FETISH SYMBOLS 203 



and black, there may be phallic symbols, or small 

 figures of men and women carved quaintly but 

 with a marked sexual character. These charms 

 or fetishes are not idols, as Cavazzi, the old 

 historian, thought, nor do natives worship them 

 as he believed. They are more in the nature of 

 blessed symbols, as were crucifixes or medallions 

 to a Catholic Christian like Cavazzi, or the written 

 passage from the Koran to a Mohammedan. The 

 object that has become a charm or fetish was, the 

 the native well knows, originally only a piece of 

 carved wood, a seed, claw, or small piece of antelope 

 horn ; and he will sell any such object cheaply. 

 It is only when the fetish-man has incanted over 

 these objects, has placed within them some magic 

 power (and so prepared them that they have 

 become even the occasional home of a spirit), 

 that they gain value, both monetary and spiritual. 



The witch doctor usually puts magic into the 

 object which is to become a charm, by placing it 

 in a concoction which varies with the physician. 

 The actual ingredients may be simple things 

 tacula dye, dung, or feathers are often used in 

 Angola ; or the witch doctor may place in the 

 charm parts of powerful birds, dangerous animals, 

 poisonous snakes, insects, and herbs, things express- 

 ing power and fear and dread. The personality 

 of the wizard himself, his forcefulness and reputa- 

 tion, count for more than his particular medicine ; 

 as it counts with the modern physician to-day. 



Even when an object is made potent and 

 fetish by the native doctor, it is not worshipped 

 by the client : it is sacrificed to at one time with 



