Chapter 140

88Mason, inJour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxxiv. 196.

89Ibid.p. 195.

90Shaw, ‘Inhabitants of the Hills near Rájamahall,’ inAsiatick Researches, iv. 48sqq.Sherwill, ‘Tour through the Rájmahal Hills,’ inJour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xx. 556.

91Shaw, inAsiatick Researches, iv. 46.

92Jellinghaus, ‘Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche der Munda-Kolhs in Chota Nagpore,’ inZeitschr. f. Ethnologie, iii. 330sq.

93Stewart, ‘Northern Cachar,’ inJour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal, xxiv. 628.

The Ainu of Japan believe in a great god or creator who bestows blessings upon the good and visits the bad with disease, unless they repent. They also say that good people go after death to the “island of the Great Spirit,” or to the “kingdom of God,” to lead a happy life; whereas bad people go to the “bad island,” or to the “wet underground world,” in which they suffer discomfort or, according to some, are burned in everlasting fires.94Of the pagan Samoyedes we are told that they regard the great Num as the creator of the universe, as an all-powerful and omniscient being, who protects the innocent, rewards the virtuous, and punishes the wicked.95But the primitive Num, who was simply the sky, was too far removed from the nomads who wandered across the frozen plain, to interfere to prevent catastrophe or accomplish their well-being; and in the provident actions and overseeing which some of the Samoyedes now ascribe to him, “we can clearly enough trace the influence of the missionary and the suggestion of the Christian faith.”96

94von Siebold,Die Aino auf der Insel Yesso, p. 24. Batchelor,Ainu of Japan, pp. 199, 235sqq.Howard,Life with Trans-Siberian Savages, p. 193.

95Castrén,op. cit.iii. 14.

96Jackson, inJour. Anthr. Inst.xxiv. 398. See also Castrén,op. cit.iii. 14-16, 182sqq.

Dr. Rink asserts that the Greenlanders considered Tornarsuk as the supreme being on whom they were dependent for any supernatural aid, and in whose abodes in the depth of the earth all such persons as had striven and suffered for the benefit of their fellow men should find a happy existence after death.97Dr. Nansen, however, is of opinion that Tornarsuk owes a great deal to missionary influence.98That he was not so superior a being as is commonly stated is evident from Captain Holm’s description of the Angmagsaliks in Eastern Greenland, where he is represented as a monster living in the sea, of about the same length as a big seal, but thicker.99And to judge from Egede’s description dating from the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Tornarsuk’s notions of justice, if he had any, must in olden times have been very limited, as he took to his subterranean paradise only women that died in labour and men that perished at sea.100

97Rink,Greenland, p. 141.

98Nansen,Eskimo Life, p. 242.

99Holm, ‘Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne,’ inMeddelelser om Grönland, x. 115.

100Egede,Description of Greenland, p. 197.

