in other parts of the continent, many of the native tribes have
the notion of an "All-father," called Baiame, Daramulun,
Mungan-ngalla, Bunjil, Nurelli, Nurundere, or by some other
name.[45] He is represented as an anthropomorphic, supernatural
being and as the father of the race or the maker of everything,
who at one time dwelt on the earth but afterwards ascended to a
land beyond the sky, where he still remains. He is of a kindly
disposition, and requires no worship; in a very few cases only we
meet with some faint traces of a cult offered him.[46] {671} He
is frequently believed to have instituted the initiation
ceremonies,[47] and to have given the people their laws.[48] Thus
Nurundere is said to have taught the Narrinyeri all the rites and
ceremonies whether connected with life or death; on inquiry why
they adhere to any custom, the reply is that Nurundere commanded
it.[49] At the _boorah_, or initiation, of the Euahlayi tribe,
Byamee is proclaimed as "Father of All, whose laws the tribes are
now obeying"; and in one of their myths he is described as the
original source of all the totems and of the law that persons of
the same totem may not intermarry.[50] Bunjil taught the Kulin
the arts of life, and told them to divide themselves into two
intermarrying classes so as to prevent marriages between
kindred.[51] Daramulun instructed the Yuin what to do and gave
them laws which the old people have handed down from father to
son to the present time.[52] And in several instances the
Australian "All-father" is represented as a guardian of morality
who punishes the wicked and rewards the good. Bunjil "very
frequently sent his sons to destroy bad men and bad women . . .
who had killed and eaten blacks."[53] Daramulun, or Tharamulun,
who from his residence in the sky watches the actions of men, "is
very angry when they do things that they ought not to do, as when
they eat forbidden food."[54] The natives of the Herbert River,
in Queensland, believe that anybody who takes a wife from the
prohibited sub-class, or who does not wear the morning necklace
for the prescribed period, or who eats forbidden food, will
sooner or later die in consequence, since his behaviour is
offensive to Kohin, a supernatural being who is supposed to have
his dwelling in the Milky Way but to roam about at night on earth
as a gigantic warrior killing those whom he meets.[55] Most
commonly, however, the retribution is said to come after death.
{672} The tribes about Maryborough, in Queensland, maintain that
the ghosts of those who are good or those who have a high degree
of excellence in any particular line--fishing, hunting, fighting,
dancing, and so forth--are directed by Birral to an island in the
Far North, where he resides.[56] Among the Cape River tribes,
"when a Blackfellow dies whose actions during life have been what
they hold to be good, he is said to ascend to Boorala (_i.e._, to
the Creator, literally 'good'), where he lives much as he did on
earth, less the usual terrestrial discomforts"; whereas to the
man who has led a bad life death is thought to be simple
annihilation.[57] The Kulin said that when they die they will be
subjected to a sort of trial by Binbeal, "the good being rewarded
in a better land, the bad driven away, but where they seemed to
have no idea."[58] According to another account, again, Binbeal,
after he has subjected the spirits of the deceased to an ordeal
of fire to try whether they are good or bad, liberates the good
at once, whereas the bad are confined and punished.[59] The
Illawarra, who lived from thirty to a hundred miles south of
Sidney, believed that when people die they are brought up to a
large tree where Mirirul, the supreme ruler, examines and judges
them. The good he takes up to the sky, the bad he sends to
another place to be punished. The women said to their children
when they were naughty, "Mirirul will not allow it."[60] Among
the Wathiwathi, in New South Wales, the belief prevails that if
the spirit of a bad man escapes the traps which are set for it on
its course in the sky, it is sure to fall into the hell of fire.
The good spirit, on the other hand, is received by two old women
who take care of it till it becomes accustomed to its new abode;
and after a time the great God, Tha-tha-puli, comes with a host
of spirits to see the newcomer and try his strength.[61]
According to a report written by Archdeacon Günther in 1839,
Baiame is supposed to like the blacks who are good; and "there is
also an idea entertained by the more thoughtful that good natives
will go to Baiame when they die."[62] Later authorities state
that Baiame is believed not only to reward the good after death,
but also to punish the wicked--that is, persons who tell lies or
kill men by striking them secretly or who are unkind towards the
old and sick or, generally, who break his laws.[63] A very
elaborate {673} theory of retribution is communicated by Mr.
Manning, whose notes date from 1844 or 1845. Boyma (Baiame) is
said to be seated far away in the north-east on an immense throne
made of transparent crystal and standing in a great lake. He has
a son, Grogoragally, equal with him in omniscience, who acts as
mediator for the souls to the Great God. His office is to watch
over the actions of mankind and to bring to life the dead to
appear before the judgment-seat of his Father, who alone
pronounces the judgment of eternal happiness in heaven or eternal
misery in a hell of everlasting fire. Women and boys dying before
the initiation, however, do not go to heaven; the men have a
vague idea that another world is reserved for them. There is also
a third person, half human, half divine, called Moodgeegally, who
makes Boyma's will known to mankind and is the avowed enemy of
all wicked people, transmitting their misdeeds to Grogoragally.[64]
[Footnote 45: Henderson, _Colonies of New South Wales_, p. 147.
de Strzelecki, _New South Wales_, p. 339. Manning, 'Aborigines of
New Holland,' in _Jour. and Proceed. Roy. Soc. N.S. Wales_, xvi.
157 _sqq._ Ridley, _Kámilarói_, p. 135 _sqq._ Cameron, 'Some
Tribes of New South Wales,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xiv. 364
_sq._ Langloh Parker, _Euahlayi Tribe_, p. 4 _sqq._ Threlkeld,
_An Australian Language as spoken by the Awabakal_, p. 47.
Mathews, _Aboriginal Tribes of New South Wales and Victoria_,
p. 138 _sqq._ Mathew, _Eagle-hawk and Crow_, p. 146 _sqq._ Fountain
and Ward, _Rambles of an Australian Naturalist_, p. 296.
_Missions-Blatt aus der Brüdergemeine_, xvi. 101, 143; Parker,
_Aborigines of Australia_, p. 24; Dawson, _Australian
Aborigines_, p. 49 (tribes in Victoria). Brough Smyth,
_Aborigines of Victoria_, i. 423 _sqq._ Taplin, 'Narrinyeri,' in
Woods, _Native Tribes of South Australia_, p. 55 _sqq._ Howitt,
_Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, p. 489 _sqq._ Spencer
and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, p. 498 _sq._
(Kaitish). Strehlow, quoted by Thomas, 'Religious Ideas of the
Arunta,' in _Folk-Lore_, xvi. 429 _sq._ _Idem_, quoted by von
Leonhardi, 'Religiöse und totemistische Vorstellungen der Aranda
und Loritja in Zentralaustralien,' in _Globus_, xci. 286 _sq._
Curr, _The Australian Race_, i. 253 (Larrak[=i]a); ii. 465, 475
(some Cape River natives). Lang, _Cooksland_, p. 459 _sq._;
_Idem_, _Queensland_, p. 379 _sq._ Roth, _Ethnol. Studies among
the North-West-Central Queensland Aborigines_, pp. 16, 153. 158.
Salvado, _Mémoires historiques sur l'Australie_, p. 258 (natives
of West Australia).]
[Footnote 46: When the natives of Cooksland, in North-Eastern
Australia, rob a wild bees' hive they generally leave a little of
the honey for Buddai, the supernatural ancestor of their race
(Lang, _Cooksland_, p. 460; _Idem_, _Queensland_, p. 380). Mrs.
Langloh Parker (_op. cit._ pp. 8, 9, 79, 89) was told that in the
Euahlayi tribe prayers are addressed to Byamee at funerals for
the souls of the dead, and that at some initiatory rites the
oldest medicine-man present addresses a prayer to him asking him
to give the people long life as they have kept his law; but they
do not profess to pray or to have prayed to Byamee on any other
occasions (_cf._ Manning, _loc. cit._ p. 164). The natives
inhabiting the neighbourhood of Lake Boga in Victoria have to
placate Pei-a-mei by dances (_Missions-Blatt aus der
Brüdergemeine_, xvi. 143). Of the South-Eastern Australian
Daramulun Mr. Howitt says (_op. cit._ p. 507 _sq._) that,
although there is no worship of him, "the dances round the figure
of clay and the invocating of his name by the medicine-men
certainly might have led up to it."]
[Footnote 47: Manning, _loc. cit._ p. 165; Ridley, _op. cit._
pp. 141, 155; Langloh Parker, _op. cit._ p. 7 (Boyma, Baiame,
Byamee). Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 495 (Daramulun). M'Kinlay, quoted
_ibid._ p. 496. Mr. Threlkeld says (_op. cit._ p. 47) that Koin,
an imaginary male being who has the appearance of a black, is
supposed to precede the coming of the natives from distant parts
when they assemble to celebrate certain of their ceremonies.]
[Footnote 48: Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 489 (Nurelli of the
Wiimbaio). M'Kinlay, quoted _ibid._ p. 496.]
[Footnote 49: Taplin, in Woods, _op. cit._ p. 55.]
[Footnote 50: Langloh Parker, _op. cit._ p. 7 _sq._]
[Footnote 51: Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 491.]
[Footnote 52: _Ibid._ p. 495.]
[Footnote 53: Brough Smyth, _op. cit._ i. 423.]
[Footnote 54: Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 495.]
[Footnote 55: _Ibid._ p. 499.]
[Footnote 56: Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 498.]
[Footnote 57: Curr, _op. cit._ ii. 475.]
[Footnote 58: Parker, _Aborigines of Australia_, p. 24.]
[Footnote 59: Ridley, _op. cit._ p. 137.]
[Footnote 60: _Ibid._ p. 137.]
[Footnote 61: Cameron, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xiv. 364 _sq._]
[Footnote 62: Günther, quoted by Thomas, in _Man_, 1905, p. 51.]
[Footnote 63: Ridley, _op. cit._ pp. 135, 136, 140. Langloh
Parker, _op. cit._ p. 70.]
[Footnote 64: Manning, _loc. cit._ p. 159 _sqq._]
It seems probable that these statements represent a mixture of
Christian ideas and genuine aboriginal beliefs. There is reason
to believe that the Australian notion of an "All-father" is not
in the first instance due to missionary influence;[65] we have
records of it from a comparatively early date, it is spread over
a wide area, it has been found among natives who live in a state
of great isolation, and the multitude of different names by which
the "All-father" is called in different tribes does not suggest a
recent origin from a common source. He may very well be a
mythical ancestor. Mr. Howitt observes that the master in the
sky-country represents the Australian idea of a headman--"a man
who is skilful in the use of weapons of offence and defence,
all-powerful in magic, but generous and liberal to his people,
who does no injury or violence to any one, yet treats with
severity any breaches of custom or morality."[66] But he may also
be a personification of supernatural force in general, or a being
who has been invented to account for all kinds of marvellous
phenomena. The word _altjira_, by which the Arunta call their
great god, is apparently not a proper name; according to Kempe,
it is applied to five gods, whose names he gives, as also to the
sun, moon, and remarkable things generally.[67] And Mulkari, who
figures in the beliefs of some Queensland tribes, is described
not only as "a benevolent, omnipresent, supernatural being," but
as "anything incomprehensible," as {674} the supernatural power
who makes everything which the blacks cannot otherwise account
for.[68] On the other hand, it is hardly possible to doubt that
in various instances Christian conceptions have been infused into
the aboriginal belief either by the natives themselves or by our
informants.[69] Biblical traits are conspicuous in some of the
legends. Bishop Salvado tells us that, according to West
Australian beliefs, the Creator, Motogon, "employa ces paroles:
'Terre, parais dehors': et il souffla, et la terre fut créée.
'Eau, parais dehors'; et il souffla, et l'eau fut créée."[70] The
believers in Nourelle give the following account of the origin of
death:--The first created man and woman were told not to go near
a certain tree in which a bat was living, as the bat was not to
be disturbed. But one day the woman, while gathering firewood,
went near the forbidden tree; the bat flew away and after that
came death.[71] And the same natives also believe that Nourelle
created a great serpent, to which he gave power over all created
things.[72] So also the doctrine of a hell with everlasting fire
has almost certainly a foreign origin; and in some other points
the genuineness of the Australian theories of retribution is at
least open to doubt, even though the function of a judge cannot
be regarded as incompatible with the notion of a mythical headman
in the sky. Messrs. Spencer and Gillen observe that it would be a
very easy matter indeed to form, as the result of a general
statement such as might be made by any individual native in reply
to a question, a perfectly wrong impression with regard to the
native's idea as to the existence of anything like a supreme
being inculcating moral rules.[73] Of the Central Australian
aborigines they say:--"Any such idea as that of a future life of
happiness or the reverse, as a reward for meritorious or as a
punishment for blameworthy conduct, is quite foreign to them. . . .
We know of no tribe in which there is a belief of any kind in a
supreme being who rewards or punishes the individual according to
his moral behaviour, using the word moral in the native
sense."[74] So far as the Arunta are concerned, this statement is
confirmed by Mr. Strehlow. He writes that their god Altjira, who
lives in the sky and shows himself to man in the lightning, is a
{675} good god who never inflicts any punishments on human beings.[75]
[Footnote 65: See especially Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 504 _sqq._;
Lang, _Magic and Religion_, p. 25 _sqq._; Thomas, in _Man_, p. 50
_sqq._; von Leonhardi, in _Globus_, xci. 287.]
[Footnote 66: Howitt, _op. cit._ p. 507. See also _ibid._ p. 501.]
[Footnote 67: Thomas, in _Folk-Lore_, xvi. 431.]
[Footnote 68: Roth, _op. cit._ pp. 36, 153.]
[Footnote 69: Mr. J. D. Lang (_Queensland_, p. 379 _sq._;
_Cooksland_, p. 459 _sq._) even suspects Asiatic influence in the
case of Buddai, or Budjah, the mythical ancestor of certain
Queensland aborigines. Not only does his name remind of Buddha,
but a story told of him is remarkably similar to an Eastern legend.]
[Footnote 70: Salvado, _op. cit._ p. 258.]
[Footnote 71: Brough Smyth, _op. cit._ i. 428.]
[Footnote 72: _Ibid._ i. 423.]
[Footnote 73: Spencer and Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central
Australia_, p. 492 _sqq._]
[Footnote 74: _Ibid._ p. 491.]
[Footnote 75: Strehlow, quoted by Thomas, in _Folk-Lore_, xvi.
429 _sq._ _Idem_, quoted by von Leonhardi, in _Globus_, xci. 287.]
From various Polynesian and Melanesian islands we hear of a
supreme being--called Io by the Maoris,[76] Tangaroa by the
Samoans,[77] Taaroa by the Society Islanders,[78] and so
forth[79]--who has made everything, but who is too remote and
indistinct to be an object of worship and takes no interest in
the morals of men. In some instances at least he seems to be a
very shadowy deification of the forces of nature. Thus Io is
described as "the great originator, the All-Father, who pervades
space, has no residence, and cannot be localised"; and the
conception of Tangaroa is equally abstract.[80] Mr. Guppy learned
that the natives of Treasury Island and the Shortlands, in the
Solomon Group, believe in a Good Spirit who lives in a pleasant
land, whither all men who have led good lives go after death;
whereas all bad people are transported to the crater of Bagana,
the burning volcano of Bougainville, which is the home of the
Evil Spirit and his companion spirits.[81] But this belief
savours too much of a Christian hell to be accepted as genuine
without further evidence.
[Footnote 76: Gudgeon, 'Maori Religion,' in _Jour. Polynesian
Soc._ xiv. 108 _sq._]
[Footnote 77: _Ibid._ p. 108 _sq._]
[Footnote 78: Ellis, _Polynesian Researches_, i. 323 _sqq._]
[Footnote 79: Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 344 _sqq._ Hoffmann, _La
notion de l'Être suprême chez les peuples non civilisés_, p. 70
_sqq._]
[Footnote 80: Gudgeon, in _Jour. Polynesian Soc._ xiv. 108.]
