_Pagoda, Joss House, Fetiche._--No such word as _Pagoda_ is known in the
native languages: _Dewal_, according to Mr. Forbes (_Orient. Mem._ vol.
i. p. 25.), is the proper name. I have read somewhere or another that
_Pagoda_ is a name invented by the Portuguese from the Persian
"Pentgheda," meaning _a temple of idols_. _Joss_, applied to the Chinese
temples, seems to be the Spanish _Diós_ (Deus), as _diurnal_ becomes
_journal_.
"The Fetiche of the African (says Mr. Milman) is the Manitou of
the American Indian. The word _Fetiche_ was first, I believe,
brought into general use in the curious volume of the President de
Brosses' _Du Culte des Dieux Fétiches_. The word was formed by the
traders to Africa from the Portuguese _Fetisso_, chose fée,
enchantée, divinée, ou rendant des Oracles." De B. p.
18.--_History of Christianity_ (3 vols. 1840), vol. i. p. 11.
Query, Is this word the same as a common word in Ireland (upon which
Banim founded a tale), ycleped _fetch_, which answers to the Scotch
_wraith_?