Istwa Nou

At first light on 4 April 1920 a patrol of three marines under Second Lieutenant Lawrence Muth climbed the slope of Morne Bourougue near Lascahobas. They saw cacos ahead and opened fire, and the whole hillside answered. Batraville had laid the ambush himself. Two riflemen fought clear carrying a wounded man and left Muth where he had fallen, and cacos dragged him into the bush. A marine patrol under Colonel Little recovered his remains that afternoon. A prisoner described what happened in between. Muth had been shot in the head and the stomach and could not stand, so he was held upright while Batraville made a speech, and Batraville, who was a boko, a ritual specialist, took his head off with a war machete after certain rites. His heart and liver were eaten. A captured general said the brain was smeared on every man's cartridges so their bullets would find marines. Americans called this savagery. Within Vodou the acts had a grammar: an enemy's power passes to whoever consumes it.