St. John Virgin Islands Culture: Datura Stories

Select a Culture Article About That Wave AC/DC Anancy Birth of Jam Band Bonfire Charcoal Conch Shell Lamps Description of St. John in 1925 Description of St. John in 1967 Development-1937 Perspective East End Fishing Backtime Food For Thought Elroy Sprauve - Estate Seiban English Language on St. John Griffith & Paret I-Tal Land Crabs Lobster Hunt Picking Salt Prohibition Story Queen's Lincoln Sport Fishing St. John Coffee St. John Music Scene Stuart Little West Indian Checkers Virgin Islands Holidays 1907 Day Trip to St John ----Stories---- Art & Janis Conch Tale Debt Great Hot Pepper Sauce Contest Papa Doc Pelican & the Gull Sucker -----Magic & Supernatural----- Donkey Foot Woman Jumbie Tree Magic Noir The Cygnus Xtabay Woman

There are several varieties of the Daura plant on St. John.They are plantst that contains the potent and deadly psychoactive alkaloids known as belladonna, henbane and mandrake. These plants have been used for centuries as medicines, poisons and intoxicants, and are often associated with witchcraft, sorcery, obeah, voodoo and shamanism.

In this section we present four stories dealing with this unusual bush.