Alfred C. Haddon

“ Most forms of magic can be performed by anybody provided he knows what to do; but there are specialists in magic, who, by us, are variously termed medicine-men, magicians, sorcerers, wizards, witches, wise women, and the like. Their lore is transmitted orally to their disciples, who may or may not be their own children. Magical powers [51] may be due to the mere accident of birth, as for example in the European belief in the therapeutic gifts of the seventh son of a seventh son. In some cases the sorcerer has to undergo a rigorous training, often being subjected to painful or loathsome ordeals ”

“ Just as the savage is a good actor, throwing himself like a child into his mime, so he is a good spectator, entering into the spirit of another’s acting, herein again resembling the child, who can be frightened into fits by the roar of what he knows to be but a “pretended” lion. Even if the make-believe is more or less make-believe to the victim, it is hardly less efficacious ”

“ It is by no means easy to do justice to such a large, comprehensive, and at the same time vague subject as magic in the small compass of a Primer, and part of even that small space had to be devoted to another subject. ”

“ For any of us being resolved to undertake anything of importance, we first of all search out a god to prosper our designed undertaking; and going out of doors with the design, take the first creature that presents itself to our eyes, whether dog, cat, or the most contemptible creature in the world for our god: or perhaps instead of that, any inanimate that falls in our way, whether a stone, a piece of wood, or anything else of the same nature. ”

“ The distinction lies in the attitude of mind in which the objects are worshipped, and no objective differentiation is possible, for the object will be a fetish for one worshipper and a pure symbol of a spirit to another. ”

“ Any variety or combination of varieties of sympathetic magic may be employed in the manufacture or practice of love-charms; frequently they are fortified by the subtle association of scent. Doubtless certain scents have a direct stimulating effect, but, apart from this, should any scent be definitely worn when young men wish to attract girls, there can be no doubt that the suggestion would tend to act powerfully upon the latter, and that ‘girl-medicine,’ as I have heard it called, would of itself be potent even if other practices were not employed. ”

“ All cases of Fetishism, when examined, show that the worship is paid to an intangible power or spirit incorporated in some visible form, and that the fetish is merely the link between the worshipper and the object of his worship. Any definition therefore which takes no account of the spiritual force behind the material object is seen to be incomplete and superficial, as it ignores the essential conception of the worship. ”

“ Nothing finds its way home to another’s mind more sharply. It is the very type of a spiritual projectile.
In many examples of magical procedure the magician appears to act directly upon nature, and seeks to enforce the action of his will by the power of the spoken word or spell. In other cases he obtains power from energy derived from something outside of himself; for example, the shaman of Siberia may be possessed by a spirit, or the magician may even be possessed by a god. ”

“ A man comes by chance upon a stone which takes his fancy; its shape is singular, it is like something, it is certainly not a common stone, there must be mana in it. So he argues with himself, and he puts it to the proof; he lays it at the root of a tree to the fruit of which it has a certain resemblance, or [59] he buries it in the ground when he plants a garden; an abundant crop on the tree or in the garden shows that he is right, the stone is mana, has that power in it. ”

“ The Tshi believe that everything in nature is animated; that everything not made with hands has an indwelling spirit, possessing powers beneficial or prejudicial to man, according to whether it is propitiated or neglected; so the more dangerous spirits, those of rivers, mountains, rocks, and shoals are worshipped. Later on an image is made of the nature-god, from material from his habitat, and it is brought to a place more convenient for the worshippers, and forms their tutelary deity. Gradually his origin is forgotten, and the nature-god becomes a fetish. ”

“ A man can be cured by magic men charming the ‘bone’ away again; but ‘Goggle Eye’ was old, and, what was worse, he was getting very cross, and too fond of ordering people about, so the black fellows thought it would be the best plan not to cure him, and a few more sneaked away into the bush and ‘sang’ some more bones, and pointed them at him to make quite sure about his dying. ”

“ The extraordinarily vivid imagination and the childlike capacity for ‘make-believe’ of the negro, load him further still; the lively fancy [94] of the West African demands a visible object to which worship may be directed. He wishes really and sensibly to behold and even to possess his god, so he incorporates him in a tangible object, and satisfies his religious ardour by directing his worship to that object. Thus fetishism and the fetish are evolved. ”

