Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/394

 62 Journal of American Folk-Lore.

In order to show the confidence entertained in the sumavi, M. Perregaux cites the case of a woman who had destroyed many lives by witchcraft through the aid of her fetish, which in consequence was ordered to be burned. The woman preferred to keep her sumavi, and abandon to slavery her daughter and four little children.

" Beside the sumavi there is also the bosoum, the tutelar god of a city or family. This is either a river, as the Afram in Okwaou, or the Tano in Ashanti, or a rock, as the Buraka, or only a heap of clayey earth whitened with chalk, as the Deute. This bosoum is served by a qualified priest, the osofo. Recourse is had to him in the serious circumstances of life. When everything goes well, when existence follows its usual course, they are con- tent with the sumavi, but in the event of an extraordinary emergency, an epidemic, a war, a grave malady, it is to the bosoum that they resort. They then address the priest, the osofo, who consults the fetish. Offerings are brought to him, which he places before his fetish, then, after ceremonies one more absurd than another, intended to attract the attention of the fetish, the priest pretends to receive directions which he transmits to his solicitors.

" Let us take a concrete example, and see how things pass when one goes to consult the fetish Deute, at Krakye, the most known and most powerful on the Gold Coast.

" This fetish is served by two priests. One lives in public and is well known, while the other remains concealed, is known to nobody, and con- sidered as the great priest of the fetish. For the rest, all the inhabitants of Krakye are affiliated to the fetish and labor to augment his prestige and renown. If a stranger arrives in the town to consult the fetish, he is made to talk, interrogated, information is obtained concerning the object of his journey, his family circumstance, all this without display, and these details, it is unnecessary to say, are carefully communicated to the priest, who de- rives from them all possible profit. In the night, when all the world is asleep, he goes to find his secret companion, relates to him all he knows, and prepares with him the seance of the morrow. In fact, it is not possible to interrogate the fetish every day ; monsieur has his hours of consulation, and that but once a week. He inhabits a great cavern, in which, during the day, is kept his secret priest, and thither come the people to consult him, under the direction of the public priest.

" The procession arrives with the priest at the head, to the sound of tambourines and horns, and places itself at the entrance of the cave, but turning the back to it ; none dares gaze. I relate this verbally after the report of a native. Then in the cavern is heard something like the sound of a bell, — wuui-wuui-wuui, — and every one feels as if a pail of cold water were poured down his back ! Then come salutations, the throng presents to the fetish its homages, crying out the most flattering epithets : Nana e, nanae (grandfather), ape-ade-ahu (seer), opam-boy (stone-uniter), and the like. The entry of the cave is closed by a great curtain ; then stands the public priest and transmits to the multitude the answers of the fetish. The latter, utilizing the details which he has found means to collect during

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