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THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY AND THE WORSHIP OF THE DEAD
by
J. G. FRAZER, D.C.L., LL.D., Litt.D.
Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge
Professor of Social Anthropology in the University of Liverpool.
VOL. I
The Belief Among the Aborigines of Australia, the Torres Straits
Islands, New Guinea and Melanesia
The Gifford Lectures, St. Andrews 1911-1912
MacMillan and Co., Limited
St. Martin's Street, London
1913
_Itaque unum illud erat insitum priscis illis, quos cascos
appellat Ennius, esse in morte sensum neque excessu vitae sic
deleri hominem, ut funditus interiret; idque cum multis aliis
rebus; tum e pontificio jure et e caerimoniis sepulchrorum
intellegi licet, quas maxumis ingeniis praediti nec tanta cura
coluissent nec violatas tam inexpiabili religione sanxissent,
nisi haereret in corum mentibus mortem non interitum esse omnia
tollentem atque delentem, sed quandam quasi migrationem
commutationemque vitae._
Cicero, _Tuscul. Disput._ i. 12.
TO
MY OLD FRIEND
JOHN SUTHERLAND BLACK, LL.D.
I DEDICATE AFFECTIONATELY
A WORK
WHICH OWES MUCH TO HIS ENCOURAGEMENT
PREFACE
The following lectures were delivered on Lord Gifford's Foundation
before the University of St. Andrews in the early winters of 1911 and
1912. They are printed nearly as they were spoken, except that a few
passages, omitted for the sake of brevity in the oral delivery, have
been here restored and a few more added. Further, I have compressed the
two introductory lectures into one, striking out some passages which on
reflection I judged to be irrelevant or superfluous. The volume
incorporates twelve lectures on "The Fear and Worship of the Dead" which
I delivered in the Lent and Easter terms of 1911 at Trinity College,
Cambridge, and repeated, with large additions, in my course at St.
Andrews.
The theme here broached is a vast one, and I hope to pursue it hereafter
by describing the belief in immortality and the worship of the dead, as
these have been found among the other principal races of the world both
in ancient and modern times. Of all the many forms which natural
religion has assumed none probably has exerted so deep and far-reaching
an influence on human life as the belief in immortality and the worship
of the dead; hence an historical survey of this most momentous creed and
of the practical consequences which have been deduced from it can hardly
fail to be at once instructive and impressive, whether we regard the
record with complacency as a noble testimony to the aspiring genius of
man, who claims to outlive the sun and the stars, or whether we view it
with pity as a melancholy monument of fruitless labour and barren
ingenuity expended in prying into that great mystery of which fools
profess their knowledge and wise men confess their ignorance.
J. G. FRAZER.
Cambridge,
_9th February 1913._
CONTENTS
Dedication
Preface
Table of Contents
Lecture I.--Introduction
Natural theology, three modes of handling it, the dogmatic, the
philosophical, and the historical, pp. 1 _sq._; the historical method
followed in these lectures, 2 _sq._; questions of the truth and moral
value of religious beliefs irrelevant in an historical enquiry, 3 _sq._;
need of studying the religion of primitive man and possibility of doing
so by means of the comparative method, 5 _sq._; urgent need of
investigating the native religion of savages before it disappears, 6
_sq._; a portion of savage religion the theme of these lectures, 7
_sq._; the question of a supernatural revelation dismissed, 8 _sq._;
theology and religion, their relations, 9; the term God defined, 9
_sqq._; monotheism and polytheism, 11; a natural knowledge of God, if it
exists, only possible through experience, 11 _sq._; the nature of
experience, 12 _sq._; two kinds of experience, an inward and an outward,
13 _sq._; the conception of God reached historically through both kinds
of experience, 14; inward experience or inspiration, 14 _sq._;
deification of living men, 16 _sq._; outward experience as a source of
the idea of God, 17; the tendency to seek for causes, 17 _sq._; the
meaning of cause, 18 _sq._; the savage explains natural processes by the
hypothesis of spirits or gods, 19 _sq._; natural processes afterwards
explained by hypothetical forces and atoms instead of by hypothetical
spirits and gods, 20 _sq._; nature in general still commonly explained
by the hypothesis of a deity, 21 _sq._; God an inferential or
hypothetical cause, 22 _sq._; the deification of dead men, 23-25; such a
deification presupposes the immortality of the human soul or rather its
survival for a longer or shorter time after death, 25 _sq._; the
conception of human immortality suggested both by inward experience,
such as dreams, and by outward experience, such as the resemblances of
the living to the dead, 26-29; the lectures intended to collect evidence
as to the belief in immortality among certain savage races, 29 _sq._;
the method to be descriptive rather than comparative or philosophical,
30.
