The Oddities of H. Phelps Clawson

Phelps was a skilled photographer and took hundreds of photographs when he traveled.  With a sharp eye for the unique, here are a few of the more unusual sites he captured.

 

Passengers playing cricket on board the Dunottar Castle ocean liner, 1911.

 

GIANT termite nest near Juiz de Fora, Minas Gerais.  Brazil, December 1941.

Offerings for the Devil at the base of a tree. Bahia, Brazil 1941.  Below are Phelps' diary entries describing the custom.

 

From bottom of page:

"Tree on the road with offerings for the Exir (the Devil).  

Dish of Indian corn, a number of cigars, a piece of meat,...

"...jaw of an animal, several pots (now broken) bits of colored cloth.  All there lay at roots of tree.  Sometimes a goat or cock are left.  A man wants something.  He summons the Exir who may appear as a hen, a chicken, a pig, etc.  The fifth time he comes as the Devil.  The bargain is made then for a price (money, a goat, a cow (rarely) or the man's soul.  Then he gets his desire."

Want to learn more?  Read H. Phelps Clawson's Brazil diary here.