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Religion and Lust
OR
THE PSYCHICAL CORRELATION
OF RELIGIOUS EMOTION
AND SEXUAL DESIRE
BY
JAMES WEIR, JR., M. D.
AUTHOR OF THE DAWN OF REASON, ANIMAL INTELLIGENCE,
ETC.
THIRD EDITION
REVISED AND ENLARGED WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES.
CHICAGO
CHICAGO MEDICAL BOOK CO.
1905
_Copyrighted August, 1897,
By
James Weir, Jr., M. D._
_Copyrighted March, 1905,
By
James Weir, Jr., M. D._
PREFACE TO FIRST EDITION.
_The author of this monograph has been incited to its publication by the
commendations of three of the most eminent critics and editors of
magazines in the United States, to whom it was submitted in manuscript.
In this essay, he discusses his subject from a physio-psychical
standpoint, and believes that he has kept intact the canons of
scientific investigation, observation, and discussion._
_"Waveland," June 8, 1897._
PREFACE TO SECOND EDITION.
_In preparing The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion and Sexual
Desire for its second edition, the author has incorporated in it a
considerable amount of additional evidence in support of his theory. He
has carefully verified all references; he has endeavored to eliminate
all unnecessary material; and, finally, he has changed the style of the
work by dividing it into three parts, thus greatly simplifying the text.
He feels under many obligations to his critics, both to those who
thought his little book worthy of commendation, and to those who deemed
his premises and conclusions erroneous. He feels grateful to the former,
because they have caused him to believe that he has added somewhat to
the literature of science; he thanks the latter, because in pointing out
that which they considered untrue, they have forced him to a new and
more searching study of the questions involved, thereby strengthening
his belief in the truthfulness of his conclusions._
_To the second edition of The Psychical Correlation of Religious Emotion
and Sexual Desire, the author has seen fit to add certain other essays.
In preparing these essays for publication, he has borrowed freely from
his published papers, therefore, he desires to thank the publishers of
the New York Medical Record, Century Magazine, Denver Medical Times,
Charlotte Monthly and American Naturalist for granting him permission to
use such of his published material (belonging to them) as he saw fit._
_The author asks the indulgence of the reader for certain repetitions in
the text. These have not been occasioned by any lack of data, but occur
simply because he believes that an argument is rendered stronger and
more convincing by the frequent use of the same data whenever and
wherever it is possible to use them. When this plan is followed, the
reader, so the author believes, becomes familiar with the author's line
of thought, and is, consequently, better able to comprehend and
appreciate his meaning._
_Finally, the author has been led to the publication of these essays by
a firm belief in the truthfulness of the propositions advanced therein.
He may not live to see these propositions accepted, yet he believes
that, in the future, perhaps, in worthier and more able hands, they will
be so weightily and forcibly elaborated and advanced that their verity
will be universally acknowledged._
_"Waveland," September 17, 1897._
PREFACE TO THIRD EDITION.
_The author, after mature consideration, has thought it advisable to
confine the subject matter of the Third Edition of Religion and Lust
almost wholly to the psychical correlation of religious emotion and
sexual desire. He has eliminated certain of the psychical problems
embraced in the First and Second Editions and has added instead a
bibliography. The student, he thinks, will find these changes of value,
especially in the matter of reference. The author has also added certain
data to the thesis of the work, as well as foot-notes; which, he thinks,
will strengthen the deductions and conclusions therein enunciated. He
has carefully and conscientiously edited and verified all notes and
quotations to be found in the book and rests satisfied in the conviction
that, whatever may be lacking in his little volume, it will not be "the
truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth."_
_"Waveland," Owensboro, Ky., Feb. 25, 1905._
CONTENTS.
Page
Religion and Lust
Chap. I. The Origin of Religious Feeling 9
Chap. II. Phallic Worship 41
Chap. III. The Psychical Correlation of Religious
Emotion and Sexual Desire 99
Viraginity and Effemination 121
Borderlands and Crankdom 135
Genius and Degeneration 155
The Effect of Female Suffrage on Posterity 175
Is It the Beginning of the End? 199
Bibliography 231
CHAPTER I.
