The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1902-09-11

much more to the high priestess-the
woman whom the high priest chooses
to be temporarily honored with his love.
! Both of these high functionaries must
| be obeyed to the letter by their faithful
tolloWers-and their influence is all the
greater and the more dangerous because
the cult is carried on in secret. There
are two principal sects of Voodists.
One believes that animal sacrifices are
sufficient; the other demands human
sacrifices and practices cannibalism-
even in this twentieth century, and
almost within sight of the American
flag that floats over Porto Rico. The
emperor SoulouQue was a faithful
adherent of Noodoo fetishism: and his
foremost general. Therlonge. was high
priest Only about thirty years ago,
President Salome-an ignorant black
soldier who fought himself into the
executive chair, and after a short reign
was driven out by clubs and killed like
dog ii the streets-sought to obtain
the good will of the better class of Ua-
items by misunderstanding the cult.
This was a fatal mistake. as he soon
discovered. and then he swerved to the
other extreme At first he tried to
strengthen his lettering cause by bath
ing in the blood Of goats, under the
direction of the high priest, and after
wards participated in the most fearful
debaucherles incidental to the sacred"
rites of Noodooism. still the war went
against him, and the high priest declar-
ed that nothing would save him but the
sacrifice of the goat without horns
the Haltlen term for what the South
sea islanders call long pig" j. e. a
human sacrifice. 1t was obtained. in the
person OF young white girl, who was
hung by the heels, (alive, but rendered
insenslble 10y a negro decoction of roots
slit open with knife, her blood drunk
and her flesh boiled and eaten. amid
unprlntable orgies, winding up in a
wild dance i'll which the deyotees. men
and women, spun round like crazy
creatures, tearing off every shred of
clothes, biting their own and others
flesh, and at last falling down insensi-
bic.
The most terrible thing about Woo
doolsm is its stealth. Like the great
yellow snake itself it turks in hidden
places and crawls under cover, always
unseen when it strikes the fatal blow.
Poison is the usual weapon, and the
Noodoo priests are past masters in its
use, Strange diseases attlict those who
offend the true believers" Sometimes
the victim becomes stone blind III a
single night, or goes insane without
moments warning, or suffers the tor
lures OF Dante's Inferno from some
loathSOme skin disease which does not
kill but cannot be cured. Hundreds of
Well-youched for instances might be
cited. In Cape IIaitien | was told
pltltul tale of man Who had uuinten-
t4plldil9 VII Ciitttt MS IIt4S i4uOI, al oIu
woman who had been his friend for
many years. 1t seemed that her pigs
had been III the habit of over-running
his garden, and i'll driving them off, the
man one day threw club that hit a
young porller i'll a vital part and killed
II, He went at once to apologize to his
i GTf off ~
pig. But the Old woman would take
nothing, saying truly that it was her
fault as much as his, in allowing her
pigs to trespass. Next day she brought
him pitcher of butter-milk. After
drinking some of it lie began to act in
the strangeSt getting down on
his hands and knees, frothing at the
mouth and trying to eat grass He had
been poisoned by his neighbor and for
mer friend with some mysterious vege-
table mixture, which does not kill but
affects the nerves in such a manner
that forever afterwards the sight of
anything green-even a tree, or a Win
wv " oIutttI VI tltll NOlDI-NllI Throw
him into an agonizing tit. The doctors
can do nothing-even the miserable old
bag who poisoned him is powerless to
undo her work; and henceforth. as
long as he lives he must be confined in
a room which has none of the fatal
color about it and affords no glimpse of
the world outside or go abroad only in
the darkness of night.
1t is well known that a brotherhood
of sorcerers and prisoners extends all
over Africa. Their fraternity is of the
most ancient origin. and they possess
unusual knowledge concerning many
things. In particular they are acquaint-
ed with vegetable and mineral poisons.
including some drugs as yet unknown
to science. BY means of certain decoc-
lions they can produce in the chosen
victim insanity, para lysis, idiocy, or
slow decay of mind and body. In Afri-
Ca these priests of Fetish usually act as
a secret police for the native chiefs,
out as witches any person
whose destruction may be desired. The
same brotherhood runs the machinery