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THE
MAKING OF EELIGION
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THE
MAKING OF RELIGION
BY
ANDEEW LANG
M.A., LL.D. St Andrews
HONOEAKY FELLOW OF MERTON COLLEGE, OXFOBD
SOMETIME GIFFOBD LECTURER IN THE DNITERSITY OF ST ANDREWS
jOf \r\ 2'H-f-R-D EDITION
LONGMANS, GKEEN, AND CO.
39 PATEKNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK, BOMBAY, AND CALCUTTA
1909
All rights reserved.
i
TO THE PEINCIPAL
OF THE
UNIVERSITY OF ST. ANDREWS
Dear Principal Donaldson,
I hope you will permit me to lay at the feet of the
University of St. Andrews, in acknowledgment of her life-long
kindnesses to her old pupil, these chapters on the early
History of Religion. They may he taken as representing the
Gifford Lectures delivered by me, though in fact they contain
very little that was spoken from Lord Gifford's chair. I
wish they were more worthy of an Alma Mater which fostered
in the past the leaders of forlorn hopes that were destined to
triumph; and the friends of lost causes who fought bravely
against Fate — Patrick Hamilton, Cargill, and Argyll, Beaton
and Montrose, and Dundee.
Believe me
Very sincerely yours,
ANDREW LANG.
PEEFACB
TO
THE THIED EDITION
Since the publication of the second edition of this book
(1900) much new evidence as to the existence of the
belief in an ' All Father ' has accrued. For Australia the
classical sources are ' Native Tribes of South-East Aus-
tralia,' by the late Mr. A. W. Howitt (1904), and 'The
Euahlayi Tribe,' by Mrs. Langloh Parker (1905). For
other regions the * Journal of the Anthropological Insti-
tute ' since 1900 may be consulted, with the book of Pere
Schmidt, S.V.D., * L'Origine de I'Idee de Dieu,' published
in * Anthropos,' 1908-09. For a theory of the mental
condition of man in the dawn of religion Mr. Marett's
' The Threshold of EeHgion ' (1909) must be studied.
I owe especial thanks to P6re Schmidt for his learned
advocacy of the ideas contained in the second part of this
work (pp. 160-305), and for his amusing account of its
fortunes at critical hands.
The study of * The Northern Tribes of Central Aus-
tralia,' by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen (1904), and of the
viii THE MAKING OF RELIGION
German work on ' The Luritja and Aranda (Arunta)
Tribes ' of Central Australia, by the Kev. Mr. Strehlow
(1907-1908), has led me to think it highly probable that
the godless Arunta studied by Messrs. Spencer and Gillen
have possessed, but have lost, the conception of an All
Father, which has left conspicuous traces in the behef of
the Luritja, and the Arunda in Mr. Strehlow's region.
As to the earlier part of the book, which deals with
the basis of animism in super-normal as well as narmal
experiences, it is hardly necessary to recommend the
study of Mr. F. W. H. Myers' 'Human Personality'
(1903), and the 'Proceedings' and 'Journal' of the
Society for Psychical Kesearch.
A. L.
May 1909.
PEEFACE
TO
THE SECOND EDITION
By the nature of things this book falls under two divisions.
The first eight chapters criticise the current anthropo-
logical theory of the origins of the belief in spirits.
Chapters ix.-xvii., again, criticise the current anthropo-
logical theory as to how, the notion of spirit once attained,
man arrived at the idea of a Supreme Being. These two
branches of the topic are treated in most modern works
concerned with the Origins of Eeligion, such as Mr.
Tylor's ' Primitive Culture,' Mr. Herbert Spencer's ' Prin-
ciples of Sociology,' Mr. Jevons's ' Introduction to the
History of Eeligion,' the late Mr. Grant Allen's * Evolu-
tion of the Idea of God,' and many others. Yet I have
been censured for combining, in this work, the two
branches of my subject ; and the second part has been
regarded as but faintly connected with the first.
The reason for this criticism seems to be, that while one
small set of students is interested in, and familiar with the
themes examined in the first part (namely the psycho-
logical characteristics of certain mental states from which,
in part, the doctrine of spirits is said to have arisen), that
set of students neither knows nor cares anything about the
X THE MAKING OF RELIGION
matter handled in the second part. This group of stu-
dents is busied with * Psychical Eesearch,' and the obscure
human faculties implied in alleged cases of hallucination,
telepathy, * double personality,' human automatism, clair-
voyance, and so on. Meanwhile anthropological readers are
equally indifferent as to that branch of psychology which
examines the conditions of hysteria, hypnotic trance,
* double personality,' and the like. Anthropologists have
not hitherto applied to the savage mental conditions, out
of which, in part, the doctrine of ' spirits ' arose, the recent
researches of French, German, and English psychologists
of the new school. As to whether these researches into
abnormal psychological conditions do, or do not, indicate
the existence of a transcendental region of human faculty,
anthropologists appear to be unconcerned. The only
EngHsh exception known to me is Mr. Tylor, and his
great work, * Primitive Culture,' was written thirty years
ago, before the modem psychological studies of Profes-
sor William James, Dr. Eomaine Newbold, M. Eichet,
Dr. Janet, Professor Sidgwick, Mr. Myers, Mr. Gurney,
Dr. Parish, and many others had commenced.
Anthropologists have gone on discussing the trances,
and visions, and so-called ' demoniacal possession ' of
savages, as if no new researches into similar facts in the
psychology of civilised mankind existed ; or, if they existed,
threw any glimmer of light on the abnormal psychology
of savages. I have, on the other hand, thought it desir-
able to sketch out a study of savage psychology in the
light of recent psychological research. Thanks to this
daring novelty, the book has been virtually taken as two
books ; anthropologists have criticised the second part,
and one or two Psychical Eesearchers have criticised the
first part ; each school leaving one part severely alone.
Such are the natural results of a too restricted specialism.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xi
Even to Psychical Eesearchers the earlier division is of
Bcant interest, because witnesses to successful abnormal or
supernormal faculty in savages cannot be brought into
court and cross-examined. But I do not give anecdotes
of such savage successes as evidence to facts ; they are
only illustrations, and evidence to beliefs and methods (as
of crystal gazing and automatic utterances of ' secondary
personality '), vfhich, among the savages, correspond to
the supposed facts examined by Psychical Kesearch among
the civilised. I only point out, as Bastian had already
pointed out, the existence of a field that deserves closer
study by anthropologists who can observe savages in their
homes. We need persons trained in the psychological
laboratories of Europe and America, as members of an-
thropological expeditions. It may be noted that, in his
' Letters from the South Seas,' Mr. Louis Stevenson
makes some curious observations, especially on a singular
form of hypnotism applied to himself with fortunate re-
sults. The method, used in native medicine, was novel ;
and the results were entirely inexplicable to Mr, Stevenson,
who had not been amenable to European hypnotic prac-
tice. But he was not a trained expert.
Anthropology must remain incomplete while it neglects
this field, whether among wild or civilised men. In the
course of time this will come to be acknowledged. It
will be seen that we cannot really account for the origin
of the belief in spirits while we neglect the scientific
study of those psychical conditions, as of hallucination
and the hypnotic trance, in which that belief must prob-
ably have had some, at least, of its origins.
As to the second part of the book, I have argued that
the first dim surmises as to a Supreme Being need not
have arisen (as on the current anthropological theory) in
the notion of spirits at all. fSec chapter xi.) Here T
/
xii THE MAKING OF RELIGION
have been said to draw a mere * verbal distinction,' but
no distinction can be more essential. If such a Supreme
Being as many savages acknowledge is not envisaged by
them as a * spirit,' then the theories and processes by which
he is derived from a ghost of a dead man are invalid, and
remote from the point. As to the origin of a belief in a
kind of germinal Supreme Being (say the Australian
Baiame), I do not, in this book, offer any opinion. I again
and again decline to offer an opinion. Critics, none the
less, have said that I attribute the belief to revelation ! I
shall therefore here indicate what I think probable in so
obscure a field.
As soon as man had the idea of * making ' things, he
might conjecture as to a Maker of things which he him-
self had not made, and could not make. He would regard
this unknown Maker as a * magnified non-natural man.*
These speculations appear to me to need less reflection
than the long and complicated processes of thought by
which Mr. Tylor believes, and probably believes with
justice, the theory of * spirits ' to have been evolved. (See
chapter iii.) This conception of a magnified non-natural
man, who is a Maker, being given ; his Power would be
recognised, and fancy would clothe one who had made
such useful things with certain other moral attributes, as
of Fatherhood, goodness, and regard for the ethics of his
children ; these ethics having been developed naturally in
the evolution of social life. In all this there is nothing
' mystical,' nor anything, as far as I can see, beyond the
limited mental powers of any beings that deserve to be
called human.
But I hasten to add that another theory may be enter-
tained. Since this book was v^ritten there appeared ' The
Native Tribes of Central Australia,' by Professor Spencer
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xiii
and Mr. Gillen, a most valuable study.^ The authors,
closely scrutinising the esoteric rites of the Arunta and
other tribes in Central Australia, found none of the moral
precepts and attributes which (according to Mr. Howitt,
to whom their work is dedicated), prevail in the mysteries
of the natives of New South Wales and Victoria. (See
chapter x.) What they found was a belief in * the great
spirit, Twanyirika,' who is believed * by uninitiated boys
and women ' (but, apparently, not by adults) to preside
over the cruel rites of tribal initiation.'^ No more is said,
no myths about ' the great spirit ' are given. He is dis-
missed in a brief note. Now if these ten lines contain
all the native lore of Twanyirika, he is a mere bugbear,
not believed in (apparently) by adults, but invented by
them to terrorise the women and boys. Next, granting
that the information of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen is
exhaustive, and granting that (as Mr. J. G. Frazer holds,
in his essays in the * Fortnightly Keview,' April and May,
1899) the Arunta are the most primitive of mortals, it
will seem to follow that the moral attributes of Baiame
and other gods of other Australian regions are later accre-
tions round the form of an original and confessed bugbear,
as among the primitive Arunta, ' a bogle of the nursery,'
in the phrase repudiated by Maitland of Lethington.
Though not otherwise conspicuously more civilised than
the Arunta (except, perhaps, in marriage relations), Mr.
Hewitt's South Eastern natives will have improved the
Arunta confessed * bogle ' into a beneficent and moral
Father and Maker. Eeligion will have its origin in a
tribal joke, and will have become not * diablemenf,' but
* divinement,' ' chang^e en route.'' Headers of Messrs.
Spencer and Gillen will see that the Arunta philosophy,
' Macmillans, 1899.
' Op. cit. p. 240, note.
Xiv THE MAKING OF RELIGION
primitive or not, is of a high ingenuity, and so artfully
composed that it contains no room either for a Supreme
Being or for the doctrine of the survival of the soul, with
a future of rewards and punishments ; opinions declared
to be extant among other Austrahan tribes. There is no
creator, and every soul, after death, is reincarnated in a
new member of the tribe. On the other hand (granting
that the brief note on Twanyirika is exhaustive), the
Arunta, in their isolation, may have degenerated in
religion, and may have dropped, in the case of Twanyi-
rika, the moral attributes of Baiame. It may be noticed
that, in South Eastern Australia, the Being who presides,
like Twanyirika, over initiations is not the supreme being,
but a son or deputy of his, such as the Kurnai Tun dun.
We do not know whether the Arunta have, or have had
and lost, or never possessed, a being superior to Twanyi-
rika.
With regard to all such moral, and, in certain versions,
creative Beings as Baiame, criticism has taken various
lines. There is the high a priori line that savage minds
are incapable of originating the notion of a moral Maker.
I have already said that the notion, in an early form,
seems to be well within the range of any minds deserving
to be called human. Next, the facts are disputed. I can
only refer readers to the authorities cited. They speak
for tribes in many quarters of the world, and the wit-
nesses are laymen as well as missionaries. I am accused,
again, of using a misleading rhetoric, and of thereby
covertly introducing Christian or philosophical ideas into
my account of ' savages guiltless of Christian teach-
ing.' As to the latter point, I am also accused of mis-
taking for native opinions the results of 'Christian
teaching.' One or other charge must fall to the ground.
As to my rhetoric, in the use of such words as ' Creator,'
l^
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION XV
• Eternal,' and the like, I shall later qualify and explain
it. For a long discussion between myself and Mr. Sidney
Hartland, involving minute detail, I may refer the reader
to Folk-Lore, the last number of 1898 and the first of
1899, and to the Introduction to the new edition of my
'Myth, Eitual, and Eeligion' (1899).
Where relatively high moral attributes are assigned to a
Being, I have called the result 'Eeligion ; ' where the same
Being acts like Zeus in Greek fable, plays silly or obscene
tricks, is lustful and false, I have spoken of ' Myth.' ^
These distinctions of Myth and Eeligion may be, and
indeed are, called arbitrary. The whole complex set of
statements about the Being, good or bad, sublime or silly,
are equally Myths, it may be urged. Very well ; but one
set, the loftier set, is fitter to survive, and does survive,
in what we still commonly call Eeligion ; while the other
set, the puerile set of statements, is fairly near to extinc-
tion, and is usually called Mythology. One set has been
the root of a goodly tree : the other set is being lopped
off, like the parasitic mistletoe.
I am arguing that the two classes of ideas arise from
two separate human moods ; moods as different and dis-
tinct as lust and love. I am arguing that, as far as our
information goes, the nobler set of ideas is as ancient as
the lower. Personally (though we cannot have direct
evidence) I find it easy to believe that the loftier notions
are the earlier. If man began with the conception of a
powerful and beneficent Maker or Father, then I can see
how the humorous savage fancy ran away with the idea
of Power, and attributed to a potent being just such tricks
as a waggish and libidinous savage would like to play if
he could. Moreover, I have actually traced (in * Myth,
' See the new edition of Myth, Ritual, and Eeligion, especially the new
[ntroductiou.
XVI THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Eitual, and Eeligion ') some plausible processes of mythical
accretion. The early mind was not only religious, in its
way, but scientific, in its way. It embraced the idea of
Evolution as well as the idea of Creation. To one mood
a Maker seemed to exist. But the institution of Totemism
(whatever its origin) suggested the idea of Evolution ; for
men, it was held, developed out of their Totems — animals
and plants. But then, on the other hand, Zeus, or Baiame,
or Mungim-ngaur, was regarded as their Father. How
were these contradictions to be reconciled ? Easily, thus :
Zeus was the Father, but, in each case, was the Father by
an amour in which he wore the form of the Totem — snake,
swan, bull, ant, dog, or the like. At once a degraded set
of secondary erotic myths cluster around Zeus.
Again, it is notoriously the nature of man to attribute
every institution to a primal inventor or legislator. Men
then, find themselves performing certain rites, often of a
buffooning or scandalous character ; and, in origin, mainly
magical, intended for the increase of game, edible plants,
or, later, for the benefit of the crops. Why do they per-
form these rites ? they ask : and, looking about, as usual,
for a primal initiator, they attribute what they do to a
primal being, the Com Spirit, Demeter, or to Zeus, or to
Baiame, or Manabozho, or Punjel. This is man's usual
way of going back to origins. Instantly, then, a new set
of parasitic myths crystaUises round a Being who, perhaps,
was originally moral. The savage mind, in short, has not
maintained itself on the high level, any more than the
facetious mediaeval myths maintained themselves, say, on
the original level of the conception of the character of
St. Peter, the keeper of the keys of Heaven.
All this appears perfectly natural and human, and in
this, and in other ways, what we call low Myth may have
invaded the higher realms of Eeligion : a lower invaded a
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xvii
higher element. But reverse the hypothesis. Conceive
that Zeus, or Baiame, was originally, not a Father and
guardian, but a lewd and tricky ghost of a medicine-man,
a dancer of indecent dances, a wooer of other men's vdves,
a shape-shifter, a burlesque droll, a mere jocular bugbear,
like Twanyirika. By what means did he come to be
accredited later with his loftiest attributes, and with
regard for the tribal ethics, which, in practice, he daily
broke and despised ? Students who argue for the possible
priority of the lowest, or, as I call them, mythical attri-
butes of the Being, must advance an hypothesis of the
concretion of the nobler elements around the original
wanton and mischievous ghost.
Then let us suppose that the Arunta Twanyirika, a
confessed bugbear, discredited by adults, and only invented
to keep women and children in order, was the original
germ of the moral and fatherly Baiame, of South Eastern
Australian tribes. How, in that case, did the adults of
the tribe fall into their own trap, come to believe seriously
in their invented bugbear, and credit him with the superin-
tendence of such tribal ethics as generosity and unselfish-
ness ? What were the processes of the conversion of
Twanjdrika? I do not deny that this theory may be
correct, but I wish to see an hypothesis of the process of
elevation,
I fail to frame such an hypothesis. Grant that the
adults merely chuckle over Twanyirika, whose 'voice'
they themselves produce by whirling the wooden tundun,
or bull-roarer. Grant that, on initiation, the boys learn
that ' the great spirit ' is a mere bogle, invented to mystify
the women, and keep them away from the initiatory rites.
How, then, did men come to believe in liim as a terrible,
all-seeing, all-knowing, creative, and potent moral being ?
For this, undeniably, is the belief of many Australian
a
Xviii THE MAKING OF RELIGION
tribes, where his ' voice ' (or rather that of his subordinate)
is produced by whirhng the tundun. That these higher
behefs are of European origin, Mr. Howitt denies. How
were they evolved out of the notion of a confessed artificial
bogle ? I am unable to frame a theory.
From my point of view, namely, that the higher and
simple ideas may well be the earlier, I have, at least,
offered a theory of the processes by which the lower
attributes crystallised around a conception supposed {argu-
menti gratia) to be originally high. Other processes of
degradation would come in, as (on my theory) the creed
and practice of Animism, or worship of human ghosts,
often of low character, swamped and invaded the prior
belief in a fairly moral and beneficent, but not originally
spiritual. Being. My theory, at. least, is a theory, and,
rightly or wrongly, accounts for the phenomenon, the
combination of the highest divine and the lowest animal
qualities in the same Being. But I have yet to learn how,
if the lowest myths are the earliest, the highest attributes
came in time to be conferred on the hero of the lowest
myths. "Why, or how, did a silly buffoon, or a confessed
'bogle * arrive at being regarded as a patron of such
morality as had been evolved? An hypothesis of the
processes involved must be indicated. It is not enough to
reply, in general, that the rudimentary human mind is
illogical and confused. That is granted ; but there must
have been a method in its madness. What that method
was (from my point of view) I have shown, and it must
be as easy for opponents to set forth what, from their
point of view, the method was.
We are here concerned with what, since the time of the
earliest Greek philosophers, has been the crux of mythology :
why are infamous myths told about ' the Father of gods
and men ' ? We can easily explain the nature of the myths.
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION xix
They are the natural flowers of savage fancy and humour.
But wherefore do they crystallise round Zeus ? I have, at
least, shown some probable processes in the evolution.
Where criticism has not disputed the facts of the moral
attributes, now attached to, say, an Australian Being, it
has accounted for them by a supposed process of borrow-
ing from missionaries and other Europeans. In this book
I deal with that hypothesis as urged by Sir A. B. Ellis, in
West Africa (chapter xiii,). I need not have taken the
trouble, as this distinguished writer had already, in a
work which I overlooked, formally withdrawn, as regards
Africa, his theory of * loan-gods,' Miss Kingsley, too, is
no believer in the borrowing hypothesis for West Africa,
in regard, that is, to the highest divine conception. I
was, when I wrote, unaware that, especially as concerns
America and Australia, Mr. Tylor had recently advocated
the theory of borrowing (* Journal of Anthrop. Insti-
tute,' vol. xxi.). To Mr. Tylor's arguments, when I read
them, I replied in the * Nineteenth Century,' January
1899 : * Are Savage Gods Borrowed from Missionaries ? '
I do not here repeat my arguments, but await the
publication of Mr. Tylor's ' Gifford Lectures,' in which
his hypothesis may be reinforced, and may win my
adhesion.
It may here be said, however, that if the Australian
higher religious ideas are of recent and missionary origin,
they would necessarily be known to the native women,
from whom, in fact, they are absolutely concealed by the
men, under penalty of death. Again, if the Son, or Sons,
of Australian chief Beings resemble part of the Christian
dogma, they much more closely resemble the Apollo and
Hermes of Greece.' But nobody will say that the
Australians borrowed them from Greek mythology !
• See Introductions to my Homeric Hymns. Allen. 1899.
XX THE MAKING OF RELIGION
In chapter xiv., owing to a bibliographical error of my
own, I have done injustice to Mr. Tylor, by supposing
him to have overlooked Strachey's account of the Vir-
ginian god Ahone. He did not overlook Ahone, but
mistrusted Strachey. In an excursus on Ahone, in the
new edition of ' Myth, Eitual, and Eeligion,' I have
tried my best to elucidate the bibliography and other
aspects of Strachey's account, which I cannot regard as
baseless. Mr. Tylor's opinion is, doubtless, different, and
may prove more persuasive. As to Australia, Mr. Hewitt,
our best authority, continues to disbelieve in the theory
of borrowing.
I have to withdraw in chapters x. xi. the statement
that ' Darumulun never died at all.' Mr. Hartland has
corrected me, and pointed out that, among the Wiraijuri,
a myth represents him as having been destroyed, for his
offences, by Baiame. In that tribe, however, Darumulun
is not the highest, but a subordinate Being. Mr. Hartland
has also collected a few myths in which Australian
Supreme Beings do (contrary to my statement) * set the
example of sinning.' Nothing can surprise me less, and
I only wonder that, in so savage a race, the examples,
hitherto collected, are so rare, and so easily to be accounted
for on the theory of processes of crystallisation of myths
already suggested.
As to a remark in Appendix B, Mr. Podmore takes a
distinction. I quote his remark, ' the phenomena de-
scribed are quite inexplicable by ordinary mechanical
means,' and I contrast this, as illogical, with his opinion
that a girl * may have been directly responsible for all
that took place.' Mr. Podmore replies that what was
' described ' is not necessarily identical with what occurred.
Strictly speaking, he is right; but the evidence was
copious, was given by many witnesses, and (as offered by
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION XXI
me) was in part contemporary (being derived from the
local newspapers), so that here Mr. Podmore's theory of
illusions of memory on a large scale, developed in the five
weeks which elapsed before he examined the spectators, is
out of court. The evidence was of contemporary published
record.
The handling of fire by Home is accounted for by
Mr. Podmore, in the same chapter, as the result of Home's
use of a ' non-conducting substance.' Asked, ' what sub-
stance ? ' he answered, * asbestos.' Sir "William Crookes,
again repeating his account of the performance which he
witnessed, says, * Home took up a lump of red-hot char-
coal about twice the size of an egg into his hand, on
which certainly no asbestos was visible. He blew into his
hands, and the flames could be seen coming out between
his fingers, and he carried the charcoal round the room.' ^
Sir W. Crookes stood close beside Home. The light was
that of the fire and of two candles. Probably Sir William
could see a piece of asbestos, if it was covering tlome's
hands, which he was watching.
What I had to say, by way of withdrawal, qualifica-
tion, explanation, or otherwise, I inserted (in order to
seize the earliest opportunity) in the Introduction to the
recent edition of my ' Myth, Eitual, and Keligion ' (1899).
The reader will perhaps make his own kind deductions
from my rhetoric when I talk, for example, about a
Creator in the creed of low savages. They have no
business, anthropologists declare, to entertain so large an
idea. But in ' The Journal of the Anthropological In-
stitute,' N.S. II., Nos. 1, 2, p. 85, Dr. Bennett gives an
account of the rehgion of the cannibal Fangs of the
Congo, first described by Du Chaillu. ' These anthropo-
phagi have some idea of a God, a superior being, their
' Journal S.P.B., December 1899, p. 147.
Xxii THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Tata ("Father"), a ho main merere ("he made all
things ") . Anyambi is their Ta ta (Father) , and ranks above
all other Fang gods, because a'ne yap (literally, " he lives
in heaven").' This is inconsiderate in the Fangs. A set
of native cannibals have no business with a creative Father
who is in heaven. I say ' creative ' because ' he made all
things,' and (as the bowler said about a * Yorker ') ' what
else can you call him ? ' In all such cases, where ' creator '
and * creative ' are used by me, readers will allow for the
imperfections of the EngHsh language. As anthropo-
logists say, the savages simply cannot have the corre-
sponding ideas ; and I must throw the blame on people
who, knowing the savages and their language, assure us
that they have. This Fang Father or Tata 'is consi-
dered indifferent to the wants and sufferings of men,
women, and children.' Offerings and prayers are therefore
made, not to him, but to the ghosts of parents, who are
more accessible. This additional information precisely
I illustrates my general theory, that the chief Being was
not evolved out of ghosts, but came to be neglected as
ghost-worship arose. I am not aware that Dr. Bennett
is a missionary. Anthropologists distrust missionaries,
and most of my evidence is from laymen. If the anthropo-
logical study of rehgion is to advance, the high and usu-
ally indolent chief Beings of savage religions must be care-
fully examined, not consigned to a casual page or para-
graph. I have found them most potent, and most moral,
where ghost-worship has not been evolved ; least potent,
or at all events most indifferent, where ghost-worship is
most in vogue. The inferences (granting the facts) are
fatal to the current anthropological theory.
The phrases' Creator,' ' creative,' as applied to Anyambi,
or Baiame, have been described, by critics, as rhetorical,
covertly introducing conceptions of which savages are
PEEFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION XXIU
incapable. I have already shown that I only follow my
authorities, and their translations of phrases in various
savage tongues. But the phrase * eternal,' applied to
Anyambi or Baiame, may be misleading. I do not wish to
assert that, if you talked to a savage about ' eternity,' he
would imderstand what you intend. I merely mean what
Mariner says that the Tongans mean as to the god
Ta-li-y Tooboo. * Of his origin they had no idea, rather
supposing him to be eternal.' The savage theologians
assert no beginning for such beings (as a rule), and no end,
except where Unkulunkulu is by some Zulus thought to
be dead, and where the Wiraijuris declare that their
Darumulun {not supreme) was ' destroyed ' by Baiame.
I do not wish to credit savages with thoughts more
abstract than they possess. But that their thought
can be abstract is proved, even in the case of the abso-
lutely * primitive Arunta,' by their myth of the Ungani'
bikula, * a word which means " out of nothing," or " self-
existing," ' say Messrs. Spencer and Gillen.^ Once more,
I find that I have spoken of some savage Beings as
* omnipresent ' and * omnipotent.' But I have pointed
out that this is only a modern metaphysical rendering
of the actual words attributed to the savage : ' He can go
everywhere, and do everything.' As to the phrase, also
used, that Baiame, for example, ' makes for righteousness,'
I mean that he sanctions the morality of his people ; for
instance, sanctions veracity and unselfishness, as Mr.
Howitt distinctly avers. These are examples of 'righteous-
ness ' in conduct. I do not mean that these virtues were
impressed on savages in some supernatural way, as a
critic has daringly averred that I do. The strong reaction
of some early men against the cosmical process by which
'the weakest goes to the wall,' is, indeed, a curious moral
" Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 388.
XXIV THE MAKING OF RELIGION
phenomenon, and deserves the attention of moralists. But
I never dreamed of supposing that this reaction (which
extends beyond the Hmit of the tribe or group) had a
* supernatural ' origin ! It has been argued that * tribal
morality ' is only a set of regulations based on the con-
venience of the elders of the tribe : is, in fact, as the
Platonic Thrasymachus says, 'the interest of the strongest.'
That does not appear to me to be demonstrated ; but this
is no place for a discussion of the origin of morals. * The
interest of the strongest,' and of the nomadic group,
would be to knock elderly invalids on the head. But
Dampier says, of the Australians, in 1688, ' Be it little, or
be it much they get, every one has his part, as well the
young and tender, and the old and feeble, who are not
able to go abroad, as the strong and lusty.' The origin of
this fair and generous dealing may be obscure, but it is
precisely the kind of dealing on which, according to Mr.
Howitt, the religion of the Kurnai insists (chapter x.).
Thus the Being concerned does * make for righteousness.*
With these explanations I trust that my rhetorical use
of such phrases as ' eternal,' ' creative,' 'omniscient,' 'omni-
potent,' ' omnipresent,' and ' moral,' may not be found to
mislead, or covertly to import modern or Christian
ideas into my account of the religious conceptions of
savages.
As to the evidence throughout, a learned historian has
informed me that ' no anthropological evidence is of any
value.' If so, there can be no anthropology (in the realm
of institutions). But the evidence that I adduce is from
such sources as anthropologists, at least, accept, and
employ in the construction of theories from which, in
Bome points, I venture to dissent.
A. L.
PEEFACE
TO
THE FIBST EDITION
* The only begetter ' of this work is Monsieur Le-
febure, author of ' Les Yeux d'Horus,' and other studies
in Egyptology. He suggested the writing of the book,
but is in no way responsible for the opinions expressed.
The author cannot omit the opportunity of thanking
Mr. Frederic Myers for his kindness in reading the proof
sheets of the earlier chapters and suggesting some cor-
rections of statement. Mr. Myers, however, is probably
not in agreement with the author on certain points ; for
example, in the chapter on 'Possession.' As the second
part of the book differs considerably from the opinions
which have recommended themselves to most anthro-
pological writers on early Eeligion, the author must say
here, as he says later, that no harm can come of trying
how facts look from a new point of view, and that he cer-
tainly did not expect them to fall into the shape which he
now presents for criticism.
Bt. Ani>rews : A^il 3, 1898.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
XIV.
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
Introductory Chapter
Science and ' Miracles ' ...
Anthropology and Religion
' Opening the Gates of Distance '
Crystal Visions, Savage and Civilised
Anthropology and Hallucinations
Demoniacal Possession
Fetishism and Spiritualism
Evolution of the Idea of God .
High Gods of Low Races
Supreme Gods not necessarily developed
' Spirits '
Savage Supreme Beings
More Savage Supreme Beings .
Ahone. Ti-ea-wX. Na-pi. Pachacamac. Tui
Taa-Eoa
The Old Degeneration Theory .
Theories of Jehovah
Conclusion
out
of
Laga.
Appendices.
A. Oppositions of Science
B. The Poltergeist and his Explainers
C. Crystal-gazing
D. Chiefs in Australia . - . .
PAGE
1
14
39
65
83
105
128
147
160
173
185
193
211
230
254
268
289
307
324
340
344
Index
345
THE MAKING OP RELIGION
I
INTBODUCTOBY CHAPTEB
The modern Science of the History of Keligion has
attained conclusions which already possess an air of being
firmly established. These conclusions may be briefly
stated thus : Man derived the conception of * spirit ' or
' soul ' from his reflections on the phenomena of sleep,
dreams, death, shadow, and from the experiences of trance
and hallucination. Worshipping first the departed souls
of his kindred, man later extended the doctrine of spiritual
beings in many directions. Ghosts, or other spiritual
existences fashioned on the same lines, prospered till they
became gods. Finally, as the result of a variety of pro-
cesses, one of these gods became supreme, and, at last,
was regarded as the one only God. Meanwhile man
retained his belief in the existence of his own soul, surviv-
ing after the death of the body, and so reached the concep-
tion of immortality. Thus the ideas of God and of the
soul are the result of early fallacious reasonings about
misunderstood experiences.
It may seem almost wanton to suggest the desirable-
ness of revising a system at once so simple, so logical,
and apparently so well bottomed on facts. But there can
never be any real harm in studying masses of evidence
from fresh points of view. At worst, the failure of adverse
B
8 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
criticism must help to establish the doctrines assailed.
Now, as we shall show, there are two points of view from
which the evidence as to religion in its early stages has not
been steadily contemplated. Therefore we intend to ask,
first, what, if anything, can be ascertained as to the nature
of the ' visions ' and hallucinations which, according to
Mr. Tylor in his celebrated work ' Primitive Culture,'
lent their aid to the formation of the idea of ' spirit.*
Secondly, we shall collect and compare the accounts
which we possess of the High Gods and creative beings
worshipped or believed in, by the most backward races.
We shall then ask whether these relatively Supreme
Beings, so conceived of by men in very rudimentary
social conditions, can be, as anthropology declares, mere
developments from the belief in ghosts of the dead.
We shall end by venturing to suggest that the savage
theory of the soul may be based, at least in part, on expe-
riences which cannot, at present, be made to fit into any
purely materialistic system of the universe. We shall
also bring evidence tending to prove that the idea of God,
in its earliest known shape, need not logically be derived
from the idea of spirit, however that idea itself may have
been attained or evolved. The conception of God, then, need
not be evolved out of reflections on dreams and ' ghosts.'
If these two positions can be defended with any suc-
cess, it is obvious that the whole theory of the Science of
Beligion will need to be reconsidered. But it is no less
evident that our two positions do not depend on each other.
The first may be regarded as fantastic, or improbable, or
may be ' masked ' and left on one side. But the strength
of the second position, derived from evidence of a different
character, will not, therefore, be in any way impaired.
Our first position can only be argued for by dint of evi-
dence highly unpopular in character, and, as a general
rule, condemned by modern science. The evidence is
obtained by what is, at all events, a legitimate anthropo-
logical proceeding. We may follow Mr. Tylor's example,
and collect savage beliefs about visions, hallucinations,
' clairvoyance,' and the acquisition of knowledge appa-
INTRODUCTORY 3
rently not attainable through the normal channels of
sense. We may then compare these savage beliefs with
attested records of similar experiences among living and
educated civilised men. Even if we attain to no conclu-
sion, or a negative conclusion, as to the actuality and
supernormal character of the alleged experiences, still to
compare data of savage and civilised psychology, or even
of savage and civilised illusions and fables, is decidedly
part, though a neglected part, of the function of anthropo-
logical science. The results, whether they do or do not
strengthen our first position, must be curious and instruc-
tive, if only as a chapter in the history of human error.
That chapter, too, is concerned with no mean topic, but
with what we may call the X region of our nature. Out
of that region, out of miracle, prophecy, vision, have cer-
tainly come forth the great religions, Christianity and
Islam ; and the great religious innovators and leaders, our
Lord Himself, St. Francis, John Knox, Jeanne d'Arc,
down to the founder of the new faith of the Sioux and
Arapahoe. It cannot, then, be unscientific to compare
the barbaric with the civilised beliefs and experiences about
a region so dimly understood, and so fertile in potent
influences. Here the topic will be examined rather by
the method of anthropology than of psychology. We
may conceivably have something to learn (as has been
the case before) from the rough observations and hasty
inferences of the most backward races.
We may illustrate this by an anecdote :
* The Northern Indians call the Aurora Borealis " Ed-
thin," that is " Deer." Their ideas in this respect are
founded on a principle one would not imagine. Experience
has shown them that when a hairy deer-skin is briskly
stroked with the hand on a dark night, it will emit many
sparks of electrical fire.'
So says Hearne in his * Journey,' published in 1795
(p. 346).
This observation of the Eed Men is a kind of parable
representing a part of the purport of the following treatise.
B ?
4 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
The Indians, making a hasty inference from a trivial
phenomenon, arrived unawares at a probably correct con-
clusion, long unknown to civilised science. They con-
nected the Aurora Borealis with electricity, supposing
that multitudes of deer in the sky rubbed the sparks out
of each other ! Meanwhile, even in the last century, a
puzzled populace spoke of the phenomenon as 'Lord
Derwentwater's Lights.' The cosmic pomp and splendour
shone to welcome the loyal Derwentwater into heaven,
when he had given his life for his exiled king.
Now, my purpose in the earlier portion of this essay
is to suggest that certain phenomena of human nature,
apparently as trivial as the sparks rubbed out of a deer's
hide in a dark night, may indicate, and may be allied to a
force or forces, which, like the Aurora Borealis, may shine
from one end of the heavens to the other, strangely
illumining the darkness of our destiny. Such phenomena
science has ignored, as it so long ignored the sparks from
the stroked deer-skin, and the attractive power of rubbed
amber. These trivial things were not known to be allied
to the lightning, or to indicate a force which man could
tame and use. But just as the Indians, by a rapid careless
inference, attributed the Aurora Borealis to electric in-
fluences, so (as anthropology assures us) savages everywhere
have inferred the existence of soul or spirit, intelligence that
' Does not know the bond of Time,
Nor wear the manacles of Space,'
in part from certain apparently trivial phenomena of human
faculty. These phenomena, as Mr. Tylor says, ' the great
intellectual movement of the last two centuries has
simply thrown aside as worthless.' ' I refer to alleged
experiences, merely odd, sporadic, and, for commercial pur-
poses, useless, such as the transference of thought from one
mind to another by no known channel of sense, the occur-
rence of hallucinations which, prima facie, correspond
comcidentally with unknown events at a distance, all
' Primitive Culture, i. 156. London, 1891.
INTRODUCTORY 6
that is called * second sight,' or * clairvoyance,' and other
things even more obscure. Keasoning on these real or
alleged phenomena, and on other quite normal and accepted
facts of dream, shadow, sleep, trance, and death, savages
have inferred the existence of spirit or soul, exactly as the
Indians arrived at the notion of electricity (not so called
by them, of course) as the cause of the Aurora Borealis.
But, just as the Indians thought that the cosmic lights
were caused by the rubbing together of crowded deer in
the heavens (a theory quite childishly absurd), so the
savage has expressed, in rude fantastic ways, his conclusion
as to the existence of spirit. He believes in wandering
separable souls of men, surviving death, and he has
peopled with his dreams the whole inanimate universe.
My suggestion is that, in spite of his fantasies, the
savage had possibly drawn from his premises an inference
not wholly, or not demonstrably erroneous. As the sparks
of the deer-skin indicated electricity, so the strange lights
in the night of human nature may indicate faculties
which science, till of late and in a few instances, has
laughed at, ignored, ' thrown aside as worthless.'
It should be observed that I am not speaking of
' spiritualism,' a word of the worst associations, inex-
tricably entangled with fraud, bad logic, and the blindest
credulity. Some of the phenomena alluded to have,
however, been claimed as their own province by * spiritists,'
and need to be rescued from them. Mr. Tylor writes :
' The issue raised by the comparison of savage, barbaric,
and civilised spiritualism is this : Do the Eed Indian
medicine-man, the Tatar necromancer, the Highland
ghost-seer, and the Boston medium, share the posses-
sion of belief and knowledge of the highest truth and
import, which, nevertheless, the great intellectual move-
ment of the last two centuries has simply thrown aside as
worthless ?'
Distinguo ! That does not seem to me to be the issue.
In my opinion the issue is : ' Have the Eed Indian, the j
Tatar, the Highland seer, and the Boston medium (the '
6
THE MAKING OF RELIGION
least reputable of the menagerie) observed, and reasoned
wildly from, and comiterfeited, and darkened with im-
posture, certain genuine by-products of human faculty,
which do not prima facie deserve to be thrown aside ? '
That, I venture to think, is the real issue. That
science may toss aside as worthless some valuable observa-
tions of savages is now universally admitted by people
who know the facts. Among these observations is the
whole topic of Hypnotism, with the use of suggestion for
healing purposes, and the phenomena, no longer denied,
of ' alternating personalities.' For the truth of this state-
ment we may appeal to one of the greatest of Continental
anthropologists, Adolf Bastian.^ The missionaries, like
Livingstone, usually supposed that the savage seer's
declared ignorance — after his so-called fit of inspiration —
of what occurred in that state, was an imposture. But
nobody now doubts the similar oblivion of what has
passed that sometimes follows the analogous hypnotic
sleep. Of a remarkable cure, which the school of the
Salpetriere or Nancy would ascribe, with probable justice,
to ' suggestion,' a savage example will be given later.
Savage hypnotism and ' suggestion,' among the Sioux
and Arapahoe, has been thought worthy of a whole
volume in the Eeports of the Ethnological Bureau of
the Smithsonian Institute (Washington, U.S., 1892-93).
Republican Governments publish scientific matter * re-
gardless of expense,' and the essential points might have
been put more shortly. They illustrate the fact that only
certain persons can hypnotise others, and throw light on
some peculiarities of rapport} In brief, savages antici-
pated us in the modern science of experimental psychology,
as is frankly acknowledged by the Society for Experimental
Psychology of Berlin. ' That many of the so-called
mystical phenomena are much more common and pro-
' TJeher xisychische Bcobachlungcn bei Naturvolkern. Leipzig,
Gunther, 1890.
- See especially pp. 922-926. The book is interesting in other ways,
and, indeed, touching, as it describes the founding of a new Eed Indian
religion, on a basis of Hypnotism and Cbristiauity.
INTRODUCTORY 7
minent among savages than among ourselves is familiar to
everyone acquainted with the subject. The ethnological
side of our inquiry demands penetrative study.' ^
That study I am about to try to sketch. My object
is to examine some ' superstitious practices ' and beliefs of
savages by aid of the comparative method. I shall com-
pare, as I have already said, the ethnological evidence
for savage usages and beliefs analogous to thought-
transference, coincidental hallucinations, alternating per-
sonality, and so forth, with the best attested modern
examples, experimental or spontaneous. This raises the
question of our evidence, which is all-important. We
proceed to defend it. The savage accounts are on the
level of much anthropological evidence; they may, that
is, be dismissed by adversaries as ' travellers' tales.' But
the best testimony for the truth of the reports as to
actual belief in the facts is the undesigned coincidence of
evidence from all ages and quarters.^ When the stories
brought by travellers, ancient and modern, learned and
unlearned, pious or sceptical, agree in the main, we have
all the certainty that anthropology can offer. Again, when
we find practically the same strange neglected sparks, not
only rumoured of in European popular superstition, but
attested in many hundreds of depositions made at first
hand by respectable modern witnesses, educated and re-
sponsible, we cannot honestly or safely dismiss the coinci-
dence of report as indicating a mere * survival ' of savage
superstitious belief, and nothing more.
We can no longer do so, it is agreed, in the case of
hypnotic phenomena. I hope to make it seem possible
that we should not do so in the matter of the hallucinations
provoked by gazing in a smooth deep, usually styled
* crystal-gazing.' Ethnologically, this practice is at least
as old as classical times, and is of practically world-wide ^
distribution. I shall prove its existence in Australia, |
New Zealand, North America, South America, Asia,
Africa, Polynesia, and among the Incas, not to speak of ,
' Programme of the Society, p. iv.
•^ Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 9, 10.
8 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
the middle and recent European ages. The universal idea
is that such visions may be ' clairvoyant.' To take a
Polynesian case, ' resembling the Hawaiian wai harm*
When anyone has been robbed, the priest, after praying,
has a hole dug in the floor of the house, and filled with
water. Then he gazes into the water, ' over which the
god is supposed to place the spirit of the thief. . . . The
image of the thief was, according to their account, re-
flected in the water, and being perceived by the priest, he
named the individual, or the parties.'' Here the state-
ment about the ' spirit ' is a mere savage philosophical
explanation. But the fact that hallucinatory pictures
can really be seen by a fair percentage of educated
Europeans, in water, glass balls, and so forth, is now
confirmed by frequent experiment, and accepted by
opponents, 'non-mystical writers,' like Dr. Parish of
Munich.2 I shall bring evidence to suggest that the
visions may correctly reflect, as it were, persons and places
absolutely unknown to the gazer, and that they may
even reveal details unknown to every one present. Such
results among savages, or among the superstitious, would
be, and are, explained by the theory of ' spirits.' Modem
science has still to find an explanation consistent with
recognised laws of nature, but ' spirits ' we shall not
invoke.
In the same way I mean to examine all or most of
the ' so-called mystical phenomena of savage life.' I
then compare them with the better vouched for modern
examples. To return to the question of evidence, I con-
fess that I do not see how the adverse anthropologist,
psychologist, or popular agnostic is to evade the following
dilemma : To the anthropologist we say, * The evidence
we adduce is your own evidence, that of books of travel
in all lands and countries. If you may argue from it, so
may we. Some of it is evidence to unusual facts, more of
it is evidence to singular beliefs, which we think not
necessarily without foundation. As raising a presump-
' Ellis, Polynesian Researches, ii. p. 240.
* Hallucinations and Illusions. English edition, pp. 63-70, 297.
INTRODUCTORY 9
tioii in favour of that opinion, we cite examples in which
savage observations of abnormal and once rejected facts,
are now admitted by science to have a large residuum of
truth, we argue that what is admitted in some cases may-
come to be admitted in more. No a priori line can here
be drawn.'
To the psychologist who objects that our modern
instances are mere anecdotes, we reply by asking, * Dear
sir, what are your modern instances ? What do you
know of " Mrs. A.," whom you still persistently cite as
an example of morbid recurrent hallucinations? Name
the German servant girl who, in a fever, talked several
learned languages, which she had heard her former
master, a scholar, declaim ! Where did she live ? who
vouches for her, who heard her, who understood her ?
There is, you know, no evidence at all ; the anecdote is
told by Coleridge : the phenomena are said by him to
have been observed "in a Koman Catholic town in
Germany, a year or two before my arrival at Gottingen. . . .
Many eminent physiologists and psychologists visited the
town." Why do you not name a few out of the distin-
guished crowd ? ' ' This anecdote, a rumour of a rumour
of a Protestant explanation of a Catholic marvel, was told
by Coleridge at least twenty years after the possible date.
The psychologists copy it,^ one after the other, as a
flock of sheep jump where their leader has jumped. An
example by way of anecdote may be permitted.
According to the current anthropological theory, the
idea of soul or spirit was suggested to early men by their
experiences in dreams. They seemed, in sleep, to visit
remote places ; therefore, they argued, something within
them was capable of leaving the body and wandering
about. This something was the soul or spirit. Now it
is obvious that this opinion of early men would be con-
firmed if they ever chanced to acquire, in dreams, know-
ledge of places which they had never visited, and of facts
as to which, in their waking state, they could have no
' Sir William Hamilton's Lectures, i. 345.
* Maudsley, Kerner, Carpenter, Du Prel, Zangwill.
10 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
information. This experience, indeed, would suggest
problems even to Mr. Herbert Spencer, if it occurred
to him.
Conversing on this topic with a friend of acknowledged
philosophical eminence, I illustrated my meaning by a
story of a dream. It was reported to me by the dreamer,
with whom I am well acquainted, was of very recent occur-
rence, and was corroborated by the evidence of another
person, to whom the dream was narrated, before its fulfil-
ment was discovered. I am not at liberty to publish the
details, for good reasons, but the essence of the matter
was this : A. and B. (the dreamer) had common interests.
A. had taken certain steps about which B. had only a
surmise, and a vague one, that steps had probably been
taken. A. then died, and B. in an extremely vivid dream
(a thing unfamiliar to him) seemed to read a mass of un-
known facts, culminating in two definite results, capable
of being stated in figures. These results, by the very
nature of the case, could not be known to A., so that,
before he was placed out of B.'s reach by death, he could
not have stated them to him, and, afterwards, had assuredly
no means of doing so.
The dream, two days after its occurrence, and after it
had been told to C, proved to be literally correct.
Now I am not asking the reader's belief for this anec-
dote (for that could only be yielded in virtue of knowledge
of the veracity of B. and C), but I invite his attention to
the psychological explanation. My friend suggested that
A. had told B. all about the affair, that B. had not hstened
(though his interests were vitally concerned), and that the
crowd of curious details, naturally unfamiliar to B., had
reposed in his subconscious memory, and had been revived
in the dream.
Now B.'s dream was a dream of reading a mass of
minute details, including names of places entirely unknown
to him. It may be admitted, in accordance with the
psychological theory, that B. might have received all this
information from A., but, by dint of inattention — 'the
malady of not marking' — might never have been co7i-
INTRODUCTORY 11
seiously aware of what he heard. Then B.'s subconscious
memory of what he did not consciously know might break
upon him in his dream. Instances of similar mental
phenomena are not uncommon. But the general result
of the combined details was one which could not possibly
be known to A. before his death ; nor to B. could it be
known at all. Yet B.'s dream represented this general
result with perfect accuracy, which cannot be accounted
for by the revival of subconscious memory in sleep.
Neither asleep nor awake can a man remember what it is
impossible for him to have known. The dream contained
no prediction, for the results were now fixed ; but (grant-
ing the good faith of the narrator) the dream did contain
information not normally accessible.
However, by way of psychological explanation of the
dream, my friend cited Coleridge's legend, as to the
German girl and her unconscious knowledge of certain
learned languages. * And what is the evidence for the
truth of Coleridge's legend ? ' Of course, there is none, or
none known to all the psychologists who quote it from
Coleridge. Neither, if true, was the legend to the point.
However, psychology will accept such unauthenticated
narratives, and yet will scoff at first hand, duly corrobo-
rated testimony from living and honourable people, about
recent events.
Only a great force of prejudice can explain this accept-
ance, by psychologists, of one kind of marvellous tale
on no evidence, and this rejection of another class of
marvellous tale, when supported by first hand, signed and
corroborated evidence, of living witnesses. I see only one
escape for psychologists from this dilemma. Their marvel-
lous tales are possible, though unvouched for, because they
have always heard them and repeated them in lectures,
and read and repeated them in books. Oicr marvellous
tales are impossible, because the psychologists know
that they are impossible, which means that they have
not been familiar with them, from youth upwards, in
lectures and manuals. But man has no right to have
' clear ideas of the possible and impossible,' like Faraday,
12 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
a priori, except in the exact sciences. There are other
instances of weak evidence which satisfies psychologists.
Hamilton has an anecdote, borrowed from Monboddo,
who got it from Mr. Hans Stanley, who, ' about twenty-six
years ago,' heard it from the subject of the story, Madame
de Laval. ' I have the memorandum somewhere in my
papers,' says Mr. Stanley, vaguely. Then we have two
American anecdotes by Dr. Flint and Mr. Kush; and
such is Sir William Hamilton's equipment of odd facts
for discussing the unconscious or subconscious. The
least credible and worst attested of these narratives still
appears in popular works on psychology. Moreover, all
psychology, except experimental psychology, is based on
anecdotes which people tell about their own subjective ex-
periences. Mr. Galton, whose original researches are well
known, even offered rewards in money for such narratives
about visualised rov/s of coloured figures, and so on.
Clearly the psychologist, then, has no prima facie right
to object to our anecdotes of experiences, which he regards
as purely subjective. As evidence, we only accept them
at first hand, and, when possible, the witnesses have been
cross-examined personally. Our evidence then, where it
consists of travellers' tales, is on a level with that which
satisfies the anthropologist. Where it consists of modern
statements of personal experience, our evidence is often
infinitely better than much which is accepted by the non-
experimental psychologist. As for the agnostic writer
on the Non-Keligion of the Future, M. Guyau actually
illustrates the Eesurrection of our Lord by an American
myth about a criminal, of whom a hallucinatory phantasm
appeared to each of his gaol companions, separately and
successively, on a day after his execution ! For this
prodigious fable no hint of reference to authority is
given. ^ Yet the evidence appears to satisfy M. Guyau, and
is used by him to reinforce his argument.
The anthropologist and psychologist, then, must either
admit that their evidence is no better than ours, if as
' Coleridge's mythical maid (p. 10) is set down by Mr. Samuel Laing to
an experiment of Braid's ! No references are given. — Lajng : Problems 0/
the Future.
INTRODUCTORY 13
good, or must say that they only believe evidence as to
' possible ' facts. They thus constitute themselves judges
of vv^hat is possible, and practically regard themselves as
omniscient. Science has had to accept so many things
once scoffed at as ' impossible,' that this attitude of hers, as
we shall show in chapter ii., ceases to command respect.
My suggestion is that the trivial, rejected, or unheeded
phenomena vouched for by the evidence here defended
may, not inconceivably, be of considerable importance.
But, stating the case at the lowest, if we are only con-
cerned with illusions and fables, it cannot but be curious to
note their persistent uniformity in savage and civilised life.
To make the first of our two main positions clear, and
in part to justify ourselves in asking any attention for
such matters, we now offer an historical sketch of the
relations between Science and the so-called • Miraculous '
in the past.
U THE MAKING OF RELIGION
n
SCIENCE AND ' MIBACLES'
Historical Sketch
Research in the X region is not a new thing under the
sun. When Saul disguised himself before his conference
with the Witch of Endor, he made an elementary attempt
at a scientific test of the supernormal. Croesus, the king,
went much further, when he tested the clairvoyance of
the oracles of Greece, by sending an embassy to ask what
he was doing at a given hour on a given day, and by then
doing something very bizarre. We do not know how the
Delphic oracle found out the right answer, but various
easy methods of fraud at once occur to the mind. How-
ever, the procedure of Croesus, if he took certain precau-
tions, was relatively scientific. Eelatively scientific also
was the inquiry of Porphyry, with whose position our
own is not unlikely to be compared. Unable, or reluctant,
to accept Christianity, Porphyry ' sought after a sign ' of
an element of supernormal truth in Paganism. But he
began at the wrong end, namely at Pagan spiritualistic
siances, with the usual accompaniments of darkness and
fraud. His perplexed letter to Anebo, with the reply
attributed to lamblichus, reveal Porphyry wandering
puzzled among mediums, floating hghts, odd noises,
queer dubious ' physical phenomena.' He did not begin
with accurate experiments as to the existence of rare, and
apparently supernormal human faculties, and he seems to
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES' 16
have attained no conclusion except that ' spirits ' are
' deceitful.' '
Something more akin to modern research began
about the time of the Keformation, and lasted till about
1680. The fury for burning witches led men of sense,
learning, and humanity to ask whether there was any
reality in witchcraft, and, generally, in the marvels of
popular belief. The inquiries of Thyraeus, Lavaterus,
Bodinus, Wierus, Le Loyer, Keginald Scot, and many
others, tended on the whole to the negative side as
regards the wilder fables about witches, but left the
problems of ghosts and haunted houses pretty much
where they were before. It may be observed that
Lavaterus {circ. 1580) already put forth a form of the
hypothesis of telepathy (that ' ghosts ' are hallucinations
produced by the direct action of one mind, or brain, upon
another), while Thyraeus doubted whether the noises
heard in ' haunted houses ' were not mere hallucinations
of the sense of hearing. But all these early writers, like
Cardan, were very careless of first-hand evidence, and,
indeed, preferred ghosts vouched for by classical authority,
Pliny, Plutarch, or Suetonius. With the Kev. Joseph
Glanvil, F.R.S. (circ. 1666), a more careful examination
of evidence came into use. Among the marvels of
Glanvil's and other tracts usually published together in
his ' Sadducismus Triumphatus ' will be found letters
which show that he and his friends, like Henry More and
Boyle, laboured to collect first-hand evidence for second
sight, haunted houses, ghosts, and wraiths. The con-
fessed object was to procure a 'Whip for the Droll,' a
reply to the laughing scepticism of the Eestoration, The
result was to bring on Glanvil a throng of bores — he was
• worse haunted than Mr. Mompesson's house,' he says —
and Mr. Pepys found his arguments ' not very convincing.'
Mr. Pepys, however, was alarmed by ' our young gib-cat,*
which he mistook for a * spright.' With Henry More,
Baxter, and Glanvil practically died, for the time, the
' See Mr. Myers's paper on the ' Ancient Oracles,' in Classical Essays,
and the author's ' Ancient Spiritualism,' in Cock Lane and Common Sense.
16 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
attempt to investigate these topics scientifically, though
an impression of doubt was left on the mind of Addison.
Witchcraft ceased to win belief, and was abolished, as a
crime, in 1736. Some of the Scottish clergy, and John
Wesley, clung fondly to the old faith, but Wodrow, and
Cotton Mather (about 1710-1730) were singularly careless
and unlucky in producing anything like evidence for their
narratives. Ghost stories continued to be told, but not to
be investigated.
Then one of the most acute of philosophers decided
that investigation ought never to be attempted. This
scientific attitude towards X phenomena, that of refusing
to examine them, and denying them without examina-
tion, was fixed by David Hume in his celebrated essay
on * Miracles.' Hume derided the observation and study
of what he called * Miracles,' in the field of experience,
and he looked for an a priori argument which would for
ever settle the question without examination of facts. In
an age of experimental philosophy, which derided a priori
methods, this was Hume's great contribution to know-
ledge. His famous argument, the joy of many an honest
breast, is a tissue of fallacies which might be given for
exposure to beginners in logic, as an elementary exercise.
In announcing his discovery, Hume amusingly displays
the self-complacency and the want of humour with which
we Scots are commonly charged by our critics :
' I flatter myself that I have discovered an argument
which, if just, will, with the wise and learned, be an
everlasting check to all kinds of superstitious delusions,
and consequently will be useful as long as the world
endures.'
He does not expect, however, to convince the multitude.
Till the end of the world, ' accounts of miracles and pro-
digies, I suppose, will be found in all histories, sacred
and profane.' Without saying here what he means by a
miracle, Hume argues that ' experience is our only guide
in reasoning.' He then defines a miracle as *a violation
of the laws of nature.' By a ' law of nature ' he means a
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES' 17
uniformity, not of all experience, but of such experience
as he will deign to admit ; while he excludes, without
examination, all evidence for experience of the absence
of such uniformity. That kind of experience cannot
be considered. * There must be a uniform experience
against every miraculous event, otherwise the event would
not merit that appellation.' If there be any experience
in favour of the event, that experience does not count.
A miracle is counter to universal experience, no event is
counter to universal experience, therefore no event is a
miracle. If you produce evidence to what Hume calls a
miracle (we shall see examples) he replies that the
evidence is not valid, unless its falsehood would be more
miraculous than the fact. Now no error of human
evidence can be more miraculous than a 'miracle.'
Therefore there can be no valid evidence for ' miracles.'-
Fortunately, Hume now gives an example of what he
means by ' miracles.' He says : —
' For, first, there is 7iot to be found, in all history, any
miracle attested by a sufficient number of men, of such
unquestioned good sense, education, and learning, as to
secure us against all delusion in themselves ; of such
undoubted integrity, as to place them beyond all suspicion
of any design to deceive others ; of such credit and reputa-
tion in the eyes of mankind, as to have a great deal to lose
in case of their being detected in any falsehood ; and at
the same time attesting facts performed in such a public
manner, and in so celebrated a part of the world, as
to render the detection unavoidable ; all which circum-
stances are requisite to give us a full assurance in the
testimony of men.' '
Hume added a note at the end of his book, in which
he contradicted every assertion which he had made in the
' The italics here are those of Mr. Alfred Russell Wallace, in his Miracles
and Modern Science. Mr. Huxley, in his exposure of Hume's fallacies (in
his Life of Hume), did not examine the Jansenist ' miracles ' which Hume
was criticising.
18 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
passage just cited ; indeed, he contradicted himself before
he had written six pages.
' There surely never was a greater number of miracles
ascribed to one person than those which were lately said
to have been wrought in France upon the tomb of Abbe
Paris, the famous Jansenist, with whose sanctity the
people were so long deluded. The curing of the sick,
giving hearing to the deaf, and sight to the blind, were
everywhere talked of as the usual effects of that holy
sepulchre. But what is more extraordinary, many of the
miracles were immediately proved upon the spot, before
judges of unquestioned integrity, attested by witnesses of
credit and distinction, in a learned age, and on the most
eminent theatre that is now in the world. Nor is this all.
A relation of them was published and dispersed every-
where ; nor were the Jesuits, though a learned body,
supported by the civil magistrate, and determined enemies
to those opinions, in whose favour the miracles were said
to have been wrought, ever able distinctly to refute or
detect them. Where shall we find such a number of cir-
cumstances, agreeing to the corroboration of one fact?
And what have we to oppose to such a cloud of witnesses,
but the a,hso\uteimpossibility, or miraculous nature of the
events which they relate ? And this, surely, in the eyes
of all reasonable people, will alone be regarded as a suffi-
cient refutation.'
Thus Hume first denies the existence of such evidence,
given in such circumstances as he demands, and then he
produces an example of that very kind of evidence.
Having done this, he abandons (as Mr. Wallace observes)
his original assertion that the evidence does not exist, and
takes refuge in alleging ' the absolute impossibility ' of the
events which the evidence supports. Thus Hume poses as
a perfect judge of the possible, in a kind of omniscience.
He takes his stand on the uniformity of all experience
that is not hostile to his idea of the possible, and dismisses
all testimony to other experience, even when it reaches his
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES* 19
standard of evidence. He is remote indeed from Virchow's
position ' that what we call the laws of nature must vary
according to our frequent new experiences.' ' In his note,
Hume buttresses and confirms his evidence for the Jansenist
miracles. They have even a martyr, M. Montgeron, who
wrote an account of the events, and, says Hume lightly,
' is now said to be somewhere in a dungeon on account of
his book.' Many of the miracles of the Abbe Paris were
proved immediately by witnesses before the Bishop's
court at Paris, under the eye of Cardinal Noailles. . . .
' His successor was an enemy to the Jansenists, yet
twenty-two curis of Paris . . . pressed him to examine
these miracles . . . But he ivisehj forbore.' Hume adds
his testimony to the character of these cures. Thus it is
wisdom, according to Hume, to dismiss the most public
and well-attested ' miracles ' without examination. This
is experimental science of an odd kind.
The phenomena were cases of healing, many of them
sm-prising, of cataleptic rigidity, and of insensibility to
pain, among visitors to the tomb of the Abbe Paris (1731),
Had the cases been judicially examined (all medical evi-
dence was in their favour), and had they been proved
false, the cause of Hume would have profited enormously.
A strong presumption would have been raised against the
miracles of Christianity. But Hume applauds the wisdom
of not giving his own theory this chance of a triumph.
The cataleptic seizures were of the sort now familiar to
science. These have, therefore, emerged from the miraculous.
In fact, the phenomena which occurred at the tomb of the
Abbe Paris have emerged almost too far, and now seem
in danger of being too readily and too easily accepted. In
1887 MM. Binet and Fere, of the school of the Salpetriere,
published in English a popular manual styled ' Animal
Magnetism.' These authors write with great caution
about such alleged phenomena as the reading, by the
hypnotised patient, of the thoughts in the mind of the
hypnotiser. But as to the phenomena at tlie tomb of the
' Moll, Uypnotism, p. 357.
2
20 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Abbe Paris, they say that ' suggestion explains them.' '
That is, in the opinion of MM. Binet and Fere the so-
called ' miracles ' really occurred, and were worked by
'the imagination,' by ' self-suggestion.'
The most famous case — that of Mile. Coirin — has
been carefully examined by Dr. Charcot.^
Mlle.Coirin had a dangerous fall from her horse, in
September 1716, in her thirty-first year. The medical
details may be looked for in Dr. Charcot's essay or in
Montgeron.^ ' Her disease was diagnosed as cancer of the
left breast,' the nipple ' fell off bodily.' Amputation of
the breast was proposed, but Madame Coirin, believing
the disease to be radically incurable, refused her consent.
Paralysis of the left side set in (1718), the left leg shrivel-
ling up. On August 9, 1731, Mile. Coirin ' tried the off
chance ' of a miracle, put on a shift that had touched the
tomb of Paris, and used some earth from the grave.
On August 11, Mile. Coirin could turn herself in bed ; on
the 12th the horrible wound * was staunched, and began
to close up and heal.' The paralysed side recovered life
and its natural proportions. By September 3, Mile. Coirin
could go out for a drive.
All her malady, says Dr. Charcot, paralysis, * cancer,'
and all, was * hysterical ; ' ' hysterical oedema,' for which
he quotes many French authorities and one American.
• Under the physical [psychical ?] influence brought to
bear by the application of the shift the
oedema, which was due to vaso-motor trouble, disappeared
almost instantaneously. The breast regained its normal
size.'
Dr. Charcot generously adds that shrines, like Lourdes,
have cured patients in whom lie could not ' inspire the
operation of the faith cure.' He ' certainly cannot explain
everything which claims to be of supernatural origin in
the faith cure. We have to learn the lesson of patience.
' Animal Magnetisvi, p. 355.
^ A translation of his work was published in the New Review, January
1893. '
=• La Viriti dcs Miracles, Cologne, 1747, Septi^me Demonstration.
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES' 21
I am among the first to recognise that Shakespeare's
words hold good to-day :
" There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." '
If Dr. Charcot had believed in what the French call
suggestion mentale — suggestion by thought-transference
(which I think he did not) — he could have explained the
healing of the Centurion's servant, ' Say the word, Lord,
and my servant shall be healed,' by suggestion d distance
(telepathy), and by premising that the servant's palsy
was ' hysterical.' But what do we mean by ' hysterical ' ?
Nobody knows. The ' mind,' somehow, causes gan-
grenes, if not cancers, paralysis, shrinking of tissues ; the
mind, somehow, cures them. And what is the * mind ' ?
As my object is to give savage parallels to modern
instances better vouched for, I quote a singular Bed
Indian cure by * suggestion.' Hearne, travelling in
Canada in 1770, met a native who had ' dead palsy,'
affecting the whole of one side. He was dragged on a
sledge, ' reduced to a mere skeleton,' and so was placed in
the magic lodge. The first step in his cure was the
public swallowing by a conjurer of a board of wood,
' about the size of a barrel-stave,' twice as wide across as
his mouth. Hearne stood beside the man, ' naked as he
was born,' ' and, notwithstanding I was all attention, I
could not detect the deceit.' Of course, Hearne believes
that this was mere legerdemain, and (p. 216) mentions
a most suspicious circumstance. The account is amusing,
and deserves the attention of Mr. Neville Maskelyne. The
same conjurer had previously swallowed a cradle ! Now
bayonet swallowing, which he also did, is possible, though
Hearne denies it (p. 217).
The real object of these preliminary feats, how-
ever performed, is, probably, to inspire faith, which Dr.
Charcot might have done by swallowing a cradle. The
Indians explain that the barrel staves apparently swallowed
are merely dematerialised by ' spirits,' leaving only the
forked end sticking out of the conjurer's mouth. In fact,
22 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Hearne caught the conjurer in the act of making a sepa-
rate forked end.
Faith being thus inspired, the conjurer, for three
entire days, blew, sang, and danced round * the poor
paralytic,' fasting. ' And it is truly wonderful, though
the strictest truth, that when the poor man was taken
from the conjuring house ... he was able to move all
the fingers and toes of the side that had been so long
dead. ... At the end of six weeks he went a-hunting for
his family ' (p. 219). Hearne kept up his acquaintance,
and adds, what is very curious, that he developed almost
a secondary personality. ' Before that dreadful paralytic
stroke, he had been distinguished for his good nature and
benevolent disposition, was entirely free from every appear-
ance of avarice, . . . but after this event he was the most
fractious, quarrelsome, discontented, and covetous wretch
ahve' (p. 220).
Dr. Charcot, if he had been acquainted with this case,
would probably have said that it * is of the nature of those
which Professor Eussell Reynolds has classified under the
head of " paralysis dependent on idea." ' ' Unluckily,
Hearne does not tell us how his hunter, an untutored
Indian, became ' paralysed by idea.'
Dr. Charcot adds : * In every case, science is a foe to
systematic negation, which the morrow may cause to melt
away in the light of its new triumphs.' The present
* new triumph ' is a mere coincidence with the dicta of
our Lord, ' Thy faith hath made thee whole. ... I have
not found so great faith, no, not in Israel.' There are
cures, as there are maladies, caused ' by idea.' So, in fact,
we had always understood. But the point is that science,
wherever it agrees with David Hume, is not a foe, but a
friend to ' systematic negation.'
A parallel case of a ' mira,cle,' the stigmata of St.
Francis, was, of course, regarded by science as a fable ot
a fraud. But, now that blisters and other lesions can be
produced by suggestion, the fable has become a probable
' See Dr. Russell Eeynolds's paper in British Medical Journal,
November 18G9.
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES' 23
fact, and, therefore, not a miracle at all.* Mr. James re-
marks : ' As so often happens, a fact is denied till a
welcome interpretation comes with it. Then it is admitted
readily enough, and evidence quite insufficient to back a
claim, so long as the Church had an interest in making it,
proves to be quite sufficient for modern scientific enlighten-
ment the moment it appears that a reputed saint can
thereby be claimed as a case of " hystero-epilepsy." ' ^
But the Church continues to have an interest in the
matter. As the class of facts which Hume declined to
examine begins to be gradually admitted by science, the
thing becomes clear. The evidence which could safely
convey these now admittedly possible facts, say from the
time of Christ, is so far proved to be not necessarily
mythical — proved to be not incapable of carrying state-
ments probably correct, which once seemed absolutely
false. If so, where, precisely, ends its power of carrying
facts? Thus considered, the kinds of marvellous events
recorded in the Gospels, for example, are no longer to be
dismissed on a priori grounds as 'mythical.' We cannot
now discard evidence as necessarily false because it clashes
with our present ideas of the possible, when we have to
acknowledge that the very same evidence may safely
convey to us facts which clashed with our fathers' notions
of what is possible, but which are now accepted. Our
notions of the possible cease to be a criterion of truth or
falsehood, and our contempt for the Gospels as myths
must slowly die, as ' miracle ' after ' miracle ' is brought
within the realm of acknowledged law. With each such
admission the hypothesis that the Gospel evidence is
mythical must grow weaker, and weaker must grow the
negative certainty of popular science.
The occurrences which took place at and near the
tomb of Paris were attested, as Hume truly avers, by a
great body of excellent evidence. But the wisdom which
' James, Principles of PsyeJwlogy, ii. 612. Charcot, op. cit.
^ I do not need to be told that Dr. Maudsley denied the fact in 1880.
I am prepared with the evidence, if it is asked for by some savant who
happens m>t to know it.
'24 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
declined to make a judicial examination has deprived us
of the best kind of record. Analogous if not exactly
similar events now confessedly take place, and are no
longer looked upon as miraculous. But as long as they
were held to be miraculous, not to examine the evidence,
said Hume, was the policy of ' all reasonable people.'
The result was to deprive Science of the best sort of record
of facts which she welcomes as soon as she thinks she can
explain them.^ Examples of the folly of a jpn'ori negation
are common. The British Association refused to hear the
essay which Braid, the inventor of the word ' hypnotism,'
had written upon the subject. Braid, Elliotson, and other
English inquirers of the mid-century, were subjected to
such persecutions as official science could inflict. We read
of M. Deslon, a disciple of Mesmer, about 1783, that he
was ' condemned by the Faculty of Medicine, without
any examination of the facts.' The Inquisition proceeded
more fairly than these scientific obscurantists.
Another curious example may be cited. M. Guyau,
in his work ' The Non-Eeligion of the Future,' argues
that Keligion is doomed. 'Poetic genius has withdrawn
its services,' witness Tennyson and Browning ! * Among
orthodox Protestant nations miracles do not happen.' ^
But ' marvellous facts ' do happen.' These ' marvellous
facts,' accepted by M. Guyau, are what Hume called
* miracles,' and advised the ' wise and learned ' to laugh
at, without examination. They were not facts, and could
not be, he said. Now to M. Guyau's mind they are facts,
and therefore are not miracles. He includes ' mental sug-
gestion taking place even at a distance.' A man ' can
transmit an almost compulsive command, it appears now-
adays, by a simple tension of his will.' If this be so,
if ' will ' can affect matter from a distance, obviously the
' I am not responsible, of course, for the scientific validity of Dr.
Charcot's theory of healing ' by idea.' My point merely is that certain
experts of no slight experience or mean reputation do now admit, as im-
portant certainties within their personal knowledge, exactly the phenomena
which Hume asks the wise and learned to laugh at, indeed, but never to
investigate.
2 Pp. 353-355. • P. 93.
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES' 25
relations of will and matter are not what popular science
tells us that they are. Again, if this truth is now estab-
lished, and won from that region which Hume and popular
science forbid us to investigate, who knows what other
facts may be redeemed from that limbo, or how far they may
affect our views of possibilities ? The admission of mental
action, operative d distance, is, of course, personal only to
M. Guyau, among friends of the new negative tradition.
We return to Hume. He next argues that the plea-
sures of wonder make all accounts of ' miracles * worthless.
He has just given an example of the equivalent pleasures
of dogmatic disbelief. Then Religion is a disturbing force ;
but so, manifestly, is irreligion. ' The wise and learned
are content to deride the absurdity, without informing
themselves of the particular facts.' The wise and learned
are applauded for their scientific attitude. Again, miracles
destroy each other, for all religions have their miracles,
but all religions cannot be true. This argument is no
longer of force with people who look on ' miracles' as=
'X phenomena,' not as divine evidences to the truth of
this or that creed. ' The gazing populace receives, without
examination, whatever soothes superstition,' and Hume's
whole purpose is to make the wise and learned imitate the
gazing populace by rejecting alleged facts ' without exami-
nation.' The populace investigated more than did the
wise and learned.
Hume has an alternative definition of a miracle — ' a
miracle is a transgression of a law of nature by a parti-
cular volition of the Deity, or by the interposition of
some invisible agent.' We reply that what Hume calls a
' miracle ' may result from the operation of some as yet
unascertained law of nature (say self-suggestion), and that
our business, at present, is to examine such events, not to
account for them.
It may fairly be said that Hume is arguing against
men who wished to make so-called ' miracles ' a test of
the truth of Jansenism, for example, and that he could
not be expected to answer, by anticipation, ideas not
current in his day. But he remains guilty of denouncing
26 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
the investigation of apparent facts. No attitude can be
less scientific than his, or more common among many-
men of science.
According to the humorous wont of things in this
world, the whole question of the marvellous had no sooner
been settled for ever by David Hume than it was
reopened by Emanuel Swedenborg. Now, Kant was
familiar with certain of the works of Hume, whether he
had read his ' Essay on Miracles ' or not. Far from declining
to examine the portentous ' visions ' of Swedenborg, Kant
interested himself deeply in the topic. As early as 1758
he wrote his first remarks on the seer, containing some
reports of stories or legends about Swedenborg's 'clair-
voyance.' In the true spirit of psychical research, Kant
wrote a letter to Swedenborg, asking for information at
first hand. The seer got the letter, but he never answered
it. Kant, however, prints one or two examples of
Swedenborg's successes. Madame Harteville, widow of
the Dutch envoy in Stockholm, was dunned by a silver-
smith for a debt of her late husband's. She believed that
it had been paid, but could not find the receipt. She
therefore _ asked Swedenborg to use his renowned gifts.
He promised to see what he could do, and, three days
later, arrived at the lady's house while she was giving a
tea, or rather a coffee, party. To the assembled society
Swedenborg remarked, ' in a cold-blooded way, that he had
seen her man, and spoken to him.' The late M. Harteville
declared to Swedenborg that he had paid the bill, seven
months before his decease : the receipt was in a cupboard
upstairs. Madame Harteville replied that the cupboard
had been thoroughly searched to no purpose. Swedenborg
answered that, as he learned from the ghost, there was a
secret drawer behind the side-plank within the cupboard.
The drawer contained diplomatic correspondence, and the
missing receipt. The whole company then went upstairs,
found the secret drawer, and the receipt among the other
papers. Kant adds Swedenborg's clairvoyant vision, from
Gothenburg, of a great fire at Stockholm (dated Septem-
ber 1756). Kant pined to see Swedenborg himself, and
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES' 37
waited eagerly for his book, 'Arcana Coelestia.' At last he
obtained this work, at the ransom, ruinous to Kant at that
time, of 11. But he was disappointed with what he read,
and in ' Traume eines Geistersehers,' made a somewhat
sarcastic attempt at a metaphysical theory of apparitions.
* Velut aegri somnia vanae
Finguntur species '
is his motto.
Kant's real position about all these matters is, I
venture to say, almost identical with that of Sir Walter
Scott. A Scot himself, by descent, Kant may have heard
tales of second-sight and bogles. Like Scott, he dearly
loved a ghost-story ; like Scott he was canny enough to
laugh, publicly, at them and at himself for his interest in
them. Yet both would take trouble to inquire. As Kant
vainly wrote to Swedenborg and others — as he vainly
spent 11. on 'Arcana CcBlestia,' so Sir Walter was anxious
to go to Egypt to examine the facts of ink-gazing clair-
voyance. Kant confesses that each individual ghost-story
found him sceptical, whereas the cumulative mass made a
considerable impression.^
The first seventy pages of the ' Traume ' are devoted
to a perfectly serious discussion of the metaphysics of
'Spirits.' On page 73 he pleasantly remarks, 'Now we
shall understand that all said hitherto is superfluous,' and
he will not reproach the reader who regards seers not as
citizens of two worlds (Plotinus), but as candidates for
Bedlam.
Kant's irony is peculiarly Scottish. He does not him-
self know how far he is in earnest, and, to save his
self-respect and character for canniness, he 'jocks wi'
deeficulty.' He amuses himself with trying how far he
can carry speculations on metaphysics (not yet reformed
by himself) into the realm of the ghostly. He makes
admissions about his own tendency to think that he has
an immaterial soul, and that these points are, or may be,
or some day will be, scientifically solved. These admis-
' Traume, p. 76.
28 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
sions are eagerly welcomed by Du Prel in his * Philosophy
of Mysticism ; ' but they are only part of Kant's joke,
and how far they are serious, Kant himself does not know.
If spiritualists knew their own business, they would trans-
late and publish Kant's first seventy pages of ' Traume.'
Something like telepathy, action of spirit, even discar-
nate, on spirit, is alluded to, but the idea is as old as
Lavaterus at least (p. 52). Kant has a good deal to say,
like Scott in his ' Demonology,' on the physics of Halluci-
nation, but it is antiquated matter. He thinks the whole
topic of spiritual being only important as bearing on
hopes of a future life. As speculation, all is ' in the air,'
and as in such matters the learned and unlearned are on a
level of ignorance, science will not discuss them. He then
repeats the Swedenborg stories, and thinks it would be
useful to posterity if some one would investigate them
while witnesses are alive and memories are fresh.
In fact, Kant asks for psychical research.
As for Swedenborg's so costly book, Kant laughs at it.
There is in it no evidence, only assertion. Kant ends,
having pleased nobody, he says, and as ignorant as when
he began, by citing cultivons notre jardin.
Kant returned to the theme in ' Anthropologische
Didaktik.' He discusses the unconscious, or sub-conscious,
which, till Sir William Hamilton lectured, seems to have
been an absolutely unknown topic to British psychologists.
' So ist das Feld dunkler Vorstellungen das grosste in
Menschen.' He has a chapter on ' The Divining Faculty '
(pp. 89-93). He will not hear of presentiments, and,
unlike Hegel, he scouts the Highland second-sight. The
' possessed ' of anthropology are epileptic patients. Mystics
(Swedenborg) are victims of Schwdrmerei.
This reference to Swedenborg is remarked upon by
Schubert in his preface to the essay of Kant. He points
out that * it is interesting to compare the circumspection,
the almost uncertainty of Kant when he had to deliver a
judgment on the phenomena described by himself and as
to which he had made inquiry [i.e. in his letter re Sweden-
borg to Mile, de Knobloch], and the very decided opinions
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES' 29
he expressed forty years later on Swedenborg and his
companions ' [in the work cited, sections 35-37, The
opinion in paragraph 35 is a general one as to mystics.
There is no other mention of Swedenborg].
On the whole Kant is interested, but despairing. He
wants facts, and no facts are given to him but the book
of the Prophet Emanuel. But, as it happened, a new, or a
revived, order of facts was just about to solicit scientific
attention. Kant had (1766) heard rumours of healing by
magnetism, and of the alleged effect of the magnet on the
human frame. The subject was in the air, and had already
won the attention of Mesmer, about whom Kant had
information. It were superfluous to tell again the familiar
story of Mesmer's performances at Paris. While Mesmer's
theory of * magnetism ' was denounced by contemporary
science, the discovery of the hypnotic sleep was made by
his pupil, Puysegur. This gentleman was persuaded that
instances of ' thought-transference ' (not through known
channels of sense) occurred between the patient and the
magnetiser, and he also believed that he had witnessed
cases of ' clairvoyance,' ' lucidity,' vue a distance, in which
the patient apparently beheld places and events remote in
space. These things would now be explained by 'un-
conscious suggestion ' in the more sceptical schools of
pyschological science. The Eevolution interrupted scien-
tific study in France to a great degree, but ' somnambu-
lism ' (the hypnotic sleep) and ' magnetism ' were eagerly
examined in Germany. Modern manuals, for some reason,
are apt to overlook these German researches and specula-
tions. (Compare Mr. Vincent's ' Elements of Hypnotism,'
p. 34.) The Schellings were interested ; Kitter thought he
had detected a new force, ' Siderism.' Mr. Wallace, in his
preface to Hegel's ' Philosophie des Geistes,' speaks as if
Eitter had made experiments in telepathy. He may
have done so, but his ' Siderismus ' (Tiibingen, 1808) is a
Report undertaken for the Academy of Munich, on the
doings of an Italian water-finder, or ' dowser.' Hitter
gives details of seventy-four experiments in * dowsing ' for
water, metals, or coal. He believes in the faculty, but
30. THE MAKING OF RELIGION
not in * psychic * explanations, or the Devil. He talks
about 'electricity' (pp. 170,190). He describes his pre-
cautions to avoid vulgar fraud, but he took no precautions
against unconscious thought-transference. He reckoned
the faculty ' temperamental ' and useful.
Amoretti, at Milan, examined hundreds of cases of the
so-called Divining Eod, and Jung Stilling became an early
spiritualist and ' full-welling fountain head ' of ghost stories.
Probably the most important philosophical result of
the early German researches into the hypnotic slumber
is to be found in the writings of Hegel. Owing to his
peculiar use of a terminology, or scientific language, all
his own, it is extremely difficult to make Hegel's meaning
even moderately clear. Perhaps we may partly elucidate
it by a similitude of Mr. Frederic Myers. Suppose we
compare the ordinary everyday consciousness of each of
us to a spectrum, whose ends towards each extremity
fade out of our view.
Beyond the range of sight there may be imagined a
lower or physiological end : for our ordinary consciousness,
of course, is unaware of many physiological processes which
are eternally going on within us. Digestion, so long as it
is healthy, is an obvious example. But hypnotic experi-
ment makes it certain that a patient, in the hypnotic
condition, can consciously, or at least purposefully, affect
physiological processes to which the ordinary consciousness
is blind — for example, by raising a blister, when it is sug-
gested that a blister must be raised. Again (granting the
facts hypothetically and merely for the sake of argument),
at the upper end of the spectrum, beyond the view of ordi-
nary everyday consciousness, knowledge may be acquired
of things which are out of the view of the consciousness
of every day. For example (for the sake of argument let
us admit it), unknown and remote people and places may
be seen and described by clairvoyance, or vue a distance.
