VAUDOUX WORSHIP AND CANNIBALISM.
When the news reached Paris of the massacres in Port-au-Prince of the
mulattoes by orders of the black President Soulouque in April 1849, it
is said that Louis Napoleon took the opportunity of saying at a public
reception, in presence of the sable representative of Hayti, “Haïti,
Haïti! pays de barbares.” Had he known all the particulars relating
to Vaudoux worship and cannibalism, he would have been still more
justified in so expressing himself.
There is no subject of which it is more difficult to treat than Vaudoux
worship and the cannibalism that too often accompanies its rites. Few
living out of the Black Republic are aware of the extent to which it
is carried, and if I insist at length upon the subject, it is in order
to endeavour to fix attention on this frightful blot, and thus induce
enlightened Haytians to take measures for its extirpation, if that be
possible.[8]
It is certain that no people are more sensitive to foreign public
opinion than the Haytians, and they therefore endeavour to conceal by
every means this evidence of the barbarism of their fellow-countrymen.
It is, however, but the story of the foolish ostrich over again; every
foreigner in Hayti knows that cannibalism exists, and that the educated
classes endeavour to ignore it instead of devising means to eradicate
it.
The only Governments that endeavoured to grapple with the evil were
those of President Geffrard and President Boisrond-Canal, and probably
they in some measure owe their fall to this action on their part.
The first question naturally asked is, “Who is tainted by the Vaudoux
worship?” I fear the answer must be, “Who is not?” This does not
necessarily imply that they are tainted with cannibalism, as I shall
hereafter explain. It is notorious that the Emperor Soulouque was a
firm believer, and that the mulatto general Therlonge was one of its
high priests, and in his younger days used to appear in a scarlet robe
performing antics in the trees. A late Prime Minister, whose bloody
deeds will be an everlasting reproach to his memory, was said to be a
chief priest of the sect, and many others whom I will not at present
indicate.
If persons so high placed can be counted among its votaries, it may
be readily believed that the masses are given up to this brutalising
worship. During the reign of Soulouque, a priestess was arrested for
having performed a sacrifice too openly; when about to be conducted to
prison, a foreign bystander remarked aloud that probably she would be
shot. She laughed and said, “If I were to beat the sacred drum, and
march through the city, not one, from the Emperor downwards, but would
humbly follow me.” She was sent to jail, but no one ever heard that she
was punished.
President Salnave (1867), inclined at first to court the support of
the educated classes, kept clear of the Vaudoux. But when he found his
advances repulsed, for the gross debauchery at the palace prevented
any respectable person from ever willingly entering it, and when the
fortunes of the civil war that then raged began to turn against him
(1869), he, from some motive or other, whether superstition or the
desire to conciliate the mass of his ignorant troops, went to consult
a well-known priest living near Marquissant, in the neighbourhood of
Port-au-Prince, and there went through all the ceremonies that were
required. He bathed in the blood of goats, made considerable presents
to the priests and priestesses, and then feasted with the assembly,
who all gave themselves up to the lowest debauchery, and kept up these
festivities so long that even the iron frame of the President gave way,
and he was confined to his bed for many days after.
The fortunes of war still continuing adverse, he again consulted the
Papaloi or priest, who insisted that he must now go through the highest
ceremony; that the “goat without horns” must be slain, and that he
must be anointed with its blood. If he agreed to this, then the priest
assured him of certain victory over his enemies.
Whether Salnave gave in or not I cannot say positively. His enemies
of all classes declared he did; his friends among the lower orders
confirmed the story; but the few respectable people who adhered to his
cause naturally denied the truth of the accusation. I think the weight
of evidence was more against him than for him.
To explain the phrase of “the goat without horns,” I must notice that
there are two sects which follow the Vaudoux worship--those who only
delight in the blood and flesh of white cocks and spotless white goats
at their ceremonies, and those who are not only devoted to these, but
on great occasions call for the flesh and blood of the “goat without
horns,” or human victims.
When Hayti was still a French colony Vaudoux worship flourished, but
there is no distinct mention of human sacrifices in the accounts
transmitted to us. In Moreau de St. Méry’s excellent description of
the colony, from whose truthful pages it is a pleasure to seek for
information, he gives a very graphic account of fetishism as it existed
in his day, that is, towards the close of the last century.
After describing certain dances, he remarks that the Calinda and
the Chica are not the only ones brought from Africa to the colony.
There is another which has been known for a long time, principally
in the western part of the island (Hayti), and which has the name of
Vaudoux.[9] But it is not merely as a dance that the Vaudoux merits
consideration; at least it is accompanied by circumstances that give it
a rank among those institutions in which superstition and ridiculous
practices have a principal part.
According to the Arada negroes, who are the true sectaries of the
Vaudoux in the colony, who maintain its principles and its rules,
Vaudoux signifies an all-powerful and supernatural being, on whom
depend all the events which take place in the world. This being is
the non-venomous serpent, and it is under its auspices that all those
assemble who profess this doctrine. Acquaintance with the past,
knowledge of the present, prescience of the future, all appertain to
this serpent, that only consents, however, to communicate his power
and prescribe his will through the organ of a grand priest, whom the
sectaries select, and still more by that of the negress whom the love
of the latter has raised to the rank of high priestess.
These two delegates, who declare themselves inspired by their god, or
in whom the gift of inspiration is really manifested in the opinion
of their followers, bear the pompous names of King and Queen, or the
despotic ones of Master and Mistress, or the touching titles of Papa
and Mama. They are during their whole life the chiefs of the great
family of the Vaudoux, and they have a right to the unlimited respect
of those that compose it. It is they who decide if the serpent agrees
to admit a candidate into the society, who prescribe the obligations
and the duties he is to fulfil; it is they who receive the gifts and
presents which the god expects as a just homage to him. To disobey
them, to resist them, is to disobey God himself, and to expose oneself
to the greatest misfortunes.
This system of domination on the one hand, and of blind obedience on
the other, being well established, they at fixed dates meet together,
and the King and Queen of the Vaudoux preside, following the forms
which they probably brought from Africa, and to which Creole customs
have added many variations, and some traits which betray European
ideas; as, for instance, the scarf, or rich belt, which the Queen wears
at these assemblies, and which she occasionally varies.
The reunion for the true Vaudoux worship, for that which has least
lost its primitive purity, never takes place except secretly, in
the dead of night, and in a secure place safe from any profane eye.
There each initiated puts on a pair of sandals and fastens around
his body a number, more or less considerable, of red handkerchiefs,
or of handkerchiefs in which that colour predominates. The King of
the Vaudoux has finer handkerchiefs and in greater number, and one
that is entirely red, with which he binds his forehead as a diadem. A
girdle, generally blue, gives the finishing-stroke to the tokens of his
resplendent dignity.
The Queen, dressed with simple luxury, also shows her predilection for
the red colour,[10] which is generally that of her sash or belt.
The King and Queen place themselves at one end of the room, near a kind
of altar, on which is a box where the serpent is kept, and where each
adept can see it through the bars of its cage.
