REGULATORY DECREE of the Conseil of the Cap, which forbids nègres to keep packets called Macandals, or to compose and sell drugs

UPON what was represented to the Conseil by the Procureur Général du Roi: that from the declarations made by several Accused of supposed magical practices and poisonings, it clearly followed that the tied packets, called Macandals, could not be composed without the profanation of holy things; that sacrilege was very often joined to it, through the mixing in of crucifixes that are used in them; that the use of these packets necessarily entailed profanation, since whoever uses one mixes holy water and blessed incense into the mixture with which he coats the packets; that consequently, if those who use them were judged strictly, they would be punishable as profaners, under the terms of the Edict of July 1682; but that the simplicity of the nègres, which sometimes goes as far as stupidity, and the great number of those whom credulity had drawn into this superstition, seemed in some way to excuse them and to deserve indulgence for the past.