The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1846-11-10 00:00:00

SIERRA LEONE.

Extract from a work on the Colony of Sierra Leone,
Western Africa, ready for the press, by William
Whitaker Shreeve, a 6 years resident, late acting first
writer to her Britannic Majesty's Commissioners under
the Slave Trade Suppression Treaties, Secretary's
and Crown Office, and Merchants' Service at Sierra
Leone.

RELIGIONS, &c.

THE ECCLESIASTICAL ESTABLISHMENT iS the most
honoured and honourably conducted department in the
colony, being placed under the guidance of persons able
and willing to fulfil the serious confidence reposed in
them.

The Chaplain, with a salary of £5OO a-year, presides at
St. George's Church, Freetown, and the assistant mis-
sionaries are scattered through the various villages.
They have a large institution at Fourah Bay, a mile from
town, for the education of African youths, and another in
the town, as well as numerous schools in other directions.
The management of the whole is admirable, and cannot
fail to impart a moral and literary training that most fully
repay the trouble and expense so wilingly bestowed.
THE SECTARIAN DENOMINATIONS have not that va-
riety which mark secession in England and other coun-
tries, being confined to Baptists, Huntingdonians, Cal-
vanists, and Wesleyans. The latter are rather a numer-
ous body, and were it not for the worldly and speculative
character of a leading member, its operations would be
much more useful and respected. The preacher of " The
Word " should be divested of all such secular engross-
ments, that lead to the suspicion, nay, certainty, that
their preaching and practice are at variance. The Shy-
lock, who seeks gain by all possible devices, even to de-
manding his " pound of flesh," is more suited for the
Exchange than the pulpit, however skilled he may be in
" the painted flourishes of the tongue." If he who pos-
sesses two coats, and will not part with one to his naked
brother, be unworthy of his Master, of whom is he the
disciple ? What must he be who would deprive his
neighbour of his only garment, for the sake of adding to
an already ove-eburthened store, forgetful, though he
preach of fire, that Africa is not the hottest place in cre-
ation.

Religion with some is a trade, with others, trade is a
religion, but to unite the two principles is the consumma-
tion of pharisaical hypocrisy.
The Mahomedan religion is very prevalent in Africa,
and of the natives, those professing it constitute the most
respectable and intellectual class, but the greater mass
are Pagans, who, from the nature of an idolatrous wor-
ship, are incomparably more superstitious.
It is astonishing how any human being with sufficient
rationality to distinguish between night and day, or their
own species and a tiger or a tree, can indulge in the ri-
diculous beliefs that beset the various tribes, for though
Paganism on the broad principle is the general religion,
yet there are offshoots from the parent stem, which are
matured with a devotion worthy of a better cause.
As Sierra Leone is the principal colony on the West
African coast, it has the greatest influx of native visitors
from the interior, which, together with the liberated Ne-
groes from the slavers, introduce a greater variety of reli-
gion than probably is to be found congregated in any
other place, not that a manifestation is at all times exhi-
bited, nav, thus superstitions are frequently concealed,
particularly by those who pretended to have been con-
verted, which, however, are discoverable by intimacy and
conversation. Nor are those gross superstitions confined
to the poorer classes, indeed some of the more intelligent
and independent, in other matters, are the most ignorant
and grovelling, when their superstitions prejudices ace
referred to.
Km. Lox is a spirit supposed to reside in the neighbour-
hood of Yangroo, in Western Africa, lives in the woods,
and is seldom visible, except upon the death of a king, or
a chief, or when persons are interred without the usual
ceremony of dancing, feasting, and particularly drinking.
He is represented by an open bamboo basket, about three
feet long, made to fit a man's shoulders. It is covered
with a net, and decorated with porcupine quills on the
nose. Its appearance is frightful, and excites the inhabi-
tants with childish terror.

Frequently some man more knowing than the rest, who
is short of cash, or wishes a good entertainment, pretend-
ing to have a call," assumes the Kolloh, and goes about
with it on his head, to see if the ceremonies are observed,
and very soon contrives to form an African " Almacks,"
where he presides as master of the ceremonies, ringing a
bell, concealed within the Kolloh, and brandishing his rod
of office. It is unnecessary to say that these self-ordained
priests are the most hardened and plundering vagabonds
in the country.
The word fetishe or fetish, often heard amongst the
Negroes—from the Portuguese "fetico," or craft, means
a charm, or mode of conducting worship, and is often ap-
plied for the representatives of their divinities.
The fetishes or Widah are the serpent, tall trees, and
the sea. The first is the most powerful, and the other
two are subordinate.

