IN CENTRAL AFRICA AND ELSEWHERE. 



173 



" I am not quite sure that I am correct when I attribute to Mr. 

 Hoste the idea that the idolaters worshipped the idols themselves 

 and not some spiritual being whose representative they were. I 

 think that at all events the Greeks, when they worshipped Artemis 

 and offered sacrifices before the image that fell down from heaven, 

 did not worship merely the shapeless aerolite, but a spiritual being 

 who made this her symbol. The Greeks, according to my idea, were 

 fetichists, only they glorified with their artistic genius the objects 

 they made, their fetiches. In actual fact the magnificent statue of 

 Jupiter, though carved by Phidias, is really as much a fetich as 

 the whale tooth, which I know once was a fetich in the neighbour- 

 hood of the Gaboon." 



Dr. C. Fox writes : — " Being unable to be present, I do not know 

 whether the lecturer alluded to the strange theory of the Mascot, 

 so extremely apposite and also, I feel, important ; and wish to take 

 the opportunity to point out — as he or others may likely do — its close 

 analogy (one might say, really, identity) with that of the fetich. The 

 latter is, of course, pagan and idolatry, as is necessarily the regarding 

 of ' chance ' a postulate of unbelief, though so continually named 

 and heeded, especially in the News. I trust the essayist was desirous 

 to sound a warning note against the entire system of which his 

 theme gave an historic or local test, and think it probable such was 

 his purpose. It is extremely needed. For the thus obtaining and 

 most jealously keeping an object — no matter what or how trifling — 

 is now most prevalent, especially at sea — where superstition appears 

 to be most usual, and the relying upon its presence as tutelary — 

 i.e. really saving — ^is an overlooking and contempt of God, very 

 grievous where He is known and professed." 



Lecturer's Reply. 



I am gratified to find that one main thesis of my paper — that 

 fetichism is the last stage in the religious landslide that has been 

 taking place in human history — is so generally accepted ; and am 

 indebted to the Chairman, Colonel Mackinlay, Dr. Thomson, Mr. 

 Theodore Roberts and others for confirmatory evidence and 

 suggestions. The wonder is not that fetichism should contain so 

 few traces of the original revelation, but that after centuries of 



