All This Is That

Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Signs we saw in Colombia, Part 1

By Jack Brummet, South American Travel Ed.

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Monday, November 25, 2013

Witch Interrogation in Cartagena

By Jack Brummet, Religion Ed.

According to the Museum of the Inquisition in Cartagena, Colombia (which we visited last week), these are the questions used in the 17th century to determine whether or not someone was a witch (see the text below this photograph for the questions). Twisted, baffling, and scary.

Since when have you been a witch?
Why did you become a witch?
How did you become a witch and what happened on that occasion?
Whom did you choose as your partner?
What is his/her name?
What is the name of your master amongst the evil spirits?
What is the oath that you have had to render to him?
How and under what terms have you done it?
What fingers did you have to rise?
Where did you celebrate your wedding?
What demons and people attended your wedding?
What foods did you eat?
How was it served on the table?
Where you also sitting down at the table?
What kind of music was played? What were the dances? Did you not dance?
Who was assigned as your partner at the ceremony?
What mark did your partner make you on your body?
what evils have you caused? TO whom and how?
Why did you cause this evil?
How can it be remedied?
What kind of herbs, potions, and other means can be used to cure that curse?
To which children have you cast the spell of the "evil eye" and why have you done it?
What animals have you killed or put under a curse? And why have you done it?
Who are your associates for/in evil?
Why does the devil strike you blows at night?
How do you compose/prepare your ointment or witches' brews?
How can you fly through the air?
What words do you pronounce when you fly?
Are you flying so fast?
Who has taught you to fly?
What worms and caterpillars/slugs have you created?
What do you use to make these harmful/noxious animals (worms and caterpillars/slugs) and how are they created?
Has put the devil a bow/ribbon on to your curses/oaths?

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"Japanese" glass floats on the Caribbean

By Jack Brummet, South American Travel Ed.

I stumbled onto this woodpile the last day we spent at our eco-palapa-electricity free beach paradise, La Matuy (near the small town of Palomino in Colombia).

Growing up in the northwest, you would often find these glass floats along the Pacific Ocean beaches of Washington State. Obviously, someone is still using glass floats somewhere in the Caribbean/Atlantic. These three floats were just tossed on the woodpile they used for grilling fish and meats. Like the floats from back home, they presumably washed ashore during a storm. I didn't get a chance to ask anyone how they arrived, but they were a real blast from the past. In later years, most fishermen quit using the glass floats and used some sort of far less attractive plastic ones. When I was young, I remember seeing these in many people's homes, and most often they had found them washed up on a beach at somewhere like Kalaloch or La Push.

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Sunday, November 24, 2013

Colombia photographs: boats along the Palomino/La Matuy beach

By Jack Brummet, Colombia Travel Ed.

All along the fantastic and deserted beach we lived on at the eco-palapa joint near Palomino, property lines were often demarcated by old dinghys, prams, canoes, and rowboats. . .often with amazing textures, colors, and half-baked repairs. . .