"They talk all night. Benoit Battraville explains the Templars' mission and their employers, the Wallflower Order; they discuss techniques and therapy associated with The Work. Similarities and differences between South American, North American and African rites.Black Herman and PaPa LaBas leave early in the morning as dawn comes over New York. Just as LaBas is walking down the ramp with Black Herman, he turns to Benoit Battraville standing in The Black Plume's stateroom doorway.
You are very erudite in not only your own history but the history of the world and in a language we understand. What is the reason for this?
You actually have been talking to a seminar all night. Agwe, God of the Sea in his many manifestations, took over when I found it difficult to explain things. In fact this is his ship. He presides over our Navy.
LaBas smiles. That Old Work was some Work.
As he and Black Herman approach Black Herman's auto, Herman turns to PaPa LaBas.
Of course there was the man alternating with the spirit... didn't you see him jerk from time to time. Jerk his head. Next time you go to a so-called Holiness storefront watch the soloist who is backed up by the choir of rattling tambourines; see if he or she doesn't jerk her head at a crucial moment 'when the Spirit hits her'.
It's all over the place, isn' it. I should have known. Different methods. Different signs, but all taking you where you want to go.
The men climb into the car and head from the pier. Then, into Manhattan.
PaPa LaBas thinks to himself as he rides alongside the silent Black Herman, Perhaps I have been insular, as Berbelang said, limiting myself to a Mumbo Jumbo Kathedral, not allowing myself to witness the popular manifestations of The Work."
-Ishmael Reed, from Mumbo Jumbo
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