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THE TEMPLE PRIMERS
RELIGION
its origin and forms
By J. A. MACCULLOCH
1904 × 29 & 50 BEDFORD STREET, LONDON

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CONTENTS
CHAPTER
III.
IV.
WI.
VII.
VIII.
Introduction: The Science of Religion
PART I
The Origin of Religion . º º -
The Mental Condition of Savages: Animism
Nature-worship º g º
Animal-worship and Totemism
Ghost-worship
Fetichism . g e g º º
Religion and Magic: Priest and Sorcerer
The Soul, Immortality, and Transmigration
Feeding the Dead and Sacrificial Rites
Religion and Mythology -
PART II
The Religion of Babylon
The Religion of Egypt
The Religion of China
Religion in India .
The Religion of Greece
The Religion of Rome
The Religion of Scandinavia -
Mazdeism and Zoroaster : Mithraism
Buddhism
Mohammedanism
BIBLIoGRAPIIY
INDEx ,
PAGE
I 3
2. I
29
39
46
54
62
71
79
87
95
I O2
I I 2.
I 2 O
I 30
138
I45
I 52
I 59
167
I 74
177
RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
INTRODUCTORY
The Science of Religion
EveRY one remembers how Dr. Casaubon in Middlemarch
laboured to discover a key to all the mythologies, only to
find, when the work was approaching completion, that he had
been long ago forestalled by the Germans, whose language he
did not understand. The opening up of far lands, the care-
ful investigation of primitive religions, and the better under-
standing of the psychology of religion, have all made the
discovery of the desiderated “key’’ more nearly attainable.
But even now, with all these advantages, students of the
Science of Religion are more modest in their wishes than the
pedantic Casaubon. The aim of this science is to trace the
manifold religious beliefs and rites of humanity, savage and
civilized, back to their simplest elements and origins, to arrive
at the condition of mind which made such beliefs and rites
possible, and, as biology tries to reach to the origin of life, so
this science would endeavour to unfold the origin of religion
itself.
The Science of Religion is thus at once a psychology, a
philosophy, a history, and an exposition of facts. It is an
exposition of facts in so far as it sets forth in order the
observations of religions made by travellers, missionaries,
anthropologists and others, the statements made in the sacred
writings of the various faiths, the suggestions prompted by
B
2. RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
what such sciences as archaeology, ethnography, philology, and
folklore have revealed. It is a history in so far as it shows
how any given religion has arisen, flourished, influenced other
faiths, and finally, perhaps, disappeared from actual existence,
leaving only a few scanty records behind. It is a philosophy
in so far as it co-ordinates the various beliefs of mankind with
each other and with themselves as they exist at different
levels. Finally it is a psychology in so far as it goes behind
religious phenomena to the seat of religion itself in man, and
tries to discover what in man constitutes him a religious being,
how that distinguishing faculty arose, why it is that now it
reveals itself “trailing clouds of glory,” and again is con-
tent with, apparently, the most trivial or the most gross
superstitions.
Such a science in this wide interpretation has only become
possible within recent times, yet, like most sciences, it had its
birth long before, and, unlike them, was more scientific in its
methods than e.g. primitive astronomy or chemistry, which
were mainly, in their inception and for centuries of growth,
alchemy and astrology. In classical times Herodotus was
an active and indefatigable, if credulous observer of strange
religions, and to him our science owes not a few of its facts.
Long after, when foreign religions were being eagerly
accepted by Greeks and Romans, tired of their ancient faiths,
Plutarch made it his task to expound some of these religions,
and in this he was followed by others. In Greece, Plato,
and in Rome, Cicero, are typical examples of men who
investigated many of the problems with which the science of
religion on its philosophical and psychological sides concerns
itself. It was inevitably to their disadvantage that the field
of their researches was comparatively restricted. Christianity,
in its justifiable claim to supersede all other religions, was not
concerned with an investigation of their nature or comparative
truth. Yet the services of those who, like St. Augustine,
were rigidly opposed to Paganism, should not be forgotten.
In combating Pagan beliefs and ceremonies, while their object
THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION 3
was not to detail them scientifically, nevertheless they did
detail them sufficiently for modern investigators to glean not
a few unconsidered trifles from their pages. Still more so is
this true of the theologians of the Eastern Church, who were
ever so much more sympathetic in their treatment of Paganism,
and who, though not impartial in their co-ordination of facts,
were yet scientific enough to show that many Pagan doctrines
and rites resembled each other, and also paved the way for
Christianity. But the gradual disappearance of Paganism
made an investigation of its doctrines superfluous in an un-
scientific age, and it was only the opening up of the faiths of
the world by the Crusades and by the development of travel
and of commerce which once more suggested their being
worthy of careful examination. While the examination was
carried on with a view to opposition, there were, among the
scholars of the Renaissance, one or two who anticipated the
philosophes of the eighteenth century in resolving all religion
into priestcraft. Meanwhile, outside Christianity, a Moham-
medan prince, Akbar, Emperor of India (1542–1605),
showed a laudable desire to investigate and understand other
faiths than his own. His ultimate purpose, however, was not
so much scientific as religious, viz. the desire to found a new
eclectic faith. -
With the dawn of a scientific age the science of religion
flourished apace. In this country Hobbes (1588–1679)
threw out many pregnant hints bearing on this subject, and
while anticipating some of the opinions of the modern animistic
school, suggested that even the most ridiculous beliefs threw
light upon religious origins. Ralph Cudworth (who, like
most of the Cambridge Platonists, regarded Paganism as the
Eastern theologians had regarded it), reasoning in his Intel-
lectual System of the Universe (1678) from a vast armoury of
facts, arrived at the conclusion that the polytheism of Greece
and Rome was but the subversion of an earlier and underlying
monotheism. David Hume, whose Natural History of
Religion (1757) “is perhaps more than any other work the
4. RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
source of modern opinions as to the development of religion,” 1
pursued a method and arrived at a result directly contrary to
this. Rejecting the patient collection of facts before theoriz-
ing as too tedious, he argued from what he felt in his own
mind and explained the origin and growth of religion from
this standpoint, never making a single reference to any work
setting forth the actual conditions of savage life. Polytheism
everywhere preceded monotheism; man was first savage
before he was civilized; his mind was more attracted by the
abnormal than by the normal course of nature, and, deeming
the causes of all unusual phenomena beyond his control, he
concluded that they are superior to himself, he personified
them, and finally worshipped them. It is remarkable that
Hume, trusting to d priori methods, should have anticipated
to such an extent the theories of the anthropological school
at the present time.
During the eighteenth and the early part of the nineteenth
century several other writers were more industrious collectors
of facts, but generally speaking their works, otherwise valuable,
are marred by setting forth some useless theory which the
facts are made to fit. Such works as Dupuis' Origine de tous
les Cultes (1795); Dulaure’s Histoire abrégée des Différens
Culles ; and Faber’s Origin of Pagan Idolatry (1816), are
examples out of many “keys to all the mythologies.” But
these books and others like Farmer’s Worship of Human
Spirits (1783)—the historic survey of one particular cult—
may still be read with interest, though with caution. An
earlier work than any of these, De Brosses' Le Culie des
Dieux Fétiches (1760), is much more scientific. Starting
with the fact that all Pagan religions are complex, De Brosses
explains such apparently irrational cults as the worship of
stones, plants, animals, mountains, ghosts, etc., as the sur-
vivals of savage practices. Here he was undoubtedly scientific,
but when he grouped all these cults together under the col-
lective title of Fetichism he was much less so. Hegel
Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 477.
THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION 5
introduced method into the study of religions by his lectures
on the philosophy of religion which were published after his
death, and to him as to Comte, whose masterly survey of the
whole field is only marred by the theory that religion
originates in fetichism, the science of religion owes a large
debt. - -
Mythology is wrapped up with religion everywhere, and
several modern scholars have busied themselves with an old
problem the subject of which may be summed up in the
question, Why are so many ludicrous, obscene, even blasphemous
stories told about the gods? The study of Sanskrit literature
suggested a philological answer to the problem, and though
those who hold that religious mythology is due to “a disease
of language” are discredited now, their vast labours have
done much to lay bare the religions of the Aryan races. To
Professor Max Müller is due the popularizing of this method
in England. It is based on a comparison of mythological
names in Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and German, and of
European divine myths with those of the Indian Vedas.
“The followers of this school,” says Max Müller, “try to
show that Daphne, the laurel-tree, was an old name for the
dawn, and that Phoibos was one of the many names of the
sun, who pursued the dawn till she vanished before his rays.”
Then people forgot that Daphne and Phoibos had once been
names of dawn and sun, but, the names still remaining and
becoming gods, the myth grew up that Phoibos pursued
Daphne. This is that “disease of language” of which the
philological school has made so much. The corresponding
divine names in all these languages are traced back to primitive
Aryan roots, which in turn throw light upon the origins of
religion in the Aryan races. Thus Daphne in Greek is
Dahana in Sanskrit; Erinnys is Saranya; Kerberos is Sár-
vari, and so on. In each case the primary significance of
the words was forgotten; then the names remaining became
gods; and, finally, through this confusion of tongues the
“irrational’’ element in mythology arose. The sun chasing
6 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
the dawn gave rise to the story that the god Phoibos had
pursued, for amorous reasons, a young woman called Daphne.
As a rule Max Müller, by this philological method, sees in
most myths nothing but a picture of the phenomena of the
dawn. Hence he is of opinion that our Aryan ancestors
were struck above all with the marvels of the dawn, which
opened “the golden gates of another world, and while these
gates were open for the sun to pass in triumph, their eyes
and their mind strove in their childish way to pierce beyond
the limits of the finite world. The dawn came and went,
but there remained always behind the dawn that heaving sea
of light or fire from which she springs. Was not this the
visible infinite ’’’ The dawn, in short, suggested the infinite,
and this sense of the infinite aroused the slumbering religious
sense in man. Then, at a later stage, through the unfortunate
disease of language, this pure fountain of religious truth was
corrupted. Unfortunately for this method it encounters two
fatal objections. (I) No two of its exponents agree as to
the primary significance of names and myths. Max Müller
sees the dawn everywhere; Kuhn sees fire; and Schwartz
storm and thunder, and so on. This variety of interpretations
invalidates the method. (2) Again, these writers do not
make sufficient allowance for the fact that other races than
the Aryan have precisely similar myths, and if these myths
are due to disease of language, it would mean that races the
most widely disconnected had somehow all forgotten the
original significance of names, everywhere connected these
names with the gods, and thus everywhere given rise to a
wild mythology. The most valuable practical result of the
labours of this school has been the unveiling of the sacred
writings of the Eastern religions—a work due to Max Müller
almost entirely.
Another school is that which may be called the Euhe-
meristic (cf. p. 46), which explains irrational myths as due
to this—that they had a real basis in historic fact, which had
been disguised in metaphor, and dressed out in the course
THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION - 7
of time till the fact itself was forgotten. Somebody called
Phoibos had actually pursued somebody called Daphne, who
escaped by hiding behind a laurel-tree; Prometheus creating
men out of clay was once a man who made clay images;
Zeus Smiting the giants with his thunderbolts was a king who
had once suppressed a revolt. The Abbé Banier revived
this system in modern times in his work, La Mythologie et
les Fables expliquées par l’Histoire (1738), and to a certain
extent Mr. Herbert Spencer’s theory of religious origins is
based upon it. The gods, by this method, are reduced to
original men, and mythology is nothing but highly-coloured
history. But while seeming to explain everything it really
explains very little, for it still leaves unexplained the irrational
colouring given to the supposititious basis of fact. On the
other hand it should not be forgotten that there is much in
religion which has a historic element, and to this extent the
method may be allowed. No one except M. Sénart doubts
that such a person as Buddha once existed, in spite of the
fact that a number of strange myths have clustered round his
personality.
The school of inquirers who have thrown most light upon
religious origins is that which may be called the anthropo-
logical. Availing itself of the vast materials dealing with
Savage religions in the works of travellers, missionaries, and
others, they show that the strange and perplexing things in
the religions of civilized races are the survivals of a time
when these races were in a savage state. Such things are to
be found as living beliefs among savages of the present time,
and they occur exactly in the same form everywhere. The
general form of religious beliefs is much the same among
Esquimaux and Africans, Red Indians and Ainos, Austra-
lians and Indian aborigines, Polynesians and Samoyedes.
This suggests that all mankind have passed through a stage
at which savages of the present day still remain, and that
in passing on to higher stages they preserved considerable
traces of their primitive religious beliefs in those of their
8 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
higher civilizations. It also suggests that, at that early stage,
certain inevitable methods of thought, due to men’s ignorance
of science, and to their explanations of the universe and its
forces resulting from that ignorance, gave rise to such beliefs.
Thus men attributed to all things, animals, trees, stones,
rivers, sun, moon, and stars, a soul exactly like the soul of
man. This eventually caused animals, trees, etc., to be wor-
shipped, and it explains why such worship still continued in
e.g. Egyptian or Greek religion. We do not worship trees
or stones, because we know them to be inanimate ; but to
the savage and to primitive men they were full of life, energy,
and power—a power often exceeding man's—and this being
so, the worship of them became possible. Had men known
them simply as trees or stones, as we do, that worship
could never have originated. Dr. Tylor in his Primitive
Culture (1871) gave this method its first scientific form, and
Mr. A. Lang, in his Myth, Ritual and Religion (1887) and
other works, has had equal success in giving it prominence.
Since then most writers on religion have admitted the value
of this method; savage religions have been studied with new
interest; folklore has been investigated for survivals from the
age in which it was a living reality; and anthropological and
folklore societies in every civilized country have made col-
lections of valuable facts. Dr. J. G. Frazer’s recent work,
The Golden Bough, may be taken as a striking example of
a book which, using this method to explain one particular
religious rite, has pursued the devious ways of universal folk-
lore and savage customs, and seen in them the manifold
disguises of a few beliefs which date back to a time when
they originated through man’s rudimentary knowledge of the
world.
As the biologist studies all forms of life from the lowest
to the highest, so the science of religion, following the
methods of anthropology, can be content with nothing less
than a survey of the whole field of religious beliefs. No
race and no tribe, no rite and no belief which may come
THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION 9
under even the widest definition of religion, can be omitted;
for all, in common with the beliefs and rites of higher
races, are seen to shed abundant light upon the origin and
forms—in other words, upon the evolution of religion. Even
the errors and superstitions which have dominated the souls
of countless generations are worthy of scientific study, for,
after all, they are the aberrant forms of beliefs which raise
men to a loftier level. And in many cases they have led
men to clear away the excrescences of superstition, and
hold fast to the kernel of truth which lay below. We
cannot, in fact, understand the higher religions thoroughly
without having grasped those strange cults which make up
the lower religions. The pathology of religion throws light
upon the physiology of religion, and a truly scientific temper
will reject nothing which, while it really darkened, yet seemed
to those who trusted it to throw light through the windows
of the soul. In Lord Avebury’s words: “While savages
show us a melancholy spectacle of gross superstitions and
ferocious forms of worship, the religious mind cannot but feel
a peculiar satisfaction in tracing up the gradual evolution of
more correct ideas and of nobler creeds.”
The limitations of a primer such as this forbid more than
the merest sketch of so vast a subject as the origin and forms
of religion. But it is hoped that, by pointing out the more
salient features of the various aspects of the subject, a cohe-
rent idea of the whole may be attained. After discussing
the origin of the religious idea in man, the first half of this
book will be devoted to an account of certain dominant
religious beliefs and practices among savage races, whose atti-
tude of mind represents to a certain extent that of “primitive
man.” The aspects of savage religion do not vary greatly
wherever it is found, and this treatment will probably ensure
a better acquaintance with religion at a low level than a
separate account of each savage race would do. In the
second half of the primer the religions of some of the higher
races, ancient and modern, as presenting a more marked indi-
IO RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
viduality, are treated separately. Judaism and Christianity
are excluded, not because these do not lend themselves to a
scientific treatment, but because it has been thought advisable
to limit this volume to an account of the so-called Pagan
religions.
PART I
The Origin of Religion and its Forms among
the Lower Races
CHAPTER I
The Origin of Religion
THE word religion is derived from the Latin religio. This,
Cicero said, came from relegere, to gather up, to consider;
so that religio meant consideration and thought in what con-
cerned the worship of the gods, or simply reverence and
respect. Others, like the early Christian writers, derived it
from religare, to bind back, giving to religio the idea of holding
back from certain actions; hence restraint or fear of the
gods.
Lucretius and Strauss defined religion as fear, but this
definition covers only certain of its aspects. Schleiermacher,
limiting it to dependence, makes man little better than the
dog, who also has a feeling of dependence. Kant regarded
religion as essentially morality; Matthew Arnold as “morality
touched with emotion.” Max Müller made religion “a
mental faculty enabling man to apprehend the Infinite under
different names and disguises.” “Religion,” says Reville,
“is the determination of human life by the sentinent of a
bond uniting the human mind to that Mysterious Mind whose
domination of the world and of itself it recognizes, and to
whom it delights to see itself united.”
But religion is too complex to be reduced to a single
formula. A complete definition must consider various
elements. Thus “supernatural ” as applied to the beings
with whom man has religious relations is too exclusive.
Again, the religious relationship rises from abject fear to
hopeful faith, yet at all stages union with the object of
worship is sought. Further, the definition must consider the
outward expression of man’s inner feelings, while it must
I 3
I4 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
take account of all forms of religion. While, then, we may
seek in vain for such a definition, we are all the more driven
to a comprehensive study of religion in all ages and races if
we would understand its meaning.
The origin of religion has long been sought. Some found
it in a primitive revelation, and here Pagan, Jew, and Christian
have been at one. The idea varies from the anthropomorphic
conception of the Deity talking to man, to the more philo-
sophic view of an intuitive sensus numinis in man, apprehending
the Divine existence. Monotheistic supporters of this view
presuppose a primitive monotheism; but it has been held in
polytheism, where one of the gods was thought of as the
revealer. Others trace the origin of religion to fetichism,
interpreting the word somewhat loosely, as De Brosses, who
includes in it the worship of animals and natural objects, as
well as of unconsidered trifles. Lord Avebury says men
had at first no religious ideas and then suddenly became
fetichistic, while he defines fetichism as the stage at which
men think they can force the deities to do their will. Later
we shall see how inadequate fetichism is as the groundwork
of religion. The supporters of an animistic origin (Tylor,
Spencer) say that animism gave rise to ghost and nature
worship, and next to polytheism. But animism only origin-
ated the belief in spirit existence, not religion itself. For
primitive religion did not necessarily presuppose a spiritual
being or beings. Nor is it easy to see why a belief in spirits
should have led by itself to the worship of them or have
given rise to the religious faculty in man. Max Müller
traces the dawn of religion to the awakening of the idea of
worship in man as he stood in presence of the Infinite, or of
any object which seemed to suggest it, such as a mountain,
a river, or the dawn. Totemism, again, or the idea of a
kinship existing between men and a certain class of animals
or plants, has been held in some quarters to explain the origin
of religion or of some of its developments.
All these theories alike maintain tacitly that whether man
THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION 15
had originally a faculty for religion or not, he was at first an
atheist until the divinity was revealed to him or until he
imagined gods or spirits for himself.
The question of the origin of religion is hampered by the
difficulty we have of imagining the feelings and thoughts of
primal man or men. We have inherited a whole series of
beliefs, thoughts, prejudices, and theories; we are “heirs of
all the ages,” and every thought we think comes to us in a
sense hoary with antiquity. Primal man, on the other hand,
was not so hampered. He looked out upon the world and
within upon himself with an absolutely fresh and unencumbered
outlook. Now what above all differentiates man from the
lower animals is his possession of a mind whereby he is an
intelligent being, and a faculty for religion—soul, spirit, or
by whatever name it may be called—whereby he is a being
capable of spiritual vision and progress. As soon as man
was man, conscious of his manhood, his mind must have
exercised itself in grasping and co-relating the objects he
saw around him. In other words, man was from the first
a thinking being, though he may not have known why he
thought. In the same way we have the right to think
that man’s religious faculty was exercised from the very
first, and made him dimly conscious, but still conscious, of
the Divine existence. As man was brought into corre-
spondence with his environment, not only through his senses,
but also through his mental faculty, so his religious faculty
made him aware of and brought him into correspondence
with the environment of Deity. This view is supported by
the fact that wherever men are found, even in the most
Savage and least intellectual state, they have religious ideas.
