28 OCTOBER 1865, Page 2

A Mobile newspaper asserts that " Vandooism," or, as it

used to be styled in the West Indies, " Obeah," is still believed by- the negroes of Louisiana. The worshippers assemble in a hut, adorn their hair with sacred herbs, and sit quite naked while the Obi man recites incantations, and boils certain herbs ma pot. Each worshipper then dips a finger into the mixture, and makes cabalistic signs with it on his body. This superstition, which has now been handed down through five generations of negroes, is in the West Indies believed to have a double meaning—the liquor acting as a charm or preservative, or on occasion as a swift poison. A notion that the negroes are well acquainted with some vegetable poison which acts slowly is widely spread in the South.