|
Post by dem bones on Aug 3, 2012 21:38:43 GMT
William Seabrook - The Magic Island (Harcourt, Brace & Co., 1929) Alexander King Foreword
Part One: The Voodoo Rites:
Secret Fires The Way Is Opened And Closed The Petro Sacrifice The "Ouanga" Charm Goat-Cry Girl-Cry The God Incarnate
Part Two: Black Sorcery:
The Altar Of Skulls ".... Dead Men Working In The Cane Fields" Tousell's Pale Bride Celestine With A Silver Dish
Part Three: The Tragic Comedy:
A Blind Man Walking On Eggs A Nymph In Bronze The Truth Is A Beautiful Thing "Ladies And Gentlemen, The President!" But The Truth Becomes Somewhat Tangled Part Four: Trails Winding
The White King Of La Gonave The Black Queen's Court A Torn Scrap Of Paper Portrait of 'Gross Negre" "Polynice And His White" The "Danse Congo" "No White Man Could Be As Dumb As That" Portrait Of A Scientist Morne La Selle Adventure The Soul Of Haiti
From The Author's Notebook.Seabrook (1886-1945) was a journalist by trade, a fearless explorer into the mysteries of the Dark Continent and perhaps even America's answer to Elliott O'Donnell, in that his work tends to blur fact, 'fact' and fiction to the point where it's best to give up worrying about it too much and go along for the ride. He was certainly a "character", whose life, which he ended in 1945 by way of a drug overdose, was blighted by alcoholism and depression (he wrote about his condition in the autobiographical Asylum, the Dell 1950 paperback featuring a suitably nightmarish cover painting from the great Richard Powers). Aside from participating in a particularly bloody voodoo ceremony, Seabrook claimed to have taken part in a cannibal feast as part of his research, though he was quick to reassure the reader that dinner had not been murdered. Wow, a short story first published in The Smart Set, Jan. 1921, so upset Aleister Crowley that the Great Beast commemorated his passing with "the swine-dog W. B. Seabrook has killed himself at last, after months of agonized slavery to his final wife." Perhaps his most famous piece, " .... Dead Men Working In The Cane Field" has been credited credited as the story-cum-article which launched the entire trad. zombie genre. " .... Dead Men Working In The Cane Field.": Port-au-Prince. Constant Polynice, a far from credulous man, is discussing native superstitions with Seabrook when the author asks him about zombies. Polynice assures him that, not only are the walking dead a reality, but he knows for a fact they are frequently set to work on plantations belonging to HASCO (the Haitian American Sugar Company), and tells him the true story of Ti Joseph and his wife Croyance, who got rich off the backs of same. Ti Joseph was such a slave driver that even old Croyance eventually took pity on their mindless automatons and, while her husband was away on business, treated the zombies to a day at the local fête, even bought them some pistachio nuts as a change from their usual slops. Her kind gesture rebounded when the dead men tasted salt and returned as one to their village to die for good. Ti Joseph was exposed as the fiend who disturbed them and came to a suitably nasty end. Tousell's Pale Bride - or, if you're Peter Haining, The Wedding Guests. Camille, the usual nineteen-year-old village beauty, weds Matthieu Tousell, a rich coffee plantation owner twice her age, much respected in Port-au-Prince although rumours persist that he's a dabbler in the dark arts. Camille's first year of married life is happy enough, though she grows concerned when Matthieu takes to disappearing for whole nights at a time. Come their anniversary and Tousell tells her to put on her wedding dress and make herself beautiful as he has invited four special guests over to celebrate. 'How wonderful!' thinks Camille - until she sets disbelieving eyes on them and goes insane. Haining includes both stories as just the one piece under the " .... Dead Men Working In The Cane Field" title in Zombie: Stories Of The Walking Dead, so if you have that, no need to track Tousell's Pale Bride down elsewhere. As mentioned, Tousell's Pale Bride returns in Haining's Black Magic Omnibus as The Wedding Guests. More to follow you poor bastards, etc ...
|
|
|
Post by dem bones on Aug 4, 2012 10:55:45 GMT
The "Ouanga" Charm: Madam Cêlie intervenes on behalf of her gloomy grandson, sulking because Ti Marie, "a young, high-breasted black damsel," has rebuffed his advances. One face-full of ground humming bird, blood and semen later, and Ti Marie is jumping the lucky lad's bones like she means to do him serious mischief.
Goat-Cry Girl-Cry: Seabrook's diagram-tastic account of his "blood baptism" as conducted by Madam Cêlie, the benevolent sorceress and voodoo Priestess we met in The "Ouanga" Charm. Hens are hacked, a goat is sacrificed, a bride of Damballah - who has spent most of the ceremony on all fours hypnotising the goat - gamely passes out, Seabrook drinks blood and 'the Shaggy Immortal One' bestows his blessing. "A true tale of horrible voodoo rites in Haiti, island of black magic and worship of strange, dark gods," advise Parrish and Crossland in The Mammoth Book Of Thrillers, Ghosts & Mysteries.
|
|