The religion of the Negroes is but a debased fetich worship [see Feticiiism], except where JMohammedan- ism has made them acquainted with an ethical religion. Those who have not accepted the teachings of the Koran (t\. v.) make fetiches of serpents, elephants' teeth, tigers' claws, and other parts of animals, at the dictation of their fetich man, or priest. Thej' also manufacture idols of wood and stone, which they worship; and yet, under all this, they have some idea of a Supreme Iking. They believe in good and evil spirits, and are perpet- ually practicing incantations toward off the baneful in- iluence of their spiritual enemies. In Eastern Africa, Speke (/Jiscoveri/ <f the Source of the Nile, p. 243) men- tions that on one occasion, "as there was a partial ecli|)se of the moon, all the Wanguana [a Negro race] marclied up and down from Kumanika's to Nuanagi's huts, singing and beating our tin cooking -pots to frigliten off tlie spirit of the sun from consuming en- tirely tlie chief object of their reverence, the moon." Lander { Niger Erpedilinn, ii, 180, 183) mentions that at Loussa, in (.'entral Africa, an ccli|pse was attributed to an attack made by the sun on the moon. During the whole time the eclipse lasted the natives made as much noise as ])«ssible, "in the hope of being able to frighten away the sun to his proper sphere, and leave the moon to enlighten the world as at other times." They make prayers and offerings to their idols, and have sacred songs and festivals, dances, ceremonies, and places; and they have priests and holy men, who are also magicians and doctors. Tliey believe generally in an after-life (see Lubbock, p. 130, 140), without, however, any dis- tinctive idea of retribution, and some tribes hold the
transmigration of the human soul into a gorilla, or other beast, bird, reptile, or fish; they are very superstitious^ and have great fear of ghosts and apparitions. Their religion, in fact, is one altogether of fear; and as this leads to cruelty, we find them for the most part indif- ferent to the sacrifice of human life. They sacrifice an- imals, and in some parts they even offer up human vic- tims to propitiate their deities. Tliey are cruel to their enemies and prisoners, and often shed blood for the mere savage deliglit they ex])erience in seeing it How from their victims. We need oidy allude to the inhuman customs, as they are called, of Dahomey, and the Yam and AiJai customs of the Ashantees, as described by Bowdich, in support of this statement. Tlie Negroes are easily influenced by the teachings of ethical relig- ions, and the converts made for Jlohammedanism are believed to be very numerous [see Mohammedanism] ; Christian missionaries have met with success also. The Komanists were early workers among them, but in recent years the Protestants have been most successful in pro]jagating Christianity among them. For further details regarding the civil, social, and religious condi- tion of the Negroes, and of missions among them, see the articles Akkica; Kaekkes; Libekia; Mandingoes; Po, Feuxando; Yomba. Of the condition and pros- pects of the Negroes in the various countries into which they have been imported during the prevalence of the slave-trade we have not room to speak here, but refer to the article Slavekv. They are found in all the West India Islands, to the number of about 3,000,000; in the United States, Brazil, Peru, and other parts of South America; also in the Cape de Verde Islands, Arabia, Morocco, etc. In the British West India Isl- ands they were emancipated from slavery in 1834, and in those belonging to France in 1848. Indeed, slavery now exists nowhere in the West Indies, with the excep- tion of Cuba and Porto Rico. In the United States the Negroes amount to about 4,000,000 ; they are now lib- erated, and enjoy civil rights, and some occupy prom- inent positions in ecclesiastical and political life, and in all the other walks of life many are rising to influence an<l power.
The Negroes figure in history from ver>- ancient date. They were not much known by the Hebrews and the Homeric Greeks, to jiulge from the writings at our com- mand, but the Egyptians became acquainted with Ne- groes, about B.C. '2300, through the conquests of tjieir rulers, and we find Negroes represented on Egyptian monuments as early as B.C. 1000. For nearly thirty- five centuries the type has remained unchanged in Egypt. The (Ireeks first knew them in the 7th cen- tury B.C., their Ethiopians being merely any people darker than the Hellenic, like the Arabs, Egyptians, Libyans, or Carthaginians, none of whom are Negroes. The typical Negroes of the Guinea coast are generally rude and nearly naked savages, of a deep black color and ugly features; in the interior many of the tribes, like the Fan, and others visited since 1855 by Paul du Chaillu and Winwood Keade, are lierce cainiibals. but tine-looking, warlike, ingenious, and skilful in the work- ing of iron. Those on the Slave Co.ist are more de- graded, selling their neighbors to slave-dealers. In the vast region exjilored by Livingstone, Barth, Du Chail- lu, Burton, Speke, Baker, Schweinfurth, and other re- cent travellers, there are many tribes more or less sav- age, for an accoinit of wliich the reader is referred to the respective special notices in this work, and chiefly to the narratives of these explorers.