The Serpent and the Rainbow

by Wade Davis

  CARREFOUR The crossroads; also a vodoun loa and one associated with the Bizango, as well as the Petro rites.

  CATA The smallest of the set of three Rada drums.

  CHASSEUR The hunter, a rank of the Bizango society.

  CHEF DE SECTION The appointed authority responsible for policing the section rurale.

  CHEVAL The horse; in vodoun parlance the individual who is mounted by the spirit. Hence the metaphor for possession and the meaning of the title of Maya Deren’s book The Divine Horsemen.

  CHRISTOPHE, HENRI The former slave, lieutenant of Dessalines, who ruled the northern half of Haiti from 1807 to 1820, when he took his own life.

  CLAIRIN Inexpensive clear white rum used commonly in vodoun ritual.

  COMBITE Collective labor party, generally for agricultural work.

  CONCOMBRE ZOMBI The vernacular name for Datura stramonium.

  CONVOI The name of a particular secret society.

  CORPS CADAVRE The body, the flesh, and the blood as opposed to the various components of the vodoun soul.

  COUP L’AIRE An air spell, a means of passing a magical spell that will cause misfortune and illness.

  COUP N’ME A soul spell, a means of magically capturing the ti bon ange of an individual.

  COUP POUDRE A powder spell, a magical powder that may cause illness and/or death.

  CREOLE The language of the traditional vodoun society, also used to designate anything native to Haiti.

  CYANOSIS A bluish coloration to the skin caused by lack of oxygen in the blood.

  DAMBALLAH WEDO Vodoun loa whose image is the serpent, the mate of Ayida Wedo.

  DATURA A genus of plants in the potato family (Solanaceae).

  DESSALINES, JEAN-JACQUES Leading general of Toussaint L’Ouverture and first president of independent Haiti from 1804 until his assassination in 1806.

  DESSOUNIN The ritual separating a dead person’s ti bon ange and spirit, or loa, from the body.

  DJAB The devil, a baka, a malevolent force.

  DOKTE FEUILLES The leaf doctor, herbalist healer.

  DYSPHAGIA Difficulty in swallowing.

  EMPEREUR A founding president of a Bizango society; also the titular leader of a number of different societies.

  ERZULIE A vodoun loa, the spirit of love.

  ESPRIT The spirits or soul of the dead.

  FUGU A genus of marine fish and the vernacular name for the tetrodo-toxin-containing fish that are served in Japanese restaurants.

  FWET KASH A sisal whip.

  GAD A protective charm, a tattoo that is physically applied to the skin at initiation to protect the individual from evil.

  GOURDE Unit of Haitian money worth twenty cents.

  GOVI The sacred clay vessels in which the spirits of the dead or the loa are housed.

  GRANS BWA A vodoun loa, the spirit of the forest.

  GROS BON ANGE “Big good angel”; that aspect of the vodoun soul shared by all sentient beings; one individual’s part of the vast pool of cosmic energy.

  GROUPE D’ÉTAT-MAJEUR Said to be executive leadership of the Bizango society.

  GUEDE A vodoun loa, the spirit of the dead.

  GUINÉE Africa, or the mythical homeland; the land of the loa.

  HOODOO A variation of the word voodoo used commonly in the southern United States.

  HOUNFOUR The vodoun temple, including the material structure and the acolytes that serve there. When used in opposition to peristyle, it refers to the inner sanctuary with the altar.

  HOUNGAN Vodoun priest.

  HOUNSIS Members of the société, or hounfour, at various levels of initiation. From the Fon language (hu—a divinity; si— a spouse).

  INVISIBLES, LES Term for all the invisible spirits including the loa.

  LAMBÍ Conch shell used as a trumpet.

  LANGAGE Sacred language used only in ceremonies of African origin.

  LEGBA A vodoun loa, the spirit of communication and the crossroad.

  LEOPARD SOCIETY The secret society of the Efik of Old Calabar.

  LOA The deities of the vodoun faith.

  LOCO A vodoun loa, the spirit of vegetation.

  LOUP GAROU The werewolf. The flying queen, or reine voltige, of the Bizango is said to be a loup garou.

  MACANDAL, FRANCOIS Mandingue slave born in Africa and believed to have been executed in 1758 for his part in a poison conspiracy; also in contemporary Haiti the name of a secret society.

  MACOUTE Straw shoulder bag of the Haitian peasant.

  MADOULÈ The sacred coffin and symbol of the Bizango societies.

  MAÎT’ Master, as in the dominant loa.

  MALFACTEUR Evildoer, particularly an individual who specializes in powders.

  MAMAN The mother, the largest of the three drums in the Rada battery.