The “Great Spirit” so often referred to in accounts of North American Indians, is described as a being too elevated and remote to take much interest in the destinies and actions of men and too benevolent by nature to require propitiation or worship. Schoolcraft asserts that in their oral traditions there is no attempt “to make man accountable to him, here or hereafter, for aberrations from virtue, good will, truth, or any form of moral right. With benevolence and pity as prime attributes the Great Transcendental Spirit of the Indian does not take upon himself a righteous administration of the world’s affairs, but, on the contrary, leaves it to be filled, and its affairs, in reality, governed, by demons and fiends in human form.”101Yet there are instances in which he is represented in a different light. The most essential moral precepts of the Iroquois “were taught as the will of the Great Spirit, and obedience to their requirements as acceptable in his sight”;102but whilst highly gratified with their virtues, he detested their vices, and punished them for their bad conduct not only in this world but in a future state of existence.103The Potawatomis considered that rape was visited by the anger of the Great Spirit.104Ti-ra’-wa, the supreme being of the Pawnees, applauds valour, abhors theft, and punishes the wicked by annihilation, whilst the good dwell with him in his heavenly home.105The Indians of Alabama told Bossu that those who behave themselves foolishly and disregard the supreme being will after death go to a barren land full of thorns and briars, with no hunting and no wives, whereas those who neither rob nor kill nor take other men’s wives will occupy a very fertile country and live there a happy life.106Keating states that, according to the beliefs of the Dacotahs, men go to the residence of the Great Spirit if they have been good and peaceable, or if they died by the hand of their enemy, but that their souls are doomed to the residence of the Evil Spirit if they perish in a broil with their own countrymen.107This statement, however, is not supported by other authorities. Prescott writes of the same Indians:—“They have very little notion of punishment for crime hereafter in eternity: indeed, they know very little about whether the Great Spirit has anything to do with their affairs, present or future.”108And among the Omaha and Ponka, who are branches of the same people, the old men used to say to their fellow tribesmen, “If you are good, you will go to the good ghosts; if you are bad you will go to the bad ghosts.” But nothing was ever said of going to dwell with Wakanda, or with demons.109As regards the origin of the North American notion of the Great Spirit different opinions have been expressed. On the one hand we are told that it is essentially only “the Indian’s conception of the white man’s god,” which belongs not to the untutored but to the tutored mind of the savage.110On the other hand it is argued that the belief in the Great Spirit must be a native product, since it is reported to have occurred already before the arrival of the earliest Jesuit missionaries.111Unfortunately, however, we cannot be sure that our informants have accurately interpreted the beliefs of the Indians. Mr. Dorsey has pointed out that a fruitful source of error has been a misunderstanding of their terms and phrases.112The Dacotah wordwakanda, which has been rendered into “Great Spirit,” simply means “mystery,” or “mysterious,” and signifies rather a quality than a definite entity. Among many tribes the sun is wakanda, among the same tribes the moon is wakanda, and so are thunder, lightning, the stars, the winds, as also various animals, trees, and inanimate objects or places of a striking character; even a man, especially a medicine-man, may be considered wakanda.113So, too, the Menomini termmashä’ ma’ nidō, or “great unknown,” is not to be understood as implying a belief in one supreme being; there are several manidos, each supreme in his own realm, as well as many lesser mysteries, or deities, or spirits.114Mr. Dorsey also observes that in many cases Indians have been quick to adopt the phrases of civilisation in communicating with white people, whilst in speaking to one another they use their own terms.115At the same time it seems to me that if the notion of a Great Spirit had altogether a Christian origin we might expect to find an idea of moral retribution more commonly associated with it than thestatements imply. It may be that among the North American Indians also, as among some other peoples, a vague conception of something like a supreme being has arisen through a personification of the mysteries in nature.116But if this be the case the interest which the Great Spirit in rare instances takes in human conduct may all the same be due to missionary influence. It is certainly not an original characteristic of his nature. Among the Iroquois and Pawnees, who attribute to their great god the function of a moral judge, he also receives offerings—117a circumstance which indicates that he cannot be regarded as a typical representative of his class.

101Schoolcraft,op. cit.i. 35.

102Morgan,League of the Iroquois, p. 172.

103Seaver,Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Jemison, p. 155.

104Keating,Expedition to the Source of St. Peter’s River, i. 127.

105Grinnell,Pawnee Hero Stories, p. 355. Lang,Making of Religion, p. 257.

106Bossu,Travels through Louisiana, i. 256sq.

107Keating,op. cit.i. 393sq.

108Schoolcraft,op. cit.ii. 195.Cf.ibid.iii. 229.

109Dorsey, ‘Siouan Cults,’ inAnn. Rep. Bur. Ethn.xi. 419.

110Smith, ‘Myths of the Iroquois,’ inAnn. Rep. Bur. Ethn.ii. 112. Tylor, ‘Limits of Savage Religion,’ inJour. Anthr. Inst.xxi. 284. Boyle, ‘Paganism of the Civilised Iroquois,’ibid.xxx. 266.

111Lang,Making of Religion, p. 251sqq.Idem,Magic and Religion, p. 19sqq.Hoffmann,op. cit.p. 86sq.

112Dorsey, inAnn. Rep. Bur. Ethn.xi. 365sq.

113Ibid.p. 366. McGee, inAnn. Rep. Bur. Ethn.xv. 181sqq.Cf.James,Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, i. 268; Tylor,op. cit.ii. 343.

114Hoffman, ‘Menomini Indians,’ inAnn. Rep. Bur. Ethn.xiv. 39, n. 1.Cf.Parkman,Jesuits in North America, p. lxxix.

115Dorsey, inAnn. Rep. Bur. Ethn.xi. 365. See also Smith,ibid.ii. 112.

116The Great Spirit is represented by Schoolcraft (op. cit.i. 15) as a “Soul of the Universe which inhabits and animates every thing,” and is supposed to exist under every possible form in the world, animate and inanimate. Of Ti-ra’-wa it is said that he “is in and of everything” (supra,i. 448).

117Seaver,op. cit.p. 155.Suprai. 448.

