from An American miscellany, vol.
II, (1924)
originally published in Harper's weekly, December 25th, 1886
I
The question "What is Voudooism?"
could scarcely be answered to-day by any resident of New
Orleans unfamiliar with the life of the African west coast,
or the superstitions of Hayti, either through study or
personal observation. The old generation of planters in
whose day Voudooism had a recognized existence--so dangerous
as a motive power for black insurrection that severe
measures were adopted against it--has
The fear of what are styled "Voudoo
charms" is much more widely spread in Louisiana than
any one who had conversed only with educated residents might
suppose; and the most familiar superstition of this class is
the belief in what I might call pillow magic, which
is the supposed art of causing wasting sicknesses or even
death by putting certain objects into the pillow of the bed
in which the hated person sleeps. Feather pillows are
supposed to be particularly well adapted to this kind of
witchcraft. It is believed that by secret spells a
"Voudoo" can cause some monstrous kind of bird or
nondescript animal to shape itself into being out of the
pillow feathers--like the tupilek of the Esquimau
iliseenek (witchcraft.) It grows very slowly, and by
night only; but when completely formed, the person who has
been using the pillow dies. Another practice of pillow
witchcraft consists in tearing a living bird
asunder--usually a cock--and putting portions of the wings
into the pillow. A third form of the black-art is confined
to putting certain charms or fetiches Pillow magic alone, however, is far from
being the only recognized form of maleficent negro
witchcraft. Placing charms before the entrance of a house or
room, or throwing them over a wall into a yard, is believed
to be a deadly practice. When a charm is laid before a room
door or hall door, oil is often poured on the floor or
pavement in front of the threshold. It is supposed that
whoever crosses an oil line falls into the power of
the Voudoos. To break the oil charm, sand or salt should be
strewn upon it. Only a few days before writing this article
a very intelligent Spaniard told me that shortly after
having discharged a dishonest colored servant he found
before his bedroom door one evening a pool of oil with a
charm Lying in the middle of it, and a candle burning near
it. The charm contained some bones, feathers, hairs, and
rags--all wrapped together with a string--and a dime. No
superstitious person would have dared to use that dime; but
my friend, not being superstitious, forthwith put it into
his pocket.
The presence of that coin I can only attempt
to explain by calling attention to another very interesting
superstition connected with New Orleans fetichism. The
negroes believe that in order to make an evil charm operate
it is necessary to sacrifice something. Wine and
cake are left occasionally in dark rooms, or candies are
scattered over the sidewalk, by those who want to make their
fetich hurt somebody. If food or sweetmeats are thus thrown
away, they must be abandoned without a parting glance; the
witch or wizard must not look back while engaged in the
sacrifice.
Scattering dirt before a door, or making
certain figures on the wall of a house with chalk, or
crumbling dry leaves with the fingers and scattering the
fragments before a residence, are also forms of a maleficent
conjuring which sometimes cause serious annoyance. Happily
the conjurers are almost as afraid of the counter-charms as
the most superstitious persons are of the conjuring. An
incident which occurred recently in one of the streets of
the old quarter known as "Spanish Town" afforded
me ocular proof of the fact. Through malice or
thoughtlessness, or possibly in obedience to secret orders,
a young negro girl had been tearing up some leaves and
scattering them on the sidewalk in front of a cottage
occupied by a French family. Just as she had dropped the
last leaf the irate French woman rushed out with a broom and
a handful of salt, and began to sweep away the leaves, after
having flung salt both upon them and upon the little
negress. The latter actually screamed with fright, and cried
out, "Oh, pas jeté plis disel après moin,
madame! pas bisoin jeté disel après moin; mo
pas pé vini icite encore" (Oh, madam, don't
throw any more salt after me; you needn't throw any more
salt after me; I won't come here any more.)
Another strange belief connected with these
practices was well illustrated by a gift made to my friend
Professor William Henry by a negro servant for whom he had
done some trifling favor. The gift consisted of a
"frizzly hen"--one of those funny little fowls
whose feathers all seem to curl. "Mars'r Henry, you
keep dat frizzly hen, an' ef eny niggers frow eny
conjure in your yard, dat frizzly hen will eat
de conjure." Some say, however, that one is not
safe unless he keeps two frizzly hens.
The naughty little negress at whom the salt
was thrown seemed to fear the salt more than the broom
pointed at her. But she was not yet fully educated, I
suspect, in regard to superstitions. The negro's terror of a
broom is of very ancient date--it may have an African
origin. It was commented upon by Moreau de Saint-Méry
in his work on San Domingo, published in 1196. "What
especially irritates the negro," he wrote, "is to
have a broom passed over any part of his body. He asks at
once whether the person imagined that he was dead, and
remains convinced that the act shortens his life." Very
similar ideas concerning the broom linger in New Orleans. To
point either end of a broom at a person is deemed bad luck;
and many an ignorant man would instantly knock down or
violently abuse the party who should point a broom at him.