When they have verified that no curious stranger has penetrated
into the place, they commence the ceremony by the adoration of the
serpent, by protestations of being faithful to its worship and
entirely submissive to its commands. They renew, holding the hands of
the King and Queen, the oath of secrecy, which is the foundation of
the association, and it is accompanied by everything horrible which
delirium could imagine to render it more imposing.
When the followers of the Vaudoux are thus prepared to receive the
impressions which the King and Queen desire them to feel, they take the
affectionate tone of a tender father or mother; vaunt the happiness
which is the appanage of those who are devoted to the Vaudoux; they
exhort them to have confidence in him, and to give him the proofs of it
by taking his counsel in all the most important circumstances of their
lives.
Then the crowd separates, and each one who may desire it, and according
to his seniority in the sect, approaches to implore the aid of the
Vaudoux. Most of them ask for the talent to be able to direct the
conduct of their masters. But this is not enough: one wants more money;
another the gift of being able to please an unfeeling one; another
desires to reattach an unfaithful lover; this one wishes for a prompt
cure or long life; an elderly female comes to conjure the god to end
the disdain with which she is treated by the youth whose love she
would captivate; a young one solicits eternal love, or she repeats the
maledictions that hate dictates to her against a preferred rival. There
is not a passion which does not give vent to its vow, and crime itself
does not always disguise those which have for object its success. At
each of these invocations the King of the Vaudoux appears absorbed in
thought. The spirit seizes him; suddenly he takes hold of the box in
which the serpent is confined, places it on the ground, and commands
the Queen to get on it. As soon as the sacred ark is beneath her feet,
the new Pythoness is filled by the spirit of their god; she trembles,
all her body is in a state of convulsion, and the oracle speaks by her
mouth. Now she flatters and promises happiness, now she bursts into
reproaches; and according to her wishes, her interest, or her caprice,
she dictates as decrees without appeal everything which she is pleased
to prescribe, in the name of the serpent, to this imbecile crowd, that
never expresses the slightest doubt of the most monstrous absurdity,
and that only knows how to obey what is despotically dictated to it.
After all these questions have received some kind of an answer from the
oracle, many of which are not without ambiguity, they form a circle,
and the serpent is again placed on the altar. Then his followers bring
as tribute the objects they think most worthy, and that no jealous
curiosity shall raise a blush, the offerings are placed in a covered
hat. The King and Queen then promise that the offerings shall be
accepted by their god. It is from this collection that the expenses
of the meetings are paid, that aid is afforded to absent members,
or to those present who may be in want, or to others from whom the
society may expect something in favour of its glory or renown. They
now propose and settle their future plans, they consider what is to be
done, and all this is declared by the Queen the will of the god; often
enough these plans have not for object either good order or public
tranquillity. A fresh oath, as execrable as the first, engages each one
to be silent as to what has passed, to aid in what has been settled;
and sometimes a vase, in which there is the blood of a goat, still
warm, seals on the lips of those present the promise to suffer death
rather than reveal anything, and even to inflict it on any one who may
forget that he is thus so solemnly bound to secrecy.
After these ceremonies commences the dance of the Vaudoux.
If there should be a new candidate, it is by his admission that the
_fête_ commences. The King of the Vaudoux, with some black substance,
traces a large circle, and in this the novice is placed; and in his
hand he puts a packet of herbs, horsehair, pieces of horn, and other
trifling objects. Then lightly touching him on the head with a slight
wooden wand, he thunders forth an African song, which is repeated in
chorus by those who stand around the circle; then the new member begins
to tremble and to dance, which is called to practise Vaudoux. If,
unhappily, excess of excitement makes him leave the circle, the song
immediately ceases, the King and Queen turn their backs to avert the
evil omen. The dancer recollects himself, re-enters the circle, again
trembles, drinks, and arrives at length at so convulsive a state, that
the King orders him to stop, by striking him lightly on the head with
his wand, or, should he think it necessary, with a heavy _kurbash_. He
is taken to the altar to swear, and from that moment he belongs to the
sect.
This ceremony over, the King places his hand or his foot on the
box in which the serpent is confined, and soon becomes agitated.
This impression he communicates to the Queen, and from her it gains
the whole circle, and every one commences certain movements, in
which the upper part of the body, the head and shoulders, appear to
be dislocated. The Queen above all is a prey to the most violent
agitation. From time to time she approaches the serpent in order to
add to her frenzy; she shakes the box, and the hawkbells attached to
it sound like a fool’s bauble, and the excitement goes on increasing.
This is augmented by the use of spirituous liquors, which the adepts
do not spare. With some, fainting fits follow, with others a species of
fury; but a nervous trembling seizes them all, which they appear unable
to master. They go on spinning round, and in their excitement some tear
their clothes, others bite their own flesh; then again many fall to the
ground utterly deprived of sense, and are dragged into a neighbouring
dark apartment. Here in the obscurity is too often a scene of the most
disgusting prostitution.
At length lassitude puts an end to these demoralising scenes, to be
renewed again at a date which is carefully settled beforehand.
In reading this account, freely given from Moreau de St. Méry, I have
been struck how little change, except for the worse, has taken place
during the last century. Though the sect continues to meet in secret,
they do not appear to object to the presence of their countrymen who
are not yet initiated. In fact, the necessity of so much mystery is not
recognised, when there are no longer any French magistrates to send
these assassins to the stake.
Notwithstanding their efforts to keep strangers far from their
sacrifices, two Frenchmen succeeded in being present on different
occasions.
At a dinner at which I was present, I heard the Archbishop of
Port-au-Prince give the following account of what had occurred the
preceding week (in 1869). A French priest who had charge of the
district of Arcahaye, had the curiosity to witness the Vaudoux
ceremonies, and he persuaded some of his parishioners to take him to
the forest, where a meeting of the sect was to be held. They were very
unwilling, saying that, if discovered, he and they would be killed;
but he promised faithfully that, whatever happened, he would not
speak a word. They blacked his hands and face, and disguising him as
a peasant, took him with them. In Salnave’s time the Vaudoux priests
were so seldom interrupted, that few precautions were taken against
surprise, and the neighbouring villagers flocked to the ceremony.
With these the Catholic priest mixed, and saw all that went on. As in
the previous description, the people came to ask that their wishes
should be gratified, and the priestess stood on the box containing
the serpent. At first she went into a violent paroxysm, then, in a
sort of half-trance, she promised all that they could desire. A white
cock and then a white goat were killed, and those present were marked
with their blood. Up to this point, it appeared as if Monseigneur were
repeating some pages from Moreau de St. Méry, but it soon changed. He
continued:--Presently an athletic young negro came and knelt before the
priestess and said, “O Maman, I have a favour to ask.” “What is it, my
son?” “Give us, to complete the sacrifice, the goat without horns.” She
gave a sign of assent; the crowd in the shed separated, and there was a
child sitting with its feet bound. In an instant a rope already passed
through a block was tightened, the child’s feet flew up towards the
roof, and the priest approached it with a knife. The loud shriek given
by the victim aroused the Frenchman to the truth of what was really
going on. He shouted, “Oh, spare the child!” and would have darted
forward, but he was seized by his friends around him, and literally
carried from the spot. There was a short pursuit, but the priest got
safely back to the town. He tried to rouse the police to hasten to the
spot, but they would do nothing. In the morning they accompanied him to
the scene of the sacrifice. They found the remains of the feast, and
near the shed the boiled skull of the child.
