Fetichism in West Africa : $b forty years' observation of native customs and superstitionsNassau, Robert Hamill
Philosophy
Fetichism in West Africa : $b forty years' observation of native customs and superstitions
Nassau, Robert Hamill
Ethnology -- Africa, West; Fetishism -- Africa, West
My informant told me that when he was a lad he assisted his father in
using another method. His father was intimate with white men, trading
extensively with them in ivory. To increase his credit, he set out to make
a new fetich. He called the son to accompany him to the forest, and handed
him a basket to carry. They searched among the trees until they found two
growing near together, but bent in such a way toward each other that their
trunks crossed in contact, and were rubbed smooth by abrasion; and when
violently rubbing, in a storm, gave out a creaking sound. In that
mysterious sound inhered the fetich power. He chose the trees, not for any
value in their kind, but because of their singular juxtaposition and their
weird sounds. He gathered bark from these trees, and the son carried the
basketful back to their village. The father fixed the time of arrival and
point of entrance so that they should not be seen as they came to their
house. He then went out to the behu (kitchen-garden) and plucked four ripe
plantains (mehole); and gathered leaves of a certain tree, by name "boka."
An earthen pot containing water and pieces of the twin-tree bark was set
over the fire, and into the pot were finely sliced the mehole and the boka
leaves. To these were added a certain kind of fish, by name "hume," a
bottle of palm-oil, gourd seeds, and ground-nuts. All these were
thoroughly boiled together. When they were sufficiently boiled, he lifted
off the pot from the fire, not by his hands, but by clasping its hot sides
with his feet, as he sat on a low stool, and placed it on the ground.
Sitting by it, he held his face over it, with a cloth thrown over his
head, thus inhaling the steam. He remained in this steam bath for about an
hour.
At food time he cut two pieces of leaves from plantains, spread them on
the ground and sat on them, and ate the mess that was in the pot. While
eating, he uttered into the pot adjurations, _e. g._, "Let no one, not
even a Mabeya tribesman, hinder me from the white man's good-will! When I
go some day to make my request to the white man, let him grant it!" When
he had finished eating, he told his son to carry the pot into an inner
room and deposit it in a large box, which the father opened for that
purpose. The pot was not washed; it still contained the remains of the
pottage. He told his son to reveal to no one what they had done.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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