HEATHENISM IN NEW ORLEANS—EXTRAORDINARY' SCENE.

New Zealand Herald, Issue 4, 21 November 1863, Page 4

HEATHENISM IN NEW ORLEANS—EXTRAORDINARY' SCENE.

Last niglit a descent was nsiub by the polio? force upon a houso iii ivfugnie-street, where !1 lot of women were engaged practising the fetish rites k.iown as tho Youdou mysteries. Tiiere were about thirty of them ill a small room, entirely linked, engaged in the wild Afriean dunce around a pot filled with all sorts of charms. When the ollieers appeared, all the " worshippers .made frantic eflorts to escape, but twenty of them were secured, including two demure-lootin" white women who had been participating in tile ances. They were allowed to dress, then inarched oil' to the station house. This morning, the whole parly iiag brought before Judge Hughes oh the charge of being " engaged in an unlawful assemblage for tho purpose of bringing down, the curse of our Ileavenly l 1 atlier upon the heads of those thev wished to be revenged upon, commonly called a Youdou assemblv." When they were called upon for trial, Mandaverri and Abell appeared, and asked for time to prepare the: defence, and they were allowed till the next moraine. There is a great interest tuken in these African mysteries by the colored population, and there are many proselytes among ihe white women of (he city. These riles are very curious, borrowed from the idolatries of the fetish or serpent worshippers of Africa. They nro performed by the votaries perfectly rude, led by the \ oudou queen, dancing and singing some wild song around a cauldron of charms, placed in their centre something after the manner of the witches in Macbeth. The colored people place great reliance in the power ol the \ oudou queen—think them the arbiters oi iatc 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. Tho bowls m which the Youdous performed their incantations, around which they held their midnight, orgies and danced, their dances of enchantment, were brought into the Provost Court, and subjected to r. clo3e scrutiny by all present. One was about the size of a large punehbow 1, while the others was much smaller. At the commencement of their infernal dance the bowls had continued a mysterious compound, made of enchanted ingredients, having the appearance of a common ginger cake, with four lighted candles in tho centre of each; but as the nude dancers capered round the bowl, each threw in her offering to increase the power of tho spell, and the result, was that tho bowls presented a curious mixture of all sorts of things. There were almonds and raisias, 6ticai' plums and sugar kisses, candle.;, nuts and confections of every description, while crowning the charms wero several locks of grayish wool, cut from tho head, w suppose, of each of the worshippers. It is surpri'sin the number of white women, some calling themselvo ladies, who it is said take part in these v.nseemly mysteries. They are made proselytes to the faith by the l'etwh queens, who induce them to believe; they can lurnish them with potent love eharmsi, and other agencies of an unnatural character. The peace of more than one family has been destroyed through the arts of tuese old witches. '