The authorities at Arcahaye were exceedingly incensed with the priest
for his interference, and, under pretence that they could not answer
for his safety, shipped him off to Port-au-Prince, where he made his
report to the Archbishop.
Another Frenchman, who resided in a village in the southern department,
witnessed the whole ceremony, and, as he remained silent, was
undiscovered; but on its being rumoured that he had been present, his
wife’s Haytian family insisted on his leaving the district, as his life
was in danger.
I have frequently heard similar details from educated Haytians, and a
proof will presently be given.
I may notice that the Haytians have corrupted the compounds Papa Roi
and Maman Roi into Papaloi and Mamanloi.
The temples of the Vaudoux, called Humfort, are to be found in every
district of the country. They are in general small, though one I
visited in the interior was spacious, and was papered with engravings
from the _Illustrated London News_, and the walls were hung with the
pictures of the Virgin Mary and of various saints. I may notice that
in every one I entered I found similar pictures. In the largest one, a
Catholic priest had often said mass during his inland tours. Though he
could not prove it, he shrewdly suspected that the Vaudoux worship was
carried on there during his frequent absences. He showed me some very
curious polished stones of various forms, which he had induced some of
his disciples to give up. One was a stone axe in shape of a crescent;
and the negroes said that they had been brought from Africa, and formed
part of the relics they worshipped. I believe my informant obtained
these stones from a young negress during the absence of her husband,
who was very indignant on discovering their loss. The French priest
destroyed them, to prevent their falling again into the hands of his
congregation.
Beside various Christian emblems, I found in one of the temples a flag
of red silk, on which was worked the following inscription:--“Société
des Fleurs za Dahomïan,” whatever that may refer to. This flag was
said to have been the gift of the Empress, the consort of the Emperor
Soulouque.
Once whilst strolling with a friend in the mountains at the back of
La Coupé, about six miles from Port-au-Prince, I was shown another
small temple. As the guardian was a sort of dependant of the Haytian
gentleman who was with me, we were allowed to enter, and were shown
a box under a kind of altar, in which we were told the serpent was
confined, but we could not induce the man to let us see it, as he
feared the anger of the Papaloi.
I have remarked that the temples are generally small. To accommodate
the crowd, however, permanent or temporary sheds are erected near,
and there is generally the guardian’s house besides, in which to take
shelter or carry on their debauch.
The Papalois may generally be distinguished by the peculiar knotting of
their curly wool, which must be a work of considerable labour, and by
their profusion of ornaments. We noticed the former peculiarity at the
trial of some sorcerers, whilst the jailers probably had relieved them
of the latter. I have frequently remarked these knotted-headed negroes,
and the attention they received from their sable countrymen.
In general, when incidents are spoken of in society in Hayti relating
to the Vaudoux worship, Haytian gentlemen endeavour to turn the
conversation, or they say you have been imposed upon, or the events
have been exaggerated. But the incidents I am about to relate formed
the subject of a trial before a criminal court, and are to be found
detailed in the official journal of the period, and I was present
during the two days that the inquiry lasted.
It occurred during the Presidency of General Geffrard, the most
enlightened ruler that that unfortunate country possessed since the
time of President Boyer; it too plainly proved that the fetish worship
of the negroes of Africa had not been forgotten by their descendants,
nor to be denied by any one, and the attention of the whole country was
drawn to the subject of cannibalism. As the case greatly interested
me, I made the most careful inquiries and followed it in its most
minute particulars. It is worth while relating the whole story in its
disgusting details, as it is one of the truth of which there is not a
shadow of a doubt.
A couple of miles to the west of Port-au-Prince lies the village of
Bizoton, in which there lived a man named Congo Pellé. He had been a
labourer, a gentleman’s servant, an idler, who was anxious to improve
his position without any exertion on his own part. In this dilemma he
addressed himself to his sister Jeanne, who had long been connected
with the Vaudoux--was, in fact, the daughter of a priestess, and
herself a well-known Mamanloi--and it was settled between them that
about the new year some sacrifice should be offered to propitiate the
serpent. A more modest man would have been satisfied with a white cock
or a white goat, but on this solemn occasion it was thought better to
offer a more important sacrifice. A consultation was held with two
Papalois, Julien Nicolas and Floréal Apollon, and it was decided that a
female child should be offered as a sacrifice, and the choice fell on
Claircine, the niece of Jeanne and Congo.
This was the account given in court; but it appears also to be an
undoubted fact that human sacrifices are offered at Easter, Christmas
Eve, New Year’s Eve, and more particularly on Twelfth Night, or _Les
Fêtes des Rois_.
On the 27th December 1863, Jeanne invited her sister, the mother of
Claircine, to accompany her to Port-au-Prince, and the child, a girl
of about twelve years of age, was left at home with Congo. Immediate
advantage was taken of the mother’s absence, and Claircine was
conducted to the house of Julien, and from thence to that of Floréal,
where she was bound, and hidden under the altar in a neighbouring
temple. In the evening, the mother, returning home, asked for her
child, when her brother Congo told her it had strayed away; a pretended
search was made by those in the plot, and another Papaloi was
consulted. This man told the mother not to be uneasy, as the Maître
d’Eau, or the spirit of the water, had taken her daughter, but that in
a short time her child would be restored to her. The woman believed, or
pretended to believe, this story, and, by the papa’s recommendation,
burnt candles before the altar of the Virgin Mary for the prompt return
of her offspring,--another proof of the strange mingling of Catholicism
and Vaudoux worship.
On the evening of the 31st of December a large party assembled at the
house of Jeanne to await the arrival of the child, who had remained for
four days bound under the altar. When the chief members of the plot
came to the temple to bring her out, she, guessing the fate reserved
for her, gave two or three piercing shrieks, which were soon stifled,
and, gagged and bound, she was carried to Jeanne’s house, where
preparations were made for the human sacrifice. She was thrown on the
ground, her aunt holding her by the waist, whilst the Papaloi pressed
her throat, and the others held her legs and arms; her struggles
soon ceased, as Floréal had succeeded in strangling her. Then Jeanne
handed him a large knife, with which he cut off Claircine’s head, the
assistants catching the blood in a jar; then Floréal is said to have
inserted an instrument under the child’s skin, and detached it from
the body. Having succeeded in flaying their victim, the flesh was cut
from the bones, and placed in large wooden dishes; the entrails and
skin being buried near to the cottage. The whole party then started for
Floréal’s house, carrying the remains of their victim with them. On
their arrival Jeanne rang a little bell, and a procession was formed,
the head borne aloft, and a sacred song sung. Then preparations were
made for a feast.
Roused by the noise caused by the arrival, a woman and girl sleeping in
another chamber looked through some chinks in the wall and saw all that
passed,--Jeanne cooking the flesh with Congo beans, small and rather
bitter (_pois congo_), whilst Floréal put the head into a pot with yams
to make some soup. Whilst the others were engaged in the kitchen, one
of the women present, Roséide Sumera, urged by the fearful appetite of
a cannibal, cut from the child’s palm a piece of flesh and ate it raw
(this I heard her avow in open court).
