The former material holds a high place in the second instrument, which is a fetish trumpet. As is the case with all African trumpets, it is blown, flute-fashion, from the side, and not, like an European trumpet, from the end. It is made from the tusk of an elephant, carefully hollowed out, and furnished with a curious apparatus, much like the vibrator in a modern harmonium or accordion. As the instrument has sustained rather rough treatment, and the ivory has been cracked here and there, it is impossible to produce a sound from it; and at the best the notes must have been of a very insignificant character, deadened as they must be by the snake-skin covering. The skin in question is that of a boa or python, which is a very powerful fetish among all Africans among whom the boa lives, and it covers almost the whole of the instrument.
A most weird and uncanny sort of look is communicated to the trumpet by the horrid trophy which is tied to it. This is the upper jaw of a human being, evidently a negro, by its peculiar development, the jaw being of the prognathous character, and the projecting teeth in the finest possible order. From the mere existence of these sacrifices it is evident that the religious system of the Ashanti must be of a very low character. They are not utter atheists, as is the case with some of the tribes which have already been mentioned; but they cannot be said even to have risen to deism, and barely to idolatry, their ideas of the Supreme Deity being exceedingly vague, and mixed up with a host of superstitious notions about demons, both good and evil, to whom they give the name of Wodsi, and which certainly absorb the greater part of their devotions and the whole of their reverence, the latter quality being with them the mere outbirth of fear.
Their name for God is “Nyonmo,” evidently a modification of Nyamye, the title which is given to the Supreme Spirit by the Cammas and other tribes of the Rembo. But Nyonmo also means the sky, or the rain, or the thunder, probably because they proceed from the sky, and they explain thunder by the phrase that Nyonmo is knocking. As the sky is venerated as one deity, so the earth is considered as another though inferior deity, which is worshipped under the name of “Sikpois.”
As to the Wodsi, they seem to be divided into various ranks. For example, the earth, the air, and the sea are Wodsi which exercise their influence over all men; whereas other Wodsi, which are visible in the forms of trees or rivers, have a restricted power over towns, districts, or individuals.
The scrap of rag, leopards’ claws, sacred chains, peculiar beads, bits of bone, bird-beaks, &c., which are worn by the Wontse, or fetish men, have a rather curious use, which is well explained by the “F.R.G.S.”:—“The West Africans, like their brethren in the East, have evil ghosts and haunting evastra, which work themselves into the position of demons. Their various rites are intended to avert the harm which may be done to them by their Pepos or Mulungos, and perhaps to shift it upon their enemies. When the critical moment has arrived, the ghost is adjured by the fetish man to come forth from the possessed, and an article is named—a leopard’s claw, peculiar beads, or a rag from the sick man’s body nailed to what Europeans call the ‘Devil’s tree’—in which, if worn about the person, the haunter will reside. It is technically called Kehi, or Keti, i. e. a chair or a stool. The word ‘fetish,’ by the way, is a corruption of the Portuguese Fei-tiço, i. e. witchcraft, or conjuring.”
Their belief respecting the Kra, or Kla, or soul of a man, is very peculiar. They believe that the Kla exists before the body, and that it is transmitted from one to another. Thus, if a child dies, the next is supposed to be the same child born again into the world; and so thoroughly do they believe this, that when a woman finds that she is about to become a mother, she goes to the fetish man, and requests him to ask the Kla of her future child respecting its ancestry and intended career. But the Kla has another office; for it is supposed to be in some sort distinct from the man, and, like the demon of Socrates, to give him advice, and is a kind of small Wodsi, capable of receiving offerings. The Kla is also dual, male and female; the former urging the man to evil, and the latter to good.
CHAPTER LV.
DAHOME.
CHARACTERISTIC OF THE WESTERN AFRICAN — LOCALITY OF DAHOME — THE FIVE DISTRICTS — DAHOMAN ARCHITECTURE — “SWISH” HOUSES — THE VULTURE AND HIS FOOD — THE LEGBA — SNAKE WORSHIP IN DAHOME — PUNISHMENT OF A SNAKE KILLER — ETIQUETTE AT COURT — JOURNEY OF A MAN OF RANK TO THE CAPITAL — AFRICAN HAMMOCK — SIGNIFICATION OF THE WORD DAHOME — CEREMONIES ON THE JOURNEY — KANA, OR CANANINA, THE “COUNTRY CAPITAL” — BEAUTY OF THE SCENERY — THE OYOS AND GOZO’S CUSTOM — APPROACH TO KANA — A GHASTLY ORNAMENT — “THE BELL COMES” — THE AMAZONS — THEIR FEROCITY AND COURAGE — THEIR WAR TROPHIES AND WEAPONS — REVIEW OF THE AMAZONS — ORGANIZATION OF THE FORCES.
There is a very remarkable point about the true negro of Western Africa, namely, the use which he has made of his contact with civilization. It might be imagined that he would have raised himself in the social scale by his frequent intercourse with men wiser and more powerful than himself, and who, if perhaps they may not have been much better in a moral point of view, could not possibly have been worse. But he has done nothing of the kind, and, instead of giving up his old barbarous customs, has only increased their barbarity by the additional means which he has obtained from the white man.
Exchanging the bow and arrows for the gun, and the club for the sword, he has employed his better weapons in increasing his destructive powers, and has chiefly used them in fighting and selling into slavery those whom he had previously fought, and who respected him as long as the arms on both sides were equal. And the strangest thing is that, even considering his captives as so much property, the only excuse which could be found for the savage cruelty with which he makes raids on every town which he thinks he can conquer, he has not yet learned to abolish the dreadful “custom” of human sacrifices, although each prisoner or criminal killed is a dead loss to him.