[Footnote 81: Guppy, _Solomon Islands_, p. 53.]
The Sea Dyaks of Borneo have a great good god called Batara, or
Petara, who created the world and rules over it, and is the cause
of every blessing. He is not susceptible to human influence, and
therefore receives no worship. But he approves of industry,
honesty, purity of speech, and skill in word and work. He
punishes theft, injustice, disrespect for old persons, and
adultery; and immorality among the unmarried is supposed to bring
a plague of rain upon the earth as a punishment inflicted by
Petara. In general, says Mr. Perham, he is against man's sin; but
over and above moral offences many sins have been invented which
are simply the infringement of _pemate_, or _tabu_.[82] Like many
other great gods of savages, Petara is lacking in individuality.
He is at all events not now supposed to be one supreme god, but
the general belief is that there are many Petaras--in fact as
many Petaras as men. Each man, the people say, has his own
peculiar Petara, his own tutelary deity, and if a {676} person is
miserable it is because his Petara is miserable.[83] This
account, however, loses much of its interest when we find that
the name Batara or Petara has obviously been borrowed from
Sanscrit, where the word _bha[t.][t.]âra_ means "lord" or
"master."[84] The great gods of some other peoples in the Malay
Archipelago, again, have names which are derived from
Arabic--Lahatala, Latala, or Hatalla, from _Allah ta[(]âla_.
Hence when the Alfura of Bura are heard to say that their highest
god, Opo-geba-snulat or Lahatala, writes down in a book the
actions of men so as to be able to reward the virtuous and punish
the wicked as they deserve, there is every reason to think of
influence from Muhammedanism.[85]
[Footnote 82: Perham, 'Petara,' in _Jour. Straits Branch Roy.
Asiatic Soc._ no. 8, p. 149 _sq._ St. John, _Life in the Forests
of the Far East_, i. 69 _sq._ Selenka, _op. cit._ p. 97 _sqq._]
[Footnote 83: Perham, in _Jour. Straits Branch Roy. Asiatic Soc._
no. 8, p. 134 _sq._]
[Footnote 84: _Ibid._ p. 133. Wilken, _Het Animisme_, p. 162.]
[Footnote 85: Wilken, _op. cit._ pp. 162, 240 _sq._]
The Andaman Islanders are reported to believe in a supreme being,
P[=u]luga, who was never born and is immortal, who has created
the world and all its objects, who is omniscient when it is day,
knowing even the thoughts of their hearts. Whilst pitiful to
those in distress, he is angered by the commission of certain
sins--falsehood, theft, grave assault, murder, adultery, and
burning wax. He is the judge from whom each soul receives its
sentence after death. The "spirits" of the departed are sent by
him to a place comprising the whole area under the earth, to
await the resurrection. The "souls" of the departed, again, pass
either into paradise or to another place which might be described
as purgatory, a place of punishment for those who have been
guilty of heinous sins, such as murder. At the resurrection the
soul (from which evil emanates) and the spirit (from which all
good emanates) will be reunited and will henceforth live
permanently on the new earth, since the souls of the wicked will
then have been reformed by the punishments inflicted on them
during their residence in the "purgatory."[86] Mr. Man, who has
given us this account, thinks it is extremely improbable that the
legends about P[=u]luga, about the powers of good and evil, and
about a world beyond the grave, are the result of the teaching of
missionaries or others.[87] But his assumption that they are
indigenous seems hardly justified by the very scanty knowledge we
possess of the past history of these islanders. Considering their
low state of culture, the metaphysical subtlety in some of the
notions recorded by Mr. Man would certainly be more astonishing
if India were not so near.
[Footnote 86: Man, 'Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman
Islands,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xii. 112, 157, 158, 161 _sq._]
[Footnote 87: _Ibid._ p. 156.]
{677}Among the Karens of Burma the belief is held that Hades has
a king or judge who stands at the door to admit or reject those
who apply for admission into his kingdom. He decides the future
of each. Those who have performed meritorious works are sent to
the regions of happiness above; those who have done wickedness,
such as striking father or mother, are delivered over to the king
of hell who is in waiting; whilst those who have neither
performed deeds of merit nor are guilty of great crimes are
allotted a place in Hades.[88] At the same time the Karens' ideas
of a future state are described as confused, indefinite, and
contradictory. Mr. Mason writes:--"They seem to be a melee of
different systems. That which appears to me indigenous Karen . . .
represents the future world as a counterpart of this, located
under the earth, where the inhabitants are employed precisely as
they are here."[89] The Pahárias of the Rájmahal Hills believe
that the souls of those who have been disobedient to the commands
of Bedo Gosain will be condemned either to inhabit some portion
of the vegetable kingdom for a certain number of years, or to be
cast into a pit of fire, where the offender will suffer eternal
punishment or be regenerated in the shape of a dog or a cat.
Those who have led a good life, on the other hand, will be
rewarded, first by enjoying a short but happy residence with Bedo
Gosain in heaven, and subsequently by being born a second time on
earth of women and being exalted to posts of great honour, as
also by possessing an abundance of worldly goods.[90] In these
notions our chief informant, Lieutenant Shaw, sees traces of
Hinduism.[91] Lack of detailed information makes it impossible to
decide whether the belief in a creator and heavenly judge which
has been found in some other uncivilised tribes in India might be
traced to a similar influence. The Munda Kols in Central Bengal
maintain that the good and almighty Singbonga, who lives in the
sky and is connected with the sun, has made everything. Being so
far away he occupies himself very little with earthly matters,
and is only in exceptional cases an object of worship; but he
sees everything which happens, and is said to punish theft and
insincerity.[92] So also the Kukis recognise a benevolent and
all-powerful god {678} and creator, called Puthén, who is the
judge of all mortals and awards punishments to the wicked both in
this world and in the next.[93]
[Footnote 88: Mason, in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xxxiv. 196.]
[Footnote 89: _Ibid._ p. 195.]
[Footnote 90: Shaw, 'Inhabitants of the Hills near Rájamahall,'
in _Asiatick Researches_, iv. 48 _sqq._ Sherwill, 'Tour through
the Rájmahal Hills,' in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xx. 556.]
[Footnote 91: Shaw, in _Asiatick Researches_, iv. 46.]
[Footnote 92: Jellinghaus, 'Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche der
Munda-Kolhs in Chota Nagpore,' in _Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie_,
iii. 330 _sq._]
[Footnote 93: Stewart, 'Northern Cachar,' in _Jour. Asiatic Soc.
Bengal_, xxiv. 628.]
The Ainu of Japan believe in a great god or creator who bestows
blessings upon the good and visits the bad with disease, unless
they repent. They also say that good people go after death to the
"island of the Great Spirit," or to the "kingdom of God," to lead
a happy life; whereas bad people go to the "bad island," or to
the "wet underground world," in which they suffer discomfort or,
according to some, are burned in everlasting fires.[94] Of the
pagan Samoyedes we are told that they regard the great Num as the
creator of the universe, as an all-powerful and omniscient being,
who protects the innocent, rewards the virtuous, and punishes the
wicked.[95] But the primitive Num, who was simply the sky, was
too far removed from the nomads who wandered across the frozen
plain, to interfere to prevent catastrophe or accomplish their
well-being; and in the provident actions and overseeing which
some of the Samoyedes now ascribe to him, "we can clearly enough
trace the influence of the missionary and the suggestion of the
Christian faith."[96]
[Footnote 94: von Siebold, _Die Aino auf der Insel Yesso_, p. 24.
Batchelor, _Ainu of Japan_, pp. 199, 235 _sqq._ Howard, _Life
with Trans-Siberian Savages_, p. 193.]
[Footnote 95: Castrén, _op. cit._ iii. 14.]
[Footnote 96: Jackson, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxiv. 398. See
also Castrén, _op. cit._ iii. 14-16, 182 _sqq._]
Dr. Rink asserts that the Greenlanders considered Tornarsuk as
the supreme being on whom they were dependent for any
supernatural aid, and in whose abodes in the depth of the earth
all such persons as had striven and suffered for the benefit of
their fellow men should find a happy existence after death.[97]
Dr. Nansen, however, is of opinion that Tornarsuk owes a great
deal to missionary influence.[98] That he was not so superior a
being as is commonly stated is evident from Captain Holm's
description of the Angmagsaliks in Eastern Greenland, where he is
represented as a monster living in the sea, of about the same
length as a big seal, but thicker.[99] And to judge from Egede's
description dating from the earlier part of the eighteenth
century, Tornarsuk's notions of justice, if he had any, must in
olden times have been very limited, as he took to his
subterranean paradise only women that died in labour and men that
perished at sea.[100]
[Footnote 97: Rink, _Greenland_, p. 141.]
[Footnote 98: Nansen, _Eskimo Life_, p. 242.]
[Footnote 99: Holm, 'Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne,' in
_Meddelelser om Grönland_, x. 115.]
[Footnote 100: Egede, _Description of Greenland_, p. 197.]
{679} The "Great Spirit" so often referred to in accounts of North
American Indians, is described as a being too elevated and remote
to take much interest in the destinies and actions of men and too
benevolent by nature to require propitiation or worship.
Schoolcraft asserts that in their oral traditions there is no
attempt "to make man accountable to him, here or hereafter, for
aberrations from virtue, good will, truth, or any form of moral
right. With benevolence and pity as prime attributes the Great
Transcendental Spirit of the Indian does not take upon himself a
righteous administration of the world's affairs, but, on the
contrary, leaves it to be filled, and its affairs, in reality,
governed, by demons and fiends in human form."[101] Yet there are
instances in which he is represented in a different light. The
most essential moral precepts of the Iroquois "were taught as the
will of the Great Spirit, and obedience to their requirements as
acceptable in his sight";[102] but whilst highly gratified with
their virtues, he detested their vices, and punished them for
their bad conduct not only in this world but in a future state of
existence.[103] The Potawatomis considered that rape was visited
by the anger of the Great Spirit.[104] Ti-ra'-wa, the supreme
being of the Pawnees, applauds valour, abhors theft, and punishes
the wicked by annihilation, whilst the good dwell with him in his
heavenly home.[105] The Indians of Alabama told Bossu that those
who behave themselves foolishly and disregard the supreme being
will after death go to a barren land full of thorns and briars,
with no hunting and no wives, whereas those who neither rob nor
kill nor take other men's wives will occupy a very fertile
country and live there a happy life.[106] Keating states that,
according to the beliefs of the Dacotahs, men go to the residence
of the Great Spirit if they have been good and peaceable, or if
they died by the hand of their enemy, but that their souls are
doomed to the residence of the Evil Spirit if they perish in a
broil with their own countrymen.[107] This statement, however, is
not supported by other authorities. Prescott writes of the same
Indians:--"They have very little notion of punishment for crime
hereafter in eternity: indeed, they know very little about
whether the Great Spirit has anything to do with their affairs,
present or future."[108] {680} And among the Omaha and Ponka, who
are branches of the same people, the old men used to say to their
fellow tribesmen, "If you are good, you will go to the good
ghosts; if you are bad you will go to the bad ghosts." But
nothing was ever said of going to dwell with Wakanda, or with
demons.[109] As regards the origin of the North American notion
of the Great Spirit different opinions have been expressed. On
the one hand we are told that it is essentially only "the
Indian's conception of the white man's god," which belongs not to
the untutored but to the tutored mind of the savage.[110] On the
other hand it is argued that the belief in the Great Spirit must
be a native product, since it is reported to have occurred
already before the arrival of the earliest Jesuit missionaries.[111]
Unfortunately, however, we cannot be sure that our informants
have accurately interpreted the beliefs of the Indians. Mr.
Dorsey has pointed out that a fruitful source of error has been a
misunderstanding of their terms and phrases.[112] The Dacotah
word _wakanda_, which has been rendered into "Great Spirit,"
simply means "mystery," or "mysterious," and signifies rather a
quality than a definite entity. Among many tribes the sun is
wakanda, among the same tribes the moon is wakanda, and so are
thunder, lightning, the stars, the winds, as also various
animals, trees, and inanimate objects or places of a striking
character; even a man, especially a medicine-man, may be
considered wakanda.[113] So, too, the Menomini term _mashä' ma'
nid[=o]_, or "great unknown," is not to be understood as implying
a belief in one supreme being; there are several manidos, each
supreme in his own realm, as well as many lesser mysteries, or
deities, or spirits.[114] Mr. Dorsey also observes that in many
cases Indians have been quick to adopt the phrases of
civilisation in communicating with white people, whilst in
speaking to one another they use their own terms.[115] At the
same time it seems to me that if the notion of a Great Spirit had
altogether a Christian origin we might expect to find an idea of
moral retribution more commonly associated with it than the {681}
statements imply. It may be that among the North American Indians
also, as among some other peoples, a vague conception of
something like a supreme being has arisen through a
personification of the mysteries in nature.[116] But if this be
the case the interest which the Great Spirit in rare instances
takes in human conduct may all the same be due to missionary
influence. It is certainly not an original characteristic of his
nature. Among the Iroquois and Pawnees, who attribute to their
great god the function of a moral judge, he also receives
offerings--[117] a circumstance which indicates that he cannot be
regarded as a typical representative of his class.
[Footnote 101: Schoolcraft, _op. cit._ i. 35.]
[Footnote 102: Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_, p. 172.]
[Footnote 103: Seaver, _Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Jemison_,
p. 155.]
[Footnote 104: Keating, _Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's
River_, i. 127.]
[Footnote 105: Grinnell, _Pawnee Hero Stories_, p. 355. Lang,
_Making of Religion_, p. 257.]
[Footnote 106: Bossu, _Travels through Louisiana_, i. 256 _sq._]
[Footnote 107: Keating, _op. cit._ i. 393 _sq._]
[Footnote 108: Schoolcraft, _op. cit._ ii. 195. _Cf._ _ibid._
iii. 229.]
[Footnote 109: Dorsey, 'Siouan Cults,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._
xi. 419.]
[Footnote 110: Smith, 'Myths of the Iroquois,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur.
Ethn._ ii. 112. Tylor, 'Limits of Savage Religion,' in _Jour.
Anthr. Inst._ xxi. 284. Boyle, 'Paganism of the Civilised
Iroquois,' _ibid._ xxx. 266.]
[Footnote 111: Lang, _Making of Religion_, p. 251 _sqq._ _Idem_,
_Magic and Religion_, p. 19 _sqq._ Hoffmann, _op. cit._ p. 86 _sq._]
[Footnote 112: Dorsey, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 365 _sq._]
[Footnote 113: _Ibid._ p. 366. McGee, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._
xv. 181 _sqq._ _Cf._ James, _Expedition to the Rocky Mountains_,
i. 268; Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 343.]
[Footnote 114: Hoffman, 'Menomini Indians,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur.
Ethn._ xiv. 39, n. 1. _Cf._ Parkman, _Jesuits in North America_,
p. lxxix.]
[Footnote 115: Dorsey, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 365. See
also Smith, _ibid._ ii. 112.]
[Footnote 116: The Great Spirit is represented by Schoolcraft
(_op. cit._ i. 15) as a "Soul of the Universe which inhabits and
animates every thing," and is supposed to exist under every
possible form in the world, animate and inanimate. Of Ti-ra'-wa
it is said that he "is in and of everything" (_supra_, i. 448).]
[Footnote 117: Seaver, _op. cit._ p. 155. _Supra_ i. 448.]
