629th ordinary GENERAL MEETING, 



HELD IN COMMITTEE ROOM B, THE CENTRAL HALL, 

 WESTMINSTER, ON MONDAY, APRIL 4th, 1921, 



AT 4.30 P.M. 



David Anderson-Berry, Esq., M.D., LL.D., in the Chair. 



The Minutes of the previous Meeting were read, confirmed, and signed, 

 and the Acting Secretary, Lieut. -Colonel Hope Biddulph, announced the 

 Election of Colonel C. W. R. St. John as a Member, and of Mr. W. G. 

 Walters as an Associate. 



The Chairman then introduced Mr. W. Hoste to read his paper on 

 «* Fetichism — in Central Africa and Elsewhere." 



FETICHISM—IN CENTRAL AFRICA AND ELSEWHERE, 

 By W. HosTE, B.A. 



MOST people one meets nowadays have at one time or 

 another touched Africa, either at the Cape or on the 

 Mediterranean littoral, through wintering in Algiers or 

 Cairo, or at least on their way to the Far East by landing for 

 a few hours at Port Said, during coaling by those super coal- 

 heavers, the Sudanese. 



Such adventures may open the doors of the Great Geographical 

 Societies, but leave closed the Great Heart of Africa, which could 

 embrace Australia, India, China and the greater part of Europe, 

 and still have unfilled corners. 



This is the classical home of fetichism. 



But even that landing at Port Said is not without significance, 

 for he who has trod Egyptian soil has touched the ancient 

 birthplace of Magic. This has spread its tentacles in every part 

 of the world under the varied guises of the black art, witchcraft, 

 necromancy, spiritism, and, particularly in Africa, of fetichism. 



Some may demur at the inclusion of spiritism in such a list. 

 Has not spiritism been hailed as an ally of Christianity ? Did 

 not a Church dignitary at the Church Congress of 1919 warn 