Now Hegel accepted as genuine the facts which we
here adduce merely for the sake of argument, and by way
of illustrations. But he did not regard the clairvoyant
consciousness (or whatever we call it) which, ex hypothesi,
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES' 31
is untrammelled by space, or even by time, as occupying
what we style the upper end of the psychical spectrum. On
the contrary, he placed it at the lower end. Hegel's upper
end ' loses itself in light ; ' the lower end, qui voit taut
de choses, as La Fontaine's shepherd says, is not ' a
sublime mental phase, and capable of conveying general
truths.' Time and space do not thwart the consciousness
at Hegel's lower end, which springs from ' the great soul
of nature.' But that lower end, though it may see for
Jeanne d'Arc at Valcouleurs a battle at Eouvray, a hundred
leagues away, does not communicate any lofty philo-
sophic truths.' The phenomena of clairvoyance, in Hegel's
opinion, merely indicate that the * material ' is really
* ideal,' which, perhaps, is as much as we can ask from
them. ' The somnambulist and clairvoyant see with-
out eyes, and carry their visions directly into regions
where the waking consciousness of orderly intelligence
cannot enter ' (Wallace). Hegel admits, however, that
' in ordinary self-possessed conscious life ' there are
traces of the 'magic tie,' 'especially between female
friends of delicate nerves,' to whom he adds husband and
wife, and members of the same family. He gives (with-
out date or source) a case of a girl in Germany who saw
her brother lying dead in a hospital at Valladolid. Her
brother was at the time in the hospital, but it was another
man in the next bed who was dead. ' It is thus impossible
to make out whether what the clairvoyants really see
preponderates over what they deceive themselves in.'
As long as the facts which Hegel accepted are not
officially welcomed by science, it may seem superfluous to
dispute as to whether they are attained by the lower or
the higher stratum of our consciousness. But perhaps
the question here at issue may be elucidated by some
remarks of Dr. Max Dessoir. Psychology, he says, has
proved that in every conception and idea an image or
group of images must be present. These mental images
are the recrudescence or recurrence of perceptions. We
' Hegel accepts the clairvoyance of the Pucelle.
32 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
see a tree, or a man, or a dog, and whenever we have
before our minds the conception or idea of any of these
things the original perception of them returns, though of
course more faintly. But in Dr. Dessoir's opinion these
revived mental images would reach the height of actual
hallucinations (so that the man, dog, or tree would seem
visibly present) if other memories and new sensations did
not compete with them and check their development.
Suppose, to use Mile. Ferrand's metaphor, a human
body, hving, but with all its channels of sensation hitherto
unopened. Open the sense of sight to receive a flash of
green colour, and close it again. Apparently, whenever
the mind informing this body had the conception of green
(and it could have no other) it would also have an halluci-
nation of green, thus
' Annihilating all that's made.
To a green thought in a green shade.'
Now, in sleep or hypnotic trance the competition of new
sensations and other memories is removed or diminished,
and therefore the idea of a man, dog, or tree once sug-
gested to the hypnotised patient, does become an actual
hallucination. The hypnotised patient sees the absent
object which he is told to see, the sleeper sees things not
really present.
Our primitive state, before the enormous competition
of other memories and new sensations set in, would thus
be a state of hallucination. Our normal present condition,
in which hallucination is checked by competing memories
and new sensations, is a suppression of our original,
primitive, natural tendencies. Hallucination represents
' the main trunk of our psychical existence.' ' In Dr.
Dessoir's theory this condition of hallucination is man's
original and most primitive condition, but it is not a
higher, rather a lower state of spiritual activity than
the everyday practical unhallucinated consciousness.
This is also the opinion of Hegel, who supposes
' See Dr. Dessoir, in Das Doppel Ich, as quoted by Mr. Myers, Proceed-
ings, vol. vi. 213.
i
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES' S3
our primitive mental condition to be capable of descrying
objects remote in space and time. Mr. Myers, as we saw,
is of the opposite opinion, as to the relative dignity and
relative reality of the present everyday self, and the old
original fundamental Self. Dr. Dessoir refrains from pro-
noimcing a decided opinion as to whether the original,
primitive, hallucinated self within us does * preside over
powers and actions at a distance,' such as clairvoyance ;
but he believes in hypnotisation at a distance. His theory,
like Hegel's, is that of ' atavism,' or ' throwing back ' to
some very remote ancestral condition. This will prove of
interest later.
Hegel, at all events, believed in the fact of clair-
voyance (though deeming it of little practical use) ; he
accepted telepathy (* the magic tie ') ; he accepted inter-
change of sensations between the hypnotiser and the
hypnotised ; he believed in the divining rod, and, unlike
Kant, even in ' Scottish second-sight.' * The intuitive soul
oversteps the conditions of time and space; it beholds
things remote, things long past, and things to come.' '
The pendulum of thought has swung back a long way
from the point whither it was urged by David Hume.
Hegel remarks : ' The facts, it might seem, first of all call
for verification. But such verification would be super-
fluous to those on whose account it was called for, since
they facilitate the inquiry for themselves by declaring the
narratives, infinitely numerous though they be, and accre-
dited by the education and character of the witnesses,
to be mere deception and imposture. Their a priori
conceptions are so rooted that no testimony can avail
against them, and they have even denied what they have
seen with their ovni eyes,' and reported under their own
hands, like Sir David Brewster. Hegel, it will be
observed, takes the facts as given, and works them into
his general theory of the Sensitive Soul {filhlende Seele).
He does not try to establish the facts ; but to establish, or
' PhilosopJiie des Oeistes, Werke, vol. vii. 179. Berlin, 1845. The
examples ajid much of the philosophising are in the Zusdtze, not translated
in Mr. Wallace's version, Oxford, 1894.
D
84 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
at least to examine them, is the first business of Psychical
Research. Theorising comes later.
The years which have passed between the date of
Hegel's * Philosophy of Mind ' and our own time have
witnessed the long dispute over the existence, the nature,
and the causes of the hypnotic condition, and over the
reality and limitations of the phenomena. Thus the
Academy of Medicine in Paris appointed a Committee to
examine the subject in 1825. The Report on * Animal
Magnetism,' as it was then styled, was presented in 1831.
The Academy lacked the courage to publish it, for the
Report was favourable even to certain of the still disputed
phenomena. At that time, in accordance with a survival
of the theory of Mesmer, the agent in hypnotic cases was
believed to be a kind of efflux of a cosmic fluid from the
' magnetiser ' to the patient. There was ' a magnetic
connection.'
Though no distinction between mesmerism and hyp-
notism is taken in popular language, * mesmerism ' is
a word implying this theory of * magnetic ' or other
unknown personal influence. ' Hypnotism,' as will pre-
sently be seen, implies no such theory. The Academy's
Report (1831) attested the development, under 'mag-
netism,' of * new faculties,' such as clairvoyance and intui-
tion, also the production of ' great changes in the physical
economy,' such as insensibility, and sudden increase of
strength. The Report declared it to be ' demonstrated '
that sleep could be produced ' without suggestion,' as we
say now, though the term was not then in use. ' Sleep
has been produced in circumstances in which the persons
could not see or were ignorant of the means employed to
produce it.'
The Academy did its best to suppress this Report, which
attests the phenomena that Hegel accepted, phenomena
still disputed. Six years later (1837), a Committee reported
against the pretensions of a certain Berna, a ' magnetiser.'
No person acted on both Committees, and this Report was
accepted. Later, a number of people tried to read a letter
in a box, and failed. ' This,' says Mr. Vincent, ' settled
SCIENCE AND 'MIEACLES' 86
the question with regard to clairvoyance ; * though it
might be more logical to say that it settled the preten-
sions of the competitors on that occasion. The Academy
now decided that, because certain persons did not satisfy
the expectations raised by their preliminary advertise-
ments, therefore the question of magnetism was definitely
closed.
We have often to regret that scientific eminence
is not always accompanied by scientific logic. Where
science neglects a subject, charlatans and dupes take it up.
In England ' animal magnetism ' had been abandoned
to this class of enthusiasts, till Thackeray's friend, Dr.
Elliotson, devoted himself to the topic. He was persecuted
as doctors know how to persecute ; but in 1841, Braid,
of Manchester, discovered that the so-called 'magnetic
sleep ' could be produced without any * magnetism.' He
made his patients stare fixedly at an object, and encouraged
them to expect to go to sleep. He called his method
' Hypnotism,' a term which begs no question. Seeming
to cease to be mysterious, hypnotism became all but
respectable, and was being used in surgical operations,
till it was superseded by chloroform. In England, the
study has been, and remains, rather suspect, while on the
Continent hypnotism is used both for healing purposes and
in the inquiries of experimental psychology. Wide differ-
ences of opinion still exist, as to the nature of the hypnotic
sleep, as to its physiological concomitants, and as to the
limits of the faculties exercised in or out of the slumber. It is
not even absolutely certain that the exercise of the stranger
faculties — for instance, that the production of ansesthesia
and rigidity — are the results merely of * suggestion ' and
expectancy. A hypnotised patient is told that the middle
finger of his left hand will become rigid and incapable of
sensation. This occurs, and is explained by ' suggestion,'
though how ' suggestion ' produces the astonishing effect
is another problem. The late Mr. Gurney, however,
made a number of experiments in which no suggestion
was pronounced, nor did the patients know which of their
fingers was to become rigid and incapable of pain. The
n 2
86 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
patient's hands were thrust through a screen, on the other
side of which the hypnotist made passes above the finger
which was to become rigid. The lookers-on selected the
finger, and the insensibility was tested by a strong electric
current. The effect was also produced witJiout passes,
the operator merely pointing at the selected finger, and
* willing ' the result. If he did not ' will ' it, nothing
occurred, nor did anything occur if he willed without
pointing. The proximity of the operator's hand produced
no effect if he did not * will,' nor was his ' willing ' success-
ful if he did not bring his hand near that of the patient.
Other people's hands, similarly situated, produced no effect.
Experiments in transferring taste, as of salt, sugar,
cayenne pepper, from operator to subject, were also suc-
cessful. Drs. Janet and Gibert also produced sleep in a
woman at a distance, by * willing ' it, at hours which were
selected by a system of drawing lots.^ These facts, of
course, rather point to an element of truth in the old
mesmeric hypothesis of some specific influence in the
operator. They cannot very well be explained by sug-
gestion and expectancy. But these facts and facts of
clairvoyance and thought-transference will be rejected as
superstitious delusions by people who have not met them
in their own experience. This need not prevent us from
examining them, because all the facts, including those
now universally accepted by Continental and scarcely
impeached by British science, have been noisily rejected
again and again on Hume's principles.
The rarer facts, as Mr. Gurney remarks, 'still go
through the hollow form of taking place.' Here is an
example of the mode in which these phenomena are
treated by popular science. Mr. Vincent says that * clair-
voyance and phrenology were Elliotson's constant stock
in trade.' (Phrenology was also Braid's stock in trade.)
* It is a matter of congratulation to have been so soon
delivered from what Dr. Lloyd Tuckey has well called
"a mass of superincumbent rubbish." ' ^ Clairvoyance is
' Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. ii. pp. 201-207, 390-392.
* Elevients of Hypnotism, p. 57.
SCIENCE AND 'MIRACLES' 37
part of a mass of rubbish, on page 57. On page 67,
Mr. Vincent says : ' There are many interesting questions,
such as telepathy, thought-reading, clairvoyance, upon
which it would be perhaps rash to give any decided
opinion. . . . All these strange psychical conditions pre-
sent problems of great interest,' and are only omitted
because ' they have not a sufficient bearing on the normal
states of hypnosis. . . .' Thus what was ' rubbish ' in
one page ' presents problems of great interest ' ten pages
later, and, after offering a decided opinion that clairvoy-
ance is rubbish, Mr. Vincent thinks it rash to give any
decided opinion. It is rather rash to give a decided
opinion, and then to say that it is rash to do so.'
This brief sketch shows that science is confronted by
certain facts, which, in his time, Hume dismissed as
incredible miracles, beneath the contempt of the wise and
learned. We also see that the stranger and rarer pheno-
mena which Hegel accepted as facts, and interwove with
his general philosophy, are still matters of dispute.
Admitted by some men of science, they are doubted by
others ; by others, again, are denied, while most of the
journalists and authors of cheap primers, who inspire
popular tradition, regard the phenomena as frauds or
fables of superstition. But it is plain that these pheno-
mena, like the more ordinary facts of hypnotism, 7nay
finally be admitted by science. The scientific world »
laughed, not so long ago, at Ogham inscriptions, meteor- :
ites, and at palaeolithic weapons as impostures, or freaks '
of nature. Now nobody has any doubt on these matters, .
and clairvoyance, thought-transference, and telepathy may, !
not inconceivably, be as fortunate in the long run as
meteorites, or as the more usual phenomena of hypnotism.
It is only Lord Kelvin who now maintains, or lately
maintained, that in hypnotism there is nothing at all but
fraud and malobservation. In years to come it may be that
' Possibly Mr. Vincent only means that Elliotson's experiments, ' little
more than sober fooling ' (p. 57), with the sisters Okey, were rubbish. But
whether the sisters Okey were or were not honest is a question on which
we cannot entor here.
38 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
only some similar belated voice will cry that in thought-
transference there is nothing but malobservation and fraud.
At present the serious attention and careful experiment
needed for the establishment of the facts are more com-
mon among French than among English men of science.
When published, these experiments, if they contain any
affirmative instances, are denounced as • superstitious,' or
criticised after what we must charitably deem to be a very
hasty glance, by the guides of popular opinion. Examples
of this method will be later quoted. Meanwhile the
disputes as to these alleged facts are noticed here, because
of their supposed relation to the Origin of Eeligion.
89
III
ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELIGION
Among the various forms of science which are reaching
and affecting the new popular tradition, we have reckoned
Anthropology. Pleasantly enough, Anthropology has her-
self but recently emerged from that limbo of the un-
recognised in which Psychical Kesearch is pining. The
British Association used to reject anthropological papers
as 'vain dreams based on travellers' tales.' No doubt the
British Association would reject a paper on clairvoyance
as a vain dream based on old wives' fables, or on hyste-
rical imposture. Undeniably the study of such themes is
hampered by fable and fraud, just as anthropology has to \
be ceaselessly on its guard against ' travellers' tales,' against
European misunderstandings of savage ideas, and against |
civilised notions and scientific theories unconsciously read
into barbaric customs, rites, traditions, and usages. Man, '
ondoyant et divers, is the subject alike of anthropo-
logy and of psychical research. Man (especially savage
man) cannot be secluded from disturbing influences, and
watched, like the materials of a chemical experiment in a
laboratory. Nor can jnan be caught in a 'primitive'
state : h^s intellectual beginnings lie very far behind the
.stage of jc ultur e in which we find the lowest known races.
"Consequently the matter on which anthropology works is*
fluctuating ; the evidence on which it rests needs the most(
sceptical criticism, and many of its conclusions, in the
necessary absence of historical testimony as to times far |
behind the lowest known savages, must be hypothetical.
40 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
For these sound reasons official science long looked
askance on Anthropology. Her followers were not re-
garded as genuine scholars, and, perhaps as a result of
this contempt, they were often ' broken men,' intellectual
outlaws, people of one wild idea. To the scientific mind,
anthropologists or ethnologists were a horde who darkly
muttered of serpent worship, phallus worship, Arkite
doctrines, and the Ten Lost Tribes that kept turning up
in the most unexpected places. Anthropologists were said
to gloat over dirty rites of dirty savages, and to seek reason
where there was none. The exiled, the outcast, the pariah
of Science, is, indeed, apt to find himself in odd conipany.
Bound the camp-fire of Psychical Eesearch too, in the
unofficial, unstaked waste of Science, hover odd, mena-
cing figures of Esoteric Buddhists, Satanistes, Occultists,
Christian Scientists, Spiritualists, and Astrologers, as the
Arkites and Lost Tribesnien haunted the cradle of
anthropology.
But there was found at last to be reason in the
thing, and method in the madness. Evolution was in
it. The acceptance, after long ridicule, of palaeolithic
weapons as relics of human culture, probably helped to
bring Anthropology within the sacred circle of permitted
knowledge. Her topic was full of illustrations of the
doctrine of Mr. Darwin. Modern writers on the theme
had been anticipated by the less systematic students of
the eighteenth century — Goguet, de Brosses, Millar,
Fontenelle, Lafitau, Boulanger, or even Hume and Voltaire.
As pioneers these writers answer to the early mesmerists and
magnetists, Puysegur, Amoretti, Eitter, Elliotson, Mayo,
Gregory, in the history of Psychical Eesearch. They
were on the same track, in each case, as Lubbock,
Tylor, Spencer, Bastian, and Frazer, or as Gurney, Eichet,
Myers, Janet, Dessoir, and Von Schrenck-Notzing. But
the earlier students were less careful of method and
evidence.
Evidence ! that was t he stumbling block _^of _ anth ro-
pology^ We still hear, in the later works of Mr. Max
Miiller, the echo of the old complaints. Anything you
ANTPIEOPOLOGY AND RELIGION 41
please, Mr. Max Miiller says, you may find among your
useful savages, and (in regard to some anthropologists) his
criticism is just. You have but to skim a few books of
travel, pencil in hand, and pick out what suits your case.
Suppose, as regards our present theme, your theory is that
savages possess broken lights of the belief in a Supreme
Being. You can find evidence for that. Or suppose you
want to show that they have no religious ideas at all ; you
can find evidence for that also. Your testimony is often
derived from observers ignorant of the language of the
people whom they talk about, or who are themselves
prejudiced by one or other theory or bias. How can you
pretend to raise a science on such foundations, especially
as the savage informants wish to please or to mystify
inquirers, or they answer at random, or deliberately con-
ceal their most sacred institutions, or have never paid any
attention to the subject ?
To all these perfectly natural objections Mr. Ty lor h as
rep lied.' E vidence must Jbe_coIIected, sifted, tested^ as
" jnlbny o ther branc h of inqu iry. A wrriter, ' of course, is
T30und to "use his best judgment as to the trustworthi-
ness of all authors he quotes, and, if possible, to obtain
several accounts to certify each point in each locality.'
Mr. Tylor then adduces 'the test of recurrence,' of un-
designed coincidence in testimony, as Millar had already
argued in the last century.^ If a mediaeval Mahommedan
in Tartary, a Jesuit in Brazil, a Wesleyan in Fiji, one
may add a police magistrate in Australia, a Presbyterian
in Central Africa, a trapper in Canada, agree in describing
some analogous rite or myth in these diverse lands and
ages, we cannot set down the coincidence to chance or
fraud. ' Now, the most important facts of ethnography
are vouched for in this way.'
We may add that even when the ideas of savages are
obscure, we can often detect them by analysis of the
institutions in which they are expressed.^
' Primitive Culture, i. 9, 10. * Origin of Ranks.
' I may be permitted to refer to ' Reply to Objections ' in the appendii
to my Mijth, Ritual, and Religion, vol. ii.
42 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Thus anthropological, like psychical or any other
evidence, must be submitted to conscientious processes
of testing and sifting. Contradictory instances must be
hunted for sedulously. Nothing can be less scientific
than to snatch up any traveller's tale which makes for our
theory, and to ignore evidence, perhaps earlier, or later, or
better observed, which makes against it. Yet this, un-
fortunately, in certain instances (which will be adduced) has
been the occasional error of Mr. Huxley and Mr. Spencer. •
Mr. Spencer opens his ' Ecclesiastical Institutions ' by the
remark that ' the implication [from the reported absence
of the ideas of belief in persons born deaf and dumb] is
that the religious ideas of civilised men are not innate '
(who says they are ?), and this implication Mr. Spencer
supports by * proofs that among various savages religious
ideas do not exist.' ' Sir John Lubbock has given many
of these.' But it would be well to advise the reader to
consult Koskoff's confutation of Sir John Lubbock, and
Mr. Tylor's masterly statement.^ Mr. Spencer cited Sir
Samuel Baker for savages without even ' a ray of super-
stition ' or a trace of worship. Mr. Tylor, twelve years
before Mr. Spencer wrote, had demolished Sir Samuel
Baker's assertion,^ as regards many tribes, and so shaken
it as regards the Latukas, quoted by Mr. Spencer. The
godless Dinkas have *a good deity and heaven-dwelling
creator,' carefully recorded years before Sir Samuel's 'rash
denial.' We show later that Mr. Spencer, relying on a
single isolated sentence in Brough Smyth, omits all his
essential information about the Australian Supreme
Being; while Mr. Huxley — overlooking the copious and
conclusive evidence as to their ethical religion — charges
the Australians with having merely a non-moral belief in
casual spirits. We have also to show that Mr. Huxley,
under the dominance of his theory, and inadvertently,
quotes a good authority as saying the precise reverse of
what he really does say.
' Spencer, Ecclesiastical Institutions, pp. 672, 673.
■ Primitive Culttire, i. 417-425. Cf. however Princip. of Social, p. 304,
' Op. cit. i. 423, 424.
ANTHHOPOLOGY AND RELIGION 43
If the facts not fitting their theories are little observed
by authorities so popular as Mr. Huxley and Mr. Spencer ;
if instanti<B contradictorice are ignored by them, or left
vague ; if these things are done in the green tree, w^e may
easily imagine v^hat shall be done in the dry. But we need
not war with hasty mdgarisateurs and headlong theorists.
Enough has been said to show the position of an-
thropology as regards evidence, and to prove that, if he
confines his observations to certain anthropologists, the
censures of Mr. Max Miiller are justified. It is mainly
for this reason that the arguments presently to follow
are strung on the thread of Mr. Tylor's truly learned and
accurate book, ' Primitive Culture.'
Though but recently crept forth, vix aut ne vix
quidem, from the chill shade of scientific disdain, An-
thropology adopts the airs of her elder sisters among the
sciences, and is as severe as they to the Cinderella of the
family, Psychical Eesearch. She must murmur of her
fairies among the cinders of the hearth, while they go
forth to the ball, and dance with provincial mayors at the
festivities of the British Association. This is ungenerous,
and unfortunate, as the records of anthropology are rich
in unexamined materials of psychical research. I am un-
acquainted with any work devoted by an anthropologist
of renown to the hypnotic and kindred practices of the
lower races, except Herr Bastian's very meagre tract,
* Tiber psychische Beobachtungen bei Naturvolkern.' '
We possess, none the less, a mass of scattered information
on this topic, the savage side of psychical phenomena, in
works of travel, and in Mr. Tylor's monumental ' Primitive
Culture.' Mr. Tylor, however, as we shall see, regards it
as a matter of indifference, or, at least, as a matter beyond
the scope of his essay, to decide whether the parallel
supernormal phenomena believed in by savages, and said to
recur in civilisation, are facts of actual experience, or not.
Now, this question is not otiose. Mr. Tylor, like
other anthropologists, Mr. Huxley, Mr. Herbert Spencer,
' Published for the Berlin Society of Exporimeutal Pdycliology, Giiather,
Leipzig, IG'JO.
44 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
and their followers and popuiarisers, constructs, on an-
thropological grounds, a theory of the Origin of Keligion.
That origin anthropology explains as the result of early
and fallacious reasonings on a number of biological and
psychological phenomena, both normal and (as is alleged
by savages) supernormal. These reasonings led to the
belief in souls and spirits. Now, first, anthropology has
taken for granted that the Supreme Deities of savages
are envisaged by them as * spirits.' This, paradoxical as
the statement may appear, is just what does not seem
to be proved, as we shall show. Next, if the super-
normal phenomena (clairvoyance, thought-transference,
phantasms of the dead, phantasms of the dying, and
others) be real matters of experience, the inferences drawn
from them by early savage philosophy may be, in some
degree, erroneous. But the inferences drawn by mate-
rialists who reject the supernormal phenomena will also,
perhaps, be, let us say, incomplete. Religion will have
been, in part, developed out of facts, perhaps inconsistent
with materialism in its present dogmatic form. To put it
less trenchantly, and perhaps more accurately, the alleged
facts ' are not merely dramatically strange, they are not
merely extraordinary and striking, but they are "odd " in
the sense that they will not easily fit in with the views
which physicists and men of science generally give us of the
universe in which we live ' (Mr. A. J. Balfour, President's
Address, ' Proceedings,' S.P.E. vol. x. p. 8, 1894).
As this is the case, it might seem to be the business
of Anthropology, the Science of Man, to examine, among
other things, the evidence for the actual existence of those
alleged unusual and supernormal phenomena, belief in
which is given as one of the origins of religion.
To make this examination, in the ethnographic field,
is almost a new labour. As we shall see, anthropolo-
gists have not hitherto investigated such things as the
' Fire- walk ' of savages, uninjured in the flames, like the
Three Holy Children. The world-wide savage practice of
divining by hallucinations induced through gazing into a
smooth deep (crystal-gazing) has been studied, I think, by
ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELIGION 45
no anthropologist. The veracity of ' messages ' uttered
by savage seers when (as they suppose) ' possessed ' or
' inspired ' has not been criticised, and probably cannot
be, for lack of detailed information. The * physical phe-
nomena ' which answer among savages to the use of the
' divining rod,' and to ' spiritist ' marvels in modern times,
have only been glanced at. In short, all the savage paral-
lels to the so-called ' psychical phenomena ' now under
discussion in England, America, Germany, Italy, and
France, have escaped critical analysis and comparison
with their civilised counterparts.
An exception among anthropologists is Mr. Tylor. He
has not suppressed the existence of these barbaric parallels
to our modern problems of this kind. But his interest
in them practically ends when he has shown that the
phenomena helped to originate the savage belief in
* spirits,' and when he has displayed the ' survival ' of that
belief in later culture. He does not ask * Are the phe-
nomena real ? ' he is concerned only with the savage
philosophy of the phenomena and with its relics in
modern spiritism and religion. My purpose is to do, by
way only of 6hauche, what neither anthropology nor
psychical research nor psychology has done : to put the
savage and modern phenomena side by side. Such
evidence as we can give for the actuality of the modern
experiences will, so far as it goes, raise a presumption
that the savage beliefs, however erroneous, however
darkened by fraud and fancy, repose on a basis of real
observation of actual phenomena.
Anthropology is concerned with man and what is in man
— humani nihil a se alienum putat. These researches,
therefore, are within the anthropological province, espe-
cially as they bear on the prevalent anthropological
theory of the Origin of Keligion. By ' religion ' we mean,
for the purpose of this argument, the belief in the
existence of an Intelligence, or Intelligences not human,
and not dependent on a material mechanism of brain and
nerves, which may, or may not, powerfully control men's
fortunes and the nature of things. We also mean the
46 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
additional belief that there is, in man, an element so far
kindred to these Intelligences that it can transcend the
knowledge obtained through the known bodily senses, and
may possibly survive the death of the body. These two
beliefs at present (though not necessarily in their origin)
appear chiefly as the faith in God and in the Immortality
of the Soul.
It is important, then, to trace, if possible, the origin of
these two beliefs. If they arose in actual communion
with Deity (as the first at least did, in the theory of the
Hebrew Scriptures), or if they could be proved to arise in
an unanalysable sensus numinis, or even in ' a perception
of the Infinite' (Max Miiller), religion would have a
divine, or at least a necessary source. To the Theist,
what is inevitable cannot but be divinely ordained, there-
fore religion is divinely preordained, therefore, in essentials,
though not in accidental details, religion is true. The
atheist, or non-theist, of course draws no such inferences.
But if religion, as now understood among men, be the
latest evolutionary form of a series of mistakes, fallacies,
and illusions, if its germ be a blunder, and its present
form only the result of progressive but unessential refine-
ments on that blunder, the inference that religion is
untrue — that nothing actual corresponds to its hypothesis
— is very easily drawn. The inference is not, perhaps,
logical, for all our science itself is the result of progres-
sive refinements upon hypotheses originally erroneous,
fashioned to explain facts misconceived. Yet our science
is true, within its limits, though very far from being ex-
haustive of the truth. In the same way, it might be argued,
our religion, even granting that it arose out of primitive
fallacies and false hypotheses, may yet have been refined,
as science has been, through a multitude of causes, into
an approximate truth.
Frequently as I am compelled to differ from Mr. Spencer
both as to facts and their interpretation, I am happy to
find that he has anticipated me here. Opponents will
urge, he says, that 'if the primitive belief (in ghosts)
' was absolutely false, all derived beliefs from it must be
ANTHEOPOLOGY AND RELIGION 47
absolutely false,' Mr. Spencer replies : ' A germ of trutli
was contained in the primitive conception —the truth,
namely, that the power which manifests itself in con-
sciousness is but a differently conditioned form of the
power which manifests itself beyond consciousness.' In
fact, we find Mr. Spencer, like Faust as described by
Marguerite, saying much the same thing as the priests,
but not quite in the same way. Of course, I allow for a
much larger * germ of truth ' in the origin of the ghost
theory than Mr. Spencer does. But we can both say
' the ultimate form of the religious consciousness is ' (will
be ?) ' the final development of a consciousness which at
the outset contained a germ of truth obscured by multi-
tudinous errors.' '
' One God, one law, one element,
And one far-off divine event.
To which the whole creation moves.*
Coming at last to Mr. Tylor, we find that he begins by
dismissing the idea that any known race of men is devoid
of religious conceptions. He disproves, out of their own
mouths, the allegations of several writers who have made
this exploded assertion about 'godless tribes.' He says:
'The thoughts and principles of modern Christianity are
attached to intellectual clues which run back through far
prae-Christian ages to the very origin of human civilisation,
perhaps even of human existence.' ^ So far we abound in
Mr. Tylor's sense. * As a minimum definition of religion '
he gives 'the belief in spiritual beings,' which appears
'among all low races with whom we have attained to
thoroughly intimate relations,' The existence of this
belief at present does not prove that no races were ever,
at any time, destitute of all belief. But it prevents us
from positing the existence of such creedless races, in any
age, as a demonstrated fact. We have thus, in short, no
opportunity of observing, historically, man's development
from blank unbelief into even the minimum or most rudi-
' Ecclesiastical Institutions, 837-839.
* Primitive Culture, i. 421, chapter xi.
48 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
mentary form of belief. We can only theorise and make
more or less plausible conjectures as to the first rudiments
of human faith in God and in spiritual beings. We find
no race whose mind, as to faith, is a tabula rasa.
To the earliest faith Mr. Tylor gives the name of
Animism, a term not wholly free from objection, though
' Spiritualism ' is still less desirable, having been usurped
by a form of modern superstitiousness. This Animism, *in
its full development, includes the belief in souls and in a
future state, in controlling deities and subordinate spirits.'
In Mr. Tylor's opinion, as in Mr. Huxley's, Animism, in
its lower (and earlier) forms, has scarcely any connection
with ethics. Its * spirits ' do not * make for righteousness.'
This is a side issue to be examined later, but we may
provisionally observe, in passing, that the ethical ideas,
such as they are, even of Australian blacks are reported
to be inculcated at the religious mysteries (Bora) of the
tribes, which were instituted by and are performed in
honour of the gods of their native belief. But this topic
must be reserved for our closing chapters.
Mr. Tylor, however, is chiefly concerned with Animism
as ' an ancient and world-wide philosophy, of which be-
lief is the theory, and worship is the practice.' Given
Animism, then, or the belief in spiritual beings, as the
earliest form and minimum of religious faith, what is the
origin of Animism ? It will be seen that, by Animism, Mr.
Tylor does not mean the alleged early theory, implicitly if
not explicitly and consciously held, that all things whatso-
ever are animated and are personalities.' Judging from
the behaviour of little children, and from the myths of
savages, early man may have half-consciously extended
his own sense of personal and potent and animated
existence to the whole of nature as known to him. Not
only animals, but vegetables and inorganic objects, may
have been looked on by him as persons, like what he felt
himself to be. The child (perhaps merely because taught
' This theory is what Mr. Spencer calls ' Animism,' and does not
believe in. What Mr. Tylor calls ' Animism ' Mr. Spencer believes in, but
he calls it the ' Ghost Theory.'
ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELIGION 49
to do so) beats the naughty chair, and all objects are persons
in early mythology. But this feeling, rather than theory,
may conceivably have existed among early men, before
they developed the hypothesis of * spirits,' ' ghosts,' or
souls. It is the origin of that hypothesis, 'Animism,'
which Mr. Tylor investigates.
What, then, is the origin of Animism ? It arose in the
earliest traceable speculations on * two groups of biological
problems.'
(1) * What is it that makes the difference between a
living body and a dead one ; what causes waking, sleep,
trance, disease, and death ? *
(2) ' What are those human shapes which appear in
dreams and visions ? * ^
Here it should be noted that Mr. Tylor most properly
takes a distinction between sleeping * dreams ' and waking
'visions,' or ' clear vision.' The distinction is made even
by the blacks of Australia. Thus one of the Kurnai an-
nounced that his Yambo, or soul, could ' go out ' during
sleep, and see the distant and the dead. But ' while any
one might be able to communicate with the ghosts, during
sleep, it was only the wizards who were able to do so in
waking hours.' A wizard, in fact, is a person susceptible
(or feigning to be susceptible) when awake to hallucina-
tory perceptions of phantasms of the dead. ' Among the
Kulin of Wimmera Eiver a man became a wizard who,
as a boy, had seen his mother's ghost sitting at her grave.' ^
These facts prove that a race of savages at the bottom
of the scale of culture do take a formal distinction between
normal dreams in sleep and waking hallucinations — a
thing apt to be denied.
Thus Mr. Herbert Spencer offers the massive generali-
sation that savages do not possess a language enabling a
man to say ' I dreamed that I saw,' instead of * I saw '
('Principles of Sociology,' p. 150). This could only be
proved by giving examples of such highly deficient
* Primitive Culture, i. 428.
* Howitt, Journal of Anthropological Institute, xiii. 191-195.
E
50 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
languages, which Mr. Spencer does not do.* In many
savage speculations there occur ideas as subtly meta-
physical as those of Hegel, Moreover, even the Australian
languages have the verb 'to see,' and the substantive
' sleep.' Nothing, then, prevents a man from saying ' I
sav7 in sleep ' (insomnium, hvirvtov).
We have shown too, that the Australians take an
essential distinction between waking hallucinations (ghosts
seen by a man when awake) and the common halluci-
nations of slumber. Anybody can have these ; the man
who sees ghosts when awake is marked out for a
wizard.
At the same time the vividness of dreams among
certain savages, as recorded in Mr. Im Thurn's * Indians
of Guiana,' and the consequent confusion of dreaming
and waking experiences, are certain facts. Wilson says
the same of some negroes, and Mr. Spencer illustrates
from the confusion of mind in dreamy children. They,
we know, are much more addicted to somnambulism than
groMTi-up people. I am unaware that spontaneous som-
nambulism among savages has been studied as it ought
to be. I have demonstrated, however, that very low
savages can and do draw an essential distinction between
sleeping and waking hallucinations.
Again, the crystal-gazer, whose apparently telepathic
crystal pictures are discussed later (chap, v.), was intro-
duced to a crystal just because she had previously been
known to be susceptible to waking and occasionally
veracious hallucinations.
It was not only on the dreams of sleep, bo easily
forgotten as they are, that the savage pondered, in his
early speculations about the life and the soul. He
included in his materials the much more striking and
memorable experiences of wakmg hours, as we and
Mr. Tylor agree in holding.
Eeflectiug on these things, the earliest savage reasoners
' The curious may consult, for savage words for ' dreams,' Mr. Scott's
Dictionary of the Mang'ayija Language, s.v. ' Lota,' or any glossary of any
savage language.
ANTHROrOLOGY AND RELIGION 61
would decide : (1) that man has a ' life ' (which leaves
him temporarily in sleep, finally in death) ; (2) that man
also possesses a ' phantom ' (which appears to other people
in their visions and dreams). The savage philosopher
would then ' combine his information,' like a celebrated
writer on Chinese metaphysics. He would merely ' com-
bine the life and the phantom,' as ' manifestations of one
and the same soul.' The result would be ' an apparitional
soul,' or 'ghost-soul.'
This ghost-soul would be a highly accomplished
creature, 'a vapour, film, or shadow,' yet conscious,
capable of leaving the body, mostly invisible and impal-
pable, ' yet also manifesting physical power,' existing and
appearing after the death of the body, able to act on the
bodies of other men, beasts, and things.'
When the earliest reasoners, in an age and in mental
conditions of which we know nothing historically, had
evolved the hypothesis of this conscious, powerful, sepa-
rable soul, capable of surviving the death of the body, it
was not difficult for them to develop the rest of Eeligion,
as Mr. Tylor thinks. A powerful ghost of a dead man
might thrive till, its original owner being long forgotten, it
became a God. Again (souls once given) it would not be
a very difficult logical leap, perhaps, to conceive of souls,
or spirits, that had never been human at all. It is, we
may say, only le premier pas qui coute, the step to the be-
lief in a surviving separable soul. Nevertheless, when we
remember that Mr. Tylor is theorising about savages in
the dim background of human evolution, savages whom
we know nothing of by experience, savages far behind
Australians and Bushmen (who possess Gods), we must
admit that he credits them with great ingenuity, and
strong powers of abstract reasoning. He may be right in
his opinion. In the same way, just as primitive men
were keen reasoners, so early bees, more clever than
modern bees, may have evolved the system of hexagonal
cells, and only an early fish of genius could first have hit
' Prim. Cult. i. 429.
K 2
62 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
on the plan, now hereditary, of killing a fly by blowing
water at it.
To this theory of metaphysical genius in very low
savages I have no objection to ofifer. We shall find,
later, astonishing examples of savage abstract speculation,
certainly not derived from missionary sources, because
wholly out of the missionary's line of duty and reflection.
As early beasts had genius, so the earliest reasoners
appear to have been as logically gifted as the lowest
savages now known to us, or even as some Biblical
critics. By Mr. Tylor's hypothesis, they first conceived the
extremely abstract idea of Life, 'that which makes the
difference between a living body and a dead one,' ' This
highly abstract conception must have been, however, the
more difficult to early man, as, to him, all things,
universally, are 'animated.'^ Mr. Tylor illustrates this
theory of early man by the little child's idea that * chairs,
sticks, and wooden horses are actuated by the same sort
of personal will as nurses and children and kittens. . . .
In such matters the savage mind well represents the
childish stage.' ^
Now, nothing can be more certain than that, if
children think sticks are animated, they don't think so
because they have heard, or discovered, that they possess
souls, and then transfer souls to sticks. We may doubt,
then, if primitive man came, in this way, by reasoning
on souls, to suppose that all things, universally, were
animated. But if he did think all things animated — a
corpse, to his mind, was just as much animated as any-
thing else. Did he reason : ' All things are animated. A
corpse is not animated. Therefore a corpse is not a
thing (within the meaning of my General Law)' ?
How, again, did early man conceive of Life, hefore he
identified Life (1) with 'that which makes the differ-
ence between a living body and a dead one ' (a difference
which, ex hypothesi, he did not draw, all things being
animated to his mind) and (2) with * those human shapes
which appear in dreams and visions'? 'The ancient
' Privi. Cult. i. 428. « Ibid. i. 285. » Ibid. i. 285, 286.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELIGION 63
savage philosophers probably reached the obvious inference
that every man had two things belonging to him, a life
and a phantom.' But everything was supposed to have
*a life,' as far as one makes out, before the idea of
separable soul was developed, at least if savages arrived at
the theory of universal animation as children are said
to do.
"We are dealing here quite conjecturally with facts
beyond our experience.
In any case, early man excogitated (by the hypothesis)
the abstract idea of Life, before he first ' envisaged ' it in
material terms as ' breath,' or ' shadow.' He next decided
that mere breath or shadow was not only identical with
the more abstract conception of Life, but could also take
on forms as real and full-bodied as, to him, are the hallu-
cinations of dream or waking vision. His reasoning
appears to have proceeded from the more abstract (the
idea of Life) to the more concrete, to the life first shadowy
and vaporous, then clothed in the very aspect of the real
man.
Mr. Tylor has thus (whether we follow his logic
or not) provided man with a theory of active, intelligent,
separable souls, which can survive the death of the body.
At this theory early man arrived by speculations on the
nature of life, and on the causes of phantasms of the dead
or living beheld in 'dreams and visions.' But our author
by no means leaves out of sight the effects of alleged
supernormal phenomena believed in by savages, with
their parallels in modern civilisation. These supernormal
phenomena, whether real or illusory, are, he conceives,
facts in that mass of experiences from which savages
constructed their belief in separable, enduring, intelligent
souls or ghosts, the foundation of religion.
While we are, perhaps owing to our own want of capa-
city, puzzled by what seem to be two kinds of early philo-
sophy — (1) a sort of instinctive or unreasoned belief in
universal animation, which Mr. Spencer calls ' Animism '
and does not believe in, (2) the reasoned belief in sepa-
rable and surviving souls of men (and in things), which
64 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Mr. Spencer believes in, and Mr. Tylor calls * Animism ' —
we must also note another difficulty. Mr. Tylor may
seem to be taking it for granted that the earliest, remote,
unknown thinkers on life and the soul were existing on
the same psychical plane as we ourselves, or, at least, as
modern savages. Between modern savages and ourselves,
in this regard, he takes certain differences, but takes none
between modem savages and the remote founders of
religion.
Thus Mr. Tylor observes :
* The condition of the modern ghost-seer, whose imagi-
nation passes on such slight excitement into positive
hallucination, is rather the rule than the exception among
uncultured and intensely imaginative tribes, whose minds
may be thrown off their balance by a touch, a word, a
gesture, an unaccustomed noise.' ^
I find evidence that low contemporary savages are
7iot great ghost-seers, and, again, I cannot quite accept
Mr. Tylor's psychology of the ' modern ghost-seer.' Most
such favoured persons whom I have known were steady,
unimaginative, unexcitable people, with just one odd
experience. Lord Tennyson, too, after sleeping in the
bed of his recently lost father on purpose to see his ghost,
decided that ghosts ' are not seen by imaginative people.'
We now examine, at greater length, the psychical
conditions in which, according to Mr. Tylor, contemporary
savages differ from civilised men. Later we shall ask
what may be said as to possible or presumable psychical
differences between modern savages and the datelessly
distant founders of the beHef in souls. Mr. Tylor
attributes to the lower races, and even to races high
above their level, ' morbid ecstasy, brought on by medita-
tion, fasting, narcotics, excitement, or disease.' Now, we
may still ' meditate ' — and how far the result is ' morbid '
is a matter for psychologists and pathologists to deter-
mine. Fasting we do not practise voluntarily, nor would
we easily accept evidence from an Englishman as to
' Primitive Culture, i. 446.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELIGION 66
the veracity of voluntary fasting visions, like those of
Cotton Mather. The visions of disease we should set
aside, as a rule, with those of * excitement,' produced,
for instance, by 'devil-dances.' Narcotic and alcoholic
visions are not in question.' For our purpose the induced
trances of savages (in whatever way voluntarily brought
on) are analogous to the modern induced hypnotic trance.
Any supernormal acquisitions of knowledge in these
induced conditions, among savages, would be on a
par with similar alleged experiences of persons under
hypnotism.
We do not differ from known savages in being able to
bring on non-normal psychological conditions, but we pro-
duce these, as a rule, by other methods than theirs, and such
experiments are not made on all of us, as they were
on all Eed Indian boys and girls in the ' medicine-fast,' at
the age of puberty.
Further, in their normal state, known savages, or
some of them, are more * suggestible ' than educated
Europeans at least.^ They can be more easily halluci-
nated in their normal waking state by suggestion. Once
more, their intervals of hunger, followed by gorges of
food, and their lack of artificial light, combine to make
savages more apt to see what is not there than are
comfortable educated white men. But Mr. Tylor goes
too far when he says ' where the savage could see
phantasms, the civilised man has come to amuse himself
with fancies.'^ The civilised man, beyond all doubt, is
capable of being enfantosme.
In all that he says on this point, the point of psychical
condition, Mr. Tylor is writing about known savages as they
differ from ourselves. But the savages who ex hypothesi
evolved the doctrine of souls lie beyond our ken, far
behind the modern savages, among whom we find belief
not only in souls and ghosts, but in moral gods. About
' See, however, Dr. Von Schrenck-Notzing, Die Bcobachtung narcotiscJier
Mittel filr den Hypnotismiis, and S.P.E. Proceedings, x. 292- 299.
* Primitive Culture, i. 30G-315.
' L S15.
66 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
the psychical condition of the savages who worked out
the theory of souls and founded religion we necessarily
know nothing. If there be such experiences as clairvoy-
ance, telepathy, and so on, these unknown ancestors of
ours may (for all that we can tell) have been peculiarly
open to them, and therefore peculiarly apt to believe in
separable souls. In fact, when we write about these far-
off founders of religion, we guess in the dark, or by
the flickering light of analogy. The lower animals have
faculties (as in their power of finding their way home
through new unknown regions, and in the ants' modes of
acquiring and communicating knowledge to each other)
which are mysteries to us. The terror of dogs in ' haunted
houses ' and of horses in passing ' haunted ' scenes has
often been reported, and is alluded to briefly by Mr. Tylor.
Balaam's ass, and the dogs which crouched and whined
before Athene, whom Eumaeus could not see, are ' classical '
instances.
The weakness of the anthropological argument here
is, we must repeat, that we know little more about the
mental condition and experiences of the early thinkers
who developed the doctrine of Souls than we know about
the mental condition and experiences of the lower animals.
And the more firmly a philosopher believes in the Dar-
winian hypothesis, the less, he must admit, can he suppose
himself to know about the twilight ages, between the
lower animal and the fully evolved man. What kind of
creature was man when he first conceived the germs, or
received the light, of Eeligion ? All is guess-work here !
"We may just allude to Hegel's theory that clairvoyance
and hypnotic phenomena are produced in a kind of tem-
porary atavism, or ' throwing back ' to a remotely ancient
condition of the 'sensitive soul' {fiihlende Seele). The
* sensitive ' [unconditioned, clairvoyant] faculty or * soul ' is
* a disease when it becomes a state of the self-conscious,
educated, self-possessed human being of civilisation.' ^
' Second sight,' Hegel thinks, was a product of an earlier
day and earlier mental condition than ours.
' Phil, des Oeistes, pp. 406, 408.
AT^TIIROrOLOGY AND RELIGION 67
Approaching this almost untouched subject — the early
psychical condition of man — not from the side of meta-
physical speculations like Hegel, but with the instruments
of modern psychology and physiology, Dr. Max Dessoir,
of Berlin, following, indeed, M. Taine, has arrived, as we
saw, at somewhat similar conclusions. * This fully con-
scious life of the spirit,' in which we moderns now live,
'seems to rest upon a substratum of reflex action of a
hallucinatory type.' Our actual modern condition is not
'fundamental,' and 'hallucination represents, at least in
its nascent condition, the main trunk of our psychical
existence.' '
Now, suppose that the remote and unknown ancestors
of ours who first developed the doctrine of souls had not
yet spread far from 'the main trunk of our psychical
existence,' far from constant hallucination. In that case
(at least, according to Dr. Dessoir's theory) their psychical
experiences would be such as we cannot estimate, yet
cannot leave, as a possibility influencing religion, out of
our calculations.
If early men were ever in a condition in which
telepathy and clairvoyance (granting their possibility)
were prevalent, one might expect that faculties so useful
would be developed in the struggle for existence. That
they are deliberately cultivated by modern savages we
know. The Indian foster-mother of John Tanner used,
when food was needed, to suggest herself into an hypnotic
condition, so that she became clairvoyante as to the
whereabouts of game. Tanner, an English boy, caught
early by the Indians, was sceptical, but came to practise
the same art, not unsuccessfully, himself.^ His reminis-
cences, which he dictated on his return to civilisation,
were certainly not feigned in the interests of any theories.
But the most telepathic human stocks, it may be said,
ought, ceteris paribus, to have been the most successful
' See also Mr. A. J. Balfour's Presidential Address to the Society for
Psychical Kesearch, Proceedings, vol. x. See, too, Taine, De V Intelligence,
i. 78, 100, 139.
'^ Tanner's Narrative, New York, 1830.
58 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
in the struggle for existence. We may infer that the
cetera were not paria, the clairvoyant state not being
precisely the best for the practical business of life. But
really we know nothing of the psychical state of the
earliest men. They may have had experiences tend-
ing towards a belief in ' spirits,' of which we can tell
nothing. We are obliged to guess, in considerable
ignorance of the actual conditions, and this historical
ignorance inevitably besets all anthropological speculation
about the origin of religion.
The knowledge of our nescience as to the psychical
condition of our first thinking ancestors may suggest
hesitation as to taking it for granted that early man was
on our own or on the modern savage level in ' psychical '
experience. Even savage races, as Mr. Tylor justly says,
attribute superior psychical knowledge to neighbouring
tribes on a yet lower level of culture than themselves.
The Finn esteems the Lapp sorcerers above his own ; the
Lapp yields to the superior pretensions of the Samoyeds.
There may be more ways than one of explaining this
relative humility : there is Hegel's way and there is Mr,
Tylor's way. We cannot be certain, a priori, that the
earliest man knew no more of supernormal or apparently
supernormal experiences than we commonly do, or that
these did not influence his thoughts on animism.
It is an example of the chameleon-like changes of
science (even of ' science falsely so called ' if you please)
that when he wrote his book, in 1871, Mr. Tylor could
not possibly have anticipated this line of argument.
' Psychical planes ' had not been invented ; hypnotism,
with its problems, had not been much noticed in England.
But ' Spiritualism ' was flourishing. Mr. Tylor did not
ignore this revival of savage philosophy. He saw very
well that the end of the century was beholding the partial
rehabilitation of beliefs which were scouted from 1660 to
1850. Seventy years ago, as Mr. Tylor says. Dr. Mac-
culloch, in his 'Description of the Western Islands of
Scotland,' wrote-^of ' the famous Highland second sight '
that ' ceasing to be believed it has ceased to exist.''
' Primitive Culture, i. 143.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELIGION 69
Dr. Macculloch was mistaken in his facts. ' Second
sight ' has never ceased to exist (or to be believed to
exist), and it has recently been investigated in the
* Journal ' of the Caledonian Medical Society. Mr. Tylor
himself says that it has been ' reinstated in a far larger
range of society, and under far better circumstances of
learning and prosperity.' This fact he ascribes generally
to * a direct revival from the regions of savage philosophy
and peasant folklore,' a revival brought about in great
part by the writings of Swedenborg. To-day things have
altered. The students now interested in this whole class
of alleged supernormal phenomena are seldom believers
in the philosophy of Spiritualism in the American sense
of the word.'
Mr. Tylor, as we have seen, attributes the revival of
interest in this obscure class of subjects to the influence
of Swedenborg. It is true, as has been shown, that
Swedenborg attracted the attention of Kant. But modern
interest has chiefly been aroused and kept alive by the
phenomena of hypnotism. The interest is now, among
educated students, really scientific.
Thus Mr. William James, Professor of Psychology in
the University of Harvard, writes :
*Iwas attracted to this subject (Psychical Research)
some years ago by my love of fair play in Science.' ^
Mr. Tylor is not incapable of appreciating this atti-
tude. Even the so-called ' spirit manifestations,' he says,
* should be discussed on their merits,' and the investigation
' would seem apt to throw light on some most interesting /
psychological questions.' Nothing can be more remote '
from the logic of Hume.
The ideas of Mr. Tylor on the causes of the origin of
religion are now criticised, not from the point of view of
spiritualism, but of experimental psychology. We hold
' As ' spiritualism ' is often used in opposition to 'materialism,' and
with no reference to rapping ' spirits,' the modern belief in that class of
intelligences may here be called spiritism.
* The Will to Believe, preface, p. xiv.
60 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
that very probably there exist human faculties of un-
known scope ; that these conceivably were more powerful
and prevalent among our very remote ancestors who
founded religion ; that they may still exist in savage as in
civilised races, and that they may have confirmed, if they
did not originate, the doctrine of separable souls. If they
do exist, the circumstance is important, in view of the
fact that modern ideas rest on a denial of their existence.
Mr. Tylor next examines the savage and other names
for the ghost-soul, such as shadow (umbra), breath
(spirihis), and he gives cases in which the shadow of a
man is regarded as equivalent to his life. Of course, the
shadow in the sunlight does not resemble the phantasm
in a dream. The two, however, were combined and
identified by early thinkers, while breath and heart were
used as symbols of * that in men which makes them live,*
a phrase found among the natives of Nicaragua in 1528.
The confessedly symbolical character of the phrase, ' it is
not precisely the heart, but that in them which makes
them live,' proves that to the speaker life was not
' heart ' or * breath,' but that these terms were known
to be material word-counters for the conception of life.*
Whether the earliest thinkers identified heart, breath,
shadow, with life, or whether they consciously used words
of material origin to denote an immaterial conception, of
course we do not know. But the word in the latter case
would react on the thought, till the Eoman inhaled (as
his life?) the last breath of his dying kinsman, he well
knowing that the Manes of the said kinsman were
elsewhere, and not to be inhaled.
Subdivisions and distinctions were then recognised, as
of the Egyptian Ka, the ' double,' the Karen kelah, or
' personal life-phantom ' {wraith), on one side, and the
Karen thah, 'the responsible moral soul,' on the other.
The Eoman umbra hovers about the grave, the manes go
to Orcus, the spiritus seeks the stars.
We are next presented with a crowd of cases in which
' Primitive Culture, i. 432, 433. Citing Oviedo, Hist, de Nicaraqiia,
pp. 21-51.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELIGION 61
sickness or lethargy is ascribed by savages to the absence
of the patient's spirit, or of one of his spirits. This idea
of migratory spirit is next used by savages to explain
certain proceedings of the sorcerer, priest, or seer. His
soul, or one of his souls is thought to go forth to distant
places in quest of information, while the seer, perhaps,
remains lethargic. Probably, in the struggle for existence,
he lost more by being lethargic than he gained by being
clairvoyant !
Now, here we touch the first point in Mr. Tylor's
theory, where a critic may ask. Was this belief in the
wandering abroad of the seer's spirit a theory not only
false in its form (as probably it is), but also wholly
unbased on experiences which might raise a presumption
in favour of the existence of phenomena really super-
normal ? By * supernormal ' experiences I here mean
such as the acquisition by a human mind of knowledge
which could not be obtained by it through the recognised
channels of sensation. Say, for the sake of argument,
that a person, savage or civilised, obtains in trance infor-
mation about distant places or events, to him unknown,
and, through channels of sense, unknowable. The savage
will explain this by saying that the seer's soul, shadow, or
spirit, wandered out of the body to the distant scene.
This is, at present, an unverified theory. But still, for the
sake of argument, suppose that the seer did honestly
obtain this information in trance, lethargy, or hypnotic
sleep, or any other condition. If so, the modern savage
(or his more gifted ancestors) would have other grounds for
his theory of the wandering soul than any ground presented
by normal occurrences, ordinary dreams, shadows, and so
forth. Again, in human nature there would be (if such
things occur) a potentiality of experiences other and stranger
than materialism will admit as possible. It will (granting
the facts) be impossible to aver that there is nihil in
intellectu quod non prius in sensu. The soul will be not
ce qu'un vain peuple pense under the new popular tra-
dition, and the savage's theory of the spirit will be, at
least in part, based on other than normal and every-day
62 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
facts. That condition in which the seer acquires in-
formation, not otherwise accessible, about events remote in
space, is what the mesmerists of the mid-century called
' travelling clairvoyance.'
If such an experience be in rerum natura, it will not,
of course, justify the savage's theory that the soul is a
separable entity, capable of voyaging, and also capable of
existing after the death of the body. But it will give the
savage a better excuse for his theory than normal ex-
periences provide ; and will even raise a presumption that
reflection on mere ordinary experiences —death, shadow,
trance— is not the sole origin of his theory. For a savage
so acute as Mr. Tylor's hypothetical early reasoner might
decline to believe that his own or a friend's soul had been
absent on an expedition, unless it brought back informa-
tion not normally to be acquired. However, we cannot
reason, a priori, as to how far the logic of a savage might
or might not go on occasion.
In any case, a scientific reasoner might be expected
to ask: 'Is this alleged acquisition of knowledge, not
through the ordinary channels of sense, a thing in rerum
natura ? ' Because, if it is, we must obviously increase
our list of the savage's reasons for believing in a soul :
we must make his reasons include * psychical ' experiences,
and there must be an X region to investigate.
These considerations did not failto present themselves
to Mr. Tylor. But his manner of dealing with them is
peculiar. With his unequalled knowledge of the lower
races, it was easy for him to examine travellers' tales
about savage seers who beheld distant events in vision,
and to allow them what weight he thought proper, after
discounting possibilities of falsehood and collusion. He
might then have examined modern narratives of similar
performances among the civilised, which are abundant.
It is obvious and undeniable that if the supernormal
acquisition of knowledge in trance is a vera causa, a real
process, however rare, Mr. Tylor's theory needs modi-
fications; while the character of the savage's reasoning
becomes more creditable to the savage, and appears as
ANTHROPOLOGY AND RELIGION 63
better bottomed than we had been asked to suppose. But
Mr. Tylor does not examine this large body of evidence
at all, or, at least, does not offer us the details of his
examination. He merely writes in this place :
* A typical spiritualistic instance may be quoted from
Jung- Stilling, who says that examples have come to his
knowledge of sick persons who, longing to see absent
friends, have fallen into a swoon, during which they have
appeared to the distant objects of their affection.' ^
Jung-Stilling (though he wrote before modern * Spiri-
tualism ' came in) is not a very valid authority ; there is
plenty of better evidence than his, but Mr. Tylor passes
it by, merely remarking that * modern Europe has kept
closely enough to the lines of early philosophy.' Modern
Europe has indeed done so, if it explains the supernormal
acquisition of knowledge, or the hallucinatory appearance
of a distant person to his friend by a theory of wandering
'spirits.' But facts do not cease to be facts because
wrong interpretations have been put upon them by
savages, by Jung-Stilling, or by anyone else. The real (
question is, Do such events occur among lower and higher
races, beyond explanation by fraud and fortuitous co-
incidence ? We gladly grant that the belief in Animism,
when it takes the form of a theory of ' wandering spirits,'
is probably untenable, as it is assuredly of savage origin.
But we are not absolutely so sure that in this aspect the
theory is not based on actual experiences, not of a normal
and ordinary kind. If so, the savage philosophy and its
supposed survivals in belief will appear in a new light.
And we are inclined to hold that an examination of the
mass of evidence to which Mr. Tylor offers here so slight
an allusion will at least make it wise to suspend our
judgment, not only as to the origins of the savage theory
of spirits, but as to the materialistic hypothesis of the
absence of a psychical element in man.
' Primitive Culture, i. 440. Citing Stilling after Dale Owen, and
quoting Mr. Alfred Kussel Wallace's Scientific Aspect of the Supernatural,
p. 43. Mr. Tylor also adds folk-lore practices of ghost-seeing, as on St. John's
Eve. St. Mark's Eve, too, is in point, as far as folk-lore goes.
64 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
I may seem to have outrun already the Hmits of
permissible hypothesis. It may appear absurd to surmise
that there can exist in man, savage or civilised, a faculty
for acquiring information not accessible by the known
channels of sense, a faculty attributed by savage philo-
sophers to the wandering soul. But one may be permitted
to quote the opinion of M. Charles Eichet, Professor of
Physiology in the Faculty of Medicine in Paris. It is
not cited because M. Eichet is a professor of physiology,
but because he reached his conclusion after six years of
minute experiment. He says : ' There exists in certain
persons, at certain moments, a faculty of acquiring
knowledge which has no rapport with our normal
faculties of that kind.'*
Instances tending to raise a presumption in favour
of M. Eichet's idea may now be sought in savage and
civilised life.
« Proceedings, S.P.R. v. 167.
65
IV
*OPENINa THE GATES OF DISTANCE'
*To open the Gates of Distance' is the poetical Zulu
phrase for what is called clairvoyance, or vue a distance.
This, if it exists, is the result of a faculty of undetermined
nature, whereby knowledge of remote events may be
acquired, not through normal channels of sense. As the
Zulus say : ' Isiyezi is a state in which a man becomes
slightly insensible. He is awake, but still sees things
which he would not see if he were not in a state of
ecstasy {nasiyesi).' ' The Zulu description of isiyezi
includes what is technically styled ' dissociation.' No
psychologist or pathologist will deny that visions of an
hallucinatory sort may occur in dissociated states, say
in the petit mal of epilepsy. The question, however, is
whether any such visions convey actual information not
otherwise to be acquired, beyond the reach of chance co-
incidence to explain.
A Scottish example, from the records of a court of
law, exactly illustrates the Zulu theory. At the moment
when the husband of Jonka Dyneis was in danger six
miles from her house in his boat, Jonka ' was found, and
seen standing at her own house wall in a trance, and
being taken, she could not give answer, but stood as
bereft of her senses, and when she was asked why she
was so moved, she answered, " If our boat be not lost, she
was in great hazard." ' (October 2, 1616.)^
' Callaway, Religion of the Zulus, p. 232.
^ Graham Dalzell, Darker Superstitions of Scotland, p. 481.
F
66 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
The belief in opening the Gates of Distance is, of
course, very widely diffused. The gift is attributed to
Apollonius of Tyana, to Plotinus, to many Saints, to
Catherine de' Medici, to the Eev. Mr. Peden,' and to
Jeanne d'Arc, while the faculty is the stock in trade of
savage seers in all regions.^
The question, however, on which Mr. Tylor does not
touch, is, Are any of the stories true ? If so, of course
they would confirm in the mind of the savage his theory
of the wandering soul. Now, to find anything like
attested cases of successful clairvoyance among savages is
a difficult task. White men either scout the idea, or are
afraid of seeming superstitious if they give examples, or, if
they do give examples, are accused of having sunk to the
degraded level of Zulus or Eed Indians. Even where
travellers, like Scheffer, have told about their own ex-
periences, the narratives are omitted by modern writers
on savage divination.^ We must therefore make our own
researches, and it is to be noted that the stories of suc-
cessful savage clairvoyance are given as illustrations
merely, not as evidence to facts, for we cannot cross-
examine the witnesses.
Mr. Tylor dismisses the topic in a manner rather
cavalier :
'Without discussing on their merits the accounts of
what is called "second sight,"* it may be pointed out that
they are related among savage tribes, as when Captain
Jonathan Carver obtained from a Cree medicine-man a
true prophecy of the arrival of a canoe with news next
day at noon ; or when Mr. J. Mason Brown, travelling
with two voyageurs on the Copper Mine Eiver, was met
by Indians of the very band he was seeking, these having
been sent by their medicine-man, who, on enquiry, stated
' See good evidence in Ker of Kerslaiid's Memoirs.
* Aulus Gellius, xv. 18, Dio Cassius, Ixvii., Crespet, De la Haine du
Diahle, Prods de Jeanne d'Arc.
^ See ' Shamanism in Siberia,' J.A.I., November 1894, pp. 147-149, and
compare Scheffer. The article is very learned and interesting.
* Williams mentions second sight in Fiji, but gives no examples.
'OPENING THE GATES OF DISTANCE' 67
that " he saw them coming, and heard them talk on their
journey." ' '
Now, in our opinion, the * merits ' of stories of second
sight need discussion, because they may, if well attested,
raise a presumption that the savage's theory has a better
foundation than Mr. Tylor supposes. Oddly enough,
though Mr. Tylor does not say so, Dr. Brinton (from
whom he borrows his two anecdotes) is more or less of
our opinion.
' There are,' says Dr. Brinton, * statements supported by '
unquestionable testimony, which ought not to be passed
over in silence, and yet I cannot but approach them with
hesitation. They are so revolting to the laws of exact
science, so alien, I had almost said, to the experience of
our lives. Yet is this true, or are such experiences only
ignored and put aside without serious consideration ? '
That is exactly what we complain of : the alleged
facts are * put aside without serious consideration.'
We, at least, are not slaves to the idea that * the laws
of exact science ' must be the only laws at work in the
world. Science, however exact, does not pretend to have
discovered all 'laws.'
To return to actual examples of the alleged super-
normal acquisition of knowledge by savages : Dr. Brinton
gives an example from Charlevoix and General Mason
Brown's anecdote.^ In General Mason Brown's instance
the medicine-man, at a great distance, bade his emissaries
' seek three whites, whose horses, arms, attire, and personal
appearance he minutely described, which description was
repeated to General Brown by the warriors before they
saw his two companions.' General Brown assured Dr.
Brinton of 'the accuracy of this in every particular.'
Mr. Tylor has certainly not improved the story in his
condensed version. Dr. Brinton refers to * many ' tales
' Primitive Culture, i. 447. Mr. Tylor cites Dr. Brinton'a Myths of the
New World, p. 269. The reference in the recent edition is p. 28l>. Carver's
case is given under the head ' Possession ' later.
" Journal Historique, p. 362 ; Atlantic '^lonthly, July 1866.
F 2
68 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
such as these, and some will be found in 'Among the
Zulus,' by Mr. David Leslie (1875).
Mr. Leslie was a Scottish sportsman, brought up from
boyhood in familiarity with the Zulus. His knowledge
of their language and customs was minute, and his book,
privately printed, contains much interesting matter. He
writes :
* I was obliged to proceed to the Zulu country to meet
my Kaffir elephant-hunters, the time for their return
having arrived. They were hunting in a very unhealthy
country, and I had agreed to wait for them on the North-
East border, the nearest point I could go to with safety.
I reached the appointed rendezvous, but could not gain
the slightest intelligence of my people at the kraal.
* After waiting some time, and becoming very uneasy
about them, one of my servants recommended me to go to
the doctor, and at last, out of curiosity and pour passer le
temps, I did go.
* I stated what I wanted — information about my
hunters — and I was met by a stern refusal. " I cannot
tell anything about white men," said he, " and I know
nothing of their ways." However, after some persuasion
and promise of liberal payment, impressing upon him the
fact that it was not white men but Kaffirs I wanted to
know about, he at last consented, saying "he would opeii
the Gate of Distance, and would travel through it, even
although his body should lie before me."
' His first proceeding was to ask me the number and
names of my hunters. To this I demurred, telling him
that if he obtained that information from me he might
easily substitute some news which he may have heard
from others, instead of the " spiritual telegraphic news "
which I expected him to get from his " familiar."
* To this he answered : " I told you I did not understand
white men's ways ; but if I am to do anything for you it
must be done in my way — not yours." On receiving this
fillip I felt inclined to give it up, as I thought I might
receive some rambling statement with a considerable dash
'OPENING THE GATES OF DISTANCE' 69
of truth, it being easy for anyone who knew anything of
hunting to give a tolerably correct idea of their motions.
However, I conceded this point also, and otherwise satis-
fied him.
* The doctor then made eight little fires — that being
the number of my hunters ; on each he cast some roots,'
which emitted a curious sickly odour and thick smoke;
into each he cast a small stone, shouting, as he did so, the
name to which the stone was dedicated ; then he ate some
" medicine," and fell over in what appeared to be a trance
for about ten minutes, during all which time his limbs
kept moving. Then he seemed to wake, went to one of
the fires, raked the ashes about, looked at the stone
attentively, described the man faithfully, and said : " This
man has died of the fever, and your gun is lost."
'To the next fire as before: "This man" (correctly
described) " has killed four elephants," and then he
described the tusks. The next : " This man " (again de-
scribing him) " has been killed by an elephant, but your
gun is coming home," and so on through the whole, the
men being minutely and correctly described ; their success
or non-success being equally so. I was told where the
survivors were, and what they were doing, and that in
three months they would come out, but as they would not
expect to find me waiting on them there so long after the
time appointed, they would not pass that way.
' I took a particular note of all this information at the
time, and to my utter amazement it turned out correct in
every particular.
' It was scarcely within the bounds of possibility that
this man could have had ordinary intelligence of the
hunters ; they were scattered about in a country two
hundred miles away.'
Mr. Leslie could discover no explanation, nor was any
suggested by friends familiar with the country and the
natives whom he consulted. He gives another example,
which may be explained by 'suggestion.' A parallel
' Probably impepo, eaten by seers, according to Callaway.
70 THE MAKING OF KELIGION
case from Central Africa will be found in the * Journal of
the Anthropological Institute,' November 1897, p. 320,
where ' private information,' as usual, would explain the
singular facts.
The Zulus themselves lay claim to a kind of clair-
voyance which looks like the result of intense visualising
power, combined with the awakening of the subconscious
memory.^
* There is among black men a something which is
divination within them. When anything valuable is lost,
they look for it at once; when they cannot find it, each
one begins to practise this inner divination, trying to feel
where the thing is ; for, not being able to see it, he feels
internally a pointing, which tells him if he will go down
to such a place it is there, and he will find it. At length
it says he will find It ; at length he sees it, and himself
approaching it; before he begins to move from where
he is, he sees it very clearly indeed, and there is an end of
doubt. That sight is so clear that it is as though it was
not an inner sight, but as if he saw the very thing itself,
and the place where it is ; so he quickly arises and goes
to the place. If it is a hidden place he throws himself
into it, as though there was something that impelled him
to go as swiftly as the wind ; and, in fact, he finds the
thing, if he has not acted by mere head-guessing. If it
has been done by real inner divination, he really sees it.
But if it is done by mere head-guessing and knowledge
that he has not gone to such a place and such a place,
and that therefore it must be in such another place, he
generally misses the mark.'
Other Zulu instances will be given under the heads
' Possession ' and ' Fetishism.'
To take a Northern people : In his ' History of the
Lapps ' ^ Scheffer describes mechanical modes of divina-
tion practised by that race, who use a drum and other
objects for the purpose. These modes depend on mere
traditional rules for interpreting the accidental combina-
' Callaway's Religion of the Amazulu, p. 358. ^ Oxford, 1G74.
'OPENING THE GATES OF DISTANCE' 71
tions of lots. But a Lapp confessed to Scheffer, with
tears, that he could not help seeing visions, as he proved
by giving Scheflfer a minute relation 'of whatever par-
ticulars had happened to me in my journey to Lapland.
And he further complained that he knew not how to
make use of his eyes, since things altogether distant were
presented to them.' This Lapp was anxious to become a
Christian, hence his regret at being a ' rare and valuable '
example of clairvoyance. Torfaeus also was posed by
the clairvoyance of a Samoyed, as was Kegnard by a Lapp
seer.^
The next case is of old date, and, like the other savage
examples, is merely given for purposes of illustration.
' 25« Leitre}
* *' Suite des Traditions des Sauvages."
' Au Fort de la Riviere de St. Joseph,
ce 14. Septembre 1721.
* "Des Jongleurs " — . . . Vous avez vu a Paris Madame
de Marson, & elle y est encore ; voici ce que M. le Marquis
de Vaudreuil son Gendre, actuellement notre Gouverneur
General, me raconta cet Hyver, & qu'il a 5911 de cette
Dame, qui n'est rien moins qu'un esprit foible. Elle
etoit un jour fort inquiette au sujet de M. de Marson, son
Mari, lequel commandoit dans un Poste, que nous avions
en Accadie ; et etoit absent, & le tems qu'il avoit marque
pour son retour, etoit passe.
* Une Femme Sauvage, qui vit Madame de Marson en
peine, lui en demanda la cause, & I'ayant apprise, lui dit,
apr^s y avoir un peu reve, de ne plus se chagriner, que
son Epoux reviendroit tel jour et a telle heure, qu'elle lui
marqua, avec un chapeau gris sur la tete. Comme elle
s'apper9ut que la Dame n'ajoutoit point foi a sa predic-
tion, au jour & a I'heure, qu'elle avoit assignee, elle
retourna chez elle, lui demanda si elle ne vouloit pas venir
voir arriver son Mari, & la pressa de telle sorte de la
suivre, qu'elle I'entraina au bord de la Eiviere.
' Voyages. * From Charlevoix, Journal Historig^iie, p. 362.
72 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
*A peine y etoient-elles arrivees, que M. de Marson
parut dans un Canot, un chapeau gris sur la tete; &
ayant appris ce qui s'etoit passe, ass^ra qu'il ne pouvoit
pas comprendre comment la Sauvagesse avoit pti s9avoir
I'heure & le jour de son arrivee.'
It is unusual for European travellers and missionaries
to give anecdotes which might seem to ' confirm the
delusions of benighted savages.' Such anecdotes, again,
are among the arcana of these wild philosophers, and are
not readily communicated to strangers. When successful
cases are reported, it is natural to assert that they come
through Europeans who have sunk into barbarous super-
stition, or that they may be explained by fraud and
collusion. It is certain, however, that savage proficients
believe in their own powers, though no less certainly
they will eke them out by imposture. Seers are chosen
in Zululand, as among Eskimos and Samoyeds, from the
class which in Europe supplies the persons who used to
be, but are no longer the most favourite hypnotic subjects,
* abnormal children,' epileptic and hysterical. These are
subjected to ' a long and methodical course of training.' ^
Stoll, speaking of Guatemala, says that ' certainly most of
the induced and spontaneous phenomena with which we
are familiar occur among savages,' and appeals to travellers
for observations.^ Information is likely to come in, as
educated travellers devote attention to the topic.
Dr. Callaway translates some Zulu communications
which indicate the amount of belief in this very prac-
tical and sceptical people. Amusing illustrations of their
scepticism will be quoted later, under 'Possession,' but
they do accept as seers certain hysterical patients. These
are tested by their skill in finding objects which have
been hidden without their knowledge. They then behave
much like Mr. Stuart Cumberland, but have not the
advantage of muscular contact with the person who knows
where the hidden objects are concealed. The neighbours
even deny that they have hidden anything at all. ' When
' Bastian, Vebcr psych. Beobacht. p. 24. * Op. cit. p. 26.
'OPENING THE GATES OE DISTANCE' 73
they persist in their denial ... he finds all the things that
they have hidden. They see that he is a great inyanga
(seer) when he has found all the things they have con-
cealed.' No doubt he is guided, perhaps in a super-
sensitive condition, by the unconscious indications of the
excited spectators.
The point is that, v^hile the savage conjurer will doubt-
less use fraud wherever he can, still the experience of low
races is in favour of employing as seers the class of
people who in Europe were, till recently, supposed to make
the best hypnotic subjects. Thus, in West Africa, * the
presiding elders, during your initiation to the secret society
of your tribe, discover this gift [of Ebumtupism, or second
sight], and so select you as " a witch doctor." ' ^ Among
the Karens, the * Wees,' or prophets, ' are nervous excitable
men, such as would become mediums,' * as mediums are
diagnosed by Mr. Tylor.
In short, not to multiply examples, there is an element
of actual observation and of bona fides entangled in the
trickery of savage practice. Though the subjects may be
selected partly because of the physical phenomena of
convulsions which they exhibit, and which favourably
impress their clients, they are also such subjects as
occasionally yield that evidence of supernormal faculty
which is investigated by modern psychologists, like Eichet,
Janet, and William James.
The following example, by no means unique, shows the
view taken by savages of their own magic, after they have
become Christians. Catherine Wabose, a converted Eed
Indian seeress, described her preliminary fast, at the age of
puberty. After six days of abstention from food she was
rapt away to an unknown place, where a radiant being
welcomed her. Later a dark round object promised her
the gift of prophecy. She found her natural senses
greatly sharpened by lack of food. She first exercised her
powers when her kinsfolk in large numbers were starving.
A medicine-lodge, or ' tabernacle ' as Lafitau calls it, was
' Miss Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, p. 460.
' Primitive Culture^ ii. 131 ; Mason's Burmah, p. 107.
74 THE MAKING OF KELIGION
built for her, and she crawled in. As is well known, these
lodges are violently shaken during the magician's stay
within them, which the early Jesuits at first attributed to
muscular efforts by the seers. In 1637 Pere Lejeune
was astonished by the violent motions of a large lodge,
tenanted by a small man. One sorcerer, with an appear-
ance of candour, vowed that ' a great wind entered bois-
terously,' and the Father was assured that, if he went
in himself, he would become clairvoyant. He did not
make the experiment. The Methodist convert, Catherine,
gave the same description of her own experience : ' The
lodge began shaking violently by supernatural means.
I knew this by the compressed current of air above,
and the noise of motion.' She had been beating a
small drum and singing, now she lay quiet. The radiant
* orbicular ' spirit then informed her that they ' must go
westwards for game ; how short-sighted you are ! ' ' The
advice was taken and crowned by instant success.' This
established her reputation.^ Catherine's conversion was
led up to by a dream of her dying son, who beheld a
Sacred Figure, and received from Him white raiment.
Her magical songs tell how unseen hands shake the magic
lodge. They invoke the Great Spirit that
* Illumines earth
Illumines heaven !
Ah, say what Spirit, or Body, is this Body,
That fills the world around,
Speak, man, ah say
What Spirit, or Body, is this Body ? '
It is like a savage hymn to Hegel's fiihlende Seele : the
all-pervading Sensitive Soul. We are reminded, too, of
' the doctrine of the Sanscrit Upanishads : There is no limit
to the knowing of the Self that knows.' ^
Unluckily Catherine was not asked to give other
examples of what she considered her successes.
Acosta, who has not the best possible repute as an
' Schoolcraft, i. 394.
* Briuton's Religions of Primitive Peoples, p. 57.
'OPENING THE GATES OF DISTANCE' 75
authority, informs us that Peruvian clairvoyants * tell
what hath passed in the furthest parts before news can
come. In the distance of two or three hundred leagues
they would tell what the Spaniards did or suffered in their
civil wars.' To Du Pont, in 1606, a sorcerer 'rendered a
true oracle of the coming of Poutrincourt, saying his
Devil had told him so.' '
We now give a modern case, from a scientific labora-
tory, of knowledge apparently acquired in no normal way,
by a person of the sort usually chosen to be a prophet, or
wizard, by savages.
Professor Kichet writes : ^
' On Monday, July 2, 1888, after having passed all the
day in my laboratory, I hypnotised Leonie at 8 p.m., and
while she tried to make out a diagram concealed in
an envelope I said to her quite suddenly : " What has
happened to M. Langlois? " Leonie knows M. Langlois
from having seen him two or three times some time ago in
my physiological laboratory, where he acts as my assistant.
— "He has burnt himself," Leonie replied. — "Good," I
said, " and where has he burnt himself ? " — " On the left
hand. It is not fire : it is — I don't know its name. Why
does he not take care when he pours it out? " — " Of what
colour," I asked, " is the stuff which he pours out ? " — " It
is not red, it is brown ; he has hurt himself very much —
the skin puffed up directly."
* Now, this description is admirably exact. At 4 p.m.
that day M. Langlois had wished to pour some bromine
into a bottle. He had done this clumsily, so that some of
the bromine flowed on to his left hand, which held the
funnel, and at once burnt him severely. Although he at
once put his hand into water, wherever the bromine had
touched it a blister was formed in a few seconds — a blister
which one could not better describe than by saying, " the
skin puffed up." I need not say that Leonie had not left
my house, nor seen anyone from my laboratory. Of this I
am absolutely certain, and I am certain that I had not
' Purchas, p. 629. * S.P.Pt. Proceedings, vol. vi. 69.
76 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
mentioned the incident of the burn to anyone. Moreover,
this was the first time for nearly a year that M. Langlois
had handled bromine, and when Leonie saw him six
months before at the laboratory he was engaged in experi-
ments of quite another kind,'
Here the savage reasoner would infer that Leonie's
\ spirit had visited M. Langlois. The modern inquirer will
probably say that Leonie became aware of what was
passing in the mind of M. Kichet. This supranormal
way of acquiring knowledge was observed in the last
century by M. de Puysegur in one of his earliest cases
of somnambulism. MM. Binet and Fere say : ' It is not
yet admitted that the subject is able to divine the thoughts
of the magnetiser without any material communication ; '
while they grant, as a minimum, that * research should
be continued in this direction.' ^ They appear to think
that Leonie may have read ' involuntary signs ' in the
aspect of M. Kichet. This is a difficult hypothesis.
Here follows a case recorded in his diary by Mr.
Dobbie, of Adelaide, Australia, who has practised hyp-
notism for curative purposes. He explains (June 10,
1884) that he had mesmerised Miss on several
occasions to relieve rheumatic pain and sore throat.
He found her to be clairvoyant.
' The following is a verbatim account of the second
time I tested her powers in this respect, April 12, 1884.
There were four persons present during the seance. One
of the company wrote down the replies as they were
spoken.
T^^
* Her father was at the time over fifty miles away, but
we did not know exactly where, so I questioned her as
follows : " Can you find your father at the present
moment?" At first she replied that she could not see
him, but in a minute or two she said, " Oh, yes ; now I
can see him, Mr. Dobbie." "Where is he?" "Sitting
' Binct and F6rc, Animal Magnetism, p. 64.
'OPENING THE GATES OF DISTANCE' 77
at a large table in a large room, and there are a lot of
people going in and out." " What is he doing ? " " Writing
a letter, and there is a book in front of him." " Whom is
he writing to ? " "To the newspaper," Here she paused
and laughingly said, " Well, I declare, he is writing to the
A B " (naming a newspaper). " You said there was a book
there. Can you tell me what book it is ? " "It has gilt
letters on it." "Can you read them, or tell me the name
of the author ? " She read, or pronounced slowly, " W.
L. W." (giving the full surname of the author). She
answered several minor questions re the furniture in the
room, and I then said to her, "Is it any effort or trouble
to you to travel in this way ? " " Yes, a little ; I have
to think."
' I now stood behind her, holding a half-crown in my
hand, and asked her if she could tell me what I had
in my hand, to which she replied, "It is a shilling." It
seemed as though she could see what was happening
miles away easier than she could see what was going on
in the room.
' Her father returned home nearly a week afterwards,
and was perfectly astounded when told by his wife and
family what he had been doing on that particular
evening ; and, although previous to that date he was a
thorough sceptic as to clairvoyance, he frankly admitted
that my clairvoyant was perfectly correct in every par-
ticular. He also informed us that the book referred to
was a new one, which he had purchased after he had
left his home, so that there was no possibility of his
daughter guessing that he had the book before him. I
may add that the letter in due course appeared in the
paper ; and I saw and handled the book.'
A number of cases of so-called ' clairvoyance ' will be
found in the * Proceedings of the Society for Psychical
Research.' ^ As the authors of these essays remark, even
after discounting, in each case, fraud, malobservation,
' Vol. vii. Mrs. Sidgwick, pp. 30, 35G ; vol. vi. p. 66, Professor Richet,
p. 407, Drs. Dufay and Azam.
78 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
and misreporting, the residue of cases can seldom justify
either the savage theory of the wandering soul (which is
not here seriously proposed) or Hegel's theory that the
fiihlende Seele is unconditioned by space. For, if thought
transference be a fact, the apparent clairvoyant may only
be reading the mind of a person at a distance. The
results, however, when successful, would naturally suggest
to the savage thinker the belief in the wandering soul, or
corroborate it if it had aheady been suggested by the
common phenomena of dreaming.
To these instances of knowledge acquired otherwise
than by the recognised channels of sense we might add
the Scottish tales of 'second sight.' That phrase is
merely a local term covering examples of what is called
* clairvoyance '^views of things remote in space, hallu-
cinations of sight that coincide with some notable event,
premonitions of things future, and so on. The belief and
hallucinatory experiences are still very common in the
Highlands, where I have myself collected many recent
instances. Mr. Tyler observes that the examples ' prove
a little too much; they vouch not only for human
apparitions, but for such phantoms as demon dogs, and
for still more fanciful symbolic omens.' This is perfectly
true. I have found no cases of demon dogs ; but wander-
ing lights, probably of meteoric or miasmatic origin, are
certainly regarded as tokens of death. This is obviously
a superstitious hypothesis, the lights being real phenomena
misconstrued. Again, funerals are not uncommonly seen
where no funeral is taking place ; it is then alleged that
a real funeral, similar and similarly situated, soon after-
wards occurred. On the hypothesis of believers, the
percipients somehow behold
* Such refraction of events
As often rises ere they rise.*
Even the savage cannot account for this experience by
the wandering of the soul in space ; nor do I suggest any
explanation. I give, however, one or two instances. They
are published in the ' Journal of the Caledonian Medical
'OPENING THE GATES OF DISTANCE* 79
Society,' 1897, by Dr. Alastair Macgregor, on the authority
of the MSS. of his father, a minister in the island of Skye.
