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CUBAN FOLK-LORE
L. ROY TERWILLIGER
HAVANA AVISADOR COMERCIAL PRINTING HOUSE 30, AMARGURA ST. 1908
SUPERSTITION AND WITCHCRAFT IN CUBA
Nowhere will one find such a mass of superstitious customs practiced, as in Cuba; especially among the black and mestizos, and even the educated whites, while not admitting their belief in witchcraft have a wholesome fear of the Brujo or witch doctor.
It is probable that most of these queer practices were introduced by the blacks who brought their strange beliefs from Africa. The belief in the Evil Spirit was doubtless the result of their early contact with the aboriginal Cubans, who worshipped the devil.
?a?iguismo is a form of superstition in which Catholicism and witchcraft are mingled in bewildering confusion.
The society of ???igos was first introduced in Cuba in 1836 by a cabildo of the Carabal? nation; many conjectures as to its origin have been put forward, but it is most probable that a priest or Chief of the African institution called ?anguitua, was brought to Cuba as a slave and here resumed his official character among his enslaved countrymen.
The first Juego or chapter was founded in Regla and called the Apapa Epi; it was officially sanctioned and licensed by the government.
The African order disbelieved in God and the worship of idols and fetiches prevailed: in fact was one of the principal causes of the organization of the society. Brujos or members of the order who were supposed to possess supernatural powers were consulted in all cases of sickness. Slave holders claimed that "the gente de naci?n refused to be doctored by other means than their own brujos and corporal punishment was absolutely necessary to overcome their stubbornness".
Whites and even mulatoes were at first refused admission to the society, but in 1863 a traitor to the original chapter sold for twenty cents the secrets of the order to a society of white and mulatoes who by means of the secret pass words and signs gained admittance to the hall where an initiatory session was in progress and demanded that their chapter be recognized by the head Juego. A severe battle was the outcome of this high-handed manner of securing the administration of the initiation rites, but eventually resulted in the formation of the Ocolio ???igos, an order in which whites and half castes were admitted.
Many catholic rites were introduced in the new order, which however did not entirely displace their belief in their former idols.
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