Dr. Cartwright Reviewed—The Negro, Ape and Serpent, Part I [pp. 238-250]

DR. CARTWRIGHT ON THE NEGRO, REVIEWED.
must have been named before him; and he was not the first
1named. Then the order must have been reversed, and the
snake named nachash because it was the object of the adoration of the nachash or negro. Ill either case, we find Adam
giving the same name to different creatures; the one a human
being, the other a reptile. This, of course, would have created
great confusion, making it fiequently doubtful whether a human being or a snake was denoted.
There are various other objections to Dr. Cartwri-ght's method
of fastening the same Hebrew name onl the serpent and the
negro. FIirst, it is not certain that the African negroes really
worship serpents. While Dr. Cartwrirght affirms that the tribes
"whlichi make the best slaves were, before they became the
slaves of the white man, the slaves of a serpeltt;" Rev. Dr. J.
Lewis Kraff, a traveller in Africa, states that throughout the
whole of eastern Aflica fetiehism is unknown; that the powerful nation of Gallas, or Oromia, possess a purer faith than any
of the heathen tribes of eastern Afirica, and that they are held
in hilgh estimation as slaves. )r. Barth, whose observations
were made in North and Central Africa, thinks that the original religion of nearly all the Afriican tribes was a worshlip of
the elements, the sun and moorn, and the souls of their ancestors; that their forms of worship are now more grotesque than
at a former period; and that tile religious rites of the interior —
the most remote fiom the influence of the white mal-are far
purer than those near the coast. Rev. T. J. Bowen was for
some years a missionary in Y6ruba, which is coterininous with
Dahtioiey, and quite as nmuch immersed in superstition. His
residence afforded him ample means for obtaining, reliable information, and his occupation required lhim to improve his
opportunities. He says:
" White men are generally much mistaken in regard to the religion and
superstition of the negros. They suppose that the idols are looked upon
as gods; that the symbol is the idol; and that the greegree, or charin, is an
object of worship-all of which is incorrect........ As the people
make a clear distinction between God and idols, so an idol, which is a real
spiritual being, is not to be confounded with its symbol, which may be an
image, a tree, or a stone."-Snaithsonian Coitributions, x.
In another work, the same writer says:
"Everybody in that country believes in one true and living God, of
whose character they often entertain surprisingly correct notions. Most of
the people worship certain imaginary creatures, whom they regard as mediators between God and men; but there are some who reject such mediation, and attempt to hold direct communication with God himself."-Central
Africa, 159, 16().
"Their fetishism is precisely the same system of superstition which leads
Mahometans, and Catholics, and many Protestants, to employ charms and
amulets as a means of averting evil. The noble duke who fastened a horseshoe to the marble steps of his palace, believed in the power of the fetish
as well as the negro king who hangs amulets and charms in his house to
248