' He once told me that when he first went to Skye he
scoffed at the idea of such a power as second sight being
genuine; but he said that, after having been there for
some years as a clergyman, he had been so often con-
sulted beforehand by people who said they had seen
visions of events which subsequently occurred, to my
father's knowledge, in exact accordance with the form and
details of the vision as foretold, that he was compelled to
confess that some folks had, apparently at least, the un-
fortunate faculty.
' As my father expressed it, this faculty was " neither
voluntary nor constant, and was considered rather annoying
than agreeable to the possessors of it. The gift was
possessed by individuals of both sexes, and its fits came
on within doors and without, sitting and standing, at
night and by day, and at whatever employment the votary
might chance to be engaged." '
Here follows a typical example of the vision of a
funeral :
' The session clerk at Dull, a small village in Perth-
shire, was iU, and my grandfather, clergyman there at
the time, had to do duty for him. One fine summer
evening, about 7 o'clock, a young man and woman came
to get some papers filled up, as they were going to be
married. My grandfather was with the couple in the
session clerk's room, no doubt attending to the papers,
when suddenly all three saw through the window a
funeral procession passing along the road. From their
dress the bulk of the mourners seemed to be farm labourers
— indeed the young woman recognised some of them
as natives of Dull, who had gone to live and work near
Dunkeld. Kemarks w^ere naturally made by my grand-
father and the young couple about the untimely hour for
a funeral, and, hastily filling in the papers, my grand-
father went out to get the key of the churchyard, which
80 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
was kept in the manse, as, without the key, the procession
could not get into God's acre. Wondering how it was
that he had received no intimation of the funeral, he went
to the manse by a short cut, got the key, and hurried
down to the churchyard gate, where, of course, he ex-
pected to find the cortege waiting. Not a soul was there
except the young couple, who were as amazed as my
grandfather !
* Well, at the same hour in the evening of the same day
in the following week the funeral, this time in reality,
arrived quite unexpectedly. The facts were that a boy, a
native of Dull, had got gored by a bull at Dunkeld, and
was so shockingly mangled that his remains were picked
up and put into a coffin and taken without delay to Dull.
A grave was dug as quickly as possible — the poor lad
having no relatives — and the remains were interred. My
grandfather and the young couple recognised several of
the mourners as being among those whom they had seen
out of the session clerk's room, exactly a week previously,
in the phantom cortege. The young woman knew some
of them personally, and related to them what she had
seen, but they of course denied all knowledge of the affair,
having been then in Dunkeld.'
I give another example, because the experience was
auditory, as well as visual, and the prediction was an-
nounced before the event.
* The parishioners in Skye were evidently largely imbued
with the Bomanist-like belief in the powers of intercession
vested in their clergyman ; so when they had a " warning "
or "vision " they usually consulted my father as to what
they could do to prevent the coming disaster befalling
their relatives or friends. In this way my father had the
opportunity of noting down the minutiae of the " warning "
or "vision" directly it was told him. Having had the
advantage of a medical, previous to his theological,
training, he was able to note down sound facts, unem-
bellished by superadded imagination. Entering into this
method of case-taking with a mind perfectly open, except
'OPENING THE GATES OF DISTANCE' 81
for a slight touch of scepticism, he was greatly surprised
to discover how very frequently realisations occurred
exactly in conformance with the minutiae of the vision as
detailed in his note-book. Finally, he was compelled to
discard his scepticism, and to admit that some people had
undoubtedly the uncanny gift. Almost the first case he
took (Case X.) was that of a woman who had one day a
vision of her son falling over a high rock at Uig, in Skye,
with a sheep or lamb.
' Case X. — She heard her son exclaim in Gaelic, ** This is )4
a fatal lamb for me." As her son lived several miles from
Uig, and was a fisherman, realisation seemed to my father
very unlikely, but one month afterwards the realisation
occurred only too true. Unknown to his mother, who
had warned him against having anything to do with
sheep or lambs, the son one day, instead of going out in
his boat, thought he would take a holiday inland, and
went off to Uig, where a farmer enlisted his services in
separating some lambs from the ewes. One of the lambs
ran away, and the fisher lad ran headlong after it, and not
looking where he was going, on catching the lamb was
pulled by it to the edge of one of the very picturesque but
exceedingly dangerous rocks at Uig. Too late realising
his critical position, he exclaimed, '* This is a fatal lamb
for me," but going with such an impetus he was unable to
bring himself up in time, and, along with the lamb, fell
over into the ravine below, and was, of course, killed on
the spot. The farmer, when he saw the lad's danger,
ran to his assistance, but was only in time to hear him
cry out in Gaelic before disappearing over the brink of the
precipice. This was predicted by the mother a month
bef ora Was this simply a coincidence ? '
Dr. Macgregor's remarks on the involuntary and
unwelcome nature of the visions is borne out by what
Scheffer, as already quoted, says concerning the Lapps.
In addition to visions which thus come unsought,
contributing knowledge of things remote or even future,
we may glance at visions which are provoked by various
G
82 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
methods. Drugs (impepo) are used, seers whirl in a wild
dance till they fall senseless, or trance is induced by
various kinds of self-suggestion or ' auto-hypnotism.'
Fasting is also practised. In modern life the self-induced
trance is common among * mediums ' — a subject to which
we recur later.
So far, it will be observed, our evidence proves that
precisely similar beliefs as to man's occasional power of
opening the gates of distance have been entertained in a
great variety of lands and ages, and by races in every
condition of culture.' The alleged experiences are still
said to occur, and have been investigated by physiologists
of the eminence of M. Eichet. The question cannot but
arise as to the residuum of fact in these narrations, and it
keeps on arising.
In the following chapter we discuss a mode of
inducing hallucinations which has for anthropologists the
interest of universal diffusion. The width of its range
in savage races has not, we believe, been previously
observed. We then add facts of modern experience,
about the authenticity of which we, personally, entertain
no doubt; and the provisional conclusion appears to be
that savages have observed a psychological circumstance
which has been ignored by professed psychologists, and
which, certainly, does not fit into the ordinary materialistic
hypothesis.
' The examples in the Old Testament, and in the Life of St. Coluviba by
Adamnan, need only be alluded to as too familiar for quotation.
88
V
CBYSTAL VISIONS, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED
Among savage methods of provoking hallucinations
whence knowledge may be supemormally obtained,
various forms of ' crystal-gazing ' are the most curious.
We find the habit of looking into water, usually in a
vessel, preferably a glass vessel, among Red Indians
(Lejeune), Eomans (Varro, cited in Civitas Dei, iii. 457),
Africans of Fez (Leo Africanus) ; while Maoris use a
drop of blood (Taylor), Egyptians use ink (Lane), and
Australian savages employ a ball of polished stone, into
which the seer ' puts himself ' to descry the results of an
expedition.'
I have already given, in the Introduction, Ellis's
record of the Polynesian case. A hole being dug in the
floor of his house, and filled with water, the priest looks
for a vision of the thief who has carried off stolen goods.
The Polynesian theory is that the god carries the spirit
of the thief over the water, in which it is reflected.
Lejeune's Red Indians make their patients gaze into the
water, in which they will see the pictures of the things in
the way of food or medicine that will do them good. In
modern language, the instinctive knowledge existing im-
plicitly in the patient's subconsciousness is thus brought
into the range of his ordinary consciousness.
In 1887 the late Captain J. T. Bourke, of the U.S.
' Information, with a photograph of the stones, from a correspondent in
West Maitland, Australia.
0^2
84 THE MAKING OF EELIGION
Cavalry, an original and careful observer, visited the
Apaches in the interests of the Ethnological Bureau.
He learned that one of the chief duties of the medicine-
men was to find out the whereabouts of lost or stolen
property. Na-a-cha, one of these jossakeeds, possessed
a magic quartz crystal, which he greatly valued. Captain
Bourke presented him with a still finer crystal. ' He
could not give me an explanation of its magical use,
except that by looking into it he could see everything
he wanted to see.' Captain Bourke appears never to
have heard of the modern experiments in crystal-gazing.
/ Captain Bourke also discovered that the Apaches, like the
' Greeks, Australians, Africans, Maoris, and many other
races, use the bull-roarer, turndun, or rhomhos — a piece
of wood which, being whirled round, causes a strange
windy roar — in their mystic ceremonies. The wide use
of the rhombos was known to Captain Bourke ; that of
the crystal was not.
For the Iroquois, Mrs. Erminie Smith supplies infor-
mation about the crystal. * Placed in a gourd of water,
it could render visible the apparition of a person who has
bewitched another.' She gives a case in European times
of a medicine-man who found the witch's habitat, but got
only an indistinct view of her face. On a second trial
he was successful.' One may add that treasure-seekers
among the Huille-che * look earnestly ' for what they
want to find ' into a smooth slab of black stone, which
I suppose to be basalt.' ^
The kindness of Monsieur Lefebure enables me to give
another example from Madagascar.^ Flacourt, describing
the Malagasies, says that they squillent (a word not
in Littre), that is, divine by crystals, which * fall from
heaven when it thunders,' Of course the rain reveals the
crystals, as it does the flint instruments called ' thunder-
bolts ' in many countries. ' Lorsqu'ils squillent, lis ont
' Eeport Ethnol. Bureau, 1887-88, p. 460; vol. ii. p. 69. Captain
Bourke's volume on Tlie Medicine Men of the A;paclies may also bo
consulted.
* Fitzroy, Adventure, vol. ii. p. 389.
'L'Histoire de la grand lie Madagascar, par le Sieur de Flacourt.
CRYSTAL VISIONS, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED 86
line de ces pierres au coing de leurs tablettes, disans
qu'elle a la vertu de faire faire operation a leur figure
de geomance.' Probably they used the crystals as do
the Apaches. On July 15 a Malagasy woman viewed,
whether in her crystal or otherwise, two French vessels
which, like the Spanish fleet, were 'not in sight,' also
officers, and doctors, and others aboard, whom she had
seen, before their return to France, in Madagascar. The
earliest of the ships did not arrive till August 11.
Dr. Callaway gives the Zulu practice, where the chief
' sees what will happen by looking into the vessel.' ^ The
Shamans of Siberia and Eastern Kussia employ the
same method. ^ The case of the Inca, Yupanqui, is
very curious. ' As he came up to a fountain he saw a
piece of crystal fall into it, within which he beheld a figure
of an Indian in the following shape. . . . The apparition
then vanished, while the crystal remained. The Inca
took care of it, and they say that he afterwards saw
everything he wanted in it.' ^
Here, then, we find the belief that hallucinations can
be induced by one or other form of crystal-gazing, in
ancient Peru, on the other side of the continent among
the Huille-che, in Fez, in Madagascar, in Siberia, among
Apaches, Hurons, Iroquois, Australian black fellows,
Maoris, and in Polynesia. This is assuredly a wide range
of geographical distribution. We also find the practice
in Greece (Pausanias, VII. xxi. 12), in Eome (Varro), in
Egypt, and in India.
Though anthropologists have paid no attention to the
subject, it was of course familiar to later Europe. ' Miss X '
has traced it among early Christians, in early Councils, in
episcopal condemnations of specularii, and so to Dr. Dee,
under James VI.; Aubrey; the Eegent d'Orleans in St.-
Simon's Memoirs ; the modern mesmerists (Gregory, Mayo)
and the mid- Victorian spiritualists, who, as usual, explained
Paris, 1G61, ch. 76. Veue de deux Navires de France predite par lea
Negres, avant que Ton en peust SQavoir des Nouvelles, &c.
' Religion of the Amazulu, p. 311.
^ J.A.I., November 1894, p. 156. Eyckov is cited ; Zhurnal, p. 86.
' Rites and Laws of tlie Yiicas, Christoval de Molina, p. 12.
86 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
the phenomena, in their prehistoric way, by * spirits.' '
Till this lady examined the subject, nobody had thought
of remarking that a belief so universal had probably some
basis of facts, or nobody if we except two professors
of chemistry and physiology, Drs. Gregory and Mayo.
Miss X made experiments, beginning by accident, like
George Sand, when a child.
The hallucinations which appear to her eyes in ink, or
crystal, are :
1. Bevived memories ' arising thus, and thus only, from
the subconscious strata ; '
' 2. Objectivation of ideas or images — (a) consciously
or (&) unconsciously — in the mind of the percipient ;
* 3. Visions, possibly telepathic or clairvoyant, implying
acquirement of knowledge by supernormal means.' ^
The examples given of the last class, the class which
would be so useful to a priest or medicine-man asked to
discover things lost, are of very slight interest.^
Since Miss X drew attention to this subject, experi-
ments have proved beyond doubt that a fair percentage
of people, sane and healthy, can see vivid landscapes, and
figures of persons in motion, in glass balls and other
vehicles. This faculty Dr. Parish attributes to ' dissociation,'
practically to drowsiness. But he speaks by conjecture,
and without having witnessed experiments, as will be
shown later. I now offer a series of experiments with a
glass ball, coming under my own observation, in which
knowledge was apparently acquired in no ordinary way.
Of the absence of fraud I am personally convinced, not
only by the characters of all concerned, but by the nature
of the circumstances. That adaptive memory did not later
alter the narratives, as originally told, I feel certain, be-
cause they were reported to me, when I was not present,
within less than a week, precisely as they are now given,
except in cases specially noted.
' See Miss X's article, S.P.E. Proceedings, v. 486. ^ Op. cit. v. 505.
' If any reader wishes to make experiments, he, or she, should not be
astonished if the fu-st crystal figure represents ' the sheeted dead,' or a
person ill in bed. For some reason, or no reason, this is rather a usual
prelude, signifying nothing.
CRYSTAL VISIONS, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED 87
Early in the present year (1897) I met a young lady
who told me of three or four curious hallucinatory ex-
periences of her own, which were sufficiently corroborated.
She was innocent of psychical studies, and personally
was, and is, in perfect health ; the pale cast of thought
being remote from her. I got a glass ball, and was pre-
sent when she first looked into it. She saw, I remember,
the interior of a house, with a full-length portrait of a
person unknown. There were, I think, one or two other
fancy pictures of the familiar kind. But she presently
(living as she was, among strangers) developed a power of
* seeing ' persons and places unknown to her, but familiar
to them. These experiences do seem to me to be good
examples of what is called ' thought transference ; ' indeed,
I never before could get out of a level balance of doubt on
that subject, a balance which now leans considerably to
the affirmative side. There may be abundance of better
evidence, but, knowing the persons and circumstances,
and being present once at what seemed to me a crucial
example, I was more inclined to be convinced. This
attitude appears, to myself, illogical, but it is natural and
usual.
We cannot tell what indications may be accidentally
given in experiments in thought transference. But, in these
cases of crystal-gazing, the detail was too copious to be con-
veyed, by a looker-on, in a wink or a cough. I do not mean
to say that success was invariable. I thought of Dr. W. G.
Grace, and the scryer saw an old man crawling along with
a stick. But I doubt if Dr. Grace is very deeply seated
in that mystic entity, my subconscious self. The ' scries '
w^hich came right were sometimes, but not always, those of
which the ' agent ' (or person scried for) was consciously
thinking. But the examples will illustrate the various
kinds of occurrences.
Here one should first consider the arguments against
accepting recognition of objects merely described by an-
other person. The crystal-gazer may know the inquirer
so intimately as to have a very good guess at the subject
of his meditation. Again, a man is likely to be thinking
88 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
of a woman, and a woman of a man, so the field of
conjecture is limited. In answer to the first objection
I may say that the crystal-gazer was among strangers,
all of whom, myself included, she now saw for the
first time. Nor could she have studied their histories
beforehand, for she could not know (normally) when she
left home, that she was about to be shown a glass ball,
or whom she would meet. The second objection is met
by the circumstance that ladies were not usually picked
out for men, nor men for women. Indeed, these choices
were the exceptions, and in each case were marked by
minutely particular details. A third objection is that
credulity, or the love of strange novelties, or desire to
oblige, biases the inquirers, and makes them anxious to
recognise something familiar in the scryer's descriptions.
In the same way we know how people recognise faces in
the most blurred and vague of spiritist photographs, or
see family resemblances in the most rudimentary dough-
faced babies. Take descriptions of persons in a passport,
or in a proclamation sketching the personal appearance of
a criminal. These fit the men or women intended, but
they also fit a crowd of other people. The descrip-
tion given by the scryer then may come right by a for-
tuitous coincidence, or may be too credulously recognised.
The complex of coincidences, however, could not be
attributed to chance selection out of the whole possible
field of conjecture. We must remember, too, that a series
of such hits increases, at an enormous rate, the odds
against accidental conjecture. Of such mere luck I
may give an example. I was writing a story of which
the hero was George Kelly, one of the ' Seven Men of
Moidart.' A year after composing my tale, I found
the Government description of Mr. Kelly (1736). It
exactly tallied with my purely fanciful sketch, down to
eyes, and teeth, and face, except that I made my hero
' about six feet,' whereas the Government gave him five
feet ten. But I knew beforehand that Mr. Kelly was a
clergyman ; his curious career proved him to be a person
of great activity and geniality — and he was of Irish birth.
CRYSTAL VISIONS, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED 89
Even a dozen such guesses, equally correct, could not
suggest any powers of ' vision,' when so much was known
beforehand aboat the person guessed at. I now give
cases in the experience of Miss Angus, as one may call
the crystal-gazer. The first occurred the day after she
got the glass ball for the first time. She writes :
'I. — Alady one day asked me to scry out a friend of whom
she would think. Almost immediately I exclaimed " Here
is an old, old lady looking at me with a triumphant smile
on her face. She has a prominent nose and nut-cracker
chin. Her face is very much wrinkled, especially at the
sides of her eyes, as if she were always smiling. She is
wearing a little white shawl with a black edge. But ! . . .
she can't be old as her hair is quite brown ! although her
face looks so very very old." The picture then vanished,
and the lady said that I had accurately described her
friend's mother instead of himself ; that it was a family
joke that the mother must dye her hair, it was so brown,
and she was eighty-two years old. The lady asked me if
the vision were distinct enough for me to recognise a like-
ness in the son's photograph ; next day she laid several
photographs before me, and in a moment, without the
slightest hesitation I picked him out from his wonderful
likeness to my vision ! '
The inquirer verbally corroborated all the facts to me,
within a week, but leaned to a theory of * electricity.' She
has read and confirms this account.
• n. — One afternoon I was sitting beside a young lady
whom I had never seen or heard of before. She asked
if she might look into my crystal, and while she did so I
happened to look over her shoulder and saw a ship
tossing on a very heavy choppy sea, although land was
still visible in the dim distance. That vanished, and, as
suddenly, a little house appeared with five or six (I forget
now the exact number I then counted) steps leading up to
the door. On the second step stood an old man reading a
newspaper. In front of the house was a field of thick
90 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
stubbly grass where some lambs, I was going to say, but
they were more like very small sheep . . . were grazing.
' When the scene vanished, the young lady told me I
had vividly described a spot in Shetland where she and
her mother were soon going to spend a few weeks.'
I heard of this case from Miss Angus within a day or two
of its occurrence, and it was then confirmed to me, verbally,
by the other lady. She again confirms it (December 21,
1897). Both ladies had hitherto been perfect strangers to
each other. The old man was the schoolmaster, appa-
rently. In her MS., Miss Angus writes ' Skye,' but at the
time both she and the other lady said Shetland (which I
have restored). In Shetland the sheep, like the ponies, are
small. Fortuitous coincidence, of course, may be invoked.
The next account is by another lady, say Miss Rose.
* III. — Writes Miss Rose — My first experience of crystal
gazing was not a pleasant one, as will be seen from the
following which I now relate as exactly as I can remem-
ber. I asked my friend, Miss Angus, to allow me to
look in her crystal, and, after doing so for a short time,
gave up, saying it was very unsatisfactory, as, although I
saw a room with a bright fire in it and a bed all curtained
and people coming and going, I could not make out who
they were, so I returned the crystal to Miss Angus, with
the request that she might look for me. She said at once,
" I see a bed with a man in it looking very ill and a lady
in black beside it." Without saying any more Miss
Angus still kept looking, and, after some time, I asked to
have one more look, and on her passing the ball back to
me, I received quite a shock, for there, perfectly clearly in
a bright light, I saw stretched out in bed an old man
apparently dead ; for a few minutes I could not look, and
on doing so once more there appeared a lady in black and
out of dense darkness a long black object was being carried
and it stopped before a dark opening overhung with
rocks. At the time I saw this I was staying with
cousins, and it was a Friday evening. On Sunday we
heard of the death of the father-in-law of one of my
CKYSTAL VISIONS, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED 91
cousins ; of course I knew the old gentleman was very ill,
but my thoughts were not in the least about him when
looking in the crystal. I may also say I did not recognise
in the features of the dead man those of the old gentleman
whose death I mention. On looking again on Sunday, I
once more saw the curtained bed and some people.*
I now give Miss Angus's version of this case, as
originally received from her (December 1897). I had
previously received an oral version, from a person present
at the scrying. It differed, in one respect, from what
Miss Angus writes. Her version is offered because it is
made independently, without consultation, or attempt to
reconcile recollections.
* At a recent experience of gazing, for the first time
I was able to make another see what I saw in the crystal.
Miss Rose called one afternoon, and begged me to look in
the ball for her. I did so, and immediately exclaimed,
" Oh ! here is a bed, with a man in it looking very ill [I
saw he was dead, but refrained from saying so], and there
is a lady dressed in black sitting beside the bed." I did
not recognise the man to be anyone I knew, so I told her
to look. In a very short time she called out, " Oh ! I see
the bed too ! But, oh ! take it away, the man is dead ! "
She got quite a shock, and said she would never look in it
again. Soon, however, curiosity prompted her to have
one more look, and the scene at once came back again,
and slowly, from a misty object at the side of the bed, the
lady in black became quite distinct. Then she described
several people in the room, and said they were carrying
something all draped in black. When she saw this, she
put the ball down and would not look at it again. She
called again on Sunday (this had been on Friday) with
her cousin, and we teased her about being afraid of the
crystal, so she said she would just look in it once more.
She took the ball, but immediately laid it down again,
saying, " No, I won't look, as the bed with the avrful man
in it is there again ! "
' When they went home, they heard that the cousin's
92 THE MAKING OF EELIGION
father-in-law had died that afternoon,' but to show he had
never been in our thoughts, although we all knew he had
not been well, no one suggested him ; his name was never
mentioned in connection with the vision.*
'Clairvoyance,' of course, is not illustrated here, the
corpse being unrecognised, and the coincidence, doubtless,
accidental.
The next case is attested by a civilian, a slight
acquaintance of Miss Angus's, who now saw him for the
second time only, but better known to her family.
' IV.— On Thursday, March — ? 1897, I was lunching
with my friends the Anguses, and during luncheon the
conversation turned upon crystal balls and the visions
that, by some people, can be seen in them. The subject
arose owing to Miss Angus having just been presented
with a crystal ball by Mr. Andrew Lang. I asked her to
let me see it, and then to try and see if she could conjure
up a vision of any person of whom I might think. ... I
fixed my mind upon a friend, a young trooper in the
[regiment named], as I thought his would be a striking
and peculiar personality, owing to his uniform, and also
because I felt sure that Miss Angus could not possibly
know of his existence. I fixed my mind steadily upon
my friend, and presently Miss Angus, who had already
seen two cloudy visions of faces and people, called out,
" Now I see a man on a horse most distinctly ; he is
dressed most queerly, and glitters all over — why, it's a
soldier ! a soldier in uniform, but it's not an officer.'" My
excitement on hearing this was so great that I ceased to
concentrate my attention upon the thought of my friend,
and the vision faded away and could not afterwards be
recalled. — December 2, 1897.'
The witness gives the name of the trooper, whom he
had befriended in a severe illness. Miss Angus's own
account follows : she had told me the story in June 1897.
' Sunday afternoon. It is not implied that the pictures on Friday were
'prophetic. Probably Miss Hose saw what Miss Angus had seen by aid of
' suggestion.'
CRYSTAL VISIONS, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED 93
* Shortly after I became the happy possessor of a
" crystal " I managed to convert several very decided
" sceptics," and I will here give a short account of my
experiences v^^ith two or three of them.
* One was with a Mr. , who was so determined
to baffle me, he said he would think of a friend it would
not be possible for me to describe !
* I had only met Mr. the day before, and knew
almost nothing about him or his personal friends.
' I took up the ball, which immediately became misty,
and out of this mist gradually a crowd of people appeared,
but too indistinctly for me to recognise anyone, until
suddenly a man on horseback came galloping along. I
remember saying, " I can't describe what he is like, but he
is dressed in a very queer way — in something so bright
that the sun shining on him quite dazzles me, and I can-
not make him out ! " As he came nearer I exclaimed,
*' Why, it's a soldier in shining armour, but it's not an
officer, only a soldier ! " Two friends who were in the
room said Mr. 's excitement was intense, and my
attention was drawn from the ball by hearing him call
out, " It's wonderful ! it's perfectly true ! I was thinking
of a young boy, a son of a crofter, in whom I am deeply
interested, and who is a trooper in the in London,
which would account for the crowd of people round him
in the street ! " '
The next case is given, first in the version of the lady
who was unconsciously scried for, and next in that of
Miss Angus. The other lady writes :
' V. — I met Miss A. for the first time in a friend's house
in the south of England, and one evening mention was
made of a crystal ball, and our hostess asked Miss A. to
look in it, and, if possible, tell her what was happening
to a friend of hers. Miss A. took the crystal, and our
hostess put her hand on Miss A.'s forehead to " will her."
I, not believing in this, took up a book and went to the
other side of the room. I was suddenly very much
startled to hear Miss A., in quite an agitated way, describe
94: THE MAKING OF RELIGION
a scene that had most certainly been very often in my
thoughts, but of which I had never mentioned a word.
She accurately described a race-course in Scotland, and
an accident which happened to a friend of mine only a
week or two before, and she was evidently going through
the same doubt and anxiety that I did at the time as to
whether he was actually killed or only very much hurt.
It really was a most wonderful revelation to me, as it was
the very first time I had seen a crystal. Our hostess,
of course, was very much annoyed that she had not been
able to influence Miss A., while I, who had appeared so
very indifferent, should have affected her. — November 23,
1897.'
Miss Angus herself writes :
* Another case was a rather interesting one, as I some-
how got inside the thoughts of oiie lady while another
was doing her best to influence me !
'Miss , a friend in Brighton, has strange "mag-
netic" powers, and felt quite sure of success with me and
the ball.
' Another lady. Miss H., who was present, laughed at
the whole thing, especially when Miss insisted on
holding my hand and putting her other hand on my fore-
head ! Miss H. in a scornful manner took up a book, and,
crossing to the other side of the room, left us to our folly.
'In a very short time I felt myself getting excited,
which had never happened before, when I looked in the
crystal. I saw a crowd of people, and in some strange
way I felt I was in it, and we all seemed to be waiting
for something. Soon a rider came past, young, dressed
for racing. His horse ambled past, and he smiled and
nodded to those he knew in the crowd, and then was lost
to sight.
' In a moment we all seemed to feel as if something
had happened, and I went through great agony of sus-
pense trying to see what seemed just beyond my view.
Soon, however, two or three men approached, and carried
him past before my eyes, and again my anxiety was
CRYSTAL VISIONS, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED 95
intense to discover if he were only very badly hurt or if
life weve really extinct. All this happened in a few
moments, but long enough to have left me so agitated
that I could not realise it had only been a vision in a
glass ball.
* By this time Miss H. had laid aside her book, and
came forward quite startled, and told me that I had
accurately described a scene on a race-course in Scotland
which she had witnessed just a week or two before — a
scene that had very often been in her thoughts, but, as we
were strangers to each other, she had never mentioned.
She also said I had exactly described her own feelings at
the time, and had brought it all back in a most vivid
manner.
* The other lady was rather disappointed that, after she
had concentrated her thoughts so hard, I should have
been influenced instead by one who had jeered at the
whole affair.'
[This anecdote was also told to me, within a few days
of the occurrence, by Miss Angus. Her version was that
she first saw a gentleman rider going to the post and
nodding to his friends. Then she saw him carried on a
stretcher through the crowd. She seemed, she said, to be
actually present, and felt somewhat agitated. The fact
of the accident was, later, mentioned to me in Scotland
by another lady, a stranger to all the persons. — A. L.]
VI. — I may briefly add an experiment of December 21,
1897. A gentleman had recently come from England to
the Scottish town where Miss Angus lives. He dined
with her family, and about 10.15 to 10.30 p.m. she
proposed to look in the glass for a scene or person of
whom he was to think. He called up a mental picture
of a ball at which he had recently been, and of a young
lady to whom he had there been introduced. The lady's
face, however, he could not clearly visualise, and Miss
Angus reported nothing but a view of an empty ball-room,
with polished floor and many lights. The gentleman
made another effort, and remembered his partner with
96 THE MAKING OF EELIGION
some distinctness. Miss Angus then described another
room, not a ball-room, comfortably furnished, in which
a girl with brown hair drawn back from her forehead, and
attired in a high-necked white blouse, was reading, or
writing letters, under a bright light in an unshaded glass
globe. The description of the features, figure, and height
tallied with Mr. 's recollection ; but he had never
seen this Geraldine of an hour except in ball dress. He
and Miss Angus noted the time by their watches (it was
10.30), and Mr. said that on the first opportunity he
would ask the young lady how she had been dressed
and how employed at that hour on December 21. On
December 22 he met her at another dance, and her reply
corroborated the crystal picture. She had been writing
letters, in a high-necked white blouse, under an incan-
descent gas lamp with an unshaded glass globe. She was
entirely unknown to Miss Angus, and had only been seen
once by Mr. . Mr. and the lady of the crystal
picture corroborated all this in writing.
I now suggested an experiment to Miss Angus, which,
after all, was clearly not of a nature to establish a ' test '
for sceptics. The inquirer was to write down, and
inclose in an envelope, a statement of his thoughts ; Miss
Angus was to do the same with her description of the
picture seen by her ; and these documents were to be
sent to me, without communication between the inquirer
and the crystal-gazer. Of course, this could in no way
prove absence of collusion, as the two parties might
arrange privately beforehand what the vision was to be.
Indeed, nobody is apt to be convinced, or shaken,
unless he is himself the inquirer and a stranger to the
seeress, as the people in these experiments were. Evi-
dence interesting to them — and, in a secondary degree, to
others who know them — can thus be procured; but
strangers are left to the same choice of doubts as in
all reports of psychological experiences, ' chromatic audi-
tion,' views of coloured numerals, and the other topics
illustrated by Mr. Galton's interesting researches.
In this affair of the envelopes the inquirer was a
CRYSTAL VISIOx^S, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED 97
Mr. Pembroke, who had just made Miss Angus's ac-
quaintance, and was but a sojourner in the land. He
wrote, before knowing what Miss Angus had seen in the
ball:
'VII.— On Sunday, January 23, 1898, whilst Miss
Angus was looking in the crystal ball, I was thinking of
my brother, who was, I believe, at that time, somewhere
between Sabathu (Punjab, India) and Egypt. I was
anxious to know what stage of his journey he had
reached.'
Miss Angus saw, and wrote, before telling Mr.
Pembroke :
* A long and very white road, with tall trees at one
side ; on the other, a river or lake of greyish water.
Blue sky, with a crimson sunset. A great black ship is
anchored near, and on the deck I see a man lying,
apparently very ill. He is a powerful-looking man, fair,
and very much bronzed. Seven or eight Englishmen, in
very hght clothes, are standing on the road beside the
boat.
' January 23, 1898.'
' A great black ship,' anchored in * a river or lake,'
naturally suggests the Suez Canal, where, in fact, Mr.
Pembroke's brother was just arriving, as was proved by a
letter received from him eight days after the experiment
was recorded, on January 31. At that date Mr. Pem-
broke had not yet been told the nature of Miss Angus's
crystal picture, nor had she any knowledge of his brother's
whereabouts.
In February 1898, Miss Angus again came to the place
where I was residing. We visited together the scene
of an historical crime, and Miss Angus looked into the
glass ball. It was easy for her to ' visualise ' the inci-
dents of the crime (the murder of Cardinal Beaton), for
they are familiar enough to many people. What she did
see in the ball was a tall, pale lady, ' about forty, but
looking thirty-five,' with hair drawn back from the brows,
H
98 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
standing beside a high chair, dressed in a wide farthingale
of stiff grey brocade, without a ruff. The costume corre-
sponds well (as we found) with that of 1546, and I said,
' I suppose it is Mariotte Ogilvy ' — to whom Miss Angus's
historical knowledge (and perhaps that of the general pub-
lic) did not extend. Mariotte was the Cardinal's lady-love,
and was in the Castle on the night before the mm'der,
according to Knox. She had been in my mind, whence
(on the theorj'^ of thought transference) she may have
passed to Miss Angus's mind ; but I had never speculated
on Mariotte's costume. Nothing but conjecture, of course,
comes of these apparently ' retrospective ' pictures ; though
a most singular and picturesque coincidence occurred,
which may be told in a very different connection.
The next example was noted at the same town. The
lady who furnishes it is well known to me, and it was
verbally corroborated by Miss Angus, to whom the lady,
her absent nephew, and all about her, were entirely
strange.
* VIII. — I was very anxious to know whether my
nephew would be sent to India this year, so I told Miss
Angus that I had thought of something, and asked her to
look in the glass ball. She did so, but almost immediately
turned round and looked out of the window at the sea,
and said, " I saw a ship so distinctly I thought it must be
a reflection." She looked in the ball again, and said, "It
is a large ship, and it is passing a huge rock with a light-
house on it. I can't see who are on the ship, but the
sky is very clear and blue. Now I see a large building,
something like a club, and in front there are a great many
people sitting and walking about. I think it must be
some place abroad, for the people are all dressed in very
light clothes, and it seems to be very sunny and warm.
I see a young man sitting on a chair, with his feet
straight out before him. He is not talking to anyone,
but seems to be listening to something. He is dark and
slight, and not very tall ; and his eyebrows are dark and
very distinctly marked."
CRYSTAL VISIONS, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED 99
' I had not had the pleasure of meeting Miss Angus
before, and she knew nothing whatever about my nephew ;
but the young man described was exactly like him, both
in his appearance and in the way he was sitting.'
In this case thought transference may be appealed to.
The lady was thinking of her nephew in connection with
India. It is not maintained, of course, that the picture
was of a prophetic character.
The following examples have some curious and
unusual features. On Wednesday, February 2, 1897,
Miss Angus was looking in the crystal, to amuse six or
seven people whose acquaintance she had that day made.
A gentleman, Mr. Bissett, asked her ' what letter was in
his pocket.' She then saw, under a bright sky, and, as it
were, a long way off, a large building, in and out of which
many men were coming and going. Her impression was
that the scene must be abroad. In the little company
present, it should be added, was a lady, Mrs. Cockburn,
who had considerable reason to think of her young
married daughter, then at a place about fifty miles away.
After Miss Angus had described the large building and
crowds of men, some one asked, ' Is it an exchange ? '
* It might be,' she said. * Now comes a man in a great
hurry. He has a broad brow, and short, curly hair ; ^
hat pressed low down on his eyes. The face is very
serious ; but he has a delightful smile.' Mr. and Mrs,
Bissett now both recognised their friend and stockbroker,
whose letter was in Mr. Bissett's pocket.
The vision, which interested Miss Angus, passed away,
and was interrupted by that of a hospital nurse, and of a
lady in a peignoir, lying on a sofa, with hare feet? Miss
Angus mentioned this vision as a bore, she being more
interested in the stockbroker, who seems to have inherited
what was once in the possession of another stockbroker —
* the smile of Charles Lamb.* Mrs. Cockburn, for whom
no pictures appeared, was rather vexed, and privately
' Miss Angus could not be sure of the colour of the hair.
^ The position was such that Miss Angus could not see the face of the
lady.
H 2
100 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
expressed with freedom a very sceptical opinion about the
whole affair. But, on Saturday, February 5, 1897, Miss
Angus was again with Mr. and Mrs. Bissett. When
Mrs. Bissett announced that she had * thought of some-
thing,' Miss Angus saw a walk in a wood or garden, beside
a river, under a brilliant blue sky. Here was a lady, very
well dressed, twirling a white parasol on her shoulder as
she walked, in a cm-ious ' stumpy ' way, beside a gentle-
man in light clothes, such as are worn in India. He was
broad-shouldered, had a short neck and a straight nose,
and seemed to listen, laughing, but indifferent, to his
obviously vivacious companion. The lady had a * drawn '
face, indicative of ill health. Then followed a scene in
which the man, without the lady, was looking on at
a number of Orientals busy in the felling ot trees.
Mrs. Bissett recognised, in the lady, her sister, Mrs.
Chfton, in India — above all, when Miss Angus gave a
realistic imitation of Mrs. Clifton's walk, the peculiarity
of which was caused by an illness some j^ears ago. Mrs.
and Mr. Bissett also recognised their brother-in-law in
the gentleman seen in both pictm-es. On being shown a
portrait of Mrs. Clifton as a girl, Miss Angus said it was
' like, but too pretty.' A photograph done recently,
however, showed her * the drawn face ' of the crystal
picture.'
Next day, Sunday, February 6, Mrs. Bissett received,
what was not usual — a letter from her sister in India,
Mrs. Clifton, dated January 20. Mrs. Chfton described
a place in a native State, where she had been at a great
' function,' in certain gardens beside a river. She added
that they were going to another place for a certain
purpose, ' and then we go into camp till the end of
February.' One of Mr. Clifton's duties is to direct the
clearing of wood preparatory to the formation of the
camp, as in Miss Angus's crystal picture.^ The sceptical
• I saw the photographs.
^ I have been shown the letter of January 20, which confirmed the
evidence of the crystal pictures. The camp was formed for official purposes
in which Mr. Clifton was concerned. A letter of February 9 unconsciously
corroborates.
CRYSTAL VISIONS, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED 101
Mrs. Cockburn heard of these coincidences, and an idea
occurred to her. She wrote to her daughter, who has
been mentioned, and asked whether, on Wednesday,
February 2, she had been lying on a sofa in her bed-room,
with bare feet. The young lady confessed that it was
indeed so ; ' and, when she heard how the fact came to be
known, expressed herself with some warmth on the abuse
of glass balls, which tend to rob life of its privacy.
In this case the prima facie aspect of things is that
a thought of Mr. Bissett's about his stockbroker, dulce
ridentem, somehow reflected itself into Miss Angus's mind
by way of the glass ball, and was interrupted by a
thought of Mrs. Cockburn's, as to her daughter. But how
these thoughts came to display the unknown facts con-
cerning the garden by the river, the felling of trees for
a camp, and the bare feet, is a question about which it is
vain to theorise.^
On the vanishing of the jungle scene there appeared
a picture of a man in a dark undress uniform, beside a
great bay, in which were ships of war. Wooden huts, as
in a plague district, were on shore. Mr. Bissett asked,
' What is the man's expression ? ' * He looks as if he had
been giving a lot of last orders.' Then appeared ' a place
like a hospital, with five or six beds — no, berths : it is
a ship. Here is the man again.' He was minutely
described, one peculiarity being the way in which his hair
grew — or, rather, did not grow— on his temples.
Miss Angus now asked, * Where is my little lady ? ' —
meaning the lady of the twirling parasol and staccato
walk. ' Oh, I've left off thinking of her,' said Mrs.
Bissett, who had been thinking of, and recognised in the
officer in undress uniform, her brother, the man with the
singular hair, whose face, in fact, had been scarred in that
way by an encounter with a tiger. He was expected to
sail from Bombay, but news of his setting forth has not
' The incident of the feet occurred at 4.30 to 7.30 p.m. The crystal
picture was about 10 p.m.
* Miss Angus had only within the week made the acquaintance of Mrs.
Cockburn and the Bissetts. Of these relations of theirs at a distance she
had no knowledge.
102 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
been received (February 10) at the moment when this is
written.^
In these Indian cases, * thought transference ' may
account for the correspondence between the figures seen
by Miss Angus and the ideas in the mind of Mr. and Mrs.
Bissett. But the hypothesis of thought transference,
while it would cover the wooden huts at Bombay (Mrs.
Bissett knowing that her brother was about to leave that
place), can scarcely explain the scene in the garden by the
river and the scene with the trees. The incident of the
bare feet may be regarded as a fortuitous coincidence,
since Miss Angus saw the young lady foreshortened, and
could not describe her face.
In the Introductory Chapter it was observed that the
phenomena which apparently point to some unaccount-
able supernormal faculty of acquiring knowledge are
' trivial.' These anecdotes illustrate the triviality ; but
the facts certainly left a number of people, wholly un-
familiar with such experiments, under the impression that
Miss Angus's glass ball was like Prince All's magical
telescope in the 'Arabian Nights.'^ These experiments,
however, occasionally touch on intimate personal matters,
and cannot be reported in such instances.
It will be remarked that the faculty is freakish, and
does not always respond to conscious exertion of thought
in the mind of the inquirer. Thus, in Case I. a connection
of the person thought of is discerned ; in another the
mind of a stranger present seems to be read. In another
case (not given here) the inquirer tried to visualise a card
for a person present to guess, while Miss Angus was asked
to describe an object which the inquirer was acquainted
' I have seen a photograph of this gentleman, Major Hamilton, which
tallies with the full description given by Miss Angus, as reported by Mrs.
liissett. All the proper names here, as throughout, are altered.
This account I wrote from the verbal statement of Mrs. Bissett. It
was then read and corroborated by herself, Mr. Bissett, Mr. Cockburn, Mrs.
Cockburn, and Miss Angus, who added dates and signatures.
^ The letters attesting each of these experiments are in my possession.
The real names are in no case given in this account, by my own desire,
but (with permission of the persons concerned) can be communicated
privately.
CIIYSTAL VISIONS, SAVAGE AND CIVILISED 103
with, but which he banished from his conscious thought.
The double experiment was a double-barrelled success.
It seems hardly necessary to point out that chance
coincidence will not cover this set of cases, where in each
' guess ' the field of conjecture is boundless, and is not
even narrowed by the crystal-gazer's knowledge of the
persons for whose diversion she makes the experiment.
As * muscle-reading ' is not in question (in the one case
of contact between inquirer and crystal-gazer the results
were unexpected), and as no unconsciously made signs
could convey, for example, the idea of a cavalry soldier
in uniform, or an accident on a race-course in two
tableaux, I do not at present see any more plausible ex-
planation than that of thought transference, though how
that is to account for some of the cases given I do not
precisely understand.
Any one who can accept the assurance of my personal
belief in the good faith of all concerned will see how very
useful this faculty of crystal-gazing must be to the
Apache or Australian medicine-man or Polynesian priest.
Freakish as the faculty is, a few real successes, well
exploited and eked out by fraud, would set up a wizard's
reputation. That a faculty of being thus affected is
genuine seems proved, apart from modern evidence, by
the world-wide prevalence of crystal-gazing in the ethno-
graphic region. But the discovery of this prevalence
had not been made, to my knowledge, before modern
instances induced me to notice the circumstances, sporadi-
cally recorded in books of travel.
The phenomena are certainly of a kind to encourage the
savage theory of the wandering soul. How else, thinkers
would say, can the seer visit the distant place or person,
and correctly describe men and scenes which, in the body,
he never saw ? Or they would encourage the Polynesian
belief that the * spirit ' of the thing or person looked for is
suspended by a god over the water, crystal, blood, ink, or
whatever it may be. Thus, to anthropologists, the dis-
covery of crystal-gazing as a thing widely diffused and
still flourishing ought to be grateful, however much they
104 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
may blame my childish credulity. I may add that I have
no ground to suppose that crystal-gazing will ever be
of practical service to the police or to persons who have
lost articles of portable property. But I have no objection
to experiments being made at Scotland Yard.^
' The faculty of seeing • fancy pictures ' in the glass is far from
uncommon. I have only met with three other persons besides Miss Angus,
two of them men, who had any success in ' telepathic ' crystal-gazing. In
correcting ' revises ' (March 16), I learn that the brother of Mr. Pembroke
(p. 105) wrote from Cairo on January 27. The ' scry ' of January 23 repre-
sented his ship in the Suez Canal. He was, as his letter shows, in quarantine
at Suez, at Moses's Wells, from January 25 to January 26. Major Hamilton
(pp. 109, 110), on the other hand, left Bombay, indeed, but not by sea, as in
the crystal-picture. See Appendix C.
Mr. Starr, an American critic, adds Cherokees, Aztecs, and Tonkaways
to the ranks of crystal gazers.
108
VI
ANTHROPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS
We have been examining cases, savage or civilised, in
which knowledge is believed to be acquired through no
known channel of sense. All such instances among
savages, whether of the nature of clairvoyance simple,
or by aid of gazing in a smooth surface, or in dreams,
or in trance, or through second sight, would confirm
if they did not originate the belief in the separable
soul. The soul, if it is to visit distant places and
collect information, must leave the body, it would be
argued, and must so far be capable of leading an in-
dependent life. Perhaps we ought next to study cases
of 'possession,' when knowledge is supposed to be con-
veyed by an alien soul, ghost, spirit, or god, taking
up its abode in a man, and speaking out of his lips.
But it seems better first to consider the alleged super-
normal phenomena which may have led the savage
reasoner to believe that he was not the only owner of a
separable soul : that other people were equally gifted.
The sense, as of separation, which a savage dreamer
or seer would feel after a dream or vision in which he
visited remote places, would satisfy him that his soul,
at least, was volatile. But some experience of what
he would take to be visits from the spirits of others,
would be needed before he recognised that other men,
as well as he, had the faculty of sending their souls a
journeying.
Now, ordinary dreams, in which the dreamer seemed
106 THE BIAKING OF RELIGION
to see persons who were really remote, would supply
to the savage reasoner a certain amount of affirmative
evidence. It is part of Mr. Tylor's contention that
savages (like some children) are subject to the difficulty
which most of us may have occasionally felt in deciding
' Did this really happen, or did I dream it ? ' Thus,
ordinary dreams would offer to the early thinker some
evidence that other men's souls could visit his, as he
believes that his can visit them.
But men, we may assume, were not, at the assumed
stage of thought, so besotted as not to take a great
practical distinction between sleeping and waking expe-
rience on the whole. As has been shown, the distinction
is made by the lowest savages of our acquaintance. One
clear waking hallucination, on the other hand, of the
presence of a person really absent, could not but tell more
with the early philosopher than a score of dreams, for to
be easily forgotten is of the essence of a dream. Savages,
indeed, oddly enough, have hit on our theory, ' dreams
go by contraries.' Dr. Callaway illustrates this for the
Zulus, and Mr. Scott for the Mang'anza. Thus they do
discriminate between sleeping and waking. We must
therefore examine waking hallucinations in the field of
actual experience, and on such recent evidence as may be
accessible. If these hallucinations agree, in a certain ratio,
beyond what fortuitous coincidence can explain, with real
but unknown events, then such hallucinations would greatly
strengthen, in the mind of an early thinker, the savage
theory that a man at a distance may, voluntarily or
involuntarily, project his spirit on a journey, and be seen
where he is not present.
When Mr. Tylor wrote his book, the study of the
occasional waking hallucinations of the sane and healthy
was in its infancy. Much, indeed, had been written about
hallucinations, but these were mainly the chronic false
perceptions of maniacs, of drunkards, and of persons in
bad health such as Nicolai and Mrs. A. The hallucina-
tions of persons of genius — Jeanne d'Arc, Luther, Socrates^
Pascal, were by some attributed to lunacy in these famous
ANTHROPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS 107
people. Scarcely any writers before Mr. Galton had
recognised the occurrence of hallucinations once in a
life, perhaps, among healthy, sober, and mentally sound
people. If these were known to occur, they were dis-
missed as dreams of an unconscious sleep. This is still
practically the hypothesis of Dr. Parish, as we shall see
later. But in the last twenty years the infrequent
hallucinations of the sane have been recognised by Mr.
Galton, and discussed by Professor James, Mr. Gurney,
Dr. Parish, and many other writers.
Two results have followed. First, ' ghosts ' are shown to I
be, when not illusions caused by mistaking one object for
another, then hallucinations. As these most frequently
represent a living person who is not present, by parity of
reason the appearance of a dead person is on the same level,
is not a space-filling ' ghost,' but merely an hallucination.
Such an appearance can, prima facie, suggest no reason-
able inference as to the continued existence of the dead.
On the other hand, the new studies have raised the
perhaps insoluble question, ' Do not hallucinations of the
sane, representing the living, coincide more frequently
than mere luck can account for, with the death or other
crisis of the person apparently seen ? ' If this could be
proved, then there would seem to be a causal nexus, a
relation of cause and effect between the hallucination and
the coincident crisis. That connection would be pro-
visionally explained by some not understood action of the
mind or brain of the person in the crisis, on that of the
person who has the hallucination. This is no new idea ;
only the name, Telepathy, is modern. Of course, if all
this were accepted, it would be the next step to ask
whether hallucinations representing the dead show any
signs of being caused by some action on the side of the
departed. That is a topic on which the little that we
have to say must be said later.
In the meantime the reader who has persevered so far
is apt to go no further. The prejudice against ' wraiths '
and * ghosts ' is very strong ; but, then, our innocent
phantasms are neither (as we understand their nature)
108 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
ghosts nor wraiths. Kant broke the edges of his meta-
physical tools against, not these phantasms, but the logically
inconceivable entities which were at once material and
non-material, at once ' spiritual ' and * space-filling.' There
is no such difficulty about hallucinations, which, whatever
else may be said about them, are familiar facts of experience.
The only real objections are the statements that hallucina-
tions are always morbid (which is no longer the universal
belief of physiologists and psychologists), and that the
alleged coincidences of a phantasm of a person with the
unknown death of that person at a distance are 'pure
flukes.' That is the question to which we recur later.
In the meantime, the defenders of the theory, that there
is some not understood connection of cause and effect
between the death or other crisis at one end and the per-
ception representing the person affected by the crisis at
the other end, point out that such hallucinations, or other
effects on the percipient, exist in a regular rising scale of
potency and perceptibility. Suppose that ' A's ' death in
Yorkshire is to affect the consciousness of ' B ' in Surrey
before he knows anything about the fact (suppose it for the
sake of argument), then the effect may take place (1) on
* B's ' emotions, producing a vague 7}ialaise a,nd gloom;
(2) on his motor nerves, urging him to some act ; (3) or
may translate itself into his senses, as a touch felt, a voice
heard, a figure seen ; or (4) may render itself as a phrase
or an idea.
Of these, (1) the emotional effect is, of course, the
vaguest. We may all have had a sudden fit of gloom
which we could not explain. People rarely act on such
impressions, and, when they do, are often wrong. Thus a
friend of my own was suddenly so overwhelmed, at golf,
with inexplicable misery (though wmning his match) that
he apologised to his opponent and walked home from the
ninth hole. Nothing was wrong at home. Probably
some real ground of apprehension had obscm'ely occurred
to his mind and expressed itself in his emotion.
But one may illustrate what did look like a coincidence
by the experience of the same friend. He inhabited, as a
ANTimOPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS 109
young married man, a flat in a house belonging to an
acquaintance. The hall was covered by a kind of glasa
roof, over part of its extent. He was staying in the
country with his wife, and as they travelled home the
lady was beset with an irresistible conviction that some-
thing terrible had occurred, not to her children. On
reaching their house they found that one of their maids
had fallen through the glass roof and killed herself. They
also learned that the girl's sister had arrived at the house,
immediately after the accident, explaining that she was
driven to come by a sense that something dreadful had
happened. The lawyer, too, who represented the owner of
the house, had appeared, unsummoned, from a conviction,
which he could not resist, that for some reason unknown
he was wanted there.' Here, then, was not an hallucina-
tion, but an emotional effect simultaneously reaching the
consciousness of three persons, and coinciding with an
unknown crisis.^
Cases in which a person feels urged to an act (2) are
also recorded. Indeed, the lawyer's in our anecdote is such
an instance. Not to trouble ourselves (3) with ' voices,'
hallucinations of sight, coinciding with a distant unknown
crisis, are traced from a mere feeling that somebody is in
the room, followed by a me^ital, or 7nind's eye picture of
a person dying at a distance, up to a kind of ' vision ' of a
person or scene, and so on to hallucinations appealing, at
once, to touch, sight, and hearing. As some hundreds of
these narratives of coincidental hallucinations in every
degree have been collected from witnesses at first hand,
often personally known, and usually personally cross-
questioned, by the student, it is difficult to deny that there
is a prima facie case for inquiry.^
There is here no question of 'spirits,' with all their
' The lady, her husband, and the lawyer, all known to me, gave me the
story in writing ; the servant's sister has been lost sight of.
^ See three other cases in Proceedings, S.P.E., ii. 122, 123. Two others
are offered by Mr. Henry James and Mr. J. Neville Maskelyne of the
Egyptian Hall.
^ See ' Phantasms of the Living ' and ' A Theory of Apparitions,'
Proceediiigs, S.P.R., vol. ii., by Messrs. Gurney and Myers.
no THE MAKING OF RELIGION
physical and metaphysical difficulties. Nor is there any
desire to shirk the fact that many ' presentiments ' and
hallucinations of the sane coincide with no ascertainable
fact. We only provisionally posit the possibility of an
influence, in its nature unknown, of one mind on another
at a distance, such influence translating itself into an
hallucination. An inquiry into this subject, in the ethno-
graphic and modern fields, may be new but involves no
* superstition.'
We now return to Mr. Tylor, who treats of hallucina-
tions among other experiences which led early savage
thinkers to believe in ghosts or separable souls, the origin
of religion.
As to the causes of hallucinations in general, Mr. Tylor
has something to say, but it is nothing systematic.
' Sickness, exhaustion, and excitement ' cause savages to
behold ' human spectres,' in ' the objective reality ' of
which they believe. But if an educated modern, not sick,
nor exhausted, nor excited, has an hallucination of a friend's
presence, he, too, believes that it is * objective,' is his
friend in flesh and blood, till he finds out his mistake, by
examination or reflection. As Professor William James
remarks, in his * Principles of Psychology,' such solitary
hallucinations of the sane and healthy, once in a life-time,
are difiicult to account for, and are by no means rare.
' Sometimes,' Mr. Tylor observes, * the phantom has the
characteristic quality of not being visible to all of an
assembled company,' and he adds ' to assert or imply that
they are visible sometimes, and to some persons, but not
always, or to everyone, is to lay down an explanation of
facts which is not, indeed, our usual modern explanation,
but which is a perfectly rational and intelligible product
of early science.'
It is, indeed, nor has later science produced any
rational and intelligible explanation of collective hallucina-
tions, shared by several persons at once, and perhaps not
perceived by others who are present. Mr. Tylor, it is
true, asserts that ' in civilised countries a rumour of some
one having seen a phantom is enough to bring a sight of
ANTimOPOLOGY AND riALLUCINATIONS 111
it to others whose minds are in a properly receptive
state.' But this is arguing in a circle. What is 'a
properly receptive state ' ? If illness, overwork, * ex-
pectant attention,' make * a properly receptive state,' I
should have seen several phantoms in several * haunted
houses.' But the only thing of the sort I ever
saw occurred when I was thinking of nothing less,
when I was in good health, and when I did not know
(nor did I learn till long after) that it was the right and
usual phantom to see. Mr. Podmore remarks that various
members of the Psychical Society have sojourned in
various * haunted houses,' ' some of them in a state of
expectancy and nervous excitement,' which never caused
them to see phantoms, for they saw none.'
Mr. Tylor treats of waking hallucinations in much the
same manner as he deals with * travelling clairvoyance.'
He does not study them * in the field of experience.' He
is not concerned with the truth of the facts, important as
we think it would be, but with his theory that hallucina-
tions, among other causes, would naturally give rise to
the belief in spirits, and thus to the early philosophy
of Animism. Now, certainly, the hallucination of a
person's presence, say at the moment of his death at a
distance, would suggest to a savage that something of the
dying man's, something symbolised in the word ' shadow,'
or ' breath ' (spiritus), had come to say farewell. The
modern * spiritualistic ' theory, again, that the dead man's
* spirit ' is actually present to the percipient, in space,
corresponds to, and is derived from, the animistic philo-
sophy of the savage. But we may believe in such • death-
wraiths,' or hallucinatory appearances of the dying, with-
out being either savages or spiritualists. We may believe
without pretending to explain, or we may advance the
theory of ' Telepathy,' Hegel's ' magical tie,' according to
which the distant mind somehow impresses itself, in a
more or less perfect hallucination, on the mind of the
person who perceives the wraith. If this be so, or even
if no explanation be offered, the truth of the stories of
' Studies in Psychical Research, p. 333.
112 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
coincidental apparitions becomes important, as pointing
to a new region of psychical inquiry. Then the evidence
of savages as to hallucinations of their own, coincident
with the death of their absent friends, will confirm,
quantum valeat, the evidence of many modern observers
in all ranks of life, and all degrees of culture, from Lord
Brougham to an old nurse.'
As to hallucinations coincident with the death of the
person apparently seen, Mr, Tylor says : ' Narratives of this
class I can here only specify without arguing on them,
they are abundantly in circulation.' ^ Now, the modern
hallucinations themselves can scarcely, perhaps, be caJled
* survivals from savagery,' though the opinion that an
hallucination of a person must be his * spirit ' is really
such a survival. It is with that opinion, with Animism in
its hallucinatory origins, that Mr. Tylor is concerned, not
with the hallucinations themselves or with the evidence
for their veridical existence.
Mr. Tylor gives three anecdotes, narrated to him, in
two cases, by the seers, of phantasms of the living beheld
by them (and in one case by a companion also) when the
real person was dying at a distance. He adds : * My own
view is that nothing but dreams and visions could have
ever put into men's minds such an idea as that of souls
being ethereal images of bodies.' ^ The idea may be per-
fectly erroneous ; but if the occurrence of such coincidental
appearances as Mr. Tylor tells us about could be shown
to be too frequent for mere chance to produce, then there
would be a presumption in favour of some unknown
faculties in our nature — a proper theme for anthropology.
' This, at least, seems to myself a not illogical argument. Mr. Leaf
has argued on the other side, that ' Darwinism may have done something
for Totemism, by proving the existence of a great monkey kinship. But
Totemism can hardly be quoted as evidence for Darwinism.' True, but
Darwinism and Totemism are matters of opinion, not facts of personal
experience. To a believer in coincidental hallucinations, at least, the
alleged parallel experiences of savages must yield some confirmation to hia
own. His belief, he thinks, is warranted by human experience. On what
does he suppose that the belief of the savage is based ? Do his experience
and their belief coincide by pure chance ?
^ Prim. Cult. i. 449. ' Ibid. i. 450.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS 113
The hallucinations of which we hear most are those
in which a person sees the phantom of another person,
who, unknown to him, is in or near the hour of death.
Mr. Tylor, in addition to his three instances in civilised
life, alludes to one in savage life, with references to other
cases.' We turn to his savage instance, offering it at full
length from the original.^
* Among the Maoris ' (says Mr. Shortland) * it is always
ominous to see the figure of an absent person. If the
figure is very shadowy, and its face is not seen, death,
although he may ere long be expected, has not seized his
prey. If the face of the absent person is seen, the omen
forewarns the beholder that he is already dead.'
The following statement is from the mouth of an eye-
witness :
' A party of natives left their village, with the inten-
tion of being absent some time, on a pig -hunting
expedition. One night, while they were seated in the
open air around a blazing fire, the figure of a relative
who had been left ill at home was seen to approach.
The apparition appeared to two of the party only, and
vanished immediately on their making an exclamation
of surprise. When they returned to the village they
inquired for the sick man, and then learnt that he had
died about the time he was said to have been seen.'
I now give Maori cases, communicated to me by
Mr. Tregear, F.E.G.S., author of a ' Maori Comparative
Dictionary.'
A very intelligent Maori chief said to me, * I have
seen but two ghosts. I was a boy at school in Auckland,
and one morning was asleep in bed when I found myself
aroused by some one shaking me by the shoulder. I
looked up, and saw bending over me the well-known form
of my uncle, whom I supposed to be at the Bay of
Islands. I spoke to him, but the form became dim and
vanished. The next mail brought me the news of his
' Prim. Cult. vol. i. p. 450.
' From Shortland's Traditions of New Zealand, p. 140.
I
114 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
death. Years passed away, and I saw no ghost or spirit —
not even when my father and mother died, and I was
absent in each case. Then one day I was sitting reading,
when a dark shadow fell across my book. I looked up,
and saw a man standing between me and the window.
His back was turned towards me. I saw from his figure
that he was a Maori, and I called out to him, " Oh
friend ! " He turned romid, and I saw my other uncle,
Ihaka. The form faded away as the other had done.
I had not expected to hear of my uncle's death, for I had
seen him hale and strong a few hours before. However,
he had gone into the house of a missionary, and he (with
several white people) was poisoned by eating of a pie
made from tinned meat, the tin having been opened and
the meat left in it all night. That is all I myself had
seen of spirits.'
One more Maori example may be ofifered : '
From Mr. Francis Dart Fenton, formerly in the
Native Department of the Government, Auckland, New
Zealand. He gave the account in writing to his friend,
Captain J. H. Crosse, of Monkstown, Cork, from whom
we received it. In 1852, when the incident occurred,
Mr. Fenton was ' engaged in forming a settlement on the
banks of the Waikato.'
' March 25, 1860.
' Two sawyers, Frank Philps and Jack Mulholland,
were engaged cutting timber for the Eev. E. Maunsell at
the mouth of the Awaroa creek — a very lonely place, a
vast swamp, no people within miles of them. As usual,
they had a Maori with them to assist in felling trees. He
came from Tihorewam, a village on the other side of the
river, about six miles off. As Frank and the native were
cross-cutting a tree, the native stopped suddenly, and said,
"What are you come for?" looking in the direction of
Frank. Frank replied, "What do you mean?" He
said, " I am not speaking to you ; I am speaking to my
brother." Frank said, "Where is he?" The native
' Gurney and Myers, ' Phantasms of the Living,' vol. ii. ch. v. p. 657.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS 115
replied, "Behind you. What do you want?" (to the
other Maori). Frank looked round and saw nobody. The
native no longer saw anyone, but laid down the saw and
said, " I shall go across the river ; my brother is dead."
'Frank laughed at him, and reminded him that he
had left him quite well on Sunday (five days before), and
there had been no communication since. The Maori
spoke no more, but got into his canoe and pulled across.
When he arrived at the landing-place, he met people
coming to fetch him. His brother had just died. I knew
him well.'
In answer to inquiries as to his authority for this
narrative, Mr. Fenton writes :
' December 18, 1883.
* I knew all the parties concerned well, and it is quite
true, valeat quantum, as the lawyers say. Incidents of
this sort are not infrequent among the Maoris.
*F. D. Fenton,
^ Late Chief Judge, Native Law-Court of N.Z.'
Here is a somewhat analogous example from Tierra
del Fuego :
' Jemmy Button was very superstitious ' (says Admiral
Fitzroy, speaking of a Fuegian brought to England).
* While at sea, on board the ** Beagle," he said one morning
to Mr. Bynoe that in the night some man came to the
side of his hammock and whispered in his ear that his
father was dead. He fully believed that such was the
case,' and he was perfectly right. . . . 'He reminded
Bennett of the dream.' ^
Mr. Darwin also mentions this case, a coincidental audi-
tory hallucination.
I have found no other savage cases quite to the point.
This is, undeniably, ' a puir show for Kirkintilloch,' a
meagre collection of savage death-wraiths, but it may be
so meagre by reason of want of research, or of lack of
records, travellers usually pooh-poohing the benighted
> The ' Adventure ' and ' Beagle,' iii. 181, cf. 204.
I 2
116 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
superstitions of the heathen, or fearing to seem super-
stitious if they chronicle instances. However few the
instances, they are, undeniably, exact parallels to those
recorded in civilised life.
In filling up the lacuna in Mr. Tylor's anthropological
work, in asking questions as to the proportion between
phantasms of the living which coincide with a crisis in the
experience of the person seen, and those which do not, it
is obviously necessary to reject all evidence of people who
were ill, or anxious, or overworked, or in poignant grief at
the time of the hallucination. It will be seen later that
neither grief nor amatory passion (dominating the associa-
tion of our ideas as they do) beget many phantasms. Our
business, however, is with the false perceptions of persons
trustworthy, as far as we know, sane, healthy, not usually
visionary, and in an unperturbed state of mind.
There remains a normal cause of subjective hallucina-
tions, expectancy. This appears to be a real cause of
hallucination or, at least, of illusion. Waiting for the sound
of a carriage you may hear it often before it comes, you
taking other sounds for that which you desire. Again, in
an inquiry embracing 17,000 people, the S.P.E. collected
thirteen cases of an hallucinatory appearance of one person
to another who was expecting his arrival. Once more, it
is very conceivable that a trifle, the accidental opening of
a door, a noise of a familiar kind in an unfamiliar place,
may touch the brain into originating an hallucination of a
person passing through the door, or of the place where the
sound now heard used once to be familiar. Expectancy,
again, and nervousness, might doubtless cause an hallucina-
tion to a person who felt uncomfortable in a house with a
name to be ' haunted,' though, as we have seen, the effect
is far less common than the cause. All these sorts of
causes are undoubtedly more apt to be prevalent among
superstitious savages than among educated Europeans.
And it stands to reason that savages, where one man
' thinks he sees something,' will be readier than we are to
think they * see something ' too. Yet collective hallucina-
tions, which are shared by several persons at once, are
ANTHROPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS 117
especially puzzling. Even if they occur when all are in a
strained condition of expectancy, it is odd that all see
them in the same waij} Examples will occur later.
When there is no excitement, the mystery is increased.
We may note that, among the expectant multitudes who
looked on while Bernadette was viewing the Blessed
Virgin at Lourdes, not one person, however superstitious
or hysterical, pretended to share the vision. Again, only
one person, and he on doubtful evidence, is asserted to have
shared, once, the visions of Jeanne d'Arc. In both cases all
the conditions said to produce collective hallucination
were present in the highest degree. Yet no collective
hallucination occurred.
Narratives about hallucinations coincident with a
death, narratives well attested, are abundant in modern
times, so abundant that one need only refer the curious to
Messrs. Gurney and Myers's two large volumes, ' Phantasms
of the Living,' and to the S.P.E. ' Eeport of Census of
Hallucinations' (1894). Mr. Tylor says : 'The spiritual-
istic theory specially insists on cases of apparitions, where
the person's death corresponds more or less nearly with
the time when some friend perceives his phantom.'
But visionaries, he remarks truly, often see phantoms of
living persons when nothing occurs. That is the case,
and the question arises whether more such phantoms
are viewed {not by * visionaries ') in connection with the
death or other crisis of the person whose hallucinatory
appearance is perceived, than ought to occur, if there be
no connection of some unknown cause between deaths and
appearances. As Mr. Tylor observes, ' Man, as yet in a low
intellectual condition, came to associate in thought those
things which he found by experience to be connected
in fact.' "^ Did early man, then, find in experie7ice that
apparitions of his friends were ' connected in fact ' with
their deaths ? And, if so, was that discovered connection
in fact the origin of his belief that an hallucinatory appear-
ance of an absent person sometimes announced his death ?
' It will, of course, be said that they worked their stories into conformity.
* Prim. Cult. i. 116.
118 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
That the belief exists in New Zealand we saw, and find
confirmed by this instance, one of ' many such relations,*
says the author. A Maori chief was long absent on the
war-path. One day he entered his wife's hut, and sat mute
by the hearth. She ran to bring witnesses, but on her
return the phantasm was no longer visible. The woman
soon afterwards married again. Her husband then re-
turned in perfect health, and pardoned the lady, as she
had acted on what, to a Maori mind, seemed good legal
evidence of his decease. Of course, even if she fabled, the
story is evidence to the existence of the belief.'
What, then, is the cause of the belief that a phantom
of a man is a token of his death? On the theory of
savage philosophy, as explained by Mr. Tylor himself, a
man's soul may leave his body and become visible to
others, not at death only, but on many other occasions,
in dream, trance, lethargy. All these are much more
frequent conditions, in every man's career, than the fact
of dying. Why, then, is the phantasm supposed by savages
to announce death ? Is it because, in a sufficient ratio of
cases to provoke remark, early man has found the ap-
pearance and the death to be ' things connected in fact ' ?
I give an instance in which the philosophy of savages
would lead them not to connect a phantasm of a living
man with his death.
The Woi Worung, an Australian tribe, hold that * the
Murup [wraith] of an individual could be sent from him by
magic, as, for instance, when a hunter incautiously went to
sleep when out hunting.' ^ In this case the hunter is
exposed to the magic of his enemies. But the Murup, or
detached soul, would be visible to people at a distance
when its owner is only asleep — according to the savage
philosophy. Why, then, when the wraith is seen, is the
owner believed to be dying ? Are the things bound to be
' connected in fact ' ?
As is well known, the Society for Psychical Eesearch
has attempted a little census, for the pm-pose of discover-
' Polack's Manners of tlie New Zealanders, i. 268.
' Howitt, o}}. cit. p. 186.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS 119
ing whether hallucinations representing persons at a
distance coincided, within twelve hours, with their deaths,
in a larger ratio than the laws of chance allow as possible.
If it be so, the Maori might have some ground for his
theory that such hallucinations betoken a decease. I do
not believe that any such census can enable us to reach
an affirmative conclusion which science will accept. In
spite of all precautions taken, all warnings before, and
' allowances ' made later, collectors of evidence will
' select ' affirmative cases already known, or (which is
equally fatal) will be suspected of doing so. Again,
illusions of memory, increasing the closeness of the
coincidence, will come in — or it will be easy to say that
they came in, ' Allowances ' for them will not be accepted.
Once more, 17,000 cases, though a larger number than
is usual in biological inquiries, are decidedly not enough for
a popular argument on probabilities ; a million, it will be
said, would not be too many. Finally, granting honesty,
accurate memory, and non-selection (none of which will
be granted by opponents), it is easy to say that odd things
must occur, and that the large proportion of affirmative
answers as to coincidental hallucinations is just a speci-
men of these odd things.
Other objections are put forward by teachers of popular
science who have not examined — or, having examined,
misreport — the results of the Census in detail. I may give
an example of their method.
Mr. Edward Clodd is the author of several handbooks
of science — ' The Story of Creation,' * A Manual of
Evolution,' and others. Now, in a signed review of a
book, a critique published in ' The Sketch ' (October 13,
1897), Mr. Clodd wrote about the Census : ' Thousands
of persons were asked whether they had ever seen appa-
ritions, and out of these some hundreds, mostly un-
intelligent foreigners, replied in the affirmative. Some
eight or ten of the number — envied mortals — had seen
"angels," but the majority, like the American in the
mongoose story, had seen only " snakes." ... In weigh-
ing evidence we have to take into account the competency
120 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
as well as the integrity of the witnesses.' Mr. Clodd
has most frankly and good-humouredly acknowledged
the erroneousness of his remark. Otherwise we might
ask : Does Mr. Clodd prefer to be considered not
' competent ' or not ' veracious ' ? He cannot be both on
this occasion, for his signed and published remarks were
absolutely inaccurate. First, thousands of persons were
?iot asked ' whether they had seen apparitions.' They
were asked : ' Have you ever, when believing yourself
to be perfectly awake, had a vivid impression of seeing,
or being touched by a living being or inanimate object,
or of hearing a voice ; which impression, so far as you
could discover, was not due to any external physical
cause ? ' Secondly, it is not the fact that ' some hun-
dreds, mostly unintelligent foreigners, replied in the
affirmative.' Of English-speaking men and women,
1,499 answered the question quoted above in the affirma-
tive. Of foreigners (naturally ' unintelligent ') , 185 re-
turned affirmative answers. Thirdly, when Mr. Clodd
says, 'The majority had seen only "snakes,"' it is not
easy to know what precise sense ' snakes ' bears in the
terminology of popular science. If Mr. Clodd means,
by 'snakes,' fantastic hallucinations of animals, these
amounted to 25, as against 830 representing human
forms of persons recognised, unrecognised, living or dead.
But, if by • snakes ' Mr. Clodd means purely subjective
hallucinations, not known to coincide with any event — and
this is his meaning — his statement agrees with that of the
Census. His observations, of course, were purely accidental
errors.
The number of hallucinations representing living or
dying recognised persons in the answers received, was
352. Of first-hand cases, in which coincidence of the
hallucination with the death of the person apparently
seen was affirmed, there were 80, of which 26 are given.
The non-coincidental hallucinations were multiplied by
four, to allow for f orgetfulness of ' misses.' The results being
compared, it was decided that the hallucinations collected
coincided with death 440 more often than ought to be the
ANTHROPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS 121
case by the law of probabilities. Therefore there was
proof, or presumption, in favour of some relation of cause
and effect between A's death and B's hallucination.
If we were to attack the opinion of the Committee on
Hallucinations, that 'Between deaths and apparitions of
the dying a connection exists which is not due to chance
alone,' the assault should be made not only on the
method, but on the details. The events were never of
very recent, and often were of remote occurrence. The
remoteness was less than it seems, however, as the
questions were often answered several years before
the publication of the Beport (1894). There was
scarcely any documentary evidence, any note or letter
written between the hallucination and the arrival of news
of the death. Such letters, the evidence alleged, had in
some cases existed, but had been lost, burnt, eaten by
white ants, or written on a sheet of blotting paper or the
whitewashed wall of a barrack room. If I may judge
by my own lifelong success in mislaying, losing, and
casually destroying papers, from cheques to notes made
for literary purposes, from interesting letters of friends to
the manuscripts of novelists, or if I may judge by Sir
Walter Scott's triumphs of the same kind, I should not
think much of the disappearance of documentary evidence
to death-wraiths. Nobody supposed, when these notes
were written, that Science would ask for their production ;
and even if people had guessed at this, it is human to lose
or destroy old papers.
The remoteness of the occurrences is more remark-
able, for, if these things happen, why were so few recent
cases discovered? Again, the seers were sometimes
under anxiety, though such cases were excluded from
the final computation : they frequently knew that the
person seen was in bad health : they were often very
familiar with his personal aspect. Now what are called
'subjective hallucinations,' non-coincidental hallucina-
tions, usually represent persons very familiar to us,
persons much in our minds. I know seven cases in which
such hallucinations occurred. 1, 2, of husband to wife ;
122 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
3, son to mother ; 4, brother to sister ; 5, sister to sister ;
6, cousin (Hving in the same house) to cousin ; 7, friend
(living a mile away) to two friends. In no case was there
a death-coincidence. Only in case 4 was there any kind
of coincidence, the brother having intended to do (un-
known to the sister) what he was seen doing — driving in a
dog-cart with a lady. But he had not driven. We cannot,
of cowc^e, prove that these seven cases were not telepathic,
but there is no proof that they were. Now most of the
coincidental cases, on which the Committee relied as their
choicest examples, represented persons familiarly known to
the seers. This looks as if they were casual ; but, of course,
if telepathy does exist, it is most likely (as Hegel says) to
exist between kinsfolk and friends.'
The dates might be fresher !
In case 1, percipient knew that his aunt in England
(he being in Australia) was not very well. No anxiety.
2. Casual acquaintance. No anxiety. Case of acci-
dent or suicide.
3. Acquaintance who feared to die in childbed, and
did. Percipient not much interested, nor at all anxious.
4. Father in England to son in India. No anxiet5^
5. Uncle to niece. Sudden death. No anxiety. No
knowledge of illness.
6. Brother-in-law to sister-in-law, and her maid. No
anxiety reported. Russian.
7. Father to son. No anxiety reported. Russian.
8. Friend to friend. No knowledge of illness or
anxiety reported.
9. Grandmother to grandson. No anxiety. No know-
ledge of illness.
10. Casual acquaintance, to seven people, and appa-
rently to a dog. Illness known. Russian.
11. Step-brother to step-brother. No anxiety. No
knowledge of illness.
• On examining the cases, we find, in 1894, these dates of reported
occurrences, in twenty-eight cases: 1890, 1882, 1879, 1876, 1863, 1861,
1888, 1885, 1881, 1880, 1878, 1874, 1869, 1869, 1845, 1887, 1881, 1877,
1874, 1873, 1860 (?), 1864 (?), 1855, 1830 (? !), 1867, 1862, 1888, 1879.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS 123
12. Friend to friend. No anxiety or knowledge of
illness.
13. Casual acquaintance. No anxiety,
14. Aunt to nephew and to his wife. Illness known.
No anxiety.
15. Sister to brother. Illness known. No anxiety.
16. Father to daughter. No knowledge of illness.
No anxiety.
17. Father to son. Much anxiety. (Uncounted.)
18. Sister to sister. Illness known. ' No immediate
danger ' surmised.
19. Father to son. Much anxiety. Biissian. (Un-
counted.)
20. Friend to friend. Illness known. Percipient had
been nursing patient. Brazilian. (Very bad case !)
21. Friend to friend. Illness known. No anxiety.
22. Brother to brother. Illness known. No anxiety.
23. Grandfather to grand-daughter. Illness known.
No pressing anxiety.
24. Grandfather to grandson. Illness known. No
anxiety.
25. Father's hand. Illness chronic. No anxiety.
Percipient a daughter. Bussian.
26. Husband to wife. Anxiety in time of war.
27. Brother to sister. Slightly anxious from receiving
no letter.
28. Friend to friend. No anxiety.
Anxiety is only reported, or to be surmised, in two or
three cases. In a dozen the existence of illness was known.
It may therefore be argued, adversely, that in the selected
coincidental hallucinations, the persons seen were in the
class most usually beheld in non-coincidental and, pro-
bably, purely subjective hallucinations representing real
p^sons ; also, that knowledge of their illness, even when
no anxiety existed, kept them in some cases before the
mind ; also, that several cases are foreign, and that
' most foreigners are fools.' On the other hand, affection,
familiarity, and knowledge of illness had 7iot produced
hallucinations even in the case of these percipients, till
124 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
within the twelve hours (often much less) of the event of
death.
It would have been desirable, of course, to publish all
the wo?i-coincidental cases, and show how far, in these not
veridical cases, the recognised phantasms were those of
kindred, dear friends, known to be ill, and subjects of
anxiety.^
The Census, in fact, does contain a chapter on * Mental
and Nervous Conditions in connection with Hallucinations,'
such as anxiety, grief, and overwork. Do these produce,
or probably produce, many empty hallucinations not co-
incident with death or any great crisis ? If they do, then
all cases in which a coincidental hallucination occurred
to a person in anxiety, or overstrained, will seem to be,
probably, fortuitous coincidences like the others. All
percipients, of all sorts of hallucinations, hits or misses,
were asked if they were in grief or anxiety. Now, out
of 1,622 cases of hallucination of all known kinds
(coincidental or not), mental strain was reported in
220 instances ; of which 131 were cases of grief about
known deaths or anxiety. These mental conditions, there-
fore, occur only in twelve per cent, of the instances. On
the whole, it does not seem fair to argue that anxiety
produces so much hallucination that it will account by
itself for those which we have analysed as coinci-
dental.
The impression left on my own mind by the Census
does pretty closely agree with that of its authors. Fairly
well persuaded of the possibility of telepathy, on other
grounds, and even inclined to believe that it does produce
coincidental hallucinations, the evidence of the Census,
by itself, would not convince me nor its authors. We
want better records ; we want documentary evidence
recording cases before the arrival of news of the co-
incidence. Memories are very adaptive. The authors,
' On this point see Report, p. 250. Fifty phantasms out of the whole
occurred during anxiety or presumable anxiety. Of these, thirty-one
coincided (within twelve hours) with the death of the person apparently
seen. In the remaining nineteen, the person seen recovered in eight cases.
ANTHROPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS 125
however, made a gallant effort, at the cost of much labour,
and largely allowed for all conceivable drawbacks.
I am, personally, illogical enough to agree with Kant,
and to be more convinced by the cumulative weight of the
hundreds of cases in ' Phantasms of the Living,' in other
sources, in my own circle of acquaintance, and even by
the coincident traditions of European and savage peoples,
than by the statistics of the Census. The whole mass,
Census and all, is of very considerable weight, and there
exist individual cases which one feels unable to dispute.
Thus while I would never regard the hallucinatory figure
of a friend, perceived by myself, as proof of his death, I
would entertain some slight anxiety till I heard of his
well-being.
On this topic I will offer, in a Kantian spirit, an
anecdote of the kind which, occurring in great quantities,
disposes the mind to a sort of belief. It is not given as
evidence to go to a jury, for I only received it from the
lips of a very gallant and distinguished officer and V.C.,
whose own part in the affair will be described.
This gentleman was in command of a small British
force in one of the remotest and least accessible of our
dependencies, not connected by telegraph, at the time of
the incident, with the distant mainland. In the force was
a particularly jolly young captain. One night he went
to a dance, and, as the sleeping accommodation was
exhausted, he passed the night, like a Homeric hero, on
a couch beneath the echoing loggia. Next day, contrary
to his wont, he was in the worst of spirits, and, after
moping for some time, asked leave to go a three days'
voyage to the nearest telegraph station. His commanding
officer, my informant, was good-natured, and gave leave.
At the end of a week Captain returned, in his usual
high spirits. He now admitted that, while lying awake
in the verandah, after the ball, he had seen a favourite
brother of his, then in, say, Peru. He could not shake
off the impression ; he had made the long voyage to the
nearest telegraph station, and thence had telegraphed to
another brother in, let us say. Hong Kong, * Is all well
126 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
with John ? ' He received a reply, * All well by last
mail,' and so returned, relieved in mind, to his duties.
But the next mail bringing letters from Peru brought
news of his Peruvian brother's death on the night of the
vision in the verandah.
This, of course, is not offered as evidence. For evi-
dence we need Captain 's account, his Hong Kong
brother's account, date of the dance, official date of the
Peruvian brother's death, and so on. But the character
of my informant indisposes me to disbelief. The names
of places are intentionally changed, but the places were
as remote from each other as those given in the text.
We find ourselves able to understand the Master of
Eavenswood's cogitations after he saw the best wraith
in fiction :
* She died expressing her eager desire to see me. Can
it be, then — can strong and earnest wishes, formed during
the last agony of nature, survive its catastrophe, surmount
the awful bounds of the spiritual world, and place before
us its inhabitants in the hues and colouring of life ?
And why was that manifested to the eye, which could not
unfold its tale to the ear ? ' (' Her withered lips moved
fast, although no sound issued from them.') ' And where-
fore should a breach be made in the laws of nature, yet
its purpose remain unknown ? '
The Master's reasonings are such as, in hearing similar
anecdotes, must have occurred to Scott. They no longer
represent our views. The death and apparition were
coincidental almost to the minute : it would be impossible
to prove that life was utterly extinct, when Alice seemed
to die, * as the clock in the distant village tolled one,
just before ' Eavenswood's experience. We do not, like
him, postulate * a breach in the laws of nature,' only a
possible example of a law. The tale was not ' unfolded to
the ear,' as the telepathic impact only affected the sense
of sight.
