13238: Burnham posts re: post 12319 Lougaroup and folk belief and meeting Ezulie Danto (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: thor burnham <thorald_mb@hotmail.com>

Posted by Thor Burnham who is also in "the belly of the beast"


Racine wrote:

">In Haiti there is a folk belief in beings called "loup garou", lougarou in
Creole. This term has been translated in English as "werewolf", but this is
not correct. A person who becomes a
>lougarou is a person who magically flies at night, either by turning into a
>bird or by removing their skin, and goes about doing harm, especially by
>killing children."


   Last Monday night I was awoken by screaming, banging and general mayhem.
It was about 1:00 am (making it early tuesday morning, to be exact) and it
sounded briefly like someone in the ravine below was about to be
stoned/beaten to death. Everyone in the house was in stunned silence as they
listened intently to the screams and yells of the woman who seemed to be
under attack. I felt uttlerly helpless. Had she cornered a thief? Was
someone trying to kill her?
   She was yelling "Me Mwin!!" repeatedly and banging a rock against the
corrugated tin walls of her home, or somebody's home. She kept demanding
"tafia". "M pa timoun, no! Se granmoun m ye!!!! Me mwin!"
This was followed by a repetitive "da da da da da da da da da", almost like
a clicking or clucking sound made by the woman.
   Then one of the people in the house quietly commented, "li pran lwa".

   At this point i was completely lost. But then the voice of a Houngan (I
was told the next day) could be heard forcefully asking the woman questions:
   Houngan: "Ki es ou ye?"
   Woman:  "Ezulie Danto"
   Houngan: "Sa ou vle?"

   Ezulie replied that she had mounted the woman to protect the woman's
small child. She explained that the woman had been having a dream. In the
dream her child was suffering from Diarrhea and was sick. Later in the dream
a Lougarou appeared at the door, asking for the child. It was at this point,
Ezulie explained, that she appeared to battle the Lougarou.
   Once this explanation was given, Ezulie again scremed out "Mwin me!!!"
repeatedly. She demanded tafia and told the lougarou that she was no child,
but was a "granmoun". The houngan continued to ask questions and talk with
Ezulie Danto, but he lowered his voice making much of it inaudible to me.

    This lasted about a half hour.
    Needless to say, sleep was a long time in coming.

The next day i asked some of the people in the house about their experiences
with Lougarous and got some surprising answers. The question is really not
about whether they exist for Haitians, but why. What purpose do they serve?

I have no ready explanations, although i could venture several
psuedo-psychological interpretations, which i'll keep to myself. What i
didn't know before this experience was that people can awake from dreams,
having already been mounted.

All in all, however, it was a visceral experience, demonstrating the
strength, depth and power of Vodou belief and just how important the
performance of the lwa really is. After all, Ezulie Danto showed up to
perform, however the word is defined, for everyone within hearing distance,
especially the Lougarou.(Nobody could see her, but it was very audible) Of
course, for the Lougarou in the neighbourhood, i'm sure the message was
recieved and understood; no more evening visits to that house its safe to
say, or Ezulie will open up another can of
"whoop-ass". The humour aside, knowing that someone in the community could
be accused of Lougarou-like activities and arbitrarly punished leaves me
with more questions than it answers. Supernatural indeed.
Senou?

Best,
Thor Burnham





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