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1
THE
RELIGION OF THE AFRICANS.
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MONTAGNOSE
CARA MADRI
CHAP.
CONTENTS.
I. CONCERNING GOD
II. CONCERNING GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS
III.—CONCERNING THE SPIRITS OF DEAD Men ....
APPENDIX...
..
IV. CONCERNING WITCHCRAFT
V.-CONCERNING FETISHISM
..
•••
PAGE
15
53
87
125
163
185
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20, 26, 31.
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68, 69.
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<
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3 6
3 6
"
""
""
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23
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MOBERLY (Bishop).
Method of Cultivating Unity.
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The
A
MOBERLY (Rev. G. H.)-Sac-
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W. WELLS GARDNER'S PUBLICATIONS.
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THE
RELIGION OF THE AFRICANS.
BY THE
REV. HENRY ROWLEY,
AUTHOR OF. "THE STORY OF THE UNIVERSITIES' MISSION TO CENTRAL
AFRICA; AFRICA UNVEILED," ETC.
"" ((
LONDON:
W. WELLS GARDNER,
2, PATERNOSTER BUILDINGS.
i
LONDON:
WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN STREET,
LINCOLN'S-INN FIELDS, w.c.
I
M.A.C
1
PREFACE.
"WHEN records are wanting, and tradition is
grown a blind matter concerning the origin of a
people, all that can be done in it is to compare that
tradition, together with their customs and institu-
tions, with the histories, institutions, and customs of
other nations, and fix it, if nothing shall hinder,
where the parity most appears."
Thus writes Peter Kolben, a German traveller, at
the commencement of the 18th century, in his book
on "The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope,"
wherein he gives a particular account of the Hotten-
tots.
I am not concerned with the origin of the Africans,
but in setting forth their religion in order to indicate
the source from whence it has been derived, and to
show that it is in harmony with the beliefs of the rest
of mankind, I thought to pursue the course indicated
by Kolben; but I soon discovered that, though in-
teresting in itself, such a method of proceeding was
far from satisfactory.
There are, it is well known, traditional beliefs
amongst nations widely sundered, and between whom
there is no historical connection, concerning God,
37
8
PREFACE.
со
the Creation of the World, the Creation of Man, the
Immortality of the Soul, the Temptation and Fall, the
Deluge, &c., which, though so divergent in detail, so
distorted by wild imagination, are yet so alike in their
general features as to afford good reason for con-
cluding that they have a community of origin. That
the Africans have a fundamental affinity with all
other races of men upon an authority far higher than
that which the undoubted possession of common
traditions would give them, I do not doubt; and that
they have beliefs which are the relics of the primitive
faith professed by the undivided human race, I fully
believe, yet it appeared to me so difficult to prove
this conclusively, in the way Kolben suggests, that I
resolved to content myself with simply recording such
information on the religious beliefs of the Africans as
I had at my disposal.
Take as an illustration of this difficulty the belief
in God. Maitland says,¹ “I believe that the theology
of the world clearly and unequivocally embraced the
doctrine of a Supreme Deity, that the 'Catholic tra-
dition' of mankind cried always, 'I believe in God
the Father Almighty;' and that 'the great, pregnant,
imperative idea of a Supreme power, man's Creator,
ruler, and judge, call it Saturn, or Jupiter, or Fate, or
what you will, reigned paramount in the minds of
men, and in the Catholic tradition which they passed
on from generation to generation, even after they had
been given up to idolatry and the worship of false
gods.''
I believe that, also, and hold that the nations of
I "Essay on False Worship," p. 80.
PREFACE.
9
1
the world knew God, not because certain natural
phenomena may have suggested the idea of God to
their minds, but because God in the beginning made
a direct revelation of Himself to man.
And yet
when you examine the idea which the Africans have
of God, you cannot help seeing that the argument
which Mr. Taylor¹ uses against the general pre-
valence of the belief in a future state of life for man
being conclusive in favour of its being inherited from
a common source, might be applied with equal force
against this idea of God being a survival, and in
favour of the opinion that it may have sprung up
independently amongst them in virtue of the natural
laws of mental growth.
The difficulty in arriving at the religious beliefs of
the Africans is great. (1) They have no "Record,
nor writing, nor notion of either." Their traditions
live from mouth to mouth. Such have evidently
undergone much change as they have descended from
generation to generation, and they vary considerably
in important particulars amongst the different tribes.
(2) The Africans are very reticent upon their reli-
gious beliefs and customs. Until their confidence is
gained,—and it is rarely that travellers stay suffi-
ciently long with any tribe to gain its confidence,-
they will keep what they know and do as secret as
they can. When questioned on their religion they
will give evasive answers, and rather than divulge
their beliefs to strangers they will prefer to be con-
sidered fools, or as utterly ignorant of any sort of
"Researches into the Early History of Mankind,” p. 5.
10
PREFACE.
religious belief and practice. Consequently our in-
formation on such subjects is derived almost entirely
from such tribes as have been brought under the
influence of missionaries, or who have lived for some
length of time in the neighbourhood of European
colonists. It would be more satisfactory if our in-
formation was derived from wider sources, yet I think
that in all essential features it will be found that the
information which we possess affords a fair example
of what the Africans generally believe.
It may not be out of place to allude here to two
facts which serve to show that the Africans must have
separated from the main body of the human race at a
very early period in the history of mankind, inasmuch
as this fact may account for the crude character of their
religious ideas, viz., their ignorance of writing, already
mentioned, and their ignorance of any sort of archi-
tecture in brick and stone.
It is, I know, assumed by some that the antediluvians
possessed a considerable knowledge of both these arts,
and that Noah was perfectly acquainted with them,
and that, consequently, there has never been a period
since the Deluge when mankind was ignorant of them.
I doubt, however, the correctness of this assumption.
It is true that Josephus makes mention of " the letters
of Seth;" that Pliny says, "As for letters, they have
been from the beginning;" and that other learned
men in ancient and modern times have thought that
letters, and even sciences, were taught before the
Deluge. Yet in face of the fact that the earliest
specimens of writing have been shown to belong
to a period long after that which can be assigned
PREFACE.
II
to the Deluge, and that it has never been proved
that any people once possessed of the art of writing
has ever absolutely lost it, I think we may fairly
conclude that when the Africans broke away from
the parent stem of mankind, writing was an un-
known art. To my mind, it is far more reason-
able to come to such a conclusion, than to imagine
that they knew of its existence, were, in common
with the rest of their fellow creatures, proficient in
it, and yet there should be not a vestige of such
knowledge to be found amongst them.
That the knowledge of the art of architecture
before the period assigned to the fact which is
known as the Dispersion rests on evidence upon
which there can be no doubt; but that this know-
ledge existed before the Deluge, seems to me to
be by no means certain. The passage in Holy Scrip-
ture which is principally relied upon to prove that
it did exist, is," And Cain knew his wife, and
she conceived and bare Enoch; and he builded
a city, and called the name of the city after the
name of his son Enoch." But to apply to that word
city the modern idea associated with it, and then
to infer that Cain was conversant with the art and
science of architecture, as we understand the term,
is a method of argument opposed to all the knowledge
which we possess upon the primitive habitations of
mankind. At what period after the Deluge archi-
tecture, properly so called, was employed, I do not
know, but between that great event and the creation
of the earliest specimens of architecture with which
we are acquainted, there was, I believe, a much longer
I2
PREFACE.
space of time than is generally imagined, during whicn
men lived in tents, and huts such as the Africans
now build, and caves of the earth, and houses hewn
out of the solid rocks. It seems most improbable
that if the Africans had been acquainted with any
other form of dwelling, they should not have made
use of their knowledge; but throughout Africa, save
where foreigners have obtained a footing in the land,
you find no building corresponding in any way in
its material and structure to the earliest architectural
efforts of Assyria and Egypt, and no trace amongst
the Africans that they were originally possessed of
the art of erecting such buildings.
I do not, however, think that when men were
ignorant of these and other arts they were necessarily
degraded savages. The perfection of man consists
in moral excellence rather than in extensive know-
ledge, and when man, as did Adam in the day of his
innocence, communed with God, though he may have
been an uncivilized being, as we regard civilization,
yet he, far more than we, was in sympathy with the
Holy Angels, and his heart, far more than our hearts,
was attuned to righteousness.
But the Africans have not only remained ignorant
of what now constitutes human greatness, they have
also failed in maintaining the standard of life which
they occupied before they broke away from the great
centre of the human race. In all their institutions
you can perceive signs of this degradation; although
it may also be observed that, even in the worst fea-
tures of their religion, those which afford the most
terrible examples of the debasing effects of sin, some
PREFACE.
13
relic of the primitive good still remains, which, rightly {
used, may enable them the more readily to receive
the truth as it is in Jesus, and thus to regain com-
munion with God, and to obtain a spiritual perfection
not less than that which Adam had in the days of
his innocence.
THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICANS.
CHAPTER I.
CONCERNING GOD.
"I BELIEVE in God," an uncreated Supreme
Spiritual Being, is the creed which underlies all else
that the Africans believe. This belief is not elaborated
into a grand conception of God such as that we have.
They do not regard Him as the Creator, the Pre-
server, and the Ruler of all things. They do not
credit Him with the attributes of justice, holiness, and
love. In so far as they have the power to appreciate
goodness, they look upon Him as good; as gifted
with power to influence the forces of nature; and as
willing, under certain circumstances, to exercise that
power in their behalf. He is not always in all their
thoughts. Except on rare occasions, they do not
worship or honour Him in any way.
"God is good,"
say they, "and will do well, let us honour Him or
not." Nevertheless, in seasons of great distress they
will sometimes invoke His aid. When in danger of
famine from drought, for instance, some, at least, of
them offer prayers and make vows to God, and en-
16
THE RELIGION
}
deavour to conciliate His favour by sacrifices and
oblations. It is probable that invocations on such
occasions are more wide-spread than is generally
believed.
I know, from personal inquiries amongst them, that
the Manganja, the Waiou, the Anguru, the Nungwi,
and some other tribes in the Zambezi districts, and
on the Shire Highlands, believe in the existence of a
Supreme Being, whom they call by different names
according to their dialect, but to whom they assign
no evil attribute, and around whom, therefore, no
impure tradition or debasing worship has gathered.
If great danger from famine or war threaten them,
they offer prayer to God to deliver them from it.
I saw an instance of this which, though it has
been published elsewhere,¹ may fitly be reproduced
here.
1 66
Soon after I and other missionaries arrived at Ma-
gomero, on the Shire Highlands, there was an assem-
blage of the natives of the district for the purpose
of prayer to Mpambi, the name by which the Man-
ganja distinguish God, because the clouds withheld
their rain, and a famine appeared to be imminent.
The chief marched at the head of his people to the
appointed place of worship, a plot of ground out-
side the village, which had been cleared of the
bush and fenced in, and in which a hut had been
erected that was called the prayer hut. Women as
well as men took part in this act of worship, and
when all had entered the enclosure and arranged
•
Story of the Universities' Mission to Central Africa."
OF THE AFRICANS.
17
themselves in due order, a woman, who acted as
priestess on this occasion, stood forth. In one hand
she had a small basket containing Indian corn meal,
in the other a small earthern pot containing pombi,
the native beer. She went into the hut, not so far
but that she could be seen and heard, and knelt
down. She put the basket and the pot on either side
of her; then she took up a handful of meal and
dropped it on the floor, and while doing this, cried
out, "Imva Mpambi, Adza mvula !" (Hear thou, O
God, and send rain!) To this the people responded
by clapping their hands softly, and singing "Imva
Mpambi!" (Hear thou, O God!). This form of
prayer was repeated until the meal was expended, and
the pombi was poured out on to the floor of the hut ;
after which the woman came out of the hut, closed
and fastened the door, and then threw herself on
her back. The people followed her example, and
while in this position they clapped their hands, and
shouted "Imva Mpambi !" for some time. Then they
stood up, clapped hands again, bowed themselves
repeatedly, and afterwards danced round the chief,
who sat at some distance apart by himself, like
maniacs.
When the dance ceased, a large jar of water
was placed before the chief, wherein the priestess
first of all washed her hands, arms, and face;
then water was poured over her by another woman;
after which all the women rushed forward with
calabash cups in their hands, and, dipping them
into the water, threw it into the air with loud cries
and wild gesticulations. This was the only apparent
с
18
THE RELIGION
result of a belief in God amongst the tribes with
whom I became acquainted that came under my
notice.¹
For some time it was thought that the Zulu Kaffir
tribes were atheists, but I think it can now be shown
that though shorn of all practical religious power,
Othey have a confused belief in the existence of a
Supreme Being. Much of the uncertainty which
prevails as to what these people really believe with
respect to God is caused by the fact that they occa-
sionally apply to him names which are identified with
a human being. Unkulunkulu, for instance, is the
name given to the first man, who is regarded as
having been created, not begotten, and yet they
frequently speak of Unkulunkulu as though he was
the first cause of all things, the Eternal Originator,
instead of a created being. This led some to con-
clude that these tribes are without any idea of a
being who is divine. But their belief in a "Lord of
Heaven," to whom until lately they gave no other
name, though unaccompanied by any knowlege of
the real attributes of Deity, proves that they have a
faith that is not altogether earthbound. Bishop
Callaway, who has done much to reduce the religious
beliefs of these people to a system by collecting and
¹ It would almost seem that in some respects their ideas had
become degenerated; for Father Santos, in his "History of
Eastern Ethiopia," which was first published in Paris in 1684,
says that the natives of this region have a clear idea of God,
whom they call Molungo (the name now given to the Supreme
Being by the Waiou), "who, both in this world and the next,
measures retribution for the good and evil done in this."
OF THE AFRICANS.
19
classifying their traditions, was told by Ukoto, a very
old Izulu :- 1
"When we were children it was said, 'The Lord is
in heaven.' We used constantly to hear this when
we were children. They used to point to the Lord
on high. We did not hear his name, we only heard
that the Lord is on high. We heard it said that the
Creator of the World is the Lord which is above.
When I was growing up it used to be said, 'The
Creator of the World is above.' People used always
to point to heaven."
Ubebe, another old man, belonging to the Aman-
tanja tribe, thus replied to the Bishop's inquiry as to
his knowledge of God :-
"The chief inquires, then, what our forefathers
believed. The primitive faith of our fathers was
this, they said, 'There is Unkulunkulu, who is a
man, who is of the earth.' And they used to say,
'There is a Lord in heaven.' When it hailed and
thundered, they said, 'The Lord is arming, he will
cause it to hail; put things in order, cattle and corn.'
"And when the Lord played by thundering, they
said, if there was any one afraid, 'Why do you
start because the Lord plays? What have you taken
which belongs to him?'
If lightning struck cattle the people were not dis-
tressed. It used to be said, 'The Lord has slaught-
ered for Himself among his own food. Is it yours?
Is it not the Lord's? He is hungry; He kills for
Himself.' If a village is struck with lightning, and a
1
"
Religious System of the Amazulu," pp. 50 and 56.
C 2
20
THE RELIGION
cow killed, it is said, 'This village will be pros-
perous.' If a man is struck, and dies, it is said,
'The Lord has found fault with him.' As to the
source of being, I know that only which is above,
which gives life to men; for men are satisfied, and
do not die of famine, for the Lord gives them life,
that they may live prosperously on the earth, and not
die of hunger. If it does not rain, the heads of
villages and petty chiefs assemble, and go to a black
chief. They converse and pray for rain. Their
praying is this: The heads of villages select some
black oxen, there is not one white among them.
They are not slaughtered, they merely mention
them; one is killed, the others are left. It was said,
at first, the rain comes from the Lord, and the sun
came from Him; and the moon which gives a white
light during the night, that men may go and not be
injured."
Black cattle are, it is supposed, chosen on such
occasions, because when it is about to rain the sky
is overcast with dark clouds. When the ox is killed
its flesh is eaten in the house, and perfect silence
is maintained till the whole is consumed, in token
of humble submission to the Lord of Heaven,
from whom, and not from the chief, the rain is
asked. The bones are burnt outside the village.
After eating the flesh in silence a song is sung; it is
a song without words, consisting merely of musical
sounds.
From this it would seem that the Zulus not only
believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, who
made the sun and the moon, and who also giveth
OF THE AFRICANS.
21
rain, but that they also pay Him worship in order to
gain His benefits.
The Zulu Kaffirs, though they recognized the Lord
of Heaven, gave to Him in olden times, as I have said,
no proper name. The word Utikxo was adopted for
God by the early missionaries among the frontier
Kaffirs, and gradually found its way amongst other
sections of this race. It is supposed to have been.
derived from the Hottentots, whose word to desig-
nate the Divine Being is Gounja Ticquoa.
Dr. Moffat, Dr. Bleek, and Bishop Callaway do
not doubt that the word Utikxo was unknown to the
Kaffirs until it was introduced by the missionaries,
and that it has been derived from the Hottentots.
In the language of the Amazulu it has no meaning
beyond that which it gains from being associated with
the "Lord of Heaven"; but with the Hottentots,
according to Kolben, it signified the God of gods.
Ulangene, an old native, gave the following expla-
nation of the way in which Unkulunkulu, the first
man, became to be confounded with Utikxo, the
Lord of Heaven :--
1
“Unkulunkulu means the first man, who was
created by Utikxo first. And men saw him.
Utikxo was concealed by Unkulunkulu, and was
seen by no one; and because men saw Unkulunkulu
they said he was the Creator of all things. They said
this because they did not see Him who made Unku-
lunkulu. And so they said Unkulunkulu was God.” 1
But though the Amazulu have this belief in a
heavenly Lord, it would seem that they regard Him
"Religious System of the Amazulu," p. 64.
22
THE RELIGION
as an impersonal power, rather than as a personal
being; and in their sayings about Him, beyond credit-
ing Him with a vague creative power, there is, accord-
ing to Bishop Callaway, scarcely any notion of a deity
to be discovered, that is, I presume, according to our
idea of Deity.
With respect to the Basutos, and other Bechuana
tribes, there is some conflict of opinion upon their
idea of God. Dr. Moffat, after living amongst the
Bechuanas for years, thus records his impression of
their religious beliefs :—
66
During years of apparently fruitless labour, I
have often wished to find something by which I could
lay hold in the minds of the natives-an altar to an
unknown God, the faith of their ancestors, the immor-
tality of the soul, or any religious association; but
nothing of this kind ever floated in their minds.
They looked on the sun,' as Mr. Campbell very
graphically said, 'with the eyes of an ox.' To tell
them, the gravest of them, that there was a Creator,
the governor of the heavens and the earth, of the fall
of man, of the redemption of the world, the resurrec-
tion of the dead, and immortality beyond the grave,
was to tell them what appeared to be more fabulous,
extravagant, and ludicrous than their own vain stories
about lions, hyenas, and jackals."1
،
The French missionary, Casalis, says of the
Basutos in particular, and of the South African tribes
generally, that they had entirely lost the idea of a
Creator. 2
1
"Missionary Scenes and Labours in South Africa,” p. 244.
"The Basutos,” p. 238.
OF THE AFRICANS.
23
Arbousset, another French missionary, implies
almost the same thing, for he affirms that "They have
scarcely retained the idea of a Supreme Being."
Although he afterwards admits that it “would not be
difficult to find amongst them some theists."
Nevertheless it has been, I think, satisfactorily
ascertained that, apart from the knowledge which has
been imparted by Europeans, the Basutos have an
idea of God, not unlike that which the Zulu Kaffirs
have of a Heavenly Lord. Even Arbousset admits
this, for he says of them :-
"When it thunders every one trembles. If there
are several together, one asks the other with uneasi-
ness, 'Is there any one amongst us who devours the
wealth of others?' All then spit on the ground,
saying, 'We do not devour the wealth of others.' It
a thunderbolt strikes and kills one of them, no one
complains, none weep; instead of being grieved, all
unite in saying that the Lord is delighted (that is to
say, He has done right), with killing that man; they
say, also, that the thief eats thunderbolts, that is to
say, does things which draw down upon men such
judgments. There can be no doubt, they suppose,
that the victim in such a case must have been guilty
of some crime, of stealing most probably, a vice
from which very few of the Bechuanas are exempt,
and that it is on this account that fire from heaven
has fallen upon him.”2
Casalis also remarks that among the Basutos, if
any one be struck dead by lightning, no murmur is
"Exploratory Tour in South Africa,” p. 69.
2 Ib. p. 323.
1
24
THE RELIGION
heard, and tears are suppressed. "The Lord has
killed him," they say, "he is doubtless rejoicing; let
us be careful not to disturb his joy."1
The Baroling, who, like the Basutos, are one of the
several tribes that are collectively called Bechuana,—
i.e., those who are like one another, regard God as a
beautiful person, having only one leg (emblematic of
unity), and thoroughly just and beneficent. His
name is always listened to with respect.
The Rev. G. Mitchell, who has lived for some
years amongst the Baroling, in reply to my inquiries,
says, "As showing that the Bechuana have a belief in
God as distinct from the world of spirits, I may men-
tion a short prayer of theirs, e.g., O God of my
father who has gone on high to Thee, he is lying at
rest with Thee;' also the reverence with which they
mention the name of God, and a common form of an
oath, which translated is, 'May God kill me,' i.e.,
meaning, if it is not as the speaker affirms it is.
"When they worship Him, i.e., pray to Him, which
is very seldom indeed, only on the death of some one,
or when in distress, they will fall on their knees with
their face towards or on the ground.
"Strictly speaking, I do not think any attribute is
used of God by them, inferentially, however, it might
be so; e.g., they look to him for the rain; and to some
one who must have stolen a thing, they say, 'You
cannot blame God for it.' I have never heard them
say anything which would lead me to suppose that
they ever think of God as seriously taking any active
"The Basutos," p. 242.
OF THE AFRICANS.
25
part in the affairs of the world; on the other hand I
do not know that they do not.”
-
There is no proof that these ideas respecting a
Supreme Being have been imported by the Bechuana
from Europeans; it is not, however, unlikely that
their original belief has been, to some extent, ex-
panded, that they have adopted as their own what
was originally no portion of their creed. They,
however, insist that their present conception of God
has existed from time immemorial amongst them.
When Kolben knew the Hottentots, unless he was
greatly mistaken, of which, be it said, there is no
proof, they had a far-reaching idea of God.
"I am fully satisfied," says he, "from a thousand
inquiries I made among the Hottentots, and from a
thousand declarations they made to myself that they
believe in a Supreme Being, the Creator of heaven
and earth, and of everything in them; the Governor
of the world, in whose almighty power all things
live and move and have their being; and that he is
endowed with unsearchable attributes and perfections.
The Hottentots call Him Gounja Gounja, or Gounja
Ticquoa, that is, the God of Gods, and they say he is
a good man, who does nobody any hurt, and from
whom none need be apprehensive of any, and that
he dwells far above the moon." 1
Another authority thus describes the Hottentot
religion sixty years ago :—
..
They have no divine worship, and few, if any,
religious ceremonies, and, in their savage state,
"Present State of the Cape of Good Hope," vol. i. p. 94.
26
THE RELIGION
appear a very stupid race, almost void of the power
of reflection and reason, without any knowledge of
divine subjects, but a vague notion that there is one
great Lord of all, and likewise an evil spirit, a devil.
"They are said to observe an annual festival on
the day when the seven stars appear, which happens
at the beginning of summer. As soon as they become
visible, the parents wake the children and take them
into the field to show them the stars. All the in-
habitants of the kraal then meet together to dance
and sing. They sing words to the following effect:
O Ticquoa, Thou Father over our heads, give us
rain, that all our fruits may ripen, and we may have
food in plenty. Grant us a good year, that we may
not be obliged to rob the white people, nor they come
to kill us.'" 1
،
It is the fashion to question the statements of old
travellers upon the religious beliefs of the natives
whom they visited, and there can be no question that
the beliefs of the present representatives of such people
are not always in harmony with the descriptions which
such travellers gave of them: but it must be borne in
mind that the experience of many tribes since they
were first visited by Europeans, has tended to the
destruction of many of their original beliefs and cus-
toms.
The Bosjeman, or Bushmen, are, there is good.
reason for thinking, the original inhabitants of South
Africa, who were all but exterminated by the invading
Hottentots. They appear to have been a quiet, in-
1 "Historical Sketches of the Missions of the United Bre-
thren." John Holmes. P. 381.
OF THE AFRICANS.
27
telligent, and well-disposed people, but being deprived
of their land, robbed of their cattle, and compelled
to live like wild beasts in the woods and mountains,
they have become more brutes than men.
That they
should have forgotten many of their religious beliefs
and usages is not, therefore, surprising. It would
seem, however, that they have retained some sense
of a heavenly power.
The son of the chief of the Bushmen that lived in
the neighbourhood of the Moravian Station at Gena-
dendal, became a Christian, and he gave the following
account of the religious ideas of his countrymen :—
"They perform a kind of religious worship to two
rocks, the one representing a male, and the other
a female. When going out to hunt they implore the
aid of these deities to provide them with food. First
they go to the male rock, and strike it with a stick ;
if it sounds they believe the report is heard in heaven,
and they will have success; but if they get nothing,
they repair to the female rock, which they think
is inhabited by a malicious spirit, and beat it well,
upbraiding it, saying: 'Why do you by your hidden
arms cause all the game to be shot dead so that we
can find none. """1
Here, then, is certainly an intimation of a belief in
the existence of a higher, and, probably, a divine
power in heaven.
،،
Arbousset says of the faith of the Mountain Bush-
men :- They believe that there is a Kaang, or chief,
in the sky, called also Kue-Akeng-teng, the man, that
1 "Historical Sketches of the Missions of the United Bre-
thren," p. 383.
28
THE RELIGION
is to say, the master of all things. According to their
expression :-'One does not see him with the eyes,
but knows him with the heart.' He is to be worshipped
in times of famine and before going to war, and that
throughout the whole night, performing the dance of
the Mokoma, i.e., He that is in heaven.”1
Bishop Callaway, when on a visit to the Griquas,
met several persons who were acquainted with the
Bushmen, and understood their language, and from
them he learnt that their word for God was Ikqum',~
and that the meaning of that word was, Father who is
above.
The Balonda, the most numerous of all the south-
western sections of the African race, and who, as yet,
are scarcely touched by a foreign influence, appear
to have throughout their various clans a clearer idea
than most other tribes of a Supreme Being, whom they
call by different names according to their dialects.
They are said to believe that He rules over all other
spirits and minor deities, just as their king rules over
the greater and lesser chiefs.
In Western Africa the operations of the slave trade,
the influences of Mohammedanism, intercourse with
European colonists, and the teaching of Christian
missionaries, have tended to obliterate the primitive
beliefs of the natives, either by destroying them with-
out giving anything in return, or by substituting for
them a faith in God foreign to their original ideas.
Mr. Monteiro has lately drawn a sad picture of the
present condition of the natives of Angolo and the
1 (6
'Exploratory Tour in South Africa,” p. 261.
OF THE AFRICANS.
29
Congo, which serves to show the destructive influence
of the slave trade, and foreign misrule. According
to him they have "No idea of a Creator, or of a
future existence.”1 But Father Merolla, a Capuchin
missionary, who worked amongst the ancestors of
these people in the 17th century, says of them:
"It would seem, indeed, that they are not ignorant
of a Supreme Being, and they also appear to acknow-
ledge the immortality of the soul after its separation
from the body."
Other travellers confirm this statement, and there :
can be no reasonable doubt that the people of An-
golo and the River Congo had far higher views with
respect to certain religious beliefs in days gone by
than they now hold, if we accept Mr. Monteiro's
statement of their present condition as correct.
The rule of the Portuguese has tended to oblite-
rate all but the lowest forms of superstition from the
minds of the natives. In this they have proved
themselves to be worse than the Mohammedans, for
in Senegambia, and other regions of Western Africa
where the Mohammedans have power, the conception
of God amongst the natives has become brighter and
clearer.
1 66
With the view of comparing the present beliefs or
the natives of West Africa with those which they held
in the past, I have looked through several volumes of
travel during the 17th and 18th centuries, and by
every traveller I find the West African tribes credited
with a belief in a Supreme Being.
Angolo and the River Congo," vol. i. p. 247.
30
THE RELIGION
Bosman, a Dutchman, says of them: "It is cer-
tain that they have a faint idea of the true God, and
ascribe to Him almighty and omnipotent attributes.
They do not pray to Him, or offer sacrifices, as they
say He is too exalted to care Himself about man-
kind."
The Abbe Proyart, another old missionary, also
declares: "They acknowledge a Supreme Being,
who, having no origin, is Himself the origin of
all things. They believe that He has created all
that is fine, all that is good in the universe; that
being by nature just, he loves justice in others, and
severely punishes fraud and perjury. They call Him
Zambi; they take His name in testimony of the
truth; and they regard perjury as one of the greatest
crimes; they even pretend that a species of malady
called Zambi-a-n-pongon, is the punishment of it; and
they say when they are attacked with it, 'there's a
perjured man.'”l
Barbot affirms that they "acknowledge a Supreme
Being, though their idea of Him is vague; and attri-
bute to Him infinite power, universal knowledge,
omnipresence, and goodness."
The people of Sierra Leone owned but one God,
the maker of heaven and earth. They called the
Supreme God Canou, and regarded Him as an
avenger of crimes, and they took Him for a witness
to the sincerity of their words.