In South America, too, several tribes have been found to believe in a benevolent Great Spirit, who is indifferent to men’s behaviour and is not worshipped by them.118Of the Passés, however, we are told by a Portuguese official who travelled in Brazil in 1774–75 that they have the idea of a creator who rewards good people by allowing their souls to stay with him and punishes the wicked by turning their souls into evil spirits.119But according to Mr. Bates “these notions are so far in advance of the ideas of all other tribes of Indians … that we must suppose them to have been derived by the docile Passés from some early missionary or traveller.”120Of the Fuegians, again, Admiral Fitzroy writes:—“A great black man is supposed to be always wandering about the woods and mountains, who is certain of knowing every word and every action; who cannot be escaped, and who influences the weather according to men’s conduct.” Of this influence our informant gives the following instance. A native related a story of his brother who once killed a man—one of those very wild men who wander about in the woods supporting themselves by theft—because he stole from him a bird. Afterwards he was very sorry for what he had done, particularly when it began to blow hard. In telling the story, the brother said:—“Rain come down—snow come down—hail come down—wind blow—blow—very much blow. Very bad to kill man. Big man in woods no like it, he very angry.” The same native also reproached the surgeonof the Beagle for shooting some young ducks with the old bird:—“Very bad to shoot little duck—come wind—come rain—blow—very much blow.”121In the latter case, however, no mention was made of the black man in the woods. From Admiral Fitzroy’s account Mr. Andrew Lang draws the conclusion that the Fuegians have evolved the idea of a high deity, an ethical judge, who “makes for righteousness,” who searches the heart, who almost literally “marks the sparrow’s fall,” and whose morality is so much above the ordinary savage standard that he regards the slaying of a stranger and an enemy, caught redhanded in robbery, as a sin.122This statement may serve as a specimen of the spirit in which its author deals with the subject of supreme beings in savage beliefs. There is after all some difference between a high moral god and a mythical weather doctor who lives in the woods and sends bad weather if a wild man, who also lives in the woods, is killed. Mr. Bridges, our most trustworthy authority on the Fuegians, says nothing of the black man, but states that nearly all the old men among the Fuegians are medicine-men, and that these wizards make frequent incantations in which they seem to address themselves to a mysterious being called Aïapakal. And they also believe in another spirit, named Hoakils, from whom they pretend to obtain a supernatural power over life and death.123

118Bernau,Missionary Labours in British Guiana, p. 49. Hoffmann,op. cit.p. 90sqq.

119Ribeiro de Sampaio,Diario da viagem, p. 79.

120Bates,The Naturalist on the River Amazons, ii. 244.Cf.ibid.ii. 162; Dobrizhofter,Account of the Abipones, ii. 57sq.; Müller,Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen, p. 289.

121King and Fitzroy,Voyages of the“Adventure”and“Beagle,” ii. 180.

122Lang,Making of Religion, pp. 188, 198. The same description of the Fuegian black man is repeated by M. Hoffmann (op. cit.p. 40).

123Bridges, quoted by Hyades and Deniker,Mission scientifique du Cap Horn, vii. 256.

