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en any young animals are killed, sometimes they
offer up part of them as a sacrifice. These offerings, when made by
one of the heads of a family, serve for the whole. I remember we often
had them at my father's and my uncle's, and their families have been
present. Some of our offerings are eaten with bitter herbs. We had a
saying among us to any one of a cross temper, 'That if they were to be
eaten, they should be eaten with bitter herbs.'

We practised circumcision like the Jews, and made offerings and feasts
on that occasion in the same manner as they did. Like them also, our
children were named from some event, some circumstance, or fancied
foreboding at the time of their birth. I was named _Olaudah_, which,
in our language, signifies vicissitude or fortune also, one favoured,
and having a loud voice and well spoken. I remember we never polluted
the name of the object of our adoration; on the contrary, it was
always mentioned with the greatest reverence; and we were totally
unacquainted with swearing, and all those terms of abuse and reproach
which find their way so readily and copiously into the languages of
more civilized people. The only expressions of that kind I remember
were 'May you rot, or may you swell, or may a beast take you.'

I have before remarked that the natives of this part of Africa are
extremely cleanly. This necessary habit of decency was with us a part
of religion, and therefore we had many purifications and washings;
indeed almost as many, and used on the same occasions, if my
recollection does not fail me, as the Jews. Those that touched the
dead at any time were obliged to wash and purify themselves before
they could enter a dwelling-house. Every woman too, at certain times,
was forbidden to come into a dwelling-house, or touch any person, or
any thing we ate. I was so fond of my mother I could not keep from
her, or avoid touching her at some of those periods, in consequence of
which I was obliged to be kept out with her, in a little house made
for that purpose, till offering was made, and then we were purified.

Though we had no places of public worship, we had priests and
magicians, or wise men. I do not remember whether they had different
offices, or whether they were united in the same persons, but they
were held in great reverence by the people. They calculated our time,
and foretold events, as their name imported, for we called them
Ah-affoe-way-cah, which signifies calculators or yearly men, our year
being called Ah-affoe. They wore their beards, and when they died they
were succeeded by their sons. Most of their implements and things of
value were interred along with them. Pipes and tobacco were also put
into the grave with the corpse, which was always perfumed and
ornamented, and animals were offered in sacrifice to them. None
accompanied their funerals but those of the same profession or tribe.
These buried them after sunset, and always returned from the grave by
a different way from that which they went.

These magicians were also our doctors or physicians. They practised
bleeding by cupping; and were very successful in healing wounds and
expelling poisons. They had likewise some extraordinary method of
discovering jealousy, theft, and poisoning; the success of which no
doubt they derived from their unbounded influence over the credulity
and superstition of the people. I do not remember what those methods
were, except that as to poisoning: I recollect an instance or two,
which I hope it will not be deemed impertinent here to insert, as it
may serve as a kind of specimen of the rest, and is still used by the
negroes in the West Indies. A virgin had been poisoned, but it was not
known by whom: the doctors ordered the corpse to be taken up by some
persons, and carried to the grave. As soon as the bearers had raised
it on their shoulders, they seemed seized with some[F] sudden
impulse, and ran to and fro unable to stop themselves. At last, after
having passed through a number of thorns and prickly bushes unhurt,
the corpse fell from them close to a house, and defaced it in the
fall; and, the owner being taken up, he immediately confessed the
poisoning[G].

The natives are extremely cautious about poison. When they buy any
eatable the seller kisses it all round before the buyer, to shew him
it is not poisoned; and the same is done when any meat or drink is
presented, particularly to a stranger. We have serpents of different
kinds, some of which are esteemed ominous when they appear in our
houses, and these we never molest. I remember two of those ominous
snakes, each of which was as thick as the calf of a man's leg, and in
colour resembling a dolphin in the water, crept at different times
into my mother's night-house, where I always lay with her, and coiled
themselves into folds, and each time they crowed like a cock. I was
desired by some of our wise men to touch these, that I might be
interested in the good omens, which I did, for they were quite
harmless, and would tamely suffer themselves to be handled; and then
they were put into a large open earthen pan, and set on one side of
the highway. Some of our snakes, however, were poisonous: one of them
crossed the road one day when I was standing on it, and passed between
my feet without offering to touch me, to the great surprise of many
who saw it; and these incidents were accounted by the wise men, and
therefore by my mother and the rest of the people, as remarkable omens
in my favour.

Such is the imperfect sketch my memory has furnished me with of the
manners and customs of a people among whom I first drew my breath. And
here I cannot forbear suggesting what has long struck me very
forcibly, namely, the strong analogy which even by this sketch,
imperfect as it is, appears to prevail in the manners and customs of
my countrymen and those of the Jews, before they reached the Land of
Promise, and particularly the patriarchs while they were yet in that
pastoral state which is described in Genesis--an analogy, which alone
would induce me to think that the one people had sprung from the
other. Indeed this is the opinion of Dr. Gill, who, in his commentary
on Genesis, very ably deduces the pedigree of the Africans from Afer
and Afra, the descendants of Abraham by Keturah his wife and concubine
(for both these titles are applied to her). It is also conformable to
the sentiments of Dr. John Clarke, formerly Dean of Sarum, in his
Truth of the Christian Religion: both these authors concur in
ascribing to us this original. The reasonings of these gentlemen are
still further confirmed by the scripture chronology; and if any
further corroboration were required, this resemblance in so many
respects is a strong evidence in support of the opinion. Like the
Israelites in their primitive state, our government was conducted by
our chiefs or judges, our wise men and elders; and the head of a
family with us enjoyed a similar authority over his household with
that which is ascribed to Abraham and the othe

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