Octavia, the Octoroon

by J. F. Lee

CHAPTER III.

THE BIRTH OF OCTAVIA.

Not long after this Simon's mother, Aunt Dinah, "went the way of all the earth, and was gathered to her fathers." This caused great mourning and lamentation on the plantation. The old auntie was almost looked upon with reverence. She was, as it were, an oracle, being consulted on everything that transpired on the place.

This was a severe grief to Simon and Elsie, who received the condolences of all the slaves on the place. The little negroes were bereft of a true friend, as Aunt Lucy, Aunt Dinah's successor, was not as thoughtful, good and kind to the little ones as Aunt Dinah had been.

The negro is no nurse and of no account in a sick room. This was so in the case of the deceased old auntie, who was sick quite awhile and doubtless wanted good nursing. But let one of their number die and they are very much in evidence, sitting up with the corpse or attending the funeral. Aunt Dinah had one of the longest funeral processions ever witnessed in that country.

The negroes not only preach at the burial, but appoint a time several months ahead, giving it great publicity, when So and So's funeral will be preached with great éclat. On these occasions there is as much shouting, singing, groaning, moaning and praying as there is in their revival meetings.

Simon and Elsie put on the usual mourning for parents, and to show their grateful remembrance asked their mistress to get them an elegant monument, with the proper inscription thereon, and erected it at the head of her grave, something very rare for slaves.

Soon after this Elsie got in bad health, would not eat, and notwithstanding much was done for her restoration to health, she failed to improve. The negro as a race has a larger share of superstition than any other. With this Simon was considerably tinctured. As Elsie failed to improve it was noised around that she was "conjured." Simon, notwithstanding his intelligence, began to share in the belief that this was so. There was an old negro "conjure" doctor on the place, whom Simon asked to go around and see Elsie.

After talking with Elsie awhile he left, and seeing Simon told him that "Elsie grievin' 'bout Brutus." He protested that she cared nothing in the world about that negro in the woods, and he would have to search for another cause. Believing that she was "conjured," he insisted that the conjurer take the "spell" off. To this he agreed, and appointed a day when he would bring her around all right. The "conjurer" told Simon that Elsie had "lizards and roaches" in her ear, and that they must come out. It is possible that Simon believed this stuff by letting his superstition get the better of his judgment and intelligence. At the appointed time the "conjurer" came, having lizards and roaches in a box up his sleeve. After songs, incantations and gesticulations, all the while rubbing her head, he adroitly liberated the lizards and roaches, which ran off, making Elsie scream. This may have had effect on the few spectators present, but it certainly had none on Elsie, who knew that she had been acting a piece of consummate duplicity from the first. The "conjurer" told Elsie, "dem live things in her hed wus de cause of all her trubble, and that she would get well now." Elsie, however, failed to improve, and Simon went to see his mistress in regard to the matter, who sent a physician back with him to see Elsie. When leaving he told Simon that Elsie had given birth to a beautiful girl baby as white as he, the physician, was, and with hair as straight.