These priestly empires exist in the world today. If we wish to
find them we have only to ask ourselves: What countries are
making no contribution to the progress of the race? What
countries have nothing to give us, whether in art, science, or
industry?
For example, Gervaise tells us of the Talapoins, or priests of
Siam, that "they are exempted from all public charges, they
salute nobody, while everybody prostrates himself before them.
They are maintained at the public expense." In the same way we
read of the negroes of the Caribbean islands that "their priests
and priestesses exercise an almost unlimited power." Miss
Kingsley, in her "West African Studies", tells us that if we
desire to understand the institutions of this district, we must
study the native's religion.
For his religion has so firm a grasp upon his mind that it
influences everything he does. It is not a thing apart, as the
religion of the Europeans is at times. The African cannot say,
"Oh, that is all right from a religious point of view, but one
must be practical." To be practical, to get on in the world, to
live the day and night through, he must be right in the religious
point of view, namely, must be on working terms with the great
world of spirits around him. The knowledge of this spirit world
constitutes the religion of the African, and his customs and
ceremonies arise from his idea of the best way to influence it.
Or consider Henry Savage Landor's account of Thibet:
In Lhassa and many other sacred places fanatical pilgrims make
circumambulations, sometimes for miles and miles, and for days
together, covering the entire distance lying flat upon their
bodies.... From the ceiling of the temple hang hundreds of long
strips, katas, offered by pilgrims to the temple, and becoming so
many flying prayers when hung up--for mechanical praying in every
way is prominent in Thibet.... Thus instead of having to learn by
heart long and varied prayers, all you have to do is to stuff the
entire prayer-book into a prayer-wheel, and revolve it while
repeating as fast as you can four words meaning, "O God, the gem
emerging from the lotus-flower.". . . . The attention of the
pilgrims is directed to a large box, or often a big bowl, where
they may deposit whatever offerings they can spare, and it must
be said that their religious ideas are so strongly developed that
they will dispose of a considerable portion of their money in
this fashion.... The Lamas are very clever in many ways, and have
a great hold over the entire country. They are ninety per cent of
them unscrupulous scamps, depraved in every way and given to
every sort of vice. So are the women Lamas. They live and sponge
on the credulity and ignorance of the crowds; it is to maintain
this ignorance, upon which their luxurious life depends, that
foreign influence of every kind is strictly kept out of the
country.