Lord Avebury's statement that it is difficult a priori to sup-
pose that a people “so backward as to be unable to count
their own fingers should be sufficiently advanced in their
intellectual conceptions as to have any system worthy of the
name of a religion,” has now been quite ruled out of court.
* Origin of Civilization, p. 142.
I6 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
We find that even among such backward people there exist
religious and ethical ideas of a strangely advanced order. If,
then, man everywhere and at all stages is religious, this
confirms the view that he has at all times been religious.
This view still leaves the question unanswered as to what
conception man entertained of the Divinity of whom his
religious faculty made him conscious. There is no reason
to suppose that primal man was aware of the nature of his
faculties or of his personality. All he knew was that he
was a living being. So much may be granted to the animistic
hypothesis, that man’s idea of a spirit within himself came
later. He could not, therefore, argue from his own spirit
to the existence of a Spiritual Divinity. That Divinity was
probably conceived by him as a Being, a magnified and
non-natural man, but still revealed to man by his religious
faculty and made the object of his worship.
This theory receives support from the investigation of the
religious ideas of the lowest Savages and of barbaric races.
Among the former, where one would naturally expect the
grossest superstition, there is found to exist a working belief
in a high god, who as a rule has no localized dwelling, who
is deathless, and in fact was in existence before death came
into the world, who created the world and men, who expects
men to follow a certain moral code and punishes them if
they do not, and to whom men hope to go after death. Evi-
dence regarding this belief of the lowest races will be found
in recent works on anthropology, as well as in the writings
of early travellers and missionaries, but the conclusion to
which the facts point has been amply stated by Mr. Lang."
He shows that this god is not a creation of animism, since
he is seldom conceived as a spirit, but merely as a Being
akin to man, and one, therefore, who must have existed
before the idea of ghosts and spirits was developed. This
1 See his Making of Religion and the last edition of Myth, Ritual
and Religion. Cf. also Comparative Theology, by the writer of the
present volume.
THE ORIGIN of RELIGION 17
is also proved by the fact that such gods do not receive
sacrifice, and “thus lack the note of descent from hungry,
food-craving ghosts.” He has also given a complete answer
to those who maintain that such deities were borrowed by
savages from missionary teaching. In such deities, then,
we may see a dim reflection of that Divine Being of whom
man’s religious faculty first made him aware, long before he
came to worship ghosts, nature spirits, or animals. Such
a god is believed in by Australians, Andamanese, Fuegians,
and Bushmen. Among races a step higher in civilization
those beliefs which may be called superstitions—worship of
ghosts, animals, nature gods, etc.—is found in full vigour;
but what is remarkable is that the lofty Being of the lower
savages is still acknowledged. Only he is regarded as so
lofty that he must be unapproachable by men, and too great
to take any notice of them; therefore he is left severely
alone. Thus a Samoyede said of Num, the sky-god, corre-
sponding to the supreme Being of Australians, etc. :—“I
cannot approach Num, he is too far away; if I could reach
him I should not beseech thee (i.e. his familiar spirit).”
This is, in general, the attitude of such races to this god.
He is acknowledged, frequently recognized as creator, but
not worshipped. In certain cases such gods have become
the subject of myth; and in all cases ghosts and spirits of
all kinds are regarded as being ever so much more practically
useful to men. It is probable that here we have the key to
the gradual abandonment of this lofty God and the rise of a
worship of less worthy beings. He was too good, too lofty,
for man in his wayward moments. He could neither be
propitiated nor commanded, nor made an accomplice in the
baser desires of men. Hence when the animistic view of
the universe made man aware of a vast crowd of ghosts
and spirits, they became useful gods, because, as the course
of thought taught them, they could be propitiated and com-
pelled. At the same time the earlier God was never for-
gotten, and hence among such races as the Kafirs, Negroes,
C
18 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
Papuans, Polynesians, Eskimos, Tatars, Indians of Guiana,
and others—all worshippers of ghosts, of nature spirits, etc.—
the existence of this God is acknowledged. But, as they say,
he is far away, he does not interfere with men, he needs no
sacrifices, he is not to be worshipped. Thus among the
Tshi-speaking people of the Gold Coast (whose various
worshipful divinities will be referred to later), Nana-Nyan-
kupon, Lord of the Sky, has neither priests nor any form
of worship in a country where the priesthood is a powerful
institution and the forms of worship are many and various.
He is regarded as a man, not a spirit; he is ignored save in
times of famine, when the people ask him in what way they
have offended him ; but, though thus ignored, he is regarded
as Supreme lord of all the numerous gods and spirits who
are popularly worshipped." In the same way the Kafirs,
who worship ancestors, believe in a supreme being Qamata,
to whom they sometimes pray in time of great danger, but
never offer sacrifice. His personality is ill defined, but they
are certain that he was never a man or a chief who became
a god, that he is everywhere and sees all things, and that
no others are like him. He is believed to be creator and
to be altogether good.” Another example is found among
the Indians of Guiana, who know of a supreme God whom
they call “Dweller in the Height,” “Our Maker,” and
regard as the creator, but never pray to him, as he is too
far off to help them. The actual worship of these people is
paid to spirits whom they propitiate with offerings and hold
in much fear.3
We may conclude, then, that in his first origin man’s
religious faculty made him theistic, though the god he wor-
shipped may not have been a spiritual Deity. But when
animism made man aware of a multitude of spirits, and when (as
º
r shall see) he found it necessary and useful to obtain their
s

* Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, p. 20 sq.
* Theal, Kafir Folk Lore, pp. 17, 18.
* Brett, Legends and Myths of Guiana, pp. 6, 22.
THE ORIGIN OF RELIGION I 9
good-will and mitigate their resentment, these spirits became his
gods. From them the whole phenomena of religion as later
developed and the various kinds of polytheism originated.
But the earlier supreme Being was never quite forgotten, and
when philosophy as well as the claims of nobler religious
aspirations and a loftier ethics asserted themselves, he was re-
instated and Theism was recognized as the best answer to the
problems of religion. But the spiritual side of that Theism
may have been under obligations to animistic methods of
thought, since animism, though a debased form of spiritual
religion, has made men everywhere aware of the non-material
side of existence. -
The course of religious development might thus be mapped
out as follows. Man’s religious faculty originated a species of
Theism in which the Deity probably had no spiritual exist-
. ."
4.
ſ \
§ 1.--~~
t-º-º
- &
* *-*-**
ence. Next, through various causes man became aware of…
the existence of the soul, and imagined that all things, animate
or inanimate, had souls equally with himself. This animistic
philosophy gave rise to ghost, nature, and animal worship ;
and in a degraded form suggested fetichism. At the same time,
and probably keeping pace with this line of development, ...
further reasoning on the universe originated magic. This
:-->~~
affected all forms of animistic religion, from which, as time
went on, the various polytheisms were evolved. The growth
of religion was often hampered by mythology as well as by
magic, but it was also helped by the steady growth of ethics;
the gods more and more became moral governors. More-
over, wherever a polytheism is founded, as a rule one of the
gods is looked upon as chief. Here the primitive Theism,
never quite forgotten, is once more revived. Certain races,
certain higher minds in most races, put away polytheism,
worship one God only, and at last stand forth free of all the
accretions of time.
As we study each of the animistic forms of religion we
shall see how, as they spring from one common source, there
is always interaction and combination among them. Ghosts
2O RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
are worshipped in the same way and with the same rites as
gods. Many gods are evolved from ghosts. Animals
come to be worshipped, because they have spirits, but
sometimes because the ghost of a worshipful ancestor has
taken an animal form. There is a constant blending among
these various religious ideas. As light, heat, electricity, are
all varied forms of one infinite energy, so all the modes
of religious belief are but varying aspects of that infinite
religious faculty in mankind, without which we cannot con-
ceive him ever to have been, which has often found partial
rest in these strange forms of faith, but which cannot at any
time be satisfied with anything short of the infinite as an
answer to its infinite desires.
CHAPTER II
The Mental Condition of Savages : Animism,
THE earliest men we know of, viz. the men of the palaeo-
lithic period, were not primitive strictly so called ; behind
them stretched a long line of human ancestors of whose
capacity, culture, and religious ideas we have no authentic
records. Even palaeolithic man was possessed of religion and of
a considerable artistic faculty. Science has shown us that what-
ever men were in their original state, all races at present existing
on the globe have passed through a stage of culture, of thought,
of religion, and of society, which is not inadequately repre-
sented to us by the condition of savages existing now or in
recent times. From the actual state of savages and from the
actual survivals of such a state among civilized races, we are
able to gather something of the condition of things which
prevailed in that far-off though not absolutely initial period of
human existence. In making use of the term “primitive
man,” therefore, as a convenient epithet throughout this book,
we refer it to that once universally existing condition of
things, not to a particular period of time, much less to the
actual origins of the human race.
Taking men on their religious side, we see that all have
passed through a stage at which ghosts, the powers of nature,
animals, and various objects were worshipped. All such
worship is to us irrational, ludicrous, and often, from what we
know of it, revolting. It could not have been so to those
who practised it, it is not so to savages who practise it now.
Clearly, then, if we have passed beyond that stage, irrational
to us, but rational to our far-off progenitors and also to present-
day savages, it is evident that savages must still be in the
2. I
22 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
mental condition in which our primitive progenitors were.
By examining the mental condition of savages light will be
thrown upon the mental condition of primitive man, which
in turn gave rise to these strange forms of worship. That
mental condition created these forms of worship, but it did
not create the religious faculty in man. That faculty already
existed, but whether it was dissatisfied with the idea of God
which it possessed, or having corrupted, if not entirely lost
that idea, it found considerable satisfaction in the objects of
worship which were now presented to it.
That mental condition has been comprehensively called
animism by Dr. Tylor, and this title has been generally
accepted by anthropologists. What, then, is animism? It
is that mental condition in which men, having discovered
that something within or connected with themselves animates
them and causes them to live and move and have their being,
ascribe a similar animating principle to all animals, to trees
and plants, to sun, moon, and stars, to rivers, mountains, and
hills, and, finally, to stones, sticks, and any object which
man sees or handles. Animals and things have souls as well
as men; personality is ascribed to them as much, or rather as
little, as to man himself, for the true sense of personality can
\only exist where man knows himself as a being apart from all
he universe and its contents. We do not think of a river, a
tree, or the sun as possessed of a life like our own, yet the
language we use of them—language which has been handed
down to us from those who did so think—bears abundant
traces of animism. To us the sun is dead matter, neverthe-
less we say that it hides its face behind the clouds, or sinks
to rest below the horizon; the tree is certainly wood and
bark and sap, yet we say it groans in the storm, it spreads its
arms abroad, and so on. If it be argued that this is a mere
poetical way of speaking and deceives no one, it has still to
be shown whence that poetic form of speech arose. In
nothing but in that animistic mental condition in which all
things were truly alive. So, too, that mental condition


THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES 23
occasionally reappears for a moment in our thoughts. “The
force of momentary passion,” says Mr. Grote, “will often
suffice to supersede the acquired habit, and even an intelligent
man may be impelled in a moment of agonizing pain to kick
or beat the lifeless object from which he has suffered,” as
children do constantly. To primitive man, though animals,
trees, mountains, stones, or the sun, were plainly seen to
differ from him in form, in power, in size, there was one
thing in which they did not differ, viz. in the possession of a
soul or spirit akin to that which man knew himself to possess.
The knowledge of the possession of a soul came to man in
different ways which will be discussed in a later chapter (see
Chap. VIII.), but once it was attained there ensued that mental
confusion “in which all things, animate or inanimate, human,
animal, vegetable or inorganic, seem on the same level of
life, passion, and reason.” That mental confusion, or animism;--
exists among all savages wherever found, and it existed among
the ancestors of all surviving human races. It is man’s earliest
attempt at a philosophic interpretation of the universe; it now
remains to be seen how it gave rise to religious worship.
Before doing so, however, a few examples of savage animism,
taken at random from various savage races, may be cited. Of
the Indians of Guiana Mr. Im Thurn reports that “not only
many rocks, but also many waterfalls, streams, and indeed
material objects of every sort, are supposed each to consist of
a body and a spirit, as does man.” Schoolcraft says of the
Algonkin Indians that “the whole visible and invisible crea-
tion is animated with various orders of malignant or benign
spirits, who preside over the daily affairs and over the final
destinies of men.”? Of the Finns and other tribes in N.
Asia, Castrén says that they believe a spirit dwells in every
river, spring, rock, hill, and tree.8 “All animals, trees, fruit,
and even stones, have souls” in the opinion of the Tahitians,
* Among the Indians of Guiana, p. 35o.
* Algic Researches, i. 41.
* Finn. Myth. p. I 14.
24 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
and these souls “at death, or upon being consumed or broken,
ascend to the divinity, with whom they first mix, and after-
wards pass into the mansion allotted to each.” The Wanika
of E. Africa regard the destruction of a cocoa-tree as matri-
cide, not merely because the tree gives them nourishment, but
because it, in common with many other things, possesses a
spirit akin to man's." In the opinion of the Indian tribes in
the Andes all objects in nature are possessed of a soul, which
rules over them, and to which men may pray for help.”
Mariner reports of the Tongans that they believe that when
an animal dies, a stone is broken, an axe destroyed, or a
house taken down, its immortal part flies off to Bolotoo or
Hades.3
Thus in his animistic stage of thought man sees himself
surrounded by a multiplicity of creatures and objects, each
with a spirit akin to his own, with the power, possessed by
his spirit, of leaving the object or creature and moving from
place to place, and of informing the object or creature with a
vigorous life. The conditions of his life with reference to
other men like himself are now friendship, now enmity, and
mostly the latter. The struggle for existence is a keen one,
inducing hostile relations; but man learns that this hostility
may be propitiated by his acknowledging the superiority of
his enemies, by gifts, or by homage. Or, again, he may win
the help of others by giving them a share in his enterprise, or
he may see that some action of others benefits him without
precedent act of his own. It is quite natural to him to
imagine that the conditions of his life with reference to the
multiplicity of creatures and objects around him, each with a
spirit like his own, are precisely the same. It is true that
his relations to other men do not constitute any worship of
them, but when transferred to the animate creatures and
objects of his world these relations make worship possible.
* Krapf, Travels in E. Africa, p. 198.
* Markham, Rites of the Tºncas, p. 11.
* Natives of the Tonga Islands, ii. 137.
THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES 25
The reasons of this are not far to seek. As experience
taught, most of these non-human living beings were ever so
much more powerful than man. Many animals were clearly
man’s Superiors in force, in cunning, or in power of motion.
The river or the sea engulfed him and disregarded his wildest
efforts. The tree in the forest crashed down upon him and
crushed him to the earth. Everywhere he saw himself sur-
rounded by beings mightier than himself, whose passions raged
more fiercely than his own. This feeling must have been
increased as he witnessed what may be called the unusual
phenomena of nature—the tornado, the thunder, the volcano,
the landslip, the flood, the earthquake. All these were living
beings acting in tremendous resistance to man’s efforts. The
unquestioned superiority of animals, of natural objects, and of
natural forces, showed man his feebleness, and must undoubtedly
have produced fear in his mind. As he had found that the
best way of obtaining the good-will of human enemies was by
propitiating them—the act, too, by which he allayed the anger
of the troublesome ghosts of the dead—so he sought to obtain
the good-will or the neutrality of those powers by acts of
propitiation, homage, or flattery. This primitive attitude is
seen surviving in the large worship paid by barbarous races to
gods which are chiefly harmful. Thus a whole class of
deities worshipped by the Negroes of W. Africa are called
Bohsum, a word which means “producer of calamities.”?
The religious faculty inplanted in man thus gained a consider-ſº
able scope for its working through fear. }
But it would be a mistake to suppose that fear alone
suggested worship at the animistic stage. By actual experi-
ence man sees that many of the embodied spirits which sur-
round him afford him help from time to time, or habitually.
The tree or rock sheltered him from the storm; the river
swept away his enemies; there were hundreds of ways in
which nature proved beneficent. Again, man connected cause
with effect where in reality there was no actual chain of
causation—a state of mind on which the vast fabric of sympa-
26 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS .
thetic magic was reared. Success in hunting or battle was
connected with some favourable appearance or event which
had preceded that success, and showed that the spirit had
only given token of that good-will which was actually exer-
cised by it later on. Post hoc became propter hoc. Some
spirits were kindly, hence man was moved to gratitude, adora-
tion, love. In either case both fear and love suggested union
with these worshipful spirits by means of acts of worship.
Again, the mystery of life must have dimly impressed primi-
tive man, and urged him to worship those spirits, created by
his fancy, and around whom it seemed to thicken. His atti-
tude to the Unknowable was even more devout than that of
the modern agnostic.
Lower motives soon entered into the desire of union with
the spirits worshipped. By means of a compact or by his
forcing their hand, man sought to make these spirits his
accomplices. Here religion can scarce be distinguished from
magic, and worship joins hands with fetichism. The spirits
whom man first created and then worshipped were made in
his own image, at once noble and base. Thus the earlier
intuition of deity was degraded by animism, but in this degrad-
ation there are two tendencies. One, starting from the
higher motives in animistic worship, led men on through
polytheism to the idea of a ruling divinity, or (as in Judaism)
to monotheism. The other, starting from the lower motives,
gave rise to those vile practices which continue as part of
even the highest religious forms.
The multiplicity of spirits was bound to involve man’s
mind in confusion. On the other hand, the spirits of such
things as the earth, the sea, the sun, the moon, produced in
time the idea of great spirits or deities. The next stage was
to rise from the idea of spirits of all objects, to that of the
spirit of a class of objects, e.g. from the idea that all rivers
had spirits to that of the spirit of all rivers. In this we see the
beginnings of polytheism, and it is a stage at which the Tshi-
speaking races of W. Africa are now. Besides family and
THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES 27
tutelary spirits, they worship some general divinities evolved
from the chief objects of worship, viz. local divinities, with
a more or less human form. Thus there is a spirit of the
forest who dwells there, but may leave it to occupy any of
his images. A further development of animism is seen in
the Tshi idea that a local god may accompany his worshippers
to a far-distant place, leaving his province destitute of
divinity. These negro races thus stand midway between
simple animism and polytheism, where the gods govern
departments of nature, but are completely detached from
them.
The growth of polytheism was aided in other ways, e.g.
by the growing organization of society. The chief or king,
with his sub-rulers or court, suggested a similar order among
the gods. One god would be made supreme over all the
gods in his district, and eventually over all existing divinities.
Thus arose the pantheons of Babylon, India, Greece, or
Rome. The development is continuous throughout and
may be set forth as follows:—
1. All things are possessed by spirits which come to be
worshipped.
2. Then classes of objects are possessed or governed by a
spirit, gradually becoming separate from them.
3. These spirits become departmental gods.
4. They are ranged in a pantheon under one supreme
god.
Animism survives to the last, but as the spirits of classes
of objects become detached from their spheres of govern-
ment, so the spirits of objects become wandering spirits,
hostile to man or ministers of the great gods. In Babylon,
in India, in every polytheistic country, the people cower in
terror before a great army of spirits and demons, far more
than before the gods, while the worship of ancestors goes
on hand in hand with that of the divinities.
The later stages of religion owe much to prophet-like
souls, organizing and reforming, as in China, India, Persia,
-
28 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
Arabia. But the earlier stages are seldom connected with
any one name except in myth and legend. They advance
gradually with man's méntal and spiritual development.
