Travels Of Richard And John Lander Into The Interior Of Africa For The Discovery Of The Course And Termination Of The Niger By Robert Huish
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During The Time That They Had Been At Breakfast, The Tide Ebbed, And
Left Their Canoes Lying On The Mud.
Breakfast being over, the fetish
priests commenced their avocations, by marking the person of King Boy
from head to
Foot with chalk, in lines, circles, and a variety of
fantastic figures, which so completely metamorphosed him, as to
render his identity rather questionable, at the distance of only a
few yards. His usual dress had been thrown aside, and he was allowed
to wear nothing but a narrow silk handkerchief tied round his waist;
on his head a little close cap was placed, made of grass, and
ornamented with large feathers. These they found to be the wing
feathers of a black and white buzzard, which is the fetish bird of
Brass Town. Two huge spears were also chalked and put into his hands,
and thus equipped his appearance was wild and grotesque in the
extreme. The same operation was performed on the rest of the party,
and the fetish priests were chalked in the same manner. The people
belonging to the Landers were merely marked on the forehead, and the
Landers themselves, perhaps from being already white, although their
faces were not a little tanned, were exempted from the ceremony.
They were now ordered into King Forday's canoe, to sit down with him.
The old man asked them immediately in tolerably good English, to take
a glass of rum with him; and having observed them wondering at the
strange appearance of King Boy, and the rest of the party, gave them
to understand that in consequence of no man having come down the
river as they had done, the fetish ceremony was performed to prevent
any thing happening to them.
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