[Footnote H:  Sometimes Fetichism furnished a legend which Catholicism, in its best estate, would not despise.  Here is one that belongs to the Akwapim country, which lies north of Akkra, and is tributary to Ashantee.  “They say that Odomankama created all things.  He created the earth, the trees, stones, and men.  He showed men what they ought to eat, and also said to them, ’Whenever anybody does anything that is lovely, think about it, and do it also, only do not let your eye grow red’ (that is, inflamed, lustful).  When He had finished the creation.  He left men and went to heaven; and when He went, the Fetiches came hither from the mountains and the sea.  Now, touching these Fetiches, as well as departed spirits, they are not God, neither created by God, but He has only given them permission, at their request, to come to men.  For which reason no Fetich ever receives permission to slay a man, except directly from the Creator.”—­Petermann’s Mittheiltungen, 1856, p. 466.]

[Footnote I:  Droit Public des Colonies Francoises, d’apres les Lois faites pour ces Pays, Tom.  I. p. 306.]

[Footnote J:  On the other hand, an elaborate Manuel des Habitans de St. Domingue cautions the planters on this point:  “Carefully avoid abandoning the new negroes to the discretion of the old ones, who are often very glad to play the part of hosts for the sake of such valets, to whom they make over the rudest part of their day’s work.  This produces disgust and repugnance in the new-comers, who cannot yet bear to be ordered about, least of all to be maltreated by negroes like themselves, while, on the contrary, they submit willingly and with affection to the orders of a white.”  This Manual, which reads like a treatise on muck or the breeding of cattle, proceeds to say, that, if the planter would preserve his negroes’ usefulness, he must be careful to keep off the ticks.]

But these distinctions could not be preserved upon such a limited area and amid these jostling tribes.  People of a dozen latitudes swarmed in the cabins of a single negro-quarter.  Even the small planter could not stock his habitation with a single kind of negro:  the competition at each trade-sale of slaves prevented it.  So did a practice of selling them by the scramble.  This was to shut two or three hundred of them into a large court-yard, where they were all marked at the same price, and the gates thrown open to purchasers.  A greedy crowd rushed in, with yells and fighting, each man struggling to procure a quota, by striking them with his fists, tying handkerchiefs or pieces of string to them, fastening tags around their necks, regardless of tribe, family, or condition.  The negroes, not yet recovered from their melancholy voyage, were amazed and panic-stricken at this horrible onslaught of avaricious men; they frequently scaled the walls, and ran frantically up and down the town.