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Cannibalism
349
Hill yesterday. "It is unquestionably a fact that large numbers of young children are offered up annually in Haiti as sacrifices to the great yellow snake. Indeed, it is known that mothers frequently dedicate their infants at birth to this purpose, the fatal ceremony being postponed ordinarily until the victim has reached the age of two years. Invariably the ritual winds up with a feast the details of which are too horrible to be described. Only when human prey is not obtainable is a black goat, which must not have a white spot on it, used as a substitute, or a white cock. The cock chosen for this purpose is always one of those freak chickens which have their feathers growing the wrong way."
Such are the things which Professor Hill was made to say. The particulars seemed to be accurate enough and were intended to give to the account all appearances of truth; there was nevertheless not a word of truth in the story, which was fabricated solely with the intention of casting opprobrium on Haiti. Mr. E. D. Bassett, who was United States Minister to Haiti and lived at Port-au-Prince for more than nine years, hastened to confute this calumny.[1] Thereupon Professor
- ↑ The following is an extract from Mr. Bassett's article which was printed in the New York Sun of the 24th of March, 1901: "As the diplomatic representative of a great Power it was a part of my official duty to inform myself of everything that tended to show the animus of the people or the drift of their social and political inclinations. I do not see how any foreigner could ever have fuller facilities than I enjoyed for getting at the real facts. I went among the country people. I spoke their language (the French Creole) and I personally knew hundreds of them in many different localities. I could never discover that there was any attempt to conceal from me anything of their modes of life or social or religious customs. It is fair to presume that if there had been any such attempt or purpose at all general or persisted in, I would have become aware of it.
"This brings me to assert my unqualified belief that the cannibalistic practises alleged to have been described by Professor Hill and affirmed by others have no existence whatever in Haiti. Even if they did exist there, it would be most extraordinary—I repeat it, most extraordinary—if Professor Hill or any other white person could ever gain access to them.
"Primitive dances to primitive music, festivals and celebrations also primitive in character and held on holidays and evenings after the day's toil is over, exist and may even be said to abound among the peasantry of Haiti just as in other countries. If Professor Hill or any other foreigner ever saw or in any way witnessed in Haiti a 'ceremony' to which he was unaccustomed and which he might on that account and in view of the declarations of Spenser St. John and others twist into a 'voodoo ceremony of which cannibalism is a conspicuous feature,' it was probably one of these innocent dances or festivals.
Diligent inquiry made upon the spot under the conditions and exceptional facilities already explained and running through quite a number of years utterly failed to bring within my knowledge any person who had ever seen or knew of anybody else who had seen or knew of his or her own personal knowledge of any such horrible practises as Professor Hill is alleged to have described, and I solemnly declare my unqualified conviction that the whole story about cannibalism in Haiti is nothing more than a myth, which, like many other myths, has gained credence by persistent repetition.
And it is due to the Haitian people as well as to a true statement of the matter, that I should add as I do that in my opinion the existence of any practise by which, as Professor Hill is said to have declared, the sacrifice of 'large numbers' or any number at all of 'very young children' or of any one human being, would be regarded in Haiti with the same abhorrence as it would be in New York or Pennsylvania.
Now there are in Haiti eighty-six communes, a commune being somewhat like a town in Massachusetts or Connecticut, and there are one hundred and fifty Roman Catholic priests so stationed throughout the Republic that no commune is without one or more priests of this faith. Almost every one of these is a European, born, brought up, and educated in Europe, and sent out to Haiti under the strict rules of the Church and the requirements of the Concordat with the Holy See. And besides there are about thirty clergymen of the Protestant faith. The Government gives liberal support and encouragement to all, Catholic and Protestant alike.
"Professor Hill is surely in error in his alleged assertion that 'there are few priests permanently resident in their parishes.' The fact is that no parish is ever left without a priest in charge, and the serious allegation that the churches of that faith are desecrated by the performance within their sacred walls of the alleged voodoo rites is little less than a signal indignity offered to the Church as a whole. No such a proceeding is more possible in Haiti than it would be in New England.
If now so horrible and shocking a practise as that of cannibalism under the guise of religion or any other cloak existed at all in Haiti, how could it be that this considerable body of educated, devoted religious teachers, the vast majority of whom are Europeans, keep silent about it through all these years and years? Surely they are all at least civilized men, and if so horrible and revolting a practise as that of cannibalism existed at all in Haiti they would surely know of it. If it existed, and the great body of priesthood had agreed to throw a cloak over it, how could it ever happen that none of them through years and years has ever let leak out at least some hint about its existence? In other words, how is it that the story is in general left to be told by fleeting visitors who never or at any rate rarely go among the country people and who know little or nothing of their language?"