On the Gambia the people were found to have a
belief in God whom they called China. And Barbot
History of Loango, Kakongo," &c. (Pinkerton's Collec-
1 66
tion).
OF THE AFRICANS.
31
describes an act of worship paid to God, of which he
was an eye-witness. At the commencement of the
rice sowing season chief and people went in proces-
sion, carrying ears of rice and honey, to the temple
of China, who was represented by an idol. The rice
was presented to the idol, the honey burnt before
him, and then the people prayed aloud to God to
give a blessing to their harvest.
Mungo Park says: "Some of the religious.
opinions of the negroes, though blended with weakest
cruelty and superstition, are not unworthy attention.
I have conversed with all ranks and conditions upon
the subject of their faith, and can pronounce, without
the smallest shadow of doubt, that the belief in one
God, and of a future state of rewards and punish-
ments, is entire and universal amongst them. It
is remarkable that the Pagan nations do not think
it necessary to offer up prayers and supplications to
the Almighty. They represent the Deity, indeed, as
the Creator and preserver of all things; but, in
general, they consider Him a being so remote, and
of so exalted a nature, that it is idle to imagine the
feeble supplications of wretched mortals reverse the
decrees and change the purposes of unerring wisdom."1
Indeed, there is scarcely a pioneer of travel in
Western Africa who does not bear witness to the
fact of a belief in God on the part of the nations.
Everywhere from beneath the thick cloud of fearful
superstitions, there flashed upon them occasional
gleams of the face of God, occasional only, it is true,
'Original edition, p. 271.
32
THE RELIGION
and productive of no apparent good result. As it is
now in other parts of Africa, so was it in days gone
by in the West, the natives believed in the existence of
a heaven Lord, but such belief had no real influence
in their lives; they, as a rule, built Him no temples,
paid Him no kind of worship; they lived on with an
epicurean indifference to everything but the imme-
diate pleasure of the hour; for though they may have
credited Him with goodness, they knew not that they
should strive to imitate it.
That a belief in the existence of a Supreme Being
still exists amongst some of the West African people
there is no reason to doubt.
According to Skertchley, "The Dahoman religion
consists of two parts totally distinct from each other.
First, the belief in a Supreme Being; and, second,
the belief in a whole host of minor deities.
"The Supreme Being is called Mau, and is invested
with unlimited authority over every other being, both
spiritual and carnal. He is supposed to be of so
high a nature as to care very little for the circum-
stances of man, and his attention is only directed to
them by special invocations."1
He is supposed to reside far above the sky, and
to commit the care of earthly affairs to lesser deities.
He is said to be in every respect an anthropopathical
deity, having His likes and dislikes, and yet with
characteristic inconsistency the Dahomans deny the
corporeal existence of the deity, while ascribing to
Him human passions.
"Dahomey as It Is." J. H. Skertchley. Pp. 461, 465.
OF THE AFRICANS.
33
According to Burton, and he does but affirm what
Barbot said many years ago, the Dahomans ascribe
thunder to the Supreme Being; and, like the Zulu-
Kaffirs, they do not regard it as a sign of His anger,
but as an indication that He is taking His pleasure,
in a way in which Jupiter was thought to indulge.
،
(
Burton also says of the Egbas, the people that
occupy the country known as Abbeokuta, or Abeo-
kuta, as he calls it :-" With gods many and lords
many, and a considerable mixture of idolatry, they
have a distinct name for a Creator. They call Him
Olorun, an abbreviation of O li Orun, Lord or
owner of the sky or firmament. It might also be
translated, Lord of Ghostland;' Oki Orun, Hill
Ghostland,' being Anglicanised, heaven, as opposed
to Orun Akpadi, which some translate, 'Crucible
Hades,' i.e., hell. He is also known as Eleda, the
Creator; Olo-Damare, the ever righteous, the glo-
rious High One. These, however, are palatable
attributes of a vague being without personality, and
without objectivity; at best, the name is used like
the Hindu Pariah employs the word Bhagwan, Deity,
whilst he worships some low incarnation which he
considers inferior in dignity to a live Brahmin.” 1
The information which we possess of the religious
beliefs of the tribes in the interior is scanty and
imperfect. In Barth's five volumes there are scarcely
five pages devoted to this subject, and, so far as
he informs us to the contrary, the heathen tribes
with whom he came in contact might be destitute of
any belief in God.
"Abeokuta and the Cameroons Mountains," vol. i. p. 180.
D
34
THE RELIGION
Sir Samuel Baker was not so incurious upon the
religious faith of the people whose acquaintance he
made, but having failed to convince a somewhat
brutalized individual of the truth of the resurrection
of the body, a truth that caused even the philoso-
phers of Athens to turn with contempt from St. Paul,
he seems to have come to the conclusion that the
various tribes inhabiting the Nile regions are unmiti-
gated materialists.
Speke and Grant give interesting details of certain
superstitions, but of belief in God they scarcely make
mention.
Schweinfurth, while acknowledging his incapacity,
on account of his ignorance of their language, and
the suspicion with which he was regarded by the
natives in consequence of his being associated with
slave dealers, nevertheless declares that the Mon-
buttoo, a cannibal branch of the Niam Niam, believe
in the existence of a Supreme Being, whom they call
Noro, and whom they regard as a heaven God.¹
Livingstone once told me that he thought some
sort of belief in a Supreme Being prevailed through-
out Africa.
•
It may be, as Baring-Gould observes, that :-"In'
this conception (of God) there is no personality, no
antagonism, and the life of the savage who holds this
view is unruled by any moral code, unkindled by any
hope of social or individual progress. He has no
thought but for his day; his motives are drawn from
his present necessities, he knows no past, cares for
1 "Heart of Africa," vol. ii. p. 120.
OF THE AFRICANS.
35
no future, lives only for the present, and that a
present of animal appetites." 1
But the Africans are not the monopolists of this
condition; and few races, probably, have escaped
it, at some portion of their career. When Moses was
commissioned to deliver the Israelites from the
bondage of Egypt, I question if their ideas of God
were much more exalted than that of the Africans ;
for signs and wonders, both in Egypt and in the
wilderness, and a religious ceremonial adapted to its
purpose by more than human wisdom, were needed
to teach them what were the attributes of God.
Connected with belief in God are the traditions of
the creation of the world, and of man, and of the
origin of death.
The ideas of most heathen nations concerning the
creation of the world and of man, &c., are found in
traditions in which, though there be no great uni-
formity, there are some features in common. Almost
all cosmogonies commence with a chaos, or with a
mundane egg; and darkness, it is said, preceded
light. These traditions are not confined to nations
which represent the ancient civilizations, they are
met with also amongst barbarous races scarcely
removed from the condition of savages. In the
Polynesian mythology there is a magnificent legend
called "The Children of Heaven and Earth," which,
though relating to the origin of the human race,
describes chaos, the primeval darkness, the separa-
tion of the heavens from the earth, and the creation
"The Origin and Development of Religious Beliefs," p. 239.
D 2
36
THE RELIGION
of light, with a force of imagination, and a grandeur
of imagery equal to the greatest of the cosmogonical
myths of the more civilized races.
The Africans are not without traditions which
relate to the creation of the world, and of men, &c.,
yet such traditions are destitute of many of the fea-
tures which are almost common to the legends of
other races of men, and are not generally diffused.
With respect to the creation of the world itself, all
that the Zulus seem to know,—and we are better ac-
quainted with their knowledge on this subject than with
that of any other tribe, is, that it was in existence before
man, and that Unkulunkulu, the first man, and every-
thing living, had their origin from the earth.
One day Bishop Callaway was conversing with a
native on the origin of men, when two men, who were
strangers to the Bishop, came up, who, upon hearing
what he was talking about, said:"Are you talking
about the origin of men?" Upon being told that such
was the case, and asked if they could furnish any in-
formation on the subject, the elder of the two made a
statement, of which I give the summary :—
Unkulunkulu had his origin in a valley of this
world where there was a bed of reeds. He sprang
from the bed of reeds, and a woman (a wife) sprang
from the same bed of reeds after him. They had but
one name, that of Unkulunkulu; and men sprang
from Unkulunkulu by generation. All things, as
well as Unkulunkulu, sprang from a bed of reeds,
everything, both animals and corn, coming into
being with Him. He looked upon the sun when it
was finished, and said, "There is a torch which shall
OF THE AFRICANS.
37
give you light, that you may see."
He looked on
the cattle, and said, "There are cattle, be ye broken.
off,¹ and let the cattle be your food, eat their flesh
and drink their milk." He looked on wild animals,
and said, “That is such an animal; that is an
elephant, that is a buffalo." He looked on the fire,
and said, "Kindle it, and cook and warm yourself,
and eat meat when it has been dressed by the fire."
He looked on all things, and said, "So-and-so is the
name of everything."i
ܕ
Other natives gave the Bishop similar information
with regard to the origin of men, all of which de-
clared man to be earth-born, and some of which
seemed to recognize a Creator; though Umvelingangi,
the name given to the primal source of being, is a
name, that, through the confounding of the creature
with the creator, is sometimes applied to the first man.
For instance, an old Izulu said :—
"Thus sprung up a man and a woman. The name
of both was Unkulunkulu. They sprang from a
reed, the reed which is in the water. The reed was
made by Umvelingangi. He caused grass and trees.
to grow.
He created all wild animals, and cattle,
and game, and snakes, and birds, and water, and
mountains." This confusion between the Creator
and the First Man is not peculiar to the Africans, for
in "Christ and other Masters," vol. i. p. 305,
Archdeacon Hardwick says:-"As the old traditions
1
“A simile,” says Bishop Callaway, "implying that both
men and cattle were existing as young bulbs, ready to separate
from the parent bulb."
276
Religious System of the Amazulu,” p. 39.
38
THE RELIGION
of their ancestors were gradually distorted, the Hindus
appear to have identified the first man (Manu
Swayambhuva) with Brahma himself, of whom, as
of the primary cause, he was the brightest emanation;
while Satampa, the wife and counterpart of Manu,
was similarly converted into the bride of the creative
principle itself. Brahma, in other words, was 'con-
founded with the male half of his individuality.""
Similar apparent contradictions are to be found in
the mythology of other races of men, for in the myth
of Prometheus (a man), we find him described as the
creator of the human race.
Ugxumela, another Zulu Kaffir, gave the following
version of the origin of men, &c. :-" On the first day
man was created he said, as to what happened to
them in the bed of reeds, that they did not see their
own creation. When he and his wife first saw, they
found themselves crouching in a bed of reeds, and
saw no one who had created them.
“As regards the bed of reeds, on the day they
came into being it swelled, and when it had burst
they came out. After that there broke out the
Uthlanga (the great, great mother) of cattle and of
all other animals."
Other traditions, differing in character to the fore-
going, are to be found here and there amongst the
Zulu Kaffirs, such, for instance, as, that men sprang
from a stone which was split in two when they came
out;
and that some men, not all, were belched up
by cattle. These are probably owing to the lively
fancy of certain individuals, and the pride of others,
for it seems that the chiefs and great men object to be
OF THE AFRICANS.
39
confounded with common folk, and consequently
frequently give a marvellous account of their
origin. Generally the people ascribe their origin
to a reed, or a bed of reeds; and this idea of the
origin of all things, secondarily, from the earth,
varied by local popular opinion, largely prevails in
South Africa.
Casalis says, that amongst the Basutos there is a
legend that both men and animals came out of the
bowels of the earth by an immense hole, the opening
of which was in a cavern, and that the animals
appeared first:1 though another tradition, and one.
more generally received is, that man sprung up in a
marshy place, where reeds were growing.
The Baroling tradition is, that all things created
came originally out of a hole in the earth.
Moffat says the same thing with respect to that
section of the Bechuanas with whom he lived.
Campbell was told by the old men that there was
a great hole in the Marootze country out of which
men and cattle first came, and that their footmarks
are still to be seen there;2 and Arbousset records a
similar legend.
Finally, Bishop Callaway adds:-"I have never
yet met with any native, old or young, of Natal or
Zululand, or from any part between Natal and the
Cape, who was ignorant of the tradition of Unkulun-
kulu, who came out of the earth, the first man who
lived, gave laws to his children, and died.”3
1 "The Basutos," p. 240.
2 "Travels in South Africa," vol. i. p. 306.
Religious System of the Amazulu," p. 85.
،،
40
THE RELIGION
In effect, the people of South Africa say, with
Milton :-
"The Earth obeyed, and straight
Opening her fertile womb, teemed at a birth
Innumerous creatures, perfect forms,
Limbed and full-grown."
Concerning the origin of man, &c., both travellers
and missionaries in other parts of Africa must have
been very incurious, or generally unfortunate in their
inquiries, for they have failed to elicit much informa-
tion upon it. Where I have met with any statements
on this subject they seem to have been derived from
Mohammedan or Christian sources, and therefore
not applicable to my purpose. Arnold, but without
indicating his authority, declares :-"The Yumala
negroes teach that Til, the great Creator, cut the
knee-caps from the hermaphrodite Venus, and made
from them a black and white human pair. Other
negro tribes speak of the first woman being called
Iye, or life."1
Such statements, however, add very little to the
value of the information which we possess on this
subject; yet, from the similarity which exists between
other portions of their religious beliefs, I have no
doubt that further investigations amongst the unso-
phisticated tribes will disclose, that they not only
have a belief in the origin of man, &c., but that it is
in its main features like unto that which exists
amongst the natives of South Africa.
With respect to the origin of white and black men
1 "Genesis and Science," p. 155.
OF THE AFRICANS.
4I
there are, as might be expected, various legends
amongst the Africans.
Palme records the following as existing amongst
a heathen tribe in the Soudan. "When our first
parents were driven from paradise, the Lord came
down from heaven to see if his orders were executed,
and to convince Himself that they gained their daily
bread by the sweat of their brow. Eve, or as the
negroes call her, Hauve, bore daily many hundred
children, which she was obliged to show the Abou
(God the Father), who sent them into all parts of the
world, there to multiply. It happened once that He
reproached Hauve, and said He would not have any
more of those dark babes, and took them from her
and transported them into the present Abyssinia.
Shortly after this Hauve brought forth another lot of
similar children, which, for fear of Abou, she put into
an oven to secrete them; but Abou, on his arrival,
had a suspicion of what had transpired, and as he
did not receive a satisfactory answer from Hauve
respecting the last children, hunted for them every-
where, and found them eventually in the oven.
When they crept out of their place of confinement
they were all black with soot. Abou, in wrath at
this second offence on the part of Hauve, again took
away her children, and swore that they should, in
commemoration of their mother's crime, remain for
ever black as when they emerged from the oven, and
that nothing in the world should be capable of wiping
off the stain. These children became the original
parents of the negroes.” ¹
1 "Travels in Kordofan," p. 187.
42
THE RELIGION
But though the traveller is careful to inform us that
the people from whom he learnt this legend were not
Mohammedans, and clung in all things to their old
heathen ways, there is about it such an atmosphere of
Mohammedan superstition, that it is difficult to accept
it as a primitive legend of the Africans. The genuine
African myths are, be it said, generally less offensive
in their character.
Of the origin of the white man, the Zulu Kaffirs
have no historical tradition. They believe that
Unkulunkulu (with all that sprung from him) was
black, and they thus account for the white men :
The black men came out first from the place whence
all nations proceeded, but they came with few things
and little knowledge; what they had just enabled
them to obtain food and live, and their wisdom only
enabled them to help themselves, though, until they
became acquainted with the white men, they thought
they possessed all things, and were so wise that there
was nothing that they did not know. But when they
saw the wisdom and the knowledge of the white men,
they no longer said all men came out of the place
of origin together, but that the white men remained
behind and obtained very much more than they
possessed from the great Itongo (Spirit). The white
men came out with everything that was needed for
manhood; they came forth perfect, and not like
themselves, who, while boasting in their ignorance
that they were wise and possessed all things, were
foolish and possessed nothing.¹
1 "Religious System of the Amazulu,” p. 76.
OF THE AFRICANS.
43
This idea of the cause of the difference between
white and black men is evidently of a recent growth,
and is valuable only as showing the working of the
native mind when brought in contact with the supe-
riority of Europeans.
The Kordofan legend refers to man's expulsion
from Paradise; but though traditions of Eden, that
is, of a Golden Age, when men lived in purity and
happiness, form an element in the mythology of other
races of men, there are not, in so far as I have been
able to ascertain, any well-defined examples of it to
be met with in Africa. Kolben, however, says:
"The Hottentots, that is, the most sensible of them,”
-for with the Africans, as with ourselves, religious
knowledge is not universal, a fact which travellers do
not always recognize—“ believe that their first parents
so grievously offended the Supreme God that He
cursed them and all their posterity with hardness of
heart, so that they knew little of Him, and have still
less inclination to serve Him." l
1
He naturally anticipates that such a tradition, so
far in advance of, or, at least, so contrary to all that
had then been ascertained of the religious belief of
the Africans, would meet with but little credence, and
he emphatically assures his readers that such a belief
did exist amongst the Hottentots, and that he re-
corded it "without the least addition or improve-
ment of his own, beyond the proper turn of words."
Arnold, but without mentioning from what source
he derives his information, says :-"In Yumala a
"Present State of the Cape of Good Hope," r. 95.
44
THE RELIGION
1
3
tradition exists that because mankind degenerated,
the God Til doomed them to destruction, causing
them to forfeit their immortality. The Fanti negroes
believe that man was not created in the condition
in which he now exists, his original happiness being
lost by his falling into sin."1 But in the face of the
fact that the Africans, like most other heathens, do
not regard sin, according to their idea of sin, as an
offence against God, but simply as a transgression of
the laws and customs of their country, I think we
may safely conclude that the Fantis derived their
belief on this subject either from the Mahammedans
of the Soudan, by whom they were dispossessed of
their original territory in the interior, or from Euro-
peans on the coast.
That there should be no well-authenticated legend
of Paradise, and man's expulsion therefrom, amongst
the heathen tribes of Africa is somewhat remark-
able, because in Egypt there exists amongst its
most ancient monuments a record of the events of
Paradise, as recorded in Holy Scripture. The Rev.
C. Forster has given a description of the central
tablet of a large sculpture in the temple of Osiris
at Phyle, which, he says:- "At once tells its own
story as, beyond a rational doubt, an Egyptian de-
lineation of the Temptation and Fall of our first
parents. Every particular of the Mosaic account is
here depicted to the life: the man, the woman, the
serpent, the tree, the forbidden fruit, only the fruit
was not on the tree, but in the hands of the man
1 "Genesis and Science," p. 164.
OF THE AFRICANS.
45
and woman, and upon the serpent's head—a basilisk.
standing erect,—as though the sentence 'upon thy
belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat, all the
days of thy life!' had not yet been fulfilled. ”l
From this it is evident that the ancient Egyptians
had some legend respecting Man's Fall, or, rather,
existence in Paradise and expulsion therefrom, and
as the Africans proper formed, according to Herodotus,
Diodorus, and others, so large a portion of the
Egyptian population as to lead them to credit the
Egyptians with the physical characteristics of the
negro, it is remarkable that the Africans do not seem
to have any knowledge of a subject which must have
been well known to the Egyptians. It is possible
that the Hottentots may have gained their idea of
man's transgression from the Egyptians, for though
hey occupy the most southern portion of the con-
tinent, there seems good reason to believe that they
have migrated willingly, or have been forced down
from the north. Some of the descriptions of the
African people who fought in the armies of Ancient
Egypt apply to them more than to any other of the
numerous tribes that now people the continent, and
their language, it is said, in its structure tends to
connect them with the north rather than with the
south of Africa.
By some it is thought that Serpent worship refers
to the temptation and fall of man. There is no
superstition more universal than Ophiolatry. There
is hardly a people on earth among whom the serpent
1 "The Monuments of Egypt," p. 185.
46
THE RELIGION
has not been an object either of divine worship, or
superstitious veneration, nor is there any system of
idolatry now existing which has not this creature
amongst its chief idols. This fact affords reason for
believing that the serpent is thus distinguished be-
cause it has played a prominent part in the history of
mankind, although its worshippers may have lost all
knowledge of the circumstance which originally
prompted their adoration.
Serpent worship, if not general, exists extensively
in Africa. Bruce discovered it amongst the Shangalla,
a tribe on the northern frontier of Abyssinia. I
met with indications of it in East Central Africa. In
"Purchas's Pilgrim " we are told that the negroes of
Congo worshipped snakes, which they fed with their
daintiest provisions. In "Lander's Records of Clap-
perton's Expedition," it is said: "The worship of
the snake still prevails in Central Africa. Among
their idols in a temple of the Yorbueans is one with
the image of a snake upon his head, which reminds
us of the Egyptian priest with the Asp of Isis."
The most conspicuous instance of snake-worship
in Africa, however, is now to be found in Whydah.
The snake, which is here made the tutelary deity of
the place, is the Danhgbwe, a harmless, brown and
pale yellow creature, about eight feet long. The
adoration is paid to the living creature, though it is
not at all clear that it is regarded as the incarnation
of any god.
The Serpent's House is the most celebrated temple
in the kingdom, and great numbers of the Danhgbwe
are there kept and cared for by men and women
OF THE AFRICANS.
47
ner.
devoted to this service. The priests and priestesses
of this reptile deity are recruited in a singular man-
The snakes are permitted to leave the temple
at will, and they are given to nocturnal wanderings.
Should a child be touched by a snake on one of its
peregrinations, the priests immediately demand the
child from its parents. who have to impoverish them-.
selves to pay for its education in the various ceremonials
appertaining to the worship, until the period of pro-
bation is passed, and the neophyte, having been duly
initiated into its mysteries, is permitted to practise
ophiomancy himself
1
The penalty for killing a Danhgbwe used to be
death, but since Whydah has been incorporated with
the kingdom of Dahomey, this has been commuted
to a punishment sufficiently severe, but not necessarily
fatal. A house is built of dry sticks, and thatched
with dry grass; the culprit, after being profusely
anointed with palm oil, is put into it. The door
is shut, the house is fired, the inmate, if he can,
forces his way through the blazing edifice, and
rushes to the nearest running stream, followed by
the people, who have assembled for the occasion,
and who beat and pel him unmercifully. If he reach
the water he is safe from further molestation, but
should he fall by the way he is beaten to death.
The ancients credited the serpent with super-
natural wisdom, and worshipped it as the divine
giver of knowledge not attainable by human power.
The Danhgbwe is supposed to have preternatural
wisdom, to be omnipotent in procuring the welfare
"Dahomey at Is," p. 56. Skertchley.
48
THE RELIGION
of its devotees, and no undertaking of any importance
is commenced without consulting and sacrificing to it.
There is, therefore, some resemblance between
serpent-worship in Africa and that of ancient times;
and if it be true that "the serpent of Paradise was
the serpent-god of the Gentiles," the serpent that
tempted Eve may also be the remote cause of the
veneration with which the serpent is still regarded in
Africa.
Connected with this subject are the traditions on
the origin of death.
"Of man's first disobedience, and the fruit
Of that forbidden tree, whose mortal taste
Brought death into the world, and all our woe,"
the Africans, generally, are ignorant. I do not think
that it has ever been clearly ascertained that any
section of the Africans do of themselves regard death
as a punishment for sin. Yet, on the origin of death,
they have various legends, the most remarkable, of
which there are several versions, being that which is
found in South Africa.
Dr. Bleck gives the following translation of the
version which prevails amongst the Hottentots :-
“The Moon, it is said, sent once an insect to men,
saying, 'Go thou to men, and tell them, "As I die,
and dying live, so ye shall also die, and dying live."'
The insect started with the message, but whilst on
his way was overtaken by the Hare, who asked, 'On
what errand are you bound'? The insect answered,
'I am sent by the Moon to men, to tell them that
as she dies, and dying lives, they also shall die, and
OF THE AFRICANS.
49
6
dying live.' The Hare said, ‘As thou art an awkward
runner, let me go' (to take the message). With these
words, he ran off, and when he reached men, he said,
I am sent by the Moon to tell you, "As I die, and
dying perish, in the same manner ye shall also die,
and come wholly to an end."' Then the Hare re-
turned to the Moon, and told her what he had said
to men. The Moon reproached him angrily, saying,
'Darest thou tell the people a thing which I have
not said?' With these words, she took up a piece
of wood, and struck him on the nose. Since that
day the Hare's nose is slit."1
Old Namaqua Hottentots, therefore, will not eat
hare's flesh, but the young men may do so until they
are ceremonially admitted to the status of manhood.
((
The moon, be it said, was, if it be not now, an
object of worship amongst the Hottentots. Kolben
is very sure of this, and produces the testimony of
others in confirmation of his own conviction. He
says: These dancings and noises, which some
travellers regard simply as pastime, are religious
honours and invocations to the moon.
They call
her Gounja. The Supreme God they call Gounja
Gounja, or Gounja Ticquoa, the God of gods; and
place him far above the moon. The moon with them
is an inferior visible God, the subject and the
representative of the High and Invisible. They
judge the moon to have disposal of the weather, and
invoke her for such things as they want. They as-
semble for the celebration of her worship at full and
1 "Hottentot Fables" (Bleck), p. 69.
E
J
50
THE RELIGION
change constantly. No inclemency of the weather
prevents them.”1
The Zulu version of the legend on the origin of
death, according to Bishop Callaway, runs thus:-
"It is said, Unkulunkulu sent for the Chameleon, and
said to it, 'Go, Chameleon, go and say, "Let not
men die "' (or, tell men they shall not die). The
Chameleon set out, but it went slowly, and loitered
on the way, eating of the fruit of a tree which is
called Ubukwebezane. (A shrub which bears clus-
ters of berries, of a purplish colour and a sweet taste.)
At length Unkulunkulu sent a Lizard after the Chame-
leon, when it had been away some time. The Lizard
went, and made great haste, for Unkulunkulu had
said, ‘Lizard, when you have arrived, say, “Let men
die.' So the Lizard went, and said, 'I tell you it
is said,
"Let men die." The Lizard returned to
Unkulunkulu before the Chameleon had reached his
destination. At length it arrived, and shouted,
saying, 'It is said, 'Let not men die !
But men
answered, 'Oh! we have heard the word of the
Lizard; it has told us that men shall die. We cannot
hear your word. Through the word of the Lizard
men will die.'" 2
"Let
There is still a lively belief in this tradition
amongst the Zulus, who, in consequence, manifest a
strong dislike for the lizard, invariably killing it if it
come in their way, saying, at the same time :—
be! This is the very piece of deformity which ran
in the beginning to say that men should die."
1
"Present State of the Cape of Good Hope," vol. i. p. 97.
"Religious System of the Amazulu,” p. 3.
OF THE AFRICANS.
T
5I
There is, it will be observed, a marked difference
in the spirit, if not in the form, of these versions of
this legend. In the first instance, the message con-
veyed a promise of life through death, and was
made abortive, not by the action of the god who sent
it, but solely through the spontaneous and malicious
interference of the hare. In the second case, there
is a promise of absolute immunity from death, for
which the will of the god, seemingly provoked by
the delay of the chameleon, not by any fault of men,
substitutes a declaration of death equally absolute.
Of the so-called Flood legends there is scarcely a
trace to be found in Africa. Here and there, it is
true, the natives have made certain statements, which
some suppose refer to the Noachian deluge, but it
requires a liberal exercise of the imagination to enable
one to accept such a conclusion.
The Hottentots used to say that their first parents.
came into the country through a window, or door;
that the name of the man was Noh, and the name
of the woman Hingnoh; that they were sent into
their country by God Himself; and that they taught.
their descendants to keep cattle, and to do a great
many things. Kolben thinks that this tradition looks
extremely like a fragment of the story of Noah. It
may be so, but, nevertheless, I fear he has been led
to see a connection where none exists.
Of genuine African traditions concerning the
Deluge there seems to be no unquestionable instance
in existence. The Yumala people, according to
J. M. Arnold, say that the wickedness of men in
murdering each other was punished by a great flood;
E 2
52
THE RELIGION
only one man, Musikden—the Prince of the Moun-
tain—escaping. But this legend is evidently of
Mohammedan origin; and out of the range of
Mohammedan and European influence, I doubt if
you find in Africa any tradition of the Deluge, the
Dispersion, or any other kindred subject.
OF THE AFRICANS.
53
CHAPTER II.
CONCERNING GOOD AND EVIL SPIRITS.
BELIEF in an intermediate race of beings between
deity and humanity is a prominent feature in every
religious system of the heathen. Among the early
Oriental nations the science of astronomy appears to
have been essentially connected with this belief, the
heavenly bodies being considered demons, or celes-
tial intelligences, and honoured and worshipped as
such. Idolatry and zoolatry are the offspring of this
belief; idols and certain beasts being regarded as
personifications of some spiritual principle or being,
good or evil, to whom homage was due. The
symbolic representations, and deification of the human
passions and moral virtues grew, I believe, out of
this same belief: it being supposed that they were
governed and directed by certain spiritual agents,
who were, in course of time, ranked as deities, and
had temples erected for their worship. Ultimately
every phase and feature of nature, everything, indeed,
that could be connected with human life, either in
this world or in the next, was thought to be under the
government or guardianship of one or more of these
spiritual beings, to whom religious homage was paid.
as to divinities; until these "principalities and
powers," these "gods many and lords many" may
be numbered, as in India, by millions.
