IN CENTRAL AFRICA AND ELSEWHERE. 



171 



The author seems a little unfortunate in his reference to the 

 gargoyles and British bull-dogs at Westminster Abbey and the 

 reasons they were placed there, but this is hardly the place to enter 

 upon a discussion of the fancies which prompted the old architects 

 to perpetrate these ' drip-stones.' 



" I am not alone in thinking that fetichism is ' a first step up,' 

 ^ a groping for truth and light. The traces of a purer faith would 

 surely be more apparent had fetichism really been a degradation 

 from such a faith, and the experience of those who have really 

 studied the subject, who have approached it with open, unbiassed 

 minds, would seem to confirm this. A child thinks as a child, and, 

 as the author says, can ' easily imagine their playthings alive.' 

 If we are to imagine that fetichism is a degradation, are we also to 

 imagine that the race itself has degenerated, and if so, from what 

 rootstock, and where was it situated ? " 



Lieut. -Colonel F. A. Molony, O.B.E., writes : — "I greatly regret 

 that I shall be unable to be present at the meetings on April 4th. 



" It seems to me that Mr. Hoste has proved that there is real 

 affinity between African fetichism and that spiritism which certain 

 distinguished men are now pressing us to adopt. 



A magistrate in the east of Cape Colony and close to native 

 territory remarked to me, ' If we do not educate the natives, there 

 will be smelling-out of witches and other abominations.' So this 

 official in a comparatively civilized part of Africa regarded the 

 recrudescence of fetichism as possible and very evil. Now if it 

 becomes known to the African that we are taking up spiritism, will 

 he not be much encouraged to revive fetichism ? 



" Further, may we not learn from what Mr. Hoste has told us about 

 fetichism how spiritism is likely to develop here. He says, ' Spirits 

 have good memories — a nasty way of wiping off old scores against 

 surviving relatives or enemies.' In fact, it needs but little imagin- 

 ation to realize that, if we allow spiritism to spread, it will do an 

 immense amount of harm here ; and that its relative, fetichism, 

 will be encouraged to do further mischief in Africa, and I therefore 

 think that Mr. Hoste's paper is most practical and timely." 



The Rev. Dr. J. E. H. Thomson, of Edinburgh, writes : — " It is 

 needless to say that I have been deeply interested in Mr. Hoste's 

 paper on fetichism. Though I have not had the special oppor- 



