INTRODUCTION.

Probably, amused by the eagerness of the inquirer, he told the story to test the man’s powers of belief and must have been amused when he found his statement was credited. Cannibalism is the one thing of which Haytians are thoroughly ashamed.

This communication makes mention of herb-poisonings and their antidotes; of the midwives who render newborn babes insensible, so that they are buried, dug up, restored to life, and then eaten. In May 1879, a midwife and another person were caught near Port-au-Prince eating a female baby that had been treated in this way; the writer adds that a Haytian of good position was discovered with his family eating a child. In the former case, the criminals were condemned to six weeks’ imprisonment; in the latter, to one month. (I may notice that I never heard of a respectable Haytian being connected with the cannibals.) The light punishments inflicted were due to the fear inspired by the Vaudoux (Voodoo) priests. In January 1881, eight people were fined for disinterring and eating corpses. An English medical man purchased and identified the neck and shoulders of a human being in the market at Port-au-Prince. In February 1881, at St. Marc, a cask of so-called pork was sold to a foreign ship. Inside, fingers and fingernails were discovered, and all the flesh proved to be human. An English colored clergyman at Cap Haïtien said that the Vaudoux did away with all the effect of his ministry, and that his wife nearly purchased human flesh in the market instead of pork. Four people were fined in that town for eating corpses.