54
THE RELIGION
In Africa the belief in demons, i.e., the beings
that are intermediate between deity and humanity,
which are to be distinguished from the disembodied
spirits of men, is general and intense. The Africans..
believe in the existence of God without anxiety,
because they think that He is unlikely to do them
harm, or to interfere in their affairs in any way,
but they regard the world of spirits, by whom they
believe themselves to be surrounded, with great
anxiety, for they consider them to be evil rather than
good; to have both the will and the power to
influence and determine their destinies; and they
strive, therefore, to propitiate them, or to guard
themselves against their malignity. To their imagi-
nations these spirits people the darkness with hideous
shapes, poison the light with their presence, sweep
over the plains in the forms of wild beasts, fill the
forests, inhabit trees, live on the tops of the moun-
tains, and in the secluded recesses of caves and val-
leys; make their homes in the sea, the lakes, and
the rivers; the air is full of them, the earth teems
with them, fire is not free from their presence, and
human beings are possessed by them. To them,
also, they attribute the sorrows and the sufferings,
the misfortunes, and, in most cases, the deaths of
mankind. But though their belief in this portion of
the spiritual world comprises almost every element
found in the most elaborated systems of mythology,
it is a crude, repulsive, fearful thing; no poetical
imagination glorifies it, and, save in some of the
western regions, it does not find an outward expres-
sion even in idolatry.
•
OF THE AFRICANS.
55
It is not easy to reduce to anything like a system
the fragmentary information which, from various parts.
of the continent, we possess on this subject. But
that this belief in the spiritual world issues in a ter-
rible Demonolatry, with which many of the seemingly
heterogeneous rites of the Africans are connected, I
am very sure.
By Demonolatry, I do not, with Dr. Johnson,
simply mean the worship of the devil, but the worship
of spiritual beings, other than human, who, as tute-
lary deities, or as characters less amiable, are thought
to be the guardians of particular localities and human.
interests, or the cause of discomfort, misfortune, and
death, and whose position, therefore, is somewhat
analogous to that of the gods and goddesses, and
other spirits less exalted, of more civilized regions.
That such are supposed to exist, and to exercise
a potent influence for evil rather than for good, is
certain; for almost every traveller in Africa contri-
butes some information which tends to prove it.
Perhaps the crudest form of this phase of belief in
the spiritual world prevails amongst the Bongo, a
tribe which, in general intelligence, seems to be in-
ferior to all the inhabitants of the regions of the Nile,
the Akka, ie. the pigmies, alone excepted. Why
this should be is not at all clear; that it is so, all
Europeans who have visited them bear witness.
Schweinfurth declares that they "have not the
remotest conception of immortality;" that "they
have no idea of transmigration of souls, or any doc-
trine of the kind, than they have of the existence
of the ocean; and that beyond the term loma, which
56
THE RELIGION
AIT
denotes equally luck and ill-luck, they have nothing
in their language to signify any deity or spiritual
being." Yet, in seeming contradiction to this posi-
tive statement, he afterwards says: "Quite amazing
is the fear which exists among the Bongo about
ghosts, whose abode is said to be the shadowy dark-
ness of the woods. Spirits, devils, and witches, have
their general appellation of bitaboh; wood-goblins
being specially called ronga. Comprehended under
the same terms are all bats, as likewise are owls of
every kind; and, besides these, the Ndori, a kind of
pseudo-simia, with great red eyes and great ears,
which drags out a gloomy existence in the cavities of
hollow trees. There are, too, prowling beasts of
night for which they entertain the utmost dread,
regarding them with superstitious awe. Good spirits
are quite unrecognized, and, according to the general
negro idea, no benefit can come from a spirit at
all. They affirm that the only thing they know
about spirits is that they do mischief. They assert
that there is no other resource for obtaining com-
munication with spirits, except by means of certain
roots, which may be of service, likewise, in em-
ploying the powers of evil spirits to inflict injury on
others."
1
"
The Waganda, who live on the northern shores of
the Victoria Nyanza, who were first made known to
us by Speke and Grant, and of whom M'tesa, an
extraordinary man, from whatever point of view he
may be regarded, is king, are great believers in the
1
"The Heart of Africa," vol. i. p. 307.
OF THE AFRICANS.
57
spiritual world generally; but their special object of
veneration and dread is M'gussa, a water spirit who
lives in the lake, and who wreaks his vengeance upon
all who excite his anger. Like the water spirits of
the Rhine, this demon is thought to have supreme
jurisdiction, not only in the lake itself, but in all the
rivers that communicate with it, and so fearful are
the Waganda of doing anything that might excite his
displeasure, that they would not permit Speke to
throw a sounding-line into the water lest perchance
he might be offended at it.
M'gussa communicates with the people by means
of his own special priest, who lives on an island of
the lake, and who is held in nearly as much awe as
his master.
Bishop Steere says that, by the natives at Zanzibar,
it is believed that "there are an infinite number of
spirits which may be called local, having a special
haunting-place, though exercising a wide power over
the fortunes of men and women. Such a one is
Mwana maua (child of flowers), a spirit haunting the
island of Monfia, and described as a very beautiful
woman, who is attended by a very ugly black hus-
band. Such, again, are the spirits called Muzimu,
and one, at least, of which is supposed to reside in
nearly every baobab or calabash-tree.”1
It seems, however, that Muzimu originally described
the disembodied spirits of men, as in some African
languages zimu is used for a departed spirit, and in
the Swahili it is sometimes used for among the dead;
1 "Mission Life," April, 1870.
3
58
THE RELIGION
consequently, though not now recognized as such,
the veneration with which the Muzimu are regarded
may be a relic of ancestor-worship.
The religious rites connected with this belief are
not, amongst the Africans at Zanzibar, generally san-
guinary. On ordinary occasions the fruits of the field
are offered in worship, but on great occasions, such
as war, famine, or pestilence, a red and a black ox
are sacrificed in order to propitiate the local demons.
Some say that "a red and a black ox" is merely a
euphemism for a white and a black man; but of the
truth of this no satisfactory proof has been given.
The Mozambique tribes generally, be it said, are
not naturally bloodthirsty or cruel; in war they do
not slay their thousands, and in times of peace deeds
of violence are almost unknown. Their religious
observances, consequently, are not often accompanied
by deeds of blood.
They have their tutelary deities, concerning one of
whom I gained some information. The Manganja
suppose that a spirit, whom they call Bona, dwells on
the top of a mountain called Choro, and though they
regard him with awe, they think him to be a bene-
ficent deity. He is looked upon as the dispenser of
peace and plenty, and the giver of wise counsel. He
is said to have a visible presence, but, save in dreams,
no one is supposed to have seen him. A priestess,
not necessarily a virgin, though from the time she is
selected she, on pain of death, must eschew the so-
ciety of men, is devoted to his service; and through
her Bona communicates with his worshippers. In
vulgar language, this woman is spoken of as Bona's
OF THE AFRICANS.
59
wife, and being compelled to live alone on the moun-
tain-top, a wife is often needed for Bona, for such an
isolation proves speedily fatal to African women.
When the spirit's advice is required, the chief, or
his representative, and a retinue of drum-beaters and
horn-blowers, and the bearers of the necessary offer-
ings, ascend the mountain. On their approach to
the sacred ground, the priestess secludes herself in
her hut, in front of which the offerings are laid, and
the difficulty requiring the aid of the spirit's counsel
to solve, is stated. The people then retire, the priestess
proceeds to the hut devoted to Bona, who during the
night appears to her in a dream, and declares his will
with respect to the subject upon which his advice is
sought. In the morning the people again resort to
the priestess, and hear the message which she has
been commissioned to deliver.
This method of obtaining intercommunion with the
deities was practised by the ancients, who slept in the
temples in the hope of receiving dreams from the
gods.
Amongst the Zulu Kaffir tribes ancestor-worship is
more common than demonolatry; of the latter wor-
ship, indeed, very few instances seem to be known.
Demonology, according to the popular idea of it, ¿.e.
the means by which men and women have dealings
with the agencies of the spiritual world, and become
endowed with preternatural powers, is believed in by
them implicitly, though whether this world of spirits
be composed of demons, or the spirits of human
beings, does not at all seem clear. Nevertheless, they
believe in the existence of certain spiritual beings
60
THE RELIGION
that are not human.
Mkosazana, the Princess, or
Little Chieftainess, is one such. She appeared on the
same day that men came out of the earth. The men
of primitive times knew her, but no one existing at
the present time has seen her. According to the
tradition which exists as to her personal appearance,
she is an animal as large as a polecat, and is marked
with white and black stripes. On one side she repre-
sents a bed of reeds, a forest, and grass; on the other
the appearance of a man. When she ever meets with
a man she conceals herself, and speaks with him
without his seeing her. He hears only a voice which
says, "Turn your back; do not look on me, for I am
naked." And the man obeys, because it is said that
if a man look on her face to face he will very soon
die. She it is who introduces many. fashions amongst
the people, and changes their customs. She speaks
to the man she loves, coming to him by night at his
own home, or meeting with him in the fields, telling
him her will, and bidding him repeat her words to the
people. Her words are never kept secret, for all
in whom she confides are afraid to hide them, lest
they die.
Sometimes she orders all the children to
be weaned, and although they are very young she is
obeyed; for the mothers are afraid that if they do not
wean them they will surely die. At other times she
says, "Let much beer be made and poured out on
the mountain." And all the tribes make beer, each
chief and his tribe, and do with it as she dictates, and
thus free themselves from blame.
Not long ago there lived in Zululand a man
named Ubobobo, who troubled the people greatly
OF THE AFRICANS.
61
by his frequent assertions that the Mkosazana had
spoken to him, and by the character of his messages.
Now he would declare that the Mkosazana had said
"Let the damsels marry young men, and reject the
old"; then he would assert that her command was,
"Give the damsels to the old men, and let them
reject the young." Nevertheless, his commands, what-
ever their character might be, were published through-
out the land and obeyed, for the people said, "The
Mkosazana has spoken," and her word is greater than
the chief's.
Her messages, however, are not always vexatious,
for she is regarded as one that "maketh the grass to
grow upon the mountains, and herb for the use of
men," &c.; and when there is a drought the people
long for her word of healing, and great is the rejoicing
when a man comes forward and declares that he has
met her in his garden, and that she has said, “This
year you shall have food; although for a long time
there has been famine, it shall be so no more."
No regular worship is paid to this supernatural
being; she lives apart from men in the depths of the
forests, and only when she pleases does she speak to
them, then she comes to whom she wills, and charges
them with her commands.
It is not, however, till we get to the Hottentots
that we find belief in a demon who occupies a posi-
tion somewhat like that which we assign to the devil.
In Kolben's time this belief was very lively amongst
them, and, I am told, it survives to this day amongst
the Namaquas.
After describing what he calls the "propitious side
62
THE RELIGION
of their religion,” Kolben says: 1"They" (the Hot-
tentots) "have but one upon the reverse, and that is
the worship of an evil deity, whom they look upon
as the father of mischief, and the cause of all their
plagues. They call him Touqúoa, and say he is a
little, crabbed, inferior captain, whose malice against
the Hottentots will seldom let him rest, and who
never did, nor has it in his nature to do, any good to
anybody.
""Tis this Touqúoa, say they, who stirs up enemies
against them. 'Tis he who frustrates all their good.
designs. "Tis he who sends all pain and vexation.
'Tis he who afflicts them and their cattle with dis-
eases, and sets on wild beasts to devour them. 'Tis he
who is the author of all ill-luck. And 'tis he, say
they, who teaches the wicked Hottentots the cursed
art of witchcraft; by which, they believe, innumerable
mischiefs are done to the persons and cattle of the
good." They worship him, therefore, "in order to
sweeten him and avert his malice. They coax him,
upon any apprehension of danger or misfortune, with
the offering of an ox or a sheep, and at other times
perform divers ceremonies of worship to wheedle and
keep him quiet.”
Father Tachart, says Kolben, has well described
the worship of this spirit of evil in the following
words :-"We honour Touqúoa at times," say the Hot-
tentots, "by killing a fat ox or a sheep, according to our
apprehensions of his designs to plague us. With the
1 "The Present State of the Cape of Good Hope,” vol. i.
pp. 104 and 111.
OF THE AFRICANS.
63
fat we anoint our bodies, and with the flesh we regale
one another, this being the way to please or reconcile
him to us if we have offended, though we know not
how we have offended. He reckons what he pleases
an offence, and plagues us when he pleases. And it
has been always a custom among us thus to appease
him."
Perhaps the most remarkable of the Hottentot
superstitions was a belief in a spirit that came to them
in the form of a winged insect, about the size of
a child's little finger, having a green back, a belly
speckled with white and red, and two horns on its
head-the Mantis fausta. Whenever they saw this
creature they paid it the highest tokens of veneration.
If it visited a kraal the inhabitants assembled about
it in transports of devotion. They sang and danced
around it, troop after troop, while it remained with
them, in highest raptures. They threw to it the
powder of a herb they called buchu (Spiræa Apii
ordorata), and covered the whole area of the kraal
and the tops of the huts with the same preparation.
They killed also fat sheep as a thank-offering. And
considering the benefits which this insect was sup-
posed to confer upon them, it is not surprising that
they paid it this high regard. They believed that
it brought them favour and prosperity; that all their
past offences were buried in oblivion; and that all
their guilt, of whatsoever kind it might be, was purged
away.
If this insect alighted on a Hottentot he was looked
upon as a man without fault, and distinguished and
reverenced as a sacred person ever after. His neigh-
64
THE RELIGION
bours gloried that they had such a favoured mortal
amongst them, and published the fact far and near.
The fattest ox belonging to the kraal was killed as a
thank-offering, and all the people kept festival for
days. The case was in every respect the same if
the insect alighted upon a woman; she was regarded
as a sanctified person, and the delight of the spirit.
Kolben says:-"The Hottentots will run any
hazard to procure the safety of this animal, and are
cautious to the last degree of giving it the least
annoyance."
The son of a German, who had given leave to
some Hottentots to turn their cattle upon his land,
was amusing himself one day in the kraal, when this
insect appeared. The Hottentots immediately ran
tumultuously to adore it; while the young German
ran to catch it, in order to see what the effect
would be amongst them. He seized it in the midst
of them. The cry of agony was general when they
saw it in his hands. They stared with distraction in
their eyes at him and at one another.
See, see,
see!" said they; "What is he going to do? Will he
kill it?" They were wild through apprehension of
its fate. "Why," said he, "do you make such a
hideous noise; and why are you in such agony
about this paltry creature?" "Ah!" they replied with
utmost concern, "It is a divinity. It is come from
heaven. It is come on a good design. Do not
hurt it; do not offend it. We are the most miser-
able wretches on earth if you do. This ground will
lie under a curse; and the crime will never be for-
given." This was not enough for the young German,
66
OF THE AFRICANS.
65
who determined to carry the experiment a little fur-
ther, and made as though he certainly intended to
maim or destroy it. On this the people ran about,
and screamed as though they were frantic ; they fell
prostrate on the ground before him, and with stream-
ing eyes and loudest cries besought him to spare the
creature and give it its liberty. Having sufficiently
tested the reality of their belief in this insect-god,
he let it fly, and they shouted in all the transports
of joy.
Kolben adds:"Discoursing upon this matter
myself with the Hottentots of this very kraal, they
declared to me, that if this deified insect had been
killed, all their cattle would certainly have been de-
stroyed by wild beasts, and they themselves, every
man, woman, and child of them, brought to a miser-
able end. They believe the kraal to be of evil destiny
where this insect is rarely seen; and to reason with
them against these infatuations is to talk to the wind.
They would sooner give up their lives than renounce
the least of them."
Amongst the Damaras I have not found any un-
doubted instances of demonolatry, though certain.
customs suggest that it exists.¹ For instance, they
are subdivided into a number of eundas—a word
which has some analogy with the Hindu "caste.”
The people belonging to one eunda are called the
Sun-children; to another the Rain-children; and
Each eunda has its peculiar rites and em-
These emblems are always sprigs of certain
so on.
blems.
1 Wood's "Natural History of Man," pp. 346 and 348.
F
66
THE RELIGION
bushes or trees, which represent the eundas, just as
the red and white roses represented the houses of
Lancaster and York. Each of these castes has some
prohibited food, and they will almost starve rather
than break through the prohibition. One will not
eat the flesh of red oxen, another eschews the draught
oxen; and so fastidious are they, that they will not
touch the vessels in which prohibited food is cooked,
nor even stand to leeward of the fire that cooks it,
lest the smoke should touch them.
Again, they have a practice which bears a striking
resemblance to the sacred fire of the ancients. The
hut of the supreme chief is distinguished by a fire
which is always kept burning outside the hut in fine
weather, and inside during the rain. The duty of
watching this fire is confided to the chief's daughter,
who is regarded as a priestess, and is called, from her
office, Ondangere. She performs various rites in vir-
tue of her office, such as sprinkling the cattle with
water as they go out to feed, and tying a sacred knot
in her leathern apron if one of them dies.
Should the position of the village be changed, she
precedes the oxen, carrying a burning brand from the
sacred fire, and taking care that it is replaced as occa-
sion requires. If by any accident the fire be extin-
guished, the lamentations are great. The whole tribe
is, called together, cattle are sacrificed as expiatory
offerings, and the fire is rekindled by friction.
If one of the chief's sons, or a great man of the
tribe, should remove from the capital, and set up a
village of his own, he is supplied with some of the
sacred fire, and commits it to the care of his own
OF THE AFRICANS.
67
daughter, who becomes the Ondangere of the new
village.
It is, I think, evident that these customs have their
root in a belief that there is a connection between
the elements and the spiritual world.
We now come to the regions of Angolo and the
Congo, where idolatry abounds, and where all manner
of heathen superstitions are as prevalent as though
the natives had never been under the power or influ-
ence of Europeans, whereas they have for four hundred
years been under the rule, real or nominal, of Por-
tugal. That their religious beliefs and customs have
not changed in their character, is shown by contrast-
ing the accounts which Father Merolla in 1666, and
Barbot in 1746, give of them, with the descriptions
of travellers of our own times.
Speaking of their idolatry, Merolla says:-"These
people abound so in superstition, that it would scarce
be believed by any but those who saw it. Whilst
I was here I heard several proclamations made
publicly by the wizards, that all thieves and robbers
should speedily make restitution, or they would have
recourse to their arts to discover them. I saw like-
wise at a distance an oath administered, which, that
it might have the greater efficacy, was proposed and
taken in the presence of their idol. This hob-
goblin resembled in some measure a mountebank's
merryandrew, having a divers-coloured vest on, and
a red cap on its head, and standing on a little table.
As soon as the company that stood round in a ring
saw me, they immediately dispersed, and hid their
idol. This they did not out of any fear of us, by
F 2
68
THE RELIGION
;
:
reason that, being pagans, we had no jurisdiction over
them, but because (said they) the presence of a priest
deprives them of the power of acting. Before the
gates of their houses almost all have one of these
idols, whereof I have seen some five or six feet high;
others are smaller, but both are generally clouterly
carved. They place them likewise in the fields, where
they are never worshipped, but on account of finding
out some theft, for which the thief, when discovered,
must die. They that keep idols in their houses, every
first day of the moon are obliged to anoint them with
a sort of red wood powdered. At the appearance of
every new moon, these people fall on their knees, or
else cry out, standing and clapping their hands, ‘So
may I renew my life as thou art renewed!'
"As I was travelling over hills and valleys to trans-
port myself to Congo, I chanced to light upon a place
where they were invoking of evil spirits; the place was
a poor, wretched, despicable hut, built on a small rising
ground; on one side hung two coarse, nasty aprons,
which stunk so that they were enough to strike any
one down that came near them. In the middle of
this hut was a wall raised about two feet with mud
and dirt, behind which stood the wizard to pronounce
his fallacious oracles on account of the Prince of
Darkness. He had on his head a tuft of feathers
variously woven, and in his hand two long knives
without sheaths.”1
The Father endeavoured to enter what he calls "this
temple of the devils," but was deterred from doing so
1 "A Voyage to the Congo." Churchill's edition, p. 583.
OF THE AFRICANS.
69
by the opposition of the assembled people, and we
are consequently left uninformed of the particulars of
the sacrifice.
،،
Barbot thus describes the idolatry of the people of
Loango :—“ All acts of devotion they perform to the
field and the house-devils, represented under the shape
of idols, of which they have great numbers, to each
of which they give a particular name, according as
they attribute to them power, having their distinct
jurisdictions. To some they ascribe the power
of lightning and the wind, and also to serve as
scarecrows, to preserve their corn from fowl and
vermin; to one they give the command over the
fishes of the sea; to another over the fishes in the
rivers; to a third over the cattle, &c. Some they
make protectors of their health and safety; others they
use to avert evils and misfortunes; to another, again,
they commend the charge of their sight; of some they
beg to be instructed in the mysteries of hidden arts, or
magic, and to be able even to forejudge of destiny;
neither do they believe them at large, but circum-
scribe them to limited places, and show their figures in
several shapes; some like men, others only poles with
small irons on the top, or else a carved image; some
of which shapes and representations they carry com-
monly with them wherever they travel to or fro.
((
They have particular masters to instruct them in
the making these idols, and call them Enganga, or
Janga Mokisie; whose skill therein they much
admire, and account them devil-hunters. When any
one requires the Enganga to direct him in making
an idol, the petitioner invites his whole tribe, acquain-
70
THE RELIGION
tance, relations, and even his neighbours; and they
being assembled together, the Mokisie, or solemnity,
continues for the space of fifteen days, in a house of
palm boughs, nine of which he must not speak, and
during the whole time have no converse with anybody."
"All priests or conjurors, that is, their prophets
and divines, are called Ganga, or Ganga Mokisie;
each of them having his particular denomination-
given to or assumed by them from the Mokisie they
serve; and each Ganga is dressed after a several
manner, and practises different ceremonies."1
By the word Mokisie was indicated an invisible
spiritual power, from whence derived does not clearly
appear, which worked for their good or evil, and
from which they thought they could learn the know-
ledge of past or of future things. Of the power sup-
posed to be invested in these idols the following
extract concerning Likokoo, a wooden image, carved
in the shape of a man sitting, and which was at
Kinga, a town near the sea coast, furnishes an
example :-"They have a thousand ridiculous rhymes
concerning this Likokoo; as that he preserves from
death; that he saves from hurt by Doojies, as they
call sorcerers; that he makes the dead rise out of
their graves in the night, and forces them to labour,
helping to catch fish, and to drive canoes in the
water, and in the day forces them to their graves
again; with many more such fictions, which the old
folk make the young believe, and imprint in them
from their infancy."
1 "A Description of Lower Ethiopia." Churchill's edition,
P. 477.
OF THE AFRICANS.
71
According to Livingstone, Reade, and Mr. Mon-
teiro, these descriptions fairly indicate the prevalent
beliefs on this phase of religion in the Angolo and
Congo regions. The last-named gentleman says :—
“In almost every large town there is a 'fetish house'
under the care of a 'fetish man.' This house is
generally in the form of a diminutive square hut,
with mud walls, painted white, and these are covered
with figures of men and beasts in red and black
colours. The spirit is supposed to reside in this
habitation, and is believed to watch over the safety of
the town."1
The word "fetish," be it said, is a corruption of
the Portuguese feitiço, i.e., witchcraft or conjuring;
and by the Portuguese, and by others also, it is used.
somewhat indiscriminately in describing the supersti-
tions of the Africans of whatsoever character they
may be.
But when applied to idolatry it is scarcely
correct. In principle, idolatry and fetishism may be
somewhat alike; for both imply a spiritual presence
in a material object. Idolatry, however, seems to
me to be the outward expression of a belief in a
personal deity, having a distinct individuality, re-
siding in some way or another in the idol. Fetishism
represents a spiritual power, but no particular deity,
entangled in a material object, not usually an idol,
but a stick, or a stone, or a bone, or a bunch of
feathers, or an animal, it matters little what the
object is, by the consecrations of persons specially
gifted. Idols are often treated as fetishes, but
1 (6
Angolo and the River Congo," vol. i. p. 249.
72
THE RELIGION
fetishes are not often idols, for anything
،، serves the
purpose of condensing the impalpable deity into a
tangible reality," says Baring-Gould, of the fetish. 1
It would seem that in Angolo idols are used as
fetish, for Mr. Monteiro says :— "There are various
figures, generally roughly carved in wood, or made of
clay, but always coloured red, black, and white.
Some of them have a great reputation, and the
'fetish men' to whom they belong are often sent for
from long distances to work some charm or cure
with them. I have constantly met them carrying
these great ugly figures, and accompanied by two or
three attendants beating drums, and chanting a dis-
mal song as they go along."
"On the coast there are several 'fetish men' who
are believed to have power over the surf, and their
aid is always invoked by the natives when it lasts
long, or is so strong as to prevent them going out in
their canoes to fish."
Mr. Monteiro does not seem to have discovered,
what is undoubtedly the fact, that these "fetish
men” were supposed to have power over the sea,
because they were the especial priests of the sea god.
Again, he says: "In these towns were the largest
‘fetish' houses I have seen in Angolo. There was a
large hut built of mud, the walls plastered with white,
and painted all over inside and out with grotesque
drawings, in black and red, of men and animals.
Inside were three life-size figures, very roughly
modelled in clay, and of the most indecent descrip-
"The Origin and Development of Religious Belief,” p. 175.
OF THE AFRICANS.
73
tion. Behind this hut was a long court the width of
the length of the hut, enclosed with walls about six
feet high. A number of figures similar in character
to those in the hut were standing in this court, which
was kept quite clean and bare of grass. What, if
any, were the uses to which these 'fetish' houses
were applied I could not exactly ascertain.”1
These "fetish" houses, or rather temples, were
devoted to nature-worship, a species of idolatry that
seems to have been universal. In earliest times it
prevailed with the Egyptians, it was inveterate among
the Jews, it is symbolized in the rites of Adonis,
Aphrodite, Isis, &c.; and in India and Japan it is
even now most popular.
The deductions of old travellers were not always
right, but their habit of connecting the customs of
the countries which they visited with corresponding
observances in other parts of the world in ancient
times, compares favourably with the silence and evident
ignorance of some of their modern representatives on
these subjects. For instance, Barbot observes :—
"It was a custom among the Gentiles to set up many
idols on the highways, and elsewhere in the fields,
under mean stalls thatched over or otherwise, in view
of travellers, as is still practised by the people of
Loango, and others in Lower Æthiopia. And the
French version of the Bible, in the passage of Lev.
xxvi. 30, 'I will destroy your high places, and raze
your tabernacles,' &c., takes the word tabernacles, in
the plural, for those foul huts or stalls covered over,
1
""
'Angolo and the River Congo," vol. ii. p. 7.
74
THE RELIGION
under which the idolatrous Israelites, in imitation of
the pagans living among and about them, were used
to expose their idols in the open country. The French
commentators on 2 Kings xxiii. 7, speaking of the
women mentioned there, who wove hangings for the
grove, as the English has it, and the French, tents, in
lieu of hangings, the Hebrew houses, and the Low
Dutch little houses,-say they were little chapels, in
the nature of niches or closets, made by these women,
in the Temple of Jerusalem, in the days of Josiah, of
a sort of stitched work, into which the idolaters of that
time used to put their little images or idols; and such
were the little silver temples or tabernacles of Diana,
the great deity of the Ephesians, made by Demetrius "
(Acts xix. 24).
The grove, for which the Jewish women wove hang-
ings, to hide, probably, the revolting ceremonies con-
nected with its worship, was, it is supposed, the symbol
of the goddess Ashtoreth, the Ishtar of the Assyrians,
the Astarte of the Greeks and Romans, the worship
of whom was identified with that of Venus. It is
certain that in most parts of Africa, but especially
in the western regions, an idolatrous worship, con-
formable to that here alluded to, prevails; whether
it be derived from the same source, there is, however,
no historical evidence to show.
The idolatry and demonolatry of other regions of
West Africa have the same characteristics which mark
those of Angolo and the Congo. Throughout north-
ern and southern Guinea you find a vivid belief in
the existence and malign influence of a supreme evil
spirit, whom the natives endeavour to appease by
OF THE AFRICANS.
75
continual offerings and sacrifices, sometimes, be it said,
of human beings. Besides which there is a multitude
of subordinate spirits, many of whom are represented
by particular images, and have certain specified acts of
worship paid to them. As Mungo Park says:-
"The
concerns of the world, they believe, are committed by
the Almighty to the superintendence and direction of
subordinate spirits, over whom they suppose certain
magical ceremonies have great influence. A white
fowl suspended to the branch of a particular tree, a
snake's head, or a few handfuls of fruit, are offerings
which ignorance and superstition frequently present
to deprecate the wrath or to conciliate the favour of
these tutelary agents."
It is, however, in Dahomey that this belief is seem-
ingly most systematised. According to Mr. Skertchley,¹
there are four tutelary deities--fetishes he calls them
of superior rank.
I. The Danh-gbwe (Snake), already alluded to.
II. "Atin-bodun, whose earthly form is that of
various trees, while its domestic abode is in some
curious specimen of ceramic art. The worship of
Atin-bodun consists in faith in its power of averting
and curing disease, especially fever. Any tall tree, it
is considered, may be inhabited by this deity, but
those especially sacred to it are the Hun, or silk
cotton-tree, and the Soke, or poison-tree, a decoction
of whose leaves is used as an ordeal to detect any
hidden crime."
