376 GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 
ges to the dress, and the dwelling of every negro, the fol- 
lowing represents one which the wearer considered as an in- 
fallible charm against poison; the materials are, an Euro- 
pean padlock, in the iron of which they have contrived to 
bury a cowrie shell and various other matters, the bill of 
a bird, and the head of a snake; these are suspended 
from a rosary consisting of the beans of.a species of do- 
lichos, strung alternately with the seeds of some other plant. 
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Others, with some little variation, are considered as protec- 
tions against the effects of thunder and hghtning, against 
the attacks of the alligator, the hippopotamus, snakes, lions, 
tigers, &c. &c. And if it should so happen, as it some- 
times does, that in spite of his guardian genius, the wearer 
should perish by the very means against which he had 
adopted it as a precaution, no blame is ascribed to any 
negligence or want of virtue on the part of the fetiche, but 
io some offence given to it, by the possessor, for which it 