Moreover, the broom is supposed to have mysterious power as
a means of getting rid of people. "If you are pestered
by visitors whom you would wish never to see again, sprinkle
salt on the floor after they go, and sweep it out by the
same door through which they have gone, and they will never
come back." To use a broom in the evening is bad luck:
balayer le soir, on balaye sa fortune (to sweep in
the evening is to sweep your good luck away), remains a
well-quoted proverb.
I do not know of a more mysterious disease
than muscular atrophy in certain forms, yet it is by no
means uncommon either in New Orleans or in the other leading
cities of the United States. But in New Orleans, among the
colored people, and among many of the uneducated of other
races, the victim of muscular atrophy is believed to be the
victim of Voudooism. A notion is prevalent that negro
witches possess knowledge of a secret poison which may
terminate life instantly or cause a slow "withering
away," according as the dose is administered. A
Frenchman under treatment for paralysis informed me that his
misfortune was certainly the work of Voudoos, and that his
wife and child had died through the secret agency of negro
wizards. Mental aberration is also said to be caused by the
administration of poisons whereof some few negroes are
alleged to possess the secret. In short, some very
superstitious persons of both races live in perpetual dread
of imaginary Voudoos, and fancy that the least ailment from
which they suffer is the work of sorcery. It is very
doubtful whether any knowledge of those animal or vegetable
poisons which leave no trace of their presence in the blood,
and which may have been known to some slaves of African
birth, still lingers in Louisiana, wide-spread as is the
belief to the contrary. During the last decade there have
been a few convictions of blacks for the crime of poisoning,
but there was nothing at all mysterious or peculiar about
these cases, and the toxic agent was invariably the most
vulgar of all--arsenic, or some arsenious preparation in the
shape of rat poison.
II
The story of the frizzly hen brings me to
the subject of superstitions regarding animals. Something of
the African, or at least of the San Domingan, worship of the
cock seems to have been transplanted hither by the blacks,
and to linger in New Orleans under various metamorphoses. A
negro charm to retain the affections of a lover consists in
tying up the legs of the bird to the head, and plunging the
creature alive into a vessel of gin or other spirits.
Tearing the live bird asunder is another cruel charm, by
which some negroes believe that a sweetheart may become
magically fettered to the man who performs the quartering.
Here, as in other parts of the world, the crowing hen is
killed, the hooting of the owl presages death or bad luck,
and the crowing of the cock by day presages the arrival of
company. The wren (roitelet) must not be killed:
c'est zozeau bon Dié (it is the good God's
bird)--a belief, I think, of European origin.
It is dangerous to throw hair-combings away
instead of burning them, because birds may weave them into
their nests and while the nest remains the person to whom
the hair belonged will have a continual headache. It is bad
luck to move a cat from one house to another; seven years'
bad luck to kill a cat; and the girl who steps, accidentally
or otherwise, on a cat's tail need not expect to be married
the same year. The apparition of a white butterfly means
good news. The neighing of a horse before one's door is bad
luck. When a fly bothers one very persistently, one may
expect to meet an acquaintance who has been absent many
years.
There are many superstitions about marriage,
which seem to have a European origin, but are not less
interesting on that account. "Twice a bridesmaid, never
a bride," is a proverb which needs no comment. The
bride must not keep the pins which fastened her wedding
dress. The husband must never take off his wedding ring: to
take it off will insure him bad luck of some kind. If a girl
who is engaged accidentally lets a knife fall, it is a sign
that her lover is coming. Fair or foul weather upon her
marriage day augurs a happy or unhappy married life.
The superstitions connected with death may be
all imported, but I have never been able to find a foreign
origin for some of them. It is bad luck to whistle or hum
the air that a band plays at a funeral. If a funeral stops
before your house, it means that the dead wants company. It
is bad luck to cross a funeral procession, or to count the
number of carriages in it; if you do count them, you may
expect to die after the expiration of as many weeks as there
were carriages at the funeral. If at the cemetery there be
any unusual delay in burying the dead, caused by any
unlooked for circumstances, such as the tomb proving too
small to admit the coffin, it is a sign that the deceased is
selecting a companion from among those present, and one of
the mourners must soon die. It is bad luck to carry a spade
through a house. A bed should never be placed with its foot
pointing toward the street door, for corpses leave the house
feet foremost. It is bad luck to travel with a priest; this
idea seems to me of Spanish importation; and I am inclined
to attribute a similar origin to the strange tropical
superstition about the banana, which I obtained,
nevertheless, from an Italian. You must not cut a
banana, but simply break it with the fingers, because in
cutting it you cut the cross. It does not require a
very powerful imagination to discern in a severed section of
the fruit the ghostly suggestion of a crucifixion.
