Well, indeed, the Giddies really are a family… even a clan!

And what would distinguish them from the other Lwa? They are surely not elementary even if they can at times be very rudimentary, they aren't utilitary either, that's even rather the opposite!

« Coarse? That yes, for sure! Sinister? Aye so it seems all too well! Expressive, vindictive, aggressive, ridiculous on the occasion and drunk in all season! » says a Criole nursery rhyme, which however is rather sang rarely because, first of all, the Giddies are feared and, by the way, mostly prayed or summoned by Bokor or by individuals with some dark business on the plan… (Let's admit that such individuals are bold, even rash indeed!)

Baron Saturday

Served according to the appropriate Rituals, Baron Saturday breaks in to ride the designated Mount. He never comes without some « goody goodoo goat peppa » spiced rum in a bottle, of which he repeatedly gulps pints before he holds it out to the worshippers, and as the already quoted rhyme goes (there is surprisingly a whole lot of them talking about the Giddies): « When Baron Sturdy offers you of his rum pepperly, // be careful to sip very calmly… // or to decline very politely! » He then starts a whole series of crazy dances where he tries to invite all women among participants to dance with him and more if affinities (from his side actually always)…

However, here, beware! For he is the Lwa of the Dead and death is, even if not so often, regularly the result of a « very close » contact with him…

He can be summoned in a variety of ways, according to the personifications he can adopt, all having in common however a skin as black as ebony and his Criole features, reminding those of Hattean slaves: Baron Cemetery, completely dressed in black, the face painted in white and a hard point of iron-wood always in the hand; or also Baron O'Cross, aka Baron Kristyan, his most « fashionable » personification if one dares to say: he appears then dressed in a white dancing suit, wearing a top hat, also white, and sun glasses (preferably several piled-up pairs) with cotton pads in the nostrils, surely to try to limit his nose bleeding at each - frequent - lecherous thought going through his mind…

When he « really » is Baron Saturday, he comes with his attributes: smoked glasses and the bottle of hot peppered rum but his suit and his hat are then black, while he will wear sockets, a scarf and a bandana (under the hat) of a sort of purple colour… and he is never ever tired of dancing the swing and the banda!

He is the master of the Giddy clan and he rules it in a tyranic way. His wife is Mummy Brizit.

Baron Sturdy is also the Lwa of « lecherous death » and of resurrection; one may often cross his way in the vicinities of cemeteries, where he obstructs the passing of dead men and even more of dead women but we will not follow his way further here! Indeed, Baron Saturday is also the incarnation of sexual excesses and his favourite dance, the languorous banda, is an imitation of the coitus.

Baron Krimi is, for his part, not at all a « creamy » one but the murderous personification of Baron Saturday, the eternally damned to death. He is called on, not without fright, to deliver death sentence or release and he is known to judge quickly and without remorse. Baron Krimi is the most vulgar and obscene of the Giddies, he never stops spitting, hitting and insulting everyone and everything while gulping long long glassfuls of his favourite drink: the kergrozene, an explosive cocktail of grog re-mixed with kerozene, with which he may suddenly decide to burn living chicken dead… It is said that their high-tuned shreak relieve him when he's got the « blue grog » (that is he gets the blues from drinking grog)… Sinister!

His colour? Black, that's straight! Yet also with some touch of purple to spice it and even sometimes a stroke of white…

Mummy Brizit

Mummy Brizit, wife of Baron Saturday, is a Lwa of death. As he does, among other things, she drinks alcoholic beverages spiced up with crushed goat peppa. Like Baron and the Giddies in a general manner, she uses an obscene language. She is the protector of tomb stones and cemeteries under the condition that they are equipped well enough with crosses.

She is symbolised by a black hen.

Giddy Nebo

A handsome young effeminated boy, Nebo long made jealous lovers of the two sexes but was assassinated by an unknown individual who is still waiting to pay for his crime…

At the time of his death adopted by Mummy Brizit, then recognised by Baron Saturday, he became Giddy Nebo.

He his since then at the side of Baron Saturday for his macabre offices as well as for the lecherous and spirituous ones. He is especially a protector of those who die in the prime of life.

He appears most of the time in a horse-riding black suit, wearing a pink scarf around the neck and manipulating a crop made of braids of the same colour, which fits perfectly to his style of Mount in the ceremonies given for him…

Like the majority of the Giddies, he smokes (the « Pavane ») and has always a bottle in hand but in his rum are infused medicinal herbs, bark or peels and orchids and he is not too sparing with it. His rum has the reputation to be able to heal practically all diseases.

To invoke him, the most efficient way is the sacrifice of a black billy goat served with grilled plantains, cigars and roasted sesame seeds, the whole being aspersed with rum and strawberry-milk (for the colour).

His colour is, one would have understood, the pink.

Giddy nephews and cousins

The Giddies are an almost innumerable family with criss-crossed roles, making it difficult to describe them exhaustively. We thus only want here to list some more of them who may give you, friend Game Master, ideas without an end for even more stories and Scenarii…

  • Petty-Malice is a specialist of bad practical jokes, if not even of dirty tricks, on the one hand. However he is extremely leisy on the other hand.
  • Giddy Lettol is quoted here because he doesn't fit at all in the picture of the rest of the clan: very polite and very gentle, he continuously make around him small (or sometimes big) presents and miracles. He is very small, dark skinned, very old and for that reason he uses a walking-stick and carries black sun-glasses under a worn black hat. It is said that he sees the future in a very precise way. The only problem is that it is almost impossible to invoke him: he comes when and where he wants, preferably to help the poor and desperate.
  • Brad-Giddy, who is by no mean a nice « brad », directs the minute of death: he cuts the thread of life. He has a big pair… of cisors and a sliced phallus for attributes, the association of death and lust being – would one have understand it now?! – one of the brand names of the Giddies.
  • Giddy Dad is the « gentle » face of Baron Saturday and, so is it said, the first man who died.
  • Giddy-Tailed, Giddy-Stortm, Giddy Plumage, also called Giddy-On when he is manifested under the form of a quick-tempered duck of which the squeaking expells bad souls from cemeteries, etc. ad nauseam…
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