ABSTRACT
There is a passage in Maya Deren's ethnography of Vodou, Divine Horsemen: The Living Gods of Haiti, in which she tells an anecdote to illustrate the qualities of Gede, the spirit of the dead. Gede is death itself, and yet he is also the most powerful healer of all:
Particularly, Ghede [sic] is known as the guardian of children.… In one case, the godchild of a mambo [priestess] was gravely ill. The little girl had been taken to doctors in town, had received injections and treatments, both medical, herbal and ritual, yet continued to waste away and it was clear that she was on the point of death. Consequently, as a last recourse, the mambo undertook a strong ceremony for Ghede. It took place at the replica tomb which was erected in Ghede's honor in the court of her hounfor [temple], and was attended not only by her own hounsis [congregation], but by several mambos, friends of hers, who had come to lend their own strength as well. The songs for Ghede were most fervently sung. Several black chickens were given him, and then the large black goat, an exceptionally strong offering, was killed.
With this evidence of devotion, Ghede agreed to intervene. He possessed one of the mambos, and asked that the child be brought out and placed on the tomb. He took the blood of the goat and, undressing the child, anointed her with it. Then, singing fervently, he reached down between his legs and brought forth, in his cupped palm, a handful of fluid with which he washed the child. It was not urine. And though it would seem impossible that this should be so, since it was a female body which he had possessed, it was a seminal ejaculation. Again and again he gave of that life fluid, and bathed the child with it, while the mambos and hounsis sang and wept with gratitude for this ultimate gesture. Of the life which he had in the past consumed, he now gave forth in full measure. And though there is no reasonable way to account for this, the child lived. 1
