When We
Arrived A Nun Was Down On The Shore With Her School Children, Who
Were Busy Catching Shell-Fish And Generally Merry-Making.
Obanjo
went ashore in the tender, and the holy sister kindly asked me, by
him, to come ashore and spend the night; but I was dead tired and
felt quite unfit for polite society after the long broiling hot day
and getting soaked by water that had washed on board.
We lay off Dongila all night, because of the tide. I lay off
everything, Dongila, canoe and all, a little after midnight. Obanjo
and almost all the crew stayed on shore that night, and I rolled
myself up in an Equetta cloth and went sound and happily asleep on
the bamboo staging, leaving the canoe pitching slightly. About
midnight some change in the tide, or original sin in the canoe,
caused her to softly swing round a bit, and the next news was that I
was in the water. I had long expected this to happen, so was not
surprised, but highly disgusted, and climbed on board, needless to
say, streaming. So, in the darkness of the night I got my
portmanteau from the hold and thoroughly tidied up. The next
morning we were off early, coasting along to Glass, and safely
arriving there, I attempted to look as unconcerned as possible, and
vaguely hoped Mr. Hudson would be down in Libreville; for I was
nervous about meeting him, knowing that since he had carefully
deposited me in safe hands with Mme. Jacot, with many injunctions to
be careful, that there were many incidents in my career that would
not meet with his approval. Vain hope! he was on the pier! He did
not approve! He had heard of most of my goings on.
This however in no way detracts from my great obligation to Mr.
Hudson, but adds another item to the great debt of gratitude I owe
him; for had it not been for him I should never have seen the
interior of this beautiful region of the Ogowe. I tried to explain
to him how much I had enjoyed myself and how I realised I owed it
all to him; but he persisted in his opinion that my intentions and
ambitions were suicidal, and took me out the ensuing Sunday, as it
were on a string.
CHAPTER XII. FETISH.
In which the Voyager attempts cautiously to approach the subject of
Fetish, and gives a classification of spirits, and some account of
the Ibet and Orunda.
Having given some account of my personal experiences among an
African tribe in its original state, i.e. in a state uninfluenced by
European ideas and culture, I will make an attempt to give a rough
sketch of the African form of thought and the difficulties of
studying it, because the study of this thing is my chief motive for
going to West Africa. Since 1893 I have been collecting information
in its native state regarding Fetish, and I use the usual terms
fetish and ju-ju because they have among us a certain fixed value - a
conventional value, but a useful one. Neither "fetish" nor "ju-ju"
are native words. Fetish comes from the word the old Portuguese
explorers used to designate the objects they thought the natives
worshipped, and in which they were wise enough to recognise a
certain similarity to their own little images and relics of Saints,
"Feitico." Ju-ju, on the other hand, is French, and comes from the
word for a toy or doll, {286} so it is not so applicable as the
Portuguese name, for the native image is not a doll or toy, and has
far more affinity to the image of a saint, inasmuch as it is not
venerated for itself, or treasured because of its prettiness, but
only because it is the residence, or the occasional haunt, of a
spirit.
Stalking the wild West African idea is one of the most charming
pursuits in the world. Quite apart from the intellectual, it has a
high sporting interest; for its pursuit is as beset with difficulty
and danger as grizzly bear hunting, yet the climate in which you
carry on this pursuit - vile as it is - is warm, which to me is almost
an essential of existence. I beg you to understand that I make no
pretension to a thorough knowledge of Fetish ideas; I am only on the
threshold. "Ich weiss nicht all doch viel ist mir bekannt," as
Faust said - and, like him after he had said it, I have got a lot to
learn.
I do not intend here to weary you with more than a small portion of
even my present knowledge, for I have great collections of facts
that I keep only to compare with those of other hunters of the wild
idea, and which in their present state are valueless to the cabinet
ethnologist. Some of these may be rank lies, some of them mere
individual mind-freaks, others have underlying them some idea I am
not at present in touch with.
The difficulty of gaining a true conception of the savage's real
idea is great and varied. In places on the Coast where there is, or
has been, much missionary influence the trouble is greatest, for in
the first case the natives carefully conceal things they fear will
bring them into derision and contempt, although they still keep them
in their innermost hearts; and in the second case, you have a set of
traditions which are Christian in origin, though frequently altered
almost beyond recognition by being kept for years in the atmosphere
of the African mind. For example, there is this beautiful story now
extant among the Cabindas. God made at first all men black - He
always does in the African story - and then He went across a great
river and called men to follow Him, and the wisest and the bravest
and the best plunged into the great river and crossed it; and the
water washed them white, so they are the ancestors of the white men.
But the others were afraid too much, and said, "No, we are
comfortable here; we have our dances, and our tom-toms, and plenty
to eat - we won't risk it, we'll stay here"; and they remained in the
old place, and from them come the black men.
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