Lecture II.--The Savage Conception of Death
The subject of the lectures the belief in immortality and the worship of
the dead among certain of the lower races, p. 31; question of the nature
and origin of death, 31 _sq._; universal interest of the question, 32
_sq._; the belief in immortality general among mankind, 33; belief of
many savages that death is not natural and that they would never die if
their lives were not cut prematurely short by sorcery, 33 _sq._;
examples of this belief among the South American Indians, 34 _sqq._;
death sometimes attributed to sorcery and sometimes to demons, practical
consequence of this distinction, 37; belief in sorcery as the cause of
death among the Indians of Guiana, 38 _sq._, among the Tinneh Indians of
North America, 39 _sq._, among the aborigines of Australia, 40-47, among
the natives of the Torres Straits Islands and New Guinea, 47, among the
Melanesians, 48, among the Malagasy, 48 _sq._, and among African tribes,
49-51; effect of such beliefs in thinning the population by causing
multitudes to die for the imaginary crime of sorcery, 51-53; some
savages attribute certain deaths to other causes than sorcery, 53;
corpse dissected to ascertain cause of death, 53 _sq._; the possibility
of natural death admitted by the Melanesians and the Caffres of South
Africa, 54-56; the admission marks an intellectual advance, 56 _sq._;
the recognition of ghosts or spirits, apart from sorcery, as a cause of
disease and death also marks a step in moral and social progress, 57
_sq._
Lecture III.--Myths of the Origin of Death
Belief of savages in man's natural immortality, p. 59; savage stories of
the origin of death, 59 _sq._; four types of such stories:--
(1) _The Story of the Two Messengers_.--Zulu story of the chameleon and
the lizard, 60 _sq._; Akamba story of the chameleon and the thrush, 61
_sq._; Togo story of the dog and the frog, 62 _sq._; Ashantee story of
the goat and the sheep, 63 _sq._
(2) _The Story of the Waxing and Waning Moon_.--Hottentot story of the
moon, the hare, and death, 65; Masai story of the moon and death, 65
_sq._; Nandi story of the moon, the dog, and death, 66; Fijian story of
the moon, the rat, and death, 67; Caroline, Wotjobaluk, and Cham stories
of the moon, death, and resurrection, 67; death and resurrection after
three days suggested by the reappearance of the new moon after three
days, 67 _sq._
(3) _The Story of the Serpent and his Cast Skin_.--New Britain and
Annamite story of immortality, the serpent, and death, 69 _sq._; Vuatom
story of immortality, the lizard, the serpent, and death, 70; Nias story
of immortality, the crab, and death, 70; Arawak and Tamanchier stories
of immortality, the serpent, the lizard, the beetle, and death, 70
_sq._; Melanesian story of the old woman and her cast skin, 71 _sq._;
Samoan story of the shellfish, two torches, and death, 72.
(4) _The Story of the Banana_.--Poso story of immortality, the stone,
the banana, and death, 72 _sq._; Mentra story of immortality, the
banana, and death, 73.
Primitive philosophy in the stories of the origin of death, 73 _sq._;
Bahnar story of immortality, the tree, and death, 74; rivalry for the
boon of immortality between men and animals that cast their skins, such
as serpents and lizards, 74 _sq._; stories of the origin of death told
by Chingpaws, Australians, Fijians, and Admiralty Islanders, 75-77;
African and American stories of the fatal bundle or the fatal box, 77
_sq._; Baganda story how death originated through the imprudence of a
woman, 78-81; West African story of Death and the spider, 81-83;
Melanesian story of Death and the Fool, 83 _sq._
Thus according to savages death is not a natural necessity, 84; similar
view held by some modern biologists, as A. Weismann and A. R. Wallace,
84-86.
Lecture IV.--The Belief in Immortality among the Aborigines of Central
Australia
In tracing the evolution of religious beliefs we must begin with those
of the lowest savages, p. 87; the aborigines of Australia the lowest
savages about whom we possess accurate information, 88; savagery a case
of retarded development, 88 _sq._; causes which have retarded progress
in Australia, 89 _sq._; the natives of Central Australia on the whole
more primitive than those of the coasts, 90 _sq._; little that can be
called religion among them, 91 _sq._; their theory that the souls of the
dead survive and are reborn in their descendants, 92 _sq._; places where
the souls of the dead await rebirth, and the mode in which they enter
into women, 93 _sq._; local totem centres, 94 _sq._; totemism defined,
95; traditionary origin of the local totem centres (_oknanikilla_) where
the souls of the dead assemble, 96; sacred birth-stones or birth-sticks
(_churinga_) which the souls of ancestors are thought to have dropped at
these places, 96-102; elements of a worship of the dead, 102 _sq._;
marvellous powers attributed to the remote ancestors of the _alcheringa_
or dream times, 103 _sq._; the Wollunqua, a mythical water-snake,
ancestor of a totemic clan of the Warramunga tribe, 104-106; religious
character of the belief in the Wollunqua, 106.
Lecture V.--The Belief in Immortality among the Aborigines of Central
Australia (_continued_)
Beliefs of the Central Australian aborigines concerning the
reincarnation of the dead, p. 107; possibility of the development of
ancestor worship, 107 _sq._; ceremonies performed by the Warramunga in
honour of the Wollunqua, the mythical ancestor of one of their totem
clans, 108 _sqq._; union of magic and religion in these ceremonies, 111
_sq._; ground drawings of the Wollunqua, 112 _sq._; importance of the
Wollunqua in the evolution of religion and art, 113 _sq._; how totemism
might develop into polytheism through an intermediate stage of ancestor
worship, 114 _sq._; all the conspicuous features of the country
associated by the Central Australians with the spirits of their
ancestors, 115-118; dramatic ceremonies performed by them to commemorate
the deeds of their ancestors, 118 _sq._; examples of these ceremonies,
119-122; these ceremonies were probably in origin not merely
commemorative or historical but magical, being intended to procure a
supply of food and other necessaries, 122 _sq._; magical virtue actually
attributed to these dramatic ceremonies by the Warramunga, who think
that by performing them they increase the food supply of the tribe, 123
_sq._; hence the great importance ascribed by these savages to the due
performance of the ancestral dramas, 124; general attitude of the
Central Australian aborigines to their dead, and the lines on which, if
left to themselves, they might have developed a regular worship of the
dead, 124-126.
