Page:Transactions of the Second International Folk-Congress.djvu/268

 AMONG THE VOODOOS.

MISS MARY A. OWEN.

frequently been asked, "What is Voodoo worship?" frankly I answer, "I don't know." It seems to be like the old woman's recipe for fruit-cake—"a little of this, and a little of that, and a little of most anything, but a heap depends on your judgment in mixing." "To be strong in de haid"—that is, of great strength of will—is the most important characteristic of a "Cunjerer" or "Voodoo". Never mind what you mix—blood, bones, feathers, grave-dust, herbs, saliva, or hair—it will be powerful or feeble for good or ill in proportion to the dauntless spirit infused by you, the priest or priestess, at the time you represent the god or "Old Master"

How then must we set about obtaining this "strength of head"? Alexander—"King Alexander", as he insists on being called—prescribes the following initiation:

"Go to the woods in the dimness of the morning, and search through them until you find two small saplings growing so near together that when the wind sways them the upper parts of their trunks rub against each other. Climb up to where the swaying trunks have rubbed the bark perfectly smooth. Gather two handfuls of bark, one from each tree (the higher you climb for this purpose the higher your rank in Voodoo craft is destined to be). Take this bark—from what kind of tree it comes is no matter, though it is likely to be hickory—put it into a gallon of rainwater, and boil it until there is but a quart of the decoction. Add a pint of whiskey, and drink it all at one draught if possible, at one sitting, as a necessity of the case. In the old time, in the outlandish country, or Africa, the fermented juice of some herb was used to produce ecstasy, but whiskey answers every purpose. This dram may make the novice very drunk, but no matter for that, he must hide himself and sleep off the effects of it. For nine days after taking it he must keep away from human kind,