Page:The land of fetish.pdf/63

 then, if the disease be likely to terminate fatally, he dolefully informs the sick man that he has used every means in his power to conciliate the unquiet spirit, but without effect. This, adding to the fears of the invalid, generally hastens the end.

A resident in Whydah told me that he once heard the following conversation between a sick man and a priest. The sick man said:—

"Who is it that wants to see me, and is troubling me now?"

"Oh! it is the ghost of your brother Gele. He is anxious to have some conversation."

"Ah! it's only him, is it? You're sure there's nobody else?"

"Oh! no—there's nobody else."

"Well just remind him, will you, how I used to thrash him when he was alive; and tell him if he doesn't leave off bothering me now I'll make him have a bad time of it when I go below."

The future habitation of the Dahoman soul is supposed to be a gloomy region situated under the earth, and like the world, but deprived of most of its beauties and pleasures. A Dahoman, like the inhabitants of the Gold Coast, believes in no future state of rewards and punishments, and he is firmly