VOODOO.

Press, Volume XLIX, Issue 14841, 5 December 1913, Page 9

VOODOO.

NEGROES ON TRIAL. ("Time_"-Sydney , 'Sun" Special Cabl*.) HAVANA, December 3. Ten negroes are being tried for practising- Voodooism. White children are alleged to have been the victims. . Tho Cuban Government is determined to exterminate the superstition.

The new "International Encyclopedia" says: —Voodoo,* voodoo, or vaudoux (perhaps a dialectic form'of Fr. Vaudois, YVaidensian, tne Waidensians, as heretics, being suspected of Borcery ). It is a term referring to certain beliefs and practices currently considered to be prevalent among the negroes of the West Indies and the .Southern United States. Careful research has made it certain,. however, that there is no recognised set of beliefs and ceremonies wliich could probably be regarded as constituting a Voodoo religion. According to the view formerly generally accepted, the Voodoo cult was an importation from West Africa, the term itself being tho name of an all-powerful being, incarnate in the form of a snake, which communicates with its worshippers only through a priest or priestess, who are held in the greatest v/ieration by the devotees. The alleged ceremonies of tho worship are always held at night, are secret, and are characterised by prayer to the snake, which is exhibited during the rite, by hysterical manifestations by the priest or priestess, and by a dance for tho initiation of novices, which is said to be marked by the wildest'debauchery and indecency, and especially by the sacrifice and eating of a human child. Careful examination of apparently circumstantial -accounts of the Voodoo rites and orgies has eliminated tbe more shocking phases in practically every instance. If cannibalism has occurred, it probably been merely sporadic. The other reported features are nothing more than those common to shamanistic practices the world over.