HEATHENISM IN NEW ORLEANS.

Southland Times, Volume III, Issue 20, 23 December 1863, Page 5 (Supplement)

HEATHENISM IN NEW ORLEANS.

EXTRAORDINARY SCENE. A descent was made by the police force upon a house in Magnis -street, where a lot of women were engaged practising the fetish rites known as the Voudou mysteries. There were about thirty of them in a small room, entirely naked, engaged in the wild African dance around a pot filled with all sorts of charms. When the officers appeared, all the " worshippers " made frantic efforts to escape, but twenty of of them were secured, including two demure-looking white women who had been participating in the performances. They were allowed to dress, then marched off to the station house. This morning, the whole party was brought before Judge Hughes on the charge of being " engaged in an unlawful assemblage for the purpose of bringing down the curse of our Heavenly Father upon the heads of those they wished to be revenged upon, commonly called a Voudou Assembly." "When they were c Ltd upon for trial, Madaverri and Abell appeared and asked for time to prepare for defence, aud they were allowed till the next morning. There is a great interest taken in these African mysteries by the colored population, and there are many proselytes among the white women of that city. These rites are very curious, borrowed from idolatries of the. fetish or serpent worshippers of Africa. They are performed by the votaries" 'perfectly' nude, led by the Youdou queen, dancing and singing some wild song around the cauldron of charms, placed in their centre, something after the manner of the pitches in Macbeth. The colored people place great reliance in the power of the Voudou queen — think them the arbitrarsof fate — that they hold in their hands the lives and fortunes of all men, and by the power of their charms can accomplish good or evil at their pleasure. The bowls in which the Voudous performed their incantations, around which they held their midnight orgies and danced their dances of enchantment, were brought into the PiovOst Court, and subjected to a close scrutiny by all present. One was about the size of a large punchbowl, while the others were much smaller. At the commencement of their iufernal dance the bowls had coutained a mysterious compound, made of enchanted ingredients, having the appearance of a common ginger cake, with four lighted candles in the centre of each ; but as the nude dancers capered round the bowl, each threw in her offering to iucrease the power of the spell, and the result was that the bovrls presented a curious mixture of all sorts of things. There were almonds and raisins, sugar plums and sugar kisses, candles, nuts and confections of every description, while crowning the charms were Several locks of greyish wool, cut from the head, we suppose, of each of the worshippers. It is surprising the number of white women, some calling themselves ladiea, who it is said take part in these unseemly mysteries. They are made proselytes to the faith by the fetish queens, who induce them to believe they can furnish them with potent love charms, and other agencies of an unnatural character. The peace of more than one family has been destroyed through the arts of these old witches.