The judgment cord

          Long time ago, at the time where magic was still a hot topic, lived an old witch who was 150 years old. Rumors said that she was able to live that long because she was taking other people’s lives and exchanging them with her death every time that her time approached. So, every time that someone died of a mysterious death in the surroundings, everybody automatically thought of the wicked witch. However, even though everybody suspected her, no one was brave enough to confront her about the facts. Also, spiritual facts do not have physical proofs to take the case to a police officer and try to lock her up (it would have given them a little comfort to do so, though it wouldn’t have changed much, because the witch actually didn’t need her physical body to travel at night).

          As they say, in the jungle, it’s she who possesses the highest power that makes the law. Wovoin the witch was making the law as she wanted, and no one couldn’t do anything about it. No one had succeeded until then and the few people who tried to fight against her and failed, all mysteriously died in the following days of their bold moves. Wovoin was unstoppable, she even defied the vodou priests who were counting on the power of their vodous to take her down. No one knew where she got her powers from, but it just seemed at the time like she was the most powerful witch in the world and there was nothing anyone could do but bow to her.

          Wovoin had a preference for little children, mostly babies newly born. People once heard her over a conversation saying that: “Babies have pure and fresh heart that have not yet being touched by all the sorrows and disappointments of this life, and above all, their meats are very tender, delicious, and they have more to offer when it comes to increasing my life expectancy”. Thereby, babies had been dying around with very awkward deaths with no scientific explanation at all…until one day […]

          Abla was the name of a young woman living in the same town as Wovoin with her husband. They had been married for several years but never had children. They had a lot of treatments, and they started losing hope when Abla finally got pregnant. Nine months were like 9 years for this old couple, as they couldn’t wait to meet this little creature so much desired. Everybody else around them was as much excited as they were. Abla finally had the baby and it was a beautiful little girl! The couple had never been any happier. A week later the baby got seriously sick.

          The illness was critical, nothing had been diagnosed scientifically, so the couple decided to go to a vodou priest. There, they knew the illness was created by Wovoin who had been trying for few days now to take the baby’s life. However, the baby had a strong spirit, that was the only reason why she was still alive until then, but she was getting tired, as the illness was getting worse, and seeing how things were going she might not make it. The vodou priest promised to help as much as he could, but despite all the attempts to protect the baby’s life, she died on the evening of her 21^stday on earth.

          Everybody was devastated, a terrifying silence reigned over the whole town that night following by a tornado with a heavy rain the next day. The sun did not show up much the following days, the nature was dark, and some sort of dark aura was covering the area. It was almost like nature itself was grieving the death of this little innocent creature who was forced to leave so early. Wovoin was not seen much around during those times. Some said she was sick which seemed a little strange since she never got sick before, others said she was ashamed of her last kill which was also surprising.

          Abla, when she finally got out of bed on the 5^thday of her baby’s death decided to do something about the issue. Despite everything her husband was saying, she decided to avenge the death of her only child or die trying. So, she went to gather all the women of the village, to brainstorm and find a way to take the-wicked-witch down. They finally came up with an idea which consisted of calling the spirit of the deceased child to have a discussion with it through the help of a vodou priest. They thought since the child had a strong energy and tried to resist the attacks of the witch, she might help by telling them a thing or two she learnt. And so, they did.

          During the ritual, the spirit of the child confirmed that the witch was actually sick at the moment because of the fight they had. It said the witch might have won the battle by ending her life, but it made her very weak, and if they were planning to take her down that was the right moment to do so. The spirit sent them to a man who lived in the nearest village, named the judgment cord bearer.

          The judgment cord was a magical cord that was used to determine whether someone was telling the truth or not. During a judgment cord ceremony, everybody gathered usually at a public place. The bearer of the cord installed his working materials which were basically a small carpet to kneel on, a bucket of water, the judgment cord itself, a couple of cowries, and a horse’s tail. It worked almost like a traditional court system where the subject takes an oath to tell nothing but the truth. The only difference was, everyone would know on the spot if the subject was actually telling the truth or not. During the ceremony, the judgement cord was knotted in a shape of “q” placed in a small shaped hole, but profound in a way that the top of knot be right above the hole. People who were concerned were called one by one, took the oath of truth, then kneeled on the carpet and were questioned with the cord around their neck. When they told the truth, the cord stayed immobile but when they lied, the cord magically tightened itself, pulled them toward the hole and they choked. They stayed in that position until they confessed the truth before the cord got loosen and they were released. People used to say, that the spirits of the underground were the ones that were punishing the liars by pulling the other end of the cord buried in the hole to make the liars choke on their lies.

