In Many cultures the existence of the spirit world is accepted as fact, and people’s everyday lives are peppered with rituals and beliefs which take into account the needs of their ghostly companions. Jamaica is a particularly religious country with at least ten churches per square mile. It is also a country rich in superstition and where obeath (the Jamaican version of voodoo) is still relatively quite common. In Jamaican lore a duppy is the shadow of a dead person, and it is a hugely feared spirit. Duppies are said to be pure evil and can be conjured up if coins and rum are thrown into graves. A duppy’s breath can make you sick, and its touch can cause a seizure.
Jamaicans from both ends of the social spectrum are highly suspicious of these evil spirits, and are willing to perform primitive rituals in order to protect themselves. The blood of white chickens is often daubed inside homes to ward off duppies, and mant people refuse to enter a home if this precaution has not been taken.
Duppies regularly harm people, and duppy-induced injuries are often cited as an excuse to miss work. Duppy boxing (being slapped in the face by a duppy) is commonplace, and many people have been known to develop palsies and disfigurements after being attacked in this way. Reports of persons being stoned by duppies are widespread, and can be found throughout Jamaican history.
In 1895, a Jesuit missionary named Reverend Abraham Emerick arrived in Jamaica and spent ten years working in the missions in the heart of the mountains. He had first-hand experience of the stone-throwing duppies.
Reverend Emerick often journeyed to remote missions in order to administer his teachings. On one occasion, while traveling to Alva mission in the Dry Harbor Mountains, he was met by a hysterical group of local people warning him against continuing on his journey. A duppy had been haunting the mission school for over a week and terrible noises had been heard in and around the building. Local people had been stationed around the school to keep watch and had witnessed stones being thrown, seemly from out of nowhere. The teacher at the school had been driven from his rooms, and he testified that a malevolent duppy was, indeed responsible He was convinced the stones were not thrown by human beings, since after smashing one window a stone would turn in a completely different direction in order to smash another.
The Reverend continued to the mission to see for himself if the stories were true. Upon arriving he found the building and the school empty, vandalized, and littered with stones. The place was quiet and strangely still, so he entered the school building to investigate the damage. As he stood surveying the wreckage a few small pebbles began to fall around him, like hailstones bouncing on the ground. The trickle grew to a heavy shower and the pebbles turned to stones. He was soon being bombarded by spectral missiles, so he turned and ran from the building in fright. The stone throwing followed him out of the mission and some distance down the road, where he took refuge in a nearby house. There was a family of six living in the house and they were overcome by terro as the stones were fired into their home, breaking windows and various ornaments. The stones seemed to come from all directions, and just as the Reverend and the family could bear no more, the throwing stopped. It seemed as this particular duppy had had its fair share of fun.
The Reverend Emerick also recounted a time when he was called to a young Jamaican woman who was dying from a serious illness. As he began to administer to her, an arm reached from behind him and slapped the poor woman with such force that her head fell sideways from the pillow. The Reverend turned quickly, but found the room empty except for himself and his patient. He dismissed the incident as a figment of his overwrought imagination, and once again prepared to administer to the dying woman. The arm once more reached from behind and this time threw the woman to the floor. In a panic, the Reverend searched wildly around the room for the perpetrator, but found he was still alone. On turning to help the woman back into bed, he found her dead, her vacant eyes still staring towards an unseen horror.
The Jamaicans certainly have cause to fear the native duppy, and it would be hard to dismiss all of the extraordinary manifestations. It is well that they have developed strategies for dealing with this spirit and are aware of their own human limitations.