To Atin-bodun there are almost as many priests set
1 "Dahomey as It Is," p. 468, &c.
76
THE RELIGION
apart as to the Danh-gbwe, though they are not con-
sidered so high in order.
III. Hu, the Dahoman Neptune, whose head-
quarters are at Whydah. A temple, which is nothing
more than a hut in an advanced state of ruin, orna-
mented with bones, skulls, sharks'-jaws, &c., is called
by his name; but his dwelling is supposed to be in
the sea, and a part of the beach at Whydah is sacred
to this god. Here are erected a number of little tem-
ples, where the canoe-men make offerings of food, &c.,
to induce Hu to give them a smooth sea. The surf
is dangerous on the Whydah coast, and not unfre-
quently the priests assemble on the beach to sacrifice,
in order that the god may be induced to send a vessel
ashore.
Formerly, at a certain period of the year, the king
used to offer one of his great men as a sacrifice to
this deity. He was brought down to the beach, placed
in a canoe by the priests, and after sundry offerings,
&c., carried out to sea and thrown overboard. But
since Whydah has formed part of the possessions of
Dahomey, this custom has been done away with.
IV. Khewyosh-the thunder god,—or Dahoman
Jupiter Tonans, who it seems is not to be confounded
with Mau, the Supreme Being. He presides over the
weather, and punishes those who do not please him
with lightning. Connected with the deaths of such
as are killed by lightning are some horrible practices.
The bodies are torn to pieces by the priests and
priestesses, and, Burton affirms, eaten by them. But
this, Mr. Skertchley says, is not actually the case, they
do but pretend to eat them.
OF THE AFRICANS.
77
Besides these primary deities there are others who
in the estimation of the Dahomans occupy a second-
ary position. Such are Bo, who corresponds to Mars;
Afa, the God of Wisdom; Gbwejeh, to whom are
assigned the attributes of Minerva; Lo, the God of
Fire; Sapolan, the Goddess of Small-pox; Akwachi,
who presides over child-birth; Hoho, the preserver of
twins; Demen, the protectress of the chastity of the
Amazons; and Legba, who both in its male and female
forms may be identified with Priapus. These again
are supplemented by a multitude of inferior gods and
goddesses, who are guardian or patron deities. In-
deed, every occupation in life has its special god, and
its particular form of worship.
The mode adopted for maintaining the ranks of the
priests and priestesses of the Danh-gbwe has been
described; the sacred office in the other sections of
the priesthood is generally hereditary. But the can-
didate must exhibit the necessary sign that he has
been accepted by some god, or he is rejected as unfit.
This sign generally takes the form of a species of
ecstacy, during which he manifests all the symptoms
of demoniacal possession. This ecstacy lasts about
half an hour, and has such a powerful effect upon the
sufferer, that, as soon as its violence is over, fainting
generally supervenes.
On recovering, he tells his instructors that he has
seen a vision of a god, who, from his descriptions,
the priests declare to be Lo or Bo, as the case may
be, and the neophyte is then formally devoted to his
service.
It would seem, from the description which Burton
78
THE RELIGION
gives of it, that the mythology of the Egbas¹ is not, in
its constitution, unlike the description which Plato
gives of that of his own time and country. Their
idea of God has already been given. They hold Him
to be, however, so far above and beyond mankind,
that He must be approached through intermediate
agencies, and that He has deputed His functions to
inferior beings; consequently, though they use His
name, they do not pray to Him, but satisfy the yearn-
ings of their human nature by the adoration of these
subordinate beings, whom they represent by idols.
Originally, it is probable, the idols were regarded.
simply as the symbols of these inferior deities; but
now the symbols are confounded with the things
symbolized, and have become objects of absolute
worship.
The principal deities or idols are Obatla, Shango,
and Ifa. Obatla means King of Whiteness, or purity,
and his worshippers wear white garments. He is
supposed to have created the first man, Okikishi, the
lord of speech, whose position in relation to the
human race is not unlike that of Adam, and the first
woman, Iye, or life, from ye, to live, which name, in
sound and idea, resembles Hauva or Eve. They are
supposed to have come from heaven.
Obatla represents the productive energy of nature,
or the generative principle, as distinguished from the
creative power of God. Shango corresponds in attri-
butes to Thor and Jupiter Tonans. Ifa is said to
be a myth, not a person, and is regarded as the
1 "Abeokuta and the Cameroon Mountains," p. 221.
OF THE AFRICANS.
79
revealer of futurity, and the patron of marriage and
childbirth.
Besides these, there are many other deities, the prin-
cipal of which are Esha, the rejected, or the devil;
the Sun and the Moon, which are worshipped at Ife,
the Parthenon of Yomba, where a brazen chair and
brass images of these objects are said to have fallen
from heaven; and Ofan, the god of the blacksmiths.
The priests and priestesses, both of Dahomey and
Abbeokuta, have many privileges. They, for the most
part, follow the ordinary occupations of life, but they
are not subject to the same laws as the laity, but, as
occasion requires, are tried by laws of their own.
The great majority of the priests, it would seem,
become the vilest members of the community, and
make a flagrantly immoral use of the power which
their office gives them. It is with the Africans as
with the Hindus, the people who are most devoted
to religion, are far from being the most moral; but
there is, in their estimation, no incongruity in this,
for holiness of life is not required by the sacred pro-
fession; indeed, it has no connection with it.
The position which the high-priest of Congo holds
shows that some, at least, of the Africans believe in
the deification of living men, in virtue of their office.
Father Merolla seems to have been the first European
who discovered this. He says of this heathen pontiff,
who is thus distinguished: "He is styled in the
country language, Ganga Chilerne, being reputed god.
of the earth, and to whom is consequently paid the
first-fruits of its products, due to him, as they say, as
its author, and not either to the ordinary work of
;
80
THE RELIGION
nature, or to the extraordinary one of Providence.
This power he also boasts of being able to communi-
cate to others, when and as often as he pleases. He
further asserts, that his body is not capable of suffer-
ing natural death; and, therefore, to confirm his
adorers in that opinion, whenever he finds his end
approaching, either through age or a disease, he calls
for such a one of his disciples as he designs to suc-
ceed him, and pretends to communicate to him his
great power; and afterwards, in public (where this
tragedy is always acted), he commands him to tie a
halter about his neck, and to strangle him therewith,
or else to take a club and knock him down dead.
This command being once pronounced is soon
executed, and the wizard thereby sent a martyr to
the devil. The reason that this is done in public is
to make known the successor ordained by the last
breath of the predecessor, and to show that he has
the same power of producing rain, and the like. If
this office were not thus continually filled, the inhabi-
tants say, That the earth would soon become barren,
and mankind consequently perish."
According to later travellers, the high-priest of the
Congoese now goes by the name of Chitomé, but he
is not less venerated than in Father Merolla's time.
A sacred fire burns in his house continually, the very
ashes of which are supposed to retain medicinal
virtues, and are paid for accordingly. He has the
entire regulation of the lower orders of the priest-
hood, and makes a progress throughout the land in
order to settle their differences. During the time he
is thus occupied there is, on pain of death, a divorce.
OF THE AFRICANS.
81
between husbands and wives. He conducts the
coronation of the king, and before the king is pre-
sented to the people as their sovereign he has to
abase himself before the priest, whom he humbly
supplicates to be gracious to him; he lies prostrate
before the door of his hut; he promises to respect
his authority; and submits to be literally trampled
on by the priestly feet. But now, as in bygone
days, the end of the Chitomé is the cord or the
club.
It is only where belief in the supernatural is
rampant that such a state of things could exist; and,
in this instance, the superstition that fosters it stops
short of God, and does not rise above belief in, and
fear of, the spiritual world.
With certain variations, not greater than are found
amongst different nations in other parts of the world,
this belief in the spiritual world finds expression
amongst all the tribes of Africa that have been
brought to our knowledge.
The Krumen have great faith in the efficacy of
amulets or charms, which is a phase of superstition
properly belonging to fetishism, but which is un-
doubtedly founded on a belief in supernatural powers
that give efficacy to these charms, and in others that
are influenced by them. There is, however, amongst
them a belief in the existence of a local demon, who
lives in a cave, which is in consequence called the
Grand Devil Cave. According to Mr. Wood, this
cave is a hollow in an enormous rock, having far in
the interior a recess in which the demon resides.
Having that dislike to naming the object of their
G
82
THE RELIGION
superstitions, which cause people near home to call
fairies good people, the Krumen speak of this demon
as "Suffin," ie., something. Their offerings to
"Suffin" consist of what is most precious to them-
selves-beads, tobacco, provisions, and rum; in
return for which they receive counsel beyond what
mere human wisdom can give. They have an im-
plicit belief in the existence of "Suffin," and think
that he consumes their offerings as surely as the
Babylonians thought that Bel consumed daily the
"twelve great measures of fine flour, the forty sheep,
and the six vessels of wine."1
Of the religious beliefs of the tribes of the western
interior, those of the Balonda are best known. Ac-
cording to Dr. Livingstone, they are much given to
idolatry. Idols are seen in almost every village, and
for the most part take the forms of animals. They
are generally the representations of deities who are
supposed to have dominion over the various forms of
disease to which these people are exposed; but a few
are thought to have prophetic powers, and might
properly be called teraphim, as by their means future
events are foretold.
It is probable that, in some instances, these idols.
are regarded as something more than symbolic of
the spirits worshipped, that they are themselves
invested with a supernatural power, and to that
extent, therefore, they may be regarded as fetishes.
But in the confusion of ideas which exists in Africa
upon all matters connected with their religious beliefs,
1 "Natural History of Man," p. 615.
OF THE AFRICANS.
83
I thought myself warranted in making a distinction
between the idolatry I have instanced and fetishism ;
for it is difficult to say where such idols cease to be
merely the symbols of a supernatural agency, and
become invested with the essence of what they repre-
sent.
Demoniacal possession is intimately connected with
demonolatry. Whether this possession be in its cha-
racter like that referred to in the New Testament, I
cannot say, but that it exists in Africa the people
themselves implicitly believe, and I do not doubt.
Indeed, the very existence of spirits is proved to their
worshippers by the facts of demoniacal possession,
exorcism, and the power of witchcraft. Possibly the
priests and others who are called, for want of a better
name, medicine-men, may practise magnetism; and
hysteria, with a little of that strange something
which is known as psychic force, may account for
many of the phenomena that are regarded as de-
moniacal; yet I have no hesitation in saying that I
have myself seen men who were said to be demoniacs,
and that they manifested symptoms which in my
judgment can only be accounted for by the fact that
for the time being they were what they were said
to be.
In connection with this subject, it is a great mis-
take to suppose that the victims, who are generally
priests or medicine-men, wizards or wizard-finders,
are generally conscious impostors. Some may be,
some may exaggerate symptoms which in themselves
they honestly think to be supernatural; but the ma-
jority believe what is believed of them, but with
G 2
84
THE RELIGION
greater enthusiasm and fanaticism, and in this lies
their power over the people.
The following confessions of two Christian Kaffirs
will serve to show how deeply rooted their belief is
in the world of spirits, and how largely it enters into
their Christian as well as their heathen life.
"As regards the apparitions which a man sees,'
said Umpengula Mbanda, "when he is going to pray
in secret, I too have seen them again and again.
When I was beginning to kneel, or when I was saying
the first word perhaps, there was something beginning
to approach me, as though it said, 'Now he has
closed his eyes, and will no longer see me; let me
draw near and bite him, or lay hold of him, or stab
him.' If I steadily refused to arise, Oh! at once there
came a great noise, which took away all my courage,
and led me to say, 'This is something real.' The first
was a little thing; now there is coming a great thing
to kill me.'
"When these things come to any one, they always
come separately. There comes a snake with great
eyes, and very fearful; so that when I have knelt I
could not remain firm, but rose up again. If it was
not a snake, a leopard would come on stealthily to
lay hold of me; for I could not see, but was looking
on the ground, intending to pray to the Lord. But
my prayer was no longer steady. I began to pray a
little in my heart, praying and stopping, that my ears
may not only listen to my prayer, but also to the
crackling made by the leopard as it came to seize me.
When I saw that it was something real, and that the
leopard was preparing itself to seize me, I arose.
OF THE AFRICANS.
85
"And if it was not a leopard, it would be a man
who hated me, with a long assegai in his hand,
approaching to kill me, that I may die in that place ;
and he, too, went stealthily, that I might not hear
him.
"When I prayed under such circumstances, I no
longer prayed with singleness of heart, but in a
hurry, wishing to look, without delay, to the place
from which the danger threatened me; for I was in
danger.
"And when the man was now stabbing me, I
would arise, the sentence which I kept uttering being
unfinished; it was already begun but not ended, but
cut in two. I arose that I might escape. When I
arose I did so with a start, and looked to the place
whence the man came, but did not see him.
"It was no longer possible for me to return to my
prayers, and finish what I had began to say. No!
there was now an end of it, and I could no longer
say what I wanted for the false alarm which had
frightened me. Oh! this was repeated again and
again. It happened continually in my prayers."
But the good man strove against the temptation.
persisted in prayers, and conquered, so that the appa-
ritions came no more to him.
Said Usebemba Dhlahhla: "It happened when I
was being instructed for baptism, I used habitually to
pray at all times in secret. I did so because it was
as if I really saw the Lord; and I went away from
prayer with my heart very white indeed. But once
when I was praying I saw a venomous beast coming
to me, as though it was about to injure me. I darted
86
THE RELIGION
up as I left off praying. But, forsooth, I saw nothing.
This happened twice; but on the third time I
strengthened myself, and said, 'Let us just see if it
will injure me or no.' I strengthened myself till I
had ended my prayer, and I saw nothing when I had
finished. I doubted about it, and asked what it
meant. But I had already heard from believers that
when a man prayed alone venomous creatures came
to him, when they were urged on by Satan. But this
continued without cessation, until I took courage, and
saw that it was nothing. And then there came with
power a great light to me; and when I found myself
full of light, I reproved myself for being continually
startled by nothing. I strengthened myself with the
strength of the Lord, and saw that He was with me
always. After that when I prayed I saw that it was
the Lord, and it was as if I could fly away to Him
for the joy which overflowed my heart." 1
"Religious System of the Amazulu," p. 240.
1
OF THE AFRICANS.
87
1
CHAPTER III.
CONCERNING THE SPIRITS OF DEAD MEN.
Ir is thought by some that belief in the existence
of the disembodied spirits of human beings comprises
the whole of the faith which the Africans have in the
spiritual world. Captain Burton, for instance, says
of the Egbas, and by inference of the Africans gene-
rally, they have "no such thing as demonolatry,
because they have no demons, or the genus Chris-
tian philosophers opined to be evil spirits. The
distinction between diabolii and daimonii is un-
known to them, but they believe in certain entities,
which, unless propitiated, will do them evil."1 But
had I no other evidence than that which he him-
self supplies in his various books of travel in Africa,
I should doubt the correctness of this conclusion.
It is true that the demons may frequently be in-
vested with human attributes, but, save by the very
ignorant amongst the natives, they are not thought
to have had a human existence; whereas ancestor.
worship undoubtedly has for its object the disem-
bodied spirits of human beings. It is not every
"Abeokuta and the Cameroon Mountains," vol. i. p. 200.
88
THE RELIGION
African that is qualified to give a correct account of
the religious beliefs of his people, many are as igno-
rant of all but the externals of their religion, as mul-
titudes amongst ourselves are of the true principles
of Christianity. But the more intelligent amongst
them recognize the distinction between Demonolatry
and Ancestor Worship as clearly as the best informed
Zulu Kaffirs distinguish between Unkulunkulu and
the Lord of Heaven. A belief in the existence of the
spirits of men after the death of the body is, of
course, involved in ancestor worship. This is a belief
that is common to mankind; for the exceptions that
have been declared have not been clearly established,
and they refer to a few localities only, and to insig-
nificant sections of the human race.
To most people this general prevalence of the
belief in the continuance of the soul's existence after
death is a proof that it has been inherited from a
common source. To this, however, Mr. Tyler
demurs. "It may have been so,” he remarks, "but
the historical argument is made valueless by the fact
that certain natural phenomena may have suggested
to the mind of man, while in a certain stage of
development, the idea of a future state, and this not
only once, but again and again, in different regions,
and at different times."1
There certainly is no historical evidence to show,
that in Africa this belief has its root in Eden, neither
1
"Researches into the Early History of Mankind," Intro-
duction, p. 5.
OF THE AFRICANS.
89
is there any proof that it has not; but, however
originated, and from whatever source proceeding, it
is perhaps the most active belief of all the multitudi-
nous tribes that people that vast continent.
But though there be this general belief amongst
the Africans in the continuance of the soul's existence
after death, it does not reconcile them to the idea
that they must die, and they never willingly speak of
the possibility of their own death, nor allow others to
do so.
"O king, live for ever!" is the language
required by the great men from their inferiors, and
should any one imply by word or by deed that his
chief is mortal, he would probably have to give unwil-
ling proof of his own mortality in a very few hours.
Even in a European the offence would be considered
a grave one, and, indeed, any allusion to death jars
gratingly on the feelings of all who hear it.
This disinclination to face the fact that they must
die does not arise from any idea that the future state
brings them to a judgment upon the character of their
doings while in the body. The nearest approach to
the notion of such a judgment is found amongst the
Dahomans. According to Skertchley, "Mau (God)
has an assistant who keeps a record of the good and
evil deeds of every person by means of a stick, the
good works being notched on one end, and the bad
on the other. When a man dies his body is judged
by a balance struck between the two ends of the stick.
If the good preponderates, it is permitted to join the
spirit in Kutomen, or Dead Land, but if, on the con-
trary, the evil outweighs the good, it is utterly de-
၄၁
THE RELIGION
stroyed, and a new body created for the use of the
spirit. With this single exception, all the rewards
and punishments are given in this world." 1
I have met with no other instance where reward
and punishment for deeds done in the body was
relegated to the future state. The general idea is,
that if a man escape punishment here, no matter what
his deeds may have been, he will be exposed to none
hereafter. Of a heaven and a hell, the abodes of the
good and the bad, the Africans, save where they have
imported the idea from Christians or Mahommedans,
have seemingly no notion. The hereafter of the
Africans is both socially and morally the eternal
continuance of a state of existence similar to that
possessed here. Kings will continue to be kings,
slaves will remain slaves, and so on through all the
varied circumstances of life, and with all the passions,
caprices, and contradictions of mortality still clinging
to them.
But, though "absent from the body," they are not
thought to lose knowledge of, or power to influence
the affairs of mankind on earth; indeed, they are
usually credited with a prescience and power greater
than that which they possessed when in the flesh, and
are supposed to be capable of wreaking their ven-
geance on those who do not liberally minister to their
wants and enjoyments.
Thus it is that they are addressed in prayer as
counsellors of the living, invoked in adversity, grati-
1 "Dahomey as It Is," p. 461.
OF THE AFRICANS.
91
fied by sacrifices and presents, and worshipped in
ways that are thought most agreeable to them.
But such worship has no national significance.
The people pay great deference to the spirits of their
own immediate ancestors, but do not in the least
regard those which belong to other families; and
the spirits are supposed to have no sympathy except
with relations and immediate descendants. No
recollections and associations calculated to foster
national heroism, and exalt public virtue are kept alive
by this worship. The nearest approach to anything
of the kind that I have been able to discover is
found amongst the Zulus and the Hottentots. Chaka
was the founder of the present Zulu dynasty. He
was a man of great military genius; and by his con-
quests he raised the Zulus from a state of insignifi-
cance to a position of eminence, such as no other
African tribe had achieved in the recollections of man.
The Zulus, therefore, regard him as a national hero,
and swear by his name: yet they pay him no worship.
The Hottentots venerated men of renown. They
did not deify them, nor honour them with tombs or
statues; but they dedicated to their memory, woods,
mountains, fields, and rivers; and when they passed
the places that had been thus consecrated, it was
their custom to implore for themselves and their cattle
the protection of the spirits of these men. The form
of prayer that they used on such occasions is not
known, for they carefully concealed it; but Kolben
and others say that they prayed standing, and with
their heads muffled up in their mantles.
92
THE RELIGION
“The prevailing modes of treating the dead," says
Schlegel, "among different nations, are not only worthy
of great consideration as testimonies of their modes
of thinking and degrees of civilization; they are in
general, over and above all this, very intimately con-
nected with their secret impressions and feelings of
religion."1
The funeral rites of the Africans are generally con-
nected with their impressions of the existence of the
soul after death, and frequently indicate the ideas
which they have of the necessities of the departed.
The way in which the Bongo dispose of their dead
proves, I think, that they have a greater sense of the
hereafter than Schweinfurth credits them with. Im-
mediately after life is extinct, the corpse is placed,
like the Peruvian mummies, in what may be described
as a crouching posture, with the knees forced up to
the chin, and is then firmly bound round the head
and legs. When the body has been thus compressed.
into the smallest compass, it is sewn into a sack made
of skins, and placed in a deep grave. A shaft is made
perpendicularly down for about four feet, and then a
niche is hollowed in the side, so that the corpse
should not have to sustain any vertical pressure from
the earth which is then thrown in to fill up the grave.
"A heap of stones," says Schweinfurth, "is then
piled over the spot in a short cylindrical form, and
supported by strong stakes, which are driven into the
soil all round. On the top of the pile is placed a
1
((
History of Literature," p. 131.
OF THE AFRICANS.
93
pitcher, frequently the same from which the deceased
was accustomed to drink.
"The graves are always close to the huts, their site
being marked by a number of long forked branches,
carved, by way of ornament, with numerous notches
and incisions, and having their points sharpened like
horns. The typical meaning belonging to these stakes
has long since fallen into oblivion; and notwithstand-
ing all my endeavours to become acquainted with the
Bongo, and to initiate myself into their manners and
customs, I could never get a satisfactory explanation.
Whenever a burial takes place, all the neighbours
are invited to attend, and are abundantly entertained
with merissa (native beer). The entire company takes
part in the formation of the grave, in the rearing of
the memorial urn, and in the erecting of the votive
sticks. When the ceremony is finished, they shoot
at the stakes with arrows, which they leave sticking
in the wood."1
Had the Bongo been willing, I have no doubt
that they were able to give a reason for such proceed-
ings, as well as for their custom of burying men with
their faces turned towards the north, and women with
their faces turned towards the south, that would have
shown that they are not utterly barren of impressions
concerning the hereafter of mankind. It is rarely
that the idea which, in the first instance, prompted a
custom, is lost altogether; even when the people tell
you that they have no other reason for their proceed-
1 "The Heart of Africa," vol. i.
}
94
THE RELIGION
ings than the desire to do what others did before them,
they are not always to be believed.
In the regions adjacent to Zanzibar, according to
Bishop Steere, Mohammedanism and tombs end to-
gether, the heathens being so careful to conceal their
places of sepulture that you may travel about for some
time without knowing what becomes of the dead. I
cannot find that in any other part of Africa, either now
or in days gone by, the dead are thus hidden away.
The graveyards, though most often in a secluded
place, as becomes the abode of the dead, are generally
easy enough to find, and the graves are frequently as
conspicuous as those of the Bongo, and almost in-
variably betoken by their arrangements some belief
in the existence of the soul after death.
،،
The Abbé Proyart,¹ whose book was first published
in Paris in 1776, says of the tribes with whom he
became acquainted :—" They believed the soul to be
spiritual, and that it survived the body, without, how-
ever, knowing what was its state after separation from
the body, whether joy or pain; they only say that
they believe it flies from the towns and villages, and
flutters in the air above the woods and forests in the
way which the deity pleases.
"This belief in the immortality of the soul, joined
to their uncertainty respecting its state after separa-
tion from the body, inspires them at once with great
respect for the dead, and great fear of ghosts, since
they never fail, in order to acquit themselves well
1
،،
History of Loango, Kakungo," &c. Pinkerton's Collection.
OF THE AFRICANS.
95
towards their parents and friends, to celebrate their
obsequies with all the pomp they can afford.
"As soon as the sick person has breathed his last,
the ministers of medicine retire, as well as the players
of instruments; his nearest relations take possession
of the body, which they extend on a scaffold, under
which they light a fire, which throws up a thick smoke.
When the corpse is sufficiently smoked, they expose
it for some days in the open air, placing beside it a
person who has nothing to do but drive away the flies.
Then they wrap it in a prodigious quantity of foreign
stuffs, or stuffs of the country. They judge of the
riches of the heirs by the quality of their stuffs, and
of their affection for the dead by the thickness of the
roller. The mummy thus dressed is taken to a public
place, and sometimes lodged in a sort of niche, where
it remains a greater or less time, according to the
rank it occupied in the world when living. During
all this time the parents, the nearest relatives, the
friends, and, above all, the spouses of the dead, who
place their huts near the spot where the body is
exposed, assemble regularly every evening to weep,
sing, and dance round the funeral lodge. On the
eve of the day fixed for the interment, they enclose
the body, with all the stuffs that envelope it, in a large
coffin wrought by art in the form of a tun. On the
morrow, when all the relatives and friends are arrived,
they put the coffin into a sort of funeral car, to which
the men are yoked, and they set forward. Care is
taken to level the road by which the convoy has to
pass. For the illustrious dead, such as kings and
96
THE RELIGION
princes, they cut new ones across the plains, of the
breadth of 30 or 40 feet. Along the road they make
the greatest noise possible; they dance, sing, play on
instruments, and all this is done with the greatest
demonstration of grief. When they reach the burial-
place, which is sometimes far from the town or village,
they lower the coffin into a hole about 15 feet deep,
cut like a well, which they instantly fill with earth.
The rich often inter with the dead their favourite
jewels, which are generally pieces of coral or silver.
There are some who raise the tomb, and place by
it eatables, animals' teeth, or some antiquities by
which the deceased set great store, and which were
formerly instruments of superstition."
Barbot gives descriptions of the funeral rites of the
various tribes he visited, and they all are in harmony
with the persuasion which, he says, most of them
have, that immediately after death they go to another
world where they live in the same station as they did
here, and are there maintained by the offerings of
men and women, provisions and clothes, which the
relations they have left behind make for them.
At the present time the observances at funerals are
everywhere similar in character. When the Bechuana
perceive indications of death they throw a net over
the body, and hold it in a sitting posture, with the
knees brought in contact with the chin, till life is
gone. The grave, which is frequently made in the
fence surrounding the cattle-fold itself, if for a man, is
about three feet in diameter, and six feet deep. The
body is not conveyed through the door of the court-
OF THE AFRICANS.
97
yard, but through an opening made in the fence for
that purpose. It is carried to the grave, having the
head covered with a skin, and is buried in a sitting
posture, with the face facing the north. The grave is
gradually filled in with many ceremonies and much
lamentation; and in every act and word on these
occasions they show that they have some idea that
the dead are not annihilated. Indeed, when they
dream of a deceased relative, they believe that he
has really visited them, and they make offerings at
his grave to satisfy his supposed wants.
When a chief of the Damaras, a tribe in the south-
west interior, dies, as soon as life is extinct the spine
is broken by a blow from a stone mallet. Then the
long rope, which it is the fashion of the Damaras to
wear round the loins, is removed, the body is lashed
together in a sitting posture, and tied up in ox-hides.
After which it is buried in the earth with the face to
the north, as do the Bongo, the Bechuana, and many
other tribes. Cattle are then slaughtered, and over
the grave a post is erected, to which the skulls of the
oxen are attached, and on which the bow, arrows,
spears, and club of the deceased are hung. Large
stones are then heaped above and around the grave,
and thorns are piled about it to keep off the jackals
and hyænas. The funeral ceremonies being completed,
the new chief, accompanied by the people under his
command, forsakes the place where the deceased lived.
He remains at a distance for at least a year, during
which time he wears the badge of mourning, a dark-
coloured conical cap. When the period of mourning
Η
98
THE RELIGION
1
is over, the people return, headed by their chief who
goes to his father's grave, kneels by it, and whispers
that he has returned, together with the wives and cattle
which his father gave him, and prays for his parent's
aid in all his undertakings. Cattle are then slaugh-
tered, and a feast is held in memory of the dead chief
and in honour of the living one. The deceased chief
is supposed to be spiritually present and to partake of
the feast. A couple of twigs are cut from the tree
which is the symbol of the caste to which he belonged,
and with these each piece of meat is touched before
it is eaten by the guests.
It is a custom of the Damaras to take food to the
graves of deceased friends, of which they beg them
to partake, and in return to aid them in difficulties,
and to grant them herds of cattle, or whatever may be
their hearts' desire.
In east central Africa I have seen hundreds of
graves, which were usually distinguished by a slight
mound, and the sex of the deceased was denoted by
the broken warlike weapons and other articles pecu-
liar to the use of the man, and the fractured do-
mestic utensils of the woman.
The ceremonies connected with the burial of the
dead amongst the tribes of this region, in the case of
those who had been removed by deaths that were
unmistakably natural, expressed not only the grief of
the survivors, but their undoubted belief in the con-
tinuance of the soul's existence after death.
If the deceased belonged to the common sort of
people, the expression of grief on the part of his
OF THE AFRICANS.
99
1
relatives was not less demonstrative than that with
which his betters were honoured, but he was left to
shift for himself in the world of spirits, and a dreary
life he was supposed to have there; but if he be-
longed to the great ones of the tribe, not only was he
supplied with abundance of food, &c., but women
were sacrificed to minister to his wants and pleasures.
