(1.) THE PRIMEVAL CHILD.
(See [page 553].)
(2.) FETISHES—MALE AND FEMALE.
(See [pages 562], [565].)
“Being again delayed, I lost patience, and resolved to enter the dwelling. My African friends and the multitude assembled from all parts of the town, warned me of the destruction that would certainly overtake me if I ventured to go in without leave. But I showed them my double-barrelled gun as my fetish, and forced my way through the crowd.
“On entering through a very narrow door or gateway, into a circle of about twenty yards’ diameter, fenced round by a close paling, and covered outside with long grass (so that nothing within could be seen), the first and only thing that I saw was an old woman who, but for her size and sex, I should have taken for the mysterious being resident there from the time of the creation. She certainly was the most disgusting and loathsome being I ever beheld. She had no covering on her person with the exception of a small piece of dirty cloth round her loins. Her skin was deeply wrinkled and extremely dirty, with scarcely any flesh on her bones. Her breasts hung half way down her body, and she had all the appearance of extreme old age. This ancient woman was the supposed nurse of the immortal child. The god’s house and the principal actor in this strange superstition are [represented] on the previous page.
“On my entering the yard, the old fetish woman stepped before me, making the most hideous gestures ever witnessed, and endeavored to drive me out, that I might be prevented from entering into the god’s house, but, in spite of all her movements, I pushed her aside, and forced my way into the house. Its outward appearance was that of a cone, or extinguisher, standing in the centre of the enclosure. It was formed by long poles placed triangularly, and thatched with long grass. Inside it I found a clay bench in the form of a chair. Its tenant was absent, and the old woman pretended that she had by her magic caused him to disappear.”
Of course, the plan pursued by the old fetish woman was to borrow a baby whenever any one of consequence desired an interview, and to paint it with colored chalks, so that it was no longer recognizable. She would have played the same trick with Mr. Duncan, and, from the repeated obstacles thrown in the way of his visit, was evidently trying to gain time to borrow a baby secretly.
At a Fanti funeral the natives excel themselves in noise making, about the only exertion in which they seem to take the least interest. As soon as a man of any note is dead, all his relations and friends assemble in front of his hut, drink, smoke, yell, sing, and fire guns continually. A dog is sacrificed before the hut by one of the relations, though the object of the sacrifice does not seem to be very clear. Rings, bracelets, and other trinkets are buried with the body, and, as these ornaments are often of solid gold, the value of buried jewelry is very considerable. Of course, the graves are sometimes opened and robbed, when the corpse is that of a wealthy person.