GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 375 
stories repeated by the Capuchin and other missionaries to 
Congo, of the Giagas and Anzicas, their immediate neigh- 
bours, delighting in human. flesh, may have had no other 
foundation than their fears worked upon by the stories of 
the neighbouring tribes, who always take care to repre- 
sent one another in a bad light, and usually fix upon 
cannibalism as the worst. 
Sueerstirrons.—I gnorance has always been accoun- 
ted the prolific mother of superstition. Those of the 
negroes of Congo would be mere subjects of ridicule, if 
they were harmless to society ; which however is not the 
case. Every man has his fetiche, and some at least a 
dozen, being so many tutelary deities, against every ima- 
ginable evil that may befal them. ‘The word is Portu- 
guese, feitico, and signifies a charm, witchcraft, magic, 
&c.; and what is remarkable enough, it is in universal use 
among all the negro tribes of the Western Coast. 
There is nothing so vile in nature, that does not serve for 
a negro’s fetiche ; the horn, the hoof, the hair, the teeth, 
and the bones of all manner of quadrupeds ; the feathers, 
beaks, claws, skulls and bones of birds; the heads and 
skins of snakes; the shells and fins of fishes ; pieces of old 
iron, copper, wood, seeds of plants, and sometimes a mix- 
ture of all, or most of them, strung together. In the choice 
of a fetiche, they consult certain persons whom they call 
fetiche-men, who may be considered to form a kind of 
priesthood, the members of which preside at the altar of 
superstition. As a specimen of these senseless appendages 