          Thereby, the women paid a visit to the cord bearer. They told him about the issue and he agreed to help, but he advised the women to go to talk to the king of the village, and convince him to summon the witch to the judgement ceremony. It might be harder for a simple person to do so. The women successfully convinced the King, who summoned the witch to his palace. Once there, the king explained her that rumors about her killing new borns in the village had increased considerably, and as King, he had a duty to protect his people. So, he had a plan to uncover the truth and put people’s minds at rest. Hence, he was summoning Wovoin to attend to the judgment cord ceremony that would take place in a week from then, where she would be asked to tell the truth about the situation in front of the whole town. Wovoin accepted the invitation because she was confident in her powers that no matter what, they would protect her.

          It was Saturday evening; the big day had finally come. Women and men decided to come back early from their occupations. Children stayed home all afternoon worried that if they left to play, they might lose track of the time and miss the big event. Around 4pm people started gathering at the public place the event was going to take place. Some who were short on height decided to go a little earlier to find the best place at the front. Those who came late and could not find their ways around the crowd decided to climb the closest trees to gain some height and not miss the event. By 5pm the whole town already gathered at the public place. Even pets attended the event, no one, or animal was left behind in the house. The cord barer arrived around 5:15pm, started setting up his working accessories so that the event could begin at 5:30pm. The witch wouldn’t be the only one to pass the judgment cord, few members of the deceased child’s family would as well. The cord bearer explained that it was usually done that way because unless someone was officially convicted with proofs, anybody else close to the family could be a suspect. Also, it made the judgement ceremony more authentic, and if the family members had nothing to hide, they had nothing to be worried about.

          The ceremony began. The mother of the child was first called to the little carpet with the magical cord in place.  She took an oath to tell the truth, all the truth and nothing but the truth. She kneeled on the carpet, leaned a little forward and the cord bearer helped her put her head through the knotted cord. Once the cord was around her neck, the ultimate questions began.

• Cord bearer: Did you have anything to do with the death of your child?
• Mother: No

          A great silence reigned in the area. In a place full of hundreds of living people, who were actually awake, not asleep, who would think one could possibly hear a bug fly! Everybody was paying attention to the movement of the cord, but it stayed immobile. Then, the cord bearer continued

• Cord bearer: Did you kill your child?
• Mother: No

…Nothing happened

• Cord bearer: Did you in any way helped in the death of your child?
• Mother: No.

          The judgement cord stayed immobile. It was the end of the series of questions. The cord bearer removed the cord from the neck of the mother and invited her to stand up and regain her place in the crowd who was loudly cheering, just like a reward for her innocence.

          It was the turn of the father, then two other members of the family. Nothing happened, the judgement cord did not react. Then came the turn of Wovoin, who, with reassuring steps, walked toward the carpet. Her face did not show any guilt at all, in fact she had a little smile on her face just like someone who was getting ready to prove everybody wrong. A couple of days before the ceremony, some young people – who usually waited for their severe parents to go to bed, before sneaking out of the house to meet their lovers and have some sweet talks – claimed to see Wovoin coming out of the sacred forest around midnight. Old people commented on the fact that she probably went to cut a deal with the dark spirits to protect her. That might probably be right seeing how she was confident the day of the ceremony.

          Wovoin, as everybody else who preceded her, took the oath and kneeled on the carpet. The cord was placed around her neck.

• Cord bearer: Did you have anything to do with the death of Abla’s child?
• Wovoin: No

          The cord started tightening around her neck. Some invisible force was pulling the other end of the cord buried in the ground and forcing Wovoin to bend forward more and more, she looked confused, whispers started rising in the crowd. The cord bearer ordered silence, the public obeyed, and he continued with the second question.

• Cord bearer: Did you kill Abla’s child?
• Wovoin: No

          The cord tightened more and more, she was pulled down until her head hit the ground. She was clearly choking, her eyes were red, she was sweating. Still, she was not apparently ready to confess. The cord bearer continued.

• Cord bearer: Did you in any way helped in the death of Abla’s child?
• Wovoin: No!

          The crowd was very noisy, the cord bearer had to order silence one more time to officially declare Wovoin guilty of the death of the child. He added, unless Wovoin confessed her sins, she judgement cord would not release her. People started throwing things at the-wicked-witch. It looked like the opportunity everybody was waiting for to be able to physically attack the witch was finally there. Some were still a little scare to completely come forward and speak their minds or throw stuffs at the witch because she remained after all the powerful and fearful witch, unless she dies, the threat remained.