When death is occasioned by accident, or by any
cause other than is considered natural, the body
is not interred in the earth by the tribes I became
acquainted with. Such, it is supposed, had died
the death of the accursed, and were slung up in trees
to be devoured by the fowls of the air, lest the earth
itself should be brought under the evil influence that
had deprived them of life. Of the hereafter of such
I could learn nothing, simply because the people were
afraid to speak of them lest they also should be
brought under the curse.
The Zulu Kaffir tribes pay great veneration to the
dead, and their funeral rites, save in the case of the
lowest of the people and criminals, include sacrifices
of cattle, though not of human beings. Such sacri-
fices are frequently repeated in order to invoke the
aid of the spirits before they go to battle, or to ap-
pease them when they are supposed to be angry, or
to satisfy the promptings of filial or fraternal affection.
On these occasions the flesh of the slain beasts is
eaten, but the horns, hoofs, and skulls are burnt with
many ceremonial observances.
There is, however, one terrible instance of human
sacrifice on the death of a great Zulu personage. On
H 2
......
100
THE RELIGION
the death of the mother of Chaka, the first great chief
of the Zulus, there was a sacrifice of people as terrible
as any of which we have any record.
When told that his mother was dead, he and
his principal chiefs put on their war apparel, and went
to the hut in which the body lay. He stood silent
for some time in a mournful attitude, with his head
bowed upon his shield. At length his feelings seemed.
to become ungovernable, and he broke out into frantic
yells. The assembled people sympathized with their
chief by filling the air with loud lamentations.
During the day great numbers of natives from the
surrounding country came to the place of weeping,
and joined in the terrible outcry. By noon of the
next day, it is said that not less than sixty thousand
persons, male and female, had assembled, hundreds
of whom were lying on the ground faint from exces-
sive fatigue and want of nourishment, for none had
dared to cease from their lamentations, or to refresh
themselves with food or water. Soon after mid-day
the whole assembly formed a circle, with Chaka in
their centre, and sang a war-song, at the close of
which he ordered several men to be executed on the
spot, when the cries of woe became more violent than
ever. Then, as if bent on convincing their chief of
the reality of their grief, the people began an indis-
criminate massacre amongst themselves, many of
them receiving the blow of death while inflicting
it on others. Those who were found near the
river, panting for water, were beaten to death
by men and women, who were mad with excitement.
OF THE AFRICANS.
IOI
Seven thousand people, it is said, perished on this
occasion.
On the second day after her death, the body of
Chaka's mother was placed in a large grave near the
spot where she had died, and ten of the handsomest
girls in the neighbourhood were buried alive in the
same grave. Twelve thousand men, all fully armed,
attended this horrible funeral, and were stationed as
a guard over the grave for a whole year.
But extravagant as these rites were, they were not
thought to be sufficient, and regiments of soldiers
were sent through the country for the purpose of put-
ting to death all those who had not been present at the
funeral, and several thousands more people were killed.
Then it was decreed that the earth should not be
cultivated for a whole year, and that the milk of all
the cattle should be poured out on to the ground;
but at the end of three months, in consideration of
receiving a present of much cattle from the chiefs
and great men, the king annulled this decree, which
really condemned the people to a state of starvation.
Lastly, it was ordered that if during the year of
mourning children should be born, both parents
and children should be put to death. This order
was enforced with cruel stringency, and led to the
deaths of many persons.
When the year of mourning had expired, the people,
in obedience to the king's mandate, assembled in
great numbers at the royal kraal, and a hundred
thousand oxen were brought together to grace the
crowning ceremony, their bellowing being thought
102
THE RELIGION
to be peculiarly acceptable to the dead. Stand-
ing in the midst of these herds, Chaka began to
weep aloud, and the lamentations at once became
general. This manifestation of sorrow was continued
till sunset, when a great number of cattle were sacri-
ficed. Next morning, the people being marshalled in
military order, the king took his place in the centre.
of the kraal. Every man who possessed cattle had
brought at least one calf, and each man cut open the
side of a calf and tore out the gall bladder. Regiment
after regiment then marched before the king, and
every man as he passed sprinkled him with gall.
After this he submitted himself to certain religious
ablutions, and with these proceedings he was released
from his state of mourning.
What feeling prompted Chaka to make this sacri-
fice of human beings,-a sacrifice, so far as I can
learn, foreign to the habits of his country, does not
seem to be known. It was, probably, rather the effect
of his own sanguinary will than the consequence of
any desire to provide attendants and subjects for his
mother in the spirit-world. Like other tyrants in
other parts of the world, and in other ages of the
world, he resolved that his people should share in his
grief, and so gave them good cause for doing so.
In most parts of Africa, however, great personages
are honoured at, and, occasionally, for some time after
their deaths, by the sacrifice of men and women, and
such sacrifices generally originate with the idea that
it is the duty of the living to supply the needs of the
dead, or the desire to deprecate their anger, and to
OF THE AFRICANS.
103
F
gain their assistance in the affairs of this world. The
earliest travellers in Africa describe such sacrifices,
and they invariably declare that the cause of them
is the same as that which I have indicated.
In some regions the influence of Europeans and
Mohammedans have lessened the number of such
sacrifices, and in others have done away with them
altogether; but in Dahomey and Ashantee they have
increased to a horrible extent since Northern Guinea
was first visited by the Portuguese.
The "Customs" of Dahomey are now infamously
notorious. The word custom is an Anglicised form
of the French coutume, a general habit, and may be
defined as a state ceremony, the performance of which
has become imperative through long usage. There
are two kinds of customs in Dahomey-the grand
customs, which are only performed on the death of a
sovereign, and the king's customs, which are annual,
and take place in the autumn. The grand customs
are ancient, the king's customs are of recent origin.
It is probable that the stories told of the thousands
of human beings that have been put to death on these
occasions are exaggerations; but whatever may have
been the case in days gone by, it seems certain hun-
dreds should be substituted for thousands now-a-days.
It
may
be that a thousand men and women are sacri-
ficed at the grand customs, and about five hundred
per annum in ordinary years. The victims, be it
said, are not, as some suppose, selected capriciously
from the general population, but are either criminals
or prisoners of war, who, instead of being executed
104
THE RELIGION
on the spot for their crimes, or killed when made
prisoners, are reserved for sacrifice, and are usually
treated as well as is consistent with their safe custody.
As I have said, the African idea of life in the world
of spirits is that it is a counterpart of life here.
Therefore, when a king dies, and even before the
performance of the customs, many of his favourite
wives and most devoted officers and slaves kill
themselves (perhaps to escape the indignity of being
killed) that he may not be without any circumstance
of kingly dignity, or be deprived of any pleasure that
he has been used to here.
In the days gone by, at the commencement of the
grand custom, the king, arrayed in his royal apparel
and attended by his favourite wives and officers, ap-
peared on a high platform erected for the occasion, in
front of which collected a multitude of men and women,
frenzied with excitement and rum, and who rent the
air with their savage cries of welcome to their king.
In recognition of their salutations he threw amongst
them cowries, beads, rolls of cloths, &c., for which
they fought and scrambled like wild beasts. Then
came the cry, "We are hungry, O king! Feed us,
O king, for we are hungry !" This was repeated
until they had lashed themselves into a frenzy of
bloodthirsty fury, when the victims were brought
forth gagged, so that they might not petition the king
for mercy, (in which case they would have been re-
leased,) and firmly secured by being lashed inside a
basket so that they could not move hand or foot. At
the sight of the victims the cries of the people in-
OF THE AFRICANS.
105
creased, but when the king rose they ceased alto-
gether, and the vast multitude looked on in a state of
mute though savage expectation. A victim was placed
before the king, and he with his hand or foot pushed
it off the platform into the midst of the crowd below,
by whom, with hideous yells, the basket was rent to
pieces, and the man or woman, as the case might be,
torn limb from limb, the people fighting like wild
beasts for each portion of the still quivering body.
Victim after victim was disposed of in this manner
day by day, until the number prepared for the cus-
toms had been sacrificed.
Each king of Dahomey, however, tries in some way
to outvie his predecessor at the grand customs, and
the present king, Gelele, made a change in the
mode of performing them, rather, it is supposed, as
an expression of filial affection than with the vain-
glorious desire to distinguish himself by so doing.
Instead of pushing off the victims himself from the
platform whereon he and his court were assembled,
he built a circular tower about thirty feet high, from
the top of which they were flung by men appointed
to that duty; and instead of permitting the people
to tear the bodies in pieces, they were beheaded by
an executioner who drained their blood into a hole
that had been excavated to receive it. This gave rise
to the false report that Gelele had floated a canoe in
the blood of the victims.
The annual customs last for four days, and are ac-
companied by many barbaric displays of the king's
wealth and power. Some of the victims are exhibited,
106
THE RELIGION
dressed in white calico shirts, bound with red ribbon,
and wearing on their heads tall-pointed white caps
with blue ribbon wound spirally round them. Others
are kept in the king's shed, which is built for the oc-
casion, and close to which is a little tent containing
the relics of his father, and supposed to be tempo-
rarily inhabited by his ghost. During the ceremonies.
the king, leaning on a staff decorated with a human
skull, frequently turns toward this little tent, and in
silence adores his father's spirit.
On the evening of the fourth day, the Evil night,
as it is called, the king walks in procession to the
market-place, where the chief executioner, with his
own hand, puts to death the victims that have been
reserved. The precise nature of the proceedings
is not known, as none are allowed to leave their
houses except the king's retinue, on pain of being
carried off to swell the list of the victims. It is, how-
ever, said that the king speaks to those who are about
to die, charging them with messages to his dead father,
telling him that his memory is revered, and that a
number of new attendants have been sent to minister
to him, and strikes the first blow with his own hand.
Other victims are put to death within the palace walls,
the Amazons being the executioners: such are clubbed
to death after the king has dictated his messages.
The annual customs were inaugurated in order to
do honour to the lately deceased king, by sending him
a yearly number of attendants befitting his rank.
Besides these sacrifices at the customs, scarcely a
day passes without an execution of a similar character.
OF THE AFRICANS.
107
Whatever the king does must be made known to his
father, and a man, who is first charged with a message,
is despatched to the spirit world as the informant.
On any event in the king's life, no matter how trivial
the occasion, a messenger is sent to inform his de-
ceased father of it; and should it be discovered that
some of the particulars have been forgotten, another
execution takes place, that the omission may be re-
paired.
One would think that this superstition had found
its worst manifestation in Dahomey; but bad as the
Dahomans are, Mr. Skertchley thinks them less cruel
and vindictive in their passions than the Ashantees,
and less sanguinary in their dispositions; and as the
natural character qualifies to a great extent religious
belief and custom, he affirms that the religious ob-
servances of the Ashantees are even more revolting
than those of the Dahomans. In Dahomey there is
none of the barbarous cruelty which inevitably attends
belief in witchcraft; for no Dahoman, it is said,¹
"believes that any person can injure any other by
prayers, incantations, &c., since all are under the care
of the Supreme Being, who will not delegate His
authority to any mortal. A man may influence a
god in his own behalf, but with regard to others he
is powerless." In Ashantee, however, it seems that
belief in witchcraft is carried to a horrible extent, and
causes wide-spread misery and never-ending suffering;
and customs like those which prevail in Dahomey are
"Dahomey as It Is.”
1
108
THE RELIGION
more numerous, and are attended with a greater
shedding of blood. On the death of the king, or any
member of the royal family, on the occasion of the
king's birthday, which is celebrated weekly, and at
the Yam and the Adai customs, the former occurring
in the beginning of September, and the latter every
three weeks, there is a great sacrifice of human beings.
In Dahomey only kings are thus honoured, but in
Ashantee every great man is similarly venerated.
Besides the occasions already named, before war, and
after any battle, there is a great slaughter of victims.
Mr. Bowditch, the British envoy to Coomassie in
1817, describes what he saw and heard during his
sojourn at the Ashantee capital, and from his book
the following information is gained.
On the death of a king, all the customs which have
been for the people who have died during his reign
have to be repeated by the families who had thus
honoured their relatives, in order to amplify that for
the monarch, which is also solemnized independently,
and with every excess of extravagance and barbarity.
Victims are indiscriminately made. The brothers,
sons, and nephews of the king sally forth with
muskets and fire promiscuously at the people, and
the murders committed on such occasions are not
resisted or prevented. Few persons of rank leave
their houses for the first two or three days after the
king's death is proclaimed, but they thrust forth their
dependents and slaves, as a composition for their own
absence.
The king's ocras, i.e. favourite slaves, and others,
OF THE AFRICANS.
109
who, for the sake of certain privileges, stake their lives
upon the king's life, are always put to death; besides
which a great number of women are sacrificed on the
royal tomb at the time of interment.
At the custom for Sai Quamina, two hundred
persons were sacrificed weekly for three months.
But the most celebrated custom was that of the
mother of the then reigning king. He sacrificed
3,000 victims, two-thirds of whom were Fantee
prisoners, for it occurred during a war with the Fantees,
and every town and village in the kingdom sent its
quota of victims, the numbers being proportioned to
the population of each place.
Mr. Bowditch thus describes the Yam custom :—
"The Yam custom is like the Saturnalia; neither
theft, intrigue, or assault are punishable during its
continuance, but the grossest liberty prevails. The
principal caboceers (captains) sacrificed a slave at each
quarter of the town, on their entrée on Friday, the
5th of September. On Saturday, the 6th, the cere-
mony commenced. All the heads of the kings and
caboceers whose kingdoms had been conquered since
Sai Tatoo to the present reign, with those of the chiefs
who had been executed for subsequent revolts, were
displayed by two parties of executioners, each party
numbering more than a hundred, who passed by in
an impassioned dance, some with the most irresistible
grimaces, some with the most frightful gestures; they
clashed their knives upon the skulls, in which sprigs of
thyme were inserted to keep the spirits from troubling
the king. About one hundred persons, mostly culprits
IIO
THE RELIGION
who had been reserved for the occasion, are generally
sacrificed in different quarters of the town at this cus-
tom. Several slaves were also sacrificed at Bantama
over the large brass pan, their blood mingled with the
vegetable and animal matter within (fresh and puri-
fied), to complete the charm and produce invincible
fetishe. All the chiefs kill several slaves, that their
blood may flow into the hole from whence the new
Yam is taken. The unhappy victims on these occa-
sions are led to execution with knives thrust through
their jaws and tongue from side to side, and after-
wards literally hacked to pieces."
The greatest human sacrifice that was made during
Mr. Bowditch's residence at Coomassie took place
on the eve of the Adai custom, early in January. It
was made in consequence of the king dreaming, or
being otherwise supernaturally informed, that if he
washed the bones of his mother and sisters, who died
since he ascended the throne, it would make the war
in which he was about to engage successful. The bones
were, therefore, taken from their coffins, and bathed
in rum and water with great ceremony; and, after
being wiped with towels of silk, they were rolled in
gold dust, and wrapped in strings of rock gold, aggry
beads, and other things of the most costly nature.
Those who had made themselves obnoxious to the
king were sent for in succession, and put to death as
they entered, "that their blood might water the graves."
The whole of the night the king's executioners tra-
versed the streets, and brought all the people they
could put their hands upon to the palace, where they
OF THE AFRICANS.
III
were kept in confinement. The king strove to keep
his purpose secret, but some one disclosed it, and he
was disappointed of most of his distinguished victims,
for all who could, fled the city. Next morning, being
the commencement of the Adai custom, which gener-
ally brought a great number of people to Coomassie,
the king found the streets empty, as, attended by his
confidants and the members of his own family, he
proceeded to the market to the sacrifice of sheep,
&c. What followed is thus related :-
"As soon as it was dark, the human sacrifices were
renewed, and, during the night, the bones of the
royal deceased were removed to the sacred tomb at
Baulama, to be deposited along with the remains of
those who had sat upon the throne. The procession
was splendid, but not numerous, the chiefs and atten-
dants being dressed in the war costume, and preceded
by torch-bearers. The sacred stools, and all the
ornaments used on great occasions, were carried with
them. The victims, with their hands tied behind
them, and in chains, preceded the bones; whilst, at
intervals, the songs of death and victory declared the
wish of the king and his chiefs to begin the war.
The procession returned about three p.m. on Monday,
when the king took his seat in the market-place, with
his small band, and 'Death! death! death!' re-
sounded on all sides. He sat with a silver goblet of
palm wine in his hand, and when they cut off any
head, imitated a dancing motion in his chair. A little
before dark he finished his terrors for that day by
retiring to the palace, and soon after the chiefs came
II 2
THE RELIGION
from their concealment and paraded the streets,
rejoicing that they had escaped death, although a few
days might again put them in the same fear. The
sacrifices were continued till the next Adai custom,
seventeen days."
What Bowditch describes other travellers have since
seen, for the customs of the Ashantees have not changed
for the better.
The Egbas, the people who inhabit Abbeokuta, as
well as most other tribes in this division of Africa, are
still in the habit of making human sacrifices, though
not to the same extent as the Dahomans and
Ashantees. Everywhere it would seem the victims
are enriched with presents, and stupefied with intoxi-
cating liquors, or other kinds of opiates, and charged
with messages to the dead, before they are put to death.
Upon the origin of such sacrifices, they can give no
satisfactory information.
But though inhabitants of a spirit world, the dead
are not supposed to be always excluded from the
earth; it is thought that some continue to inhabit
it, occasionally in human form, but more frequently
in the form of an inferior animal. But this phase of
transmigration is, I think, confined to persons who
are credited with supernatural powers, like the
Pondoro, for instance, of the Makololo and other
Zambesi tribes. Chibisa made use of this superstition
for his own advancement. The tribe with which he
was immediately connected believed in the Pondoro,
i.e. the transmigration of the souls of prophetical
persons. When the soul of such a one leaves the
OF THE AFRICANS.
113
human body, it is thought to clothe itself with the
body of a lion, in which it will continue for years,
when it will again appear in a human form. Chibisa
declared himself to be a Pondoro, was believed, and
for a time became a great man.
"In India," says Schlegel,¹ "the doctrine of trans-
migration of souls depends on the radical notion, that
all beings derive their origin from God, and are
placed in this world in an altogether degraded and
unfortunate state of imperfection, from which state
all beings, and particularly men, must either decline
gradually into conditions of yet lower degradation,
or rise gradually to conditions of purity more accord-
ant with the divine original, according as they give
ear to the vicious, or to the virtuous suggestions of
their nature."
In Africa ordinary transmigration is believed in,
but no such beautiful idea is connected with it; the
natives believe it because, and only because, their
forefathers believed it; but they are ignorant of its
origin, and invest it with no spiritual meaning.
Amongst the Zulu Kaffirs it is thought that men
turn into many kinds of animals, though the greater
number assume the form of snakes. The snakes
which become Itongo, i.e. spirits, are not many.
There are the black and green Imamba, and the
Umthlwazi, which may be either green or brown.
The Imamba are supposed to be chief. They frequent
open places, and their stare is that of one which
1
""
History of Literature," p. 131.
I
114
THE RELIGION
makes afraid, so that when a man sees one such, he
does not approach it closely, but remains at a dis-
tance from it.
The Umthlwazi are supposed to be common
people. They do not stare fiercely, they never bite
any one, they are not afraid of man; for if a person
sees one lying quietly, it remains until many come
and look at it, and then moves slowly away.
Old
women are thought to turn into a kind of lizard.
"When a man dies among black men," says Um-
pengula Mbanda, "the grave is covered over with
branches. The person to whom the dead man be-
longs watches the grave continually. If a son has
died, the father watches the branches continually, that
when they see that the branches are rotten they may
be satisfied, knowing that nothing can now disturb
the remains, for they are rotten. And if he observe
a snake on the grave, the man who went to look at
the grave says on his return, 'Oh, I have seen him
to-day basking in the sun on the top of the grave.
"" 1
But should the snake not come to the home of
his people, they seek the aid of a doctor of ubulawo
(a class of medicines that are used for the purpose of
removing that which causes dislike, and producing
that which will cause love) to bring him to his home.
"Those snakes which are men," continues Umpen-
gula Mbanda, "are known by their frequenting huts,
and by their not eating mice, and by their not being
frightened at the noise of men; they are always ob-
1 (6
"Religious System of the Amazulu,” p. 142.
OF THE AFRICANS.
115
served not to be afraid of the shadow of a man;
neither does a snake that is an Itongo excite fear in
men, and there is no feeling of alarm as though there
was a wild beast in the house; but there is a happy
feeling, and it is felt that the chief of the village has
come. When men see it, it is as though it said, as they
look at it, 'Be not afraid, it is I.' So they are able
at all times to associate with it.
"If it has been killed by some one who is ignorant,
it comes to life again, and has the marks of the rod
on its body by which it is killed; and complains in a
dream of the treatment it has received, and after that
a sin offering is sacrificed.
"This is how snakes (who are men) are distinguished.
He who had a scar (as a man) is recognized by that;
and he who had but one eye is recognized by the
snake into which he has turned having one eye also ;
and another is recognized by the marks of injuries;
and a lame man is known by the lameness of the
snake. That is how they are known, for men usually
have some marks, and the snakes into which they
turn have similar marks. The man who had no
marks speaks in dreams. And if it is seen that it is
an Itongo, but it has no mark, it is said to be a man,
but we do not know who it is. He reveals himself
by speaking (in dreams). This is how they are
known.
،،
Again, if a snake which is an Itongo lies on its
back, with its belly upwards, it is a cause of alarm,
and it is said something of consequence is about to
happen, or the village is about to be destroyed. The
I 2
116
THE RELIGION
people sacrifice and pray, and go to a diviner, and he
tells them why the Itongo has done as it has. They
do as they are directed.
"If a snake coils around a vessel, and will not
allow any one to take it, the people bring a sacrifice
and worship, and it goes away.
"And if a snake which is an Itongo enters a house
rapidly (that is without shame, arbitrarily, as one who
has a right to do as he likes, whose will is his law), it
is known to be the Itongo of a man who is alive.”
Sacrifice to the Itongo is thus made. A bullock
having been selected for the purpose, and brought to
the appointed place, the owner of it, who is generally
the head of the family, devotes it to the Itongo by
crying, "There is your bullock, ye spirits of our
people." Then his prayer is-"I pray for a healthy
body, that I may live comfortably; and that, so-and-
so, and so-and-so (mentioning by name his departed
ancestors), may treat me with mercy." After which,
the man appointed to this office cautiously approaches
the bullock, and stabs it with a spear in the side.
When the ox bellows, the owner of it rejoices, because
it is thought that the spirits like to hear the voice of
the cattle that are sacrificed to them, and he again
mentions the departed members of his family by
name, thinking they will be favourable to him be-
cause of the cries of the dying animal. After the ox
is skinned, the owner takes a little blood, and a portion
of the caul, and incense, and burns them in a secret
place, that the spirits of his people may be gratified
with the sweet savour. The flesh of the ox is then
eaten, and the head and hoofs, &c. burnt.
OF THE AFRICANS.
117
Amongst the Bechuana tribes a belief in the
transmigration of souls does not appear to exist,
neither have I been able to find any trace of it
amongst the Hottentots, though they certainly be-
lieve in the existence of the disembodied spirits of
the dead, and are very apprehensive of their return
to molest them; to avoid which, upon the death of
any man, woman, or child, they will forsake the kraal
in which the death occurred, believing that the dead
never haunt any places but those in which they died.
But to what end the soul exists out of the body they
know not.
The forsaking of the hut in which a person has
died is a widespread custom in Africa. It prevails.
amongst the tribes of the Zambezi districts. It was
owing to the fear that his spirit would haunt the hut
he died in, rather than from want of kindly feeling,
that led the chief of the village in which Bishop
Mackenzie died, to have him, in his last moments,
removed from the hut which he had occupied, which
was in the heart of the village and formed a portion
of the chief's establishment, to another at some
distance off.
The Damaras, and some other south-western tribes,
the Balonda, and many other people of the interior,
believe in transmigration of souls, and regard with
great veneration, if they no not actually worship,
various kinds of animals as the incarnations of men.
In Dahomey, it would seem that the spirits of some
men are thought to be ubiquitous, for while it is firmly
believed that deceased persons of all classes inhabit
118
THE RELIGION
after death a spirit world, it is also imagined that
some at least of the king's children are but the
transmigrated spirits of the old kings, to whom, how-
ever, sacrifices nevertheless continue to be offered as
rulers in the world of spirits.
Perhaps the most remarkable phase of belief in
transmigration of souls is found amongst the
Ashantees, who think that the Kla, i.e. the soul of
man, exists before the body; that it has had a very
long existence indeed, having passed from one human
body to another from remotest periods. So tho-
roughly has this become an article of faith with them,
that when a woman finds that she is about to become
a mother, she resorts to the priestly oracle, that she
may obtain particulars from the Kla of her future
child as to its ancestry and intended career.
The
Dreams are an important agency in maintaining
correspondence with the spirits of the dead.
Africans implicitly believe that such communicate
with them through the agency of dreams, and they
attribute most of their dreams to spiritual communi-
cations. It is in vain to tell them that the vast
majority of dreams are caused either by the involun-
tary action of the senses, the memory, and the ima-
gination, or by the physical effects of cold, heat, &c.;
they still cling to the idea that dreams are super-
natural visitations, the mediums through which the
spirits of the dead appear most frequently to the
living, for the purpose of prediction, warning, reproof,
or encouragement.
This intimate connection of dreams with warnings
OF THE AFRICANS.
119
from the spiritual world leads to a great deal that is
ludicrous, vexatious, and horrible. Warnings come
at most inconvenient times, and prevent men fulfilling
their engagements; they break up alliances between
tribe and tribe for the common welfare; excite suspicion
against the innocent; and, according to the natural
temperament of the dreamer, and the power he pos-
sesses to give effect to his nocturnal visions, are more
or less mischievous. When in Africa, I saw but
little of the ill effects which attend upon this super-
stition connected with dreams; but had the mission
with which I was connected remained much longer at
the place it first occupied, I believe we should have
been much inconvenienced by it, for the chief of our
district began to dream that the spirits of his ances-
tors appeared to him, and were angry with him for
permitting us to live in his territory, and warned him
that if he did not soon get rid of us we should get
rid of him, and make ourselves masters of the country.
From the power of this man we had nothing to fear,
for we were stronger than he, yet he might have
caused us much trouble had we continued to live with
him, and his dreams had not become more favourable
to us; while a man with greater strength at his com-
mand, when thus worked upon, would probably have
made short work with us.
In this case there was, of course, a natural con-
nection between the sleeping and waking thoughts of
the dreamer, though he knew not and would not
believe that the visions of the night were nothing but
the embodiments of his own suspicions.
I 20
THE RELIGION
Bishop Callaway illustrates the effects of another
phase of dreams by the story of a man who, in the
visions of the night, was beaten by his elder brother
for not being liberal in the sacrifice of cattle to him,
which serves to show how intense is the belief of the
Africans in the actual existence of the spirits of the
dead; what a powerful hold it has upon their imagi-
nation; what, in their estimation, is the character and
disposition of their departed brethren; what are
some, at least, of the causes which lead to ancestor-wor-
ship; and, finally, what is, amongst the Zulu Kaffirs,
the nature of such worship, and the character of the
prayers and thanksgivings that are there offered.
A man became ill, and said, "I am ill because I
have dreamed. I dreamed that my brother was
beating me, and saying, 'How is it that. you do no
longer know that I am?' I answered him, 'I know
that you are my brother. What can I do that you
may see I know you?' He replied, 'When you
sacrifice a bullock, you do not call on me.' I said,
That is not so ; tell me the bullock that I have killed
without calling on you by your laud-giving names?'
He answered, 'I wish for meat.' I refused him,
saying there was no oxen in the cattle-pen. He
replied, 'Though there be but one, I demand it.'
And he beat me; so that when I awoke I had a pain
in my side; when I tried to breathe, I could not, my
breath was short; and when I tried to speak, I could
not."
6
His friends remonstrated with the man, and urged
him to sacrifice a bullock to his brother, but he was
OF THE AFRICANS.
I2I
obstinate and would not do so. He argued that his
brother had an evil disposition, that he had sacrificed
bullocks and goats, and had always praised him, and
that he would do so no more, inasmuch as he just
wanted to kill him.
But the contest between the live and the dead man
became more serious. Night after night the sick
man dreamed that his brother continued to reproach
and to beat him, until he became so ill that he was
brought nearly to death's door. For some days he
held out, and thus complained of the unbrotherly
conduct of the dead man :-"What prevents him
from coming to me by night when I am asleep,
and saying to me quietly, 'My brother, I wish so-
and-so, that we may talk pleasantly with each other?'
But he wrongs me. Daily I dream of him, and then
awake in suffering. I say he is not a man; he was a
thing which was a wretch, which liked to fight with
pecple."
At last, however, the sick man agreed with his
friends to a compromise, and promised that if his
brother left off beating him and he became well, he
would kill some cattle in the morning. In the middle
of the night his brother came to him, and said, "So
then, my brother, you have pointed out the cattle.
Will you kill them in the morning?" The sleeper
assented, and the following conversation occurred
between them.
Sick man: ،،
Why do you, my brother, say to me
I never call on you, whilst whenever I kill cattle I
call on you by your laud-giving names; for you
were a brave, and stabbed in the conflict ? ”
122
THE RELIGION
Spirit: "Yes, yes, I say it with reason, when I
wish for flesh, for when I died I left you a large
village.”