Lecture VI.--The Belief in Immortality among the other Aborigines of
Australia
Evidence for the belief in reincarnation among the natives of other
parts of Australia than the centre, p. 127; beliefs of the Queensland
aborigines concerning the nature of the soul and the state of the dead,
127-131; belief of the Australian aborigines that their dead are
sometimes reborn in white people, 131-133; belief of the natives of
South-Eastern Australia that their dead are not born again but go away
to the sky or some distant country, 133 _sq._; beliefs and customs of
the Narrinyeri concerning the dead, 134 _sqq._; motives for the
excessive grief which they display at the death of their relatives, 135
_sq._; their pretence of avenging the death of their friends on the
guilty sorcerer, 136 _sq._; magical virtue ascribed to the hair of the
dead, 137 _sq._; belief that the dead go to the sky, 138 _sq._;
appearance of the dead to the living in dreams, 139; savage faith in
dreams, 139 _sq._; association of the stars with the souls of the dead,
140; creed of the South-Eastern Australians touching the dead, 141;
difference of this creed from that of the Central Australians, 141; this
difference probably due in the main to a general advance of culture
brought about by more favourable natural conditions in South-Eastern
Australia, 141 _sq._; possible influence of European teaching on native
beliefs, 142 _sq._; vagueness and inconsistency of native beliefs as to
the state of the dead, 143; custom a good test of belief, 143 _sq._;
burial customs of the Australian aborigines as evidence of their beliefs
concerning the state of the dead, 144; their practice of supplying the
dead with food, water, fire, weapons, and implements, 144-147; motives
for the destruction of the property of the dead, 147 _sq._; great
economic loss entailed by developed systems of sacrificing to the dead,
149.
Lecture VII.--The Belief in Immortality among the Aborigines of
Australia (_concluded_)
Huts erected on graves for the use of the ghosts, pp. 150-152; the
attentions paid by the Australian aborigines to their dead probably
spring from fear rather than affection, 152; precautions taken by the
living against the dangerous ghosts of the dead, 152 _sq._; cuttings and
brandings of the flesh of the living in honour of the dead, 154-158; the
custom of allowing the blood of mourners to drip on the corpse or into
the grave may be intended to strengthen the dead for a new birth,
158-162; different ways of disposing of the dead according to the age,
rank, manner of death, etc., of the deceased, 162 _sq._; some modes of
burial are intended to prevent the return of the spirit, others are
designed to facilitate it, 163-165; final departure of the ghost
supposed to coincide with the disappearance of the flesh from his bones,
165 _sq._; hence a custom has arisen in many tribes of giving the bones
a second burial or otherwise disposing of them when the flesh is quite
decayed, 166; tree-burial followed by earth-burial in some Australian
tribes, 166-168; general conclusion as to the belief in immortality and
the worship of the dead among the Australian aborigines, 168 _sq._
Lecture VIII.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of the Torres
Straits Islands
Racial affinities of the Torres Straits Islanders, pp. 170 _sq._; their
material and social culture, 171 _sq._; no developed worship of the dead
among them, 172 _sq._; their fear of ghosts, 173-175; home of the dead a
mythical island in the west, 175 _sq._; elaborate funeral ceremonies of
the Torres Straits Islanders characterised by dramatic representations
of the dead and by the preservation of their skulls, which were
consulted as oracles, 176.
Funeral ceremonies of the Western Islanders, 177-180; part played by the
brothers-in-law of the deceased at these ceremonies, 177 _sq._; removal
of the head and preparation of the skull for use in divination, 178
_sq._; great death-dance performed by masked men who personated the
deceased, 179 _sq._
Funeral ceremonies of the Eastern Islanders, 180-188; soul of the dead
carried away by a masked actor, 181 _sq._; dramatic performance by
disguised men representing ghosts, 182 _sq._; blood and hair of
relatives offered to the dead, 183 _sq._; mummification of the corpse,
184; costume of mourners, 184; cuttings for the dead, 184 _sq._;
death-dance by men personating ghosts, 185-188; preservation of the
mummy and afterwards of the head or a wax model of it to be used in
divination, 188.
Images of the gods perhaps developed out of mummies of the dead, and a
sacred or even secular drama developed out of funeral dances, 189.
Lecture IX.--The Belief in Immortality Among the Natives Of British New
Guinea
The two races of New Guinea, the Papuan and the Melanesian, pp. 190
_sq._; beliefs and customs of the Motu concerning the dead, 192; the
Koita and their beliefs as to the human soul and the state of the dead,
193-195; alleged communications with the dead by means of mediums, 195
_sq._; fear of the dead, especially of a dead wife, 196 _sq._; beliefs
of the Mafulu concerning the dead, 198; their burial customs, 198 _sq._;
their use of the skulls and bones of the dead at a great festival,
199-201; worship of the dead among the natives of the Aroma district,
201 _sq._; the Hood Peninsula, 202 _sq._; beliefs and customs concerning
the dead among the natives of the Hood Peninsula, 203-206; seclusion of
widows and widowers, 203 _sq._; the ghost-seer, 204 _sq._; application
of the juices of the dead to the persons of the living, 205; precautions
taken by manslayers against the ghosts of their victims, 205 _sq._;
purification for homicide originally a mode of averting the angry ghost
of the slain, 206; beliefs and customs concerning the dead among the
Massim of south-eastern New Guinea, 206-210; Hiyoyoa, the land of the
dead, 207; purification of mourners by bathing and shaving, 207 _sq._;
foods forbidden to mourners, 208 _sq._; fires on the grave, 209; the
land of the dead, 209 _sq._; names of the dead not mentioned, 210;
beliefs and customs concerning the dead among the Papuans of Kiwai,
211-214; Adiri, the land of the dead, 211-213; appearance of the dead to
the living in dreams, 213 _sq._; offerings to the dead, 214; dreams as a
source of the belief in immortality, 214.