THE ORIGIN OF RELIGIOUS FEELING.
I believe that man originated his first ideas of the supernatural from
the external phenomena of nature which were perceptible to one or more
of his five senses; his first theogony was a natural one and one taken
directly from nature. In ideation the primal bases of thought must have
been founded, _ab initio_, upon sensual perceptions; hence, must have
been materialistic and natural. Spencer, on the contrary, maintains that
in man, "the first traceable conception of a supernatural being is the
conception of a ghost."[1]
[1] Spencer: _Principles of Sociology_, vol. i, p. 281.
Primitive man's struggle for existence was so very severe that his
limited sagacity was fully occupied in obtaining food and shelter; many
thousands of years must have passed away before he evolved any idea of
weapons other than stones and clubs. When he arrived at a psychical
acuteness that originated traps, spears, bows and arrows, his struggle
for existence became easier and he had leisure to notice the various
natural phenomena by which he was surrounded. Man evolved a belief in a
god long before he arrived at a conception of a ghost, double, or soul.
He soon discovered that his welfare was mainly dependent on nature,
consequently he began to propitiate nature, and finally ended by
creating a system of theogony founded on nature alone.[A]
[A] "Theology and religion are of service in morals and conduct in
direct proportion as they have become adapted to our knowledge of
natural phenomena"--Lydston: _The Diseases of Society_, p. 68.
"It is an evident historical fact that man _first personified natural
phenomena_, and then made use of these personifications to personify his
own inward acts, his psychical ideas and conceptions. This was the
necessary process, and external idols were formed before those which
were internal and peculiar to himself."[2] Sun, moon, and star;
mountain, hill, and dale; torrent, waterfall, and rill, all became to
him distinct personalities, powerful beings, that might do him great
harm or much good. He therefore endeavored to propitiate them, just as a
dog endeavors to get the good will of man by abjectly crawling toward
him on his belly and licking his feet. There was no element of true
worship in the propitiatory offerings of primitive man; in the beginning
he was essentially a materialist--he became a spiritualist later on.
Man's first religion must have been, necessarily, a material one; he
worshiped (propitiated) only that which he could see, or feel, or hear,
or touch; his undeveloped psychical being could grasp nothing higher;
his limited understanding could not frame an idea involving a spiritual
element such as animism undoubtedly presents. Apropos of the dream
birth of the soul, all terrestrial mammals dream, and in some of them,
notably the dog and monkey, an observer can almost predicate the subject
of their dreams by watching their actions while they are under dream
influence; yet no animal save man, as far as we know, has ever evolved
any idea of ghost or soul.[B] It may be said, on the other hand, that
since animals show, unmistakably, that they are, in a measure, fully
conscious of certain phenomena in the economy of nature, and while I am
not prepared to state that any element of worship enters into their
regard, I yet believe that an infinitesimal increase in the development
of their psychical beings would, undoubtedly, lead some of them to a
natural religion such as our pithecoid ancestors practiced.
[2] Tito Vignoli: _Myth and Science_, p. 85.
[B] Clarke in his interesting book gives us some very readable
stories anent the ability of animals seeing imaginary objects. I
myself have seen a parrot with a marked case of _delirium tremens_,
due to excessive use of alcoholic stimulants (Vid. Author: _The
Dawn of Reason_). Romanes also gives valuable data in his _Mental
Evolution_ (in Animal, and in Man) concerning this subject. The fox
terrier (Vid. Author: _Dawn of Reason_) which carried his dreams
into his awakened state is apropos.