In South America, too, several tribes have been found to believe
in a benevolent Great Spirit, who is indifferent to men's
behaviour and is not worshipped by them.[118] Of the Passés,
however, we are told by a Portuguese official who travelled in
Brazil in 1774-75 that they have the idea of a creator who
rewards good people by allowing their souls to stay with him and
punishes the wicked by turning their souls into evil
spirits.[119] But according to Mr. Bates "these notions are so
far in advance of the ideas of all other tribes of Indians . . .
that we must suppose them to have been derived by the docile
Passés from some early missionary or traveller."[120] Of the
Fuegians, again, Admiral Fitzroy writes:--"A great black man is
supposed to be always wandering about the woods and mountains,
who is certain of knowing every word and every action; who cannot
be escaped, and who influences the weather according to men's
conduct." Of this influence our informant gives the following
instance. A native related a story of his brother who once killed
a man--one of those very wild men who wander about in the woods
supporting themselves by theft--because he stole from him a bird.
Afterwards he was very sorry for what he had done, particularly
when it began to blow hard. In telling the story, the brother
said:--"Rain come down--snow come down--hail come down--wind
blow--blow--very much blow. Very bad to kill man. Big man in woods
no like it, he very angry." The same native also reproached the
surgeon {682} of the Beagle for shooting some young ducks with
the old bird:--"Very bad to shoot little duck--come wind--come
rain--blow--very much blow."[121] In the latter case, however, no
mention was made of the black man in the woods. From Admiral
Fitzroy's account Mr. Andrew Lang draws the conclusion that the
Fuegians have evolved the idea of a high deity, an ethical judge,
who "makes for righteousness," who searches the heart, who almost
literally "marks the sparrow's fall," and whose morality is so
much above the ordinary savage standard that he regards the
slaying of a stranger and an enemy, caught redhanded in robbery,
as a sin.[122] This statement may serve as a specimen of the
spirit in which its author deals with the subject of supreme
beings in savage beliefs. There is after all some difference
between a high moral god and a mythical weather doctor who lives
in the woods and sends bad weather if a wild man, who also lives
in the woods, is killed. Mr. Bridges, our most trustworthy
authority on the Fuegians, says nothing of the black man, but
states that nearly all the old men among the Fuegians are
medicine-men, and that these wizards make frequent incantations
in which they seem to address themselves to a mysterious being
called Aïapakal. And they also believe in another spirit, named
Hoakils, from whom they pretend to obtain a supernatural power
over life and death.[123]
[Footnote 118: Bernau, _Missionary Labours in British Guiana_, p.
49. Hoffmann, _op. cit._ p. 90 _sqq._]
[Footnote 119: Ribeiro de Sampaio, _Diario da viagem_, p. 79.]
[Footnote 120: Bates, _The Naturalist on the River Amazons_, ii.
244. _Cf._ _ibid._ ii. 162; Dobrizhofter, _Account of the
Abipones_, ii. 57 _sq._; Müller, _Geschichte der Amerikanischen
Urreligionen_, p. 289.]
[Footnote 121: King and Fitzroy, _Voyages of the "Adventure" and
"Beagle,"_ ii. 180.]
[Footnote 122: Lang, _Making of Religion_, pp. 188, 198. The same
description of the Fuegian black man is repeated by M. Hoffmann
(_op. cit._ p. 40).]
[Footnote 123: Bridges, quoted by Hyades and Deniker, _Mission
scientifique du Cap Horn_, vii. 256.]
The South African Bushmans, another very backward people, are
likewise represented by Mr. Lang and M. Hoffmann as believers in
a supreme being.[124] A native said to Mr. Orpen that Cagn made
all things, and that the people prayed to him:--"O Cagn! O Cagn!
are we not your children, do you not see our hunger? Give us
food." And he gave them what they asked for both hands full. But
although he was at first very good and nice, he afterwards "got
spoilt through fighting so many things."[125] However, according
to another statement, made by a person who from childhood had
much intercourse with Bushmans and knew their language, they did
not believe in a God or the great father of men, but in a devil
who made everything with his left hand.[126] The Hottentots spoke
of Tsui-goab as "the giver of all blessings, the Father on high,
All-father, the {683} avenger, who fought daily the battle for
his people." They thus identified him with the ancestor of the
tribe, but Tsui-goab was also the name by which they called the
Infinite.[127] Among the pagans of Africa there is, in fact, a
very widespread belief in a benevolent supreme deity, a creator
or maker of things, who lives in or above the sky, who generally
takes no concern whatever in the affairs of mankind, who mostly
receives no worship, and is, as a rule, totally indifferent to
good or evil.[128] In some rare instances only he is described as
a judge of human conduct. Thus some of the Bechuanas believe that
a being who is vaguely called by the name of Lord and Master of
things, Mongalinto, punishes thieves by striking them with the
lightning.[129] According to an old writer, Father Santos, the
natives of Sofala in South-Eastern Africa acknowledge a god,
called Molungo, "who both in this and the world to come they
fancy measures retribution for the good and evil done in this."
They believe in the existence of twenty-seven paradises, where
everyone enjoys a pleasure proportionate to the merits of his
life; while those who have passed their lives in wickedness are
supposed to be condemned to a privation from the sight of the
holy presence of Molungo, and to suffer torments in one of the
thirteen hells they assume to exist, each according to the evil
he has done.[130] The Baluba, a Bantu people of Equatorial
Africa, have the notion of a creator, named Fidi-Mukullu, who
punishes the souls of the wicked before they are reborn on earth,
whereas the good return to life again, in the shape of chiefs or
other important persons, immediately after they have died.[131]
The Awemba, {684} another Bantu people, who inhabit the stretch
of country lying between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Bangweolo,
acknowledge a supreme being, Leza, who "is the Judge of the dead,
and condemns thieves, adulterers and murderers to the state of
Vibanda, or Viwa (evil spirits), exalting the good to the rank of
_mipashi_, or benevolent spirits."[132] Other natives in the
neighbourhood of Lake Tanganyika recognise a creator called
Kabesa, who lives in the sky and admits to his abode the souls of
good people after death, but turns away the souls of the
wicked.[133] The Akikuyu of British East Africa recognise three
gods all of whom are called Ngai. One of them, however, is
considered the supreme deity. "If a man is good this Ngai can
give him much property. If he does wrong the same power can
strike him down with disease and cause his livestock to dwindle
away. . . . The sudden death of a man, for instance by lightning,
is ascribed to some evil act of his life being punished by
Ngai."[134] Proyart tells us that the Negroes of Loango believed
in a supreme being, Zambi, who had created all that is good in
the world, who was himself good and loved justice in others, and
who severely punished fraud and perjury.[135] It is of course
impossible to say exactly how far the statements referring to
African supreme beings represent unadulterated native beliefs. In
criticising Kolb's account of the supreme and perfect god of the
Hottentots, Bishop Callaway observes, "Nothing is more easy than
to enquire of heathen savages the character of their creed, and
during the conversation to impart to them . . . ideas which they
never heard before, and presently to have these come back again
as articles of their own original faith, when in reality they are
but the echoes of one's own thoughts."[136] With reference to the
West African native Miss Kingsley likewise remarks that he has a
wonderful power of assimilating foreign forms of belief, and that
when he once has got hold of a new idea it remains in his mind
long after the missionaries who put it there have passed
away.[137] And besides the teaching of missionaries there are in
Africa several factors which for centuries have tended to
introduce foreign conceptions, namely, intercourse with European
settlers, the operations of the slave trade, and the influence of
Muhammedanism.[138] But at the same {685} time it seems
exceedingly probable that the African belief in a supreme being
has a native substratum. In many cases he is apparently the
heaven god;[139] but he may also be a mythical ancestor, as the
Hottentot god Tsui-goab and the Zulu god Unkulunkulu; or a
personification of the supernatural, as is suggested by such
names as the Masai Ng[)a]i, the Monbuttu Kilima, and the Malagasy
Andriamanitra;[140] or the assumed cause of anything which
particularly fills the savage mind with wonder or awe. Among the
natives of Northern Guinea, according to Mr. Wilson, "every thing
which transpires in the natural world beyond the power of man, or
of spirits, who are supposed to occupy a place somewhat higher
than man, is at once and spontaneously ascribed to the agency of
God."[141] Nay, for reasons which will be stated immediately, I
am even of opinion that the function of a moral judge,
occasionally attributed to the great god of African pagans, has
in some instances an independent origin.
[Footnote 124: Lang, _Making of Religion_, p. 210. Hoffmann, _op.
cit._ p. 40 _sq._]
[Footnote 125: Orpen, 'Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti
Bushmen,' in _The Cape Monthly Magazine_, N.S. ix. 2.]
[Footnote 126: Campbell, _Second Journey in the Interior of South
Africa_, i. 29.]
[Footnote 127: Hahn, _The Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi_,
pp. 122, 126 _sq._]
[Footnote 128: Livingstone, _Missionary Travels_, p. 641 (tribes
of the Zambesi). Rattray, _Stories and Songs in Chinyanja_,
p. 198 (natives of Central Angoniland). Stigand, 'Natives of
Nyassaland,' in _Jour. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvii. 130. Roscoe,
'Bahima,' _ibid._ xxxvii. 108 _sq._ Wilson and Felkin, _Uganda_,
i. 206. Beltrame, _Il Fiume Bianco e i Dénka_, pp. 191, 192, 276
_sq._ Kingsley, 'Fetish View of the Human Soul,' in _Folk-Lore_,
viii. 142 _sq._; _Idem_, _Travels in West Africa_, pp. 442, 508.
Parkinson, 'Asaba People of the Niger,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._
xxxvi. 312. Bosman, _Description of the Coast of Guinea_, pp. 121
_sq._ (Gold Coast natives), 348 (Slave Coast natives).
Cruickshank, _Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast_, ii. 126 _sq._
Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, p. 26 _sqq._
_Idem_, _E[(w]e-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, p. 33 _sq._
Winterbottom, _Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra
Leone_, i. 222. Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 209 (natives of
Northern Guinea). Rowley, _Religion of the Africans_, pp. 15, 16,
54. Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 347 _sqq._ Lang, _Making of Religion_,
p. 230 _sqq._ Hoffmann, _op. cit._ p. 45 _sqq._]
[Footnote 129: Arbousset and Daumas, _Exploratory Tour to the
North-East of the Colony of Good Hope_, p. 322 _sq._]
[Footnote 130: Santos, 'History of Eastern Ethiopia,' in
Pinkerton, _Collection of Voyages and Travels_, xvi.
687.]
[Footnote 131: Wissmann, Wolf, &c., _Im Innern Afrikas_, p. 158.
Wissmann, _Quer durch Afrika_, p. 379.]
[Footnote 132: Sheane, 'Awemba Religion,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._
xxxvi. 150 _sq._ ]
[Footnote 133: Schneider, _Die Religion der afrikanischen
Naturvölker_, p. 84.]
[Footnote 134: Tate, 'Kikuyu Tribe,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._
xxxiv. 263.]
[Footnote 135: Proyart, 'History of Loango,' in Pinkerton,
_Collection of Voyages and Travels_, xvi. 594.]
[Footnote 136: Callaway, _Religious System of the Amazulu_,
p. 105 _sq._]
[Footnote 137: Kingsley, in _Folk-Lore_, viii. 150.]
[Footnote 138: _Cf._ Rowley, _Religion of the Africans_, pp. 28,
90; Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 229 _sq._; Cruickshank, _op.
cit._ ii. 126.]
[Footnote 139: See Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 347 _sqq._]
[Footnote 140: See _supra_, ii. 586 _sq._]
[Footnote 141: Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 209. See also Livingstone,
_Expedition to the Zambesi_, p. 521 _sq._, quoted _supra_, ii. 594.]
Generally speaking, then, it seems that the All-father, supreme
being, or high god of savage belief may be traced to several
different sources. When not a "loan-god" of foreign extraction,
he may be a mythical ancestor or headman; or a deification of the
sky or some large and remote object of nature, like the sun; or a
personification or personified cause of the mysteries or forces
of nature. The argument that the belief in such a being is
"irreducible" because it prevails among savages who worship
neither ancestors nor nature,[142] can carry no weight in
consideration of the fact that he himself, as a general rule, is
no object of worship. In various instances we have reason to
suppose that even though the notion of a supreme being is
fundamentally of native origin, foreign conceptions have been
engrafted upon it; and to these belongs in particular the idea of
a heavenly judge who in the after-life punishes the wicked and
rewards the good. But we are not entitled to assume that the idea
of moral retribution as a function of the great god has in every
case been adopted {686} from people of a higher culture. A
mythical ancestor or headman may of his own accord approve of
virtue and disapprove of vice; and, besides, justice readily
becomes the attribute of a god who is habitually appealed to in
curses or oaths. That the supreme being of savages is thus
invoked, is in some cases directly stated by our authorities. In
making solemn treatises, the Hurons called on Oki, the heaven
god.[143] The Negroes of Loango, who believed that Zambi, the
supreme being, punished fraud and perjury, took his name in
testimony of the truth.[144] Among the Awemba the supreme god
Leza, who is believed to reward the good and to punish thieves,
adulterers, and murderers, is invoked both in blessings and
curses, the injured man praying that Leza will send a lion to
devour the evildoer.[145] In the E[(w]e-speaking Ho tribe on the
Slave Coast the great god Mawu, who is said to inflict punishment
on the wicked, is frequently appealed to in law-cases, by the
judge as well as by the plaintiff and the accused.[146] In
Northern Guinea the name of the supreme being is solemnly called
on three times at the ratification of an important treaty, or
when a person is condemned to undergo the "red-water
ordeal."[147] Of the Mpongwe we are told that "when a covenant is
about to be formed among the different tribes, Mwetyi [the
supreme being] is always invoked as a witness, and is
commissioned with the duty of visiting vengeance upon the party
who shall violate the engagement. Without this their national
treaties would have little or no force. When a law is passed
which the people wish to be especially binding, they invoke the
vengeance of Mwetyi upon every transgressor, and this, as a
general thing, is ample guarantee for its observance."[148] Among
the East African Wakamba, when the supposed criminal is to
undergo the ordeal of the hatchet, a magician makes him repeat
the following words:--"If I have stolen the property of so and
so, or committed this crime, let {687} Mulungu respond for me;
but if I have not stolen, nor done this wickedness, may he save
me." The magician then passes the red-hot iron four times over
the flat hand of the accused; and the people believe that if he
is guilty, his hand will be burned, but that, if innocent, he
will suffer no injury.[149] Among the Masai a person who is
accused of cattle-lifting and on that account subjected to the
ordeal of drinking a mixture of blood and milk, has first to
swear, "O God, I drink this blood, if I have stolen the cattle
this blood will kill me." Should he not die within a fortnight he
is considered innocent.[150] The Madi of Central Africa have
various means of trial by ordeal, through which it is believed
that the guilt of a suspected individual can be detected; and
"before any of these trials the men look up and solemnly invoke
some invisible being to punish him if guilty, or help him if
innocent."[151] Of the natives of the Zambesi, all of whom have
an idea of a supreme being, Livingstone states that, when
undergoing an ordeal, "they hold up their hands to the Ruler of
Heaven, as if appealing to him to assert their innocence."[152]
[Footnote 142: Lang, _Magic and Religion_, p. 42. Hoffmann, _op.
cit._ pp. 122, 126, 131.]
[Footnote 143: Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 342.]
[Footnote 144: Proyart, _loc. cit._ p. 594.]
[Footnote 145: Sheane, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvi. 151.]
[Footnote 146: Spieth, _Die E[(w]e-Stämme_, p. 415.]
[Footnote 147: Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 210.]
[Footnote 148: _Ibid._ p. 392.]
[Footnote 149: Krapf, _Travels in Eastern Africa_, p. 173.]
[Footnote 150: Marker, _Die Masai_, p. 211.]
[Footnote 151: Felkin, 'Notes on the Madi,' in _Proceed. Roy.
Soc. Edinburgh_, xii. 334.]
