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
The next day it was the same, he staying with the new Ilâmbe and rising
late in the morning. The fourth day his wife said to him, "You have work
to do, and you do not get up to do it till late." He was displeased at her
fault-finding. When she saw that, she also was displeased.
So when he went to the bathroom she followed him there. On the way she had
secretly taken with her the roll of black powder she had kept from the day
of his creation.
While he was bathing, she turned aside, without his noticing it, and
opening the roll of the powder, took out of it a little, and held it
between her finger and thumb.
While he was dressing, she came near, stooped down, and rubbed the powder
on his feet. They suddenly turned to hoofs. He began stamping his hoofs on
the floor, surprised, and saying, "Wife, what is this?" She said, "It is
nothing. You have finished dressing. Go out." He began to plead; she
relented, and by her ngalo's power changed the hoofs back to feet. They
both went out of the room and had their breakfast, and that day passed.
But at night he again abandoned his wife for the new Ilâmbe, and next
morning he was up later even than on the previous days. He had to be
called several times before he would awake. He began to grumble and scold,
"Can't a person be left to sleep as long as he desires?" And when he and
the new Ilâmbe came from that bedroom, she joined in the man's displeasure
at his having been disturbed. He went for his bath. The wife followed, and
used the powder as she had done the day before, turning his feet to hoofs.
He begged and pleaded. She again forgave him, and fixed the feet again.
And they two came out of the bathroom and had their breakfast as usual. He
went to his work, and the day wore on. At night he again deserted his
wife. The next morning there was the same confusion in arousing him as on
the other days.
His wife accompanied him to the bathroom as usual. While he was in the
bath, and before he was done bathing, she left the room, and told the new
Ilâmbe, "You sit down near the bathroom door. You will see him come out."
The visitor replied, "It is well"; and she sat down. And Ilâmbe went into
the bathroom again.
When the man got out of his bath, as soon as he attempted to dress
himself, Ilâmbe, without saying anything or making any complaint, went
behind him, and having the whole roll of powder with her, she opened the
bundle, flung it on his back, and said, "You go back to where you came
from!" Instantly he was changed to a mbinde, and he began to leap about as
a goat. Then Ilâmbe cried out to the other Ilâmbe at the door, "Are you
ready to receive him? He's coming!" and she opened the door. Out ran the
mbinde, leaped from the house, dashed through the town and off to the
forest, the people shouting in derision, "Hâ! hâ! hâ! So, indeed, that
handsome man was the mbinde that was taken to Ilâmbe's house!"
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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