Читать книгу The Zombie Book - Nick Redfern - Страница 53

According to the research of historians at Haunted America Tours (http://hauntedamericatours.com), many Voodoo and Hoodoo Kings and Queens became wealthy during the Civil War in the 1860s by reanimating fallen Confederate and Union soldiers and selling them as zombie slaves. The sorcerers mixed up dead things in a big black stew pot. They ground up corpses and zombie fingers and toes to make special Zombie Brand powders that only the very rich could afford and only the very evil would want to employ.

For some, this was the Golden Era of Zombies. Half white/half black Creole queens and kings plied their special dark swamp medicines, amulets, charms, and zombified wares from coast to coast after Ulysses S. Grant became president.

Experts on the history of Voodoo, such as Lisa Lee Harp Waugh, Karen Beals, and the noted New Orleans artist Ricardo Pustanio, have observed that the deep dark secrets of a Voodoo-Hoodoo person at the time was always well accepted. These special Creole people were never more sought after and revered than those of the Great White Mambas whose names are still remembered and honored today.

The old red-bricked, crumbling, white-washed tomb of Marie Laveau is the spot where many say the eternal Voodoo queen still grants wishes from beyond the grave. However, some say she will grant your wish only if you promise to come back to the tomb no later than one year and a day. If you do not show at the allotted time then you might just find that you have lost all you gained. Even worse, is the curse that the one you love most will become a real zombie when he or she dies.

Many researchers in certain Voodoo-Hoodoo circles believe that real zombification came to America through the teachings of Marie Laveau, the Voodoo Queen of New Orleans. Others believe it was her teacher and mentor Dr. John who first taught Marie. Still others claim that the Great Texan Voodoo Queen Black Cat Mama Couteaux was the ultimate zombifier.

Black Cat Mama Couteaux, according to Lisa Lee, was the ultimate Voodoo-Hoodoo Queen in Marshall, Texas. The stories of her in the state are often told as far away as Abilene and Fort Worth. They say she even rode out the Great Storm of 1900 in a row boat. The woman was said to have been married to her zombie lover. The dead Mamba husband zombie is said to still be around, guarding the treasures she amassed.

Texan Lisa Lee Harp Waugh states that the old spells that they speak of in her part of the United States seem to have originated from Black Cat Mama Couteaux. But if you listen to most of the old stories, Waugh notes, they suggest that she was actually taught by a great Voodoo-Hoodoo king from New Orleans who had a secret circle of Voodoo-Hoodoo Queens that gave him all their personal attentions as they sat at his knee begging him to teach them more. That great King would, of course, be Dr. John.