VOODOO curge ON T ji that they say accounts for its train of ills government seized the wealth of a dead voodoo priestess then came ruined crops the hurricane the volcano visit to the craters 1 I allus tov cm they be sure nut goner if they beeh that voodoo money ine old negro who said this sat slowly spelling out of a the nawa of the disaster on ahe island ot vincent his old home scarcely a negro in the et indies mut is saying alic thing tod iv taxing ever fatter uglier and richer or many years there lived just outside of kingstown on st vincent the high priestess of the voodoo worshippers wor shippers thither by stealth went from all over the west indies and als othey tell yon white planters seeking channa and lucky spells tharo were still other visitors tort who landed quietly by night and bore away little vials ot slow working poison or perhaps merely innocent looking splint whose slightest scratch meant death then presently the papers would record the sudden end of some harsh overseer from fever ine hand of the law never fell upon her it is not pleasant to execute justice iv lien you know that tomorrow mornings coffee will be filled with powdered glass and in good time she died her spirit carried up Sou friere by zombi coy they say and there dumped in much wealth sie left for her magic was always of the most expensive kind many a poor devil ruined himself to meet her extortions extort ions but strange to say no heirs appeared to take possession 0 f her estate it ans goodo and not an african on earth would touch it so finally the government of st vincent stepped in where others feared to tread and confiscated it now voodoo or not it certainly is true that from that day alic already tottering fortune ot vincent hastened swiftly to their fall the emigrated to barbadoes to the states anywhere away from that island sugar fell in price slowly but aurely fu rely and sugar wag st vincent stay ft arrowroot the next propof importune fell also desperate measures were taken to remedy matters whole estates i were condemned and cut up into little to bi divided among alic cs alie only result was to anger those whose estates were then ame the hurricane of 1803 four hundred lives were lost in the island and every crop was ruined those who lingered after that did so merely be cans they had to such was alie state of things when the writer landed at kingston a few weeks ago only fifteen miles long by eleven broad the little green islet was saved from insignificance by the rugged grandeur of the evil named evil formed old volcano nt the northern end but feet high it lost 1000 feet or so in altitude in its out break of 1718 yet its ragged cone tow ered with a certain mighty majesty against the tropic sky from to mount pt an drews near the southern end a hain of lower peaks divides the western from the eastern side so riven by M steep ore their sides that n long road round the shore was the only practical connection between tha pretty little village of laclair half way down the west cm side and the larger village of georgetown jut across at the southwestern end lay so the writer having seen it on u former visit the town ot kingstown bearing no little resemblance to st in its surroundings surround inga of green robed bills of cane its houses bayly frescoed in bright blues and reda with here and a dash of leyrow reminding you of norway villages the heavy laden sugar casks rumbling over bic cobbled arcet the quick clicking ol 01 tiny donkeys hoofs drawing enormous loads of green cane the hum and clatter of the market place all these he remembered all the hills were but naked skeletons of those ho remembered gaunt gray ribs of rock protruding through bare red soil lying naked in the glare of the tun cliine stripped utterly of their emerald robea not su much as a palma growing bince the day of tho hurricane further lark the higher bills still lay green and beautiful but for miles around the town the voodoo curie cur ie seemed indeed to le heavy on the land and alic town itself the pitiless tropic rain bad washed the hued houas to a dingy gray many houses were and cinta with fungus i over them the long pier tot terol on ita rotting piles seeming scarcely able to support the weight 0 the handful of listless that flocked out cooee the now grown to be an event not to bo miffed ashore the ruin wag more apparent only the police station which aeto 0 tap jail was always alic bulging maintained a certain smartness itt it t crumbling walls with whitewash in the bleat Ble ct the green ars grew almost unchecked down middle street acif lio main thoroughfare is called the dust of years hail gathered on the narrow shop windows the unusual sound of footsteps foott eps brought each merchant eagerly to the door acroyd of eager darky boy locked around M begging shrilly for a penny in tho old market place only a few withered crones sat mumbling A handful of a fw bains i baie of of their baskets of customer a least we wen harr no ien signs 01 euln at filled the little town of pleasant memories wo set out tor the journey up couf ariere starting up alio back road of the town we passed the botanical bota lical gardens a green oasis in a barren land higher up tho road led to tho bick bone of the central ridge here for the first time wo could ascii the eastern side windward in startling contrast to the hills around knightstown Knights town everything