Caribbean Folklore ~ The Duppy Ah Come
Recently I’ve been thinking about connections, to places and to people.
Exploring duppy stories has been something that encompasses both my need and want to learn about my family’s and my own culture as well as my love of folklore. And it’s interesting because as you begin to study folklore, you begin to notice the similarities and the differences between stories from different parts of the world.
Growing up, the term ‘duppy’ was very familiar and even now, I can hear my dad exclaim ‘the duppy ah come’ whenever we watched a horror film or something even remotely spooky. Even now with my witchcraft and obeah practices he is often heard saying ‘Hemma Hemma, Hemma, what yah do? The duppy ah come dem!’ Shaking his head in exasperation.
So what is a duppy you might well be thinking. The word itself is from West Africa and found its way into the Caribbean by way of the slave trade and it is used in many of the islands to refer, generally speaking, to a ghost, spirit or demonic being.
Within Obeah, it is generally believed the soul has two parts, the good soul and the earthly soul. The good soul is the part of that passes on to the afterlife when a person dies. The earthly soul however resides in the body for up to 9 days after death and if proper funerary rights are not followed, then there is a chance the spirit might escape and exist thereafter as a duppy.
Duppies then, are usually malevolent and might sometimes be referred to as jumbies.
Today I am going to share with you some of the most common and frightening duppy stories I have gathered from my father, my aunts and from my own research. Some of them, as you will see are demonic beings, others the spirits of the deceased, but all scary and something you wouldn’t want to encounter anywhere, never mind the deep dark jungle of the Jamaican mountains.
The Rolling Calf
So we begin our duppy stories with that of the rolling calf, perhaps the most well known and most feared of all the duppies. In this context rolling means roaming in the same way you might say someone rolled right through town, and it is apt for this duppy, for it roams those lonely roads and pathways of the Jamaican countryside, and particularly haunts woods, caves and abandoned buildings, all of those places that feel like liminal spaces.
It often appears as a hornless white goat, and while it’s back legs might be that of a goat, it’s front legs are that of a human and a horse, a monstrous sight indeed! It’s eyes glow red like fire and flames come from it’s nostrils. The rolling calf wears a collar from which a chain hangs and it clatters and clangs as it rolls around the roads and lonely places, looking for its next victim. It can appear as small as a cat or as large as a raging bull, but either way, an encounter with this raging bull can be deadly! Make no mistake, the rolling calf is pure evil and if it so much as breathes on you with its hot breath then all sorts of wickedness is sure to befall you!
But fear not, should you ever find yourself on a lonely Jamaican road, for there are several things one might do to save themselves from the wrath of the rolling calf. My dad will say, when telling about this duppy, that you can’t catch a rolling calf with your right hand, and there is truth to the saying, for it can be kept at bay by lashing out with a tarred whip held in your left hand. It is also said that getting to a junction or crossroad before the rolling calf catches up with you is another way of thwarting its evil intent for it cannot pass by. Some say that you can also make an escape by casting rice upon the ground or striking three matches. The first two matches keep the rolling calf mesmerised so if you keep hold of the third match, the rolling calf will search all about for it, but whatever you do, do not let it find all three matches! But the best thing to do is just to leave at once, to not attract the attention of the rolling calf for even if thwarted, it is sure to return with a vengeance!
It is believed that those people who were most wicked and dishonest in life return as the rolling calf after their death, especially if the funerary rites are not adhered to. Such people might include obeah practitioners (obeah, back before the word was used to encapsulate all magickal practises, was often referred to as dark or malevolent magick), or butchers. You might be thinking what’s so bad about being a butcher and I guess there are a couple of things which require a deeper understanding.
I am a vegetarian which is not so common within Jamaican culture and whenever there is a family get together people are always shocked when they see me moving away from the goat curry towards the single plate of sandwiches! I can remember my grandmother telling me about the time when she was a girl in Jamaica and for a short period of time, she was vegetarian too. Back then, and perhaps still today in more rural areas of the island, it was normal for people to rear, slaughter and butcher their own animals, and if they didn’t do it themselves, then someone in the town or village would. Anyway, one day my grandmother was about her business as normal, running some errand or other and she happened to witness the slaughter of a pig. How it cried and squealed, she told me. The man doing the job, held a large, sharp knife behind his back as he approached the animal, but still it knew, and oh how it cried and screamed! And so doing the job of taking a life, even when it is for sustenance is a difficult and hard job to do and it might be that it requires hard people to do the job. But it might also be that unscrupulous butchers who overcharge for their produce have an evil streak somewhere within, especially when their patrons have very little as it is.
Old Higue (hag)
Another folkloric duppy is the old hag, and as you can probably guess from the name, she is the spirit of a witch. Old Hag comes from West Africa and she is a common duppy across the caribbean islands. This witch though, enjoys the taste of human flesh, especially infant human flesh. In Jamaica, there is a tradition of keeping nine nights most commonly done after death but is also known to be performed after the birth of a baby though this is of course different to the funerary rites and might include rituals and family staying over with the new mother and baby to ward off visits from Old Higue.