The cooking over, portions of the prepared dish were handed round, of
which all present partook; and the soup being ready, it was divided
among the assistants, who deliberately drank it. The night was passed
in dancing, drinking, and debauchery. In the morning the remains
of the flesh were warmed up, and the two witnesses who had watched
the proceedings were invited to join in the repast: the young woman
confessed that she had accepted the invitation, but the girl did not.
Not satisfied with this taste of human flesh, the priests now put the
young girl, who had watched their proceedings from a neighbouring room,
in the place of Claircine, and she was bound in the temple, to be
sacrificed on Twelfth Night. It came out in evidence that she had been
decoyed to the house for that purpose, and that the young woman who was
sleeping in the same room was in reality in charge of her.
Fortunately for her, the inquiries which Claircine’s mother had made
on her first arrival home and the disappearance of the second girl
had roused the attention of an officer of police, and a search being
made, the freshly-boiled skull of the murdered girl was found among the
bushes near Floréal’s house, where careless impunity had induced the
assassins to throw it. A further search led to the discovery of the
girl bound under the altar and the other remains of Claircine.
Fourteen persons were arrested, against eight of whom sufficient
evidence could be obtained, and these were sent to prison to answer for
their crime before a criminal court. The trial commenced on the 4th
of February 1864, and lasted two days. Incidents were related in the
course of the evidence which showed how the lower classes are sunk in
ignorance and barbarity, and renewed the proofs, if any fresh proofs
were required, that the Vaudoux worship is associated by them with the
ceremonies of the Catholic religion, even the Papalois recommending the
burning of tapers in the Christian churches, and the having crosses and
pictures of the Virgin Mary strangely mingled on their altars with the
objects of their superstition.
In the dock we saw the eight prisoners, four men and four women, with
faces of the ordinary Haytian type, neither better nor worse. Their
names were: men--Julian Nicholas, a Papaloi; Floréal Apollon, another
Papaloi; Guerrier François and Congo Pellé: the women--Jeanne Pellé,
a Mamanloi, Roséide Sumera, Neréide François, and Beyard Prosper.
Some had been servants to foreigners, others had been gardeners and
washerwomen. The French procedure is observed in all trials in Hayti,
and to an Englishman the procedure, as practised in that republic,
is contrary to the first principles of justice. The prisoners were
bullied, cajoled, cross-questioned, in order to force avowals, in fact,
to make them state in open court what they were said to have confessed
in their preliminary examinations. I can never forget the manner in
which the youngest female prisoner turned to the public prosecutor and
said, “Yes, I did confess what you assert, but remember how cruelly I
was beaten before I said a word;” and it was well known that all the
prisoners had at first refused to speak, thinking that the Vaudoux
would protect them, and it required the frequent application of the
club to drive this belief out of their heads. That prisoners are
tortured to make them confess is known to be a common practice in Hayti.
However this may have been in the present case, there, on a table
before the judge, was the skull of the murdered girl, and in a jar the
remains of the soup and the calcined bones; and the avowals of the
prisoners in court and the testimony of the witnesses were too clear
and circumstantial to leave a doubt as to their criminality.
As I have remarked, I was in court during the two days’ trial, and I
never was present at one where the judge conducted himself with greater
dignity. His name was Lallemand, and he was one of the few magistrates
who had the courage to do justice, even when political passion would
have condemned victims unheard.
Among those who gave their evidence was the young girl who witnessed
the ceremonies, and for whom was reserved the fate of Claircine. The
judge called her up to his side, and gently asked her to tell the court
what she had seen; but, with a frightened look, she started and burst
into tears, and the judge, looking up sharply, saw the prisoners making
the most diabolical grimaces at the poor child. He then turned round
to the jury and said, in view of the intimidation attempted, he would
do what was not strictly regular; the child should whisper the story to
him, and he would repeat it to the court. He placed her with her back
to the prisoners, and putting his arm round her, drew her gently to
him, and said in a soft voice, “Tell me, _chère_, what occurred.” The
girl, in a very low tone, began her testimony, but the silence in court
was so profound, that not a word she uttered was lost, and, almost
without faltering, she told her story in all its horrible details; but
her nerves then gave way so completely, that she had to be taken out
of court, and could not be again produced to answer some questions the
jury wished to ask.
Then the young woman, her companion of that night, was called, and
she confirmed the account, and confessed that in the morning she had
joined in the feast; the mother’s testimony followed, and that of
numerous other witnesses. The guilt of the prisoners was thus fully
established, when one of the female prisoners, Roséide, in the hopes
perhaps of pardon, entered into every particular of the whole affair,
to the evident annoyance of the others, who tried in vain to keep her
silent. Her testimony was the most complete, and left not a doubt of
the culpability of the whole of the prisoners. I did in consequence
suggest that her life should be spared, but President Geffrard reminded
me that it was she who had confessed, in open court, that she had eaten
the palms of the victim’s hands as a favourite morsel.
Jeanne, the old woman, though she showed the utmost coolness during
the trial, did at length appeal for mercy, saying she had only been
practising what had been taught her by her mother as the religion of
her ancestors. “Why should I be put to death for observing our ancient
customs?”
They were all found guilty of sorcery, torture, and murder, and
condemned to death.
I asked the public prosecutor if he thought that the mother had been
really ignorant of the fate reserved for her child. He replied, “We
have not thought proper to press the inquiry too closely, for fear
that we should discover that she partook of the feast; we required her
testimony at the trial.” After a pause, he added, “If full justice were
done, there would be fifty on those benches instead of eight.”
The execution took place on Saturday, February 13, 1864, the
authorities wisely selecting a market-day, in order that the example
might have the greater effect. The following particulars relating to
it I received from the American Commissioner, Mr. Whiddon, who was
present at this last scene. The prisoners, men and women, were all
clothed in white robes and white headdresses, the garments reserved for
parricides, and were drawn in carts to the place of execution, and all
but one had a sullen look of resignation, and neither uttered a word
nor a complaint, whilst the eighth, the young woman Roséide, kept up a
continued conversation with the crowd around her.
Every effort was made by the Government to give solemnity to the
occasion; the troops and National Guard were summoned, for even the
word “rescue” had been pronounced; the principal authorities attended;
and thousands of spectators gathered round the spot. The prisoners,
tied in pairs, were placed in a line, and faced by five soldiers to
each pair; they fired with such inaccuracy, that only six fell wounded
on the first discharge. It took these untrained men fully half an
hour to complete their work, and the incidents were so painful, that
the horror at the prisoners’ crimes was almost turned into pity at
witnessing their unnecessary sufferings. As usual, the prisoners
behaved with great courage, even the women standing up unflinchingly
before their executioners, and receiving their fire without quailing,
and when at last they fell wounded, no cry was heard, but they were
seen beckoning the soldiers to approach, and Roséide held the muzzle of
a musket to her bosom and called on the man to fire.