Hero, perhaps, ought to follow a reply to certain
ANTHROPOLOGY AND HALLUCINATIONS 127
scientific criticisms of the theory that telepathy, or the
action of one distant mind, or brain, upon another, may be
the cause of * coincidental hallucinations,' whether among
savage or civilised races. But, not to delay the argument
by controversy, the Reply to Objections has been relegated
to the Appendix.'
' Appendix A.
128 THE MTAKING OF RELIGION
VII
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION
There is a kind of hallucinations — namely, Phantasms
of the Dead — about which it seems better to say nothing
in this place. If such phantasms are seen by savages
when awake, they will doubtless greatly corroborate that
belief in the endurance of the soul after death, which
is undeniably suggested to the early reasoner by the
phenomena of dreaming. But, while it is easy enough
to produce evidence to recognised phantasms of the dead
in civilised life, it would be very difficult indeed to
discover many good examples in what we know about
savages. Some Fijian instances are given by Mr. Fison
in his and Mr. Howitt's * Kamilaroi and Kurnai.' Others
occur in the narrative of John Tanner, a captive from
childhood among the Eed Indians. But the circumstance,
already noted, that an Australian lad became a wizard on
the strength of having seen a phantasm of his dead
mother, proves that such experiences are not common ;
and Australian black fellows have admitted that they, for
their part, never did see a ghost, but only heard of ghosts
from their old men. Mr. David Leslie, previously cited,
gives some first-hand Zulu evidence about a haunted
wood, where the Esevikofu, or ghosts of persons killed by
a tyrannical chief, were heard and felt by his native
informant ; the percipient was also pelted with stones, as
by the European Poltergeist. The Zulu who dies com-
monly becomes an Ihlozi, and receives his share of
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 129
sacrifice. The Esemkofu, on the other hand, are disturbed
and haunting spirits.^
As a rule, so far as our information goes, it is not
recognised phantasms of the dead, in waking vision,
which corroborate the savage belief in the persistence of
the spirit of the departed. The savage reasoner rather
rests his faith on the alleged phenomena of noises and
physical movements of objects apparently untouched,
which cause so many houses in civilised society to be
shut up, or shunned, as 'haunted.' Such disturbances
the savage naturally ascribes to ' spirits.' Our evidence,
therefore, for recognised phantasms of the savage dead
is very meagre, so it is unnecessary to examine the much
more copious civilised evidence. The facts attested may,
of course, be theoretically explained as the result of
telepathy from a mind no longer incarnate ; and, were
the evidence as copious as that for coincidental hallucina-
tions of the living, or dying, it would be of extreme
importance. But it is not so copious, and, granting even
that it is accurate, various explanations not involving
anything so distasteful to science as the action of a dis-
carnate intelligence may be, and have been, put forward.
We turn, therefore, from a theme in which civilised
testimony is more bulky than that derived from savage
life, to a topic in which savage evidence is much more full
than modern civilised records. This topic is the so-called
Demoniacal Possession.
In the philosophy of Animism, and in the belief of
many peoples, savage and civilised, spirits of the dead,
or spirits at large, can take up their homes in the bodies
of living men. Such men, or women, are spoken of as
* inspired,' or * possessed.' They speak in voices not their
own, they act in a manner alien to their natural character,
they are said to utter prophecies, and to display knowledge
which they could not have normally acquired, and, in
fact, do not consciously possess, in their normal con-
dition. All these and similar phenomena the savage
explains by the hypothesis that an alien spirit — perhaps
' Among tlie Zulus, p. 120.
K
130 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
a demon, perhaps a ghost, or a god — has taken posses-
sion of the patient. The possessed, being full of the
spirit, delivers sermons, oracles, prophecies, and what the
Americans call ' inspirational addresses,' before he returns
to his normal consciousness. Though many such prophets
are conscious impostors, others are sincere. Dr. Mason
mentions a prophet who became converted to Christianity.
* He could not account for his former exercises, but said
that it certainly appeared to him as though a spirit spoke,
and he must tell what it communicated.' Dr. Mason also
gives the following anecdote :
' , . . Another individual had a familiar spirit that he
consulted and with which he conversed ; but, on hearing
the Gospel, he professed to become converted, and had no
more communication with his spirit. It had left him, he
said ; it spoke to him no more. After a protracted trial
I baptised him. I watched his case with interest, and
for several years he led an unimpeachable Christian life ;
but, on losing his religious zeal, and disagreeing with
some of the church members, he removed to a distant
village, where he could not attend the services of the
Sabbath, and it was soon after reported that he had com-
munications with his familiar spirit again. I sent a
native preacher to visit him. The man said he heard
the voice which had conversed with him formerly, but
it spoke very differently. Its language was exceedingly
pleasant to hear, and produced great brokenness of heart.
It said, " Love each other ; act righteously — act uprightly,"
with other exhortations such as he had heard from the
teachers. An assistant was placed in the village near
him, when the spirit left him again ; and ever since he has
maintained the character of a consistent Christian.' *
This anecdote illustrates what is called by spiritists
* change of control.' After receiving, and deserting. Chris-
tian doctrine, the patient again spoke unconsciously, but
under the influence of the faith which he had abandoned.
In the same way we shall find that a modern American
' Burmah, p. 107.
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 181
* Medium/ after being for a time constantly in the society
of educated and psychological observers, obtained new
* controls ' of a character more urbane and civilised than
her old * familiar spirit.' '
It is admitted that the possessed sometimes display an
eloquence which they are incapable of in their normal
condition.'^ In China, possessed women, who never com-
posed a line of poetry in their normal lives, utter their
thoughts in verse, and are said to give evidence of clair-
voyant powers.^
The book — Demon Possession 171 Cliina — of Dr. Nevius,
for forty years a missionary, was violently attacked by
the medical journals of his native country, the United
States. The doctor had the audacity to declare that he
could find no better explanation of the phenomena than
the theory of the Apostles — namely, that the patients
were possessed. Not having the fear of man before his
eyes, he also remarked that the current scientific explana-
tions had the fault of not explaining anything.
For example, 'Mr. Tylor intimates that all cases of
supposed demoniacal possession are identical with hysteria,
delirium, and mania, and suchlike bodily and mental
derangements.' Dr. Nevius, however, gave what he con-
ceived to be the notes of possession, and, in his diagnosis,
distinguished them from hysteria (whatever that may
mean), delirium, and mania. Nor can it honestly be
denied that, if the special notes of possession actually
exist, they do mark quite a distinct species of mental
affection. Dr. Nevius then observed that, according to
Mr. Tylor, * scientific physicians now explain the facts on
a different principle,' but, says Dr. Nevius, 'we search in
vain to discover what this principle is.'"* Dr. Nevius,
who had the courage of his opinions, then consulted a
work styled ' Nervous Derangement,' by Dr. Hammond, a
' Hodgson, Proceedings, S.P.R., vol. xiii. pt. xxxiii. Dr. Hodgson by no
means agrees with this view of the case — the case of Mrs. Piper.
* Prvm. Cult. ii. 134.
' Neviua's Demon Possession in China, a curious collection of examples
by an American missionary. The reports of Catholic missionaries abound
in cases. ' Op. cit. p. 169.
K 2
132 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Professor in the Medical School of the University of New
York.' He found this scientific physician admitting that
we know very little about the matter. He knew, what is
very gratifying, that ' mind is the result of nervous action,'
and that so-called ' possession ' is the result of * material
derangements of the organs or functions of the system.'
Dr. Nevius was ready to admit this latter doctrine in
cases of idiocy, insanity, epilepsy, and hysteria ; but then,
said he, these are not what I call possession. The Chinese
have names for all these maladies, * which they ascribe to
physical causes,' but for possession they have a different
name. He expected Dr. Hammond to account for the
abnormal conditions in so-called possession, but ' he has
hardly even attempted to do this.' Dr. Nevius next
perused the works of Dr. Griesinger, Dr. Baelz, Professor
William James, M. Eibot, and, generally, the literature of
' alternating personality.' He found Mr. James profess-
ing his conviction that the ' alternating personality ' (in
popular phrase, the demon, or familiar spirit) of Mrs. Piper
knew a great deal about things which Mrs. Piper, in her
normal state, did not, and could not know. Thus, after
consulting many physicians. Dr. Nevius was none the
better, and came back to his faith in Diabolical Possession.
He was therefore informed that he had written ' one of
the most extraordinarily perverted books of the present
day ' on the evidence of * transparent ghost stories ' —
which do not occur in his book.
The attitude of Dr. Nevius cannot be called strictly
scientific. Because pathologists and psychologists are
unable to explain, or give the modus of a set of pheno-
mena, it does not follow that the devil, or a god, or a ghost,
is in it.
But this, of course, was precisely the natural inference
of savages.
Dr. Nevius catalogues the symptoms of possession thus :
1. The automatic, persistent and consistent acting out
of a new personality, which calls himself shieng (genius)
and calls the patient hiang to (incense burner, ' medium ').
• Putnam, 1881.
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 183
2. Possession of knowledge and intellectual power not
owned by the patient (in his normal state), nor explainable
on the pathological hypothesis.
3. Complete change of moral character in the patient.
Of these notes, the second would, of course, most
confirm the savage belief that a new intelligence had
entered into the patient. If he displayed knowledge of
the future, or of the remote, the inference that a novel and
wiser intelligence had taken possession of the patient's
body would be, to the savage, irresistible. But the more
cautious modern, even if he accepted the facts, would be
reduced to no such extreme conclusion. He would say
that knowledge of the remote in space, or in the past, might
be telepathically communicated to the brain of some living
person ; while, for knowledge of the future, he could fly,
with Hartmann, to contact with the Absolute.
But the question of evidence for the facts is, of course,
the only real question. Now, in Dr. Nevius's book, this
evidence rests almost entirely on the written reports of
native Christian teachers, for the Chinese were strictly
reticent when questioned by Europeans. 'My heathen
brother, you have a sister who is a demoniac ? ' asks the
intelligent European. The reply of the heathen brother
is best left in the obscurity of a remarkably difficult and
copious Oriental language. We are thus obliged to fall
back on the reports of Mr. Leng and other native Christian
teachers. They are perfectly modest and rational in style.
We learn that Mrs. Sen, a lady in her normal state
incapable of lyrical efforts, lisped in numbers in her
secondary personality, and detected the circumstance that
Mr. Leng was on his way to see her, when she could not
have learned the fact in any normal way.^ * They are
now crossing the stream, and will be here when the sun is
about so high ; ' which was correct. The other witnesses
were examined, and corroborated.^ Dr. Nevius himself
examined Mrs. Kwo, when possessed, talking in verse,
and, physically, limp.^
' Nevius, p. 33. ■ Ibid. p. 35. » Op. ciU p. 38.
134 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
The narratives are of this type ; the patient, on
recovering consciousness, knows nothing of w^hat has
occurred ; Chi'istian prayers are often efficacious, and
there are many anecdotes of movements of objects
untouched.'
By a happy accident, as this chapter w^as passing
through the press, a scientific account of a demoniac and
his cure V7as published by Dr. Pierre Janet.'^ Dr. Janet
has explained, v^ith complete success, everything in the
matter of possession, except the facts v^hich, in the
opinion of Dr. Nevius, v^^ere in need of explanation.
These facts did not occur in the case of the demoniac
' exorcised ' by Dr. Janet. Thus the learned essay of
that eminent authority v^ould not have satisfied Dr.
Nevius. The facts in which he was interested did not
present themselves in Dr. Janet's patient, and so Or. Janet
does not explain them.
The simplest plan, here, is to deny that the facts in
which Dr. Nevius believes ever present themselves at all ;
but, if they ever do, Dr. Janet's explanation does not
explain them.
1. His patient, Achille, did not act out a new per-
sonality.
2. Achille displayed wo knowledge or intellectual power
which he did not possess in his normal state.
3. His moral character was not completely changed ;
he was only more hypochondriacal and hysterical than
usual.
Achille was a poor devil of a French tradesman who,
like Captain Booth, had infringed the laws of strict
chastity and virtue. He brooded on this till he became
deranged, and thought that Satan had him. He was con-
vulsed, ansBsthetic, suicidal, involuntarily blasphemous.
He was not * exorcised ' by a prayer or by a command,
but after a long course of mental and physical treatment.
' See ' Fetishism and Spiritualism.'
* Ni-vroses etld^es Fixes. Alcan, Paris, 1898. This is the first of a series
of works connected with the Laboratoire de Psychologie, at the Salpetri^re, in
Paris
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 186
His cure does not explain the cures in which Dr. Nevius
believed. His case did not present the features of which
Dr. Nevius asked science for an explanation. Dr. Janet's
essay is the dernier cri of science, and leaves Dr. Nevius
just where it found him.
Science, therefore, can, and does, tell Dr. Nevius that
his evidence for his facts is worthless, through the lips
of Professor W. Eomaine Newbold, in ' Proceedings,
S.P.E.,' February 1898 (pp. 602-604), And the same
number of the same periodical shows us Dr. Hodgson
accepting facts similar to those of Dr. Nevius, and ex-
plaining them by — possession ! (p. 406) .
Dr. Nevius's observations practically cover the whole
field of ' possession ' in non-European peoples. But other
examples from other areas are here included.
A rather impressive example of possession may be
selected from Livingstone's 'Missionary Travels' (p. 86).
The adventurous Sebituane was harried by the Matabele
in a new land of his choice. He thought of descending the
Zambesi till he was in touch with white men ; but Tlapdne,
'who held intercourse with gods,' turned his face west-
wards. Tlapane used to retire, ' perhaps into some cave, to
remain in a hypnotic or mesmeric state ' until the moon
was full. Then he would return en propMte. * Stamping,
leaping, and shouting in a peculiarly violent manner, or
beating the ground with a club ' (to summon those under
earth), 'they induce a kind of fit, and while in it pretend
that their utterances are unknown to themselves,' as they
probably are, when the condition is genuine. Tlapdne,
after inducing the ' possessed ' state, pointed east : * There,
Sebituane, I behold a fire ; shun it, it may scorch thee.
The gods say, Go not thither ! ' Then, pointing west, he
said, * I see a city and a nation of black men, men of the
water, their cattle are red, thine own tribe are perishing,
thou wilt govern black men, spare thy future tribe.'
So far, mere advice ; then,
* Thou, Eamosinii, thy village will perish utterly. If
Mokari moves first from the village, he will perish first ;
and thou, Kamosinii, wilt be the last to die.'
136 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Then,
* Like some bold seer in a trance,
Seeing all his own mischance,'
* The gods have given other men water to drink, but
to me they have given bitter water. They call me away.
Igo."
Tlapane died, Mokari died, Bamosinii died, their vil-
lage was destroyed soon after, and so Sebituane wandered
westward, not disobedient to the voice, was attacked by
the Baloiana, conquered, and spared them.
Such is ' possession ' among savages. It is superfluous
to multiply instances of this world-wide belief, so freely
illustrated in the New Testament, and in trials for witch-
craft. The scientific study of the phenomena, as Littre
complained, * had hardly been sketched ' forty years ago.
In the intervening years, psychologists and hypnotists
have devoted much attention to the theme of these
* secondary personalities,' which Animism explains by the
theory of possession. The explanations of modern philo-
sophers differ, and it is not our business to discuss their
physiological and pathological ideas.^ Our affair is to ask
whether, in the field of experience, there is any evidence
that persons thus ' possessed ' really evince knowledge
which they could not have acquired through normal
channels? If such evidence exists, the facts would
naturally strengthen the conviction that the possessed
person was inspired by an intelligence not his own, that
is, by a spirit. Now it is the firm conviction of several
men of science that a certain Mrs. Piper, an American,
does display, in her possessed condition, knowledge which
she could not normally acquire. The case of this lady is
precisely on a level with that of certain savage or barbaric
seers. Thus : ' The Fijian priest sits looking steadily at a
whale's tooth ornament, amid dead silence. In a few minutes
' ' Maeleod shall return, but Macrimmon shall never ! '
^ See Eibot, Les Maladies de la PersonnaliU ; Bourru et Burot, Variations
de la PersonnaliU \ Janet, L'AutoTttatisme Psychologique ; James, Principles
of Psychology; Myers, in Proceedings of S.P.B., ' The Mechanism of Genius,'
' The Subliminal Self.'
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 137
he trembles, slight twitchings of face and limbs come on,
which increase to strong convulsions. . . . Now the god
has entered.' '
In China, * the professional woman sits at a table in
contemplation, till the soul of a deceased person from
whom communication is desired enters her body and talks
through her to the living. . . .' 2
The latter account exactly describes Mrs. Piper. When
consulted she passes through convulsions into a trance,
after which she talks in a new voice, assumes a fresh
personality, and affects to be possessed by the spirit of a
French doctor (who does not know French)— Dr. Phinuit.
She then displays a varying amount of knowledge of dead
and living people connected with her clients, who are
usually strangers, often introduced under feigned names.
Mrs. Piper and her husband have been watched by
detectives, and have not been discovered in any attempts
to procure information. She was for some months in
England under the charge of the S.P.E. Other ghosts,
besides Dr. Phinuit, ghosts more civilised than he, now
influence her, and her latest performances are said to
exceed her former efforts.^
Volumes of evidence about Mrs. Piper have been
published by Dr. Hodgson, who unmasked Madame
Blavatsky and Eusapia Paladino.* He was at first con-
vinced that Mrs. Piper, in her condition of trance, obtains
knowledge not otherwise and normally accessible to her.
It was admitted that her familiar spirit guesses, attempts
to extract information from the people who sit with her,
and tries sophistically to conceal his failures. Here follow
the statements of Professor James of Harvard.
' The most convincing things said about my own
immediate household were either very intimate or very
trivial. Unfortunately the former things cannot well be
published. Of the trivial things I have forgotten the
greater number, but the following, rar(B nantes, may
• Prvm. Cult. ii. 133. ^Doolittle's Ghinese, i. 143 ; ii. 110, 320.
• Proceedings, S.P.E., pt. xxxiii.
« Proceedings, S.P.E., vi. 436-650 ; viii. 1-167 ; xiii. 284-582.
138 THE MAKING OF KELIGION
serve as samples of their class. She said that we had lost
recently a rug, and I a waistcoat. (She wrongly accused
a person of stealing the rug, which was afterwards found
in the house.) She told of my killing a grey-and-white
cat with ether, and described how it had " spun round and
round " before dying. She told how my New York aunt
had written a letter to my wife, warning her against all
mediums, and then went off on a most amusing criticism,
full of traits vifs, of the excellent woman's character.
(Of course, no one but my wife and I knew the existence
of the letter in question.) She was strong on the events
in our nursery, and gave striking advice during our first
visit to her about the way to deal with certain "tantrums "
of our second child — "little Billy-boy," as she called him,
reproducing his nursery name. She told how the crib
creaked at night, how a certain rocking-chair creaked
mysteriously, how my wife had heard footsteps on a stair,
&c. &c. Insignificant as these things sound when read,
the accumulation of them has an irresistible effect ; and I
repeat again what I said before, that, taking everything
that I know of Mrs. Piper into account, the result is to
make me feel as absolutely certain as I am of any personal
fact in the world that she knows things in her trances
which she cannot possibly have heard in her waking
state, and that the definitive philosophy of her trances
is yet to be found. The limitations of her trance infor-
mation, its discontinuity and fitfulness, and its apparent
inability to develop beyond a certain point, although they
end by arousing one's moral and human impatience with
the phenomenon, yet are, from a scientific point of view,
amongst its most interesting peculiarities, since where
there are limits there are conditions, and the discovery of
them is always the beginning of an explanation.
' This is all I can tell you of Mrs. Piper. I wish it
were more "scientific." 'But valeat qua^itum ! it is the
best I can do.'
Elsewhere Mr. James writes :
' Mr. Hodgson and others have made prolonged study
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 139
of this lady's trances, and are all convinced that super-
normal powers of cognition are displayed therein. They
are, prima facie, due to " spirit control." But the con-
ditions are so complex that a dogmatic decision either for
or against the hypothesis must as yet be postponed.' '
Again —
*In the trances of this medium I cannot resist the
conviction that knowledge appears which she has never
gained by the ordinary waking use of her eyes, ears,
and wits.
' The trances have broken down, for my own mind, the
limits of the admitted order of nature.'
M. Paul Bourget (who is not superstitious), after
consulting Mrs. Piper, concludes :
* L'esprit a des procedes de connaitre non soup9onnes
par notre analyse.' ^
In this treatise I may have shown * the will to believe *
in an unusual degree ; but, for me, the interest of Mrs.
Piper is purely anthropological. She exhibits a survival
or recrudescence of savage phenomena, real or feigned, of
convulsion and of secondary personality, and entertains
a survival of the animistic explanation.
Mrs. Piper's honesty and excellent character, in her
normal condition, are vouched for by her friends and
observers in England and America ; nor do I impeach her
normal character. But ' secondary personalities ' have often
more of Mr. Hyde than of Dr. Jekyll in their composition.
It used to be admitted that, when ' possessed,' Mrs. Piper
would cheat when she could — that is to say, she would
make guesses, try to worm information out of her sitter,
describe a friend of his, alive or dead, as ' Ed.,' who may be
Edgar, Edmund, Edward, Edith, or anybody. She would
shuffle, and repeat what she had picked up in a former
sitting with the same person ; and the vast majority of her
answers started from vague references to probable facts
' The Will to Believe, p. 314. * Figaro, January 14, 1895.
140 THE MAKING OF EELIGION
(as that an elderly man is an orphan), and so worked on
to more precise statements. Professor Macalister wrote :
* She is quite wide-awake enough all through to profit
by suggestions. I let her see a blotch of ink on my
finger, and she said that I was a writer. . . . Except
the guess about my sister Helen, who is alive, there was
not a single guess which was nearly right. Mrs. Piper is
not anaesthetic during the so-called trance, and if you ask
my private opinion, it is that the whole thing is an
imposture, and a poor one.' ^
Mr. Barkworth said that, as far as his experience
went, * Mrs. Piper's powers are of the ordinary thought-
reading [i.e. muscle-reading] kind, dependent on her hold
of the visitor's hand.' Each of these gentlemen had only
one 'sitting.' M. Paul Bourget also informed me, in
conversation, that Mrs. Piper held his hand while she
told the melancholy tale connected with a key in his
possession, and that she did not tell the story promptly
and fluently, but very slowly and hesitatingly. Even so,
he declared that he did not feel able to account for her
performance.
As these pages were passing through the press. Dr.
Hodgson's last report on Mrs. Piper was published.^ It
is quite impossible, within the apace allotted, to criticise
this work. It would be necessary to examine minutely
scores of statements, in which many facts are suppressed
as too intimate, while others are remarkably incoherent.
Dr. Hodgson deserves the praise of extraordinary patience
and industry, displayed in the very distasteful task of
watching an unfortunate lady in the vagaries of * trance.'
His reasonings are perfectly calm, perfectly unimpassioned,
and his bias has not hitherto seemed to make for cre-
dulity. "We must, in fact, regard him as an expert in this
branch of psychology. But he himself makes it clear
that, in his opinion, no written reports can convey
the impressions produced by several years of personal
' Proceedings, vi. 605, 606.
' Proceedings, S.P R., part xxxiii. vol. xiii.
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 141
experience. The results of that experience he sums up
in these words :
*At the present time I cannot profess to have any
doubt but that the chief "communicators" to whom I
have referred in the foregoing pages are veritably the
personalities that they claim to be, that they have sur- i
vived the change we call death, and that they have
directly communicated with us, whom we call living, '
through Mrs. Piper's entranced organism.' '
This means that Dr. Hodgson, at present, in this case,
accepts the hypothesis of * possession ' as understood by
Maoris and Fijians, Chinese and Karens.
The published reports do not produce on me any such
impression. As a personal matter of opinion, I am con-
vinced that those whom I have honoured in this life
would no more avail themselves of Mrs. Piper's * en-
tranced organism ' (if they had the chance) than I would
voluntarily find myself in a 'sitting' with that lady.
It is unnecessary to wax eloquent on this head ; and
the curious can consult the writings of Dr. Hodgson for
themselves. Meanwhile we have only to notice that an
American ' possessed ' woman produces on a highly edu- ,
cated and sceptical modern intelligence the same impres-
sion as the Zulu 'possessed' produce on some Zulu
intelligences.
The Zulus admit ' possession ' and divination, but are
not the most credulous of mankind. The ordinary pos-
sessed person is usually consulted as to the disease of an
absent patient. The inquirers do not assist the diviner
by holding his hand, but are expected to smite the ground
violently if the guess made by the diviner is right ; gently
if it is wrong. A sceptical Zulu, named Jolm, having a
shilling to expend on psychical research, smote violently
at every guess. The diviner was hopelessly puzzled ;
John kept his shilling, and laid it out on a much more
meritorious exhibition of animated sticks.^
• Op. cit. part xxxiii. p. 406.
* See • Fetishism.' Compare Callaway, p. 328.
142 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Uguise gave Dr. Callaway an account of a female
possessed person with whom Mrs. Piper could not compete.
Her spirit spoke, not from her mouth, but from high in
the roof. It gave forth a kind of questioning remarks
which were always correct. It then reported correctly a
number of singular circumstances, ordered some remedies
for a diseased child, and offered to return the fee, if ample
satisfaction was not given.'
In China and Zululand, as in Mrs. Piper's case, the
spirits are fond of diagnosing and prescribing for absent
patients.
A good example of savage possession is given in his
travels by Captain Jonathan Carver (1763).
Carver was waiting impatiently for the arrival of
traders with provisions, near the Thousand Lakes. A
priest, or jossakeed, offered to interview the Great Spirit,
and obtain information. A large lodge was arranged, and
the covering drawn up (which is unusual), so that what
went on within might be observed. In the centre was a
chest-shaped arrangement of stakes, so far apart from each
other ' that whatever lay within them was readily to be
discerned.' The tent was illuminated ' by a great number
of torches.' The priest came in, and was first wrapped in
an elk's skin, as Highland seers were wrapped in a black
bull's hide. Forty yards of rope made of elk's hide were
then coiled about him, till he 'was wound up like an
Egyptian mummy.'
I have elsewhere shown ^ that this custom of binding
» with bonds the seer who is to be inspired, existed in
Grgeco-Egyptian spiritualism, among Samoyeds, Eskimo,
i Canadian Hareskin Indians, and among Australian blacks.
*The head, body, and limbs are wound round with
stringy bark cords.' ^ This is an extraordinary range of
diffusion of a ceremony apparently meaningless. Is the
idea that, by loosing the bonds, the seer demonstrates the
' Callaway, pp. 361-374.
' Cock Lane and Common Sense, p. 55.
« Brough Smyth, i. 475. This point is disputed, but I did not invent it,
end a case appears in Mr. Curr's work on the natives.
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 143
agency of spirits, after the manner of the Davenport
Brothers ? ^ But the Graeco-Egyptian medium did not
undo the swathings of linen, in which he was rolled, like
a mummy. They had to be unswathed for him, by others.'^
Again, a dead body, among the Australians, is corded
up tight, as soon as the breath is out of it, if it is to be
buried, or before being exposed on a platform, if that is
the custom.^ Again, in the Highlands second-sight was
thus acquired : the would-be seer * must run a Tedder
(tether) of Hair, wJdch hound a corpse to the Bier, about
his Middle from end to end,' and then look between his
legs till he sees a funeral cross two marches.* The Green-
land seer is bound ' with his head between his legs.' ^
Can it be possible, judging from Australia, Scotland,
Egypt, that the binding, as of a corpse or mummy, is a
symbolical way of putting the seer on a level with the
dead, who will then communicate with him? In three
remote points, we find seer-binding and corpse-binding ;
but we need to prove that corpses are, or have been,
bound at the other points where the seer is tied up — in a
reindeer skin among the Samoyeds, an elk skin in North
America, a bull's hide in the Highlands.
Binding the seer is not a universal Eed Indian
custom; it seems to cease in Labrador, and elsewhere,
southwards, where the prophet enters a magic lodge,
unbound. Among the Narquapees, he sits cross-legged,
and the lodge begins to answer questions by leaping
about.^ The Eskimo bounds, though he is tied up.
It would be decisive, if we could find that, wherever
the sorcerer is bound, the dead are bound also. I note
the following examples, but the Creeks do not, I think,
bind the magician.
Among the Creeks,
' The corpse is placed in a hole, with a blanket wrapped
about it, and the legs bent under it and tied together.' ^
' Prim. Cult. \. 152. ^ Eusebius, PrcBp. Evang. v. 9.
s Brough Smyth, i. 100, 113.
* Kirk, Secret Commonwealth 1691.
* Crantz, p. 209. * P^re Arnaud, in Hind's Labrador, ii. 102.
' Major Swan, 1791, ofiBcial letter on the Creek Indians, Schoolcraft, v.270.
144 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
The dead Greenlanders were * wrapped and sewed up
in their best deer-skins.' '
Carver could only learn that, among the Indians he
knew, dead bodies were ' wrapped in skins ; ' that they
were also swathed with cords he does not allege, but he
was not permitted to see all the ceremonies.
My theory is, at least, plausible, for this manner of
burying the dead, tied tightly up, with the head between
the legs (as in the practice of Scottish and Green-
land seers), is very old and widely diffused. Ellis
says, of the Tahitians, 'the body of the dead man
was . . . placed in a sitting posture, with the knees
elevated, the face pressed down between the knees, . . .
and the whole body tied with cord or cinet, wound
repeatedly round.' ^
The binding may originally have been meant to
keep the corpse, or ghost, from 'walking.' I do not
know that Tahitian prophets were ever tied up, to await
inspiration. But I submit that the frequency of the
savage form of burial with the corpse tied up, or swathed,
sometimes with the head between the legs ; and the
recurrence of the savage practice of similarly binding the
sorcerer, probably points to a purpose of introducing the
seer to the society of the dead. The custom, as applied to
prophets, might survive, even where the burial rite had
altered, or cannot be ascertained, and might survive, for
corpses, where it had gone out of use, for seers. The
Scotch used to justify their practice of putting the head
between the knees when, bound with a corpse's hair
tether, they learned to be second-sighted, by what Elijah
did. The prophet, on the peak of Carmel, * cast himself
down upon the earth, and put his face between his knees.' '
But the cases are not analogous. Elijah had been hearing
a premonitory ' sound of abundance of rain ' in a cloudless
sky. He was probably engaged in prayer, not in prophecy.
Kirk, by the way, notes that if the wind changes,
while the Scottish seer is bound, he is in peril of his life.
» Crantz, p. 237.
' Polynesian Researches, i. 519. ^ 1 Kings xviii. 42.
DEMONIACAL POSSESSION 145
So children are told, in Scotland, that, if the wind changes
while they are making faces, the grimace will be perma-
nent. The seer will, in the same way, become what he
pretends to be, a corpse.
This desertion of Carver's tale may be pardoned for
the cmriosity of the topic. He goes on :
'Being thus bound up like an Egyptian mummy'
(Carver unconsciously making my point), 'the seer was
lifted into the chest-like enclosure, I could now also
discern him as plain as I had ever done, and I took care
not to turn my eyes away a moment ' — in which effort he
probably failed.
The priest now began to mutter, and finally spoke
in a mixed jargon of scarcely intelligible dialects. He
now yelled, prayed, and foamed at the mouth, till in
about three quarters of an hour he was exhausted and
speechless. ' But in an instant he sprang upon his feet,
notwithstanding at the time he was put in it appeared
impossible for him to move either his legs or arms, and
shaking off his covering, as quick as if the bands with
which it had been bound were burst asunder,' he pro-
phesied. The Great Spirit did not say when the traders
would arrive, but, just after high noon, next day, a canoe
would arrive, and the people in it would tell when the
traders were to appear.
Next day, just after high noon, a canoe came round a
point of land about a league away, and the men in it, who
had met the traders, said they would come in two days,
which they did. Carver, professing freedom from any
tincture of credulity, leaves us ' to draw what conclusions
we please.'
The natural inference is ' private information,' about
which the only difficulty is that Carver, who knew the
topography and the chances of a secret messenger arriving
to prompt the Jossakeed, does not allude to this theory.^
He seems to think such successes not uncommon.
All that psychology can teach anthropology, on this
' Carver, pp. 123, 184.
146 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
whole topic of 'possession,' is that secondary or alter-
nating personalities are facts in rerum natura, that the
man or woman in one personality may have no conscious
memory of what was done or said in the other, and that
cases of knowledge said to be supernormally gained in the
secondary state are worth inquiring about, if there be a
chance of getting good evidence.
A few fairly respectable savage instances are given
in Dr. Gibier's * Le Fakirisme Occidental ' and in Mr.
Manning's ' Old New Zealand ; ' but, while modern
civilised parallels depend on the solitary case of Mrs.
Piper (for no other case has been well observed), no
affirmative conclusion can be drawn from Chinese, Maori,
Zulu, or Ked Indian practice.
147
VIII
FETISHISM AND SPIBITUALISM
It has been shown how the doctrine of souls was developed
according to the anthropological theory. The hypothesis
as to how souls of the dead were later elevated to the rank
of gods, or supplied models after which such gods might
be inventively fashioned, will be criticised in a later
chapter. Here it must suffice to say that the conception
of a separable surviving soul of a dead man was not only
not essential to the savage's idea of his supreme god, as it
seems to me, but would have been wholly inconsistent
with that conception. There exist, however, numerous
forms of savage religion in addition to the creed in a
Supreme Being, and these contribute their streams to the
ocean of faith. Thus among the kinds of belief which
served in the development of Polytheism, was Fetishism,
itself an adaptation and extension of the idea of separable
souls. In this regard, like ancestor-worship, it differs
from the belief in a Supreme Being, which, as we shall try
to demonstrate, is not derived from the theory of ghosts
or souls at all.
Fetish {fHiche) seems to come from Portuguese feiti(^o,
a talisman or amulet, applied by the Portuguese to various
material objects regarded by the negroes of the west coast
with more or less of religious reverence. These objects
may be held sacred in some degree for a number of
incongruous reasons. They may be tokens, or may be of
value in sympathetic magic, or merely odd, and therefore
L 2
148 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
probably endowed with unknown mystic qualities. Or
they may have been pointed out in a dream, or met in a
lucky hour and associated with good fortune, or they may
(like a tree with an unexplained stir in its branches, as
reported by Kohl) have seemed to show signs of life by
spontaneous movements ; in fact, a thing may be what
Europeans call a fetish for scores of reasons. For our
present purpose, as Mr. Tylor says, * to class an object as
a fetish demands explicit statement that a spirit is con-
sidered as embodied in it, or acting through it, or communi-
cating by it, or, at least, that the people it belongs to do
habitually think this of such objects ; or it must be shown
that the object is treated as having personal consciousness
or power, is talked with, worshipped . . . ' and so forth.
The in-dwelling spirit may be human, as when a fetish is
made out of a friend's skull, the spirit in which may even
be asked for oracles, like the Head of Bran in Welsh
legend.
We have tried to show that the belief in human souls
may be, in part at least, based on supernormal phenomena
which Materialism disregards. We shall now endeavour
to make it probable that Fetishism (the belief in the souls
tenanting inanimate objects) may also have sources which
perhaps are not normal, or which at all events seemed
supernormal to savages. We say * perhaps not normal '
because the phenomena now to be discussed are of the
most puzzling character. We may lean to the belief in a
supernormal cause of certain hallucinations, but the alleged
movements of inanimate objects which probably supply
one origin of Fetishism, one suggestion of the presence of
a spirit in things dead, leave the inquiring mind in
perplexity. In following Mr. Tylor's discussion of the
subject, it is necessary to combine what he says about
Spiritualism in his fourth with what he says about
Fetishism in his fourteenth and later chapters. For
some reason his book is so arranged that he criticises
* Spiritualism ' long before he puts forward his doctrine of
the origin and development of the belief in spirits.
We have seen a savage reason for supposing that
FETISHISM AND SPIEITUALISM 149
human spirits inhabit certain lifeless things, such as skulls
and other relics of the dead. But how did it come to be
thought that a spirit dwelt in a lifeless and motionless
piece of stone or stick ? Mr. Tylor, perhaps, leads us to a
plausible conjecture by writing : * Mr. Darwin saw two
Malay women in Keehng Island, who held a wooden spoon
dressed in clothes like a doll : this spoon had been carried to
the grave of a dead man, and becoming inspired at full moon,
in fact lunatic, it danced about convulsively, like a table
or a hat at a modern spirit stance.' ^ Now M. Lefebure
has pointed out (in ' Melusine ') that, according to De
Brosses, the African conjurers gave an appearance of
independent motion to small objects, which were then
accepted as fetishes, being visibly animated. M. Lefebure
next compares, like Mr. Tylor, the alleged physical phe-
nomena of spiritualism, the flights and movements of
inanimate objects apparently untouched.
The question thus arises. Is there any truth whatever
in these world-wide and world-old stories of inanimate
objects acting like animated things ? Has fetishism one of
its origins in the actual field of supernormal experience in
the X region ? This question we do not propose to answer,
as the evidence, though practically universal, may be said
to rest on imposture and illusion. But we can, at least, give
a sketch of the nature of the evidence, beginning with that
as to the apparently voluntary movements of objects, not
untouched. Mr. Tylor quotes from John Bell's ' Journey
in Asia ' (1719) an account of a Mongol Lama who wished
to discover certain stolen pieces of damask. His method
was to sit on a bench, when 'he carried it, or, as was
commonly believed, it carried him, to the very tent ' of the
thief. Here the bench is innocently believed to be self-
moving. Again, Mr. Eowley tells how in Manganjah the
sorcerer, to find out a criminal, placed, with magical
ceremonies, two staffs of wood in the hands of some young
men. • The sticks whirled and dragged the men round
like mad,' and finally escaped and rolled to the feet of the
' Darwin, Journal, n. 458 ; Tylor, Prim. Cult. ii. 152. The spoon waa
not untouched.
150 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
wife of a chief, who was then denounced as the guilty
person.^
Mr. Duff Macdonald describes the same practice
among the Yaos : ^
* The sorcerer occasionally makes men take hold of a
stick, which, after a time, begins to move as if endowed
with life, and ultimately carries them off bodily and with
great speed to the house of the thief.'
The process is just that of Jacques Aymard in the
celebrated story of the detection of the Lyons murderer.^
In Melanesia, far enough away. Dr. Codrington found
a similar practice, and here the sticks are explicitly said
by the natives to be moved by spirits.* The wizard and
a friend hold a bamboo stick by each end, and ask what
man's ghost is afflicting a patient. At the mention of the
right ghost * the stick becomes violently agitated,' In
the same way, the bamboo ' would run about ' with a
man holding it only on the palms of his hands. Again,
a hut is built with a partition down the middle. Men sit
there with their hands U7ider one end of the bamboo,
while the other end is extended into the empty half of the
hut. They then call over the names of the recently dead,
till 'they feel the bamboo moving in their hands.' A
bamboo placed on a sacred tree, ' when the name of a
ghost is called, moves of itself, and will lift and drag
people about.' Put up into a tree, it would lift them
from the ground. In other cases the holding of the sticks
produces convulsions and trance.^ The divining sticks of
the Maori are also * guided by spirits,' ^ and those of the
Zulu sorcerers rise, fall, and jump about.^
These Zulu performances must be really very curious.
In the last chapter we told how a Zulu named John,
having a shilling to lay out in the interests of psychical
research, declined to pay a perplexed diviner, and reserved
» Eowley, Universities^ Mission, p. 217. ' Africana, vol. i. p. 161.
• In the author's Custom and Myth, ' The Divining Eod.'
• Codrington's Melanesia, p. 210. * Op. cit. pp. 223-225.
• Frim. Cult. vol. i. p. 125. ' C5allaway, Amazulu, p. 330.
FETISHISM AND SPIRITUALISM 161
his capital for a more meritorious performance. He
tried a medium named Unomantshintshi, who divined by
Umabakula, or dancing sticks —
* If they say " no," they fall suddenly ; if they say " yes,"
they arise and jump about very much, and leap on the
person who has come to inquire. They " fix themselves
on the place where the sick man is affected ; ... if the
head, they leap on his head. . . . Many believe in Umsf-
bakula more than in the diviner. But there are not
many who have the Umabakula." '
Dr. Callaway's informant only knew two Umabakulists.
John was quite satisfied, paid his shilling, and went
home.^
The sticks are about a foot long. It is not reported
that they are moved by spirits, nor do they seem to be
regarded as fetishes.
Mr. Tylor also cites a form of the familiar pendulum
experiment. Among the Karens a ring is suspended by a
thread over a metal basin. The relations of the dead
strike the basin, and when he who was dearest to the
ghost touches it the spirit twists the thread till it breaks,
and the ring falls into the basin. With us a ring is held
by a thread over a tumbler, and our unconscious move-
ments swing it till it strikes the hour. How the Karens
manage it is less obvious. These savage devices with
animated sticks clearly correspond to the more modern
* table-turning.' Here, when the players are honest, the
pushing is certainly unconscious.
I have tested this in two ways — first by trying the
minimum of conscious muscular action that would stir a
table at which I was alone, and by comparing the absolute
unconsciousness of muscular action when the table began
to move in response to no voluntarij push. Again, I tried
with a friend, who said, ' You are pushing,' when I gently
removed my hands altogether, though they seemed to
rest on the table, which still revolved. My friend was
himself unconsciously pushing. It is undeniable that, to
' Callaway, Avmzxdu, p. 353.
152 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
a solitary experimenter, the table seems to make little
darts of its own will in a curious way. Thus, the uncon-
sciousness of muscular action on the part of savages
engaged in the experiment with sticks would lead them
to beheve that spirits were animating the wood. The
same fallacy beset the table-turners of 1855-65, and was,
to some extent, exposed by Faraday. Of course, savages
would be even more convinced by the dancing spoon of
Mr. Darwin's tale, by the dancing sticks of the Zulus,
and the rest, whether the phenomena were supernormal
or merely worked by unseen strings. The same remark
applies to modern experimenters, when, as they declare,
various objects move untouched, without physical contact.
Still more analogous than turning tables to the savage
use of inspired sticks for directing the inquirer to a lost
object or to a criminal, is the modern employment of the
divining-rod — a forked twig which, held by the ends,
revolves in the hands of the performer when he reaches
the object of his quest. He, like the savage cited, is
occasionally agitated in a convulsive manner; and cases
are quoted in which the twig writhes when held in a pair
of tongs! The best -known modern treatise on the
divining-rod is that of M. Chevreul, 'La Baguette
Divinatoire' (1854). We have also * L'Histoire du
Merveilleux dans les Temps Modernes,' by M. Figuier
(1860). In 1781 Thouvenel published his 600 experi-
ments with Bleton and others ; and Hegel refers to
Amoretti's collection of hundreds of cases. The case
of Jacques Aymard, who in the seventeenth century
discovered a murderer by the use of the rod in true
savage fashion, is well known. In modern England the
rod is used in the interests of private individuals and
pubhc bodies (such as Trinity College, Cambridge) for the
discovery of water.
Professor Barrett has lately published a book of 280
pages, in which evidence of failures and successes is
collected.^ Professor Barrett gives about one hundred and
fifty cases, in which he was only able to discover, on good
' The So-called Divining-Bod, S.P.R. 1897.
FETISHISM AND SPIRITUALISM 153
authority, twelve failures. He gives a variety of tests
calculated to check frauds and chance coincidence, and
he publishes opinions, hostile or agnostic, by geologists.
The evidence, as a general rule, is what is called first-
hand in other inquiries. The actual spectators, and often
the owners of the land, or the persons in whose interest
water was wanted, having been present, give their testi-
mony ; and it is certain that the * diviner ' is called in by
people of sense and education, commonly too practical
to have a theory, and content with getting what they
want, especially where scientific experts have failed.^
In Mr. Barrett's opinion, the subconscious perception
of indications of the presence of water produces an equally
unconscious muscular * spasm,' which twirls the rod till it
often breaks. Yet 'it is almost impossible to imitate
its characteristic movement by any voluntary effort.' I
have myself held the hands of an amateur performer when
the twig was moving, and neither by sight nor touch could
I detect any muscular movement on his part, much less a
spasm. The person was bailiff on a large estate, and,
having accidentally discovered that he possessed the gift,
used it when he wanted wells dug for the tenants on
the property.
The whole topic is obscure ; nor am I concerned here
with the successes or failures of the divining-rod. But
the movements of the twig have never, to my knowledge,
been attributed by modern English performers to the
operation of spirits. They say 'electricity.' Mr. Tylor
merely writes :
'The action of the famous divining-rod, with its
curiously versatile sensibility to water, ore, treasure, and
thieves, seems to belong partly to trickery and partly to
more or less conscious direction by honester operators.'
As the divining-rod is the only instance in which
automatism, whatever its nature and causes, has been
found of practical value by practical men, and as it is
obviously associated with a number of analogous pheno-
' See especially The Waterford Experiments, p. 106.
154 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
mena, both in civilised and savage life, it certainly
deserves the attention of science. But no advance vriU
be made till scientifically trained inquirers themselves
arrange and test a large number of experiments. Know-
ledge of the geological ignorance of the dowsers, examples
of fraud on their part, and cases of failure or reported
failure, with a general hostile bias, may prevent such
experiments from being made by scientific experts on an
adequate scale. Such experts ought, of course, to avoid
working the dowsers into a state of irritation.
It is just worth while to notice cases in which the rod
acts like those of the Melanesians, Africans, and other
savages. A Mr. Thomas Welton published an English
translation of 'La Verge de Jacob' (Lyon, 1693). In
1651 he asked his servant to bring into the garden * a
stick that stood behind the parlour door. In great terror
she brought it to the garden, her hand firmly clutched on
it, nor could she let it go.' When Mrs. Welton took the
stick, ' it drew her with very considerable velocity to
nearly the centre of the garden,' where a well was found.
Mr. Welton is not likely to have known of the lately
published savage examples. The coincidence with the
African and Melanesian cases is, therefore, probably
undesigned.
Again, in 1694, the rod was used by le Pere Menestrier
and others, just as it is by savages, to indicate by its
movements answers to all sorts of questions. Experiments
of this kind have not been made by Professor Barrett, and
other modem inquirers, except by M. Eichet, as a mode of
detecting automatic action. But it would be just as
sensible to use the twig as to use planchette or any other
* autoscopic ' apparatus. If these elicit knowledge uncon-
sciously present to the mind, mere water-finding ought not
to be the sole province of the rod. In the same class as
these rods is the forked twig which, in China, is held at
each end by two persons, and made to VTrite in the sand.
The little apparatus called planchette, or the other, the
ouija, is of course, consciously or unconsciously, pushed by
the performers. In the case of the twig, as held by water-
FETISHISM AND SPIRITUALISM 155
seekers, the difficulty of consciously moving it so as to
escape close observation is considerable.
In the case of the ouija (a little tripod, which, under
the operators' hands, runs about a table inscribed with
letters at which it points), I have known curious successes
to be achieved by amateurs. Thus, in the house of a lady
who owned an old chateau in another county, the ouija,
operated on by two ladies known to myself, wrote a number
of details about a visit paid to the chdteau for a certain
purpose by Mary Stuart. That visit, and its object, a
purely personal one, are unknown to history, and the
chdteau is not spoken of in Mr. Hay Fleming's careful,
but unavoidably incomplete, itinerary of the Queen's re-
sidence in Scotland. After the communication had been
made, the owner of the chdteau explained that she was
already acquainted with the circumstances described, as
she had recently read them in documents in her charter
chest, where they remain.
Of course, the belief we extend to such narratives is
entirely conditioned by our knowledge of the personal
character of the performers. The point here is merely the
civilised and savage practice of automatism, the apparent
eliciting of knowledge not otherwise accessible, by the
movements of a stick, or a bit of wood. These movements,
made without conscious exertion or direction, seem, to
savage philosophy, to be caused by in-dwelling spirits, the
sources of Fetishism.
These examples, then, demonstrating unconscious
movement of objects by the operators, make it clear that
movements even of touched objects, may be attributed, by
some civilised and by savage amateurs, to * spirits.' The
objects so moved may, by savages, be regarded in some
cases as fetishes, and their movements may have helped to
originate the belief that spirits can inhabit inanimate objects.
When objects apparently quite untouched become vola-
tile, the mystery is deeper. This apparent animation and
frolicsome behaviour of inanimate objects is reported all
through history, and attested by immense quantities of
evidence of every degree. It would be tedious to give a
156 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
full account of the antiquity and diffusion of reports about
such occurrences. We find them among Neo-Platonists,
in the English and Continental Middle Ages, among
Eskimo, Hurons, Algonkins, Tartars, Zulus, Malays,
Nasquapees, Maoris, in witch trials, in ancient Peru
(immediately after the Spanish Conquest), in China, in
modern Kussia, in New England (1680), all through the
career of modern spiritualism, in Hayti (where they are
attributed to * Obeah'), and, sporadically, everywhere.*
Among all these cases, we must dismiss whatever the
modern paid medium does in the dark. The only thing
to be done with the ethnographic and modern accounts
of such marvels is to ' file them for reference.' If a spon-
taneous example occurs, under proper inspection, we can
then compare our old tales. Professor James says : * Their
mutual resemblances suggest a natural type, and I confess
that till these records, or others like them, are positively
explained away, I cannot feel (in spite of such vast
amounts of detected frauds) as if the case of physical
mediumship itself, as a freak of nature, were definitely
closed. ... So long as the stories multiply in various
lands, and so few are positively explained away, it is bad
method to ignore them.' ^ Here they are not ignored,
because, whatever the cause or causes of the phenomena,
they would buttress, if they did not originate, the savage
belief in spirits tenanting inanimate matter, whence came
Fetishism. As to facts, we cannot, of course, 'explain
away ' events of this kind, which we know only through
report. A conjurer cannot explain a trick merely from a
description, especially a description by a non-conjurer.
But, as a rule, nothing so much leads to doubt on this
theme as the * explanation ' given — except, of course, in
the case of ' dark stances ' got up and prepared by paid
mediums. We know, sometimes, how the * explanation '
arose.
Thus, the house of a certain M. Zoller, a lawyer
' Authorities and examples are collected in the author's Cock Lane and
Common Sense.
2 Proceedings, xii. 7, 8.
FETISHISM AND SPIRITUALISM 157
and member of the Swiss Federal Council, a house at
Stans, in Unterwalden, was made simply uninhabitable in
1860-1862. The disturbances, including movements of
objects, were of a truly odious description, and occurred
in full daylight. M. Zoller, deeply attached to his home,
which had many interesting associations with the part his
family played in the struggle against revolutionary France,
was obliged to abandon the place. He had made every
conceivable sort of research, and had called in the local
police and savants, to no purpose.
But the affair was explained away thus : While the
phenomena could still be concealed from public curiosity,
a client called to see M. Zoller, who was out. The
client, therefore, remained in the drawing-room. Loud
and heavy blows resounded through the room. The
client, as it chanced, had once felt the effects of an
electric battery, for some medical reason, apparently. M.
Zoller writes : * My eldest son was present at the time,
and, when my client asked whether there was such a
thing as an electrical machine in the house (the family
having been enjoined to keep the disturbances as secret as
possible), he allowed S. to think that there was.' Con-
sequently, the phenomena were set down to M. Zoller's
singular idea of making his house untenantable with
an ' electric machine ' — which he did not possess.' A
number of the most respected citizens, including the
Superintendent of Police, and the chief magistrate for law,
published a statement that neither Zoller, nor any of his
family, nor any of themselves, produced or could have
produced the phenomena witnessed by them in August 1862.
This declaration they put forth in the * Schwytzer Zeitung,'
October 5, 1863.^ No electric machine known to mortals
could have produced the vast variety of alleged effects,
none was ever found ; and as M. Zoller changed his
servants without escaping his tribulations, they can
hardly be blamed for what, ;prima facie, it seems that
• Personal Narrative, by M. Zoller. Hanke, Zurich, 18C3.
* Daumer, Beich des Wundersamen, Eegensburg, 1872, pp. 265, 266.
168 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
they could not possibly do. However, * electricity,' like
Mesopotamia, is ' a blessed word.' ^
My own position in this matter of * physical phe-
nomena ' is, I hope, clear. They interest me, for my
present purpose, as being, whatever their real nature and
origin, things which would suggest to a savage his theory
of Fetishism. ' An inanimate object may be tenanted by
a spirit, as is proved by its extraordinary movements.'
Thus the early thinker might reason, and go on to revere
the object. It is to be wished that competent observers
would pay more attention to such savage practices as
crystal-gazing and automatism as illustrated by the sticks
of the Melanesians, Zulus, and Yaos. Our scanty in-
formation we pick up out of stray allusions, but it has
the advantage of being uncontaminated by theory, the
European spectator not knowing the wide range of such
practices and their value in experimental psychology.
We have now finished our study of the less normal
and usual phenomena, which gave rise to belief in
separable, self-existing, conscious, and powerful souls.
We have shown that the supernormal factors which,
when reflected on, probably supported this belief, are
represented in civilised as well as in savage life, while as
to their existence among the founders of religion we can
historically know nothing at all. If we may infer from
certain considerations, the supernormal experiences were
possibly more prevalent among the remote ancestors of
known savage races than among their modern descendants.
We have suggested that clairvoyance, thought transference,
and telepathy cannot be dismissed as mere fables, by a
cautious inquirer, while even the far more obscure stories
of * physical manifestations ' are but poorly explained
away by those who cannot explain them.'^ Again, these
faculties have presented — in the acquisition of otherwise
unattainable knowledge, in coincidental hallucinations,
and in other ways — just the kind of facts on which the
' A criticism of modern explanations of the phenomena here touched
upon will be found in Appendix B.
^ See Appendix B.
FETISHISM AND SPIRITUALISM 1&9
savage doctrine of souls might be based, or by which it
might be buttressed. Thus, while the actuality of the
supernormal facts and faculties remains at least an open
question, the prevalent theory of Materialism cannot be
admitted as dogmatically certain in its present shape.
No more than any other theory, nay, less than some other
theories, can it account for the psychical facts which,
at the lowest, we may not honestly leave out of the
reckoning.
We have therefore no more to say about the super-
normal aspects of the origins of religion. We are
henceforth concerned with matters of verifiable belief
and practice. We have to ask whether, when once the
doctrine of souls was conceived by early men, it took
precisely the course of development usually indicated by
anthropological science.
160 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
IX
EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF GOD
To the anthropological philosopher * a plain man * would
naturally put the question : * Having got your idea of
spirit or soul — your theory of Animism — out of the idea
of ghosts, and having got your idea of ghosts out of
dreams and visions, how do you get at the Idea of God ? *
Now by * God ' the proverbial ' plain man ' of controversy
means a primal eternal Being, author of all things,
the father and friend of man, the invisible, omniscient
guardian of morality.
The usual though not invariable reply of the anthro-
pologist might be given in the words of Mr, Im Thurn,
author of a most interesting work on the Indians of
British Guiana :
* From the notion of ghosts,' says Mr. Im Thurn, * a
belief has arisen, but very gradually, in higher spirits, and
eventually in a Highest Spirit, and, keeping pace with the
growth of these beliefs, a habit of reverence for, and
worship of spirits. . . . The Indians of Guiana know
no God.' >
As another example of Mr. Im Thurn's hypothesis
that God is a late development from the idea of spirit
may be cited Mr. Payne's learned 'History of the New
World,' a work of much research : ^
* The lowest savages not only have no gods, but do not
' Journal Anthrop. Inst. xi. 374. We shall return to this passage.
« Vol. i. p. 389, 1892.
EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF GOD 161
even recognise those lower beings usually called spirits,
the conception of which has invariably preceded that of
gods in the human mind.'
Mr. Payne here differs, toto ccbIo, from Mr. Tylor,
who finds no sufficient proof for wholly non-religious
savages, and from Boskoff, who has disposed of the
arguments of Sir John Lubbock. Mr. Payne, then, for
ethnological pm^poses, defines a god as * a benevolent
spirit, permanently embodied in some tangible object,
usually an image, and to whom food, drink,' and so on,
' are regularly offered for the purpose of securing assistance
in the affairs of life.'
On this theory * the lowest savages ' are devoid of
the idea of god or of spirit. Later they develop the idea
of spirit, and when they have secured the spirit, as it were,
in a tangible object, and kept it on board wages, then the
spirit has attained to the dignity and the savage to the
conception of a god. But while a god of this kind is, in
Mr. Payne's opinion, relatively a late flower of culture,
for the hunting races generally (with some exceptions)
have no gods, yet ' the conception of a creator or maker of
all things . . . obviously a great spirit ' is ' one of the
earliest efforts of primitive logic.''
Mr. Payne's own logic is not very clear. The
' primitive logic ' of the savage leads him to seek for a
cause or maker of things, which he finds in a great
creative spirit. Yet the lowest savages have no idea even
of spirit, and the hunting races, as a rule, have no god.
Does Mr. Payne mean that a great creative spirit is 7iot
a god, while a spirit kept on board wages in a tangible
object is a god ? We are unable, by reason of evidence
later to be given, to agree with Mr. Payne's view of
the facts, while his reasoning appears somewhat incon-
sistent, the lowest savages having, in his opinion, no idea
of spirit, though the idea of a creative spirit is, for all that,
one of the earliest efforts of primitive logic.
On any such theories as these the belief in a moral
' Payne, i. 458.
162 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Supreme Being is a very late (or a very early?) result
of evolution, due to the action of advancing thought upon
the original conception of ghosts. This opinion of Mr.
Im Thurn's is, roughly stated, the usual theory of anthro-
pologists. We wish, on the other hand, to show that the
idea of God, as he is conceived of by our inquiring plain
man, is shadowed forth (among contradictory fables) in the
lowest-known grades of savagery, and therefore cannot
arise from the later speculation of men, comparatively
civilised and advanced, on the original datum of ghosts.
We shall demonstrate, contrary to the opinion of Mr.
Spencer, Mr. Huxley, and even Mr. Tylor, that the Supreme
Being, and, in one case at least, the casual sprites of savage
faith, are active moral influences. What is even more
important, we shall make it undeniable that Anthropology
has simplified her problem by neglecting or ignoring her
facts. While the real problem is to account for the
evolution out of ghosts of the eternal, creative moral god
of the * plain man,' the germ of such a god or being in
the creeds of the lowest savages is by anthropologists
denied, or left out of sight, or accounted for by theories
contradicted by facts, or, at best, is explained away as a
result of European or Islamite influences. Now, as the
problem is to account for the evolution of the highest
conception of God, as far as that conception exists among
the most backward races, the problem can never be solved
while that highest conception of God is practically
ignored.
Thus, anthropologists, as a rule, in place of facing and
solving their problem, have merely evaded it — doubtless
unwittingly. This, of course, is not the practice of
Mr. Tylor, though even his great work is professedly
much more concerned with the development of the idea
of spirit and with the lower forms of animism than with
the real crux — the evolution of the idea (always obscured
by mythology) of a moral, uncreated, undying God among
the lowest savages. This negligence of anthropologists
has arisen from a single circumstance. They take it for
granted that God is always (except where the word for
EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF GOD 163
God is applied to a living human being) regarded as a
Spirit. Thus, having accounted for the development
of the idea of spirit, they regard God as that idea carried
to its highest power, and as the final step in its evolution.
But, if we can show that the early idea of an undying,
moral, creative being does not necessarily or logically
imply the doctrine of spirit (or ghost), then this idea of an
eternal, moral, creative being may have existed even before
the doctrine of spirit was evolved.
We may admit that Mr. Tylor's account of the process
by which Gods were evolved out of ghosts is a little toujfu
— rather buried in facts. We * can scarcely see the wood
for the trees.' We want to know how Gods, makers
of things (or of most things), fathers in heaven, and
friends, guardians of morality, seeing what is good or bad
in the hearts of men, were evolved, as is supposed, out
of ghosts or surviving souls of the dead. That such
moral, practically omniscient Gods are known to the very
lowest savages — Bushmen, Fuegians, Australians — we
shall demonstrate.
Here the inquirer must be careful not to adopt the
common opinion that Gods improve, morally and other-
wise, in direct ratio to the rising grades in the evolution
of cultm'e and civilisation. That is not necessarily the
case ; usually the reverse occurs. Still less must we take
it for granted, following Mr. Tylor and Mr. Huxley, that
the * alliance [of religion and morality] belongs almost, or
wholly, to religions above the savage level — not to the
earlier and lower creeds ; ' or that ' among the Australian
savages,' and * in its simplest condition,' * theology is
wholly independent of ethics.' * These statements can be
proved (by such evidence as anthropology is obliged to
rely upon) to be erroneous. And, just because these
statements are put forward. Anthropology has an easier
task in explaining the origin of religion ; while, just
because these statements are incorrect, her conclusion,
being deduced from premises so far false, is invalidated.
Given souls, acquired by thinking on the lines already
' Frim. Cult. vol. ii. p. 381 ; Science and Hebrew Tradition, pp. 34G, 372.
K 2
3.
164 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
described, Mr. Tylor develops Gods out of them. But he
is not one of the writers who is certain about every detail.
He * scarcely attempts to clear away the haze that covers
great parts of the subject.' ^
The human soul, he says, has been the model on
which man 'framed his ideas of spiritual beings in
general, from the tiniest elf that sports in the grass
up to the heavenly creator and ruler of the world, the
Great Spirit.' Here it is taken for granted that the
Heavenly Euler was from the first envisaged as a
' spiritual being ' — which is just the difficulty. Was He ? ^
The process of framing these ideas is rather obscure.
The savage * lives in terror of the souls of the dead as
harmful spirits.' This might yield a Devil ; it would not
yield a God who 'makes for righteousness.' Happily,
' deified ancestors are regarded, on the whole, as kindly
spirits.' The dead ancestor is ' now passed into a deity.' ^
Examples of ancestor-worship follow. But we are no
nearer home. For among the Zulus many Amatongo
(ancestral spirits) are sacred. ' Yet their father [i.e. the
father of each actual family] is far before all others when
they worship the Amatongo. . . . They do not know the
ancients who are dead, nor their laud-giving names, nor
their names.' '' Thus, each new generation of Zulus
must have a new first worshipful object — its own father's
Itongo. This father, and his very name, are, in a genera-
tion or two, forgotten. The name of such a man, there-
fore, cannot survive as that of the God or Supreme Being
from age to age ; and, obviously, such a real dead man,
while known at all, is much too well known to be taken
for the creator and ruler of the world, despite some
African flattering titles and superstitions about kings
who control the weather. The Zulus, about as ' godless '
a people as possible, have a mythical first ancestor,
Unkulunkulu, but he is ' beyond the reach of rites,' and is
a centre of myths rather than of worship or of moral ideas.*
' Prim. Cult. vol. ii. p. 109. ^ m^^ yol. ii. p. 110. ' Ibid. vol. ii. p. 113.
* Prim. Cult. vol. ii. pp. 115, 116, citing Callaway and others.
* The Zulu religion will be analysed later.
EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF GOD 165
After other examples of ancestor-worship, Mr. Tylor
branches off into a long discussion of the theory of
'possession' or inspiration,' which does not assist the
argument at the present point. Thence he passes to
fetishism (already discussed by us), and the transitions
from the fetish — (1) to the idol ; (2) to the guardian
angel (' subliminal self ') ; (3) to tree and river spirits,
and local spirits which cause volcanoes ; and (4) to
polytheism. A fetish may inhabit a tree ; trees being
generalised, the fetish of one oak becomes the god of the
forest. Or, again, fetishes rise into ' species gods ; ' the
gods of all bees, owls, or rabbits are thus evolved.
Next,2
* As chiefs and kings are among men, so are the great
gods among the lesser spirits. . . . With little exception,
wherever a savage or barbaric system of religion is tho-
roughly described, great gods make their appearance in the
spiritual world as distinctly as chiefs in the human tribe.'
Very good ; but whence comes the great God among
tribes which have neither chief nor king and probably
never had, as among the Fuegians, B ashmen, and Aus-
tralians '? The maker and ruler of the world known
to these races cannot be the shadow of king or chief,
reflected and magnified on the mist of thought ; for chief
or king these peoples have none. This theory (Hume's)
will not work where people have a great God but no king
or chief ; nor where they have a king but no Zeus or
other supreme King-god, as (I conceive) among the Aztecs.
We now reach, in Mr. Tylor's theory, great fetish
deities, such as Heaven and Earth, Sun and Moon, and
' departmental deities,' gods of Agriculture, War, and so
forth, unknown to low savages.
Next Mr. Tylor introduces an important personage.
' The theory of family Manes, carried back to tribal Gods,
leads to the recognition of superior deities of the nature of
Divine Ancestor, or First Man,' who sometimes ranks as
Lord of the Dead. As an instance, Mr. Tylor gives the
' Frim. Cult. vol. ii. pp. 130-144. » Ihii. vol. ii. p. 248.
166 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Maori Maui, who, like the Indian Yama, trod first of men
the path of death. But whether Maui and Yama are the
Sun, or not, both Maori and Sanskrit reUgion regard these
heroes as much later than the Original Gods. In Kam-
schatka the First Man is the ' son ' of the Creator, and it is
about the origin of the idea of the Creator, not of the
First Man, that we are inquiring. Adam is called ' the
son of God ' in a Biblical genealogy, but, of course, Adam
was made, not begotten. The case of the Zulu belief
i will be analysed later. On the whole, we cannot explain
' away the conception of the Creator as a form of the
conception of an idealised divine First Ancestor, because
the conception of a Creator occurs where ancestor- worship
does not occur ; and again, because, supposing that the idea
of a Creator came first, and that ancestor-worship later
j grew more popular, the popular idea of Ancestor might be
transfeiTed to the waning idea of Creator. The Creator
might be recognised as the First Ancestor, apres coup.
Mr. Tylor next approaches Dualism, the idea of
hostile Good and Bad Beings. We must, as he says,
be careful to discount European teaching, still, he admits,
the savage has this dualistic belief in a ' primitive ' form.
But the savage conception is not merely that of * good=
friendly to me,' 'bad=hostile to me.' Ethics, as we
shall show, already come into play in his theology.
Mr. Tylor arrives, at last, at the Supreme Being of
savage creeds. His words, well weighed, must be cited
textually : —
' To mark off the doctrines of monotheism, closer
definition is required [than the bare idea of a Supreme
Creator], assigning the distinctive attributes of Deity to
none save the Almighty Creator. It may be declared
that, in this strict sense, no savage tribe of monotheists
has been ever known. ^ Nor are any fair representatives
of the lower culture in a strict sense pantheists. The
doctrine which they do widely hold, and which opens to
them a course tending in one or other of these directions,
' And very few civilised populations, if any, arc monotheistic in
llu:i sense.
EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF GOD 167
is polytheism culminating in the rule of one supreme
divinity. High above the doctrine of souls, of divine
Manes, of local nature gods, of the great gods of class and
element, there are to be discerned in barbaric theology,
shadowings, quaint or majestic, of the conception of a
Supreme Deity, henceforth to be traced onward in ex-
panding pov/er and brightening glory along the history of
Eeligion. It is no unimportant task, partial as it is, to
select and group the typical data which show the nature
and position of the doctrine of supremacy, as it comes
into view within the lower culture.''
We shall show that certain low savages are as
monotheistic as some Christians. They have a Supreme
Being, and the ' distinctive attributes of Deity ' are not
by them assigned to other beings, further than as
Christianity assigns them to Angels, Saints, the Devil,
and, strange as it appears, among savages, to mediating
' Sons.'
It is not known that, among the Andamanese and
other tribes, this last notion is due to missionary
influence. But, in regard to the whole chapter of savage
Supreme Beings, we must, as Mr. Tylor advises, keep
watching for Christian and Islamite contamination. The
savage notions, as Mr. Tylor says, even when thus con-
taminated, may have * to some extent, a native substratum.'
We shall select such savage examples of the idea of a
Supreme Being as are attested by ancient native hymns,
or are inculcated in the most sacred and secret savage
institutions, the religious Mysteries (manifestly the last
things to be touched by missionary influence), or are
found among low insular races defended from European
contact by the jealous ferocity and poisonous jungles of
people and soil. We also note cases in which mis-
sionaries found such native names as ' Father,' * Ancient
of Heaven,' * Maker of All,' ready-made to their hands.
It is to be remarked that, while this branch of the
inquiry is practically omitted by Mr. Spencer, Mr. Tylor
' Frini. Cult. vol. ii. pp. 332, 333.
168 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
can spare for it but some twenty pages out of his large
work. He arranges the probable germs of the savage
idea of a Supreme Being thus : A god of the polytheistic
crowd is simply raised to the primacy, which, of course,
cannot occur where there is no polytheism. Or the
principle of Manes worship may make a Supreme Deity
out of ' a primeval ancestor,' say Unkulunkulu, who is so
far from being supreme, that he is abject. Or, again, a
great phenomenon or force in Nature-worship, say Sun,
or Heaven, is raised to supremacy. Or speculative philo-
sophy ascends from the Many to the One by trying to
discern through and beyond the universe a First Cause.
Animistic conceptions thus reach their utmost limit in
the notion of the Anima Mundi. He may accumulate all
powers of all polytheistic gods, or he may 'loom vast,
shadowy, and calm .... too benevolent to need human
worship .... too merely existent to concern himself
with the petty race of men.'^ But he is always
animistic.
Now, in addition to the objections already noted in
passing, how can we tell that the Supreme Being of low
savages was, in original conception, animistic at all ?
How can we know that he was envisaged, originally, as
Spirit ? We shall show that he probably was not, that
the question ' spirit or not spirit ' was not raised at all,
that the Maker and Father in Heaven, prior to Death,
was merely regarded as a deathless Being, no question of
* spirit ' being raised. If so. Animism was not needed for
the earhest idea of a moral Eternal. This hypothesis
will be found to lead to some very singular conclusions.
It will be more fully stated and illustrated, presently, but
I find that it had already occurred to Dr. Brinton.^ He
is talking specially of a heaven- god ; he says ' it came to
pass that the idea of God was linked to the heavens long
ere man asked himself, Are the heavens material and God
spiritual ? ' Dr. Brinton, however, does not develop his
idea, nor am I aware that it has been developed previously.
» Prim. Cult. vol. ii. pp. 335, 336.
« Mytlis of the New World, 1868, p. 47.
EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF GOD 1«9
The notion of a God about whose spirituaHty nobody
has inquired is new to us. To ourselves, and doubtless
or probably to barbarians on a certain level of culture,
such a Divine Being must he animistic, must be a 'spirit.'
To take only one case, to which we shall return, the
Banks Islanders (Melanesia) believe in ghosts, * and in
the existence of Beings who were not, and never had
been, human. All alike might be called spirits,' says
Dr. Codrington, but, ex hijpothesi, the Beings * who
never were human ' are only called * spirits,' by us,
because our habits of thought do not enable us to en-
visage them except as ' spirits.' They never were men,
* the natives will always maintain that he (the Vui) was
something different, and deny to him the fleshly body of
a man,' while resolute that he was not a ghost}
This point will be amply illustrated later, as we study
that strangely neglected chapter, that essential chapter,
the Higher beliefs of the Lowest savages. Of the exist-
ence of a belief in a Supreme Being, not as merely
' alleged,' there is as good evidence as we possess for any
fact in the ethnographic region.
It is certain that savages, when first approached by
curious travellers, and missionaries, have again and again
recognised our God in theirs.
The mythical details and fables about the savage God
are, indeed, different ; the ethical, benevolent, admonish-
ing, rewarding, and creative aspects of the Gods are apt
to be the same.^
' There is no necessity for beginning to tell even the
most degraded of these people of the existence of God, or
of a future state, the facts being universally admitted.' '
' Intelligent men among the Bakwains have scouted
the idea of any of them ever having been without a
tolerably clear conception of good and evil, God and the
' I observed this point in Myth, Ritual, and Religion, while I did not
Bee the implication, that the idea of ' spirit ' was not necessarily present
in the savage conception of the primal Beings, Creators, or Makers.
* See one or two cases in Prim. Cult. vol. ii. p. 340.
* Livingstone, speaking ol the Bakwain, Missionary Travels, p. 158.
170 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
future state. Nothing we indicate as sin ever appeared
to them as otherwise,' except polygamy, says Livingstone.
Now we may agree with Mr. Tylor that modern
theologians, familiar with savage creeds, will scarcely
argue that * they are direct or nearly direct products of
revelation ' (vol. ii. p. 356). But we may argue that, con-
sidering their nascent ethics (denied or minimised by many
anthropologists) and the distance which separates the
high gods of savagery from the ghosts out of which they
are said to have sprung ; considering too, that the rela-
tively pure and lofty element which, ex hypothesi, is most
recent in evolution, is also, not the most honoured, but
often just the reverse ; remembering, above all, that we
know nothing historically of the mental condition of the
founders of religion, we may hesitate to accept the anthro-
pological hypothesis en masse. At best it is conjectural,
and the facts are such that opponents have more justifica-
tion than is commonly admitted for regarding the bulk of
savage religion as degenerate, or corrupted, from its own
highest elements. I am by no means, as yet, arguing
positively in favour of that hypothesis, but I see what its
advocates mean, or ought to mean, and the strength of
their position. Mr. Tylor, with his unique fairness, says
' the degeneration theory, no doubt in some instances
with justice, may claim such beliefs as mutilated and per-
verted remains of higher religion ' (vol. ii. p. 336).
I do not pretend to know how the lowest savages
evolved the theory of a God who reads the heart and
* makes for righteousness.' It is as easy, almost, for me
to believe that they * were not left without a witness,'
as to believe that this God of theirs was evolved out of
the maleficent ghost of a dirty mischievous medicine-
man.
Here one may repeat that while the ' quaint or majes-
tic foreshadowings ' of a Supreme Being, among very
low savages, are only sketched lightly by Mr. Tylor ; in
Mr. Herbert Spencer's system they seem to be almost
omitted. In his ' Principles of Sociology ' and ' Eccle-
siastical Ins titutions ' one looks in vain for an adequate
EVOLUTION OF THE IDEA OF GOD 171
notice ; in vain for almost any notice, of this part of his
topic. The watcher of conduct, the friendly, creative
being of low savage faith, whence was he evolved ? The
circumstance of his existence, as far as I can see; the
chastity, the unselfishness, the pitifulness, the loyalty
to plighted word, the prohibition of even extra-tribal
homicide, enjoined in various places on his worshippers,
are problems that appear somehow to have escaped
Mr. Spencer's notice. We are jDUzzled by endless diffi-
culties in his system : for example as to how savages
can forget their great-grandfathers' very names, and yet
rernember ' traditional persons from generation to gene-
ration,' so that 'in time any amount of expansion and
idealisation can be reached.' '
Again, Mr. Spencer will argue that it is a strange
thing if ' primitive men had, as some think, the conscious-
ness of a Universal Power whence they and all other
things proceeded,' and yet ' spontaneously performed to
that Power an act like that performed by them to tha
dead body of a fellow savage ' — by offerings of food.^
Now, first, there would be nothing strange in the L
matter if the crude idea of ' Universal Power ' came '
earliest, and was superseded, in part, by a later propitia-
tion of the dead and ghosts. The new religious idea
would soon refract back on, and influence by its ritual,
the older conception. And, secondly, it is precisely this
' Universal Power ' that is not propitiated by offerings of
food, in Tonga, (despite Mr. Huxley) Australia, and Africa,
for example. We cannot escape the difficulty by saying
that there the old ghost of Universal Power is regarded as
dead, decrepit, or as a roi faineant not worth propitiating,
for that is not true of the punisher of sin, the teacher
of generosity, and the solitary sanction of faith between
men and peoples.
It would appear then, on the whole, that the question
of the plain man to the anthropologist, ' Having got your
idea of spirit into the savage's mind, how does he develop
' Principles of Sociohay. vol. i. p. 450.
• OiJ. cit. vol. i. p. 302."
172 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
out of it what I call God ? ' has not been answered. God
cannot be a reflection from human kings where there have
been no kings ; nor a president elected out of a polytheistic
^ society of gods where there is as yet no polytheism ; nor
an ideal first ancestor where men do not worship their
ancestors ; while, again, the spirit of a man who died, real
or ideal, does not answer to a common savage conception
of the Creator. All this will become much more obvious
as we study in detail the highest gods of the lowest races.
Our study, of course, does not pretend to embrace the
religion of all the savages in the world. We are content
with typical, and, as a rule, well-observed examples. We
range from the creeds of the most backward and worst-
equipped nomad races, to those of peoples with an
aristocracy, hereditary kings, houses and agriculture,
ending with the Supreme Being of the highly civiHsed
Incas, and with the Jehovah of the Hebrews.
173
X
HIGH GODS OF LOW RACES
To avoid misconception we must repeat the necessary
cautions about accepting evidence as to high gods of low
races. The missionary who does not see in every ahen
god a devil is apt to welcome traces of an original super-
natural revelation, darkened by all peoples but the Jews.
We shall not, however, rely much on missionary evidence,
and, when we do, we must now be equally on our guard
against the anthropological bias in the missionary himself.
Having read Mr. Spencer and Mr. Tylor, and finding
himself among ancestor-worshippers (as he sometimes
does), he is apt to think that ancestor- worship explains
any traces of a belief in the Supreme Being. Against each
and every bias of observers we must be watchful.
It may be needful, too, to point out once again another
weak point in all reasoning about savage religion, namely
that we cannot always tell what may have been borrowed
from Europeans. Thus, the Fuegians, in 1830-1840,
were far out of the way, but one tribe, near Magellan's
Straits, worshipped an image called Cristo. Fitzroy
attributes this obvious trace of Catholicism to a Captain
Pelippa, who visited the district some time before his own
expedition. It is less probable that Spaniards established
a belief in a moral Deity in regions where they left no
material traces of their faith. The Fuegians are not
easily proselytised. ' When discovered by strangers, the
instant impulse of a Fuegian family is to run off into the
woods.' Occasionally they will emerge to barter, but
174 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
' sometimes nothing will induce a single individual of the
family to appear.' Fitzroy thought they had no idea of a
future state, because, among other reasons not given, ' the
evil spirit torments them in this world, if they do wrong,
by storms, hail, snow, &c.' Why the evil spirit should
punish evil deeds is not evident. ' 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.' '
There are no traces of propitiation by food, or sacrifice,
or anything but conduct. To regard the Deity as * a
magnified non-natural man ' is not peculiar to Fuegian
theologians, and does not imply Animism, but the reverse.
But the point is that this ethical judge of perhaps the
lowest savages * makes for righteousness ' and searches the
heart. His 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. York's
brother (York was a Fuegian brought to England by
Fitzroy) killed a ' wild man ' who was stealing his birds.
' 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.' Here be
ethics in savage religion. The Sixth Commandment is in
force. The Being also prohibits the slaying of flappers
before they can fly. * Very bad to shoot little duck, come
wind, come rain, blow, very much blow.' ^
Now this big man is not a deified chief, for the
Fuegians 'have no superiority of one over another
. . . but the doctor-wizard of each party has much
influence.' Mr. Spencer disposes of this moral *big man'
of the Fuegians as * evidently a deceased weather-doctor.' ^
But, first, there is no evidence that the being is regarded
as ever having died. Again, it is not shown that Fuegians
are ancestor-worshippers. Next, Fitzroy did not think
' Fitzroy, ii. 180. Darwin, Descent of Man, p. 67.
* Ibid. We seem to have little information about Fuegian religion either
before or after the cruise of the Beagle. * Principles of Sociology, i. 422.
HIGH GODS OF LOW RACES 175
that the Fuegians believed in a future Hfe. Lastly, when
were medicine-men such notable moralists ? The worst
spirits among the neighbouring Patagonians are those of
dead medicine-men. As a rule everywhere the ghost of a
* doctor-wizard,' shaman, or whatever he may be called,
is the worst and wickedest of all ghosts. How, then, the
Fuegians, who are not proved to be ancestor- worshippers,
evolved out of the malignant ghost of an ancestor a being
whose strong point is morality, one does not easily con-
ceive. The adjacent Chonos ' have great faith in a good
spirit, whom they call Yerri Yuppon, and consider to be
the author of all good ; him they invoke in distress or
danger.' However starved they do not touch food till a
short prayer has been muttered over each portion, ' the
praying man looking upward.' ' They have magicians,
but no details are given as to spirits or ghosts. If
Fuegian and Chono religion is on this level, and if this
be the earliest, then the theology of many other higher
savages (as of the Zulus) is decidedly degenerate. * The
Bantu gives one accustomed to the negro the impression
that he once had the same set of ideas, but has forgotten
half of them,' says Miss Kingsley.^
Of all races now extant, the Australians are probably
lowest in culture, and, like the fauna of the continent,
are nearest to the primitive model. They have neither
metals, bows, pottery, agriculture, nor fixed habitations ;
and no traces of higher culture have anywhere been found
above or in the soil of the continent. This is important,
for in some respects their religious conceptions are so
lofty that it would be natural to explain them as the
result either of European influence, or as relics of a higher
civilisation in the past. The former notion is discredited
by the fact that their best religious ideas are imparted in
connection with their ancient and secret mysteries, while
for the second idea, that they are degenerate from a loftier
civilisation, there is absolutely no evidence.
It has been suggested, indeed, by Mr. Spencer that the
singularly complex marriage customs of the Australian
' Fitzroy, ii. 190, 191. » Travels in West Africa, p. 442.
176 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
blacks point to a more polite condition in their past
history. Of this stage, as we said, no material traces
have ever been discovered, nor can degeneration be recent.
Our earliest account of the Australians is that of Dampier,
who visited New Holland in the unhappy year 1688. He
found the natives ' the miserablest people in the world.
The Hodmadods, of Monomatapa, though a nasty people,
yet for wealth are gentlemen to these : who have no
houses, sheep, poultry, and fruits of the earth. . . . They
have no houses, but lie in the open air.' Curiously
enough, Dampier attests their unselfishness : the main
ethical feature in their religious teaching. ' Be it little or
be it much they get, every one has his part, as well the
young and tender as the old and feeble, who are not able
to go abroad, as the strong and lusty.' Dampier saw no
metals used, nor any bows, merely boomerangs (' wooden
cutlasses '), and lances with points hardened in the fire.
' Their place of dwelling was only a fire with a few boughs
before it ' (the gunyeh) .
This description remains accurate for most of the
unsophisticated Australian tribes, but Dampier appears
only to have seen ichthyophagous coast blacks.
There is one more important point. In the Bora, or
Australian mysteries, at which knowledge of ' The Maker '
and of his commandments is imparted, the front teeth
of the initiated are still knocked out. Now, Dampier
observed ' the two fore-teeth of their upper jaw are want-
ing in all of them, men and women, old and young.' If
this is to be taken quite literally, the Bora rite, in 1688,
must have included the women, at least locally. Dampier
was on the north-west coast in latitude 16 degrees,
longitude 122^ degrees east (Dampier Land, West Aus-
tralia). The natives had neither boats, canoes, nor bark
logs ; but it seems that they had their religious mysteries
and their unselfishness, two hundred years ago.^
The Australians have been very carefully studied by
many observers, and the results entirely overthrow Mr.