  MAMBO Female vodoun priestess.

  MANGÉ MOUN “To eat people,” a euphemism for killing someone.

  MAPOU The sacred tree of the vodoun religion, Ceiba pentandra of the botanical family Bombacaceae.

  MAROON Fugitive slave, from Spanish root cimarrón, meaning “wild, unruly.”

  MORT BON DIEU A call from God, a natural death.

  MYSTÈRES The loa.

  NAM Generic term derived from the French âme, or soul, and referring to the complete vodoun soul including gros bon ange, ti bon ange, and the other spiritual components.

  N’ME The spirit of the flesh that allows each cell to function.

  NÈG GUINÉE A person of Africa, of the mythical homeland, of African descent.

  OGOUN A vodoun loa, the spirit of fire, war, and the metallurgical elements; the blacksmith god.

  PAQUETS CONGO A small sacred bundle containing magical ingredients that serves to protect a person against illness or evil; the closest object there is to the notorious and often misrepresented “voodoo doll.”

  PARESTHESIA An abnormal sensation, as of prickling of the skin.

  PERISTYLE The roofed, usually unwalled area where most ceremonies occur.

  PETRO A group of vodoun loa traditionally said to be of American origin, now increasingly believed to be derived from Congolese rites.

  PIERRE TONNERRE The thunderstones said to be created by the spirits and thus imbued with mystical healing powers.

  PORO A secret society among the Mende of Sierra Leone.

  POTEAU MITAN The centerpost of the peristyle and the axis along which the loa rise to enter the ceremonies.

  POUDRE (POUD) Magical powder.

  PRESIDENT The highest position below that of the emperor within the Bizango societies. Member of the groupe d’état-majeur.

  PSYCHOACTIVE Designates a drug that has a specific effect on the mind.

  PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY The study of the actions of drugs on the mind.

  PULMONARY EDEMA An abnormal accumulation of fluid in the lungs.

  PWIN Magical power or force summoned to execute the will of the sorcerer or Bizango society; may be used for good or evil.

  RADA Vodoun rite; a body of loa, songs, and dances of Dahomean origin. Name derived from the town of Arada in Dahomey, now Benin.

  RARA Festival during the spring characterized by processions associated with particular hounfour or Bizango societies.

  REINE The queen: high-ranking female position in the Bizango societies. Première reine, the first queen, is a member of the groupe d’état-majeur. Below her are the deuxième reine (second queen), troisième reine (third queen), reine drapeau (flag queen).

  REINE VOLTIGE The flying queen; also conceived of as a loup garou, or werewolf. The four reines voltiges carry the sacred coffin during the formal Bizango processions.

  SAINT DOMINGUE The French colony that later became Haiti.

  SÉANCE The term used to describe the nocturnal gatherings of the Bizango.

  SECONDE The second or middle drum in the Rada battery of three.

  SECRÉTAIRE The secretary; rank of the Bizango society.

  SECTION RURALE The fundamental administrative unit of local government in rur
al Haiti.

  SENTINELLE The sentinel; rank of the Bizango society; the guard or scout who moves ahead of the processions and secures the entryway into the Bizango ceremonies.

  SERVI LOA The term used by vodoun acolytes to refer to their faith, “to serve the loa.”

  SERVITEUR One who serves the loa.

  SHANPWEL Term used to refer to the secret societies; sometimes used interchangeably with Bizango, but more properly refers to the members of the Bizango, not the rite itself.

  SOBO Vodoun loa, the spirit of thunder.

  SOCIÉTÉ A hounfour and its members, not to be confused with Bizango society.

  SOLDAT The lowest rank in the Bizango society.

  SUPERVISEUR Rank of the Bizango society; said to be responsible for conveying messages between different society leaders in different regions of the country.

  TAP TAP Popular Creole term for the kaleidoscopic buses.

  TETRODOTOXIN Potent neurotoxin found in puffer fish and various other animals that blocks the conduction of nerve signals by completely stopping the movement of sodium ions into cells.

  TI BON ANGE That aspect of the vodoun soul said to be responsible for creating a person’s character, willpower, and individuality.

  TI GUINÉE A child of Guinée, the mythical homeland; also used to refer to a member or offspring of the vodoun society.

  TONNELLE A thatch or corrugated tin roof improvised in the absence of a complete peristyle; a canopy beneath which ceremonies and dances occur.

  TON TON MACOUTE From ton ton, or uncle, and macoute, the straw shoulder bag of the peasant. Name for the independent security forces established by Dr. François Duvalier.

  TOPICALLY ACTIVE Designates a chemical or pharmaceutical substance that may be applied effectively to the skin.

