1774 E. Long Hist. Jamaica II. iii. iii. 416 Not long since, some of these execrable wretches in Jamaica introduced what they called the myal dance, and established a kind of society, into which they invited all they could. The lure hung out was, that every Negroe, initiated into the myal society, would be invulnerable by the white men.

1774 E. Long Hist. Jamaica II. iii. iii. 417 One of these myal men..gave him a wonderful account of the powerful effects produced by the myal infusion.

1793 E. Long in B. Edwards Hist. Brit. Colonies W. Indies II. iv. iii. 89 Obia..is now become in Jamaica the general term to denote those Africans who in that island practise witchcraft or sorcery, comprehending also the class of what are called Myal-men.

1843 J. M. Phillippo Jamaica: Past & Present State 249 (note) The author once saw a negro suffering from a gum-boil, who persisted in affirming that the Myal Doctor had extracted a snake from the affected part.

1851 G. Blyth Reminisc. Missionary Life iv. 175 They became excited and frenzied singing Myall songs.

1861 Blackwood's Edinb. Mag. Nov. 581/2 There was another class of impostors [besides Obeah men] calling themselves Myall-men, who asserted that they had the power of reanimating dead bodies.

1902 Chambers's Jrnl. Feb. 84/2 The obeah-man is often called upon to exorcise ‘duppies’ driven into a man or woman by a brother of the craft. In former days this used to be the exclusive work of the myal-man.

1929 M. W. Beckwith Black Roadways ix. 155 The instruments which I saw used in the John Canoe performance [were] identical with those accompanying the myal dance.

1961 F. G. Cassidy Jamaica Talk xvi. 380 Another plant with a supposedly magical property is spirit-weed or myal-weed.

1981 Jrnl. Negro Hist. 66 259 In the 1760s the British planter-historian Edward Long was the first European to record the existence of the Myal religion in Jamaica.

1868 T. Russell Etymol. Jamaica Gram. 6 Myal—Excitement bordering on madness. African.

1952 M. Kerr Personality & Conflict in Jamaica 141 It is interesting that myal now means dancing with a spirit in a trance.

1961 F. G. Cassidy Jamaica Talk xi. 241 Obeah, the Jamaican form of sorcery or ‘black magic’, was once counterbalanced by myal, or ‘white magic’, a healing cult. Obeah employed its powers against people; myal claimed to counteract those powers.

1982 Black Amer. Lit. Forum 16 148/2 The ballet includes other uniquely Caribbean dances like the creole mazurka, the beguine, myal, and majumba.

1989 Jrnl. Southern Hist. 55 467 There is much that is useful in this book, including a sensitive discussion..of..beliefs that compare favorably to West Indian Myal.

1902 Encycl. Brit. XXV. 386/2 The successive dorsal roots pass through the substance of the myocommata on their way to the skin; they are therefore septal or intersegmental in position. The ventral roots, on the contrary, are myal or segmental in position.

1921 Proc. Royal Soc. B. 92 337 Observations..on myal and neuromyal tetanus produced at varying rates and intensities of stimulation.