Man, Past and PresentKeane, A. H. (Augustus Henry)
History
Man, Past and Present
Keane, A. H. (Augustus Henry)
Anthropology; Ethnology
Ashanti Dahomi Yoruba[161]
Safwhi Eweawo Ibadan
Denkera Agotine Ketu
Bekwai Anfueh Egba
Nkoranza Krepe Jebu
Adansi Avenor Remo
Assin Awuna Ode
Wassaw Agbosomi Ilorin
Ahanta Aflao Ijesa
Fanti Ataklu Ondo
Agona Krikor Mahin
Akwapim Geng Benin (Bini)
Akim Attakpami Kakanda
Akwamu Aja Wari
Kwao Ewemi Ibo[161]
Ga Appa Efik[161]
Other traditions refer to a time when all were of one speech, and lived
in a far country beyond Salagha, open, flat, with little bush, and
plenty of cattle and sheep, a tolerably accurate description of the
inland Sudanese plateaux. But then came a red people, said to be the
Fulahs, Muhammadans, who oppressed the blacks and drove them to take
refuge in the forests. Here they thrived and multiplied, and after many
vicissitudes they came down, down, until at last they reached the coast,
with the waves rolling in, the white foam hissing and frothing on the
beach, and thought it was all boiling water until some one touched it
and found it was not hot, and so to this day they call the sea _Eh-huru
den o nni shew_, "Boiling water not hot," but far inland the sea is
still "Boiling water[162]."
To A. B. Ellis we are indebted especially for the true explanation of
the much used and abused term _fetish_, as applied to the native
beliefs. It was of course already known to be not an African but a
Portuguese word[163], meaning a charm, amulet, or even witchcraft. But
Ellis shows how it came to be wrongly applied to all forms of animal and
nature worship, and how the confusion was increased by De Brosses'
theory of a primordial fetishism, and by his statement that it was
impossible to conceive a lower form of religion than fetishism, which
might therefore be assumed to be the beginning of all religion[164].
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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