[Footnote 152: Livingstone, _Missionary Travels_, p. 641 _sq._]
It has often been said that the oath and ordeal involve a belief
in the gods as vindicators of truth and justice, that they are
"appeals to the moral nature of the Divinity."[153] If this were
true, moral retribution would certainly be an exceedingly common
function of savage gods. But, as we have noticed before,[154] the
efficacy ascribed to an oath is originally of a magic character,
and if it contains an appeal to a god he is, according to
primitive notions, a mere tool in the hand of the person invoking
him. So also the ordeal is essentially a magical ceremony. In
many cases at least, it contains a curse or an oath which has
reference to the guilt or innocence of a suspected person, and
the {688} proper object of the ordeal is then to give reality to
the imprecation for the purpose of establishing the validity or
invalidity of the suspicion.
[Footnote 153: Tiele, _Elements of the Science of Religion_, i.
86. Réville, _Les religions des peuples non-civilisés_, i. 103.
Brinton, _Religions of Primitive Peoples_, p. 225. Schneider,
_Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker_, p. 255. Hodgson,
_Miscellaneous Essays_, i. 126. Dahn, _Bausteine_, ii. 21, 24.
Gummere, _Germanic Origins_, p. 183.]
[Footnote 154: _Supra_, ii. 118 _sqq._]
Thus in West Africa the common ordeal which consists in drinking
a certain draught or "eating the fetish" is regularly accompanied
by an oath or a curse.[155] In the Calabar the accused person,
before swallowing the ju-ju drink _mbiam_, which is made of filth
and blood, recites an oath beginning with the words, "If I have
been guilty of this crime," and ending with the words, "Then,
Mbiam, Thou deal with me!" And whenever this ordeal is used the
greatest care is taken that the oath shall be recited in
full.[156] Of the Negroes of the Gold Coast Bosman states that
"if any person is suspected of thievery, and the indictment is
not clearly made out, he is obliged to clear himself by drinking
the oath-draught, and to use the imprecation, that the Fetiche
may kill him if he be guilty of thievery."[157] In Ashantee,
"when any one denies a theft, an aggry bead is placed in a small
vessel, with some water, the person holding it puts his right
foot against the right foot of the accused, who invokes the power
of the bead to kill him if he is guilty, and then takes it into
his mouth with a little of the water."[158] Among the Negroes of
Northern Guinea, in the case of the "red-water ordeal," the
accused "invokes the name of God three times, and imprecates his
wrath in case he is guilty of the particular crime laid to his
charge." He then steps forward and drinks freely of the "red
water"--that is, a decoction made from the inner bark of a tree
of the mimosa family. If it nauseates and makes him vomit freely,
he is at once pronounced innocent, whereas, if it causes vertigo
and he loses self-control, it is regarded as evidence of
guilt.[159] According to an old account, the Negroes of Sierra
Leone have a "water of cursing," boiled of barks and herbs. The
witch-doctor puts his divining-staff into the pot and drops or
presses the water out of it upon the arm or leg of the suspected
person, muttering over it these words:--"Is he guilty of this, or
hath he done this or that; if yea, then let it scald or burn him,
till the very skin come off." If the person remains unhurt they
hold him innocent, and proceed to {689} the trial of another,
till the guilty is discovered.[160] Among the Wadshagga of
Eastern Africa the medicine-man gives to the accused a poisonous
draught with the words, "If you fall down, you have committed the
crime and told a lie, if you remain standing we recognise that
you have spoken the truth."[161]
[Footnote 155: See, besides the references below, Monrad,
_Skildring af Guinea-Kysten_, p. 35 _sq._ (Negroes of Accra);
Beecham, _Ashantee_, p. 215 _sqq._; Ratzel, _op. cit._ iii. 130.]
[Footnote 156: Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_, p. 465.]
[Footnote 157: Bosman, _op. cit._ p. 125.]
[Footnote 158: Bowdich, _Mission to Ashantee_, p. 267.]
[Footnote 159: Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 225 _sq._]
[Footnote 160: Dapper, _Africa_, p. 405.]
[Footnote 161: Volkens, _Der Kilimandscharo_, p. 249.]
Among the Hawaiians, in the ordeal called _wai haalulu_, "prayer
was offered by the priest" while a large dish of water was placed
before the culprit, who was required to hold his hands over the
fluid; and if it shook, his fate was sealed.[162] Among the
Tinguianes in the district of El Abra in Luzon, if a man is
accused of a crime and denies it, the headman of the village, who
is also the judge, causes a handful of straw to be burned in his
presence. The accused then holds up an earthern pot and says,
"May my belly be changed to a pot like this if I am guilty of the
crime of which I am accused." If he remains unchanged in body,
the judge declares him innocent.[163] The following ordeal is in
use among the Tunguses of Siberia. A fire is made and a scaffold
erected near the hut of the accused. A dog's throat is then cut
and the blood received in a vessel. The body is put on the wood
of the fire, but in such a position that it does not burn. The
accused passes over the fire, and drinks two mouthfuls of the
blood, the rest whereof is thrown into the fire; and the body of
the dog is placed on the scaffold. Then the accused says:--"As
the dog's blood burns in the fire, so may what I have drunk burn
in my body; and as the dog put on the scaffold will be consumed,
so may I be consumed at the same time if I be guilty."[164]
[Footnote 162: Jarves, _History of the Hawaiian Islands_, p. 20.]
[Footnote 163: Lala, _Philippine Islands_, p. 100.]
[Footnote 164: Hartland, _Legend of Perseus_, ii. 85 _sq._]
The "trial of jealousy" mentioned in the Old Testament involved a
curse pronounced by the priest to the effect that the holy water
which the woman suspected of adultery had to drink should cause
her belly to swell and her thigh to rot.[165] In India the ordeal
was expressly regarded as a form of the oath, the same word,
_[s.]apatha_, being used to denote both.[166] We have seen above
that in the Middle Ages every judicial combat was necessarily
preceded by an oath, which essentially decided the issue of the
fight and the question of guilt.[167] So also at the moment when
the hot iron was raised and the accused took {690} it into his
hand, the Deity was invoked to manifest the truth.[168] The
ordeal of the Eucharist involved the following formula recited by
the victim:--"Et si aliter est quam dixi et juravi, tunc hoc
Domini nostri Jesu Christi corpus non pertranseat gutur meum, sed
hæreat in faucibus meis, strangulet me suffocet me ac interficiat
me statim in momento."[169]
[Footnote 165: _Numbers_, v. 20 _sqq._]
[Footnote 166: Jolly, 'Beiträge zur indischen Rechtsgeschichte,'
in _Zeitschr. d. Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellsch._ xliv.
346. Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, p. 510, n. 1. See also
Patetta, _Le ordalie_, p. 14.]
[Footnote 167: _Supra_, i. 505.]
[Footnote 168: Beames, in his _Translation of Glanville_, p. 351
_sq._]
[Footnote 169: Dahn, _op. cit._ ii. 16.]
To the list of ordeals which contain an oath or a curse as their
governing element many other instances might probably be added in
which no imprecation has been expressly mentioned by our
authorities in their short descriptions of the ceremonies. This
is all the more likely to be the case as magical practices often
imply imprecations which are not formally expressed.[170] But
there may also be ordeals which have a different origin. Thus the
custom of swimming witches seems to have arisen from the notion
that everything unholy is repelled by water and unable to sink
into its depths;[171] and the ordeal of touching the corpse of a
murdered person no doubt originated in the belief that the soul
of such a person lingered about the body until appeased by the
shedding of the murderer's blood and that "by the murderer's
approach, and especially by his polluted touch, the soul was
excited to an instant manifestation of its indignation, by
appearing in the form in which it was supposed to subsist, viz.
in that of blood."[172] However, even though all ordeals have not
the same foundation, it seems highly improbable that any people,
in the first instance, resorted to this method of discovering
innocence and guilt from a belief in a god who is by his nature a
guardian of truth and justice.
[Footnote 170: See, for instance, Westermarck, '_L-[(]âr_, or
the Transference of Conditional Curses in Morocco,' in
_Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor_, p. 361 _sqq._]
[Footnote 171: Binsfeldius, _Tractatus de confessionibus
maleficorum et sagarum_, p. 315. In the North-East of Scotland it
was believed that, if a person committed suicide by drowning, the
body did not sink, but floated on the surface (Gregor, _Folk-Lore
of the North-East of Scotland_, p. 208).]
[Footnote 172: Pitcairn, _Criminal Trials in Scotland_, iii. 187.]
Nor must we make any inference as to the moral character of gods
from the mere prevalence of a belief in {691} a future world
where men are in some way or other punished or rewarded for their
conduct during their life. Such a belief is said to be fairly
common among uncivilised races;[173] and, although in several
cases it is undoubtedly due to Christian or other foreign
influence,[174] I agree with Dr. Steinmetz that we are not
entitled to {692} assume that it is so in all.[175] It seems that
the savage mind may by itself, in various ways, come to the idea
of some kind of moral retribution after death. First, the
condition of the dead man is often supposed to depend upon the
attentions bestowed on him by the survivors. Mr. Turner was told
that, in the belief of the St. Augustine Islanders in Polynesia,
the souls of the departed "if good" went to a land of brightness
and clear weather in the heavens, but "if bad" were sent to mud
and darkness; and the answer to his next question informed him
that in this case "goodness" meant that the friends of the
deceased had given him a good funeral feast, and that "badness"
meant that his stingy friends had provided nothing at all.[176]
Although Mr. Turner sees no moral distinction in these terms,
there may be one nevertheless. Speaking of the Efatese, in the
New Hebrides, Mr. Macdonald observes:--"A man's condition in the
future would be, to some extent, happy or miserable according to
his life here. Supposing he were a worthless fellow, very scanty
worship would be rendered to him at his death and few animals
slain to accompany him to the spirit world; and thus he would
occupy an inferior position there corresponding to his social
worthlessness here. This belief," our informant adds, "has
undoubtedly great influence in making men strive to live so as to
obtain the good opinion of their fellows, and leave an honourable
memory behind them at death."[177] The Bushmans, who maintain
that the dead will ultimately go to a land abounding in excellent
food, put a spear by the side of a departed friend in order that,
when he arises, he may have something to defend himself with and
procure a living; but, if they hate the person, they deposit no
spear, so that on his resurrection he may either be murdered or
starved.[178] The dead may also have to suffer from the curses of
those whom they injured while alive. At Motlav, in the {693}
Banks Islands, relatives "watch the grave of a man whose life was
bad, lest some man wronged by him should come at night and beat
with a stone upon the grave, cursing him."[179] At Gaua, in the
same group, "when a great man died his friends would not make it
known, lest those whom he had oppressed should come and spit at
him after his death, or _govgov_ him, stand bickering at him with
crooked fingers and drawing in the lips, by way of curse."[180]
The Maoris were careful to prevent the bones of their dead
relatives from falling into the hands of their enemies, "who
would dreadfully desecrate and ill-use them, with many bitter
jeers and curses."[181] A person may, moreover, himself during
his lifetime directly provide for his comfort in the life to
come, and if the act by which he does so is apt to call forth
approval its result is easily interpreted as its reward. Thus the
Kukis of India believe that all enemies whom a person has killed
will in his future abode be in attendance on him as slaves;[182]
and this belief probably accounts for their opinion that nothing
more certainly ensures future happiness than destroying a number
of enemies.[183] We have further to notice the common idea that a
person's character after his death remains more or less as it was
during his life. Hence the souls of bad people are supposed to
reappear in the shape of obnoxious animals[184] or become evil
spirits,[185] and this may lead to the notion that they have to
do so as a punishment for their wickedness.[186] And as the
revengeful feelings of men likewise are believed to last beyond
death, offenders may in the {694} other world have to suffer from
the hands of those whom they injured in this.[187] Some of the
Nagas of Central India maintain that "a murdered man's soul
receives that of his murderer in the spirit world and makes him
his slave."[188] The Chippewas think that in the land of the dead
"the souls of bad men are haunted by the phantoms of the persons
or things they have injured."[189] In Aurora, in the New
Hebrides, the belief prevails that the ghosts of those whom a man
has wronged in this world take a full revenge upon him after
death.[190] According to the Banks Islanders, if a person has
killed a good man without cause, the good man's ghost withstands
his murderer, when the latter after death wants to enter into
Panoi, the good place; but if one man has killed another in fair
fight he will not be withstood by the person whom he slew.[191]
And not only the offended party but the other dead as well may,
from dislike or fear, be anxious to refuse the souls of bad
people admittance to their company. In the belief of the
Pentecost Islanders, when the soul of a murdered man comes to the
land of ghosts with the instrument of death upon him, he tells
who killed him, and when the murderer arrives the ghostly people
will not receive him, but he has to stay apart with other
murderers.[192] The Iroquois allot separate villages even to the
souls of those who have died in war and of those who have
committed suicide, because the other dead are afraid of their
presence.[193] Among the Negroes of Northern Guinea, according to
Mr. Wilson, "the only idea of a future state of retribution is
implied in the use of a separate burial-place for those who have
died 'by the red-water ordeal' or who have been guilty of grossly
wicked deeds";[194] and if a person's body is buried apart, his
soul will naturally remain equally isolated.[195] That the
frequent idea of the bad being separated {695} from the good
after death is largely due to the assumed unwillingness of the
latter to associate with dangerous or disreputable souls, seems
probable from the fact that, in the beliefs of the lower races,
paradise generally plays a much more prominent part than hell,
the lot of the wicked being to suffer want rather than to be
subjected to torments.[196] But, finally, it must also be
remembered that the other world is a creation of men's fancy, and
may therefore be formed in accordance with their hopes and
wishes. Beyond the gloom of death they imagine a paradise where
life is much happier than here on earth.[197] Why, then, might
not their moral feelings, only too often ungratified in the
reality of the present, occasionally seek satisfaction in the
dreams of the future?
[Footnote 173: Thomson, _Savage Island_, p. 94. Percy Smith,
'Futuna,' in _Jour. Polynesian Soc._ i. 39. Seemann, _Viti_,
p. 400; Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 208. Codrington,
_Melanesians_, p. 274 _sq._ (Banks' Islanders). Inglis, _New
Hebrides_, p. 31; Turner, _Samoa_, p. 326 (people of Aneiteum).
Campbell, _A Year in the New Hebrides_, p. 169 (people of Tana).
Schwaner, _Borneo_, i. 183 (natives of the Barito district).
Selenka, _op. cit._ pp. 88, 94, 112 (Dyaks). von Brenner, _op.
cit._ p. 240 (Bataks of Sumatra), de Mas, _Informe sobre el
estado de las Islas Filipinas_, 'Orijen, &c.' p. 14. Best,
'Prehistoric Civilisation in the Philippines,' in _Jour.
Polynesian Soc._ i. 200 (Tagalo-Bisaya tribes). Worcester,
_Philippine Islands_, p. 110 (Tagbanuas of Palawan). Smeaton,
_Loyal Karens of Burma_, p. 186 _sq._ Anderson, _Mandalay to
Momien_, p. 146 (Kakhyens). Lewin, _Wild Races of South-Eastern
India_, p. 243 _sq._ (Pankhos and Bunjogees). Hunter, _Rural
Bengal_, i. 210 (Santals). Macrae, 'Account of the Kookies,' in
_Asiatick Researches_, vii. 195; Butler, _Travels in Assam_,
p. 88 (Kukis). Stewart, 'Notes on Northern Cachar,' in _Jour.
Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xxiv. 620 (Old Kukis), 632 (Nagas).
Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_, p. 92 _sqq._
(Kandhs). Thurston, 'Todas of the Nilgiris,' in the Madras
Government Museum's _Bulletin_, i. 166 _sq._ Breeks, _Tribes and
Monuments of the N[=i]lagiris_, p. 28 (Todas and Badagas).
Radloff, _op. cit._ p. 11 _sq._ (Turkish tribes of the Altai).
Georgi, _Russia_, i. 106 (Chuvashes). Cranz, _History of
Greenland_, i. 186. Hall, _Arctic Researches among the
Esquimaux_, p. 571 _sq._ Lyon, _Private Journal_, p. 372 _sqq._
(Eskimo of Igloolik). Boas, 'Central Eskimo,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur.