The Egyptians noticed, over four thousand years ago, that cynocephali,
the dog-headed apes of the Nile Valley, were in the habit of welcoming
the rising sun with dancing and with howls of joy! "The habit of certain
monkeys (cynocephali) assembling, as it were, in full court, and
chattering noisily at sunrise and sunset, would almost justify the, as
yet, uncivilized Egyptians in intrusting them with the charge of hailing
the god morning and evening as he appeared in the east or passed away in
the west."[3] An English fox-terrier of my acquaintance is very much
afraid of thunder or any noise simulating thunder. A load of coal
rushing through a chute into the coal cellar will send him, trembling
and alarmed, to his hiding-place beneath a bed. This dog has never been
shot over, nor has he, as far as I know, ever heard the sound of a gun.
I am confident that he considers the thunder as being supernatural, and
that he would propitiate it, if he only knew how.
[3] Maspero (Sayce): _The Dawn of Civilization_, p. 103, and
Maspero: _Etudes de Mythologie et d'Archiologie Egyptiennes_, vol.
ii, pp. 34, 35.
It is not probable that, at the present time, there exists a race of
people which has not formulated an idea of ghost or soul; yet in ancient
times, and up to a century or so ago, there existed many peoples who had
not conceived any idea of ghosts or doubles.
According to Maspero, Sayce, Champollion, and other Egyptologists, the
ancient Egyptians probably had a natural theogony long before they
arrived at any idea of a double. In the beginning they treated the
double or ghost with scant ceremony; it was only after many years that
an element of worship entered into their treatment of the ghosts of
their dead ancestors. They believed, at first, that the double dwelt
forever in the tomb along with the dead body; afterward, they evolved
the idea that the double of the dead man journeyed to the "Islands of
the Blessed," where it was judged by Osiris according to its merits.[4]
We have no reason for believing that the ancient Hebrews at the time of
the Exodus had any knowledge of, or belief in, the existence of the soul
or double, yet, that they did believe in the supernatural can not be
questioned.[C] When Cook touched at Tierra del Fuego, he found a people
in whom there existed mental habitudes but little above those to be
found in the anthropoid apes. They had no knowledge whatever of the soul
or double and but a dim concept of the powers of nature; they had not
yet advanced far enough in psychical development to evolve any
consistent form of natural theogony. They had only a shadowy concept of
evil beings, powers of the air that inhabited the dense brakes of the
forest, whom it would be dangerous to molest. Father Junipero Serra
declares that when he first established the Mission Dolores, the
Ahwashtees, Ohlones, Romanos, Altahmos, Tuolomos, and other Californian
tribes had no word in their language for god, ghost, or devil.[5] The
Inca Yupangui informed Balboa that there were many tribes in the
interior which had no idea of ghost or soul.[6] Another writer says,
that the Chirihuanas did not worship anything either in heaven or on
earth, and that they had no belief whatever in a future state.[7] Modern
travelers have, however, found distinct evidences of phallic worship in
certain observances and customs of this tribe.[8]
[4] Maspero (Sayce): _The Dawn of Civilization_, p. 183 _et seq._
[C] That the patriarchs had their household gods, we have every
reason for believing; these household gods were, however, tutelary
divinities, such as were kept in the house of every Chaldean, and
were not the images of ancestors. Rachel, the wife of Jacob, stole
the household gods of Laban, her father, who is called a Syrian.
Abraham himself was a Chaldean. Gen. 11:31; also Gen. 31:19-20.
[5] Bancroft: _The Native Races of the Pacific States of North
America_, vol. i, p. 400.
[6] Balboa: _History of Peru_.
[7] Garcilasso: _The Royal Commentaries of the Incas_.
[8] Browlow: _Travels_, p. 136.
Certain autochthons of India, when first discovered, were exceedingly
immature in religious beliefs; they had neither god nor devil; they
wandered through the woods subsisting on berries and fruits, and such
small animals as their undeveloped and feeble sagacity allowed them to
capture and slay. They did not even provide themselves with shelter,
but, in pristine nakedness, roamed the forests of the Ghauts, animals
but slightly above the anthropoid apes in point of intelligence. "In
Central California we find," says Bancroft, "whole tribes subsisting on
roots, herbs, and insects; having no boats, no clothing, no laws, no
God."[9]
[9] Bancroft: _The Native Races of the Pacific States of North
America_, vol. i, p. 400.
