vv (7): twistin' & shakin' like alligators

[Lorentzen / Nicklaus]

 "it seems to have been only in the maison blanche that marie laveau would 
 depart from her modernization of the ceremonies and allow the devotees to 
 return to the ways of the immigrants from santo domingo. here, lips smeared 
 with the blood of freshly slaughtered animals and fowl, they took their 
 teribble oaths. here was the snake, and here the breast was torn from a living 
 chicken and presented to the queen. here they sang:

      eh, yé, yé mamzelle marie,
      ya, yé, yé, li konin tou, gris-gris;
      li té kouri lekal, aver vieux kokodril;
      oh, ouai, yé mamzelle marie ...

  this was the marie laveau who consorted with the crocodiles, the marie laveau 
 who talked with lucifer.
  an old man named pedro, who said he was half negro, half mexican, told of 
 heaving heard of these ceremonies all his life. the participants, he said, 
 would 'hiss and crawl on the ground like snakes, hop around croakin' like 
 frogs, creep along, twistin' and shakin' like alligators, screech like hoot 
 owls. i been told they would run around on all-fours, bitin' each other on the 
 legs like they was mad dogs. some of 'em would dance wit' torches in their 
 hands and there was big bonfires all around the house and up and down the edge 
 of the water. the beach was red like blood all night long'" ...  

       --- robert tallant: voodoo in new orleans [1946], chapter 8 ---


    sweet moon is darkening herself right now ... kfl