C(^e Palmas to 



vailing opinion of Christians, though 

 i-uiaualing probably from the same 

 ciuse, Ihe blacks conceive invariably 

 (o be of a white colour, assuming 

 various forms, to ctfect various malig- 

 nant purposes. The fetiche men, or 

 priests, are generally cunning, designing 

 fellows, who by llicir mummeries of 

 rags anJ reptiles, keep alive their hopes 

 and fears as best suits Ihcir | a 'poses, 

 by which means they cheat them out 

 of their properly; or, in conibinalion 

 with tlieir kings and chiefs, too fre- 

 quently rob them of their liberty also, 

 'i'hc Dahomians, whose tutelary deity 

 is the leo()ard, conquered the Grewhes, 

 or Wydalis, whose oliject of adoration 

 is a snake ; yet, when the leopard 

 commits depredations among the (locks 

 of (he latter, they destroy it with im- 

 punity, as the former do the snake, if 

 troublesome in their houses or poultry- 

 yards. Perhaps (iiis may be accounted 

 for by the king of Daliomy's power 

 being so absokito and uncontrolled, 

 that it requires no support from the 

 jiriesthood ; or else one might suppose, 

 that he would supj)ort the leopard order 

 of priests against the priests of the 

 snake, which is not the case. 



The alligator is the great fetiche at 

 little Popo, and this reptile sometimes 

 makes free to carry otf a child, when 

 bathing in tlie lagoon at that place. 

 At such times, the fetiche men, in order 

 to support their power and credit, are 

 compelled to take t!ie depredator; and 

 the first alligator they entrap, is passed 

 on the chilli's parents as such, and is 

 sacrificed to the manes of the de- 

 ccasi:d, 



Tiie Fanlecs, who have nearly as 

 many tutelar deities as there are days 

 in the )ear, yet whose religion hangs 

 more loosely on them than most Afri- 

 cans who have any religion at all, eat 

 the shark, the New Oalabarians' god ; 

 and samya, its Fantee name, they con- 

 sider as a dish fit to set before a king. 

 The canine race, which are the pro- 

 tecting d<itics of the Lagos peo|*lc, 

 arc considered, by the natives of Jlonny, 

 act the greatest dainties ; and the 

 iguana, the ]i<innians' object of adora- 

 tion, is devoured as excellent food by 

 Ibe natives of lUbin, a!id probably if 

 the Ibbibbys, or Quaws, could conve- 

 niently get at the monarch of that 

 nation, liisgedship would fare no better 

 than the shark, the dog, or the iguana. 



Circumcision is very commonly f>rac- 

 ti.sed on the nalivcR of western Afiica, 

 und where the Maliumodaii religion is 



the River Congo. 595 



not known ; and I could never obtain 

 any other information from them relative 

 to this practice, but that it was the 

 custom of their forefathers to be so 

 marked. 



DISEASES. 



The climate of Africa, Malemba, on 

 the coast of Angola, exccj)ted, has been 

 generally found to be extremely pre- 

 judicial to tlie health of newly-intported 

 Europeans. There are few persons who 

 have visited Alrica, but must have 

 observed the baneful effects of its 

 poisonous atmosphere on those not 

 inined to it, and have seen strangers, 

 whom curiosity alone has induced to 

 sleep a night or two on shore, (all 

 victims to its malignity. 



Sometimes, indeed, an European ap- 

 pears, whose constitution is so happily 

 framed as to adapt itself to any climate, 

 however bad, and who actually enjoys 

 good health without adopting any un- 

 usual caution to preserve it ; while his 

 surrounding companions are daily sink- 

 ing into the grave, and those who sur- 

 vive are to be seen crawling abonf, 

 more like cadaverous spectres, than 

 human beings endowed with life. The 

 diseases to which Europeans are liable 

 in this climate, are bilious fevers, of 

 the most malignant kind ; in recover- 

 ing from which, the patients, for many 

 months, labour under extreme debility, 

 or, probably, intermitting fever or dy. 

 sentcry. 



Tliis extreme nnhealthincss arises 

 from a moist and hot atmosplierc, and 

 which is impregnated with marsh niias. 

 niata, and the noxious gas evolved troni 

 vegetable matter in a state of decom- 

 position, the process of which is con- 

 stantly going on in a country lying so 

 near the eijuator, but little cultivated, 

 and where the woods arc so dense as 

 to be impervious to the rays of the sun. 



Notwithstanding this climate isfouiul 

 to be so extremely prejudicial to tho 

 health of Europeans, the natives ap- 

 pear to enjoy good health, and to live 

 to a tolerably old age. The wet season, 

 like our winter, produces iMnammatory 

 attacks of ihe lungs and pleura, and 

 also catarrh and mumjts. The Africans 

 seem peculiarly sensible of the least 

 change in tbi; touiperuturc of the almos- 

 phere. 



When the small-pox makes its ap- 

 pearance, it frequently depopulates 

 entire villages; and, as a disease, it is 

 probably the greatest scourge the Afri-* 

 cans have to contend with. The com- 

 uiou diseases to h hich the tl:ick.<s are (tub. 

 4 j'ct, 



