It, we should find
little or no gap existing in mental evolution in this old,
undisturbed continent of Africa.
Let, however, these things be as they may, one thing about Negro and
Bantu races is very certain, and that is that their lives are
dominated by a profound belief in witchcraft and its effects.
Among both alike the rule is that death is regarded as a direct
consequence of the witchcraft of some malevolent human being, acting
by means of spirits, over which he has, by some means or another,
obtained control.
To all rules there are exceptions. Among the Calabar negroes, who
are definite in their opinions, I found two classes of exceptions.
The first arises from their belief in a bush-soul. They believe
every man has four souls: a, the soul that survives death; b, the
shadow on the path; c, the dream-soul; d, the bush-soul.
This bush-soul is always in the form of an animal in the forest -
never of a plant. Sometimes when a man sickens it is because his
bush-soul is angry at being neglected, and a witch-doctor is called
in, who, having diagnosed this as being the cause of the complaint,
advises the administration of some kind of offering to the offended
one.
