The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano, Or Gustavus Vassa, The African | Page 9

them. None
accompanied their funerals but those of the same profession or tribe.
These buried them after sunset, and always returned from the grave by
a different way from that which they went.
These magicians were also our doctors or physicians. They practised
bleeding by cupping; and were very successful in healing wounds and
expelling poisons. They had likewise some extraordinary method of
discovering jealousy, theft, and poisoning; the success of which no
doubt they derived from their unbounded influence over the credulity
and superstition of the people. I do not remember what those methods
were, except that as to poisoning: I recollect an instance or two, which I
hope it will not be deemed impertinent here to insert, as it may serve as
a kind of specimen of the rest, and is still used by the negroes in the
West Indies. A virgin had been poisoned, but it was not known by
whom: the doctors ordered the corpse to be taken up by some persons,
and carried to the grave. As soon as the bearers had raised it on their
shoulders, they seemed seized with some[F] sudden impulse, and ran to
and fro unable to stop themselves. At last, after having passed through
a number of thorns and prickly bushes unhurt, the corpse fell from
them close to a house, and defaced it in the fall; and, the owner being
taken up, he immediately confessed the poisoning[G].
The natives are extremely cautious about poison. When they buy any
eatable the seller kisses it all round before the buyer, to shew him it is
not poisoned; and the same is done when any meat or drink is presented,
particularly to a stranger. We have serpents of different kinds, some of
which are esteemed ominous when they appear in our houses, and these
we never molest. I remember two of those ominous snakes, each of
which was as thick as the calf of a man's leg, and in colour resembling
a dolphin in the water, crept at different times into my mother's
night-house, where I always lay with her, and coiled themselves into
folds, and each time they crowed like a cock. I was desired by some of
our wise men to touch these, that I might be interested in the good
omens, which I did, for they were quite harmless, and would tamely
suffer themselves to be handled; and then they were put into a large

open earthen pan, and set on one side of the highway. Some of our
snakes, however, were poisonous: one of them crossed the road one day
when I was standing on it, and passed between my feet without offering
to touch me, to the great surprise of many who saw it; and these
incidents were accounted by the wise men, and therefore by my mother
and the rest of the people, as remarkable omens in my favour.
Such is the imperfect sketch my memory has furnished me with of the
manners and customs of a people among whom I first drew my breath.
And here I cannot forbear suggesting what has long struck me very
forcibly, namely, the strong analogy which even by this sketch,
imperfect as it is, appears to prevail in the manners and customs of my
countrymen and those of the Jews, before they reached the Land of
Promise, and particularly the patriarchs while they were yet in that
pastoral state which is described in Genesis--an analogy, which alone
would induce me to think that the one people had sprung from the other.
Indeed this is the opinion of Dr. Gill, who, in his commentary on
Genesis, very ably deduces the pedigree of the Africans from Afer and
Afra, the descendants of Abraham by Keturah his wife and concubine
(for both these titles are applied to her). It is also conformable to the
sentiments of Dr. John Clarke, formerly Dean of Sarum, in his Truth of
the Christian Religion: both these authors concur in ascribing to us this
original. The reasonings of these gentlemen are still further confirmed
by the scripture chronology; and if any further corroboration were
required, this resemblance in so many respects is a strong evidence in
support of the opinion. Like the Israelites in their primitive state, our
government was conducted by our chiefs or judges, our wise men and
elders; and the head of a family with us enjoyed a similar authority
over his household with that which is ascribed to Abraham and the
other patriarchs. The law of retaliation obtained almost universally with
us as with them: and even their religion appeared to have shed upon us
a ray of its glory, though broken and spent in its passage, or eclipsed by
the cloud with which time, tradition, and ignorance might have
enveloped it; for we