In the northwestern corner of the American continent there dwells a
primitive race, which, for the sake of unification, I will style the
Aleutians. When these people were first discovered they were in that
state of social economics which they had reached after thousands of
years of psychical and social evolution; a primitive people, such as our
own ancestors were in the very beginning of civilization. The word
civilization is used advisedly; civilization is comparative, and its
degrees begin with the inception of man himself.
In their theogony, the Aleutians had arrived at an idea of the double or
soul, thus showing that their religion had progressed several steps
toward abstraction, that triumph of civilized religiosity; yet there
remained enough veneration of natural objects to show that the origin of
the religious feeling began, with them, in nature-propitiation. The
bladder of the bear, which viscus, in the estimation of the Aleutians,
is the seat of life, is at once suspended above the entrance of the
_kachim_ or communal dwelling and worshiped by the hunter who has slain
the beast from which it was taken. Moreover, when the bear falls beneath
the weapons of an Aleutian, the man begs pardon of the beast and prays
the latter to forgive him and to do him no harm. "A hunter who has
struck a mortal blow generally remains within his hut for one or several
days, according to the importance of the slain animal."[10] The first
herring that is caught is showered with compliments and blessings;
pompous titles are lavished upon it, and it is handled with the greatest
respect and reverence; it is the herring-god![11]
[10] Reclus: _Primitive Folk_, p. 18.
[11] Dall: _Alaska and its Resources_, p. 96.
Sidne, chief god of the Aleutian theogony, on final analysis, is found
to be the Earth, mother of all things. The _angakouts_, or priests, of
this people individualize and deify, however, all the phenomena of
nature; there are cloud-gods, sea-gods, river-gods, fire-gods,
rain-gods, storm-gods, etc., etc., etc. Everywhere, throughout all
nature, the Inoit, or Aleutian system of theology, penetrates, stripped,
it is true, of much of its original materialism, yet retaining enough to
show its undoubted origin in the sensual percepts, recepts, and concepts
of its primal founders.
As I have observed above, the religion of these people has gained a
certain degree of abstraction, and this abstraction is further shown by
the presence of certain phallic rites and ceremonies in their religious
observances; but of this, more anon.[D]
[D] In a letter to me, a naval officer of high rank states that,
beyond question of doubt, the Aleutian priests keep male concubines
whom they use in their religious observances. He, also, gives other
evidences of phallic worship among these people.
In most of the tribes of Equatorial Africa, nature-worship has been
superseded by ghost-worship, devil-worship, or witch-worship, or,
rather, by ghost, devil, or witch propitiation; yet, in the sanctity of
the fetich, which is everywhere present, we see a relic of
nature-worship. Moreover, many of these tribes deify natural phenomena,
such as the sun, the moon, the stars, thunder, lightning, etc., etc.,
etc., showing that here, too, in all probability, religious feeling had
its origin in nature propitiation.
Abstraction also enters, to a certain extent, into the religious beliefs
of most of these negroes, in whom primal materialism has given place to
the unbridled superstition of crude spiritism. The curious habit these
people have of scraping a little bone dust from the skull of a dead
ancestor and then eating it with their food, thus, as they think,
transmitting from the dead to the living the qualities of the former, is
close kin to, and, in my opinion, is probably derived from, a worship of
the generative principle. When we take into consideration the fact that
circumcision, _extensio clitoridis_, and other phallic rites are
exceedingly common and prevalent among these negroes, this opinion has
strong evidence in its support.[12]
[12] Negroes of Benin and Sierra Leone (Bosman, _loc. cit._, p.
526), Mandingoes (Waitz, vol. ii, p. 3), Bechuanas (Holub, _loc.
cit._, p. 398); quoted also by Westermarck, _Human Marriage_, p.
206.
