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
He saw her approach every possible part of the body, seeking to find even
a minute spot that was not barred by the pepper. She searched long and
anxiously, but in vain; and in despair they went and hid herself in a
wood-pile at the back of one of the village huts, waiting in terror for
some possible escape.
All this the husband saw silently. When morning light finally came, he
knew that this wife was dead, for her life-spirit had not succeeded in
returning to its body within the specified time. It was therefore a dead
body. But he said nothing about it to any one, and went off fishing.
As the morning hours were passing while he was away and the woman's door
of her hut was still closed, his children began to wonder and to say,
"What is this? What is the matter? Since morning light our father's wife
has not come out into the street." After waiting awhile longer, their
anxiety and curiosity overcame them, and they broke in the door. There
they saw the woman lying dead. They fled in fear, saying, "What is this
that has killed our father's wife?" They went down to the beach to meet
him as he returned from fishing, and excitedly told him, "Father, we have
found your Boheba wife dead!" The man, to their surprise, did not seem
grieved. He simply said, "Let another one of my wives cook for me; I will
first eat." Still more to their surprise, he added, "And you, my children,
and all people of the village, do not any of you dare even to touch the
body. Only, at once, send word to her Boheba relatives to come."
This warning he gave his people, lest any of them should sicken by coming
close to the atmosphere that the witch had possibly brought back with her
from her play.
By the time he had finished eating, the woman's relatives had arrived.
They were all heavily armed with guns and spears and knives, and were
threatening revenge for their sister's death.
The man quietly bade them delay their anger till they had heard what he
had to say; and took them to the woman's hut, that they themselves might
examine the corpse, leaving to them the chance of contamination.
They examined; they lifted up the body of their sister, and searched
closely for any sign of wound or bruise. Finding none, but still angry,
they were mystified, and exclaimed, "What then has killed her?" And they
seated themselves for a verbal investigation. But the man said, "We will
not talk just yet. First stand up, and you shall see for yourselves." As
they arose, the man said, "Remove all those sticks in that wood-pile. You
will find the woman there." So they pulled away the sticks; and there they
found Three-Things. "There!" said the husband, "see the reason why your
sister is dead!" At that the relatives were ashamed, and said,
"Brother-in-law! we have nothing to say against you, for our eyes see what
our sister has done. She has killed herself, and she is worthy to be
punished by fire." (Burning was a common mode of execution for the crime
of witchcraft.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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