Jinxed Jumbie of Oualie

Once, not to long ago, out on the eastern edge of the Caribbean Sea (or the western edge of the Atlantic Ocean), there was a small island known as Oualie. Oualie was a volcano just under a million years old. It rose up thousands of feet from the sea into the clouds and was surrounded by coral reefs. There was a small crater at the top; not a hot crater but more of just a sunken valley filled with beautiful plants. In the centre of the crater was a small pool. And in that crater, near that pool, is where part of this story takes place.

Surrounding that pool, filling up that crater, was a beautiful rain forest! It wasn't a huge rain forest, like those found in South America, but more of what was known as "Elfin Woodland". This is because with the rocks and being in a volcanic crater, the trees were stunted, but the little plants were everywhere! There were short but thick moss-covered trees filled with strange and bizarre plants. One would find tiny white and blue, as well as little pink orchids, hiding amongst the leaves; bromillliads with flame red flowers sticking out of the centre; climbing vines with purple flowers. Tens of thousands plants lived in the crater, and hundreds of creatures called those plants home.

Butterflies of all colours were found in this forest, mixing their beauty with those of the flowers. Orange Flambeaus, Striped Zebras (not the horse type!), Blue Hairstreaks and Checkerboard Skippers were but a few. They were kept company by the myriad of funny shaped beetles and moths. There were long thin beetles, short-horned beetles, spotted beetles and fat bright golden beetles. Tiny frogs the size of a thumbnail and little lizards lived around the pool also, while Soldier Crabs climbed the trees. And also living by the pool, in the middle of the crater was a small jinxed jumbie named Patrick.

Jumbies are the wee folk of the Caribbean. In other places they are known as fairies, leprechauns and elves. They are generally mischievous, can change colours and shape based upon how they feel. But like some monkeys, Jumbies always have red eyes!

Patrick lived in the hollow base of a giant tree fern and he was usually blue, he was unhappy. His clothes were made from leaves sown together using spider silk and he wore a little mushroom hat he had made for himself that was bright purple. He looked somewhat like a mushroom, sitting in the leaves by himself. In an effort to cheer up, he would sometimes try painting pictures on the pool; he used the colours of passing rainbows that he stole from ships passing by at sea, for Patrick was jinxed!

When growing up in the Jumbie Village, Patrick had always been polite and kind, caring for all the small creatures, and for a jumbie this was bad! Jumbies were supposed to be bad, playing tricks on things and causing troubles. Normal jumbies put thorns in you chair and pepper in your sweets. Getting tripped by a vine or falling in a hole were sure signs that there was a jumbie near by some where.

But Patrick was different. While other young jumbies where learning how to turn nettles in to itching powder, he was teaching baby birds to fly. When other jumbies dug holes, Patrick used them for planting flowers. Patrick liked to be nice and just didn't understand the fun of doing bad things, and this really annoyed the other jumbies.

"He must be stopped" one jumbie cried after his itching powder turned to fluff.

"Patrick will ruin our reputation" another jumbie complained, when flowering trees started growing in the hole he had just finished!

"Something must be done" agreed a third jumbie.

So a large, Jumbie Town meeting was held. It was attended by the tall and the small jumbies, the old and the bold jumbies, and every he and she jumbie that lived on Oualie. There were even a few that came over from neighbouring islands (word about Patrick had spread.)

To be fair, first, they tried reasoning with Patrick, or at least their form of reasoning. "Jumbies are bad, jumbies are mean! Kindness in jumbies is not to be seen" they chanted at him. "Jumbies do wrong, this makes us strong" they continued.

"But I like being nice." Patrick replied, "It is fun helping frogs learn to sing and adding colours to a butterfly wing. Flowers smell nice and those holes trap mice. I teach bees how to spell and watch the fish swim. It does no harm. Why be cruel or cut the leg short on a stool?"

The village jumbies realised that their type of reasoning with Patrick wasn't going to work! But they were determined to do something; the reputation of Oualie Jumbies was at stake. So they went and found an old, bad, Obeahman, living under a ruined bridge. Obeah is the Caribbean magic and this one was into the bad side of it, he was quite willing to help stop this kindness nonsense. He jinxed poor Patrick!

The next time Patrick planted flowers, thorns and nettles sprang up instead! When he practiced singing with the frogs, suddenly everyone started singing off-key! His lily-pad boat kept sinking every time he went to watch the fish.

The wild creatures thought that maybe Patrick had finally reverted to the normal jumbie way and was doing things on purpose. They began to avoid Patrick.

Then a little striped butterfly overheard the jumbies talking about what they had done and how fortunate they were to find such a strong, evil Obeahman. The jumbies' magic had been unable to do anything to Patrick. That little butterfly went and told everybody what he had heard!

Patrick was heartbroken, but what could he do? He wouldn't hurt the other creatures or turn the flowers ugly. They were his friends. He also refused to cause troubles intentionally. So he left and moved up the mountain to live beside the pool inside the crater.

Patrick didn't miss the other jumbies, none had really been his friends and they all complained about him, but he did miss the other creatures. He did find flowers, but if he got to close, they wilted and lost all their petals. The only colour in Patrick's life was himself, and the occasional rainbow that he could catch. Thus he sat by his tree-fern, using his magic to paint pictures on the surface of the pool. He felt like a bug trapped in a spider's web with no way out! He was a very lonely jumbie.

Then, one morning he awoke to a knocking on his door! He carefully opened the door, expecting the door to hit whoever was on the other side; the jinx would hurt anyone close to him. There was no one there, just a pile of funny leaves and blue flowers with a note. Patrick read: 'Please bathe with these in the pool under the midnight moon, carefully repeating your name backwards three times'.

It could be a joke, but Patrick didn't really think the other jumbies would actually climb the mountain just to play tricks on him, and he was a trusting soul.

That night, it was dark but there was a bright star shining. At midnight, Patrick waded out into the pool and rubbed himself with the leaves, carefully chanting "Kcirtap, Kcirtap, Kcirtap" (It is hard to do, but he had been practicing all day).

There was a flash of lightning and a loud crack of thunder; the darkness lifted and the glade filled with moonlight. Suddenly the air resounded with the chirping of tree frogs, crabs emerged from under the rocks, and animals came out from everywhere. The pool was surrounded by all the creatures that Patrick liked and had helped.

"Go Back!" Patrick cried, "You'll be hurt."

"No! No!" exclaimed a great white bird as he flew over the water towards Patrick. "The jinx has been lifted! We found a powerful, good Obeahman. He said that if your trust had not been destroyed and you would do as told on the note, no jinx could stop you! You lifted the jinx with your trust."

Now Patrick still lives at the top of the mountain, beside the pool down in the crater, and he does still paint pictures on the water using rainbows. But they are happy pictures of the sun rising and the flowers he watches over, and he is surrounded by all of his friends!

Author's Notes: There really is an island in the Eastern Caribbean with the old Indian name of Oualie, and it is a dormant volcano cloud-covered with still much of its original rain forest. The frogs, butterflies, birds and lizards are all still there, as well as the wonderful flowers. Oualie is where the photos came from! The Jumbies and the use of Obeah were common knowledge in the not to distant past. Bathing with leaves from the Beach Morning Glory was considered as a way to remove curses.