The Supplications Are Addresses To The Higher Spirits.
Some Are Made Even To Anzam Himself, But The Spirit Of The New Moon
Is That Most Commonly Addressed To Keep The Lower Spirits From
Molesting.
Dr. Nassau gave me many instances out of the wealth of his
knowledge.
One night when he was stopping at a village, he saw
standing out in the open street a venerable chief who addressed the
spirits of the air and begged them, "Come ye not into my town;" he
then recounted his good deeds, praising himself as good, just,
honest, kind to his neighbours, and so on. I must remark that this
man had not been in touch with Europeans, so his ideal of goodness
was the native one - which you will find everywhere among the most
remote West Coast natives. He urged these things as a reason why no
evil should befall him, and closed with an impassioned appeal to the
spirits to stay away. At another time, in another village, when a
man's son had been wounded and a bleeding artery which the Doctor
had closed had broken out again and the haemorrhage seemed likely to
prove fatal, the father rushed out into the street wildly
gesticulating towards the sky, saying, "Go away, go away, go away,
ye spirits, why do you come to kill my son?" In another case a
woman rushed into the street, alternately objurgating and pleading
with the spirits, who, she said, were vexing her child which had
convulsions. "Observe," said the Doctor in his impressive way,
"these were distinctly prayers, appeals for mercy, agonising
protests, but there was no praise, no love, no thanks, no confession
of sin." I said, considering the underlying idea, I did not see how
that could be, thinking of the thing as they did, and the Doctor and
I had one of our little disagreements. I shall always feel grateful
to him for his great toleration of me, but I am sure this arose from
his feeling that I saw there was an underlying idea in the minds of
the people he loved well enough to lay down his life for in the hope
of benefiting and ennobling them, and that I did not, as many do,
set them down as idiotic brutes, glorying in an aimless cruelty that
would be a disgrace to a devil.
Regarding the cabalistic words and phrases, things which had long
given me great trouble to get any comprehension of, the Doctor gave
me great help. He says some of these phrases and words are coined
by the person himself, others are archaisms handed down from
ancestors and believed to possess an efficacy, though their actual
meaning is forgotten. He says they are used at any time as defence
from evil, when a person is startled, sneezes, or stumbles. Among
these I think I ought to class that peculiar form of friendly
farewell or greeting which the Doctor poetically calls a "blown
blessing" and the natives Ibata. I thought the three times it was
given to me that it was just spitting on the hand. Practically it
is so, but the Doctor says the spitting is accidental, a by-product
I suppose. The method consists in taking the right hand in both
yours, turning it palm upwards, bending your head low over it, and
saying with great energy and a violent propulsion of the breath,
Ibata.
Idols are comparatively rare in Congo Francais, but where they are
used the people have the same idea about them as the true Negroes
have, namely, that they are things which spirits reside in, or
haunt, but not in their corporeal nature adorable. The resident
spirit in them and in the charms and plants, which are also regarded
as residences of spirits, has to be placated with offerings of food
and other sacrifices. You will see in the Fetish huts above
mentioned dishes of plantain and fish left till they rot. Dr.
Nassau says the life or essence of the food only is eaten by the
spirit, the form of the vegetable or flesh being left to be removed
when its life is gone out.
In cases of emergency a fowl with its blood is laid at the door of
the Fetish hut, or when pestilence is expected, or an attack by
enemies, or a great man or woman is very ill, goats and sheep are
sacrificed and the blood put in the Fetish hut as well as on the
gateways of the village. These sacrifices among the Fan are made
with a very peculiar-shaped knife, a fine specimen of which I
secured by the kindness of Captain Davies; it is shaped like the
head of a hornbill and is quite unlike the knives in common use
among the tribes, which are either long, leaf-shaped blades
sharpened along both edges, or broad, trowel-shaped, almost
triangular daggers. All Fan knives are fine weapons, superior to
the knives of all other Coast tribes I have met with, but the
sacrifice knife is distinctly peculiar. I found to my great
interest the same superstition in Congo Francais that I met with
first in the Oil Rivers. Its meaning I am unable to fully account
for, but I believe it to be a form of sacrifice. In Calabar each
individual has a certain forbidden thing or things. These things
are either forms of food, or the method of eating. In Calabar this
prohibition is called Ibet, and when, in consequence of the
influence of white culture, a man gives up his Ibet, he is regarded
by good sound ju-juists as leading an irregular and dissipated life,
and even the unintentional breaking of the Ibet is regarded as very
dangerous. Special days are set apart by each individual; on these
days he eats only the smallest quantity and plainest quality of
food. No one must eat with him, nor any dog, fowl, etc., feed off
the crumbs, nor any one watch him while eating.
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