1 52 EASTERN ETHIOPIA xii 



Belief in spirits, good and evil, is entertained by 

 the human race, savage and civilised. The object of 

 nearly all forms of religion is the propitiation of 

 spirits. 



The methods practised among the savage races and 

 the tribes living around the Victoria Nyanza for 

 effecting this are curious and quaint. That which 

 interested me most is the habit of wearing charms, 

 and the natives of Kavirondo possess a multitude 

 of such objects. All primitive people are reticent 

 on matters connected with their beliefs, and the 

 savages in Kavirondo are equally shy on these 

 matters. The natives of the lake shore and its 

 islands have such anthropomorphic notions of spirits 

 that they build little fetish-huts or spirit-shelters in 

 the fields or woods, wherein they place offerings of 

 food and water. There are more altars " to the 

 unknown god " in Eastern Ethiopia than Paul found 

 in pagan Athens. 



There is a little doorway always open in the back 

 of some of the huts in order that the spirits of the 

 departed may easily enter if they should perchance 

 return : a beautiful idea. 



A charm, in the terms of the dictionary, is defined 

 as " anything worn for its supposed efficacy to the 

 wearer in averting ill or securing good." Those who 

 wear them cannot always explain why such and such 

 charms produce certain effects. Many natives near the 

 lake plant a stick in the field and tie a feather from 

 a white chicken to it, not with the object of scaring 

 birds, but as a charm against hail. An old earthenware 

 pot is stuck on the spike of the central pole of a 

 conical hut to save the babies from squinting. The 

 customs for appeasing evil spirits are not always so 

 simple. 



Hobley, in his interesting account of Kavirondo 

 charms, tells how he induced a chief in a confi- 