“ When the totemic system falls into decay there seems to be a tendency for the old magical ceremonies which had for their purport the increase of the totem, to be performed by certain families, rather than by groups of men; this appears to be associated with the growth of property in land, so that in time the performance of certain ceremonies is restricted to a single man, who transmits the right to his son, and they alone of the community have this duty. There is nothing to distinguish men with these rights from ordinary sorcerers who practise definite departments of magic. ”

“ Stone worship is often pure fetishism, the stone [77] being regarded as the tangible sign or token of a spirit or power to which worship is addressed. But it advances beyond the limits of fetishism if a general spirit, or a god of a community, while worshipped in the form of a stone, is also believed to animate other objects. The animating force of a fetish must be individual, and cannot animate more than one object at a time. When the spirits of the suhman charms (15, 99) are considered to be individual spirits dependent upon Sasabonsum they are fetishes ”

“ Certainly the lower forms of idolatry present the aspect of fetishism, but the true fetish is not shaped to resemble the spirit it represents, and the true idol is only the symbol, not the vessel, vehicle, or instrument of deity. At the same time, an image may be worshipped as a fetish, and regarded as a material body provided for a spirit ”

“ Generally a black fellow goes away quite by himself when he is ‘singing magic,’ but very occasionally a few men join together, as they did in the case of ‘Goggle Eye.’ When enough magic has been ‘sung’ into the bone, it is taken away to the camp, and very secretly pointed at the unconscious victim. The magic spirit of the bone runs into the man who is pointed at, and gradually kills him. ”

“ Having that power, it is a vehicle to convey mana to other stones. In the same way certain forms of words, generally in the form of a song, have power for certain purposes; a charm of words is called mana. But this power, though itself impersonal, is always connected with some person who directs it; all spirits have it, ghosts generally, some men. If a stone is found to have a supernatural power it is because a spirit has associated itself with it. A dead man’s bone has with it mana, because the ghost is with the bone ”

“ Miss Kingsley, describing a fetish or juju, says ‘it 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’ (40, 287) .
The material objects which form the tutelary deities or Bohsŭm of the natives of the Gold Coast are not symbols of gods which usually reside elsewhere; each is the actual receptacle or ordinary abiding-place of an indwelling god. ”

“ The vision generally takes the form of some tangible object, often an animal, a portion of which is preserved by the man as his most precious possession, and if not, some concrete form is taken to represent the subject of the vision. A guardian spirit differs, however, from a fetish, in that it is a life-long possession, some men are not privileged to obtain one, and no man could possess more than one; while any man could obtain a fetish, and could discard one and adopt another if it proved to be unavailing. ”

“ The man who wants a suhman takes some objects, it may be a rudely cut wooden image, or a stone, a root of a plant, or some red earth placed in a pan, and then he calls on a spirit of Sasabonsum (‘a genus of deities, every member of which possesses identical characteristics’) to enter the object prepared, promising it offerings and worship. If a spirit consents to take up its residence in the object a low hissing sound is heard, and the suhman is complete. ”

“ In the forms of magic we have hitherto considered, something is done by a human being, whether by action, representation, or word, but there is another branch of magic in which the virtue resides intrinsically in certain objects which are variously termed charms, talismans, amulets, or mascots. Those that transmit qualities or are [30] worn for good luck may be termed talismans, while the term amulet may be restricted with advantage to those charms which are preventive in their action ”

“ Sometimes the object to be chosen is revealed [74] to a man in a dream, as among the natives of the Gold Coast, where a dead relation will return to direct a man to go to a certain spot and there select a certain stone, or piece of a tree, which he is to bring home with him, and guard and reverence as the habitation of a protecting deity (15, 90) .
This connects the fetish with the guardian spirits of the North American Indians, which appear to young men in dreams, or visions, after prayer and fasting. ”

“ A Name is considered by backward folk to be part and parcel of a living being, and as magic can be performed on a person through tangible substances that have come into contact with him, so magic can be performed or influence exerted through the utterance of a person’s name. In the west of Ireland and in Torres Straits people have refused to tell me their names, though there was no objection to some one else giving me the information ”