Huxley's bold statement that * in its simplest condition,
• Early Voyages to Australia, 102-111 (Hakluyt Society).
HIGH GODS OF LOW RACES 177
such as may be met with among the Austrahan savages,
theology is a mere belief in the existence, powers, and
dispositions (usually malignant) of ghost-like entities who
may be propitiated or scared away ; but no cult can
properly be said to exist. And in this stage theology is
wholly independent of ethics.'
Eemarks more crudely in defiance of known facts
could not be made. The Australians, assuredly, believe
in 'spirits,' often malicious, and probably in most cases
regarded as ghosts of men. These aid the wizard,
and occasionally inspire him. That these ghosts are
worshipped does not appear, and is denied by Waitz.
Again, in the matter of cult, ' there is none ' in the way
of sacrifice to higher gods, as there should be if these
gods were hungry ghosts. The cult among the Austra-
lians is the keeping of certain ' laws,' expressed in moral
teaching, supposed to be in conformity with the institutes
of their God. Worship takes the form, as at Eleusis, of
tribal mysteries, originally instituted, as at Eleusis, by
the God. The young men are initiated with many
ceremonies, some of which are cruel and farcical, but
the initiation includes ethical instruction, in conformity
with the supposed commands of a God who watches over
conduct. As among ourselves, the ethical ideal, with its
theological sanction, is probably rather above the moral
standard of ordinary practice. What conclusion we
should draw from these facts is uncertain, but the facts,
at least, cannot be disputed, and precisely contradict the
statement of Mr. Huxley. He was wholly in the wrong
when he said : * The moral code, such as is implied
by public opinion, derives no sanction from theological
dogmas.'' It reposes, for its origin and sanction, on such
dogmas.
The evidence as to Australian religion is abundant,
and is being added to yearly. I shall here content
myself with Mr. Howitt's accounts.'^
• Science and Hebrew Tradition, p. 346.
"^ Journal of tlie Anthrop. Institute, 1884. See, for less dignified ac-
counts, op. cit. xxiv. XXV.
K
178 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
As regards the possible evolution of the Australian
God from ancestor-worship, it must be noted that Mr.
Howitt credits the groups with possessing 'headmen,'
a kind of chiefs, whereas some inquirers, in Brough
Smyth's collection, disbelieve in regular chiefs. Mr.
Howitt writes : —
' The Supreme Spirit, who is believed in by all the
tribes I refer to here [in South-Eastern Australia], either
as a benevolent, or more frequently as a malevolent
being, it seems to me represents the defunct headman.'
Now, the traces of ' headmanship ' among the tribes
are extremely faint ; no such headman rules large areas
of country, none is known to be worshipped after death,
and the malevolence of the Supreme Spirit is not illus-
trated by the details of Mr. Howitt's own statement, but
the reverse. Indeed, he goes on at once to remark that
* Darumulun was not, it seems to me, everywhere thought
a malevolent being, but he was dreaded as one who could
severely punish the trespasses committed against these
tribal ordinances and customs whose first institution is
ascribed to him.'
To punish transgressions of his law is not the essence
of a malevolent being. Darumulun ' watched the youths
from the sky, prompt to punish, by disease or death, the
breach of his ordinances,' moral or ritual. His name is
too sacred to be spoken except in whispers, and the
anthropologist will observe that the names of the human
dead are also often tabooed. But the divine name is not
thus tabooed and sacred when the mere folklore about
him is narrated. The informants of Mr. Howitt in-
stinctively distinguished between the mythology and the
religion of Darumulun.' This distinction — the secrecy
about the religion, the candour about the mythology —
is essential, and accounts for our ignorance about the
inner religious beliefs of early races. Mr. Howitt him-
self knew little till he was initiated. The grandfather
• Journal, xiii. 193.
HIGH GODS OF LOW RACES 179
of Mr. Howitt's friend, before the white men came to
Melbourne, took him out at night, and, pointing to a
star, said : ' You will soon be a man ; you see Biinjil
[Supreme Being of certain tribes] up there, and he can see
you, and all you do down here.' Mr. Palmer, speaking of
the Mysteries of Northern Australians (mysteries under
divine sanction), mentions the nature of the moral in-
struction. Each lad is given, 'by one of the elders, ^
advice so kindly, fatherly, and impressive, as often to
soften the heart, and draw tears from the youth.' He \
is to avoid adultery, not to take advantage of a woman
if he finds her alone, he is not to be quarrelsome.*
At the Mysteries Darumulun's real name may be
uttered, at other times he is ' Master ' {Biamban) or
'Father' (Papang), exactly as we say 'Lord' and
' ^Father.'
It is known that all these things are not due to
missionaries, whose instructions would certainly not be
conveyed in the Bora, or tribal mysteries, which, again,
are partly described by Collins as early as 1798, and must
have been practised in 1688. Mr. Howitt mentions,
among moral lessons divinely sanctioned, respect for old
age, abstinence from lawless love, and avoidance of the
sins so popular, poetic, and sanctioned by the example of
Gods, in classical Greece.^ A representation is made of
the Master, Biamban ; and to make such idols, except at
the Mysteries, is forbidden ' under pain of death.' Those
which are made are destroyed as soon as the rites are
ended.^ The future life (apparently) is then illustrated
by the burial of a living elder, who rises from a grave.
This may, however, symbolise the ' new life ' of the
Mystae, 'Worse have I fled ; better have I found,' as was
sung in an Athenian rite. The whole result is, by what
Mr. Howitt calls 'a quasi-religious element,' to 'impress
upon the mind of the youth, in an indelible manner, those
rules of conduct which form the moral law of the tribe.' "*
Many other authorities could be adduced for the
religious sanction of morals in Australia. A watchful
' Journal, xiii. 296. « Op. cit. p. 450. • P. 453. * P. 457.
M 2
180 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
being observes and rewards the conduct of men ; he is
named with reverence, if named at all ; his abode is the
heavens ; he is the Master and Lord of things ; his lessons
' soften the heart.' ^
' What wants this knave
That a God should have ? '
I shall now demonstrate that the religion patronised
by the Austrahan Supreme Being, and inculcated in his
Mysteries, is actually used to counteract the immoral
character which natives acquire by associating with
Anglo-Saxon Christians. ^
Mr. Howitt^ gives an account of the Jeraeil, or
Mysteries of the Kurnai. The old men deemed that
through intercourse with whites ' the lads had become
selfish and no longer inclined to share that which they
obtained by their own exertions, or had given them,
with their friends.' One need not say that selflessness
is the very essence of goodness, and the central moral
doctrine of Christianity. So it is in the religious
Mysteries of the African Yao ; a selfish man, we shall
see, is spoken of as * uninitiated.' So it is with the
Australian Kurnai, whose mysteries and ethical teaching
are under the sanction of their Supreme Being. So much
for the anthropological dogma that early theology has no
ethics.
• See Brough Smyth, Aborigines, i. 428 ; Taplin, Native Races of
Australia. According to Taplin, Nuvrumdere was a deified black fellow,
who died on earth. This is not the case of Baiame, but is said, i-ather
vaguely, to be true of Daramulun. J.A.I. xiii. 194, xxv. 297.
- From a brief account of the Fire Ceremony, or Engwurra of certain
tribes in Central Australia, it seems that religious ceremonies connected
with Totems are the most notable performances. Also ' certain mythical
ancestors,' of the ' alcheringa, or dream-times,' were celebrated ; thece real
or ideal human beings appear to ' sink their identity in that of the object
with which they are associated, and from Avhich they are supposed to have
originated.' There appear also to be places haunted by ' spirit individuals,'
in some way mixed up with Totems, but nothing is said of sacrifice to
these Manes. The brief account is by Professor Baldwin Spencer and
Mr. F. J. Gillen, Proc. Royal Soc. Victoria, July 1897. This Fire Ceremony
is not for lads — not a kind of confirmation in the savage church — but ia
intended for adults. ^ J. Anthrop. Inst. 1885, p. 310.
HIGH GODS OF LOW RACES 181
The Kiirnai began by kneading the stomachs of
the lads about to be initiated (that is, if they have
been associating with Christians), to expel selfishness
and greed. The chief rite, later, is to blindfold every
lad, with a blanket closely drawn over his head, to
make whirring sounds with the timdim, or Greek
rhombos, then to pluck off the blankets, and bid the
initiate raise their faces to the sky. The initiator points
to it, calling out, ' Look there, look there, look there ! '
They have seen in this solemn way the home of the
Supreme Being, ' Our Father,' Mungan-ngaur (Mungan =
'Father,' ngaur=' our'), whose doctrine is then unfolded
by the old initiator (' headman ') * in an impressive
manner.' ' ' Long ago there was a great Being, Mungan-
ngaur, who lived on the earth.' His son Tundun is
direct ancestor of the Kurnai. Mungan initiated the
rites, and destroyed earth by water when they were im-
piously revealed. ' Mungan left the earth, and ascended
to the sky, where he still remains.'
Here Mungan-ngaur, a Being not defined as spirit,
but immortal, and dwelling in heaven, is Father, or rather
grandfather, not maker, of the Kurnai. This may be
interpreted as ancestor-worship, but the opposite myth,
of making or creating, is of frequent occurrence in many
widely-severed Australian districts, and co-exists with
evolutionary myths. Mungan-ngaur's precepts are :
1. To listen to and obey the old men.
2. To share everything they have with their friends.
3. To live peaceably ivith their friends.
4. Not to interfere ivith girls or married women.
5. To obey the food restrictions until they are released
from them by the old men.
Mr. Howitt concludes : ' I venture to assert that it can
no longer be maintained that the Australians have no
belief which can be called religious, that is, in the sense
of beliefs which govern tribal and individual morality
under a supernatural sanction.' On this topic Mr.
' /. Anthrop. Inst. 1885, p. 313.
Y
182 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Hewitt's opinion became more affirmative the more
deeply he was initiated.^
The Australians are the lowest, most primitive savages,
yet no propitiation by food is made to their moral Buler,
in heaven, as if he were a ghost.
The laws of these Australian divine beings apply to
ritual as well as to ethics, as might naturally be expected.
But the moral element is conspicuous, the reverence is
conspicuous : we have here no mere ghost, propitiated by
food or sacrifice, or by purely magical rites. His very
image (modelled on a large scale in earth) is no vulgar
idol : to make such a thing, except on the rare sacred
occasions, is a capital oifence. Meanwhile the mythology
of the God has often, in or out of the rites, nothing
rational about it.
On the whole it is evident that Mr. Herbert Spencer,
for example, underrates the nature of Australian religion.
He cites a case of addressing the ghost of a man recently
dead, which is asked not to bring sickness, ' or make loud
noises in the night,' and says : ' Here we may recognise the
essential elements of a cult.' But Mr. Spencer does not
allude to the much more essentially religious elements
which he might have found in the very authority whom
he cites, Mr. Brough Smyth.^ This appears, as far as my
scrutiny goes, to be Mr. Spencer's solitary reference to
Australia in the work on 'Ecclesiastical Institutions.' Yet
the facts which he and Mr. Huxley ignore throw a light
very different from theirs on what they consider 'the
simplest condition of theology.'
Among the causes of confusion in thought upon
religion, Mr. Tylor mentions ' the partial and one-sided
application of the historical method of inquiry into
theological doctrines.' ^ Here, perhaps, we have examples.
In its highest aspect that ' simplest theology ' of
Australia is free from the faults of popular theology in
Greece. The God discourages sin, though, in myth, he is
far from impeccable. He is almost too revered to be
' J. Anthrop. Inst. xiii. p. 459.
* Ecclesiastical Institutions, p. 674. ' Prim. Cult. ii. 450.
HIGH GODS OF LOW RACES 183
named (except in mythology) and is not to be represented
by idols. He is not moved by sacrifice ; he has not the
chance ; like Death in Greece, ' he only, of all Gods, loves
not gifts.' Thus the status of theology does not corre-
spond to what we look for in very" low culture. It would
scarcely be a paradox to say that the popular Zeus, or
Ares, is degenerate from Mungan-ngaur, or the Fuegian
being who forbids the slaying of an enemy, and almost
literally * marks the sparrow's fall.'
If we knew all the mythology of Darumulun, we
should probably find it (like much of the myth of Pundjel
or Bunjil) on a very different level from the theology.
There are two currents, the religious and the mythical,
flowing together through religion. The former current,
religious, even among very low savages, is pure from the
magical ghost-propitiating habit. The latter current,
mythological, is full of magic, mummery, and scandalous
legend. Sometimes the latter stream quite pollutes the
former, sometimes they flow side by side, perfectly dis-
tinguishable, as in Aztec ethical piety, compared with the
bloody Aztec ritualism. Anthropology has mainly kept
her eyes fixed on the impure stream, the lusts, mummeries,
conjurings, and frauds of priesthoods, while relatively, or
altogether, neglecting (as we have shown what is honest
and of good report.
The worse side of religion is the less sacred, and there-
fore the more conspicuous. Both elements are found
co-existing, in almost all races, and nobody, in our total
lack of historical information about the beginnings, can
say which, if either, element is the earlier, or which, if
either, is derived from the other. To suppose that pro-
pitiation of corpses and then of ghosts came first is
agreeable, and seems logical, to some writers who are not
without a bias against all religion as an unscientific
superstition. But we know so little ! The first mission-
aries in Greenland supposed that there was not, there, a
trace of belief in a Divine Being. ' But when they came
to understand their language better, they found quite the
reverse to be true . . . and not only so, but they could
184 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
plainly gather from a free dialogue they had with some
perfectly wild Greenlanders (at that time avoiding any
direct application to their hearts) that their ancestors
must have believed in a Supreme Being, and did render
him some service, which their posterity neglected little by
little . . .' ^ Mr. Tylor does not refer to this as a trace of
Christian Scandinavian influence on the Eskimo.^
That line, of com'se, may be taken. But an Eskimo
said to a missionary, ' Thou must not imagine that no
Greenlander thinks about these things ' (theology). He
then stated the argument from design. ' Certainly there
must be some Being who made all these things. He must
be very good too ... Ah, did I but know him, how I
would love and honour him.' As St. Paul v\T:ites : ' That
which may be known of God is manifest in them, for God
hath showed it unto them . . . being understood by the
things which are made . . . but they became vain in their
imaginations, and their foolish heart was darkened.' ^ In
fact, mythology submerged religion. St. Paul's theory of
the origin of religion is not that of an * innate idea,' nor of
a direct revelation. People, he says, reached the belief in
a God from the Argument for Design. Science conceives
herself to have annihilated teleological ideas. But they
are among the probable origins of religion, and woTild
lead to the belief in a Creator, whom the Greenlander
thought beneficent, and after whom he yearned. This is
a very different initial step in religious development, if
initial it was, from the feeding of a corpse, or a ghost.
From all this evidence it does not appear how non-
polytheistic, non -monarchical, non-Manes-worshipping
savages evolved the idea of a relatively supreme, moral,
and benevolent Creator, unborn, undying, watching men's
lives. * He can go everywhere, and do everything.' *
' Cranz, pp. 198, 199. ^ Journal Anthrop. Inst. xiii. 348-356.
3 Kom. i. 19. Cranz, i. 199.
* In Mr. Curr's work, The Australian Race, reports of 'godless' natives
are given, for instance, in the Mary Elver country and in Gippsland.
These reports are usually the result of the ignorance or contempt of white
observers, cf. Tylor, i. 419
The reader is referred to the Introduction for additional information
about Australian beliefs, and for replies to objections.
185
XI
SUPREME GODS NOT NECESSARILY DEVELOPED
OUT OF 'SPIRITS'
Before going on to examine the high gods of other
low savages, I must here again insist on and develop
the theory, not easily conceived by us, that the Supreme
Being of savages belongs to another branch of faith than
ghosts, or ghost-gods, or fetishes, or Totems, and need
not be — probably is not — essentially derived from these.
We must try to get rid of our theory that a powerful,
moral, eternal Being was, from the first, ex officio, con-
ceived as ' spirit ; ' and so was necessarily derived from a
ghost.
First, what was the process of development ?
We have examined Mr. Tylor's theory. But, to take
a practical case : Here are the Australians, roaming in
small bands, without more formal rulers than ' headmen '
at most ; not ancestor worshippers ; not polytheists ; with
no departmental deities to select and aggrandise ; not apt
to speculate on the Anima Miindi. How, then, did they
bridge the gulf between the ghost of a soon-forgotten
fighting man, and that conception of a Father above, * all-
seeing,' moral, which, under various names, is found all
over a huge continent ? I cannot see that this problem
has been solved or frankly faced.
The distinction between the Australian deity, at his
highest power, unpropitiated by sacrifice, and the ordinary,
waning, easily forgotten, cheaply propitiated ghost of a
tribesman, is essential. It is not easy to show how, in
186 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
' the dark backward ' of Australian life, the notion of
Mungan-ngaur grew from the idea of the ghost of a
warrior. But there is no logical necessity for the belief
in the evolution of this god out of that ghost. These two
factors in religion — ghost and god — seem to have perfectly
different sources, and it appears extraordinary that an-
thropologists have not (as far as I am aware) observed
this circumstance before.
Mr. Spencer, indeed, speaks frequently of living
human beings adored as gods. I do not know that
these are found on the lowest levels of savagery, and
Mr. Jevons has pointed out that, before you can hail a
man as a god, you must have the idea of God. The
murder of Captain Cook notoriously resulted from
a scientific experiment in theology. * If he is a god,
he cannot be killed.' So they tried with a dagger,
and found that the honest captain was but a mortal
British mariner — no god at all. ' There are degrees.'
Mr. Spencer's men-gods become real gods — after death.'
Now the Supreme Being of savage faith, as a rule,
never died at all. He belonged to a world that knew not
Death.
One cause of our blindness to the point appears to
be this : We have from childhood been taught that
'God is a Spirit.' "We, now, can only conceive of an
eternal being as a ' spirit.' We know that legions of
savage gods are now regarded as spirits. And therefore
we have never remarked that there is no reason why
we should take it for granted that the earliest deities
of the earliest men were supposed by them to be * spirits *
at all. These gods might most judiciously be spoken of,
not as ' spirits,' but as ' undefined eternal beings.' To us,
sach a being is necessarily a spirit, but he was by no
means necessarily so to an early thinker, who may not
yet have reached the conception of a ghost.
A ghost is said, by anthropologists, to have developed
into a god. Now, the very idea of a ghost (apart from a
' Principles of Sociology, i. 417, 421. ' The medicine men are treated
as gods The medicine man becomes a god after death.'
SUPREME GODS 187
wraith or fetch) implies the previous death of his proprietor.
A ghost is the phantasm of a dead man. But anthropo-
logists continually tell us, with truth, that the idea of
death as a universal ordinance is unknown to the savage.
Diseases and death are things that once did not exist, and
that, normally, ought not to occur, the savage thinks.
They are, in his opinion, supernormally caused hy magi-
cians and spirits. Death came into the world by a
blunder, an accident, an error in ritual, a decision of a god
who was before Death was. Scores of myths are told
everywhere on this subject.^
The savage Supreme Being, with added power, omni-
science, and morality, is the idealisation of the savage,
as conceived of by himself, minus fleshly body (as a rule),
and minus Death. He is not necessarily a ' spirit,' though
that term may now be applied to him. He was not origi-
nally differentiated as ' spirit ' or ' not spirit.' He is a
Being, conceived of without the question of ' spirit,' or ' no
spirit ' being raised ; perhaps he was originally conceived
of before that question could be raised by men. When we
call the Supreme Being of savages a ' spirit ' we introduce
our own animistic ideas into a conception where it may
not have originally existed. If the God is ' the savage
himself raised to the n'^' power ' so much the less of a
spirit is he. Mr. Matthew Arnold might as well have
said : ' The British Philistine has no knowledge of God.
He believes that the Creator is a magnified non-natural
man, living in the sky.' The Gippsland or Fuegian or
Blackf oot Supreme Being is just a Being, anthropomorphic,
not a mrart, or ' spirit.' The Supreme Being is a wesen,
Being, Vui ; we have hardly a term for an immortal exis-
tence so undefined. If the being is an idealised first
ancestor (as among the Kurnai), he is not, on that account,
either man or ghost of man. In the original conception
he is a powerful intelligence who was from the first : who
was already active long before, by a breach of his laws, an
error in the delivery of a message, a breach of ritual, or
' I have published a chapter on Myths on the Origin of Death in
llodern Myt'liology.
188 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
what not, death entered the world. He was not affected
by the entry of death, he still exists.
Modern minds need to become familiar with this in-
determinate idea of the savage Supreme Being, which,
logically, may be prior to the evolution of the notion of
ghost or spirit.
But how does it apply when, as by the Kurnai, the
Supreme Being is reckoned an ancestor ?
It can very readily be shown that, when the Supreme
Being of a savage people is thus the idealised First
Ancestor, he can never have been envisaged by his
worshippers as at any time a gliost ; or, at least, can-
not logically have been so envisaged where the nearly
universal belief occurs that death came into the world
by accident, or needlessly.
Adam is the mythical first ancestor of the Hebrews,
but he died, virsp fiopov, and was not worshipped.
Yama, the first of Aryan men who died, was worshipped
by Vedic Aryans, but confessedly as a ghost-god. Mr.
Tylor gives a list of first ancestors deified. The Ancestor
of the Mandans did not die, consequently is no ghost ;
emigravit, he ' moved west.' Where the First Ancestor is
also the Creator (Dog-rib Indians), he can hardly be, and
is not, regarded as a mortal. Tamoi, of the Guaranis, was
'the ancient of heaven,' clearly no mortal man. The
Maori Maui was the first who died, but he is not one of
the original Maori gods. Haetsh, among the Kamchadals,
precisely answers to Yama. Unkulunkulu will be
described later. •
This is the list : Where the First Ancestor is equi-
valent to the Creator, and is supreme, he is — from the
first — deathless and immortal. When he dies he is a
confessed ghost-god.
Now, ghost-worship and dead ancestor-worship are
impossible before the ancestor is dead and is a ghost.
But the essential idea of Mungan-ngaur, and Baiame, and
most of the high gods of Australia, and of other low
races, is that they never died at all. They belong to the
' Prim. Cult. ii. 311-316.
SUPREME GODS 189
period before death came into the world, like Qat among
the Melanesians. They arise in an age that knew not death,
and had not reflected on phantasms nor evolved ghosts.
They could have been conceived of, in the nature of the
case, by a race of immortals who never dreamed of such
a thing as a ghost. For these gods, the ghost-theory is
not required, and is superfluous, even contradictory. The
early thinkers who developed these beings did not need to
know that men die (though, of course, they did know it in
practice), still less did they need to have conceived by
abstract speculation the hypothesis of ghosts. Baiame,
Cagn, Bunjil, in their adorers' belief, were there ; death
later intruded among men, but did not affect these divine
beings in any way.
The ghost-theory, therefore, by the evidence of anthro-
pology itself, is not needed for the evolution of the high
gods of savages. It is only needed for the evolution of
ghost -propitiation and genuine dead - ancestor worship.
Therefore, the high gods described were not necessarily
once ghosts — were not idealised mortal ancestors. They
were, natm'ally, from the beginning, from before the coming
in of death, immortal Fathers, now dwelling on high.
Between them and apotheosised mortal ancestors there is a
great gulf fixed — the river of death.
The explicitly stated distinction that the high creative
gods never were mortal men, while other gods are spirits
of mortal men, is made in every quarter. 'Ancestors
hnoion to be human were not worshipped as [original]
gods, and ancestors worshipped as [original] gods were
not believed to have been human.' ^
Both kinds may have a generic name, such as halou,
or wakan, but the specific distinction is universally made
by low savages. On one hand, original gods ; on the other,
non-original gods that were once ghosts. Now, this
distinction is often calmly ignored ; whereas, when any
race has developed (like late Scandinavians) the Euheme-
ristic hypothesis ('all gods were once men'), that hypo-
' Jevons, Introduction, p. 197.
190 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
thesis Is accepted as an historical statement of fact by
some writers.
It is part of my theory that the more popular
ghost-worship of souls of people whom men have loved,
invaded the possibly older religion of the Supreme
Father. Mighty beings, whether originally conceived of
as * spirits ' or not, came, later, under the Animistic theory,
to be reckoned as spirits. They even (but not among
the lowest savages) came to be propitiated by food and
sacrifice. The alternative, for a Supreme Being, when
once Animism prevailed, was sacrifice (as to more popular
ghost deities) or neglect. We shall find examples of both
alternatives. But sacrifice does not prove that a God was,
in original conception, a ghost, or even a spirit. ' The
common doctrine of the Old Testament is not that God is
spirit, but that the spirit [rtiah=:' wind.,' 'living breath']
of Jehovah, going forth from him, works in the world and
among men.' ^
To resume. The high Gods of savagery — moral, all-
seeing directors of things and of men — are not explicitly
envisaged as spirits at all by their adorers. The notion
of soul or spirit is here out of place. We can best
describe Pirnmeheal, and Napi and Baiame as * magnified
non-natural men,' or undefined beings who were from
the beginning and are undying. They are, like the easy
Epicurean Gods, nihil indiga nostri. Not being ghosts,
they crave no food from men, and receive no sacrifice, as
do ghosts, or gods developed out of ghosts, or gods to
whom the ghost-ritual has been transferred. For this
very reason, apparently, they seem to be spoken of by
Mr. Grant Allen as ' gods to talk about, not gods to adore ;
mythological conceptions rather than religious beings.' ^
All this is rather hard on the lowest savages. If they
sacrifice to a god, then the god is a hungry ghost ; if they
don't, then the god is ' a god to talk about, not to adore.'
Luckily, the facts of the Bora ritual and the instruction
given there prove that Mungan-ngaur and other names
' Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel, p. 61.
» Evolution of the Idea of Qod, p. 176.
SUPREME GODS 191
are gcds to adore, by ethical conformity to their will and
by solemn ceremony, not merely gods to talk about.
Thus, the highest element in the religion of the lowest
savages does not appear to be derived from their theory
of ghosts. As far as we can say, in the inevitable absence
of historical evidence, the highest gods of savages may have
been believed in, as Makers and Fathers and Lords of an
indeterminate nature, before the savage had developed the
idea of souls out of dreams and phantasms. It is logically
conceivable that savages may have worshipped deities like
Baiame and Darumulun before they had evolved the
notion that Tom, Dick, or Harry has a separable soul,
capable of surviving his bodily decease. Deities of the
higher sort, by the very nature of savage reflections on
death and on its non-original casual character, are prior,
or may be prior, or cannot be shown not to be prior, to
the ghost theory — the alleged origin of religion. For
their evolution the ghost theory is not logically demanded ;
they can do without it. Yet theij, and not the spirits,
bogles, Mrarts, Brewin, and so forth, are the high gods,
the gods who have most analogy — as makers, moral
guides, rewarders, and punishers of conduct (though that
duty is also occasionally assumed by ancestral spirits) —
with our civilised conception of the divine. Our concep-
tion of God descends not from ghosts, but from the
Supreme Beings of non-ancestor-worshipping peoples.
As it seems impossible to point out any method by
which low, chiefless, non-polytheistic, non-metaphysical
savages (if any such there be) evolved out of ghosts the
eternal beings who made the world, and watch over
morality : as the people themselves unanimously distin-
guish such beings from ghost-gods, I take it that such
beings never were ghosts. In this case the Animistic
theoiy seems to me to break down completely. Yet these
high gods of low savages preserve from dimmest ages of
the meanest culture the sketch of a God which our
highest rehgious thought can but fill up to its ideal.
Come from what germ he may, Jehovah or Allah does not
come from a ghost.
192 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Ifc may be retorted that this makes no real difference.
If savages did not invent gods in consequence of a fal-
lacious belief in spirit and soul, still, in some other equally
illogical way they came to indulge the hypothesis that
they had a Judge and Father in heaven. But, if the ghost
theory of the high Gods is wrong, as it is conspicuously
superfluous, that does make some difference. It proves
that a widely preached scientific conclusion may be as
spectral as Bathybius. On other more important points,
therefore, we may differ from the newest scientific opinion
without too much diffident apprehensiveness.
198
XII
SAVAGE SUPBEME BEINGS
It is among * the lowest savages ' that the Supreme Beings
are most regarded as eternal, moral (as the morality of the
tribe goes, or above its habitual practice), and poioerful. I
have elsewhere described the Bushman god Cagn, as he
was portrayed to Mr. Orpen by Qing, who 'had never
before seen a white man except fighting.' Mr. Orpen got
the facts from Qing by inducing him to explain the
natives' pictures on the walls of caves. * Cagn made all
things, and we pray to him,' thus : ' Cagn, O Cagn,
are we not thy children ? Do you not see us hunger ?
Give us food.' As to ethics, 'At first Cagn was very
good, but he got spoilt through fighting so many things.'
' How came he into the world ? ' * Perhaps with those
who brought the Sun : only the initiated know these
things.' It appears that Qing was not yet initiated in the
dance (answering to a high rite of the Australian Bora) in
which the most esoteric myths were unfolded.'
In Mr. Spencer's * Descriptive Sociology ' the religion
of the Bushmen is thus disposed of. ' Pray to an insect
of the caterpillar kind for success in the chase.' That is
rather meagre. They make arrow-poison out of cater-
' When I wrote Myth, Ritual, and Religion (ii. 11-13) I regarded Cagn
as ' only a successful and idealised medicine man.' But I now think that
I confused in my mind the religious and the mythological aspects of Cagn.
One of unknown origin, existing before the sun, a Maker of all things,
prayed to, but not in receipt of sacrifice, is no -medicine man, except in
his myth.
O
194 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
pillars,' though Dr. Bleek, perhaps correctly, identifies
Cagn with i-kaggen, the insect.
The case of the Andaman Islanders may be espe-
cially recommended to beUevers in the anthropological
science of religion. For long these natives were the joy
of emancipated inquirers as the * godless Andamanese.'
They only supply Mr. Spencer's * Ecclesiastical Insti-
tutions ' with a few instances of the ghost-belief.'^ Yet
when the Andamanese are scientifically studied in situ by an
educated Englishman, Mr. Man, who knows their language,
has lived with them for eleven years, and presided over
our benevolent efforts * to reclaim them from their savage
state,' the Andamanese turn out to be quite embarrassingly
rich in the higher elements of faith. They have not only
a profoundly philosophical religion, but an excessively
absurd mythology, like the Australian blacks, the Greeks,
and other peoples. If, on the whole, the student of the
Andamanese despairs of the possibility of an ethnological
theory of religion, he is hardly to be blamed.
The people are probably Negritos, and probably * the
original inhabitants, whose occupation dates from pre-
historic times. '^ They use the bow, they make pots, and
are considerably above the Australian level. They have
second-sighted men, who obtain status *by relating an
extraordinary dream, the details of which are declared to
have been borne out subsequently by some unforeseen
event, as, for instance, a sudden death or accident.' They
have to produce fresh evidential dreams from time to time.
' The omissions in Mr. Spencer's system may possibly be explained by
the circumstance that, as he tells us, he collected his facts ' by proxy.'
While we find Waitz much interested in and amazed by the benevolent
Supreme Being of many African tribes, that personage is only alluded to as
' Alleged Benevolent Supreme Being ' in Mr. Spencer's Descriptive Sociology,
and is usually left out of sight altogether in his Priticiples of Sociology and
Ecclesiastical Institutions. Yet we have precisely the same kind of evi-
dence of observers for this ' alleged ' benevolent Supreme Being as we have
for the caiiaille of ghosts and fetishes. If he is a deity of a rather lofty
moral conception, of course he need not be propitiated by human
sacrifices or cold chickens. That kind of material evidence to the faith in
him must be absent by the nature of the case ; but the coincident testimony
of travellers to belief in a Supreme Being cannot be dismissed as ' alleged.'
■" Pp. 67G, 677. ' Man, J.A.I, xii. 70.
SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 195
They see phantasms of the dead, and coincidental halluci-
nations.^ All this is as we should expect it to be.
Their religion is probably not due to missionaries, as
they always shot all foreigners, and have no traditions of
the presence of aliens on the islands before our recent
arrival.^ Their God, Puluga, is * like fire,' but invisible.
He was never born, and is immortal. By him were all
things created, except the powers of evil. He knows even
the thoughts of the heart. He is angered by yubda =
sin, or WTong-doing, that is falsehood, theft, grave assault,
murder, adultery, bad carving of meat, and (as a crime
of witchcraft) by burning wax.^ * To those in pain or
distress he is pitiful, and sometimes deigns to afford relief.'
He is Judge of Souls, and the dread of future punishment
' to some extent is said to affect their course of action in
the present life.' *
Tliis Being could not be evolved out of the ordinary
ghost of a second-sighted man, for I do not find that
ancestral ghosts are worshipped, nor is there a trace
of early missionary influence, while Mr. Man consulted
elderly and, in native religion, well-instructed Andamanese
for his facts.
Yet Puluga lives in a large stone house (clearly derived
from ours at Port Blair), eats and drinks, foraging for
himself, and is married to a green shrimp.^ There is the
usual story of a Deluge caused by the moral wrath of
Puluga. The whole theology was scrupulously collected
from natives unacquainted with other races.
The account of Andamanese religion does not tally
with the anthropological hypothesis. Foreign influence
seems to be more than usually excluded by insular con-
ditions and the jealousy of the ' original inhabitants.*
The evidence ought to make us reflect on the extreme
obscurity of the whole problem.
Anthropological study of religion has hitherto almost
entirely overlooked the mysteries of various races, except
in so far as they confirm the entry of the young people
' Man, J.A.I, xii, 96-98. * xii. 15G, 157.
• xii. 112. * xii. 158. » xii. 158.
o 2
196 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
into the ranks of the adult. Their esoteric moral and
religious teaching is nearly unknown to us, save in a
few instances. It is certain that the mysteries of Greece
were survivals of savage ceremonies, because we know
that they included specific savage rites, such as the use of
the rhombos to make a whirring noise, and the custom of
ritual daubing with dirt ; and the sacred ballets d'action,
in which, £is Lucian and Qing say, mystic facts are
' danced out.'^ But, while Greece retained these relics of
savagery, there was something taught at Eleusis which
filled minds like Plato's and Pindar's with a happy
rehgious awe. Now, similar ' softening of the heart ' was
the result of the teaching in the Australian Bora : the
Yao mysteries inculcate the victory over self ; and, till
we are admitted to the secrets of all other savage mysteries
throughout the world, we cannot tell whether, among
mummeries, frivoUties, and even license, high ethical
doctrines are not presented under the sanction of religion.
The New Life, and perhaps the future life, are undeniably
indicated in the Australian mysteries by the simulated
Besurrection.
I would therefore no longer say, as in 1887, that
the Hellenic genius must have added to ' an old medicine
dance ' all that the Eleusinian mysteries possessed of
beauty, counsel, and consolation.^ These elements, as
well as the barbaric factors in the rites, may have been
developed out of such savage doctrine as softens the
hearts of Australians and Yaos. That this kind of
doctrine receives religious sanction is certain, where we
know the secret of savage mysteries. It is therefore quite
incorrect, and strangely presumptuous, to deny, with
almost aU anthropologists, the alliance of ethics with
rehgion among the most backward races. We must
always remember their secrecy about their inner religion,
their frankness about their mythological tales. These we
know : the inner religion we ought to begin to recognise
that we do not know.
' Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 281-288.
* Lobeck, Aglaophamus, 133.
SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 197
The case of the Andamanese has taught us how vague,
even now, is our knowledge, and how obscure is our
problem. The example of the Melanesians enforces these
lessons. It is hard to bring the Melanesians within any
theory. Dr. Codrington has made them the subject of a
careful study, and reports that while the European in-
quirer can communicate pretty freely on common subjects
' the vocabulary of ordinary life is almost useless when
the region of mysteries and superstitions is approached.' '
The Banks Islanders are most free from an Asiatic element
of population on one side, and a Polynesian element on
the other.
The Banks Islanders * believe in two orders of intelli-
gent beings different from living men.' (1) Ghosts of the
dead, (2) ' Beings who were not, and never had been,
human.' This, as we have shown, and will continue to
show, is the usual savage doctrine. On the one hand are
separable souls of men, surviving the death of the body.
On the other are beings, creators, who were before men
were, and before death entered the world. It is impossible,
logically, to argue that these beings are only ghosts of real
remote ancestors, or of ideal ancestors. These higher
beings are not safely to be defined as 'spirits,' their
essence is vague, and, we repeat, the idea of their existence
might have been evolved before the ghost theory was
attained by men. Dr. Codrington says, 'the conception
can hardly be that of a purely spiritual being, yet, by
whatever name the natives call them, they are such as in
English must be called spirits.'
That is our point. ' God is a spirit,' these beings are
Gods, therefore ' these are spirits.' But to their initial
conception our idea of * spirit ' is lacking. They are
beings who existed before death, and still exist.
The beings which never were human, never died, are
Vui, the ghosts are Tamate. Dr. Codrington uses * ghosts '
for Tamate, ' spirits ' for Fwi. But as to render Vui
' spirits ' is to yield the essential point, we shall call Vui
* beings,' or, simply, Vui. A Vui is not a spirit that has
' J.A.I. X. 2C3.
198 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
been a ghost ; the story may represent him as if a man,
* but the native will always maintain that he was some-
thing different, and deny to him the fleshly body of a
man.' ^
This distinction, ghost on one side — original being, not
a man, not a ghost of a man, on the other — is radical and
nearly universal in savage religion. Anthropology, neglect-
ing the essential distinction insisted on, in this case, by
Dr. Codrington, confuses both kinds under the style of
* spirits,' and derives both from ghosts of the dead.
Dr. Codrington, it should be said, does not generalise, but
confines himself to the savages of whom he has made a
special study. But, from the other examples of the same
distinction which we have offered, and the rest which
we shall offer, we think ourselves justified in regarding the
distinction between a primeval, eternal, being or beings,
on one hand, and ghosts or spirits exalted from ghost's
estate, on the other, as common, if not universal.
There are corporeal and incorporeal Vuis, but the
body of the corporeal Vui is ' not a human body.' ^ The
chief is Qat, ' still at hand to help and invoked in prayers.'
' Qat, Marawa, look down upon me, smooth the sea for us
two, that I may go safely over the sea ! ' Qat ' created
men and animals,' though, in a certain district, he is
claimed as an ancestor (p. 268). Two strata of belief
have here been confused.
The myth of Qat is a jungle of facetiae and frolic, with
one or two serious incidents, such as the beginning of
Death and the coming of Night. His mother was, or
became, a stone ; stones playing a considerable part in the
superstitions.
The incorporeal Vuis, ' with nothing like a human life,
have a much higher place than Qat and his brothers in
the religious system.' They have neither names, nor
shapes, nor legends, they receive sacrifice, and are in some
uncertain way connected with stones ; these stones usually
bear a fanciful resemblance to fruits or animals (p. 275).
The only sacrifice, in Banks Islands, is that of shell-
• J.A.L 267. ^ J.A.L x. 267.
SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 199
money. The mischievous spirits are Tamate, ghosts of
men. There is a behef in mana (magical rapport).
Dr. Codrington cannot determine the connection of this
behef with that in spirits. Mana is the uncanny, is X,
the unknown. A revived impression of sense is nunuai,
as when a tired fisher, half asleep at night, feels the
' draw * of a salmon, and automatically strikes.^ The
common ghost is a bag of nunuai, as living man, in the
opinion of some philosophers, is a bag of * sensations.*
Ghosts are only seen as spiritual lights, which so com-
monly attend hallucinations among the civilised. Except
in the prayers to Qat and Marawa, prayer only invokes
the dead (p. 285). 'In the western islands the offerings
are made to ghosts, and consumed by fire ; in the eastern
(Banks) isles they are made to spirits (beings, Vui), and
there is no sacrificial fire.' Now, the worship of ghosts
goes, in these isles, with the higher culture, ' a more con-
siderable advance in the arts of life ; ' the worship of non-
ghosts, Vui, goes with the lower material culture.^ This
is rather the reverse of what we should expect, in accord-
ance with the anthropological theory. According, how-
ever, to our theory, Animism and ghost-worship may be
of later development, and belong to a higher level of
culture, than worship of a being, or beings, that never
were ghosts. In Leper's Isle, * ghosts do not appear to
have prayers or sacrifices offered to them,' but cause
disease, and work magic.^
The belief in the soul, in Melanesia, does not appear to
proceed * from their dreams or visions in which deceased
or absent persons are presented to them, for they do not
appear to believe that the soul goes out from the dreamer,
or presents itself as an object in his dreams,' nor does
belief in other spirits seem to be founded on * the appear-
ance of life or motion in inanimate things.' *
To myself it rather looks as if all impressions had
' P. 281. This is a nunuai with which I am familiar. Flying fish, in
Banks Island, take the rdle of salmon. The natives think it real, but
without form or substance.
* Codrington, Melanesia, p. 122. • J.A.L x. 294.
♦ Op. cit. X. 313.
200 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
their numiai, real, bodiless, persistent, after-images ; that
the soul is the complex of all of these nunuai ; that there
is in the universe a kind of magical ether, called mana,
possessed, in different proportions, by different men, Vui,
tamate, and material objects, and that the atai or ataro
of a man dead, his ghost, retains its old, and acquires new
mana} It is an odd kind of metaphysic to find among
very backward and isolated savages. But the lesson of
Melanesia teaches us how very little we really know of
the religion of low races, how complex it is, how hardly
it can be forced into our theories, if we take it as given
in our knowledge, allow for our ignorance, and are not
content to select facts which suit our hypothesis, while
ignoring the rest. On a higher level of material culture
than the Melanesians are the Fijians.
Fijian religion, as far as we understand, resembles the
others in drawing an impassable line between ghosts and
eternal gods. The word Kalou is applied to all supernal
beings, and mystic or magical things alike. It seems to
answer to mana in New Zealand and Melanesia, to loakan
in North America, and to fee in old French, as when
Perrault says, about Bluebeard's key, * now the key was
fee.' All Gods are Kalou, but all things that are Kalou
are not Gods. Gods are Kalou vu ; deified ghosts are
Kalou ijalo. The former are eternal, without beginning
of days or end of years ; the latter are subject to infirmity
and even to death.^
The Supreme Being, if we can apply the term to him,
is Ndengei, or Degei, ' who seems to be an impersonation
of the abstract idea of eternal existence.' This idea is not
easily developed out of the conception of a human soul
which has died into a ghost and may die again. His
myth represents him as a serpent, emblem of eternity,
or a body of stone with a serpent's head. His one
manifestation is given by eating. So neglected is he that
a song exists about his lack of worshippers and gifts.
• We made men,' says Ndengei, ' placed them on earth,
' J.A.I. X. 300.
* Williams's Fiji, p. 218. See Mr. Thomson's remarks cited later.
SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 201
and yet they share to us only the under shell.' • Here is
an extreme case of the self -existent creative Eternal,
mythically lodged in a serpent's body, and reduced to a
jest.
It is not easy to see any explanation, if we reject the
hypothesis that this is an old, fallen form of faith, ' with
scarcely a temple.' The other unborn immortals are
mythical warriors and adulterers, like the popular deities
of Greece. Yet Ndengei receives prayers through two
sons of his, mediating deities. The priests are possessed,
or inspired, by spirits and gods. One is not quite clear
as to whether Ndengei is an inspiring god or not; but
that prayers are made to him is inconsistent with the
belief in his eternal inaction. A priest is represented as
speaking for Ndengei, probably by inspiration. ' My own
mind departs from me, and then, when it is truly gone,
my god speaks by me,' is the account of this 'alternating
personality ' given by a priest,^
After informing us that Ndengei is starved, Mr.
Williams next tells about offerings to him, in earlier days,
of hundreds of hogs.^ He sends rain on earth. Animals,
men, stones, may all be Kalou. There is a Hades as
fantastic as that in the Egyptian 'Book of the Dead,' and
second sight flourishes.
The mysteries include the sham raising of the dead,
and appear to be directed at propitiatory ghosts rather
than at Ndengei. There are scenes of license ; * particulars
of almost incredible indecency have been privately for-
warded to Dr. Tylor.''*
Suppose a religious reformer were to arise in one of the
many savage tribes who, as we shall show, possess, but
neglect, an Eternal Creator. He would do what, in the
secular sphere, was done by the Mikado of Japan. The
Mikado was a political Dendid or Ndengei— an awful, with-
drawn, impotent potentate. Power was wielded by the
Tycoon. A Mikado of genius asserted himself ; hence arose
modern Japan. In the same way, a religious reformer like
' Fiji, p. 217. 2 lb. p. 228.
» lb. p. 230. * J.A.I. xiv. 30.
303 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Khucn Ahtcn in Egypt would preach down minor gods,
ghosts and sacred beasts, and proclaim the primal Maker,
Ndengei, Dendid, Mtanga, ' The king shall hae his ain
again,' Had it not been for the Prophets, Israel, by the
time that Greece and Home knew Israel, would have been
worshipping a horde of little gods, and even beasts and
ghosts, while the Eternal would have become a mere name
— perhaps, like Ndengei and Atahocan and Unkulunkulu,
a jest. The Old Testament is the story of the prolonged
effort to keep Jehovah in His supreme place. To make
and to succeed in that effort was the differentia of Israel.
Other peoples, even the lowest, had, as we prove, the ger-
minal conception of a God — assuredly not demonstrated to
be derived from the ghost theory, logically in no need of
the ghost theory, everywhere explicitly contrasted with the
ghost theory. ' But their foolish heart was darkened.'
It is impossible to prove, historically, which of the
two main elements in belief — the idea of an Eternal Being
or Beings, or the idea of surviving ghosts — came first into
the minds of men. The idea of primeval Eternal Beings,
as understood by savages, does not depend on, or require,
the ghost theory. But, as we almost always find ghosts
and a Supreme Being together, where we find either,
among the lowest savages, we have no historical ground
for asserting that either is prior to the other. Where we
have no evidence to the belief in the Maker, we must
not conclude that no such belief exists. Our knowledge
is confused and scanty ; often it is derived from men who
do not know the native language, or the native sacred
language, or have not been trusted with what the savage
treasures as his secret. Moreover, if anywhere ghosts are
found without gods, it is an inference from the argument
that an idea familiar to very low savage tribes, like the
Australians, and falling more and more into the back-
ground elsewhere, though still extant and traceable, might,
in certain cases, be lost and forgotten altogether.
To take an example of half-forgotten deity. Mr, Im
Thurn, a good observer, has written on ' The Animism of
the Indians of British Guiana,' Mr. Im Thurn justly says :
I
SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 203
'The man who above all others has made this study
possible is Mr. Tylor.' But it is not unfair to remark that
Mr. Im Thurn naturally sees most distinctly that which Mr.
Tylor has taught him to see — namely, Animism. He has
also been persuaded, by Mr. Dorman, that the Great Spirit
of North American tribes is ' almost certainly nothing
more than a figure of European origin, reflected and
transmitted almost beyond recognition on the mirror of
the Indian mind.' That is not my opinion : I conceive
that the Ked Indians had their native Eternal, like the
Australians, Fijians, Andamanese, Dinkas, Yao, and so
forth, as will be shown later.
Mr. Im Thurn, however, dilates on the dream origin
of the ghost theory, giving examples from his own know-
ledge of the difficulty with which Guiana Indians discern
the hallucinations of dreams from the facts of waking life.
Their waking hallucinations are also so vivid as to be
taken for realities.' Mr. Im Thurn adopts the hypothesis
that, from ghosts, ' a belief has arisen, but very gradually,
in higher spirits, and, eventually, in a Highest Spirit ; and,
keeping pace with the growth of these beliefs, a habit
of reverence for and worship of spirits.' On this hypo-
thesis, the spirit latest evolved, and most worshipful, ought,
of course, to be the ' Highest Spirit.' But the reverse, as
usual, is the case. The Guiana Indians believe in the
continued, but not in the everlasting, existence of a man's
ghost.2 They believe in no spirits which were not once
tenants of material bodies.^
The belief in a Supreme Spirit is only attained ' in the
highest form of religion * — Andamanese, for instance — as
Mr. Im Thurn uses ' spirit ' where we should say ' being.'
* The Indians of Guiana know no god.' *
'But it is true that various words have been found in
all, or nearly all, the languages of Guiana which have
been supposed to be names of a Supreme Being, God, a
Great Spirit, in the sense which those phrases bear in the
language of the higher religions.'
' J.A.L xi. 361-366. '' lb. xi. 374. ' lb. xi. 376. * lb. xi. 376.
204 THE MAKING OF EELIGION
Being interpreted, these Guiana names mean —
The Ancient One,
The Ancient One in Sky -land,
Our Maker,
Our Father,
Our Great Father.
* None of these in any way involves the attributes
of a god.'
The Ancient of Days, Our Father in Sky-land, Our
Maker, do rather convey the sense of God to a European
mind. Mr. Im Thurn, hov^ever, decides that the beings
thus designated were supposed ancestors who came into
Guiana from some other country, ' sometimes said to have
been that entirely natural country (?) which is separated
from Guiana by the ocean of the air.' '
Mr. Im Thurn casually observed (having said nothing
about morals in alliance with Animism) :
! * The fear of unwittingly offending the countless
visible and invisible beings . . . kept the Indians very
strictly within their own rights and from offending
against the rights of others.'
This remark dropped out at a discussion of Mr. Im
Thurn's paper, and clearly demonstrated that even a very
low creed ' makes for righteousness.' ^
Probably few who have followed the facts given here
will agree with Mr. Im Thurn's theory that * Our Maker,'
' Our Father,' ' The Ancient One of the Heaven,' is
merely an idealised human ancestor. He falls naturally
into his place with the other high gods of low savages.
But we need much more information on the subject than
Mr. Im Thurn was able to give.
His evidence is all the better, because he is a loyal
follower of Mr. Tylor. And Mr. Tylor says : * Savage
Animism is almost devoid of that ethical element which
to the educated modern mind is the very mainspring of
practical religion.' ^ ' Yet it keeps the Indians very strictly
' J.A.I, xi. 378. ■" Ibid. 382.
•' Prim. Cult. ii. 360.
SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 205
within their own rights and from offending the rights of
others.' Our own religion is rarely so successful.'
In the Indians of Guiana we have an alleged case of
a people still deep in the animistic or ghost-worshipping
case, who, by the hypothesis, have not yet evolved the
idea of a god at all.
When the familiar names for God, such as Maker,
Father, Ancient of Days, occur in the Indian language,
Mr. Im Thurn explains the neglected Being who bears
these titles as a remote deified ancestor. Of course, when
a Being with similar titles occurs where ancestors are not
worshipped, as in Australia and the Andaman Islands,
the explanation suggested by Mr. Im Thurn for the
problem of religion in Guiana, will not fit the facts.
It is plain that, a priori, another explanation is con-
ceivable. If a people like the Andamanese, or the
Australian tribes whom we have studied, had such a
conception as that of Puluga, or Baiame, or Mungan-ngaur
and then, later, developed ancestor- worship with its
propitiatory sacrifices and ceremonies, ancestor-worship,
as the newest evolved and infinitely the most practical
form of cult, would gradually thrust the belief in a
Puluga, or Mungan-ngaur, or Cagn into the shade. The
ancestral spirit, to speak quite plainly, can be ' squared '
by the people in whom he takes a special interest for
family reasons. The equal Father of all men cannot
be ' squared,' and declines (till corrupted by the bad
example of ancestral ghosts) to make himself useful to
one man rather than to another. For these very intel-
ligible, simple, and practical reasons, if the belief in a
Mungan-ngaur came first in evolution, and the belief in
a practicable bribable family ghost came second, the
ghost-cult would inevitably crowd out the God-cult.^
' Conceivably, however, the Guiana spirits who have so much moral
influence, exert it by magical charms. ' The belief in the power of charms
for good or evil produces not only honesty, but a great amount of gentle
dealing,' says Livingstone, of the Africans. However they work, the spirits
work for righteousness.
^ Obviously there could be no Family God before there was the institu-
tion of the Family.
206 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
The name of the Father and Maker would become a
mere survival, nominis umhra, worship and sacrifice going
to the ancestral ghost. That explanation would fit the
state of religion which Mr. Im Thurn has found, rightly
or wrongly, in British Guiana.
But, if the idea of a universal Father and Maker
came last in evolution, as a refinement, then, of course,
it ought to be the newest, and therefore the most fashion-
able and potent of Guianese cults. Precisely the reverse
is said to be the case. Nor can the belief indicated in
such names as Father and Maker be satisfactorily ex-
plained as a refinement of ancestor- worship, because, we
repeat, it occurs where ancestors are not worshipped.
These considerations, however unpleasant to the
devotees of Animism, or the ghost theory, are not, in
themselves, illogical, nor contradictory of the theory of
evolution, which, on the other hand, fits them perfectly
well. That god thrives best who is most suited to his
environment. Whether an easy-going, hungry ghost-god
with a Hking for his family, or a moral Creator not to be
bribed, is better suited to an environment of not especially
scrupulous savages, any man can decide. Whether a set
of not particularly scrupulous savages will readily evolve
a moral unbribable Creator, when they have a serviceable
family ghost-god eager to oblige, is a question as easily
resolved.
Beyond all doubt, savages who find themselves under
the watchful eye of a moral deity whom they cannot
' square ' will desert him as soon as they have evolved a
practicable ghost-god, useful for family purposes, whom
they can square. No less manifestly, savages, who already
possess a throng of serviceable ghost-gods, will not enthu-
siastically evolve a moral Being who despises gifts, and
only cares for obedience. ' There is a great deal of
human nature in man,' and, if Mr. Im Thurn's descrip-
tion of the Guianese be correct, everything we know of
human nature, and of evolution, assures us that the
Father, or Maker, or Ancient of Days came first ; the
ghost-gods, last. What has here been said about the
SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 207
Indians of Guiana (namely, that they are now mere ghost
and spirit worshippers, with only a name surviving to
attest a knowledge of a Father and Maker in Heaven)
applies equally well to the Zulus. The Zulus are the
great standing type of an animistic or ghost-worshipping
race without a God. But, had they a God (on the
Australian pattern) whom they have forgotten, or have
they not yet evolved a God out of Animism ?
The evidence, collected by Dr. Callaway, is honest,
but confused. One native, among others, put forward
the very theory here proposed by us as an alternative to
that of Mr. Im Thurn. * Unkulunkulu ' (the idealised
but despised First Ancestor) 'was not worshipped [by
men]. For it is not worship when people see things, as
rain, or food, or corn, and say, " Yes, these things were
made by Unkulunkulu .... Afterwards they [men] had
power to change those things, that they might become
the Amatongos " [might belong to the ancestral spirits].
They took them away from Unkuliuikulu.' '
Animism supplanted Theism. Nothing could be
more explicit. But, though we have found an authentic
Zulu text to suit our provisional theory, the most eminent
philosophical example must not reduce us into supposing
that this text settles the question. Dr. Callaway collected
great masses of Zulu answers to his inquiries, and it is
plain that a respondent, like the native theologian whom
we have cited, may have adapted his reply to what he
had learned of Christian doctrine. Having now the
Christian notion of a Divine Creator, and knovdng, too,
that the unworshipped Unkulunkulu is said to have ' made
things,' while only ancestral spirits, are worshipped, the
native may have inferred that worship (by Christians
given to the Creator) was at some time transferred by
the Zulus from Unkulunkulu to the Amatongo. The
truth is that both the anthropological theory (spirits first,
Gods last), and our theory (Supreme Being first, spirits
next) can find warrant in Dr. Callaway's valuable collec-
tions. For that reason, the problem must be solved
' Callaway, Bel, oj Amazulu, p. 17.
208 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
after a survey of the whole field of savage and barbaric
religion ; it cannot be settled by the ambiguous case of
the Zulus alone.
Unkulunkulu is represented as * the First Man, who
broke off in the beginning.' ' They are ancestor-
worshippers,' says Dr. Callaway, * and believe that their
first ancestor, the First Man, was the Creator.' ^ But they
may, like many other peoples, have had a different original
tradition, and have altered it, just because they are now
such fervent ancestor-worshippers. Unkulunkulu was
prior to Death, which came among men in the usual
mythical way.^ "Whether Unkulunkulu still exists, is
rather a moot question : Dr. Callaway thinks that he
does not.^ If not, he is an exception to the rule in Aus-
tralia, Andaman, among the Bushmen, the Fuegians, and
savages in general, who are less advanced in culture than
the Zulus. The idea, then, of a Maker of things who has
ceased to exist occurs, if at all, not in a relatively primi-
tive, but in a relatively late religion. On the analogy
of pottery, agriculture, the use of iron, villages, hereditary
kings, and so on, the notion of a dead Maker is late, not
early. It occurs where men have iron, cattle, agriculture,
kings, houses, a disciplined army, 7iot where men have
none of these things. The Zulu godless ancestor- worship,
then, by parity of reasoning, is, like their material culture,
not an early but a late development. The Zulus ' hear of
a King which is above ' — ' the heavenly King.' ^ * We did
not hear of him first from white men. . . . But he is not
like Unkulunkulu, who, we say, made all things.'
Here may be dimly descried the ideas of a God, and a
subordinate deiniurge. ' The King is above, Unkulunkulu
is beneath.' The King above punishes sin, striking the
sinner by lightning. Nor do the Zulus know how they
have sinned. * Th^e remained only that word about the
heaven,' ' which,' says Dr. Callaway, ' implies that there
might have been other words which are now lost.' There
is great confusion of thought. Unkulunkulu made the
' Callaway, p. 1. ' Op. cit. p. 3.
3 Op. cit. p. 7. * Op. cit. p. 19.
SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 209
heaven, where the unknown King reigns, a hard task for a
First Man.' ' In process of time we have come to worship
the Amadhlozi (spirits) only, because we know not what
to say about Unkukmkuhi."'^ 'It is on that account,
then, that we seek out for ourselves the Amadhlozi (spirits),
that we may not always be thinking about Unkulunkulu,'
All this attests a faint lingering shadow of a belief
too ethereal, too remote, for a practical conquering race,
which prefers intelligible serviceable ghosts, with a special
regard for their own families.
Ukoto, a very old Zulu, said : ' When we were children
it was said " The Lord is in heaven." . . . They used to
point to the Lord on high ; we did not hear his name.'
Unkulunkulu was understood, by this patriarch, to refer to
immediate ancestors, whose names and genealogies he
gave.^ * We heard it said that the Creator of the world
was the Lord who is above ; people used always, when I
was growing up, to point towards heaven.'
A very old woman was most reluctant to speak of
Unkulunkulu ; at last she said, ' Ah, it is he in fact who is
the Creator, who is in heaven, of whom the ancients spoke.'
Then the old woman began to babble humorously of how
the white men made all things. Again, Unkulunkulu is
said to have been created by Utilexo, Utilexo was in-
visible, Unkulunkulu was visible, and so got credit not
really his due.'* When the heaven is said to be the Chief's
(the chief being a living Zulu) ' they do not believe what
they say,' the phrase is a mere hyperbolical compliment.-^
On this examination of the evidence, it certainly seems
as logical to conjecture that the Zulus had once such an
idea of a Supreme Being as lower races entertain, and then
nearly lost it ; as to say that Zulus, though a monarchical
race, have not yet developed a King-God out of the throng
of spirits (Amatongo). The Zulus, the Norsemen of the
South, so to speak, are a highly practical military race.
A Deity at all abstract was not to their liking. Service-
able family spirits, who continually provided an excuse
' Callaway, pp. 20, 21. ^ Pp. 26, 27.
' Pp. 49, 50. * P. G7. ' P. 122.
P
210 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
for a dinner of roast beef, were to their liking. The less
developed races do not kill their flocks commonly for food.
A sacrifice is needed as a pretext. To the gods of
Andamanese, Bushmen, Australians, no sacrifice is offered.
To the Supreme Being of most African peoples no sacrifice
is offered. There is no festivity in the worship of these
Supreme Beings, no feasting, at all events. They are not
to be ' got at ' by gifts or sacrifices. The Amatongo are
to be ' got at,' are bribable, supply an excuse for a good
dinner, and thus the practical Amatongo are honoured,
while, in the present generation of Zulus, Unkulunkulu is
a joke, and the Lord in Heaven is the shadow of a name.
Clearly this does not point to the recent but to the remote
development of the higher ideas, now superseded by
spirit-worship.
We shall next see how this view, the opposite of the
anthropological theory, works when applied to other races,
especially to other African races.
'
211
XIII
MOBE SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS
ip many of the lowest savages known to us entertain
ideas of a Supreme Being such as we find among Fue-
gians, Australians, Bushmen, and Andamanese, are there
examples, besides the Zulus, of tribes higher in material
culture who seem to have had such notions, but to have
partly forgotten or neglected them? Miss Kingsley, a
lively, observant, and unprejudiced, though rambling
writer, gives this very account of the Bantu races.
Oblivion, or neglect, will show itself in leaving the
Supreme Being alone, as he needs no propitiation, while
devoting sacrifice and ritual to fetishes and ghosts. That
this should be done is perfectly natural if the Supreme
Being (who wants no sacrifice) were the first evolved in
thought, while venal fetishes and spirits came in as a
result of the ghost theory. But if, as a result of the
ghost theory, the Supreme Being came last in evolution,
he ought to be the most fashionable object of worship,
the latest developed, the most powerful, and most to be
propitiated. He is the reverse.
To take an example : the Dinkas of the Upper Nile
(* godless,' says Sir Samuel Baker) ' pay a very theoretical
kind of homage to the all-powerful Being, dwelling in
heaven, whence he sees all things. He is called " Dendid "
(great rain, that is, universal benediction ?).' He is omni-
potent, but, being all beneficence, can do no evil ; so, not
being feared, he is not addressed in prayer. The evil
p2
212 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
spirit, on the other hand, receives sacrifices. The Dinkas
have a strange old chant :
* At the beginning, when Dendid made all things,
He created the Sun,
And the Sun is born, and dies, and comes again !
He created the Stars,
And the Stars are born, and die, and come again !
He created Man,
And Man is born, and dies, and returns no more ! '
It is like the lament of Moschus.^
Eussegger compares the Dinkas, and all the neigh-
bouring peoples who hold the same beliefs, to modern
Deists.^ They are remote from Atheism and from cult !
Suggestions about an ancient Egyptian influence are
made, but popular Egyptian religion was not monotheistic,
and priestly thought could scarcely influence the ancestors
of the Dinkas. M. Lejean says these peoples are so
practical and utilitarian that missionary religion takes no
hold on them. Mr. Spencer does not give the ideas of the
Dinkas, but it is not easy to see how the too beneficent
Dendid could be evolved out of ghost-propitiation, ' the
origin of all religions.' Eather the Dinkas, a practical
people, seem to have simply forgotten to be grateful to
their Maker ; or have decided, more to the credit of the
clearness of their heads than the warmth of their hearts,
that gratitude he does not want. Like the French philo-
sopher they cultivate Vindependance du coeur, being in
this matter strikingly unlike the Pawnees.
Let us now take a case in which ancestor-worship,
and no other form of religion (beyond mere superstitions) ,
has been declared to be the practice of an African people.
Mr. Spencer gives the example of natives of the south-
eastern district of Central Africa described by Mr. Mac-
donald in ' Africana.' ^ The dead man becomes a ghost-god,
receives prayer and sacrifice, is called a Mulungu (= great
' Lejean, Rev. des Deux Mondes, April 1862, p. 760. Citing for the
chant, Beltrame, Dizionario della lingua denka, MS.
2 Waltz, ii. 74. » 1882.
MORE SAVAGE SUPRE3IE BEINGS 213
ancestor or =sky ?), is preferred above older spirits, now
forgotten ; such old spirits may, however, have a mountain
top for home, a groat chief being better remembered ; the
mountain god is prayed to for rain ; higher gods were
probably similar local gods in an older habitat of the
Yao.i
Such is in the main Mr. Spencer's resume of Mr. Duff
Macdonald's report. He omits whatever Mr. Macdonald
says about a Being among the Yaos, analogous to the Dendid
of the Dinkas, or the Darumulun of Australia, or the Huron
Ahone. Yet analysis detects, in Mr. Macdonald's report,
copious traces of such a Being, though Mr. Macdonald
himself believes in ancestor- worship as the Source of the
local religion. Thus, Mulungu, or Mlungu, used as a
proper name, * is said to be the great spirit, msiniu, of all
men, a spirit formed by adding all the departed spirits
together.'^ This is a singular stretch of savage philo-
sophy, and indicates (says Mr. Macdonald) ' a grasping
after a Being who is the totality of all individual
existence. ... If it fell from the lips of civilised men
instead of savages, it would be regarded as philosophy.
Expressions of this kind among the natives are partly
traditional, and partly dictated by the big thoughts
of the moment.' Philosophy it is, but a philosophy
dependent on the ghost theory.
I go on to show that the Wayao have, though Mr.
Spencer omits him, a Being who precisely answers to
Darumulun, if stripped (perhaps) of his ethical aspect.
On this point we are left in uncertainty, just because
Mr. Macdonald could not ascertain the secrets of his
mysteries, which, in Australia, have been revealed to a
few Europeans.
Where Mulungu is used as a proper name, it * certainly
points to a personal Being, by the Wayao sometimes said
to be the same as Mtanga. At other times he is a Being
that possesses many powerful servants, but is himself
kept a good deal beyond the scene of earthly affairs, like
the gods of Epicurus.'
' Ecclesiastical InslUutions, 681. " Africana, i. 66.
214 THE MAKING OF EELIGION
This is, of course, precisely the feature in African
theology which interests us. The Supreme Being, in
spite of the potency which his supposed place as latest
evolved out of the ghost-world should naturally give
him, is neglected, either as half forgotten, or for philo-
sophical reasons. For these reasons Epicurus and Lucre-
tius make their gods otiosi, unconcerned, and the Wayao,
with their universal collective spirit, are no mean philo-
sophers.
' This Mulungu ' or Mtanga, * in the world beyond the
grave, is represented as assigning to spirits their proper
places,' whether for ethical reasons or not we are not
informed.' Santos (1586) says * they acknowledge a God
who, both in this world and the next, measures retribution
for the good or evil done in this.'
' In the native hypothesis about creation " the people
of Mulungu" play a very important part.' These
ministers of his who do his pleasure are, therefore, as is
Mulungu himself, regarded as prior to the existing world.
Therefore they cannot, in Wayao opinion, be ghosts of
the dead at all ; nor can we properly call them * spirits.'
They are beings, original, creative, but undefined. The
word Mulungu, however, is now applied to spirits of
individuals, but whether it means ' sky ' (Salt) or whether
it means 'ancestor' (Bleek), it cannot be made to prove
that Mulungu himself was originally envisaged as ' spirit.'
For, manifestly, suppose that the idea of powerful beings,
undefined, came first in evolution, and was followed by
the ghost idea, that idea might then be applied to ex-
plaining the pre-existent creative powers.
Mtanga is by * some ' localised as the god of Mangochi,
an Olympus left behind by the Yao in their wanderings.
Here, some hold, his voice is still audible. ' Others say
that Mtanga never was a man ... he was concerned in
the first introduction of men into the world. He gets
credit for .... making mountains and rivers. He is
intimately associated with a year of plenty. He is called
Mchimwene juene, ' a very chief.' He has a kind of evil
' Africana, i. 67.
3
MORE SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 215
opposite, Chitowc, but this being, i-he Satan of the creed,
*is a child or subject of Mtanga,' an evil angel, in fact.*
The thunder god, Mpambe, in Yao, Njasi (lightning)
is also a minister of the Supreme Being. ' He is sent
by Mtanga with rain.' Europeans are cleverer than
natives, because we * stayed longer with the people of
God (Mulungu).'
I do not gather that, though associated with good
crops, Mtanga or Mulungu receives any sacrifice or pro-
pitiation. * The chief addresses his own god ; ' ^ the chief
' will not trouble himself about his great-great-grand-
father ; he will present his offering to his own immediate
predecessor, saying, ' father, I do not know all your rela
tives ; you know them all : invite them to feast with you.'
' All the offerings are supposed to point to some want
of the spirit.' Mtanga, on the other hand, is nihil indiga
7iostri.
A village god is given beer to drink, as Indra got
Soma. A dead chief is propitiated by human sacrifices.
I find no trace of any gift to Mtanga. His mysteries are
really unknown to Mr. Macdonald : they were laughed at
by a travelled and ' emancipated ' Yao."*
' These rites are supposed to be inviolably concealed
by the initiated, who often say that they would die if they
revealed them.' ^
How can we pretend to understand a religion if we do
not know its secret ? That secret, in Austraha, yields the
certainty of the ethical character of the Supreme Being.
Mr. Macdonald says about the initiator (a grotesque
figure) : —
' He delivers lectures, and is said to give much good
advice . . . the lectures condemn selfishness, and a selfish
person is called mwisichana, that is, " uninitiated." '
There could not be better evidence of the presence of the
ethical element in the religious mysteries. Among the
Yao, as among the Australian Kurnai, the central secret
lesson of religion is the lesson of unselfishness.
' Africana, i. 71, 72. ^ i gS. ' i. 68. ' i, 130. ^ Ibid.
2i6 The making of religion
It is not stated that Mtanga instituted or presides over
the mysteries. Judging from the analogy of Eleusis, the
Bora, the Ked Indian initiations, and so on, we may
expect this to be the behef ; but Mr. Macdonald knows
very little about the matter.
The legendary tales say * all things in this world
were made by " God." ' ' At first there were not
people, but " God " and beasts.' ' God ' here, is Mlungu.
The other statement is apparently derived from exist-
ing ancestor- worship, people who died became * God *
(Mlungu). But God is prior to death, for the Yao
have a form of the usual myth of the origin of death,
also of sleep : ' death and sleep are one word, they are
of one family.' God dwells on high, while a malevolent
'great one,' who disturbed the mysteries and slew the
initiated, was turned into a mountain.^
In spite of information confessedly defective, I have
extracted from Mr. Spencer's chosen authority a mass of
facts, pointing to a Yao beUef in a primal being, maker
of mountains and rivers ; existent before men were ; not
liable to death — which came late among them — beneficent;
not propitiated by sacrifice (as far as the evidence goes) ;
moral (if we may judge by the analogy of the mysteries),
and yet occupying the religious background, while the
foreground is held by the most recent ghosts. To prove
Mr. Spencer's theory, he ought to have given a full
account of this being, and to have shown how he was
developed out of ghosts which are forgotten in inverse
ratio to their distance from the actual generation. I
conceive that Mr. Spencer would find a mid-point between
a common ghost and Mtanga, in a ghost of a chief
attached to a mountain, the place and place-name
preserving the ghost's name and memory. But it is, I
think, a far cry from such a chief's ghost to the pre-
human, angel-served Mtanga.
Of ancestor worship and ghost worship, we have
abundant evidence. But the position of Mtanga raises
one of these delicate and crucial questions which cannot
» Africana, i. 279-301.
^ i\ ■ - '.-'-e <r
MORE SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 217
be solved by ignoring their existence. Is Mtanga evolved
out of an ancestral ghost ? If so, why, as greatest of
divine beings, ' Very Chief,' and having pow^erful minis-
ters under him, is he left unpropitiated, unless it be by
moral discourses at the mysteries? As a much more
advanced idea than that of a real father's ghost, he ought
to be much later in evolution, fresher in conception, and
more adored. Hovi^ do we explain his lack of adoration ?
Was he originally envisaged as a ghost at all, and, if so,
by what curious but uniform freak of savage logic is he
regarded as prior to men, and though a ghost, prior to
death ? Is it not certain that such a being could be con-
ceived of by men who had never dreamed of ghosts ?
Is there any logical reason why Mtanga should not be
regarded as originally on the same footing as Mungan-
ngaur, but now half forgotten and neglected, for practical
or philosophical reasons ?
On these problems light is thrown by a successor of
Mr. Spencer's authority, Mr. Dufi Macdonald, in the
Blantyre Mission. This gentleman, the Rev, David
Clement Scott, has published * A Cyclopajdic Dictionary
of the Mang'anja Language in British Central Africa.' '
Looking at ancestral spirits first, we find Mzimu, ' spirits
of the departed, supposed to come in dreams.' Though
abiding in the spirit world, they also haunt thickets,
they inspire Mlauli, prophets, and make them rave and
utter predictions. Offerings are made to them. Here
is a prayer : ' Watch over me, my ancestor, who died long
ago; tell the great spirit at the head of my race from
whom my mother came.' There are little hut-temples,
and the chief directs the sacrifices of food, or of animals.
There are religious pilgrimages, with sacrifice, to moun-
tains. God, like men in this region, has various names,
as Chiuta, * God in space and the rainbow sign across ; '
Mpambe, ' God Almighty ' (or rather ' pre-excellent ') ;
Mlezi, ' God the Sustainer,' and Mulungu, ' God who is
spirit.' Mulungu=God, 'not spirits or fetish.' 'You
can't put the plural, as God is One," say the natives.
' Edinburgh, 1892.
218 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
' There are no idols called gods, and spirits are spirits of
people who have died, not gods.' Idols are Zitimzi-zitunzi.
' Spirits are supposed to be with Mulungu.' God made
the world and man. Our author says ' when the chief or
people sacrifice it is to God,' but he also says that they
sacrifice to ancestral spirits. There is some confusion of
ideas here : Mr. Macdonald says nothing of sacrifice to
Mtanga.
Mr. Scott does not seem to know more about the
Mysteries than Mr. Macdonald, and his article on
Mulungu does not much enlighten us. Does Mulungu, as
Creative God, receive sacrifice, or not ? ^ Mr. Scott gives
no instance of this, under Nsembe (sacrifice), where ances-
tors, or hill-dwelling ghosts of chiefs, are offered food ;
yet, as we have seen, under Mulungu, he avers that the
chiefs and people do sacrifice to God. He appears to be
confusing the Creator with spirits, and no reliance can be
placed on this part of his evidence. ' At the back of all
this ' (sacrifice to spirits) ' there is God.' If I understand
Mr. Scott, sacrifices are really made only to spirits, but he
is trying to argue that, after all, the theistic conception
is at the back of the animistic practice, thus importing
his theory into his facts. His theory would, really, be in
a better way, if sacrifice is not offered to the Creator, but
this had not occurred to Mr. Scott.
It is plain, in any case, that the religion of the
Africans in the Blantyre region has an element not
easily to be derived from ancestral spirit-worship, an
element not observed by Mr. Spencer.
Nobody who has followed the examples already
adduced will be amazed by what Waitz calls the ' sur-
prising result ' of recent inquiries among the great negro
race. Among tho branches where foreign influence is
least to be suspected, we discover, behind their more con-
spicuous fetishisms and superstitions, something which
we cannot exactly call Monotheism, yet which tends in
' Incidentally Mr. Macdonald shows that, contrary to Mr. Spencer's
opinion, these savages have words for dreams and dreaming. They inter-
pret dreams by a system of symbols, ' a canoe is ill luck,' and • dreams go
by contraries.'
MORE SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 219
that direction.' Waitz quotes Wilson for the fact that,
their fetishism apart, they adore a Supreme Being as the
Creator : and do not honour him with sacrifice.
The remarks of Waitz may be cited in full :
' The religion of the negro may be considered by
some as a particularly rude form of polytheism and may
be branded with the special name of fetishism. It would
follow, from a minute examination of it, that — apart from
the extravagant and fantastic traits, which are rooted in
the character of the negro, and which radiate therefrom
over all his creations — in comparison with the religions of
other savages it is neither very specially differentiated nor
very specially crude in form.
' But this opinion can be held to be quite true only
while we look at the outside of the negro's religion, or
estimate its significance from arbitrary pre-suppositions,
as is specially the case with Ad. Wuttke.
* By a deeper insight, which of late several scientific
investigators have succeeded in attaining, we reach,
rather, the surprising conclusion that several of the negro
races — on whom we cannot as yet prove, and can hardly
conjecture, the influence of a more civilised people — in the
embodying of their religious conceptions are further ad-
vanced than almost all other savages, so far that, even if
we do not call them monotheists, we may still think of
them as standing on the boundary of monotheism, seeing
that their religion is also mixed with a great mass of rude
superstition which, in turn, among other peoples, seems
to overrun completely the purer religious conceptions.'
This conclusion as to an element of pure faith in
negro religion would not have surprised Waitz, had recent
evidence as to the same creed among lower savages lain
before him as he worked.
This volume of his book was composed in 1860. In
1872 he had become well aware of the belief in a good
Maker among the Australian natives, and of the absence
among them of ancestor worship.^
' Waitz, Anthropologic, ii. 167.
* Waitz und Gerland, Anthropologie, vi. 796-799 and 809. In 1874
220 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Waltz's remarks on the Supreme Being of the Negro
are well worth noting, from his unconcealed astonishment
at the discovery.
Wilson's observations on North and South Guinea
religion were published in 1856. After commenting on
the delicate task of finding out what a savage religion
really is, he writes : ' The belief in one great Supreme Being,
who made and upholds all things, is universal.' ' The
names of the being are translated ' Maker,' ' Preserver,'
'Benefactor,' 'Great Friend.' Though compact of all
good qualities, the being has allowed the world to ' come
under the control of evil spirits,' who, alone, receive
religious worship. Though he leaves things uncontrolled,
yet the chief being (as in Homer) ratifies the Oath, at a
treaty, and is invoked to punish criminals when ordeal
water is to be drunk. So far, then, he has an ethical
influence, ' Grossly wicked people ' are buried outside of
the regular place. Fetishism prevails, with spiritualism,
and Wilson thinks that mediums might pick up some
good tricks in Guinea. He gives no examples. Their
inspired men do things 'that cannot be accounted for,' by
the use of narcotics.
The South Guinea Creator, Any ambia (=good spirit?),
is good, but capricious. He has a good deputy, Ombwiri
(spelled ' Mbuiri ' by Miss Kingsley) ; he alone has no
priests, but communicates directly with men. The
neighbouring Shekuni have mysteries of the Great Spirit.
No details are given. This great being, Mwetyi, witnesses
covenants and punishes perjury. This people are ancestor-
worshippers, but their Supreme Being is not said to receive
sacrifice, as ghosts do, while he is so far from being
powerless, like Unkulunkulu, that, but for fear of his
wrath, ' their national treaties would have little or no
force.' ^ Having no information about the mysteries, of
course, we know nothing of other moral influences which
Mr. Howitt's evidence on the moral element in the mysteries was not pub-
lished. Waitz scouts the idea that the higher Australian beliefs are of
European origin. ' Wir sehen vielmehr uralte Triimmer ahnlicher Mytho-
logenie in ihuen,' (vi. 798) flotsam from ideas of immemorial antiquity.
> Wilson, p. 209. - Wilson, p. 392.
MORE SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 221
are, or may be, exercised by these great, powerful, and not
wholly otiose beings.
The celebrated traveller, Mungo Park, who visited
Africa in 1805, had good opportunities of understanding
the natives. He did not hurry through the land with a
large armed force, but alone, or almost alone, paid his
way with his brass buttons. ' I have conversed with all
ranks and conditions upon the subject of their faith,' he
says, ' and can pronounce, without the smallest shadow
of doubt, that the belief in one God and in a future state
of reward and punishment is entire and universal among
them.' This cannot strictly be called monotheism,
as there are many subordinate spirits who may be
influenced by 'magical ceremonies.' But if monotheism
means belief in One Spirit alone, or rehgious regard paid
to One Spirit alone, it exists nowhere — no, not in Islam.
Park thinks it remarkable that ' the Almighty ' only
receives prayers at the new moon (of sacrifice to the
Almighty he says nothing), and that, being the creator
and preserver of all things, he is * of so exalted a nature
that it is idle to imagine the feeble supplications of
wretched mortals can reverse the decrees and change the
purpose of unerring Wisdom.' The new moon prayers
are mere matters of tradition ; * our fathers did it before
us.' ' Such is the bhndness of unassisted nature,' says
Park, who is not satirising, in Swift's manner, the prayers
of Presbyterians at home on Yarrow.
Thus, the African Supreme Being is unpropitiated,
while inferior spirits are constrained by magic or pro-
pitiated with food.
We meet our old problem: How has this God, in
the conception of whom there is so much philosophy,
developed out of these hungry ghosts ? The influence of
Islam can scarcely be suspected, Allah being addressed, of
course, in endless prayers, while the African god receives
none. Indeed, it would be more plausible to say that
Mahomet borrowed Allah from the widespread belief which
we are studying, than that the negro's Supreme Being
was borrowed from Allah.
222 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Park had, as we saw, many opportunities of familiar
discussion with the people on whose mercies he threw
himself.
'But it is not often that the negroes make their
religious opinions the subject of conversation ; when
interrogated, in particular, concerning their ideas of a
future state, they express themselves with great reverence,
but endeavour to shorten the discussion by saying, " Mo o
mo inta alio " (" No man knows anything about it ").' ^
Park himself, in extreme distress, and almost in
despair, chanced to observe the delicate beauty of a small
moss-plant, and, reflecting that the Creator of so frail a
thing could not be indifferent to any of His creatures,
plucked up courage and reached safety.^ He was not of
the negro philosophy, and is the less likely to have
invented it. The new moon prayer, said in a whisper,
was reported to Park, 'by many different people,' to
contain ' thanks to God for his kindness during the
existence of the past moon, and to solicit a continuation of
his favour during the new one.' This, of course, may prove
Islamite influence, and is at variance with the general
tendency of the religious philosophy as described.
We now arrive at a theory of the Supreme Being
among a certain African race which would be entirely
fatal to my whole hypothesis on this topic, if it could be
demonstrated correct in fact, and if it could be stretched
so as to apply to the Australians, Fuegians, Andamanese,
and other very backward peoples. It is the hypothesis
that the Supreme Being is a ' loan-god,' borrowed from
Em'opeans.
The theory is very lucidly set forth in Major Ellis's
* Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast.' ^ Major
Ellis's opinion coincides with that of Waitz in his
* Introduction to Anthropology ' (an opinion to which
Waitz does not seem bigoted) — namely, that ' the origi-
nal form of all religion is a raw, unsystematic polytheism,'
nature being peopled by inimical powers or spirits, and
' Park's Journey, i. 274, 275, 1815. ^ p, 245. ^ London, 1887.
MORE SAVAGE SUPREME BEINGS 223
everyone worshipping what he thinks most dangerous or
most serviceable. There are few general, many local or
personal, objects of veneration.' Major Ellis only met
this passage when he had formed his own ideas by
observation of the Tshi race. We do not pretend to
guess what ' the original form of all religion ' may have
been ; but we have given, and shall give, abundant
evidence for the existence of a loftier faith than this,
among peoples much lower in material culture than the
Tshi races, who have metals and an organised priesthood.
They occupy, in small villages (except Coomassie and
Djuabin), the forests of the Gold Coast. The mere
mention of Coomassie shows how vastly superior in
civilisation the Tshis (Ashantis and Fantis) are to the
naked, houseless Australians. Their inland communities,
however, are * mere specks in a vast tract of impenetrable
forest.' The coast people have for centuries been in touch
with Europeans, but the ' Tshi-speaking races are now
much in the same condition, both socially and morally,
as they were at the time of the Portuguese discovery.' ^
Nevertheless, Major Ellis explains their Supreme
Being as the result of European influence ! A priori this
appears highly improbable. That a belief should sweep
over all these specks in impenetrable forest, from the
coast-tribes in contact with Europeans, and that this
belief should, though the most recent, be infinitely the least
powerful, cannot be regarded as a plausible hypothesis.