The priesthood may modify religious ideas and rites, but

never to any great extent, for the priesthood is never far in
advance of the people.
CHAPTER III
N at u re-W or ship
NATURE-worship embraces the first three of those stages
just described, and includes well-nigh every natural object
and phenomenon. It is everywhere much the same, though
with imaginative races it is poetic and sensuous, with prosaic
peoples it is devoid of fancy. We can do no more than
select a few of those objects and describe the worship paid
them.
1. In Maori mythology heaven is a living being like
man. From such a naïve conception the idea of a god of
heaven arises, but even at the earlier stage we note that the
spirit of heaven rules the world, or is the parent of all, is
all-seeing, and therefore is something of a moral governor.
Hurons and Iroquois worship Heaven as the ruler of all
things, the avenger of evil deeds, the teacher of civilization.
The Creative Being of primitive theism is identified with the
visible heaven. Thus the Samoyede sky-god Num is the
supreme god, yet is too far off to be worshipped, and this is the
case with many African heaven-gods. Thenames of such deities
show this blending, since they mean at once “god,” “sky,”
“rain,” or “thunder.” Ukko of the Finns was “Father
in the heavens,” and yet was only the visible sky. The
Chinese confuse Ti'en, or heaven, with the early supreme god,
Shang-ti.
2. Earth, as the fertile source of food, and the source
(as some thought) from which men had come forth, was
plainly a living being. The worship of the Earth-mother
lies behind the great polytheisms. She is worshipped still
by N. Asiatic tribes as the food-giver, while many tribes,
29
3o RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
like those of N. America, propitiate her by burying offer-
ings of food, as did the ancient Germans to Hertha, the earth-
goddess. The people of Sarmata preserve the primitive
idea of earth as a living female who is fertilized by the sun,
for whose descent from the sky a ladder is set up. The
ritual of earth-worship is connected with the beginning and
end of agricultural operations, and has for its object the
promotion of fertility in field and fold, and of man's well-
being. For this purpose no sacrifice was deemed too great,
and human victims were offered often in the most cruel
fashion. Much of the licence, too, which still prevails in
folk-festivals in Europe is to be traced to a time when such
licence was deemed right and proper. For it had a religious
as well as a useful end. - .
3. The sun came to be worshipped for its light, warmth,
and power over growth. It was adored by American
Indians as a living being, then as the dwelling or the symbol
of the Great Spirit. To the aborigines of India it is a
Creator and Preserver, always kind to men. Among the
Tatar tribes of Asia the sun is a great deity to whom
adoration, prayer, and sacrifice are made. This primitive
worship of the sun lingered on in higher religions in which
it was regarded mainly as the brilliant symbol of deity. To
the Vedic Indians he was the “shining god among the
gods,” as to the modern Brahman he is the type of purity
and light. The Mithra-worship which sprang out of the
ancient Persian religion and exercised such vast influence
over the Roman empire was really sun-worship, or worship
of the supreme divinity symbolized by the unconquered sun.
So in Egypt sun-worship ranged from primitive adoration of
the actual luminary to the symbolic worship of the sun as the
outward manifestation of lofty divinity. A middle stage was
occupied by the ancient Peruvians, whose sun-worship, though
largely symbolical, was derived from actual worship of the
sun as a living person. If the Incas were children of the
sun it must have been because their primitive mythology
NATURE-WORSHIP 3 I
(like that of the Chibchas of Bogota) believed it possible
that the sun could become the husband of a woman and have
children by her. Sun-worship, actual or symbolical, was the
great cult in Peru, with a large and influential priesthood,
vast and beautiful temples, convents of virgins sacred to the
sun, and a regular system of sacrifices.
4. The mysterious nature of fire, its suggestion of a
living creature as it leaps and writhes and crackles, the diffi-
culty which early man had in obtaining it, his consequent
efforts at keeping it ever burning by marking off certain
persons to do this duty, all lie at the root of fire-worship, as
well as the rich mythology of fire. At first the fire itself is
worshipped as a living, divine being, then the great fire-god,
present in every flame, is adored. On the American con-
tinent a spirit or god of fire was universally worshipped by all
the tribes, some of whom held an annual festival in his
honour. The simplest form of offering was to cast some
tobacco into the fire, but the Mexicans, whose fire-god,
Xiuhteuctli, was of great importance, went further, throwing
part of every meal into the fire as an offering, and sacrificing
human victims at two yearly festivals. This worship is found
among the rude tribes of N. Asia, where the rites resemble
those just referred to. Among them the goddess of fire is
a personification of the actual flame, as will be seen from a
Mongol hymn which describes Mother Ut, the Queen of
Fire, as having the hard steel for father and the flint for
mother. Among the ancient Aryans this primitive fire-
worship developed to great proportions. The Indian god
Agni was at once the actual flame, the bearer of the sacrifice
to the gods, a tutelary deity whose altar and temple were the
hearth, and one of the greatest of the gods, the protector of
men, and the life-giver. “Before all gods,” says one of the
Vedic hymns, “Agni must be invoked.” So among the
Greeks and Romans fire became a great household god, and,
as Hestia or Vesta, was the guardian of all social order.
The sacred fire was the providence of the family and the
32 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
State, who, when sacrifices were laid on the hearth, gave
forth brightness as if smiling upon the worshippers, who then
tendered their petitions to the grateful god. The ancient
Persians and the modern Parsis are usually styled fire-
worshippers, though to both the fire was no more than a
symbol of Divinity and of the purity of God. The holy
fire was perpetually tended and never allowed to go out, and
its flames were fed only from the purest wood. But as the
Persians were Aryans, of a race many of whose representatives
actually worshipped fire, it is not unlikely that they too once
adored the fire which, later, became to them a symbol of all
that was highest and holiest. Among many races fire is
important in religious worship, though not itself an object of
worship. Thus it becomes a means of liberating the essence
of the sacrifice which ascends in smoke to the gods; or it is
used as a method of ceremonial purification when men walk
or leap through the fire. Such cases should be distinguished
from fire-worship, though they are akin to it.
5. Water, as one of the four primal elements, was re-
garded with mystic veneration, but usually it was worshipped
in one of its concrete forms, as sea, river, lake, or well, from
which in turn sprang the idea of a god of the sea or of the
rivers, a spirit of the lakes and wells. -
The sea, by its immensity, its power, and its ceaseless
motion, is readily regarded as a great living being by primi-
tive races, who beholding it for the first time, like the
Sumatrans and ancient Peruvians, offer it sacrifices and be-
seech it to do them no harm. The distinction between the
actual sea, conceived as living, and a sea-god who occasion-
ally rises above the surface of the waters, must have been
drawn very early, since tribes at a very low level of civiliza-
tion have the idea of a separate divinity of the sea. On the
other hand, even among the most cultured races, the distinc-
tion is often forgotten, and the sea itself is spoken of as divine
quite as much as the sea-god. The sea-worship, or the
worship of the great sea-god by the W. African negroes,
NATURE-WORSHIP 33.
has been described by many writers, and it may be taken as
typical. In Dahomey it has a chief and many subordinate
priests, who descend to the beach at stated periods, and
requesting the sea to be calm, to abate its anger, and not
hinder the commerce of the people, throw in offerings
of cowries, corn, and oil. On extraordinary occasions a
richly-dressed ambassador is sent by the king. He is carried
out to sea in a canoe, and then thrown into the waves as a
sacrifice of exceptional magnitude. Among the Tshi-speak-
ing peoples of the Gold Coast, however, there is a multiplicity
of marine gods, one for each little bit of coast. But in earlier
times when they came from the interior they were much
impressed by the sea, “the boiling water that is not hot,”
and worshipped it as one mighty divinity. Hence the present
system is a later development. Among other races who wor-
shipped a sea-god were the Polynesians, the Peruvians, the
Japanese, and some of the Semitic peoples. The classical
worship of Poseidon or Neptune, and the earlier references to
Oceanus, father of the gods, are well known. Both Greeks.
and Romans cast victims into the sea, exactly as the
Dahomans, to propitiate it or the god who had made it his
home. -
As later philosophic thought saw in the river a type of
human life, ever drifting onwards to the unknown sea, so
primitive men attributed life itself to the river, personified it
as a living creature, now beneficent as giving drink to the
thirsty or irrigating the soil, now a rapacious monster,
devouring many human lives. First they worshipped it for
itself, next they worshipped the spirit or god of the river.
Among the American tribes every waterfall or rapid was
the abode of a spirit who must be propitiated by offerings,
and many myths were told of such spirits. Ever-flowing
springs and wells have always been worshipped as the
dwelling of a beneficent spirit, and to this day the practice.
survives in the well-worship of all Christian lands. Asiatic
tribes worship rivers, springs, and lakes, offering them milk,
D
34 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
butter, and fat, while in Africa each river has its presiding
spirit, to whom human victims are given. The Hindu, whose
divine waters take away sin, and who prays to them for
temporal and spiritual blessings, has a higher notion of the
river-god than these ruder races. Whenever the river-god is
separated in thought from the river he is credited with a semi-
human form. Thus, even in Christian times the god of the
Nile was seen by an Egyptian governor rising from the river
as a huge man with terrible eyes, gigantic limbs, and long
locks of light-coloured hair. In classical times the ancient
river-worship was reduced to the poetic conception of nymphs
sporting by every stream, while the vast hold which such
worship had upon pagan Europe was testified to by the long
continuance among Christians of the belief in water-sprites
of all kinds, and holy wells resorted to for healing and
dowered with countless offerings.
6. Professor Max Müller has written eloquently of the
effect produced by lofty mountains upon the minds of primitive
men. “The view of such a temple might make even a stout
heart shiver, before the real presence of the infinite.”" The
different forms of veneration for mountains vary from simple
worship of the mountain as some vast mysterious being, or
worship of spirits who haunt its inaccessible places, or adora-
tion of the god of mountains, to the conception that the
mountain is holy ground, because the gods have made it
their seat.
(I) In America the mountain itself was worshipped, and in
certain cases myths told how some persons had been meta-
morphosed into hills. The Peruvians, e.g., not only adored
their mountains, but made images of them for the same pur-
pose. If any hill was too steep for its top to be reached,
it was customary to fling the sacrifice to the summit by means
of a sling. In the Rig-Veda this naïve conception of the
mountain as a living, worshipful being still survived. “May
* Hibbert Lectures, p. 176.
NATURE-WORSHIP 35
the mountains protect our wealth; ” “May the firm mountains
be propitious; ” “We pray to the grassy mountains to keep
us from guilt,” are sentences from some of the hymns
chanted by the early Aryas. The Dravidian tribes of India
already had the same veneration for mountains and offered
sacrifices to them. Thus the Santals sacrifice beasts, flowers,
and fruit to Nurang Buru, the great mountain. -
(2) The idea of spirits haunting mountains and receiving
worship is well seen in the belief of the Kamchadals, that,
just as they heat up their huts, so the spirits dwelling in vol-
canoes make huge fires in these hills, and occasionally throw
the burning fuel out of the chimney. This is also an Australian
belief. Hence sacrifice, human or other, is made, as in the case
of the Nicaraguans, by throwing the victim into the crater.
“Almost all the mountains and high places throughout both
Americas are supposed to be the dwelling-places of spirits and
spirit-forms,” says Dorman." Thus the Black Hills of Astoria
are the abode of spirits who cause thunder and storms; hence,
no one passes through these hills without laying some pro-
pitiatory offering on the rocks. The same idea accounts
for the shrines which are found on inaccessible peaks, as well
as for the fear which most savages exhibit in passing any
mountain gorge or steep precipice.
(3) The transition to a god or spirit of the mountain is an
easy one. In China the imperial worship of earth includes
adoration of fourteen tablets which represent the gods of as
many notable mountains. Each mountain has its local
guardian spirit, with its shrine or temple, where the people
worship, and where in some cases the government provides
for the maintenance of sacrifices on a large scale. In W.
Africa such a worship is also found as in the case of the
Adansis, whose chief deity is a hill-goddess of a malignant
nature, and propitiated by human sacrifices. The ancient
Mexicans knew of many peaks sacred to a god, and the Red
* Primitive Superstitions, p. 303.
36 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMs
Men of Georgia venerated a lofty mountain, the spirit of
which controlled the whole world.
(4) Lastly, some lofty mountain is conceived as itself the
seat of the gods, or as bearing on its summit their unseen
heaven, The Greek Olympus, the Babylonian Arallu, the
Himalayas of India, were all thought of as the home of the
great gods and reverenced accordingly.
7. As a final instance of nature-worship the cult of trees
may be referred to. The tree is so evidently a living thing
that it is easy to see how worship came to be paid to it. A
distinction must be drawn between the worship of the tree
itself considered as alive and possessed of a spirit, and that
of the tree or grove as the home of deity, permanent or
occasional. Of the former abundant illustration is presented
in the universal savage custom of propitiating a tree-spirit
before cutting down the tree, e.g. by offering sacrifice, or
by setting a fresh green sprig in the stump as a new home
for the spirit. Again, there are few regions of the world
where, no matter what the prevailing religion is, the traveller
will not come upon trees hung with offerings varying in
value, all testifying to the prevalence of an earlier tree-
worship. It is difficult to draw a hard-and-fast line between
this conception and that of the tree or grove as a place which
a god or spirit has chosen for a residence, and which he
can quit at pleasure. A great tree in Acadia, whose roots
the sea had laid bare and which appeared to subsist on
nothing, was venerated by the Indians as the abode of a
powerful spirit and received great honour. In each W.
African village is a little grove of trees, the residence of a
tutelary spirit, and crowded with offerings made to it.
Here, however, these trees receive no veneration. Dar-
win’s description of the adoration of a sacred tree by the
Indians of South America as the home of a god to whom
sacrifices were made by suspending them from the branches
or pouring them into holes in the trunk, shows that while
some regarded the tree as the mere sacred temple of a god,
NATURE-WORSHIP 37
others still in the animistic stage worshipped the tree for
itself. In India Hindus and aborigines vie with each other
in worshipping sacred trees, as themselves divine or as the
shrines of deity. Buddhism has its sacred trees, connected
with events in the life of Gautama, but the honour paid to
them is a relic of an earlier indigenous tree-worship in-
corporated and modified by this religion. In general, when
a tree or grove is considered to be tenanted by a spirit, that
spirit is the guardian of an individual or of a tribe or village.
Thus the “medicine-wood’’ of the Dacotahs was so called
because the spirit within it protected or punished its
worshippers according to their deeds. Every Indian village
has its sacred tree indissolubly connected with the fortunes
of the village. In the same way tree-spirits, as connected
with objects which so evidently possess the power of growth,
are largely credited with such natural phenomena as aid
growth of all kinds. Rain and sunshine were supposed to
be given or withheld by the spirits of the grove in the belief
of the ancient Lithuanians, the Assamese, the Cambodians,
etc. A good harvest is also due to the help of the tree-
spirit, as the Kharwars of N. India, the Negroes of the
Gold Coast, the Mundaris of Bengal, and many other
peoples suppose—an idea still lurking in the minds of
European peasants who stick a leafy branch in each furrow
of the corn-fields, or perform similar rites, the origin of
which has long been forgotten. The lingering remains of
actual tree-worship are found in the sacred groves of the
Slavonic and Scandinavian religions, where the worship of
the gods was carried on. Why was the grove sacred In
all likelihood because, as the great forests which once covered
the land were felled, it was supposed that their spirits were
driven into the remaining patch of woodland, which thus
became unspeakably sacred, and with advancing polytheism
would become the fit earthly temple of the gods.
It is impossible here to say anything of any of the other
departments of nature-worship, e.g. the adoration of the
38 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
moon and the stars, of the winds, of stones, etc.; but animal-
worship must claim a separate chapter, since it is not only
so remarkable in itself, but because it is connected with the
curious and widespread institution called Totemism."
* The races among which nature-worship forms the chief element
of religion are the Negroes, the ancient Mexicans, Red Indians, New
Zealanders, Javanese, and Finns.
CHAPTER IV
Animal-Worship and Totemism
Nothing surprised the Greeks more than the worship
paid by the Egyptians to animals. It is equally surprising
that they should have forgotten the remnants of such a
worship among themselves. No race is quite free in its
religious ideas from similar remnants of a once powerful
worship, and at lower stages of civilization it is found as one
of the principal elements of religion. There is no doubt
that the animistic stage of thought supplied to a great extent
the basis for that worship. To early man all nature was the
mirror of his own existence. Animals share a common life
with us, and where animism dominated the mind it was
natural that the kinship between the life of men and animals
should have been thought to be closer than it really is. The
folk and fairy tales of our childhood, in which animals are
in all things like men, are survivals from a period when such
a likeness was firmly believed, while it was held that some
were stronger, some more subtle than man. Their mysterious
coming and going baffled man’s reasoning powers. Hence,
like all things credited with a spirit like man's, they came
to be worshipped either for their hostility or their kindness
to man.
To such conceptions is the universal worship of the
serpent to be attributed. Its mysterious movements, man’s
helplessness before its attacks, the fatal results following its
almost imperceptible bite, its longevity, all helped to invest
it with divinity. In Dahomey serpent-worship is highly
organized and has a numerous priesthood. To kill a python
is a capital offence; abundant sacrifices are offered to these
39
4o RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
2-
animals; they are consulted as unfailing oracles. N.
American Indians adore the rattlesnake as well as certain
other reptiles. The worship is not wholly one of fear, since
the serpents are asked to protect the people and to remain in
their country. In India snake-worship ranges from the
engrossing adoration of the aboriginal tribes to its symbolic
representation in the official cults. But besides the appear-
ance of this worship among lower races, the recurrence of
serpents as sacred animals of the gods in higher religions or
their place in the mythologies of higher races (the Midgard
serpent of the Norsemen, the Python slain by Apollo, the
Apep of the Egyptians) shows that they, too, had passed
through a stage when the serpent, in common with other
animals, had received a similar worship. Even among the
Redskins the serpent has become a mythic as well as a
worshipful creature. Its gliding, winding progress suggests
some connection with rivers, its swift motion with the
lightning. Hence the lightning is thought of as an immense
serpent, and the river is a serpent-god. The worship of
crocodiles by the natives of Madagascar, who, as Ellis tells
us, think they are “possessed of supernatural power, invoke
their forbearance with prayers, or seek protection by charms,
rather than attack them,” or the veneration of the Samoyedes
for the polar bear because it is the strongest of all animals
known to them and the one which, in their idea, comes
nearest to the human being, are further examples of animals
being regarded as more or less divine for the reasons already
mentioned.
Other motives also prompted men to worship animals,
among which are those which Mr. Herbert Spencer claims
as the sole origin of this cult. From the idea of the soul
as something which can readily leave the body—nay, is kept
with difficulty there—and can take up its abode in other
places, springs the conception upon which the superstition of
men and women assuming animal forms for ulterior ends is
founded. If men can do this while still living, still more is
ANIMAL-WORSHIP AND TOTEMISM 4. I
it possible after death. Thus animals which haunt the huts
of the living—Snakes, ants, rats—are really the spirits of
dead members of the family. The Zulus know that a
snake which enters a hut is human when it is not afraid of
men. Thus ancestor and animal worship have aided each
the other’s growth. Animals which haunt places of sepulture
—bats, owls, jackals—are also regarded as the forms assumed
by the dead, and being wild and unsociable, are feared by
the living. If such animal-ghosts should ever become gods,
traces of the animal will still remain and give rise to myths
of animal incarnations, etc., or the god will be represented
partly or wholly in animal form. Such a process of develop-
ment, says Sir A. C. Lyell, may even now be seen at work
in India.
Totemism, however it arose, must have given an impetus
to animal-worship. “Totem ’’ is a misnomer for “otem,”
the American Indian name of a tribal mark. But totemism
itself is world-wide and everywhere wonderfully uniform.