The Wa-kamba may have some idea of immortality, though observers have
never been able to determine this definitely. "The dead bodies of chiefs
are not thrown to the hyenas, as with the Masai, but are carefully
buried instead.... The bodies of less important members of the tribe are
simply thrown to the hyenas."[13]
[13] Gregory: _The Great Rift Valley_, p. 351.
In this people, religious ideas are exceedingly primitive and
indefinite. They seem to propitiate nature, however, when they wish
rain, for they offer up to the rain-spirit votive offerings of bananas,
grain, and beer, which they place beneath the trees. This seems to be
their only religious rite according to Gregory, who, in all probability
is in error. For, in the next sentence, he informs us that these
negroes practice circumcision. He thinks that they perform this
operation for sanitary reasons, "as the natives have continually to ford
streams and wade through swamps abounding in the larvae of _Bilharzia
haematuria_, the rite no doubt lessens the danger of incurring
haematuria."[14] This is bestowing upon ignorant and savage negroes a
psychical acuteness which far transcends that of the laity of civilized
races! What do the Wa-kamba know of sanitation, haematuria, and the larva
of Bilharzia![E] Circumcision among these people always occurs at
puberty, and is, unquestionably, a phallic rite. Parenthetically, it may
be stated here that a few of the primitive peoples still in existence
appear to have grasped the idea of the life-giving principle, and to
have established worship of the _functio generationis_ without having
experienced certain preliminary psychical stages necessary for its
evolution from nature-worship. I believe, however, that this is apparent
and not real; nature-worship, very probably, at one time existed among
all these people.
[14] Gregory: _The Great Rift Valley_, p. 351.
[E] Inasmuch as the haematuria occasioned by the larvae of Bilharzia
has its origin in the parenchyma of the kidney, and, since we have
no reason for believing that this race has any idea of histology or
pathology, it is manifest folly to ascribe circumcision as a
prophylactic measure against this parasite. Bilharzia is now
considered a true parasite by Wolfe.
The Kikuyu have a very elaborate system of theogony, in which all of the
phenomena of nature with which they are acquainted are deified. A goat
is invariably sacrificed to the sun when they set out on a journey, and
its blood is carried along and sprinkled on the paths and bridges in
order to appease the spirits of the forest and the river.
Stuhlmann places this tribe among the Bantu; from the evidence of other
observers, however, they seem to be Nilotic Hamites, and belong properly
to the Masai.[15] This would account for the similarity of method in
circumcision, which, among both Kikuyu and Masai, is incomplete.
Johnston calls attention to this very peculiar method and describes it
minutely in a Latin foot-note.[16]
[15] Stuhlmann: _Mit Emin Pasha_, p. 848.
[16] Johnston: _The Kilima-Njaro Expedition_, p. 412.
The Masai are mixed devil, nature, and phallic worshipers; the last
mentioned cult being evolved, beyond question, from nature-worship. It
may be set down as an established fact that, where nature-worship does
not exist in some form or other among primitive peoples, phallic worship
is likewise absent. Indeed, such peoples generally have no religious
feeling whatever. They may have some shadowy idea of an evil spirit like
the "_Aurimwantya dsongo ngombe auri kinemu_," the Old Man of the
Woods[17] of the Wa-pokomo, but that is all.
[17] Gregory: _The Great Rift Valley_, p. 344.
Carl Lumholtz, writing of the Australians, says: "The Australian blacks
do not, like many other savage tribes, attach any ideas of divinity to
the sun or moon. On one of our expeditions the full moon rose large and
red over the palm forest. Struck by the splendor of the scene, I pointed
at the moon and asked my companions, 'Who made it?' They answered,
'Other blacks.' Thereupon I asked, 'Who made the sun?' and got the same
answer. The natives also believe that they themselves can produce rain,
particularly with the help of wizards. To produce rain they call
_milka_. When on our expeditions we were overtaken by violent tropical
storms, my blacks always became enraged at the strangers who had caused
the rain."[18] In regard to their belief in the existence of a double or
soul, the same author sums up as follows: "Upon the whole, it may be
said that these children of nature are unable to conceive a human soul
independent of the body, and the future life of the individual lasts no
longer than his physical remains."[19] Mr. Mann, of New South Wales,
who, according to Lumholtz, has made a thirty years' study of the
Australians, says that the natives have no religion whatever, except
fear of the "devil-devil."[20] Another writer, and one abundantly
qualified to judge, says that they acknowledge no supreme being, have no
idols, and believe only in an evil spirit whom they do not worship. They
say that this spirit is afraid of fire, so they never venture abroad
after dusk without a fire-stick.[21]
[18] Lumholtz: _Among Cannibals_, p. 282.