The South African Bushmans, another very backward people, are likewise represented by Mr. Lang and M. Hoffmann as believers in a supreme being.124A native said to Mr. Orpen that Cagn made all things, and that the people prayed to him:—“O Cagn! O Cagn! are we not your children, do you not see our hunger? Give us food.” And he gave them what they asked for both hands full. But although he was at first very good and nice, he afterwards “got spoilt through fighting so many things.”125However, according to another statement, made by a person who from childhood had much intercourse with Bushmans and knew their language, they did not believe in a God or the great father of men, but in a devil who made everything with his left hand.126The Hottentots spoke of Tsui-goab as “the giver of all blessings, the Father on high, All-father, theavenger, who fought daily the battle for his people.” They thus identified him with the ancestor of the tribe, but Tsui-goab was also the name by which they called the Infinite.127Among the pagans of Africa there is, in fact, a very widespread belief in a benevolent supreme deity, a creator or maker of things, who lives in or above the sky, who generally takes no concern whatever in the affairs of mankind, who mostly receives no worship, and is, as a rule, totally indifferent to good or evil.128In some rare instances only he is described as a judge of human conduct. Thus some of the Bechuanas believe that a being who is vaguely called by the name of Lord and Master of things, Mongalinto, punishes thieves by striking them with the lightning.129According to an old writer, Father Santos, the natives of Sofala in South-Eastern Africa acknowledge a god, called Molungo, “who both in this and the world to come they fancy measures retribution for the good and evil done in this.” They believe in the existence of twenty-seven paradises, where everyone enjoys a pleasure proportionate to the merits of his life; while those who have passed their lives in wickedness are supposed to be condemned to a privation from the sight of the holy presence of Molungo, and to suffer torments in one of the thirteen hells they assume to exist, each according to the evil he has done.130The Baluba, a Bantu people of Equatorial Africa, have the notion of a creator, named Fidi-Mukullu, who punishes the souls of the wicked before they are reborn on earth, whereas the good return to life again, in the shape of chiefs or other important persons, immediately after they have died.131The Awemba,another Bantu people, who inhabit the stretch of country lying between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Bangweolo, acknowledge a supreme being, Leza, who “is the Judge of the dead, and condemns thieves, adulterers and murderers to the state of Vibanda, or Viwa (evil spirits), exalting the good to the rank ofmipashi, or benevolent spirits.”132Other natives in the neighbourhood of Lake Tanganyika recognise a creator called Kabesa, who lives in the sky and admits to his abode the souls of good people after death, but turns away the souls of the wicked.133The Akikuyu of British East Africa recognise three gods all of whom are called Ngai. One of them, however, is considered the supreme deity. “If a man is good this Ngai can give him much property. If he does wrong the same power can strike him down with disease and cause his livestock to dwindle away…. The sudden death of a man, for instance by lightning, is ascribed to some evil act of his life being punished by Ngai.”134Proyart tells us that the Negroes of Loango believed in a supreme being, Zambi, who had created all that is good in the world, who was himself good and loved justice in others, and who severely punished fraud and perjury.135It is of course impossible to say exactly how far the statements referring to African supreme beings represent unadulterated native beliefs. In criticising Kolb’s account of the supreme and perfect god of the Hottentots, Bishop Callaway observes, “Nothing is more easy than to enquire of heathen savages the character of their creed, and during the conversation to impart to them … ideas which they never heard before, and presently to have these come back again as articles of their own original faith, when in reality they are but the echoes of one’s own thoughts.”136With reference to the West African native Miss Kingsley likewise remarks that he has a wonderful power of assimilating foreign forms of belief, and that when he once has got hold of a new idea it remains in his mind long after the missionaries who put it there have passed away.137And besides the teaching of missionaries there are in Africa several factors which for centuries have tended to introduce foreign conceptions, namely, intercourse with European settlers, the operations of the slave trade, and the influence of Muhammedanism.138But at the sametime it seems exceedingly probable that the African belief in a supreme being has a native substratum. In many cases he is apparently the heaven god;139but he may also be a mythical ancestor, as the Hottentot god Tsui-goab and the Zulu god Unkulunkulu; or a personification of the supernatural, as is suggested by such names as the Masai Ngăi, the Monbuttu Kilima, and the Malagasy Andriamanitra;140or the assumed cause of anything which particularly fills the savage mind with wonder or awe. Among the natives of Northern Guinea, according to Mr. Wilson, “every thing which transpires in the natural world beyond the power of man, or of spirits, who are supposed to occupy a place somewhat higher than man, is at once and spontaneously ascribed to the agency of God.”141Nay, for reasons which will be stated immediately, I am even of opinion that the function of a moral judge, occasionally attributed to the great god of African pagans, has in some instances an independent origin.

124Lang,Making of Religion, p. 210. Hoffmann,op. cit.p. 40sq.

125Orpen, ‘Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen,’ inThe Cape Monthly Magazine, N.S. ix. 2.

126Campbell,Second Journey in the Interior of South Africa, i. 29.

127Hahn,The Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi, pp. 122, 126sq.

128Livingstone,Missionary Travels, p. 641 (tribes of the Zambesi). Rattray,Stories and Songs in Chinyanja, p. 198 (natives of Central Angoniland). Stigand, ‘Natives of Nyassaland,’ inJour. Roy. Anthr. Inst.xxxvii. 130. Roscoe, ‘Bahima,’ibid.xxxvii. 108sq.Wilson and Felkin,Uganda, i. 206. Beltrame,Il Fiume Bianco e i Dénka, pp. 191, 192, 276sq.Kingsley, ‘Fetish View of the Human Soul,’ inFolk-Lore, viii. 142sq.;Idem,Travels in West Africa, pp. 442, 508. Parkinson, ‘Asaba People of the Niger,’ inJour. Anthr. Inst.xxxvi. 312. Bosman,Description of the Coast of Guinea, pp. 121sq.(Gold Coast natives), 348 (Slave Coast natives). Cruickshank,Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast, ii. 126sq.Ellis,Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast, p. 26sqq.Idem,Ew̔e-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast, p. 33sq.Winterbottom,Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone, i. 222. Wilson,Western Africa, p. 209 (natives of Northern Guinea). Rowley,Religion of the Africans, pp. 15, 16, 54. Tylor,op. cit.ii. 347sqq.Lang,Making of Religion, p. 230sqq.Hoffmann,op. cit.p. 45sqq.