  TOUSSAINT L’OUVERTURE Ex-slave, revolutionary leader, general, liberator historically perceived as the Simon Bolívar of Haiti. Betrayed by Napoleon and deported to France, where he died in 1803.

  UREMIA Toxic condition caused by the presence in the blood of waste products normally eliminated in the urine.

  VÉVÉ Symbolic designs drawn on the ground with flour or ashes and intended to invoke the loa. Each spirit has a characteristic vévé.

  VLINBLINDINGUE A name of a secret society (also vinbrindingue).

  VODOUN The theological principles and the practice of the Haitian traditional society.

  VSN Acronym for the Volontaires pour la Sécurité Nationale, the militia established by François Duvalier to protect his regime.

  WANGA A magical charm used for selfish or malevolent intent.

  WÉTÉ MO NAN DLO “To take the dead from the water”; the ritual whereby the ti bon ange is reclaimed by the living and given a new form.

  WHITE DARKNESS The term Maya Deren used to describe the state of possession that she experienced.

  ZOMBI ASTRAL A zombi of the ti bon ange. An aspect of the soul that may be transmuted at the will of the one who possesses it.

  ZOMBI CADAVRE The corps cadavre, gros bon ange, and the other spiritual components. A zombi of the flesh that can be made to work.

  ZOMBI SAVANE An ex-zombi, one who has been through the earth, become a zombi, and then returned to the state of the living.

  Annotated Bibliography

  1. THE JAGUAR

  An account of the Darien expedition appears in Sebastian Snow’s The Ruck-Sack Man, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1976. For biographical background on Professor Schultes, see Krieg, M. B., Green Medicine, Bantam Books, New York, 1964. Schultes’s most important work, written with Albert Hofmann, is The Botany and Chemistry of Hallucinogens, Charles C Thomas, Springfield, IL, 1980. Their popular treatment of the subject is Plants of the Gods, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1979.

  2. “THE FRONTIER OF DEATH”

  The difficulty of diagnosing death is discussed in: Kastenbaum, R., and R. Aisenberg, The Psychology of Death, Springer Publishing, New York, 1972; Mant, A. K., in Toynbee, A., ed., Man’s Concern with Death, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1968; Watson, L., The Romeo Error, Hodder and Stoughton, London, 1974. The case from the Sheffield mortuary was reported in The Times, London, 28 February 1970. The New York case is cited in Watson (1974), P. 15. Medical studies describing the ability of Indian fakirs include: Anand, B. K., G. S. Chhina, and B. Singh, Studies on Shri Ramanand Yogi during his stay in an air-tight box, The Indian Journal of Medical Research 49, no. 1 (1961): 82-89; Anand, B. K., and G. S. Chhina, Investigations on Yogis claiming to stop their heart beats, The Indian Journal of Medical Research 49, no. 1 (1961): 90-94. The case of Clairvius Narcisse was first introduced in Douyon, L., Les zombis dans le contexte vodou et Haitien, Haiti Santé 1 (1980): 19-23. The various issues associated with anesthesiology are presented in Orkin, F. K., and L. H. Cooperman, eds., Complications in Anesthesiology, J. B. Lippincott Co., Philadelphia, 1982.

  3. THE CALABAR HYPOTHESIS

  The San Pedro healing ceremony is described in Sharon, D., The San Pedro cactus in Peruvian folk healing, in Furst, P. T., ed., Flesh of the Gods: The Ritual Use of Hallucinogens, 114-35, Praeger, New York, 1972; and Sharon, D., Wizard of the Four Winds, The Free Press, New York, 1978. My own observations appear in Davis, E. W., Sacred plants of the San Pedro cult, Botanical Museum Leaflets—Harvard University 29, no. 4 (1983): 367-86.

  The catalog referred to was Moscoso, R. M., Catalogus Florae Domin-gensis Pt. 1, New York, L & S Printing, Inc., 1943. Other information on concombre zombi was found in Brutus, T. C, and A. V. Pierre-Noel, Les plantes et les légumes d’Haiti qui guérissent, 3 vols., Imprimerie de l’Etat, Port-au-Prince, 1960.

  For information on other aspects of datura see: Schleiffer, H., Sacred Narcotics of the New World Indians, Hafner Press, New York, 1973; Schleiffer, H., Narcotic Plants of the Old World, Lubrecht & Cramer, Monticello, NY, 1979; Hansen, H. A., The Witch’s Garden, Unity Press, Santa Cruz, 1978; Weil, A. T., The Marriage of the Sun and the Moon, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1980; Emboden, W., Narcotic Plants, Macmillan Publishing Co., New York, 1979; Lockwood, T. E., The ethnobotany of Brugmansia, Journal of Ethnopharmacology 1 (1979): 147-64.