Moreover, on Major Ellis's theory the Supreme Beings of
races which but recently came for the first time in contact
with Europeans, Supreme Beings kept jealously apart
from European ken, and revered in the secrecy of ancient
mysteries, must also, by parity of reason, be the result of
European influence. Unfortunately, Major Ellis gives no
evidence for his statements about the past history of Tshi
religion. Authorities he must have, and references would
be welcome.
' With people in the condition in which the natives of
the Gold Coast now are, religion is not in any way allied
» Ellis, pp. 20, 21. '^ P. 4.
224 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
with moral ideas,' ^ We have given abundant evidence
that among much more backward tribes morals rest on a
religious sanction. If this be not so on the Gold Coast
we cannot accept these relatively advanced Fantis and
Ashantis as representing the ' original ' state of ethics and
religion, any more than those people with cities, a king,
a priesthood, iron, and gold, represent the * original '
material condition of society. Major Ellis also shows
that the Gods exact chastity from aspirants to the priest-
hood.2 The present beliefs of the Gold Coast are kept up
by organised priesthoods as ' lucrative business.' ^ Where
there is no lucre and no priesthood, as among more back-
ward races, this kind of business cannot be done. On the
Gold Coast men can only approach gods through priests.*
This is degeneration.
Obviously, if religion began in a form relatively pure
and moral, it must degenerate, as civilisation advances,
under priests who ' exploit ' the lucrative, and can see no
money in the pure elements of belief and practice. That
the lucrative elements in Christianity were exploited by
the clergy, to the neglect of ethics, was precisely the
complaint of the Eeformers. From these lucrative
elements the creed of the Apostles was free, and a similar
freedom marks the religion of Australia or of the Pawnees.
We cannot possibly, then, expect to find the 'original ' state
of religion among a people subdued to a money-grubbing
priesthood, like the Tshi races. Let religion begin as
pure as snow, it would be corrupted by priestly trafficking
in its lucrative animistic aspect. And priests are developed
relatively late.
Major Ellis discriminates Tshi gods as —
1. General, worshipped by an entire tribe or more tribes.
2. Local deities of river, hill, forest, or sea.
3. Deities of families or corporations.
4. Tutelary deities of individuals.
The second class, according to the natives, were
appointed by the first class, who are ' too distant or in-
different to interfere ordinarily in human affairs.' Thus,
' Ellis, p. 10. ■' P. 120. ^ p. 15. * p. 126.
MORE SAVAGE SUPREME BEING S L>25
the Huron god, Ahone, punishes nobody. He is all
sweetness and light, but has a deputy god, called Okeus.
On our hypothesis this indifference of high gods suggests
the crowding out of the great disinterested God by venal
animistic competition. All of class II. ' appear to have
been originally malignant.' Though, in native belief,
class I. was prior to, and ' appointed ' class II., Major
Ellis thinks that malignant spirits of class II. were raised
to class I. as if to the peerage, while classes III. and
rV. ' are clearly the product of priesthood ' — therefore late.
Major Ellis then avers that when Europeans reached
the Gold Coast, in the fifteenth century, they ' appear to
have found ' a Northern God, Tando, and a Southern God,
Bobowissi, still adored. Bobowissi makes thunder and
rain, lives on a hill, and receives, or received, human
sacrifices. But, ' after an intercourse of some years with
Europeans,' the villagers near European forts ' added to
their system a new deity, whom they termed Nana Nyan-
kupon. This was the God of the Christians, borrowed
from them, and adapted under a new designation, meaning
' Lord of the sky.' (This is conjectural. Nyankum=iam.
Nyansa has ' a later meaning, " craft.'") ^
Now Major Ellis, later, has to contrast Bosman's
account of fetishism (1700) with his own observations.
According to Bosman's native source of information, men
then selected their own fetishes. These are now selected
by priests. Bosman's authority was wrong — or priest-
hood has extended its field of business. Major Ellis
argues that the revolution from amateur to priestly
selection of fetishes could not occur in 190 years, ' over a
vast tract of country, amongst peoples living in semi-
isolated communities, in the midst of pathless forests,
where there is but little opportunity for the exchange of
ideas, and where we hnoiv they have been uninfluenced by
any higher race.'
Yet Major Ellis's theory is that this isolated people
■were influenced by a higher race, to the extent of adopting
a totally new Supreme Being, from Europeans, a being
» Ellis, pp. 24, 25.
Q
226 THE MAKING OF EELIGION
whom they in no way sought to propitiate, and who was
of no practical use. And this they did, he says, not
under priestly influence, but in the face of priestly
opposition.'
Major Ellis's logic does not appear to be consistent.
In any case we ask for evidence how, in the ' impene-
trable forests,' did a new Supreme Deity become universally
known ? Are we certain that travellers (unquoted) did
not discover a deity with no priests, or ritual, or ' money
in the concern,' later than they discovered the blood-
stained, conspicuous, lucrative Bobowissi ? Why was
Nyankupon, the supposed new god of a new powerful set
of strangers, left wholly unpropitiated ? The reverse was
to be expected.
Major Ellis writes : ' Almost certainly the addition of
one more to an already numerous family ' of gods, * was
strenuously resisted by the priesthood,' who, confessedly,
are adding new lower gods every day ! Yet Nyankupon is
universally known, in spite of priestly resistance. Nyan-
kupon, I presume = Anzambi, Anyambi, Nyambi, Nzambi,
Anzam, Nyam, the Nzam of the Fans, * and of all
Bantu coast races, the creator of man, plants, animals,
and the earth ; he takes no further interest in the affair.' ^
The crowd of spirits take only too much interest ; and,
therefore, are the lucrative element in religion.
It is not very easy to believe that Nyam, under all his
names, was picked up from the Portuguese, and passed
apparently from negroes to Bantu all over West Africa,
despite the isolation of the groups, and the resistance of
the priesthood among tribes ' uninfluenced by any higher
race.'
Nyam, like Major Ellis's class I., appoints a sub-
ordinate god to do his work : he is truly good, and governs
the malevolent spirits.^
The spread of Nyankupon, as described by Major
Ellis, is the more remarkable, since ' five or six miles
from the sea, or even less, the country was a terra
incognita to Europeans.' ^ Nyankupon was, it is alleged,
' Ellis, p. 189. ' Miss Kingsley, p. 442. ^ Ellis, p. 229. ' lb. p. 25.
MORE SAVAGE SUPREME BEING3 227
adopted, because our superiority proved Europeans to be
* protected by a deity of greater power than any of those
to which they themselves ' (the Tshi races) ' offered
sacrifices.'
Then, of course, Nyankupon would receive the best
sacrifices of all, as the most powerful deity ? Far from
that, Nyankupon received no sacrifice, and had no priests.
No priest would have a traditional way of serving him.
As the unlucky man in Voltaire says to his guardian
angel, * It is well worth while to have a presiding genius,'
so the Tshis and Bantu might ironically remark, ' A
useful thing, a new Supreme Being ! ' A quarter of a
continent or so adopts a new foreign god, and leaves him
plants Id ; unserved, unhonoured, and unsung. He there-
fore came to be thought too remote, or too indifferent, ' to
interfere directly in the affairs of the world.' * This idea
was probably caused by the fact that the natives had not
experienced any material improvement in their condition
. . . although they also had become followers of the god
of the whites.' ^
But that was just what they had not done ! Even at
Magellan's Straits, the Fuegians picked up from a casual
Spanish sea-captain and adored an image of Cristo.
Name and effigy they accepted. The Tshi people took
neither effigy nor name of a deity from the Portuguese
settled among them. They neither imitated Catholic
rites nor adapted their own ; they prayed not, nor sacri-
ficed to the ' new ' Nyankupon. Only his name and the
idea of his nature are universally diffused in West African
belief. He lives in no definite home, or hill, but ' in
Nyankupon's country.' Nyankupon, at the present day,
is ' ignored rather than worshipped,' while Bobowissi has
priests and offerings.
It is clear that Major Ellis is endeavouring to explain,
by a singular solution (namely, the borrowing of a God
from Europeans), and that a solution improbable and
inadequate, a phenomenon of very wide distribution.
Nyankupon cannot be explained apart from Taaroa,
' Op. cit. p. 27.
Q2
228 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Puluga, Ahone, Ndengei, Dendid, and Ta-li-y-Tooboo,
Gods to be later described, who cannot, by any stretch
of probabilities, be regarded as of European origin. All
of these represent the primeval Supreme Being, more or
less or altogether stripped, under advancing conditions
of culture, of his ethical influence, and crowded out by
the horde of useful greedy ghosts or ghost gods, whose
business is lucrative. Nyankupon has no pretensions to
be, or to have been a * spirit.' ^
Major Ellis's theory is a natural result of his belief in
a tangle of polytheism as ' the original state of rehgion.'
If so, there was not much room for the natural develop-
ment of Nyankupon, in whom 'the missionaries find a
parallel to the Jahveh of the Jews.' ^ On our theory
Nyankupon takes his place in the regular process of the
corruption of theism by animism.
The parallel case of Nzambi Mpungu, the Creator
among the Fiorts (a Bantu stock), is thus stated by
Miss Kingsley :
' I have no hesitation in saying I fully believe Nzambi
Mpungu to be a purely native god, and that he is a great
god over all things, but the study of him is even more
difficult than the study of Nzambi, because the Jesuit
missionaries who gained so great an influence over the
Fiorts in the sixteenth century identified him with
Jehovah, and worked on the native mind from that
stand-point. Consequently semi-mythical traces of Jesuit
teaching linger, even now, in the religious ideas of the
Fiorts.' 3
Nzambi Mpungu lives * behind the firmament.* * He
takes next to no interest in human affairs ; ' which is not
a Jesuit idea of God.
In all missionary accounts of savage religion, we have
to guard against two kinds of bias. One is the bias
which makes the observer deny any religion to the native
race, except devil-worship. The other is the bias which
' Ellis, p. 29. * Op. cit. p. 28.
' • African Religion and Law,' National Review, September 1897, p. 132.
MORE SAVAGE SUPliEME BEINGS 229
leads him to look for traces of a pure primitive religious
tradition. Yet we cannot but observe this reciprocal phe-
nomenon : missionaries often find a native name and idea
which answer so nearly to their conception of God that
they adopt the idea and the name, in teaching. Again,
on the other side, the savages, when first they hear the
missionaries' account of God, recognise it, as do the
Hurons and Bakwain, for what has always been familiar
to them. This is recorded in very early pre-missionary
travels, as in the book of William Strachey on Virginia
(1612), to which we now turn. The God found by
Strachey in Virginia cannot, by any latitude of conjecture,
be regarded as the result of contact with Europeans.
Yet he almost exactly answers to the African Nyankupon,
who is explained away as a * loan-god.' For the belief in
relatively pure creative beings, whether they are morally
adored, without sacrifice, or merely neglected, is so widely
diffused, that Anthropology must ignore them, or account
for them as ' loan-gods ' — or give up her theory 1
280 THE 3\IAKING OF RELIGION
XIV
AHONE. TLRA-WA. NA-PL PACEACAUAO,
TUI LAGA, TAA-BOA
In this chapter it is my object to set certain American
Creators beside the African beings whom we have been
examining. AVe shall range from Hurons to Pawnees
and Blackfeet, and end with Pachacamac, the supreme
being of the old Inca civilisation, with Tui Laga and
Taa-roa. It will be seen that the Hurons have been
accidentally deprived of their benevolent Creator by a
bibliographical accident, while that Creator corresponds
very well with the Peruvian Pachacamac, often regarded
as a mere philosophical abstraction. The Pawnees will
show us a Creator involved in a sacrificial ritual, which is
not common, while the Blackfeet present a Creator who is
not envisaged as a spirit at all, and, on our theory, re-
presents a very early stage of the theistic conception.
To continue the argument from analogy against
Major Ellis's theory of the European origin of Nyan-
kupon, it seems desirable first to produce a parallel to
his case, and to that of his blood-stained subordinate
deity, Bobowissi, from a quarter where European in-
fluence is absolutely out of the question. Virginia was
first permanently colonised by Englishmen in 1607, and
the * Historie of Travaile into Virginia,' by William
Strachey, Gent., first Secretary of the Colony, dates
from the earliest years (1612-1616). It will hardly be
suggested, then, that the natives had already adopted
our Supreme Being, especially as Strachey says that the
AMERICAN CREATORS 231
native priests strenuously opposed the Christian God.
Strachey found a house-inhabiting, agricultural, and settled
population, under chiefs, one of whom, Powhattan, was a
kind of Bretwalda. The temples contained the dried
bodies of the iveroances, or aristocracy, beside which was
their Okeus, or Oki, an image * ill favouredly carved,' all
black dressed, ' who doth them all the harm they suffer.
He is propitiated by sacrifices of their own children '
(probably an error) * and of strangers.'
Mr. Tylor quotes a description of this Oki, or Okeus,
with his idol and bloody rites, from Smith's ' History of
Virginia ' (1632).' The two books, Strachey's and Smith's,
are here slightly varying copies of one original. But,
after censuring Smith's (and Strachey's) hasty theory
that Okeus is ' no other than a devil,' Mr. Tylor did
not find in Smith what follows in Strachey. Okeus
has human sacrifices, like Bobovidssi, 'whilst the great
God (the priests tell them) who governes all the world,
and makes the sun to shine, creatyng the moone and
Starrs his companyons . . . they calling (sic) Ahone.
The good and peaceable God requires no such dutyes,
nor needs to be sacrificed unto, for he intendeth all good
unto them.' Okeus, on the contrary, 'looking into all
men's accions, and examining the same according to the
severe scheme of justice, punisheth them. . . . Such is
the misery and thraldome under which Sathan hath
bound these wretched miscreants.'
As if, in Mr. Strachey's own creed, Satan does not
punish, in hell, the offences of men against God !
Here, then, in addition to a devil (or rather a divine
police magistrate), and general fetishism and nature
worship, we find that the untutored Virginian is equipped
with a merciful Creator, without idol, temple, or sacrifice,
as needing nought of ours It is by the merest accident,
the use of Smith's book (1632) instead of Strachey's book
(1612), that Mr. Tylor is unaware of these essential
facts.^
' In Pinkerton, xiii. pp. 13, 39 ; Prim. Cult. ii. 342.
* See Preface to this edition for corrected statement.
232 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Dr. Brinton, like Mr. Tylor, cites Smith for the
nefarious or severe Okeus, and omits any mention of
Ahone, the benevolent Creator.^ Now, Strachey's evidence
is early (1612), is that of a well-educated man, fond of
airing his Greek, and not prejudiced in favour of these
worshippers of ' Sathan.' In Virginia he found the un-
propitiated loving Supreme Being, beside a subordinate,
like Nyankupon beside Bobowissi in Africa.
Each highest deity, in Virginia or on the Gold Coast,
is more or less eclipsed in popular esteem by nascent
polytheism and nature worship. This is precisely what
we should expect to find, if Ahone, the Creator, were
earlier in evolution, while Okeus and the rest were of the
usual greedy class of animistic corruptible deities, useful
to priests. This could not be understood while Ahone
was left out of the statement.^
Probably Mr. Strachey's narrative justifies, by analogy,
our suspicion of Major Ellis's theory that the African
Supreme Being is of European origin. The purpose in the
Ahone-Okeus creed is clear. God (Ahone) is omnipotent
and good, yet calamities beset mankind. How are these
to be explained? Clearly as penalties for men's sins,
inflicted, not by Ahone, but by his lieutenant, Okeus.
But that magistrate can be, and is, appeased by sacrifices,
which it would be impious, or, at all events, useless, to
offer to the Supreme Being, Ahone. It is a logical creed,
but how was the Supreme Being evolved out of the ghost
of a * people-devouring king ' like Powhattan ? The facts,
very fairly attested, do not fit the anthropological theory.
It is to be remarked that Strachey's Ahone is a much
' Myths of the Netv World, p. 47.
^ There is a description of Virginia, by W. Strachey, including Smith's
remarks, published in 1612. Strachey interwove some of this work with
his own MS. in the British Museum, dedicated to Bacon (Verulam). This
MS. Avas edited by Mr. Major, for the Hakluyt Society, in 1849, with a
glossary, by Strachey, of the native language. The remarks on religion are
in Chapter VII. The passage on Ahone occurs in Strachey (1612), but not
in Smith (1632), in Pinkerton. I owe to the kindness of Mr. Edmund
Gosse photographs of the drawings accompanying the MS. Strachey's
story of sacrifice of children (pp. 94, 9-5) seems to refer to nothing worse
than the initiation into the mysteries.
AMERICAN CREATORS 233
less mythological conception than that which, on very
good evidence, he attributes to the Indians of the
Patowemeck Eiver. Their Creator is spoken of as
' a godly Hare,' who receives their souls into Paradise,
whence they are reborn on earth again, as in Plato's
myth. They also regard the four winds as four Gods.
How the god took the mythological form of a hare is
diversely explained.^
Meanwhile the Ahone-Okeus creed corresponds to
the Nyankupon-Bobowissi creed. The American faith
is certainly not borrowed from Europe, so it is less likely
that the African creed is borrowed.
As illustrations of the general theory here presented,
we may now take two tribal religions among the North
American Indians. The first is that of the equestrian
Pawnees, who, thirty years ago, were dwelling on the
Loup Fork in Nebraska. The buffaloes have since been
destroyed, the lands seized, and the Pawnees driven into
a ' Reservation,' where they are, or lately were, cheated
and oppressed in the usual way. They were originally
known to Europeans in four hordes, the fourth being the
Skidi or WoK Pawnees. They seem to have come into
Kansas and Nebraska, at a date relatively remote, from
Mexico, and are allied with the Lipans and Tonkaways of
that region. The Tonkaways are a tribe who, in a
sacred mystery, are admonished to ' live like the wolves,'
in exactly the same way as were the Hirpi (wolf tribe) , of
Mount Soracte, who practised the feat of walking unhurt
through fire.^ The Tonkaways regard the Pawnees, who
also have a wolf tribe, as a long-separated branch of their
race. If, then, they are of Mexican origin, we might
expect to find traces of Aztec ritual among the Pawnees.
Long after they obtained better weapons they used
flint-headed arrows for slaying the only two beasts which
it was lawful to sacrifice, the deer and the buffalo. They
have long been a hunting and also an agricultural people.
The corn was given to them originally by the Euler :
' See Brinton, Myths of the Ncio World, for a philological theory.
- Compare ' The Fire Walk ' in Modern Mythologij.
234 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
their god, Ti-ra-wd, ' the Spirit Father.* They offer the
sacrifice of a deer with pecuhar solemnity, and are a very
prayerful people. The priest 'held a relation to the
Pawnees and their deity not unlike that occupied by
Moses to Jehovah and the Israelites.' A feature in ritual
is the sacred bundles of unknown contents, brought from
the original home in Mexico. The Pawnees were created
by Ti-ra-wa. They believe in a happy future life, while
the wicked die, and there is an end of them. They cite
their dreams of the dead as an argument for a life beyond
the tomb. * We see ourselves living with Ti-ra-w4 ! ' An
evil earlier race, which knew not Ti-ra-wa, was destroyed
by him in the Deluge ; evidence is found in large fossil
bones, and it would be an interesting inquiry whether
such fossils are always found where the story of a
' sin-flood ' occurs. If so, fossils must be universally
diffused.
As is common, the future life is attested, not only by
dreams, but in the experience of men who * have died '
and come back to life, like Secret Pipe Chief, who told
the story to Mr. Grinnell. These visions in a state of
apparent death are not peculiar to savages, and, no doubt,
have had much effect on beliefs about the next world.'
Ghosts are rarely seen, but auditory hallucinations, as of a
voice giving good advice in time of peril, are regarded as the
speech of ghosts. The beasts are also friendly, as fellow
children with men of Ti-ra-wa. To the Morning Star
the Skidi or Wolf Pawnees offered on rare occasions a
captive man. The ceremony was not unHke that of the
Aztecs, though less cruel. Curiously enough, the slayer
of the captive had instantly to make a mock flight, as in
the Attic Bouphonia. This, however, was a rite paid to
the Morning Star, not to Ti-ra-wa, ' the power above
that moves the universe and controls all things.' Sacrifice
to Ti-ra-wd was made on rare and solemn occasions
out of his two chief gifts, deer and buffalo. ' Through
' Compare St. Augustine's curious anecdote in De Cura pro Mortuis
liabenda about the dead and revived Curio. The founder of the new Sioux
religion, based on liypuotism, ' died ' and recovered.
AI^rERICAN CTREATORS 236
corn, deer, buffalo, and the sacred bundles, we worship
Ti-ra-wd'
The flesh was burned in the fire, while prayers were
made with great earnestness. In the old Skidi rite the
women told the fattened captive what they desired to gain
from the Ruler. It is occasionally said that the human
sacrifice was made to Ti-ra-wd himself. The sacrificer
not only fled, but fasted and mourned. It is possible
that, as among the Aztecs, the victim was regarded as
also an embodiment of the God, but this is not certain,
the rite having long been disused. Mr. Grinnell got the
description from a very old Skidi. There was also a
festival of thanks to Ti-ra-wa for corn. During a sacred
dance and hymn the corn is held up to the Euler by a
woman. Corn is ritually called ' The Mother,' as in Peru.'
' We are like seed, and we worship through the Corn.'
Disease is caused by evil spirits, and many American
soldiers were healed by Pawnee doctors, though their
hurts had refused to yield to the treatment of the United
States Army Surgeons.^
The miracles wrought by Pawnee medicine men,
under the eyes of Major North, far surpass what is told
of Indian jugglery. But this was forty years ago, and it
is probably too late to learn anything of these astounding
performances of naked men on the hard floor of a lodge.
* Major North told me ' (Mr. Grinnell) * that he saw with '
his own eyes the doctors make the corn grow,' the doctor
not manipulating the plant, as in the Mango trick, but
standing apart and singing. Mr. Grinnell says : * I have
never found any one who could even suggest an explana-
tion.'
This art places great power in the hands of the
doctors, who exhibit many other prodigies. It is notable
that in this religion we hear nothing of ancestor- worship ;
all that is stated as to ghosts has been reported. We find
the cult of an all-powerful being, in whose ritual sacri-
fice is the only feature that suggests ghost-worship. The
' Cf. Demeter.
* Major North, for long the U.S. Superintendent of the Pawnees.
236 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
popular tales and historical reminiscences of the last
generation entirely bear out by their allusions Mr. Grin-
nell's account of the Pawnee faith, in which the ethical
element chiefly consists in a sense of dependence on and
touching gratitude to Ti-ra-wa, as shown in fervent
prayer. Theft he abhors, he applauds valour, he punishes
the wicked by annihilation, the good dwell with him in
his heavenly home. He is addressed as A-ti-us ta-kaw-a,
* Our father in all places.'
It is not so easy to see how this Being was developed
out of ancestor- worship, of which we find no traces among
Pawnees. For ancestor- worship among the Sioux, it is
usual to quote a remark of one Prescott, an interpreter :
' Sometimes an Indian will say, " Wah negh on she wan
da," which means, " Spirits of the dead have mercy on me."
Then they will add what they want. That is about the
amount of an Indian's prayer.' ' Obviously, when we
compare Mr. Grinnell's account of Pawnee religion, based
on his own observations, and those of Major North, and
Mr. Dunbar, who has written on the language of the
tribe, we are on much safer ground, than when we follow
a contemptuous, half-educated European.
The religion of the Blackfoot Indians appears to be a
ruder form of the Pawnee faith. Whether the differences
arise from tribal character, or from decadence, or because
the Blackfoot belief is in an earHer and more backward
condition than that of the Pawnees, it is not easy to be
certain. As in China, there exists a difficulty in deciding
whether the Supreme Being is identical with the great
nature-god ; in China the Heaven, among the Blackfeet
the Sun ; or is prior to him in conception, or has been,
later, substituted for him, or placed beside him. The
Blackfoot mythology is low, crude, and, except in tales
of Creation, is derisive. As in Australia, there is a
specific difference of tone between mythology and
religion.
The Blackfoot country runs east from the summit of
the Bocky Mountains, to the mouth of the Yellowstone
' Schoolcraft, iii. 237.
AMERICAN CREATORS 237
river on the Missouri, then west to the Yellowstone
sources, across the Eocky Mountains to the Beaverhead,
thence to their summit.
As to spirits, the Blackfeet believe in, or at least tell
stories of, ghosts, which conduct themselves much as in
our old-fashioned ghost stories. They haunt people in a
rather sportive and irresponsible way. The souls or
shadows of respectable persons go to the bleak country
called the Sand Hills, where they live in a dull, mono-
tonous kind of Sheol. The shades of the v^icked are
* earth-bound ' and mischievous, especially ghosts of men
slain in battle. They cause paralysis and madness, but
dread interiors of lodges ; they only * tap on the lodge-
skins.' Like many Indian tribes, the Blackfeet have the
Eurydice legend. A man grieving for his dead wife finds
his way to Hades, is pitied by the dead, and allowed to
carry the woman back with him, under certain ritual
prohibitions, one of which he unhappily infringes. The
range of this deeply touching story among the Eed Men,
and its close resemblance to the tale of Orpheus, is one of
the most curious facts in mythology. Mr. Grinnell's
friend Young Bear, when lost with his wife in a fog,
heard a Voice, *It is well. Go on, you are going right.'
' The top of my head seemed to lift up. It seemed as if
a lot of needles were running into it. . . . This must
have been a ghost.' As the wife also heard the Voice it
was probably human, not hallucinatory.
Animals receive the usual amount of friendly respect
from the Blackfeet. They have also an inchoate poly-
theism, 'Above Persons, Ground Persons, and Under
"Water Persons.' Of the first, Thunder is most important,
and is worshipped. There is the Cold Maker, a white
figure on a white horse, the Wind, and so on.
The Creator is Na-pi, Old Man ; Dr. Brinton thinks
he is a personification of Light, but Mr. Grinnell reckons
it absurd to attribute so abstract a conception to the
Blackfeet. Na-pi is simply a primal Being, an Immortal
Man,' who was before Death came into the world, concern-
' As envisaged here, Na-pi is not a spirit. The question of spirit or
238 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
ing which one of the usual tales of the Origin of Death is
told. ' All things that he had made understood him when
he spoke to them — birds, animals, and people,' as in the
first chapters of Genesis. With Na-pi, Creation worked
on the lines of adaptation to environment. He put the
bighorn on the prairie. There it was awkward, so he set
it on rocky places, where it skipped about with ease. The
antelope fell on the rocks, so he removed it to the level
prairie. Na-pi created man and woman out of clay, but
the folly of the woman introduced Death. Na-pi, as a
Prometheus, gave fire, and taught the forest arts. He
inculcated the duty of prayer ; his will should be done
by emissaries in the shape of animals. Then he went to
other peoples. The misfortunes of the Indians arise from
disobedience to his laws.
Chiefs were elective, for conduct, courage, and
charity.
Though weapons and utensils were buried with the dead,
or exposed on platforms, and though great men were left
to sleep in their lodges, henceforth never to be entered by
the living, there is no trace known to me of continued
ancestor- worship. As many Blackfeet change their names
yearly, ancestral names are not likely to become those of
gods.
The Sun is by many beheved to have taken the
previous place of N^-pi in rehgion ; or perhaps Na-pi is
the Sun. However, he is still separately addressed in
prayer. The Sun receives presents of furs and so forth ; a
finger, when the prayer is for life, has been offered to
him. Fetishism probably shows itself in gifts to a great
rock. There is daily prayer, both to the Sun and to Ni-pi.
Women institute Medicine Lodges, praying, * Pity me. Sun.
non-spirit has not arisen. So far, Na-pi answers to Marrangarrah, the
Creative Being of the Larrakeah tribe of Australians. ' A very good Man
called Marrangarrah lives in the sky ; he made all living creatures, except
black fellows. He made everything. . . . He never dies, and likes all black
fellows.' He has a demiurge, Dawed (Mr. Foelsche, apzid Dr. Stirling,
J.A.I., Nov. 1894, p. 191). It is curious to observe how savage creeds
often shift the responsibility for evil from the Supreme Creator, entirely
beneficent, on to a subordinate deity.
AMERICAN CREATORS 239
You have seen my life. You know that I am pure.' ' We
look on the Medicine Lodge woman as you white people
do on the Koman Catholic Sisters.' Being 'virtuous
in deed, serious, and clean -minded,' the Medical Lodge
woman is in spiritual rapport with Na-pi and the Sun.
To this extent, at least, Blackfoot religion is an ethical
influence.
The creed seems to be a nascent polytheism, sub-
ordinate to Na-pi as supreme Maker, and to the per-
sonified Sun. As Blackfoot ghosts are ' vaporous, in-
effectual ' for good, there seems to be nothing like ancestor
worship.
These two cults and beliefs, Pawnee and Blackfoot,
may be regarded as fairly well authenticated examples of
un-Christianised American religion among races on the
borderland of agriculture and the chase. It would be
difficult to maintain that ghost-worship or ancestor-
worship is a potent factor in the evolution of the death-
less Ti-ra-wd or the immortal Creator Na-pi, who has
nothing of the spirit about him, especially as ghosts are
not worshipped.'
Let us now look at the Supreme Being of a civilised
American people. There are few more interesting accounts
of religion than Garcilasso de la Vega's description of faith
in Peru. Garcilasso was of Inca parentage on the spindle
side ; he was born in 1540, and his book, taken from the
traditions of an uncle, and aided by the fragmentary
collections of Father Bias Valera, was published in 1609.
In Garcilasso' s theory the original people of Peru,
Totemists and worshippers of hills and streams, Earth
and Sea, were converted to Sun worship by the first Inca,
a child of the Sun. Even the new religion included
ancestor-worship and other superstitions. But behind
Sun worship was the faith in a Being who * advanced the
Sun so far above all the stars of heaven.' ^ This Being
was Pachacamac, ' the sustainer of the world.' The
question then arises. Is Pachacamac a form of the same
• Grinnell's Blackfoot Lodge-Tales and Pawnee Hero Stories.
^ Garcilasso, i. 101.
240 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
creative being whom we find among the lowest savages,
or is he the result of philosophical reflection ? The latter
was the opinion of Garcilasso. * The Incas and their
Araautas ' (learned class) ' were philosophers.' ^
'Pacha,' he says, = universe, and 'carna' = soul.
Pachacamac, then, is Anima Mundi. ' They did not
even take the name of Pachacamac into their mouths,'
or but seldom and reverently, as the Australians will not,
in religious matters, mention Darumulun. Pachacamac
had no temple, * but they worshipped him in their hearts.'
That he was the Creator appears in an earlier writer,
cited by Garcilasso, Agustin de Zarate (ii. ch. 5). Garci-
lasso, after denying the existence of temples to Pacha-
camac, mentions one, but only one. He insists, at length,
and with much logic, that He whom, as a Christian, he
worships, is in Quichua styled Pachacamac. Moreover,
the one temple to Pachacamac was not built by an Inca,
but by a race which, having heard of the Inca god,
borrowed his name, without understanding his nature, that
of a Being who dwells not in temples made with hands
(ii. 186). In the temple this people, the Yuncas, offered
even human sacrifices. By the Incas to Pachacamac' no
sacrifice was offered (ii. 189). This negative custom they
also imposed upon the Yuncas, and they removed idols
from the Yunca temple of Pachacamac (ii. 190). Yunca
superstitions, however, infested the temple, and a Voice
gave oracles therein.'^ The Yuncas also had a talking
idol, which the Inca, in accordance with a religious
treaty, occasionally consulted.
I "While Pachacamac, without temple or rite, was rec-
koned the Creator, we must understand that Sun-worship
and ancestor- worship were the practical elements of the
Inca cult. This appears to have been distasteful to the
Inca Huayna Ccapac, for at a Sun feast he gazed hard on
the Sun, was remonstrated with by a priest, and replied
• Op. cit. i. 106.
* From all this we might conjecture, like Mr. Prescott, that the Incas
borrowed Pachacamac from the Yuneas, and etherealised his religion. But
Mr. Clements Markham points out that ' Pachacamac is a pure Quichua
word.'
AMERICAN CREATORS 241
that the restless Sun 'must have another Lord more
powerful than himself.' '
This remark could not have been necessary if Pacha-
camac were really an article of living and universal belief.
Perhaps we are to understand that this Inca, like his
father, who seems to have been the original author of the
saying, meant to sneer at the elaborate worship bestowed
on the Sun, while Pachacamac was neglected, as far as
ritual went.
In Garcilasso's book we have to allow for his desire
to justify the creed of his maternal ancestors. His
criticism of Spanish versions is acute, and he often
appeals to his knowledge of Quichua, and to the direct
traditions received by him from his uncle. Against his
theory of Pachacamac as a result of philosophical thought,
it may be urged that similar conceptions, or nearly siniihir,
exist among races not civilised like the Incas, and not
provided with colleges of learned priests. In fact, the
position of Pachacamac and the Sun is very nearly that
of the Blackfoot Creator Na-pi, and the Sun, or of Shang-ti
and the Heaven, in China. We have the Creative Being
whose creed is invaded by that of a worshipped aspect
of nature, and whose cult, quite logically, is nil, or nearly
nil. There are also, in different strata of the Inca empire,
ancestor-worship, or mummy-worship, Totemism and
polytheism, with a vague mass of huaca=Elohim, kalou,
wahan.
Perhaps it would not be too rash to conjecture that
Pachacamac is not a merely philosophical abstraction,
but a survival of a Being like Na-pi or Ahone. Cieza
de Leon calls Pachacamac ' a devil,' whose name means
* creator of the world ' ! ^ The name, when it was uttered,
was spoken with genuflexions and signs of reverence. So
closely did Pachacamac resemble the Christian Deity, that
Cieza de Leon declares the devil to have forged and
insisted on the resemblance ! ' It was open to Spanish
missionaries to use Pachacamac, as to the Jesuits among
' Garcilasso, ii. 446, 447. * Cieza de Leon, p. 253.
^ Markham's translation, p. 253.
B
242 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
tile Bantu to use Mpungu, as a fulcrum for the introduction
of Christianity. They preferred to regard Pachacamac
as a fraudulent fiend. Now Nzambi Mpungu, among the
Bantu, is assuredly not a creation of a learned priesthood,
for the Bantu have no learned priests, and Mpungu would
be useless to the greedy conjurers whom they do consult,
as he is not propitiated. On grounds of analogy, then,
Pachacamac may be said to resemble a savage Supreme
Being, somewhat etherealised either by Garcilasso or by
the Amautas, the learned class among the subjects of
the Incas. He does not seem, even so, much superior to
the Ahone of the Virginians.
We possess, however, a different account of Inca
religion, from which Garcilasso strongly dissents. The
best version is that of Christoval de Molina, who was
chaplain of the hospital for natives, and wrote between
1570 and 1584.' Christoval assembled a number of old
priests and other natives who had taken part in the
ancient services, and collected their evidence. He calls
the Creator ('not born of woman, unchangeable and
eternal ') by the name Pachayachachi, ' Teacher of the
world ' and ' Tecsiviracocha,' which Garcilasso dismisses as
meaningless.^ He also tells the tale of the Inca Yupanqui
and the Lord of the Sun, but says that the Incas had
already knowledge of the Creator. To Yupanqui he
attributes the erection of a gold image of the Creator,
utterly denied by Garcilasso.^ Christoval declares, again
contradicted by Garcilasso, that sacrifices were offered to
the Creator. Unlike the Sun, Christoval says, the Creator
had no woman assigned to him, ' because, as he created
them, they all belonged to him ' (p. 26), which, of course,
is an idea that would also make sacrifice superfluous.
Christoval gives prayers in Quichua, wherein the
Creator is addressed as Uiracocha.
Christoval assigns images, sacrifice, and even human
sacrifice, to the Creator Uiracocha. Garcilasso denies
that the Creator Pachacamac had any of these things,
' Rites mid Laws of the Tncas, Maikham's translation, p. vii.
^ Bites, p. 6. Garcilasso, i. 109. ^ Bites, p. 11.
AMERICAN CREATORS 248
he denies that Uiracocha was the name of the Creator,
and he denies it, knowing that the Spaniards made the
assertion.^ Who is right? Uiracocha, says Garcilasso,
is one thing, with his sacrifices ; the Creator, Pachacamac,
without sacrifices, is another, is God.
Mr. Markham thinks that Garcilasso, writing when he
did, and not consciously exaggerating, was yet less trust-
worthy (though ' wonderfully accurate ') than Christoval.
Garcilasso, however, is ' scrupulously truthful.' ^ * The
excellence of his memory is perhaps best shown in his
topographical details. . . . He does not make a single
mistake,' in the topography of three hundred and twenty
places ! A scrupulously truthful gentleman, endowed with
an amazing memory, and a master of his native language,
flatly contradicts the version of a Spanish priest, who also
appears to have been careful and honourable.
I shall now show that Christoval and Garcilasso have
different versions of the same historical events, and that
Garcilasso bases his confutation of the Spanish theory
of the Inca Creator on his form of this historical tradi-
tion, which follows :
The Inca Yahuarhuaccac, like George II., was at odds
with his Prince of Wales. He therefore banished the
Prince to Chita, and made him serve as shepherd of the
llamas of the Sun. Three years later the disgraced
Prince came to Court, with what the Inca regarded as a
cock-and-bull story of an apparition of the kind technically
styled ' Borderland.' Asleep or awake, he knew not, he
saw a bearded robed man holding a strange animal. The
appearance declared himself as Uiracocha (Christoval's
name for the Creator), a Child of the Sun; by no means as
Pachacamac, the Creator of the Sun. He announced a
distant rebellion, and promised his aid to the Prince.
The Inca, hearing this narrative, replied in the tones of
Charles II., when he said about Monmouth, ' Tell James
to go to hell ! ' ^ The predicted rebellion, however, broke
out, the Inca fled, the Prince saved the city, dethroned
' Compare Repoi'ts on Discovery of Peru, Introduction.
• Rites, p. XV. * Lord Ailesbury's Memoirs.
B 2
244 TPIE MAKING OF RELIGION
his father, and sent him into the country. He then
adopted, from the apparition, the throne-name Uiracocha,
grew a beard, and dressed like the apparition, to whom he
erected a temple, roofless, and unique in construction.
Therein he had an image of the god, for which he himself
gave frequent sittings. When the Spaniards arrived,
bearded men, the Indians called them Uiracochas (as all
the Spanish historians say), and, to flatter them, declared
falsely that Uiracocha was their word for the Creator.
Garcilasso explodes the Spanish etymology of the name,
in the language of Cuzco, which he ' sucked in with his
mother's milk.' * The Indians said that the chief Spaniards
were children of the Sun, to make gods of them, just as
they said they were children of the apparition, Uiracocha.'^
Moreover, Garcilasso and Cieza de Leon agree in their
descriptions of the image of Uiracocha, which, both assert,
the Spaniards conceived to represent a Christian early
missionary, perhaps St. Bartholomew.^ Garcilasso had
seen the mummy of the Inca Uiracocha, and relates the
whole tale from the oral version of his uncle, adding many
native comments on the Court revolution described.
To Garcilasso, then, the invocations of Uiracocha, in
Christoval's collection of prayers, are a native adaptation
to Spanish prejudice : even in them Pachacamac occurs.^
Now, Christoval has got hold of a variant of Garci-
lasso's narrative, which, in Garcilasso, has plenty of
humour and human nature. According to Christoval it
was not the Prince, later Inca Uiracocha, who beheld
the apparition, but the Inca Uiracocha's so7i, Prince of
Wales, as it were, of the period, later the Inca Yupanqui.
Garcilasso corrects Christoval. Uiracocha saw the
apparition, as Pere Acosta rightly says, and Yupanqui was
7wt the son but the grandson of this Inca Uiracocha.''
Uiracocha's own son was Pachacutec, which simply
means ' Revolution,' * they say, by way of by- word
'Pacliamcutin, which means " the world changes." '
Christoval's form of the story is peculiarly gratifying
' Garcilasso, ii. 68. * Cieza de Leon, p. 357.
• Uites, pp. 28, 29. * Acosta, lib. vi. ch. 21 ; Garcilasso, ii. 88, 89.
AMERICAN CREATORS 245
in one way. Yupanqui saw the apparition ■in apiece of
crystal, ' the apparition vanished, while the piece of crystal
remained. The Inca took care of it, and they say that he
afterwards saw everything he wanted in it.' The appari-
tion, in human form and in Inca dress, gave itself out for
the Sun ; and Yupanqui, when he came to the throne,
* ordered a statue of the Sun to be made, as nearly as
possible resembling the figure he had seen in the crystal.*
He bade his subjects to ' reverence the new deity, as they
had heretofore worshipped the Creator,' ' who, therefore,
was prior to Uiracocha.
Interesting as a proof of Inca crystal-gazing, this legend
of Christoval's cannot compete as evidence with Acosta
and Garcilasso. The reader, however, must decide as to
whether he prefers Garcilasso's unpropitiated Pachacamac,
or Christoval's Uiracocha, human sacrifices, and all.'^
Mr. Tylor prefers the version of Christoval, making
Pachacamac a title of Uiracocha.^ He thinks that we
have, in Inca religion, an example of ' a subordinate god '
(the Sun) ' usurping the place of the supreme deity,' ' the
rivalry between the Creator and the divine Sun.' In
China, as we shall see, Mr. Tylor thinks, on the other
hand, that Heaven is the elder god, and that Shang-ti,
the Supreme Being, is the usurper.
The truth in the Uiracocha versus Pachacamac con-
troversy is difQcult to ascertain. I confess a leaning
toward Garcilasso, so truthful and so wonderfully accurate,
rather than to the Spanish priest. Christoval, it will
be remarked, says that * Chanca-Uiracocha was a huaca
(sacred place) in Chuqui-chaca.' * Now Chuqui-chaca is.
the very place where, according to Garcilasso, the Inca
Uiracocha erected a temple to ' his Uncle, the Apparition.'^
Uiracocha, then, the deity who receives human sacrifice,
would be a late, royally introduced ancestral god, no real
rival of the Creator, who receives no sacrifice at all, and,
as he was bearded, his name would be easily transferred to
the bearded Spaniards, whose arrival the Inca Uiracocha
» Bites, ^. 12. « ii.p. 54.
» Prim. Cult. ii. 337, 338. * Bites, p. 29. ^ Garcilasso, ii. 60.
246 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
was said to have predicted. But to call several or all
Spaniards by the name given to the Creator would be
absurd. Mr. Tylor and Mr. Markham do not refer to
the passage in which Christoval obviously gets hold of a
wrong version of the story of the apparition.
There is yet another version of this historical legend,
written forty years after Christoval's date by Don Juan
de Santa Cruz Pachacuti-yamqui Salcamayhua. He ranks
after Garcilasso and Christoval, but before earlier Spanish
writers, such as Acosta, who knew not Quichua. According
to Salcamayhua, the Inca Uiracocha was like James III.,
fond of architecture and averse to war. He gave the
realm to his bastard. Urea, who was defeated and killed
by the Chancas. Uiracocha meant to abandon the con-
test, but his legitimate son, Yupanqui, saw a fair youth
on a rock, who promised him success in the name of the
Creator, and then vanished. The Prince was victorious,
and the Inca Uiracocha retired into private life. This
appears to be a mixture of the stories of Garcilasso and
Christoval.'
It is not, in itself, a point of much importance whether
the Creator was called Uiracocha (which, if it means
anything, means ' sea of grease ! '), or whether he was
called Pachacamac, maker of the world, or by both names.
The important question is as to. whether the Creator
received even human sacrifices (Christoval) or none at
all (Garcilasso). As to Pachacamac, we must consult
Mr. Payne, who has the advantage of being a Quichua
scholar. He considers that Pachacamac combines the
conception of a general spirit of living things with that
of a Creator or maker of all things. ' Pachacamac and
the Creator are one and the same,' but the conception of
j Pachayachacic, 'ruler of the world,' ' belongs to the later
period of the Incas.' ^ Mr. Payne appears to prefer
Christoval's legend of the Inca crystal-gazer, to the rival
version of Garcilasso. The Yunca form of the worship of
Pachacamac Mr. Payne regards as an example of de-
' Bites and Laws, p. 91 et seg.
• Payne, i. 459.
AMERICAN CREATORS 247
gradation.^ He disbelieves Garcilasso's statement that
human sacrifices were not made to the Sun. Garcilasso
must, if Mr. Payne is right, have been a deHberate har,
unless, indeed, he was deceived by his Inca kinsfolk.
The reader can now estimate for himself the difficulty of
knowing much about Peruvian religion, or, indeed, of any
religion. For, if Mr. Payne is right about the lowest
savages having no conception of God, or even of spirit,
though the idea of a great Creator, a spirit, is one of the
earliest efforts of 'primitive logic,' we, of course, have
been merely fabling throughout.
Garcilasso's evidence, however, seems untainted by
Christian attempts to find a primitive divine tradition.
Garcilasso may possibly be refining on facts, but he asks
for no theory of divine primitive tradition in the case of
Pachacamac, whom he attributes to philosophical reflec-
tion.
In the following chapter we discuss ' the old Degenera-
tion theory,' and contrast it with the scheme provisionally
offered in this book. We have already observed that the
Degeneration theory biasses the accounts of some mis-
sionaries who are obviously anxious to find traces of a
Primitive Tradition, originally revealed to all men, but
only preserved in a pure form by the Jews. To avoid
deception by means of this bias we have chosen examples
of savage creative beings from wide areas, from diverse
ages, from non-missionary statements, from the least
contaminated backward peoples, and from their secret
mysteries and hymns.
Thus, still confining ourselves to the American con-
tinent, we have the ancient hymns of the Zuhis, in no
way Christianised, and never chanted in the presence of
the Mexican Spanish. These hymns run thus : ' Before
the beginning of the New Making, Awonawilona, the
Maker and container of All, the All-Father, solely had
being.' He then evolved all things ' by thinking himself
outward in space.' Hegelian ! but so are the dateless
' Op. cit. i. 463. Mr. Payne absolutely rejects Ixtlilochitl's story of the
monotheism of Nezahualcoyotl ; ' Tovqueraada knows nothing of it,' i. 490.
248 THE IMAKING OF EELIGION
hymns of the Maoris, despite the savage mythology which
intrudes into both sets of traditions. The old fable of
Ouranos and Gaia recurs in Zuhi as in Maori.'
I fail to see how Awonawilona could be developed out
of the ghost of chief or conjurer. That in which all things
potentially existed, yet who was more than all, is not the
ghost of a conjurer or chief. He certainly is not due to
missionary influence. No authority can be better than
that of traditional sacred chants found among a populace
which will not sing them before one of their Mexican
masters.
We have tried to escape from the bias of belief in a
primitive divine tradition, but bias of every kind exists,
and must exist. At present the anthropological hypo-
thesis of ancestor-worship as the basis, perhaps (as in
Mr. Spencer's theory) the only basis of religion, affects
observers. Before treating the theory of Degeneration
let us examine a case of the anthropological bias. The
Fijians, as we learned from "Williams, have ancestral
gods, and also a singular form of the creative being,
Ndengei, or, as Mr. Basil Thomson calls him, Degei.
Mr. Thomson writes : ' It is clear that theFijians humanised
their gods, because they had once existed on earth in human
form. . . . Like other primitive people, the Fijians deified
their ancestors.' Yet the Fijians ' may have forgotten the
names of their ancestors three generations back ' ! How
in the world can you deify a person whom you don't
remember ? Moreover, only malevolent chiefs were dei-
fied, so apparently a Fijian god is really a well-born
human scoundrel, so considerable that he for one is not
forgotten — just as if we worshipped the wicked Lord
Lyttelton ! Of course a god like Ahone could not be
made out of such materials as these, and, in fact, we
learn from Mr. Thomson that there are other Fijian gods
of a different origin.
' It is probable that there were here and there, gods
that were the creation oj the priests that ministered to them,
' Gushing, Beport, Ethnol. Bureau, 1891-92, p. 379.
AMEIUCAN CREATORS 249
and tvere not the spirits of dead chiefs. Such was the god
of the Bure Tribe on the Ba coast, who was called Tui
Laga or " Lord of Heaven." When the missionaries first
went to convert this town they found the heathen priest
their staunch ally. He declared that they had come to
preach the same god that he had been preaching, the Tui
Laga, and that more had been revealed to them than to
him of the mysteries of the god.'
Mr. Thomson is reminded of St. Paul at Athens,
* whom then ye ignorantly worship, him declare I unto
you.' >
Mr. Thomson has clearly no bias in favour of a God like
our own, known to savages, and not derived from ghost-
worship. He deduces this god, Tui Laga, from priestly
reflection and speculation. But we find such a God where
we find no priests, where a priesthood has not been de-
veloped. Such a God, being usually unpropitiated by sacri-
fice and lucrative private practice, is precisely the kind of
deity who does not suit a priesthood. For these reasons —
that a priesthood ' sees no money in ' a God of this kind,
and that Gods of this kind, ethical and creative, are found
where there are no priesthoods — we cannot look on the
conception as a late one of priestly origin, as Mr. Thomson
does, though a learned caste, like the Peruvian Amautas,
may refine on the idea. Least of all can such a God be
* the creation of the priests that minister to him,' when,
as in Peru, the Andaman Isles, and much of Africa, this
God is ministered to by no priests. Nor, lastly, can we
regard the absence of sacrifice to the Creative Being as a
mere proof that he is an ancestral ghost who * had lived
on earth at too remote a time ; ' for this absence of
sacrifice occurs where ghosts are dreaded, but are not
propitiated by offerings of food (as among Australians,
Andamanese, and Blackfoot Indians), while the Creative
Being is not and never was a ghost, according to his
worshippers.
At this point criticism may naturally remark that
J.A.I. May 1895, pp. 341-344.
250 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
whether the savage Supreme Being is feted, as by the
Comanches, who offer puffs of smoke : or is apparently
half forgotten, as by the Algonquins and Zulus : whether
he is propitiated by sacrifice (which is very rare indeed),
or only by conduct, I equally claim him as the probable
descendant in evolution of the primitive, undifferentiated,
not necessarily ' spiritual ' Being of such creeds as the
Australian.
One must reply that this pedigree cannot, indeed,
be historically traced, but that it presents none of the
logical difficulties inherent in the animistic pedigree —
namely, that the savage Supreme Being is the last and
highest result of evolution on animistic lines out of ghosts.
It does not run counter to the evidence universally offered
by savages, that their Supreme Being never was mortal
man. It is consistent, whereas the animistic hypothesis
is, in this case, inconsistent, with the universal savage
theory of Death. Finally, as has been said before, grant-
ing my opinion that there are two streams of religious
thought, one rising in the conception of an undifferentiated
Being, eternal, moral, and creative, the other rising in the
ghost-doctrine, it stands to reason that the latter, as best
adapted to everyday needs and experiences, normal and
supernormal, may contaminate the former, and introduce
sacrifice and food-propitiation into the ritual of Beings
who, by the original conception, 'need nothing of ours.'
At the same time, the conception of * spirit,' once attained,
would inevitably come to be attached to the idea of the
Supreme Being, even though he was not at first conceived
of as a spirit. We know, by our own experience, how
difficult it has become for us to think of an eternal,
powerful, and immortal being, except as a spirit. Yet
this way of looking at the Supreme Being, merely as
being, not as spirit, must have existed, granting that the
idea of spirit has ghost for its first expression, as, by their
very definition, the high gods of savages are not ghosts,
and never were ghosts, but are prior to death.
Here let me introduce, by way of example, a Supreme
Being not of the lowest savage level. Metaphysically he
AMERICAN CREATORS 261
is improved on in statement, morally he is stained with
the worst crimes of the hungry ghost-god, or god framed
on the lines of animism. This very interesting Supreme
Being, in a middle barbaric race, is the Polynesian Taa-roa,
as described by Ellis in that fascinating book ' Polynesian
Kesearches.^ ' Several of their taata-paari, or wise men,
pretend that, according to other traditions, Taa-roa was
only a man who was deified after death.' Euhemerism,
in fact, is a natural theory of men acquainted with
ancestor-worship, but a Euhemeristic hypothesis by a
Polynesian thinker is not a statement of national belief.
Taa-roa was ' uncreated, existing from the beginning, or
from the time he emerges from the po, or world of dark-
ness.' In the Leeward Isles Taa-roa was Toivi, fatherless
and motherless from all eternity. In the highest heavens
he dwells alone. He created the gods of polytheism, the
gods of war, of peace, and so on. Says a native hymn,
* He was : he abode in the void. No earth, no sky, no
men ! He became the universe.' In the Windward
Isles he has a wife. Papa the rock = Papa, Earth, wife of
Rangi, Heaven, in Maori mythology. Thus it may be
argued, Taa-roa is no ' primaeval theistic idea,' but merely
the Heaven-God (Ouranos in Greece). But we may dis-
tinguish : in the Zuiii hymn we have the myth of the
marriage of Heaven and Earth, but Heaven is not the
Eternal, Awonawilona, who * thought himself out into the
void,' before which, as in the Polynesian hymn, ' there
was no sky.' ^
"Whence came the idea of Taa-roa ? The Euhemeristic
theory that he was a ghost of a dead man is absurd. But
as we are now among polytheists it may be argued that,
given a crowd of gods on the animistic model, an origin
had to be found for them, and that origin was Taa-roa.
This would be more plausible if we did not find Supreme
Beings where there is no departmental polytheism to
develop them out of. In Tahiti, A tuas are gods, Oramutuas
tiis are spirits ; the chief of the spirits were ghosts of
warriors. These were mischievous ; they, their images,
' ii. 191, 1829. ^ Prim. Cult. ii. 345, 316. Ellis, ii. 193.
252 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
and the skulls of the dead needed propitiation, and these
ideas (perhaps) were reflected on to Taa-roa, to whom
human victims were sacrificed.'
Now this kind of horror, human sacrifice, is unknown,
I think, in early savage religions of Supreme Beings, as
in Australia, among the Bushmen, the Andamanese, and
so on. I therefore suggest that in an advanced poly-
theism, such as that of Polynesia, the evil sacrificial rites
unpractised by low savages come to be attached to the
worship even of the Supreme Being. Ghosts and ghost-
gods demanded food, and food was therefore also offered
to the Supreme Being.
It was found difficult, or impossible, to induce Christian
converts, in Polynesia, to repeat the old prayers. They
began, trembled, and abstained. They had a ritual ' for
almost every act of their lives,' a thing unfamiliar to low
savages. In fact, beyond all doubt, religious criminal acts,
from human sacrifice to the burning of Jeanne d'Arc,
increase as religion and culture move away from the stage
of Bushmen and Andamanese to the stage of Aztec and
Polynesian culture. The Supreme Being is succeeded
in advancing civilisation, and under the influences of
animism, by ruthless and insatiable ghost-gods, full of
the worst human qualities. Thus there is what we may
really call degeneration, moral and religious, inevitably
accompanying early progress.
That this is the case, that the first advances in culture
necessarily introduce religious degeneration, we shall now
try to demonstrate. But we may observe, in passing, that
our array of moral or august savage supreme beings (the
first who came to hand) will, for some reason, not be
found in anthropological treatises on the Origin of
Eeligion. They appear, somehow, to have been over-
looked by philosophers. Yet the evidence for them is
sufficiently good. Its excellence is proved bj'- its very
uniformity, assuredly undesigned. An old, nay, an obso-
lete theory — that of degeneration in religion — has facts
at its basis, which its very supporters have ignored,
' Ellis, ii. 221.
AMERICAN CREATORS 253
which orthodoxy has overlooked. Thus the Rev. Pro-
fessor FHiit informs the audience in the Cathedral of
St. Giles's, that, in the religions ' at the bottom of the
religious scale,' ' it is always easy to see how wretchedly
the divine is conceived of ; how little conscious of his
own true wants ... is the poor worshipper.' The poor
worshipper of Baiame wishes to obey His Law, which
makes, to some extent, for righteousness.'
» TJie FaitJis of ihe World, p. 413.
254 THE MAKING OP RELIGION
XV
THE OLD DEGENERATION TEEOBY
If any partisan of the anthropological theory has read
so far into this argument, he will often have murmured
to himself, ' The old degeneration theory ! ' On this
Dr. Brinton remarked in 1868 :
' The supposition that in ancient times and in very
unenlightened conditions, before mythology had grown, a
monotheism prevailed which afterwards, at various times,
was revived by reformers, is a belief that should have
passed away when the delights of savage life and the
praises of a state of nature ceased to be the theme of
philosophers.' '
' The old degeneration theory ' practically, and falla-
ciously, resolved itself, as Mr. Tylor says, into two
assumptions — ' first, that the history of culture began
with the appearance on earth of a semi-civilised race of
men ; and second, that from this stage culture has pro-
ceeded in two ways— backward to produce savages, and
forward to produce civilised men.' "^ That hypothesis is
false to all our knowledge of evolution.
The hypothesis here provisionally advocated makes no
assumptions at all. It is a positive fact that among some
I of the lowest savages there exists, not a doctrinal and
abstract Monotheism, but a belief in a moral, powerful,
kindly, creative Being, while this faith is found in juxta-
position with belief in unworshipped ghosts, totems,
» Myths of tJie New World, p. 44. » Prim. Cult. i. 35.
THE OLD DEGENERATION THEORY 255
fetishes, and so on. The powerful creative Being of savage
belief sanctions truth, unselfishness, loyalty, chastity, and
other virtues. I have set forth the difficulties involved in
the attempt to derive this Being from ghosts and other
lower forms of belief.
Now, it is mere matter of fact, and not of assumption,
that the Supreme Being of many rather higher savages
differs from the Supreme Being of certain lower savages
by the neglect in which he is left, by the epicurean repose
with which he is credited, and by his comparative lack of
moral control over human conduct. In his place a mob
of ghosts and spirits, supposed to be potent and helpful
in everyday life, attract men's regard and adoration, and
get paid by sacrifice — even by human sacrifice.
Turning to races yet higher in material culture, we
find a crowd of hungry and cruel gods.
On this point Mr. Jevons remarks, in accordance with
my own observation, that ' human sacrifice appears at a
much earlier period in the rites for the dead than it does
in the ritual of the gods.' ^ The dead chief needs servants
and wives in Hades, who are offered to him. The
Australians have some elements of cannibalism, but do
not, as a general rule, offer any human victims. So far,
then, ancestor- worship introduced a sadly * degenerate '
rite, compared with the moral faith in unfed gods.
To gods the human sacrifice was probably extended
(in some cases) either by a cannibal civilised race, like the
Aztecs, or by way of piacula, the god being conciliated
for man's sin by the offering of what man most prized,
the * jealousy ' of the god being appeased in a similar way.
But these are relatively advanced conceptions, not to be
found, to my knowledge, among the lowest and most
backward races. Therefore, advance to the idea of spirit
at one point, meant degeneration at another point, to the
extent of human sacrifice.
Thus, on looking at relatively advanced races, we find
them worshipping polytheistic deities and ghosts of the
kings just dead, who are often propitiated by terrible
' Introduction, p. 199 ; also p. 161.
266 THE MAKlJNa OF RELIGION
massacres of human victims, while, as in the case of
Taa-roa, the blood spurts back even on the uncreated
Creator, who was before earth was, or sea, sun, or sky.
Undeniably the hungry, cruel gods are degenerate from
the Australian Father in Heaven, who receives no sacri-
fice but that of men's lusts and selfishness ; who desires
obedience, not the fat of kangaroos ; who needs nothing of
ours ; is unfed and unbribed. Thus, in this particular
respect the degeneration of religion from the Australian
or Andamanese to the Dinka standard— and infinitely
more to the Polynesian, or Aztec, or popular Greek
standard — is as undeniable as any fact in human history.
Anthropology has only escaped the knowledge of this
circumstance by laying down the rule, demonstrably
unbased on facts, that ' the divine sanction of ethical
laws ... belongs almost or wholly to religions above the
savage level, not to the earlier and lower creeds ; ' that
' savage Animism is almost devoid of that ethical element
which to the educated modern mind is the very main-
spring of practical religion.' '
I have argued, indeed, that the God of low savages
who imparts the divine sanction of ethical laws is not of
animistic origin. But even where Mr. Im Thurn finds, in
Guiana, nothing but Animism of the lowest conceivable
tjrpe, he also finds in that Animism the only or most
potent moral restraint on the conduct of men.
While Anthropology holds the certainly erroneous
idea that the rehgion of the most backward races is
always non-moral, of course she cannot know that there
has, in fact, been great degeneration in religion (if religion
began on the Australian and Andamanese level, or even
higher) wherever religion is non-moral or immoral.
Again, Anthropology, while fixing her gaze on totems,
on worshipped mummies, adored ghosts, and treasured
fetishes, has not, to my knowledge, made a comparative
study of the higher and purer religious ideas of savages.
These have been passed by, with a word about credulous
missionaries and Christian influences, except in the
' Prim. Cult. U. aOO, 361.
THE OLD DEGENERATION TIIEOKY 267
brief summary for which Mr. Tylor found room. In
this work I only take a handful of cases of the higher
religious opinions of savages, and set them side by side
for purposes of comparison. Much more remains to be
done in this field. But the area covered is wide, the
evidence is the best attainable, and it seems proved beyond
doubt that savages have ' felt after ' a conception of a
Creator much higher than that for which they commonly
get credit. Now, if that conception is original, or is very
early (and nothing in it suggests lateness of development),
then the other elements of their faith and practice are
degenerate.
* How,' it has been asked, ' could all mankind forget a
pure religion ? ' ^ That is what I now try to explain.
That degeneration I would account for by the attractions
which animism, when once developed, possessed for the
naughty natural man, * the old Adam.' A moral creator
in need of no gifts, and opposed to lust and mischief,
will not help a man with love-spells, or with malevolent
' sendings * of disease by witchcraft ; will not favour one
man above his neighbour, or one tribe above its rivals, as
a reward for sacrifice which he does not accept, or as
constrained by charms which do not touch his omni-
potence. Ghosts and ghost-gods, on the other hand, in
need of food and blood, afraid of spells and binding
charms,^ are a corrupt, but, to man, a 'useful constituency. C
Man being what he is, man was certain to * go a
whoring ' after practically useful ghosts, ghost-gods, and
fetishes which he could keep in his wallet or medicine
bag. For these he was sure, in the long run, first to
neglect his idea of his Creator ; next, perhaps, to reckon
Him as only one, if the highest, of the venal rabble of
spirits or deities, and to sacrifice to Him, as to them. And
this is exactly what happened ! If we are not to call it
' degeneration,' what are we to call it ? It may be an old
theory, but facts ' winna ding,' and are on the side of
an old theory. Meanwhile, on the material plane, culture
' Prof. Menzies, History of Religion, p. 23.
* Kfydfifvai dfwv avayKai. Porphyry.
S
258 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
kept advancing, the crafts and arts arose ; departments
arose, each needing a god ; thought grew clearer ; such
admirable ethics as those of the Aztecs were developed,
and while bleeding human hearts smoked on every altar,
Nezahuatl conceived and erected a bloodless fane to
' The Unknown God, Cause of Causes,' without altar
or idol ; and the Inca, Yupanqui, or another, declared
that * Our Father and Master, the Sun, must have a
Lord.' '
But, at this stage of culture, the luck of the state, and
the interests of a rich and powerful clergy, were involved
in the maintenance of the old, animistic, relatively non-
moral system, as in Cuzco, Greece, and Rome. That
popular and political regard for the luck of the state, that
priestly self-interest (quite natural), could only be swept
away by the moral monotheism of Christianity or of Islam.
Nothing else could do it. In the case of Christianity, the
central and most potent of many combined influences,
apart from the Life and Death of Our Lord, was the moral
Monotheism of the Hebrew religion of Jehovah.
Now, it is undeniable that Jehovah, at a certain
period of Hebrew history, had become degraded and
anthropomorphised, far below Darumulun, and Puluga,
and Pachacamac, and Ahone, as conceived of in their
purest form, and in the high mood of savage mysteries
which yet contain so much that is grotesque. Even the
Big Black Man of the Fuegians is on a higher level (as
we reckon morals), when he forbids the slaying of a robber
enemy, than certain examples of early Hebrew conduct.
But our knowledge of the Fuegians is lamentably scanty.
Again, traces of human sacrifice appear in the ritual
of Israel, and it is only relatively late that the great
prophets, justly declaring Jehovah to be indifferent to
the blood of bulls and rams, try to bring back his service
to that of the unpropitiated, unbought Dendid, or Ahone,
or Pundjel. Here is degeneration, even in Israel. How
the conception of Jehovah arose in Israel, whether it
was a revival of a half-obliterated idea, such as we find
' Ixtlilochitl. Balboa, Hist, du Perou, p. 62.
THE OLD DEGENERATION THEORY 269
among low savages ; or whether it was borrowed from
some foreign creed ; or was the result of meditation on
the philosophical Supreme Being of high Egyptian
theology, is another question. The Biblical statement
leans to the first alternative. Jehovah, not by that name,
had been the God of Israel's fathers. The question will
be discussed later ; but, unless new facts are discovered,
we must accept the version of the Pentateuch, or take
refuge in conjecture.
Not only is there degeneration from the Australian con-
ception of Mungan-gnaur, at its best, to the conception of
the Semitic gods in general, but, 'humanly speaking,' if
religion began in a pure form among low savages, degenera-,
tion was inevitable. Advancing social conditions compelled \
men into degeneration. Mungan-ngaur is, so far, in line ■■
with our own ideas of divinity because he is not localised.
He dwelleth not in temples made with hands ; it is not
likely that he should, when his worshippers have neither
house, tent, nor tabernacle. As Mr. Eobertson Smith
says, ' where the God had a house or a temple, we recog-
nise the work of men who were no longer pure nomads,
but had begun to form fixed homes.' By the nature of
Australian society, a deity could not be tied to a
temple, and temple-ritual, and consequent myths to
explain that ritual, could not arise. Nor could Darumu-
lun be attached to a district, just as ' the nomad Arabs
could not assimilate the conception of a god as a land-
owner, and apply it to their own tribal deities, for the
simple reason that in the desert private property in land
was unknown.' '
Darumulun is thus not capable of degenerating into
' a local god, as Baal, or lord of the land,' because this
' involves a series of ideas unknown to the primitive life
of the savage huntsman,' like the widely spread Murring
tribes.^
Nor could Darumulun be tied down to a place in
Semitic fashion, first by manifesting himself there, there-
' Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp. 104, 105.
2 Op. cit. p. 106.
8 2
260 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
fore by receiving an altar of sacrifice there, and in the
end a sanctuary, for Darumulun receives no sacrifice
at all.
Again, the scene of the Bora could not become a per-
manent home of Darumulun, because, when the rites are
over, the efiigy of the god is scrupulously destroyed.
Thus Darumulun, in his own abode ' beyond the sky,' can
* go everywhere and do everything ' (is omnipresent and
omnipotent), dwells in no earthly places, has no temple,
nor tabernacle, nor sacred mount, nor, like Jehovah, any
limit of land.^
The early Hebrew conception of Jehovah, then, is
infinitely more conditioned, practically, by space, than
the Supreme Being, ' The Master,' in the conception of
some Australian blacks.
' By a prophet like Isaiah the residence of Jehovah in
Zion is almost wholly dematerialised. . . . Conceiving
Jehovah as the King of Israel, he necessarily conceives
His kingly activity as going forth from the capital of the
nation.' ^
But nomad hunter tribes, with no ancestor- worship,
no king and no capital, cannot lower their deity by the
conditions, or limit him by the limitations, of an earthly
monarchy.
In precisely the same way. Major Ellis proves the
degeneration of deity in Africa, so far as being localised
in place of being the Universal God, implies degene-
ration, as it certainly does to our minds. By being
attached to a given hill or river 'the gods, instead of
being regarded as being interested in the whole of man-
kind, would eventually come to be regarded as being
interested in separate tribes or nations alone.'
To us Milton seems nobly Chauvinistic when he talks
of what God has done by ' His English.' But this local-
ised and essentially degenerate conception was inevitable,
' On the Glenelg some caves and mountain tops are haunted or holy.
Waitz ,vi. 804. No authority cited.
* Religion of Semites, p. 110.
THE OLD DEGENERATION THEORY 261
as soon as, in advancing civilisation, the god who had been
* interested in the whole of [known] mankind ' was settled
on a hill, river, or lagoon, amidst a nation of worshippers.
In the course of the education of mankind, this form
of degeneration (abstractly so considered) was to work,
as nothing else could have worked, towards the lofty con-
ception of universal Deity. For that conception was only
brought into practical religion (as apart from philosophic
speculation) by the union between Israel and the God of
Sinai and Zion. The Prophets, recognising in the God of
Sinai, their nation's God — One to whom righteousness
was infinitely dearer than even his Chosen People — freed
the conception of God from local ties, and made it over-
spread the world.
Mr. Eobertson Smith has pointed out, again, the
manner in which the different political development of
East and "West affected the religion of Greece and of the
Semites, In Greece, monarchy fell, at an early period,
before the aristocratic houses. The result was ' a divine
aristocracy of many gods, only modified by a weak remi-
niscence of the old kingship in the not very effective
sovereignty ' (or prytany) ' of Zeus. In the East the
national god tended to acquire a really monarchic sway.' '
Australia escaped polytheistic degeneracy by having no
aristocracy, as in Polynesia, where aristocracy, as in early
Greece, had developed polytheism. Ghosts and spirits
the Australians knew, but not polytheistic gods, nor
departmental deities, as of war, agriculture, art. The
savage had no agriculture, and Jiis social condition was
not departmental. In yet another way, political advance
produces religious degeneration, if polytheism be degenera-
tion from the conception of one relatively supreme moral
being. To make a nation, several tribes must unite.
Each has its god, and the nation is apt to receive them
all, equally, into its Pantheon. Thus, if worshippers of
Baiame, Pundjel, and Darumulun coalesced into a nation,
we might find all three gods living together in a new
polytheism. In fact, granting a relatively pure starting-
' Bel. Sem. p. 74.
262 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
point, degeneration from it must accompany every step of
civilisation, to a certain distance.
Unlike Semitic gods, Darumulmi receives no sacrifice.
As we have said, he has no kin with ghosts, and their
sacrifices could not be carried on into his cult, if Waitz-
Gerland (vi. 811) are right in saying that the Australians
have no ancestor- worship. The Kurnai ghosts ' were
believed to live upon plants,' ^ which are not offered
to them. Chill ghosts, unfed by men, would come to
waning camp-fires and batten on the broken meats. The
Ngarego and Wolgal held, more handsomely, that Thara-
mulun (Darumulun) met the just departed spirit ' and
conducted it to its future home beyond the sky.' ^ Ghosts
might also accompany relics of the body, such as the
dead hand, carried about by the family, who would wave
the black fragment at the dreaded Aurora Borealis,
^ icrying, ' Send it away ! ' I am unacquainted with any
sacrifices to ancestral ghosts among this people who cannot
long remember their ancestors, consequently the practice
has not been refracted on their supreme Master's cult.
In the cult of Darumulun, and of other highest gods of
lowest savages, nothing answers to the Hebrew technical
priestly word for sacrifice, ' food of the deity.' ^ Nobody
' feeds Puluga, nobody fed Ahone. We hear of no Fuegian
sacrifices. Mr. Eobertson Smith says : ' In all religions
in which the gods have been developed out of totems
[worshipped animals and other things regarded as akin to
human stocks] the ritual act of laying food before the
deity is perfectly intelligible.' Pundjel, an Australian
Supreme Being, is mixed up with animals in some myths,
but it is not easy to see how such Supreme Beings as he
could be * developed out of totems ' ! I am not aware,
again, that any Australian tribe feeds the animals who
are its totems, so Darumulun could not, and did not
inherit sacrifice through them. Mr. Eobertson Smith
had a celebrated theory that cereal sacrifice is a tribute
to a god, while sacrifice of a beast or man is an act of
' Howitt, J.A.I. 1884, p. 187. * Op. cit. p. 188.
' Eel. San. p. 2U7.
THE OLD DEGENERATION THEORY 263
communion with the god.* Men and gods dined together."-'
' The god himself was conceived of as a being of the same
stock as his comrades.' Beasts were also of the same
stock, one beast, say a lobster, was of the same blood as a
lobster kin, and its god.^ Occasionally the sacred beast
of the kin, usually not to be slain or tasted, is ' eaten as a
kind of mystic sacrament a most dubious fact.' *
Now, there is, I beheve, some evidence, lately col-
lected if not published, which makes in favour of the
eating of totems by Australians, at a certain very rare
and solemn mystery. It would not even surprise me
(' from information received ') if a very deeply initiated
person were occasionally slain, as the highest degree
of initiation, on certain most unusual occasions. This
remains uncertain, but I have at present no evidence that,
either by one road or another, either from ghost-feeding or
totem-feeding, or feeding on totems, any Australian S upreme
Being receives any sacrifice at all. Much less, as among
Pawnees and Semitic peoples (to judge from certain traces),
is the Australian Supreme Being a cause of and partaker in
human sacrifice.'^ The horrible idea of the Man who is
the God, and is eaten in the God's honour, occurs among
polytheistic Aztecs, on a high level of material culture, not
among Australians, Andamanese, Bushmen, or Fuegians.^
Thus, in religion, the Darumulun, or other Supreme
Being of the lowest known savages, men roaming wild,
when originally met, on a continent peopled by older
kinds of animals than ours, was (as we regard purity) on
a higher plane by far than the gods of Greeks and
Semites in their earhest known myths. Setting
mythology aside and looking only at cult, the God of
the Murring or the Kurnai, whose precepts soften the
heart, who knows the heart's secrets, who inculcates
chastity, respect of age, unselfishness, who is not bound
• Bel. Sem. p. 225. ' Op. cit. p. 247.
» Op. cit. p. 269. " Op. cit. p. 277.
5 Op. cit. p. 343. Citing Gen, xxii., 2 Kings xxi. 6, Micah vi. 7,
2 Kings iii. 27.
•^ I mean, does not occur to my knowledge. New evidence is always
upsetting anthropological theories.
264 THE MAKING OF KELIGION
by conditions of space or place, who receives no blood of
slaughtered man or beast, is a conception from which the
ordinary polytheistic gods of infinitely more polite peoples
are frankly degenerate. The animistic superstitions
wildly based on the belief in the soul have not soiled
him, and the social conditions of aristocracy, agriculture,
architecture, have not made him one in a polytheistic
crowd of rapacious gods, nor fettered him as a Baal to
his estate, nor localised him in a temple built with hands.
He cannot appear as a * God of Battles ; ' no Te Deum
can be sung to him for victory in a cause perhaps unjust,
for he is the Supreme Being of a certain group of allied
local tribes. One of these tribes has no more interest with
him than another, and the whole group do not, as a body,
wage war on another alien group. The social conditions
of his worshippers, then, preserve Darumulun from the
patent blots on the scutcheon of gods among much more
advanced races.
Once more, the idea of Animism admits of endless
expansion. A spirit can be located anywhere, in any
stone, stick, bush, person, hill, or river. A god made
on the animistic model can be assigned to any depart-
ment of human activity, down to sports, or lusts, or the
province of Cloacina. Thus religion becomes a mere
haunted and pestilential jungle of beliefs. But the theistic
conception, when not yet envisaged as spiritual, cannot be
subdivided and eparpilU. Thus, from every point of view,
and on every side. Animism is full of the seeds of religious
degeneration, which do not and cannot exist in what I
take to be the earliest known form of the theistic con-
ception : that of a Being about whose metaphysical
nature — spirit or not spirit — no questions were asked,
as Dr. Brinton long ago remarked.
That conception alone could neither supply the moral
motive of ' a soul to be saved,' nor satisfy the meta-
physical instinct of advancing mankind. To meet these
wants, to supply ' soul,' with its moral stimulus, and to
provide a phrase or idea under which the Deity could
be envisaged (i.e. as a spirit) by advancing thought,
THE OLD DEGENERATION THEORY 266
Animism was necessary. The blending of the theistic
and the animistic behefs was indispensable to rehgion.
But, in the process of animistic development under
advancing social conditions, degeneration was necessarily
implied. Degeneration of the theistic conception for a>
while, therefore, occurred. The facts are the proofs ;
and only contradictory facts, in sufficient quantity, can
annihilate the old theory of Degeneration when it is
presented in this form.
It must be repeated that on this theory an explanation
is given of what the old Degeneration hypothesis does
not explain. Granting a primal religion relatively pure
in its beginnings, why did it degenerate ?
Mr. Max Miiller, looking on religion as the develop-
ment of the sentiment of the Infinite, regards fetishism
as a secondary and comparatively late form of belief.
We find it, he observes, in various forms of Christianity ;
Christianity, therefore, is primary there, relic worship is
secondary. Eehgion beginning, according to him, in the
sense of the infinite, as awakened in man by tall trees,
high hills, and so on, it advances to the infinite of space
and sky, and so to the infinitely divine. This is primary :
fetishism is secondary. Arguing elsewhere against this
idea, I have asked : What was the modus of degeneration
which produced similar results in Christianity, and in
African and other religions ? How did it work ? I am not
aware that Mr. Max Miiller has answered this question.,
But how degeneration worked — namely, by Animism sup-;
planting Theism — is conspicuously plain on our theory.
Take the early chapters of Genesis, or any savage
cosmogonic myth you please. Deathless man is face tc
face with the Creator. He cannot degenerate in religion.
He cannot offer sacrifice, for the Creator obviously needs
nothing, and again, as there is no death, he cannot slay
animals for the Creator. But, in one way or another,
usually by breach of a taboo, Death enters the world.
Then comes, by process of evolution, belief in hungry
spirits, belief in spirits who may inhabit stones or sticks ;
again there arise priests who know how to propitiate spirits
266 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
and how to tempt them into sticks and stones. These
arts become lucrative and are backed by the cleverest
men, and by the apparent evidence of prophecies by con-
vulsionaries. Thus every known kind of degeneration in
religion is inevitably introduced as a result of the theory of
Animism. We do not need an hypothesis of Original Sin as
a cause of degeneration, and, if Mr. Max Miiller's doctrine
of the Infinite were viable, we have supplied, in Animism,
under advancing social conditions, what he does not seem
to provide, a cause and modus of degeneration. Fetishism
would thus be really ' secondary,' ex hypothesi, but as
we nowhere find Fetishism alone, vdthout the other
elements of religion, we cannot say, historically, whether
it is secondary or not. Fetishism logically needs, in
some of its aspects, the doctrine of spirits, and Theism,
in what we take to be its earliest known form, does not
logically need the doctrine of spirits as given matter. So
far we can go, but not farther, as to the fact of priority
in evolution. Nevertheless we meet, among the most
backward peoples known to us, among men just emerged
from the palaeolithic stage of culture, men who are in-
volved in dread of ghosts, a religious Idea which certainly
is not born of ghost-worship, for by these men, ancestral
ghosts are not worshipped.
In their hearts, on their Ups, in their moral training
I we find (however blended with barbarous absurdities, and
obscured by rites of another origin) the faith in a
Being who created or constructed the world ; who was
from time beyond memory or conjecture ; who is primal,
who makes for righteousness, and who loves mankind.
This Being has not the notes of degeneration ; his home
is * among the stars,' not in a hill or in a house. To him
no altar smokes, and for him no blood is shed.
* God, that made the world and all things therein,
seeing that He is lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth
not in temples made with hands ; neither is worshipped
with men's hands, as though He needed any thing . . .
and hath made of one blood all nations of men . . .
THE OLD DEGENERATION THEORY 267
that they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel
after Him, and find Him, though He be not far from every
one of us : for in Him we live, and move, and have our
being.'
That the words of St. Paul are literally true, as to
the feeling after a God who needs not anything at man's
hands, the study of anthropology seems to us to demon-
strate. That in this God ' we have our being,' in so far
as somewhat of ours may escape, at moments, from the
bonds of Time and the manacles of Space, the earlier
pari of this treatise is intended to suggest, as a thing by
no means necessarily beyond a reasonable man's power
to conceive. That these two beliefs, however attained
(a point on which we possess no positive evidence), have
commonly been subject to degeneration in the religions
of the world, is only too obvious.
So far, then, the nature of things and of the reasoning
faculty does not seem to give the lie to the old Degenera-
tion theory.
To these conclusions, as far as they are matters of
scientific opinion, we have been led by nothing but the
study of anthropology.
263 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
XVI
THEORIES OF JEHOVAH
All speculation on the early history of religion is apt
to end in the endeavour to see how far the conclusions
can be made to illustrate the faith of Israel. Thus, the
theorist who believes in ancestor- worship as the key of all
the creeds will see in Jehovah a developed ancestral
ghost, or a kind of fetish-god, attached to a stone —
perhaps an ancient sepulchral stele of some desert sheikh.
The exclusive admirer of the hypothesis of Totemism will
find evidence for his belief in worship of the golden calf and
the bulls. The partisan of nature-worship will insist on
Jehovah's connection with storm, thunder, and the fire of
Sinai. On the other hand, whoever accepts our sugges-
tions will incline to see, in the. early forms of belief in
Jehovah, a shape of the widely diffused conception of a
j Moral Supreme Being, at first (or, at least, when our
. information begins) envisaged in anthropomorphic form,
but gradually purged of all local traits by the unexampled
and unique inspiration of the great Prophets. They, as
far as our knowledge extends, were strangely indifferent
to the animistic element in religion, to the doctrine of
surviving human souls, and so, of course, to that element
\ of Animism which is priceless — the purification of the
soul in the light of the hope of eternal life. Just as the
hunger after righteousness of the Prophets is intense, so
their hope of finally sating that hunger in an eternity
of sinless bliss and enjoyment of God is confessedly
inconspicuous. In short, they have carried Theism to its
THEORIES OF JEHOVAH 269
austere extreme — ' though He slay me, yet will I trust in
Him ' — while unconcerned about the rewards of Animism.
This is certainly a strange result of a religion which,
according to the anthropological theory, has Animism for
its basis.
We therefore examine certain forms of the animistic
hypothesis as applied to account for the religion of Israel.
The topic is one in which special knowledge of Hebrew
and other Oriental languages seems absolutely indispen-
sable ; but anthropological speculators have not been
Oriental scholars (with rare exceptions), while some
Oriental scholars have borrowed from popular anthropo-
logy without much critical discrimination. These circum-
stances must be our excuse for venturing on to this
difficult ground.
It is probably impossible for us to trace with accuracy
the rise of the religion of Jehovah. * The wise and
learned ' dispute endlessly over dates of documents, over
the amount of later doctrine interpolated into the earlier
texts, over the nature, source, and quantity of foreign
influence — Chaldsean, Accadian, Egjrptian, or Assyrian.
We know that Israel had, in an early age, the conception
of the moral Eternal ; we know that, at an early age, that
conception was contaminated and anthropomorphised ;
and we know that it was rescued, in a great degree, from
this corruption, while always retaining its original ethical
aspect and sanction. Why matters went thus in Israel
and not elsewhere we know not, except that such was the
will of God in the mysterious education of the world.
