Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 38.djvu/676

658 186 et seq.) that the "Arada" negroes are the true sectaries of "vaudoux" in Hayti, and that the word "vaudoux" signifies an all-powerful and supernatural being, on whom depend all the events that take place in the world. This being only consents to communicate with his worshipers through a high priest, and still more through "the negress whom the love of the latter has raised to the rank of high priestess." These two are called the king and queen. They are the chiefs of the sect, decide who shall be admitted to the society, receive the gifts offered to the god, and, being the interpreters of his will, naturally have great power.

Let us look into this first. As has already been stated, the word vodu should not properly be limited to the snake deity, and in Africa Dañh-gbi is not supposed to control the affairs of the world. He is simply the god of wisdom and the benefactor of man, the natural phenomena being under the control of other gods. There is on the Slave Coast nothing answering to the king and queen found in Hayti, but some such change might be expected, for it is improbable that any of the regular priesthood were shipped across the Atlantic as slaves. In the intertribal wars of the present day it seems to be the invariable rule to enslave the masses and to strike off the heads of all chiefs, priests, and men of eminence, whose skulls are carefully preserved, partly as trophies and partly in order that the victory may not be forgotten. From all the evidence now obtainable this seems to have always been the custom; and, as Captain Suelgrave tells us that four thousand prisoners of war were sacrificed at the conquest of Whydah, it is probable that the "classes" were used up in this manner. In Hayti the king takes the place of the Slave Coast priest, and the queen is seemingly the result of a confused recollection of the institution of the kosio. In both places the priests are the mouth-pieces of the god, who can only be consulted through them. Of course, this must necessarily be the case wherever there is a priesthood which depends upon the people for a livelihood; for, if any and every individual could consult the gods himself, the office of priest, or mediator between god and man, would be superfluous.

To epitomize further from St. John: In Hayti the reunion of worshipers never takes place except secretly, in the dead of night, and in a place safe from any profane eye. There is an oath of secrecy, which is the foundation of the association. Red seems to be the favorite color, the king and queen wearing handkerchiefs in which it predominates. The snake is present, confined in a box. The meeting commences by adoration of the snake, by protestations of being faithful to its worship and submissive to its commands. Then, those who wish to consult the god, and