corn (Zea Mays L.). Then he rasped a human skull and added 

 further bits of dried human flesh provided by the guardian of the 

 cemetery. He then handed me three poisonous powders and gun- 

 powder, instructing me to knead the powders into the wax before 

 braiding the candles. When it came lime to administer the poison, I 

 was to light the candle and salute a sequence of stars before burying 

 the candle beneath a path where I knew the intended victim would 

 pass. To set the "trap" I had merely to sprinkle the poisonous 

 powder in the form of a cross on the same spot, whilst repeating the 

 victim's name. Each time I handled the poison, 1 was to drink from 

 my protection bottle. 



"B> this time, the president of the society was possessed by 

 O^oun, the spirit of fire and the metallurgic elements, and 1 was told 

 that for complete protection I would have to be bathed by the 

 rooster. The energy of the bird would thus pass to me. and by the 

 end of the bath the rooster would be dead. As 1 stripped for the 

 bath. I was instructed to drink from the protection bottle. Then the 

 president, with wide strokes of the rooster, washed my entire body 

 with an aromatic herbal solution. Indeed, by the end of the bath, 

 the rooster lay on the ground, tlaccid and quite dead." 



While the protective magical potions guard the individual from 

 the power of his own poison, they may also serve as antidotes to 

 neutralize the effects of the poison on the actual victim. The 

 ingredients and the preparations of these antidotes, however, are 

 completely inconsistent from one locality to the next. For exam- 

 ple, the antidote prepared at Saint Marc consisted of over thirty 

 ingredients. The houngan began by placing in a mortar several 

 handfuls of dried or fresh leaves of six ^\iini%, aloe {Aloe Vera L.), 

 gaiac (Guaiacum officinale L.), cecire {Cedrela odorata L.), bois 

 ca-ca (Capparis cynophyllophora L.), bois chaudelle {Amvris 

 niaritinia Jacq.) and cadavre gate (cf. Capparis sp.). The plant 

 material was ground with a quarter ounce of rock salt and then 

 added to a basin containing ten crushed moth balls, a cup of 

 seawater, several ounces of clairin, a bottle of perfume, and a 

 quarter litre of a solution purchased from the local apothecary 

 and known as magie noire, or black magic. Additional ingre- 

 dients included ground human bones, shavings from a mule's 

 tibia and from a dog's skull, various coloured and magicall> 

 named samples of talc, ground match heads and sulphur powder. 

 At Gonaives, on the other hand, the antidote contained a handful 

 ofbavahond leaves (Prosopsisjuliflora (Sw.) DC), three handfuls 



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