Sick man: "Yes, yes, my brother, you left me to
inherit a large village, it is true; but when you died
and left me with it, had you killed all the cattle?'
Spirit: "No I had not killed them all.”
Sick man: "Well then, child of my father, do you
tell me to destroy them all?”
""
Spirit: "No, I do not tell you to destroy them all ;
but I tell you to kill, that your village may be great.'
Upon this the sick man awaked, and felt that he
was well, the pain which was in his side being no
longer there. He awaked his wife and bade her
light a fire. She poured snuff into her hand and
took it, and asked him how he was. He replied,
"Oh! just be quiet; on awaking my body felt light;
I have been speaking with my brother, and I am
quite well."
He then took snuff and went to sleep; then the
Itongo of his brother came again to him, and said,
Kill the cattle in the
See, I have cured you.
morning."
In the morning he arose, and, calling his younger
brothers to him, said :-"I called you, for I am now
well. My brother says he has cured me."
Then he told them to bring forward an ox and a
barren cow to the upper part of the pen where he was
standing, and when they had done this, he prayed,
saying :-
"Well then, eat, ye people of our house. Let a
(6
OF THE AFRICANS.
123
good Itongo be with us, that the very children may
be well, and the people be in health.”
After which he addressed his dead brother, and
expressed his opinion of him in very plain terms,
telling him that it was clear that he was not only a
bad fellow when he was alive, but that he was also
a bad fellow now that he was under ground.
Having thus relieved his mind, he returned thanks,
and said :—
((
These are the cattle which I offer you, there is
a red ox, there is a red and white barren cow. Kill
them. I say, tell me a matter kindly, that on awaking
my body may be free from pain. I say, let all the
Amatongo of the people of our house come here
together to you, you who are fond of meat.'
The cattle were slain, and all the men of the
kraal assembled to ask for food; and as they ate
and were satisfied, they gave thanks, saying: "We
thank you, son of so-and-so. We pray that the Itongo
may be propitious. When we see that it is an Itongo
which makes you ill, we see that that Itongo is the
wretch which is your brother."
I have indicated the prominent features of this
belief, but it would take a volume to describe the
many phases of it. You perceive it in all that the
Africans think and do. When they eat, they fre-
quently set aside a portion of their food for those that
are gone; when they drink, they will pour out a por-
tion of their good cheer as a libation to the departed;
when they go a journey, they invoke the aid of the
spirits; when they return home, they thank them;
M
124
THE RELIGION
before war and during warfare, in victory or in defeat,
they crave and recognize their influence; in any
doubt, trouble, or difficulty, they trust to their inspira-
tion rather than to their own capacity; and they credit
them with the issue of most of their transactions.
This description, of course, refers to the unsophisti-
cated natives, for many of those who have been
brought into communication with the Europeans,
have lost faith in much that their forefathers believed,
though they have accepted nothing else instead.
They do not, however, always trust to the spontaneous
action of the spirits, but have devised means whereby
they may be moved to take an interest in the affairs of
the living; which proceedings may be included in
what is generally known as witchcraft.
OF THE AFRICANS.
125
CHAPTER IV.
CONCERNING WITCHCRAFT.
By witchcraft is meant the practices of men and
women who are supposed to have dealings with the
spiritual world, and thereby gain preternatural
powers, which are exercised sometimes for the good,
but more commonly for the injury of mankind.
Efforts to obtain such powers from spiritual agencies
have been made by men from earliest times. Origi-
nally such efforts may have been made with no evil
design, but from a sense of spiritual need, and with
the view of supplying the wants and necessities of
our nature. Such witchcraft, practised for a good
end, involved, probably, no immorality in its cere-
monies, for the spiritual agencies evoked were
avowedly good and beneficent. But when the primi-
tive tradition regarding the ministration of angels,
with other primeval revelations, was corrupted or
forgotten, this comparatively innocent method of
seeking the aid of the invisible world became little
more than a theory; for the purposes of witchcraft
are now generally wicked; its processes generally
involve moral guilt; the spirits invoked are, for the
most part, avowedly evil and maleficent.
126
THE RELIGION
The Cainites are said to have been the first to
have engaged themselves in a close and exclusive
communication with the agencies of spiritual evil.
According to ancient traditions, their impiety con-
sisted not in the denial of God's existence, but in a
daring violation of His precepts, and in rebelling
against His authority by allying themselves, through
the agency of an unholy magic, with "the rulers of
the darkness of this world," "the spiritual wicked-
ness in high places." Consequently, their sin was in
its character like that attributed to the infernal
powers with whom they sought alliance-" the angels
who kept not their first estate." The race of Ham is
supposed to have perpetuated many of the traditions
of the Cainites, and to have preserved some frag-
ments of their magical arts, the traces of which are
found in the superstitious rites which prevail amongst
the heathen everywhere.
I do not assert the correctness of these supposi-
tions, though I am inclined to believe that there is a
larger amount of truth in them than is commonly
imagined. It is certain that the Egyptians excelled
all other people in the science of magic; and that
the Africans generally have been, and still are, above
all other races of men, perhaps, devoted to witch-
craft.
In Africa there is what is regarded as a lawful
as well as an unlawful witchcraft, the lawful being
practised professedly for the welfare of mankind, and
in opposition to the unlawful, which is resorted to
for man's injury.
I do not think that these antagonistic supernatural
OF THE AFRICANS.
127
powers are thought to be derived from the same
source. The wicked wizards and witches are sup-
posed to be in communication with spiritual agencies
that are hostile to man, and which are not only super-
human, but demons, i.e. devils; the prophets, or
witch-doctors, or medicine-men, as they are variously
designated, are properly necromancers, i.e. those
who practise divination by means of the dead, who
gain their power by holding converse with the dis-
embodied spirits of men, which are not supposed to
be so generally hostile to the welfare of man as the
evil spirits. The former class of wizards and witches,
it is true, are thought to have some dealings with
dead men, and especially with dead wizards, but
their capacity for this proceeds, I imagine, from
their supposed intercourse with spirits that never
were human.
In other parts of the world this difference between
what is called black and white magic is recognized,
though it may not be accounted for in the same way.
Belief in witchcraft leads to an unreasonable fear
of supernatural powers, and this fear sometimes shows
itself in an almost implicit reverence for the supposed
agents of the evil spirits, but more frequently in a
malignant desire for their destruction. The Africans
become monsters of inhumanity when their feelings
are excited against the wizards and the witches.
Schweinfurth says that, amongst the Bongo, "all
the old people of either sex, but especially the old
women, are exposed to the suspicion of allying them-
selves to wicked spirits, for the purpose of effecting
the injury and detriment of others. Old folks, so the
128
THE RELIGION
Bongo maintain, wander through the forest-glades at
night, and have only to secure the proper roots, and
then they may apparently be lying calmly in their
huts, while in reality they are taking counsel with the
spirits of mischief how they can best bring their neigh-
bours to death and destruction. Whenever any case
of sudden death occurs, the aged people are held re-
sponsible, and nothing, it is taken for granted, could
be more certain than that a robust man, except he
were starved, would not die. Woe to the old man
or woman, then, in whose house the suspected herbs
and roots are found! Though they be the father or
the mother, they have no chance of escape.” ¹
1
That the old, amongst a brutish, ignorant, heathen
people, should be thus exposed to suspicion of deal-
ings with the powers of evil is natural enough; and
that the belief of the Bongo in their malignant powers
is, in most instances, genuine, I do not doubt; but
for selfish and wicked purposes, here, as in other parts
of Africa, many are accused of the forbidden art who,
it is well known, are innocent of practising it. There
is no belief of the Africans that is turned to worse
purposes by those who profess to be actuated by a
zeal for the welfare of the community. Chiefs and
others will employ the witch-doctors to denounce as
guilty of witchcraft those who have become obnoxious
to them, or whose property they covet; and the
witch-doctors themselves are under strong tempta-
tions, which they rarely resist, to accuse people who
have incurred their ill-will. Nevertheless, a belief in
the supernatural force of witchcraft is deeply rooted in
"The Heart of Africa," vol. i. p. 307.
OF THE AFRICANS.
129
the minds of the Africans. If a man has an enemy,
he will go to a professor of witchcraft to get him be-
witched. If a man is troubled with any strange phy-
sical sensation, or meets with any accident, or sus-
tains any loss, he believes that his enemy has caused
it by witchcraft. If a man dies from any but the most
obvious causes, it is thought that his death has been
caused by the black art; and if once a man suspects
that he is bewitched, his fears make such havoc in
his constitution that he will probably die, unless the
witch-doctor succeeds to his satisfaction in breaking
the charm.
Captains Speke and Grant give several illustrations
of the effects of belief in witchcraft amongst the
tribes they visited, and of the methods resorted to
for giving relief to the bewitched.
The Wanyamuezi are said to be less superstitious
than most other Central African tribes, yet, in com-
mon with almost all other Africans, they believe
that illness is caused by witchcraft. For instance,
a man died suddenly, his wife was accused of having
caused his death by witchcraft, probably because she
had been heard to threaten him with it; and was
tried, convicted of the crime, and put to death. The
justice of her punishment was supposed to be con-
firmed by the fact that when her body was thrown
into the bush, the hyenas refused to touch it.
A daughter of the Sultan (as he is called) of the
Wanyamuezi was thought to be possessed by an
evil spirit, through the agency of witchcraft, and
Captain Grant describes the exorcism used on this
occasion. The Sultan sat at the doorway of his hut.
K
130
THE RELIGION
1
His daughter, the demoniac, sat opposite to him,
veiled and guarded by two women armed with spears.
Pombé, the native beer, was first of all thrown into
the air so as to fall upon the bewitched woman, and
her attendants. A cow was then brought forward
having its mouth so tightly bound up as almost to
prevent the possibility of its breathing. One of the
spear-bearers gave the cow two gentle taps with a
hatchet between the horns, the demoniac and the
other spear-bearer did the same. Then the witch-
doctor, with the same hatchet, killed the animal by
a blow behind the horns. The blood was caught in
a tray, and placed at the feet of the woman with the
evil spirit. Then one of her female attendants
sprinkled her forehead, her neck, the palms of her
hands, and her insteps with blood. The Sultan, his
kindred, and his household, all her relatives indeed,
who were present, were similarly anointed; and each,
after being sprinkled, wished her a happy deliverance
from her bewitchment. She then rose from her seat
and went to her hut, making a plaintive wail as she
went along.
At intervals during the day the demoniac walked
about the village carrying a wand in her hand, and
attended by several women, shaking gourds contain-
ing grain, and singing. Now and then an old woman,
seemingly appointed to that office, wrestled with her
for the possession of the wand, but did not succeed.
in getting it from her.
Towards sunset she appeared in ordinary attire,
but with her face curiously painted. She sat in
front of her hut and received offerings of grain, and
OF THE AFRICANS.
131
of beads and armlets, with which she adorned the
wand, a magic rod, probably. This ceremony being
concluded, she paraded the village with a number of
women, who laughed and sang, and made merry to
their hearts' content, for the evil spirit had been
vanquished, and compelled to fly.
The Wanyoro, who live to the north of the Victoria
Nyanza, practise witchcraft extensively; but it was
with the lawful practice of it that Captain Speke and
his companion traveller seem to have become most
acquainted. Their prophets are held in high esti-
mation, and are looked upon principally as diviners.
Some of the predictions of these men are noteworthy.
For example, one of them, a man in Captain Speke's
service, told him that the expedition would succeed,
but that his familiar demon required one man's life,
and another man's illness. This prediction was thus
fulfilled,—one of the escort was murdered, and Cap-
tain Grant had a serious illness. When in Uganda this
man announced that this same demon required the
life of another man, and not long after a man belong-
ing to the expedition was killed. A third time, when
in Unyoro, he saw the demon, who required no more
lives, but said the expedition would be long delayed ;
and this proved to be the case.
These magicians of Unyoro are, like their brethren
elsewhere, cunning observers of the course of events,
and, it is probable, do not scruple to use means to
bring to pass the fulfilment of their prediction. They
fill more than one office; their gifts are not exer-
cised only in the discovery of wizards and witches, in
breaking spells, and in predicting the issues of enter-
K 2
132
THE RELIGION
prises, warlike or peaceful; they also profess to be
able to detect offenders against social order and
honesty, and to discover lost property.
On one occasion Captain Speke lost a rain-gauge
and its bottle; seemingly it had been stolen, and, of
course, no one could be found to own to the theft.
The chief was troubled, and sent his own magician to
search for the missing property. The adept was an
old purblind man, and his instrument of divination
was a cow's horn, primed with a magic powder, from
the mouth of which was suspended an iron bell. The
captain says: “The old creature jingled his bell,
entered our hut, squatted on his hams, looked first at
me, then at the others, inquired what the missing
things were like, grunted, moved his skinny arm
round his head as if desirous of catching air from all
four sides of the hut, then dashed the accumulated
air on the head of his horn; smelled it to see if all was
going right; jingled the bell again close to his ear,
and grunted his satisfaction; the missing articles
must be found.
"To carry out the incantation more effectually,
however, all my men were sent for to sit in the open
before the hut, but the old doctor rose, shaking his
horn and tinkling the bell close to his ear. He then,
confronting one of the men, dashed the horn forward
as if intending to strike him on the face, then smelt
the head (of the horn), then dashed at another, and
so on, till he became satisfied that my men were not
the thieves.
"He then walked into Grant's hut, inspected that,
and finally went to the place where the bottle had
OF THE AFRICANS.
133
been kept. Then he walked about the grass with his
arm up, and jingling the bell to his ear, first on one
side, then on the other, till the track of a hyæna gave
him the clue, and in two or three steps he found it.”
Evidently
In this case everybody was satisfied.
the thief was the hyæna who had carried off the rain-
gauge and its bottle, and had dropped it in the grass !
The traveller was too prudent to express any doubt
of this, and gratified the chief by making him a pre-
sent of the recovered property, and rewarded the old
magician by giving him a goat.
It will be seen from this that there, as elsewhere,
witchcraft assumes many features of expression.
I once had an opportunity of becoming acquainted
with the way in which the Marganja medicine-men
employ their supposed supernatural powers in the
detection of offenders. Property was stolen, the
loser of it complained to the chief, who employed a
celebrated magician to discover the thief. At the
time appointed for this discovery, a large number of
people assembled outside the village, and ranged
themselves in a circle. The magician was a wild-
looking man about forty years of age, and, according
to the custom of his fraternity, was fantastically
attired. He was accompanied by several young men
and a boy, who were his pupils in the art of magic.
He commenced proceedings by producing two divin-
ing-rods about four feet long, and of the thickness
of an ordinary broom-handle. With these he worked
wondrously for a short time, twisting and twirling
them about, and at the same time making unintel-
ligible ejaculations. Then he called four of the
134
THE RELIGION
;
young men to him, and with much ceremony de-
livered the rods to them, appointing two to each rod.
They received the rods with seeming fear, and placed
themselves in the centre of the circle formed by the
lookers on. Then from a capacious goatskin bag
the magician took a zebra-tail, which he gave to
another young man, and a calabash containing
a few peas, which he gave to the boy. He then
commenced to roll himself about in a hideous
fashion, and to utter strange and seemingly sup-
plicatory sounds. After which he walked slowly
round and round the young men with the rods, fol-
lowed by the man with the zebra-tail, and the boy
with the calabash. Presently he quickened his pace ;
he ran and leaped; he threw his arms about wildly,
and shouted and shrieked, and his followers imitated
him. For a few minutes the holders of the rods
were apparently unmoved by these proceedings, then
they had spasmodic twitchings of the arms and legs,
which rapidly increased in violence until their whole
bodies were painfully convulsed. In their agony
they foamed at the mouth, and their eyes seemed to
be projected from their sockets. They appeared to
be struggling with the divining-rods, which at length
appeared to obtain the mastery, and whirled them
round and round with great rapidity. But suddenly
they dashed through the people, and ran into the
bush, heeding no obstacle, and being cruelly torn by
the thorns. When they returned, they were bleeding
profusely from the wounds they had received. Their
excitement had not abated; it was unnaturally in-
tense; they realized to the full my idea of the effects
OF THE AFRICANS.
135
of demoniacal possession. Again they were whirled
round, and again they rushed off; this time towards
the village, which they entered, and, after dashing at
various huts, fell down, almost dead from exhaustion,
at the hut of one of the concubines of the chief.
She was thus declared to be the thief. She denied
the theft; but the medicine-man said: "The spirit
has said she is guilty—the spirit never lies." Never-
theless, the woman persisted in declaring that she
was innocent; and, to establish her innocence, ap-
pealed to the ordeal of poisoned water, which, being
permitted, pronounced her guiltless. Upon this the
magician, to whom, be it said, the preparation of the
ordeal water had not been entrusted, shrugged his
shoulders, and left the village. But though his pro-
ceedings were made abortive by the ordeal, I do not
think that in the estimation of the natives his reputa-
tion as a magician was impaired; and I am not sur-
prised at this, for I must confess that I found it diffi-
cult to get over the impression that the rod-holders
were for the time being under supernatural influence.
At Zanzibar every phase of witchcraft seems to find
place with the representatives of the various tribes
that are now living there, and the wizards and witches,
though slaves, like the rest of the natives, seem to
have lost none of their power, and practise their art
as freely as though they were in their own homes in
the interior. Some of these people are supposed to
have particular spirits under their control, which bring
on their victims special forms of disease. "Such a
one," says Bishop Steere, "is Kizuka. In order to
obtain the services of Kizuka, certain forms must be
136
THE RELIGION
observed, and certain herbs gathered, and then a de-
fined number of pots are turned face downwards in a
row. At the proper time the pots are taken up, and
the Kizuka is seen under one of them in the shape of
a one-eyed toad, or other hideous thing. It then
becomes the master's business to point out to the
Kizuka a person to destroy; it enters its victim un-
awares, and causes a dry and burning internal pain,
and so disorders the whole system that (if he be not
dispossessed) he soon dies. Another victim must
then be pointed out to it, or the Kizuka will enter its
own master and destroy him.”
This feature of witchcraft was believed in by the
tribes in the Shire Highlands, and more than one
instance came under my own notice of persons who
thought themselves thus bewitched.
The Rev. L. J. Procter, one of my colleagues in
Africa, received the following account of the evil
deeds and punishment of a wizard, from Damanji, a
man belonging to the Ajawa, or Waion, or Yao tribe
(for it seems they are thus differently distinguished),
who was living under the protection of the mission-
aries, having been rescued by them from the slave-
dealers.
Chimaliro, the nephew of an Ajawa chief named
Jamrima, after repeated attacks of sickness, died.
His sickness and death was attributed to the secret
machinations of a wizard or a witch, and after re-
sorting to the usual methods of discovery, the witch-
doctor of the district denounced Jalawi, a neighbouring
chief, whose powers as a magician were thought to be
great, as the criminal. Jalawi, finding that denial of
OF THE AFRICANS.
137
the crime was useless, offered a little girl as an atone-
ment for his offence. The uncle of the dead man
was not satisfied with this compensation, and assem-
bling his people, went to Jalawi's place in order to
seize him. The culprit could not be found in the
village, but a voice was heard to say :-" I see you, I
see you; I know you want to kill me." The wizard,
it was thought, had made himself invisible; and
Damanji declared in all sincerity that on several occa-
sions he thus eluded those who went to apprehend him.
But one day he was surprised and made a prisoner;
and as the proofs of his guilt were thought to be over-
whelming, he was, without being permitted to appeal.
to the ordeal of poisoned water, condemned to torture
and death. While under torture, he made a full
confession of all he had done to kill Chimaliro.
Said he, “If you look in the roof of Chimaliro's hut,
you will find magic horns; if you look in such and
such trees, you will find some more; and I placed
others under the threshold of his door."
►
The horns were found in the places which he had
indicated, and with them, to add to the potency of
the spell, were discovered three human toes. A pile
of wood was then raised outside Jalawi's village, upon
which he was placed, and after being surrounded, and
then completely covered with additional bundles of
wood, the whole was set on fire, and he was thus
burned alive; burning being the usual punishment of
wizards and witches in this part of Africa. That
Damanji believed in this man's guilt is certain.
These magic horns, be it said, are those of goats
and antelopes, which are filled with certain com-
138
THE RELIGION
pounds of oil and fat (human substances probably),
and a powder made from the bark and roots of certain
trees and plants which are supposed to possess
magical properties, the evil power of which is firmly
believed in by the natives.
It is rarely, however, that a man or a woman is put
to death by the Ajawa, Manganja, and other kindred
tribes, without being permitted to appeal to the ordeal
of the muavi, or poisoned water. They are a kindly-
natured people upon the whole, and unless specially
excited against an individual, are by no means vin-
dictive. So the muavi is in constant requisition, and
frequently its virtue is so impaired by some good-
natured friend that offenders escape the punishment
accorded to their crimes by a previous tribunal.
According to the popular belief, the accused person,
if guilty, will, on drinking the muavi, experience
vertigo, and fall down in a swoon; but if innocent,
he will reject the poisonous compound by vomiting,
and no harm will happen to him. This ordeal is
found in many parts of Africa: it is not the only one ;
there are many of different kinds; for where witch-
craft is believed in, such final tests of innocence or
guilt are almost invariably resorted to.
The only
parts of Africa where it is not permitted, so far as
I am at present advised, are Kaffraria and Zululand ;
and of all the various races of Africa the Zulu Kaffirs
are probably the strongest believers in witchcraft.
There is scarcely an ill that can befall mankind
which the Zulus and Kaffirs do not believe to be
caused by supernatural agency, and generally by
witchcraft. They distinguish between illness and
OF THE AFRICANS.
139
misfortunes that are caused by the arbitrary action of
offended spirits, and those evils that are produced by
the spirits being worked upon by some wizard or
witch. In the first instance, as I have shown, the
spirits are propitiated by sacrifices of cattle, &c. ; in
the second, death, without benefit of application to
any ordeal, is the lot of the individual denounced by
the prophet, or, as he is more commonly called by
ourselves, witch-doctor.
The prophets play an important part in all the
religious rites and observances of the Kaffirs; they
communicate with the spirits of the departed in order
to ascertain their wishes; they are diviners, charm-
manufacturers, and rain-makers; but their great occu-
pation is the detection of those who practise witch-
craft.
A prophet must be the descendant of a prophet,
not necessarily a son, though it is not all the de-
scendants of a prophet that are qualified for the office,
which is hedged in with many rites and ceremonies.
A long and arduous preparation has to be made.
The African prophets and priests of all kinds fre-
quently have to pass their noviciate, like those of
Egypt in olden times, in the wilderness, and to
endure all the trials of a most rigid asceticism.
Many break down under the discipline, which, when
successfully endured, does not always procure ad-
mission into the sacred confraternity, for a council of
seers have, finally, to decide if he is really the pos-
sessor of the supernatural afflatus.
Mr. Wood says: "When first the spirit of pro-
phecy manifests itself to a Kaffir, he begins by losing
140
THE RELIGION
all his interest in the events of every-day life. He
becomes depressed in mind, prefers solitude to com-
pany, often has fainting fits, and, what is most extra-
ordinary of all, loses his appetite. He is visited by
dreams of an extraordinary character, mainly relating
to serpents, lions, leopards, and other wild beasts.
Day by day he becomes more and more possessed,
until the perturbations of the spirit manifest them-
selves openly.
"In this stage of his novitiate, the future prophet
utters terrible yells, leaps here and there with astonish-
ing vigour, and runs about at full speed, leaping and
shrieking all the time. When thus excited he will
dart into the bush, catch snakes (which an ordinary.
Kaffir will not touch), tie them round his neck, boldly
fling himself into the water, and perform all kinds of
insane feats.
"This early stage of the prophet's life is called by
the Kaffirs Twasa, a word which signifies the change
of the old moon to the new, and the change of winter
to spring in the beginning of the year. During its
progress, the head of his house is supposed to feel
great pride in the fact that a prophet is to be numbered
among the family, and to offer sacrifices for the suc-
cess of a novice. When the preliminary stage is over,
the future prophet goes to some old and respected
seer, gives him a goat as a fee, and remains under his
charge until he has completed the necessary course
of instruction.” 1
If the council decides in his favour, he assumes
1 Wood's "Natural History of Man," p. 138.
OF THE AFRICANS.
I4I
the dress and character of a prophet, and if he suc-
ceed in his office he will rise to an almost unbounded
power among his tribe. But should he be unsuc-
cessful in his ventures he will meet with the fate
universally accorded to the unsuccessful-contempt,
and perhaps ill-usage and death.
Making allowance for the different habits and
characteristics of the various tribes, the foregoing
account fairly describes the process of prophet, witch-
doctor, or medicine-man making in Africa. I have,
when living with the Manganja, seen the Sinanga, or
medicine-men, in every stage of their career, though
I cannot say that I have seen them handle serpents
as the Kaffir prophets do; they seemed to be as
much afraid of such creatures as their less mystical
brethren.
There are prophetesses as well as prophets in
almost every tribe, and the women go through a
series of ceremonies in order to qualify them for the
office, similar to those prescribed for the men; and,
like the men, they are thought to be capable of
transmitting to their descendants the supernatural
powers which they themselves possess.
When not engaged professionally, they perform the
ordinary duties of life, whether they be married or
single, much as other women do; and, so far from
celibacy being considered a necessary qualification
for the sacred office, it is very rarely that you meet
with a man or woman holding it who is not married.
Amongst the Zulu-Kaffirs so deeply rooted is the
idea that all sickness is caused by witchcraft, that, if
any one of them expressed a doubt about this, it
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THE RELIGION
would afford them good grounds for believing that
the doubter was himself a wizard. Amongst these
people the charms, which are thought to cause ill-
health and death, are certain kinds of roots, tufts of
hair, feathers, bones, &c., which must have been in
the possession of the victim, or, at least, have been
touched by him. These are buried in some secret
spot by the wizard, who mutters over them certain
spells, by means of which the victim droops in health,
in proportion as the buried charms decay in the
ground. The object of the witch-doctor is, first, to
point out the wizard or witch; and, secondly, to dis-
cover the buried charms, in order that the spell may
lose its potency.
If a chief be ill, to suppose that his illness is
caused by anything but witchcraft would be a sort
of high treason, and a day, therefore, is appointed for
the discovery of the evil-doer. All the people of the
neighbourhood are then assembled, none daring to
absent themselves for fear of being suspected, and
form themselves into a circle, squatting on the
ground, after the manner of the Kaffirs, and, be it
said, Africans generally.
The prophet who has been retained for the occa-
sion, then begins to pace slowly in a circle, uttering
at the same time a low chant. Gradually he increases
his speed, raises his voice higher, until at length he
breaks into a furious dance, and he rends the air with
his piercing cries. This goes on until he has lashed
himself into what seems to be a state of insane fury.
His eyes roll wildly, tears stream down his cheeks,
his singing is interrupted by shrieks and sobs, and to
OF THE AFRICANS.
143
own.
all appearance he is a demoniac. The crisis is now
at hand. The prophet leaps and bounds over the
ground, first rushing to one part of the circle, then
to another, inhaling his breath violently, like a dog
trying to discover a lost scent, and apparently attracted
to or repelled from individuals by a power not his
The people are trembling with fear and awe,
no one knowing who will be accused, and each, pos-
sibly, afraid of being denounced. At length the choice
is made. The prophet stops suddenly, sniffs violently,
draws nearer and nearer as if supernaturally impelled
to the object of his search, makes a dash forward,
snatches his wand of office from his belt, touches the
doomed man with it, and runs off. The man thus
denounced is at once arrested by the executioners,
who are always in attendance on these occasions, and
carried to the chief to be examined. In the mean-
time the prophet proceeds to discover the buried
charms. He dances through the kraal, visiting hut
after hut, and seemingly trying by the sense of smell
to find out where the evil things are hidden. At length
he approaches the spot, at which he thrusts his assagai,
and then bids the people to dig, and in doing so they
find the charms.
The accused person has no hope of mercy, and
generally yields himself with what fortitude he can
command to his fate. Should he persist in denying
his guilt, he is tortured in order to make him confess.
If he admit it, torture almost invariably precedes
his execution; indeed in most cases the poor wretch
is tortured to death. Burning torches are applied
to the most sensitive parts of his body; or he is
144
THE RELIGION
pierced repeatedly with long needles; and finally a
hole is broken in a nest of large, fierce ants, the
venom of whose bite is agonizing, and, bound hand
and foot, he is thrust into the interior, or fastened
to the ground close to the upturned nest, so that the
ants may swarm upon him.
It must not be thought that the Kaffirs are natu-
rally vindictive or cruel, for they are not; but they
will inflict with savage energy indescribable tortures
on their nearest relatives, or dearest friends, if found
guilty of witchcraft.
It is customary with Europeans to regard the
witch-doctors generally as impostors, and to say that
they simply point out men who are for some reason
disliked by the chief, or whose property he covets,
and that they themselves are guilty of secreting the
charms which they profess to find. That some of
them will take bribes to accuse innocent persons
of witchcraft, and that they frequently use the terrible
power which they undoubtedly possess for the grati-
fication of personal revenge, there is every reason to
believe; yet I do not think that they are always
conscious impostors, or prostitute their supposed
supernatural gifts for the mere sake of gain. Many,
I feel sure, although they may be occasionally guilty
of the crimes thus laid to their charge, believe that they
are supernaturally directed; at the same time there
is not a shadow of a doubt that their natural quick-
ness, and largely developed faculties of observation,
help them to their dicisions to an extent of which they
themselves may not be aware. They have not
created the belief in witchcraft, they are but the
OF THE AFRICANS.