[19] _Ibid._, p. 279.
[20] Lumholtz: _Among Cannibals_, p. 283.
[21] _Ibid._, p. 283.
"I verily believe we have arrived at the sum total of their religion, if
a superstitious dread of the unknown can be so designated. Their mental
capacity does not admit of their grasping the higher truths of pure
religion," says Eden.[22] It is simply an inherent fear of the unknown;
the natural, inborn caution of thousands of years of inherited
experiences.
[22] Eden: _The Fifth Continent_, p. 69; quoted also by Lumholtz:
_Among Cannibals_.
In these savages we see a race whose psychical status is so low in the
intellectual scale that they have not evolved any idea of the double or
soul. The mental capacity of the Australians, I take it, is no lower
than was that of any race (no matter how intellectual it may be at the
present time) at one period of its history. All races have a tendency
toward psychical development under favorable surroundings; it has been a
progress instead of a decadence, a rise instead of a fall! Evolution has
not ceased; nor will it end until _Finis_ is written at the bottom of
Time's last page.
There are yet other people who believe in the supernatural, yet who have
no idea of immortality. When Gregory ascended the glacier of Mount
Kenya, the water froze in the cooking-pots which had been filled over
night. His carriers were terribly alarmed by the phenomenon, and swore
that the water was bewitched! The explorer scolded them for their
silliness and bade them set the pots on the fire, which, having been
done, "the men sat round and anxiously watched; when it melted they
joyfully told me that the demon was expelled, and I told them they could
now use the water; but as soon as my back was turned they poured it
away, and refilled their pots from the adjoining brook."[23]
[23] Gregory: _The Great Rift Valley_, p. 170.
Stanley declares that no traces of religious feeling can be found in the
Wahuma. "They believe most thoroughly in the existence of an evil
influence in the form of a man, who exists in uninhabited places, as a
wooded, darksome gorge, or large extent of reedy brake, but that he can
be propitiated by gifts; therefore the lucky hunter leaves a portion of
the meat, which he tosses, however, as he would to a dog, or he places
an egg, or a small banana, or a kid-skin, at the door of the miniature
dwelling, which is always at the entrance to the zeriba."[24]
[24] Stanley: _In Darkest Africa_, vol. ii, p. 400.
This observer shows that he does not know the true meaning of the word
religion; the example that he gives demonstrates the fact that these
negroes _do_ have religious feeling. The simple act of offering
propitiatory gifts to the "evil influence" is, from the very nature of
the deed, a religious observance. Furthermore, these savages have charms
and fetiches innumerable, which, in my opinion, are relics of
nature-worship. The miniature house mentioned by Stanley is common to
the majority of the equatorial tribes, and seems to be a kind of common
fetich; _i. e._, one that is enjoyed by the entire tribe. It is
mentioned by Du Chaillu, Chaille Long, Stanley, and many others.[25]
[25] Du Chaillu: _Equatorial Africa_; Chaille Long: _Naked Truths
of Naked People_; Stanley: _In Darkest Africa_.
Du Chaillu tells of one tribe, the Bakalai, in which the women worship a
particular divinity named Njambai.[26] This writer is even more inexact
than Stanley, hence, we get very little scientific data from his
voluminous works. From what he says of Njambai,[F] I am inclined to
believe that he is a negro Priapus; this, however, is a conjectural
belief and has no scientific warrant.
