They did not see Jes Grew as an anti-plague, which it was. The Wallflower Order seemingly hasn’t learned anything since the 1890s. Within seconds the whole French Quarter is in convulsions and Jes Grew is here in New Orleans. There is a commotion outside and the Mayor rushes out to see Zuzu dancing and rejoicing. This thing knows “no class no race no consciousness” and is “self-propagating and you can never tell when it will hit” (5). When the Mayor asks if the man talked to the patients, he impatiently says of course, and responds that the person said they saw the Nkulu Kulu of the Zulu, felt like “the gut heart and lungs of Africa’s interior” (5) and could hear drums and banjos and kazoos and started to speak in tongues. It is a psychic epidemic, not a lesser germ-more like a demonic disease. It is serious and keeps changing into something else. The Mayor sighs that he has an election coming up but the man urges him that this will soon be a pandemic and the end of civilization. They saw it Jes Grewing like in the 1890s and tried to control it but it began spreading. There were reports this morning of people doing strange and stupid and sensual things and they figured out it is “this coon mumbo jumbo” (4).

The door swings open and they see about 22 people lying on cots.Ī man tells the Mayor the only thing that anesthetizes them is sleep.

Louis Cathedral where Marie Laveau used to worship. He tells her he has to get to the infirmary because the Thing “has stirred in its moorings” (3). The Mayor stands abruptly and Zuzu falls to the ground in surprise. The telephone rings and his poker partner tells him to come down quickly, for the dormant thing is now alive and active. The Mayor of New Orleans is dressed spiffily with Zuzu on his lap.

Mumbo jumbo first video