willing to swim into the fisherman's net, they catch and punish thieves, they give their owner a bold heart and confound his enemies, there is nothing that the fetish cannot do or undo, if it be but the right fetish. Thus the one-sided logic of the barbarian, making the most of all that fits and glossing over all that fails, has shaped a universal fetish-philosophy of the events of life. So strong is the pervading influence, that the European in Africa is apt to catch it from the negro, and himself, as the saying is, 'become black.' Thus even yet some traveller, watching a white companion asleep, may catch a glimpse of some claw or bone or such-like sorcerer's trash secretly fastened round his neck.[1]
European life, lastly, shows well-marked traces of the ancient doctrine of spirits or mysterious influences inhabiting objects. Thus a mediæval devil might go into an old sow, a straw, a barleycorn, or a willow-tree. A spirit might be carried about in a solid receptacle for use: —
' Besides in glistering glasses fayre, or else in christall cleare,
They sprightes enclose.'
Modern peasant folklore knows that spirits must have some animal body or other object to dwell in, a feather, a bag, a bush, for instance. The Tyrolese object to using grass for toothpicks because of the demons that may have taken up their abode in the straws. The Bulgarians hold it a great sin not to fumigate the flour when it is brought from the mill (particularly if the mill be kept by a Turk) in order to prevent the devil from entering into it.[2] Amulets are still carried in the most civilized countries of the world, by the
- ↑ Waitz, 'Anthropologie,' vol. ii. p. 174; Römer, 'Guinea,' p. 56, &c.; J. L. Wilson, 'West Africa,' pp. 135, 211-6, 275, 338; Burton, 'Wit and Wisdom from W. Afr.' pp. 174, 455; Steinhauser, l.c. p. 134; Bosman, 'Guinea,' in Pinkerton, vol. xvi. p. 397; Meiners, 'Gesch. der Relig.' vol. i. p. 173. See also' Ellis, 'Madagascar,' vol. i. p. 396; Flacourt, 'Madag.' p. 191.
- ↑ Brand, 'Popular Antiquities,' vol. iii. p. 255, &c. Bastian, 'Psychologie,' p. 171. Wuttke, 'Deutsche Volksaberglaube,' pp. 75-95, 225, &c. St. Clair and Brophy, 'Bulgaria,' p. 46.
