e strong
moon and by the flames of a fire. In the midst there stood a little low
and rude building, surmounted by a cross: a chapel, as I then remembered
to have heard, long since desecrated and given over to the rites of
Hoodoo. Hard by the steps of entrance was a black mass, continually
agitated and stirring to and fro as if with inarticulate life; and this
I presently perceived to be a heap of cocks, hares, dogs, and other
birds and animals, still struggling, but helplessly tethered and cruelly
tossed one upon another. Both the fire and the chapel were surrounded by
a ring of kneeling Africans, both men and women. Now they would raise
their palms half closed to Heaven, with a peculiar, passionate gesture
of supplication; now they would bow their heads and spread their hands
before them on the ground. As the double movement passed and repassed
along the line, the heads kept rising and falling, like waves upon the
sea; and still, as if in time to these gesticulations, the hurried chant
continued. I stood spell-bound, knowing that my life depended by a hair,
knowing that I had stumbled on a celebration of the rites of Hoodoo.

Presently the door of the chapel opened and there came forth a tall
negro, entirely nude, and bearing in his hand the sacrificial knife. He
was followed by an apparition still more strange and shocking: Madam
Mendizabal, naked also, and carrying in both hands, and raised to the
level of her face, an open basket of wicker. It was filled with coiling
snakes; and these, as she stood there with the uplifted basket, shot
through the osier grating and curled about her arms. At the sight of
this, the fervour of the crowd seemed to swell suddenly higher; and the
chant rose in pitch and grew more irregular in time and accent. Then, at
a sign from the tall negro, where he stood, motionless and smiling, in
the moon- and fire-light, the singing died away, and there began the
second stage of this barbarous and bloody celebration. From different
parts of the ring, one after another, man or woman, ran forth into the
midst; ducked, with that same gesture of the thrown-up hand, before the
priestess and her snakes; and, with various adjurations, uttered aloud
the blackest wishes of the heart. Death and disease were the favours
usually invoked: the death or the disease of enemies or rivals; some
calling down these plagues upon the nearest of their own blood, and one,
to whom I swear I had been never less than kind, i