The San Francisco Call. Newspaper, February 17, 1901, Page 5

- noised called ot the tricks THE SUNDAY CALL. death belonge part - a prominent native; he is called the “advanced developing suspiclous e with what the con- their new po- * Those same dly concefved ary part of the would . be gopd er of the most their fold and of patronage. mblike native e ¢ leaders. one of this w this de- rehension, Naone was waiians Intc dec'are t kah as was the move m the most r e of Dhtte madien 2 who foots the isl rvently and uticns it is any native working or tanch and a rare one to furn'sh riminations between ads over such a far as is known. n £ particular in the way of iliness was im up the str the middle of last Decem- born Naone,” said tha r, as a parting shot to the refused to desert the advanced jevil sitting on y grinning and p t- means that Insid: Jie. Forswear ti old Hawali, or be- whic d embraced Christianity of great personal courage, ) d his e of and but knowledge his confidence he shivered at ng. Pagans, =0 er religi may ip of their for n to the home gods when In dire extrem!- ark skin, in sp a new religion, 0d and he was as of a grisly seriously affected by s words, for although hs ellent health when he heard them, within a week he took to his bed, that he did not feel well: me way or other he had an Impres- his right side was becoming This was the side indicated by nich he claimed to sea £ gave him some sound L practical advice and called in a harfhead- ed old physician who wasn't afraid of the spells and in ations of an island full of The doctor tackled his job with for he felt it was a test case of the dern medical profession nst me witchcraft of the kahuna. zest In three days he had Naone up and aroun and in such a cheerful fram he'laughed at the idea of s bust man as self ever b alyzed. Naone was leaving his house for his ce next morning when on the threshoid almost bumped into the imrerturbabl s evidently lying In w. 1 Naone.” said the of mind tha a strons, coming pa. he kahuna, who w for h old sorc nis withered hands at him es see the red devil your shoulder; he has ta- nd he s: ‘Naone’s two we. sh return to the party of your fatk it is too late.” . At these words the {ll-fated man stag. gered as though struck a heavy blow. Ha grasped the balustrade and steadied him self. Then with a low groan he turned and re-entered the house. The kahuna followed him unchecked. What took place within the privacy of Naone's room no man knows, but when the kahuna left the stricken man had possession of some new medicine in a small vial. This vial was discovered under his pillow when about half of it was taken. The trained nurse insistently bore it cver to the doc tor despite the tears and assertions of N one that it was the only medicine that would save him. From the moment he was deprived of the contents of the kahuna's vial Neona seemed to give up all hope and sank rap- idly He bore no evidences of any acut sickness; his life seemed simply to filcker out and he died within three weeks of tho first warning. The political results of Naone's death are what might have been expected. Tha natives watched the case with . we, for Naone's course in politics 1d his defiance of the order of the kahuna was knowa to all his countrymen. Almost before the last breath left his distraught body the report was buzzed aboul the native quar ters that *“the red devil I got Naone, s the kahuna warned.” d now the zu- perstitions among the Kanaka voters are firmly convinced that Naone's death is a n from the ancient gods that the only way to escape the clutch of the red devil is to vote as the kahuna tells you. Charges of foul play are being bandled thick and fast over Naone's sudden de- The natives possess recipes for making vegetable poisons which were in days gone by administered by certain bunas or their creatbres to those they wanted out of the wa In the forthcom- ing investigation of his death by the au- thoritles some of his friends will try to prove that if the kanuna did not directiy u . form of poison in the medicine given him he “prayed him to death,” a threat much resorted to by witch doctors mise when trying to Influence supersutious na tives. Those who are versed in native way: and beliefs declare that it doesn’t any difference what kind of finding: inquest returns. According to them, the superstitious among the natives are al- ready fully convinced that Naone was given to the red devil for not doing as ihuna told him, and that setties s T e e, the votes and everything cise hanging on the matter. It is the power of the kahuns pitted against modern skepticism. At present the kahuna is certa his own. Demoniagal Weird us Government explorer, has returned to Washington with from Hayti, le privilege of