15. How Malice Ruined the Bocor's Dance
 and Made Him Lose His Foot.





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CVERY year the greatest bocor of Haiti used to give a
banquet-service to feed the hungry souls of his deceased an-
cestors. This year he had planned to give the biggest one
yet, because one of his feet had swelled up : It was found,
through the capable vision of another bocor, that an ances-
tor, (of whom he knew nothing, because he died in Africa
hundreds of years back), had never been fed. This ancestor
held him by the foot to let him know that he was hungry.
 For this banquet-service the bocor killed five bulls, fifty
sheep, fifty hogs. Fowls of all kinds, and vegetables, were
by the ton. He borrowed every iron kettle, and all the
spoons and eating and drinking gourds in the country to
cook and serve the food. He invited everyone to come and
share this feast which was to last from Friday evening
through Monday morning.
 But there was one person he did not invite, and that
 person was Malice. The bocor swore that he'd rather lose
 that foot than have Malice as his guest, because, in the pre-
 vious years, Malice had ruined his banquet with his mis-