Let us glance at the term itself.
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.