Ethn._ vi. 590. Nelson, 'Eskimo about Bering Strait,' _ibid._
xviii. 423. Douglas, quoted by Petroff, _Report on Alaska_,
p. 177 (Thlinkets). Harrison, 'Religion and Family among the
Haidas,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxi. 17 _sqq._ Duncan, quoted by
Mayne, _Four Years in British Columbia_, p. 293 _sq._ (Coast
Indians of British Columbia). Mackenzie, _Voyages to the Frozen
and Pacific Oceans_, p. cxix. (Chippewyans). Morgan, _League of
the Iroquois_, p. 168 _sqq._ Harmon, _Journal of Voyages in the
Interior of North America_, p. 364 _sq._ (Indians on the East
side of the Rocky Mountains). Keating, _op. cit._ i. 110 _sq._
(Potawatomis); ii. 158 _sq._ (Chippewas). Say, quoted by Dorsey,
'Siouan Cults,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 422 (Kansas).
Stevenson, 'Sia,' _ibid._ xi. 145 _sq._ Bartram, in _Trans.
American Ethn. Soc._ iii. pt. i. 27 (Creek and Cherokee Indians).
Powers, _Tribes of California_, pp. 34, 58, 59, 91, 110, 144,
155, 161. Buchanan, _North American Indians_, p. 235 _sqq._;
Heriot, _Travels through the Canadas_, pp. 362, 536; Catlin,
_North American Indians_, i. 156, and ii. 243; Domenech, _Great
Deserts of North America_, ii. 380 (various Indian tribes of
North America), von Martius, _Beiträge zur Ethnographie
Amerika's_, i. 247 (Guatós). von den Steinen, _Unter den
Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 435 (Paressi). de Azara,
_Voyages dans l'Amérique méridionale_, ii. 138 (Payaguás).
Bosman, _op. cit._ p. 424 (people of Benin). Wilson, _Western
Africa_, p. 217 (Negroes of Northern Guinea). Reade, _Savage
Africa_, p. 539 (Ibos). Mungo Park, _Travels in the Interior of
Africa_, p. 250 (Mandingoes). Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 83 _sqq._
Marillier, _La survivance de l'âme et l'idée de justice chez les
peuples non civilisés_, p. 33 _sqq._ Steinmetz, _Ethnologische
Studien zur ersten Entwicklung der Strafe_, ii. 368 _sqq._]
[Footnote 174: _Cf._ Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 84, 91 _sqq._;
Marillier, _loc. cit._ p. 32 _sq._]
[Footnote 175: Steinmetz, _Studien_, ii. 366 _sqq._ _Idem_,
'Continuität oder Lohn und Strafe im Jenseits der Wilden,' in
_Archiv f. Anthropologie_, xxiv. 577 _sqq._]
[Footnote 176: Turner, _Samoa_, p. 292 _sq._]
[Footnote 177: Macdonald, _Oceania_, p. 209.]
[Footnote 178: Campbell, _Second Journey in the Interior of South
Africa_, i. 29.]
[Footnote 179: Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 269.]
[Footnote 180: _Ibid._ p. 269.]
[Footnote 181: Colenso, _Maori Races_, p. 28.]
[Footnote 182: Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 46.]
[Footnote 183: Macrae, 'Account of the Kookies,' in _Asiatick
Researches_, vii. 195.]
[Footnote 184: Hill and Thornton, _Aborigines of New South
Wales_, p. 4. Ratzel, _op. cit._ i. 317 (Solomon Islanders).
Junghuhn, _Die Battaländer auf Sumatra_, ii. 338 (natives of Bali
and Lombok). Cross, quoted by Mac Mahon, _Far Cathay and Farther
India_, p. 203 (Karens). Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_,
ii. 419 (Maravi). Southey, _History of Brazil_, iii. 392
(Guaycurus). Powers, _Tribes of California_, pp. 144 (Tatu), 155
(Kato Pomo).]
[Footnote 185: Bailey, 'Wild Tribes of the Veddahs,' in _Trans.
Ethn. Soc._ N.S. ii. 302, n. [double dagger] (Sinhalese), von den
Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 349
(Bakaïri).]
[Footnote 186: See Steinmetz, _Studien_, ii. 376; _Idem_, in
_Archiv für Anthropologie_, xxiv. 603 _sq._]
[Footnote 187: _Cf._ Marillier, _loc. cit._ p. 44 _sq._]
[Footnote 188: Fytche, _Burma_, i. 354.]
[Footnote 189: Keating, _op. cit._ ii. 158 _sq._]
[Footnote 190: Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 279 _sq._]
[Footnote 191: _Ibid._ p. 274.]
[Footnote 192: _Ibid._ p. 288.]
[Footnote 193: Brebeuf, 'Relation de ce qui s'est passé dans le
pays des Hurons,' in _Relations des Jésuites_, 1636, p. 104 _sq._
Hewitt, 'The Iroquoian Concept of the Soul,' in _Jour. of
American Folk-Lore_, viii. 109.]
[Footnote 194: Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 210.]
[Footnote 195: See _supra_, ii. 236 _sqq._]
[Footnote 196: This is especially the case among the Indians of
North America (_cf._ Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 242
_sq._; Dorman, _op. cit._ p. 33; Steinmetz, in _Archiv f.
Anthrop._ xxiv. 591). See also Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 274
_sq._ (Banks' Islanders).]
[Footnote 197: Dove, 'Aborigines of Tasmania.' in _Tasmanian
Jour. Natural Science_, i. 253. Polack, _Manners and Customs (of
the New Zealanders_, i. 254; Dieffenbach, _Travels in New
Zealand_, ii. 118. Percy Smith, 'Futuna,' in _Jour. Polynesian
Soc._ i. 39. Batchelor, _Ainu of Japan_, p. 225. Steller, _op.
cit._ p. 269 (Kamchadales). Cranz, _op. cit._ i. 186
(Greenlanders). Robertson, _History of America_, ii. 202.
Arbousset and Daumas, _op. cit._ p. 343 (Bechuanas).]
The belief in a moral retribution after death may thus originate
in various ways, quite independently of any notion of a god who
acts as a judge of human conduct. When such a belief is said to
prevail among a savage people it is by no means the rule that the
rewards or punishments are associated with the activity of a
divine being. And when, as is sometimes the case, the fate of the
dead is supposed to depend upon the will of a high god, the
notions held about the other world, and especially about the
place reserved for the wicked, in several instances suggest
influence from a more advanced religion. But on the other hand it
is not an idea which seems incompatible with genuine savage
thought that, in cases where the souls of men are believed to go
to live with gods, the latter select their companions and, like
the human inhabitants of the other world, refuse admittance to
undesirable individuals.
Religious ideas have no doubt already at the savage {696} stage
begun to influence the moral consciousness even in points which
have no direct bearing upon the personal interests of gods; but
this influence is not known to have been so great as it has often
been represented to be. I can find no solid foundation for the
statements made by recent writers, that "the historical beginning
of all morality is to be found in religion";[198] that even in
the earliest period of human history "religion and morality are
necessary correlates of each other";[199] that "all moral
commandments originally have the character of religious
commandments";[200] that in ancient society "all morality--as
morality was then understood--was consecrated and enforced by
religious motives and sanctions";[201] that the clan-god was the
guardian of the tribal morality.[202] From various facts stated
in this and earlier chapters I have been led to the conclusion
that among uncivilised races the moral ideas relating to men's
conduct towards one another have been much more influenced by the
belief in magic forces which may be utilised by man, than by the
belief in the free activity of gods.
[Footnote 198: Pfleiderer, _Philosophy and Development of
Religion_, iv. 230.]
[Footnote 199: Caird, _Evolution of Religion_, i. 237.]
[Footnote 200: Wundt, _Ethik_, p. 99.]
[Footnote 201: Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p.
267. _Cf._ _ibid._ p. 53.]
[Footnote 202: Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religion_,
pp. 112. 177.]
CHAPTER LI
GODS AS GUARDIANS OF MORALITY (_continued_)
FROM the gods of savage races we shall now pass to consider the
attitudes of more civilised gods towards matters of worldly
morality.
The deities of ancient Mexico were generally clothed with terror,
and delighted in vengeance and human sacrifices. But there was
also the god Quetzalcoatl, generous of gifts, mild and gentle,
and so averse from such sacrifices that he shut his ears with
both hands when they were mentioned.[1] The god Tezcatlipoca,
again, was looked upon as the austere guardian of law and morals;
but, as Sir E. B. Tylor observes, the remarkable Aztec formulas
collected by Sahagun, in which this deity is so prominent a
figure, show traces of Christian admixture in their material, as
well as of Christian influence in their style.[2] It seems that
the Mexicans had reached no fixed or systematic conclusions as to
the relation of the moral to the religious life.[3] They held
that departed souls attained different degrees of felicity or of
wretchedness according to their different modes of death.
Warriors who died on the battle-field or in the hands of the
enemy's priests, and merchants who died on their journey, went to
the house of the sun; those who were killed by lightning, who
were drowned, {698} or who died from some incurable disease went
to a terrestrial paradise; and those who died of old age or any
ordinary disease went to a land of darkness and desolation, where
they after a time sunk in a sleep which knew no waking.[4]
[Footnote 1: Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 294 _sq._
Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, iii. 259.]
[Footnote 2: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 344.]
[Footnote 3: Réville, _Hibbert Lectures on the Native Religions
of Mexico and Peru_, p. 104 _sq._]
[Footnote 4: Bancroft, _op. cit._ iii. 532 _sqq._ Clavigero,
_History of Mexico_, i. 242 _sq._]
Among the ancient Peruvians morality obtained a religious
sanction through the divinity ascribed to their rulers. "They
considered every mere order of the king to be a divine decree,"
says Garcilasso de la Vega; "how much more would they venerate
the special laws instituted for the common good. They said that
the sun had ordered these laws to be made, and had revealed them
to his child the Ynca; and hence a man who broke them was held to
be guilty of sacrilege."[5] According to the beliefs of the
higher classes the Incas were after death transported to the
mansion of the Sun, their father, where they still lived together
as his family. The nobles would either follow them there or would
live beneath the earth under the sceptre of Supay, the god of the
dead. There was no idea of positive suffering inflicted on the
wicked under his direction, but the subterranean abode was gloomy
and dismal. Exceptional considerations of birth, rank, or valour
in war determined the passage of chosen souls to heaven, where
their lot would be far happier than that of the souls who
remained in the regions below. The common people, on the other
hand, thought of the future life as a continuation, pure and
simple, of the present existence.[6]
[Footnote 5: Garcilasso de la Vega, _Royal Commentaries of the
Yncas_, i. 148.]
[Footnote 6: Réville, _op. cit._ p. 236 _sqq._]
The great gods of ancient Egypt were mostly conceived as friendly
beings.[7] Amon Râ, "the king of the gods," was, in his character
of the sun god, the creator, preserver, and supporter of all
living things. He it is who makes pasture for the herds and fruit
trees for men, on his account the Nile comes and mankind lives.
He is verily {699} of kindly heart: "when men call to him he
delivers the fearful from the insolent." He is "the vizier of the
poor, who takes no bribes," and who does not corrupt witnesses;
and to him officials pray for promotion.[8] Thoth, the moon god,
was also the god of all wisdom and learning, who gave men "speech
and writing," who discovered the written characters, and by his
arithmetic enabled gods and men to keep account of their
possessions.[9] Osiris ruled over the whole of Egypt as king, and
instructed its inhabitants in all that was good--in agriculture
as well as in the true religion--and gave them laws.[10] After a
long and blessed reign, however, he fell a prey to the
machinations of his brother Set, and, having been slain, was
constrained to descend into the Underworld, where he evermore
lived and reigned as judge and king of the dead. But the wicked
god Set was also an object of worship; for he was strong and
mighty, a terror to gods and men, and kings were anxious to
secure his favour.[11] We have noticed above that certain
Egyptian gods were believed to be guardians of truth;[12] and
closely connected with this function was their love of justice.
Thoth, who was called to witness by him who wished to give
assurance of his honesty and good faith,[13] was styled "the
judge in heaven";[14] while his wife Ma[=a], or Maat, was the
goddess of both truth and justice, and her priests were the
supreme judges.[15] But it seems that the Egyptian gods after all
chiefly took notice of such acts as concerned their own
wellbeing. {700} This is true even of Osiris, "the great god, the
lord of justice,"[16] in whose presence the judgment of the dead
was given which decided upon their admission into his kingdom. In
thousands upon thousands of funerary inscriptions we read words
like these:--"May a royal offering be given to Osiris, that he
may grant all manner of good things, food and drink to the soul
of the deceased."[17] And whilst the living paid him his dues in
sacrifices repeated from year to year at regular intervals, the
dead were not allowed to receive directly the sepulchral meals or
offerings of kindred on feast-days, but all that was addressed to
them must first pass through the hands of the god.[18] In the
"Negative Confession," which the worshippers of Osiris taught to
their dead, great importance was attached to religious offences,
such as to snare the birds of the gods, to catch the fish in
their lakes, to injure the herds in the temple domains, to
diminish the food in the temples, to revile the god. At the same
time the list of offences which excluded the dead from Osiris'
kingdom contained very many of a social character--murder,
oppression, stealing, robbing minors, fraud, lying, slander,
reviling, adultery.[19] But the meaning of this seems to have
been not so much that the god was animated by a righteous desire
to punish the wicked and reward the good, as, rather, that he did
not like to have any rascals among his vassals. As to the fate of
the non-justified dead very little is said, and the punishment
devised for them seems to have been a comparatively modern
invention.[20] Nay, the virtuous dead themselves depended for
their welfare {701} upon their knowledge of magic words and
formulas, upon amulets laid in their tombs, and upon the
offerings made to them by their kindred. Ignorant souls, or those
ill prepared for the struggle, were overcome by hunger and
thirst, were attacked by demons and poisonous animals in
traversing the regions of the Underworld, and, when in Osiris'
kingdom, had to work and till the land and earn their own living
if the offerings ceased.[21] The Book of the Dead is itself
essentially a collection of spells intended to secure to the dead
victory over evil demons and protection from the gods; and the
"Negative Confession" is a later addition, which shows that
originally the conduct of earthly life was not considered at
all.[22] So also in the book of Am Dûat the whole doctrine of a
future life is based upon a belief in the power of magic, with
the single exception that nobody can look forward to possessing
fields in Dûat who in life has been an enemy of the god Râ.[23]
[Footnote 7: On Egyptian gods as guardians of morality see,
generally, Gardiner, 'Egyptian Ethics and Morality,' in Hastings,
_Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, v. 479 _sq._]
[Footnote 8: Erman, _Handbook of Egyptian Religion_, pp. 58-60,
83. Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, p. 114.]
[Footnote 9: Erman, _op. cit._ p. 11. Maspero, _Dawn of
Civilization_, p. 220.]
[Footnote 10: Erman, _op. cit._ p. 32. _Idem_, _Life in Ancient
Egypt_, p. 270. Maspero, _op. cit._ p. 174. Plutarch, _De Iside
et Osiride_, 13. Diodorus Siculus, _Bibliotheca historica_, i.
14, 15, 25. Kaibel, _Epigrammata Græca_, p. xxi.]
[Footnote 11: It is probable that Set originally was the divine
protector of the kings of Upper Egypt, while Osiris' son Horus,
who defeated him, was the protector of the kings of Lower Egypt
(Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 19 _sq._).]
[Footnote 12: _Supra_, ii. 115.]
[Footnote 13: _Supra_, ii. 121.]
[Footnote 14: Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 11.]
[Footnote 15: _Supra_, ii. 115. Wiedemann, _op. cit._ p. 142.
Amélineau, _L'évolution des idées morales dans l'Égypte
ancienne_, pp. 182, 187. Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 21.]
[Footnote 16: Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 101.]
[Footnote 17: Wiedemann, _op. cit._ p. 217.]