[26] Du Chaillu: _Equatorial Africa_, p. 240.
[F] Possibly, this god is the same as the god mentioned by
Livingstone, Baker, and Stanley.
The Tucuna Indians of the Amazon Valley, who resemble the Passes, Juris,
and Muahes in physical appearance and customs, social and otherwise, are
devil-worshipers. They are very much afraid of the _Jupari_, or devil,
who seems to be "simply a mischievous imp, who is at the bottom of all
those mishaps of their daily life, the causes of which are not very
immediate or obvious to their dull understandings. The idea of a Creator
or a beneficent God has not entered the minds of these Indians."[27]
[27] Bates: _The Naturalist on the River Amazon_, p. 381.
The Peruvians, at the time of the Spanish conquest, worshiped nature;
that is, the sun was deified under the name of _Pachacamac_, the Giver
of Life, and was worshiped as such. The Inca, who was his earthly
representative, was likewise his chief priest, though there was a great
High Priest, or _Villac Vmu_, who stood at the head of the hierarchy,
but who was second in dignity to the Inca.[28] The moon, wife of the
sun, the stars, thunder, lightning, and other natural phenomena were
also deified. But, as it invariably happens, where nature-worship is
allowed to undergo its natural evolution, certain elements of phallic
worship had made their appearance. These I will discuss later on.
[28] Prescott: _The Conquest of Peru_, vol. i, p. 101.
The great temple of the sun was at Cuzco, "where, under the munificence
of successive sovereigns, it had become so rich that it received the
name of Coricancha, or 'the Place of Gold.'"[29] According to the
_relacion_ of Sarmiento, and the commentaries of Garcilasso and other
Spanish writers, this building, which was surrounded by chapels and
smaller edifices, and which stood in the heart of the city, must have
been truly magnificent with its lavish adornments of virgin gold!
[29] Prescott: _The Conquest of Peru_, vol. i, p. 95.
Unlike the Aztecs, a kindred race of people, the Peruvians rarely
sacrificed human beings to their divinities, but, like the religion of
the former, the religion of the latter had become greatly developed
along ceremonial lines, as we will see later on in this essay.
It is a far cry from Peru to Japan, from the Incas to the Ainus, yet
these widely separated races practiced religions that were almost
identical in point of fundamental principles. Both worshiped nature, but
the Peruvians were far ahead of the Ainus in civilization, and their
religion, as far as ritual and ceremony are concerned, far surpassed
that of the "Hairy Men" when viewed from an aesthetic standpoint.
Ethically, I am inclined to believe the religion of the Ainus is just as
high as was that of the Incas.
Literature is indebted to the Rev. John Batchelor for that which is,
probably, the most readable book that has ever been published about
these interesting people; from a scientific standpoint, however, this
work is greatly lacking. Many ethnologists and anthropologists
considered the Ainu autochthonic to Japan; I am forced to conclude from
the evidence, however, that he is an emigrant, and that he came
originally from North China or East Siberia. Be he emigrant or indigene,
one thing is certain, namely, that he has been an inhabitant of the
Japanese Archipelago for thousands of years. The oldest book in the
Japanese language has this in it anent the Ainus: "When our august
ancestors descended from heaven in a boat, they found upon this island
several barbarous races, the most fierce of whom were the Ainu."[G]
[G] Batchelor: _The Ainu of Japan_, p. 13.
The Ainu is probably the purest type of primitive man in existence. I
had been led to believe by the work of Miss Bird[30] that these people
were on a par with the Australians, and that they had no religious ideas
whatever. (Vogt seems to advance this conclusion also,[31] while De
Quatrefages[32][H] appears to have omitted this people from his
tabulation. Peschel places them among the Giliaks on the Lower Amoor,
and the inhabitants of the Kurile Islands.[33] These tribes are mixed
nature, devil, and phallic worshipers.) Batchelor, however, shows very
clearly that these people _do_ have a religion, and that this religion
is highly developed.