145
offspring of such belief. The people generally be-
lieve in it firmly, and many of them to gratify their
evil designs and vindictive dispositions, practise it,
in the full conviction that they can bring sickness
and death, and sorrow and misfortune by its agency
upon those whom they regard as their enemies. When
people of bad tempers or revengeful dispositions are
offended by any one, they commonly threaten, with
a curse, to bewitch the offender. Such threats form
part of the almost every day vocabulary of the
Africans in all parts of the continent.
The wizards and witches are supposed to obtain
their supernatural power much in the same way that
the witch-doctors, &c. obtain theirs, only they avowedly
have intercourse with evil spirits, and with bad objects
in view. When a man of a naturally bad disposition
is disappointed in his projects, or is jealous of the
prosperity of others, or grows melancholy, or is
desperate through misfortune, he will, probably, with-
draw himself from the company of other men, and
live a solitary wild-beast sort of life in the woods,
where it is thought the evil spirits come to him, show
him what herbs and roots are used in enchantments,
and also teach him the gestures, grimaces, and words
proper for devilish practices.
There is one form of witchcraft in which the
Kaffirs and Zulus believe, which resembles some of
the superstitions of Europe in the Middle Ages.
They believe that the wizards have the power of
transforming the dead body of a human being into a
familiar of their own.
The wizard watches where people are buried, and
L
146
THE RELIGION
when he finds a body upon which he can work his spell
without fear of discovery, he, at midnight, digs up the
corpse, and, by means of his incantations, breathes a
sort of life into it, which enables it to move and
speak; it being thought that the spirit of some dead
wizard has taken possession of it. He then burns a
hole in the head, and through the aperture extracts
the tongue. Further spells have the effect of chang-
ing this revivified body into the form of some animal,
such as a hyena, an owl, or a wild cat; the latter
being most in favour. This creature then becomes
the wizard's servant, and obeys him in all things. The
chief use, however, to which it is put, is to inflict
sickness and death upon persons who are disliked by
its master; and in the dead of the night it will visit
the houses of such, and cry woe against the doomed
individuals. The trembling inmates hear the voice,
but none dare venture out for fear of being involved
in the malediction.
In consequence of this belief, it is said that no
Kaffir or Zulu ever dares to be seen in communica-
tion with any animals but those that are domesti-
cated. Any attempt to tame a wild animal would
expose the person who made it to the suspicion of
being a wizard, and he would most likely be de-
nounced as such.
That cattle are bewitched, that people through the
agency of witchcraft are killed by lightning and other
natural phenomena, is firmly believed by the Zulu
Kaffirs; and every other phase of witchcraft, pro-
bably, that is to be found elsewhere finds a place with
them. At present it is to be feared that in Zululand
OF THE AFRICANS.
147
the evils attendant upon belief in witchcraft have
not in any degree diminished. The witch-doctors
are always at work, and the number of executions
for witchcraft seems to be on the increase. In Kaffra-
ria, however, where the influence of Europeans is
more strongly felt, and the work of the missionaries
is wider spread, this belief is losing power, and
the craft of the witch-doctor is not in such great
requisition.
Amongst the Bechuana tribes, witchcraft, though
believed in, is not so powerful for evil as amongst the
Zulu Kaffirs; and, their country being subject to
droughts, the prophets are more frequently employed
in rain-making than in "smelling out" wizards and
witches.
The Hottentots of the Cape, having been thrown
into confusion by the Dutch and other Europeans,
do not exhibit their belief in witchcraft, as they did
in days gone by, though it is probably still living
amongst them. What their notions were concerning
the "black art," Kolben shows :-" All sudden inward.
pain," says he, "all sicknesses that baffle their physi-
cians, and cut off before old age; all cross accidents ;
and every artificial performance that is above their
comprehension, the Hottentots ascribe to witchcraft ;
an art which they believe is taught by their Touqûoa,
or Devil; and under the imputation of which
their old women, like ours, suffer more than any
others.
'When a Hottentot is seized with a pain, which
he believes is caused by witchcraft, he sends for the
physician of his kraal, who is believed to be master
L 2
148
THE RELIGION
of an amulet that will sometimes dissolve the charms
of the witches. On his arrival, and before he utters
a syllable to the patient, a sound fat sheep being
killed at the instant, he takes and carefully views the
caul all over; and having prepared it with Bucher,
twists it in the manner of a rope, and hangs it about
the patient's neck, to whom, while he is doing this,
he generally says," You will soon be better. The
witchcraft is not strong upon you.”
This caul the patient is obliged to wear while a bit
of it will hang about the neck. If the patient be a
man, the men of the kraal feast upon the carcase of
the sheep; if a woman, the women; if a child, the
carcase is served up to the children of the kraal only;
and none else taste a bit of it.
"If upon this the patient does not grow better,
the docter thinks no more of an amulet, but gives
physic. And be the distemper, or the course of it,
what it may, the doctor first called in, and no other,
must be retained quite through till the patient recovers
or dies. If the event is death, the doctor affirms it
was occasioned by witchcraft; and that the charms
of the witch or wizard were too strong for him or any
one else to break.
"It does not at all appear, however, and I believe
it is not, that the Hottentots have any notion of their
wizards or witches entering into any compact with
the devil, so that their souls go to him at death, as
have many among ourselves of such, whether real or
imaginary. They conceive, according to all intelli-
gence I could get upon the matter, that the malice of
OF THE AFRICANS.
149
Touquoa is confined to this world, and cannot act
beyond it.” 1
What their methods of discovering wizards and
witches were, Kolben does not say, neither does he
mention the punishment awarded to them when
discovered; but from other sources it can be gathered,
that the witch-doctors proceeded much in the same
way as the fraternity elsewhere, and that death, fre-
quently preceded by torture, was the penalty of witch-
craft.
Amongst the Korrannas and Namaquas, who have
succeeded in maintaining an independence of foreign
control, save in the differences which their lively
fancies have made in the methods resorted to in order
to ascertain the guilt or innocence of accused persons,
belief in witchcraft corresponds in its character to
that described by Kolben.
Throughout South-western Africa, the tribes, with-
out exception, are as great believers in witchcraft
now as they were three hundred years ago. How firmly
this belief had possession of the minds of the natives
of Southern Guinea in the time of Father Merolla,
we learn from his account of his experience in Congo,
and several other countries in Southern Africa. At
that period towards the end of the 17th century—the
Roman Catholic missionaries had great power in these
regions, and they used it against wizards and witches
with a zeal as unrelenting as that which Saul dis-
played when he "cut off those that have familiar
?
"The Present State of the Cape of Good IIope," i. 134.
150
THE RELIGION
spirits, and the wizards out of the land." Indeed
their zeal savoured so strongly of cruel persecution,
that it raised up obstacles to the progress of Christi-
anity, which, I think, were never intended to exist.
Merolla tells us of a certain king of Congo, who
having become a Christian, immediately caused a
proclamation to be made (being instigated thereto
by the missionaries), that within a certain time all
wizards should depart his dominions, or suffer death
for their neglect. "These wicked wretches," says
the Father, "incited his subjects to a rebellion against
him, which at length increased to such a degree, that
they ran like madmen to the palace with weapons in
their hands to assail their prince." The king escaped
his subjects' wrath on this occasion, but fell into their
hands afterwards, and was killed. Driven to bay by
the proceedings taken against them by the mission-
aries, it is no wonder that the wizards used their great
influence with the people against the new religion,
and stirred up strife against the chiefs who became
agents in the attempts to extirpate them by deeds.
as cruel as those which their own evil practices
encouraged.
Father Merolla was, on one occasion, afraid that
an accident such as befell one of his brother mission-
aries, Philip da Salesia, might happen to him, and he
thus records that accident :-"After the death of the
pious Don Alvaro, king of Congo (it was the custom
of the Portuguese thus to designate the native kings),
a new king was chosen, who was no less zealous and
devout than his predecessor. This prince, putting
out a proclamation to have all wizards that should be
OF THE AFRICANS.
151
found within his dominions burnt, those wicked
wretches, gathering together in the dukedom of
Sundi, still persisted to exercise their damnable
callings in their huts, notwithstanding the prohibition.
To prevent this, the duke's forces marched thither in
great haste, carrying along with them the aforesaid
Father. Being arrived at the place, they began to set
fire to the huts. As soon as the wizards perceived
the flames about their ears, they came out in great
fury; whereat the duke's people immediately fled,
leaving the poor father to shift for himself. The
wizards perceiving him alone, soon seized, and mur-
dered, and devoured him, both to satisfy their revenge
and appetite." And as they barely escaped being
roasted to death, as they probably rightly thought,
through the instigation of the missionary, I am not
surprised at the "accident" which happened to the
Father.
The journals of the missionaries at this period are
largely occupied with narratives of their proceedings.
against the magicians, whose conversion they do not
seem to have sought, but whose death they strove for
with unflagging animosity.
Father Merolla, a benevolent man, and a merciful
man in all other respects, shows the disposition of a
wizard in his denunciations of the professors of the
black art, whom he evidently regards as absolute
devils, rather than as poor deluded human beings
capable of being won to Christ by deeds of mercy and
love, and having souls to be saved, like the rest of man-
kind. He rejoices when he hears of the execution of
any of them.
Being invited to visit Cacongo, he
152
THE RELIGION
stipulated with the king that, in order to lay a surer
foundation of the Christian religion in his country, all,
or at least the chief of the magicians and wizards of
the kingdom should meet him and defend their
opinions and oppose his own; and that, should they
decline to meet him "on account of ignorance,” he
might have the opportunity of exercising his sacer-
dotal power on their charms, “and thereby show that
the performances of Christian ministers are always
above those of the devils." Fearing the fate that
overtook the prophets of Baal, who accepted the in-
vitation of Jehu, the magicians and wizards declined
to meet Father Merolla, and he does not inform us
what effect his sacerdotal power had on their charms.
The pitting the supernatural power of the priest-
hood against that of the wizards, and the consequent
temptation to claim miraculous victories in the con-
tests that frequently came to pass, proved in the end
disastrous to the cause of Christianity, as represented
by Father Merolla, in the regions of the Congo.
Being earnestly invited to stay at a town of Loango,
he consented, and thus records his experience :—
"The same hour of my arrival I began to baptize
near a house where the mistress was in bed. In the
court of this house were planted several gourds with
leaves like unto ours, but the fruit was green and
pulpy, and of an excellent taste. This court being
not well able to contain the great concourse of people
that thronged thither, they must necessarily exceed-
ingly trample the woman's ground. She began to
bawl out therefore as if she was mad, but the people
taking little or no notice of her, crowded rather the
OF THE AFRICANS.
153
closer. Whilst I was administering the holy sacra-
ment of baptism, this woman cried out with greater
vehemence than before, which caused me to hold out
my staff to her wherewith I supported myself, being
scarce able to stand, to make her quiet, not knowing
at the time that she was the real mistress of the
house. When she, either taking that sign for a threat,
a thing always abhorred by me, or else moved by
some other wicked design, catched up a spade
angrily, and fell to digging round her ground where
the people were (an action always superstitiously
observed by them) without anybody so much as
speaking a word against it. After she had so done,
she began to howl again as if she had been be-
witched. I, perceiving her to persist in her obsti-
nacy, made the same sign to her as before to be quiet,
whereupon she ran as hard as she could drive to call
a witch to bewitch me; as she ran along she cried to
herself, 'What, shall a stranger abuse a native? Must
I be drove out of my own house by I know not
who? No, no, if I cannot get him away by fair
means, I will have his soul out of his body by foul.'
She soon appeared again, bringing along with her a
witch and a scholar of hers. As soon as the people
were gone, these two laid themselves down on the
ground, leaning against a wall. I knew them well
enough to be what they were by the fashion of their
clothes. On their heads they had a piece of cloth folded
round like a turban, so that one eye only was to be
seen; with this the old witch looked steadfastly upon
me for some time, grumbling after a brutish manner
to herself all the while. Then with her hand she
154
THE RELIGION
proceeded to scrape a small hole in the ground. At
the sight of this I immediately ordered my interpreter
to be gone, being more concerned for him than my-
self; for, as a priest that had always trusted in God,
I doubted not but to render her charms ineffectual to
myself. I commanded the devil that he should not
come near; but she, little regarding what I did, went
on with her sorceries. I ordered the evil spirits a
second time to be gone, which she perceiving, giving
her scholar a lusty slap over the face, she bid her be-
gone and leave her alone. At my third command
she departed also, but returned next morning betimes,
practising over her devilish acts as before. I resolved
not to stand long in one place, whereby to avoid the
design she had to bewitch me to death, that having
been the reason of her making a hole in the earth.
It seems their custom is, that when they have a mind
to bewitch any one mortally, they put a certain herb
or plant into the hole they have so dug, which, as it
perishes and decays, so the vigour and spirits of the
person they have a design upon will fail and decay.
I went down to the river-side, a little way distant,
whither the witch followed me. When I had gone
down thrice, endeavouring all along to avoid her, and
finding I could not, I sat me down by the water-side.
This the hag perceiving, she likewise squatted herself
down over against me. The people being curious to
know what would be the event of this contest, had
hid themselves in an adjoining field of millet, which
grew about ten or twelve hands high, which I knew
nothing of. Whilst I was thus sitting, and observing
that vile wretch near me, it put me in mind of the
OF THE AFRICANS.
155
saying of the wise man: 'A wicked woman is a
deadly wound.' Then I addressed myself to God,
saying, ‘O Lord, the cause is Thine, Thy honour lies
at stake, and so much the rather by reason that the
inhabitants of this island are but very little acquainted
with Thee! As for me, I am but a worm in respect
of Thy majesty. Do Thou work in me, for without
Thee I can do nothing.' This said, I commanded
her once more in the name of the Blessed Trinity and
the holy Virgin to be gone, and withal blowing gently
towards her, she all of a sudden giving three leaps,
and howling thrice, fled away in a trice. The swift-
ness of her motions were so extraordinary, that they
were wondered at by all that saw them, and thought
impossible to be performed by any human power.
When the witch began to fly, the people came forth
of their holes, and running after her with several re-
proachful exclamations, cried out, "The devil is fled.
and the priest not moved: the devil take all witches
and witchcraft.' I being surprised at the hearing of
so great a number of voices in my favour, gave imme-
diate thanks to the Supreme Disposer of all things,
and more especially when I heard them cry further,
'God prosper Christianity! God prosper Christi-
anity!'"
Had this been the spirit in which the missionaries
always acted towards the wizards and witches, Christi-
anity might have continued to prosper in that land;
but so pitiless were the representatives of Christianity
in their treatment of all that opposed them, and so
contrary to the spirit of Christianity was the life of
most of the European Christians, that heathenism
156
THE RELIGION
triumphed, and the wizards and witches have sup-
planted the priests.
1
The latest authority upon the people of these
regions, Mr. Monteiro, shows that belief in witchcraft
holds with them probably a more mischievous posi-
tion than in the days of Father Merolla. He says ¹ :—
"Witchcraft is their principal or only belief; every-
thing that happens has been brought about by it; all
cases of drought, sickness, death, blight, accident,
and even the most trivial circumstances, are ascribed
to the evil influence of witchery or fetish.
"A fetish-man is consulted, and some poor unfor-
tunate accused, and either killed at once or sold into
slavery, and in most cases all his family as well, and
every scrap of their property confiscated and divided
among the whole town; in other cases, however, a
heavy fine is imposed, and inability to pay it also
entails slavery; the option of trial by ordeal is some-
times afforded the accused, who often eagerly de-
mand it.
"This extremely curious and interesting ordeal is
by poison, which is prepared from the bark of a large
tree, the Erythroplæum Guineense. It either acts as
an emetic or as a purgative. Should the former effect
take place, the accused is declared innocent; if the
latter, he is at once considered guilty, and either
allowed to die of the poison, which is said to be
quick in its action, or immediately attacked with
sticks and clubs, his head cut off, and his body burnt.
"It is said to be in the power of the 'fetish '-man
'Angolo and the River Congo."
1
((
OF THE AFRICANS.
157
to prepare the mixture in such a manner as to deter-
mine which of the effects mentioned shall be pro-
duced; and I have very little doubt that, as he is
bribed or not, so he can and does prepare it. The
occasion of the test is one of great excitement, and is
accompanied by much cruelty. In some tribes the
accused, after drinking the potion, has to stoop and
pass under half a dozen low arches made by bending
switches, both ends into the ground; should he fall
down in passing under any of the arches, that cir-
cumstance alone is sufficient to prove him guilty,
without waiting for the purgative effect to be pro-
duced.
"Before the trial, the accused is confined in a hut,
and the night before it is surrounded by all the
women and children of the neighbouring towns,
dancing and singing to the horrid din of their drums
and rattles. On the occasion of the ordeal the men
are all armed with knives, hatchets, and sticks, and
the moment the poor devil stumbles in going under
one of the switches he is instantly set upon by the
howling multitude and beaten to death, and cut and
hacked to pieces in a few minutes. I was at Mangue
Grande on one occasion when a big dance was going
on the night before a poor wretch was to take the
poison. I went to the town with some of the traders
of that place, and we offered to ransom him, but to
no purpose; nothing, they said, could save him from
the trial. I learnt, however, that he passed it success-
fully; but I think I never heard such a hideous
yelling as the 400 or 500 women and children were
making round the hut, almost all with their faces and
158
THE RELIGION
bodies painted red and white, dancing in a perfect
cloud of dust, and the whole scene illuminated by
blazing fires of dry grass under a starlit summer
sky!"
In Northern Guinea the practice of witchcraft is
common to all the tribes, save the Dahoman, that
retain any semblance of heathenism, and it is not
uncommon to those who have been brought more or
less under the influence of Christianity and Moham-
medanism. But little change has taken place in the
practice of this art since Barbot visited Northern
Guinea more than one hundred years ago, though the
punishment of those who have been accused and
found guilty of it would seem to be more brutal.
Of the general feeling regarding witchcraft in North
Guinea, Barbot says:" They have a great opinion.
of witchcraft, and pretend by it to be able to do any
mischief they think fit to their enemies, even to taking
their lives, as also to discover all secrets, and find out
hidden things, or to compel a thief to appear and to
restore what he hath stolen, be he ever so remote."
Of the wizards and witches who are not supposed
to exercise their craft for malignant purposes, he
says: "Some tell things past and to come by
magical figures; others fill an earthen vessel with
water and cast into it a drop of oil, which becomes
clear and bright, wherein they pretend to see swarms
of devils moving in order of battle, some by land
and others by water. As soon as these devils have
halted, they put the question in hand to them, which
they answer by motions of the head and eyes.
"The witches make the people believe that they
OF THE AFRICANS.
159
converse very familiarly with devils, some of which
are white, others red, and others black. When they
are forced to foretell anything they smoke themselves
with brimstone and other stinking ingredients; which
done, they are immediately seized by their familiars,
and alter their voices as if these demons spoke
through their organs. Then those who consult them
draw near, and in a very humble manner put the
questions they desire should be answered, and when
that is done, withdraw, leaving a present for the
witch."
Such proceedings are common nowadays, not only
in North Guinea, but throughout Africa.
In Ashango-land, according to M. Du Chaillu,
and amongst the Shekiani, the fear engendered by
witchcraft leads frequently to deeds of cruelty that
are scarcely credible. He gives an account of the
death of an old man who was accused of having
bewitched and caused the death of another man.
The traveller interceded for his life with the chief,
who was not unwilling to save him, but the people
were worked up into a frenzy of excitement against
him by the witch-doctor, and declared that he was a
most malignant wizard, who had killed many people,
was disposed to kill many more, and that he must
die. So they tied the poor creature to the stump of
a tree near the bank of a river, and with axes, knives,
and cutlasses, hacked him to pieces. They finished
their work of vengeance by splitting open his skull,
and scattering the brains in the water.
Then they
returned to the village, and by their joyful exclama-
tions it was evident that they thought they had
160
THE RELIGION
delivered the country from a great curse.
In the
course of a very few hours all excitement had ceased,
the infuriated men who had taken part in this horrible
tragedy were quietly enjoying the evening meal with
their families, and as cheerful as though they had
never imbrued their hands in the blood of a fellow-
creature.
Mr. C. Reade, in his "Savage Africa," gives another
example of the cruelty which is inspired by the fear of
this accursed art :-
The head man of a village was taken ill, and a
woman was accused of having caused his illness by
witchcraft. She at first declared herself to be inno-
cent of this crime, but on being flogged, confessed
that she was guilty, and also said that her child, a boy
of seven, was her accomplice. Consequently, the
mother was taken out to sea in a canoe, brained with
an axe, and then thrown overboard, and the child
was burnt alive.
The Ashantees have a terrible belief in witch-
craft in all its forms, and amongst them executions
of certain sorts of wizards and witches are almost
of daily occurrencc.
Belief in witchcraft necessitates, or at all events
has given rise to, ordeals. That of the poisoned.
water, to which I have frequently alluded, is most
commonly used, but there are many others to which
people who have been accused of witchcraft, or of
other crimes detected by professional witch-doctors,
and such-like persons, submit, some of which are not
unlike those that existed amongst ourselves.
In some regions great personages may claim the
OF THE AFRICANS.
161
;
ordeal of immersion in water. The accused is thrown
into a river, which, for the occasion, is supposed to
possess supernatural qualities, to have the property
of supporting innocent persons, and wafting them
gently ashore, even though they have no knowledge
of the art of swimming, and of causing guilty persons
to sink, though they be skilful swimmers. Elsewhere
the following are frequently resorted to.
A cock's feather is thrust into the tongue of the
accused; if it pass through easily, he is accounted
innocent, and the wound it is said will soon close up
and heal without pain; but if there be difficulty in
forcing the quill through the tongue, he is accounted
guilty.
A red-hot wire or copper ring is drawn three times
over the tongue of the supposed guilty person; if it
do not burn him, he is aquitted of the crime laid to
his charge; if it do, his guilt is thought to be proved
beyond all question.
The juice of certain plants is spurted into the eyes
of the accused; if unhurt by it, he is absolved; but if
it cause his eyes to turn red and inflames them, he is
dealt with as convicted.
A stone is thrown into a pot of boiling water; they
who take it out with the naked hand without being
scalded are supposed innocent, but being scalded
declares their guilt.
Several snail-shells are clapped to the accused
person's temples, when, if they stick, he is con-
demned; but if not, discharged.
There are other, and, probably, many other ordeals
connected with witchcraft, but those I have mentioned
M
162
THE RELIGION
{
will serve to show the general character of such final
tests of innocence or guilt.
Rain-making is a popular function of the witch-
doctors in districts where seasons of drought are not
unusual; but the art is not practised where, as in
equatorial Africa, there is generally an abundance of
rain. Should rain fall within twenty-four hours after
the incantations of the adept, he is loaded with gifts,
and becomes the object of peculiar honours. Should
his charms fail, unless he can succeed in making the
people believe that some one has bewitched the
clouds, he is treated with contempt, and sometimes
hardly dealt with. If his accusation of witchcraft
against the clouds be accepted, the fury of the people
against those who are convicted of this crime finds a
terrible expression. These remarks apply to the
Kaffir districts, where much distress is often expe-
rienced from drought. Elsewhere in Africa there are
many superstitions connected with drought where
droughts are frequent, and generally the observances
connected therewith recognize the agency of a super-
natural power, and are intended to meet and over-
come the evil influence which keeps the rain away.
OF THE AFRICANS.
163
CHAPTER V.
CONCERNING FETISHISM.
COMPREHENSIVELY employed, Fetish signifies any
material substance in which supernatural power is
supposed to be concentrated. Fetishism, therefore,
is the worship or the use of such spiritualized sub-
stances which are regarded as a protection from all
the evils of witchcraft, and a security from every sort
of danger, disease, and misfortune.
Human agency is not absolutely necessary to the
making of fetish, for any object of which an African
dreams, if his dream invest it with supernatural power,
is regarded as fetish; but generally fetish is made by
wizards and witches, benevolent as well as malevolent,
who through their intercourse with the spiritual world.
are thought to have the power of imparting to any
material substance, no matter what, supernatural
qualities.
Fetishism is frequently supposed to represent the
lowest phase of religious superstition; but Baring
Gould says: "There is nothing necessarily super-
stitious in 'fetishism, for it is merely the religious
application of an observable general law-the law (1)
that forces act from centres, and (2) that objects may
possess values not physically appreciable. The prin-
M 2
164
THE RELIGION
ciple of fetishism is that of centralization, and also
of attribution of fictitious value to some object of
no demonstrable importance. Thus it underlies a
series of religious acts, commercial speculations, and
political systems. In religion every temple, and
shrine, and priest is a recognition of fetishism ; a
recognition that certain spots and certain persons are
more sacred than other spots and persons. The
Christian, who takes off his hat on entering church,
and bows at the sacred name in the Creed; the
soldier, who presents arms at the royal standard; the
sailor, who touches his cap to the quarter-deck; the
minister, who bows to the throne, &c., are fetishists
as truly as the negro; but they differ from the negro
in this, that their belief is not fetishism only, but
fetishism plus a number of other isms. ”1
Of late years fetishism has been so frequently con-
nected with the Africans, that many have come to
think that it is confined to them, whereas men of
every race and in every age have been fetishists,
have sought, that is, to connect supernatural agencies
with physical objects, in order that such agencies
might be localized, and brought more directly under
the cognizance of the senses.
This would seem to indicate that there is in man, as
man, a sense of need, a yearning for a closer connection
between the human and the superhuman than his
mere natural condition affords, and which can only
be truly met by the sacraments of the Church; for
where these ordinances of God are unknown, they
ì 66
Origin and Development of Religious Belief," p. 175.
OF THE AFRICANS.
165
are parodied by men to whom it is thought that
spiritual powers, for good or for evil, have been dele-
gated, and charms and amulets, and such-like things,
which are comprehensively known as fetish, are
regarded as channels of supernatural aid.
The history of the religious systems of the world
shows that the principle of what is commonly called
sacerdotalism is seemingly bound up with human
nature, for it is found to be present in one form or
another amongst all people, and in every part of the
world.
This is a fact which missionaries to the heathen
should not lose sight of, for, rightly used, it might
enable their converts to realize the true nature and
value of the Christian priesthood.
Fetishism, in Africa, is co-extensive with witch-
craft, and is so closely allied with it that many would
seem to have found it difficult to distinguish between
them. They stand, however, to each other in the
relation of cause and effect, a distinction which justi-
fies the treating of them as separate subjects.
The purposes to which fetishes are put are almost
innumerable. Their primary object is, of course, to
guard their possessors from the evils of witchcraft,
whatever may be the guise under which such evils
approach them.
Diseases of the body being almost invariably attri-
buted to witchcraft, men and women are sometimes
literally encumbered with fetishes; some of which
are for the head, others for the neck, others for the
heart, the arms, the stomach, the back, the loins,
and the legs; indeed, every part of the human body
166
THE RELIGION
has its appropriate fetish, or charm against the ills
which are thought to beset it. I have a large stock
of such charms, which, during my residence in Africa,
I bought at various times from the people who wore
them. Such fetishes are generally simple things;
the reeds of certain plants, the roots of certain trees,
the horns of a diminutive deer, the claws and teeth
of lions and leopards, and other sorts of animals;
slips of wood fantastically notched, knuckle-bones,
beads, and a kind of white stone, being most com-
monly used. Amongst the Kaffirs, whose belief
in witchcraft is intense, faith in the virtues of fetishes
is, as a natural consequence, equally great. You
rarely meet with a Kaffir who does not carry with him
a whole series of charms. These, of course, are
furnished by the witch-doctors and prophets, and as
they are not of the least intrinsic value, and are
highly paid for, the business of making fetish is a
profitable one. To a European a superstitious Kaffir
has a very ludicrous appearance, as the following
description of a man who seems to have been pecu-
liarly impressible to the value of fetish will show.
His head was bedecked with pigs' bristles set
straight, so as to stand out on all sides like the quills
of a hedgehog, while around his neck there was
strung a great number of charms, the principal of
which were pieces of bone, the head of a snake, the
tooth of a young hippopotamus, and a brass door-
handle.
One powerful set of charms is intended for securing
the wearer against the feeling of fear, and there is a
charm for every kind of fear. For example, if a
OF THE AFRICANS.
167
Kaffir goes out at night, and is afraid of meeting
ghosts, he has recourse to his ghost fetish, which he
nibbles slightly (such charms as are made of roots
and bits of wood are nibbled when the wearer feels
need of their influence), and then ventures out in
bold defiance of his spiritual enemies. Again, when
going into action as a soldier, a man will be sure to
have his enemy-charm ready for use, and just before
he enters battle he bites off a portion of the wood,
masticates it, and then blows the fragments towards
the foe, with the view of taking away the courage of
his enemy, and increasing his own.