The Vaudoux priests gave out, that although the deity would permit the
execution, he would only do it to prove to his votaries his power by
raising them all again from the dead. To prevent their bodies being
carried away during the night (they had been buried near the place
of execution), picquets of troops were placed round the spot; but in
the morning three of the graves were found empty, and the bodies of
the two priests and the priestess had disappeared. Superstitious fear
had probably prevented the soldiers from staying where they had been
posted, and as most of the troops belonged to the sect of the Vaudoux,
they probably connived at, rather than prevented, the exhumation.
Among those who attended the trial were the Spanish _chargé
d’affaires_, Don Mariano Alvarez, and the Admiral, Mendez Nuñez, but
they were so horrified by the sight of the child’s remains on the
judge’s table and the disgusting evidence, that they had precipitately
to leave the court. For years Congo beans were forbidden at our table.
Mr. Alvarez had a great liking for Haytian society, and lived much with
certain families, and was very familiar with what was occurring in the
country. I therefore asked him if he had any objection to give me some
extracts from his official reports on the subject of the Vaudoux; he
freely consented, and authorised me to publish the same in any way I
pleased. I propose to insert some extracts in this chapter, as they
confirm my own inquiries.
I have elsewhere remarked, but I may repeat it, that all prisoners
condemned to death in Hayti, whether their crimes be political or
otherwise, are shot, and as but two or three soldiers are told off to
each prisoner, the consequence is that almost every execution that
takes place resembles, instead of a solemn warning, a frightful and
pitiable butchery.
President Geffrard behaved with great courage on this occasion, for
though continued appeals were made for pardon, he remained firm. He
was warned that such an execution would sap the attachment of the
masses, but he insisted that the condemned should be put to death. The
example probably deterred others from openly committing such crimes, or
from committing them near civilised centres; but when Geffrard quitted
power, the sect again raised its head, and human sacrifices became
common. We, however, heard little of these dreadful rites after the
fall of Salnave. It can scarcely be said that civilisation is making
progress; it is more probable that the authorities, absorbed in their
petty intrigues to maintain power, did not care to inquire too closely
into the disappearance of children.
I believe that the latter is the true explanation, and that instead
of there having been any amelioration, the subject is only ignored,
as one likely to give trouble. Instead of the country advancing in
civilisation since the fall of Geffrard, it has retrograded. Civil
wars and the imbecile Government of Nissage-Saget followed, and then
again insurrections and civil war. It cannot be supposed that under the
Government of General Domingue (1874 and 1875) the Vaudoux worship was
discouraged, when it was openly stated and believed that one of his
Ministers was a Papaloi, and head of the sect in the southern province.
His brutal character and love of bloodshed would add to the suspicion.
Under the next President (1876-78), Boisrond-Canal, a decree was issued
forbidding any Vaudoux dances, as, under cover of these, other rites
were carried on; but that decree has, I hear, been since repealed. Who
is to think of the improvement of the masses whilst struggling to
maintain a precarious tenure of power?
Mr. Alvarez’s account of the Claircine incident differs only in a few
trifles from mine, but he had not the opportunities I had fully to
investigate it. He says:--“I have previously reported on the subject
of the fetish sect of Vaudoux, imported into Hayti by the slaves
coming from the tribes on the western coast of Africa, and mentioning
the crimes of these cannibals. To-day I enclose an extract from the
official _Moniteur_, in which they have commenced to publish the
process against four men and four women, who were shot near this
capital on the 13th instant, convicted on their own confession of
having eaten, in Bizoton, near Port-au-Prince, on the night of the 10th
of December last, a young child of six years old, called Claircine,
whose own aunt delivered her to these anthropophagi, and for having
another child that they were feeding up to sacrifice and eat on the
first days of January, in commemoration of the feast of the King of
Africa. I assisted at the trial, and there appeared to have been no
doubt that if the public prosecutor had desired to verify the case
minutely, not only the witnesses, but even the mother of the victim,
merited the same fate as the cannibals who were proved to have eaten
her.”
“President Geffrard, who is not afraid of the Vaudoux, although all the
mountains and plains of the republic are full of these anthropophagi,
with an energy which does him honour has caused the authorities
to throw down the altars, collect the drums, timbrels, and other
ridiculous instruments which the Papalois use in their diabolical
ceremonies, and in the district of Port-au-Prince has imprisoned many
individuals of both sexes, who, on being interrogated, confessed what
had been the fate of other children who had disappeared from their
homes, and whose whereabouts were unknown.”
As an instance of what occurred in the time of the Emperor Soulouque,
I may again seek the testimony of Mr. Alvarez. In 1852, in consequence
of a denunciation, Vil Lubin, governor of Port-au-Prince, arrested in
the neighbourhood of that city about fifty individuals of both sexes.
On examining the house in which human sacrifices were offered, packages
of salted human flesh were found rolled up in leaves. These were thrown
into the sea. During the examination of the prisoners, they declared
that among the members of the best families of the city were many
associates of the society of the Vaudoux, and that if the authorities
desired to be satisfied of this assertion, let them be permitted to
beat the little drum. They would present themselves even to the Emperor
Soulouque himself, for among the Vaudoux worshippers no one under peril
of his life would be wanting to his engagements. This case was allowed
to drop.
In part proof of the above statement, Mr. Alvarez tells the following
story:--One of the principal ladies of Port-au-Prince, rich, and of
good family, was found late at night by General Vil Lubin stretched
out at the door of the Catholic cathedral, wearing only the blue dress
of the country negresses, without shoes, and going through certain
incantations called _wanga_. The governor accompanied this lady to her
house. I knew the person to whom Mr. Alvarez alludes, and certainly she
was one of the last women whom I should have suspected to have belonged
to the Vaudoux.
I add some further observations of Mr. Alvarez, as they give the view
held by a Catholic who represented a Catholic power:--“1862.--The
delegate of his Holiness, Monseigneur Testard du Cocquer, has left,
much disgusted with this country on account of the corruption of its
customs, the dearth of religion among the sectaries of the Vaudoux,
and the opposition and want of confidence with which he met in what is
called in Hayti civilised society. In order that you may appreciate
the accuracy of the incidents which pass here, a simple narration of
some of a very recent epoch will be sufficient to show the powerful
influence exercised on the inhabitants by the sect or the society of
the Vaudoux, so spread throughout the country; this, with other causes
inherent in the race, to which it would be tiresome to refer, prove
that Hayti is, of all the republics in America, the most backward and
the most pernicious in every point of view. From the same motive, I
will not stop to speak of the origin of the fetish religion of the
Vaudoux, or the worship of the serpent, imported from the tribes of the
west coast of Africa by the slaves coming from that country, and I now
pass to facts.
“In the month of August past (1862) there died, in the section called
Belair, a negro, and his body was taken to the Catholic church.
The defunct belonged to the society of the Vaudoux. The men and
women who accompanied the corpse began in the temple to scream like
those possessed, and they commenced a scene such as might occur in
Mid-Africa. The Abbé Pascal tried to re-establish order; his requests
that they should respect the sacred precincts were useless; and
the Abbé having refused, on account of this scandalous conduct, to
accompany the body to the cemetery, the mourners fell upon him, seized
him by the collar, and he had to fly to the sacristy, the interference
of a foreigner alone saving him from further ill-treatment; but the
tumult was so great that even the cross which is used at funerals was
broken to pieces. Two women were taken out fainting, and the rabble
marched off to the cemetery to bury the body; some arrests were made,
but it is not known what punishment was inflicted, as the tribunals
always leave unpunished the misdemeanours of the sectaries of the
Vaudoux, as I am going to prove.”
