Note note 5 — NOTES TO PART I

5 It was a fetish (p. 12).--The early traders on the Congo placed in their large stores a fetish to deter the natives from 344robbing them. It was generally a large, gaudily-coloured, hideous image put on the top shelf opposite the door, from which position it was supposed to dominate and guard the contents of the whole building. Many traders called their store “the fetish” because of the presence of this ugly figure in it.