the Caribbean islands, but this is certainly not reflected by the West Indians' belief in the supernatural. Here a total complex emerges, and, despite such significant differences as heritage and racial background, one supernatural realm exists for all.

Ripton, Vermont

10 Dorson sees the force of "ethnic separatism" keeping "the in-group folklores apart." He cites folk prejudices and cultural inertia as contributing to ethnic separatism. Richard Dorson, Folklore: Selected Essays (Bloomington, 1972), 73.