THE TSHI-SPEASING- PEOPLES.* IN reviewing Major Ellis's West African Islands,

we remarked (Spectator, June 20th,1885), "This volume is pleasanter reading, because the style is maturer, and the manner more sober, than its two predecessors, West African Sketches and The Land of Fetish." We are glad to notice in The Tshi-Speaking Peoples an advance in seriousness of manner and interest of matter ; indeed, in this book, for the first time, the author not only gives a compilation of facts observed by himself, but attempts to arrange them in order so as to present a more or less com- plete picture of the customs and habits of these Negro tribes.

The main element in the picture consists of religious beliefs and ceremonies. Major Ellis, who often hints his almost entire disbelief in the existence of any real religion in highly civilised peoples, remarks that-

" With most races which are still relatively low in the scale of civilisation, it is found that their religion—that is, their ideas and beliefs upon what we term the supernatural—is frequently the mainspring of their actions. Religion is not with them, as with civilised peoples, a matter outside one's daily life ; it is a subject which affects and influences in some degree almost every action of their daily life, and which is closely interwoven with all their habits, customs, and modes of thought. Even customs which are

• The TshiSpeaking Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa. By A. B. Ellis, Major, let West India Regiment. London : Chapman and Hall. 1837.

most barbarous and cruel, and which ultra-zealous professors of Christianity only seek to explain by assuming an innate vicious- ness and depravity in mankind, may, when traced to the fountain- head, be found to have arisen from the most pious motives, and to have been carried into effect through the most earnest religious convictions."

There is, of course, some truth in all this; but Major Ellis does not notice what is probably the chief reason of the apparently greater religiousness of uncivilised people,—namely, that their beliefs in the supernatural are not more full of conviction, but only are more mingled with fear than the beliefs

of people who are more advanced in intelligence and morality. Untutored man generally conceives of God as a Being who is

hostile and dangerous, or at least indifferent to man, unless man appeases him ; therefore it is much safer for him to be religious, on the chance of such a God really existing, since that is "the beat way to escape his ire." On the other hand.

civilised people who have learned to conceive of God as a God of love as well as of power and righteousness, often regard him, if they regard him at all, simply as a good-natured, for- giving Father, and so think they can afford to neglect him for the most part of their lives. Major Ellis points out that religion with the natives on the Gold Coast, as with barbarous tribes generally, is in no sense connected with morality. The idea of sin is with them limited to insults offered to the gods and to neglect of the gods. "The most atrocious crimes com- mitted as between man and man, the gods can view with equanimity. These are man's concerns, and must be rectified or punished by man. Bat, like the gods of people much further advanced in civilisation, there is nothing that offends them so deeply as to ignore them, or question their power, or laugh at them."

Major Ellis classifies the deities of the Tshi-speaking tribes under four heads :—(1), A few general deities worshipped by

an entire tribe or by several tribes ; (2), local deities worshipped by the inhabitants of certain localities, being " the spirits of the neighbouring rivers, forests, hills, and sea : they are very numerous, every locality having several ;" (3), " those worshipped by smaller sections of the community, such as by special families, or town companies ;" and (4), the tutelary deities of individuals, whose special name is Suhman (plural, Ehsuhman). The deities of Class 2 are believed by the people to have been appointed by those of Class 1 as their representa-

tives, as the deities of Class 3 are appointed by those of Class 2 through the agency of the priests ; while those of Class 4 are obtained by individuals for themselves in a variety of in- teresting ways, for which we must refer the reader to Major Ellis, who is careful to point out that in no case are they merely objects selected at random, as previous writers have asserted. Major Ellis believes the deities of Class 2, who were all originally malignant, and are only now in some cases regarded as benignant if properly propitiated, to have

been " the most [sic] original conceptions of the Negro; those of Class 1 having been subsequently raised from amongst them to a higher grade. The deities of Classes 3 and 4 are clearly the product and result of priestcraft,"—a word which, with this writer, is about equivalent to imposture. He thinks that the religious ideas of the Tshi-speaking peoples are exactly described by Waltz, in his Introduction to Anthropology, as follows :—" Man in a state of nature finds himself sur- rounded by threatening dangers and actual miseries, which he attributes to unfriendly powers who appear to him to be con-

stantly on the alert to impede his progress He looks thus at Nature as a world of spirits Every one

worships either what he fears the most, or from which [sic] he expects the greatest aid in need. There are few general, but many local and individual objects of veneration." These general observations the author proceeds to illustrate by many interesting details, and the main conclusion towards which he

wishes to lead us is that the name " fetishism " does not fairly describe the religion of the Tshi-speaking peoples. "Narrowed down to its proper limits, a fetish is," he says, " something tangible and inanimate which is believed to possess power of itself," whereas among these tribes he thinks that the object is never worshipped simply for its own sake, but only as a habitat of the god :—

" In Class 8 the god actually dwells in a tangible and inanimate object, and as many of these objects have been handed down from generation to generation, and are of some antiquity, it might be supposed that in some cases the idea of the indwelling god would be lost sight of, and the object worshipped for itself. Such, how- ever, is not the case. The indwelling god cannot be lost sight of, because he so frequently manifests himself by leaving the object in which he ordinarily dwells, and entering the body of a priest.