Lecture X.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of German New
Guinea
Andrew Lang, pp. 216 _sq._; review of preceding lectures, 217 _sq._
The Papuans of Tumleo, their material culture, 218-220; their temples,
220 _sq._; their bachelors' houses containing the skulls of the dead,
221; spirits of the dead as the causes of sickness and disease, 222
_sq._; burial and mourning customs, 223 _sq._; fate of the human soul
after death, 224; monuments to the dead, 225; disinterment of the bones,
225; propitiation of ghosts and spirits, 226; guardian-spirits in the
temples, 226 _sq._
The Monumbo of Potsdam Harbour, 227 _sq._; their beliefs concerning the
spirits of the dead, 228 _sq._; their fear of ghosts, 229; their
treatment of manslayers, 229 _sq._
The Tamos of Astrolabe Bay, 230; their ideas as to the souls of the
dead, 231 _sq._; their fear of ghosts, 232 _sqq._; their Secret Society
and rites of initiation, 233; their preservation of the jawbones of the
dead, 234 _sq._; their sham fights after a death, 235 _sq._; these
fights perhaps intended to throw dust in the eyes of the ghost, 236
_sq._
Lecture XI.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of German New
Guinea (_continued_)
The Papuans of Cape King William, pp. 238 _sq._; their ideas as to
spirits and the souls of the dead, 239 _sq._; their belief in sorcery as
a cause of death, 240 _sq._; their funeral and mourning customs, 241
_sq._; the fate of the soul after death, 242.
The Yabim of Finsch Harbour, their material and artistic culture, 242
_sq._; their clubhouses for men, 243; their beliefs as to the state of
the dead, 244 _sq._; the ghostly ferry, 244 _sq._; transmigration of
human souls into animals, 245; the return of the ghosts, 246; offerings
to ghosts, 246; ghosts provided with fire, 246 _sq._; ghosts help in the
cultivation of land, 247 _sq._; burial and mourning customs, 248 _sq._;
divination to discover the sorcerer who has caused a death, 249 _sq._;
bull-roarers, 250; initiation of young men, 250 _sqq._; the rite of
circumcision, the novices supposed to be swallowed by a monster, 251
_sq._; the return of the novices, 253; the essence of the initiatory
rites seems to be a simulation of death and resurrection, 253 _sqq._;
the new birth among the Akikuyu of British East Africa, 254.
Lecture XII.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of German New
Guinea (_continued_)
The Bukaua of Huon Gulf, their means of subsistence and men's
clubhouses, pp. 256 _sq._; their ideas as to the souls of the dead, 257;
sickness and death caused by ghosts and sorcerers, 257 _sq._; fear of
the ghosts of the slain, 258; prayers to ancestral spirits on behalf of
the crops, 259; first-fruits offered to the spirits of the dead, 259;
burial and mourning customs, 259 _sq._; initiation of young men, novices
at circumcision supposed to be swallowed and afterwards disgorged by a
monster, 260 _sq._
The Kai, a Papuan tribe of mountaineers inland from Finsch Harbour, 262;
their country, mode of agriculture, and villages, 262 _sq._;
observations of a German missionary on their animism, 263 _sq._; the
essential rationality of the savage, 264-266; the Kai theory of the two
sorts of human souls, 267 _sq._; death commonly thought to be caused by
sorcery, 268 _sq._; danger incurred by the sorcerer, 269; many hurts and
maladies attributed to the action of ghosts, 269 _sq._; capturing lost
souls, 270 _sq._; ghosts extracted from the body of a sick man or
scraped from his person, 271; extravagant demonstrations of grief at the
death of a sick man, 271-273; hypocritical character of these
demonstrations, which are intended to deceive the ghost, 273; burial and
mourning customs, preservation of the lower jawbone and one of the lower
arm bones, 274; mourning costume, seclusion of widow or widower, 274
_sq._; widows sometimes strangled to accompany their dead husbands, 275;
house or village deserted after a death, 275.
