Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/84

 FETISHISM

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FETISHISM

they can be implicitly trusted. Thus, according to Ellis, the natives of the Gold Coast put their bohsum in fire as a probation, for the fire never injures the true bohsum. A fetish then, in the strict sense of the word, is any material object consecrated by the nganga or magic doctor with a variety of ceremonies and pro- cesses, by virtue of which some spirit is supposed to become localized in that object, and subject to the will of the possessor.

These objects are filled or rubbed by the nganga with a mixture compounded of various substances, selected according to the special work to be accom- plished by the fetish. Its value, however, depends not on itself, nor solely on the nature of these sub- stances, but on the skill of the nganga in dealing with spirits. Yet there is a relation, difficult sometimes for the foreigner to grasp, between the substances selected and the object to be attained by the fetish. Thus, to give the possessor bravery or strength, some part of a leopard or of an elephant is selected ; to give cunning, some part of a gazelle; to give wisdom, some part of the human brain ; to give courage, a portion of the heart ; to give influence, some part of the eye. These sub- stances are supposed to please and attract some spirit, which is satisfied to reside in them and to aid their possessor. The fetish is compounded in secret, with the accompaniment of drums, dancing, invocations, looking into mirrors or limpid water to see faces human or spiritual, and is packed into the hollow of the shell or bone, or smeared over the stick or stone. If power over some one be desired, the nganga must receive crumbs from the food, clippings of the finger-nails, some hair, or even a drop of blood of the person, which is mixed in the compound. So fearful are the natives of power being thus obtained over them, that they have their hair cut by a friend; and even then it is carefully burned, or cast into the river. If one is accidentally cut, he stamps out the blood that has dropped on the ground, or cuts away the wood which it has saturated.

The African negro in appealing to the fetish is prompted by fear alone. There is no confession, no love, rarely thanksgiving. The being to whom he ap- peals is not God. True he does not deny that God is; if asked, he will acknowledge His existence. Very rarely and only in extreme emergencies, however, does he make an appeal to Him, for according to his belief God is so far off, so inaccessible, so indifferent to human wants, that a petition to Him would be almost vain. He therefore turns to some one of the mass of spirits whom he believes to be ever near and observant of human affairs, in which, as former human beings, some of them once had part. He seeks not spiritual, but purely physical, safety. A sense of moral and spiritual need is lost sight of, although not quite eliminated, for he believes in a good and a bad. But the dominant feeling is fear of possible natural injury from human or subsidized spiritual enemies. This physical salvation is sought either by prayer, sacrifice, and certain other cere- monies rendered to the spirit of the fetish or to non-localized spirits, or by the use of charms or amu- lets. These charms may be material, i. e. fetishes; vocal, e. g. utterances of cabbalistic words which are supposed to have power over the local spirits; ritual, e. g. prohibited food, i. e. orumhi, for which any article of food may be selectetl antl made sacred to the spirit. At night the Congo chief will trace a slender line of ashes round his hut, and firmly believe that he has erected a barrier which will protect him and his till morning against the attacks of the evil spirit.

The African believes largely in preventive measures, and his fetishes are chiefly of this order. When least con.soioiis, he may lie offending some spirit with power to work him ill; he must therefore be supplied with charms for every season and occasion. Sleeping, eat- ing, drinking, he must lie protected from hostile in-

fluences by his feti-shes. These are hung on the plantation fence, or from the branches of plants in the garden, either to prevent theft or to sicken the thief; over the doorway of the house, to bar the entrance of evil ; from the bow of the canoe, to ensure a successful voyage ; they are worn on the arm in hunting to ensure an accurate aim; on any part of the person, to give success in loving, hating, planting, fishing, buying; and so through the whole range of daily work and interests. Some kinds, worn on a bracelet or neck- lace, ward off sickness. The new-born infant has a health-knot tied about its neck, wrist, or loins. Before every house in Whydah, the seaport of Dahomey, one may perceive a cone of baked clay, the apex of which is discoloured with libations of palm-oil, etc. To the end of their lives the people keep on multiplying, re- newing, or altering these fetishes.

In fetish-worship the African negro uses prayer and sacrifice. The stones heaped by passers-by at the base of some great tree or rock, the leaf cast from a passing canoe towards a point of land on the river bank, are silent acknowledgements of the presence of the omb- u'iris (i. e. spirits of the place). Food is offered, as also blood-offerings of a fowl, a goat, or a sheep. Until recently human sacrifices were offered, e. g. to the sacred crocodiles of the Niger Delta; to the spirits of the oil- rivers on the upper Guinea coast, where annual sacri- fices of a maiden were made for success in foreign com- merce; the thousands of captives killed at the " annual custom" of Dahomey for the safety of the king and nation. In fetishism prayer has a part, but it is not prominent, and not often formal and public. Ejacula- tory prayer is constantly made in the utterance of cab- balistic words, phrases, or sentences adopted by, or assigned to, almost every one by parent or doctor. According to Ellis no coercion of the fetish is attempted on the Gold Coast, but Kidd states that the negro of Guinea beats his fetish, if his wishes are frustrated, and hides it in nis waistcloth when he is about to do anything of which he is ashamed.

The fetish is used not only as a preventive of or de- fence against evil (i. e. ii'hite art), but also as a means of offence, i. e. black art or witchcraft in the full sense, which always connotes a possible taking of life. The half-civilized negro, w'hile repudiating the fetish as a black art, feels justified in retaining it as a white art, i. e. as a weapon of defence. Those who practise the black art are all "wizards" or "witches" — names never given to practisers of the white art. The user of the white art uses no concealment; a practitioner of the black art denies it, and carries on its practice se- cretly. The black art is supposed to consist of evil practices to cause sickness and death. Its medicines, dances, and enchantments are also used in the pro- fessed innocent white art ; the difference is in the work which the spirit is entrusted to perform. Not every one who uses white art is able to use also the black art. Anyone believing in the fetish can use the white art without subjecting himself to the charge of being a wizard. Only a wizard can cause sickness or death. Hence witchcraft belief includes witch- craft murder.

There exists in Bantu a society called the "Witch- craft Company ", whose members hold secret meetings at midnight in the depths of the forest to plot sickness or death. The owl is their sacred bird, and their signal-call is an imitation of its hoot. They profess to leave their corporeal bodies asleep in their huts, and it is only their spirit-bodies that attend the meeting, passing through walls and over tree-tops with instant rapidity. At the meeting they have visible, audible, and tangible communications with spirits. They have feasts, at which is eaten "the heart-life" of some human being, who through this loss of his "heart" falls sick and dies unless the "heart" be restored. The early cock-crow is a warning for them to tlisperse, for they fear the advent of the morning star, as, snould