Handbook of American Indians North ... - Google Book Search

BCLL. 30]FETISH457oua power that causes an object to be regarded as indispensable to the welfare of its possessor.In trie belief of the Indians, all things are animate anil incarnate—men, beast**, lands, waters, rocks, plants, trees, stare, winds, clouds, and night—and all pos- "ess volition and immortal life; yet many of these are held in perpetual bondage by weird spells of some mighty enchantment. So, although lakes and seas may writhe in billows, they can not traverse the earth, while brooks and rivers may run and bound over the land, yet even they may be held by the potent magic power of the god. of winter. Mountains and hills may throb and quake with pain and grief, but they can not travel over the earth because they are held in thraldom by the powerful spell of some ]>otent enchanter. Thus it is that rock?, trees, roots, 'stocks and stones', bones, the limbs and parts of the body, and the vari- ' ous bodies of nature are verily the living tombs of diverse beings and spirits. Of such is the kingdom of the fetish, for even the leapt of these may be chosen. Moreover, a fetish is an object which may also represent a vision, a drearn, a thought, or an action.The following extract from Cushing's Zafli Fetiches (2d Rep. B. A. E., 1883) will show the reputed connection between the object and its quickener, between the object and the thing it represents. In speaking of the Two Sun Children, Gushing says: "Now that the surface of the earth was hardened, even the animals of prey, powerful and like the fathers (gods) themselves, would have devoured the children of men; and the Two thought it was not well that they should all be permitted to live, 'for,'said they, 'alike will the children of men and the children of the animals of prey multiply themselves. The animals of prey are provided with talons and teeth; men are but poor, the finished beings of earth, therefore the weaker.'" Whenever they came across the pathway of one of these animals, were he a preat mountain lion or but a mere mole, they struck him with the fire of lightning which they carried in their magic shield. Tlihif and instantly he was shriveled and burned into stone.

Handbook of American Indians North ... - Google Book Search

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