The fetish folk of West Africa

by Robert H. Milligan

Then the antelope hid and the leopard searched for him and searched and searched, but could not find him. Then he said: “I am too tired to walk any more, and I am hungry; so I shall pick some of these nuts and take them to town to eat.”

So the leopard filled a bag with the nuts, and when he had carried them to town he called all his people together to eat them, and he told a slave to crack the nuts for the people to eat. But, lo, out of the first nut there jumped a fine dog. Now, the leopard was married and had four wives, and each wife had her own house in which she cooked. The dog ran to the first house and asked the wife for something to eat. But the wife beat the dog and drove it out. Then the dog ran to the second house and asked for something to eat. But the second wife beat the dog and drove it out. Then the dog asked the third wife, and she also beat it. Then the dog asked the fourth wife, and she beat it and tried to kill it. But just as it was dying the dog changed into a beautiful maiden. Then the leopard wanted to marry the maiden.

“All right,” she said, “but you must first kill those four wives who beat the dog and tried to kill it.” And the leopard was so much in love with the maiden that he killed his four wives for her sake.

Then he asked the maiden to marry him; but she said: “I cannot marry a husband with such dreadful nails. Won’t you please have them cut?” Then the leopard cut his nails.

But again the maiden said: “I can’t marry a husband with such awful eyes. Won’t you please take them out?” And the leopard tore out his eyes.

Then the maiden said: “I can’t marry a husband with such clumsy feet. Won’t you please chop them off?” And the leopard had his feet chopped off for he loved the maiden and wanted to marry her.

But again the maiden said: “There is just one more thing that I wish you would do for me. Your teeth are frightfully ugly. Won’t you have them knocked out?” And then the leopard sent to the fireplace for a stone and had his teeth knocked out.

Then the maiden was suddenly changed into the antelope; who said to the dying leopard: “You thought to outwit me, but I have outwitted you and have taken your life and the life of your whole family.”

Towards the middle of the term the boys began to come to me voluntarily, one by one, saying that they desired to be Christians; and before the term had closed nearly all, at least four out of five, had professed faith in Christ. How many of these would prove faithful no one could tell; but very few of them gave me reason to doubt their sincerity. They were not baptized, nor received into the church, until they had been two years on probation. At first my confidence in their profession of faith, compared with that of adults, hesitated; but it grew stronger with experience each passing year. The boys were not the weakest, but the best Christians in Africa. Their minds had never been warped with fetishism; and they had a more intelligent grasp of Christian principles.

Separated from the heathen environment during a portion of their formative years—from its degrading beliefs as well as its immoral practices—and having that intimate contact with the missionary which only a boarding-school provides, the impression was nearly always lasting. “As the twig is bent the tree is inclined.”