ZOMBIE BABIES: DARK DENIZENS FROM

THE SHADOWY CRADLE OF NEW ORLEANS FOLKLORE

Original Story By Alyne A. Pustanio

© 2010 All Rights Reserved

“… Slowly, the ghostly infant took on substance and grew tiny legs to propel itself across the ground; tiny arms moved in unison, with chubby claws where little hands should be.  A horrid, hunched back made movement difficult and the head seemed too heavy for its body; it lolled up and down as the ghastly little creature moved inexorably forward.  Unblinking, glowing red eyes were fixed upon its target; ribbons of drool hung from a mouth lined with teeth like a serrated knife’s edge.  Slowly, with the lurching movements of the living dead, the piteous creature crawled up onto its dead mother.  Clutching at her bruised and yellowed legs, it made its way over her distended belly and with little clawed fingers tore at the bodice covering the darkly swollen, decomposing breasts.  Greedy, hungry, with horrible gurgling sounds, the zombie baby began to suckle the putrid milk from its dead mother’s breasts.”           

            -- From an original story, Copyright © 2010 by Alyne A. Pustanio

Death of infants by exposure is well-known in folklore throughout the world.  In times of hardship or need, when another mouth to feed might mean ruin for an entire family, it was not uncommon for parents to take the newborn to a lonely place, scratch out a meager grave, and leave the unwanted baby to die.  Death might come quickly in winter when the biting cold would stiffen the little limbs and the slow advance of frost would lull the tiny body into the release of sleep.  More often, nature would intervene and the tiny body would be sniffed out and torn to bits by wolves or other hungry animals.  Some parents, mindful that this fate might await the child, would dig the grave deeper and bury the child alive, leaving it to suffocate in the cloying earth.

The folklore beliefs surrounding this harsh treatment of infants are entirely clear: The spirits released from these tiny bodies burned with hatred and a desire for vengeance and to compensate for their helplessness during their brief lives, the ghosts of children murdered in this way are always fearsomely strong.

In the story described above, a mother, mentally unstable, homeless, and unable to care for her infant child had exposed the infant to cause its death.  But the spirit of the baby not only sought her out but, animate with unnatural life, it had murdered and fed upon her.  Invigorated by her decomposing flesh, strengthened by her coagulating blood and the milk of her putrid breasts, the piteous little child transformed itself into a formidable zombie.

Though belief in the power of dead infants spans the globe, in New Orleans the legend takes on a different twist in part due to the vast number of belief systems at play in the old city’s folklore.

In New Orleans it is well-known that pregnant women unlucky enough to be “overlooked” by the Evil Eye or to incur the wrath of a hoodoo man or woman would give birth to little monsters.  Midwives developed their own methods of countering the bad magic, but in most cases their efforts had no effect whatsoever and so methods of containing or even destroying the abominable infants were quickly developed.

Babies who were born already zombified by the evil work of hoodoo or the “overlooking” of a witch were taken unwashed and quickly bound with anything handy – bloody, torn sheets, the remnants of the mother’s nightclothes, table linens, shredded curtains, and finally jute or ropes – all in an effort to contain the baby, whose magic curse gave it incredible powers.  This swaddling or binding was known as “spells and bells” because while the women worked to wrap the zombie baby they would recite spells over it, all the while weaving in blessed crosses, holy medals, strings of rosary beads, or even a blessed Eucharistic wafer, along with numerous bells that jingled as the baby fought the wrapping.

In most instances, to assure secrecy, the bound zombie baby would be carried only as far as the back yard or the alley where a grave was quickly dug out.  Once the baby had been thrust into the wet, moldy New Orleans mud – usually face down – bricks, flagstones, and other heavy objects were piled up on it to ensure it did not escape.  “St. Joe” bricks, placed with the writing face down, were thought particularly effective in containing a zombie baby.  The mother was admonished to listen until the sound of the bells could no longer be heard – sometimes an unbearably long process.  When the sounds stopped and there was no more movement from the dismal little grave, the mother could take some assurance that the zombie baby had finally died.

Of course, as with all things in New Orleans, when there is magic of any kind at work, the outcome is not always completely certain; and depending upon the power of the hoodoo worker or witch who had cursed the baby, some zombie babies could come back to life weeks, even months after their ignoble burials.

Some New Orleans mothers come to terms early on with the fact that they are carrying a monster and bear the child to term only to keep it and welcome it as a member of the family.  Certainly its “disability” requires that it be secluded from the rest of the family and the prying eyes of friends and neighbors, and the weaning and feeding of such an infant can be particularly trying, but when a mother’s love wins out over such difficulties the zombie baby can become the most loyal of all children – one that will kill on command and fiercely protect its family for generations.

But if a zombie baby that has been exposed and abandoned is reawakened  by whatever means, and is smart enough, and strong enough, to work itself free of its bondage, this is a very, very bad thing. 

These zombie babies, apparently possessing a morbid sense of the dramatic along with their extraordinary supernatural powers, will first seek out not the mother, as might be imagined, but the midwife or rootworker who did the deed.  In fact, zombie babies of New Orleans seem to prefer to save for last the mother who abandoned it to its horrible fate, and once its mother  is found the Zombie Baby, like any other precocious newborn, will want to share lots and lots of “quality time” all alone . . . just mother and child.

Alyne Pustanio is also a one of the fantastic featured contributing writers in Brad Stieger's Number 1 Best Selling Book:

Real Zombies, the Living Dead, and Creatures of the Apocalypse

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Alyne Pustanio told many of the strange horrifying legends and mysterious tales of real New Orleans Zombie Babies at Con Du Lac this past June 2010.

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