Fetichism in West Africa

by Robert Hamill Nassau

He came to her, saying, “What a beautiful girl to look at! When did you come here, and who are you?” So she told him her story. And when she had finished all the housework, she sat down with this man to await the coming of the others. When the others came and saw the two, they said to him, “So you found her?” He replied only, “Yes.” Looking on her, they exclaimed, “Oh, what a beautiful girl!” To calm her excitement, they told her, “Do not be alarmed! you are to be our sister.”

So they took all their goods and put them in her care, and herself in charge of the house. Thus they lived for some time,—they stealing, and she taking care for them.

But one day, at the palace, the wicked mother began to have some uneasy doubts whether her soldiers had really obeyed her orders to kill her daughter, and thought, “Perhaps the child was not really killed.” She had a familiar servant, an old woman, very friendly to her. To her she revealed her story, and said, “Please go out and spy in every town. Look whether you see a girl who is very beautiful; if so, she is my daughter. You must kill her.” The old woman replied, “Yes, my friend, I will do this thing for you.” So she went out and began her spying.

The very first place at which she happened to arrive was the robbers’ house. There being no people in sight, she entered the house, and found a girl alone. On account of the girl’s great beauty, she felt sure at once that this was her friend’s daughter. The girl gave her a seat and offered hospitality. The old woman exclaimed, “Oh, what a nice-looking child! Who are you, and who is your mother?” The girl, not suspecting evil, told her story.

Then the old woman said, “Your hair looks a little untidy. Come here, and let me fix it.” The girl consented; and the old woman began to braid her hair. She had hidden in her sleeve a long sharpened nail. When she had completed the hair-dressing, she thrust the nail deeply into the girl’s head, who instantly fell down, apparently dead. Looking at the limp body, the old woman said to herself, “Good for that! I have done it for my friend.” And she went away, leaving the corpse lying there, and reported to the mother what she had done. The mother felt sure her friend had not deceived her.

When the robbers returned that day, they found the girl lying dead. They were very much troubled. They began to examine the corpse, to find what was the cause of death, but they found no sign of any wound; and instead of the corpse being rigid, it was limp; there was perspiration on the head and neck. So they decided, “This nice life-looking face we will not put in a grave.” So they made a handsome casket, overlaid it with gold, and adorned the body with a profusion of gold ornaments. They did not nail on the lid, but made it to slide in grooves. Supposing the body liable to decay, they placed the coffin outdoors in the air; and to keep it out of the reach of any animals, they hung it by the halliards of their flag-staff. Every day, on their going out and on their return, they pulled it down by the halliards, drew out the lid, and looked on the fresh, apparently living face of their “sister.”

One day while they were all out on their business there happened to stray that way a man by name Esĕrĕngila (tale-bearer), who lived at the town of a man named Ogula. Coming to the robbers’ house, he saw no one; but he at once observed the hanging golden box. Exclaiming, “What a nice thing!” he hasted back to his master Ogula, and called him. “Come and see what a nice thing I have found; it is something worth taking!” So Ogula went with him, and Esĕrĕngila pulled down the gilded box from the flag-staff. They did not enter the house, nor did they know anything of its character; and they carried away the box in haste, without looking at its contents, to Ogula’s, and put it in a small room in his house.

Some days after it had been placed there Ogula went in to examine what it contained. He saw that the top of this coffin-like box was not nailed, but slid in a groove. He withdrew it, and was amazed to see a beautiful young woman apparently dead. Yet there was no look or odor of death. As she was not emaciated by disease, he examined the body to find a possible cause of death; but he found no sign, and wondering, exclaimed, “This beautiful girl! What has caused her to die?”

He replaced the lid, and left the room, carefully closing the door. But he again returned to look at the beautiful face of the corpse; and sighed, “Oh, I wish this beautiful being were alive! She would be such a nice playmate for my daughter, who is just about her size.” Again he went and shut the door very carefully. He told his daughter never to enter that room, and she said, “Yes”; and he continued his daily visits there.

After many days Ogula’s daughter became tired of seeing him enter while she was forbidden. So one day, when he was gone out of the house, she said to herself, “My father always forbids me this room; now I will go in and see what he has there.” She entered, and saw only the gilded box, and exclaimed, “Oh, what a nice box! I’ll just open it and see what is inside.”