The fetish folk of West Africa

John Stuart Mill · en
Women who cannot marry—The slave-trade—The
      rum-traffic—Elida—Augustus—Trade and polygamy—Too proud to
      speak—Destruction of authority—Customs not irrational—The
      dowry—The foreign governments—The whipping-post—A fatal
      defect.


                                   IV
 A LIVING REMNANT                                                     56

    A difficult work—The Jesuits—Iguwi—Single blessedness—A chicken
      breakfast—Buttons—A remarkable illustration—A
      service—Fluency—Toko Truman—Izuri—Ntyango—Sara—Lucina—Uncle
      Remus—_The Tortoise and his Creditors_—_The Wag_—A battle in
      canoes—A captive father—A graveyard.


                                    V
 AFRICAN MUSIC                                                        72

    A taste for comic opera—An organ and an organist—The origin of
      music—Musical instruments—The sense of melody—A decomposed
      tune—Unfamiliar scales—Mourning—Rhythm—Extremely musical—Three
      songs.


                                   VI
 PESTS                                                                85

    _The Ten Plagues_—Killing flies—The driver ant—Other ants—The
      jigger—The sandfly—The mosquito—The centipede—The
      cockroach—The white ant—Divers other pests—Internal
      parasites—Rats—Snakes.


                                   VII
 THE “CANNIBAL” FANG                                                 110

    A discriminating palate—Not the worst cannibals—Appearance—The
      Negro face and the Greek face—Legs—The wheel—Dress—An
      overdressed woman—Food—Cannibalism—An affair of honour—Native
      art—Curiosity—Turning them into monkeys.


                                  VIII
 MANNERS AND CUSTOMS                                                 125

    The native resourceful—Unambitious—Trade—Communism—Boiling the
      Bible—A quarrel—Marriage—The dowry—A case of torture—The
      head-wife—The tongue a woman’s weapon—Polygamy—_Ogula and her
      Ngalo_—_Tragedy_—Dancing—The story-teller—An interesting liar.


                                   IX
 FUNERAL CUSTOMS                                                     145

    A talking corpse—A world of magic—Sympathy and expectoration—The
      dirge—Premature burial—A funeral incident—Death
      customs—Conventional mourning—An incident of the
      _grass-field_—A horrible burial custom—Two death scenes, a
      contrast.


                                    X
 THE “DOROTHY”                                                       158

    A godsend—A gasoline palaver—Canoeing—The rapids—A pilot—A
      sudden stop—Passengers—The mangrove swamp—A wheelman and a
      bottle—Pirates—Towing a town—Nkogo—Ndutuma—Ndong Bisia—A
      saucepan and a ball of twine.


                                   XI
 SCHOOLBOYS                                                          179