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death, durst presume to mention death in the 
presence of the king of Whidah. 
The opinions concerning fetiches, termed Obi 
by the Africans in the West Indies, are extreme- 
ly obscure ; but if we may trust Loyer, who at- 
tended particularly to the subject, they are not 
worshipped as deities, but regarded as charms. 
The negroes are taught, by tradition, to regard 
them as the dispensers of good and evil, by means 
of some occult qualities, which they derive from 
God, who is the creator of fetiches, which he has 
sent upon the earth for the good of mankind. 
The word fetiche, or feitisso, is Portuguese, and 
signifies a charm ; and the supposed power of the 
fetiche is precisely similar to that occult virtue of 
charms, lucky and unlucky numbers, and other 
superstitious ceremonies and observances, which 
has such general influence on weak and unthink- 
ing minds, and to which the greatest unbelievers 
often attach implicit credit. Gamesters, sailors, 
and others, who, according to the vulgar opinion, 
are under the domination of that occult power 
termed chance^ or who are placed in situations 
in which it is impossible to calculate, or even to 
conjecture, the future event from the number of 
circumstances by which it is influenced, are ob- 
served to place the greatest confidence in charms. 
For the same reasons, the negroes, whose whole 
life, from the unsettled nature of their govern- 
