CHINESE WORSHIP OF THE SPIRITS OF THE DEAD AT SINGAPORE. . . . THE colonial chaplain called and asked me to dine, and, after that, to go to a church festival. I accepted, and at seven P.M. went up to his lodgings, where a large party of gentlemen were assembled. I had previously walked through the town, and seen the preparations. The festival was that of the dead. But to describe

We came first to two large bonfires of paper. They burn these by hundreds and thousands. Each one with silver upon it represents a dollar (4s. 6d.), and burning them is their means of remitting money to their dead relatives. Other pieces of paper have houses, gardens, &c., depicted on them; and thus they supply, as they think, the wants of their dead friends, as regards houses, land, or money. I rescued a piece of paper from the burning, and I am accused of defrauding a dead man of a dollar. However, I hope for forgiveness, as the Chinaman who was tending the fire, and gave it me, is, I think, most to blame. But their relatives want further provision yet. So next we came to four or six whole pigs, fat as Smithfield animals, laid out on stands, with red candles all round them, and burning joss sticks in mouth, nose, and ears. Beyond these was a table a hundred yards long (some of our officers say a hundred and fifty), with a regular colonnade of bon-bons, twelve or fourteen feet high, on each side, the columns distant two or three yards. These were composed of basket-work, covered with meats and fruit. At the end we reached first, was the priest, wearing a hat of black silk, a white silk under-garment, and red silk upper one. A few musicians were playing the while on flutes and flageolets, the whole sound produced being not unlike that of bagpipes.

We paraded down one side of the table and up the other, the mob in the street being kept off by the police in attendance. The whole table was loaded most profusely. There were hosts of pigs' faces, fowls, ducks, crabs, fish, cakes of bread, sweetmeats, bananas, sugar-cane, enormous jack-fiuit, oranges, and many other things, of which I do not know the names. In the centre were a number of moving figures, of small size; one set representing a Chinese theatre; another a Mandarin's house; a third a group of Englishmen enjoying themselves. And how do you think they were pourtrayed? Encouraging two bull-dogs to fight. I felt somewhat ashamed of my country, when this was the idea with which they had inspired the ignorant and degraded Chinese. Lamps were hung all round, made of the inside of plantain trees, filled with oil, and Chinese letters inscribed thereon: these, with red candles, joss sticks, &c., made all as clear as day.

The fowls and ducks on the table were made into men and women, by placing them upright, putting paper clothes on the wings, throwing the head and neck back, as pigtail or hood, putting on artificial heads, covering the breast with a thin material, and then placing little bits of gilt paper over all. I forgot to say, that at the further end was a seat, nicely covered with carpet, and, on the table just below it, twenty-five small cups of tea, plates, chop-sticks (all new), wine, cognac vieux, and, by the side, a basin, with water and two towels. Their relatives were imagined to be sitting on this, and partaking of the food set before them, washing their hands and mouths afterwards. At midnight, the dead

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CHRISTMAS DAY AT WHATAWHATA.

[OCT.

being supposed to have feasted, the living are allowed to attack the viands, and I doubt not they vanish speedily.

wwwwwm

CHRISTMAS DAY AT WHATAWHATA, NEAR TAUPIRI, NEW

ZEALAND.

THE REV. B. Y. Ashwell, our Missionary at the above station, has forwarded to us the following pleasing intelligence of what is going forward in New Zealand.

The following facts will show, that although a spirit of lukewarmness and indifference has sprung up among our people generally, still there are happy exceptions among our converts, which prove that the blessing of God is not withheld from His servants. Having received an invitation to take the school to Whatawhata, twenty miles from our station, and spend the Christmas with the natives there, we started in two canoes, one filled with the boys, twenty-five in number, the other with girls, thirty-five in number, who, with the adults and the others, formed a party of seventy. We found the natives had set apart two houses for the school. They gave us a hearty welcome: church crowded to excess in the evening.

Christmas-day-Church exceedingly crowded: many standing outside. Ascertained the number in the church to be 400: round the doors 150: they were very attentive: I was much cheered in making known the glad tidings of a Saviour's birth. We sat down to a Christmas dinner with 600 natives, all dressed in European clothing. The greatest order and decorum prevailed. Temporary benches and tables had been erected, capable of accommodating 200 natives. The house, 300 feet in length, consisted of raupo sides, and a roof formed of numerous tarpaulings, open at the ends, was cool and convenient. A long table at each side of the house was quite sufficient to give seats to 200 natives at a time. The dinner was set three times, that all might partake of it according to European custom. Twenty stewards, with white aprons, were waiting, filling the cups and panikins with tea, our only beverage. Our fare consisted of roast pork, plum-pudding, and bread, butter, and tea in abundance. I was glad to find that all our scholars were anxious for salt, which the natives are beginning to think a necessary. More than 1000 loaves were baked for the occasion. Much greater order and decorum prevailed than at European feasts, while the cheerfulness and good temper proved that the "cup which cheers, but not inebriates, is most suitable to the native constitution. After dinner the natives assembled in the church for a Missionary Meeting. The funds were especially to be set apart for erecting a weather-boarded chapel in the district. The chapel was crowded. Twenty speakers, chiefly teachers and chiefs, addressed the Meeting much to the purpose. Twenty-four pounds were collected, and a pleasing spirit appeared throughout the Meeting. Christ and the blessings of the Gospel were the theme; and many of the teachers declared they would give up their children, not only to the school, but to be Missionaries to the islands, or anywhere else. I felt cheered greatly at the result of this Meeting. In the evening the chapel was again crowded. I shall not easily forget this, one of the happy Christmas-days of my life.

VOL. VIII. NEW SERIES.

