The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1929, Page 188

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188

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

are mixed the cuttings of human finger- or toe-nails,
bits of human hair, a tooth, or anything. These
fetishes may be only an inch or two long; they are
seldom very large. The priest, having made such a
fetish, performs a ceremony and offers sacrifices over
it and thus brings a spirit into it, great or small,
powerful or less so, according as he is paid by the
man who desires to have it.

“Walking round the village gardens and cul-
tivated plots, one frequently notices a weird little
object tied to an upright stick among the yams or
sugar-canes or hanging from the branch of a tree
near the cassava. It is a fetish. Desiring to
‘protect? his vegetables or crops from thieves, the
owner has bought that fetish from his priest and has
hung it there in the belief that the spirit that in-
habits it will keep thieves away. And in actual
practise it works well; half a dozen policemen could
not more effectively keep off marauders, for the most
hardened rogue in the village will not risk the anger
of that spirit.

“Sometimes as one travels along the narrow
forest paths, at a place where two paths meet, there
may be a display of articles laid out on the grass, —
in fact, a little wayside shop. But there is no one
to look after it; people desiring to purchase some-
thing put the proper money in an open calabash
placed to receive it. What is the secret of this simple
trust in the honesty of passers-by? Observe more
carefully: hanging from a stick in the center is a

little mysterious bundle of some sort of rubbish —.

a fetish! In the presence of that no one would dare
to be dishonest. The belief in the powerful in-
dwelling spirit is sufficient.

“The word fetish is not of African origin. It
‘comes from the Portuguese feitico, an amulet, or
charm. And often it is not easy to distinguish be-
tween a true fetish (an object indwelt by a spirit)
and an amulet pure and simple. The selfsame
priest supplies both to his customers — and inciden-
tally is no poorer for the transaction. The villager,
continually haunted by the fear of spirits, seeks
whatever protection lies within his reach and hangs
charms around his waist, neck, or limbs, suspends

them from his head-dress, his stick, or his weapon.
_ There is one charm to protect him from the fierce
leopard; another, to deliver him from snakes;
_ others, to keep away such evils*as disease or to
_ protect him from the malice of his foes. To a very

large extent, fetishism is fear written in capital

letters.
_ “We have now mentioned three distinct classes
es, or charms: 1) the natural objects, such

as trees or rocks indwelt by spirits; 2) small
mysterious articles made by the priests and indwelt
by spirits that are believed to be under their control;
3) charms pure and simple. Europeans frequently
apply the word fetish to all of them; but the Afri-
cans (who do not ordinarily use the word fetish)
have separate words for each class and make a clear
distinction between them.

‘The Fetish-Priest.

“Tt is difficult to speak with restraint of the
fetish-priests and priestesses. Many of them are
cunning impostors of the blackest type. Probably
some of them believe in their own power to control
spirits; but there can be little doubt that they wil-
fully deceive the people and make money out of
their superstition and credulity. Many of them are
past masters in the art of mixing poisons — to pro-
duce almost ‘every effect. They can make poisons
that will kill instantly or that will take many
months to work through the human system. Some-
times a man will go to his fetish-priest to purchase
a fetish to cause an enemy to die. The crafty rogue
at once produces such a fetish and instructs his
client as to the way of using it. It may, for example,
be two or three little sticks, with a few yards of
string wrapped round. The sticks are to be stuck
into ‘the ground, and the string unwound and re-
wound, while certain magic words are being mut-
tered, together with the name of the intended
victim. It is only a question of time, days or weeks,
and that man has the satisfaction of knowing that
his enemy has slipped off this mortal coil. Of
course, he believes that it was the spirit in the fetish
that killed him; but those who have experience of
fetish priests will not accuse us of want of charity
if we suggest that the one who sold that fetish gave
‘the ‘spirit? some little assistance.

The Witch-Doctor.

“Among the Southern and Eastern Bantus the
witch-doctor takes the place of the fetish priest.
These Bantu peoples have no fetishes, no palisaded
trees or rocks, no curious bundles of sticks or
feathers hanging from trees. They believe in spirits
and fear them, but even more do they fear the men
who control the spirits. It is firmly held that it is
possible for human beings to have familiar spirits
and by their magic powers to bring evil upon people
they desire to injure. All evils that come upon the
individual or the clan are thought to be the result
of witchcraft. Some one is ill, perhaps dies, a child
is lost in the forest or perchance is killed by a
leopard, a hunter is crushed by an elephant or bitten

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