ceremonial—one of which on that isl- ip of the Great nt, represented als of the devil's cult by a ve species of snake, is sup- be an incarnation of the arch possessing knowledge, priests watchers at the herwiss known Jum or Veudoux, t e mes being commonly cor- featurs ESSOR ROBERT T. HILL, the QrGies and Rites of young children are offered up annually in Hayti as sacrifices to the Great Yellow Snake. Indeed, it is known that mothers frequen! dedicate their infants at birth to this purpose, the fatal ceremony being postponed ordinarily until the victim has reached the age of 2 years. Invariably the ritual winds up with a feast the detalls of which are too horrible to be described. Only when human prey is not obtainable is & black goat, which must have a white £pot on it, or a white cock used as a sub- stitute. The cock chosen for this purpose is always one of those freak chickens which have their feathers growing the wrong way. “This cult of Vaudoux is extremely an- clent, representing the most primitive form of religion. It is serpent worship, with all the incidentals of witchcraft, just &s it prevalls in the darkest parts of Af- rica. The sodality of sorcerers, the smell- of these r 4 Professor HIIL “It is unquest act that large numbers BT i ¢ Il ¥ /1 o Cere *+- o ers out of witches, are a widespread priesthood, whose organization and forms of ceremonials date i:ack to a remote ap- tiquity. One finds their order represented in osr own country by so-called voodoo doctors, who deal in charms and ‘hoodoo’ spells and have an extensive practice among the colored people. The ‘buck and wing’ dancing of our nigger minstrel and vaudeville stage comes directly from the ceremonial dancing of Vaudoux, and its 'pigeon wings’ and other peculiar capers have special significanoe in connection with the rites of Obeah. “The religion of Vaudoux sesms to be preserved en the isiland of Hayt! with more of its pristine purity than anywhere else in the world, not even excepting Af, rica. The republic cf Hayti, in fact, is nothing more nor less than.a plece of the dark continent set down near our shores. Its population, numbering about 1,000,000 souls, is composed of remnants of hun- dreds of savage tribes brought thitber during the slave dealing days to work on AN srvcaryATION T2 THE YiirowSNAKE, the plantations. They were savages when they arrived and they are savages still, retaining thelr anclent customs and insti- tutions. “The cult of Obeah is a secret soclety, into which members are initiated wita complicated rites. Its ceremonials con- sist largely of dances, which are accom- panied by drums, and each particular solemnity or ritual is accompanied by its own ‘tune,’ If such a term may be used. Everywhere ‘through the mountains of Haytl the traveler hears the drums con- stantly sounding, and to the ear of a stranger the noise would be nothing more than tomtomming, but to a member of t. e organization each kind of beating has its own pecullar meaning. Thus, on a cere- monial occasion, when the drummers strike the ‘theme’ the participants know the dance and song which go with fit. There ard from 300 to 400 different dances. ““The ceremonials are rituals of witch- craft and are held for the purpose of galning various favors from the Great Yellow Serpent, such as the cure of sick- ness, the bringing down of evil upon ene- mies and even the causing of death to persons who may have given ‘offense to the soclety or to Individual members. As the 8ances progress they become more and more furious, usually ending in a frenzy that overcomes all the partici- pants, who become crazy for the time be- ing, many of them falling {nto a sort of cataleptic condition. The culmination of the orgy is the sacrifice of a living ani- mal and the drinking of its blood, which is passed around for that purpose in a jug; mixéd with rum. Finally, the vic- tim is bolled In a pot and eaten “The drums used to accompany the dances are an important feature of the ceremontals. Usually they are employed in groups of three, each group having its peculiar color and significance. The red drums, for example, come into play only on those more serious occasions when the ritual happens to have for its special object the bringing down of wrath upon a person who may have been so unfortunate as to excite the ill-will of the society. This set of drums is known as the trio of death, red being the color appropriate to death and the sacred color of the Vaudoux. When beaten they are supposed to excite the vehement anger of the evil spirit which is to be directed against the individual aimed at “Each voodoo ceremony is presided over by a sorcerer-in-chief, known as the Papelol, who is assisted by a witch woman called the Mamelol. These per- sonages