The enemy
naturally does the same, and so neither can be sure,
until after the event, which has the more potent
charm.
a pre-
Very few Kaffirs-and this I believe holds true
of Africans generally-will venture out during the
stormy season without a thunder-charm as
servative against lightning. Faith in this class of
fetish is unbounded, and in Kaffraria, in consequence
of the frequency and severity of the thunderstorms,
they fetch very high prices. Of course, if a man be
killed by lightning, or suffers from any other evil
while protected by a suitable fetish, the witch-doctor
who provided it will find some reason why the charm
failed. The charms fail often enough, yet I have no
doubt whatever that the faith of the Africans in these
fetishes as a protection from the various evils to
which they are exposed, and a remedy for certain
forms of disease, is real. But though this be true,
the presence of a European doctor, be it said, serves
to lessen their faith in fetish as a medicinal agent;
168
THE RELIGION
for belief in the white man's medicine is certainly
greater than their faith in the black medicine-man's
charms.
I once saw a man-he was the chief of a village
in which, for the moment, I was staying with
a section of a root of some sort fastened to each
ankle. Upon inquiry, I found it was a fetish against
snake-bites. I laughed at such a protection; and
was immediately told by the possessor of it that if
I would give him my medicine for snake-bites he
would no longer wear it. The fetish of his country
he declared to be good, but the medicine of the white
man was better. Generally, however, they would
cling to their own charms, even when taking our
medicine, for fear that some harm might come to
them if they were discarded, and a slight be thus put
upon the supernatural power with which they were
supposed to be invested.
Fetishes against, or for the cure of sickness, are
not always worn about the person. They are some-
times found at the entrances of a village, over the
doorways of the huts, and near to where the sleeping
mat is laid in the hut. Besides these, there are fetishes
which restore to health those that are sick, which are
the property of the medicine-men, and are sometimes
found, as in Angola, in the forms of idols, i.e. small,
rudely carved figures of man or beast.
Such are
carried to the residence of the sick person, and at
the special invocation of the medicine-man are sup-
posed to become the shrine of a spiritual power that
can heal the sick. When the occasion for which this
power is invoked is past, its presence is withdrawn,
OF THE AFRICANS.
169
but the idol is nevertheless regarded with reverential
awe, as having been in-dwelt by a supernatural agency.
There are fetishes also which are highly valued,
because they are thought to minister to sensual delights,
to excite love in those who are not favourably disposed
to you, and to cause robberies and every other sort
of crime to prosper.
Others are thought to have a
special value in keeping off evil spirits. Barbot says
on this :-" Blacks generally set apart some small
quantity of such victuals as they eat, for their fetishes,
or, as some will have it, for the devil, whom they call
gune, to oblige him to be kind to them; for if we
believe their own assertions, he often beats them. I
remember a black, from whose neck I once pulled
away a grigri, or spell, made a hideous noise about
it, telling us that gune had beaten him most unmerci-
fully the next night; and that unless I would, in com-
passion, give him a bottle of brandy to treat gune,
and be reconciled to him, for having suffered me to
take away his grigri, he was confident he should be
infallibly killed by him. The fellow was so confident
in his conceit, and roared in such a horrible manner
for it, that I was forced to humour him for peace
and quietness."
The use of fetish as a protection from the molesta-
tions of malignant spirits is common throughout
Africa. The Africans generally are not destitute of
natural courage, yet, until emancipated from their
superstitious fears, it is very rarely that they will
engage in war, or any other dangerous enterprise,
without fortifying themselves with fetishes that are
specially qualified to preserve them on such occasions
170
THE RELIGION
from harm. Thus protected, however, they will fre-
quently exhibit a courage amounting to audacity;
but should they lose their fetishes, or become im-
pressed with the idea that the charms possessed by
their enemies are more powerful than their own, they
become the greatest cowards.
I once met with an example of the cowardice
engendered by this impression that the enemy was
possessed of superior fetish. The Manganja and the
Ajawa tribes were at war with one another, and the
former were invariably defeated; indeed, after the first
two or three encounters, they never stayed to receive
the attack of their adversaries, but retreated as soon
as they caught sight of them, or heard of their near
approach. I was at the village of the supreme chief
of the Manganja, in company with Mr. Dickinson,
the medical officer of the Universities' Mission. The
chief, according to custom, paid us a visit. Some
people sought Dickinson's assistance as a doctor, and
he went off to see them. Said the chief, pointing to my
friend as he was leaving us :—
"Is that your sinanga?" (medicine-man).
،،
Yes, he is our sinanga," said I, forgetting for the
moment that the sinanga of the natives was a man
to whom was ascribed supernatural powers.
Upon which he put his arm round my neck, and
looking as amiable as he could, said: "Ask him to
give me your war-medicine" (i.e. fetish).
I laughed, and told him that our medicines were
for the cure of sickness only, and that they were not
fetish, and that we had no war-medicine but a brave
heart. Upon which he became indignant, evidently
OF THE AFRICANS.
171
thinking I was deceiving him, and said: "Why speak
to me thus? Why treat me as though I was a child
still at my mother's back, as though age had not
made my forehead hard? You talk to me of a brave
heart! What is the use of a brave heart when your
enemy has stronger war-medicine than you have? I
have a brave heart. All my people have brave hearts.
But brave hearts are of no use to us; for when we go
out to fight the Ajawa, directly we catch sight of them
we run away; not, however, because we have not brave
hearts, but because they have stronger war-medicine
than we have. Now when you go against the Ajawa,
they run away. If they only hear that you are coming
they run away. Why is that? not because they have
not brave hearts, but because you have stronger war-
medicine than they. Now don't be an ungenerous
man, but ask your sinanga to give me your war-me-
dicine, and then the Ajawa will run away out of my
country."
I am sure that I did not succeed in convincing
this man that we had no war-medicine, for we parted
without cordiality on his part. We professed to be
his friends, and yet we withheld from him the only
thing that would enable him to defeat his enemies.
That was his view of the question, and I do not
wonder that he felt aggrieved.
When hard pressed in war, and in danger of being
utterly overthrown, in some parts of Africa, the
people, like the king of Moab, who sacrificed the son
of the king of Edom when the battle was against him,
in order to move the compassion of his adversaries,
or to inspire them with terror, will make horrible
172
THE RELIGION
fetishes of human beings. The most astounding
instance of such a practice that I have met with
occurred in West Africa. The king of Bonny having
been defeated in battle, retreated to his principal town,
and finding that it was in imminent danger of being
attacked, called together his magicians in order that
they might aid him in repelling his enemies. They were
equal to the emergency. The people were assembled
in front of the principal gate of the town. Two holes
were dug in the ground close to each other. The
wizards then began their operations, and when the peo-
ple had been wrought up by their proceedings to a pitch
of unreasoning excitement, so that they were ready to
perpetrate any act, no matter how horrible, the chief
of the wizards pointed to a girl who was standing
amongst the spectators. She was instantly seized,
and, under his direction, her legs were thrust into the
holes that had been prepared for this purpose, which
were then filled up with earth so that she could not
extricate herself from them. Then a number of men
brought lumps of wet clay, which they built around
her body in the form of a pillar, kneading them
closely as they proceeded, until she was entirely
covered over. This device produced the desired
effect, for so terrified were the hostile tribes at what
they regarded as an invincible fetish,-or gregree, as
fetish is called in West Africa,—that they dared not
attack the town, and, like the kings of Israel and
Judah, after the sacrifice of the king of Edom's son,
they withdrew from the further prosecution of the war,
and returned to their homes.
The clay pillar, with the body of the girl within it,
OF THE AFRICANS.
173
stood for several years where it had been erected, and
served effectually to preserve the town from being
again attacked by its enemies.
In Western Africa the natives erect gregrees,
though not always of a character so revolting as that
just mentioned, on every imaginable occasion, and
with the view of warding off every possible calamity.
Yet, though so well protected, they are in perpetual
fear of the dangers against which they strive to secure
themselves, for so many counteracting influences may
be at work that it is not for long that they feel their
safety to be assured.
Absolute faith in the virtue of the fetish is indis-
pensable to the receiving of its aid; to doubt its
potency is to lose the benefit of its power. So say
the fetish-men. For instance,-on one occasion a
party of natives, before crossing a river on a stormy
day, bought of a wizard a fetish against accidents.
The canoe was upset, nevertheless, and some of the
party were drowned. The survivors went to the
wizard and upbraided him with being the cause of
the death of their friends, inasmuch as without the
protection of a fetish they would not have attempted
to cross the river, and he had encouraged them to
make the passage by selling them a charm that was
valueless. He listened patiently to their reproaches,
then questioned them as to their doings, and having
gained from their accounts what he had sought for,
informed them that the misfortune was caused by the
incredulity of the steersman, who tried to sound the
river with his paddle in order to discover whether
they were in shallow water. This action indicated
174
THE RELIGION
mistrust of the gregree, and so the power of the spell
was broken.
Fetishes are abundantly used in the fields to protect
the crops from being stolen by men, or from being
injured by birds and beasts. The Banyai, for in-
stance, guard their honey, which is sometimes found
in the hollow of trees, and sometimes preserved in
hives which are made of bark, among the branches of
trees, by tying round the tree wherein the honey is a
palm leaf that has been anointed with some greasy
compound, and decorated with tufts of grass, feathers,
&c. They firmly believe that if a thief were to climb
over this fetish, or to remove it, he would surely be
afflicted with illness and speedily die.
Elsewhere I have seen cornfields similarly pro-
tected. Strips of bark joined together, and specially
connected with spiritualized substances, are carried
round the whole field, and woe be to the man or beast
that breaks down this charmed barrier.
The Bechuana are much given to put their trust in
this sort of fetish as a protection of the fruits of their
fields from birds and beasts, lightning, and storms of
rain, or whatever is likely to injure them.
Hunters generally value fetishes highly as calcu-
lated to give them success in their operations. Some
tribes think that every animal is affected by an appro-
priate fetish. This belief has given rise to a race of
medicine-men who are regarded as special pro-
fessionals-one taking as his specialty the preparation
of elephant fetish, without which no hunter will go
after the elephant; another prepares fetish for the
buffalo; another for the hippopotamus, and so on.
OF THE AFRICANS.
175
Since the introduction of firearms into Africa, fetish
to make guns shoot straight is eagerly sought for.
The superior skill of Europeans in the use of the gun
is supposed to be owing to the possession of the
necessary sort of fetish; a supposition which has been
strengthened by Europeans themselves, who fre-
quently impose upon the natives by telling them that
they have "gun-medicine" which enables them to do
great things.
When furnished with special charms against certain
animals, the Africans are sometimes reckless in their
daring. When coming down the Shire River, one of
my boatmen said he had no fear of crocodiles, as he
had "crocodile-medicine," which protected him, and
made them afraid. I expressed my disbelief in the
efficacy of his fetish, when, to prove that he had said.
no more of its virtues than he was warranted in doing,
he jumped overboard, swam to a sand island on
which basked a large crocodile, and, walking close
up to the creature, stamped his foot in its very face,
and defied it to do him any mischief. The brute
snapped its jaws and lashed its tail angrily, but
instead of making at the man, as I fully expected to
see it do, retreated into the water. The man, after
dancing about the island in triumph, returned to the
boat, and was much disappointed to find that I did
not think he owed his safety to his fetish. I forced
him to admit that fetish did not always afford a pro-
tection against danger. I could not, however, make
him or his companions believe that I and my col-
leagues were not protected by fetish. They were far
too polite to say that they did not believe me, but
176
THE RELIGION
they received my assurances with the remark, "We
hear"; and with a look of incredulity which they
could not suppress. To them it was evidently in-
credible that we could do as we did unless fortified
by supernatural powers; and as the only supernatural
aid of which they had any knowledge was found in
witchcraft and fetish, they credited us with the pos-
session of both, and of a character and potency far
superior to that which they themselves possessed.
Where books are not known, and where there is
no notion of the art of writing, when these are first
brought to the knowledge of the Africans, they almost
invariably regard them as connected with fetish. In-
deed, in Western Africa, amongst the tribes that have
become Mohammedans, or live in the neighbour-
hood of such, the gregree, or charms, generally con-
sist of passages from the Koran written on strips of
paper and sewed up in little leathern bags. It is
thought that such charms have many occult virtues
to preserve the persons by whom they are worn from
any misfortune. These gregrees are divided into
classes, each class having its peculiar use; some to
guard their possessors from being cast away when
they are fishing, and to save them from being
wounded, killed, or enslaved in war, or when on a
journey; others to secure them against lightning;
others to preserve women in childbed; others to
enable them to get many wives, or much wealth;
and they are fitted to all other purposes indeed which
are connected with the experience of their life.
Indeed these sorts of fetish are supposed to possess
all the characteristics of those to which I have
OF THE AFRICANS.
177
referred as existing amongst the unsophisticated
heathen; the same sort of confidence is placed in
them, and their owners, trusting to the protection
which they believe them to afford, will boldly expose
themselves to dangers from which they would other-
wise shrink.
These gregrees are thought to have been intro-
duced into these parts of Africa by a sect of Moham-
medans called Calendars, who lived in religious.
societies or monasteries, and who are said to have
maintained amongst themselves a sort of cabalistical
learning or art of magic. These charms are words
from the Koran, in imitation of the Jewish phylac-
teries, and are supplied to the African converts to Mo-
hammedanism as a substitute for the native gregrees,
and a profit to the vendors.
Barbot says of the people of Northern Guinea, in
reference to their fondness of gregrees :— "What-
soever was the original of these gregrees, that stupid,
ignorant people will willingly part with anything they
have, to be furnished with as many as they are able
to purchase, according to their quality and pos-
session; and take a great pride in them. Some will
give two or three slaves for one gregree; others two,
three, or four oxen, answerable to the virtues or
qualities assigned to it. I was told that Conde, king
Damel's viceroy, constantly wore to the value of fifty
slaves in these gregrees about his body; and so every
other person of note proportionally; for not only
their caps and waistcoats, but their very horses are
covered with them in the army, to prevent their being
wounded. To say the truth, some of the principal
N
178
THE RELIGION
blacks are so well furnished all over with gregrees in
every part of their bodies, under their shirts and
bonnets, that they cannot well be wounded with any
assegai or javelin; nay they often stand in need of
being helped to mount their horses, which are also
adorned with the same, to render them more sprightly
and prevent their being hurt."
Major Denham gives an amusing instance of the
superstitious feeling with which these literary gregrees
are regarded by the unsophisticated natives.
El Kanemy, the Sheikh of Bornu, had been
annoyed on many occasions by the incursions of the
Mungas, a formidable tribe of heathens. He col-
lected his forces, and threatened to exterminate
them, but, before proceeding to do this by force of
arms, he invited them to satisfy themselves that he
was able to fulfil his threat; and finding that, when
he arranged his troops before them, they did not fear,
he endeavoured, and successfully endeavoured, to
make them afraid of him by copying out a great
number of charmed sentences for gregrees. This
the Mungas regarded as a proof of supernatural
power, and they agreed that it would be useless to
fight against a man who by his magical arts could
make charms, and who consequently could blunt
their arrows, snap their spears asunder, and cause
them to become ill with unnatural terror.
So they
made peace with El Kanemy upon his own terms.
There has not been much change in the opinions
of the natives of North Guinea with regard to this
kind of gregree since Barbot and Denham's time.
L
The Mandingoes still hold them in such high
OF THE AFRICANS.
179
esteem that a wealthy man is sometimes clothed from
head to foot in a cuirass made of nothing but these
amulets sewn up in their neat leathern cases.
Amongst the Manganja and other tribes the super-
stitious feeling which they had regarding books and
the art of writing would have made it easy for me
and my companions to have persuaded them to
accept scraps of paper on which we had written, or
leaves of books, as fetishes. I was one day writing
outside my hut, when a woman, who had come with
her two boys from a long distance to see the white
men, sat down a little distance from me and watched
me with a sort of fearful curiosity. At length she
mustered courage enough to ask me what I was
doing. I told her that I was putting on to the paper
a full description of herself and boys, her name, their
names, and all that I knew about her, for the infor-
mation of my own people, who lived many moons'
away, and that they, by looking at the marks I had
made on the white sheet of paper, would know how she
was dressed, what ornaments she wore, and all that
she had told me about herself and her people. Upon
hearing this she looked terror-stricken, and she
shrunk from me, muttering mankwara (fetish). A
sheet of paper was blown from my writing-case, I
motioned to one of her boys to bring it to me, but
she laid hold of him in evident alarm for his safety,
and told him not to touch it, as some evil might
come to him if he did.
Of course it was not long before we succeeded in
disabusing the people about us, of their erroneous
ideas respecting books and writing, but it would have
N 2
·
180
THE RELIGION
been easy to have used their ignorance in the same
way that the Mohammedans have done in Western
Africa.
The amulets of the Mohammedans, however, have
not altogether destroyed faith in the old native
gregrees, and when a Mandingo chief, for instance,
dies, the place of his sepulture is kept secret, for fear
the body should be disturbed; and the blade-bone,
and certain other parts that are thought to be suit-
able to such a purpose, taken away and used as
fetish. There is no fetish that so surely fortifies its
possessor against injury from witchcraft or any other
cause as that which is made out of some portion of
the body of a man or a woman who had achieved
greatness in life, or who was thought to have pos-
sessed supernatural powers. This holds true in
every part of Africa.
By the Manganja, and some other tribes in their
neighbourhood, I and my companions, as I have
said, were regarded as the possessors of supernatural
powers greater than those possessed by any native.
Some of my companions died, and I have no doubt
that on one occasion, at least, a grave was disturbed
that some portion, the skull probably, of the dead
body enclosed therein might be secured as fetish.
These tribes invariably associated personal bravery
with the possession of fetish, or with supernatural
powers, which were identified with the mere body of
the individual who exhibited it; and I knew of one
well-authenticated instance where they cut into the
smallest pieces the body of a man who, as their
enemy, had shown great courage, and distributed
OF THE AFRICANS.
181
them amongst their own fighting men, in order that
they might become as brave as he.
In Ashantee, and some neighbouring regions, the
employment of fetish is general, and is frequently
attended with horrible observances.
Dupuis says¹:—"When the king was about to open
the campaign against Gaman he collected together
his priests to invoke the royal fetish, and perform
the necessary orgies to insure success. These mi-
nisters of superstition sacrificed thirty-two male and
eighteen female victims, as an expiatory offering to
the gods; but the answers of the priests being deemed
by the council as still devoid of inspiration, the king
was induced to make a custom at the sepulchres of his
ancestors, where many hundreds bled. This, it is
affirmed, propitiated the wrath of the adverse gods.
The priests then prepared a certain fetish com-
pound, which they delivered to the king, with an
injunction to burn the composition daily in a conse-
crated fire-pot within the palace, and upon no
account to neglect the fire so as to suffer it to go
out; for as long as the sacred flame devoured the
powder he would triumph over his foes. When
the king joined his army he commissioned his eldest
sister (then governess of the kingdom) to attend
strictly to the sacred mystery, telling her that his
crown and life both depended upon her vigilance
and the fulfilment of his order. He selected also
three wives, to whom he was more attached than the
rest, in conjunction with his last-mentioned sister.
"Residence in Ashantee," pp. 114, 115.
1
182
THE RELIGION
During his absence this arbitress of his fate formed
a connection with a chief of Bourmay, whose ambi-
tion suggested a plan to seat himself upon the throne.
In this conspiracy seventeen of the king's wives.
and their families joined; the fire-pot was broken to
pieces, and the chief commenced arming his party.
But the king, who had sustained heavy losses in the
early part of the war, and was unable to account for
the audacity of the enemy, performed an incantation
over a certain talisman, which gave an insight into
what was transacting at the capital."
He, therefore, took prompt measures to crush the
rebellion, and all those who shared in it were de-
stroyed.
Bowditch states that the hearts of the fallen ene-
mies of the Ashantees are cut out by the priests,
and the blood and small pieces being mixed (with
much ceremony and incantation) with various con-
secrated herbs, are eaten by the younger soldiers in
order to prevent their vigour and courage being
secretly wasted by the haunting of the spirits of the
slain.
Lander relates that, "In the private fetish hut of
the king of Adilee, at Badagry, the skull of that
monarch's father is preserved in a clay vessel, placed
in the earth. Human blood, as well as the blood of
birds and beasts, is occasionally sprinkled on it, and
when the king goes to war, the same skull is in-
variably carried with him, with which he frequently
converses, and gently rebukes if his success does not
answer to his expectations."
Badagry is contiguous to Dahomey, which is a
OF THE AFRICANS.
183
horrible Golgotha, for human skulls, used as fetish,
garnish every town and village, and probably every
hut in the country.
There are other features of fetishism in Africa not
unlike those which have prevailed in other lands, not
excluding our own. It is common to them to make
images which are struck with darts, or slowly burned,
in order to injure the person they are made to repre-
sent. Sir John Lubbock remarks, "A mysterious
connection is supposed to exist between a cut lock of
hair and the person to whom it belonged. In various
parts of the world the sorcerer gets clippings of the
hair of his enemy, parings of his nails, or leavings of
his food, convinced that whatever evil is done to
these will react on their former owner. Even a piece
of clothing, or the ground on which a person has
trodden, will answer the purpose, and among some
tribes the mere knowledge of a person's name is
supposed to give a mysterious power." 1
Many particulars answering to this statement might
be given in illustration of fetishism in Africa, but I
think that the examples thus produced are sufficient
to give a general idea of the character and effects of
this belief.
More than this I have not aimed at in this brief ex-
position of the Religion of the Africans; yet I feel
persuaded that I have indicated the main features of
their religious beliefs, and that every custom and cere-
mony of religious importance amongst them, can be
referred to one or the other of the divisions which I
have made.
"Prehistoric Times," p. 471.
THE RELIGION OF THE AFRICANS.
185
APPENDIX.
THERE are some other features of the religious beliefs
of the Africans which find expression in certain
customs of wide-spread and most ancient usage,
which may properly receive some notice in an appen-
dix. They are :—
1. Circumcision.-There is in Africa an almost
general belief in the need of circumcision, and the
great majority of the tribes practise it. This rite
did not, as some seem to suppose, come in with the
Mohammedans; it was practised before they, as a
religious community, had a position in the world, and
it is not improbable that it is derived from a period
even anterior to that when the observance was by a
divine command enforced upon Abraham and his
descendants. The Africans have no idea of its
origin, and conform to it because it is an ancient
usage which has been transmitted to them from one
generation to another for many ages.
It has been said that amongst them this rite is
without religious significance. I am not quite sure
that this is the case. Where it is practised it is
regarded as a duty, the neglect of which would be a
crime, and would expose the criminal to the anger of
his own people, and to the displeasure of the spiritual
186
THE RELIGION
world, that is, of that portion of the spiritual world
which was interested in the affairs of his tribe. The
anger of his fellows would entail upon him loss of
position, loss of property, and probably loss of life;
the displeasure of the spirits, even though he escaped
from the jurisdiction of his tribe, would be shown in.
grievous diseases, and perhaps in madness and
death. It is difficult, therefore, to say that no reli-
gious significance is associated with the practice.
of circumcision amongst the heathen Africans, al-
though it entails no moral obligations, and is asso-
ciated with gross and obscene observances.
In some parts of Southern Guinea, children are
circumcised at the age of six months, but generally
the operation is deferred until the period of puberty.
The necessity of undergoing some rite when emerg-
ing from childhood is not restricted to boys, it is
incumbent on girls also.
The preparations for this rite amongst the Zulu
and Kaffir tribes is most severe. The candidates are
separated from their parents, and placed under the
appointed instructors, whose schools of discipline
are at some distance from the villages. For several
weeks they are treated with utmost rigour. They are
whipped severely, that they may learn to bear pain
without showing emotion; they are made to go with-
out food for long periods together, that they may be
capable of enduring hunger; and, in short, they are
exposed to all the trials of courage and endurance
which only the experience of life common to a Zulu
could have suggested.
After the crowning ceremony, which is performed
OF THE AFRICANS.
187
in secret, the boys are permitted a period of un-
checked indulgence; they do no work; they eat and
drink, sleep and play, just as their fancy dictates, and
with the good will of the whole community. But
when this relaxation is over, they gradually begin to
assume the position and duties of men.
The ceremonies attendant upon the observance of
this custom vary in their character with the position
and character of the different tribes; but whenever
it is deferred beyond the age of infancy it is made
the occasion of a discipline intended to prepare the
candidates for the hardships of life; and it is also
used as a fitting opportunity for making them aware
of the carnal gratifications that are in store for them.
Where the tribes are not warlike, and shrink from
the infliction of pain, the discipline loses much of its
severity, but the ceremonies which have for their
object the exaltation of the pleasures of sensuality
are more pronounced. This was undoubtedly the
case with the Manganja. They did not practise
circumcision, though surrounded by tribes that did,
yet their young people of a certain age had to submit
to the Niamwali, which was their substitute for cir-
cumcision, the ceremonial of which was grossly
obscene. The most revolting features of the ancient
phallic-worship were produced, and songs and dances
were equally objectionable.
The effect of the Niamwali upon those who sub-
mitted to it was the destruction of the light-hearted,
simple-minded, state of existence which under favour-
able circumstances characterizes children in Africa,
188
THE RELIGION
and a knowledge of evil which influenced for harm
their whole course of life.
II. Observances connected with uncleanness.—In
some respects these observances approximate to the
Levitical laws on uncleanness; in others they are very
unlike them. They are like in the fact that certain
states of life, appertaining to women, are regarded as
unclean; but they are unlike, in that they are destitute
of all ritualistic acts, which have for their object the
inculcation of bodily holiness, the enforcement of the
solemn precept, "Ye shall be holy, for I am holy."
But though no moral significance be associated with
them, the African observances are strictly enforced,
and a terrible punishment will speedily follow any
departure from them, that is, amongst such people as
the Zulus and Ashantees.
The defilement supposed to be caused by the
birth of a child lasts so long a time amongst some
of the tribes, that the men use it as an argument in
favour of polygamy.
III. Method used for the discovery of adultery.—
This, in some parts of Africa, answers to the trial by
the waters of jealousy amongst the Jews. The accused
person has to drink a large draught of liquor prepared
for the purpose, and if guilty, effects similar to those
which followed the administration of the waters of
jealousy amongst the Jews are supposed to follow.
But should not the adulterous woman actually die
from the effects of the draught, she is put to death,
that is, if her husband insists upon the infliction of
the extreme penalty. Like some other observances
amongst the Jews, this custom probably prevailed long
OF THE AFRICANS.
189
before Moses appropriated it, and there is but little
reason to suppose that the Africans derived it, or
their ideas concerning physical defilement, from the
Jews.
IV. Omens and Divinations.-These form an im-
portant element in the life of the Africans. They
imagine that everything that exists lives and feels
like themselves, and that the unseen spirits that
surround and affect them are infinite in their variety
and number; consequently they are ever looking for
omens, and are continually consulting the diviner
for indications of the future. To compile the omens
recognized by the Africans, and to give particulars
of their methods of divination, would require a volume.
Generally, be it said, their omens seem to comprise
all that are recognized everywhere else, and their
methods of divination are principally based upon the
idea that external nature, and the condition of the
bodies of certain animals immediately after death,
sympathize with and frequently indicate the fortunes
of mankind.
V. Vows. The practice of making vows is very
common in Africa. As might be expected, some are
of an absurd nature, but many have a religious signi-
ficance, and comprise voluntary obligations to God, or
members of the spiritual world, on the fulfilment of
certain conditions; such as deliverance from danger
and sickness, safety on a journey, prosperity in
life, &c.
Bishop Steers furnishes examples of vows brought
under his notice. For instance, a person in Zanzibar
vowed to go out from the town to the Muzimu
190
THE RELIGION
(spirits) naked, and performed it in the night
secretly. Another vowed to go out to the same Muzimu
walking on her knees, and a great crowd assembled
to see it done.
The bishop also furnishes us with two vows which
were given to him as specimens of the usual form
used by the Nyamwezi. The first is for a safe
journey home, and runs thus :-"O God, give me
my vow; give it me, that when I come and arrive at
my mother's town, I may come to redeem my vow
with a goat." The other is an address to an ancestral
spirit, and is for health and wealth."O Father,
give me health and strength. Let thy children be
well. Give me rain, that the corn may flourish; and
if I get wealth, I will come and redeem my vow with
an ox."
Further examples might be produced, but these will
be sufficient for the purpose of showing the nature and
character of vows in Africa. There may be other
phases of what might properly be termed religious
belief; for in Africa, as I have more than once said,
it is almost impossible to find any custom that is not
prompted or influenced by belief in the presence and
power of the spiritual world; but I have mentioned the
most important-those, indeed, which really govern
all others.
In such I perceive nothing that is calculated to
oppose extraordinary obstacles to the progress of
Christianity, but much that is calculated to aid it.
Christianity is not simply a religion of precepts, but
a spiritual-life system, and the religion of the Afri-
cans is based upon a belief in the existence and
OF THE AFRICANS.
191
agency of the spiritual world. Their spiritualism.
may represent what is called the lowest stage of
religious conception, yet in its primary idea of a
sympathy between the natural and the supernatural,
there are the possibilities of highest spiritual ad-
vancement. Faith, and patient perseverance, and
a judicious use of all the advantages of human
knowledge which we possess, will, under the guidance
of the Holy Ghost, assuredly triumph over every
difficulty which may present itself in the superstitions
of the Africans, until their religious beliefs are freed
from all that is false and foul, and their lives are
purified by the sanctifying influences of the religion
of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.
WYMAN AND SONS, PRINTERS, GREAT QUEEN ST., LINCOLN'S-INN FIELDS.
į
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