Lecture XIII.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of German New
Guinea (_continued_)
The Kai (continued), their offerings to the dead, p. 276; divination by
means of ghosts to detect the sorcerer who has caused a death, 276-278;
avenging the death on the sorcerer and his people, 278 _sq._;
precautions against the ghosts of the slain, 279 _sq._; attempts to
deceive the ghosts of the murdered, 280-282; pretence of avenging the
ghost of a murdered man, 282; fear of ghosts by night, 282 _sq._;
services rendered by the spirits of the dead to farmers and hunters,
283-285; the journey of the soul to the spirit land, 285 _sq._; life of
the dead in the other world, 286 _sq._; ghosts die the second death and
turn into animals, 287; ghosts of famous people invoked long after their
death, 287-289; possible development of ghosts into gods, 289 _sq._;
lads at circumcision supposed to be swallowed and disgorged by a
monster, 290 _sq._
The Tami Islanders of Huon Gulf, 291; their theory of a double human
soul, a long one and a short one, 291 _sq._; departure of the short soul
for Lamboam, the nether world of the dead, 292; offerings to the dead,
292; appeasing the ghost, 292 _sq._; funeral and mourning customs,
dances in honour of the dead, offerings thrown into the fire, 293 _sq._;
bones of the dead dug up and kept in the house for a time, 294 _sq._
Lecture XIV.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of German and
Dutch New Guinea
The Tami Islanders of Huon Gulf (continued), their doctrine of souls and
gods, pp. 296 _sq._; dances of masked men representing spirits, 297;
worship of ancestral spirits and offerings to them, 297 _sq._; life of
the souls in Lamboam, the nether world, 299 _sq._; evocation of ghosts
by the ghost-seer, 300; sickness caused by ghosts, 300 _sq._; novices at
circumcision supposed to be swallowed and disgorged by a monster, 301
_sq._; meaning of the bodily mutilations inflicted on young men at
puberty obscure, 302 _sq._ The natives of Dutch New Guinea, 303-323; the
Noofoors of Geelvink Bay, their material culture and arts of life,
303-305; their fear and worship of the dead, 305-307; wooden images
(_korwar_) of the dead kept in the houses and carried in canoes to be
used as oracles, 307 _sq._; the images consulted in sickness and taken
with the people to war, 308-310; offerings to the images, 310 _sq._;
souls of those who have died away from home recalled to animate the
images, 311; skulls of the dead, especially of firstborn children and of
parents, inserted in the images, 312 _sq._; bodies of young children
hung on trees, 312 _sq._; mummies of dead relatives kept in the houses,
313; seclusion of mourners and restrictions on their diet, 313 _sq._;
tattooing in honour of the dead, 314; teeth and hair of the dead worn by
relatives, 314 _sq._; rebirth of parents in their children, 315.
The natives of islands off the west coast of New Guinea, their wooden
images of dead ancestors and shrines for the residence of the ancestral
spirits, 315 _sq._; their festivals in honour of the dead, 316; souls of
ancestors supposed to reside in the images and to protect the house and
household, 317.
The natives of the Macluer Gulf, their images and bowls in honour of the
dead, 317 _sq._
The natives of the Mimika district, their burial and mourning customs,
their preservation of the skulls of the dead, and their belief in
ghosts, 318.
The natives of Windessi, their burial customs, 318 _sq._; divination
after a death, 319; mourning customs, 319 _sq._; festival of the dead,
320 _sq._; wooden images of the dead, 321; doctrine of souls and of
their fate after death, 321 _sq._; medicine-men inspired by the souls of
the dead, 322 _sq._; ghosts of slain enemies driven away, 323.
Lecture XV.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of Southern
Melanesia (New Caledonia)
The Melanesians in general, their material culture, p. 324; Southern
Melanesia, the New Caledonians, and Father Lambert's account of them,
325; their ideas as to the spirit land and the way thither, 325 _sq._;
burial customs, 326; cuttings and brandings for the dead, 326 _sq._;
property of the dead destroyed, 327; seclusion of gravediggers and
restrictions imposed on them, 327; sham fight in honour of the dead, 327
_sq._; skulls of the dead preserved and worshipped on various occasions,
such as sickness, fishing, and famine, 328-330; caves used as
charnel-houses and sanctuaries of the dead in the Isle of Pines,
330-332; prayers and sacrifices to the ancestral spirits, 332 _sq._;
prayer-posts, 333 _sq._; sacred stones associated with the dead and used
to cause dearth or plenty, madness, a good crop of bread-fruit or yams,
drought, rain, a good catch of fish, and so on, 334-338; the religion of
the New Caledonians mainly a worship of the dead tinctured with magic,
338.
Evidence as to the natives of New Caledonia collected by Dr. George
Turner, 339-342; material culture of the New Caledonians, 339; their
burial customs, the skulls and nails of the dead preserved and used to
fertilise the yam plantations, 339 _sq._; worship of ancestors and
prayers to the dead, 340; festivals in honour of the dead, 340 _sq._;
making rain by means of the skeletons of the dead, 341; execution of
sorcerers, 341 _sq._; white men identified with the spirits of the dead,
342.
Lecture XVI.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of Central
Melanesia
Central Melanesia divided into two archipelagoes, the religion of the
Western Islands (Solomon Islands) characterised by a worship of the
dead, the religion of the Eastern Islands (New Hebrides, Banks' Islands,
Torres Islands, Santa Cruz Islands) characterised by a worship of
non-human spirits, pp. 343 _sq._; Central Melanesian theory of the soul,
344 _sq._; the land of the dead either in certain islands or in a
subterranean region called Panoi, 345; ghosts of power and ghosts of no
account, 345 _sq._; supernatural power (_mana_) acquired through ghosts,
346 _sq._
Burial customs in the Western Islands (Solomon Islands), 347 _sqq._;
land-burial and sea-burial, land-ghosts and sea-ghosts, 347 _sq._;
funeral feasts and burnt-offerings to the dead, 348 _sq._; the land of
the dead and the ghostly ferry, 350 _sq._; ghosts die the second death
and turn into the nests of white ants, 350 _sq._; preservation of the
skull and jawbone in order to ensure the protection of the ghost, 351
_sq._; human heads sought in order to add fresh spiritual power (_mana_)
to the ghost of a dead chief, 352.
