The old timers in Treasure Beach were very good with their duppy (ghost, for the uninitiated) stories, some going back many years to the pre-electricity days.
Would love to hear some of them!

Earl,

Laak Masah...You would a haffin go ask the older people dem from the community fi true. Memba seh duppy noh luv electric light an them hate the smell a gasoline.Mi no tink non deh bout these days. By di way, anybody memba when a famous Indian man use to visit the community and was said to be very popular in ketchin duppy and puttin them inna bottle ?

And if you did not listen to the old Indian man he would say, you caan sleep tonight because the duppie dema come fi you.

I do recall that famous Indian man very well, we called him Coolie Bobby..

I do remember Balance Drew, and the crying baby that was walking in the community. They were two scary duppy.

i hated the abna puss story most of all, they were the talking cats that would say " i want me baby, i want me baby" I think it was something the older heads use to tell little children so they would go to bed and not make noise, It was very scary, especially when you hear noise coming from outside, you think the abna puss in the bushes outside your window.

What about the story of the jankro and the coffin?
Rumour started in Kingston and eventually it even got to Treasure Beach, with several reports of sightings!

Frenchman Girl yuh really brave. Although he is long dead and gone mi did fraid fi call im name.A hope im don't come back fi ride yuh :-)

By the way anybody remember the coffin and the three Jancrowe that use to walk the streets in Kingston? I don't remember the story too well but maybe someone can relate it for us.

bob marley had a song about the john crow on the coffin....Mr Brown The coffin would drive around and the john crow would ask for Mr. Brown


(Ooh - ooh - ooh - ooh)
(It's Mr Brown) Mr Brown is a clown who rides to town in a coffin.
(Well, here he comes) In the top is ... three rows on top and two inside there.
Oh, what a confusion! Ooh, yeah, yeah!
What a botheration! Ooh, now, now!

Who is Mr Brown? I wanna know now!
He is nowhere to be found.
From Mandeville to slide-a-ville, coffin runnin' around,
Upsetting, upsetting, upsetting the town,
Asking for Mr Brown.
From Mandeville to slide-a-ville, coffin runnin' around,
upsetting, upsetting, upsetting the town,
Asking for Mr Brown.
I wanna know who (is Mr Brown)?
Is Mr Brown controlled by remote?

O-o-oh, calling duppy conqueror,
I'm the ghost-catcher!
This is your chance, oh big, big Bill bull-bucka,
Take your chance! Prove yourself! Oh, yeah!

Down in parade
People runnin like a masquerade.
The police make a raid,
But the people - oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah - they think it
fade.

What a thing in town
Crows chauffeur-driven around,
Skankin' as if they had never known
The man they call "Mr Brown".

I can tell you where he's from now:
From Mandeville to slide-a-ville, coffin runnin' around,
Upsetting, upsetting, upsetting the town,
Asking for Mr Brown.
From Mandeville to slide-a-ville -
/fadeout/

While I'm the last one to talk about mis-hearing lyrics (especially in patois), I ~think~ its Sligoville instead of slide-a-ville. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Pedro Peeps, someone told me last week that they saw Coolie Bobby just around the corner from your house, and he was asking for you.

I wonder why?

I have never laugh as must as I have when I read some of the duppy stories. It is a good belly laugh Keep them coming.


My uncle told me that when he was a young man in Jamaica , he went to a dance in Southfield and stayed till bout 3 a clack.

Him decide to walk home to Calabash Bay, then him see a van a come and decide to beg a ride half way.

Him jump up in the van and see a man a sudong in a de Karner.

My uncle was under a a few liquer but him say he was not drunk. He struck up a conversation wid the man but the man never answer him so he still a chat then he say mek mi see whe mek the man dont ansa.

When he look at the man him see two eyes red as blood and shining. him say right away he knew it was a duppy, he couldn't talk for a few day to tell anyone what had happened to him.

Back dem days rolling calf and old hige use to walk. That experience kept my uncle from every dance from that.

When i came to NY he told me the story
and he was still afraid. I laught till mi belly nerly bus.

God Rest my dear uncle, he was truly a great uncle.

who treated me just like my father. God bless those 2 wonderful men may they both rest in peace.

