Traveller.

Alexandra Herald and Central Otago Gazette, Issue 387, 8 October 1903, Page 2

Traveller.

FETISH FANCIES. little is known about fetish in S»fe England that probably most sg£jPl people are under a misconception as to the etymology of the word, and should be surprised to hear that it does not belong to any negro language, bvt is of Portuguese origin, It comes through the French fetiche, from the Portuguese feitico, that is, sorcery. This is a suirival from the palmy days of Portuguese enterprise, which began in the fifteenth century under the auspices of the renowned Prince Henry, whose ships were the first to explore the West Coast of Africa below the Tropic of Cancer. In , those days Madeira was discovered and colonised, The Cape was rounded, and vaiims settlements were made on the West Coaßt. One of these was called Elmina—or The Mine—from its proximity to the gold diggings, which have givan a name to the neighbouring portion of the Guinea Coaat. Here the Portuguese built a massive and stately castle, ffhioh in the seventeenth oentury was captured by the Dutch, and was by them ceded with the adjacent town to the English jußt before the Ashanti war. But through all vicissitudes the old name still survived, along with a few other Portuguese words which became, acclimatised in the mouths of the Famees. Hence wj» have not only fetish, but palaver, and fucoa—a fork. Waiuu Junks. Now, though the people of the Gold Coast believe in a benevolent Supreme Being—called in Fantee, Nyankapore—j they also believe in the power of their priests, or fetish mon, to invest {with supernatural powers of protection ■not destruction any earthly object—it may be a hideous image, or it may be a few rags tied round a broken bottle, stuck on a stick in a field like a scarecrow, to protect the crops from thieves. Such an object is called a fetish. Somotimes the object , is an animal, as at a certain town where alligators are fetish, and it would be as much as a European's life is worth to kill one, even if it came into his house—they do go into houses sometimes, and are apt on those occasions to pick up an unconßideied trifle in the way of a picaniny that they may come acioss. Prince's Kivor, on the Gold Coast iB fetish; and if any one cresses it olad in black he will die speedily. White men do not think it safe to demonstrate the absurdity of this idea by putting it to the test, for they would probably be poisoned by the fetish men so that the reputation of the river might be upheld. But, as a rule, the native owns that his fetish has no power over the white man. Among themselves, however, fetish is such a teiribly seriouß matter that, absurd as it mtrinsically iB, the Legislature has taken cognisance of it; and, accordingly, in the Native Jurisdiction Ordinance among the list of offences which chiefs are allowed to puafsh, we find gravely set forth «putting any person in fetish.' Kemovxn« the Spell.

Sometimes when a death occurs a fetish man comes forward and proclaims himself the slaver; the body then cannot be buried : without the consent of the fetish man, and this has to be paid for. A surious instance of this occurred at Accra. A man stated that he sent for a doctor to attend bis wife, who was ill The doctor came, looked at the woman, went away, and then, returned with a fetish man. This person also looked at the woman and went away, and returned ,'presently wearing a charm which he had not worn before. H9 then declared that it wa3 he who was killing the woman, that he had killed her sob, and she had buried the body without giving him the sheep she had promised as his fee for permitting the burial. The son had died eight months before, and the woman bad paid a fee, and had promised a Bheep in addition. The relations asked the man what he would take to spare the woman, and after a good deal of haggling the price was fixed at twelve shillings, thirty strings of cowries, two fowls, two sheep, two knives, two flasks of wine, and two fathoms of white bast Part of this was to be paid down, and credit was to be given for the rest, and the spell was to be removed at once. To do this the man killed a fowl, caught the blood in a pot, and mixed some sheep's dung and some herbs with the blood. The fetish man sprinkled some of this mess over the faces of those present, and gave two doublehandfuls to the woman to dunk.

The result wag what might have been oxpected—' after that the woman died also.'

"/he husband believed that she was intentionally poisoned j it was true, he said, that by her death the fetish man would lose his right to so much of the reward a 8 he had given credit for, but he would get a larger fee for permitting the friends to bury the woman.

ORIGINAL SIGNS. Original and amuuag shop signs aro now unfortunately ' things of the past.' A few years ago there was one over a dyer and cleamr'e shop in the neighbourhood of the Borough Road, London (and may bo there still, for all we know to the contrary), upon which was painted the wordß, 'By Dyeing we live.' Perhaps the most, curious was a signboard that once was exhibited over a cobbler's door in tho Whitechapel Road. It read thus, < —~- . begs to inform hiu friends that he has continued for the last twenty-Eiae years to perform surgical operations on Old Boobs and Shoes, by the adding of Feet, making good the Legs, Binding the Broken, Heeling the Wounded, Mending the Constitution, and supporting the body with a new Sale. His Side Springe Balmorals, at 103. and 01, will be found as elastic as an Act of Parliament, but admirably suited for thoso who tread only in the Paths of Rectitude; their Durability is equal to Truth itself; and fit the Foot as fairly as Innoceuoe the Face of Childhood.' THE WRONG PARTNEB. Mr. Henry Poipps, who recently gave between ,£300,000 and .£'loo,ooo to found a hospital for the treatment and study of consumption in Philadelphia, told a good story at a dinner held in New York the other week. 'lt is a etory,' he said> ' that Mr. Carnegie told to me. It is a story illustrative of the conßubial felicity so prevalent in Scotland, and I am sure joh will enjoy it. ' Once, at a party, there was a crusty old Scot seated at a whist table, playing passionately, and his partner was a yousg woman, the daughter of a .neighbouring laird. You are to imagine this young woman's surprise, in the heart of the game, when the old fellow threw down his cards and bawled at her: ' What kind of a game are ye playin', ye darned auld-—' 'And thou, recollecting himself, he bowed, and said humbly to the astonished girl: 'Your pardon's begged, madam. I took ye, in the (excitement, for my ain wife.'