152 
EASTERN ETHIOPIA 
XII 
Belief in spirits, good and evil, is entertained by 
the human race, savage and civilised. The object of 
nearly all forms of religion is the propitiation of 
spirits. 
The methods practised among the savage races and 
the tribes living around the Victoria Nyanza for 
effecting this are curious and quaint. That which 
interested me most is the habit of wearing charms, 
and the natives of Kavirondo possess a multitude 
of such objects. All primitive people are reticent 
on matters connected with their beliefs, and the 
savages in Kavirondo are equally shy on these 
matters. The natives of the lake shore and its 
islands have such anthropomorphic notions of spirits 
that they build little fetish-huts or spirit-shelters in 
the fields or woods, wherein they place offerings of 
food and water. There are more altars “ to the 
unknown god ” in Eastern Ethiopia than Paul found 
in pagan Athens. 
There is a little doorway always open in the back 
of some of the huts in order that the spirits of the 
departed may easily enter if they should perchance 
return : a beautiful idea. 
A charm, in the terms of the dictionary, is defined 
as ‘‘ anything worn for its supposed efficacy to the 
wearer in averting ill or securing good.” Those who 
wear them cannot always explain why such and such 
charms produce certain effects. Many natives near the 
lake plant a stick in the field and tie a feather from 
a white chicken to it, not with the object of scaring 
birds, but as a charm against hail. An old earthenware 
pot is stuck on the spike of the central pole of a 
conical hut to save the babies from squinting. The 
customs for appeasing evil spirits are not always so 
simple. 
Hobley, in his interesting account of Kavirondo 
charms, tells how he induced a chief in a confi- 
