I was referring to the strong traditions of vodun amongst some new-orleans populations, as in the Haitian variety, Baron Samedi ('baron saturday' is the english translation of the name) is one of the Ghede Loa, associated with death, the afterlife, serving as a psychopomp (one who ferries souls to the underworld, as with for example, Charon, the greek ferryman who, for those with the money to pay him [ dead man's pennies, a pair of coins placed over the eyes of those who died in ancient greece, as a means to pay the ferryman, who, despite the slight similarity of the names, is not to be confused with the centaur, chairon] of greek legend, would ferry the souls of the dead across the river Styx into hades, where souls would then be consigned to one of a few places within Hades' realm (Hades is the name both of the god of the underworld, who's consort is the queen of the underworld, Persephone, associated also with Demeter, spending, as a result of consuming some of the food in the underworld, 6 pomegranate seeds, according to legend, 6 months in hades (lower case 'h', for the place, Hades being the deity) and the other half the year out of the underworld, in a fertility cycle of symbolic death and rebirth, of all life.
In the case of Baron Samedi, he is generally not depicted as evil, but neither as wholly safe and 'good'. Capricious, but generally a beneficial force rather than one for evil. Usually depicted as a man in black clothing and a top hat, along with glasses lacking lenses, with a love of smoking cigars, of rum, and known for telling obscene jokes to his fellow loa and those he encounters or possesses. The patron Loa of graveyards, the dead, ressurection, obscenities, debauchery, and helping those cursed to counter the magic thought employed by the bokor that did it; and additionally, to prevent those interred from rising again as the zombi of haitian mythology.