[30] Bird: _Unbeaten Tracks in Japan_.
[31] Vogt: _Lectures on Man_.
[32] De Quatrefages: _The Human Species_.
[H] De Quatrefages, in his _Hommes Fossiles_, places the Ainus
anthropologically among the Primeval Teutons!
[33] Peschel: _The Races of Man_, p. 388.
Their chief god, or rather goddess (for the Ainus regard the female as
being higher than the male as far as gods are concerned), is the
sun.[34] Like the Peruvians, they regard the sun as the Creator, but
they are unlike them in the fact that they think that they cannot reach
the goddess by direct appeal. She must be addressed through
intermediaries or messengers. These messengers, the goddess of the fire,
the goddess of the water, etc., are in turn addressed through the
agency of _inao_, or prayer-sticks. This intermediary idea is curiously
like some practices of the Roman Catholic church, or, rather, of
communicants, who get the saints to carry their petitions to God.
[34] Batchelor: _The Ainu of Japan_, p. 89.
The inao are peculiar, inasmuch as nothing exactly like them is known.
The feather prayer-plumes of some of the Western Indians are used for
like purposes, but these are offered directly to the Great Spirit, and
not to intermediaries. "Inao, briefly described, are pieces of whittled
willow wood, having the shavings attached to the top."[35] Like the
Aleutians, when these people kill a bear or other wild animal, they
propitiate its spirit by bestowing upon it the most fulsome compliments,
and, like the religion of these Indians, the religion of the Ainus has
developed along natural lines, and shows certain phallic elements.
[35] Batchelor: _The Ainu of Japan_, p. 87.
We see from the examples here given, that religious feeling had its
origin in the idea of propitiation; in fact, that it was born in fear,
and by fear was it fostered. We see, furthermore, that man was not
created with religious feeling as a psychical trait, but that he
acquired it later on. We see, finally, that religious feeling is based,
primarily and fundamentally, on one of the chief laws of
nature--self-protection. The evolution and growth of Ethics demonstrate
this beyond peradventure.
It is not at all probable that man in the beginning, just after his
evolution from his ape-like ancestor, had, at first, any belief whatever
in supernatural agencies. In his struggle for existence, all of his
powers were directed toward the procurement of his food and the
preservation of life; the pithecoid man was only a degree higher than
the beasts in the scale of animal life. His psychic being, as yet,
remained, as it were, _in ovo_, and a long period of time must have
elapsed before he began to formulate and to recognize a system of
theogony. After years of experience, during which the laws of heredity
and progressive evolution played prominent parts, he took precedence
over other animals, and his struggle for existence became easier. He
then had time to study the wonderful and, to him, mysterious phenomena
of nature. His limited knowledge could not explain the various natural
operations by which he was surrounded, therefore he looked upon them as
being mysterious and supernatural. His psychical being became active and
inquiring, to satisfy which he created a system of gods which was
founded on natural phenomena. At first, the gods of primitive man were,
probably, few in number, and the chief god of all was the sun. Man early
recognized the sun's importance in the economy of nature; this beautiful
star, rising in the east in the morning, marching through the heavens
during the day, and sinking behind the western horizon in the evening,
must have been, to the awakening soul of man, a source of endless
conjecture and debate. What was more natural than his making the sun the
greatest god in his system of theogony? Man recognized in him the source
of all life, and, when he arrived at an age when he could use abstract
ideation in formulating his religion, he deified the life-giving
function as he noticed it in himself; he began to worship the generative
principle. Solar worship and its direct descendant, phallic worship, at
one time or another were the religions of almost every race on the face
of the globe. Solar worship, owing to its material quality, has long
since been abandoned by civilized man; but phallic worship, the first
_abstract_ religion evolved by man, has taken deeper root; its
fundamental principles are still present, though they have their seat in
our subliminal consciousness, and we are, therefore, not actively
conscious of their existence. But before entering on the discussion of
this last point, let us turn for a time to a study of phallic worship.