THE MYSTERY OF HAITI.

Auckland Star, Volume LX, Issue 200, 24 August 1929, Page 11 (Supplement)

THE MYSTERY OF HAITI.

LAND OF MANY GODS.

VOODOOISM AND HOCUS-POCUS

CHEERFUL FUNERAL RITES

Haiti is coming into its own—a century after the heroic exploits of Toussaint rOuverture. To-day, if we are to believe Mr. W. B. Scabrook, and Mr. Harry Lane Foster, it has taken the place of Stanley's "Darkest Africa" for mysterious glamour, strange rites, and curions sins. .Voon, no doubt, enterprising tourinst agencies (if they have not already done so) will be conducting Voodoo tours, just as to-day, they take you round Now York's Chinatown, in ehars-a-banc. And then, of course, mystery will be manufactured in mass-pro-duction until it is riiyjtery no more. At present, however, Haiti is still an island of mystery, where Christ and pagan deities are worshipped side by side, where sacrifices are still offered on blood-stained altars, where almost unbelievable primitiveness goes sauntering down boulevardes made garish at nighttime by electric arc lamps, thronged with expensive motor cars. Six Months for a Boat. Mr. Harry Lane .Foster disembarked at Guadaloupe, in the belief that he could pick up the next boat a week or two later. But it was not until his own particular steamer was under "way, leaving him on shore, that he discovered that there might not be another boat for six months! There was nothing to do but stay—and make his way about the Caribbees as best he might. And so he stayed, and had many adventures before lie escaped from Cruadaloupe and bailed to Martinique as a stowaway in B Danish vessel. At Bridgetown he and the Danish mat© set out in search of adventure. They hired a coach and drove to a place that "proclaimed itself a liotel," and boasted a dance hall. Around tie edge of the floor -clustered' "a bevy '6i girls who ranged from near white to fiearer black."

No Dancing in Lent. Amusement, alas! was not forthcoming. The girls sat and stared and did jiot dance, there was neither sign nor Sound of merriment:— The mate beckoned a waitress to refill par glasses. "Say," he queried, "dont you get no Bie here? When do dey start dancing?" "We don't dance now! That's one thing we don't do." She appeared quite Shocked. "Don't you know, mon, this is Lent!" And in the country-side he found like Mr. Seabrook, that curious mixture of paganism and Christianity that ia Haiti's own peculiar contribution to the religious systems of the world. '"'On several of the wayside crosses," he tells us, "the figure of Christ was painted black, or at least, a rich chocolate brown. !And to the simple country folk, the uniVerse was still infested with spirits— African spirits and mostly evil ones— which they did their best to placate." Music—or at least drumming—plays an important part in the lives of Haitians. Such an important part does it play, indeed, that the Haitian planters employ an orchestra of tom-tom players for stimulating the workmen: — Upon the native cane-cutters it had a pronounced, effect). Enlivened by the primitive music—the only music which the peasants to-day possessed—they would go dancing home, cavorting behind their drummers, with a whole day's labour finished.

Music ana HarS Labour. At one place Mr. Foster came upon a load-gang working away feverishly to the singing of a wizened old hag who Shrieked her own impromptu verses in "a catchy swing":— "All hail to papa engineer," she would fecreech; "he's the boy that pays us jtaoney; with the money we buy bread; all hail to papa engineer." Then the answering chant. And how iSbat dirt would fly! The wierdly minor SJefrain would affect them as the rhythm TO. drums affected native dancers.

Mr. Foster has not yet made up his mind as to the extent of Voodoo practices in modern Haiti. Local residents •were disposed to dismiss a good deal Of it as "hocus-pocus" invented by the natives for the entertainment of credulous visitors:— .-.-

In general it seemed, the rites which have been so vaguely grouped together ks voodoo, usually did consist of "hocuspocus" even in the earlier days. They were mostly orgies of rum and lust, in the course of which the priests might sacrifice a goat or a chicken and pontics blood over the fanatical devotees.' It was probably more rarely thait has often been assumed that the gods caiied for the "goat without horns," as a human sacrifice was known. And it was no doubt very rarely that the latter orgy was folloAved, if at all, by the cannibalism which has sometimes been charged •fco Haiti.

But even if voodoo is dead —or never existed —strange customs still persist in the island, reminiscent of practices in the African jungle—such as the "bamboo telegraph": —

The news of our advent preceded us, by what is known as the "bamboo telegraph." Some say that the natives here send secret messages through their mountains hj the beating of tom-toms or by a system of puff smoke. I doubt this. Voices, which are seldom modulated in this country, carry clearly across the hills, and are quite sufficient for the dissemination of news. Every man or woman here is a high-powered broadcasting station, equipped with his own loud-speaker. The chatter of our increasing group could be heard far ahead, and served notice of my coming, while occasionally someone would pause upon a hill-top to shout across the vallevs: — , "Here comes a Wane! Come out and see the Wane!" \ The Rites of the Dead. And then there are the rites of the dead about which Mr. Seabrook and now Mr. Foster writes so vividly. The reader accustomed to English funerals will be glad to hear that: — There was nothing dismal or depressing about a Haitian funeral. Everyone, in°fact, seemed to have a good time, except, possibly, the corpse. And even he was the recipient- of a generous hospitality. It was the custom always to treat the deceased, as though he were still alive. Usually he was propped up in the centre of a gathering, clad in_ his Sunday garments, with a pipe stuck in his mouth, and the mourners would address him—sometimes solemnly, someSes fSiously-as though he were yet an active guest. _ "Want another cig, pop.' On this particular occasion, the daugnter sat befide the still form, conversing ""See papa? Here come even a couple of blancs to say good-bye to you Even Omar himself .couldhaidly have desired a more cfceerM interment.