Some other creole superstitions are equally
characterized by naïve beauty. Never put out with your
finger the little red spark that tries to linger on the wick
of a blown-out candle: just so long as it burns, some soul
in purgatory enjoys rest from torment. Shooting-stars are
souls escaping from purgatory: if you can make a good wish
three times before the star disappears, the wish will be
granted. When there is sunshine and rain together, a colored
nurse will tell the children, "Gadé! djabe
apé batte so femme." (Look! the devil's
beating his wife!)
I will conclude this little paper with
selections from a list of superstitions which I find widely
spread, not citing them as of indubitable creole origin, but
simply calling attention to their prevalence in New Orleans,
and leaving the comparative study of them to folklorists.
Turning the foot suddenly in walking means
bad or good luck. If the right foot turns, it is bad luck;
if the left, good. This superstition seems African,
according to a statement made by Moreau de
Saint-Méry. Some reverse the conditions, making the
turning of the left foot bad luck. It is also bad luck to
walk about the house with one shoe on and one shoe off. or
as a creole acquaintance explained it to me "c'est
appeler sa mère ou son père dans le
tombeau" (It is calling one's mother or one's
father into the grave). An itching in the right palm means
coming gain; in the left, coming loss.
Never leave a house by a different door from
that by which you entered it; it is "carrying away the
good luck of the place." Never live in a house you
build before it has been rented for at least a year. When an
aged person repairs his or her house, he or she is soon to
die. Never pass a child through a window; it stops his
growth. Stepping over a child does the same; therefore,
whoever takes such a step inadvertently must step back again
to break the evil spell. Never tilt a rocking-chair when it
is empty. Never tell a bad dream before breakfast, unless
you want it "to come true"; and never pare the
nails on Monday morning before taking a cup of coffee. A
funny superstition about windows is given me in this note by
a friend: "Il ne faut pas faire passer un enfant par
la fenêtre, car avant un an il y en aura un
autre" (A child must not be passed through a
window, for if so passed you will have another child before
the lapse of a year.) This proverb, of course, interests
only those who desire small families, and as a general rule
creoles are proud of large families, and show extraordinary
affection toward their children.
If two marriages are celebrated
simultaneously, one of the husbands will die. Marry at the
time of the moon's waning and your good luck will wane also.
If two persons think and express the same thought at the
same time, one of them will die before the year passes. To
chop up food in a pot with a knife means a dispute in the
house. If you have a ringing in your ears, some person is
speaking badly of you; call out the names of all whom you
suspect and when the ringing stops at the utterance of a
certain name, you know who the party is. If two young girls
are combing the hair of a third at the same time, it may be
taken for granted that the youngest of the three will soon
die. If you want to make it stop raining, plant a cross in
the middle of the yard and sprinkle it with salt. The
red-fish has the print of St. Peter's fingers on its tail.
If water won't boil in the kettle, there may be a toad or a
toad's egg in it. Never kill a spider in the afternoon or
evening, but always kill the spider unlucky enough to show
himself early in the morning, for the old French proverb
says:
(A spider seen in the morning is a sign of
grief; a spider seen an noon, of joy; a spider seen in the
evening, of hope).
Even from this very brief sketch of New
Orleans superstitions the reader may perceive that the
subject is peculiar enough to merit the attention of
experienced folklorists. It might be divided by a competent
classifier under three heads: I. Negro superstitions
confined to the black and colored. population; II. Negro
superstitions which have proved contagious, and have spread
among the uneducated classes of whites; III. Superstitions
of Latin origin imported from France, Spain, and Italy. I
have not touched much upon superstitions inherited from
English, Irish, or Scotch sources, inasmuch as they have
nothing especially local in their character here. It must be
remembered that the refined classes have no share in these
beliefs, and that, with a few really rational exceptions,
the practices of creole medicine are ignored by educated
persons. The study of creole superstitions has only an
ethnological value, and that of creole medicine only a
botanical one, in so far as it is related to empiricism.
All this represents an under side of New
Orleans life; and if anything of it manages to push up to
the surface, the curious growth makes itself visible only by
some really pretty blossoms of feminine superstition in
regard to weddings or betrothal rings, or by some dainty
sprigs of child-lore, cultivated by those colored nurses who
tell us that the little chickens throw up their heads while
they drink to thank the good God for giving them water.
(End.)
"Araignée du matin--chagrin;
Araignée du midi--plaisir;
Araignée du soir--espoir"