WE referred in our last number to the great tract of Western Africa called Senegambia, and to one of its leading tribes, the Foulahs. We now introduce the Jalofs to our readers. They occupy most of the delta formed by the Gambia and the Senegal. There are four

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THE JALOFS.

[NOV.

provinces, or kingdoms, united under one supreme chief, whom they call Barbi-Yalof (the emperor of the Yalofs), and who resides at a central spot called Hikarkor.

The Jalofs are said to be the handsomest negroes in Africa, as, although having woolly hair, thick lips, and a glossy black complexion, they are tall and graceful in their forms. Their religion is a medley of paganism and Mohammedanism.

There is said to exist amongst them a species of caste, resembling that of the Hindús. Besides the nobles, who are called the "good Jalofs," there are four other ranks, or castes-the tug, or smiths; the oudae, tanners or sandal-makers; the moul, or fishermen; and the gaewell, musicians or bards. The "good Jalofs" will not intermarry with any of the inferior castes; while the gaewell are not permitted to live within the walls of the towns, keep cattle, or drink sweet milk. They are not allowed to bury their dead, the popular superstition being that nothing will grow where a gaewell has been interred.

The Jalofs are very simple in their mode of living. Their houses are small, usually of a conical shape, every respectable man having two houses, in one of which he lives, the other being for cooking purposes. Their dress consists of two square cloths, one thrown around the waist, the other over the shoulders. Their cloth is of a better texture and wider web than that of the generality of the interior tribes.

It may be well that our readers should bear in mind that the enumeration of these outward details gives a very imperfect view of the real state of the African tribes. They need the deliverance of the Gospel, for they are slaves and unhappy. It is not merely that physical slavery prevail. But they are slaves in a worse sense-the chains of superstition are on their souls. They believe in the interference of spirits in human affairs-good spirits and bad spirits, the latter being far the most active. With this spirit world, the native priests are supposed to possess the power of communication, and hence the influence they exercise over the people. Witchcraft is also another ideal terror under which they suffer. Every death which occurs in a community is ascribed to witchcraft, and some one consequently is guilty of the wicked deed. The priesthood go to work to find out the guilty person. It may be a brother, a sister, a father, and, in a few extreme cases, even mothers have been accused of the unnatural deed of causing the death of their own offspring."

It is with reference to these two sources of disquietude, the belief in demonolatry and witchcraft, that the fetish system prevails to such an extent in Africa. "A fetish," strictly speaking, is little else than a charm or amulet, worn about the person, or set up at some convenient place, for the purpose of guarding against some apprehended evil, or securing some coveted good. In the Anglo-African parlance of the coast, they are called grisgris (greegees) fujus, fetish, but all signifying the same thing. A fetish may be a piece of wood, the horn of a goat, the hoof of an antelope, a piece of metal or ivory, and need only pass through the consecrating hands of a native priest to receive all the supernatural power which they are supposed to possess. Some fetishes are worn about the person, and are intended to shield the wearer from evil; others are kept in their dwellings as family protectors; and others have

1858.] A VILLAGE MISSIONARY MEETING IN NORFOLK.

123

a national character. Sometimes they are to be seen along the highways, or on rude shanties at the entrance of the villages, but the most important are kept in a house in the centre of the town, where the Bodeh, or priest, lives and takes care of them. Yet although fetishes abound, the poor people are not a whit the more secure. They are always in uncertainty and dread. What path a man follows, which house he enters, on these incidental matters, terrible evil may depend.

One more cause of terror throughout the African tribes is to be found in the secret associations which exist, of a national character, like the Oro of the Yorubas, and the Ndâ of Southern Guinea. The mysterious personage, who acts as the representative of this association, is supposed to dwell in the woods, where his cries are heard in the dead of night. Thence he issues when special events call him forth-a hideous masquerade-from whence the women and children fly in terror. Should they have the misfortune to see him, they are dreadfully beaten. Perhaps no woman has ever had the temerity to cast her eyes upon this much dreaded being. The object of this institution is to keep the women, children, and slaves in subjection. In some parts of the country the women have amongst them a similar institution, the object of which is to deter the men from the ill-treatment of their wives.

Besides these, there are other associations of a less sacred and mysterious character. These seem to be a mere theatrical affair, intended more as public amusements than any thing else. "From a queer-looking house, built chiefly of reeds and leaves, issues a man with a most hideous mask. . . . This mask is immensely large, and presents one of the most hideous faces that can be conceived." He carries betimes a sword in his hand, with which he threatens the bystanders.

Poor, benighted tribes of Africa, when shall the day dawn and the Sun of Righteousness rise to relieve you from the spell of these dismal superstitions, and make you free?

A VILLAGE MISSIONARY MEETING IN NORFOLK, JUNE 4, 1858. ABOUT five o'clock on a bright summer afternoon, our people arrived from the adjoining parish in two waggons, bringing with them their Missionary boxes, the fruits of collections at cottage lectures during the past year.

First there was a stroll round the gardens, greenhouses, and shrubberies, which surround the Hall. The May and chesnut, guelder-rose and laburnum were all more or less in bloom; and vegetable, flower, and blossom spoke to us the praise of his goodness who is the Giver of earthly and the promiser of heavenly joy. Grace having been sung, the evening meal began. It was no ordinary feast. During the year we had met in clusters to feed on the word of life: at the year's end we all assembled to wait with our offering on Him who satisfies with open hand the desire of every thing; who accepts love's smallest offering; and who hath promised a great festal day of meeting, when every effort and every prayer of each one of his people shall be answered, as He alone can answer it; to whom the widow's mite, and the gleaner's handful, and the orphan's tear, shall be precious jewels in the sight of