Forms: 7 fetissero, (7 fetessor, 9 fetisser), 8 feticheer, -er, (9 fetisheer), 7– fetisher. [ad. Pg. feiticeiro, f. feitiço: see FETISH sb.; influenced in the later forms by Fr. fétiche or Eng. fetish.]
1. A charmer, sorcerer, ‘medicine-man’; a priest.
1613. Purchas, Pilgrimage, VI. xv. (1614), 653. They, in vncertainetie of criminall accusations, as of Adulterie, Murther, and such like, haue a certaine water offered them to drinke by the Fetissero, made of those hearbes whereof their Ball-Fetisso is made, and in effect like the cursed water, Num. 5. none daring to drinke, for feare of sudden death thereby, if he be guiltie.
1687. J. Hillier, in Phil. Trans. (1697), XIX. 687. The Fetishers had done all they could to save his [the King of Feton’s] Life.
1782. W. F. Martyn, Geog. Mag., I. 676. Each feticheer, or priest, has a fetiche of his own, peculiar in it’s construction; but they are, in general, large wooden pipes full of earth, oil, blood, bones of men and beasts, feathers, hair, and the like; which various strange compositions are supposed to contain great talismanic virtue.
1844. Ld. Brougham, A. Lunel, II. ix. 237. The Fetisser or priest now muttered over the board certain incantations, which, we were told, consisted of prayers to a large serpent; and then it was produced, stuffed, of hideous size, and was addressed as the ‘grandfather of snakes.’
1864. The Saturday Review, XVIII. 8 Oct., 458/1. The priests or fetisheers are all powerful in Dahome, and they are resolute opponents of any attempt to interfere with national religious customs.
2. = FETISH sb. 1.
1665. Sir T. Herbert, Trav. (1677), 9. Mokisses, fetessors, deformed Idols being indeared amongst them, the red Dragon usurping worship in a Dragons shape.
1699. Dampier, Voy., II. II. iv. 105. The Natives call him a Kittimpungo, and say he [Hippopotamus] is Fetisso, which is a kind of God; for nothing, they say can kill him.
Hence Fetisheeress, a female fetisheer.
1864. R. F. Burton, Dahome, II. 155. A quarter of the female population in Dahome may be fetisheeresses.