But she is not just a witch who likes to eat human flesh for Old Higue sheds her skin as she takes the form of an owl on her nightly travels, keeping it safe within a calabash. It is important she keeps her skin safe for she is at her most vulnerable without it. And when she finds her victims, she feeds on their flesh, drinks their blood or steals their breath.
To be rid of her, one must find the calabash that contains her skin and sprinkle it with salt and pepper. When she returns to her skin, she is unable to put it back on for the salt and pepper burns and itches and without her skin she is able to be vanquished. Rice makes another appearance here too, for if you wish to escape her but cannot find her skin, if you should throw rice upon the ground, she is compelled to count each and every grain, giving you time to make a quick getaway.
The Three Foot Horse and Whooping Boy
The three foot horse is a duppy and as the name suggests is a horse with only three legs, but don’t let that fool you for nothing can outrun it. Like the rolling calf, it has fire red eyes and hot fiery breath. But perhaps the most terrifying aspect of this duppy is it’s rider, the whooping boy.
It is said that should you be out on a dark night, perhaps in the bush or in the mountains, you might hear the yip yip call of the whooping boy. Imagine yourself in the dark of night with only the moon and stars for brightness, heading along a lonely road with the deep and dark jungle pressing in close. If you’ve ever been out in the woods or a rural setting alone at night then you might just get an idea of the terror the landscape might hold all on its own, but imagine in the Jamaican bush with the night noises all around and no streetlights to cast away the shadows. Imagine hearing the galloping of the three foot horse and the whooping call of it’s rider, urging it on and then you might just begin to touch upon the fear that the three foot horse and the whooping boy inspire.
But this duppy does have roots in history, for the whooping boy is said to be the spirit of a slave boy and it’s not too hard to imagine what the horrors of slavery might do to the human psyche, damaging it so much that the spirit is damaged, made evil by the horrors endured during a short lifetime.
I often think the most scary ghost and duppy stories are those that involve the horrors acted out upon real people, especially those who are the most vulnerable.
The River Mumma
Within African and Caribbean folklore and spiritualities, there are many mermaid like figures and the River Mumma is one of them. Sometimes evoking love and adoration and other times fear, the River Mumma is one of those figures that might act as a test for people and how they act they might earn her favour or her wrath.
The River Mumma is associated with Jamaica's rivers, and in particular the Rio Cobre River.
It is said she appears sitting on a rock in the middle of the flowing water, combing her locks with a golden comb. When she has finished she disappears back into the water, leaving the golden comb on the rock. If any person, overcome with greed and want for the golden comb, enters the water with the view to claiming it for themselves, then the River Mumma appears and drags them down to their watery death. If however the individual leaves the comb and goes on their way, then great fortune and luck will come to them.
And one should avoid fishing in the rivers where she appears, for the fishes are her children and she will protect them as such.
There is also another tale that is sometimes linked to the River Mumma and that involves the appearance of a golden table, and much like the comb is a test of the individuals honour and trustworthiness. In this tale though, should one pass the test, it is said the River Mumma will lead them to sunken treasure from the time when the Spaniards ruled the island.
But as with some of the other tales we have discussed, there is an element of the River Mumma stories that are more poignantly linked to the horrors of slavery within the islands.
The Flat Bridge
The flat bridge is one of the oldest bridges in Jamaica and crosses the Rio Cobre river in the deep valleys of St Catherine parish in the south east of the island.
The river is fast flowing and treacherous, many lives have been lost in it. The bridge was constructed using slave labour and countless slaves died during its construction. It is perhaps one of the most haunted locations in the island. It is said that those who lost their lives there are looked after by the River Mumma, and depending who you ask, their spirits become the fish, her children, perhaps another reason why the fish there should not be caught.
It is said that when the river turns parrot green, then the River Mumma is present and one should be extra careful at these times for if an intruder should meet her gaze then terrible things will befall them.
Duppy stories to me, cross cultures and the Caribbean is inextricably linked to Britain through the history of colonisation and the slave trade, which makes the duppy stories all the more poignant. I think that the best ghost stories have at their core an inherent sadness that speaks to the human condition. I think the Caribbean is a liminal space itself, a mixation of African and European beliefs with a hint of the indigenous peoples who inhabited the islands long before any others. As liminal spaces where peoples and cultures have collided and not, for the most part, in a harmonious way, the duppy stories that emerge from there are full of grief, pain and anger and that is why duppies are not something one should take lightly, ask any Jamaican!
EMMA KATHRYN
Emma Kathryn, practises traditional British witchcraft, Vodou and Obeah, a mixture representing her heritage. She lives in the sticks with her family where she reads tarot, practises witchcraft and drink copious amounts of coffee.
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