Beliefs and customs concerning the dead in the Eastern Islands (New
Hebrides, Banks' Islands, Torres Islands), 352 _sqq._; Panoi, the
subterranean abode of the dead, 353 _sq._; ghosts die the second death,
354; different fates of the souls of the good and bad, 354 _sq._;
descent of the living into the world of the dead, 355; burial customs of
the Banks' Islanders, 355 _sqq._; dead sometimes temporarily buried in
the house, 355; display of property beside the corpse and funeral
oration, 355 _sq._; sham burial of eminent men, 356; ghosts driven away
from the village, 356-358; deceiving the ghosts of women who have died
in child-bed, 358; funeral feasts, 358 _sq._; funeral customs in the
New Hebrides, 359 _sqq._; the aged buried alive, 359 _sq._; seclusion of
mourners and restrictions on their diet, 360; sacrifice of pigs, 360
_sq._; the journey of the ghost to the spirit land, 361 _sq._;
provisions made by the living for the welfare of the dead, 362.
Only ghosts of powerful men worshipped, 362 _sq._; institution of the
worship of a martial ghost, 363 _sq._; offerings of food and drink to
the dead, 364 _sq._; sacrifice of pigs to ghosts in the Solomon Islands,
365 _sq._
Lecture XVII.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of Central
Melanesia (_concluded_)
Public sacrifices to ghosts in the Solomon Islands, pp. 367 _sq._;
offering of first-fruits to ghosts, 368 _sq._; private ghosts as
distinguished from public ghosts, 369 _sq._; fighting ghosts kept as
spiritual auxiliaries, 370; ghosts employed to make the gardens grow,
370 _sq._; human sacrifices to ghosts, 371 _sq._; vicarious and other
sacrifices to ghosts at Saa in Malanta, 372 _sq._; offerings of
first-fruits to ghosts at Saa, 373 _sq._; vicarious sacrifices offered
for the sick to ghosts in Santa Cruz, 374; the dead represented by
stocks in the houses, 374; native account of sacrifices in Santa Cruz,
374 _sq._; prayers to the dead, 376 _sq._; sanctuaries of ghosts in the
Solomon Islands, 377-379; ghosts lodged in animals, birds, and fish,
especially in sharks, 379 _sq._
The belief in ghosts underlies the Melanesian conception of magic, 380
_sq._; sickness commonly caused by ghosts and cured by ghost-seers,
381-384; contrast between Melanesian and European systems of medicine,
384; weather regulated by ghosts and spirits and by weather-doctors who
have the ear of ghosts and spirits, 384-386; witchcraft or black magic
wrought by means of ghosts, 386-388; prophets inspired by ghosts, 388
_sq._; divination operating through ghosts, 389 _sq._; taboos enforced
by ghosts, 390 _sq._; general influence which a belief in the survival
of the soul after death has exercised on Melanesian life, 391 _sq._
Lecture XVIII.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of Northern
and Eastern Melanesia
The natives of Northern Melanesia or the Bismarck Archipelago (New
Britain, New Ireland, etc.), their material culture, commercial habits,
and want of regular government, pp. 393-395; their theory of the soul,
395 _sq._; their fear of ghosts, 396; offerings to the dead, 396 _sq._;
burial customs, 397 _sq._; preservation of the skulls, 398; customs and
beliefs concerning the dead among the Sulka of New Britain, 398-400,
among the Moanus of the Admiralty Islands, 400 _sq._ and among the
natives of the Kaniet Islands, 401 _sq._; natural deaths commonly
attributed to sorcery, 402; divination to discover the sorcerer who
caused the death, 402; death customs in the Duke of York Island, cursing
the sorcerer, skulls preserved, feasts and dances, 403; prayers to the
dead, 403 _sq._; the land of the dead and the fate of the departed
souls, hard lot of impecunious ghosts, 404-406.
The natives of Eastern Melanesia (Fiji), their material culture and
political constitution, 406-408; means of subsistence, 408; moral
character, 408 _sq._; scenery of the Fijian islands, 409 _sq._; the
Fijian doctrine of souls, 410-412; souls of rascals caught in scarves,
412 _sq._; fear of sorcery and precautions against it, 413 _sq._;
beneficial effect of the fear in enforcing habits of personal
cleanliness, 414; fear of ghosts and custom of driving them away, 414
_sq._; killing a ghost, 415 _sq._; outwitting grandfather's ghost, 416;
special relation of grandfather to grandchild, 416; grandfather's soul
reborn in his grandchild, 417 _sq._
Lecture XIX.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of Eastern
Melanesia (Fiji) (_continued_)
Indifference of the Fijians to death, p. 419; their custom of killing
the sick and aged with the consent of the victims, 419-424; their
readiness to die partly an effect of their belief in immortality, 422
_sq._; wives strangled or buried alive to accompany their husbands to
the spirit land, 424-426; servants and dependants killed to attend their
dead lords, 426; sacrifices of foreskins and fingers in honour of dead
chiefs, 426 _sq._; boys circumcised in order to save the lives of their
fathers or fathers' brothers, 427; saturnalia attending such rites of
circumcision, 427 _sq._; the _Nanga_, or sacred enclosure of stones,
dedicated to the worship of ancestors, 428 _sq._; first-fruits of the
yams offered to the ancestors in the _Nanga_, 429; initiation of young
men in the _Nanga_, drama of death and resurrection, sacrament of food
and water, 429-432; the initiation followed by a period of sexual
licence, 433; the initiatory rites apparently intended to introduce the
novices to the ancestral spirits and endow them with the powers of the
dead, 434 _sq._; the rites seem to have been imported into Fiji by
immigrants from the west, 435 _sq._; the licence attending these rites
perhaps a reversion to primitive communism for the purpose of
propitiating the ancestral spirits, 436 _sq._; description of the
_Nanga_ or sacred enclosure of stones, 437 _sq._; comparison with the
cromlechs and other megalithic monuments of Europe, 438.
