The Serpent And The Rainbow Summary

Writing Assignment #11: Rebecca Wilson Dr. Wade Davis is a noted Harvard ethnobotanist and is author of the book “The Serpent and the Rainbow.” In this book he writes about the special ingredients that bokor’s use to make “zombie powder”. All of these ingredients can be found anywhere in Haiti, but it takes a special magic, spell to conjure the ingredients into a potion. These ingredients only work during a ritual Vodoun ceremony and will only work if the person truly believes in the ritual, magic of the potion, and zombification prior to the administration of the potion and ritual Vodoun dance. Dr. Wade (1985:162-165), list several ingredients in “zombie powder”, from snakes and different species of toads and frogs to tree leaves and poisonous plants, millipedes and different species of tarantulas; of all these ingredients Dr. Wade believes without a doubt that the poison within different species of puffer fish called tetrodotoxin is the most powerful ingredient within the “zombie powder”. Even though this ingredient was not found in all the samples he brought back from Haiti. …show more content…
Davis talks about the up rise of the slaves during the Haitian revolution and how they over through the French during this time, with little to no experience in hand to hand combat. This was unnecessary because they used different potions and rituals to subdue, weaken, and defeat the army with vodoun magic. The location of these ritual dances and gatherings is usually dark, musky, with several shrines to different deities, animal skulls, and human bones. This is usually considered a sacred place, a place with known magical powers, sometimes located close to or within the boundaries of a cemetery, or temple (Davis