Haiti - The Traveller's Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands - page 161

dressed members of the bourgeoisie ; and (until one worked it out this appeared inexplicable) Mulattoes
almost to a man. It was, at that particular moment, mental, not physical, pigmentation that mattered.
We were herded from the theatre in a shouting mob. As the audience seethed into the starlit Champ de
Mars, the gang of interrupting Negroes broke into a run across the grass, pursued by shouts of ' Lâches!
Sales mulatres! ' and vanished. They escaped just in time to evade a large-scale fight.
A few minutes later, in a café next to the theatre, under a sign which said, ' Demandez un Hot-Dog ,'
we were discussing all these events. We gradually became aware that someone was standing near by and
watching us. It was a peculiarly striking figure, a very pale Haitian—or was he Spanish or Italian?—of a
haggard, tormented type of distinction, dressed in sandals and a shabby shirt and trousers. He was stand-
ing with his hands in his pockets, contemplating us with great ravaged eyes, and his face wore an expres-
sion that was half amused and half sardonic. His gift for relaxed immobility was admirable. Seeing that
we had fallen silent, he said very distinctly, 'Eh alors?' and slouched off into the Champ de Mars. There
was something so arresting, and at the same time almost sinister, about this apparition that we forgot to
continue our conversation, and speculated instead on the nationality and identity of the stranger.
The presbytery was whitewashed and impersonal, and as dim, after the sunlight, as an underwater cavern.
The pale, cleanshaven face of Father Cosme, on the other side of the table, was extremely remote from
the Haitian scene. He came from Artois, near the border of Flanders, but had spent twenty years in the
Republic as member of a mission of which one of the main duties was to wean the Haitians in the coun-
try districts from the elements of African religion that still survived. It sounded, as he talked, a difficult
charter.
The hard part of it was that the Haitians were all, officially, Catholics already, and, in the country dis-
tricts, nothing could make them understand why Christianity and Voodoo should not be practised side
by side. In fact, Father Cosme had often heard country people ingenuously maintaining that Christianity
was an essential part of Voodoo. It was a hopeless task. Many of the saints of the Christian Church, he
explained, were confused in their minds with the gods of Africa. 'Take Erzulie. for instance.'
'Erzulie?'
'Yes, Erzulie Fréda Dahomin. This creature is the Dahomeyan Aphrodite, the goddess of love. She is
supposed, in the superstitions of the natives, to be the wife of several of the greater African deities, and
also unites herself in mystic marriages to mortals. Elle est, en somme, une fameuse trainée.' The priest's
face was lit for a moment by a sparkle of frosty levity, which immediately disappeared. 'Well, that is
the Haitian tradition. But,' he continued gravely, 'who do you think this wretch is identified with in the
minds of the adepts of Voodoo? With the Blessèd Virgin herself. One shudders to think of it. The em-
blem of Erzulie—for all these gods, alas, have their distinguishing signs, which is the root of a lot of the
trouble—is a heart; and so, in the cult, their hateful goddess is held to be the same as Our Lady of the
Seven Sorrows. Here is a print which we removed from a Voodoo temple.' He opened a drawer, and took
out a lamentable oleograph of the Blessèd Virgin, from a painting in the style of Sassoferrato. The head of
the Blessèd Virgin leant to one side, and her eyes were turned upwards in ecstasy or pain, while a waxen
forefinger pointed to her scarlet heart, which was transfixed by seven rapiers. 'There are thousands like
this in use. Worst of all, those Negroes who are the secret husbands of Erzulie dedicate every Tuesday
and Thursday to the goddess. If they are married, their wives are driven from the house on those two
days, for Erzulie is famous for her jealousy. Then,' his voice sank, 'quite alone, and with the auxiliary of
certain herbs, they somehow contrive to pass the night in a state of orgy, into the details of which I will