Priests and priestesses being frequently possessed by deities of the first, second, and third classes, the people, as far as these three classes are concerned, are prevented from lapsing into fetishism, from confusing the intangible with the tangible, by the very imposture of the priests, who for their own purposes are con- tinually simulating possession, and thus keeping the fact of the individuality of the gods continually before the people. Hence the Negroes of the Gold Coast are always conscious that their offerings and worship are not paid to the inanimate object itself, but to the indwelling god ; and every native with whom I have conversed upon the subject has laughed at the possibility of it being supposed that he could worship or offer sacrifice to some such object as a stone which of itself, it would be perfectly obvious to his senses, was a stone only, and nothing more."

Major Ellis admits that the deities of Class 4 (ehsuhman) are more nearly fetishes, "and but for the action of the priests in keeping alive the idea of the individuality of the higher gods, doubtless both ehsuhman, and the charms derived from them, would soon become fetishes." All this tends to show that fetishism "is a corruption of ic former cults rather than a primordial faith ;" and Major Ellis clinches his argument that only the imposture of the priests preserved the idea of an " indwelling god," by quoting two instances of what he considers tree fetishism :—" We find more fetishism amongst the Negroes of the West Indies, who have been

Christianised for more than half-a-century, than amongst those of West Africa; for side by aide with the new religion have lingered the old superstitions whose true import has become forgotten or corrupted." Again, among the Roman Catholic populations of Italy and Spain, " the lower classes, too civilised for such jugglery as simulated possession by

priests, but not sufficiently civilised to dispense with tangible objects to which to address their prayers, have confused the intangible with the tangible, and believe that the images of their saints can both [sic] see, hear, and feel."

As indicated in the first quotation we have given above, Major Ellis traces the practice of human sacrifices among these tribes to a religious origin. These sacrifices are chiefly

of two kinds, either to the dead at the funerals or anniversaries of the death of great persons, or to the gods at the end of a victorious campaign. The author explains that-- "The, practice of sacrificing human beings [chiefly slaves] at funerals arises from a feeling of affection, respect, and awe for the dead. It is done so that the departed may suffer no discomfort in his new abode, but find himself surrounded by those attentions and ministrations to which he has been accustomed. So far from being due to any inherent bloodthirstiness in the Tshi-speaking peoples, it is really due to an exaggerated regard for the dead."

Again, as to the sacrifices to the gods:— " Prisoners of war, being the worshippers and followers of the gods which have contended against the gods of the victors, are considered to be peculiarly acceptable offerings to the latter ; and the result is that after a successful engagement a dreadful slaughter of prisoners invariably takes place, which, though it has commonly been attributed to inherent bloodthirstiness, really proceeds from a sense of religious duty to the gods."

Though we may agree with Major Ellis that no special "inherent bloodthirstiness" originated these sacrifices, but that they first arose from " the most pious motives," still we have ample testimony from his own pen that the most awful bloodthirstiness has resulted from these practices, and we are not prepared to admit that they are " carried into effect," as he eays, " through the most earnest religious convictions."

The fiendish spirit which helps to maintain, though it may not have first instituted human sacrifices, is well shown in the following passage

The most revolting scenes of cruelty and bloodshed are regarded by the populace generally with positive pleasure, and no sooner is the death-drum heard, than an excited mob, eager for the spectacle, rushes to the spot, and embitters the last moments of the victims with taunts and jeers. The executioners, to pander to the tastes of the mob, or to gratify their own lust for cruelty, practise the most shocking barbarities, blunting their knives to increase the sufferings of their victims, or cutting pieces of flesh from the neck before striking off the head."

The account of the religions beliefs and ceremonies occupies about two-thirds of the book ; and Major Ellis deals with each

of the following subjects in a single chapter Ceremonies at Birth, Marriage, and Death," "State Ceremonies," "System of Government," "Laws," " Language," "Music," and " Traditions and Folk-Lore." As regards language, he notes that there is, " as is commonly the case with the languages of the lower

races, a great paucity of abstract terms in Tshi, and the lan- guage is entirely deficient of [sic] such terms as space, tone, species, colour, quantity, sex, degree, tc Terms of endearment are also few in number. There is no eqaivelent for dear' or beloved." The music is, of course, primitive, the dram playing the chief part, and it is very instructive to learn how- much meaning that instrument can be made to express to the native ear. The folk-lore appears to be extremely dull and barren, judging from the specimens given. We can only imagine that Major Ellis has not been able to collect many of these stories, or else he would never have given one about goats, which hardly deserves printing for any purpose, except to show the low level of imagination in people who could take the trouble to invent or remember it.