How mysterious that education has been is best known
to all who have studied the political and social results of
Totemism. On the face of it a perfectly crazy and
degrading belief — on the face of it meant for nothing
but to make the family a hell of internecine hatred —
Totemism rendered possible — nay, inevitable — the union
of hostile groups into large and relatively peaceful tribal
societies. Given the materials as we know them, we
never should have educated the world thus ; and we do
not see why it should thus have been done. But we are
270 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
very anthropomorphic, and totally ignorant of the con-
ditions of the problem.
An example of anthropological theory concerning
Jehovah was put forth by Mr. Huxley.^ Mr. Huxley's
general idea of religion as it is on the lowest known level
of material culture — through which the ancestors of Israel
must have passed like other people — has already been
criticised. He denied to the most backward races both
cult and religious sanction of ethics. He was demon-
strably, though unconsciously, in error as to the facts,
and therefore could not start from the idea that Israel,
in the lowest historically known condition of savagery,
possessed, or, like other races, might possess, the belief in
an Eternal making for righteousness. ' For my part,' he
says, ' I see no reason to doubt that, like the rest of the
world, the Israelites had passed through a period of mere
ghost -worship, and had advanced through ancestor-
worship and Fetishism and Totemism to the theological
level at which we find them in the Books of Judges and
Samuel.' ^
But why does he thiak the Israelites did all this ?
The Hebrew ghosts, abiding, according to Mr. Huxley, in
a rather torpid condition in Sheol, would not be of much
practical use to a worshipper. A reference in Deuteronomy
xxvi. 14 (Deuteronomy being, ex hypothesi, a late pious
imposture) does not prove much. The Hebrew is there
bidden to remind himself of the stay of his ancestors in
Egypt, and to say, ' Of the hallowed things I have not
given aught for the dead ' — namely, of the tithes dedi-
cated to the Levites and the poor. A race which abode
for centuries among the Egyptians, as Israel did — among
a people who elaborately fed the has of the departed —
might pick up a trace of a custom, the giving of food for
the dead, still persevered in by St. Monica till St. Ambrose
admonished her. But Mr. Huxley is hard put to it for
evidence of ancestor-worship or ghost-worship in Israel
when he looks for indications of these rites in ' the singular
weight attached to the veneration of parents in the Fourth
' Scietice and Hebreto Tradition. ' Op. cit. p. 361.
THEORIES OF JEHOVAH 271
Commandment.' ^ The Fourth Commandment, of course,
is a slip of the pen. He adds : * The Fifth Commandment,
as it stands, would be an excellent compromise between
ancestor-worship and Monotheism.' Long may children
practise this excellent compromise ! It is really too far-
fetched to reason thus : ' People were bidden to honour
their parents, as a compromise between Monotheism and
ghost-worship.' Hard, hard bestead is he who has to
reason in that fashion ! This comes of * training in the
use of the weapons of precision of science.'
Mr. Huxley goes on : ' The Ark of the Covenant ma}^
have been a relic of ancestor- worship ; ' ' there is a good
deal to be said for that speculation.' Possibly there is,
by way of the valuable hypothesis that Jehovah was a
fetish stone which had been a grave-stone, or perhaps a
lingam, and was kept in the Ark on the plausible pretext
that it was the two Tables of the Law !
However, Mr. Huxley really finds it safer to suppose
that references to ancestor-worship in the Bible were
obliterated by late monotheistic editors, who, none the less,
are so full and minute in their descriptions of the various
heresies into which Israel was eternally lapsing, and must
not be allowed to lapse again. Had ancestor-worship
been a pecM niignon of Israel, the Prophets would have
let Israel hear their mind on it.
The Hebrews' indifference to the departed soul is,
in fact, a puzzle, especially when we consider their
Egyptian education — so important an element in Mr.
Huxley's theory.
Mr. Herbert Spencer is not more successful than
Mr. Huxley in finding ancestor - worship among the
Hebrews. On the whole subject he writes :
* Where the levels of mental nature and social pro-
gress are lowest, we usually find, along with an absence
of religious ideas generally, an absence, or very slight
development, of ancestor -worship. . . . Cook [Captain
Cook], telling us what the Fuegians were before contact
' Science and Hebrew Tradition, p. 308.
272 THE lilAKING OF RELIGION
with Europeans had introduced foreign ideas, said there
were no appearances of rehgion among them ; and we are
not told b}^ him or others that they were ancestor-
worshippers.' '
Probably they are not ; but they do possess a Being who
reads their hearts, and who certainly shows no traces
of European ideas. If the Fuegians are not ancestor-
worshippers, this Being was not developed out of
ancestor-worship.
The evidence of Captain Cook, no anthropologist, but
a mariner who saw and knew little of the Fuegians, is
precisely of the sort against which Major Ellis warns us.^
The more a religion consists in fear of a moral guardian
of conduct, the less does it show itself, by sacrifice or
rite, to the eyes of Captain Cook, of his Majesty's ship
Endeavour. Mr. Spencer places the Andamanese on the
same level as the Fuegians, ' so far as the scanty evidence
may be trusted.' We have shown that (as known to
Mr. Spencer in 1876) it may not be trusted at all; the
Andamanese possessing a moral Supreme Being, though
they are not, apparently, ancestor-worshippers. The
Australians ' show us not much persistence in ghost-
propitiation,' which, if it exists, ceases when the corpses
are tied up and buried, or after they are burned, or after
the bones, carried about for a while, are exposed on
platforms. Yet many Australian tribes possess a moral
Supreme Being.
In fact ghost-worship, in Mr. Spencer's scheme,
cannot be fairly well developed till society reaches the
level of ' settled groups whose burial-places are in their
midst.' Hence the development of a moral Supreme
Being among tribes not thus settled, is inconceivable, on
Mr. Spencer's hypothesis.^ By that hypothesis, * wor-
» Prill. Soc. p. 306. ^ The Tshi-spcaking Races, p. 182.
^ Some Australian tribes have cemeteries, and I have found one native
witness, King Billy, to the celebration of the mysteries near one of these
burying-places. I have not discovered other evidence to this effect, though
I have looked for it. The spot selected is usually ' near the camp,' and the
place for so large a camp is chosen, naturally, where the supply of food is
adequate.
THEORIES OF JEHOVAH 273
shipped ancestors, according to their remoteness, were
regarded as divine, semi-divine, and human.' ^ Where we
find, then, the Divine Being among nomads who do not
remember their great-grandfathers, the Spencerian theory
is refuted by facts. We have the effect, the Divine Being,
without the cause, worship of ancestors.
Coming to the Hebrews, Mr. Spencer argues that ,
' the silence of their legends (as to ancestor- worship) is
but a negative fact, which may be as misleading as
negative facts usually are.' They are, indeed ; witness
Mr. Spencer's own silence about savage Supreme Beings.
But we may fairly argue that if Israel had been given to
ancestor-worship (as might partly be surmised from the
mystery about the grave of Moses) the Prophets would
not have spared them for their crying. The Prophets
were unusually outspoken men, and, as they undeniably
do scold Israel for every other kind of conceivable heresy, '
they were not likely to be silent about ancestor-worship, :
if ancestor-worship existed. Mr. Spencer, then, rather 1
heedlessly, though correctly, argues that * nomadic habits
are unfavourable to evolution of the ghost-theory.' ^ Alas,
this gives away the whole case ! For, if all men began
as nomads, and nomadic habits are unfavourable even to
the ordinary ghost, how did the Australian and other
nomads develop the Supreme Being, who, ex hypothesi,
is the final fruit of the ghost-flower ? If you cannot have
' an established ancestor-worship ' till you abandon nomadic
habits, how, while still nomadic, do you evolve a Supreme
Being ? Obviously not out of ancestor- worship.
Mr. Spencer then assigns, as evidence for ancestor-
worship in Israel, mourning dresses, fasting, the law
against self-bleeding and cutting off the hair for the
dead, and the text (Deut. xxvi. 14) about ' I have not
given aught thereof for the dead.' * Hence, the conclusion
must be that ancestor-worship had developed as far as
nomadic habits allowed, before it was repressed by a
higher worship.' ^ But whence came that higher worship
' Cf. the Aryans, Principles of Sociology, p. 314.
* Principles, p. 316. « Ibid. p. 317.
T
274 THE MAKING OF EELIGION
whicti seems to have intervened immediately after the
cessation of nomadic habits ?
There are obvious traces of grief expressed in a
primitive way among the Hebrews. *Ye shall not cut
yourselves, nor make any baldness between your eyes for
the dead ' (Deut. xiv. 1). ' Neither shall men lament for
them, nor cut themselves, nor make themselves bald for
them ; neither shall men tear themselves for them in
mourning, to comfort them for the dead ' (by way of
counter-irritant to grief) ; ' neither shall men give them the
cup of consolation to drink for their father or their
mother,' because the Jews were to be removed from their
homes.^ * Ye shall not make any cuttings in your flesh
for the dead, nor print any marks upon you.' ^
It may be usual to regard inflictions, such as cutting,
by mourners, as sacrifices to the ghost of the dead. But one
has seen a man strike himself a heavy blow on receiving
news of a loss not by death, and I venture to fancy
that cuttings and gashings at funerals are merely a more
violent form of appeal to a counter-irritant of grief, and,
again, a token of recklessness caused by a sorrow which
makes void the world. One of John Nicholson's native
adorers killed himself on news of that warrior's death,
sajang, * What is left worth living for ? ' This was not a
sacrifice to the Manes of Nicholson. The sacrifice of the
mourner's hair, as by Achilles, argues a similar indifference
to personal charm. Once more, the text in Psalm cvi. 28,
' They joined themselves unto Baal-Peor, and ate the sacri-
fices of the dead,' is usually taken by commentators as a
reference to the ritual of gods who are no gods. But it
rather seems to indicate an acquiescence in foreign burial
rites. All this additional evidence does not do much to
prove ancestor-worship in Israel, though the secrecy of the
burial of Moses, ' in a valley of the land of Moab, over
against Beth-peor ; but no man knoweth of his sepulchre
to this day,' may indicate a dread of a nascent worship
of the great leader.^ The scene of the defection in
' Jeremiah xvi. 6, 7. ^ Leviticus xis. 28.
^ Deuteronomy xxxiv. 6.
THEORIES OF JEHOVAH 276
Psalm cvi., Beth-peor, is indicated in Numbers xxv., where
Israel runs after the girls and the gods of Moab : ' And
Moab called the people unto the sacrifices of their gods ;
and the people did eat, and bowed down to their gods.
And Israel joined himself unto Baal-peor.' Psalm cvi. is
obviously a later restatement of this addiction to the
Moabite gods, and the Psalm adds * they ate the sacrifices
of the dead.'
It is plain that, for whatever reason, ancestor- worship
among the Hebrews was, at the utmost, rudimentary.
Otherwise it must have been clearly denounced by the
Prophets among the other heresies of Israel. Therefore,
as being at the most rudimentary, ancestor-worship in
Israel could not be developed at once into the worship of
Jehovah.
Though ancestor-worship among the Hebrews could
not be fully developed, according to Mr. Spencer, because
of their nomadic habits, it loas fully developed, according
to the Eev. A. W. Oxford. * Every family, like every old
Eoman and Greek family, was firmly held together by the
worship of its ancestors, the hearth was the altar, the
head of the family the priest. . . . The bond which kept
together the families of a tribe was its common religion,
the worship of its reputed ancestor. The chief of the
tribe was, of course, the priest of the cult.' Of course ;
but what a pity that Mr. Huxley and Mr. Spencer omitted
facts so invaluable to their theory ! And how does the
Bev. Mr. Oxford know ? Well, * there is no direct proof,'
oddly enough, of so marked a feature in Hebrew religion
but we are referred to 1 Sam. xx. 29 and Judges xviii. 19.
1 Sam. XX. 29 makes Jonathan say that David wants
to go to a family sacrifice, that is, a family dinner
party. This hardly covers the large assertions made by
Mr. Oxford. His second citation is so unlucky as to con
tradict his observation that ' of course ' the chief of the
tribe was the priest of the cult. Micah, in Judges xvii.,
xviii., is not the chief of his tribe (Ephraim), neither is hf
even the priest in his own house. He * consecrated one
of his own sons who became his priest,' till he got hold of
T 2
276 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
a casual young Levite, and said, * Be unto me a father and
a priest,' for ten shekels per annum, a suit of clothes, and
board and lodging.
In place, then, of any remote reference to a chief's
being priest of his ancestral ghosts, we have here a
man of one tribe who is paid rather handsomely to be
family chaplain to a member of another tribe. Some
moss-troopers of the tribe of Dan then kidnapped this
valuable young Levite, and seized a few idols which
Micah had permitted himself to make. And all this,
according to our clerical authority, is evidence for
ancestor-worship ! '
All this appears to be derived from some incoherent
speculations of Stade. For example, that learned German
cites the story of Micah as a proof that the different
tribes or clans had different religions. This must be so,
because the Danites asked the young Levite whether it
was not better to be priest to a clan than to an individual ?
It is as if a patron offered a rich hving to somebody's
private chaplain, sajdng that the new position was more
creditable and lucrative. This would hardly prove a
difference of religion between the individual and the
parish.^
Mr. Oxford next avers that * the earliest form of the
Israelite religion was Fetishism or Totemism.' This is
another example of Stade's logic. Finding, as he believes,
names suggestive of Totemism in Simeon, Levi, Eachel,
and so on, Stade leaps to the conclusion that Totemism in
Israel was prior to anything resembling monotheism.
For monotheism, he argues, could not give the germs of
the clan or tribal organisation, while Totemism could do so.
Certainly it could, but as, in many regions (America,
Australia), we find Totemism and the belief in a benevo-
lent Supreme Being co-existing among savages, when first
observed by Europeans, we cannot possibly say dogmati-
cally whether a rough monotheism or whether Totemism
came first in order of evolution. This holds as good of
' Short Introduction to History of Ancient Israel, pp. 83, 84.
* Stade i 403.
THEORIES OF JEHOVAH 277
Israel (if once totemistic) as it does of Pawnees or
Kumai. Stade has overlooked these well-known facts,
and his opinion filters into a cheap hand-book, and is set
in examinations ! ^
We also learn from Mr. Oxford's popular manual
of German Biblical conjecture that 'Jehovah was not
represented as a loving Father, but as a Being easily
roused to wrath,' a thing most incident to loving fathers.
Again, Mr. Oxford avers that ' the old Israelites knew
no distinction between physical and moral evil. , . . The
conception of Jehovah's holiness had nothing moral in it '
(p. 90). This rather contradicts Wellhausen : 'In all
ancient primitive peoples . . . religion furnishes a motive
for law and morals ; in the case of none did it become
so with such purity and power as in that of the
Israelites.' ^
We began by examining Mr. Huxley's endeavours to
find traces of ancestor-worship (in his opinion the origin
of Jehovah-worship) among the Israelites. We next
criticised Mr. Spencer's efforts in the same quest, and the
more dogmatic assertions of Mr. Oxford and Stade. We
now return to Mr. Huxley's account of the evolution from
ghost-cult to the cult of Jehovah.
From the history of the Witch of Endor, which
Mr. Huxley sees no reason to regard as other than a
sincere statement of what really occurred, he gathers
that the Witch cried out, ' I see Elohim,' These Elohim
proved to be the phantasm of the dead Samuel. Moved
by this hallucination the Witch uttered a veridical pre-
monition, totally adverse to her own interests, and
uncommonly dangerous to her life. This is, psychically,
interesting. The point, however, is that Elohim is a
term equivalent to Eed Indian Wahan, Fijian Kalou,
Maori or Melanesian Mana, meaning the ' supernatural,'
the vaguely powerful — in fact X.
' stade, i. 406.
^ Wellhausen, History of Israel, p. 437. Mr. Oxford's book is only
noticed here because it is meant for a popular manual. As Mr. Henry /
Foker says, ' it seems a pity that the clergy should interfere in these ' '
matters.'
278 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
This particular example of Elohim was a phantasra of
the dead, but Elohim is also used of the highest Divine
Being, therefore the highest Divine Being is of the same
genus as a ghost — so Mr. Huxley reasons. ' The difference
which was supposed to exist between the different Elohim
was one of degree, not of kind.' ^
* If Jehovah was thus supposed to differ only in degree
from the undoubtedly zoomorphic or anthropomorphic
** gods of the nations," why is it to be assumed that he
also was not thought to have a human shape ? ' He was
thought to have a human shape, at one time, by some
theorists : no doubt exists on that head. That, however,
is not where we demur. We demur when, because an
hallucination of the Witch of Endor (probably still in-
completely developed) is called by her Elohim, therefore
the highest Elohim is said by Mr. Huxley to differ from
a ghost only in degree, not in kind. Elohim, or El, the
creative, differs from a ghost in kind, because he, in
Hebrew belief, never was a ghost, he is immortal and
without beginning.
Mr. Huxley now enforces his theory by a parallel
between the religion of Tonga and the religion of Israel
under the Judges. He quotes Mariner,'^ whose statement
avers that there is a supreme Tongan being : ' of his
origin they had no idea, rather supposing him to be
eternal. His name is Ta-li-y-Tooboo=" Wait-there-
Tooboo." ' ' He is a great chief from the top of the sky
down to the bottom of the earth.' He, and other ' original
gods ' of his making, are carefully and absolutely dis-
criminated from the atua, which are ' the human soul
after its separation from the body.' All Tongan gods are
atua {Elohiin), but all atua are not 'original gods,'
unserved by priests, and unpropitiated by food or liba-
tion, like the highest God, Td-li-y-Tooboo, the Eternal of
Tonga. ' He occasionally inspires the How ' (elective
King), but often a How is not inspired at all by Ta-h-y-
Tooboo, any more than Saul, at last, was inspired by
Jehovah.
' Science and Hebrew Tradilicm, p. 299. ' ii. 127.
THEORIES OF JEHOVAH 279
Surely there is a difference in hind between an
eternal, immortal God, and a ghost, though both are
atua, or both are Elohim — ^the unknown X.
Many people call a ghost ' supernatural ; ' they also
call God ' supernatural,' but the difference between a
phantasm of a dead man and the Deity they would
admit, I conceive, to be a difference of kind. We have
shown, or tried to show, that the conceptions of ' ghost '
and ' Supreme Being ' are different, not only in kind, but
in origin. The ghost comes from, and depends on, the
animistic theory ; the Supreme Being, as originally thought
of, does not. All Gods are Elohim, Jcalou, wakan; all
Elohim, halou, wahan are not Gods.
A ghost-god should receive food or libation. Mr.
Huxley says that Ta-li-y-Tooboo did so. ' If the god,
like Ta-li-y-Tooboo, had no priest, then the chief place
was left vacant, and was supposed to be occupied by the
god himself. When the first cup of Kava ivas filled, the
mataboole who acted as master of the ceremonies said,
" Give it to your god," and it was offered, though only as
a matter of form.' ^
This is incorrect. In the case of Ta-li-y-Tooboo
* there is no cup filled for the god.'^ ^Before any cup is
filled the man by the side of the bowl says : " The Kava
is in the cup"' (which it is not), 'and the mataboole
answers, " Give it to your god ; " ' but the Kava is
not in the cup, and the Tongan Eternal receives no
oblation.
The sacrifice, says Mr. Huxley, meant * that the god
was either a deified ghost, or, at any rate, a being of like
nature to these.' ^ But as Ta-li-y-Tooboo had no sacrifice,
contrary to Mr. Huxley's averment, he was not ' a deified
ghost, or a being of like nature to these.' To the lower,
non-ghostly Tongan gods the animistic habit of sacrifice
had been extended, but not yet to the Supreme Being.
Ah, if Mr. Gladstone, or the Duke of Argyll, or some
bishop had made a misstatement of this kind, how Mr.
' Science and Hebrew Tradition, p. 331.
' Mariner, ii. 205. ' Op. cit. p. 335.
280 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Huxley would have crushed him ! But it is a mere error
of careless reading, such as we all make daily.
It is manifest that we cannot prove Jehovah to be a
ghost by the parallel of a Tongan god, who, by ritual and
by definition, was not a ghost. The proof therefore rests
on the anthropomorphised pre-prophetic accounts, and on
the ritual, of Jehovah. But man naturally ' anthropises '
his deities : he does not thereby demonstrate that they
were once ghosts.
As regards the sacrifices to Jehovah, the sweet savour
which he was supposed to enjoy (contrary to the opinion
of the Prophets), these sacrifices afford the best presump-
tion that Jehovah was a ghost-god, or a god constructed
on ghostly lines.
But we have shown that among the lowest races
neither are ghosts worshipped by sacrifice, nor does the
Supreme Being, Darumulun or Puluga, receive food
offerings. We have also instanced many Supreme Beings
of more advanced races, Ahone, and Dendid, and Nyan-
kupon, who do not sniff the savour of any offerings. If
then (as in the case of Taa-roa), a Supreme Being does
receive sacrifice, we may argue that a piece of animistic
ritual, not connected with the Supreme Being in Australia
or Andaman, not connected with his creed in Virginia or
Africa (where ghost-gods do receive sacrifice), may in
other regions be transferred from ghost-gods to the
Supreme Being, who never was a ghost. There seems to
be nothing incredible or illogical in the theory of such
transference.
On a God who never was a ghost men may come to
confer sacrifices (which are not made to Baiame and
the rest) because, being in the habit of thus propitiating
one set of bodiless powers, men may not think it civil
or safe to leave another set of powers out. By his
very nature, man must clothe all gods with some human
passions and attributes, unless, like a large number of
savages, he leaves his high God severely alone, and is the
slave of fetishes and spectres. But that practice makes
against the ghost-theory.
■v«r
THEORIES OF JEHOVAH 281
In the attempt to account thus, namely by trans-
ference, for the sacrifices to Jehovah, we are met by a
difficulty of our own making. If the Israelites did not
sacrifice to ancestors (as we have shown that there is
very scant reason for supposing that they did), how
could they transfer to Jehovah the rite which, by our
hypothesis, they are not proved to have offered to
ancestors ?
This is certainly a hard problem, harder (or perhaps
easier), because we know so very little of the early history
of the Hebrews. According to their own traditions,
Israel had been in touch with all manner of races much
more advanced than themselves in material culture, and
steeped in highly developed polytheistic Animism. Ac-
cording to their history, the Israelites ' went a-whoring '
incorrigibly after strange gods. It is impossible, per-
haps, to disentangle the foreign and the native elements.
It may therefore be tentatively suggested that early
Israel had its Ahone in a Being perhaps not yet named
Jehovah. Israel entertained, however, perhaps by reason
of * nomadic habits,' only the scantiest concern about
ancestral ghosts. "We then find an historical tradition
of secular contact between Israel and Egypt, from which
Israel emerges with Jehovah for God, and a system of
sacrifices. Regarding Jehovah as a revived memory of
the moral Supreme Being whom Israel must have known
in extremely remote ages (unless Israel was less favoured
than Australians, Bushmen, or Andamanese), we might
look on the sacrifices to him as an adaptation from the
practices of religion among races more settled than Israel,
and more civilised.'
Speculation on subjects so remote must be conjectural,
but our suggestion would, perhaps, account for sacrifices
to Jehovah, paid by a race which, by reason of ' nomadic
habits,' was never much given to ancestor- worship, but
' Of course, it ia understood that Israel (in the dark backward and
abysm of time) may also have been totemistic, like the Australians, as
texts pointed out by Mr. Robertson Smith seem to hint. There was also
worship of teraphim, respect paid to stones and trees, and so forth.
282 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
had been in contact with great sacrificing, polytheistic
civilisations. Mr. Huxley, however, while he seems to
slur the essential distinction between ghost-gods and the
Eternal, grants, later, that ' there are very few people (s ?)
without additional gods, which cannot, with certainty, be
accounted for as deified ancestors.' Ta-U-y-Tooboo, of
course, is one of these gods, as is Jehovah. Mr. Huxley
gives no theory of liow these gods came into belief, except
the suggestion that 'the polytheistic theology has be-
come modified by the selection of the cosmic or tribal
god, as the only god to whom worship is due on the part
of that nation,' without prejudice to the right of other
nations to worship other gods.' This is ' monolatry,' and
' the ethical code, often of a very high order, comes into
closer relation with the theological creed,' why, we are
not informed. Nor do we learn out of what polytheistic
deities Jehovah was selected, nor for what reason. The
hypothesis, as usual, breaks down on the close relation
between the ethical code and the theological creed, among
low savages, with a relatively Supreme Being, but without
ancestor-worship, and without polytheistic gods from
whom to select a heavenly chief.
Whence came the moral element in the idea of
Jehovah ? Mr. Huxley supposes that, during their resi-
dence in the land of Goshen (and a fortiori before it), the
Israelites ' knew nothing of Jehovah.' ^ They were poly-
theistic idolators. This follows, apparently, from Ezekiel
XX. 6 : ' In the day when I chose Israel, and lifted up mine
hand unto the seed of the house of Jacob, and made my-
self known unto them in the land of Egypt.' The Biblical
account is that the God of Moses's fathers, the God
of Abraham, enHghtened Moses in Sinai, giving his name
as * I am that I am ' (Exodus iii. 6, 14 ; translation
uncertain) . We are to understand that Moses, a religious
reformer, revived an old, and, in the Egyptian bondage,
a half-obliterated creed of the ancient nomadic Beni-
Israel. They were no longer to ' defile themselves vrith
the idols of Egypt,' as they had obviously done. We
' Science and Hebrew Tradition, p. 349. * P. 351.
THEORIES OF JEHOVAH 283
really know no more about the matter. Wellhausen
says that Jehovah was ' originally a family or tribal god,
either of the family of Moses or of the tribe of Joseph.'
How a family could develop a Supreme Being all to itself,
we are not informed, and we know of no such analogous
case in the ethnographic field. Again, Jehovah was ' only
a special name of El, current within a powerful circle.'
And who was El ? ^ ' Moses was not the first dis-
coverer of the faith.' Probably not, but Mr. Huxley
seems to think that he was.
Wellhausen's and other German ideas filter into
popular traditions, as we saw, through ' A Short Intro-
duction to the History of Ancient Israel ' (pp. 19, 20), by
the Eev. A. W. Oxford, M.A., Vicar of St. Luke's, Soho.
Here follows Mr. Oxford's undeniably ' short way with
Jehovah.' * Moses was the founder of the Israelite reli-
gion. Jehovah, his family or tribal god, perhaps origi-
nally the God of the Kenites, was taken as a tribal god
by all the Israelite tribes .... That Jehovah was not the
original god of Israel ' (as the Bible impudently alleges)
' but was the god of the Kenites, we see mainly from
Deut. xxxiii. 2, Judges v. 4, 5, and from the history of
Jethro, who, according to Judges i. 16, was a Kenite.'
The first text says that, according to Moses, ' the Lord
came from Sinai,' rose up from Seir, and shone from
Mount Paran. The second text mentions Jehovah's
going up out of Seir and Sinai. The third text says
that Jethro, Moses's Kenite (or Midianite) father-in-law,
dwelt among the people of Judah ; Jethro being a priest
of Midian. How all this proves that ' Moses was a great
impostor,' as the poet says, and that Jehovah was not ' the
original God of Israel,' but (1) Moses's family or tribal
god, or (2) ' the god of the Kenites,' I profess my inability
to comprehend.
Wellhausen himself had explained Jehovah as ' a
family or tribal god, either of the family of Moses ' (tribe
of Levi) ' or of the tribe of Joseph.' It seems to be all
one to Mr. Oxford whether Jehovah was a god of Moses's
• History of Israel, p. 443 note.
284 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
tribe or quite the reverse, ' a Kenite god.' Yet it really
makes a good deal of difference ! For in a complex of
tribes, speaking one language, it is to the last degree
unexampled (within my knowledge) that one tribe, or
family, possesses, all to itself, a family god who is also
the Creator and is later accepted as such by all the other
tribes. One may ask for instances of such a thing in any
known race, in any stage of culture. Peru will not help
us — not the Creator, Pachacamac, but the Sun, is the
god of the Inca family. If, on the other hand, Jehovah
was a Kenite god, the Kenites were a half-AralD Semitic
people connected with Israel, and may very well have
retained traditions of a Supreme Being which, in Egypt,
were likely to be dimmed, as Exodus asserts, by foreign
religions. The learned Stade, to be sure, may disbeUeve
in Israel's sojourn in Egypt, but that revolutionary
opinion is not necessarily binding on us and involves a
few difficulties.
Have critics and manual-makers no knowledge of the
science of comparative religion ? Are they unaware that
peoples infinitely more backward than Israel was at
the date supposed have already moral Supreme Beings
acknowledged over vast tracts of territory ? Have they a
tittle of positive evidence that early Israel was benighted
beyond the darkness of Bushmen, Andamanese, Pawnees,
Blackfeet, Hurons, Indians of British Guiana, Dinkas,
Negroes, and so forth ? Unless Israel had this rare ill-
luck (which Israel denies) of course Israel must have had
a secular tradition, however dim, of a Supreme Being.
We must ask for a single instance of a family or tribe, in
a complex of semi-barbaric but not savage tribes of one
speech, owning a private deity who happened to be the
Maker and Kuler of the world, and, as such, was accepted
by all the tribes. Jehovah came out from Sinai, because,
there having been a Theophany at Sinai, that mountain
was regarded as one of his seats. ^
We have seen that it seemed to make no difference to
Mr. Oxford whether Jehovah was a god of Moses's family
' Religion of Semites.
THEOEIES OF JEHOVAH 285
or tribe or a Kenite god. The former (with the alter-
native of Joseph's family or tribal god) is Wellhausen's
theory. The latter is Stade's.' Each is inconsistent
with the other ; "Wellhausen's fancy is inconsistent with
all that we know of religious development : Stade's is
hopelessly inconsistent with Exodus iv. 24-26, where
Moses's Kenite wife reproaches him for a ceremony of
his, not of her, religion. Therefore the Kenite differed
from the Hebrew sacra.
The passage is very extraordinary, and is said by
critics to be very archaic. After the revelation of the
Burning Bush, Jehovah met Moses and his Kenite wife,
Zipporah, and their child, at a khan. Jehovah was
anxious to slay Moses, nobody ever knew why, so Zipporah
appeased Jehovah's wrath by circumcising her boy with a
flint. 'A bloody husband art thou to me,' she said,
* because of the circumcision ' — an Egyptian, but clearly
not a Kenite practice. Whatever all this may mean, it
does not look as if Zipporah expected such rites as
circumcision in the faith of a Kenite husband, nor does
it favour the idea that the sacra of Moses were of Kenite
origin.
Without being a scholar, or an expert in Biblical
criticism, one may protest against the presentation to
the manual - reading intellectual middle classes of a
theory so vague, contradictory, and (by all analogy) so
impossible as Mr. Oxford collects from German writers.
Of course, the whole subject, so dogmatically handled, is
mere matter of dissentient opinion among scholars. Thus
M. Eenan derives the name of Jehovah from Assyria,
from * Aramaised Chaldseanism.' ^ In that case the name
was long anterior to the residence in Egypt. But again,
perhaps Jehovah was a local god of Sinai, or a provincial
deity in Palestine.^ He was known to very ancient sages,
who preferred such names as El Shaddai and Elohim.
In short, we have no certainty on the subject.*
' Oeschichte des Volkes Israel, i. 130.
* Histoire du Peuple d'Israel, citing Schrader, p. 23. " Op. cit. p. 85
* See Professor Robertson's Ea7-ly Religion of Israel for a list of these
286 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
I need hardly say, perhaps, that I have no antiquated
prejudice against Bibhcal criticism. Assuredly the Bible
must be studied like any other collection of documents,
linguistically, historically, and in the light of the com-
parative method. The leading ideas of Wellhausen, for
example, are conspicuous for acumen : the humblest lay-
man can see that. But one may protest against criti-
cising the Bible, or Homer, by methods like those which
prove Shakspeare to have been Bacon. One must protest,
too, against the presentation of inconsistent and probably
baseless critical hypotheses in the dogmatic brevity of
cheap handbooks.
Yet again, whence comes the moral element in
Jehovah ? Mr. Huxley thinks that it possibly came from
the ethical practice and theory of Egypt. In the Egyp-
tian Book of the Dead, ' a sort of Guide to Spirit Land,'
there are moral chapters ; the ghost tells his judges in
Amenti what sins he has not committed. Many of
these sins are forbidden in the Ten Commandments.
They are just as much forbidden in the nascent morality
of savage peoples. Moses did not need the Book of the
Dead to teach him elementary morals. From the mysteries
of Mtanga he might have learned, also, had he been pre-
sent, the virtue of unselfish generosity. If the creed of
Jehovah, or of El, retained only as much of ethics as is
under divine sanction among the Km'nai, adaptation from
the Book of the Dead was superfluous.
The care for the departed, the ritual of the Ka, the
intense pre-occupation with the future life, which, far
more than its morality, are the essential characteristics of
the Book of the Dead — Israel cared for none of these
animistic things, brought none of these, or very little of
these, out of the land of Egypt, Moses was certainly
very eclectic ; he took only the moraUty of Egypt.
But as Mr. Huxley advances this opinion tentatively,
as having no secure historical authority about Moses,
it hardly answers our question, Whence came the moral
conjectures, and, generally, for criticisms of the occasional vagaries of
critics.
THEORIES OF JEHOVAH 287
element in Jehovah ? One may surmise that it was the
survival of the primitive divinely sanctioned ethics of the
ancient savage ancestors of the Israelite, known to them,
as to the Kurnai, before they had a pot, or a bronze
knife, or seed to sow, or sheep to herd, or even a tent
over their heads. In the counsels of eternity Israel was
chosen to keep burning, however obscured with smoke
of sacrifice, that flame which illumines the darkest places
of the earth, ' a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the
glory of thy people Israel' — a flame how litten.a light
whence shining, history cannot inform us, and anthro-
pology can but conjecture. Here scientific nescience is
wiser than the cocksureness of popular science, with her
ghosts and fetish -stones, and gods that sprang from
ghosts, which ghosts, however, could not be developed,
owing to nomadic habits.
It appears, then, if our general suggestion meets with
any acceptance, that what occurred in the development
of Hebrew religion was precisely what the Bible tells us
did occur. This must necessarily seem highly para-
doxical to our generation ; but the whole trend of our
provisional system makes in favour of the paradox. If
savage nomadic Israel had the higher religious concep-
tions proved to exist among several of the lowest known
races, these conceptions might be revived by a leader of
genius. They might, in a crisis of tribal fortunes, become
the rallying point of a new national sentiment. Ob-
scured, in some degree, by acquaintance with ' the idols
of Egypt,' and restricted and localised by the very
national sentiment which they fostered, these conceptions
were purified and widened far beyond any local, tribal,
or national restrictions — widened far as the flammantia
mcenia mundi — by the historically unique genius of the
Prophets, Blended with the doctrine of our Lord, and
recommended by the addition of Animism in its pure and
priceless form — the reward of faith, hope, and charity in
eternal life — the faith of Israel enlightened the world.
All this is precisely what occurred, according to the
Old and New Testaments. All this is just what, on our
288 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
hypothesis, might be expected to occur if, out of the
many races which, in their most backward culture, had
a rude conception of a Moral Creative Being, relatively
supreme, one race endured the education of Israel, showed
the comparative indifference of Israel to Animism and
ghost-gods, listened to the Prophets of Israel, and gave
birth to a greater than Moses and the Prophets.
To this result the Logos, as Socrates says, has led us,
by the path of anthropology.
289
XVII
CONGLUaiOll
We may now glance backward at the path which we
have tried to cut through the jungles of early religions.
It is not a highway, but the track of a solitary explorer ;
and this essay pretends to be no more than a sketch —
not an exhaustive survey of creeds. Its limitations are
obvious, but may here be stated. The higher and even
the lower polytheisms are only alluded to in passing, our
object being to keep well in view the conception of a
Supreme, or practically Supreme, Being, from the lowest
stages of human culture up to Christianity. In poly-
theism that conception is necessarily obscured, showing
itself dimly either in the Prytanis, or President of the
Immortals, such as Zeus ; or in Fate, behind and above
the Immortals ; or in Mr. Max Miiller's Henotheism,
where the god addressed — Indra, or Soma, or Agni — is,
for the moment, envisaged as supreme, and is adored in
something Hke a monotheistic spirit ; or, finally, in the
etherealised deity of advanced philosophic speculation.
It has not been necessary, for our purpose, to dwell
on these civilised religions. Granting our hypothesis of
an early Supreme Being among savages, obscured later
by ancestor-worship and ghost-gods, but not often
absolutely lost to religious tradition, the barbaric and the
civilised polytheisms easily take their position in line,
and are easily intelligible. Space forbids a discussion of
all known religions; only typical specimens have been
selected. Thus, nothing has been said of the religion
u
290 THE MAKING OF EELIGION
of the great Chinese empire. It appears to consist, on its
higher plane, of the worship of Heaven as a great fetish-
god — a worship which may well have begun in days, as
Dr. Brinton says, ' long ere man had asked himself, " Are
the heavens material and God spiritual?'" — perhaps,
for all we know, before the idea of ' spirit ' had been
evolved. Thus, if it contains nothing more august, the
Chinese religion is, so far, beneath that of the Zunis, or
the creed in Taa-roa, in Beings who are eternal, who
were before earth was or sky was. The Chinese religion
of Heaven is also coloured by Chinese political conditions ;
Heaven (Tien) corresponds to the Emperor, and tends to
be confounded with Shang-ti, the Emperor above. * Dr.
Legge charges Confucius,' says Mr. Tylor, 'with an
inclination to substitute, in his religious teaching, the
name of Tien, Heaven, for that known to more ancient
religion, and used in more ancient books — Shang-ti, the
personal ruling deity.' If so, China too has its ancient
Supreme Being, who is not a divinised aspect of nature.
But Mr. Tylor's reading, in harmony with his general
theory, is different :
* It seems, rather, that the sage was, in fact, uphold-
ing the tradition of the ancient faith, thus acting according
to the character on which he prided himseK — that of a
transmitter, not a maker, a preserver of old knowledge,
not a new revealer.' ^
This, of course, is purely a question of evidence, to be
settled by Sinologists. If the personal Supreme Being,
Shang-ti, occupies in older documents the situation held
by Tien (Heaven) in Confucius's later system, why are
we to say that Confucius, by putting forward Heaven in
place of Shang-ti, was restoring an older conception?
Mr. Tylor's affection for his theory leads him, perhaps, to
that opinion ; while my affection for my theory leads me
to prefer documentary evidence in its favour.
The question can only be settled by specialists. As
matters stand, it seems to me probable that ancient
' Prim. Cult. ii. 352.
il
CONCLUSION 291
China possessed a Supreme Personal Being, more remote
and original than Heaven, just as the Zunis do. On the
lower plane, Chinese religion is overrun, as everyone
knows, by Animism and ancestor-worship. This is so
powerful that it has given rise to a native theory of
Euhemerism. The departmental deities of Chinese poly-
theism are explained by the Chinese on Euhemeristic
principles :
' According to legend, the War God, or Military Sage,
was once, in human life, a distinguished soldier ; the
Swine God was a hog-breeder who lost his pigs and died
of sorrow ; the God of Gamblers was un decavl.' ^
These are not statements of fact, but of Chinese
Euhemeristic theory. On that hypothesis, Confucius
should now be a god ; but of course he is not ; his spirit
is merely localised in his temple, where the Emperor
worships him twice a year as ancestral spirits are
worshipped.
Every theorist will force facts into harmony vdth his
system, but I do not see that the Chinese facts are
contrary to mine. On the highest plane is either a
personal Supreme Being, Shang-ti, or there is Tien, Heaven
(with Earth, parent of men), neither of them necessarily
owing, in origin, anything to Animism. Then there is
the political reflection of the Emperor on Eeligion (which
cannot exist where there is no Emperor, King, or Chief,
and therefore must be late), there is the animistic rabble
of spirits ancestral or not, and there is departmental
polytheism. The spirits are, of course, fed and furnished
l3y men in the usual symbolical way. Nothing shows or
hints that Shang-ti is merely an imaginary idealised first
ancestor. Indeed, about all such explanations of the
Supreme Being (say among the Kurnai) as an idealised
imaginary first ancestor, M. Eeville justly observes as
follows : ' Not only have we seen that, in wide regions of
the uncivilised world, the worship of ancestors has invaded
a domain previously occupied by " Naturism " and Animism
' Abridged from Prim. Cult. ii. 119.
a 2
292 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
properly so called, that it is, therefore, posterior to these ;
but, further, we do not understand, in Mr. Spencer's
system, why, in so many places, the first ancestor is the
Maker, if not the Creator of the world, Master of life and
death, and possessor of divine powers, not held by any of
his descendants. This proves that it was not the first
ancestor who became God, in the belief of his descendants,
but much rather the Divine Maker and Beginner of
all, who, in the creed of his adorers, became the first
ancestor.' ^
Our task has been limited, in this way, mainly to
examination of the religion of some of the very lowest
races, and of the highest world-religions, such as Judaism.
The historical aspect of Christianity, as arising in the Life,
Death, and Resurrection of our Lord, would demand a
separate treatise. This would, in part, be concerned with
the attempts to find in the narratives concerning our
Lord, a large admixture of the mythology and ritual
connected with the sacrificed Bex Nemorensis, and what-
ever else survives in peasant folk-lore of spring and
harvest.^
After these apologies for the limitations of this essay,
we may survey the backward track. We began by
/ showing that savages may stumble, and have stumbled,
' on theories not inconsistent with science, but not till
recently discovered by science. The electric origin of the
Aurora Borealis (whether absolutely certain or not) was
' Histoire des Beligions, ii. 237, note. M. E^ville's system, it will be
observed, differs from mine in that he finds the first essays of religion in
worship of aspects of nature (naturisme) and in ' animism properly so
called,' by which he understands the instinctive, perhaps not explicitly
formulated, sense that all things whatever are animated and personal. I
have not remarked this aspect of belief as much prevalent in the most
backward races, and I do not try to look behind what we know historically
about early religion. I so far agree with M. E6ville as to think the belief in
ghosts and spirits (Mr. Tylor's ' Animism ') not necessarily postulated in
the original indeterminate conception of the Supreme Being, or generally,
in ' Original Gods.' But M. E6ville says, ' L'objet de la religion humaine
est ndcessairement un esprit ' (ProUgomines, 107). This does not seem
consistent with his own theory.
- Compare Mr. Frazer's Golden Bough with Mr. Grant Allen's Evolution
of the Idea of God.
CONCLUSION 293
an example ; another was the efficacy of ' suggestion,'
especially for curative purposes. It was, therefore, hinted
that, if savages blundered (if you please) into a belief in
God and the Soul, however obscurely envisaged, these
beliefs were not therefore necessarily and essentially
false. We then stated our purpose of examining the
alleged supernormal phenomena, savage or civilised,
which, on Mr. Tylor's hypothesis, help to originate the
conception of ' spirits.' We defended the nature of our
evidence, as before anthropologists, by showing that, for
the savage belief in the supernormal phenomena, we have
exactly the kind of evidence on which all anthropological
science reposes. The relative weakness of that evidence,
our need of more and better evidence, we would be the
very last to deny, indeed it is part of our case. Our
existing evidence vTill hardly support any theory of religion.
Anyone who is in doubt on that head has only to read
M. Eeville's * Les Eehgions des Peuples Non-Civihs6s, '
under the heads ' Melanesiens,' • Mincopies,' ' Les Aus-
traliens' (ii. 116-143), when he will observe that this
eminent French authority is ignorant of the facts about
these races here produced. In 1883 they had not come
within his ken. Such minute and careful inquiries by
men closely intimate with the peoples concerned, as Dr.
Codrington's, Mr. Howitt's, Mr. Man's, and the authori-
ties compiled by Mr. Brough Smyth, were unfamiHar to
M. Keville. Thus, in turn, new facts, or facts unknown
to us, may upset my theory. This peril is of the essence
of scientific theorising on the history of religion.
Having thus justified our evidence for the savage belief
in supernormal phenomena, as before anthropologists,
we turned to a court of psychologists in defence of our
evidence for the fact of exactly the same supernormal
phenomena in civilised experience. We pointed out that
for subjective psychological experiences, say of tele-
pathy, we had precisely the same evidence as all non-
experimental psychology must and does rest upon. Nay,
we have even experimental evidence, in experiments in
thought-transference. We have chiefly, however, state-
294 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
ments of subjective experience. For the coincidence of
such experience with unknown events we have such
evidence as, in practical life, is admitted by courts of
law.
Experimental psychology, of course, relies on experi-
ments conducted under the eyes of the expert, for
example, by hypnotism or otherwise, under Dr. Hack
Tuke, Professor James, M. Eichet, M. Janet. The evi-
dence is the conduct rather than the statements of the
subject. There is also physiological experiment, by vivi-
section (I regret to say) and post-mortem dissection.
But non-experimental psychology reposes on the self-
examination of the student, and on the statements of
psychological experiences made to him by persons whom
he thinks he can trust. The psychologist, however, if he
be, as Mr. Galton says, * unimaginative in the strict but
unusual sense of that ambiguous word,' needs Mr. Galton's
* word of warning.' He is asked ' to resist a too frequent
tendency to assume that the minds of every other sane
and healthy person must be like his own. The psycho-
logist should inquire into the minds of others as he should
into those of animals of different races, and be prepared to
find much to which his own experience can afford little
if any clue.' ^ Mr. Galton had to warn the unimaginative
psychologist in this way, because he was about to unfold
his discovery of the faculty which presents numbers to
some minds as visualised coloured numerals, ' so vivid as
to be undistinguishable from reality, except by the aid
of accidental circumstances.'
Mr. Galton also found in his inquiries that occasional
hallucinations of the sane are much more prevalent than
he had supposed, or than science had ever taken into
account. All this was entirely new to psychologists,,
many of whom still (at least many popular psychologists
of the press) appear to be unacquainted with the circum-
stances. One of them informed me, quite gravely, that
' he never had an hallucination,' therefore — his mind
being sane and healthy — the inference seemed to be that
' J.A.I. X. 85.
CONCLUSION 296
no sane and healthy mind was ever hallucinated. Mr.
Galton has replied to that argument ! His reply covers,
logically, the whole field of psychological faculties little
regarded, for example, by Mr. Sully, who is not exactly
an imaginative psychologist.
It covers the whole field of automatism (as in auto-
matic writing) perhaps of the divining rod, certainly of
crystal visions and of occasional hallucinations, as Mr.
Galton, in this last case, expressly declares. Psychologists
at least need not be told that such faculties cannot, any
more than other human faculties, be always evoked for
study and experiment. Our evidence for these faculties
and experiences, then, is usually of the class on which the
psychologist relies. But, when the psychologist, following
Leibnitz, Sir William Hamilton, and Kant, discusses the
Subconscious (for example, knowledge, often complex and
abundant, unconsciously acquired) we demonstrated by
examples that the psychologist will contentedly repose on
evidence which is not evidence at all. He will swallow
an undated, unlocalised legend of Coleridge, reaching
Coleridge on the testimony of rumour, and told at least
twenty years after the unverified occurrences. Nay, the
psychologist will never dream of procuring contempo-
rary evidence for such a monstrous statement as that
an ignorant German wench unconsciously acquired and
afterwards subconsciously reproduced huge cantles of
dead languages, by virtue of having casually heard a
former master recite or read aloud from Hebrew and Greek
books. This legend do psychologists accept on no evidence
at all, because it illustrates a theory which is, doubtless, a
very good theory, though, in this case, carried to an extent
* imagination boggles at.'
Here the psychologist may reply that much less
evidence will content him for a fact to which he
possesses, at least, analogies in accredited experience,
than for a fact (say telepathic crystal-gazing) to which
he knows, in experience, nothing analogous. Thus, for
the mythical German handmaid, he has the analogy of
languages learned in childhood, or passages got up by
i'96 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
rote, being forgotten and brought back to ordinary con-
scious memory, or delirious memory, during an illness,
or shortly before death. Strong in these analogies, the
psychologist will venture to accept a case of language
not learned, but reproduced in delirious memory, on no
evidence at all. But, not possessing analogies for tele-
pathic crystal-gazing, he will probably decHne to examine
ours.
I would first draw his attention to the difference
between revived memory of a language once known
(Breton and Welsh in known examples), or learned by
rote (as Greek, in an anecdote of Goethe's), and verbal
reproduction of a language not known or learned by rote,
but overheard — each passage probably but once — as some-
body recited fragments. In this instance (that of the
mythical maid) ' the difficulty .... is that the original
impressions had not the strength — that is, the distinct-
ness— of the reproduction. An unknown language over-
heard is a mere sound ....''
The distinction here drawn is so great and obvious
that for proof of the German girl's case we need better
evidence than Coleridge's rumour of a rumour, cited, as it
is, by Hamilton, Maudsley, Carpenter, Du Prel, and the
common run of manuals.
Not that I deny, a priori, the possibility of Coleridge's
story. As Mr. Huxley says, ' strictly speaking, I am
unaware of anything that has a right to the title of an
"impossibility," except a contradiction in terms.' ^ To
the horror of some of his admirers, Mr. Huxley would not
call the existence of demons and demoniacal possession
' impossible.' 3 Mr. Huxley was no blind follower of
Hume. I, too, do not call Coleridge's tale ' impossible,'
but, unlike the psychologists, I refuse to accept it on
' Bardolph's security.' And I contrast their conduct,
in swallowing Coleridge's legend, with their refusal (if
they do refuse) to accept the evidence for the auto-
matic writing of not-consciously-known languages (as
2
Massey. Note to Du Prel, Philosophy of Mysticism, ii. 19.
Science and Christian Tradition, p. 197. =* Op. cit. p. 195.
CONCLUSION 297
of eleventh-century French poetry and prose by Mr.
Schiller), or their refusal (if they do refuse) to look at
the evidence for telepathic crystal-gazing, or any other
supernormal exhibitions of faculty, attested by living
and honourable persons.
I wish I saw a way for orthodox unimaginative psycho-
logy out of its dilemma.
After offering to anthropologists and psychologists
these considerations, which I purposely reiterate, we
examined historically the relations of science to 'the
marvellous,' showing for example how Hume, following
his a priori theory of the impossible, would have declined .
to investigate, because they were ' miraculous,' certain
occurrences which, to Charcot, were ordinary incidents in
medical experience.
We next took up and criticised the anthropological
theory of religion as expounded by Mr. Tylor. We then
collected from his work a series of alleged supernormal
phenomena in savage belief, all making for the foundation
of animistic religion. Through several chapters we
pursued the study of these phenomena, choosing savage
instances, and setting beside them civilised testimony to
facts of experience. Our conclusion was that such
civilised experiences, if they occurred, as they are
universally said to do, among savages, would help to
originate, and would very strongly support the savage
doctrine of souls, the base of religion in the theory of
English anthropologists. But apart from the savage
doctrine of 'spirits' (whether they exist or not), the
evidence points to the existence of human faculties not
allowed for in the current systems of materialism.
We next turned from the subject of supernormal
experiences to the admitted facts about early religion.
Granting the belief in souls and ghosts and spirits,
however attained, how was the idea of a Supreme Being
to be evolved out of that belief ? We showed that, taking
the creed as found in the lowest races, the processes put
forward by anthropologists could not account for its
evolution. The facts would not fit into, but contradicted,
298 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
the anthropological theory. The necessary social con-
ditions postulated were not found in places where the
belief is found. Nay, the necessary social conditions for
the evolution even of ancestor- worship were confessedly
not found where the supposed ultimate result of ancestor-
worship, the belief in a Supreme Being, flourished abun-
dantly.
Again, the belief in a Supreme Being, ex liypofhesi
the latest in evolution, therefore the most potent, was
often shelved and half forgotten, or neglected, or ridiculed,
where the belief in Animism {ex hypothesi the earlier)
was in full vigour. We demonstrated by facts that
Anthropology had simpHfied her task by ignoring that
essential feature, the prevalent alliance of ethics with
religion, in the creed of the lowest and least developed
races. Here, happily, we have not only the evidence of
an earnest animist, Mr. Im Thurn, on our side, but that
of a distinguished Semitic scholar, the late Mr. Eobertson
Smith. * We see that even in its rudest forms Keligion
was a moral force, the powers that man reveres were on
the side of social order and moral law ; and the fear of
the gods was a motive to enforce the laws of society,
which were also the laws of morality.' ' Wellhausen has
already been cited to the same effect.
However, the facts proving that truth, and unselfishness,
surely a large element of Christian ethics, are divinely
sanctioned in savage religion are more potent than the
most learned opinion on that side.
Our next step was to examine in detail several reli-
gions of the most remote and backward races, of races
least contaminated with Christian or Islamite teaching.
Our evidence, when possible, was derived from ancient
and secret tribal mysteries, and sacred native hymns.
We found a relatively Supreme Being, a Maker, sanc-
tioning morality, and unpropitiated by sacrifice, among
peoples who go in dread of ghosts and wizards, but do
not always worship ancestors. We showed that the
anthropological theory of the evolution of God out_of
' Religion of the Semites, p. 53. *
CONCLUSION 299
ghosts in no way explains the facts in the savage con-
ception of a Supreme Being. We then argued that the
notion of 'spirit,' derived from ghost-belief, was not
logically needed for the conception of a Supreme Being
in its earliest form, was detrimental to the conception,
and, by much evidence, was denied to be part of the
conception. The Supreme Being, thus regarded, may be
(though he cannot historically be shown to be) prior to
the first notion of ghost and separable souls.
We then traced the idea of such a Supreme Being
through the creeds of races rising in the scale of material
culture, demonstrating that he was thrust aside by the
competition of ravenous but serviceable ghosts, ghost-
gods, and shades of kingly ancestors, with their magic
and their bloody rites. These rites and the animistic
conception behind them were next, in rare cases, re-
flected or refracted back on the Supreme Eternal. Aris-
tocratic institutions fostered polytheism with the old
Supreme Being obscured, or superseded, or enthroned as
Emperor-God, or King-God. We saw how, and in what
sense, the old degeneration theory could be defined and
defended. We observed traces of degeneration in certain
archaic aspects of the faith in Jehovah ; and we proved
that (given a tolerably pure low savage belief in a Supreme
Being) that belief must degenerate, under social condi-
tions, as civilisation advanced. Next, studjdng what we
may call the restoration of Jehovah, under the great
Prophets of Israel, we noted that they, and Israel gene-
rally, were strangely indifferent to that priceless aspect of
Animism, the care for the future happiness, as conditioned
by the conduct of the individual soul. That aspect had been
neglected neither by the popular instinct nor the priestly
and philosophic reflection of Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
Christianity, last, combined what was good in Animism, / i
the care for the individual soul as an immortal spirit
under eternal responsibilities, with the One righteous
Eternal of prophetic Israel, and so ended the long, intri-
cate, and mysterious theological education of humanity.
Such is our theory, which does not, to us, appear to lack
800 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
evidence, nor to be inconsistent (as the anthropological
theory is apparently inconsistent) with the hypothesis of
evolution.
All this, it must be emphatically insisted on, is pro-
pounded * under all reserves.' "While these four stages,
say (1) the Australian unpropitiated Moral Being,
(2) the African neglected Being, still somewhat moral,
(3) the relatively Supreme Being involved in human
sacrifice, as in Polynesia, and (4) the Moral Being rein-
stated philosophically, or in Israel, do suggest steps in
evolution, we desire to base no hard-and-fast system of
ascending and descending degrees upon our present evi-
dence. The real object is to show that facts may be
regarded in this light, as well as in the light thrown by
the anthropological theory, in the hands whether of Mr.
Tylor, Mr. Spencer, M. Eeville, or Mr. Jevons, whose
interesting work comes nearest to our provisional hypo-
thesis. We only ask for suspense of judgment, and for
hesitation in accepting the dogmas of modern manual-
makers. An exception to them certainly appears to be Mr.
Clodd, if we may safely attribute to him a review (signed
C.) of Mr. Grant Allen's ' Evolution of the Idea of God.'
' We fear that all our speculations will remain sum-
maries of probabilities. No documents are extant to
enlighten us ; we have only mobile, complex and con-
fused ideas, incarnate in eccentric, often contradictory
theories. That this character attaches to such ideas
should keep us on guard against framing theories whose
symmetry is sometimes their condemnation' ('Daily
Chronicle,' December 10, 1897).
Nothing excites my own suspicion of my provisional
hypothesis more than its symmetry. It really seems to
fit the facts, as they appear to me, too neatly. I would
suggest, however, that ancient savage sacred hymns, and
practices in the mysteries, are really rather of the nature
of ' documents ; ' more so, at least, than the casual
observations of some travellers, or the gossip extracted
from natives much in contact with Europeans.
CONCLUSION 301
Supposing that the arguments in this essay met with
some acceptance, what effect would they have, if any, on
our thoughts about rehgion? What is their practical
tendency ? The least dubious effect would be, I hope, to
prevent us from accepting the anthropological theory of
rehgion, or any other theory, as a foregone conclusion. I
have tried to show how dim is our knowledge, how weak,
often, is our evidence, and that, finding among the lowest
savages all the elements of all religions already developed
in different degrees, we cannot, historically, say that one
is earlier than another. This point of priority we can
never historically settle. If we met savages with ghosts
and no gods, we could not be sure but that they once
possessed a God, and forgot him. If we met savages with
a God and no ghosts, we could not be historically certain'
that a higher had not obliterated a lower creed. For
these reasons dogmatic decisions about the origin of
religion seem unworthy of science. They will appear yet
more futile to any student who goes so far with me as to
doubt whether the highest gods of the lowest races could
be developed, or can be shown to have been developed, by
way of the ghost-theory. To him who reaches this point
the whole animistic doctrine of ghosts as the one germ of
religion will appear to be imperilled. The main practical
result, then, will be hesitation about accepting the latest
scientific opinion, even when backed by great names, and
published in little primers.
On the hypothesis here offered to criticism there are
two chief sources of Religion, (1) the belief, how attained / -*
we know not,^ in a powerful, moral, eternal, omniscient
Father and Judge of men; (2) the beUef (probably
developed out of experiences normal and supernormal) in
somewhat of man which may survive the grave. This
second belief is not, logically, needed as given material
for the first, in its apparently earliest form. It may, for
all we know, be the later of the two beHefs, chrono-
logically. But this belief, too, was necessary to religion ;
first, as finally supplying a formula by which advancing
' The hypothesis of St. Paul seems not the most unsatisfactory, Rom. i. 19.
302 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
intellects could conceive of the Mighty Being involved in
the former creed ; next, as elevating man's conception of
his own nature. By the second belief he becomes the
child of the God in whom, perhaps, he already trusted,
and in whom he has his being, a being not destined to
perish with the death of the body. Man is thus not only
the child but the heir of God, a ' nurseling of immortality,'
capable of entering into eternal life. On the moral in-
fluence of this belief it is superfluous to dwell.
From the most backward races historically known to
us, to those of our ovra status, all have been more or less
washed by the waters of this double stream of religion.
The Hebrews, as far as our information goes, were chiefly
influenced by the first belief, the faith in the Eternal ;
and had comparatively slight interest in whatever post-
humous fortunes might await individual souls. Other
civilised peoples, say the Greeks, extended the second, or
animistic theory, into forms of beautiful fantasy, the
material of art. Yet both in Greece and Rome, as we learn
from the ' Republic ' (Books i. iii.) of Plato, and from the
whole scope of the poem of Lucretius, and from the
Painted Porch at Delphi, answering to the frescoes of the
Pisan Campo Santo, there existed, among the people, what
was imknown to the Hebrews, an extreme anxiety about
the posthumous fortunes and possible punishment of the
individual soul. A kind of pardoners and indulgence-
sellers made a living out of that anxiety in Greece. For
the Greek pardoners, who testify to an interest in the
future happiness of the soul not found in Israel, Mr. Jevons
may be cited :
* The agyrtes professed by means of his rites to purify
men from the sins they had themselves committed . . . and
so to secure to those whom he purified an exemption from
the evil lot in the next world which awaited those who were
not initiated.' *A magic mirror' (crystal-gazing) 'was
among his properties.' '
In Egypt a moral life did not suffice to secure
* Introd. to Hist, of Bel. p. 333 ; Aristoph. Frogs, 159.
CONCLUSION 303
immortal reward. There was also required knowledge
of the spells that baffle the demons who, in Amenti, as
in the Red Indian and Polynesian Hades, lie in wait
for souls. That knowledge was contained in copies of
the Book of the Dead — the gagne-pain of priests and
scribes.
Early Israel, having, as far as we know, a singular
lack of interest in the future of the soul, was born to give
himself up to developing, undisturbed, the theistic con-
ception, the belief in a righteous Eternal.
Polytheism everywhere — in Greece especially — held of
the animistic conception, with its freakish, corruptible
deities. Greek philosophy could hardly restore that
Eternal for whom the Prophets battled in Israel ; whom
some of the lowest savages know and fear; whom the
animistic theory or cult everywhere obscures with its
crowd of hungry, cruel, interested, food-propitiated ghost-
gods. In the religion of our Lord and the Apostles the
two currents of faith in one righteous God and care for
the individual soul were purified and combined. ' God is
a Spirit, and they who worship Him must worship Him
in spirit and in truth.' Man also is a spirit, and, as such,
is in the hands of a God not to be propitiated by man's
sacrifice or monk's ritual. We know how this doctrine
was again disturbed by the Animism, in effect, and by
the sacrifice and ritual of the Mediaeval Church. Too
eager ' to be all things to all men,' the august and bene-
ficent Mother of Christendom readmitted the earlier
Animism in new forms of saint-worship, pilgrimage, and
popular ceremonial — things apart from, but commonly
supposed to be substitutes for, righteousness of life and
the selflessness enjoined in savage mysteries. For the
softness, no less than for the hardness of men's hearts,
these things were ordained : such as masses for the
beloved dead.
Modern thought has deanthropomorphised what was
left of anthropomorphic in religion, and, in the end, has
left us for God, at most, ' a stream of tendency making
for righteousness/ or an energy unknown and unknow-
304 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
able — the ghost of a ghost. For the soul, by virtue of his
belief in which man raised himself in his own esteem,
and, more or less, in ethical standing, is left to us a
negation or a wistful doubt.
To this part of modem scientific teaching the earlier
position of this essay suggests a demurrer. By aid of the
tradition of and belief in supernormal phenomena among
the low races, by attested phenomena of the same kinds
of experience among the higher races, I have ventured to
try to suggest that ' we are not merely brain ; ' that man
has his part, we know not how, in we know not what —
:has faculties and vision scarcely conditioned by the limits
of his normal purview. The evidence of all this deals
with matters often trivial, like the electric sparks rubbed
from the deer's hide, which yet are cognate with an
illimitable, essential potency of the universe. Not being
able to explain away these facts, or, in this place, to offer
what would necessarily be a premature theory of them,
I regard them, though they seem shadowy, as grounds
of hope, or, at least, as tokens that men need not yet
despair. Not now for the first time have weak things
of the earth been chosen to confound things strong. Nor
have men of this opinion been always the weakest ; not
among the feeblest are Socrates, Pascal, Napoleon,
Cromwell, Charles Gordon, St. Theresa, and Jeanne
d'Arc.
I am perfectly aware that the * superstitiousness '
of the earlier part of this essay must injure any effect
which the argument of the latter part might possibly
produce on critical opinion. Yet that argument in no
way depends on what we think about the phenomena —
normal, supernormal, or illusory — on which the theory of
ghost, soul, or spirit may have been based. It exhibits
religion as probably beginning in a kind of Theism, which
is then superseded, in some degree, or even corrupted,
by Animism in all its varieties. Finally, the exclusive
Theism of Israel receives its complement in a purified
Animism, and emerges as Christianity.
Quite apart, too, from any favourable conclusion
CONCLUSION 805
which may, by some, be drawn from the phenomena, and
quite apart from the more general opinion that all mo-
dern instances are compact of imposture, malobservation,
mythopceic memory, and superstitious bias, the systematic
comparison of civilised and savage beliefs and alleged
experiences of this kind cannot wisely be neglected by
Anthropology. Hiimani nihil a se alienum putat.
APPENDICES
APPENDIX A
OPPOSITIONS OF SCIENCE
The most elaborate reply to the arguments for telepathy,
based on the Report of the Census of Hallucinations, is
that of Herr Parish, in his ' Hallucinations and Illusions.' ^
Herr Parish is, at present, opposed to the theory that
the Census establishes a telepathic cause in the so-called
' coincidental ' stories, ' put forward,' as he says, * with due
reserve, and based on an astonishing mass of materials,
to some extent critically handled.'
He first demurs to an allowance of twelve hours
for the coincidence of hallucination and death ; but, if
we reflect that twelve hours is Httle even in a year,
coincidences within twelve hours, it may be admitted,
donnent a penser, even if we reject the theory that,
granted a real telepathic impact, it may need time and
quiet for its development into a complete hallucination.
We need not linger over the very queer cases from
Munich, as these are not in the selected thirty of the
Eeport. Herr Parish then dwells on that hallucination
of memory, in which we feel as if everything that is going
on had happened before. It may have occurred to most
of us to be reminded by some association of ideas during
the day, of some dream of the previous night, which we
had forgotten. For instance, looking at a brook from a
» Walter Scott.
X 2
308 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
bridge, and thinking of how I would fish it, I remem-
bered that I had dreamed, on the previous night, of
casting a fly for practice, on a lawn. Nobody would
think of disputing the fact that I really had such a dream,
forgot it and remembered it when reminded of it by asso-
ciation of ideas. But if the forgotten dream had been ' ful-
filled,' and been recalled to memory only in the moment
of fulfilment, science would deny that I ever had such a
^, dream at all. The alleged dream would be described as
an ' hallucination of memory.' Something occurring, it
would be said, I had the not very unusual sensation, * This
has occurred to me before,' and the sensation would become
a false memory that it had occurred — in a dream. This
theory will be advanced, I think, not when an ordinary
dream is recalled by a waking experience, but only when
the dream coincides with and foreruns that experience,
which is a thing that dreams have no business to do.
Such coincidental dreams are necessarily * false memories,'
scientifically speaking. Now, how does this theory of
false memory bear on coincidental hallucinations ?
The insane, it seems, are apt to have the false
memory * This occurred before,' and then to say that the
event was revealed to them in a vision.' The insane may
be recommended to make a note of the vision, and have it
properly attested, before the event. The same remark
applies to the * presentiments ' of the sane. But it does
not apply if Jones tells me * I saw my great aunt last
night,' and if news comes after this remark that Jones's
aunt died, on that night, in Timbuctoo. Yet Herr
Parish (p. 282) seems to think that the argument of
fallacious memory comes in pat, even when an hallucina-
tion has been reported to another person before its fulfil-
ment. Of course all depends on the veracity of the
narrator and the person to whom he told his tale. To
take a case given : ^ Brown, say, travelling vsdth his wife,
dreams that a mad dog bit his boy at home on the elbow.
He tells his wife. Arriving at home Brown finds that it
was so. Herr Parish appears to argue thus :
' Parish, p. 278. * Ibid. pp. 282, 283.
APPENDIX A 809
Brown dreamed nothing at all, but he gets excited
when he hears the bad news at home ; he thinks, by false
memory, that he has a recollection of it, he says to his
wife, * My dear, didn't I tell you, last night, I had dreamed
all this ? ' and his equally excited wife replies, * True, my
Brown, you did, and I said it was only one of your
dreams.' And both now believe that the dream occurred.
This is very plausible, is it not ? only science would not
say anything about it if the dream had not been fulfilled —
if Brown had remarked, 'Egad, my dear, seeing that
horse reminds me that I was dreaming last night of
driving in a dog-cart.' For then Brown was not excited.
None of this exquisite reasoning as to dreams applies
to waking hallucinations, reported before the alleged co-
incidence, unless we accept a collective hallucination of
memory in seer or seers, and also in the persons to whom
their story was told.
But, it is obvious, memory is apt to become mytho-
pceic, so far as to exaggerate closeness of coincidence,
and to add romantic details. We do not need Herr
Parish to tell us that ; we meet the circumstance in all
narratives from memory, whatever the topic, even in Herr
Parish's own writings.
"We must admit that the public, in ghostly, as in all
narratives on all topics, is given to * fanciful addenda.'
Therefore, as Herr Parish justly remarks, we should
' maintain a very sceptical attitude to all accounts ' of
veridical hallucinations. * Not that we should dismiss
them as old wives' fables — an all too common method — or
even doubt the narrator's good faith.' We should treat
them hke tales of big fish that get away ; sometimes there
is good corroborative evidence that they really were
big fish, sometimes not. We shall return to these false
memories.
Was there a coincidence at all in the Society's cases
printed in the Census ? Herr Parish thinks three of the
selected twenty-six cases very dubious. In one case is a
possible margin of four days, another (wrongly numbered
by the way) does not occur at all among the twenty-
310 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
six. In the third, Herr Parish is wrong in his state-
ment.^ This is a lovely example of the sceptical slipshod,
and, accompanied by the miscitation of the second case,
shows that inexactitude is not all on the side of the seers.
However the case is not very good, the two percipients
fancying that the date of the event was less remote than
it really was. Unluckily Herr Parish only criticises
these three cases, how accurately we have remarked. He
had no room for more.
Herr Parish next censures the probable selection of
good cases by collectors, on which the editors of the
Census have already made observations, as they have also
made large allowances for this cause of error. He then
offers the astonishing statement that, * in the view of the
English authors, a view which is, of course, assumed in
all calculations of the kind, an hallucination persists
equally long in the memory and is equally readily recalled
in reply to a question, whether the experience made but
a slight impression on the percipient, or affected him
deeply, as would be the case, for instance, if the hallu-
cination had been found to coincide with the death of a
near relative or friend.' ^ This assertion of Herr Parish's
is so erroneous that the Keport expressly says ' as years
recede into the distance,' the proportion of the hallucina-
tions that are remembered in them to those which are
forgotten, or at least ignored, * is very large.' Again,
' Hallucinations of the most impressive class will not
only be better remembered than others, but will, we may
reasonably suppose, be more often mentioned by the
percipients to their friends.'^
Yet Herr Parish avers that, in all calculations, it is
assumed that hallucinations are equally readily recalled
whether impressive or not ! Once more, the Eeport says
(p. 246), * It is not the case ' that coincidental (and im-
pressive) hallucinations are as easily subject to oblivion
as non-coincidental, and non-impressive ones. The
editors therefore multiply the non-coincidental cases by
1 p. 287, Mr. Sims, Proceedings, x. 230.
• Palish pp. 288, 289. ^ iie^ort, p. 68.
APPENDIX A 811
four, arguing that no coincidental cases (hits) are for-
gotten, while three out of four non-coincidentals (misses)
are forgotten, or may be supposed likely to be forgotten.
Immediately after declaring that the Enghsh authors
suppose all hallucinations to be equally well remembered
(which is the precise reverse of what they do say), Herr
Parish admits that the authors multiply the misses by
four, ' influenced by other considerations' (p. 289). By
what other considerations ? They give their reason (that
very reason which they decline to entertain, says Herr
Parish), namely, that misses are four times as likely to
be forgotten as hits. ' To go into the reason for adopting
this plan would lead us too far,' he writes. Why, it is
the very reason which, he says, does not find favour with
the English authors !
How curiously remote from being ' coincidental ' with
plain facts, or ' veridical ' at all, is this scientific criticism !
Herr Parish says that a * view ' (which does not exist) is
* of course assumed in all calculations ; ' and, on the very
same page, he says that it is not assumed ! ' The witnesses
of the report — influenced, it is true, by other considera-
tions ' (which is not the case), 'have sought to turn the
point of this objection by multiplying the whole number
of (non-coincidental) cases by four.' Then the 'view ' is
not ' assumed in all calculations,' as Herr Parish has just
asserted.
What led Herr Parish, an honourable and clear-
headed critic, into this maze of incorrect and contradic-
tory assertions? It is interesting to try to trace the
causes of such non-veridical illusions, to find the points
de repere of these literary hallucinations. One may
suggest that when Herr Parish ' recast the chapters ' of
his German edition, as he says in his preface to the
English version, he accidentally left in a passage based
on an earlier paper by Mr. Gurney,^ not observing that it
was no longer accurate or appropriate.
After this odd passage, Herr Parish argues that a
' veridical ' hallucination is regarded by the English
' P. 274, note 1.
312 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
authors as 'coincidental,' even when external circum-
stances have made that very hallucination a probable
occurrence by producing ' tension of the corresponding
nerve element groups.' That is to say, a person is in a
condition — a nervous condition — likely, a priori, to beget
an hallucination. An hallucination is begotten, quite
naturally ; and so, if it happens to coincide v^ith an
event, the coincidence should not count — it is purely
fortuitous.'
Here is an example. A lady, facing an old sideboard,
saw a friend, with no coat on, and in a waistcoat with a
back of shiny material. Within an hour she was taken
to where her friend lay dying, without a coat, and in a
waistcoat with a shiny back.^ Here is the scientific
explanation of Herr Parish : ' The shimmer of a reflect-
ing surface [the sideboard ?] formed the occasion for the
hallucinatory emergence of a subconsciously perceived
shiny black waistcoat [quotation incorrect, of course], and
an individual subconsciously associated with that impres-
sion.' ^ I ask any lady whether she, consciously or
subconsciously, associates the men she knows with the
backs of their waistcoats. Herr Parish's would be a
brilUantly satisfactory explanation if it were only true
to the printed words that lay under his eyes when he
wrote. There was no ' shiny black waistcoat ' in the
case, but a waistcoat with a shiny back. Gentlemen, and
especially old gentlemen who go about in bath-chairs
(like the man in this story), don't habitually take off their
coats and show the backs of their waistcoats to ladies of
nineteen in England. And, if Herr Parish had cared to
read his case, he would have found it expressly stated
that the lady ' had never seen the man without his coat '
(and so could not associate him with an impression of a
shiny back to his waistcoat) till after the hallucination,
when she saw him coatless on his death-bed. In this
instance Herr Parish had an hallucinatory memory, all
wrong, of the page under his eyes. The case is got rid
of, then, by aid of the ' fanciful addenda,' to which Herr
' Parish, p. 290. « Be^ort, p. 297. ' Parish, p. 290.
APPENDIX A 313
Parish justly objects. He first gives the facts incorrectly,
and then explains an occurrence which, as reported by
him, did not occur, and was not asserted to occur.
I confess that, if Herr Parish's version were as correct
as it is essentially inaccurate, his explanation would leave
me doubtful. For the circumstances were that the old
gentleman of the story lunched daily with the young
lady's mother. Suppose that she was familiar (which
she was not) with the shiny back of his waistcoat, still,
she saw him daily, and daily, too, was in the way of
seeing the (hypothetically) shiny surface of the sideboard.
That being the case, she had, every day, the materials,
subjective and objective, of the hallucination. Yet it only
occurred once, and then it precisely coincided with the
death agony of the old gentleman, and with his coatless
condition. "Why only that once ? G'est la le miracle !
' How much for this little veskit ? ' as the man asked
David Copperfield.
Herr Parish next invents a cause for an hallucina-
tion, which, I myself think, ought not to have been
reckoned, because the percipient had been sitting up with
the sick man. This he would class as a * suspicious ' case.
But, even granting him his own way of handling the
statistics, he would still have far too large a proportion
of coincidences for the laws of chance to allow, if we are
to go by these statistics at all.
His next argument practically is that hallucinations
are always only a kind of dreams.^ He proves this by
the large number of coincidental hallucinations which
occurred in sleepy circumstances. One man went to bed
early, and woke up early ; another was * roused from
sleep ; ' two ladies were sitting up in bed, giving their
babies nourishment ; a man was reading a newspaper on
a sofa ; a lady was Ijdng awake at seven in the morning ;
and there are eight other English cases of people
' awake ' in bed during an hallucination. Now, in Dr.
Parish's opinion, we must argue that they were not awake,
or not much ; so the hallucinations were mere dreams.
> Pp. 291, 292.
314 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Dreams are so numerous that coincidences in dreams
can be got rid of as pure flukes. People may say, to be
sure, ' I am used to dreams, and don't regard them ; this
was something soHtary in my experience.' But we must
not mind what people say.
Yet I fear we must mind what they say. At least, we
must remember that sleeping dreams are, of all things,
most easily forgotten ; while a full-bodied hallucination,
when we, at least, believe ourselves awake, seems to us
on a perfectly different plane of impressiveness, and
(experto crede) is really very difficult to forget. Herr
Parish cannot be allowed, therefore, to use the regular
eighteenth-century argument — ' All dreams ! ' For the
two sorts of dreams, in sleep and in apparent wakefulness,
seem, to the subject, to differ in kind. And they really
do differ in kind. It is the essence of the every night
dream that we are unconscious of our actual surroundings
and conscious of a fantastic environment. It is the
essence of wideawakeness to be conscious of our actual
surroundings. In the ordinary dream, nothing actual
competes with its visions. When we are conscious of
our surroundings, everything actual does compete with
any hallucination. Therefore, an hallucination which,
when we are conscious of our material environment, does
compete with it in reality, is different in kind from an
ordinary dream. Science gains nothing by arbitrarily
declaring that two experiences so radically different are
identical. Anybody would see this if he were not arguing
under a dominant idea.
Herr Parish next contends that people who see
pictures in crystal balls, arid so on, are not so wide awake
as to be in their normal consciousness. There is 'dis-
sociation ' (practically drowsiness) , even if only a little.
Herr Moll also speaks of crystal-gazing pictures as
* hypnotic phenomena.' ^ Possibly neither of these learned
men has ever seen a person attempt crystal-gazing.
Herr Parish never asserts any such personal experience
as the basis of his opinion about the non-normal state of
* Moll, Hypnotism, p. 1
APPENDIX A 816
the gazer. He reaches this conclusion from an anecdote
reported, as a not unfamiHar phenomenon, by a friend of
Miss X. But the phenomenon occurred when Miss X.
was not crystal-gazing at all ! She was looking out of a
window in a brown study. This is a noble example
of logic. Some one says that Miss X. was not in her
normal consciousness on a certain occasion when she was
not crystal-gazing, and that this condition is familiar to
the observer. Therefore, argues Herr Parish, nobody
is in his normal consciousness when he is crystal-gazing.
In vain may * so good an observer as Miss X. think
herself fully awake ' (as she does think herself) when
crystal-gazing, because once, when she happened to have
' her eyes fixed on the window,' her expression was
* associated' by a friend 'with something uncanny,' and
she afterwards spoke 'in a dreamy, far-away tone'
(p. 297). Miss X., though extremely ' wide awake,' may
have looked dreamily at a window, and may have seen
mountains and marvels. But the point is that she was
not voluntarily gazing at a crystal for amusement or
experiment— perhaps trying to see how a microscope
affected the pictures — or to divert a friend.
I appeal to the shades of Aristotle and Bacon against
scientific logic in the hands of Herr Parish. Here is his
syllogism :
A. is occasionally dreamy when not crystal-gazing.
A. is human.
Therefore every human being, when crystal-gazing, is
more or less asleep.
He infers a general affirmative from a single affirma-
tive which happens not to be to the point. It is exactly
as if Herr Parish argued :
Mrs. B. spends hours in shopping.
Mrs. B. is human.
Therefore every human being is always late for
dinner.
Miss X., I think, uphfted her voice in some review,
316 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
and maintained that, when crystal-gazing, she was quite
in her normal state, dans son assiette.
Yet Herr Parish would probably say to any crystal-
gazer who argued thus, ' Oh, no ; pardon me, you were
not wholly awake — you were a-dream. I know better
than you.' But, as he has not seen crystal-gazers, while
I have, many scores of times, I prefer my own opinion.
And so, as this assertion about the percipient's being
* dissociated,' or asleep, or not awake, is certainly untrue
of all crystal-gazers in my considerable experience, I
cannot accept it on the authority of Herr Parish, who
makes no claim to any personal experience at all.
As to crystal-gazing, when the gazer is talking, laugh-
ing, chatting, making experiments in turning the ball,
changing the light, using prisms and magnifying-glasses,
dropping matches into the water-jug, and so on, how can
we possibly say that ' it is impossible to distinguish
between waking hallucinations and those of sleep '
(p. 300) ? If so, it is impossible to distinguish between
sleeping and waking altogether. We are all like the
dormouse ! Herr Parish is reasoning here a priori,
without any personal knowledge of the facts ; and, above
all, he is under the ' dominant idea ' of his own theory —
that of dissociation.
Herr Parish next crushes . telepathy by an argument
which — like one of the reasons why the bells were not
rung for Queen EHzabeth, namely, that there were no
bells to ring — might have come first, and alone. We are
told (in italics — very impressive to the popular mind) :
' No matter how great the number of coincidences, they
afford not even the shadow of a proof for telepathy '
(p. 301). What, not even if all hallucinations, or ninety-
nine per cent., coincided with the death of the person
seen ? In heaven's name, why not ? Why, because the
' weightiest ' cause of all has been omitted from our
calculations, namely, our good old friend, the association
of ideas (p. 302). Our side cannot prove the absence
(italics) of the association of ideas. Certainly we cannot ;
but ideas in endless millions are being associated all day
APPENDIX A 817
long. A hundred thousand different, unnoticed associa-
tions may bring Jones to my mind, or Brown. But I
don't therefore see Brown, or Jones, who is not there.
Still less do I see Dr. Parish, or Nebuchadnezzar, or a
monkey, or a salmon, or a golf ball, or Arthur's Seat (all
of which may be brought to my mind by association
of ideas), when they are not present.
Suppose, then, that once in my life I see the absent
Jones, who dies in that hour (or within twelve hours).
I am puzzled. Why did Association choose that day,
of all days in my life, for her solitary freak? And,
if this choice of freaks by Association occurs among
other people, say two hundred times more often than
chance allows, the freak begins to suggest that it may
have a cause.
Not even the circumstance cited by Herr Parish, that
a drowsy tailor, * sewing on in a dream,' poor fellow, saw
a client in his shop while the client was dying, solves the
problem. The tailor is not said even once to have seen
a customer who was not dying ; yet he writes, ' I was
accustomed to work all night frequently.' The tailor
thinks he was asleep, because he had been making
irregular stitches, and perhaps he was. But, out of all
his vigils and all his customers, association only formed
one hallucination, and that was of a dying cHent whom
he supposed to be perfectly well. Why on earth is
association so fond of dying people — granting the sta-
tistics, which are * another story ' ? The explanation
explains nothing. Herr Parish only moves the difficulty
back a step, and, as we cannot live without association
of ideas, they are taken for granted by our side. Associa-
tion of ideas does not cause hallucinations, as Mrs. Sidg-
wick remarks, though it may determine their contents.
The difficult theme of coincidental collective hallu-
cinations, as when two or more people at once have, or
profess to have, the same false perception of a person
who is really absent and dying, is next disposed of by
Herr Parish. The same points de repbre, the same
Bound, or flicker of light, or arrangement of shadow, may
318 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
beget the same or a similar false perception in two or
more people at once. Thus two girls, in different rooms,
are looking out on different parts of the hall in their
house. ' Both heard, at the same time, an [objective ?]
noise' (p. 313). Then, says Herr Parish, 'the one sister
saw her father cross the hall after entering ; the other
saw the dog (the usual companion of his walks) run past
her door.' Father and dog had not left the dining-room.
