RELIGION. 
305 
tions, punishing the vicious, and rewarding the 
virtuous. For this reason, they cover it careful- 
ly, or place it out of view, whenever they perform 
any improper action. This office of the fetiche 
is supposed by the negroes of Benin to be per- 
formed by the shadow of every man, which they 
believe to be a real being, that in another world 
shall give a true account of all his actions. These 
fetiches, when remarkably successful, become the 
tutelary guardians of families, and are transmitted 
to the descendants of their original possessors, like 
the Lares and Penates of the Romans, and the 
Teraphira or household gods of the Aramoeans, 
which they frequently resemble in form. At 
Elmina and Acra, they often consist of a piece of 
wood, on which is carved a human head, without 
body, arms, or limbs. Besides private fetiches 
appropriate to individuals, there are others of a 
more public nature, whose influence extends to 
particular cantons or disti'icts. These are fre- 
quently remarkable mountains, rocks, trees, lakes, 
and rivers. The Acranese attributed the con- 
quest of their country by the Aquambrans, to 
the conversion of one of these sacred lakes into a 
salt-pit by the Portuguese. Of this species seems 
to have been the Snake worship of the Whidanese, 
who believed in one supreme God, though they 
worshipped one species of serpent as the most 
powerful fetiches, especially one of immense size? 
2G 
