Toleration means indifference, I believe, among all men. The
African is not indifferent on the subject of witchcraft, and I do
not see how one can expect him to be. Put yourself in his place and
imagine you have got hold of a man or woman who has been placing a
live crocodile or a catawumpus of some kind into your own or a
valued relative's, or fellow-townsman's inside, so that it may eat
up valuable viscera, and cause you or your friend suffering and
death. How would you feel? A little like lynching your captive, I
fancy.
I confess that the more I know of the West Coast Africans the more I
like them. I own I think them fools of the first water for their
power of believing in things; but I fancy I have analogous feelings
towards even my fellow-countrymen when they go and violently believe
in something that I cannot quite swallow.
CHAPTER XV. FETISH - (continued).
In which the Voyager complains of the inconveniences arising from
the method of African thought, and discourses on apparitions and
Deities.
However much some of the African's mental attributes get under-
rated, I am sure there are others of them for which he gets more
credit than he deserves. One of these is his imagination. It
strikes the new-comer with awe, and frequently fills him with rage,
when he first meets it; but as he matures and gets used to the
African, he sees the string.