“ The fetish is worshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, and talked with, as a sentient and willing personification of the spirit or power. Examples of sacrifices and prayers and worship offered to the fetishes are found in all parts, and many instances have already been quoted.
Offerings of food and drink are placed before them daily, and sometimes a cock is sacrificed; occasionally, if the worshippers are rich, a sheep is killed, ‘which they offer up to the gods in words alone, for they immediately fall upon it and tear it to pieces with their fingers’ (54, xvi. 400) . ”

“ Sympathetic magic bulks largely in the life of backward peoples, not merely in the form of actions to be performed, but also in those to be abstained from. The ‘Thou shalt not’ is more in evidence than ‘Thou shalt.’ The prohibitions of savages and barbarians are now spoken of under the general term of tabu. ”

“ This, though a talisman when first worn, becomes something infinitely more sacred and precious, being transfused with the essence of her soul; any one gaining possession of it has her for an abject slave if he keeps it, and kills her if he destroys it. ”

“ But besides these ‘nature-gods’ there are ‘ghost-gods.’ The fetish may be animated by a ‘ghost-god,’ for the power of dead men lives on in their ghosts; sacrifices are made to them, and ghost-gods also develop into tutelary deities. ”

“ MAGIC I. SYMPATHETIC MAGIC
As knowledge increases, mankind learns more and more about the world and the processes of nature, but even at the present day the vast majority of white men possess only a rudimentary amount of this knowledge; indeed, most so-called educated people have very vague ideas concerning the physical universe in which they live. ”

“ No wonder then that belief in the magical powers of sorcerers can cause the same effects. Messrs. Spencer and Gillen (64, 537) state that [57] the Australian natives believe that any bone, stick, spear, etc., which has been ‘sung’ is supposed to be endowed with what the natives call Arungquiltha, that is, magical poisonous properties, and any native who believes that he has been struck by, say, a charmed spear, is almost sure to die, whether the wound be slight or severe, unless he be saved by the counter magic of a medicine-man. He simply lies down, refuses food, and pines away. ”

“ In the popular view of Fetishism the material object was worshipped in its own character, but one of the fundamental conceptions of the West African fetish is that the spirit and the material object can be dissociated, and that, although the spirit is temporarily incorporated in the fetish, yet the two are no more inseparable than man’s soul and body. The conception of the duality of everything lies at the root of all the West African beliefs. ‘Everything that he knows by means of his senses he regards as a two-fold entity—part spirit, part not spirit, or, as we should say, matter ”

“ So the fetish consists of a queer-shaped stone, a bright bead, a stick, parrots’ feathers, a root, claw, seed, bone, or any curious or conspicuous object.
In Benin they take everything which seems extraordinary in nature for a god, and make offerings to him, and each is his own priest, in order to worship his gods in what manner pleases him best (54, xvi. 530) . ”

“ When the fetish acts by force of its own proper spirit, it is something more than mere Animism (v. above, p. 77) . It does not become a fetish by applying the general belief in souls to a special object, but by a process which has been divided by Schultze into four stages (62, 215-223) :—
1. The value which an uncultured man attributes to any object is often exaggerated, especially if the object is in any way conspicuous, unusual, or mysterious. ”

“ To the Mohammedans, Allah is but an epithet in place of the Most Great Name; for, according to a Moslem belief, the secret of the latter is committed to prophets and apostles alone. Another reason is that the utterance of these secret names gives tremendous power, for (42, 273) those who know the Most Great Name of God can, by pronouncing it, transport themselves from place to place at will, can kill the living, raise the dead to life, and work other miracles. ”

“ The charms of this third group are to be regarded as fetishes so long as the recognition lasts that they are dependent for their virtue upon these extraneous beings; but when this belief is lost the charm becomes a mere talisman or amulet. The change from a fetish to a luck-object is constantly taking place owing to the despiritualising effect of increasing civilisation. ”

“ These fetish charms may be worshipped and regarded as anthropopathic, when they are true fetishes, or they may be merely ‘lucky’ with no religious regard or spiritual interpretation, or they may be anything between the two extremes.
7. Just as the human body and soul form one individual, so the material object and its occupying spirit or power form one individual, more vague perhaps, but still with many attributes distinctively human. It possesses personality and will, it has also many human characters. It possesses most of the human passions, anger, revenge, also generosity and gratitude ”