138 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



banquet brings the solemnity to a close. 1 Votive 

 figures of the kind mentioned, as well as the ruder 

 offerings of pins, rags and stones found over the 

 greater part of the world, are not merely intended to 

 keep the divinity in mind of the suppliant and of her 

 desire. They also act (as I have argued elsewhere) in 

 the capacity of conductor between the divinity and 

 the suppliant, so that the influence of the immediate 

 presence of the former, surrounding and enfolding 

 the votive figure or other offering, surrounds and 

 enfolds likewise the person represented or on whose 

 behalf the offering is dedicated. Moreover the figures 

 may also officiate as symbolic dedications of mother 

 or child to the supernatural being whose aid is 

 invoked. 



Nor is the deposit of a votive offering indispensable. 

 Religious faith often imputes to its object the power to 

 work the miracle desired, if only that power be suffi- 

 ciently excited by the votary's prayers or promises. 

 The dedication of oneself, or as in the case of Hannah 

 the vow to dedicate the child, achieves the result. 

 Stories of this kind are too familiar to need mention ; 

 and doubtless the belief still exists in Europe and 

 other civilised lands. On the Slave Coast of Guinea 

 an Otchi Negress will devote herself in the same way 

 to a fetish (that is, to a particular god in the pantheon) 

 conditionally on its giving her children. If a child be 

 born, it is a fetish-child and is considered to belong to 

 the fetish, just as Samuel belonged to Yahve, or as in 

 many of the tales the child is given by an ogre upon 

 the stipulation that it shall belong to him and be 

 fetched away, either when he pleases or at a fixed 

 1 Featherman, NigriHans, 139, quoting Hecquard. 