129Arbousset and Daumas,Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Colony of Good Hope, p. 322sq.

130Santos, ‘History of Eastern Ethiopia,’ in Pinkerton,Collection of Voyages and Travels, xvi. 687.

131Wissmann, Wolf, &c.,Im Innern Afrikas, p. 158. Wissmann,Quer durch Afrika, p. 379.

132Sheane, ‘Awemba Religion,’ inJour. Anthr. Inst.xxxvi. 150sq.

133Schneider,Die Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker, p. 84.

134Tate, ‘Kikuyu Tribe,’ inJour. Anthr. Inst.xxxiv. 263.

135Proyart, ‘History of Loango,’ in Pinkerton,Collection of Voyages and Travels, xvi. 594.

136Callaway,Religious System of the Amazulu, p. 105sq.

137Kingsley, inFolk-Lore, viii. 150.

138Cf.Rowley,Religion of the Africans, pp. 28, 90; Wilson,Western Africa, p. 229sq.; Cruickshank,op. cit.ii. 126.

139See Tylor,op. cit.ii. 347sqq.

140Seesupra,ii. 586sq.

141Wilson,op. cit.p. 209. See also Livingstone,Expedition to the Zambesi, p. 521sq., quotedsupra,ii. 594.

Generally speaking, then, it seems that the All-father, supreme being, or high god of savage belief may be traced to several different sources. When not a “loan-god” of foreign extraction, he may be a mythical ancestor or headman; or a deification of the sky or some large and remote object of nature, like the sun; or a personification or personified cause of the mysteries or forces of nature. The argument that the belief in such a being is “irreducible” because it prevails among savages who worship neither ancestors nor nature,142can carry no weight in consideration of the fact that he himself, as a general rule, is no object of worship. In various instances we have reason to suppose that even though the notion of a supreme being is fundamentally of native origin, foreign conceptions have been engrafted upon it; and to these belongs in particular the idea of a heavenly judge who in the after-life punishes the wicked and rewards the good. But we are not entitled to assume that the idea of moral retribution as a function of the great god has in every case been adoptedfrom people of a higher culture. A mythical ancestor or headman may of his own accord approve of virtue and disapprove of vice; and, besides, justice readily becomes the attribute of a god who is habitually appealed to in curses or oaths. That the supreme being of savages is thus invoked, is in some cases directly stated by our authorities. In making solemn treatises, the Hurons called on Oki, the heaven god.143The Negroes of Loango, who believed that Zambi, the supreme being, punished fraud and perjury, took his name in testimony of the truth.144Among the Awemba the supreme god Leza, who is believed to reward the good and to punish thieves, adulterers, and murderers, is invoked both in blessings and curses, the injured man praying that Leza will send a lion to devour the evildoer.145In the Ew̔e-speaking Ho tribe on the Slave Coast the great god Mawu, who is said to inflict punishment on the wicked, is frequently appealed to in law-cases, by the judge as well as by the plaintiff and the accused.146In Northern Guinea the name of the supreme being is solemnly called on three times at the ratification of an important treaty, or when a person is condemned to undergo the “red-water ordeal.”147Of the Mpongwe we are told that “when a covenant is about to be formed among the different tribes, Mwetyi [the supreme being] is always invoked as a witness, and is commissioned with the duty of visiting vengeance upon the party who shall violate the engagement. Without this their national treaties would have little or no force. When a law is passed which the people wish to be especially binding, they invoke the vengeance of Mwetyi upon every transgressor, and this, as a general thing, is ample guarantee for its observance.”148Among the East African Wakamba, when the supposed criminal is to undergo the ordeal of the hatchet, a magician makes him repeat the following words:—“If I have stolen the property of so and so, or committed this crime, letMulungu respond for me; but if I have not stolen, nor done this wickedness, may he save me.” The magician then passes the red-hot iron four times over the flat hand of the accused; and the people believe that if he is guilty, his hand will be burned, but that, if innocent, he will suffer no injury.149Among the Masai a person who is accused of cattle-lifting and on that account subjected to the ordeal of drinking a mixture of blood and milk, has first to swear, “O God, I drink this blood, if I have stolen the cattle this blood will kill me.” Should he not die within a fortnight he is considered innocent.150The Madi of Central Africa have various means of trial by ordeal, through which it is believed that the guilt of a suspected individual can be detected; and “before any of these trials the men look up and solemnly invoke some invisible being to punish him if guilty, or help him if innocent.”151Of the natives of the Zambesi, all of whom have an idea of a supreme being, Livingstone states that, when undergoing an ordeal, “they hold up their hands to the Ruler of Heaven, as if appealing to him to assert their innocence.”152

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