ON VODU-WOBSHIP. 651 



ON VODU-WORSHIP. 



Bt Hon. Majok A. B. ELLIS. 



SIR SPENCER ST. JOHN'S book Hayti, or the Black Repub- 

 lic, brought prominently before the English-speaking peoples 

 of the Old and New Worlds the subject of the so-called vaudoux 

 or voodoo worship which prevails in the island of Hayti-Santo Do- 

 mingo ; and the numerous articles published from time to time by 

 Mr. G. W. Cable in Harper's and the Century Magazines have 

 shown us what the " voodoo-worship " in Louisiana is like ; but, 

 as neither of these two authors has, apparently, had any personal 

 acquaintance with that part of the west coast of Africa from 

 which vodu is derived, they have, very naturally, been unable to 

 more than describe it as they found it on this side of the At- 

 lantic. They have been unable to tell us to what language the 

 word vodu belongs, what it means, and what the various practices 

 which in Hayti and Louisiana are roughly grouped together 

 under the designation of vaudoux-worship really are. I fancy I 

 can recollect an article, but by whom written I can not remember, 

 in which the writer derived the word vaudoux from Pays de Vaud j 

 and, as some light seems to be required on the subject, it is here 

 proposed, though now perhaps rather late in the day, to give it. 



The word vodu * belongs to the Ewe language, which is spoken 

 on the Slave Coast of West Africa, between the river Volta on the 

 west and the kingdom of Porto Novo on the east, and extends in- 

 land, as far as is yet known, about one hundred miles. It is de- 

 rived from the verb vo to inspire fear and is used in just the 

 same way as English-speaking people use the word "fetich" 

 that is to say, it is used as a descriptive noun " god," and also as 

 an adjective in the sense of sacred or belonging to a god. Thus 

 any native god may be described as a vodu, and his image, para- 

 phernalia, and sacred tract of bush called vodu. A priest is 

 termed vodu-no "He who stays with the vodu." The word is 

 not an epithet of any particular god, it is a general term ; and it is, 

 therefore, incorrect to say that "it is the name of an imaginary 

 being of vast supernatural powers residing in the form of a harm- 

 less snake." No doubt the python-god, worshiped by the inhab- 

 itants of the southeastern districts of Ewe territory, may very 

 correctly be described as a vodu ; but it is not more a vodu than 

 Khebioso, So, Legba, Bo, Hunti, Wu, and the other gods of the 

 Ewe pantheon. The expression " vodu-worship " means, then, 

 " god- worship," which is a rather comprehensive term. 



* The Greek circumflex here indicates a highly nasal intonation. The u, as in all 

 We3t African languages, is pronounced like oo in English. 



