ON VODU-WORSHIP. 657 



touch, or be touched by, a python has to be kept for an entire 

 year, at the expense of the parents, and learn the songs and dances 

 proper to the worship. In former days adults were similarly 

 liable, especially women ; and not even the daughters of influential 

 chiefs were exempt. The scandals that resulted from this for 

 the kosio seminaries are chiefly schools of debauchery and the 

 decline of the priestly power during the last thirty years, have 

 now, however, led to the penalty being restricted to children. 



Fifty years ago any native who killed a python, even by acci- 

 dent, was burned to death ; and even Europeans have been killed 

 for having thus offended the religious prejudices of the Whydahs. 

 At the present day, though the appearance of carrying out the 

 old sentence is preserved, the culprit is allowed to escape with 

 life. To keep up the form, he is confined in a small hut made of 

 dried grass, which at a given signal is fired on all sides. The 

 man bursts forth, and is then attacked with sticks by the wor- 

 shipers of Daflh-gbi, who rain blows on his head and shoulders, 

 until he succeeds in reaching water, which bars him from further 

 attack. 



There are days consecrated to Danh-gbi, when great proces- 

 sions are held, and which are remarkable for many curious cere- 

 monies, too lengthy, however, to be described here. During one 

 procession every house is closed, and the people are forbidden to 

 be abroad in the streets or to peep from their windows ; and all 

 processions are ushered in by a general slaughter of all hogs 

 found at large, which are pursued and beaten to death by bands 

 of priests armed with clubs, for the hog is a sacrilegious animal, 

 even capable of devouring a python-god, should he find an oppor- 

 tunity. White ants are the messengers of Danh-gbi, and their 

 nests may often be seen encircled with palm leaves, to indi- 

 cate that the inhabitants are in his service. Many people still 

 believe that the traditional python, which turned the tide of 

 victory in favor of the Whydahs, still lives. It is believed to 

 inhabit a gigantic tree hidden in the depths of a vast forest, and 

 to climb every morning to the topmost branch, coil its tail round 

 it, and hang head downward toward the earth. When it is suffi- 

 ciently long to reach the earth with its head, it will, say the 

 natives, be able to reach the sky and climb up into it. 



Such, briefly sketched, is snake-worship, as it exists on the 

 Slave Coast at the present day ; and, if we may judge from the 

 descriptions given by old voyagers, it has not changed in any 

 important particular since the downfall of the kingdoms of 

 Ardra and Whydah. Let us now turn to the worship as it is 

 found in Hayti and Louisiana. It will be perhaps more con- 

 venient to examine it in detail. 



Sir Spencer St. John, apparently following St. Mery, says (p. 



