gris-gris

alternative greegree · alternative gri-gri · alternative grigri · alternative grisgris

1. An African, or Afro-American, charm or talisman.

   The Bambara were not Muslim, but they knew how to make gris-gris.

   2008, Ned Sublette, The World That Made New Orleans, Lawrence Hill Books, published 2009, page 61

   1 more example

   A horn, or rude image, is sometimes made use of as a means of preserving the medicines of defense, and is worn as an amulet. These images, horns, or other articles, called greegrees, or jeujeus, are not held sacred for a moment after the medicine is found to have lost its power […].

   1865, David Livingstone, Charles Livingstone, Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and Its Tributaries