GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 375 



stones repeated by the Capuchin and other missionaries to 

 Congo, of the Giagas and Anzicas, their immediate neighs 

 hours, dehghting in human flesh, may have had no other 

 foundation than their fears worked upon by the stories of 

 the neighbouring tribes, who always take care to repre- 

 sent one another in a bad hght, and usually fix upon 

 cannibalism as the worst. 



SuPEUSTiTioxs. — Ignorance has always been accoun- 

 ted the prolific mother of superstition. Those of the 

 negroes of Congo would be mere subjects of ridicule, if 

 they were harmless to society ; Avhich however is not the 

 case. Every man has his fetiche, and some at least a 

 dozen, being so many tutelary deities, against Q\eYy ima- 

 ginable evil that may befal them. The word is Portu- 

 guese, _/e/i/co, and signifies a charm, witchcraft, magic, 

 &c.; and what is remarkable enough, it is in universal use 

 among all the negro tribes of the Western Coast. 



There is nothing so vile in nature, that does not serve for 

 a negro's fetiche ; the horn, the hoof, the hair, the teeth, 

 and the bones of all manner of quadrupeds ; the feathers, 

 beaks, claws, skulls and bones of birds ; the heads and 

 skins of snakes; the shells and fins of fishes; pieces of old 

 iron, copper, wood, seeds of plants, and sometimes a mix- 

 ture of all, or most of them, strung together. In the choice 

 of a fetiche, they consult certain persons Avhom they call 

 I'etiche-men, who may be considered to form a kind of 

 priesthood, the members of which preside at the altar of 

 superstition. As a specimen of these senseless appendages 



