VOODOOISM

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIV, Issue 249, 20 April 1912, Page 10

VOODOOISM

GIIASTI.Y CJiREMONIES. All tin' horrors of voodooism, with the sacrifice of hitman life, have been revived in Louisiana (U.S.A.), by fanatical negroes of the rice-licit, in Shorn atavistic tendencies have for some reason become rampant. The authorities confess their inability to cope with the situation.

For twenty years or more voodooism lias Ibeeu practised in bin- United States only in Uio mildest sort of way. The other negroes have always recognised and feared the power of voodoo —the cult of the sacred serpent —but in recent years it has not led them to serious excesses.

Apparently, however, the only effect of this long respite Jias been to increase the susceptibility of those to whom the mystic cult naturally appeals, for now that the smouldering embers of fanaticism have at last been fanned into flame, they arc burning with a fierceness never before equalled. The latest outrage laid at the doors of the Sacrifice >Set was the inurdel' of the live members of the Broussard family at Lake Charles. This tragedy was typical of the methods followed by the voodoo worshippers. Felix Broussard is said to have remarked to a friend the day before the tragedy that "they were all going home to glory, and going mighty soon." The following morning the bodies of the live victims were found stretched upon their beds. Felix Broussard and his pretty wife were found in one room brained with an axe, .which was found under the bed. The blade was clean, indicating that the blunt head hac ')een used to crush the skulls of the victims. Strangely enough, as it seemed ac first, the investigators found little bloo-i to mark the scene of this tragedy. The explanation was apparent, however, when a visit to the children's room disclosed that the blood of the victims had lie.';: caught : ji a hug' bucket, which, Is : iv;ri:>■ done service at the slaughter n' ; rii ( . parents, had been removed to the < hi'dren's room to perform a similar ullii-e there.

Perhaps ti«<; stmngc:-.i, h-atui" of liiis tragedy was the fact. tlmt the of each hand of'the victims were stretched apart by the murderers, those of the children being wedged open bv paper and fastened with pins. The signilicani'" -if this discovery became inon apparent when it was found that above the door of the Broussard-house the words "Human Five" had been inscribed, and suggests that the Sacrifice Sict, share.l the belief in the mysticism of the figu.e five which has always been held bv primitive people. At Lafayette it was five niemb a, 's of the Andrus family who were sacrificed. At the same place a few months later five members of the 'Randall family had evidently been marked for .slaughter, but a. sixth, appearing upon the scene, unexpectedly, met the fate of his kinsmen. At Croyley, last June, five members of the Warner family had undoubtedly been doomed to perish, but one, a child,'escaped, and only four went to their death. Six members of the Wexford family perished at the hands of the fanatics, but one was an infant who had been born only the day before the tragedy, and in all probability had not been taken into consideration when the plans for the human sacrifice were consummated. Xow comes the Broussard family, with its five victims, thus completing the series of sacrifices of five separate families, each evidently intended to nave involved five victims. Voodooism, or voodoo, as it is more properly though less commonly referred to, is based upon the worship of the snake-god, represented at the rites of the sect by a live python or other large serpent. In Africa, where tne cult originated. the serpent is held sacred, and human sacrifices are constantly offered to him. In America, fortunately, human sacrifices have been comparatively rare, even among the most rabid, of the' believers in voodoo, the fanatics contenting' themselves with self-inflicted tortures of various degrees and descriptions. In flavti, the voodoo ceremonies begin with a bath of goat's blood. Then the sacred serpent is brought out in a ea.'e and the candidate for high office mounts' tie box tor inspiration, holy recognition and acceptance. The virtue of the serpent is supposed to ascend through the bare feet of the body of the candidate " hilc the priest is getting wisdom the seipent in tile cage is poked with a stick from behind, and made to go through ""usual contortions to the won,!, r of the spectators, who gaze with awe and feel that the candidate is really receiving divine power. ' Following this ceremony, atrocious vows are made, and the final compact with the voodoo is ratified, when the worshippers drink blood from a vase. When, human sacrifices form a part of ■ S,M 0 T, ny -,-iv traged y is l,snal, y p ,e " (did In the killing of a white cock and n oat. whose blood, mixed with rum is served in gourds. Then the announcement is made that a "goat without horns" is to be sacrifieed. Presently a little white girl of bound' , SIX ,- Vears of a SC is brought in, found hand and foot, and fastened to tm- ('nd of a rope running over a pulley m a tree-top. There is a hush-an artul pause tor a women t-and then at a sio--««d off fan s & vie 1,: I > S1 " K " Wow f, ' om !1 wielded by a young negro fanatic. The child s head falls into a basket, and the mainacs begin drinking its blood. The J ti,,'':iim ent r al ' v ; boilwl ' and f °™« V Wllat 18 undoubtedly-the thelv rldt lt nte practise(l an y w be're in ' t '• n,ime of religion. (Sueh horn*' SiW ' ° f the > ttt without