FETISHES AT HOME.

Colonist, Volume II, Issue 105, 22 October 1858, Page 4

FETISHES AT HOME.

(From Dickens' Household Words.) I think, if my memory serves me rightly, that in some part of Africa—no matterwhere—there exists, or did exist, a curious tribe of people whom we, in our superior wisdom, consider heathen fanatics, and whom we, in our superior language, term fetish worshippers. lam not going in this paper, and especially in this journal, to enter upon a short history of creeds and persuasions—to hold the balance between east, west, north, and south; to say which is the most preferable or the least repulsive form of worship, to discuss the doctrine of symbols, or to propose any plan for the spiritual amelioration of the untutored savage. 1 am merely about to describe a term, perhaps not generally understood, for the reason. that lam going to apply it to many things in my own country, and to many persons amongst my own countrymen. These curious people, then, the'fetish worshippers, are in the habit of attaching an extraordinary importance, if not a superstitious veneration, to articles of the most common-place and homely description. A piece of looking-glass, an old tobacco pipe, or a dirty blacking bottle, left, possibly, by some artful sailor in exchange for a bargeful of native fruits, becomes the household god—the idol—the fetish of its simple possessor, to be defended with his life, to be preserved religiously under every vicissitude of fortune. If any visitor to the wigwam of that untutored savage should break, destroy, or otherwise damage that household god, or fetish, then is there war from that moment between the two men. If the visitor, or the visitee be of sufficient importance in his own country to raise a general tumult, then is the quarrel taken up by the whole tribes of the respective men; and dwellers afar off on the banks of one of the mighty native rivers know that somewhere in the land there is war to the knife when they rise of a morning and find the deep waters rushing by coloured with human blood. I am not, of course, prepared to go so far as to attempt a comparison in every particular between these fetish worshippers of barbarism, and the fetish worshippers of civilization, who exist in fruitful abundance around me. The wholesome restraining provisions of a somewhat severe criminal law have not been without their effect in curbing the natural impulses of my countrymen. I fancy that I have noticed a savage glare in the eye of my Lady Poodlecraft when I "have trodden upon the delicate toes of her Italian fetish greyhound, and a fierce grinding of the false teeth of old Miss Paroquet when I have ousted her favorite fetish cat from his comfortable seat upon the hearth-rug; and I cannot help thinking that these passive exhibitions, of anger would have developed ,into something like active barbarian mischief but j for the calm and refining influence of education, and the knowledge that there was a police-station round the corner with Newgate looming in the distance. Not less dangerous, but for these restraints, would be my middle-aged, retired tradesman fetish worshipper, who lives in a fetish villa protected by high walls, spring guns, broken glass, iron spikes, and other civilised fortifications of domestic privacy. If there is any point about his fetish that lie worships more than another, it is the gravel-walk, clean, tight, firm, and swept like a carpet, leading from his gateway to the dwelling-house door. , Twice has he been fined two pounds and costs before a local magistrate (the last time with a caution from the bench) for violently assaulting a butcher and a baker who dared to desecrate his fetish pathway by leaving their heavy footprints in the yielding gravel. Another collateral fetish connected with his habitation is the grassplot before the windows; an% d if any bold man wishes to try to the utmost the strength of educational and legal bonds, in checking the natural barbarian impulses that smoulder within the breast of this civilised' worshipper, let him trample upon this piece of sacred verdure, and he shall find it like stamping upon the tail of a slumbering crocodile. Another fetish worshipper of the same class is Miss Soapdragon, a paragon of cleanliness. Her fetishes are a spotless door-step, an unsoiled passage, and virgin whitey-brown painted wainscoating as pure as marble. Leave a muddy footprint upon the door-step or the floorcloth, or the mark of a black kid glove of imperfect dye- hear the handle of the dining-room door, and bid adieu/or ever to thy old and faithful friend, poor Soapdragon of the Treasury, for never shalt thou see him more under his own roof. Call about the time when you know he must be trying to make himself, comfortable in the only room—a sort of housekeeper's pantry—allowed by Mrs. S. for general use in their rather extensive mansion, and the servant will come tripping down the pathway to the outer gate, which is always kept locked, with "mistress's compliments, and.master is not at home." In vain you ask if anything serious can have happened to divert the usually monotonously-regular Soapdragon from the very even tenor of his way; you can get but one answer from the faithful slave of the carpet-broom and the scrubbingbrush—" mistress's compliments, and master is not at home." Go into any public coffee-house used by regular, respectable men, and^you shall find a fetish worshipper in the person of an old customer who has become used to a particular seat and a particular corner. Go in as a stranger, and