Herr Parish decides that the same point de repire (the
apparent noise of a key in the lock of the front door)
' acted by way of suggestion on both sisters,' producing,
however, different hallucinations, ' in virtue of the dif-
ference of the connected associations.' One girl asso-
ciated the sound with her honoured sire, the other with
his faithful hound ; so one saw a dog, and the other saw
an elderly gentleman. Now, first, if so, this should
always be occurring, for we all have different associations
of ideas. Thus, we are in a haunted house ; there is a
noise of a rattling window ; I associate it with a burglar.
Brown with a milkman, Miss Jones with a lady in green.
Miss Smith with a knight in armour. That collection
of phantasms should then be simultaneously on view,
like the dog and old gentleman ; all our reports should
vary. But this does not occur. Most unluckily for Herr
Parish, he illustrates his theory by telHng a story which
happens not to be correctly reported. At first I thought
that a fallacy of memory, or an optical delusion, had
betrayed him again, as in his legend of the waistcoat.
But I am now inclined to beheve that what really
occurred was this : Herr Parish brought out his book in
German, before the Beport of the Census of Hallucina-
tions was published. In his German edition he probably
quoted a story which precisely suited his theory of the
origin of collective hallucinations. This anecdote he had
found in Prof. Sidgwick's Presidential Address of July
1890.^ As stated by Prof. Sidgwick, the case just fitted
Herr Parish, who refers to it on p. 190, and again on
p. 314. He gives no reference, but his version reads
' Proceedings, vol. vi. p. 433.
APPENDIX A 819
like a traditional variant of Prof. Sidgwick's. Now
Prof. Sidgwick's version was erroneous, as is proved by
the elaborate account of the case in the Keport of the
Census, which Herr Parish had before him, but neglected
when he prepared his English edition. The story was
wrong, alas ! in the very point where, for Herr Parish's
purpose, it ought to have been right. The hallucination
is believed not to have been collective, yet Herr Parish
uses it to explain collective hallucinations. Doubtless he
overlooked the accurate version in the Eeport.'
The facts, as there reported, were not what he
narrates, but as follows :
Miss C. E. was in the breakfast-room, about 6.30 p.m.,
in January 1883, and supposed her father to be taking a
walk with his dog. She heard noises, which may have
had any other cause, but which she took to be the sounds
of a key in the door lock, a stick tapping the tiles of the
hall, and the patter of the dog's feet on the tiles. She
then saw the dog pass the door. Miss C. E. next entered
the hall, where she found nobody ; but in the pantry she
met her sisters — Miss E., Miss H. G. B. — and a working-
woman. Miss E. and the working-woman had been in
the hall, and there had heard the sound, which they, like
Miss C. E., took for that of a key in the lock. They were
breaking a little household rule in the hall, so they ' ran
straightway into the pantry, meeting Miss H. G. E. on
the way.' Miss C. E. and Miss E. and the working-
woman all heard the noise as of a key in the lock, but
nobody is said to have * seen the father cross the hall ' (as
Herr Parish asserts). 'Miss H. G. E. was of opinion
that Miss E. (now dead) saw nothing, and Miss C. E. was
inchned to agree with her.' Miss E. and the work- woman
(now dead) were * emphatic as to the father having
entered the house ; ' but this the two only inferred from
hearing the noise, after which they fled to the pantry.
Now, granting that some other noise was mistaken for
that of the key in the lock, we have here, 7iot (as Herr
Parish declares) a collective yet discrepant hallucination —
' Parish, p. 313.
320 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
the discrepancy being caused 'by the difference of con-
nected associations ' — but a solitary hallucination. Herr
Parish, however, inadvertently converts a soHtary into a
collective hallucination, and then uses the example to
explain collective hallucinations in general. He asserts
that Miss E. ' saw her father cross the hall.' Miss E.'s
sisters think that she saw no such matter. Now, suppose
that Mr. E. had died at the moment, and that the case
was claimed on our part as a 'collective coincidental
hallucination.' How righteously Herr Parish might
exclaim that all the evidence was against its being
collective ! The sound in the lock, heard by three per-
sons, would be, and probably was, another noise mis-
interpreted. And, in any case, there is no evidence for
its having produced two hallucinations; the evidence is
in exactly the opposite direction.
Here, then, Herr Parish, with the printed story under
his eyes, ouce more illustrates want of attention. In one
way his errors improve his case. ' If I, a grave man of
science, go on telling distorted legends out of my own
head, while the facts are plain in print before me,' Herr
Parish may reason, 'how much more are the popular
tales about coincidental hallucinations likely to be dis-
torted ? ' It is really a very strong argument, but not
exactly the argument which Herr Parish conceives
himself to be presenting.'
This unlucky inexactitude is chronic, as we have
shown, in Herr Parish's work, and is probably to be
explained by inattention to facts, by ' expectation ' of
suitable facts, and by ' anxiety ' to prove a theory. He
explains the similar or identical reports of witnesses to a
collective hallucination by 'the ease v^ith which such
appearances adapt themselves in recollection' (p. 313),
especially, of course, after lapse of time. And then he
unconsciously illustrates his case by the ease with which
printed facts under his very eyes adapt themselves, quite
erroneously, to his own memory and personal bias as he
copies them on to his paper.
« Compare Report, pp. 181-83, with Parish, pp. 190 and 313, 314.
APPENDIX A 321
Finally he argues that even if collective hallucinations
are also * v^ith comparative frequency ' coincidental, that
is to be explained thus : * The rarity and the degree of
interest compelled by it ' (by such an hallucination) ' will
naturally tend to connect itself with some other pro-
minent event ; and, conversely, the occurrence of such
an event as the death or mortal danger of a friend is
most calculated to produce memory illusions of this kind.'
In the second case, the excitement caused by the
death of a friend is likely, it seems, to make two or more
sane people say, and believe, that they saw him some-
where else, when he was really dying. The only evidence
for this fact is that such illusions occasionally occur, not
collectively, in some lunatic asylums. ' It is not, how-
ever, a form of mnemonic error often observed among
the insane.' * Kraepelin gives two cases,' * The process
occurs sporadically in certain sane people, under certain
exciting conditions.' No examples are given ! What is
rare as an individual folly among lunatics, is supposed by
Herr Parish to explain the theoretically * false memory '
whereby sane people persuade themselves that they had
an hallucination, and persuade others that they were told
of it, when no such thing occurred.
To return to our old example. Jones tells me that he
has just seen his aunt, whom he knows to be in Tim-
buctoo. News comes that the lady died when Jones
beheld her in his smoking-room. * Oh, nonsense,' Herr
Parish would argue, 'you, Jones, saw nothing of the kind,
nor did you tell Mr. Lang, who, I am sorry to find, agrees
with you. What happened was this : When the awful
news came to-day of your aunt's death, you were naturally,
and even creditably, excited, especially as the poor lady was
killed by being pegged down on an ant-heap. This ex-
citement, rather praiseworthy than othervdse, made you
believe you had seen your aunt, and believe you had told
Mr. Lang. He also is a most excitable person, though I
admit he never saw your dear aunt in his life. He, there-
fore (by virtue of his excitement), now believes you told
him about seeing your unhappy kinswoman. This kind
Y
322 THE MAKING OF KELIGION
of false memory is very common. Two cases are recorded
by Kraepelin, among the insane. Sure you quite under-
stand my reasoning ? '
I quite understand it, but I don't see how it comes to
seem good logic to Herr Parish.
The other theory is funnier still. Jones never had an
hallucination before. 'The rarity and the degree of
interest compelled by it ' made Jones ' connect it vdth
some other prominent event,' say, the death of his aunt,
which, really, occurred, say, nine months afterwards. But
this is a mere case of evidence, which it is the affair of
the S.P.B. to criticise.
Herr Parish is in the happy position called in American
speculative circles * a straddle.' If a man has an hallu-
cination when alone, he was in circumstances conducive
to the sleeping state. So the hallucination is probably a
dream. But, if the seer was in company, who all had the
same hallucination, then they all had the same points de
repere, and the same adaptive memories. So Herr Parish
kills with both barrels.
If anything extraneous could encourage a belief in
coincidental and veridical hallucinations, it would be
these ' Oppositions of Science.' If a learned and fair
opponent can find no better proofs than logic and (un-
conscious) perversions of facts like the logic and the
statements of Herr Parish, the case for telepathic hallu-
cinations may seem strong indeed. But we must grant
him the existence of the adaptive and mythopoeic powers
of memory, which he asserts, and also illustrates. I
grant, too, that a census of 17,000 inquiries may only
have 'skimmed the cream off' (p. 87). Another dip of
the net, bringing up 17,000 fresh answers, might alter the
whole aspect of the case, one way or the other. More-
over, we cannot get scientific evidence in this way of
inquiry. If the public were interested in the question,
and understood its nature, and if everybody who had an
hallucination at once recorded it in black and white, duly
attested on oath before a magistrate, by persons to whom
APPENDIX A 823
he reported, before the coincidence was known, and if all
such records, coincidental or not, were kept in the British
Museum for fifty years, then an examination of them
might teach us something. But all this is quite impos-
sible. We may form a belief, on this point of veridical
hallucinations, for ourselves, but beyond that it is im-
possible to advance. Still, Science might read her brief !
»2
324 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
APPENDIX B
TEE POLTEBGEIST AND HIS EXPLAINERS.
In the chapter on ' Fetishism and Spiritualism ' it was
suggested that the movements of inanimate objects,
apparently without contact, may have been one of the
causes leading to fetishism, to the opinion that a spirit
may inhabit a stick, stone, or what not. We added that,
whether such movements were caused by trickery or not,
was inessential as long as the savage did not discover the
imposture.
The evidence for the genuine supernormal character
of such phenomena was not discussed, that we might
preserve the continuity of the general argument. The
history of such phenomena is too long for statement here.
The same reports are found 'from China to Peru,' from
Eskimo to the Cape, from Egyptian magical papyri to
yesterday's provincial newspaper.^
About 1850-1870 phenomena, which had previously
been reported as of sporadic and spontaneous occurrence,
were domesticated and organised by Mediums, generally
American. These were imitators of the enigmatic David
Dunglas Home, who was certainly a most oddly gifted
man, or a most successful impostor. A good deal of
scientific attention was given to the occurrences ; Mr.
Darwin, Mr. Tyndall, Dr. Carpenter, Mr. Huxley, had all
glanced at the phenomena, and been present at seances.
In most cases the exhibitions, in the dark, or in a very
bad light, were impudent impostures, and were so re-
garded by the savants who looked into them. A series of
' A sketch of the history will be found in the author's Cock Lane mid
Conwion Sense.
APPENDIX B 325
exposures culminated in the recent detection of Eusapia
Paladino by Dr. Hodgson and other members of the
S.P.E. at Cambridge.
There was, however, an apparent exception. The
arch mystagogue, Home, though by no means a clever
man, was never detected in fraudulent productions of
fetishistic phenomena. This is asserted here because
several third-hand stories of detected frauds by Home
are in circulation, and it is hoped that a well-attested
first-hand case of detection may be elicited.
Of Home's successes with Sir "William Crookes, Lord
Crawford, and others, something remains to be said ; but
first we shall look into attempted explanations of alleged
physical phenomena occurring not in the presence of a
paid or even of a recognised ' Medium.' It will appear,
we think, that the explanations of evidence so widely
diffused, so uniform, so old, and so new, are far from
satisfactory. Our inference would be no more than that
our eyes should be kept on such phenomena, if they are
reported to recur.
Mr. Tylor says, * I am well aware that the problem
[of these phenomena] is one to be discussed on its merits,
in order to arrive at a distinct opinion how far it may
be connected with facts insufficiently appreciated and
explained by science, and how far with superstition,
delusion, and sheer knavery. Such investigation, pursued
by careful observation in a scientific spirit, would seem
apt to throw light on some interesting psychological
questions.*
Acting on Mr. Tyler's hint, Mr. Podmore puts forward
as explanations (1) fraud ; (2) hallucinations caused by
excited expectation, and by the Schiodrmcrei consequent
on sitting in hushed hope of marvels.
To take fraud first : Mr. Podmore has collected, and
analyses, eleven recent sporadic cases of volatile objects.^
His first instance (Worksop, 1883) yields no proof of
fraud, and can only be dismissed by reason of the bad
' The best source is his article on 'Poltergeists.' Proceedings zi.
45-116. See, too, his ' Poltergeists ' in Studies in Psychical Research.
826 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
character of the other cases, and because Mr. Podmore
took the evidence five vs^eeks after the events. To this
example we confine ourselves. This case appears to have
been first reported in the * Eetford and Gainsborough
Times ' * early in March,' 1883 (really March 9). It does
not seem to have struck Mr. Podmore that he should
publish these contemporary reports, to show us how far
they agree with evidence collected by him on the spot
five weeks later. To do this was the more necessary, as
he lays so much stress on failure of memory. I have
therefore secured the original newspaper report, by the
courtesy of the editor. To be brief, the phenomena began
on February 20 or 21, by the table voluntarily tipping up,
and upsetting a candle, while Mrs. White only saved the
wash tub by alacrity and address. * The whole incident
struck her as very extraordinary.' It is not in the news-
paper report. On February 26, Mr. White left his home,
and a girl, Eliza Kose, ' child of a half-imbecile mother,'
was admitted by the kindness of INIrs. White to share her
bed. The girl was eighteen years of age, was looking for
a place as servant, and nothing is said in the newspaper
about her mother. Mr. White returned on Wednesday
night, but left on Thursday morning, returning on Friday
afternoon. On Thursday, in Mr. White's absence, phe-
nomena set in. On Thursday night, in Mr. White's
presence, they increased in vigour. A doctor was called
in, also a pohceman. On Saturday, at 8 a.m., the row
recommenced. At 4 p.m. Mr. White sent EHza Kose
away, and peace returned. We now offer the
Statement of Police Constable Higgs. A man
of good intelligence, and believed to be entirely
honest. . . .
' On the night of Friday, March 2nd, I heard of the
disturbances at Joe White's house from his young brother,
Tom. I went round to the house at 11.55 p.m., as near
as I can judge, and found Joe White in the kitchen of
his house. There was one candle lighted in the room.
APPENDIX B 827
and a good fire burning, so that one could see things
pretty clearly. The cupboard doors were open, and White
went and shut them, and then came and stood against the
chest of drawers. I stood near the outer door. No one
else was in the room at the time. White had hardly
shut the cupboard doors when they flew open, and a large
glass jar came out past me, and pitched in the yard out-
side, smashing itself. I didn't see the jar leave the cup-
board, or fly through the air ; it went too quick. But I
am quite sure that it wasn't thrown by White or any one
else. White couldn't have done it without my seeing
him. The jar couldn't go in a straight line from the cup-
board out of the door ; but it certainly did go.
* Then White asked me to come and see the things
which had been smashed in the inner room. He led the
way and I followed. As I passed the chest of drawers in
the kitchen I noticed a tumbler standing on it. Just
after I passed I heard a crash, and looking round, I saw
that the tumbler had fallen on the ground in the direction
of the fireplace, and was broken. I don't know how it
happened. There was no one else in the room.
'I went into the inner room, and saw the bits of
pots and things on the floor, and then I came back with
White into the kitchen. The girl Eose had come into
the kitchen during our absence. She was standing with
her back against the bin near the fire. There was a cup
standing on the bin, rather nearer the door. She said
to me, " Cup'll go soon ; it has been down three tinies
already." She then pushed it a little farther on the bin,
and turned round and stood talking to me by the fire.
She had hardly done so, when the cup jumped up suddenly
about four or five feet into the air, and then fell on the
floor and smashed itself. White was sitting on the other
side of the fire.
* Then Mrs. White came in with Dr. Lloyd ; also
Tom White and Solomon Wass. After they had been in
two or three minutes, something else happened. Tom
White and Wass were standing with their backs to the
fire, just in front of it. Eliza Eose and Dr. Lloyd were
S28 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
near them, with their backs turned towards the bin,
the doctor nearer to the door. I stood by the drawers,
and Mrs. White was by me near the inner door. Then
suddenly a basin, which stood on the end of the bin near
the door, got up into the air, turning over and over as it
went. It went up not very quickly, not as quickly as if
it had been thrown. When it reached the ceiling it fell
plump and smashed. I called Dr. Lloyd's attention to it,
and we all saw it. No one was near it, and I don't know
how it happened. I stayed about ten minutes more, but
saw nothing else. I don't know what to make of it all.
I don't think White or the girl could possibly have done
the things which I saw.'
This statement was made five weeks after date to Mr.
Podmore. We compare it with the intelligent constable's
statement made between March 8 and March 8, that is,
immediately after the events, and reported in the local
paper of March 9.
Statement by Police Constable Higgs. — During
Friday night, Police Constable Higgs visited the house,
and concerning the visit he makes the following state-
ment. * About ten minutes past [to ?] twelve on Friday
night, I was met in Bridge Street by Buck Ford, and
Joe's brother, Tom White and Dr. Lloyd. Tom said to
me, " Will you go with us to Joe's, and you will see some-
thing you have never seen before? " I went ; and when
I got into the house Joe went and shut the cupboard
doors. No sooner had he done so than the doors flew
open again, and an ordinary sized glass jar flew across the
kitchen, out of the door into the yard. A sugar jar also
flew out of the cupboard unseen. In fact, we saw nothing
and heard nothing until we heard it smash. The distance
travelled by the articles was about seven yards. I stood
a minute or two, and then the glass which I noticed on
the drawers jumped off the drawers a yard away, and
broke in about a hundred bits. The next thing was a
cup, which stood on the flour-bin just beyond the yard
APPENDIX B 329
door. It flew upwards, and then fell to the ground and
broke. The girl said, that this cup had been on the floor
three times, and that she had picked it up just before it
went off the bench. I said, " I suppose the cup will be
the next." The cup fell a distance of two yards away
from the flour-bin. Dr. Lloyd had been in the next house
lancing the back of a little boy who had been removed
there. He now came in, and we began talking, the
doctor saying, "It is a most mysterious thing." He
turned with his back to the flour-bin, on which stood a
basin. The basin flew up into the air obliquely, went
over the doctor's head, and fell at his feet in pieces. The
doctor then went out. I stood a short time longer, but
saw nothing further. There were six persons in the room
while these things were going on, and so far as I could
see, there was no human agency at work. I had not the
slightest belief in anything appertaining to the super-
natural. I left just before one o'clock, having been in the
house thirty minutes.'
As the policeman says, there was nothing ' super-
natural,' but there was an appearance of something rather
supernormal. On the afternoon of Saturday White sent
the girl Eose away, and a number of people watched
in his house till after midnight. Though the sceptical
reporter thought that objects were placed where they
might easily be upset, none were upset. The ghost was
laid. * Excited expectation ' was so false to its function
as to beget no phenomena.
The newspaper reports contain no theory that will
account for White's breaking his furniture and crockery,
nor for Eose's securing her own dismissal from a house
where she was kindly received by wilfully destroying the
property of her hostess. An amateur published a theory
of silken threads attached to light articles, and thick cords
to heavy articles, whereof no trace was found by witnesses
who examined the volatile objects. An elaborate ma-
chinery of pulleys fixed in the ceiling, the presence of
a trickster in a locked pantry, apparent errors in the
account of the flight of the objects, and a number of
330 TIIE MAKING OF RELIGION
accomplices, were all involved in this local explanation,
the explainer admitting that he could not imagine whij
the tricks were played. Six or eight pounds' worth of
goods were destroyed, nor is it singular that poor Mrs.
White wept over her shattered penates.
The destruction began, of course, in the absence of
White. The girl Kose gave to the newspaper the same
account as the other witnesses, but, as White thought
she was the agent, so she suspected AVhite, though she
admitted that he was not at home when the trouble
arose.
Mr. Podmore, reviewing the case, says, * The pheno-
mena described are quite inexplicable by ordinary mecha-
nical means.' ^ Yet he elsewhere ^ suggests that Eose
herself, * as the instrument of mysterious agencies, or
simply as a half-witted girl, gifted with abnormal cunning
and love of mischief, may have been directly responsible
for all that took place.' That is to say, a half-witted girl
could do (barring ' mysterious agencies ') * what is quite
inexplicable by ordinary mechanical means,' while, accord-
ing to the policeman, she was not even present on some
occasions. But it is not easy to make out, in the evidence
of White, the other witness, whether this girl Kose was
pr>^sent or not when the jar flew circuitously out of the
cupboard, a thing easily worked by a half-witted girl.
Such discrepancies are common in all evidence to the most
ordinary events. In any case a half-witted girl, in Mr.
Podmore' s theory, can do what * is quite inexphcable by
ordinary mechanical means.' There is not the shadow of
evidence that the girl Eose had the inestimable advantage
of being ' half-witted ; ' she is described by Mr. Podmore
as 'the child of an imbecile mother.' The phenomena
began, in an isolated case (the tilted table), before Eose
entered the house. She was admitted in kindness, acted
as a maid, and her interest was not to break the crockery
and upset furniture. The troubles, which began before the
girl's arrival, were apparently active when she was not
' Studies in Psychical Research, p. 140.
* See Preface to this edition for correction.
APPENDIX B 831
present, and, if she was present, she could not have caused
them ' by ordinary mechanical means,' while of extraordi-
nary mechanical means there was confessedly no trace.
The disturbances ceased after she was dismissed — nothing
else connects her with them.
Mr. Podmore's attempt at a normal explanation by
fraud, therefore, is of no weight. He has to exaggerate
the value, as disproof, of such discrepancies as occur in
all human evidence on all subjects. He has to lay stress
on the interval of five weeks between the events and the
collection of testimony by himself. But contemporary
accounts appeared in the local newspapers, and he does
not compare the contemporary with the later evidence, as
we have done. There is one discrepancy which looks as
if a witness, not here cited, came to think he had seen
what he heard talked about. Finally, after abandoning the
idea that mechanical means can possibly have produced
the effect, Mr. Podmore falls back on the cunning of a half-
vntted girl whom nothing shows to have been half-witted.
The alternative is that the girl was ' the instrument of
mysterious agencies,'
So much for the hypothesis of a fraud, which has been
identical in results from China to Peru and from Green-
land to the Cape.
We now turn to the other, and concomitantly active
cause, in Mr. Podmore's theory, hallucination. * Many
of the witnesses described the articles as moving slowly
through the air, or exhibiting some peculiarity of flight.'
(See e.g. the Worksop case.) Mr. Podmore adds another
English case, presently to be noted, and a German one.
* In default of any experimental evidence ' (how about Mr.
William Crookes's?) 'that disturbances of this kind are
ever due to abnormal agency, I am disposed to explain
the appearance of moving slowly or flying as a sensory
illusion, conditioned by the excited state of the percipient.'
C Studies,' 157, 158.)
Before criticising this explanation, let us give the
English affair, alluded to by Mr. Podmore.
The most curious modern case known to me is not of
832 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
recent date, but it occurred in full daylight, in the pre-
sence of many witnesses, and the phenomena continued
for weeks. The events were of 1849, and the record is
expanded, by Mr. Bristow, a spectator, from an account
written by him in 1854. The scene was Swanland, near
Hull, in a carpenter's shop, where Mr. Bristow was em-
ployed with two fellow workmen. To be brief, they were
pelted by odds and ends of wood, about the size of a
common matchbox. Each blamed the others, till this
explanation became untenable. The workrooms and space
above were searched to no purpose. The bits of wood
sometimes danced along the floor, more commonly sailed
gently along, or " moved as if borne on gently heaving
waves." This sort of thing was repeated during six
weeks. One piece of wood " came from a distant corner
of the room towards me, describing what may be likened
to a geometrical square, or corkscrew of about eighteen
inches diameter. . . . Never was a piece seen to come in
at the doorway." Mr. Bristow deems this period ' the
most remarkable episode in my life.' (June 27, 1891.)
The phenomena ' did not depend on the presence of any
one person or number of persons.'
Going to Swanland, in 1891, Mr. Sidgwick found one
surviving witness of these occurrences, who averred that
the objects could not have been thrown because of the
eccentricities of their course, which he described in the
same way as Mr. Bristow. The thrower must certainly
have had a native genius for * pitching ' at base-ball. This
vdtness, named Andrews, was mentioned by Mr. Bristow
in his report, but not referred to by him for confirmation.
Those to whom he referred were found to be dead, or
had emigrated. The villagers had a superstitious theory
about the phenomena being provoked by a dead man,
whose affairs had not been settled to his liking. So Mr.
Darwin's spoon danced — on a grave.^
This case has a certain interest a propos of Mr.
Podmore's surmise that all such phenomena arise in
trickery, which produces excitement in the spectators,
» Proceedings, S.P.R. vii. 383-394.
APPENDIX B 833
while excitement begets hallucination, and hallucination
takes the form of seeing the thrown objects move in a
non-natural way. Thus, I keep throwing things about.
You, not detecting this stratagem, get excited, consequently
hallucinated, and you believe you see the things move in
spirals, or undulate as if on waves, or hop, or float, or
glide in an impossible way. So close is the uniformity
of hallucination that these phenomena are described,
in similar terms, by witnesses (hallucinated, of course)
in times old and new, as in cases cited by Glanvil,
Increase Mather, Telfer (of Eerrick), and, generally, in
works of the seventeenth century. Nor is this uniform
hallucination confined to England. Mr. Podmore quotes
a German example, and I received a similar testimony (to
the flight of an object round a corner) from a gentleman
who employed Esther Teed, ' the Amherst Mystery,' in his
service. He was not excited, for he was normally engaged
in his normal stable, when the incident occurred unex-
pectedly as he was looking after his live stock. One may
add the case of Cideville (1851) and Sir W. Crookes's
evidence, and that of Mr. Schhapoff.
Mr. Podmore must, therefore, suppose that, in states
of excitement, the same peculiar form of hallucination
develops itself uniformly in America, France, Germany,
and England (not to speak of Eussia), and persists through
different ages. This is a novel and valuable psychological
law. Moreover, Mr. Podmore must hold that 'excite-
ment ' lasted for six weeks among the carpenters in the
shop at Swanland, one of whom writes like a man of much
intelligence, and has thriven to be a master in his craft.
It is difficult to believe that he was excited for six weeks,
and we still marvel that excitement produces the same
uniformity of hallucination, affecting policemen, car-
penters, marquises, and a F.E.S. We allude to Sir W.
Crookes's case.
Strictly scientific examination of these prodigies has
been very rare. The best examples are the experiments
of Sir William Crookes, F.E.S., with Home.^ He de-
' See Sir W. Crookes's Researches in Sinritiialism.
334 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
monstrated, by means of a machine constructed for the
purpose, and automatically registering, that, in Home's
presence, a balance was affected to the extent of two
pounds when Home was not in contact with the table on
which the machine was placed. He also saw objects float
in air, with a motion like that of a piece of wood on small
waves of the sea (clearly excitement producing hallucina-
tion), while Home was at a distance, other spectators
holding his hands, and his feet being visibly enclosed in a
kind of cage. All present held each other's hands, and all
witnessed the phenomena. Sir W. Crookes being, pro-
fessionally, celebrated for the accuracy of his observations,
these circumstances are difficult to explain, and these
are but a few cases among multitudes.
I venture to conceive that, on reflection, Mr. Podmore
will doubt whether he has discovered an universal law of
excited mal-perception, or whether the remarkable, and
certainly undesigned, coincidence of testimony to the
singular flight of objects does not rather point to an
' abnormal agency ' uniform in its effects. Contagious
hallucination cannot affect witnesses ignorant of each
other's existence in many lands and ages, nor could they
cook their reports to suit reports of which they never
heard.
We now turn to peculiarities in the so-called Medium,
such as floating in air, change of bulk, and escape from
lesion when handling or treading in fire. Mr. Tylor says
nothing of Sir "William Crookes's cases (1871), but speaks
of the alleged levitation, or floating in air, of savages and
civiHsed men. These are recorded in Buddhist and Neo-
platonic writings, and among Eed Indians, in Tonquin
(where a Jesuit saw and described the phenomena, 1730),
in the 'Acta Sanctorum,' and among modern spiritualists.
In 1760, Lord Elcho, being at Eome, was present at the
procks for canonising a Saint (unnamed), and heard
witnesses swear to having seen the holy man levitated.
Sir W. Crookes attests having seen Home float in air on
several occasions. In 1871, the Master of Lindsay, now
Lord Crawford and Balcarres, F.E.S., gave the follow-
APPENDIX B 335
ing evidence, which was corroborated by the two other
spectators, Lord Adare and Captain Wynne.
* I was sitting with Mr. Home and Lord Adare and a
cousin of his. During the sitting, Mr. Home went into
a trance, and in that state was carried out of the window
in the room next to where we were, and was brought in
at our window. The distance between the windows was
about seven feet six inches, and there was not the slightest
foothold between them, nor was there more than a twelve-
inch projection to each window, which served as a ledge
to put flowers on. We heard the window in the next
room lifted up, and almost immediately after we saw
Home floating in the air outside our window. The moon
was shining full into the room ; my back was to the Hght,
and I saw the shadow on the wall of the window sill, and
Home's feet about six inches above it. He remained in
this position for a few seconds, then raised the window
and glided into the room feet foremost and sat down.
' Lord Adare then went into the next room to look
at the window from which he had been carried. It was
raised about eighteen inches, and he expressed his wonder
how Mr. Home had been taken through so narrow an
aperture. Home said, still entranced, " I will show you,"
and then with his back to the window he leaned back and
was shot out of the aperture, head first, with the body
rigid, and then returned quite quietly. The window is
about seventy feet from the ground.' The hypothesis of
a mechanical arrangement of ropes or supports outside
has been suggested, but does not cover the facts as
described.
Mr. Podmore, who quotes this, offers the explanation
that the witnesses were excited, and that Home ' thrust
his head and shoulders out of the window.' But, if he
did, they could not see him do it, for he was in the next
room. A brick wall was between them and him. Their
first view of Home was * floating in the air outside our
window.' It is not very easy to hold that a belief to
which the collective evidence is so large and universal,
as the belief in levitation, was caused by a series of saints,
336 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
sorcerers, and others thrusting their heads and shoulders
out of windows where the observers could not see them.
Nor in Lord Crawford's case is it easy to suppose that
three educated men, if hallucinated, would all be halluci-
nated in the same way.
The argument of excited expectation and consequent
hallucination does not apply to Mr. Hamilton Aide and
M. Alphonse Karr, neither of whom was a man of science.
Both were extremely prejudiced against Home, and at
Nice went to see, and, if possible, to expose him. Home
was^ a guest at a large villa in Nice, M. Karr and Mr.
Aide were two of a party in a spacious brilhantly lighted
salon, where Home received them. A large heavy table,
remote from their group, moved towards them. M. Karr
then got under a table which rose in air, and carefully
examined the space beneath, while Mr. Aide observed it
from above. Neither of them could discover any explana-
tion of the phenomenon, and they walked away together,
disgusted, disappointed, and revihng Home.^
In this case there was neither excitement nor desire
to beheve, but a strong wish to disbeheve and to expose
Home. If two such witnesses could be hallucinated,
we must greatly extend our notion of the limits of the
capacity for entertaining hallucinations.
One singular phenomenon was reported in Home's
cape, which has, however, Httle to do with any con-
ceivable theory of spirits. He was said to become
elongated in trance.^ Mr. Podmore explains that ' per-
haps he really stretched himself to his full height '—one
of the easiest ways conceivable of working a miracle,
lambhchus reports the same phenomenon in his possessed
men.^ lamblichus adds that they were sometimes
broadened as well as lengthened. Now, M. Fere observes
that ' any part of the body of an hysterical patient may
change in volume, simply owing to the fact that the
» Mr. Aid^ has given me this information. He recorded the circum-
Btances in his Diary at the time.
2 Report of Dialectical Society, p. 209.
» See Porphyry, in Parthey'a edition (Berlin, 1857), iii. 4.
APPENDIX B 337
patient's attention is fixed on that part.' * Conceivably
the elongation of Home and the ancient Egyptian
mediums may have been an extreme case of this ' change
of volume.' Could this be proved by examples, Home's
elongation would cease to be a * miracle.' But it would
follow that in this case observers were not hallucinated,
and the presumption would be raised that they were not
hallucinated in the other cases. Indeed, this argument is
of universal application.
There is another class of * physical phenomena,' which
has no direct bearing on our subject. Many persons, in
many ages, are said to have handled or walked through
fire, not only without suffering pain, but without lesion
of the skin. lamblichus mentions this as among the
peculiarities of his ' possessed ' men ; and in ' Modern
Mythology ' (1897) I have collected first-hand evidence
for the feat in classical times, and in India, Fiji, Bulgaria,
Trinidad, the Straits Settlements, and many other places.
The evidence is that of travellers, officials, missionaries,
and others, and is backed (for what photographic testi-
mony is worth) by photographs of the performance. To
hold glowing coals in his hand, and to communicate the
power of doing so to others, was in Home's repertoire.
Lord Crawford saw it done on eight occasions, and
himself received from Home's hand the glowing coal
unharmed. A friend of my own, however, still bears the
blister of the hurt received in the process. Sir W-
Crookes's evidence follows :
'At Mr. Home's request, whilst he was entranced,
I went with him to the fireplace in the back drawing-
room. He said, "We want you to notice particularly
what Dan is doing." Accordingly I stood close to the
fire, and stooped down to it when he put his hands in.
• • -t • • t •
* Mr. Home then waved the handkerchief about in the
air two or three times, held it above his head, and then
folded it up and laid it on his hand like a cushion.
Putting his other hand into the fire, he took out a large
' Bulletin de la SocidU de Biologic, 1880, p. 399.
Z
838 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
lump of cinder, red-hot at the lower part, and placed the
red part on the handkerchief. Under ordinary circum-
stances it would have been in a blaze. In about half a
minute he took it off the handkerchief with his hand,
saying, "As the power is not strong, if we leave the coal
longer it will burn." He then put it on his hand, and
brought it to the table in the front room, where all but
myself had remained seated.'
Mr. Podmore explains that only two candles and the
fire gave light on one occasion, and that 'possibly ' Home's
hands were protected by some 'non-conducting substance.'
He does not explain how this substance was put on Lord
Crawford's hands, nor tell us what this valuable substance
may be. None is known to science, though it seems to
be known to Fijians, Tongans, Klings, and Bulgarians,
who walk through fire unhurt.
It is not necessary to believe Sir W. Crookes's asser-
tions that he saw Home perform the fire-tricks, for we
can fall back on the lack of light (only two candles and
the fire-light), as also on the law of hallucination caused
by excitement. But it is necessary to believe this dis-
tinguished authority's statement about his ignorance of
' some non-conducting substance : '
' Schoolboys' books and mediaeval tales describe how
this can be done with alum and other ingredients. It is
possible that the skin may be so hardened and thickened
by such preparations that superficial charring might take
place without the pain becoming great ; but the surface
of the skin would certainly suffer severely. After Home
had recovered from the trance, I examined his hand vsdth
care to see if there were any signs of burning or of
previous preparation. I could detect no trace of injury
to the skin, which was soft and delicate, like a woman's.
Neither were there signs of any preparation having been
previously applied. I have often seen conjurers and others
handle red-hot coals and iron, but there were always
palpable signs of burning.' '
In September 1897 a crew of passengers went from
New Zealand to see the Fijian rites, which, as reported in
' Crookes, Proceeditigs, ix. 308.
APPENDIX B 839
the 'Fiji Times,' corresponded exactly with the descrip-
tion pubhshed by Mr. Basil Thomson, himself a witness.
The interesting point, historically, is the combination in
Home of all the repertoire of the possessed men in
lamblichus. We certainly cannot get rid of the fire-trick
by aid of a hypothetical 'non-conducting substance.' Till
the ' substance ' is tested experimentally it is not a vera
causa. We might as well say ' spirits ' at once. Both
that * substance ' and those ' spirits ' are equally ' in the
air.' Yet Mr. Podmore's ' explanations ' (not satisfactory
to himself) are conceived so thoroughly in the spirit of
popular science — one of them casually discovering a new
psychological law, a second contradicting the facts it
seeks to account for, a third generously inventing an
unknown substance — that they ought to be welcomed
by reviewers and lecturers.
It seems wiser to admit our ignorance and suspend
our belief.
Here closes the futile chapter of explanations. Fraud
is a vera causa, but an hypothesis difficult of application
when it is admitted that the effects could not be caused
by ordinary mechanical means. Hallucination, through
excitement, is a vera causa, but its remarkable uniformity,
as described by witnesses from different lands and ages,
knowing nothing of each other, makes us hesitate to
accept a sweeping hypothesis of hallucination. The case
for it is not confirmed, when we have the same reports
from witnesses certainly not excited.
This extraordinary bundle, then, of reports, practically
identical, of facts paralysing to belief, this bundle made
up of statements from so many ages and countries, can
only be ' filed for reference.' But it is manifest that any
savage who shared the experiences of Sir W. Crookes,
Lord Crawford, Mr. Hamilton Aide, M. Eobert de St.
Victor at Cideville, and Policeman Higgs at Worksop,
would believe that a spirit might tenant a stick or stone —
so beheving he would be a Fetishist. Thus even o£
Fetishism the probable origin is in a region of which we
know nothing — the x region.
c2
340 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
APPENDIX
CEYSTAL-OAZINa
Since the chapter on crystal-gazing was in type, a work
by Dr. Pierre Janet has appeared, styled ' Les N^vroses
et les Id^es Fixes.' ^ It contains a chapter on crystal-
gazing. The opinion of Dr. Janet, as that of a savant
famihar, at the Salpetrifere, with * neurotic ' visionaries,
cannot but be interesting. Unluckily, the essay must be
regarded as seriously impaired in value by Dr. Janet's
singular treatment of his subject. Nothing is more ne-
cessary in these researches than accuracy of statement.
Now, Dr. Janet has taken a set of experiences, or
experiments, of Miss X.'s from that lady's interesting
essay, already cited ; has attributed them, not to Miss X.,
but to various people — for example, to une jeune fille,
une pauvre voyante, une jpersonne un pen mystique ; has
altered the facts in the spirit of romance ; and has
triumphantly given that explanation, revival of memory,
which was assigned by Miss X. herself.
Throughout his paper Dr. Janet appears as the calm
man of science pronouncing judgment on the visionary
vagaries of * haunted ' young girls and disappointed
seeresses. No such persons were concerned; no such
hauntings, supposed premonitions, or * disillusions ' oc-
curred ; the romantic and ' marvellous ' circumstances are
mythopceic accretions due to Dr. Janet's own memory or
fancy; his scientific explanation is that given by his
trinity of jeune fille, pauvre voyante, and personne un peu
mystique.
> Alcan, Paris, 1898.
APPENDIX C 341
Being much engaged in the study of * neurotic ' and
hysterical patients, Dr. Janet thinks that they are most
apt to see crystal visions. Perhaps they are ; and one
doubts if their descriptions are more to be trusted than
the romantic essay of their medical attendant. In citing
Miss X.'s paper (as he did), Dr. Janet ought to have
reported her experiments correctly, ought to have attri-
buted them to herself, and should, decidedly, have re-
marked that the explanation he offered was her own
hypothesis, verified by her own exertions.
Not having any acquaintances in neurotic circles, I
am unable to say whether such persons supply more
cases of the faculty of crystal vision than ordinary people ;
while their word, one would think, is much less to be
trusted than that of men and women in excellent health.
The crystal visions which I have cited from my own
knowledge (and I could cite scores of others) were beheld
by men and women engaged in the ordinary duties of life.
Students, barristers, novelists, lawyers, school-masters,
school-mistresses, golfers — to all of whom the topic was
perfectly new — have all exhibited the faculty. It is
curious that an Arabian author of the thirteenth century,
Ibn Khaldoun, cited by M. Lef^bure, offers the same
account of how the visions appear as that given by Miss
Angus in the Journal of the S.P.E., April 1898. M.
Lefebure's citation was sent to me in a letter.
I append M. Lefebure's quotation from Ibn Khaldoun.
The original is translated in ' Notices et Extraits des
MSS. de la Bibliotheque Imp^riale,' I. xix. p. 643-645.
* Ibn Kaldoun admet que certains hommes ont la faculty
de deviner I'avenir.
*"Ceux, ajoute-t-il, qui regardent dans les corps
diaphanes, tels que les miroirs, les cuvettes remplies d'eau
et les liquides ; ceux qui inspectent les cceurs, les foies et
les OS des animaux, .... tons ces gens-li appartiennent
aussi h, la categorie des devins, mais, k cause de I'imperfec-
tion de leur nature, ils y occupent un rang inf erieur. Pour
ecarter le voile des sens, le vrai devin n'a pas besoin de
grands efforts ; quant aux autres, ils tachent d'arriver au
342 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
but en essayant de concentrer en un seul seris toutes leurs
perceptions. Comme la vue est le sens le plus noble, ils
lui donnent la preference ; fixant leur regard sur un objet
a superficie unie, ils le considerent avec attention jusqu'a
ce qu'ils y aper9oivent la chose qu'ils veulent annoncer.
Quelques personnes croient que 1 'image aper9ue de cette
maniere se dessine sur la surface du miroir ; mais ils
se trompent. Le devin regarde fixement cette surface
jusqu'a ce qu'elle disparaisse et qu'un rideau, semblable
a un brouillard, s'interpose entre lui et le miroir. Sur
ce rideau se dessinent les choses qu'il desire ajjer-
cevoir, et cela lui permet de donner des indications
soit affirmatives, soit negatives, sur ce que Ton desire
savoir. II raconte alors les perceptions telles qu'il les
re9oit. Les devins, pendant qu'ils sont dans cet
etat, n'aper9oivent pas ce qui se voit reellement dans le
miroir ; c'est un autre mode de perception qui nait chez
eux et qui s'opere, non pas au moyen de la vue, mais de
Tame. II est vrai que, pour eux, les perceptions de Vdme
ressemhlent a celles des sens au point de les tromper ;
fait qui, du reste, est bien connu. La meme chose
arrive a ceux qui examinent les coeurs et les foies
d'animaux. Nous avons vu quelques-uns de ces individus
entraver V operation des sens par I'emploi de simples /wwi-
gations, puis se servir di' incantations^ afin de donner a
' L'auteur arabe avait d6j^ mentionn6 (p. 209) I'emploi des incantations
et indiqu6 qu'elles 6taient un simple adjuvant physique destin6 k donner k
certains hommes une exaltation dont ils se servaient pour tacher de
d^couvrir I'avenir.
' Pour arriver au plus haut degr6 d'inspiration dont il est capable, le
devin doit avoir recours k I'emploi de certaines phrases qui se distinguent
par une cadence et un paralUlisme particuliers. II essaye ce moyen afin de
soustraire son dine aux influences des sens et de lui donner assez de force
pour se mettre dans un contact imparfait avec le monde spirituel.* Cette
agitation d'esprit, jointe k I'emploi des moyens intrins^ques dont nous avons
parl6, excite dans son cceur des id6es que cet organe exprime par le
niinist^re de la langue. Les paroles qu'il prononce sont tant6t vraies, tantot
fausses. En effet, le devin, voulant supplier a I'imperfection de son naturel,
Be sert de moyens tout k fait strangers a sa faculty perceptive et qui ne
» Compare Tennyson's way of attaining a state of trance by repeating to him-
self his own name.
APPENDIX C 343
I'ame la disposition requise ; ensnitc ils racontent ce qu'ils
ont aper9u. Ces formes, disent-ils, se montrent dans I'air
et representent des personnages : elles leur apprennent,
au moyen d'emblemes et de signes, les choses qu'ils
cherchent a savoir. Les individus de cette classe se
detachent moins de I'influence des sens que ceux de la
classe precedente." '
s'accordent en aucune faijon avec elle. Done la v6rit6 et I'erreur se
pr6sentent a lui en meme temps, aussi ne doit-on mettre aucune confiance
en ses paroles. Quelquefois mSme il a recours k des suppositions et a des
conjectures dans I'espoir de rencontrer la vMt6 et de tromper ceux qui
I'interrogent.'
344 THE MAKING OF RELIGION
APPENDIX D
CHIEFS IN AU STB ALIA
In the remarks on Australian religion, it is argued that
cliiefs in Australia are, at most, very inconspicuous, and
that a dead chief cannot have thriven into a Supreme
Being. Attention should be called, however, to Mr.
Howitt's remarks on Australian * Head-men,' in his tract
on ' The Organisation of AustraUan Tribes ' (pp. 103-113).
He attaches more of the idea of power to * Head-men '
than does Mr. Curr in his work, ' The Australian Eace.'
The Head-men, as a rule, arrive at such influence as they
possess by seniority, if accompanied by courage, wisdom,
and, in some cases, by magical acquirements. There are
traces of a tendency to keep the office (if it may be called
one) in the same kinship. * But Vich Ian Vohr or Chin-
gahgook are not to be found in Australian tribes ' (p. 113).
I do not observe that the manes or ghost of a dead Head-
man receives any worship or service calculated to fix him
in the tribal memory, and so lead to the evolution of a
deity, though one Head-man was potent through the
whole Diejrri tribe over three hundred miles of country.
Such a person, if propitiated after death, might conceivably
develop into a hero, if not into a creative being. But we
must await evidence to the effect that any posthumous
reverence was paid to this man, lalina Piramurana (New
Moon). Mr. Howitt's essay is in the 'Transactions of
the Eoyal Society of Victoria for 1889.'
INDEX
Academy of Medicine, Paris, inquiry
into animal magnetism, 34
Achille, the case of, 134
Acosta, Pere, cited, 74, 244, 246
Adare, Lord, cited, 335
Addison, cited, 16
Africans, religious faiths of, 212,
213,221,222. See under separate
tribal names.
Ahone, North-American Indian god,
231-233, 241, 248, 258, 262, 280
Aid6, Hamilton, cited, 336
Algonquins, the, 250
Allen, Grant, cited, 190
American Creators, 230 ; parallel with
African gods, 230 ; savage gods of
Virginia, 231 ; the Ahone-Okeus
creed, 231-233 ; Pawnee tribal re-
ligions, 233-236 ; Ti-ra-wa, the
Spirit Father, 234, 235 ; rite to
the Morning Star, 234 ; religion
of theBlackfeet, 236 ; N^-pi, 237-
239 ; one account of the Inca
religion, 239-242 ; Sun-worship,
239-241 ; cult of Pachacamac, the
Inca deity, 239-247 ; another ac-
count of the Inca religion, 242-
246; hymns of the Zufiis, 247;
Awonawilona, 247
Amoretti, Sig., cited, 30, 152
Ancestor-worship, 164-166, 178, 205,
212, 268, 271-277
Andamanese. the, religious beliefs of,
167, 194-197, 205, 208, 211, 249,
252, 256, 272
•Angus, Miss,' cases in her ex-
perience of crystal-gazing, 89-102,
341
Animal magnetism, inquiry into, 29,
34,35
Animism, nature and influence of,
48, 49, 53, 58, 63, 129, 168, 190,
191, 206, 256, 264, 266, 268, 269,
303
Anthropology and hallucinations,
105 ; sleeping and waking experi-
ence, 105, 106; hallucinations in
mentally sound people, 107 ; ghosts,
107 ; coincidence of hallucina-
tions of the sane with death or
other crisis of person seen, 107 ;
morbid hallucinations and coinci-
dental ' flukes,' 108 ; connection
of cause and effect, 108 ; the
emotional effect, 108 ; illustrative
coincidence, 108; hallucinations
of sight, 109 ; causes of hallucina-
tions, 110; collective hallucina-
tions, 110 ; the properly receptive
state, 110 ; telepathy, 111 ; phan-
tasms of the Uving, 112; Maori
cases, 113-115 ; evidence to be re-
jected, 116 ; subjective hallucina-
tion caused by expectancy, 116 ;
puzzling nature of hallucinations
shared by several people at once,
116, 117 ; hallucinations coincident
with a death, 117; apparitions
and deaths connected in fact, 117 ;
Census of the Society for Psychical
Research thereupon, 118; number
and character of the instances,
119 ; weighing evidence, 119 ;
opinion of the Committee on
Hallucinations, 121; remoteness
of occurrence of instances, 121;
346
THE MAKING OF RELIGION
want of documentary evidence,
121 ; non-coincidental hallucina-
tions, 121 ; telepathy existing be-
tween kinsfolk and friends, 122 ;
influence of anxiety, 123 ; exist-
ence of illness known, 123; mental
and nervous conditions in con-
nection with hallucinations, 124 ;
value of the statistics of the Cen-
sus, 124 ; anecdote of an English
officer, 125
Anthropology and religion, 39 ;
early scientific prejudice against,
40 ; evolution and evidence, 40 ;
testing of evidence, 41-43 ; psy-
chical research, 43 ; origin of
religion, 44 ; inferences drawn
from supernormal phenomena,
44, 53 ; savage parallels of psy-
chical phenomena, 45 ; mean-
ings of religion, 45, 46 ; disproof
of godless tribes, 47 ; Animism,
48, 49 ; limits of savage tongues,
49 ; waking and sleeping hal-
lucinations, 60 ; crystal-gazing,
60 ; the ghost-soul, 61 ; savage
abstract speculation, 52 ; analogy
of the ideas of children and
primitive man, 52 ; early man's
conception of life, 52 ; ghost-seers,
54 ; psychical conditions in which
savages differ from civilised men,
54 ; power of producing non-
normal psychological conditions,
55 ; faculties of the lower animals,
56 ; man's first conception of
religion, 56 ; the suggested hyp-
notic state, 57 ; second-sight, 58 ;
savage names for the ghost-soul,
60 ; the migratory spirit, 60-64
Anyambia, South Guinea Creator,
220
Apaches, crystal-gazing by, 84, 85
ApoUonius of Tyana, 66
Atua, the Tongan Elohim, 279
Aurora Borealis, savage ideas of the,
4, 262, 292
Australians, religious beliefs of, 50,
83, 118, 128, 165, 175-182, 185,
188, 196, 205, 208, 211, 215, 219,
224, 240, 249, 255, 266, 261-263
Automatism, 155
Awonawilona, Zuni deity, 248, 251
Aymard, Jacques, case of, 150, 152
Aztecs, creed of, 104 note, 183, 233,
234, 255, 258, 263
Baelz, Dr., cited, 182
Baiame, deity, 189, 190, 191, 205
261, 280
Baker, Sir Samuel, cited, 42, 211
Bakwains, the, 169
Balfour, A. J., quoted, 44, 57 note
Banks Islanders, their gods, 169,
197-199
Bantus, religious beliefs of, 175, 211,
226, 243
Barkworth, Mr., his opinion of Mrs.
Piper, 140
Barrett, Professor, on the divining-
rod, 152-154
Bastian, Adolf, cited, 6, 43
Baxter, cited, 15
Beaton, Cardinal, his mistress visual-
ised, 97
Bell, John, cited, 149
Beni-Israel, 282
Berna, magnetiser, 34
Bernadette, case of, 117
Big Black Man, Fuegian deity, 258
Binet and F6re, quoted, 20, 76
Bissett, Mr. and Mrs., experiences
of crvstal-gaziug, 99-102
Blackfeet, beliefs of, 230, 236
Blantyre region, religion in the, 217,
218
Bleek, Dr., cited, 194
Bobowissi, Gold Coast god, 225-
227, 230-232
Bodinus, cited, 15
Book of the Dead, 286, 308
Bora, Australian mysteries, 176, 179,
190, 196, 260
Bosman, cited, 225
Bourget, Paul, his opinion of Mrs.
Piper, 139, 140
Bourke, Captain J. G., cited, 83
Boyle, cited, 15
Braid, inventor of the word ' hypnot-
ism,' 24, 35, 36
Brewster, Sir David, cited, 33
Brinton, Dr., cited, 67, 168, 232, 236,
254, 264, 290
INDEX
347
Bristow, Mr., cited, 332
British Association decline to hear
Braid's essay, 24 ; rejection of
anthropological papers, 39
Brosses, de, cited, 149
Brown, General Mason, cited, 66, 67
Bunjil, deity, 189
Bushmen, religious beliefs of, 165,
193, 208, 211, 252
Button, Jemmy, the Fuegian, case
of, 115
Cagn, Bushman deity, 189, 193, 205
Callaway, Dr., on Zulu beliefs, 72,
85, 106, 142, 151, 207, 208
Cardan, cited, 15
Carpenter, Dr., cited, 324
Carver, Captain Jonathan, his in-
stance of savage possession, 142 ;
cited, 66, 144, 145
Charcot, Dr., on faith cures, 20-22,
24 note
Clievreul, M., cited, 152
Chinese, the, demon possession in,
131, 133; divining-rod, 154;
religious beliefs, 237, 290, 291
Chonos, the, 175
Circumcision, 285
Clairvoyance {vue d distance), 65 ;
' opening the Gates of Distance,' 65,
66 ; attested cases among savages,
66 ; conflict with the laws of exact
science, 67 ; instances, 67 ; among
the Zulus, 68-70 ; among the
Lapps, 70 ; the Marson case, 71 ;
seers, 72 ; the element of trickery,
73 ; a Red Indian seeress, 73 ;
Peruvian clairvoyants, 75 ; Pro-
fessor Richet's case, 75 ; Mr.
Dobbie's case, 76 ; Scottish tales
of second-sight, 78-81 ; visions
provoked by various methods, 81.
See Crystal visions
Clodd, Edward, cited, 119, 120, 300
' Cockburn, Mrs.,' test of crystal-
gazing, 99-101
Codrington, Dr., cited, 150, 169,
197-199
Coirin, Mile., her miraculous cure, 20
Coleridge, cited, 9, 11, 12 note, 295,
296
Collins, cited, 179
Comanches, the, 250
Confucius, religious teaching of, 290,
291
Cook, Captain, cited, 271
Corpse-binding, 143, 144
Crawford, Lord, cited, 325, 334, 336,
337
Creeks, the, 143
Croesus, tests the Delphic Oracle, 14
Crookes, Sir William, cited, 325,
331, 333, 334, 337, 338
Crystal visions, 83 ; savage instances,
83-85 ; in later Europe, 85 ;
nature of ' Miss X's ' experiments,
85 ; attributed to ' dissociation,'
86 ; examples of ' thought-trans-
ference,' 87; arguments against
accepting recognition of objects
described by another person, 87 ;
coincidence of fact and fiction, 88 ;
cases in the experience of ' Miss
Angus,' 89-102; 'Miss Rose's'
experience, 91, 92 ; phenomena
suggest the savage theory of the
wandering soul, 103 ; cited, 7, 44,
50, 314-316, 340
Cumberland, Stuart, 72
Cures by suggestion, 20, 21
Curr, Mr., reports 'godless ' savages,
184 note
Dampiek, cited, 176
Dancing sticks, 149-151
Darumulun, Australian Supreme
Being, 178, 179, 183, 186, 191,
213, 240, 258-264, 280
Darwin, cited, 115, 149, 174 note,
324, 332
Death, savage ideas on, 187
Degeneration theory, the, 254; the
powerful creative Being of lowest
savages, 254 ; differences between
the Supreme Being of higher and
lower savages, 255 ; human sacri-
fice, 255 ; hungry, cruel gods
degenerate from the Australian
Father in Heaven, 256 ; savage
Animism, 256 ; a pure religion
forgotten, 257 ; an inconvenient
moral Creator, 257 ; hankering
after useful ghost-gods, 257 ; lower-
348
THE MAKING OF RELIGION
ing of the ideal of a Creator, 257 ;
maintenance of an immoral system
in the interests of the State and
the clergy, 258 ; moral monotheism
of the Hebrew religion, 258;
degradation of Jehovah, 258 ;
human sacrifice in ritual of Israel,
258 ; origin of conception of Je-
hovah, 258 ; Semitic gods, 259 ;
status of Darumulun, 259 ; con-
ception of Jehovah conditioned by
space, 260 ; degeneration of deity
in Africa, 260 ; political advance
produces religious degeneration,
261; sacrificial ideas, 262, 263;
the savage Supreme Being on a
higher plane than the Semitic and
Greek gods, 263 ; Animism full of
the seeds of religious degeneration,
264; falling off in the theistic
conception, 265; fetishism, 265,
266 ; modus of degeneration by
Animism supplanting Theism,
265 ; feeling after a God who needs
not anything at man's hands, 267
Demoniacal possession, 128; the
'inspired' or 'possessed,' 129;
'change of control,' 130; gift of
eloquence and poetry, 131 ; in-
stances in China, 131 ; attempted
explanations of the phenomena,
131, 132; 'alternating personality,'
132; symptoms of possession,
132 ; evidence for, 133 ; scientific
account of a demoniac and his
cure, 134 ; inducing the ' possessed '
state, 135 ; exhibition of abnormal
knowledge by the possessed, 136 ;
scientific study of the phenomena,
136 ; details of the case of Mrs.
Piper, 136-141 ; diagnosing and
prescribing for patients, 142 ;
Carver's example of savage posses-
sion, 142, 157 ; custom of binding
the seer with bonds, 142, 145;
corpse-binding, 143, 144
Dendid, Dinka Supreme Being, 211,
212, 258, 280
Deslon, M., disciple of Mesmer, 24
Dessoir, Dr. Max, quoted, 32, 33, 57
Dinkas, beliefs of the, 42, 211, 212,
256
Divining-rod, use of the, 30, 152-155
Dobbie, Mr., his case of clairvoyance,
76
Dorman, Mr., cited, 203
Dunbar, Mr., cited, 236
Du Pont, cited, 75
Du Prel, cited, 28
Dyneis, Jonka, trance of, 65
Ebomtupism, second sight, 73
Egyptians, beliefs of, 83, 302
Elcho, Lord, cited, 334
Eleusinian mysteries, 196
Elliotson, Dr., cited, 24, 35, 37, 40
Ellis, Major, on Polynesian and
African religious ideas, 83, 144,
222-228, 232, 251, 260, 272
Elohim, savage equivalents to the
term, 277
Esemkofu, Zulu ghosts, 128, 129
Eskimo, religious beliefs of, 72, 113,
184
Faith-cures, 20-22
Fenton, Francis Dart, on Maori
ghost-seeing, 114
Ferrand, Mile., on hallucinations,
32
Fetishism and Spiritualism, 147 ;
the fetish, 147 ; sources super-
normal to savages, 148 ; indepen-
dent motion in inanimate objects,
149 ; comparison with physical
phenomena of spiritualism, 149 ;
Melanesian belief in sticks
moved by spirits, 150 ; a sceptical
Zulu, 150 ; a form of the pendu-
lum experiment, 151 ; table-turn-
ing, 152 ; the divining-rod, 152-
165 ; the civilised and savage
practice of automatism, 156 ; dark
room manifestations, 156 ; the
disturbances in the house of
M. Zoller, 156 ; consideration of
physical phenomena, 158 ; in-
stanced, 165, 225, 265, 266, 276,
324-339
Figuier, M., cited, 152
Fijians, religious beliefs of, 128, 136,
200, 248, 338
INDEX
849
Firms, the, 58
Fire ceremony, the, 180 note
Fison, Mr., cited, 128
Fitzroy, Admiral, cited, 115, 173,
174
Flacourt, Sieur de, on crystal-
gazing in Madagascar, 84
Flint, Professor, cited, 253
Francis, St., stigmata of, 22
Fuegians, beliefs and customs of,
115, 165, 173-175, 183, 187, 208,
211, 227, 258, 262, 272
Galton, Mr., cited, 12, 95, 107, 294,
295
Garcilasso de la Vega, on Inca
beliefs, 239-244
'Gates of Distance, Opening the,'
65, 66, 68
Ghost-seers, 54, 63
Ghost-soul, the, 51 ; names for the,
60
Gibert, Dr., on ' willing ' sleep, 36
Gibier, Dr., cited, 146
Gippsland tribes, 187
GlanvU, Eev. Joseph, his scientific
investigations, 15
God, evolution of the idea of, 160
anthropological hypothesis, 160
primitive logic of the savage, 161
regarded as a spirit, 162 ; idea
of spiritual beings framed on
the human soul, 164 ; deified
ancestors, 164 ; the Zulu first
ancestor, 164 ; fetishes, 165 ;
great gods in savage systems of
religion, 165 ; the Lord of the
Dead, 165 ; conception of an
idealised divine First Ancestor,
166, 188 ; hostile Good and Bad
Beings, 166 ; the Supreme Being
of savage creeds, 166 ; media-
ting ' Sons,' 167 ; Christian and
Islamite influence on savage con-
ceptions, 167 ; probable gei-ms of
the savage idea of a Supreme
Being, 168; animistic concep-
tions, 168 ; ghosts, and Beings
who never were human, 169 ;
recognition by savages of our God
in theirs, 169; the hypothesis
of degeneracy, 170 ; the moral,
friendly creative Being of low
savage faith, 171 ; food offerings
to a Universal Power, 171 ; the
High Gods of low races, 173;
intrusion of European ideas into
savage religions, 173 ; the Fuegian
Big Man, 174 ; ghosts of dead
medicine-men, 175 ; the Bora, or
Australian tribal mysteries, 176,
177, 179 ; possible evolution of the
Australian god, 178 ; mythology
and theology of Darumulun, the
highest Australian god, 178, 179,
183 ; religious sanction of morals,
179 ; selflessness the very essence
of goodness, 180; precepts of
Darumulun, 181, 182; argument
from design, 184 ; Supreme Gods
not necessarily developed out
of • spirits,' 185 ; distinction be-
tween deities and ghosts, 185 ;
human beings adored as gods,
186 ; deathlessness of the Supreme
Being of savage faith, 186, 188 ;
idealisation of the savage himself,
187 ; negation of the ghost-theory,
188, 189 ; high creative gods
never were mortal men, 189 ; low
savage distinction between gods,
189 ; propitiation by food and
sacrifice, 190 ; ' magnified non-
natural men,' 190 ; gods to talk
about, not to adore, 190 ; higher
gods prior to the ghost-theory,
191. See Supreme Beings ;
American Creators ; Jehovah
Greeks, the, beliefs of, 302
Greenlanders, the, 144, 182
Gregory, Dr., cited, 86
Griesinger, Dr., cited, 132
Grinnell, Mr., on Pawnee beliefs,
234-237
Guiana Indians, religious beliefs of,
202-206, 256
Guinea, North and South, religious
beUefs in, 220
Gurney, Mr., his experiments in
hypnotism, 35, 36; cited, 107,
114, 117
Guyau, M., cited, 12, 24, 25
350
THE MAKING OF RELIGION
Hallucinations. See Anthropology
and Hallucinations
Hamilton, Sir William, cited, 12
Hammond, Dr., on demoniacal
possession, 131
Harteville, Madame, case of, 26
Hearne, on the Aurora Borealis, 3 ;
on cure by suggestion, 21, 22
Hebrews. See Israelites
Hegel, cited, 30-34, 50, 56, 58, 78,
111, 152
Higgs, Police Constable, statement
of, on the disturbances at Mr.
White's house, 326-328
Highland second-sight, 143-145
Hodgson, Dr., report on Mrs. Piper,
137, 140, 141 ; cited, 135, 325
Home, David Dunglas, his powers as
a medium, 324, 325, 334-339
Howitt, Mr., cited, 128, 177-182
Hume, David, attitude towards
miracles, 16; definition of a
miracle, 16 ; self-contradictions,
17; refuses to examine miracles
of the Abb6 Paris, 18, 19, 22_25 ;
alternative definition of a miracle,
25 ; cited, 297
Huxley, Professor, on savage re-
ligious cults, 42, 43, 48, 162, 163,
171, 176, 177, 182; on the evolu-
tion of Jehovah, 270, 271, 277,
279, 282, 286 ; cited, 17 note, 296,
324
Hypnotism, 6, 24, 29, 32, 34, 35, 37,
75,76
lAMBLicnus, cited, 14, 336, 337, 339
Ibn Khaldoun, cited, 341
Im Thurn, on the religious ideas of
the Indians of Guiana, 60, 160,
202-207, 256, 298
Incas, the, 85, 240-247, 258
Iroquois, the, 84, 85
Islam, influence of, on African be-
liefs, 221
Israelites, development of their re-
Ugious ideas, 258, 260, 268-284, 302
James, Professor William, quoted,
23, 59, 73, 107, 110, 132, 137, 156,
294
Janet, Dr. Pierre, on • willing ' sleep,
36; on demoniacal possession, 134,
135 ; cited, 73, 294, 340, 341
Jeanne d'Arc, 34, 73, 115, 126, 276
Jehovah, theories of, 258, 260, 268;
as a Moral Supreme Being, 268 ;
anthropological theory of the
origin of Jehovah-worship, 270 ;
absence of ancestor-worship from
the Hebrew tradition, 270-273;
alleged evidence for ancestor-wor-
ship in Israel, 273-277 ; evolution
from ghost-cult to the cult of
Jehovah, 277 ; the term Elohim,
277 ; human shape assumed, 278 ;
considered as a ghost-god, 279 ;
sacrifices to, 280 ; suggestion
of a Being not yet named Jehovah,
281 ; traditional emergence of
Jehovah as the god of Israel, 281 ;
as a deified ancestor, 282 ; moral
element in the idea of Jehovah,
282, 286 ; a mere tribal god, 283 ;
a Kenite god, 283, 284 ; inconsis-
tencies of theorists concerning,
285 ; the moral element a sur-
vival of primitive ethics in the
savage ancestors of the Israelites,
287; verity of the Biblical account,
287 ; cited, 299
Jeraeil, mysteries of the Kurnai, 180
Jevons, Mr., cited, 186, 255, 300, 302
Jugglery, Pawnee, 235
Jiing- Stilling, cited, 30, 63
Kalou, Fijian name for gods, 200,
201
Kamschatkans, 166
Kant, inquires into Swedenborg'g
visions, 26, 59 ; disappointed with
Swedenborg's ' Arcana Coelestia,'
26, 27; on the metaphysics of
' spirits,' 27 ; discusses the sub-
conscious, 28 ; cited, 125
Karens, beliefs of, 60, 73, 151
Karr, Alphonse, cited, 336
Kelvin, Lord, on hypnotism, 37
Kenites, the, 284
Kingsley, Miss, cited, 175, 211, 220,
228
Kirk, cited, 144 ^
INDEX
851
Kohl, cited, 148
Knlin, Australian tribe, 49
Kuruai, Australian tribe, their re-
ligious conceptions, 49, 180, 181,
187, 215, 262, 263, 287, 291
Laino, Mr. Samuel, cited, 12 note
Langlois, M., the case of, 75, 76
Lapps, beliefs of, 58, 71, 81
Latukas, the, 42
Lavaterus, telepathic hypothesis of,
15
Le Loyer, cited, 15
Leaf, Mr., cited, 112 note
Leeward Isles, ideas of a god in, 251
Lefebure, M., cited, 84, 149, 341
Legge, Dr., on the teaching of Con-
fucius, 290
Lejean, M., on the Dinkas, 212
Lejeune, Pere, cited, 74, 83
Leng, Mr., cited, 133
Leon, Cieza de, cited, 241, 244
Leonie, the case of her hypnotisation,
75,76
Leslie, David, on Zulu clairvoyance,
G8; on ghosts, ]28
Levitation, 334
Littr6, M., cited, 136
Livingstone, Dr., cited, 6, 135, 170
Lloyd, Dr., cited, 327, 328
Loan-god, a, Tshi theory of, 222-229
Lourdes, cures at, 19
Lubbock, Sir John, cited, 42
Macalistee, Professor, his opinion
of Mrs. Piper, 140
MacCulloch, Dr., on second-sight, 58
Macdonald, Duff, cited, 150, 213, 215,
218
Macgregor, Dr. Alastair, gives in-
stances of second-sight, 79-81
Madagascar, 84
Magnetism, 29, 34, 35
Malagasies, beliefs of, 84
Malays of Keeling Island, fetishism
in, 141
Man, Mr., on Andamanese religion
and mythology, 194, 195
Mana, magical rapport, 199, 200
Mandans, the, 188
Manganjah, practice of sorcery in,
149
Manning, Mr., cited, 146
Maoris, religious beliefs of, 83, 113-
115, 118, 119, 150, 166, 188
Marawa, Banks Islands deity, 198,
199
Mariner, cited, 278
Markham, Mr., cited, 243, 246
Marson, Madame, case of, 71
Mason, Dr., on familiar spirits, 130
Mather, Cotton, cited, 16, 55
Maudsley, Dr., cited, 23 note
Maui, Maori deity, 166, 188
Mayo, Dr., cited, 86
Medici, Catherine de', cited, 66
Medicine-men, 84
Mediums, 324-339
Melanesians, religious beliefs of, 150,
169, 189, 197, 199, 200
Menestrier, le P^re, uses the divin-
ing-rod, 154
Mcnzies, Professor, cited, 257
Mesmer, his theory of magnetism,
29, 34
Millar, cited, 40, 41
Miracles, regarded from the stand-
point of science, 14 ; early tests,
14 ; and more modern research,
15 ; witchcraft, 15, 16 ; Hume's
essay on, 16 ; and his definitions
of a miracle, 16, 25 ; cures at the
tomb of the Abb6 Paris, 18-20, 23 ;
Binet and F6r6's explanation of
these cures, 20; cures by sug-
gestion, 20, 21 ; Dr. Charcot's
views, 20; faith cures, 20-22;
science opposed to systematic
negation, 22 ; refusal to ex-
amine evidence, 23-25 ; ' marvel-
lous facts,' 24 ; suggestion a dis-
tance, 24 ; Kant's researches, 26-
29 ; Swedenborg's clairvoyance,
26, 27 ; thought-transference and
hypnotic sleep, 29, 30, 32, 35 ;
water-finding, 29; phenomena of
clairvoyance, 31; Hegel's 'ma-
gic tie,' 31 ; Dr. Max Dessoir's
views, 31, 32 ; hallucinations, 32 ;
animalmagnetism, 34 ; hypnotism,
35 ; ' willing,' 36 ; facts and phe-
nomena confronting science, 37
352
THE MAKING OF RELIGION
' Miss X,' on crystal-gazing, 87, 315,
316, 840, 341
Mlungu, Central African deity, 213-
218
Molina, Christoval de, onlnca beliefs,
242, 243
Moll, Herr, cited, 314
Montgeron, M., cited, 19, 20
More, Henry, cited, 15
Moses, founder of the Hebrew re-
ligion, 283-286
Mtanga, African deity, 213-217
Muller, Max, cited, 41, 43, 46, 265,
266, 289
Mungan-ngaur, Kurnai Supreme
Being, 181, 188, 190,205,217,259
Mwetyi, Shekuni Great Spirit, 220
Myers, Frederic, on hypnotic slumber,
30, 33 ; cited, 15 note
Nana Ntankupon, Gold Coast Su-
preme Being, 225-228, 232, 280
N4-pi, American Indian deity, 237-
239, 241
Ndengei, Fijian Supreme Being,
200-202, 228, 248
Nevius, Dr., on demoniacal posses-
sion, 131-135
Newbold, Professor W. Eomaine,
135
Nezahuatl, erects a bloodless fane
to the Unknown God, 258
Nicaraguans, the, 60
North, Major, on Pawnee jugglery,
235, 236
Nzambi Mpungu, Bantu Supreme
Being, 226, 228, 242
Okeds (Oki), American Indian deity,
231, 232
Okey, the sisters, case of, 37 note
Ombwiri, South Guinea god, 220
Orpen, Mr., cited, 193
Oxford, Eev. A. W., on ancient Israel,
275-277, 283-285
Pachacamac, Inca Supreme Being,
230, 239-247, 258
Pachayachachi, Inca god, 242, 240
Paladino, Eusapia, case of, 325
Palmer, Mr., cited, 179
Paris, Abb6, miracles wrought at his
tomb, 18-20, 23
Parish, Herr, criticism of his reply
to the arguments for telepathy,
307-323 ; cited, 8, 86, 107
Park, Mungo, on African beliefs, 221,
222
Pawnees, religious beliefs and prac-
tices of, 212, 224, 230, 233-236, 263
Payne, Mr., cited, 160, 161, 246
Peden, Rev. Mr., cited, 66
Pelippa, Captain, cited, 173
Pendulum experiment, a form of the,
151
Pepys, cited, 15
Peruvians, religious ideas and prac-
tices of, 75, 239-247
Phantasms of the Dead, 128
Phinuit, Dr. See Mrs. Piper
Piper, Mrs., the case of, 132, 136-
141
Pliny, cited, 15
Plotinus, cited, 66
Plutarch, cited, 15
Podmore, Mr., on psychical research,
111, 325, 326, 328, 330-336, 338,
339
Poltergeist, the, and his explainers,
334-339
Polynesians, religious beliefs of, 7,
83, 251, 252, 256
Polytheism, 289, 291, 303
Porphyry, cited, 14
Powhattan, Virginian chief, 231, 232
Puluga, Andamanese Supreme Being,
195, 205, 228, 258, 262
Pundjel, Australian god, 258, 261,
262
Puys6gur, de, his discovery of hyp-
notic sleep, 29 ; cited, 76
Qat, Banks Islands deity, 189, 198,
199
Qing, Bushman, his ideas of the god
Gang, 193, 196
Eavenswood, Master of, instanced,
126
INDEX
853
Red Indians, beliefs and practices
of, 3, 5, 6, 21, 22, 83, 104 note, 128,
142, 143, 203
Eegnard, M., cited, 71
Renan, M., cited, 285
E6ville, M., cited, 291, 293
Reynolds, Dr. Russell, cited, 22
Rhombos, use of the, 84
Ribot, M., cited, 132
Richet, Professor Charles, hypnotises
L6onie. 75, 76 ; cited, 64, 73, 82,
154, 294
Ritter, Dr., believes in Siderism, 29
Romans, rehgious ideas of, 302
' Rose, Miss,' her experience of
crystal-gazing, 90, 91
Rose, Eliza, the case of, 326-330
Eoskoff, cited, 42
Rowley, Mr., cited, 149
Russegger, cited, 212
Salcamayhua, cited, 246
Samoyeds, 58, 72
Sand, George, cited, 86
Santos, cited, 214
Saul and the Witch of Endor, 14
Scheffer, cited, 66, 70, 71, 81
Schoolcraft, Mr., cited, 236
Schrenck-Notzing, von, cited, 55
note
Scot, Reginald, cited, 15
Scott, Rev. David Clement, cited, 49
note, 106, 217, 218
Scott, Sir Walter, his attitude towards
clairvoyance, 27 ; cited, 121, 126
Sebituane, case of, 135, 136
Second-sight, 56, 66, 78-81
Seer-binding, 143
Seers, 72
Shang-ti, Chinese Supreme Being,
245, 290, 291
Shortland, Mr., quoted, 113
Sidgwick, Professor, cited, 318, 332
Sioux, the, 236
Skidi or Wolf Pawnees, the, 233, 234
Smith, Mrs. Erminie, on crystal-
gazing, 84
Smith, historian of Virginia, cited,
231, 232
Smith, Robertson, cited, 259, 261,
202, 281 note, 298
Smyth, Brough, cited, 42, 178, 182,
293
Society for Psychical Research, 116,
118
Spencer, Herbert, on early religious
ideas, 42, 43 ; ghosts, 47 ; Animism,
48 note, 53, 54 ; limits ol savage
language, 49 ; the Fuegian Big
Man, 174 ; Australian marriage
customs, 175 ; Australian religion,
182 ; men-gods, 186 ; religion of
Bushmen, 193 ; ancestor-worship,
212, 213, 271-273 ; cited, 162, 167,
170, 216, 218, 292
Spiritualism, 324-339. See Fetishism
Stade, Herr, cited, 276, 284, 285
Stanley, Hans, cited, 12
Starr, cited, 104 note
Stoll, cited, 72
Strachey, William, cited, 229-232
Suetonius, cited, 15
SuUy, Mr., cited, 295
Sun-worship, 238-245
Supreme Beings of savages, regarded
as eternal, moral, and powerful,
193 ; Cagn, the Bushman god, 193 ;
Puluga, the Andamanese god, 195 ;
savage mysteries and rites, 196 ;
alliance of ethics with religion,
196; the Banks Islanders' belief in
Tamate (ghosts) and Vui (Beings
who never had been human),
197; corporeal and incorporeal
Vuis, 198 ; sacrificial offerings to
ghosts and spirits, 199 ; the soul
the complex of real bodiless after-
images, 200; Fijian belief, 200;
Ndengei, the Fijian chief god, 200,
201 ; the idea of primeval Eternal
Beings, 202; the Great Spirit of
North American tribes, 203 ; dream
origin of the ghost theory, 203 ;
Guiana Indian names indicating
a belief in a Great Spirit, 203-
206 ; the God-cult abandoned for
the Ghost-cult, 205; Unku-
lunkulu, the Zulu Creator, 207-
210 ; the notion of a dead Maker,
208 ; preference for serviceable
family spirits, 209 ; the
Dinka Creator, 211 ; African an-
cestor-worship, 212 ; Mlungu, a
354
THE MAKING OF RELIGION
deity formed by aggregation of
departed spirits, 213 ; ethical ele-
ment in religious mysteries, 215 ;
the position of Mtanga, 216 ;
religious beliefs in the Blantyre
region, 217, 218 ; negro tendency
to monotheism, 218 ; beliefs in
North and South Guinea, 220 ;
Mungo Park's observation of
African beliefs, 221 ; Islamic in-
fluence, 221 ; the Tshi theory of a
' loan-god,' borrowed from Euro-
peans, 222-228 ; varieties of Tshi
gods, 224, 225 ; fetishes, 225 ;
Nana Nyankupon, the ' God of the
Christians,' 225-229 ; American
Creators (see under), 230-253 ; the
Polynesian cult, 251, 252 ; Chinese
conceptions, 290-292
Swedenborg, Emanuel, visions of,
26 ; recovers Mme. Harteville's
receipt, 26; his 'Arcana Ccelestia,'
27 ; noticed by Kant, 28, 29, 59
Taa-Eoa, Polynesian deity, 251, 252,
256, 280, 308
Table-turning, 151
Tahitians, 251
Taine, M., cited, 57
Ta-li-y-Tooboo, Tongan deity, 278,
279, 282
Tamate, Banks Islands ghosts, 197-
199
Tamoi, the * ancient of heaven,' 188
Tando, Gold Coast god, 225
Tanner, John, case of, 57, 128
Teed, Esther, the Amherst mystery,
333
Telepathy, oppositions of science
to, 307 ; hallucination of
memory, 307 ; presentiments, 308 ;
dreams, 308, 309, 312; veridical
hallucinations, 309, 311 ; coin-
cidence in S.P.R.'s Census cases,
310 ; non-coincidental cases, 311 ;
condition to beget hallucination,
312 ; hallucinations mere dreams,
312 ; crystal-gazing, 314-316 ;
number of coincidences no proof,
316 ; association of ideas, 316 ;
coincidental collective hallucina-
tions, 817-323. See Crystal
visions
Thomson, Basil, cited, 200 note,
248, 249, 339
Thought-transference, 4, 29-32, 35,
87 ; illustrative cases, 88-103
Thouvenel, M., cited, 152
Thyrasus on ghosts, 15
Tien, Chinese heaven, 290, 291
Ti-ra-wa, American Indian god, 234-
236, 239
Tlapan6, African wizard, 135
Tongans, religious behefs of, 278-
280
Tonkaways, American tribe, 233
Torfseus, cited, 71
Totemism, 239, 241, 262, 263, 269,
270, 276
Tregear, Mr., on Maori ghost-seeing,
113
Tshi theory of a loan-god, 223-227
Tuckey, Dr. Lloyd, cited, 36
Tui Laga, Fijian deity, 249
Tundun, ancestor of the Kurnai,
181
Tylor, Mr., his test of recurrence, 41 ;
on anthropological origin of reli-
gion, 43 ; on savage philosophy of
super-normal phenomena, 45, 53 ;
disproves the assertion about ' god-
less ' tribes, 47 ; his term Anim-
ism, 48, 49 ; theory of metaphysi-
cal genius in low savages, 51 ;
ghost-seers, 54 ; on psychical con-
ditions of contemporary savages,
54-56 ; on the influence of
Swedenborg, 59; savage names
for the ghost-soul, 60 ; second-
sight, 66 ; mediums, 73 ; dreams,
106 ; hallucinations, 110-113, 117,
118 ; demoniacal possession,
131; fetishism, 148, 149, 105;
divining-rod, 153 ; evolution of
gods from ghosts, 163, 164 ; fetish
deities, 165 ; dualistic idea, 166 ;
Supreme Being of savage creeds,
166, 167 ; the degeneration theory,
170, 254 ; confusion of thought
upon religion, 182 ; list of first
ancestors deified, 188 ; savage
mysteries, 201 ; savage Animism,
204 ; Okeus and his rites, 231 ;
INDEX
555
Pachacamac, 245 ; Confucius's
teaching, 290 ; the mystagogue
Home, 325 ; levitation, 334 ;
cited, 50, 52, 63, 68, 59, 61-63,
78, 151, 161, 162, 170, 173, 184,
185, 203, 231, 232, 246, 257,
293, 297
Tyndall, Professor, cited, 324
UiRACocHA, Inca Creator, 242-246
Umabakulists, diviners by sticks,
151
Unkulunkulu, Zulu mythical first
ancestor, 164, 168, 188, 202, 207,
220
Vincent, Mr., 29; on clairvoyance,
34, 36, 37
Virchow, cited, 19
Vui, non-ghost gods, 169, 197-200
Wabose, Catherine, Red Indian
seeress, experience of, 73, 74
Waitz, cited, 177, 194 note, 218-
220, 222, 243
Wallace, Alfred Russel, on Hume's
theory of 'miracles,' 17, 18; on
Eitter, 29 ; on clairvoyance, 31
Wayao, Supreme Being of the, 213,
214
Wellhausen, cited, 277, 283, 285,
286, 298
Welton, Thomas, on the divining-
rod, 154
Wesley, John, cited, 16
White, Joseph, spirit manifestationa
at his house, 326-331
Wierus, cited, 15
Williams, Mr., cited, 201, 248
Wilson, Mr., cited, 60, 219, 220
Windward Isles, ideas of a God in,
251
Witch of Endor, the, 14, 277, 278
Witchcraft, 14-16
Wodrow, Mr., cited, 16
Wolf tribes, 233
Wynne, Captain, cited, 335
Yama, Vedic-Aryan ghost-god, 188
Yaos, religious beUefs of, 150, 213,
214-216
Yerri Yuppon, good spirit of the
Chonos, 175
York, a Fuegian, cited, 174
Yuncas, a Peruvian race, worship of,
240, 246
Zaeate, Augustin de, cited, 240
Zoller, M., disturbances in the house
of, 156, 157
Zulus, religious beliefs and customs
of, 65, 66, 68, 70, 72, 85, 128,
141, 142, 150, 152, 207-210
Zunis, hymns of the, 248, 251
SpotUsuooiie & Co. Lid., Fiintert, London, Colchester and Eton,
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