In the days when the Villages in Canje were lit by candles and oil lamps, supernatural beings such as the OLD HIGUE woman and THE DUTCHMAN jumped to life in stories passed down through the generations. Many of my relatives remember these characters and others that once roamed free after the sun went down and how they set about creating mischief in the community.

I experienced the sighting of one of these supernatural beings and i am ready to declare that i have seen "Jhumbie". In these desolate country villages of Berbice in which after sunset it is pitch black like a mile deep cave. The slang word for these beings is "jhumbie" and yes i saw the jhumbie with my own eyes.

Acknowledging the existence spirits is an important part of traditional countryside nites as we sat in front of a barrel that billows out smoke to chase away mosquitos. It is in this faraway village called Cumberland that we listened the tales of dutchman and old higues, spirits whistling in the nite and other tales. I listened to these stories intently so much that one night i urinated right through a window because our Latrine was about 30 yards from the house.

A day i will never forget is the oft repeated story that i have told many times but now i am putting it in writing. So i will declare that i have seen supernaturnal spirits the proverbial "jhumbie".

I was about 8 years old and i was across the road(those days it was still a redbrick road just hanging out with my friend lenny picking guava, jamoon and ginip from their yard which had all kinds of fruit trees. It was around midday, myself and Lenny was just talking when i noticed two flying fully clothed(dressed in a white sheet) "Jhumbies" passing over the coconut trees in a similar pose to superman(a person i did not know about back then).

In complete awe, i turned and said to Lenny,"did you see that"? Lenny said yes and we started running towards the house, halway there i "juk" my foot in a large splinter of greenheart(wood from Guyana) and limped all the way still trying to go as fast as i could.

Myself and Lenny knew then that we had seen what very few before us had seen but still in shock. After a while i went home and wrapped my foot thinking nothing of the danger of a piece of greenheart in my body. Around 3 Pm my mother came home from market and asked what happened and i just told that pimplah(thorns) bore my foot and that i was ok.

In the meanwhile Lenny told his mother about the sightings and about what had happened to me. She told me to take off the bandage because she knew that i was hurt because Lenny told her about the big splinter. She felt my foot and by my reaction she knew it was a big piece of wood.

Lenny mummah knew right then that that piece of wood had to be taken out immediately and also knew that Rose Hall estate dispensary would close at 5 but the dispenser was a family friend so he would'nt hesitate to stay back and cut it out.

I screamed in excruciating pain as he cut my foot and took out the piece of wood. As he bandaged my foot the dispenser said that i could have died if it was left overnite in my body. So thanks to Lenny mumma and the dispenser, i am still here to tell this "jhumbie tale".

There are still a lot of people who believe i am telling a child's tale and will swear that jhumbies do not exist. I still believe those jhumbies saw what had happened to me and protected me from evil. Yes the jhumbies i saw were my guardian angels.

in canje. plenty jhumbie does run around in the day time

I HAVE TWO JUMBIES WUKNG FUH ME RIGHT NOW SO EVERYDAY I SEEING JUMBIE.

lol

imagine you 'juk' you foot in the greenheart and didnt care...you just interested in the Jhumbie! ;D

Lenny mummah knew right then that that piece of wood had to be taken out immediately and also knew that Rose Hall estate dispensary would close at 5 but the dispenser was a family friend so he would'nt hesitate to stay back and cut it out.


i lived to tell this tale because of her.

i saw it close up . just above a tree. maybe only 30 feet up.

you know ever since I read "Krishna's jumbie story" I keep looking around me to see if I can see any jhumbie :D :D

like I might have to get my eyes checked

are we still talking about jhumbie here? ;D

i know....our house in new york was haunted..i'm telling you. a guy was shot in it before we moved in and died in the front yard...but my parents didnt tell me until i moved to florida -_- at least nothing too bad happened, but there were a lot of strange things. multiple people (including 2 that never been there before) fell down the stairs while going to the 3rd floor but said they couldve sworn someone pushed them when no one else was there. happened to me too..theres more but i'll only finish if anyone is interested.

i also have another true story from when i was in queens about a little girl but i'd rather not talk about it :/ but yeah good story, don't worry i believe you. people just automatically think that its something bad or that youre crazy when you say the word ghost..but i dont know i had my fair share of incidents and im only 19

Cotton picking has a lot of stories in folklore.......... ;D