Adopting Dr. Frazer’s definition, a totem is “a class of
material objects which a savage regards with superstitious
respect, believing that there exists between him and every
member of the class an intimate and altogether special
relation. . . . The clan totem is reverenced by a body of
men and women who call themselves by the name of the
totem, believe themselves to be of one blood, descendants of
one common ancestor, and are bound together by common
obligations to each other, and by a common faith in the
totem.” The totem is usually a class of animals, but may
be a class of plants, etc., and a tribe consists of septs each
with its totem. Thus the Klinkit tribe in N. America
has two divisions, Raven and Wolf. The first has Frog,
Goose, Sea-lion, Owl, and Salmon totem septs; the second
has Bear, Eagle, Dolphin, Shark, and Alca totem septs.
Such a method of division and sub-division into totem clans
is found in Australia, among the aborigines of India, and
generally wherever the totem custom can be traced. Each
42 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
sept has a human and an animal side, and all its members,
human and animal, are related by virtue of common descent
from one ancestor, usually conceived as a creative animal.
Human members of a bear totem are all akin, and also
recognize all bears as equally akin to themselves, because
men and bears are descended from one ancestral bear. Two
restraints have arisen from this—one religious, one social.
(1) The totem animals of a sept are sacred to that sept.
No clansman may kill or eat, or in some cases even touch or
look at the totem animal, else disaster is sure to follow ;
while, on the other hand, men and animals owe each other
respect and protection. But the killing and eating of a totem
animal by members of the kin on an annual and most sacred
occasion seems to have been usual. The underlying idea
was that a common life circulated among the men and
animals of the totem kin, and by killing and eating one of
the animals that life was renewed in all who partook of it.
But this killing was exceptional, and did not relieve a man
from the equally sacred duty of preserving the totem animal’s
life at all other times. (2) The members of a totem sept
cannot intermarry, and frequently this prohibition extends to
all the septs included in any of the great sub-divisions of the
tribe. To do so would be incest, and however immoral any
native tribe may be, the rule is invariably recognized, and all
sexual relations with members of the same or of any forbidden
totem are avoided. In general, too, where totemism exists,
descent is counted through the mother. Thus, when a man
of the bear totem has married a woman of the wolf totem,
the children will belong to the wolf totem.
The sacredness attached to the totem class of animals,
plants, etc., and the idea that they protected their human
kinsmen, resulted in a species of worship being paid to them,
or to the common ancestor of the group, who more and more
tended to be regarded as a creative deity with both human
and animal characteristics. It will readily be understood
how, when totemism as an institution was losing its power,
ANIMAL-WORSHIP AND TOTEMISM 43
the original totem ancestor would still remain as a divinity,
with more purely human, or rather superhuman characteristics,
without, however, altogether losing something of the animal.
He might have some partial animal form, as in the case of
the Egyptian and Babylonian gods, or he might be represented
in art or referred to in myth as accompanied with an animal,
as in the case of certain Greek and Indian gods, or he
might be supposed to take an animal form in revealing
himself to men. The latter is the case in Samoa, where
totemism prevails, but has advanced beyond its earlier forms.
“The gods,” says Turner, “were supposed to appear in
some visible incarnation. Thus each stock had some
sacred animal—eel, shark, turtle, dog—into which the god
came from time to time or made his abode. If any such
animal was found dead the natives mourned, but only because
it was pleasing to the deity, who was not dead, but still
incarnate in all the other animals of the same kind.” 1 This,
as well as the cause referred to already (p. 41), shows why
animal-worship, or animal-symbolism, remained in the higher
religions, to be a constant puzzle to more enlightened
worshippers. -
Men believed that this totem was always a source of
protection and help to them, in return for the reverence with
which they regarded it. It assisted them in danger; if it
were a wild animal (snake, tiger, etc.), it would not attack
them as it would other men ; it gave information by omens.
For this reason, and because of the close bond of kinship
believed to exist between men and their totem, we can
understand why, when they found one dead, they mourned
for it as for a fellow-tribesman. The same train of thought
originated the belief that at death a man assumed the form
of his totem, and became e.g. a snake, buffalo, deer, etc.
The origin of totemism still continues to puzzle investi-
gators, and is lost in obscurity. But it evidently has its
roots in that animistic stage of thought through which all
* Turner’s Samoa, pp. 17–21.
44 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
men have passed, and in which the belief that animals, etc.,
had souls such as men had, and feelings like their own, made
human kinship with them seem no impossibility. Mr.
Spencer’s and Lord Avebury’s explanation of animal-worship
and totemism as originating in the custom of giving some
animal name to individuals as a nickname, whose meaning was
in time forgotten by his family, has been adopted by some
inquirers, but leaves much to be desired. That a chief who
was e. g. called the lion, should in time be actually believed
to have been a lion, or a lion with human qualities, would be
credible, provided that the custom of giving such nicknames
had ceased by the time the meaning was misunderstood.
But so long as such nicknames continued to be given, no one
could be deceived about a similar nickname given to a
by-gone ancestor. Again, the totem stocks within a tribe are
usually limited to a certain number, whereas on Mr. Spencer’s
hypothesis they would be continually growing and changing
with each generation as new nicknames were given and, in
turn, forgotten. Whatever be the origin of totemism as an
institution in which animals are venerated, it exists among
the American aborigines, in the Pacific Islands, in Australia,
in W. and S. Africa, among the aborigines of India;
and it is proved to have once existed among, and to have
left traces on the later religion of, the Egyptians, the
Semites (Hebrews and Babylonians), and even the Aryan
races.
Another form of animal-worship which is often confused
with totemism, though really distinct from it, is that in which
individual savages, usually at puberty, select some animal
or other creature to be their personal deity, guardian spirit,
guide, and (sometimes) the keeper of their soul. This is
known among the N. Americans as the manitou, among the
Guatemalans as the nagual, among the ancient Peruvians as
the pacarissa, and it is found among such far-off races as the
Zulus and Ihlozi in Africa.
At puberty the youth retires to a lonely spot, and after a
ANIMAL-WORSHIP AND TOTEMISM 45
prolonged fast, usually has some vivid dream in which the
animal which is to be inseparably connected with his life
henceforward appears to him. It is worshipped by him with
prayer and sacrifice, consulted in difficulty, is thought to
afford him protection, and is never killed or eaten by him.
Frequently, too, some portion of the animal, skin, claws, or
teeth, is carried about as a charm, and becomes the receptacle
in which the spirit supposed to be incarnate in the animal
resides. Some writers derive totemism from this system.
“The personal manitou,” says Dorman in his Primitive
Superstitions (p. 222), “develops into the totem, or sacred
animal of the gens or family which descends from that
person.” But as each individual is the founder of a family,
the number of totems would in time be limitless, whereas it
is limited within the clan. Moreover the manitou is in all
cases an individual possession; there is no evidence that it
becomes a family possession on the individual’s death.
Besides this, the theory does not explain why, the personal
manitou having become a family totem, each member of the
family should still go on acquiring for himself a personal
manitou. It is therefore better to preserve a distinction
between the system of individual manitous and the system
of totemism. Both systems have animal-worship as a vital
element, and have done much among lower races to foster.
the growth of that worship.
CHAPTER V
Gi host - Worship
EUHEMERUs, a native of Messene, who flourished in the
fourth century, had a famous theory, based upon fictitious
discoveries of his own, that the divinities of Greece were
nothing but great men who had been deified after death.
The myths attributed to the gods were easily explained as
the actual doings of these men during their life. The theory
found acceptance with many learned men, but chiefly among
the Christian apologists, who found in it an easy means of
discounting the divinity of the pagan gods. It became a
favourite key to open the secrets of the ancient religions with
many writers, especially during the eighteenth century, and
occasionally in the nineteenth.
Mr. Herbert Spencer’s theory of the origin of religion is,
broadly speaking, a modern restatement of that of Euhemerus.
Man’s shadow, his reflection in water, his dreams, by which
he learned that something left his body and wandered here
and there, all taught primitive man that he had a spirit.
The spirit which left the body in sleep, only left it more
permanently at death, but it still survived. Hence food was
laid out for it, and every care taken that it might be fur-
nished, as a spirit, with such things as it had used in the
body. The spirits of the dead were credited with an increased
power; most unusual phenomena were attributed to them;
and thus it became natural to propitiate them. Finally, Mr.
Spencer traces all later religious ideas to this single narrow
foundation, and maintains that the gods of polytheism were once
men whose ghosts were worshipped, and, through the survival
of the fittest, raised to a proud pre-eminence over all other
46
GHOST-WORSHIP 47
ghosts. In doing so he leaves out of sight a vast array of
facts which show that the complex fabric of religious phe-
nomena is not an inverted pyramid supported on a single apex.
Religious phenomena have several foundations, while the
faculty of religion in man made each foundation possible.
His theory sufficiently explains the worship of ghosts or
ancestors, found wherever man exists, but it fails when it
goes farther afield. In many places where important ancestors
are worshipped (as among the Negroes), they are never con-
founded with the gods, who have thus had another origin.
On the other hand, many divine beings could have had no
othef origin than that which Euhemerus or Mr. Spencer
would suggest. The process is going on in India and China
at the present day. The dead saint or hero continues his
beneficent actions after death ; legend adds to his fame; and,
in India, popular feeling, in China, governmental sanction,
finally makes him a god. The Chinese god of war and
goddess of the seas, deities of the first rank, were originally
human beings whose actual biographies can still be read.
But, in such cases, some conception of divinity, borrowed
from another source, has come in to exalt the beneficent
human spirit to the rank of a god. Men must have already
discovered that the seas had a divine ruling spirit before the
woman was credited with the lordship of the waters. The
wonder-working ghost of the woman, to whom, doubtless,
legend had attributed some miracle connected with the sea,
became identified with an earlier spirit or god of the waters.
Two distinct ideas, now scarcely distinguishable, went to the
making of this goddess of the seas. So in all such cases.
As all mythology, as well as the experience of life, teaches,
every prominent figure attracts to himself legends, myths,
stories, until his original personality is well-nigh lost. “To
him that hath shall be given.” -
When once men had reached the idea that the spirits of the
dead had a real existence beyond the grave, many additional
ideas helped in suggesting to the mind that they should be
48 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
worshipped. Fear has played a large part in worship, and
fear of a disembodied spirit seems to be almost an instinct of
the soul. All savages are reduced to abject terror in the
presence of ghosts, hence all kinds of precautions are used to
prevent their presence, e.g. pulling down the dead man’s
house, taking the body out by some hole knocked in the wall,
which is then filled up so that the ghost will not find his way
back, frightening the spirits away by various means, etc.
This fear survives in all higher races. At all events the anger
of the dead came to be feared, and the simple gift of food
became a propitiatory offering and a distinct act of worship
(p. 79). The ghosts were angry if the living neglected
them ; angry at having to enter a state like the Negro Srah-
mandazi or Hades, of which it is said, “one day in this
world is worth a year in Srahmandazi; ” angry at being
deprived too soon of the full earthly life. Again, as every
strange tribe is hostile, and as the dead form as it were an
invisible tribe, they may have been feared for that reason.
Lastly, it was believed that death gave increased power in
every direction to the dead, because men saw how the body
was a restricting influence upon the soul, which, left to itself,
could move and act with perfect freedom (as in dreams).
From this death set it free, and so increased its powers
for evil or good. Had gentle virtues prevailed in primitive
society, ghosts would then have been loved rather than feared,
and in fact they were loved in so far as such virtues prevailed.
Father or chief protected tribe and family during life, and,
continuing that protection after death, was loved by tribesmen
or family. Thus both love and fear prompt the worship of
ghosts. Love appears when the Damaras pray to the dead
for oxen and sheep, or when the Papuans trace all good
things to the care of ancestral spirits But fear suggests to
the Patāris of India that, if they do not obey the dead when
they ask for food and drink, they will fall ill; or it makes
American Indian tribes desert a village on account of the dead
who haunt it; or it forces the natives of Guiana to worship
GHosT-worship 49
ghosts because they are so active in their malignity (Brett,
Indian Tribes, p. 284). The custom of the ancient Prussians of
inviting the dead to a feast, at the end of which the priest
swept them out of the hut with a brush, saying, “Dear souls,
ye have eaten and drunk. Go forth, go forth !” shows a
mingling of love and fear. Love prompts the feast to
the dead; fear suggests that their continued presence might
be dangerous. -
The final outcome of this twofold attitude was (1) the
belief that ghosts who were feared became demons, and (2)
that spirits who were loved became gods, or could by degrees
be worshipped as actual divinities.
(I) Scott said that in telling a story he always dressed it
out by adding a stick and cocked hat. It is a natural mental
tendency. Ideas are easily exaggerated, until their earlier
form is lost. Fear of ghosts who, like Elpenor in the Odyssey,
could both threaten and do ill, caused them in time to lose all
human traits, and filled the universe with the grisly shapes of
cruel demons. To propitiatory rites was added a system of
incantations and diabolic acts which still linger on as ghastly
relics from those fear-shadowed ages. When men thought
that ghosts could send disease and tempest, like the Haytian
ancestral spirits, demonology was born. This tendency was
aided by the growing belief that the ghosts of the good and
brave dwelt in a pleasant region, while the spirits of cowards
and evil-doers wandered restlessly over the earth on evil bent.
In somewhat later stages of belief a special class of men and
women are believed to become demons at death. The Pata-
gonians hold that sorcerers and wizards assume this form
when they are dead, and this belief is common to many
widely-separated races. The same form is attributed to those
spirits who, in life, were of low caste or followed some dirty
occupation, and were therefore, even in life, of ill-omen to
their fellows. In India a demon called a Masan is always
such a ghost. Again, those who die a violent death are
frequently thought to be changed into demons. The
E.
so RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
aborigines of N. India believe that many pools are haunted by
demons who are the ghosts of drowned men, ever on the
watch to drag the living into the water. This, too, is a
widespread idea. Another class of Indian demons called
Bhūts, who are particularly dangerous to men, were once
people who came to a violent end. Their virulence is most
intense at birth and marriage. Generally speaking, those
who die in this manner are deprived of proper burial rites,
without which a ghost will inevitably be restless and mis-
chievous. Among the early Babylonians a whole class of
demons owed their origin to the neglect of burial rites, while
other kinds of demons had also once been men. The super-
stition of many races that vampires are nothing but the un-
resting dead finds an excellent illustration in India. There
the Rákshasas, eaters of human flesh, round whom a horrible
mythology has gathered, were in life cruel oppressors, or
downtrodden persons who now seek revenge in this weird
form. The same idea is found among the Malays, who
trace the origin of the “langsurs” and “penanggalans,” both
vampires, to women who died in childbirth or through the
result of accident.
All these ideas of the dead, or of some particular class of
the dead, becoming demons owe their origin to a very
primitive stage of thought, but one which has had the most
extraordinary power and persistence. There was no limit to
the capacity of such demons to cause injuries to the living,
but “the most primitive belief concerning the way in which
these injuries are inflicted is that which attributes sickness and
bodily harm to these disembodied spirits.” The ethnolo-
gical distribution of the belief that sickness, disease, and death
are never natural, but caused by some demon, spirit, or
sorcerer, is universal, and it was only natural that when
human spirits were believed to have demoniac powers and
character, this should be the commonest method of their
working. Examples of the belief are found in the Dahoman
* Dorman, Primitive Superstitions, p. 53.
GHOST-WORSHIP 5 I
opinion that illness results from an ancestral spirit undermining
the patient’s health to cause him to die and join him, or in
the idea of the people of the New Hebrides that disease and
death are caused by the tamates or ghosts of the dead, and
similar cases might be cited from every known race in ancient
and modern times. Finally we have the idea that wicked human
spirits may be re-embodied in some powerful wild animal,
against which man is well-nigh powerless. This is a common
opinion among the Dravidian tribes of India and in the Malay
Archipelago, though by no means confined to these regions.
Such animals as the tiger are seen to have superhuman powers,
and starting from the animistic conception that the spirits of
men, animals and things are readily transferable (p. 76), it is
supposed that a wicked ghost, with extensive harmful energies,
would have no difficulty in assuming an animal form. In all
such cases the ghost fans phrase, the ghost-demon, or the
ghost-animal, are (I) directly worshipped by acts of propitiation
—sacrifice or prayer—by means of which their wrath is depre-
cated; or (2) their evil influence is neutralized or averted by
resorting to the medicine-man or sorcerer.
(2) The attitude of reverence or love for the dead may have
been helped by growing conceptions of kinship and its duties.
The tie of blood and its consequent duties of assistance and
kindness were not loosened by death, and the spirits were thus
still thought of as bound to their living kinsmen. Thus the
house became the centre of ancestral worship, and thither the
spirits resorted. Even where there is no settled home, the
family spirits remain with the tribe. The wandering Aus-
tralian natives secure the spirit’s presence by carrying about his
body, or even by eating it, as do the wild Indians of Bolivia.
For the same purpose settled tribes bury their dead in the
house or preserve the skull and bones. These, as with the
Ladrones, are brought out at festivals and worshipped. So
Mandan women will talk to the skull of a dead husband for
* Abundant details will be found in Maury, I a Magie, part, ii.
chap. 2. *
52 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
hours. Among more civilized races the custom of preserving
the mummy (Egypt, Peru, etc.), or of making a statuette or
symbolic representation of the dead as a home for the spirit
(the ancient Romans and the modern Chinese do this), was
the outcome of these customs, as well as of the similar practice
of such barbarous tribes as the Ostyaks of Siberia, who make
rude images of the dead, which they present with food and
worship. Among many tribes, e.g. the Kafirs and Dravidians,
such house-loving animals as the snake or the rat are firmly
believed to be ancestral spirits who have taken that form and
remain with their own people. They, too, are duly fed and
honoured. Among barbarous, but not strictly savage, races,
the festivals to which dead ancestors are invited are com-
mon, and they also are the result in the main of feelings of
reverence to the helpful ghosts. The annual festival of
the Miztecs is a good example of this practice. After due
preparation of the house, food was laid out, after which the
inmates went about with torches, inviting their dead friends
to enter. Then they sat down with the spirits and remained
during the feast in an attitude of reverence, repeating prayers
to the spirits, who, they thought, extracted the virtue of the
food set before them. All such festivals were evolved from
the simple custom of setting food on the grave. They occur
in a modified form in the widespread daily custom of setting
aside a part of the family meal for the dead, throwing it on
the fire, etc. The reverential worship of the dead occupies
the larger place in the religion of such barbaric races as the
Zulus and the Polynesians. The Amatongo of the former
are kindly ancestral spirits, among whom (naturally) the
dead father in each family has the highest place, receding in
turn, with each new generation, into the crowd of friendly
spirits. The supreme creator of the Zulus, Unkulunkulu, is
regarded by them as their first ancestor, but, though some
writers regard this as a genuine instance of the development
of a supreme God out of an ancestral spirit, the evidence,
when sifted, shows that the origin of this God had nothing to
GHOST-WORSHIP 53
to do with ghosts, but only that, in course of time, ghost-
worship has seriously affected the native attitude to him.
The Polynesians regard the Tiki as, on the whole, friendly,
and constituting guardian spirits of the survivors. Prayer is
freely made to them, or else to their relics or to some
visible symbol of their presence, a favourite weapon or imple-
ment, and sacrifices are offered. Of this worship it is said:
“There appears to be no certain line of demarcation between
departed spirits and gods, nor between gods and living men, for
many of the priests and old chiefs are considered as sacred per-
sons, and not a few of them will also claim to themselves the
right of divinity.” In general, though a strict line is drawn
between ghosts and gods, there is a tendency to deify the dead
in later stages of this belief. The chief whose power is
absolute, the hero whose deeds are the glory of his race, are
readily thought of as divine after their death, and all the dead
are soon considered as more or less divine. This tendency,
rising out of the worship of the spirits in the house, is well
seen among the Guatemalans, who dedicate the central part of
their houses to the Chahalka, ancestral spirits conceived of as
gods, and there offer them sacrifice and prayer. The deity
of primitive man is very much like himself, and it was natural
that dead men, who often did more for the living than the
gods, should have become deities in the belief of primitive
man. With the increase of civilization a wider chasm is
seen to exist between gods and men; nevertheless this habit
of deification survives, and, as in Greece, Rome, and India,
the spirits of the dead were deified as a class of lesser gods,
like the saints in mediaeval Catholicism.
