Jumbies

(JUM-bees)

Variations: Heg, SOUCAYANT

In the Caribbean islands, the word jumbies refers collectively to any and all vampiric creatures of the night. They are described as looking like a CORPSE CANDLE flying through the night sky as they seek out those who travel alone in the dark or children to drain dry of their blood. Apart from their desire to drink blood, jumbies also " RIDE " a person, much the way an ALP or INCUBUS does, draining the victim of his life, sexual energy, and sperm (see ENERGY VAMPIRE).

Jumbies can be good or evil and have been seen in populated downtown areas where the street-lights happen not to reach. Oftentimes one will hover just outside a window, peeking in as it hunts for prey. Because of this hunting technique, one should never throw water out a window because a wet jumbie is a special kind of dangerous and vengeful creature.

Jumbies move by their ability to fly, but they cando so only over continuous ground; it cannot fly across water, off a cliff, or over a hole. What they can do that other vampires of their type cannot, such as the CORPSE CANDLE, is steal the voice of a child in order to have a voice so that it may speak.

The jumbie by day wears a faux human skin and can pass as a person, but at night the skin is removed and the CORPSE CANDLE is free to go hunting. If the skin can be found and rubbed with SALT, it will cause it to shrivel up. When the jumbie returns just before daybreak, it will find that its skin does not fit and the creature will perish when exposed to the light of day.

Source: Abrahams, Man-of-Words, 45, 179; Allsopp, Dictionary of Caribbean English Usage, 317; Bell, Obeah, 1 21­26, 144, 158; Philpott, West Indian Migration, 49, 1 54, 158