rism run mad,
and our chief feeling was disgust that human beings should so degrade
themselves.

"Abominable!" cried Charley. "It is wrong to sanction by our presence
such doings, and if we retire to our house, and afterwards tell Sanga
Tanga why we did so, it may perhaps open his eyes to the true character
of what is going forward."

"Well," exclaimed Tom, "I've seen many a rum sight, but this beats even
the worst I ever beheld in a seaport town in England, or elsewhere, and
that's saying a good deal."

With these words Tom turned his back on the performers, and followed us
to the house. So absorbed were the spectators in the dancing--if
dancing it could be called--that they did not perceive our departure.
We could hear the shrieks and shouts of laughter and applause, the
drumming on tom-toms, and the sound of the horns until a late hour in
the night. We had evidence of many barbarous customs of the natives,
which I have not mentioned. I do not say that they are more savage, or
rather fierce, than people of other parts of the world; indeed, in some
respects they are less so, but their barbarism is the result of their
ignorance and debased condition. They have no religion--properly so
called--their only belief is in what we denote fetishism, which is a
word taken from the Portuguese _feticeira_ or witch. They have idols,
but they can scarcely be said to worship these, and they believe that
power resides in serpents and birds, as well as in inanimate objects,
such as mountain peaks, in bones, and feathers, and they believe also
that good and evil spirits exist, and that charms have a powerful
influence, as likewise that dreams signify something, but in many of
these respects they really do not differ materially from their white
brethren of more civilised countries. The ignorant people of many
European nations believe in charms. They bow down before statues,
certainly more attractive in appearance than the African's fetish god,
but still things of stone. The people we met were certainly
superstitious in the highest degree, but they nearly all differed in
their ideas, as did even the people of the same tribe. As far as we
could ascertain, they have no notion of the immortality of the soul,
although they fancy that the spirit exists for a short time after it
leaves the body. They dread such spirits more than they reverence them,
and believe that they are rather inclined to do them harm than good.
They therefo