* Erskine, Western Pacific, p. 246.
CHAPTER VI
Fetichism
No word has been used with more indefiniteness than that
which heads this chapter. Most older writers on the origin
of religion placed that origin in the worship paid by men to
inanimate, tangible, and worthless objects as such—which they
called fetichism—the next stage being the growth of the
belief in spiritual beings separate from, or manifesting them-
selves in the fetich. As has been seen, religion begins with
the worship of some animate being, however much it may
degenerate afterwards. De Brosses, in his Culle des Dieux
Féliches (1760), was the first to create confusion on the
subject of fetichism. Portuguese sailors visiting W. Africa
were already familiar in their own country with charms or
amulets, worn for luck, and bearing the name feitiço. Seeing
the value which the negroes set on charms, they wrongly
declared that they worshipped nothing but these feitiços. De
Brosses now took over this word and its underlying idea, and
declared that fetichism was the origin of religion. But he
included under fetichism the worship of rivers, trees, moun-
tains, and beasts, which were adored, he said, for their in-
herent power (as in the case of a feitiço), not as the dwelling
of a god or spirit. More careful investigation shows that a
fetich proper is adored in the first instance, not for itself, but
as the abode of a spirit who works in and through it. It is
thus subsequent to and is a degraded form of animism. A
fetich without a spirit controlling it is unknown to Negro
religion, as Ellis points out. In the tutelary spirits wor-
shipped by the Gold Coast Negroes (see p. 27) we approach
most nearly what may be called fetich-gods, and it is useful to
54
FETICHISM 55
note (1) that the odd objects through which they manifest
their power are clearly understood by the natives to have no
power of themselves; (2) that they are obtained in the same
way as family gods, with one striking difference, however, \
which shows that fetichism is a degeneration of º—" .***
The tutelary deities of the family are given to a village or a
family by the great local gods, through the priest, and thus
are never chosen at random. The priest goes to the dwelling
of the local deity, and after a weird ritual, takes a stone, or
a wooden figure carved from a tree growing on the spot, and
this object, after due sacrifices to the local god, becomes
through his influence the home of a tutelary deity, and is set
up with great ceremony in the village. The fourth class of
spirits—tutelary deities of individuals—are called Ehsuhman,
and are obtained without priestly aid from a malicious deity,
very friendly to wizards, and much feared by the people,
called Sasabonsum. The person desiring a subman goes to the
forest where Sasabonsum resides, offers sacrifice, and makes
one of four objects. He carves a branch to a rude human
shape, or takes a stone and binds it with addor, or grinds the
root of a certain plant and makes of it a paste with the blood
of a fowl, or takes red earth and mingles it with blood and
rum. If either of the two last preparations is used, it is
placed in a brass pan and the red tail-feathers of a parrot are
stuck into it. Then he calls on the Sasabonsum to send a
spirit into it, so that it now becomes a subman, the home of a
spirit. Its owner offers sacrifice to it, and it, in turn, helps
him, especially in hurting others. Hence he is much feared.
Pieces of twig, feathers, etc., may also become charms through
which the suhman acts; but here again they are only powerful
through the spirit influencing them. Many applications are
made to the owner of a suhman for them, since some part of
the indwelling subman accompanies those who possess them.
It is to be noted that the owner of a subman still worships
the higher gods. But as he is a sorcerer, and has obtained
his power apart from the priests, though by a method which
56 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
closely imitates their own, and from a deity who governs the
department of witchcraft, gods and priests are antagonistic to
him. This is that opposition of religion and witchcraft
which is universal. Thus we learn, by comparing these
Negro fetiches with those of other races, that fetichism
follows in the footsteps of religion, but is always a degraded
form of such religion, is either a supplement to its powers or
its opponent, is practised outside priestly influence, and ends
in complete antagonism to religion. The power of a fetich
is primarily derived from its controlling spirit. But the time
may arrive when such a controlling power is forgotten, and
when the fetich, charm, or amulet, in earlier times valued for
its spirit-power, comes to be valued for its own powers alone.
But this rarely happens.
That fetichism presupposes animistic belief is seen (1) from
the case of relics. Many races preserved the dead body
because the soul returned to it from time to time. Then it
was thought enough to preserve a hand, a limb, or a lock of
hair, to insure the presence of the spirit, which became sub-
ject to the owner of the relic, and was employed by him for
good or evil ends. Or anything once in contact with the
body, or resembling it in shape, might become the receptacle
of the soul, and the place from which its power was wrought.
Among the Harvey Islanders certain stone adzes shafted with
wood, which originally belonged to the dead man, became the
symbol of him, the residence of his soul, and to them offer-
ings are made. When a tree is found growing on a grave a
Slavonian peasant will pluck a twig from it, believing that
thereby he gains control over the soul, or the influence of the
soul of the dead man, now embodied in the twig. In all
these cases the fetich or relic worship is based on an anteced-
ent animism. The relic does not work of itself, but because
of the soul or spiritual influence inhabiting it. Mr. H.
Spencer connects all fetichism with ghost-worship, but a closer
investigation proves that ghost-worship is only one source
from which fetichism has proceeded. (2) The same result
FEtichism 57
is arrived at in taking any branch of fetichism. Thus the
Melanesians think that certain stones have miraculous powers
in accordance with their shape. A piece of coral like a
bread-fruit placed at the root of a bread-fruit tree will make
it bear well. Why? Not because of any power the stone
has, but because its indwelling spirit produces the result.
Hence, as in the case of the charms made from a subman, you
may take any stone belonging to your friend, and laying it
near your prized coral, cause the spirit in the coral to make
some of its influence pass into it." Or if a stone with a
number of little stones lying under it be found accidentally,
then the finder's pigs will have a plentiful litter if he makes a
suitable offering to the spirit in the stone. (3) It has already
been pointed out (p. 45) that, resulting from animal-wor-
ship, the choice of a manitou, and the carrying about of some
relic of the manitou supposed to contain part of its unseen
influence, is common chiefly among the Red Indians. As
the relic contains the influence of the whole person, or the
charm that of the subman, so the animal’s skin, made into a
“medicine-bag,” becomes a powerful fetich because it con-
tains the semi-divine power of the animal. It brings luck to
its owner, and his very life is wrapped up in it.
Such instances show fetichism as a degradation of the pre-
vailing religion, but not far removed from it. Beyond these,
however, fetichism becomes a powerful instrument of sorcery.
Thus the owner of a subman is, in effect, a sorcerer. If an
ordinary native wishes to procure the death of an enemy, he
resorts to a priest, who obtains the help of a god. But the
sorcerer applies directly to his suhman. He takes three sticks,
calls aloud three times the name of the victim, and lays them
on the subman, when the victim’s death will at once follow.
If this fails the victim possesses a stronger suhman. So the
articles which a Tatar shaman hangs to his dress are fetiches
used for magic purposes, and firmly believed each to contain a
familiar spirit. In many places the medicine-man or priest,
* Codrington, The Melanesians, p. 181.
58 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
during a season of drought, will pour water over a certain
sacred stone in order to procure rain. Here the imitation of
e desired effect (sympathetic magic) blends with the idea
that there is a spirit in the stone which controls the rain, and
will take the hint and produce it. The custom is found in
Samoa, Africa, N. S. Wales, the W. India Islands, in India
among the aborigines, and Mongolia.
Fetichism lingers on among those who nominally profess
a higher religion, and it is here that, most usually, it is more
or less detached from a theory of indwelling spirits. The
sacredness of an object now qualifies it as an amulet or
wonder-working charm. An ancient cross in Iona was
dipped in water to cause rain, just as in the Shan States the
image of Buddha is treated. Even in this century Irish
peasants, near Mayo, took a certain stone wrapped in flannel,
and did homage to it with the object of causing it to produce
a wreck. It was customary in the middle ages to carry the
relics of a saint into battle in order that their sacred influence
might give victory. So the guardian of St. Fillan’s crosier,
even in James III.'s reign, possessed in it a talisman which
would protect him and give him success in looking for stolen
cattle. “Truly we can declare that no one fell on that day
who bore the cross in his helmet,” says a credulous spectator
of the battle of Belrinnes—another instance of the protective
power of a sacred thing. Mediaeval charms known as
“agnus dei ’’ were distributed to the people and much
treasured as preservatives not only from sin, but from accidents
by flood or fire. Amulets which guarded the owner from
danger have been cherished by the ignorant from pagan times
down to our own day, and in their use we find the last stage
of a once-powerful fetichism.
Thus fetichism—the worship or cherishing of odd worth-
less objects as the abode of a spirit — presupposes the
religious belief in spirits or gods tenanting all kinds of places
or things, and known as animism. Once it arises, it exists
now as a kind of pseudo-religion or protective influence, and
FETICHISM 59
now as sorcery, itself varying from the milder kinds of magic
to the worst forms of the black art. At this stage the
fetich is clearly recognized to contain a spirit, but when
fetichism proper begins to decay the amulet is cherished for
itself, or rather because there is something sacred about it.
It is usually supposed that chance rules the savage mind in
its choice of an object which is to become a fetich. In a few
cases this may be true, but as a rule some more definite cause
than mere chance originates the fetich. Thus the subman of
the Gold Coast Negro is always a definite object obtained
near the abode of the god by whom it is filled with an in-
dwelling spirit. Occasionally it is through the medium of a
dream, caused by divine inspiration, that a man is directed to
some object, which then becomes his fetich. The manitou of
the American Indian is a case in point. A native of New
Caledonia was asked why a certain stone was cherished by
him. His reply was that, in watching beside the corpse of a
friend, a lizard, which is in New Caledonia a totem-divinity,
appeared to him. Putting out his hand to touch it, the
lizard disappeared, leaving a stone in its place. Hence the
sacredness of the stone to this native. Again, when any
stone, etc., is found to resemble some other natural object (as
in the cases cited from Melanesia), there is strong presumption
raised in the native mind that there is something supernatural
or magical in the resemblance. Or, if any object has seemed
to bring luck or to favour the designs, good or bad, of a
Savage, on any given occasion, he will treasure it in the hope
that it will still continue to favour him, imagining that the
spirit which has taken up its abode in the object must be
friendly to him.
The power of a fetich may extend itself to other objects,
as in the case of the charms made from contact with a subman.
When an oath is to be taken by any one on the Gold Coast,
it is customary to place one of the charms in a calabash and
rinse it with water. The person administering the oath then
says, “I am going to give this to so-and-so to drink. If he
6o RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
speaks the truth all will be well. But if he lies, make his
belly swell, and make him die.” The person to be sworn
then drinks the water, which is believed to have been influ-
enced by the spirit in the charm. Frequently the water in
which a fetich-stone has been washed is believed to possess
useful medical properties, a belief which has lingered on in
Cornwall, where a stone celt is supposed to impart healing
properties to water in which it has been dipped. Relics
were used in mediaeval times in the same way. Thus the
head of St. Marnan preserved at Aberchirder was ceremoni-
ally washed every Sunday, and the water carried to the sick
and diseased, who derived benefit and recovered health from
its sanative properties.
Lord Avebury has defined fetichism as “the stage in
which man supposes he can force the Deity to comply with
his desires.”! He includes, however, under the term “fetich-
ism” more than it should legitimately be made to cover.
Nor is the spirit in a fetich always supposed to be capable of
being forced to do its owner’s will. More frequently it may
be cajoled or entreated or bribed by sacrifice. When it is
forced to do man’s will or punished for not doing it, the im-
plication is that the older idea of awe in presence of the spirits
is giving way before a growing sense of human superiority.
The negro is often said to punish his gods or fetiches, and to
compel them to do his will. Major Ellis points out that, in
reality, he fears them too much ever to dream of beating or
coercing them. Evidence of such treatment, therefore, requires
careful sifting. It is not improbable that only when fetichism
has degenerated into pure magic, in which the spirits can be
compelled to do the sorcerer's bidding, or when religion has
been much influenced by magic, then a fetich, or even a god,
may be abused for non-compliance. Among the Tatars,
where sorcery plays a large part in their religion, the shaman
will beat, or even destroy, the fetich which has not done his
bidding. There are also some well-authenticated cases of
* Origin of Civilization, p. 136.
FETICHISM 6 I
coercing a fetich or god who has control over the weather.
Where there has been long-continued rain or drought and
the spirit has been appealed to in vain, the fetich or image is
made to feel the same discomfort as the people have been
enduring by being exposed to the scorching sun or the
torrents of rain. Instances are cited from among the abori-
ginal tribes of India, from Senegambia, Japan, and China.
But in all these cases the magical element is markedly present
in religion. On the other hand, nothing would ever induce
a Red Indian to pay the slightest disrespect to his manitou,
which is a real fetich, though not reduced to the lowest stage ;
of fetichism.
f
CHAPTER VII
Religion and Magic: Priest and Sorcerer
ExAMINING savage beliefs we find a certain distinction exist-
ing between religion and magic, although they constantly inter-
penetrate. Thus, when a medicine-man acts on the universal
theory that spirits cause all diseases, and by means of spells
compels a spirit to kill his victim, the spells are magical, the
belief in spirits is religious. Many savages distinguish between
lawful and unlawful acts of magic, but often the first are
counted religious because performed by an accredited medicine-
man. Generally, however, the difference between religion
and magic is that in the former the supernatural powers are
prayed to for help, in the latter they are ordered to help.
Yet here the one obviously may shade off into the other.
Again, the difference between religious acts, such as sacrifice
and divination, and magical acts like shape-shifting and causing
rain or sunshine, is clear, but many acts occupy a neutral ground
between them. Rain may come from a medicine-man's spells;
again, it may come because (like the African “rain-kings”)
he is en rapport with divine agency. Much, too, depends on
the nature of the beings worshipped. If they are great and
powerful, religion will be most in evidence, and magic will be
illegal or a mere tool of religion. If they are a vague crowd
of spirits who are, on the whole, malicious, magic will largely
occupy the place of religion.
Magic, according to Dr. Frazer, preceded religion, because
religion, in assuming the operation of personal agents superior
to man, requires more intelligence than the mind of primitive
man possessed." Magic resulted, because it was easy for him
* Golden Bough, ed. 2, vol. i.
62
RELIGION AND MAGIC 63
to give a wrong application to the simple mental processes of
which he was capable. Associating in thought things like
each other, he supposed that they could influence each other.
“A mistaken notion of similar ideas produces imitative or
mimetic magic; a mistaken association of contiguous ideas
produces sympathetic magic in the narrower sense of the
word.” Thus magic forced the hand of nature, whereas
religion seeks to conciliate the great powers behind nature.
It was only when men found that they could not force nature,
that they saw that such supernatural powers existed, and they
forthwith crouched before them. Now, the priority of magic
to religion cannot be proved with certainty, and several facts
seem to point against it. The transition from a magical to
a religious view of things supposed to have been made by
primitive men is unsupported by any evidence. Had magic
been so discredited it must eventually have disappeared, yet
we know that in certain stages of civilization it survives with
great power, and that even in certain high religions, like the
Egyptian, it permeates their whole fabric. Again, those
peoples like the Australians, who are said to be dominated
still by the magical view of the universe and to have only the
merest rudimentary religious ideas, are really possessed of
religious ideas of a curiously advanced order. Finally, though
many magical actions are performed without the help of spirits
(thus putting them outside the sphere of religion), there is
reason to believe that, at first, all magical actions were con-
nected with the invocation of spiritual powers. As time
went on, however, men must have made a greater or less
differentiation between rites in which the spirits were suppli-
cated and rites in which they were forced to do some action.
But it still remained for the latter to be viewed as magical,
and that they came to be so regarded there can be little
doubt. What was the cause of this 2
+
The cause lay in a natural but entirely false philosophic.”
view of the universe. Men came to connect things in their
thoughts which had no real connection in fact, as well as
64 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND ForMs
things which had such a connection, and then they imagined
that the connection could easily become that of cause and
effect. A latent sympathy existed between all such things,
and it would easily become active when man set the impulse
of causation in motion. Hence such actions are called acts
of sympathetic magic. Of these there are three classes.
Men believe (1) that an effect will take place by imitating
that effect; (2) that an intimate connection exists between
the part of a thing and the whole thing itself, even when the
part is quite separate from the whole; (3) that through the
chance connection of two things in thought because e.g.
of some common quality, there is a real connection in fact.
Acting on these different classes of beliefs men saw that they
were in reality forcing the hand of nature and causing it to do
their bidding. But already they believed that under certain
circumstances the spirits could also be forced. The result
was that the rites of sympathetic magic coalesced with those
religious rites in which the spirits were ordered to obey, and
the sphere of magic pure and simple at once touched that of
religion. This explains why so much in religion is magical,
why religion will either free itself from magic or become
more and more entangled with it, and why many rites are
either magical or religious according to the point of view—in
other words, they are magical and religious at the same time.
Thus (I) when the Khonds of Orissa sacrifice a human
victim to the earth-goddess and believe that the victim’s
copious tears presage a large rainfall, there is a blending of
religion and magic. The sacrifice is religious, the weeping
is an imitative magical act which will induce the rain to fall.
But for a purely magical imitative rite, take that of the abori-
gines of India who pour water on the ground in time of
drought in order to cause a rainfall, or (as an example of a
world-wide practice) that of the Ojibway sorcerer who makes
a wooden image of his enemy and pierces its heart in order
that the actual death of the enemy may be brought about.
(2) The Gold Coast Negroes have tutelary deities called
RELIGION AND MAGIC 65
Ehsuhman, which have been induced to take up their abode in
certain objects. These Ehsuhman are very powerful, but the
point to be noticed is that they can act through a number of
smaller objects into which part of their essence has entered.
Here the action of the whole by means of the part is brought
within the sphere of religion. We enter the sphere of pure
sorcery when e.g. Polynesians, Dravidians, Australians, Afri-
cans, and even Parsis, are careful to hide nail-parings, hair-
cuttings, or saliva, lest any one obtaining them should, by
means of spells, obtain power over their original owner
through possession of these unconsidered trifles of his person.
(3) When, as Dr. Callaway tells us, the Zulus sacrifice black
cattle to produce black rain-clouds, we see how the connection
of thought (black cattle and black rain-clouds) has introduced
sympathetic magic into a religious rite. Pure magic once
more appears in the common savage idea that by putting glass
or any sharp object in a man’s footprints he will be lamed.
The intimate connection of religion and magic on the one
hand, and the tendency of magic on the other hand (as these
examples show) to occupy a sphere of its own, points to the
fact that many rites which are really magical are in the hands
of medicine-men and priests, and being exercised on the whole
for beneficial purposes, are considered legitimate. Similar
rites, in the hands of unofficial persons—witches, sorcerers
strictly so called—performed for evil ends, give rise to that
“black magic” which is everywhere regarded as illegitimate.
Some religions in their upward growth discard magic; others
retain it as part of themselves (e.g. in Babylon, China, and
especially Egypt"), but in such cases the more intellectual
and spiritual among the people usually regard it with contempt,
while it forms almost entirely the religion of the masses.
Where religion discards magic and sorcery, they continue to
exist as the great opponents of a purer faith, and being con-
demned, acquire a darker and more sinister hue. In certain
other cases religion occupies a kind of middle ground between
* Cf. Budge, Egyptian Magic, which shows how magic was inex-
tricably mixed up with religion in Egypt.
F
66 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
these two extremes, and gives a modified sanction to practices
really magical, while, though it resents unauthorized persons
resorting to such practices, it cannot wholly prevent them.
Thus, among the Tshi-speaking races of W. Africa, the
priests have the power to perform magico-religious rites, which
private persons also claim to be able to perform, usually, how-
ever, for wrong purposes. The priests cannot stop this, but
they show their superiority by tracing all crimes to those who
usurp their prerogatives, with the result that they are con-
demned to death. So, too, the power of casting out evil
spirits by exorcism claimed by the mediaeval priesthood,
differed in essence but little from the authority over such
spirits attributed to witches and wizards, who suffered so
much at the hands of the Church.
