Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/83

 FETISHISM

FETISHISM

a certain mass of matter is not regarded as permanent. The native will point out a lightning-struck tree, and tell you its spirit has been killed, i. e., the spirit is not actually dead, but has fled and lives elsewhere. When the cooking pot is broken, its spirit has been lost. If his weapon fails, it is because some one has stolen the spirit, or made it sick by witchcraft. In every action of life he sliows how muoli ho lives with a great, power- ful spirit-world a nil md him. Before starting to hunt or fight, he rubs iiicihciiie into his weapons to strengthen the S[)irit within them, talking to them the while, telling them what care he has taken of tliem and what he has given them lief ore, though it was hard to give, and begging them not to fail him now. He may be seen bending over the river, talking w-ith proper in- cantations to its spirit, asking that, when it meets an enemy, it will upset the canoe and destroy the occu- pant. The African believes that each human soul has a certain si)an of life due or natural to it. It should be born, grow up through childhood, youth, and man- hood to old age. If this does not liappen, it w because some malevolent influence has blighted it. Hence the Africans' prayers to the spirits are always: " Leave us alone!" "Go away!" "Come not into this town, plantation, house; we have never injured you. Go away!" This malevolent influence which cuts short the soul-life may act of itself in various ways, but a coercive witchcraft may have been at work. Hence the vast majority of deaths — almost all deaths in which no trace of blood is shown — are held to have been produced by human beings, acting through spirits in their command, and from this idea springs the widespread belief in witches and witchcraft.

Thus every familiar object in the daily life of these people is touched with some curious fancy, and every trivial action is regulated by a reference to unseen spirits who are unceasingly w'atching an opportunity to hurt or annoy mankind. Yet upon close inspec- tion the tenets of this religion are vague and unformu- lated, for with every tribe and every district belief varies, and rites and ceremonies diverge. The fetish- man, fetizero, nganga, chitbone, is the authority on all religious observances. He offers the expiatory sacri- fice to the spirits to keep off evil. He is credited with a controlling influence over the elements, winds and waters obey the waving of liLs charm, i. c. a bimdle of feathers, or the whistle through the magic antelope horn. He brings food for the departed, pniphcsies, and calls down rain. One of liis principal duties is to find out evil-doers, that is, persons who by evil magic have caused sickness or death. He is the exorcist of spirits, the maker of charms (i. e. fetishes), the pre- scriber and regulator of ceremonial rites. He can discover who "ate the heart" of the chief who died yesterday; who caused the canoe to upset and gave lives to the crocodiles and the dark waters of the Congo; or even "who blighted the palm trees of the village and dried up their sap, causnig the supply of nmlnju to cease; or who drove away the rain from a district, and withheld its field of nguba" (ground-nuts). The fetish doctors can scarcely be said to form a class. They have no organization, and are honoured only in their own districts, unless they be called specially to minister in another place. In their ceremonies they make the petiple dance, sing, play, beat drinns, and they spot their bodies with their "medicines". Any- one may choose the profession for himself, and large fees are demanded for services.

.4mong the natives on the lower Congo is found the ceremony of n'kimba, i. e. the initiation of young men into the mysteries and rites of their religion. Every village in this region has its n'kimba enclosure, gener- ally a walled-in tract of half an acre in extent buried in a tliick grove of trees. Inside the enclosure are the huts of the ngangn and his assistants, as well as of those receiving instruction. The initiated alone are permitted to enter the enclosure, where a new lan-

guage is learned in which they can talk on religioua matters without being understood by the people. In other parts of the Congo the office falls on an indi- vidual in quite an accidental manner, e. g. because fortune has in some way distinguished him from his fellows. Evei-y unusual action, display of skill, or superiority is attributed to the intervention of some supernatural power. Thus the future ngntiga usually begins his career by some lucky adventure, e. g. prowess in hunting, success in fishmg, bravery in war. He is then regarded as possessmg some charm, or as enjoying the protection of some spirit. In considera- tion of payment he pretends to impart his power to others by means of charms, i. e. fetishes consisting of different herbs, stones, pieces of wood, antelope horns, skin and feathers tied in little bundles, the possession of which is supposed to yield to the purchaser the same power over spirits as the nganga himself enjoys.

The fetish-man always carries in liis sack a strange assortment of articles out of which he makes the fetishes. The flight of the poisonous arrow, the rush of the maddened bulTalo, or the venomous Ijite of the adder, can be averted by these charms; with their assistance the waters of the Congo may be safely crossed. The Moloki, ever ready to pounce on men, is cliecked by the power of the nganga. The eye-teeth of leopards are an exceedingly valuable fetish on the Kroo coast. The Kabinda negroes wear on their necks a little brown shell sealed with wax to preserve intact the fetish-raedicine within. A fetish is anything that attracts attention by its curious shape (e. g. an anchor) or by its behaviour, or anything seen in a dream, and is generally not shaped to represent the spirit. A fetish may be such by the force of its own proper spirit, but more commonly a spirit is supposed to be attracted to the object from without (e. g. the su/i- man), whether by the incantations of the nganga. or not. These wandering spirits may be natural spirits or ghosts. The Melanesians believe that the souls of the dead act through bones, while the independent spirits choose stones as their mediums (Brinton, Re- ligions of Prim. Peoples, New York, 1S97). Ellis says, if a man wants a snhman (a fetish), he takes some object (a rudely cut wooden image, a stone, a root of a plant, or some red earth placed in a pan), and then calls on a spirit of Sasahonsum (a genus of deities) to enter the object prepared, promising it offerings and worship. If a spirit consents to take up its residence in the object, a low hissing sound is heard, and the suhman is complete.

Every house in the Congo village has its m'kisd; they are frequently put over the door or brought in- side, and are supposed to protect the house from fire and robbery. The selection of the object in which the spirit is to reside is made by the native nganga. The ability to conjure a free wandering spirit into the nar- row limits of this material object, and to compel or subordinate its power to the service of some desig- nated person and for a special purpose, rests with hini. The favourite articles used to confine spirits are skins (especialljr tailsof bushcats), horns of the antelope, nut- shells, snail-shells, eagles' claws and feathers, tails and heads of snakes, stones, roots, herbs, bones of any animal (e. g. small horns of gazelles or of goats), teeth and claws of leopards, but especially human bones— of ancestors or of renowned men, but particularly of enemies or white men. Newly made graves are rifled for them, and among the bodily parts most prized are portions of human skulls, human eyeballs, especially those of white men. But anything may be chosen — a stick, string, bead, stone, or rag of cloth. Apparently there is no limit to the number of spirits; there is literally no limit to the number and character of the articles in which they may be confined. As, however, the spirits may quit the objects, it is not always cer- tain that fetishes possess extraordinary powers; they must be tried and give proof of their efficiency before