have attained thetr high rank in the soclety, as it is understood, through the long practice of extraordinary wick- Worship Yellow edness, and usually they are of hidedus aspect, the notion belng that their super- natural power varies directly with their uglines Nobod: res to disobey them, inasmuch as to do so would be to invits the most dreadful consequences, and they are able to devote their entire time to evil-doing being maintained by gifts which their followers bestow upon them in the nominal shape of offerings to the devil god. “These priests and priestesses are usu- ally distinguished by a peculiar knotting of their kinky wool, but in Haytl any old man or woman of strange appearance is apt to be suspected of being a Papelol or Mamelol. They undoubtedly possess a remarkable knowledge of the medicinal properties of plants, especially as to pol- sons and febrifuges. So great is the faith in them as medical practitioners that In cases of serious lllness they are commonly called in even by persons out- side the pale of the voodoo organization, and to-day no regular physician, no mat- ter how capable, can make a living in Haytl, notwithstanding thé number of dreadful diseases which prevail on the island. “The witch doctors of Vaudoux are known to be poisoners, and In this capac- ity they may well be dreaded by persons who> have no faith in * supern: tural pow- ers. It is sald that they are acquainted with certain extracts and decoctions of plants which, being administered in small doses at Intervals, will induce a gradual decay of the victim's mind, reducing him to a state of idlocy. They have other poisons which work in so subtle a fash- fon that no harm is done by them ap- parently until, when the secret adminis- tration of them Is suddenly stopped, the unfortunate dies by reason of their with- drawal. The venom of the scorpion and the tarantula, intensified by distillation, makes the merest scratch of a dagger fatal, and if common report be credited, a fluid expressed from certain large orim. son ants furnishes an ually ~_deadl; agent. Where an individual who has o fended the society cannot be got at di- rectly, his servant may be terrorized into siving him poison in his coffee, and it is Of the Great Serpent . even asserted that the witch doctos knows how to communicate germs of leprosy to an untaigted human being. “No ‘wonder, then, that voodooism ex- tends a malign influence over the entire population of H those who nave no faith in its supernatural agencles being afrald to offend the organization. Rather than do so, they will pay largely to have removed from themselves a ‘spell,’ of the employment of which they may have re- ceived notice by some such means as find- ing a little bag containing chicken bones and a dried lizard or two attached to the gate post. Some of the highest officials on the island are known to belong to the mysterfous cult, whose membership is by no means restricted to the lower orders, and history records that only a few years ago a President of the republic was in- {tiated Into the organization and took part in its most fearful rites, bathing himself in blood and otherwise declaring himself'\, a bellever in Obeah. “The nominal religion of the people of Haytl 1s Roman Catholie, but there are few priests of that faith permanently resi- dent in their parishes, and during thein absence the churches are commonly dese- crated by the performance of v0odoo Tites. A curious mingling of Christianity and paganism in its worst form has come about, the temples of Obeah being fre- quently adorned with pictures of the Vir- gin Mary and the saints. It is even sald that human sacrifices have been offered up on the altars of the churcie~ the red drums of death being beaten in the sane- tuary. It is worth mentioning. by the way, that the kidnaping of children for sacrifices is not infrequent in Haytl, and not long ago a lady missfonary testified that to her certain knowledge human flesh was often sold In the markets of the in. terfor towns. This last might seem in. credible wera it not realized how well- nigh universal is cannibalism in the dark continent, and that most of the peovle of Hayt! are almost unmodiiad savages. “One gets a notion of the antiquity of voodoolsm from the testimeny of Pliny. the historian, who, writing in the century before Christ, mentions the fact as weil known in his time that African slaves in Rome and elsewhere in Italy had a re- iigion of their own, which. when permit- ted. they practiced at night with horrid incantations, the presence of the serpent being considered necessary, and that there was a priestess who went iInto a of frenzy, giving utterance while in that state to oracular sayings.” » ot o o A 450V AN o S 7 . i i i | i :