The Hottentots believed that the good spirits sometimes came in the form of a winged insect, having a green back, a belly speckled with white and red, and with two horns. They worshiped this insect wherever they found it. If this insect alighted on a Hottentot he was looked upon as a man without fault, and distinguished and reverenced as a sacred person ever after. His neighbors gloried that they had such a favored mortal amongst them, and published the fact far and near. The fattest ox belonging to the kraal was killed as a thank-offering, and all the people kept festival for days. The case was in every respect the same if the insect alighted upon a woman; she was regarded as a sanctified person and the delight of the spirit. The son of a German, who had given leave to some Hottentots to turn their cattle upon his land, was amusing himself one day in the kraal, when this insect appeared. The Hottentots immediately ran tumultuously to adore it, while the young German ran to catch it, in order to see what the effect would be amongst them. He seized it in the midst of them. The cry of agony was general when they saw it in his hands. They stared with distraction in their eyes at him and at one another. “See, see, see!” said they. “What is he going to do? Will he kill it?” They were wild through apprehension of its fate. “Why,” said he, “do you make such a hideous noise; and why are you in such agony about this paltry creature?” “Ah!” they replied, with utmost concern, “it is a divinity. It is come from Heaven. It is come on a good design. Do not hurt it; do not offend it. We are the most miserable wretches on earth if you do. This ground will lie under a curse, and the crime will never be forgiven.” This was not enough for the young German, who determined to carry the experiment a little further, and made as though he certainly intended to maim or destroy it. On this the people ran about, and screamed as though they were frantic; they fell prostrate on the ground before him, and with streaming eyes and loudest cries besought him to spare the creature and give it its liberty. Having sufficiently tested the reality of their belief in this insect-god, he let it fly, and they shouted in all the transports of joy. FETICH WORSHIP.