All Souls' Rising by Madison Smartt Bell Read Free Book Online

Jean-Pic coming from behind a ceiba tree.
    “Riau,” he said.
    “Well, you have come back,” I said.
    Jean-Pic was coming back all alone, and the sack on his back was wrinkled and limp. If he had got any food he had eaten it on his journey, and he had not any rum or gunpowder either. I went with him back to the main camp. The spring had become only a wet spot on the ground. I got water by pressing the back of my hand in the wet leaves and waiting for my palm to fill. The smell was worse. Merbillay was sitting on the rock above the cave, looking toward the ocean and saying that she wanted to eat a fish. Then she said only the one word again and again, pwasô, pwasô . Jean-Pic had not brought anything back in his sack except for a little cornmeal.
    When the sun began to go down to meet the ocean I stood up and crossed over to Achille and asked him to make a vévé for Ogûn. He looked at me a little time before he nodded. His face was thin and sharp and he had a long nose like a whiteman’s, but there was no white blood in him. He nodded and picked up a spear and put it into the ground for a poteau mitan . He picked up the bag of meal. There was too little to waste and not enough to save. Achille mixed meal with some ash he took from the edge of the fire and crouched to make the vévé at the left of the poteau mitan . The mixed meal spilled in fine lines from the bottom edge of his hand and he moved over the ground like a spider, making the diamonds with the stars inside and lacing them together, never stopping till he made the last twirl at the corner of the square.
    The vévé of Ogûn was there. Achille knocked on the ground beside the poteau mitan and stood and raised the asson . The strings of stones clashed on the side of the gourd. Achille turned and shuffled and began to sing.

Ogûn travay o li pa mâjé
Ogûn travay-o
Ogûn pa mâjé
Yé o swa Ogûn dòmi sâ supé …

    The asson said aclash-aclash and behind me I heard César-Ami beating the little drum, but there was a stone sitting on my teeth and my mouth would not open. Jean-Pic had begun to sing and Merbillay stopped saying pwasô and slipped down from the rock and began to sing the song for Ogûn.

Ogûn works, he doesn’t eat
Ogûn works-o
Ogûn hasn’t eaten
Last night Ogûn went to bed with no supper …

    Clash-aclash the asson said. Ogûn was talking to the drum but my feet were buried in the ground, I couldn’t lift them. My eyes were looking at the sun where it cut down through the clouds toward the water. It was round and red and its edges were sharpened like a knife. Jean-Pic stood up to dance. Merbillay’s hips went back to front and side to side. Then my knees loosened and my feet came free and I was moving with the two of them and with Achille. The asson said clash-aclash and the drum changed. My eyes were still on the red of the sun. I saw Achille jerk his head and he began to sing the song for Ghede.

Mwê li brav-o
Rélé brav-o, gasô témérè
Bat’ bânân li témérè
Mòso pul li témérè
Gnu ku kléré li témérè
Mòso patat li témérè
M’apé rélé brav Gédé —

    Then we were all dancing because we were hungry and others too were singing the song of Ghede.

I say brave-o
Call him brave-o, a bold fellow
His banana end is bold
His piece of chicken is bold
His bowl of rum is bold
His piece of sweet potato is bold
I am calling brave Ghede!

    Achille’s mouth had fallen loose. His head was rolling unstrung on his neck. The asson swung low at his knees like an end of rope. Jean-Pic took the asson from his fingers and propped him up a little from behind. Achille had stopped singing but the others went on.

M’apé rélé brav Gédé —
V’ni sové z-âfâ la-o
M’apé rélé brav Gédé —

    The drum changed. Ghede pushed himself up and away from Jean-Pic’s arm and walked away from him without looking back. Jean-Pic raised the asson high and shook it, clash-aclash. Ghede walked in a wide circle to the left around the