[Footnote 18: Maspero, _op. cit._ p. 117.]
[Footnote 19: Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 103 _sqq._]
[Footnote 20: Wiedemann, _op. cit._ p. 95 _sq._ _Idem_, _Egyptian
Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul_, p. 55. Erman, _Egyptian
Religion_, p. 105. In the Pyramid texts we read that, if among
the deceased there is one of whom it can be said, "There is no
evil which he hath done," the saying penetrates to the sun god,
and he receives him kindly in heaven. The deceased also profits
with regard to his reception there if he has never spoken evil of
the king nor slighted the gods. But, as a rule, it is rather
bodily cleanliness which the gods demand of their new companion
in heaven, and they themselves help to purify him (Erman, p. 94).]
[Footnote 21: Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, p. 315 _sqq._
_Idem_, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 99 _sq._ Maspero, _op. cit._ p.
185 _sq._ _Idem_, _Études de mythologie et d'archéologie
égyptiennes_, i. 347. Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient
Egyptians_, pp. 279, 296. _Idem_, _Egyptian Doctrine of the
Immortality of the Soul_, p. 60 _sq._]
[Footnote 22: Maspero, _Études_, i. 348. Amélineau, _op. cit._ p.
243. Renouf, in _Book of the Dead_, p. 220. Erman, _Egyptian
Religion_, p. 101.]
[Footnote 23: Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, p.
94 _sq._ Maspero, _Études_, ii. 163.]
The religion of the Chaldeans was a religion of dread. Everywhere
they felt themselves surrounded by hostile demons; feared above
all were the seven evil spirits, who were everywhere and yet
invisible, who slipped through bolts and doorposts and sockets,
and who had power even to bewitch the gods.[24] In their
incessant warfare against these fiends men were assisted by the
more propitious among the deities: by Marduk, the "merciful" god,
the god of the youthful sun of spring and early morning;[25]
{702} by Ea, the "good" god, the god of the waters of the deep
and the source of wisdom;[26] by Gibil-Nusku, the lord of fire,
who put to flight the demons of night when the fire was kindled
on the household hearth, and who in the flame carried to the
other gods the sacrifices offered them;[27] as also by the
tutelary deities of each individual, household, and city.[28] The
gods were on the whole favourably disposed towards man. But they
helped only those who piously observed the prescribed rites, who
recited the conventional prayers and offered them sacrifices; on
such persons they bestowed a happy old age and a numerous
posterity. On the other hand, he who did not fear his god would
be cut down like a reed; and by neglecting the slightest
ceremonial detail the king excited the anger of the deities
against himself and his subjects.[29] During the whole of their
lives the Chaldeans were haunted by the dread of offending their
gods, and they continually implored pardon for their sins.[30]
But the sinner became conscious of his guilt only as a conclusion
drawn from the fact that he was suffering from some misfortune,
which he interpreted as a punishment sent by an offended god. It
mattered little what had called forth the wrath of the god or
whether the deity was acting in accordance with just ideas;[31]
and in none of the penitential psalms known to us is there any
indication that the notion of sin comprised offences against
fellow men. It is true that in the incantation series 'Shurpu'
not only offences against gods and ceremonial transgressions, but
a large number of wrongs of a social character, are included in
the list of possible causes of the suffering which the
incantation is intended to remove. On behalf of the afflicted
individual the exorciser asks:--"Has he sinned against a god, Is
his {703} guilt against a goddess, Is it a wrongful deed against
his master, Hatred towards his elder brother, Has he despised
father or mother, Insulted his elder sister, Has he given too
little,[32] Has he withheld too much, For 'no' said 'yes,' For
'yes' said 'no'? . . . Has he fixed a false boundary, Not fixed a
just boundary, Has he removed a boundary, a limit, or a
territory, Has he possessed himself of his neighbour's house, Has
he approached his neighbour's wife, Has he shed the blood of his
neighbour, Robbed his neighbour's dress?" and so forth.[33] But I
fail to see any legitimate ground for the conclusion which
Schrader and Zimmern have drawn from these passages, to wit, that
the gods were believed to be angry with persons guilty of any of
the offences enumerated.[34] It seems to me quite obvious that
the evils which were hypothetically associated with injuries
inflicted upon fellow men were ascribed, not to the avenging
activity of a god, but to the curses of the injured party. The
gods are expressly invoked to relieve the unhappy individual from
the curses under which he is suffering, whether he has been
cursed by his father, mother, elder brother, elder sister,
friend, master, king, or god, or has approached an accursed
person, or slept in such a person's bed, or sat on his chair, or
eaten from his dish or drunk from his cup.[35] In these
incantations there is no plea for forgiveness; the possible
causes for the suffering are enumerated simply because the
mention of the real cause is supposed to go a long way towards
expelling the evil.[36] Some of the gods, however, are invoked as
judges. This is frequently the case with Shamash, the sun god,
"the supreme judge of heaven and earth," who, seated on a throne
in the chamber of judgment, receives the supplications of
men.[37] Of the moon god Sin it is said in a hymn {704} dedicated
to him that his "word produces truth and justice, so that men
speak the truth."[38] And the lord of fire is addressed as a
judge, who burns the evildoers and annihilates the bad,[39] and
is exhorted by the conjurer to help him to his right;[40] but
this probably means little more than the invocation, "Eat my
enemies, destroy those who have done harm to me."[41] Of a moral
retribution after death there is no trace in the Chaldean
religion. Those who have obtained the goodwill of the gods
receive their reward in this world, by a life of happiness and of
good health, but the moment that death ensues the control of the
gods comes to an end. All mankind, kings and subjects, virtuous
and wicked, go to Aralû, the gloomy subterranean realm presided
over by Allatu and her consort Nergal, where the dead are doomed
to everlasting sojourn or imprisonment in a state of joyless
inactivity. A kind of judgment is spoken of, but nothing
indicates that it is based on moral considerations.[42] According
to the Gilgamesh epic, however, the fortunes awaiting those who
die are not all alike. Those who fall in battle seem to enjoy
special privileges, provided that they are properly buried and
there is someone to make them comfortable in their last hour and
to look after them when dead. But he whose corpse remains in the
field has no rest in the earth, and he whose spirit is not cared
for by any one is consumed by gnawing hunger.[43]
[Footnote 24: Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p.
260 _sqq._ Smith, _Chaldean Account of Genesis_, pp. 87, 88, 106
_sq._ _Idem_, _Chaldäische Genesis_, edited by Delitzsch, pp. 83,
306 _sq._]
[Footnote 25: Mürdter-Delitzsch, _Geschichte Babyloniens und
Assyriens_, p. 31. Sayce, _Hibbert Lectures on the Religion of
the Ancient Babylonians_, p. 98. King, _Babylonian Magic and
Sorcery_, p. 52 _sqq._ Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_,
pp. 87, 88, 249 _sq._ Schrader-Zimmern, _Die Keilinschriften und
das Alte Testament_, p. 372 _sq._]
[Footnote 26: Hommel, _Die semitischen Völker und Sprachen_, i.
374 _sqq._ Mürdter-Delitzsch, _op. cit._ p. 27. Sayce, _op. cit._
pp. 131, 140.]
[Footnote 27: Tallqvist, 'Die assyrische Beschwörungsserie
Maqlû,' in _Acta Soc. Scient. Fennicæ_, xx. 25, 28 _sq._]
[Footnote 28: Mürdter-Delitzsch, _op. cit._ p. 37 _sq._ Maspero,
_Dawn of Civilization_, pp. 643, 674, 682 _sq._]
[Footnote 29: Jeremias, _Die babylonisch-assyrischen
Vorstellungen vom Leben nach dem Tode_, p. 46 _sq._ Maspero,
_Dawn of Civilization_, pp. 697, 705.]
[Footnote 30: See Zimmern, _Babylonische Busspsalmen_, _passim_.]
[Footnote 31: _Cf._ Jastrow, _op. cit._ p. 313 _sqq._]
[Footnote 32: In mercantile transactions (Jastrow, _op. cit._
p. 291, n. 2).]
[Footnote 33: Zimmern, _Beiträge zur Kenntnis der babylonischen
Religion_, 'Die Beschwörungstafeln [vS]urpu,' p. 3 _sqq._]
[Footnote 34: _Idem_, in Schrader, _Die Keilinschriften und das
Alte Testament_, p. 612.]
[Footnote 35: Zimmern, _Die Beschwörungstafeln [vS]urpu_, ii. 89-93,
99-104, pp. 7, 23.]
[Footnote 36: See Jastrow, _op. cit._ p. 292.]
[Footnote 37: Tallqvist, _Maqlû_, ii. 94. Zimmern, _[vS]urpu_, ii.
130, p. 9. _Idem_, _Babylonische Hymnen und Gebete_, p. 13.
Mürdter-Delitzsch, _op. cit._ p. 28. Schrader-Zimmern, _op.
cit._ p. 368. Jastrow, _op. cit._ pp. 71, 120, 209 _sqq._]
[Footnote 38: Zimmern, _Babylonische Hymnen und Gebete_, p. 12.]
[Footnote 39: Tallqvist, _Maqlû_, i. 95; ii. 70, 89, 116, 130,
131, 184.]
[Footnote 40: _Ibid._ i. 114.]
[Footnote 41: _Ibid._ i. 116; ii. 120.]
[Footnote 42: Jeremias, _op. cit._ _passim_. Schrader-Zimmern,
_op. cit._ p. 636 _sq._ Jastrow, _op. cit._ p. 565 _sqq._ Jensen,
_op. cit._ p. 217 _sqq._]
[Footnote 43: Haupt, 'Die zwölfte Tafel des babylonischen
Nimrod-Epos,' in _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_, i. 69 _sq._ Jensen,
'Das Gilgamí[vs] (Nimrod)-Epos,' xii. 6, in _Assyrisch-Babylonische
Mythen und Epen_, p. 265.]
In a still higher degree than the Chaldean religion
Zoroastrianism represents an incessant struggle against evil
spirits. Here everything in heaven and on earth is engaged in the
conflict; it is a war between two mighty sovereigns, Ahura Mazda
and Angra Mainyu, and their respective forces.[44] Whatever works
for the good of man comes from {705} and strives for Ahura Mazda,
whatever works for the harm of man comes from and strives for
Angra Mainyu. There can be no doubt that the powers of goodness
will absolutely triumph in the end; but though Angra Mainyu and
his band have been defeated, the battle is still raging. Ahura
Mazda, being the originator of everything good in the world, is
also the founder of the order of the universe, "the creator of
the righteous order."[45] In the Vendîdâd he is asked about the
rules of life, and he is pleased to answer;[46] M. Darmesteter
observes that the Avesta and the Pentateuch are the only two
religious books known in which legislation descends from the
heavens to the earth in a series of conversations between the
lawgiver and his god.[47] The sacred law of Zoroastrianism
enjoins charity[48] and industry,[49] it condemns the murder of a
believer,[50] abortion,[51] theft,[52] non-payment of debts,[53]
and, with special emphasis, falsehood and breach of faith,[54]
and unnatural intercourse.[55] But the "good thoughts, words, and
deeds" most urgently insisted upon are orthodoxy, prayer, and
sacrifice; whilst the greatest sins are apostasy, transgressions
of the rules of ceremonial cleanliness, and offences against
sacred beings. It is less criminal to kill a man than to serve
bad food to a shepherd's dog; for the manslayer gets off with
ninety stripes, whereas the bad master will receive two
hundred.[56] And the killing of a water dog is punished with ten
thousand stripes.[57] Offenders will be liable to penalties not
only here below, but in the next world as well, where Ahura
Mazda, "the discerning arbiter,"[58] establishes "evil for the
evil, and happy blessings for the good."[59] The views accepted
in regard to the future life, {706} whilst incomplete in the
Gathas, are expanded in the Younger Avesta, and fully given in
the Pahlavi books.[60] The man who has lived for Ahura Mazda will
have a seat near him in heaven, and there he remains undecaying
and immortal, unalarmed and undistressed, full of glory and
delight; whereas the wicked soul will be tormented in the
darkness of hell, "the dwelling of the demons."[61] The good
deeds of the virtuous and the bad deeds of the wicked, in the
form of maidens, come to meet them on their roads to paradise or
hell.[62] But the fate of the dead is not merely influenced by
their conduct towards their fellow men while alive. It is said
that "he who wishes to seize the heavenly reward, will seize it
by giving gifts to him who holds up the Law."[63] And the soul of
him who recites the prayer Ahuna Vairya in the manner prescribed
crosses over the bridge which separates this world from the next,
and reaches the highest paradise.[64]
[Footnote 44: According to the _Vendîdâd_ (i. 3 _sqq._) Angra
Mainyu constantly countercreated the creations of Ahura Mazda.
But this idea is not yet to be found in the Gathas, where the
wickedness of Ako Mainyu is only represented as an attempt to
destroy the good creation (see Lehmann, _Zarathustra_, ii. 75, 165).]
[Footnote 45: _Yasna_, xxxi. 7. Darmesteter, _Ormazd et Ahriman_,
pp. 19, 24, 88, &c.]
[Footnote 46: _Vendîdâd_, xviii. 13 _sqq._]
[Footnote 47: Darmesteter, in _Sacred Books of the East_, iv.
(2nd edit.) p. lviii.]
[Footnote 48: _Supra_, i. 551.]
[Footnote 49: _Supra_, ii. 275.]
[Footnote 50: _Vendîdâd_, iii. 41; v. 14.]
[Footnote 51: _Ibid._ xv. 9 _sqq._]
[Footnote 52: _Supra_, ii. 60. _Yasna_, xi. 3.]
[Footnote 53: _Vendîdâd_, iv. 1.]
[Footnote 54: _Supra_, ii. 93.]
[Footnote 55: _Supra_, ii. 479 _sq._]
[Footnote 56: _Vendîdâd_, iv. 40; xiii. 24; xv. 3.]
[Footnote 57: _Ibid._ xiv. 1 _sq._]
[Footnote 58: _Yasna_, xxix. 4.]
[Footnote 59: _Ibid._ xliii. 5.]
[Footnote 60: _Cf._ Jackson, _Avesta Grammar_, i. p. xxviii.]
[Footnote 61: _Vendîdâd_, xix. 28 _sqq._ _Yasts_, xxii.
_Bundahis_, ch. xxx. _Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad_ ii. 123 _sqq._ ch.
vii. _Ardâ Vîrâf_, ch. xvii. _Cf._ Geiger, _Civilization of the
Eastern Ir[=a]nians_, i. 101.]
[Footnote 62: _Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad_, ii. 125, 167 _sqq._]
[Footnote 63: _Yasts_, xxiv. 30.]
[Footnote 64: Geiger, _op. cit._ i. 73. See also _Yasts_, xii.
335; xxiv. 39, 47 _sq._; Darmesteter, _Ormazd et Ahriman_, p. 28.]
In Vedic religion we likewise meet with a conflict between gods
and demons, but the struggle is too unequal to result in anything
like the Zoroastrian dualism.[65] Various misfortunes are
attributed to the ill-will of evil spirits, but their power is
comparatively slight, and the greater demons, like V[r.]tra,
are represented as defeated or destroyed by the gods.[66] On the
other hand there is among the great gods themselves one who has a
distinctly malevolent character, namely Rudra, a god of
storm,[67] "terrible like a wild beast";[68] but though the hymns
{707} addressed to him chiefly express fear of his dreadful
shafts and deprecations of his wrath, he is also sometimes
supplicated to confer blessings upon man and beast.[69] With this
exception the great gods are all beneficent beings,[70] though of
course liable to punish those who offend them. Varuna has
established heaven and earth,[71] has made the celestial bodies
to shine[72] and the rivers to flow.[73] He rules over nature by
laws which are fixed and immutable, and which must be followed by
the gods themselves.[74] He sees and knows everything, because he
is the infinite light and the sun is his eye;[75] and in
connection with Mithra he is said to dispel and punish
falsehood.[76] Varuna has even been represented as "the supreme
moral ruler," but it seems to me that scholars have generally
credited him with a somewhat more comprehensive sense of justice
than the hymns imply.[77] Every hymn to Varuna contains a prayer
for forgiveness, but there is no indication that the sins which
excite his wrath include ordinary moral wrongdoing. That sin and
moral guilt are not identical conceptions in the Rig-Veda is
fairly obvious from the fact that forgiveness of sin is also
sought from Indra,[78] whose favour is only won by those who
contribute to his wellbeing or who destroy persons neglectful of
his worship.[79] The Vedic religion is pre-emiently ritualistic.