A curious instance of the continued influence of magic over
religions and races who have discarded it is to be found in
the belief that inferior peoples and faiths conquered by such
higher races possess greater magical powers. This probably
arises from the habit of supposing that the divinities of a con-
quered race are necessarily lower than, and hostile to, the gods
of the conquerors, and that their power, such as it is, will
always work in secret and sinister ways. Thus the gods of
India have become the demons of Buddhism, just as the
deities of paganism became the devils of Christianity. Hence
resort is made to members of the inferior race by their superiors
when they wish diseases cured or injuries to be subtly
avenged. In this way the Dravidians of India, the rude races
of the Malay Peninsula, the Finns and Lapps, the Negroes
of the W. Indies, are regarded respectively by Hindus,
Mohammedan Malays, Scandinavians, and Christian whites
as having powerful magic. So, too, the ancient Greeks
regarded the Thessalians, and mediaeval Christians the
pagans of the north, or stole in secret to the ghettos where
the despised Jew was supposed to practise his strong magic.
Magic, originating in the same conditions of thought as
produced many forms of religion, continues in such ways to
dominate religion. Sometimes, as in the Shamanism of the
RELIGION AND MAGIC 67
Mongols, or the Shintoism of Japan, the Taoism of China,
or the Babylonian and Egyptian creeds, it occupies the whe
field of religion. But, in most other cases, its position,
though great, is not so overpowering, and it is invariably
turned to a religious purpose. Such customs as divination,
exorcism, charming away evils, obtaining power over the
elements, which are really magical in essence, exist in most
religions, but are more or less hallowed by their influence.
Magic pure and simple appears finally as the resort of the
ignorant and superstitious in countries where a higher faith,
entirely discarding magic, has arisen."
The origin of the priesthood may be traced back to the
medicine-man of savage tribes and primitive ages. In that
condition of thought to which magic and a number of
religious beliefs have been traced, all alike could seek the
aid of those spirits by whom they believed themselves
surrounded, even as now, where the power of medicine-man
or priest is strongest, the individual is still, to some extent,
his own priest. But by the natural evolution of things by
which power falls into the hands of the fittest and a career
is open to talent, certain individuals in each tribe were seen
to possess more power over the spirits than their fellows.
Their petitions or their magic rites seemed to result in
greater success, a success which their instinct bade them turn
to account, and which in many cases may have been due to
a greater insight or natural cleverness. Or their greater
boldness and confidence in presence of the supernatural may
have caused their fellows to rely on them rather than on
their own efforts. In Miss Kingsley’s graphic words, such
men and women “specialize off to study how to manage the
spirits.” The tendency to exalt such persons into a special
class is seen in the case of the Fuegians and Eskimos, who
have no chiefs, but among whom those who have great power
1 Cf, e. .g. Leland, Etruscan Roman Remains,
68 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
over the spirits are looked upon as temporary headmen.
Even among the comparatively civilized ancient Mexicans
the priest marched at the head of the troops and gave the
signal to attack. In this lies the explanation of the fact
that in some cases the chief or king is a powerful medicine-
man, even where other medicine-men exist. We find this
among certain American and African tribes, as among the
early Greeks; while in ancient Egypt and in China the
monarch exercised priestly functions. Occasionally, with
the growing differentiation of the priestly class, they resented
this claim of the king, and often with success. The mean-
ing of the names given by primitive societies to the medicine-
men shows that they have arisen as a class from their zeal
or supposed superiority in obtaining help from or controlling
spirits. In Eskimo they are called angekok, those possessing
the elder knowledge; in Algonkin manitousiou, those know-
ing divine things; in Mexican teopixqui, masters of divine
things.
The powers claimed by the medicine-man are very much
the same whether we study him in Greenland, or N.
America, or Polynesia, or Africa. These powers are
founded on the general attitude of the primitive and savage
mind to the universe. As there is no true conception of
causation, so it seems that anything may happen. As the
world is full of spirits with extraordinary capabilities, so
those who can obtain the help or control of these spirits
have the world at their feet. As personality is only vaguely
understood, but, such as it is, shared by all things and
creatures in the universe with man, he may exchange
personalities with any of them. The sorcerer, in reality,
only has a greater power than other men, who, therefore,
easily credit him with it. A few instances of that power
must suffice. (1) Disease is believed to result from a spirit
entering the body. The sorcerer is called in to rid it of the
spirit by charms or exorcisms. But he can also send such
a spirit into a man, and is often asked to do so. Life and
death are thus in his hands. (2) He can divine the future
RELIGION AND MAGIC 69
by examining the marks on certain objects; or by falling
into a trance or permitting his familiar spirit to speak through
him, he gives divine oracles. (3) By control of the
elements he causes rain, or storm, or plague, promotes
fertility, gives success in war or the chase. (4) His
intimacy with the spirits gives him full knowledge of their
designs, or by sending his soul to the land of the dead he
takes or brings messages thither. (5) He can assume or
cause others to assume the form of any animal or plant.
(6) The control of reſigious rites is also in his hands.
No doubt fraud enters into some of his doings, but on the
whole he is as much self-deceived as deceiving. His claims
spring from a certain mental attitude which he shares with
all who believe in him.
In most savage countries, where religion and magic are
mingled, the medicine-man or sorcerer is also the priest.
But where they occupy separate provinces, priest and sorcerer
are also differentiated, especially as we advance to higher
stages. Yet here the priest may still exercise purely magical
functions. In Peru the highly-organized priesthood offered
sacrifice, heard confessions, and acted as mediators between
gods and men, but they also practised magical rites. Beyond,
them, however, was a large class of sorcerers, looked at
askance by the priests. To them the lower classes resorted
in times of need, since they had complete control over
illegal “black magic.” Both, however, must have formed
originally but one class, divided later into two, one pre-
serving the more abnormal functions of the primitive medicine-
man, the other having control of religious affairs which had
once been in his hands too. In such countries as Babylon,
China, and Egypt, where religion and magic still went hand
in hand, the priest retained control of most magical functions.
But, generally, in the higher religions, the priesthood confines
itself to purely religious matters, and looks askance on the
efforts of the sorcerer, which are considered illegitimate and
harmful, though once an integral part of the duties of the
primitive priest.
7o RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
By comparing the relative powers of priest and sorcerer it
is easy to see that they have had a common origin. Thus
on the principle that by obtaining possession of any part of
a man you obtain complete control over him, it was com-
monly believed that by coming to know a man’s name he
was brought within your power. For this reason the savage
and barbarian take great pains to conceal their real name.
The medicine-man, at once priest and magician, works soine
of his strongest spells by power gained over a man through
possession of his name. Turning now to the priesthood in
higher religions, we find the same idea transferred to the
higher religious standpoint reached. Hindu, Egyptian, and
Babylonian priests could command the gods to do their will
by invoking them by their hidden names, known to them
alone. At the same time, in some hidden corner, a pro-
fessor of the black art would be working evil to some one
whose name he had gained knowledge of.
The priesthood in higher religions is usually a separate
class or caste, like the Lamas in Thibet, the Brahmans in
India, or the colleges of priests in Egypt. Descending to
barbaric races, the same holds good, as in ancient Mexico
and Peru, in Polynesia, and among the Mongols. But even
at lower levels the medicine-men are a separate class, to
whose ranks admittance can only be gained by a long
initiation, and by evidence of power and spiritual influence.
The secrets of their power are jealously guarded within their
own ranks. It is easy to see how this distinct class has
arisen even in primitive times. Those who were the first
medicine-men, approved as such by their superior powers,
would combine together in course of time to preserve their
prerogatives, and though individuals here and there might
rebel against them, yet their own claims, as well as the
influence of popular opinion, would serve to maintain them
as a separate body apart from the mass of the people.
CHAPTER VIII
The Soul, the Future Life, and Transmigration
ToTEMISM shows that savages recognize in the tribal
community of beasts and men the existence of an energy
to which our ideas of the electric current are the best
comparison. This is a sufficiently metaphysical theory, and
shows that even at a low level spiritual conceptions have
an important part to play, while it suggests that the earliest
men may have had some idea of a soul, spirit, or other self.
If not, they soon acquired it. Thus, sleep and death showed
that whatever, at other times, caused the body to move and
act, had left it for a time, to return when sleep was over,
or when death, the longer sleep, had also come to an end.
In dreams, too, the sleeper, remaining in one place, seemed
to visit distant scenes, engage in war or hunting, and hold
conversation with others. Clearly, some part of the man
must have left him and returned with the report of these
doings. All savages hold these theories, and they have sug-
gested to them the existence of the soul." So, too, since
at death man ceases to breathe, the breath bears some relation
to the other self which leaves him in sleep, dreams, and
death. The shadow of the body, the reflection of a man
in the water, were also considered to be that spiritual other
self. Philology shows that the words for breath, shadow,
image, and soul are identical in many languages.
F. W. H. Myers’ wonderful theory of psychorragy, viz. that
some psychical element of man’s complex personality can leave
him, e.g. in dreams, and produce a phantasm at a distance, shows
that “palaeolithic psychology” may have had more reason in it
than it is usually credited with. See Human Personality, i. 263.
71
72 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
The likeness of funeral customs from the days of palaeo-
lithic man onwards through every savage race up to the
civilized Hindu ; the burial or burning of a man’s posses-
sions with his corpse; the universal attempts at recalling the
spirit to the body—prove that men were early convinced of
the continued existence of some part of them after death.
The recorded examples of the dream theory would fill
volumes: suffice it to cite the Maori opinion that “during
sleep the mind left the body, and that dreams are the objects
seen in its wanderings.” As to breathing, take the words of
a Nicaraguan that “the breath which issues from men’s
bodies and is called julio,” makes men live, and at death “goes
up above.” So mya (Dakota) means breath and soul ;
wang (Australia) means breath, spirit, and soul; silla (Es-
kimo) means air and the reasoning faculty. In Greek,
Latin, and Hebrew the same identity of ideas is found.
As to the shadow, the Melanesian believes that if it fall on
certain stones, a demon in the stone will take possession of
it; the Basuto thinks that if it fall on the water a crocodile
may swallow it; the Fijian holds that the “dark spirit” or
shadow goes to the spirit-land, the “light spirit” or reflection
stays near the place where a man died.
With the growth of opinion the form of the soul was
variously regarded. The Malays think of it as a mannikin
or a bird; Caribs, Tongans, and Greenlanders as having the
shape of the body, but being more ethereal; Calabar Negroes
say man has four souls, one like a little animal. But, like
some of the early Fathers, the savage believes the soul to
be more or less material—like the Fijian, who holds that the
gods can smash it with a stone ; or the Red Indian, who
expels ghosts by striking or shooting them ; while the uni-
versal custom of feeding ghosts shows the same opinion at
work. -
While all races believe in the continuance of the soul after
death, some think it subject to destruction, others (and this
is a growing idea) that it is undying. Myths of the origin
of death, as well as the belief that death is due to sorcery or
SOUL, FUTURE LIFE, TRANSMIGRATION 73
spirits, prove that death is held to be unnatural and accidental.
It arose through breach of taboo or of ritual, through wrong
delivery of a divine message, through a compact between
death and the gods who grudged man his immortality." The
accident of death did not deprive man of his belief that some
part of him lived on. The sacred dance of certain Austra-
lian tribes, in which, after dancing vigorously, a number of
men sink slowly to the ground and lie motionless, till at the
word of the master of ceremonies they spring up into vigorous
life, is but one out of countless examples of the way in which
man declares his belief of the revival of the soul after death.
The most natural, and, doubtless, the earliest opinion of the .
habitat of the soul, was that it continued near the place where
the body was laid or near the cave or hut where its home had
been during life. The offerings of food set out in the house or
at the grave prove this to be an early belief, and even now many
tribes have hardly any other idea of the future life. Others,
who think of the dead as dwelling in a far-distant spirit-land,
still retain, inconsistently enough, this earlier belief, partly
through the inherent conservatism of mankind, partly through
the idea that man has several souls, one of which remains
near the corpse, partly through the idea that the spirits return
to the grave or the house at stated times. The Sandwich
Islanders, the natives of Madagascar, the Negroes of the Gold
Coast, and various American races, have conceived of a
separate world of the dead, yet all think that the soul re-
mains near its place of sepulture, or hovers round its former
resorts, or wanders about with the tribe. In all such cases
the grave or hut is but the basis of the spirit's operations, for
at this stage the spirit life is supposed to be a mere copy of
the conditions of the earthly and bodily life. What is said
of the Fijians, that after death “they plant, live in families,
fight, and, in short, do much as people in this world,” may be
said to have been believed by most races at one time. This
belief is shared by several of the Redskin tribes (whose
* See Lang, “ The Origin of Death,” in Modern Mythology, p.
I 81, sq.
74 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
“happy hunting-grounds" have been familiarized to English
readers by Fenimore Cooper), by the Tasmanians, Kalmucks,
Negroes, Maoris, and a host of others. In certain cases this
belief in simple continuance of the earthly life has been
modified in two ways. These conditions will be fuller,
freer, and more abundant—thus the New Hebrideans think
their spirit cocoa-nuts and bread-fruit will be larger, finer, and
inexhaustible. Or, as the Tshis of W. Africa think, the
next life is but a dim, poor, shadowy copy of the present—a
belief which must have been shared by the progenitors of the
Greeks, Babylonians, and Hebrews, whose unseen world
was of this type.
Usually, however, the lower races consider that the spirit-
world is a place apart and quite separate from the abode of
the living. The belief in a subterranean spirit-land, held
among others by the Wends, Khonds, and Patagonians, was
developed as some think from the custom of burial in caves,
later conceived as entrances to the spirit-land, or from simple
earth burial, or from the opinion that men returned to the
place from which they came, since many myths told how
men had come up out of an under-world to people the earth.
The locating of the spirit-land on some high mountain has
been traced to the custom of burying on such places, and
this belief is shared by the Caribs, the Hill-Dyaks, the
Comanches, and the ancient Mexicans. In other cases where
several places for the dead are believed in, the best is situ-
ated on a mountain, as among the Tahitians and the early
Babylonians, and from this to a belief in a skyey heaven is
no great step. A third belief is that in which the land of
the dead is situated in some far-off region, to be reached
after a toilsome and dangerous journey, with sometimes a
deep river or an angry sea to be crossed. This is one of the
commonest conceptions of the lower races, and there is some
reason for supposing that here there is an actual record of
tribal migrations, with their consequent dangers and diffi-
culties. Men after death would seek to return to the original
home of the tribe, but they could only do so at great peril.
SOUL, FUTURE LIFE, TRANSMIGRATION 75
As time went on these perils, on the one hand, would be
magnified, while the splendour and happiness of the far-off
land would, on the other hand, be increased. Frequently,
too, men think that some, at least, of their number join the
gods in their abode, which may be situated in any of these
regions or, more usually, beyond the sky. Here, apart from
the considerations urged by the deeper spiritual thoughts of
even rude tribes, myths have helped to mould this belief.
These told how, in a far-distant past, men and gods had
direct intercourse by means, e.g. of a ladder from heaven to
earth, which were afterwards broken off. Death restored the
ancient intercourse, and men went to dwell in the heaven of
the gods.
These are examples of belief in the simple continuation of
the earthly life beyond the grave. But several races have
arrived at what may be called a theory of retribution. This
theory grew with man’s growing ethical standards, and the
steps by which it was attained may have been as follows.
If the spirit-world was a mere continuation of the earthly
life, then the social divisions of that life would continue ;
there were therefore varying degrees in that world. Several
races then came to think that only the nobles or the rich
enjoyed immortality; a few others lived on as their slaves,
the many died wholly. But as the high in rank or the rich
were mostly those who were bold in the chase or war, or
sapient in council, it came to be thought that they received
high awards in the spirit-land; while others, being cowards,
were punished. This was a common belief with many
American tribes, and with the ancient Mexicans. Next
arose the idea that, as the Ojibways held, the man who had
killed another was tormented as a ghost by his victim’s
ghost. This is a distinctly retributive notion, but it is on a
plane with the lower stages of ethical thought in which
sin is a social offence rather than a crime against the gods.
Then came a distinction between the good and brave and
the wicked ; the former rewarded, the latter punished. Of
all primitive races the more advanced of the American tribes
76 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
held this belief most strongly. The crimes punished were
cruelty, cowardice, suicide, or such ceremonial faults as
letting the sacred fire go out. For all these the punishments
were such as the crude savage fancy had devised. This
theory of retribution was held in a more or less pure form by
most of the higher races, as will presently be seen.
Along with this belief in a future life many of the lower
races held at the same time that the soul transmigrated at
death into other forms, human or animal. In discussing the
mental condition of savages, and the relation of religion to
magic, it has been seen that Savages draw no distinction
between the life of animals and men, and that it is believed
that men and women can change their form freely when
living, and assume that of any animal. In the same way
animals are considered to have this power of changing their
form, while the gods constantly assume human or animal
shapes for their own private ends, or in order to reveal
themselves to men. At such a stage of thought it was easy
to suppose that some men at death might be re-embodied
in a new form, especially as the soul, during life, was thought
capable of straying hither and thither, and bound by only the
slightest ties to its own proper home, the body. Here,
too, the belief in totemism aided this fancy of transmigration,
since many totem peoples, arguing from the close kinship
between men and beasts, thought that, at death, they would
assume the form of the totem animal. The steps in the
evolution of the transmigration doctrine would thus seem to
be : (1) the confusion between the life of animals and men;
(2) the belief in occasional transformation; (3) the idea
that a man assumed a particular animal form at death, viz.
that of his totem; (4) the idea that any animal form might
be taken at death. Transmigration is thus a belief held
concurrently with a belief in the spirit-land by most
primitive races. The Ahts say that the common people
will roam the earth in the shape of some animal. Nearly all
the American tribes believe in transmigration, and think that
they can determine the next bodily form for themselves.
SOUL, FUTURE LIFE, TRANSMIGRATION 77
The Peruvians strew ashes on the floor after a death, and
next morning fancy they see on them the footmarks of the
animal or bird into which the soul has passed. Of other
S. American tribes, Darwin relates that they would not
eat certain birds because they were dead men. For the
same reason the Eskimo widow will not eat walrus because
her dead husband has passed into that animal. Similar ideas
are found plentifully among the aboriginal tribes of India, in
Australia, in Africa, and there is hardly any race or tribe
in which they will not be found occasionally. Connected
with this is the idea of re-incarnation in human form, usually
into the next child born in the totem kindred or the family,
or, wider still, into any new-born child. The Arunta tribe
of Central Australia present an interesting form of the first
belief. The spirits of the original ancestors of the tribe are
being continually re-born by entering into the women, and
the totem to which the child belongs is always that which
it belonged to in successive re-births. Among the Negroes
of W. Africa each child born into any family is believed
to be some previous member of that family, and is recognized
by possessing some mark or characteristic of its former
existence. Among other races, such as the American
Indians, women will collect round the couch of a dying
person in order to receive his spirit, which will then be born
from them, or dead children are buried by the roadside in
order that their souls may enter into some passer-by and be
re-born.
Transmigration, as held by Hindus, Buddhists, or ancient
Egyptians, had a decidedly ethical form. A man was
re-born in successive forms, which were higher or lower
according to his conduct in previous existences. But this
doctrine was directly evolved from such primitive conceptions
as have just been referred to, and indeed, even among
savages, transmigration at death is often connected with
conduct during life. Thus Zulus, Malays, Negroes, and
others all believe that monkeys are men transformed to this
shape for their sins during life. So some of the Redskin
78 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
tribes, e.g. the Dog-ribs, assert that the souls of the wicked
become wolves or bears, and the Indians of Brazil say that
the evil become toads, lizards, or crocodiles. Sometimes,
as with the Allequas, the transmigration lasts only till such
time as the soul has become fit to enter the spirit-land. It
is thus quite evident that the highly elaborated transmigration
doctrines of the more civilized races are but a fifth step in
the series of beliefs which have here been traced.”
