Haiti continued - The Traveller's Tree: A Journey Through the Caribbean Islands - page 179

the ragged Negroes, but on catching sight of us would melt away again into the darkness, as though dis-
turbed at the prospect of our meeting in more formal circumstances. (We soon noticed that the mention
of Voodoo, in the higher levels of Haitian life, caused distress. It was almost a gaffe . There is a tacit ban
on the subject, a negation, though the air may be throbbing with remote percussion, of its existence.)
The Houngans, as the controllers of the spiritual life of Haiti, were specially interesting figures. Some
of them appeared little different from the rest of the community. Others looked sinister scoundrels, or
humorous, verbose cards. One or two were imposing, powerfully built men. But all of them had an aura
of portentousness and command. Their positions as priests and, frequently, wizards at the same time, put
them in a position of enormous authority, and many of them wield unchallenged political as well as spir-
itual sway. This makes their goodwill an important factor in Haitian political life. There is much talk in
the capital of their influence in politics, and of the lengths to which politicians will go to conciliate them
and obtain the suffrage of their flock. 'On dit que le vieux,' an opponent of the present régime said, refer-
ring to a prominent figure in the government, 'a sacrifié un boeuf avant d'être élu ….'
A Brûler Zin , the most important ceremony in Voodoo, was being solemnized to celebrate the initiation
as Hounci-Canzos of two neophytes from Curaçao. In order to attend the rite, they had crossed the Carib-
bean Sea in one of the schooners plying between the Greater Antilles and the Spanish Main: a journey
which suggests that there is more connection between the secret Negro sects in the islands than is gener-
ally supposed.
The tonnelle lay behind a large bread-fruit tree in the heart of a populous quarter near the tram-lines
and rum shops. The drummers were plainly virtuosi, and the twenty white-clad houncis danced with the
cohesion of a corps de ballet . Everything was disciplined and organized to the smallest detail. The ce-
remony had been going some time when we arrived, but, though there were about a hundred people in
the tonnelle , the mud floor was only occupied by the Houngan, the mambo, the houncis and the various
postulants and acolytes of the peristyle.
The candidates, meanwhile, for whom the impending Brûler Zin was the last act of initiation, were in-
visible inside the Rada houmfor. Their six rigorous days of preparation were nearly ended. The first step
of this preparation is confession and absolution in a church, followed by a second plenary confession to
the Houngan, who repeats it aloud to his personal Lwa. Two days are then spent in rest and meditation
and certain specific ablutions, and then there is another compulsory period in church. Next, as all this
week is aimed at making the candidate a fitting vessel for the visitation of the Lwas, the Houngan and the
mambo conduct a ceremony in honour of Aizan-Véléquété, the Lwa of purification and exorcism. After
further ritual lustrations, the candidates are enveloped in sheets so that only their faces are exposed, and
then stretched out on mats in the houmfor with their heads resting on pillows of stone. Here, living on a
liquid mixture of maize and mushrooms and herbs, they remain in the darkness for four days of silence
and prayer. Sacrifices and unc-tions and a kind of baptism punctuate this symbolic death, and the Houn-
gan removes their souls and places them in a head-pot. The vigil was about to finish.
The swordsman and his two standard-bearers were engaged in a prolonged dance of salutation. The
swordsman, the Laplace , wove a path among the houncis, leaping and turning, and twisting a cutlass in
the air, while two girls, slowly waving their red and blue silk banners on which eagles were embroidered
in sequins, danced on his left and right. They remained together throughout the evening, moving and
turning perfectly in line, rhythmically prostrating themselves and recovering in unison, and making the
elegant pirouette-salute to all the staff and to the congregation.