My uncle told me he had an experience with a old hige before and they actually have wings, so they fly.

Rollin' Calf, Ol' Hige, Abna Puss...
Any other names for the duppies?
And was there a qualitative difference between each?
Was one more dangerous or frightening than any other?

dont forget the black heart man that theif pickney Earl

Black Heart is another expression for Black art...the art of doing witchcraft or voodoo .The black heart man was suppose to kidnapp kids ,kill them ,and use their body parts to perform his act. GRUESOME!!!!

But, was the 'Black Heart'/ 'Black Art' man supposed to be a ghost, or was he just a really evil living agent of the devil?

The "Black heart Man" was suppose to be a real living person so it does not have anything to do with duppy and duppy stories.PC was probably trying to remind us of the other childhood traditions and fears with which we grew up .

I can remember a friend and myself running from a man that had stopped his car to take a 'leak " in the bushes,thinking he was a Black Heart Man .We seh..." Foot whe yuh deh " and ran for dear life only to look back and see the man laughing at us.But you know what? It's better to be safe than sorry.

Dose any one remember a man call maas Sargan,he use to carry telligram to the Treasure beach area, every children was afraid of him, we only have to hear someone say maas Sargan coming we all run to hide from him, I think he was a day time duppy,he run after me once and I pee mi self ha ha ha cant beat the good old days stories.

There is a big tree in Big Ground, use to be after you leave Ms Darcy/Ren Lewis shop. When you walk by it at nights you would start sweat. It was known as "Cold Sweat" due to the duppy dem by the tree.

Can you remember the term "Rolling Calf". Well the road from Big Ground to Pedro at night use to have sounds of heavy chains making noise. It was said is "rolling calf", Duppy who can't rest in peace and wandering.

A friend was driving late one night back to town from Ochie.

He had a Land Rover full of lumber and whole heap of man inside

Somewhere after Fern Gully they all saw a man walk in front of the vehicle and get hit.

Frightened, they stop and get out. No Man was there!?

What about the now infamous Christmas tree? as soon as you get to that tree you start to panic cause you bound fi see Duppy at that tree.

Cotton trees are reputed to be the home of Duppies. The Taino are the only ones I can find that communicated with and respected certain? trees.

Even today old woodsmen will only cut a tree if the time is right and the tree 'gives' consent. Tobacco and rum are often offered before cutting.

The Spanish invaders reported that a tree would catch the attention of someone and they would call the spiritual doctor to talk to the tree to discover it's wishes. If so directed the tree would be cut and a portion carved into a Zemi. The Zemi would then have a house (caney or bohio) and garden (conuco) dedicated to it. Right here in TB too, 500+ years ago.

There are three wooden Taino objects in our National Galley. The person that originally discovered them was commanded in a dream by the Taino to take them back to their cave. It seems they were considering using them for bad works. They eventually found their way to where we all can appreciate them.

Go have a look, they were made by our GGGetc...grandfathers.

Bowl has a good one about the big dog with the fire in his eyes or it's eyes.Bowl where are you only you can tell it.You saw it.Bring it

Cross Roads Duppy

It was sometime in the late 1890s or early 1900s. There was not a light to be seen; not even a star in the sky on this particular night. As they say in these parts, it was so dark that “even dawg fraid!”

This was the final hour before daylight, and as is often said, the darkest hour of the night!

But the two siblings – a boy and a girl – had a long journey ahead of them and so they had to set out that early from their home in Calabash Bay if they were going to get to their aunt in Rose Hall in time with the fish their parents were sending for her.

The boy was slightly younger than his sister and was deadly afraid of duppies, so, even though she was not the bravest person in the world, she had to put on a brave face and give him courage.

The first test of that courage came as they approached Lennon Wood – a small forest growing where today the Treasure Beach Pentecostal Church stands.

Suddenly, out of the darkness a few yards ahead, the figure of a man materialized, with a blazing red fire stick in one hand and a rope in the other!

They stopped. Her limbs felt dead… The boy felt he was already dead! What would they do? What could they do?

“It… it…it is a d-d-d-duppy!” the little fellow stuttered.

Summoning as confident a tone as she could, the girl whispered back “No, sah!” Yu don’t see is a fisherman going to sea?”

