Cannibalism prevails in but few countries of the west; for instance, it is practised in Dahomey, and the Ashautces eat the hearts of the slain enemy; but formerly it must have been more common. Schweinfurth found it extensively among the Niam-Niam and the Monbuttus. The name Niam-Niam is an appellative derived from the root /rya, "eat," and means devourer or man-eater among the Dinkas as well as among the nations of Central Africa, who assert that at different places in their vicinity there are such Niam-Niam; from which it may be concluded that cannibalism is more practised in that tribe. The decrepit old people are killed by some tribes (Kordofan), and others (Gold Coast) are said even to devour the corpses. There is no doubt that these customs, here as well as elsewhere, originated in a belief in animism. The enemy can be harmed even after his death; his soul can be forced into servitude; and magical powers are attributed to the consumption of human flesh, and especially to the use of human fat. This leads us to the religious belief of the Negroes, which must be treated with great care, as erroneous ideas gen erally prevail about it.
the entire Negro territory, wherever Islamism has not been introduced, the religions are strikingly similar. There is one supreme and beneficent being, who has created all things and sustains them. He bears different names: Mawu among the nations of the Slave Coast, Olorung among the Yornbas, Tshuku among the Ibos, Nyaledit among the Nuers, Loma among the Bongos, Gumba among the Niam Niam, etc. But he is considered remote. According to Bosmann, the Widas say, "God is too great to concern himself about such insignificant things as the world and mankind, and lie has therefore given the govern ment over them into the hands of inferior gods." Some tribes, however, address their prayers to the supreme being as to a protector in misfortune, the giver of all good, the omnipresent, all seeing, and all-hearing one, who embodies himself in lightning- and thunder, as the Niam-Niam, the inhabitants of the Gold Coast, and other nations believe. The seat of this deity is iu heaven; formerly he was nearer to earth, hut mankind have driven him to remoter heights (legend of the Ashantees).
The Negroes avoid speaking about him, as he is believed to be too august for the knowledge of men. But he has sent his messengers, inferior gods, who are mediators between him and man, and who are fre quently (for instance, among the Niam-Niam and on the Slave Coast) called simply messengers, ambassadors. These are countless, according to the belief of the western Negroes, the inhabitants of the Slave and Gold Coasts, the I\Iandingoes, and the Irolofs. These spirits constitute the fetiches. They are not all alike: some are more, some less powerful, and all are united under one superior.
A large portion of the Maudingoes, all the Fulah, and most of the tribes of the interior have been converted to Mohammedanism, but much paganism has been retained, and the Mohammedans are scarcely less superstitious than the Negroes. Christianity has advanced with good
results.
Elementary elementary deities, the gods of the ocean, the rivers, and the lakes, are powerful; also those of the woods, of sacred groves, and of certain trees. In Dahomey the snakes are powerful, having their own cult, temples, and priests, and to them in former times (before 1700) the kings themselves made pilgrimages. Other animals are also incarnations of gods: the hyenas, elephants, lions, crocodiles, the apes— which at some places are believed to be bewitched persons—and, above all, the birds. The Negroes of the Slave and Gold Coasts often imagine the highest god in the guise of a bird.
Faichism.—The inferior gods are more numerous than all birds, ani mals, and plants together: whatever happens to the Negro is their doing; whether he succeeds or fails in an enterprise, the cause is some god who may have his seat anywhere, perhaps in a stone against which he struck in going out. Thus, stones, claws of animals, pots, etc. are deemed the domicile of some deity; and this leads to the worship of inanimate objects. Such is the explanation of Negro fetichism.
Other traits besides the belief in fetiches belong to the religion of the Negroes. They venerate the heavenly bodies, especially the 1110011, and among the Atlantic and central tribes the sun also. Time is calculated according to the moon, the different phases of which are celebrated with prayers, and oftentimes with festivals and festive dances (/5/. 94, A!-. 6). The god of fire is also venerated, and so is the earth (Atlantic tribes). All these must be distinguished from the fetich spirits, from which orig inally the spirits of the ocean were probably also distinct.
Guardian frequently-recurring belief in a devil is rather indistinct, and seems to refer to the collective power of the inferior evil spirits. There are guardian spirits, and each person (hiring his entire life has one or even two, which, as he constantly receives good from them, he must continually worship. From this originated the various prohibitions of food which pertain to individuals or even to entire tribes, which also have each its guardian spirit. He whose guardian spirit has assumed the figure of a chicken must eat no chicken, for in that case he would drive away or offend the spirit. He must also honor him in other respects: one day of each week is sacred to him, and on this day the celebrant adorns himself in festive garments and lives abstemiously. This is the so-called birthday festival of the Atlantic Negroes. Whoever can afford to have several wives chooses one among them to be his guar dian spirit : she occupies the next rank after the principal wife, and always receives the conjugal visits of her husband on the day dedicated to his guardian god.