As the Chinaman’s “Joss” is only his own pronunciation of the Portuguese word Deos, or the Latin Deus, so the word “fetich” is but the Portuguese modification of the Latin word facticius, that is feitico.  Portugal, beginning nearly five hundred years ago, had the honor of sending the first ships and crews to explore the coasts of Africa and Asia, and her sailors by this word, now Englished as fetich, described the native charms or talismans.  The word “fetichism” came into the European languages through the work of Charles de Brosses, who, in 1760, wrote on “Du Culte des Dieux Fetiches.”  In Fetichism, the “object is treated as having personal consciousness and power, is talked with, worshipped, prayed to, sacrificed to, petted or ill-treated with reference to its past or future behavior to its votaries.”

Let me draw a picture from actual observation.  I look out of the windows of my house in Fukui.  Here is a peasant who comes back after the winter to prepare his field for cultivation.  The man’s horizon of ideas, like his vocabulary, is very limited.  His view of actual life is bounded by a few rice-fields, a range of hills, and the village near by.  Possibly one visit to a city or large town has enriched his experience.  More probably, however, the wind and clouds, the weather, the soil, crops and taxes, his family and food and how to provide for them, are the main thoughts that occupy his mind.  Before he will strike mattock or spade in the soil, lay axe to a tree, collect or burn underbrush, he will select a stone, a slab of rock or a stick of wood, set it upon hill side or mud field-boundary, and to this he will bow, prostrate himself or pray.  To him, this stone or stick is consecrated.  It has power to placate the spirits and ward off their evil.  It is the medium of communication between him and them.  Now, having attended, as he thinks, to the proprieties in the case, he proceeds to dig, plough, drain, put in order and treat soil or water, tree or other growth as is most convenient for his purpose.  His fetich is erected to “the honorable spirits.”  Were this not attended to, some known or unknown bad luck, sinister fortune, or calamity would befall him.  Here, then, is a fetich-worshipper.  The stick or stone is the medium of communication between the man and the spirits who can bless or harm him, and which to his mind are as countlessly numerous as the swarms of mosquitoes which he drives out of and away from his summer cottage by smudge fires in August.

One need not travel in Yezo or Saghalin to see practical Fetichism.  Go where you will in Japan, there are fetich worshippers.  Among the country folk, the “inaka” of Japanese parlance, Fetichism is seen in its grossest forms.  Yet among probably millions of Buddhists, especially of certain sects, the Nichiren for example, and even among the rationalistic Confucians, there are fetich-worshippers.  Rare is the Japanese farmer, laborer, mechanic, ward-man,