THE WESTERN COAST. 
295 
it is influenced, are observed to place the greatest 
confidence in charms. For the same reasons, the 
negroes, whose whole life, from the unsettled na- 
ture of their governments, and the number of acci- 
dents to which they are exposed, resembles a game 
of hazard, ought to be more superstitious and ad- 
dicted to charms than other men. This is what 
really happens ; and the negroes not only believe 
in charms, but days and periods are reckoned lucky 
and unlucky. They choose their fetiches accord- 
ing to their fancy ; one selects the teeth of a dog, 
tiger, or civet-cat, an egg, or the bone of a bird' ; 
while another pitches upon a piece of red or yel- 
low wood, the branch of a thorn, the head of a goat, 
monkey, or parrot. From the fetiche thus chosen, 
they expect assistance on all occasions, and vow to 
perform some kind of worship to it. In honour of 
it, they deprive themselves of some pleasure, com- 
monly abstaining from some particular kind of 
meat or drink ; so that one man eats no beef, 
goats' flesh or poultry, and another drinks no palm- 
wine or brandy. From the opposition of personal 
interests results the opposition of charms or fetiches ; 
and the virtue of a fetiche is always determined by 
the success of its possessor. A negro who is un- 
successful, or who suffers any great misfortune, at- 
tributes it to the weakness of his fetiche, and has 
immediately recourse to another, or applies to a Je- 
tissero, or priest, to procure him one more power- 
