The poison collected in the environs of the town of Saint Marc 

 was prepared in a deserted brook in the middle of desolate scrub- 

 lands far from the nearest settlement. The houngan, as healer and 

 representative of all that is benign, has no contact with the poison 

 itself; this destructive force is processed by his madjaway who is 

 considered neither an apprentice nor an assistant, but rather the 

 physical support of the houngan. The first precept of the Voudou 

 religion is that the temple, or hounfor, must never collapse, and 

 the houngan is the personification of the temple. The word mad- 

 jaway means literally ''do not fall down". In Voudou ceremonies, 

 it is often the madjaway who actually carries out the ritual task. 



Though the madjaway prepares the poison, it is the presence of 

 the houngan that assures the safety of the participants. He 

 initiates the ritual songs and rubs the bodies of all present with 

 protective salves. It is the houngan who covers the mouth and 

 nose of each participant with the red cloth, the symbol of the 

 Peiro rites, the most powerful and violent of the Voudou faith. 



The first step in the actual elaboration of the poison involves 



( Buf 



M 



species of polychaete worm, Hermodice carunculata Pallas. 

 According to Voudou belief, this procedure increases the toxicity 

 of the toad; in fact, the 'snake'does agitate the toad, increasing the 

 amount of toxic secretions from the paratoidal glands. These 

 secretions contain at least 26 highly active compounds, including: 

 a) cardioactive steroids known commonly as bufogenins and 

 bufotoxins; b) phenylethlaminc bases and derivatives such as 

 dopamine, adrenaline, noradrenaline; and c) tryptamine bases 

 and derivatives such as serotonin, cinobufagin and bufotenin 

 (Kennedy 1982). The polychaete worm has setae that inflict a 

 paralyzing effect (Mullin 1923) and may be venomous (Halstead 

 1978). 



The seaworm and toad are then killed and sun-dried with two 

 innocuous looking marine fish, the fou-fou {Diodon hystrix L.) 

 and the crapaud de nier, the sea toad {Sphoeroides testudineus 

 L.). These two species belong to a large pantropical order of fish 

 (Tetraodonli/brmes), many of which have the deadly nerve toxin. 



143 



