FETICH- FEUDAL SYSTEM. 



177 



festival, on the twentieth of Prairial, to the Deity, 

 the following festivals, to be kept on the decade 

 days of the republic, were also instituted 1. of the 

 Supreme Being and nature ; 2. of the human race ; 

 3. of the French nation ; 4. of the benefactors of 

 mankind ; 5. of liberty and equality ; 6. of the 

 martyrs of liberty ; 7. of the republic ; 8. of the 

 freedom of the world ; 9. of the love of country ; 10. 

 of the hatred of tyrants and traitors ; 11. of truth ; 

 12. of justice ; 13. of modesty ; 14. of fame and 

 immortality ; 15. of friendship ; 16. of temperance ; 

 17. of heroism ; 18. of constancy ; 19. of disinte- 

 restedness ; 20. of stoicism ; 21. of love ; 22. of con- 

 jugal fidelity ; 23. of filial affection ; 24. of child- 

 hood ; 25. of youth ; 26. of manhood ; 27. of old 

 age ; 28. of misfortune ; 29. of agriculture ; 30. of 

 industry ; 31. of the forefathers ; 32. of posterity and 

 felicity. 



There are thirty-four religious and four civil festi- 

 vals observed by the established chm-ch of England 

 and Ireland ; and the Protestant Episcopal church 

 in the United States of America observes thirty-two 

 religious festivals in the year. Christian feasts are 

 observed extensively and solemnly among Catholics, 

 Greek and Roman, and the Protestants of the Euro- 

 pean continent, but liave comparatively little atten- 

 tion paid to them by the Protestants of Britain. 



FETICH; an idol. This word, now not unfre- 

 quently met wkh in French and German, was first 

 brought into use by De Brosses, in his work Du 

 Cults des Dieux Fetiches (1760), and is derived 

 either from the Portuguese fetisso, a block adored 

 as an idol, or, according to Winterbottom, from 

 feticzeira, an enchantress. The Portuguese gave 

 this name to the idols of the negroes on the Senegal ; 

 and afterwards the word received a more extensive 

 meaning. The general meaning given to fetich now 

 seems to be, an object worshipped not representing 

 a living figure. Such a figure is called, more pro- 

 perly, an idol. Hence stones, arms, vessels, plants, 

 &c., which are objects of worship, are-fetiches. The 

 negroes of Guinea suppose a fetich to preside over 

 every canton or district, one also over each family and 

 each individual, which the individual worships on the 

 anniversary of his birth day. Those of the better sort 

 have, besides this, weekly festivals, on which they kill 

 a cock or sheep. They believe the material substan- 

 ces, which they worship, to be endowed with intelli- 

 gence and the power of doing them good and evil, and 

 also that the priest orfetichere, being of their council, 

 is privy to all that those divinities know, and thence 

 acquainted with the most secret thoughts and actions 

 of men. The household or family fetich narrowly 

 inspects the conduct of every individual in the house, 

 and rewards or punishes each according to his 

 deserts. The rewards consist in the multiplication 

 of the slaves and wives of the worshippers, and 

 the punishments in the deprivation of these ; but 

 the most terrible of their punishments is death. At 

 Cape Coast there is a public guardian fetich, the 

 highest in power and dignity. This is a rock that 

 projects into the sea from the bottom of the cliff on 

 which the castle is built. To this rock sacrifices 

 are offered yearly by the priests, with ridiculous 

 gestures and strange invocations. The priest as- 

 sures the spectators that he receives verbal 

 answers from Tabra, as to what times and seasons 

 will be propitious ; and, for this intelligence, every 

 fisherman presents him with an acknowledgment 

 proportioned to his ability. 



FETVA. See Mufti. 



FEUDAL SYSTEM. [The following article 

 relates more particularly to Germany, where this 

 system originated and received its fullest develop- 

 ment ; but the account is, in all important particulars, 



applicable to the other parts of Europe where this 

 system prevailed.] A fee, feud, or .fief is a posses- 

 sion, of which the vassal receives the right of use 

 and enjoyment, of disposition and alienation, on 

 condition of fidelity (that is, of affording assistance 

 or counsel, and avoiding all injurious acts), together 

 with the performance of certain services incident to 

 the tenure, while the feudal lord still retains a para- 

 mount right (dominium directum). A fief is distin- 

 guished from allodial possessions by the circumstance, 

 that it cannot be alienated without the consent of the 

 feudal lord, by the services usually due from the 

 vassal, and by a peculiar kind of inheritance. The 

 nature of feudal property is explained by its origin. 

 Such was the passion of the ancient Germans for 

 war, that, in time of peace, private feuds took the 

 place of public contention ; and, in default of these, 

 the men of military age spent weeks, and months, 

 and years, in adventures, and made incursions into 

 the territory of the neighbouring tribes, or took part 

 in tlie quarrels of the distant ones. On these expe- 

 ditions, the experienced and powerful were usually 

 attended by a number of equally valiant youths, who 

 were furnished by the chief with provisions, and, 

 perhaps, with arms, and composed his retinue or 

 following (Latin, comitatus). This retinue, which 

 was well known in the time of Caesar and Tacitus, 

 was bound to the commander by firmer ties than the 

 transient love of war or inconstant success. If the 

 leader did not prove false (which was never known), 

 the attendant devoted his whole life to his service, 

 and was always ready to meet the summons to new 

 adventures. And when the whole nation marched 

 to war, the warriors formed about their chieftain a 

 devoted band, ready to sacrifice themselves for his 

 safety. Each of them looked upon the life and 

 liberty of his leader as intrusted to his own peculiar 

 care ; and, if any one survived his imprisonment or 

 death, he was for ever branded as a coward. The 

 general of the national militia (heerbanri), always one 

 of the wealthiest landholders, had a crowd of them 

 constantly about his person. These companions (in 

 German, Gesellen, whence the later barbarous Latin 

 word vasallus) received no pay except their arms, 

 horses, and provisions, and the portion of the spoils 

 which remained after the chieftain had taken his 

 own share. In the expeditions of particular adven- 

 turers against the adjacent tribes, or the Roman 

 provinces, their booty consisted of garments, arms, 

 furniture, slaves. But when the northern hordes 

 broke in to the south, and, in the partition of the 

 conquered lands, large districts fell into the hands of 

 kings or dukes and their subordinates, they gave 

 certain portions of the territory to their attendants, 

 to enjoy the possession for life. These estates were 

 called beneficia, or fiefs, because they were only lent 

 to their possessors, to revert after their death to the 

 grantor, who immediately gave them to another of his 

 servants. From this custom of the ancient Germans 

 arose the feudal system, and feudal service, which is 

 purely German. 



As the son commonly esteemed it his duty, or was 

 forced by necessity, to devote his arm to the lord in 

 whose service his father had h'ved, he also received 

 his father's fief; or, rather, he was invested with it 

 anew. By the usage of centuries this custom 

 became a right ; and to deprive one of his paternal 

 fief, though it was prohibited by no law, seemed an 

 act of injustice. At length, express provision was 

 made by Conrad II., in Germany, in the year 1025, 

 and in Italy in 1037 (or perhaps in 1026), by 

 which the feudal possessions of a father were to 

 descend to his son (female fiefs are later devia- 

 tions from the system), or those of< clergymen to 

 their successors. In that period of laM'less violence. 