place yourself quietly in what appears to be the hardest worn chair or couch in the roonvarid when any old gentleman enters and walks round you several times, frowning and coughing, appearing to be restless and uncomfortable, or on the verge of striking you over the head with the umbrella that he always carries, you may know the fetish worshipper, and you may know that you are seated on his regular accustomed fetish chair. If you retain it for a certain time he will either do one of two things-—leave1 the1 room with unconcealed disgust and temper, or ask you in no very bland tones to resign his fetish. Some men of this class make fetishes of a particular omnibus, or a particular seat within that omnibus. If that omnibus be full, and that seat be occupied, they vent their wrath, sometimes upon the occupants, and sometimes upon the conductor. So well does the latter individual know the temper of the person he has to deal with, that he will even go the length of asking a timid man, or a youthful rider, to get outside and oblige an invalid. Sometimes, a fetish is found in the shape of a pair of very old, and very easy carpet slippers, and woe upon any careless servant who has inadvertently mislaid the fetish when it takes this form. No other slippers will do, be they roomy as footbaths and soft as velvet. Sometimes the fetish is a tooth-brush, sometimes a hair-brush, sometimes a particular comb. Break, mislay or destroy these things, and the fetish worshipper becomes the fierce avenger of outraged idols. He can think of nothing but his lost or injured fetishes, and his wrath descends in the shape of an instantdismissal of the servants who have been guilty of such sacrilegious carelessness. Sometimes the fetish is°a particular hat, a particular walking-stick, or a particular watch. When the fetish garments decay, in the common course of things, and become unfit for the prying scrutiny of society, then does the faithful worshipper make for them a shrine far from the curious eyes of the economical housewife, and the syren voice of the Jew clothesman in the streets, where they stand in sacred seclusion as hallowed remains of the'cherished wardrobe of the past. Sometimes the fetish is a China punchbowl, a Wedge wood vase, a Sevres dessertplate, or a tea-service. If any man by accident should injure any of these fetishes, let him beware, for civilisation has its modes of revenge, not less effective, because deliberate and refined, than the rude, impulsive vengeance of the despised African. Ask for the hand of the daughter of the worshipper whose fetish punch-bowl you have just-destroyed, and meet with the refusal which your folly, ignorance, and carelessness so justly merit. Ask for a clerical living, or a Government berth through the influence of the worshipper whose Wedge wood vase you have just dashed into a hundred pieces, and find that you have for ever shut yourself out from all chance of obtaining the object of your desires. Smash the Sevres dessert-plate of your uncle, or the tea-service of your aunt, and give up at once all hopes of large legacies from either of those fruitful sources of property. Sometimes the fetish is a small coin, a tester of a remote period; sometimes a huge picture, the pride and glory of a ducal palace. Sometimes it is a rare pamphlet, sometimes a black-letter volume, sometimes a murky engraving, with " Rembrant fecit" scratched across a stone or a felled tree in one of the corners. Sometimes the fetish is a square-headed bull-dog, in the neighbourhood of Lambeth, sometimes a bed of sturdy tulips in the neighbourhood of Chiswick. Sometimes the fetish takes the form of a pigeon, circling above the housetops in Bethnal-green, and then the worshipper may be seen, half-discovered on the roof of his dwelling, with a long, thin stick in his hand, watching the skimming of the sacred bird with eyes of devout admiration. If any fetish worshipper of similar tastes should succeed by decoys, as is not unfrequently the case, in entrapping the fetish pigeon of his brother worshipper, then is there war from that hour between the two men. As we descend lower ,in the scale of society, of course we find the standard of civilization sinking in proportion; thus, the restraints which are respected in St. James's are totally despised in Bethnalgreen. The two fetish pigeon-worshippers, imitating unconsciously the example of the untutored savage, are unable to come to any satisfactory arrangement without the aid of blows; and so we go, on, from year to year, with our little likes, our great antipathies, our little weaknesses arid our little strength, our shallow doubts and our deep convictions, our virtues and our crimes; and possibly it may turnout, when the great account is at length cast up, that the history of one degree of latitude and longitude does not differ very materially from the petty history of another, and that there is not a wonderful difference, after all, between fwhite and whitey-brown, and black, red; pink, olive, blue and yellow men.

The alterations anticipated in the. Indian Artillery and Engineers, by which they will be officered on the same scale as the Royal service, may now be considered as all but finally settled. The ranks of major and second lieutenant are to be abolished; the existing majors will be created lieu-tenant-colonels, and the.established number of captains will be doubled, the senior lieutenants being promoted to second captains, and the second lieutenants becoming first lieutenants.

A bill giving a right of appeal in criminal cases against the verdict of juries has been read a second time in the Commons by a large majority, and a motion for committing it, so that it may be made law this session, was carried against Ministers. The-effect of this measure, in its present form, will be to relieve the Secretary of State from _the serious responsibility of a final decision, by enabling a sentence of death to be set aside, or respited, by a rule 'nisi' Off. the .Queen's Bench.