The serpent has a large round head, piercing eyes, short
pointed tongue, solemn movement, except when it darts
upon its prey, and is then very rapid, its tail short and
sharp, and skin smoothly variegated with elegant colours,
it is exceedingly tame and familiar. Priests and priest- ,
esses are appointed to its service, and valuable offerings
are made to it, which the priesthood most religiously ap-
propriate to themselves. It is invoked in all great diffi-
culties, and as the Whidahans, like wiser people, imagine
that many of their little difficulties are great, the serpent,
or rather the serpents are enriched.
The inhabitants of Benin believe in an invisible Deity,
who created heaven and earth; but because he can only
do go:d, they think it useless to propitiate him. Their
Devil, or malignant spirit, receives all the honours, which
are offered in the sacrifice of men and animals to satiate
his thirst for blood. But they have many other objects
of less rational note, such as elephants' teeth, claws,
hones, dead men's heads, to which they make daily offer-
ings of boiled yams mixed in palm oil. On great occa-
sions they present a cock, giving the divinity the blood,
and reserving the flesh for themselves. Persons of rank
give annual feasts to their gods, when great numbers of
cattle are offered to the idols ; and the priests make each
to offer his own sacrifice, in order that they may enjoy
the sacerdotal profit without trouble, something on the
principle of a plurality of livings.
In Guinea some tribes assemble around a sacred tree,
near which they have a table decorated with boughs in
the form of crowns, and covered with their best fare, at
which they eat and drink in honour of their fetishes.
The day is passed in dancing and singing, accompanied
by drums and brass instruments ; the priest in the centre
at an altar, on which he offers sacrifices, whilst the wor-
shippers congregate around him to hear and witness his
incantations. At the conclusion he twists a wisp of
straw. and dipping it into a pot of some particular " hell
broth" in which there is a serpent, he'sprinkles the chil-
dren, uttering some mummery, and then performing the
same ceremony on the altar, empties the pot, when his
assistants close the sacrifice with yells And unintelligible
words of applause.
They wash themselves every morning as an act of de-
votion, and draw white lines across their faces in honour
of the fetish. Their oracles are accomplished by a black
dog, who sits at the sacred tree, and very cleverly re•
sponds to questions that would puzzle the priest himself.
No doubt this sacred tree is hollow, but not empty!
THE DAHOMANS are a particularly idolatrous caste.
They worship the moon, certain animals, trees, stocks,
and stones. A particular serpent, called Daboa, is in
high divine estimation. It is kept in a basket, and se-
cretly fed with rats, the worshippers being persuaded that
it " lives on the camelion's dish, the air." The priestesses
are supported by the government, and every year there is
a grand feast in honour of Daboa, at which the chiefs
assist, not more assiduously in the rites that' the de-
bauchery. This serpent is particularly honoured by la-
dies who are " as ladies wish to be who love their lords."
The tiger is also propitiated occasionally by a few chil-
dren, which shabby fare is compensated for, upon impor-
tant festivities, by the senior part of the family being
placed at his tender mercy. Many other observances of
a still more abhorrent character might be added, which
fully entitle the Dahomans to the boast of their nation—
s Temple dedicated to the Devil. They, however, have a
mystified notion of a supreme Being, but pay him no
worship but through the fetish, being convinced that he
is too good to harm them.
I Though the Ashantees are considered the most intell

gent nation of Western Africa, they are cross idolaters,
and most profligate in human sacrifices, at their festivals
and funerals. They have a tradition which has become
orthodox, by descent from ages. It is, that at the begin-
ning of the world God created in Africa three black men
and three white, with the same number of women, and
placed before them a large and attractive box, and an in-
significant-looking sealed paper. The black men had the
first choice, and took the box, supposing from its appear-
ance that it contained every desirable thing ; but when
opened, they found only gold. iron, and other metals, of
which they did not know the use. The white men opened
the paper, which told them every thing. So the black
men were left in the bush, whilst the white men (from
the knowledge which they had received from the paper)