Lecture XX.--The Belief in Immortality among the Natives of Eastern
Melanesia (Fiji) (_concluded_)
Worship of parents and other dead relations in Fiji, pp. 439 _sq._;
Fijian notion of divinity (_kalou_), 440; two classes of gods, namely,
divine gods and human gods or deified men, 440 _sq._; temples (_bures_)
441 _sq._; worship at the temples, 443; priests (_betes_), their
oracular inspiration by the gods, 443-446; human sacrifices on various
occasions, such as building a house or launching a new canoe, 446 _sq._;
high estimation in which manslaughter was held by the Fijians, 447
_sq._; consecration of manslayers and restrictions laid on them,
probably from fear of the ghosts of their victims, 448 _sq._; certain
funeral customs based apparently on the fear of ghosts, 450 _sqq._;
persons who have handled a corpse forbidden to touch food with their
hands, 450 _sq._; seclusion of gravediggers, 451; mutilations,
brandings, and fasts in honour of the dead, 451 _sq._; the dead carried
out of the house by a special opening to prevent the return of the
ghost, 452-461; the other world and the way thither, 462 _sqq._; the
ghostly ferry, 462 _sq._; the ghost and the pandanus tree, 463 _sq._;
hard fate of the unmarried dead, 464; the Killer of Souls, 464 _sq._;
ghosts precipitated into a lake, 465 _sq._; Murimuria, an inferior sort
of heaven, 466; the Fijian Elysium, 466 _sq._; transmigration and
annihilation, the few that are saved, 467.
Concluding observations, 467-471; strength and universality of the
belief in immortality among savages, 468; the state of war among savage
and civilised peoples often a direct consequence of the belief in
immortality, 468 _sq._; economic loss involved in sacrifices to the
dead, 469; how does the savage belief in immortality bear on the truth
or falsehood of that belief in general? 469; the answer depends to some
extent on the view we take of human nature, 469-471; the conclusion left
open, 471.
Note.--Myth of the Continuance of Death
Index
LECTURE I
INTRODUCTION
[Sidenote: Natural theology, and the three modes of handling it, the
dogmatic, the philosophical, and the historical.]
The subject of these lectures is a branch of natural theology. By
natural theology I understand that reasoned knowledge of a God or gods
which man may be supposed, whether rightly or wrongly, capable of
attaining to by the exercise of his natural faculties alone. Thus
defined, the subject may be treated in at least three different ways,
namely, dogmatically, philosophically, and historically. We may simply
state the dogmas of natural theology which appear to us to be true: that
is the dogmatic method. Or, secondly, we may examine the validity of the
grounds on which these dogmas have been or may be maintained: that is
the philosophic method. Or, thirdly, we may content ourselves with
describing the various views which have been held on the subject and
tracing their origin and evolution in history: that is the historical
method. The first of these three methods assumes the truth of natural
theology, the second discusses it, and the third neither assumes nor
discusses but simply ignores it: the historian as such is not concerned
with the truth or falsehood of the beliefs he describes, his business is
merely to record them and to track them as far as possible to their
sources. Now that the subject of natural theology is ripe for a purely
dogmatic treatment will hardly, I think, be maintained by any one, to
whatever school of thought he may belong; accordingly that method of
treatment need not occupy us further. Far otherwise is it with the
philosophic method which undertakes to enquire into the truth or
falsehood of the belief in a God: no method could be more appropriate at
a time like the present, when the opinions of educated and thoughtful
men on that profound topic are so unsettled, diverse, and conflicting. A
philosophical treatment of the subject might comprise a discussion of
such questions as whether a natural knowledge of God is possible to man,
and, if possible, by what means and through what faculties it is
attainable; what are the grounds for believing in the existence of a
God; and, if this belief is justified, what may be supposed to be his
essential nature and attributes, and what his relations to the world in
general and to man in particular. Now I desire to confess at once that
an adequate discussion of these and kindred questions would far exceed
both my capacity and my knowledge; for he who would do justice to so
arduous an enquiry should not only be endowed with a comprehensive and
penetrating genius, but should possess a wide and accurate acquaintance
with the best accredited results of philosophic speculation and
scientific research. To such qualifications I can lay no claim, and
accordingly I must regard myself as unfitted for a purely philosophic
treatment of natural theology. To speak plainly, the question of the
existence of a God is too deep for me. I dare neither affirm nor deny
it. I can only humbly confess my ignorance. Accordingly, if Lord Gifford
had required of his lecturers either a dogmatic or a philosophical
treatment of natural theology, I could not have undertaken to deliver
the lectures.
[Sidenote: The method followed in these lectures is the historical.]
