Rensselaer Republican, Volume 13, Number 52, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 September 1881 — PRACTICE OF CANNIBALISM [ARTICLE]

PRACTICE OF CANNIBALISM

The Horrible Practice Still in Vogue by the Hayti Serpent Worshipers. Letter in Vanity Fair. The religion ol this country is ostensibly Roman Catholic. An archbishop, four bishops and nearly one hundred priests are established in this country, but they are really powerless in the face of a secret religion called “Voudou” or serpent worship. The professors of “Voudou,” who have the “serpent house” in each village wood (as may. also be seen on the west coast of Africa), originally came from the Congo coast, and were of the tribe called Mandingoes, celebrated for their skill as sorcerers and secret poisoners, and for being serpent-worship-pers. child-slayers and cannibals. They appear to have brought their arts with them from Africa, but while Hayti was under French rule they were obliged to practice them in secret. Lt was, however, mainly owing to the power of “Voudou” that Hayti was lost to the French. Many of the Presidents have belonged to it; the present President either cannot or will not suppress it,and it flourishes openly, It would be improper lor me to give up my authorities. It is sufficient to say that they are of the highest, and that the facts are indisputable, being vouched for to me by eve-witnesses. Out of 700,000 inhabitants of Hayti there are only 20,000 who do not openly belong to “Voudou.” . \ The priests of this religion have got absolute power, owing to their knowledge of herb poisoning and its antidotes. Owing to this knowledge, which nothing will induce them to divulge, they can poison either slowly or quickly, or painfully or the reverse,and can procure a death-like sleep. They are consequently resorted to by people who wish to get rid of others either for

gain, for Jealousy, or the like. The secret poisoning is 'carried on to an enormous extent It goes on, indeed, under the name of “Obi” whereever negroes are found. In Hayti, while the French had the island,it was sternly repressed—more so than in Jamaica or Cuba— but since then it has increased to such an extent that a suppressed terror prevails among all classes in Hayti. The great feasts of “Voudou” are at Christmas, at Whitsuntide and at Raster. The drum is beaten at midnight, and;the ’’people assemble. -The ceremony commences by the most terrible oaths of secrecy. Then dancing begins, and the excitement is kept up by copious libations of rum till one or more of the performers fall down in a fit, when the spirit of “Voudou” is supposed to have entered into them. These orgies last generally three rights, and sometimes longer. On the first night a cock is offered up at the altar, and its blood is drunk warm- On the second

nights goat is treated in the samewar,? But on the third night children aie brought in; their threats are cut by tl e Driest; their blood is handed round and cut up and eaten, Before, the sacrifice place tht priest orders as many children as he requires.l They must be of pure African descent, and not over ten years of age. These children are . invariably forthcoming, either by voluntartaly being - given up or obtained by being stolen by women who make a. profession of it. They are expert at their trade. Entering a house at night,naked and oiled, ’ they steal the child, and by administering a narcotic poison render it insensible. It is then conveyed to a secret place till required for the sacrifice,when an antidote brings it to; then its throat is cut. Children are often voluntarialy given up by their mothers-for the sac-' riflee. In order to be initiated into “Voudou” it is necessary to have killed some human being; a child is preferred. Another horrible custom in Hayti is the devouring of corpses. So strong is. the taste sos human flesh that midwives have been known to de-' vour the children they have just brought into the world. The parts preferred are the knuckles aud hands. , t Lest it should be Imagined that these are not facts, I will give one or two instances. In May, 1879, twos’women were caught eating a female child. It was S roved that the child had been first rugged and rendered insensible. The parents, supposing it to be dead, buried it. These women immediately disinterred it, restored it to its senses by, antidotes, and then inserted reeds' through its sides and sucked the blood ’ from the heart. This happened at Port au Prince. A Hay tian of good position was also aught with his family eating a small boy. Another was found tied to a tree close by. The man was pointed out to me. '

These offenses were punished, in one case by a month’s, in the other by six weeks’ imprisonment, the fear of “ Voudou” not allowing a greater punishment. ‘ In January, 1881, eight people fined for disinterring ana eating corpses. In the same month the neck and shoulders of a man were exposed for sale in the market of Port ati Prince, and were purchased and identrfied by an English medical man. In February, 1881, at St. Mark’s, a cask of so-cfilled "pork” was sold .to a ship. In it were discovered the fingers and finger nails of a human being. The “pork” was ail identified.as human flesh. k A Haytian assured me that the kidneys of a child were first-rate eating. On my asking how he knew, he informed me that he had eaten them. He did not seem to think it strange or at all out of the way. At Cane Haytien a colored clergyman of the Church of England complained that a “Voudou” neutralized a{l the good he was doing, and declared that he had had human flesh -offered him for pale, and that his wife nearly bought it, believing that it was pork. In February, 1881, four people were fined for devouring corpses. . -j At Jacmel two corpses were recently disinterred and partly eaten. Two men one in prison for this, not being able to pay the fine. A man caught eating a child was arrested on the day of my arrival. At Christmas' time 9,000 people assembled at the house of a noted “Voudou” priestess (pointed out to me) living in the qountry and carried on Voudou rites in the w°°ds close by during the week. At Aux Cayes the child of an Englishman was stolen from 1 its cradleon the 4th of March, 1879. The thieves being hunted, they threw the child down a well—killing it—-and escaped. These facts speak for themselves.