* It is evident that such men as transmigrate into animals will
thus become animal-ancestors of the succeeding generations.
Where such a transmigration doctrine prevails among savages,
we have a link between ancestor-worship and totemism, and
possibly the clue to a satisfactory explanation of the origin of the
latter.
CHAPTER IX
Feeding the Dead and Sacrificial Rites
THE origin of sacrifice is to be found in the universa
custom of placing weapons, utensils, and, above all, food on
the graves of the dead, who needed them as much as the
living. Prehistoric graves bear evidence to the early use of
this practice, and it is still found among Patagonians, Red
Indians, Negroes, and a host of other races. With them all
it is also the duty of the survivors to bring food periodically
to the grave that the ghost may not starve. In Old Calabar
liquid food is poured into a tube, one end of which protrudes
from the grave, while the other end is in the dead man’s
mouth. Mostly it is thought that, though the food is un-
touched, its nutritive qualities, or its soul, have been ex-
tracted, since food (in savage opinion) has a soul as well as
man. Or if an animal eats it, the ghost has assumed that
shape.
“A hungry man,” says a Scots proverb, “is an angry
man,” and so, too, a hungry ghost is an angry ghost. To
neglect a ghost was to incur its vengeance. Hence the
simple food-offering assumed a propitiatory nature, and
developed into an act of worship, prompted largely by fear.
This is very noticeable in the case of offerings to the ghosts
of sorcerers, malignant in death as in life. And since such
ghosts often become demons, and since sickness and death
are ascribed to ghostly or demoniac influence, a great part of
savage religion consists of the propitiation of demons and
ghosts through fear. But all ghosts are not wicked, as we
have already seen, and still continue to do kind actions. In
their case the offering of food becomes a sacrifice of thanks-
giving. In China this principle may be seen at work even
79
8o RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
now. If an ancestral ghost has shown himself helpful he is
rewarded accordingly by special sacrifices, by deification, or
by honorific titles. The feeding of the dead thus developed
sacrificially in two directions, propitiatory and eucharistic.
It has already been seen that among most low races there
exists a belief in a high god to whom sacrifice is never
offered, while it is offered in abundance to all the lower gods
in their various forms. In whatever way man’s belief in
such gods arose he regarded them as spirits of the same
nature as the spirits of the dead, and of the same tastes,
passions, and capacities. It is not improbable that such
sacrificial ideas as had already been arrived at through atten-
tion to ghosts were transferred bodily to the gods. When
they were angry they could be propitiated ; when they were
kind they could be presented with gifts by their grateful
worshippers. Above all, like the spirits of the dead, like
primitive man himself, the gods were best satisfied by copious
offerings of food and drink. It was thus that the Vedic gods
retained their vigour and vitality, either by the actual food or
by its invisible essence. Some of the earliest titles of the
Greek gods are “goat-eater,” “bull-eater,” etc., proving
distinctly that such sacrifices were the food of the gods.
Men thought that the gods did eat the flesh of bulls and
drink the blood of goats. As men shared their food with
the dead, so it was natural that they should set aside select
parts of the animals they ate for the use of the spirits of
forest, river, or mountain. Thus their favour would be
gained. Early man lived in such a condition of struggle, he
was so liable to the attack of enemies, that he must readily
have imagined that the spirits or gods of earth, air, and
ocean were equally ready to do him an ill turn. And in fact
he was the sport of those forces in nature, which he thought
were moved by powerful spirits. Lightning, tornado, flood,
fire, as well as the more powerful beasts of prey, all had him
at their mercy. Hence he propitiated them with sacrificial
gifts, just as he had learned to propitiate the ghosts which
troubled him. So the Red Indian propitiates the cataract, or
FEEDING THE DEAD 8 I
some difficult and dangerous part of a river, or the lake on
which a journey has to be taken, or some dark recess in the
mountain which he has to pass, or any striking natural phe-
nomenon, with offerings of food, tobacco, or ornaments.
The spirit of these places receives the sacrifice, and will thus
be more ready to protect the offerer. So the negro of
Guinea will make a sacrifice to the spirit of a tree before he
cuts it down, lest it should do him an injury. The Bhils, in
time of drought, believing that Kāli has sent it as a punish-
ment for their neglect, seize a buffalo belonging to the next
village, and sacrifice it to the angry goddess. All agricul-
tural tribes believe it necessary to propitiate the earth-goddess,
hence such sacrifices as those of a goat, a cock, and some
cakes, made to her by the aboriginal tribes of India at the
proper time, are universal among such peoples. In Cleonae,
in ancient Greece, a watchman looked out for hailstorms, and
when he saw one coming, gave notice to the farmers, who
offered lambs and fowls, believing that when the spirit of the
clouds tasted the sacrifice, he would cause them to go else-
where. Sacrifices such as these must have descended in
direct line from the most primitive times, and they were still
more elaborately observed in the complex priestly sacrificial
ritual of India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece, and Israel. Simi-
larly, the primitive sacrifice of thanksgiving to the divine
spirits may be understood both by observing the simple eucha-
ristic offerings made by backward tribes, and by studying
their full-blown evolution in e.g. the stately ritual of the
Greek Panathenaic festivals, when all the people assembled to
do honour to their patron Athena. The Kols in India
worship the sun as a beneficent deity, offering him sacrifice as
a thanksgiving for his evident goodness. An evident relic of
the most primitive thankoffering is that found in the Panjāb,
where the first five streams of milk of cow or buffalo after
calving, and the first stream at every milking, are allowed to
fall on the ground in honour of the goddess earth. In
Greece the worship of Zeus, Soter (the Saviour) preserved
many aspects of the earlier thankoffering. He was the god
G
82 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
who helped men, especially soldiers and sailors, giving victory,
and saving from shipwreck. Hence sacrifices of thanksgiving
were paid to him after a voyage or at the end of a campaign.
All this developed into a regularly-recurring festival, the
Diisoteria, at which elaborate sacrifices as expressions of
gratitude for his favour were made. As is well known, too,
the third cup at a banquet was always poured forth as a
libation, or a customary thankoffering. In China the state
offerings at the four seasons are mainly eucharistic, tributes of
duty and gratitude which express man’s sense of dependence
upon Shang-ti. Lastly, the votive offerings made by indi-
viduals in all religions, and hung up in the shrine of the god,
are the more formal expression of the primitive sense of
gratitude. The clay cones and tablets of Babylonia, the
terra-cotta statuettes of Greece, were all of this description.
One of the former contains the following inscription, which
clearly shows the point of view of the offerer : “To Ea, his
lord, Belor son of Eabān for the preservation of his life,
made and presented.”
In all sacrifices, from primitive to later times, man naturally
deprived himself of something which he valued, or which he
thought the god would value. In primitive conditions man had
few valuable possessions, hence sacrifice was mainly a sharing of
his food with the divine spirits, just as food was laid on the
graves of the dead. Perhaps the best portions were offered
in sacrifice, since in later times this custom prevailed. In
later times again the pouring out of the blood of the victim
before the god expressed this sense of giving the most valu-
able portion, since everywhere the blood came to be regarded
as the life. This offering also showed that men's conceptions
of deity were advancing from the stage at which the gods
ate like men, to a stage at which they were thought to be
spiritual beings with less material appetites than men. The
same conception appears in burning the sacrifice to etherealize
it, so that the god may sniff up the vapour or smoke, and
“smell a sweet savour.” It has already been seen that, even
among savage tribes, it is the essence or soul of the offering
FEEDING THE DEAD 83
of which ghost or god is believed to partake. But in study-
ing the origins of sacrifice as well as its developments among
both savage and civilized races, it is impossible not to see that
it has a large utilitarian aspect. Piety, including sacrifice, is,
according to Plato, “an art which gods and men have of
doing business with one another.”” The gods and spirits
are bribed not to be angry any more, and man pays them in
kind for every good deed which they are believed to do him.
Yet even so a more spiritual conception of the relation of
gods and men was arrived at, and this received its final expres-
sion in another class of sacrifices-—those which were offered
as an expiation for an offence done to the gods.
As a neglected ghost avenged himself, so the gods, when
neglected, took steps to jog their worshippers’ memory.
But as a more ethical character was gradually given to the
divinities, this aspect of their character had its effect on the
sacrificial system. It gave rise to the expiatory offering in
which the man who has done wrong, and so incurred divine
anger, offers a victim on which his own guilt is laid, and
which dies for him.
Here, the idea of the god devouring the sacrifice has been
left behind: the idea is strictly that of life for life. Other
lines of primitive thought aided this development. We have
seen how disease and death are believed to be unnatural.
Another savage belief is that all things are in a state of flux ;
thus the savage has no true idea of personality. Souls of
men, beasts, and trees may leave their bodies and go else-
where. The soul may be hid in a place of safety;” or a
wizard may capture it. What is true of the soul is true of
disease. It may be cast out of the body, or transferred to
another man. Thus in India little piles of earth are placed
on a path and a few scales from a small-pox patient placed
on them. The disease will then leave the patient and transfer
itself to the first person touching the piles of earth. Or a
* Euthyphro.
* Cf. the folk-tales º of the actual belief) in which a giant
or sorcerer has no soul in his body, because he has hidden it away.
84 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
rag from the patient’s body, hung on a tree, will transfer the
disease to the tree. Transference of disease is the commonest
savage practice; it is still used by witches. Arising from
this practice it was thought that all the evil influences afflict-
ing a man or a community could be transferred to an animal
which was driven forth and slain. Later it was thought that
sin could be so transferred. Thus the scape-animal, suffering
for a man or a village, became, through a non-sacrificial line
of reasoning, an expiatory offering.
Again, in totem communities, the therianthropic animal
was periodically slain to preserve the life of the community,
and to renew the divine energy in its members (p. 42). But
totemism was an institution which tended to become obscured.
Men forgot its origin; forgot, too, why the animal was slain.
But where the ideas of a life for a life and of the scape-
animal were growing up, the totem-sacrifice would become
confused with that of the animal offered for the man and the
scapegoat driven away or slain bearing his sin. The totem-
sacrifice, in fact, became a piaculum. Professor Robertson
Smith derived all sacrifice from the slaying of the totem-
animal ; but sacrifices must have existed already, and its influ-
ence was only partial in suggesting the piacular offering.
Such offerings are found in all religions, but always at a stage
when the gods have come to be regarded as moral governors,
and when the knowledge of the dark shadow of moral evil
has sprung up in the human soul. Naturally such sacrifices
had most reality in times of trouble and sorrow ; at other
times they became mere formal offerings, with but little corre-
sponding ethical renunciation on the sacrificer’s part. Such as
they are, however, they formed a large part of the religion of
India, Babylon, Egypt, Greece, and Rome.
Nothing has yet been said of human sacrifice—a ghastly
rite which has left a trail of blood upon all faiths, and which
caused men to slay, their fellows as an act of gratitude or
propitiation, or as an atonement for sin. It is probable that
this custom had various origins, but it is scarcely likely that
it existed in the most primitive times. A common custom is
FEEDING THE DEAD 85
to slay the wives and slaves of a chief on his grave in order
that they may attend him in the other world. But at the
lowest level of civilization chiefs of tribes are unknown, there-
fore this practice is not an early one. As soon as it arose,
the slaying of wives and slaves must have become sacrificial in
the same way as did the offering of food to the ghosts. From
thence it was transferred to the gods, whom men bribed or
thanked by human victims who would be their slaves in the
savage Olympus. The origin of human sacrifice may also be
traced to cannibalism. Men believed that the gods had
similar tastes to themselves, and since the gods ate the flesh of
bulls and goats, what more natural than that they should eat
the flesh of men, as men themselves had learned to do The
custom of offering a human victim as a piaculum suggests
a third origin for human sacrifice. In ordinary cases it was
sufficient to offer an animal, but in more urgent times of peril
a human being had to be slain. The totem origin of the
therianthropic animal now offered as a piaculum had been for-
gotten ; it was thought that in earlier times a man had been
offered, and that later, for merciful reasons, an animal victim
was substituted by favour of the gods. They really desired a
human victim, but, save on special occasions when their anger
flamed forth, they were satisfied with an animal. Such a
theory amply explains e.g. the recurrence of human sacrifice
in cultured Greece in the time of Hadrian. Human sacrifice
only survives in India among aboriginal tribes; it was known
in Greece and Egypt; but it is best studied as it existed in
ghastly plenitude among the Carthaginians and Canaanites, the
Scandinavians, and the ancient Mexicans.
Finally, sacrifice as an affair of daily life tends to lose its
reality. Instead of giving his best, man offers the sacrifice
symbolically. Statuettes, clay images, or cakes, in the form
of animal or human victims, are found in all religions where
sacrifice is common. In China the paper dolls, horses, etc.,
burned at festivals symbolize original sacrificial victims. In
India the cocoa-nut or pumpkin, absurdly resembling a human
head, is offered at village and other shrines as a substitute for
86 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
an earlier human sacrifice; while, instead of being smeared
with human or animal blood, the images or sacred stones are
covered with vermilion. The idea of the gods feasting on
the essence of the sacrifice has in all these cases combined
with the idea underlying all sympathetic magic—the idea
that the symbol has all the value of the thing symbolized.
Thus primitive ideas survive and colour even the loftiest
religious conceptions of civilized races.
CHAPTER X
Religion and Mythology
IN considering the beliefs of any race or tribe it is found
that there are two groups of ideas, the one pertaining to the
soul and corresponding to what we should call religious doc-
trines, the other mainly the product of the imagination.
Religion and mythology are two separate affairs, but, espe-
cially with the lower races, they are so much intermixed and
blended that it is impossible to discriminate between them.
A large number of myths are myths and nothing more, but
others have so strong a bearing upon religion that we are apt
to think of them as the sum and substance of religion where
they are so found, and thus a certain contempt for such a
religion is borne in our minds. We can quite readily dis-
tinguish between the spiritual worship of Zeus, and the myths
told of his amours by the Greek poets. But when we learn
that Puluga, the invisible, eternal, and immortal god of the
Andamanese, creator, moral governor, and judge of men, is
married to a green shrimp and eats and drinks like men, or
that the Melanesians offer sacrifices at a stone into which
Qasavara, the dualistic opponent of their great hero-divinity
Qat, was transformed, we see how inextricably religion and
mythology blend at the lower stages of belief.
The reason is that both mythology and a great part of
religious belief and worship spring from one common source,
viz. that animistic stage of thought which has made the
worship of ghosts, of animals, and of nature possible. Primitive
men believed that the spirits or gods whom they worshipped
were of like passions with themselves. It was quite natural
and inevitable, therefore, that they should tell of them just
such stories as they told of each other. The actions, real or
87
38 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
imaginary, the words and thoughts of the daily life of primitive
men, were reflected back upon the gods, and men never
stopped to think how incongruous all this might be. They
imagined that they or their medicine-men could transform
themselves into any shape they pleased, and they at once sup-
posed that the gods could do the same. Thus Yehl, the
head of the Thlinkeet pantheon, transformed himself into a
pebble, and, at another time, into a blade of grass, and in
these forms was swallowed by girls, of whom he was born in
human form. The similar stories told of Greek divinities
are clearly survivals from a time when such feats were not
considered at all in probable. Primitive men, like savages at
the present day, sitting round their camp-fires, delighted to
recount the deeds and adventures, creditable or otherwise, of
their heroes. Their gods being conceived of as, in a sense,
such mighty heroes, similar cycles of adventures were also
recounted of them. At the same time, as a god grew in
importance, he would attract to himself stories told of other
beings, and thus a complicated mythology would grow round
his personality. Manabozho, the chief god of the Ojibways,
is mythically said to live in a lodge with his squaws. Great
as he is, his adventures lead him into difficulties which bring
upon him the gibes of other beings. He beats his wives and
kills his brother. He hardly escapes destruction in a flood
caused by turtles with whom he is at war. His other doings
are of the same nature. Yet he is the creator of earth, sun,
and moon, the teacher of civilization, and the founder of
worship. His mythical career may be taken as a fair example
of the stories told of the gods in all savage religions.
In the higher faiths such stories survive, and by their very
survival are deemed sacred. The Indian Vedas are full of
them ; they are told of Babylonian, Egyptian, Greek and
Scandinavian divinities. Those who saw their incongruity
with a spiritual religion tried to allegorize them away. Primi-
tive men and savages had no such troubles, or, if they had,
lightly passed them by. The spirits and gods of whom such
feeble, foolish, and often obscene tales were told, were all
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY 89
the gods they knew, the only beings to whom they could
appeal for help, and, though their adventures might be dis-
creditable, prayer and sacrifice never failed to be offered to
them.
Another class of myths which also, though less closely,
touch the plane of religious thought, are those which may be
styled explanations of natural phenomena. How and why
are questions which primitive men asked quite as much as
modern scientists, and their answers were myths which
sufficed for the time. Here, once more, the idea that all
things in the universe are possessed of a life like that of man
lies at the foundation of all such myths. Thus, Sun and
moon are personified, and men ask why they are always separate,
or why the one appears when the other is setting. Copious
myths explain this. Thus the Eskimo say that the moon is
a girl who flees before her brother the sun, because he dis-
figured her face. Sometimes the one has amorous intentions
on the other, which are only to be escaped by flight. Again,
heaven and earth are thought to be living creatures, husband
and wife. Why, then, are they separate 2 Here, too, the
mythological answers are wonderfully alike, whether found
in India, China, Greece, or Polynesia. The pair, say the
myths, were violently separated by their own children, tired
of their parents’ embraces.
In many mythologies heaven and earth are creators as well
as parents. Earth is a great living mother, or is animated by
a spirit which causes fertility, and with the aid of heaven
(also conceived of as a mighty being, or as influenced by the
spirit or god of heaven) produces and supports all things.
Chinese, Greeks, Peruvians, Egyptians, and Hindus have all
thought in this way, as well as Polynesians. At the same
time the worship of these original parents or creators goes on
hand in hand with the weaving of myths about them. So,
too, as in Polynesia, their children, the personified abstractions
of winds, forests, seas, reptiles, etc., tend to become creators
of winds, forests, seas, reptiles, and as such are worshipped by
men. Thus man’s explanations of natural phenomena still
90 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
keep touch with his religious sentiments. So, too, the origin
of men or of the present condition of the world is the subject
of strange myths. Men come out of the ground, or a tree,
or a bed of reeds (the latter is a Zulu myth); or they are
made out of animals or out of creatures which are semi-
animal, semi-human (Australians, Red Indians, and Bush-
men); the valleys and hills on the earth’s surface are slashed
into shape by a mythical being wielding a huge knife (Austra-
lians). But in almost all such cases the origin is connected
with the beings whom men regard as divine, and thus, once
more, religion and mythology go hand in hand.
There is a third and a large class of myths which spring
directly from strange religious customs. These customs have
originated in an age when the conditions of thought made
them intelligible. Then new conditions of thought gradu-
ally arose, the old vanished away, but the religious rite still
remained. It became necessary to account for it, and hence
new myths arose to answer the question, “What mean ye by
this service ” Such myths are called aetiological, and they
are a most interesting class. Thus in many places where
totemism as an institution had died out with the conditions of
thought which gave it birth, the yearly sacrifice of what had
once been a totem-animal, treated in every way as human and
akin to men, still continued. It then became necessary to
explain why it was so treated. A whole class of myths
arose in various countries, all with a strong similarity, which
told how at one time a human victim had been offered, until
some god interfered and allowed an animal victim to be offered
instead. Along with such myths there grew the idea that in
times of terrible peril a human victim must once more replace
the animal to satisfy the gods. And thus a whole class of
human sacrifices arose from those aetiological myths which
had originated in the attempt to explain the forgotten cause of
an existing custom.