  An excellent article on the Calabar bean is: Holmstedt, B., The ordeal bean of Old Calabar: the pageant of Physostigma venosum in medicine, in Swain, T., ed., Plants in the Development of Modern Medicine, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, 1972. For the secret societies of the Efik see: Forde, D., The Efik Traders of Old Calabar, Oxford University Press, London, 1956.

  4. WHITE DARKNESS AND THE LIVING DEAD

  Basic references on the vodoun religion include: Métraux, A., Voodoo in Haiti, Schocken Books, New York, 1972; Deren, M., The Divine Horse men—the Living Gods of Haiti, Thames and Hudson, London, 1953; Herskovits, M. J., Life in a Haitian Valley, Alfred A. Knopf, New York, 1937. See also the academic papers of George Simpson, in particular: Simpson, G. E., Religious Cults of the Caribbean: Trinidad, Jamaica and Haiti, Caribbean Monograph Series 15, Institute of Caribbean Studies, University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras, P.R., 1980; Marcelin, M., Mythologie Vodou, Les Editions Haïtiennes, Port-au-Prince, 1949; Maximilien, L., Le Vodou Haitien, Imprimerie de l’Etat, Port-au-Prince, 1945; Rigaud, O. M., The feasting of the gods in Haitian vodu, Primitive Man 19, nos. 1-2 (1946): 1-58. Another basic source is Courlander, H., The Drum and the Hoe: Life and Lore of the Haitian People, University of California Press, Berkeley, 1960. For vodoun song see: Courlander, H., Haiti Singing, Cooper Square Publishing, New York, 1973; and Laguerre, M. S., Voodoo Heritage, Sage Library of Social Research 98, Sage Publications, Beverly Hills, 1980. Two enjoyable and informative books based on personal accounts are: Dunham, K., Island Possessed, Doubleday & Co., Garden City, NY, 1969; and Huxley, F., The Invisibles—Voodoo Gods in Haiti, McGraw-Hill, New York, 1966. Of historical interest is Price-Mars, J., Thus Spoke the Uncle, Three Continents Press, Washington, D.C., 1983.

  A case of another zombi from Ennery, the village where Ti Femme was discovered, is reported in Simpson, G. E., Magical practices in northern Haiti, Journal of A
merican Folklore 67, no. 266 (1954): 401. Reports from Seabrook, W. B., The Magic Island, George G. Harrap & Co., London, 1929; and Hurston, Z., Tell My Horse, Turtle Island, Berkeley, 1981, are reviewed in Métraux, A. (1972). The cases of Ti Femme and Narcisse have been summarized in: Diederich, B., On the nature of zombi existence, Caribbean Review 12, no. 3 (1983): 14-17, 43-46. A regrettably sensational account of Narcisse appears in: Pradel, J., and J. Casgha, Haiti: La République des morts vivants. Editions du Rocher, Paris, 1983.

  For accounts of firewalking see: Weil, A. T., Health and Healing-Understanding Conventional and Alternative Medicine, Houghton Mifflin Co., Boston, 1983.

  5. A LESSON IN HISTORY

  Basic historical sources include: Leyburn, J. G., The Haitian People, Yale University Press, New Haven, 1941; James, C. L. R., The Black Jacobins, Random House, New York, 1963; Moreau de Saint-Mery, Description topographique, physique, civile, politique, et historique de la partie française de l’Isle de Saint Domingue, Librairie Larose, Paris, 1958. Other early sources include: Baskett, J., History of the Island of St. Domingo from Its First Discovery by Columbus to the Present Period, Negro Universities Press, Westport, CT, 1971 [1818]; Brown, J., The History and Present Condition of St. Domingo, 2 vols., Frank Cass, London, 1971 [1837]; Franklin, J., The Present State of Hayti, Negro Universities Press, Westport, CT, 1970 [1828]; MacKenzie, C, Notes on Haiti, 2 vols., Frank Cass, London, 1971 [1830]; Wimpffen, F., A Voyage to Saint Domingo, London, 1817. The contemporary social structure of Haiti is examined in: Horowitz, M. M., Peoples and Cultures of the Caribbean, The Natural History Press, 1971; Mintz, S., ed., Working Papers in Haitian Society and Culture, Antilles Research Program, Yale University, New Haven, 1975; Moral, P., Le Paysan Haitien, G. P. Maisonneuve et Larose, Paris, 1961; Simpson, G. E., Haiti’s social structure, American Sociological Review 6, no. 5 (1941): 640-49; Laguerre, M., The place of voodoo in the social structure of Haiti, Caribbean Quarterly 19, no. 3 (1973): 36-50.