Connecticut Western News

The Feasts of the Voudou.
The great feasts of "Voudou" in the Island of Hayti are at Christmas, at Whitsuntide and at Easter. The drum is beaten at midnight and the people assemble. The ceremony commences with the most terrible oaths of secrecy. Then dancing begins, and the excitement is kept up by copious libations of rum till one or more of the performers fall down in a fit, when the spirit of the "Voudou" is supposed to have entered into them. These orgies last generally three nights and sometimes longer. On the first night a cock is offered up at the altar, and its blood is drunk warm. On the second night a goat is treated in the same way. But on the third night children are brought in: their throats are cut by the priests; their blood is handed round and drunk warm, and their bodies are then cut up and eaten. Before the sacrifice takes place the priest orders as many children as he requires. They must be of pure African descent and not over ten years of age. These children are invariably forthcoming, either by being voluntarily given up or obtained by being stolen by women who make a profession of it. They are expert at the trade. Entering a house at night, naked and oiled, they steal the child, and by administering a narcotic poison render it insensible. It is then conveyed to a secret place till required for the sacrifice, when an antidote brings it to: then its throat is cut. Children are often voluntarily given up by their mothers for the sacrifice.