Mr. Alvarez then tells a horrible story, to which I shall refer farther
on, as it belongs to a different section of this chapter.
“In February 1862 a negro was taken prisoner at Ouanaminthe for having
assassinated his father. He was condemned to death by the tribunals;
but he defended himself by saying that he had done no more than follow
the orders of the serpent. In a few months he was set at liberty.
“It is not long since that in one of the streets of Port-au-Prince
was found at early morn the body of an unknown youth, of about twenty
years of age, who had a weapon piercing his heart, and attached to
that a thin hollow cane. It was supposed that he was assassinated in
order to suck his blood. I might cite many other facts of which I have
taken note, but what I have related appear sufficient for the object I
have proposed to myself. The disappearance of children is frequent at
certain epochs or seasons, and it is supposed that they are eaten by
the cannibals of this society.
“In the secret ceremonies of the Vaudoux the drink in use is the
blood of animals mixed with white rum, and the Papaloi, either from
the immoderate use they make of alcohol mixed with blood, or from the
handling of the poisons they use in their devil craft, die in general,
although at an advanced age, covered with leprosy and incurable sores.”
I myself heard this stated whilst in Hayti, but I fear that a few
exceptions have in this case made the rule.
“The people endure every possible oppression from the Papaloi, and if
you ask them why they permit these vexations and the abuses which are
committed against one another, they answer, ‘We are indeed obliged,
unhappy that we are: if we denounced our neighbours, certainly we
should quickly die.’ From which it may be inferred that they tolerate
this conduct because they fear, and they fear because they know each
other.” This fear of one another is noticed by all foreign residents
in Hayti: it extends to the higher classes.
“The society of the Vaudoux, although now (1862, time of Geffrard) not
so preponderant as in the time of Soulouque, who was one of its most
believing followers, is very extended in all the republic, but there
are few initiated into the secrets; they have their signs and symbols,
and the society meddles in the politics of every Government which has
existed in Hayti; they sometimes sustain them, as in certain cases they
will act as a secret police, and the Vaudoux is looked on as one of the
firmest props of the independence of the country.”
I may notice that the Papaloi lead the most depraved lives. They are
feared by all, and the fear inspired is so great, that few women among
the lower orders would resist their advances. It may probably be looked
upon as an honour. Unlimited drink is the next idea of happiness to a
negro, and in this the offerings of their followers enable the priests
to indulge to their hearts’ content.
After studying the history of Hayti, one is not astonished that the
fetish worship continues to flourish. The negroes imported from the
west coast of Africa naturally brought their religion with them,
and the worship of the serpent was one of its most distinguishing
features. St. Méry speaks of the slaves arriving with a strange
mixture of Mohammedanism and idolatry, to which they soon added a
little Catholicism. Of Mohammedanism I have not myself observed
a trace. When they found the large, almost harmless, serpent in
Hayti, they welcomed it as their god, and their fetish priests soon
collected their followers around them. The French authorities tried
to put down all meetings of the Vaudoux, partly because they looked
upon them as political, but they did not succeed in their object.
Many of the tribes in Africa are to this day cannibals, and their
ancestors imported probably this taste into the French colony. It was
difficult at that epoch to indulge in it, as all the children of the
slaves were carefully registered, and their disappearance would have
been immediately remarked; they may, however, have made use of the
expedients for producing apparent death, to which I will presently
refer.
Many persons appear to think that cannibalism is a later importation,
and came with the Africans freed by our cruisers. If it were so, the
seed fell on good ground, as the practice has spread to every district
of the island. This opinion, however, can scarcely be correct, as
Moreau de St. Méry, in naming the different tribes imported into
Hayti, says:--“Never had any a disposition more hideous than the last
(the Mondongues), whose depravity has reached the most execrable of
excesses, that of eating their fellow-creatures. They bring also to
Santo Domingo those butchers of human flesh (for in their country there
are butcheries where they sell slaves as they would calves), and they
are here, as in Africa, the horror of the other negroes.”
This is a fitting introduction to the second part of this chapter,
in which I must refer to the great knowledge of herbs as poisons and
antidotes shown by the Papaloi--which, though possibly exaggerated
by some inquirers, is no doubt very great--and to cannibalism as not
connected with religious rites.
In the following passages from Mr. Alvarez’s notes, the first
impression will be that there must be gross exaggeration. I thought so
when I first read them, but the more my inquiries extended, the less I
was inclined to doubt them. If not exactly true, it is the firm belief
of all classes of society that they are so. During thirteen years,
I had the best opportunities of hearing the opinion of Presidents,
intelligent Secretaries of State, the principal members of the medical
profession, lawyers, merchants, both foreign and native, as well as
other residents, who had passed a lifetime in the republic, and the
testimony was more or less unanimous as to the profound knowledge of
the use of herbs possessed by the Papaloi.
“The human imagination cannot conceive anything more absurd, more
barbarous, or more ridiculous than the acts committed by these
ferocious sectaries, who are called Papaloi, Papa Boco, or other names
as stupid as they are ill-sounding. They produce death--apparent, slow,
or instantaneous--madness, paralysis, impotence, idiocy, _riches or
poverty_, according to their will.
“It has happened on occasions that persons have retired to bed in
the possession of their senses to awaken idiots, and remain in
that state in spite of the aid of science, and in a few days to be
completely cured, when the causes which have produced the alienation
have ceased. One individual struck another; the latter threatened him
with impotency. At the end of fifteen days he was paralytic in all
his members.[11] Following the counsels of a friend, he consulted a
Papaloi, who had the coolness to confess that he had himself sold to
his enemy the philter that had reduced him to that state, but for the
sum of about £20 he would cure him. In fact, in a few days, by means
of the remedies of the Papa, he was completely restored to health.
And if it be doubted that these individuals, without even common
sense, can understand so thoroughly the properties of herbs and their
combinations, so as to be able to apply them to the injury of their
fellow-creatures, I can only say that tradition is a great book, and
that they receive these instructions as a sacred deposit from one
generation to another, with the further advantage that in the hills and
mountains of this island grow in abundance similar herbs to those which
in Africa they employ in their incantations.”
One case occurred in 1860, which was really so remarkable, and drew so
much attention at the time, that there was no possibility of doubting
it. It was supported by ample testimony. It was first told me by one
of the most eminent medical men in Port-au-Prince, and confirmed by
another, who had been an eyewitness of some of the details, and pledged
his word as to its truth. I one day mentioned the story in the French
Legation, as I was still somewhat sceptical, when, to my surprise, I
found that it had been made the subject of an official report. Count
Mégan, at that time _chargé d’affaires_ (1867), offered to give me an
extract relating to that crime, with permission to publish it in any
book I might write.
