n time toward the origin of man. Thus, for
instance, the heathen humbugs, whether revolting or ridiculous, which I
am to speak of in this chapter, are in full blast to day; and they
furnish perfect specimens of the beliefs which prevailed among the
heathen of four thousand and of eighteen hundred years ago; of the
Chaldee and Canaanite superstitions, and equally of those of the Romans
under Augustus Caesar.

The most dirty, vulgar, low, silly and absurd of all the superstitions
in the world are, as is natural, those of the darkest minded of all the
heathen, who have any superstition at all. For, as if for the
humiliation of our proud human nature, there are really some human
beings who seem to have too little intellect even to rise to the height
of a superstition. Such are the Andaman Islanders, who crawl on all
fours, wear nothing but a plaster of mud to keep the musquitos off, eat
bugs, and grubs, and ants, and turn their children out to shift for
themselves as soon as the little wretches can learn to crawl and eat
bugs.

These lowest of superstitions are Fetishism and Obi, believed and
practiced by negro tribes, and, remember this, even by their ignorant
white mistresses in the West Indies and in the United States, to day.
Yes, I know where Southern refugee secessionist women are living in and
about New York city at this moment, who really believe in the negro
witchcraft called Obi, practiced by the slaves.

A Fetish is anything not a living being, worshiped because supposed to
be inhabited by some god. In some parts of Africa the Fetishes are a
sort of guardian divinity, and there is one for each district like a
town constable; and sometimes one for each family. The Fetish is any
stone picked up in the street--a tree, a chip, a rag. It may be some
stone or wooden image--an old pot, a knife, a feather. Before this
precious divinity the poor darkeys bow down and worship, and sometimes,
sacrifice a sheep or a rooster. Each more important Fetish has a priest,
and here is where the humbug comes in. This gentleman lives on the
offerings made to the Fetish, and he "exploits" his god, as a Frenchman
would say, with great profit.

Obi or Obeah, is the name of the witchcraft of the negro tribes; and the
practitioner is termed an Obi-man or Obi-woman. They practice it at home
in Africa, and carry it with them to continue it when they are made
slaves in other lands. Obi is now practiced, as I have already hinted,
in Cuba a