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'A well-dressed individual, Isaac White, was charged --- with having, by the practice of obeah, received from Jack Brown at San Juan between the 3rd and 4th October 1907, £2, a cock, a bottle of rum, three candles, an egg and a bottle of Florida Water, with intent to defraud.'
Jack (Jacob) Brown, of Port-of-Spain, had been introduced to White by Cecilia Morris 'as a man who could do something for people with cases (laughter)'. Brown went to see White on Thursday night, and White had asked him for 5s and an egg so that he could "examine him". White had gone behind a blind with the coin and the egg, and Brown had heard the stirring of water. White had told Brown to say the Lord's Prayer three times. (frequent laughter in the court room as the witness tells his story.)
White then told Brown that he had a serious case, and that it would 'go up to the judges'. 'Magistrate: I wish it had to begin there rather than here.' White told Brown that it would cost him a lot to defend his case. White would charge him 12 dollars. Brown had said that he could not afford that, and White had then asked for £2. He should also bring White a cock, a big bottle of rum, three candles (red, black, and blue), and a bottle of essence and another egg. If Brown could not remember the name of the essence, he could bring Florida Water.
Brown returned to White's house on Friday night between 9.30 and 10 with the paraphernalia mentioned. White was playing a violin. The house was only five houses from the San Juan police station. Recurrent jokes by the Magistrate, laughter in the courthouse on the expense of the witness. White had told Brown to button his jacket to cool him, as he was going to give him a bath. White told Brown to turn to the east, to give White the cock and to say his Belief there times. White had then asked Brown the name of the Constable in the case against him, and Brown had said 'Constable Bowen'. Brown had been charged for selling rum without a license. Brown had then given the paraphernalia to White and White had opened the Florida Water and sprinkled some over the cock (laughter again). White has spit [F]lorida water into the cock's mouth. White had said 'I am going to work the case by seven stars'.
White had said that the case would not go to the judges, but would be decided by the Magistrate, and so it had happened.
As White was about to give Brown a bath, there was a knock on the door. A man announced himself 'a friend, John from San Fernando.' White wouldn't open the door, but Brown opened it and saw Sergeant Eversley, Sergeant King and two constables. They told White that they had a warrant to search the place, and held him as he tried to escape. They took the money from White and several items as well. The warrant was for 'implements used in the practice of obeah.'
Brown, the witness, then identified several articles produced in the court by the complainant: a bundle of letters, a pitch oil tin and three small tins containing some sort of liquid; six bottles, a few of which contained liquid, three flasks, some also containing liquid, candles, stones, etc.
Brown had informed the police of White on Friday morning. 'He knew perfectly well that rum cases were not sent to the Sessions, and that's why he gave the information to the police.' He had been informing the police on various cases for thirty years, and had been taken to court on numerous charges before this one.
Brown said that White's clock ran backwards.
Brown had not thought that White was 'a fraud' when he first went to him; 'I thought that he could work good obeah.' But when he had asked him for the cock and the money, he had started to think that White was a fraud. He did not know how to work obeah or what obeah was.
Adjourned; bail allowed.
No other cases are linked to this source.