The following are the particulars:--“The police having been informed
that some shrieks had been heard at night in the cemetery of
Port-au-Prince, went there in the morning, and found a grave disturbed,
and near it an open coffin, and lying at the side the body of a lady
that had been buried on the previous day. A dagger had been thrust into
her bosom, and as blood covered her burial clothes, it was evident that
she had been buried alive. Many arrests took place, but the affair
was hushed up. It was currently reported, however, that the husband
had a mistress, whom he neglected after marriage, and that this woman
applied to a Mamanloi for aid. She received a sleeping potion which she
contrived to give to the lady during her first confinement, and she
was hurriedly buried, to be restored to consciousness in the graveyard
at dead of night, with her rival armed with a dagger before her. Her
shrieks drew the attention of some Jamaica negroes, who ran towards
the spot shouting, but whom superstition prevented from entering the
cemetery. Their shouts, however, caused the murderers to fly, and leave
the corpse where it was found next morning.” This is the story as told
me by my medical friends, and it was universally believed to be true,
and in fact was true, and was never denied by those in authority with
whom I conversed on the subject.
The accounts given by my French and Spanish colleagues were more
complete, and probably more exact, as they were both in Port-au-Prince
when this tragedy occurred. My previous French colleague (the Marquis
de Forbin Janson) wrote, 2d August 1860:--
“Deux jours après mon arrivé à Port-au-Prince, une femme endormie au
moyen d’un narcotique et enterrée le soir au cimetière de la ville, fut
exhumée dans la nuit; elle respirait encore, on la tua, puis on enleva
la cervelle, le cœur et la foi de la victime, dont on retrouva de
débris près de la tombe: le lendemain matin une enquête fut ordonnée,
on fit plusieurs arrestations, entre autres celle d’une prêtresse du
Vaudoux (Mamanloi). Cette femme fit des révélations y, offrit même de
livrer à la justice les auteurs du meurtre et de la profanation en
les attirant à la prison par une puissance irresistible ou ballant
de son tambour d’une manière particulière. La justice et la police,
déjà effrayées du nombre et de l’importance des personnes compromises,
reculèrent devant cette nouvelle épreuve. On ordonna aux journaux de
se taire et l’affaire fut étouffée. On croit que la principale mobile
du crime fut un sentiment de vengeance, mais on tient pour certain
que les parties mutilées ont été destinées à la célébration de quelque
mystère Vaudoux du fetichisme africain encore pratiqué, quoiqu’on dise,
par la grande majorité des Haïtiens.”
I think this case of so much importance, that, at the risk of
repetition, I will give the report made by Mr. Alvarez:--
“In July of 1860 there was committed in Port-au-Prince a horrible,
almost an incredible crime. A young woman died suddenly, and was buried
on the following day. At night several individuals of both sexes went
to the cemetery, dug up the coffin, and opened it. What they actually
did is not known, but what is positive is that the unburied began to
shriek and shout for help. The guard near the cemetery, composed of
Jamaicans, Louisianians, and Creoles, approached, and saw the woman
sitting in the coffin, and various persons--a torch in one hand and a
dagger in the other--vociferating words they could not understand. The
Creole soldiers of the country fled dismayed, but the Louisianians,
as soon as they had overcome the first feeling of terror, ran to the
succour of the unburied; already it was too late, they found her dead
from the stroke of a dagger, and her heart and lungs torn from her
bosom. The assassins escaped, but subsequently some prisoners were
made. In a few days the prisoners were at liberty; and it is related
that the lungs and the heart had been cooked and eaten in one of the
country-houses in Bizoton.”
My friend, Auguste Elie, Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
deplored but could not deny the truth of this story; and having no
Vaudoux prejudices himself, having been born and bred in France,
conversed freely on the subject, and told us many particulars that had
come to his knowledge.
Of the truth of the following story I had the testimony of ocular
witnesses. A lady hearing that a child near her house was ill, went
down to see it. She found it lying stupefied in the mother’s lap. Her
suspicions were aroused, and she sharply questioned the mother as to
what had been done to the child. Her answers were so unsatisfactory,
yet mournful, that the lady determined to keep a watch on the case. She
called in the evening, and was told the child was dead. She insisted
on seeing the corpse, and found that though the heart was still and
the pulse had ceased to beat, yet that the child did not look dead,
and made the remark to the bystanders, but they answered, “Yes, it is
dead.” She told the mother she was not satisfied, and that she would
return in the morning with her husband, and that in the meantime the
body must not be buried. Next day she and her husband walked down to
the house, and asked to see the body. The mother replied that the
neighbours having insisted, she had allowed them to bury her child,
and pointed out the grave. The French gentleman called to some of his
labourers, and had the grave opened. There they found the coffin, but
the child’s body was absent. Arrests were made, but nothing came of
it. It is supposed that it was by this means that the Papalois were
enabled to obtain victims during the French colonial period.
It is useless to multiply instances of these horrors; but that they are
practised all over the island more or less under every government that
has existed in Hayti is certain.
You often hear the expression used in Hayti, “Li gagné chagrin,” which,
though, referring occasionally to a known cause, often applies to a
sort of anæmia of the mind, when a person appears to care for nothing,
or for what becomes of him. I have inquired as to what had been done to
the man, and the answer, if in company, was, “We don’t know;” if you
asked a person privately, he would probably reply that somebody had
given him _wanga_, a generic word for poisons, philters, and charms.
The remark I made when I first began to inquire into this subject may
naturally be repeated by others. If the majority of Haytians be tainted
by the Vaudoux, who is it that denounces these horrible crimes, and how
could a remedy be found? The answer is, that there are in Hayti, as I
have before noticed, two sects of Vaudoux worshippers; one, perhaps
the least numerous, that indulges in human sacrifices, the other that
holds such practices in horror, and is content with the blood of the
white goat and the white cock. At one time the police took no notice
of the latter, and permitted them to carry on their ceremonies in
Port-au-Prince in a large courtyard adjoining a house in which a
friend of mine lived. To preserve as much secrecy as possible, the
courtyard was hung round with cloth hangings, and watchmen placed to
keep prying eyes at a distance; but my friend, though not curious,
occasionally got a glimpse of the proceedings. They were much as those
described by Moreau de St. Méry. In the country districts the Catholic
priests say this sect calls themselves, “Les Mystères,” and that they
mingle Christian and Vaudoux ceremonies in a singular manner. The name
probably refers to the rites they practise. I have been assured by many
gentlemen connected with the Haytian police, that if the followers of
this sect did not secretly denounce to them the crimes committed by the
others, it would be almost impossible for them to keep the assassin
sect in check. It is probable that, acting with these comparatively
harmless savages, the Haytian Government might be able to do much, if
ever it seriously desires to put an end to the shedding of human blood.
I have been told that, besides the goat and cock, the Vaudoux
occasionally sacrifice a lamb; this idea they have probably taken from
the Catholic Church--the paschal lamb; it is carefully washed, combed,
and ornamented before being sacrificed.
All that I have hitherto related refers more or less to human
sacrifices as connected with religion; but there is another
phase--cannibalism as practised for the sake of the food which the
slaughtering of human beings affords to a vile section of the community.
