In Marie Laveau’s time, the potion we know today as
War Water or Water of Mars was likely not known by either name, though we can’t be certain. However, she is likely to have made similar potions and use it in a
similar manner as is suggested in modern times. The potion would be placed in a bottle and then tossed against an enemy’s front door or side of the house as a threat to the intended target.
War Water is rusty water that contains cut nails, rusty nails, or coffin nails. The nails come from different places in order to take advantage of their
magical correspondences. For example, using nails from a jail would add the element of possible imprisonment for the target. Nails from a hospital would add the element of illness to the conjure. We are lucky to have a description from 1860 – well before Marie Laveau’s death – that describes the use of water in such a manner by “hags, ugly as sin” who:
…mutter a jargon as unintelligible as a mixture of Chinese, Tahitian and Senegambian words. Water, as it is supposed, all powerful to injure, is distributed, so that it may be thrown in front of the door or upon the wall of some house against whose inmates a Voudou may entertain a prejudice. Of course, their spies keep watch upon family affairs, and if a death happens or a difficulty, it is immediately reported that the charm has operated. To the superstitious, it is
conclusive evidence of the witchcraft power of the queen sorceress. (Daily True Delta)
Interestingly, we can trace the use of water used in actual war to the Maji Maji Rebellion, an armed insurgence against German colonial rule in German East Africa (modern-day Tanzania). The war, which lasted from 1905 to 1907, was prompted by a German
policy designed to force the indigenous population to grow cotton for export. Just like the Haitians turned to gris gris and the Voudou spirits to win the Haitian Revolution in 1791, indigenous insurgents turned to conjure to both drive out the Germans, as well as unify around this cultural resource during the rebellion. The spirit medium and leader of the rebellion, Kinjikitile "Bokero" Ngwale, is said to have been possessed by a serpent spirit called Hongo who told him that the people of
German East Africa should eliminate the Germans. Thus, he gave his followers a war medicine or a holy water called maji to protect them from German bullets (Jestice). This war water contained water mixed with castor oil and millet seeds (Pakenham). It should be noted that although the maji appeared to be an abject failure in terms of physically protecting the soldiers from harm, Kinjikitile Bokero Ngwale is considered a hero among the great warrior tribe of Ngoni.