That was not an illogical argument, given that fishermen heading out to “near sea” in their oar-powered canoes had to get to the beach and push out early as well.

Nearer and nearer, the ghostly figure approached, his face ill-defined, even ten feet away. Surely this was the end!

Then, just as suddenly as he appeared, he veered left and off into the woods to be swallowed by the ravenous blackness, as even his fire stick lost the battle of darkness and light.

Breathing a sigh of relief at this narrow escape, the siblings resumed their journey, feet now made light by the urgency of the moment. Going at a trot, they quickly put distance between themselves and that awful spot.

So fast did they move that they were startled when they found themselves in Cross Roads - an important milepost at the intersection of life for villagers in those days.

The next moment, however, relief at such rapid progress was replaced by a newfound dread. There was a rustling to their left. They turned. They saw. They froze.

Three female figures, each about seven feet tall, it seemed, were approaching from the direction of Newell. Their heads were covered by sheets, the rest hanging loosely to the ground.

Their steps were measured, a coordinated march, almost. Hands outstretched, they moaned and groaned… moaned and groaned.

The brother and sister stood rooted to the spot. They wanted to run as fast as they could, but, agonizingly, their limbs were no longer obeying the commands of their brains.

As they drew closer the three giant figures towered above the tiny terrified two. They could, if they chose, now reach out and uproot them from their frozen stance, and heave them far or draw them close.

But, how do you predict the next moves of such spectral beings?

Surprisingly, they knelt; face down, as if beseeching the blessings of these innocent young, as yet unblemished by the ways of the world.

And just as suddenly they were up and gone, fading into the night.

“Is okay; dem gaawn” she told him, relief etched in her voice. Not hearing a reply, she spun around! There he was, flat on the ground. His feet had failed; his young body giving way in a faint.

Thinking quickly, she reached into the basket of fish and extracted a pinch of salt from one. She placed it on his tongue and poured some water from a bottle onto his forehead.

Gradually, he came round. As he did his eyes darted from left to right, seeking, yet dreading confirmation that he had not been dreaming.

Summoning all her strength, the girl assured him that all was well. She fervently hoped that this time she was right.

Apparently she was.

She went on to become my grandmother.

I love, love, love a good duppy story! Just wish I hadn't read it so close to bedtime . . .

Any more?!?!?!?

Great writing Earl M. I love duppy stories!

Boy ! Mi skin craawl when I read this story. Those two kids were more than brave.Can you imagine how much their heads must have been swollen and the poor little boy must have been foaming at the mouth when he passed out.As a child I would often hear people talking about how duppy and rolling calf infested that Lane behind the Church was.

By the way Earl...I heard that no two people can see duppy at the same time.You have to step on your partner's big toe for them to see the ghost too.Maybe that's not true after all.

Pedro Peeps,
I'm not too familiar with "duppy protocol", but perhaps they don't all behave in the same way.

Or, perhaps one of the siblings did step on the other's big toe!

By the way, Pedro, I have a feeling you know quite a few duppy stories, yourself. You need to spill a few of them!

A fisherman went out at the beach very early one morning before anyone else ,so he saw what look like someone smoking ,so went up to the(presuming) person and ask for a light ,the answer he got with fire coming out of the the mouth " have you ever see teeth like these-ese"

(The ghosts at sea are known to be call Dutchman ,dont quite remember any stories but ask any of the old fishermen who used to fish on the Pedro Bank )

Hi Earl,

I am so sorry I do not know any good duppy stories to relate. I only know bits and pieces that I have heard here and there.

Wax,

I was told that duppies always like to show their teeth and would brag how much they resemble ten penny nails.

Did anyone hear the story of the three duppies who went walking on moonlight night?

The first duppy said "di moonlight bright and pri pri (meaning pretty)

The second duppy replied "an' you ca'an talk it pra pra (meaning proper)

The third duppy butted in "nar you nara" (meaning you neither)

When next you run into a duppy, you now know how to communicate.

Those three duppies would not recognise Cross Roads now. They would probably get lost!

How many ways to keep duppy and bad spirits away?

I know of loaded ring, green lime and laundry blue.

The Psalms off course. Everyone with their favorites.

I hope no duppy is reading these secrets :-)