In Mr. Consul Hutchinson’s paper on the traits of African tribes,
published in the “Transactions of the Ethnological Society,” New
Series, vol. i. p. 338, he states: “I have during the last year seen
it stated in a Sierra Leone newspaper, on the authority of Mr. Priddy,
a missionary of the Countess of Huntingdon’s Connection in that
colony, not that _he had heard of_, but _that he had seen_ hampers of
dried human flesh carried about on men’s backs, to be sold for eating
purposes, in the progress of a recent civil war between the Soosoo and
Tisnney tribes.”[12] This is very similar to what was seen by a lady of
my acquaintance in Hayti.
A lady, the widow of a missionary, was forced to stay in the interior
of Hayti (north-east of Gonaives), after the death of her husband, on
account of the civil war in the surrounding districts in the years 1868
and 1869, and she related some horrible incidents which were of her own
knowledge. She declared that human sacrifices were constant, that human
flesh was openly sold in the market. One would willingly have believed
in exaggeration; but similar incidents, which occurred during the reign
of Soulouque, related to me by one so intelligent and truthful as
Auguste Elie, compelled me to accept as veritable the horrible stories
she told in full detail.
Monsieur Desjardins, an eminent French merchant in Port-au-Prince,
remarked to me that, walking near Cap Haïtien, he met a party of
soldiers beating a man with their clubs; he inquired the reason, and
they told their prisoner to open his basket, and there he saw the body
of a child cut up into regular joints.
Auguste Elie told me he knew the following incident as a fact,
which occurred during the reign of Soulouque. A man with whom he
was acquainted was visiting in the plains with his wife, when she
complained of feeling unwell, and they mounted their horses to return
to town. At sunset, a violent storm coming on, they determined to halt
at a cottage they saw near. They entered, and found two men and a woman
there; his wife becoming worse, he determined to seek help, but was a
long time before he could find any one to accompany him. On his return
to the house, he inquired for his wife, and the people said that,
becoming uneasy at his long absence, she had followed him. He rode away
without saying a word, and calling at the next police station, induced
the men to follow him; they surrounded the cottage, arrested the three
inmates, and on searching the premises, found the body of the woman,
already dismembered, in a cask in an outhouse. A thick layer of salt
had been thrown over the remains. The only punishment these assassins
received was that administered by the clubs of the police whilst
conducting them to prison.
The Haytians occasionally publish accounts of these crimes. I read the
following in one of their local papers. At Jacmel, on the southern
coast, an old woman, a midwife, was lying on her death-bed surrounded
by her neighbours, and they were somewhat surprised at her long
struggles and loud groaning. At last she said, “I cannot die in peace;
put aside the bed and dig underneath;” and on doing so, great was their
astonishment to come on numerous small skeletons, which the old fiend
acknowledged were the remains of children she had eaten. After this
confession they say she died quietly. One cannot but be reminded of
the horrible picture in the Wiertz Gallery in Brussels of the woman
cutting up and cooking the infant. It must have been painted under the
influence of nightmare.
That the practice of midwives slaying children for the purpose of
eating them is an old one in Hayti is proved by the following story,
related by Moreau de St. Méry:--
“On a eu à Saint Domingue (Haïti) des preuves que les Mondongues y
avait gardé leur odieuse inclination, notamment en 1786, dans une
negresse accoucheuse et hospitalière sur une habitation aux environs de
Jérémie. Le propriétaire ayant remarqué que la plupart des negrillons
périssait dans les huit premiers jours de leur naissance, fit épier la
matrone; on l’a surpris mangeant un de ces enfans récemment inhumé, et
elle avoua qu’elle les faisait périr dans ce dessin.”
As late as 1878, the last year of which I propose to treat, two women
were arrested in a hut near Port-au-Prince. They were caught in the
act of eating the flesh of a child raw. On further examination it was
found that all the blood had been sucked from the body, and that
part of the flesh had been salted for later use. In 1869 the police
arrested, in that beautiful valley to which I have referred in my first
chapter, about a dozen cannibals, and brought them bound to La Coupe.
They had been denounced by the opposing sectaries of the Vaudoux. From
the time they were taken from their houses they were beaten in the
most unmerciful manner, and when thrown into prison they were tortured
by the thumbscrew and by tightened cords round their foreheads, and
under the influence of these they made some fearful avowals, in which,
however, little confidence could be placed. A French priest, with whom
I was on intimate terms, hearing of their arrest, had the curiosity
to go and see them. At first they would not converse with him, but
when they found him protesting against the inhumanity with which they
had been treated, and threatening the jailer that he would officially
report him should such conduct continue, they placed more confidence
in him. He visited them nearly every day, and had many conversations
with them in private. They confessed to him that their avowals under
torture were true; and when the priest, horrified by the details, said
to a mother, “How could you eat the flesh of your own children?” she
answered coolly, “And who had a better right,--est-ce que ce n’est pas
moi qui les ai fait?”[13]
One of these prisoners died under the torture of the cord tightened
round his forehead.
Though the Haytians believe in the mythical “_loup garou_,”
they have also the fullest faith in his counterpart among their
fellow-countrymen. It is the _loup garou_ who is employed by the
Papaloi to secure a child for sacrifice in case the neighbourhood does
not furnish a suitable subject; and they are supposed to hang about
lonely houses at night to carry off the children. I have often heard
my young Haytian servants rush into my country-house laughingly saying
that they had seen a _loup garou_--their laugh, however, tinged with
a sort of dread. They have often said that these human monsters prowl
about the house at night, and that nothing but the presence of my dogs
kept them in respect. I have occasionally seen the object of their fear
in an ill-looking negro hanging about the gate, but the sight of my
dogs was enough to induce him to move on. The negroes have fortunately
an almost superstitious terror of dogs.
There is no doubt that these _loup garous_ do carry off many children,
not only for the priests, but for cannibals. They generally look only
for native children, and I have only heard of one instance in which
they attempted to carry off a white girl. She was snatched from the
arms of her nurse, whilst walking on the Champs de Mars, by a huge
negro, who ran off with her towards the woods, but being pursued by two
mounted gentlemen who accidentally witnessed the occurrence, he dropped
the child to save himself.
One of my Haytian friends who had studied botany informed me that the
number of poisonous plants to be found on the island is very great,
and that it was absolutely certain that the Papalois made use of them
in their practices. I believe in some French botanical works lists of
these plants have been published, and their medical value would appear
to merit further study. It is not more remarkable that the Papalois
should know the properties of the plants in Hayti than that the Indians
of Peru and Bolivia should have discovered the properties of the
cinchona bark and the coca-leaf.
If it be remembered that the republic of Hayti is not a God-forsaken
region in Central Africa, but an island surrounded by civilised
communities; that it possesses a Government modelled on that of France,
with President, Senate, and House of Representatives; with Secretaries
of State, prefects, judges, and all the paraphernalia of courts of
justice and of police; with a press more or less free; and, let me add,
an archbishop, bishops, and clergy, nearly all Frenchmen,--it appears
incredible that sorcery, poisonings for a fee by recognised poisoners,
and cannibalism, should continue to pervade the island. The truth is,
that except during one year of Geffrard’s Presidency, no Government
has ever cared resolutely to grapple with the evil. If they have not
encouraged it, they have ignored it, in order not to lose the favour of
the masses.