The term "Vodou" "encompasses a variety of Haiti's African-derived religious traditions and practices". It is West African in form but with considerable Roman Catholic borrowings. In combining these differing traditions it has often been described as syncretic, while the scholar of religion Leslie G. Desmangles termed it a "symbiosis". The Haitian Creole term "Vodou" derives from the West African kingdom of Dahomey, where the term "Vôdoun" signified a spirit or deity. In Haiti, "Vodou" came to refer to a small subset of rituals, usually a specific style of dance and drumming, rather than a broader religious system.