But in his deed of foundation, as I understand it, Lord Gifford left his
lecturers free to follow the historical rather than the dogmatic or the
philosophical method of treatment. He says: "The lecturers shall be
under no restraint whatever in their treatment of their theme: for
example, they may freely discuss (and it may be well to do so) all
questions about man's conceptions of God or the Infinite, their origin,
nature, and truth." In making this provision the founder appears to have
allowed and indeed encouraged the lecturers not only to discuss, if they
chose to do so, the philosophical basis of a belief in God, but also to
set forth the various conceptions of the divine nature which have been
held by men in all ages and to trace them to their origin: in short, he
permitted and encouraged the lecturers to compose a history of natural
theology or of some part of it. Even when it is thus limited to its
historical aspect the theme is too vast to be mastered completely by any
one man: the most that a single enquirer can do is to take a general but
necessarily superficial survey of the whole and to devote himself
especially to the investigation of some particular branch or aspect of
the subject. This I have done more or less for many years, and
accordingly I think that without being presumptuous I may attempt, in
compliance with Lord Gifford's wishes and directions, to lay before my
hearers a portion of the history of religion to which I have paid
particular attention. That the historical study of religious beliefs,
quite apart from the question of their truth or falsehood, is both
interesting and instructive will hardly be disputed by any intelligent
and thoughtful enquirer. Whether they have been well or ill founded,
these beliefs have deeply influenced the conduct of human affairs; they
have furnished some of the most powerful, persistent, and far-reaching
motives of action; they have transformed nations and altered the face of
the globe. No one who would understand the general history of mankind
can afford to ignore the annals of religion. If he does so, he will
inevitably fall into the most serious misconceptions even in studying
branches of human activity which might seem, on a superficial view, to
be quite unaffected by religious considerations.
[Sidenote: An historical enquiry into the evolution of religion
prejudices neither the question of the ethical value of religious
practice nor the question of the truth or falsehood of religious
belief.]
Therefore to trace theological and in general religious ideas to their
sources and to follow them through all the manifold influences which
they have exerted on the destinies of our race must always be an object
of prime importance to the historian, whatever view he may take of their
speculative truth or ethical value. Clearly we cannot estimate their
ethical value until we have learned the modes in which they have
actually determined human conduct for good or evil: in other words, we
cannot judge of the morality of religious beliefs until we have
ascertained their history: the facts must be known before judgment can
be passed on them: the work of the historian must precede the work of
the moralist. Even the question of the validity or truth of religious
creeds cannot, perhaps, be wholly dissociated from the question of their
origin. If, for example, we discover that doctrines which we had
accepted with implicit faith from tradition have their close analogies
in the barbarous superstitions of ignorant savages, we can hardly help
suspecting that our own cherished doctrines may have originated in the
similar superstitions of our rude forefathers; and the suspicion
inevitably shakes the confidence with which we had hitherto regarded
these articles of our faith. The doubt thus cast on our old creed is
perhaps illogical, since even if we should discover that the creed did
originate in mere superstition, in other words, that the grounds on
which it was first adopted were false and absurd, this discovery would
not really disprove the beliefs themselves, for it is perfectly possible
that a belief may be true, though the reasons alleged in favour of it
are false and absurd: indeed we may affirm with great probability that a
multitude of human beliefs, true in themselves, have been accepted and
defended by millions of people on grounds which cannot bear exact
investigation for a moment. For example, if the facts of savage life
which it will be my duty to submit to you should have the effect of
making the belief in immortality look exceedingly foolish, those of my
hearers who cherish the belief may console themselves by reflecting
that, as I have just pointed out, a creed is not necessarily false
because some of the reasons adduced in its favour are invalid, because
it has sometimes been supported by the despicable tricks of vulgar
imposture, and because the practices to which it has given rise have
often been in the highest degree not only absurd but pernicious.
[Sidenote: Yet such an enquiry may shake the confidence with which
traditional beliefs have been held.]
Thus an historical enquiry into the origin of religious creeds cannot,
strictly speaking, invalidate, still less refute, the creeds themselves,
though it may, and doubtless often does weaken the confidence with which
they are held. This weakening of religious faith as a consequence of a
closer scrutiny of religious origins is unquestionably a matter of great
importance to the community; for society has been built and cemented to
a great extent on a foundation of religion, and it is impossible to
loosen the cement and shake the foundation without endangering the
superstructure. The candid historian of religion will not dissemble the
danger incidental to his enquiries, but nevertheless it is his duty to
prosecute them unflinchingly. Come what may, he must ascertain the facts
so far as it is possible to do so; having done that, he may leave to
others the onerous and delicate task of adjusting the new knowledge to
the practical needs of mankind. The narrow way of truth may often look
dark and threatening, and the wayfarer may often be weary; yet even at
the darkest and the weariest he will go forward in the trust, if not in
the knowledge, that the way will lead at last to light and to rest; in
plain words, that there is no ultimate incompatibility between the good
and the true.
[Sidenote: To discover the origin of the idea of God we must study the
beliefs of primitive man.]
Now if we are indeed to discover the origin of man's conception of God,
it is not sufficient to analyse the ideas which the educated and
enlightened portion of mankind entertain on the subject at the present
day; for in great measure these ideas are traditional, they have been
handed down with little or no independent reflection or enquiry from
generation to generation; hence in order to detect them in their
inception it becomes necessary to push our analysis far back into the
past. Large materials for such an historical enquiry are provided for us
in the literature of ancient nations which, though often sadly mutilated
and imperfect, has survived to modern times and throws much precious
light on the religious beliefs and practices of the peoples who created
it. But the ancients themselves inherited a great part of their religion
from their prehistoric ancestors, and accordingly it becomes desirable
to investigate the religious notions of these remote forefathers of
mankind, since in them we may hope at last to arrive at the ultimate
source, the historical origin, of the whole long development.
[Sidenote: The beliefs of primitive man can only be understood through a
comparative study of the various races in the lower stages of culture.]