The pious man _par préférence_ is he who makes the _soma_ flow in
abundance and whose hands are always full of butter, the
reprobate man is he who is penurious towards the gods;[80] and
just like the other gods, {708} Varuna visits with disease those
who neglect him,[81] and is appeased by sacrifices and
prayers.[82] After death the souls of those who have practised
rigorous penance,[83] of those who have risked their lives in
battle,[84] and above all of those who have bestowed liberal
sacrificial gifts,[85] go with the smoke arising from the funeral
pile to the heavenly world, where the Fathers dwell with
Yama--the first man who died[86]--and Varuna, the two kings who
reign in bliss.[87] There they enjoy an endless felicity among
the gods, clothed in glorious bodies and drinking the celestial
_soma_, which renders them immortal.[88] Yet there are different
degrees of happiness in this heavenly mansion. The performance of
rites in honour of the manes causes the souls to ascend from a
lower to a higher state; indeed, if no such offerings are made
they do not go to heaven at all.[89] Another source of happiness
for the dead is their own pious conduct during their lifetime;
for in the abode of bliss they are united with what they have
sacrificed and given, especially reaping the reward of their
gifts to priests.[90] Unworthy souls, on the other hand, are kept
out of this abode by Yama's dogs, which guard the road to his
kingdom.[91] As to the destiny in store for those who are not
admitted to heaven, the hymns have little to tell. Zimmer and
others erroneously argue that a race who believe in future
rewards for the good must logically believe in future punishments
for the wicked.[92] So far as I can see, all the traces of such a
belief which are to be found in the Vedic literature are requests
made to gods, {709} or simply curses, to the effect that
evil-doers may be thrown into deep and dismal pits under the
earth.[93] They do not imply that gods of their own accord punish
wicked people after death.
[Footnote 65: _Cf._ Barth, _Religions of India_, p. 13.]
[Footnote 66: Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, p. 281.
Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_, p. 18.]
[Footnote 67: Muir, _Original Sanskrit Texts_, v. 147. Barth,
_op. cit._ p. 14. Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 77.]
[Footnote 68: Oldenberg, _op. cit._ pp. 63, 281, 284. Macdonell,
_op. cit._ p. 18. Bergaigne, _La religion védique_, iii. 152 _sqq._]
[Footnote 69: Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 75 _sq._]
[Footnote 70: Oldenberg, _op. cit._ pp. 60, 281. Macdonell, _op.
cit._ p. 18.]
[Footnote 71: _Rig-Veda_, viii. 42. 1.]
[Footnote 72: _Ibid._ i. 24. 10; vii. 87. 5.]
[Footnote 73: _Ibid._ ii. 28. 4.]
[Footnote 74: _Ibid._ viii. 41. 7. Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 26.
Bohnenberger, _Der altindische Gott Varu[n.]a_, p. 38 _sqq._]
[Footnote 75: _Supra_, ii. 598. Darmesteter, _Essais orientaux_,
p. 126.]
[Footnote 76: Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 26.]
[Footnote 77: Macdonell, _op. cit._ pp. 20, 26. Whitney, 'On the
main Results of the later Vedic Researches in Germany,' in _Jour.
American Oriental Soc._ iii. 326. Roth, 'On the Morality of the
Veda,' _ibid._ iii. 340 _sq._ Bergaigne, _op. cit._ iii. 156.
Darmesteter, _Essais orientaux_, p. 111. Bohnenberger, _op. cit._
p. 49 _sqq._]
[Footnote 78: Oldenberg, _op. cit._ p. 299.]
[Footnote 79: _Ibid._ pp. 282, 283, 300.]
[Footnote 80: _Rig-Veda_, viii. 31. See Barth, _op. cit._ p. 34;
Kaegi, _Rigveda_, p. 29; Muir, _op. cit._ v. 20; Macdonell, _op.
cit._ p. 18.]
[Footnote 81: _Rig-Veda_, i. 122. 9.]
[Footnote 82: _Ibid._ i. 24. 14.]
[Footnote 83: _Ibid._ x. 154. 2.]
[Footnote 84: _Ibid._ x. 154. 3.]
[Footnote 85: _Ibid._ i. 125. 5 _sq._; x. 107. 2; x. 154. 3.
Muir, _op. cit._ v. 285. Oldenberg, _op. cit._ p. 536. Macdonell,
_op. cit._ p. 167.]
[Footnote 86: Muir, _op. cit._ v. 301.]
[Footnote 87: _Rig-Veda_, x. 14. 7 _sq._ Barth, _op. cit._ p. 22
_sq._ Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 165 _sqq._]
[Footnote 88: Zimmer, _Altindisches Leben_, p. 410 _sqq._ Barth,
_op. cit._ p. 23. Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 167 _sq._]
[Footnote 89: Hopkins, _Religions of India_, p. 155. Oldenberg,
_op. cit._ p. 535.]
[Footnote 90: _Rig-Veda_, x. 14. 8; x. 154. 3. Oldenberg, _op.
cit._ p. 535. Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 168.]
[Footnote 91: _Rig-Veda_, x. 14. 10 _sqq._ _Cf._ Zimmer, _op.
cit._ p. 421; Hopkins, _op. cit._ p. 147.]
[Footnote 92: Zimmer, _op. cit._ p. 418. Scherman, _Indische
Visionslitteratur_, p. 123. _Idem_, 'Eine Art visionärer
Höllenschilderung aus dem indischen Mittelalter,' in _Romanische
Forschungen_, v. 569. Oldenberg, _op. cit._ p. 537.]
[Footnote 93: _Rig-Veda_, iv. 5. 5; vii. 104. 3, 11, 17.
_Atharva-Veda_, v. 19. 3, 12 _sqq._; xii. 4. 3, 36.]
In post-Vedic times ritualism grew more important still.
Sometimes the gods are represented as beings indifferent to every
moral distinction, and the most indelicate stories are
unscrupulously related of them.[94] In the Taittirîya Samhitâ of
the Yajur Veda we are told that if anybody wishes to injure
another, he need only say to Sûrya, one of the most important
among the solar deities,[95] "Smite such a one, and I will give
you an offering," and Sûrya, to get the offering, will smite
him.[96] Çiva, who is connected with the Vedic god Rudra, is in
the Mahabharata clothed in terrible "forms," being armed with the
trident and wearing a necklace of skulls; he exacts a bloody
cultus, and is the chief of the mischievous spirits and vampires
that frequent places of execution and burial grounds.[97] Vishnu,
the other great god of Hinduism, though less fierce than Çiva, is
nevertheless, on one side of his character, an inexorable
god;[98] and Krishna, as accepted by Vishnuism, is a crafty hero
of a singularly doubtful moral character.[99] In Brahmanism
religion is largely replaced by magic, the rites themselves are
raised to the rank of divinities, the priests become the gods of
gods.[100] And the point of view from which these man-gods look
upon human conduct is expressed in the Satapatha Brâhmana, where
it is said that fees paid to priests are like sacrifices offered
to other gods--those who gratify them are placed in a state of
bliss.[101] Ritual observances are essential for a man's
wellbeing both in this life and in the life to come, where
paradise, hell, or transmigration {710} awaits the dead. In the
Brâhmanas immortality, or at least longevity, is promised to
those who rightly understand and practise the rites of sacrifice,
whilst those who are deficient in this respect depart before
their natural term of life to the next world, where they are
weighed in a balance and receive good or evil according to their
deeds.[102] To repeat sacred texts a certain number of times is
also laid down as a condition of salvation,[103] and the doctrine
is gradually developed that a single invocation of the divine
name cancels a whole life of iniquity and crime. Hence the
importance attached--as early as the Bhagavad Gîtâ--to the last
thought before death, and the idea of attaining complete
possession of this thought by an act of suicide.[104] According
to the Purânas it is sufficient even in the case of the vilest
criminal, when at the point of death, to pronounce by chance some
syllables of the names Vishnu or Çiva in order to obtain
salvation;[105] and in the preface to the Prem Sâgar, which
displays the religion of the Hindus at the present day, it is
said that those who even ignorantly sing the praises of the
greatness of Krishn Chand are rewarded with final beatitude, just
as a person would acquire eternal life by partaking of the drink
of immortality though he did not know what he was drinking.[106]
On the other hand, "according to the Hindu Scriptures, whatever a
man's life may have been, if he do not die near some holy stream,
if his body is not burned on its banks, or at any rate near some
water as a representative of the stream; or where this is
impracticable, if some portion of his body be not thrown into
it--his spirit must wander in misery, unable to obtain the bliss
for which he has done and suffered so much in life."[107] At the
same time we also find a great variety of social duties {711}
inculcated in the sacred books of India--humanity even to
enemies[108] and slaves,[109] filial piety,[110] charity,[111]
hospitality,[112] veracity;[113] and in the Sûtras the doctrine
appears that in order to obtain the chief fruit of sacrifice it
is necessary to practise the moral virtues in addition to the
rite.[114] But this doctrine is singularly free from any
reference to the justice of gods. In the Upanishads and
Buddhistic books it is distinctly formulated in the idea of
_karma_, according to which each act of the soul, good or bad,
inevitably and naturally works out its full effect to the sweet
or bitter end without the intervention of any deity to apportion
the reward or punishment.[115]
[Footnote 94: Barth, _op. cit._ p. 46 _sq._ Macdonell, _op. cit._
p. 76.]
[Footnote 95: Barth, _op. cit._ p. 20.]
[Footnote 96: _Taittirîya Samhitâ_, vi. 4 _sqq._, quoted by
Goblet d'Alviella, _Hibbert Lectures on the Origin and Growth of
the Conception of God_, p. 85.]
[Footnote 97: Barth, _op. cit._ pp. 159, 164.]
[Footnote 98: _Ibid._ p. 174.]
[Footnote 99: _Ibid._ p. 172.]
[Footnote 100: _Supra_, ii. 657.]
[Footnote 101: _Satapatha Brâhmana_, ii. 2. 2. 6.]
[Footnote 102: Weber, 'Eine Legende des Çatapatha-Brâhma[n.]a
über die strafende Vergeltung nach dem Tode,' in _Zeitschr. d.
Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellsch._ ix. 238 _sq._ See also
Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 168; Hopkins, _op. cit._ pp. 190, 193;
_Vish['n]u Purá['n]a_, p. 44.]
[Footnote 103: _Aitareya Brahmanam_, ii. 17.]
[Footnote 104: _Bhagavad Gîtâ_, ch. 8. Barth, _op. cit._ p. 228.]
[Footnote 105: Barth, _op. cit._ p. 228.]
[Footnote 106: _Prem Ságar_, p. 56. _Cf._ Wilson, in _Vish['n]u
Purá['n]a_, p. 210, n. 13; _Idem_, 'Religious Sects of the
Hindus,' in _Asiatic Researches_, xvi. 115.]
[Footnote 107: Wilkins, _Modern Hinduism_, p. 439 _sq._]
[Footnote 108: _Supra_, i. 342.]
[Footnote 109: _Supra_, i. 689.]
[Footnote 110: _Supra_, i. 612.]
[Footnote 111: _Supra_, i. 550 _sq._]
[Footnote 112: _Supra_, i. 578 _sq._]
[Footnote 113: _Supra_, ii. 91.]
[Footnote 114: Barth, _op. cit._ p. 49. See, _e.g._, _Âpastamba_,
i. 7. 20. 1 _sqq._; i. 8. 23. 6.]
[Footnote 115: Barth, _op. cit._ pp. 77, 78, 115 _sq._ Müller,
_Anthropological Religion_, p. 301. _Dhammapada_, i. 1 _sq._ Rhys
Davids, _Hibbert Lectures on the History of Buddhism_, p. 85.
Oldenberg, _Buddha_, p. 289. Hopkins, _op. cit._ p. 319 _sq._]
Buddha did not base his system on any belief in gods, hence there
is no place in it for a ritual nor for sin in the sense of
offending a supernatural being. He that is pure in heart is the
true priest, not he that knows the Vedas; the Vedas are nothing,
the priests are of no account, save as they be morally of
repute.[116] If the genuine Buddhist can be said to worship any
higher power, it is the moral order which never fails to assert
itself in the law of cause and effect. But Buddha's followers
were less metaphysical, and "the clouds returned after the rain."
The old gods of Brahmanism came back, Buddha himself was deified
as an omniscient and everlasting god, and Buddhism incorporated
most of the local deities and demons of those nations it sought
to convert.[117] From being originally a metaphysical and ethical
doctrine, it was thus transformed into a religion full of
ritualism, and, it should be added, profusely mixed with magic.
In Lamaism, especially, {712} ritual is elevated to the front
rank of importance; we find there pompous services closely
resembling those of the Church of Rome, litanies and chants,
offerings and sacrifice.[118] And the muttering of certain mystic
formulas and short prayers is alleged to be far more efficacious
than mere moral virtue as a means of gaining the glorious heaven
of eternal bliss, the paradise of the fabulous Buddha of
boundless light.[119] So also in China the teachers of Buddhism
"were by no means rigorous in enforcing the obligations of men to
morality. To expiate sins, offerings to the idols and to the
priests were sufficient. A temple built in honour of F[)o], and
richly endowed, would suffice to blot out every stain of guilt,
and serve as a portal to the blessed mansions of Buddha."[120]
[Footnote 116: Hopkins, _op. cit._ p. 319.]
[Footnote 117: Waddell, _Buddhism in Tibet_, pp. 126, 325 _sq._
Griffis, _Religions of Japan_, pp. 187, 207. Davis, _China_, ii. 51.]
[Footnote 118: Waddell, _op. cit._ 421, 476.]
[Footnote 119: _Ibid._ pp. 142, 148, 573.]
[Footnote 120: Gutzlaff, quoted by Davis, _op. cit._ ii. 51.
_Cf._ Edkins, _Religion in China_, p. 150.]
In the national religion of China the heaven god, Shang-te, is
the supreme being, the creator and sovereign ruler of the
universe, whose power knows no bounds, and whose sight equally
comprehends the past, the present, and the future, penetrating
even to the remotest recesses of the heart.[121] He is the author
and upholder not only of the physical but of the moral order of
the world, watching over the conduct of men, rewarding the good,
and punishing the wicked.[122] Sometimes he appears to array
himself in terrors, as in the case of public calamities and the
irregularity of the seasons; but these are only salutary warnings
intended to call men to repentance.[123] The cult which is
offered Shang-te is frigid and ceremonial. The rules of ceremony
have their origin in heaven, and the movement of them {713}
reaches to earth; their abandonment leads to "the ruin of states,
the destruction of families, and the perishing of individuals."[124]
The Chinese are inclined to place ritualism on an equality with
social morality. Confucius himself humbly submitted to the rules
of ceremony, although he denounced hypocrisy. But to him morality
was infinitely more important than religion. He altogether
avoided the personal term God, and made only use of the abstract
term Heaven. He admitted that spiritual beings exist, and even
sacrificed to them,[125] but when questioned about matters
relating to religion he was systematically silent.[126] Religious
duties occupy a very insignificant place in his system. "To give
one's self earnestly to the duties due to men, and, while
respecting spiritual beings, to keep aloof from them, may be
called wisdom."[127] Prayer is unnecessary because Heaven does
not actively interfere with the soul of man; it has endowed him
at his birth with goodness, which, if he will, may become his
nature, and the reward or punishment is only the natural or
providential result of his conduct.[128] Of punishments in a
future life Confucius says nothing, though he maintains that
there are rewards and dignity for the good after death.[129] The
belief of the Chinese in _post mortem_ punishments comes from
Buddhism.[130]
[Footnote 121: Legge, _Notions of the Chinese concerning God_,
pp. 33, 34, 100 _sq._ _Idem_, _Chinese Classics_, i. 98.