          Hours passed, the witch apparently got tired and could not handle the pain anymore and decided to confess. She did, the cord loosed up progressively, and was successfully removed from her neck. She was very weakened, some close friends of hers (who were by the way also suspected of practicing witchcraft) helped her to her house. The next day she was found dead on her bed. No one seemed to know the real cause of her death but nobody seemed to care. The whole village welcomed the news as a blessing from God, there were several celebrations. Since then, mysterious death slowed down considerably in the village.

The author,

Fiwa Togbonou

À propos

nvinio

https://nvinio.com

Part I- The sound of the drum

          Once upon a time, there was a man named Yao, who lived in a small village called Tsido of about 60 people. The village was located in the middle of the forest, hence, very far away from other villages or towns. During that time, there were no cars, no motorcycles or even bicycles, so people were basically travelling on feet. Very rare, wealthy people had horses, but those were only found in specific towns.

          Rumor said the ancestors who founded Tsido escaped a war and they were trying to find refuge in the nearest village. They were supposed to cross over a forest before reaching the village they were headed but since all the trip was done on feet, and the road seemed longer than they thought, they decided to take a break when they reached the edge of a river crossing the forest. They were exhausted, so they planned to continue their road when everybody would feel rested. Thus, they spent the night. The next day, when the first ray of sunshine introduced itself, and highlighted the colors and the beauty of the environment, the travelers found the area so welcoming and refreshing, especially with the fresh wind of the river caressing gently their faces. Thereby, they decided to stay one more day, which turned out to be two, then a week, and they finally built shelters for themselves, so they never left. They named their village Tsido after the river, which means the hole of water. They lived on farming and hunting.

          Yao was born in Tsido and lived there all his life. He was 52, he never got married and never had children. Everybody in the village found him a little off since he always spent time alone. He was a farmer and had a land within the forest, about a mile away from Tsido. All other farmers were going to work early morning and came back in the evening before night fall so they could have dinner with their families and friends, enjoy some good stories, laugh together before going to bed. But Yao usually waited until the evening when other farmers were coming back from work to leave the village and head to his land to work. Hence, every day he got back at midnight when everybody else was asleep.

          There was a cemetery on the west coast of the forest and usually people of the village who woke up in the middle of the night heard the sound of drums with voices, usually songs just like during traditional festivals. A lot of people of the village talked about it, and apparently the event was happening at some specific time of the night, between 12am to 2am.

          So, as mentioned earlier, Yao enjoyed coming back from his farm around midnight when everybody else was asleep. What he didn’t know was that every time he walked through the forest on his way back, he was bothering the spirits of the dead who gathered every night around that time to play drums and have fun. So, every time the spirits saw Yao coming back from the farm, they ran to free the way and let him pass before putting their stuffs back together for their « midnight show ». Yao couldn’t see them, so he had no idea what was happening. He was not able to hear the sound of the drums himself, so he used to say to people who were talking about hearing it that they were delusional.

          One night, Yao left his farm a little later than the time he used to leave. As usual, he walked through the forest, using the same route expecting to be home soon, not knowing that something unexpected was awaiting him. The ghosts saw Yao coming again that night, but they had everything already set up to start their festival. They got very upset because every single night Yao disturbed their peace, they had to make space and let him pass every time they saw him coming, the only difference was that, that night, Yao was late and they were all ready to begin their « midnight show ». Therefore, they decided to teach him a lesson. By the time Yao reached the place of the “ghost-festival”, the ghosts started playing their drums and started singing, and this time Yao could hear them, very closely, but he couldn’t see anything. The ghosts gathered around him, to play, sing, and dance. Yao felt a very cold breeze and he started shivering. He lost his way back home, he was turning in circle, not knowing where to go. The voices were rhymed with the sound of the drums. When the treble was playing, people with tiny voices sang “tonye kademe, tonye kademe, tonye kademe” which means “my situation is better, my situation is better, my situation is better” and when the bass was playing people with big voices took the turn to sing “tonye vo gbidi gbidi gbidi” meaning “my situation is over, over, over”. Yao could hear everything clearly and couldn’t see anything. The more confused he was, the louder the songs and the voices in his ears.

          He finally fainted and stayed there all night long. Farmers on their way to work in the morning found him lying on the floor and brought him home. He finally woke up but was seriously sick. Despite all the treatments the villagers provided him, he wasn’t able to recover. He finally died a year later. From then, the population of Tsido had the confirmation that they were not the only living beings in the forest, so they had to respect the privacy of other inhabitants as well by letting them alone do what they had to do at night, as they as well let the villagers do what they had to do during the day.

The author,
Fiwa Togbonou

À propos

nvinio

https://nvinio.com