The

ing.
is fearfuls
ing to M

jealoust

affectats

d, and t

rs have t ouritisa,

n aroused, unsheaths

ich deals

on."

rth of a n Africa a

joyous

her cou
attended

ferent c

no

The

S appearance
and cruel
matron

takes it
and lif
s it a treme
king-ass

to make it st
in perfect
the mother

duties, the

floor of the

ithout rect

unless

from this coarse method of nursing.

Nor are the circumstances attending the death and

funeral of a child or

other member of a negro family less repulsive. We have seen touching manifestations of real or affected sorrow on such occasions, so far as loud weeping and howling were concerned; but at the same time the dead has been carried to the grave in a most indecent manner, without any kind of coffin, at a running pace, amid the firing of muskets and the noisy clamor of the

has a large family,

the appearance of a

people. And when the friends return from the funeral
they invariably spend the night in drumming, dancing,
drinking, feasting and general dissipation. Feasts are
also held at stated periods afterwards in memory of the
dead; and portions of food are taken to the grave and
left there, under the superstitious notion that the spirits
of the departed return to partake of it during the night.
The houses or huts of
the natives are gener-
ally of a very rude and
simple character. Where
the bamboo flourishes,
as on the banks of the
Gambia, the Senegal,
and in other localities,
they are made of neat
cane wattled work, as are
also the fences which
enclose the yard or com-
pound of each family.
In other places the
dwellings of the people
are built of mud, which
dries rapidly in the sun,
and form a substantial
wall. When the mud or

the ground, and cove place, and answers t two iron or eartheny food, a few wooden served up, a wooden the corn in, making sometimes a copper

clay is mixed with straw or dry grass it is called "swish,"
and is still more durable. The usual form of the African
huts is circular, or beehive-shaped; and being thatched
with long grass, they appear at a distance like so many
hayricks in a farmyard. It is not unusual, however, to
find in some towns, as in Abomi and Kumasi, the dwell-

casionally of a sma according to their mess of whatever it into a large calabash the centre of the hut, ble to eat,-first the

their skins being at the same time smooth and shining, dress of those who do from their frequent annointing with palm oil. The dress of those who do dress is very simple, and differs little throughout the country,-fashions and modes, as practised by civilized nations, being totally unknown. The most common garb of females consists of two oblong cloths of native manufacture, called "pangs," one of which is thrown loosely around the lower, and the other over the upper part of the person, with head dress of Madras handkerchiefs. The men, however, generally wear wide pantaloons, and a loose robe reaching down

that children of both s ning about entirely des free persons as well as pursuing their daily av provement, however, i ilization has advanced, European settlements The people of West strong passion for trac no sooner the means a in some kind of traffic

savage nations, with his hideous miscellany of dead lizards, hide, nails of the dead, lion's claws, and vulturebeaks, stalks through the village imparting strange efficacy to claw or bone, stick or stone. And as beneath the dull, leaden skies of the distant north there are believed to be structures haunted by ghosts and goblins, so here the forest, with its tenantry of owls and bats, is the abode of malignant spirits, and the rustling of the foliage at eventide is their mysterious dialogue. Shadowy vague

become of the church in U

power? Ultimately, from being poisoned by the Chri the missonaries left the them the religion they ha ultaneously. The same other stations up and d France and Portugal ha them-one of the most as

ness and superstitious terror are the cardinal elements of Central African religion."

"Previous to three hundred years ago, for two centuries Romanism was the ostensible, acknowledged religion of Congo. Paganism was interdicted by law, and the severest penalties were inflicted on those known to participate in its rites. At several periods during this time, it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to find one adult who had not been baptized. Father Merolla incidentally mentions the Jesuits, Dominicans, Franciscans Capuchins, Augustins, Bernardins, Carmelites, and almost

ious history of the wo behind."

The Fetichi Dr. L. D. Johnson w lor Expedition to Afric count of one of the lo tion :

The fetich is a mate is made the object of t It may be a stone, a tr

Indeed there are

has been

frica.

e Bishop T e following

gious supers

or dead, wh itious wors

graven'

Tshup for te crate them

NATIVES TAKING A BOAT AROUND THE FALLS OF THE

which has been accumulated, by every traveler, as he
came up the hill, picking up a stone and throwing it on
the pile. If one tribe should suffer a series of defeats
from another tribe, they would think the successful one
had a stronger fetich than they, and would do all in their
power to find out what it was. If they failed in this,
they would endeavor to institute one endowed with
superior power.

Several years ago, the king at Bonny, on the West
Coast of Africa, had been repeatedly defeated by a neigh-
boring tribe; he resorted to one of his principal villages,
and found it in imminent danger of being captured by
the enemy; he then summoned all the fetich men (or
priests) in his tribe, and informed them of the situation,

gave a loud shout a fetich were carried afraid of it that the For years this cla knew of it as the g

All of the native 1 fetich superior to th of the whites, when the natives are afrai man would visit the did anything agains belief, no one dies: has always been be tribe, who must be