Staunton, _Inquiry into the proper Mode of rendering the Word
"God" in translating the Sacred Scriptures into the Chinese
Language_, p. 8 _sq._ Douglas, _Confucianism and Taouism_,
pp. 77, 82.]
[Footnote 122: Doolittle, _Social Life of the Chinese_, ii. 272.
Legge, _Chinese Classics_, i. 98; iii. 46. Smith, _Proverbs of
the Chinese_, p. 40. Boone, _Essay on the proper rendering of the
Words Elohim and [Greek: The/os] into the Chinese Language_,
p. 55. _Indo-Chinese Gleaner_, i. 162. Davis, _op. cit._ ii. 26, 34.
Douglas, _op. cit._ pp. 77, 78, 83.]
[Footnote 123: Staunton, _op. cit._ p. 9. Legge, _Chinese
Classics_, iii. 46 _sq._]
[Footnote 124: _Lî Kî_, vii. 4. 5 _sq._]
[Footnote 125: _Lun Yü_, iii. 12. 1; x. 8. 10.]
[Footnote 126: _Ibid._ vii. 20. _Cf._ Réville, _La religion
chinoise_, p. 326.]
[Footnote 127: _Lun Yü_, vi. 20.]
[Footnote 128: Douglas, _op. cit._ p. 78. Legge, _Religions of
China_, p. 300. Réville, _op. cit._ p. 645.]
[Footnote 129: Legge, _Religions of China_, pp. 115, 299 _sq._
Réville, _op. cit._ p. 345.]
[Footnote 130: _Indo-Chinese Gleaner_, iii. 288. Edkins, _op.
cit._ pp. 83, 87 _sqq._ Smith, _Proverbs of the Chinese_, p. 227.]
The gods of ancient Greece were on the whole beneficent beings,
who conferred blessings upon those who secured their goodwill.
Zeus protects the life of the family, city, and nation; he is a
god of victory and victorious peace, who gathers the hosts
against Troy, and saves Greece from Persia; he brings the ships
to land; he is "the warder off of evil."[131] But neither he nor
the other gods bestow their {714} favours for nothing; Xenophon
says that they assist with good advice those who worship them
regularly,[132] but take revenge on those who neglect them.[133]
They punish severely even offences committed against them
accidentally,[134] and not infrequently they display actual
malevolence towards men by seducing them into sin[135] or
inflicting harm upon them out of sheer envy.[136] In other
respects, also, they are by no means models of morality; but this
does not prevent them from acting as administrators of justice
any more than, among men, a judge is supposed to lose all regard
for justice because he himself transgresses the rules of morality
in some particular of private life.[137] "For great crimes," says
Herodotus, "great punishments at the hands of the gods are in
store."[138] Dike, or Justice, the terrible virgin "who breathes
against her enemies a destructive wrath,"[139] is represented
sometimes as the daughter, sometimes as the companion of the
all-seeing Zeus;[140] and, as Welcker observes, Zeus was not only
a god among other gods, but also the deity solely and
abstractedly.[141] We have noticed above that from ancient times
the murder of a kinsman was an offence against Zeus and under the
ban of the Erinyes, and that later on all bloodshed, if the
victim had any rights at all within the city, became a sin which
needed purification.[142] Zeus protected guests and
suppliants,[143] he punished children who reproached their aged
parents,[144] he was a guardian of the family property,[145] he
protected boundaries,[146] he was no friend of falsehood,[147] he
punished perjury.[148] According to earlier beliefs retribution
was exclusively restricted {715} to this earthly existence, and
if the guilty person himself escaped the punishment for his deed
it fell on some of his descendants.[149] The transference of
Menelaus to the Elysian plain, spoken of in the Odyssey,[150] was
not a reward for his virtue--indeed, he was not particularly
conspicuous for any of the Homeric virtues--but a privilege
resulting from his being married to Zeus' daughter Helena;[151]
and if the perjurer was tortured in Hades[152] the simple reason
was that he had called down upon himself such torture in his
oath.[153] In later times we meet with the doctrine of
retribution after death, not only in the speculations of isolated
philosophers, but as a popular belief;[154] but this belief seems
to have been quite unconnected with any notion of Olympian
justice.[155] The souls in the world beyond the grave are
sentenced by special judges;[156] Aeschylus expressly says that
it is another Zeus that administers justice there.[157] For him
Hades with the powers by which it is governed exists only as a
place where the guilty are punished, whereas for the virtuous he
has no word of true hope;[158] and other writers also have much
more to tell about future punishments than about future
rewards.[159] Particularly prominent among the offences which are
punished in Hades are, besides perjury,[160] injuries to
parents[161] and guests,[162] that is, offences which in this
world are visited with the most powerful curses.[163] According
to Aeschylus, the retribution which the Erinyes--personifications
of curses--have begun on earth is completed in the nether world,
and according to Pythagoras unpurified souls are kept chained
there by the Erinyes without any hope of escape.[164] We are,
moreover, told that painters used to represent "allegorical
figures of curses in connection with their {716} images of wicked
dead.[165] From all these facts I conclude that the notion of
punishments in Hades did not arise from a belief in the justice
of gods, but from the idea that the efficacy of a curse may
extend beyond the grave--an idea which we have already met with
both in Vedic texts and among certain savages, and of which the
supposed punishment of perjury in Hades is only a particular
instance.[166] As for the gods it should be added that the vulgar
opinion of their character was not shared by all. Euripides
affirms that the legends about them which tend to confuse human
ideas as to right and wrong are not literally true.[167] "I
think," he says, "that none of the gods is bad";[168] "if the
gods do aught that is base, they are not gods."[169] Plato
opposes the popular views that the deity induces men to commit
crimes,[170] that he is capable of feeling envy,[171] and that
evil-doers may avert divine punishments by sacrifices offered to
the gods as bribes.[172] God is good, he is never the author of
evil to any one, and if the wicked are miserable the reason is
that they require to be punished and are benefited by receiving
punishment from God.[173] Plutarch likewise asserts in the
strongest terms that God is perfectly good and least of all
wanting in justice and love, "the most beautiful of virtues and
the best befitting the Godhead."[174]
[Footnote 131: Farnell, _Cults of the Greek States_, i. 59-61,
83, 107. Vischer, _Kleine Schriften_, ii. 352 _sq._ Preller,
_Griechische Mythologie_, i. 146 _sqq._]
[Footnote 132: Xenophon, _Hipparchicus_, ix. 9. _Idem_,
_Cyropædia_, i. 6. 46.]
[Footnote 133: _Idem_, _Anabasis_, v. 3. 13; vii. 8. 4.]
[Footnote 134: Nägelsbach, _Die nachhomerische Theologie des
griechischen Volksglaubens_, p. 331 _sqq._]
[Footnote 135: Schmidt, _Die Ethik der alten Griechen_, i. 231
_sqq._]
[Footnote 136: _Ibid._ i. 79 _sqq._]
[Footnote 137: _Cf._ Nägelsbach, _Homerische Theologie_, pp. 288,
317 _sqq._; Schmidt, _op. cit._ i. 48 _sqq._; Maury, _Histoire
des religions de la Grèce antique_, i. 342; Gladstone, _Studies
on Homer_, ii. 384.]
[Footnote 138: Herodotus, ii. 120.]
[Footnote 139: Aeschylus, _Choephor[oe]_, 949 _sqq._]
[Footnote 140: _Ibid._ 949. Hesiod, _Opera et dies_, 256 (254).
Usener, _Götternamen_, p. 197. Farnell, _op. cit._ i. 71,
Darmesteter, _Essais orientaux_, p. 106 _sq._]
[Footnote 141: Welcker, _Griechische Götterlehre_, i. 181.]
[Footnote 142: _Supra_, i. 379.]
[Footnote 143: _Supra_, i. 579, 585.]
[Footnote 144: _Supra_, i. 624.]
[Footnote 145: _Supra_, ii. 60.]
[Footnote 146: _Supra_, ii. 61.]
[Footnote 147: _Supra_, ii. 116.]
[Footnote 148: _Supra_, ii. 121.]
[Footnote 149: _Supra_, i. 49 _sq._]
[Footnote 150: _Odyssey_, iv. 561 _sqq._]
[Footnote 151: _Cf._ Rohde, _Psyche_, p. 74.]
[Footnote 152: _Iliad_, iii. 278 _sq._; xix. 259 _sq._]
[Footnote 153: _Cf._ Rohde, _op. cit._ p. 60.]
[Footnote 154: Schmidt, _op. cit._ i. 99 _sqq._ Nägelsbach,
_Nachhomerische Theologie_, p. 35 _sq._]
[Footnote 155: _Cf._ Schmidt, _op. cit._ i. 104.]
[Footnote 156: _Ibid._ i. 101.]
[Footnote 157: Aeschylus, _Supplices_, 230 _sq._]
[Footnote 158: _Cf._ Westcott, _Essays in the History of
Religious Thought_, p. 87.]
[Footnote 159: Schmidt, _op. cit._ i. 101 _sq._]
[Footnote 160: Aristophanes, _Ranæ_, 150, 275.]
[Footnote 161: Aeschylus, _Eumenides_, 175, 267 _sqq._, 335 _sqq._
Pausanias, x. 28. 4 _sq._ Aristophanes, _Ranæ_, 147-150, 274.]
[Footnote 162: Aeschylus, _Eumenides_, 269 _sq._ Aristophanes,
_Ranæ_, 147 _sq._]
[Footnote 163: See _supra_, i. 584 _sqq._, 621 _sqq._]
[Footnote 164: Diogenes Laertius, _De vitis philosophorum_, viii.
1. 31.]
[Footnote 165: Demosthenes (?), _Contra Aristogitonem oratio I._ 52.]
[Footnote 166: The Arabs of the Ulád Bu [(]Azîz in Southern
Morocco maintain that there are three classes of persons who are
infallibly doomed to hell, namely, those who have been cursed by
their parents, those who have been guilty of unlawful homicide,
and those who have burned corn. They say that every grain curses
him who burns it.]
[Footnote 167: _Cf._ Westcott, _op. cit._ p. 104.]
[Footnote 168: Euripides, _Iphigenia in Tauris_, 391.]
[Footnote 169: _Idem_, _Bellerophon_, 17 (_Fragmenta_, 300).]
[Footnote 170: Plato, _Respublica_, ii. 379 _sq._]
[Footnote 171: _Idem_, _Phædrus_, p. 247. _Idem_, _Timæus_, p. 29.]
[Footnote 172: _Idem_, _Respublica_, ii. 364 _sqq._ _Idem_,
_Leges_, x. 905 _sqq._; xii. 948.]
[Footnote 173: _Idem_, _Respublica_, ii. 379 _sq._ _Cf._
Aeschylus, _Agamemnon_, 176 _sqq._]
[Footnote 174: Plutarch, _De defectu oraculorum_, See also
_Idem_, _De adulatore et amico_, 22.]
The gods of the Romans were on the whole unsympathetic and
lifeless beings, some of them even actually pernicious, as the
god of Fever, who had a temple on the Palatine hill, and the god
of Ill-Fortune, who had an altar on the Esquiline hill.[175] The
relations between the gods {717} and their worshippers were cold,
ceremonial, legal. The chief thing was not to break "the peace of
the gods," or, when it was broken, to restore it.[176] They were
rendered propitious by "sanctity" and "piety."[177] But sanctity
was defined as "the knowledge of how we ought to worship them,"
and piety was only "justice towards the gods," the return for
benefits received; Cicero asks, "What piety is due to a being
from whom you receive nothing?"[178] The divine law, _fas_, was
distinguished from the human law, _jus_. To the former belonged
not only the religious rites but the duties to the dead, as also
the duties to certain living individuals.[179] Offences against
parents were avenged by the _divi parentum_;[180] the duty of
hospitality was enforced by the _dii hospitales_ and
Jupiter;[181] boundaries were protected by Jupiter Terminalis and
Terminus;[182] and Jupiter, Dius Fidius, and Fides, were the
guardians of sworn faith.[183]
[Footnote 175: Cicero, _De natura deorum_, iii. 25.]
[Footnote 176: Leist, _Græco-italische Rechtsgeschichte_, p. 219
_sqq._ Granger, _Worship of the Romans_, p. 217.]
[Footnote 177: Cicero, _De officiis_, ii. 3.]
[Footnote 178: _Idem_, _De natura deorum_, i. 41.]
[Footnote 179: On the distinction between _fas_ and _jus_ see von
Jhering, _Geist des römischen Rechts_, i. 258.]
[Footnote 180: _Supra_, i. 624.]
[Footnote 181: _Supra_, i. 580.]
[Footnote 182: _Supra_, ii. 61.]
[Footnote 183: _Supra_, ii. 96, 121 _sq._ Wissowa, _Religion und
Kultus der Römer_, pp. 48, 103, 104, 123 _sq._]
The god of Israel was a powerful protector of his chosen people,
but he was a severe master who inspired more fear than love. In
the pre-prophetic period at least, he was no model of goodness.
He had unaccountable moods, his wrath often resembled "rather the
insensate violence of angered nature, than the reasonable
indignation of a moralised personality"[184]--as appears, for
instance, from the suggestion of David that Saul's undeserved
enmity might be due to the incitement of God.[185] At the same
time his severity was also a guardian of human relationships. It
turned against children who were disrespectful to their parents,
against murderers, adulterers, thieves, false witnesses--indeed,
the whole criminal law was a revelation of the Lord. He was
moreover a protector of {718} the poor and needy,[186] and a
preserver of strangers.[187] But offences against God were, in
the Ten Commandments, mentioned before offences against man;
religious rites were put on the same level with the rules of
social morality; neglect of circumcision, or disregard of the
precepts of ceremonial cleanliness, or sabbath-breaking, was
punished with the same severity as the greatest crimes.[188] "To
the ordinary man," says Wellhausen, "it was not moral but
liturgical acts that seemed to be truly religious."[189] A
different opinion, however, was expressed by the Prophets. They
opposed the vice of the heart to the outward service of the
ritual.[190] God was said by them to desire not sacrifice but
mercy,[191] and to hate the hypocritical service of Israel with
its feast-days and solemn assemblies;[192] and the true fast was
declared to consist in moral welldoing.[193] To them
righteousness was the fundamental virtue of Yahveh, and if he
punished Israel his anger was no longer a merely fitful outburst,
unrelated to Israel's own wrongdoing, but an essential element of
his righteousness.[194] However, as M. Halévy observes, the truly
national conceptions of the Hebrews were not those which the
Prophets maintained, but those which they opposed.[195] The
importance of ritual was more than ever emphasised in the
post-prophetic priestly code.
[Footnote 184: Montefiore, _Hibbert Lectures on the Religion of
the Ancient Hebrews_, p. 38.]
[Footnote 185: _1 Samuel_, xxvi. 19.]
[Footnote 186: _Supra_, i. 552, 565.]
[Footnote 187: _Supra_, i. 580.]
[Footnote 188: Montefiore, _op. cit._ pp. 327, 470. Kuenen,
_Religion of Israel_, ii. 276.]
[Footnote 189: Wellhausen, _Prolegomena to the History of
Israel_, p. 468.]
[Footnote 190: _Cf._ Caird, _Evolution of Religion_, ii. 119.]
[Footnote 191: _Hosea_, vi. 6.]
[Footnote 192: _Amos_, v. 21 _sqq._]