Fetichism 51 



fetich is cognate to the worship of the spirits of ances- 

 tors. Among the Barotse of South Africa, 'for this 

 worship they have altars in their huts made of branches, 

 on which they place human bones, but they have no 

 images, pictures, or idols. In some cases the bones 

 of a beloved father or mother are kept in a wooden 

 chest, for which a small house is provided, where the 

 son or daughter goes statedly to hold communication 

 with their spirits. They do not pretend to have any 

 audible response from them, but it is a relief to their 

 minds in their more serious moods to go and pour oiit 

 all the sorrows of their hearts in the ear of a revered 

 parent. This belief, however much of superstition it 

 involves, exerts a very powerful influence upon the 

 social character of the people.' * In the Benga tribe, 

 just north of the equator, in West Africa, this family 

 fetich is known by the name of Yaka. . . . The Yaka 

 is appealed to in family emergencies. Suppose, for 

 instance, that one member has recently done something 

 wrong, e.g., alone in the forest, he has met and killed a 

 member of another family, devastated a neighbor's 

 plantation, or committed any other crime, and is un- 

 known to the community as the offender. But the 

 powerful Yaka of the injured family has brought 

 disease or death, or some other affliction, upon the 

 offender's family. They are dying or otherwise suffer- 

 ing, and they do not know the reason why. After the 

 failure of ordinary medicines or personal fetiches to 

 relieve or heal or prevent the continuance of the evil, 

 1 Wilson, Western Africa, p. 393 et seq. Nassau, p. 160. 