was green and beautiful this was the old country given to the remnant that survived the massacres ot their fellows and promptly taken away again as soon as tho district was found to contain tho most fertile land on the island down the coast past the mineral spring in arnos vale iback again to richmond in and out up and down ambles the road to which is glowing more and more imposing at every step the on its summit giving it a false loftiness of aspect soon the real climb began the path growing steadily worse none but west horses could climb west indian mountain roads the inexperienced traveller shudders at the ascent the straight downward plunges into loose stones everywhere the road most likely clinging to a steep cliff while down beside you a sheer thousand feet lut by and by confidence in your beaste gymnastic powers sets in and souil you arc urging liim to canter down places where you would have dismounted and walked an hour before sometimes behind us but more often ahead trudged the guides bearing bundles 0 good upon their heads the feats they perform arc wonderful they make forty fifty mites a day up and down cwi wwi packages sometimes weighing a hundred pounds upon scads no diore van keep up with them their muscles seeming to tie made of ri words is the path up through a jungle of merv el green foliage with gorgeous flowers passing through the prima eval tropic forest where the huge trees so knit themselves together as to resist hw cesa fully the fury of the hurricane the sunlight flitters dimly through a screen 0 green far overhead long snakelike snake like bianas lianas drop seemingly out of emerald clouds to the ground a hundred feet below i orchids and curious parasites cling to the massive sides of the trees and fill the crotch of every limb birds like hashes of colored lire dart everywhere huge butterflies ic arcely losi brilliant flap slowly back and forth with gorgeous wings 0 o large as M eming ly to impede their speed strange notes from unnamed birds break the below a layle stream is chuckling to itself lithe green lizards rustle from under the horses to stop and peer with bright black eydi at anc intruders and over nil the strange wild of the jungle the smell of fresh rich earth of countless owera and sweet spiry fruits mingling indescribably with everything great arco ferns the stems thick as young spread out their green laap work fifty feet above your head it is all so beautiful a real enchanted fairyland drykos and the great god pan himself become realities each tree you look to t ce a startled fawn gradually the trees grow more stunt cd the tender tree terns lay behind the hardier ferns take the place of the e otic undergrowth and at last the crater of it is two craters in reality for in that great eruption ot 1812 when ik shook half the world with the fury of its wrath a hew vent opened beside the old outlet separated by a narrow ledge of jagged rock quite impossible description h thi twin crater of the old mouth was a mile across and feet deep lined with hardy ferns that had crept down to the edge of the uncanny lake of milk white water that when we saw was beginning already to bubble uneasily with sulphurous pases bleaching tho foliage nil around the edge the new outlet was far less imposing a tiny black pool at alie bottom like some devils inkstand tho crests of both craters were jagged and seamed with old scars the rocks and bare places were colored to curioli hues bv rising gases while most impressive of all the cloud mists whirled and tossed and floated out to vanish in the sunshine standing on ehg craters rim the little island seemed like a tiny emerald floating on a vast blue sea nestling along tho mountains hanks were countless little houses far away at the south end lay kingstown here obar hunted with tho tireless patience of the naturalist the mysterious Sou friere ard never seen before by man though often heard with what joy must he have birst known specimen away in its protecting little paper cone th calein tho craters rim where ho denla i enla week was pointed out with much reluctance we descended a still steeper p ath to the northern roast here most of the halt breeda somo n number lived it seemed n general baking day tor all were busy making cassava cakes most interesting was the process the cassava root juice which is a deadly poison so forstthe tubers are prated fino and then cunningly woven tube of elastic made on alic principle of the little finger traps familiar to our childhood ia filled one ani is suspended while from tho other weights are hung As the basket stretches out ofle juice forced from ho cassava through tiby open meshes in the old days alii judee was caved to poison arrow tips now it is carefully where it can do no hann tho still moist pulp next is dried thoroughly and then rolled into pancakes some two acet wide and thin as paper which are baked on heated atones or if alie family is well to do on iron plates one old woman hideous beyond ix cief lier straight black hair hanging in tangled junices around her complained bitterly because the cakes were rolled and there were not hot atones ah bad she but known soon hot atones mere to rain as if from on that same village soon the soft white ashes were to fall on everything burying perhaps beneath it tho lat hopes ofa of a brighter day tor the island which the say is cursed with the Voodoo spell