16^ 



W. HOSTE; E.A.. OX FETICHISM — 



men lose faith in big things, they begin to have faith in small : 

 amulets,, fetiches, mascots and floating tambourines. The man 

 to whom our Lord and His Apostles are but names, will never sit 

 down thirteen at table. In free-thinking Paris the Xo. 13 in a 

 street is scarcely, if ever, known. It is replaced by Xo. 12 bis, 

 for fear of iU-luck. The man who sturdily refuses to bear his 

 cross " wiU wear a lucky pig at his watch-chain. WTien in France 

 in 191 -J I learnt that mascots and charms were worn by tens of 

 thousands of combatants. People say they do not beheve in 

 such things, but thev use them ; Hke the man who said he did 

 not beheve in ghosts, but confessed he was afraid of them. 



You pity the dark negro. My poor black brother, how 

 can you hope to frighten away evil spirits with those hideous 

 fetiches at the entrance to your \lQages ? " But what about the 

 six gargoyles at the north entrance to Westminster Abbey ? 

 They are just as hideous, and were originally placed there, it is 

 believed by many,* for much the same purpose. The two immis- 

 takable British buU-dogs over the central door must be there 

 as watch-dogs, but they are too high to keep off mere mortals. 

 I am not suggesting that the dean and chapter beheve in such 

 things, but a tourist-negro might ask, Why leave them there, 

 if you don't beheve in them ; I burnt my fetiches when I 

 became a Christian ? " 



In closing we come back to our first question. Is fetichism 

 a first step up or a last step down, an evolution or a degradation ? 

 The former theory is contrary to experience. TMiat strikes the 

 traveller in Central Africa is the dead level of hopeless stag- 

 nation in which the raw natives exist. They vegetate on 

 with no power or desire to rise. AMiere indeed were debased 

 savages ever foimd emerging unaided into higher and clearer 

 ^'iews of God ? Hath a nation changed their gods, which 

 are yet no gods ? " t but degradation from the highest ideals 

 is only too simple, ** My people have changed their glory for 

 that which doth not profit." Xo one denies that Divine Reve- 

 lation has been progressive, but its beginnings were not petty, 

 superstitious and debased, but demonstrative of the Eternal power 

 and Godhead of the Creator. Evolutionists have yet to 

 explain in a reasonable way the " robust monotheism " of that 

 most venerable document, if viewed in the lowest hght, the first 

 chapter of Genesis. The gulf between it and the sorceries of 



* See e.g., Naology, by Dudley of Leicester, p. 567. 8vo., 1S46. 

 t Jeremiah 11, 10-11. 