In such ways the vast fabric of mythology, though in
essence separate from religion, yet because it arises out of the
same animistic stage of thought as so many forms of religion
RELIGION AND MYTHOLOGY 9 I
have done, or because religion is constantly requiring to be
explained by myth, is thus connected with religion at many
points. It has only been possible to glance at a few examples
of man’s myth-making fancy, but a careful study of all the
myths begotten of that fancy will show the same result—
religion and mythology as two spheres whose orbits are
constantly touching.
PART II
Religion among the Higher Races
CHAPTER I
The Religion of Babylon
BABYLoNIAN religion shows several links of connection,
more or less evident, with those savage ideas already dis-
cussed. Some of the gods are totemistic in origin; others
are clear survivals of a primitive worship of the powers of
nature; while much of this ancient faith was but little
removed from animism, since a multitude of spirits were
adored, but mostly feared, and their influence held in check
by magical spells. The total number of gods worshipped is
countless. Thus, a tablet from Ashur-banipal’s library con-
sisted of six columns of small writing; each column is made
up of one hundred and fifty lines, and nearly every line
enshrines the name of a god. Some of these had a local
cult; others at the moment of adoration were regarded each
as all-supreme, each as a symbol of the highest. Gradually
with increasing political organization some attempt was made
at organizing the pantheon and amalgamating the local cults,
and certain gods stand out as pre-eminent, among them being
the six who compose the two great Babylonian triads.
For long years before 2500 B.C. a non-Semitic people
called Sumerians possessed the land until they were con-
quered by the Semitic Babylonians, who mingled with them
and borrowed many of their ideas. The influence of the
Sumerian over the Babylonian religion was profound, and
among these influences none was greater than the animistic
belief that all things possessed a controlling spirit, which
finally resulted in the elaborate Babylonian demonology.
These spirits, even in the earlier period, were mainly con-
trolled by exorcism, but at the same time gods who were
95
96 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
creators and gods who controlled various departments of
nature, or were the spirits of these departments, were
worshipped. Magic spells controlled the former, and were
much resorted to by the people; hymns, some of which
are but little differentiated from these spells, were used in
the ritual of the gods, and a system of sacrifices arose in
connection with their worship. The Babylonian divinities
became merged in those of the Sumerians. As will presently
be seen, they were in the main personifications of the powers
and parts of nature—sun, moon, earth and waters, air, and
fire—and each had a female consort who was but a pale
reflection of himself, and whose various personalities were
merged by later speculation in that of one great female deity,
the goddess Ishtar. In the earlier ages there was no pantheon,
as there was no definite kingdom. Each great city or
district had its own group of gods, of whom one was
recognized as chief, but it is remarkable that the great nature
gods were not then grouped together in any one district. In
one city the sun, in another the earth, in another the moon,
was worshipped. These local cults continued local even in
the later ages, but the state recognition of all the gods gave
coherence to the system. In the union of cities and districts
into one great kingdom, the gods of the lesser or the
conquered worshippers became inferior to those of the con-
querors. In this as well as in other ways a graded pantheon
was arrived at, some of the chief deities of which must now
be described. -
The Sumerians had a triad of great gods called Anna,
Enlil, and Enki. Here originated the great Babylonian
triad of Anu, lord of heaven; Bel, lord of earth ; and Ea,
lord of the abyss, dividing the universe between them, as did
Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades among the Greeks. Anu, the
seat of whose worship was at Erech, had been first the
expanse of heaven personified. Then he became a lofty
god, above the heavens, creator, father of gods, “a god for
the gods rather than for men.” To him was given a consort,
Anatum, the mere shadow of a shade beside her mighty
THE RELIGION OF BABYLON 97
lord. The local Bel of Nippur was later supplanted by, even
merged into, Bel-Merodach of Babylon. This Bel was son
of Davkina, an earth-goddess, and Ea, lord of the ocean-
stream, who, represented as half-man, half-fish, was at once
lord of the waters and of wisdom. Men approached him
through Bel, his son, and he was represented as delegating
all his power to Ea for his services to gods and men.
Tablets tell how he transferred his own name to his son,
and, in accordance with a survival of primitive ideas by which
one’s name is a part of one's personality, this transference of
name betokened a real transference of power. Similarly,
Nabu (Nebo), son of Merodach, became interpreter of his
father's will to men. The moon-god Sin or Nannar was
long looked upon as of greater majesty than Samas, the sun-
god, especially at the seat of his local cult, Ur. Samas, at
first the sun itself, became judge of heaven and earth, the
god to whom men made appeal in cases of injustice.
Raman (Rimmon), god of thunder, lightning, air, and
storm, had absorbed the functions of two Sumerian deities.
But as the tempest was harmful, this function of the god
was transferred to the spirits of the storm, and he ruled as
the resplendent god of the air. Nergal and Adar, gods of
war and chase, were much worshipped by the kings.
Tammuz and Istar were consorts, children of Ea and
Davkina. Istar, lady of heaven and the Venus of Western
Asia, gradually absorbed all the goddesses into herself, and
was adored far and wide. Tammuz, originally a god of
vegetation, had his death and revival celebrated in the
ritual; he became one of the most popular and human gods
of Babylonia, and, as Adonis, largely influenced Greek
religion.
The relation of the worshippers to these gods was a close
one. When weighed down by sin, or when under a curse
or spell, they approached the gods as humble suppliants
through the priests. The ritual books describe how the
man was brought by the priest into the presence of the god,
and there offered sacrifice. Next, his condition was de-
H
98 RELIGION : Its origiN AND FORMS
scribed: “before his god he cast down his face in supplica-
tion,” after which the suppliant himself besought the divine
mercy. In these long antiphonal petitions there is much
that is pathetic, much that speaks the heartfelt language of
true devotion. Again, the references to the accompanying
sacrifice show how deeply the idea of sacrifice as a propitiatory
atonement entered into the religion of Babylonia. “At the
raising of my hands,” says the priest in one ritual, “come
to the supplication, eat his offering, consume his victim,
strengthen his hands, and may he be delivered by thy order
from his affliction, may his evil be done away.” Sometimes,
as these ancient rituals show, the petition was unheard, the
calamity or the sense of sin was unremoved. Then a
similar ceremony was gone through at the shrine of some
mightier god in the hope that he might be moved to pity.
But the deities to whom a man went first of all, and whom
he conceived himself as a rule as having offended, were his
patron god and goddess. These divinities were probably chosen
for a child at birth by his parents—a custom still existing
among many savage tribes—and they continued as his guardians
all through his life. They dowered him with prosperity,
so long as he remained faithful to them. They visited him
with punishment if he neglected them. They pardoned him
when he besought their mercy with due regret. Or if he
thought that some other deity was offended with him, then
he entreated his guardian deities to intercede with him as
mediators before the shrine of the god.
None of these ritual acts could be done without the help
of a priest. In Babylonia the priesthood was an elaborately-
constituted body, with different grades and different offices
for each. The king was officially at the head of the priest-
hood and could perform many priestly acts. In each temple
there was a local chief priest whose function it was to pour
out the libation to the god. Next came the sangutu, the
chamberlain of the house of the god; the Kipu and shatammu,
with charge of the temple revenues; the pashishu who
purified with oil the statues of the gods and the ornaments
º
THE RELIGION OF BABYLON 99
of their house; the isippu or soothsayer, and many others.
Thus the regularity of the temple services was secured, and
each day had its own stated ceremonies and festivals, as well
as the multitude of private services for individuals, for all of
which the priests were necessary. The revenues of the
temples were derived from many sources, but chiefly from
the largesse of the kings who founded them and supplied
them with money, slaves, ornaments, and flocks of sacrificial
animals, and at the end of each new victorious campaign
testified their gratitude by additional gifts.
What made the priesthood so powerful in Chaldea was
not merely the religious sentiments of the people, but chiefly
their superstitious belief in evil spirits. Everywhere the
people believed themselves surrounded by a mighty host of
repulsive and malicious evil spirits, ever lying in wait for men
and causing them to be afflicted by demoniacal possession,
illness or death, or ready to pounce upon them when they
had unwittingly done some act which present-day superstition
would term unlucky, and which trenched on the domain of
these spirits. Over against these hostile demons were (1) the
great gods, and (2), more practically useful, the Annunaki
and Igigi, Spirits of Heaven and Earth, who were on the side
of the gods and carried out their commands. Besides direct
appeal to the gods and spirits against these demons, the most
certain way of repelling them and neutralizing their evil
designs was to make use of exorcisms, spells, amulets, and
holy water. Many of the hymns are spells and nothing
more, in which the demon and his evil deeds are referred to,
and the usual invocation follows: “Oh, Spirit of the heavens,
exorcize thou! Oh, Spirit of the earth, exorcize thou !”
Other hymns of a high religious character have been adulter-
ated by the addition of unintelligible formulae, and pass
quickly into the service of the lowest magical purposes. All
this resort to magic was under the control of the priesthood,
or of special branches of it, so that we must look upon it as,
to a certain extent, but one side of the religion of Babylonia.
These magical spells were always wrought under the aegis of
Ioo RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
the great gods and the Annunaki, and by virtue of the com-
pelling power of their secret names which they alone could
pronounce.
To understand the Babylonian conception of the future life
it is necessary to glance at their cosmogony. The earth was
regarded as a thick, hollow, hemispherical crust resting on the
waters of the great deep, which flowed around and beneath it.
The sky was another hemispherical crust, surrounding that of
the earth at some distance and also resting upon the deep.
On its under-side, sun, moon, and stars made their journey
from east to west. Above the sky was another vast ocean,
and far beyond it was the heaven of the great gods, where
some abode always, and to which all could repair when they
wished. But their usual meeting-place was not here, but far
in the east on the edge of the earth, where the waters of the
deep laved its shore. Within the crust of the earth was
Arallu, the land of no return, the abode of the dead. It was
ruled over by Allatu, consort of Nergal, who in some aspects
was god of the dead. Hither passed all the spirits of the
dead; those whom Allatu found to have been careless of the
offices of religion in life were sentenced to fearful punish-
ments, but for all alike life in the under-world was sombre,
joyless, and miserable 1 To this sad lot the Babylonians
resigned themselves, making the most of their earthly life and
enjoying there the gifts the gods provided them. But some
apparently rebelled against this conception of the future life,
and spoke of a happier paradise for heroes in an island beyond
the ocean, or, as some thought at a later period, in the lofty
heaven of the great gods. Many offerings were buried with
the dead to sustain them on the journey to Arallu, and as
propitiatory gifts to the divinities of death. Due burial rites
were important both for the dead and for the living, since
such offerings assisted the dead, and because, if left unburied,
the ekimmu or shade of a man invariably returned to plague
the living until these rites had been performed. The most
detailed picture of life in Arallu is found in the epic which
* Cf Isaiah xiv. 10 sq.; Ezek. xxxii. 17 sq.
THE RELIGION OF BABYLON I O I
describes the descent of Ishtar to Hades to obtain the waters
of life. This epic, as well as those which recount the story
of creation, of the fall, of the deluge, and of the exploits of
Gilgamesh, the mythical hero of Babylon, are of great value
as enshrining the popular theological conceptions, while some
of them are useful for purposes of comparison with those of
the Hebrews in the book of Genesis. Coming evidently
from some common source, one does not know whether to
wonder most at their likenesses or their differences.
Many of the offences for which men were punished by the
gods were nothing but breaches of ceremonial law, but at the
same time moral conduct was insisted upon, and its non-fulfil-
ment severely punished. The sins upon which most stress
were laid reveal a considerable ethical insight. They include
theft, dishonesty of various kinds, murder, adultery, lying,
oppression and injustice, removing landmarks, estranging the
members of a family from one another, avarice, and impurity.
All such things merited punishment and roused the anger of
the gods, who showered misfortunes on the man who com-
mitted them.
As compared with other Oriental religions that of Babylon
had little which was mysterious or mystical. Its genius
resembled that of the people—practical, precise, and open.
The domain and power of each god were strictly marked out;
future absorption into deity, with a consequent present esoteric
theosophy, had no place in Babylonian religion ; the favour of
the gods came from obedience, loss of it from disobedience,
restoration to it from sacrifices and petitions whose amount
and value were calculable. Even when religion entered the
domain of magic it still retained its practical aspect, and
never lost itself either in dark clouds of mystery or in the
splendour of inapproachable light.
CHAPTER II
The Religion of Egypt
MANY things have been said of the incoherence and contra-
dictions of Egyptian religion, but it is only natural that a
faith which preserved its most primitive features down to the
latest times, while new beliefs were constantly being added,
should exhibit these. Perhaps, too, when we come to know
more of this ancient system of faith, its unity will be more
apparent. Nothing that had once been regarded as sacred in
Egypt ever ceased quite to be so. Hence the word “con-
servative ’’ may be applied to the people and their religion as
the epithet which most fittingly sums up their character.
Even in very early times foreigners, like Herodotus, seeing,
e.g., the most exalted religious faith existing side by side with
the worship of grovelling beasts, maintained that such cults as
the latter were for the ignorant, while the priests and the
more enlightened clung to an esoteric faith. There is no
evidence of this in the texts, and though the enlightened
may have explained away animal-worship and animal-headed
gods by some recondite symbolism, they never discarded
them. Animal-worship is one of the most striking things in
Egyptian religion, and one of the most primitive. But there
are others which are equally striking, e.g. the idea of the
permanence of life, the belief in divine incarnations, and an
approach to monotheism, if not an actual attainment of such
a belief. *
The number of gods existing throughout the land and
during the course of ages is legion, but their numbers are due
to the early local cults which, originally quite separate, were
gradually combined with the growing unity of the state. But
while certain gods, like Osiris, were worshipped all over
I O2,
THE RELIGION OF EGYPT IO3
Egypt, the universal national recognition of one inclusive
pantheon is not to be thought of Egypt was divided into
provinces or nomes, and each nome had its own chief god,
with its temple and college of priests. The development of
religion in one nome went on quite regardless of the line fol-
lowed in neighbouring nomes, and even though the chief god
of one province had a quite subordinate place in another
province, to his worshippers he was all-supreme. Thus in
Egypt there existed certain gods known to all the people,
together with a number of local polytheistic systems, more
or less distinct, here coinciding, there becoming radically
different. And, as in all polytheisms, the gods showed dis-
tinct traces of an early animal and nature worship, though
presiding over the arts of civilization, the activities of man,
the realms of the dead, or the forces of the universe.
It is impossible even to enumerate all the gods worshipped
in Egypt, but there are some whose individuality is well
marked and demands a separate recognition. Seb and Nut,
earth and heaven, were regarded as husband and wife, and
preserved their primitive characteristics as universal parents
(like the Polynesian Rangi and Papa) down to later times.
Osiris, the most popular of Egyptian gods, was their son, and
through him they retained their early prominence. Ra, the
sun-god, was recognized all over Egypt as a mighty life-
giving deity, of whom many myths were told, such as that he
traversed the heavens day by day in a boat, and each day
obtained a fresh victory over the demon of darkness, Apep.
Solar worship was both primitive and universal in Egypt, and
though many solar deities were worshipped, all their character-
istics were summed up in Ra, and, as Wiedemann says, “more
hymns were sung to Ra and longer prayers were addressed to
him than to any other deity.” This was natural, since his
beneficent power was more obvious than that of any other
deified natural power. Ptah, the chief god of Memphis, has
a name which means “the opener,” perhaps because he was
said in the myths to have come forth from an egg, perhaps
* Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, p. 44.
IoA, RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
because he, more than any other god, was regarded as creator
of the universe and father of all the gods. Thoth, as the
moon-god, attained great prominence as the god of time and
of just measurement, since the moon was important to the
Egyptians in the measurement of time. Other functions were
soon ascribed to him, and he figures as a god of civilization,
the writer of the sacred books, and the deity who restored
speech to the dead beyond the grave. Khunsu, another lunar
god, corresponded in that capacity to Thoth. Khnum, “he
who constructed men, who made the gods, who was father in
the beginning,” is an example of a god to whom mighty
powers were ascribed, but whose original significance is now
quite lost. It was from his mouth that the egg of Ptah
sprung, yet Ptah, as we have seen, was also father of the gods.
Other prominent deities were Ment, the great god of war
who gave victory to the kings; Min or Khem, the god of
the generative powers of nature, especially worshipped in
gratitude at the time of harvest; Hapi, or the Nile, univers-
ally adored as the giver of fertility, to whom many magnifi-
cent temples were erected. Beside each god there was a
consort goddess, whose personality, though more defined
than in the case of the Babylonian goddesses, was little regarded
either in cult or myth. But as in Babylon one goddess
attained great Supremacy, so in Egypt the goddess Isis had an
unique place in worship and belief.
There was one god who gradually rose to supreme power,
and in whom the monotheistic tendencies of Egyptian religion
culminated. This was Amon of Thebes, identified with Ra,
and usually styled Amon-ra. The Greeks at once identified
him with Zeus. His name, “The Hidden One,” points to
the idea entertained of him that he was the unseen power
behind all visible things, but chiefly embodied in the sun.
From this conception sprang the lofty pantheism of ancient
Egypt. Many hymns of great beauty, with noble concep-
tions of the power and godhead of Amon, still exist to testify
to the honour paid to him. His position as the god who
gave counsel to kings, who executed judgments, and whose
THE RELIGION OF EGYPT Io 5
curse fell on those who opposed him, suggests a comparison
with Yah-veh, the God of Israel. But it is doubtful whether
this god of priests and kings, whom theology regarded as the
divinity of whom all other gods were merely the embodiment,
ever attained the position of a popular deity in the sense that
Osiris did. -
The famous myth of Osiris is told at length by Plutarch,
and the various incidents which he relates are confirmed by
the monuments. Seb, the earth, was cursed by Ra that she
should have no child in any month or year. Through the
intervention of Thoth five entirely new days were formed,
and on these Seb gave birth to Osiris, Set, Isis, and Nephthys.
Osiris now taught the Egyptians the elements of civilization.
Set, whose nature was wholly evil, envied Osiris, and through
guile, fastened him into a coffer which he flung into the Nile.
Isis, who was both sister and wife of Osiris, mourned for ,
him, and sought his body everywhere. At last, after many
adventures, she discovered it, and travelled with it to her son
Horus. Set, however, obtained the body and tore it into
fourteen pieces, thirteen of which Isis discovered and buried.
Osiris returned from the dead in the shape of a wolf, and
urged Horus to fight with Set. He did so, and brought the
evil one in chains to his mother, who, for some reason, let
him go free, whereupon Horus cut off her head, which
Thoth replaced by a cow's head. This myth has many
points in common with savage mythology, and it is obvious
that it has been made up from many elements. The dualism
of a good and evil being always at war is common among
savages. Totemism and primitive astronomy have a place in
the myth, while Osiris the good figures quite intelligibly as a
culture-hero and bringer of civilization. But apart from all
explanations of the myth, Osiris became one of the most
popular gods of the Egyptians, and his myth was used as an
allegory of the trials of the human soul. His life became a
pattern of what human life should be; his death pointed to
the universal law of death ; and his renewed life beyond the
grave held out a promise of immortality to his virtuous
Io6 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
followers. He was held to be the god of the dead and ruler
of the world beyond the grave. For this reason all must
seek his favour, and nearly every prayer for the dead was
addressed to him. Next he was identified with Ra, and
held to be the creator of the universe, while, in the end,
every part and function of the universe were held to be
animated by his life, and actually identified with him in a
crude pantheism. Great honour was also paid to Isis; she
was looked upon as the type of wedded fidelity and maternity;
she was to the Egyptians very much what the Madonna is to
Roman Catholics. But it was mostly when transferred to
other lands, Greece and Rome, that her worship rose to an
unparalleled height of magnificence, and that she became the
divinity in whom the functions of all other gods were summed
up, the goddess of whom it was said, “I am that which is,
which has been, and which shall be.”
Set was worshipped merely because his evil nature terrified
men and urged them to propitiate him and secure his favour.
At last, when his evil character was more strictly defined,
his worship ceased, and he was execrated as the very type
and embodiment of all that was evil, and the foe of the gods.
He was also regarded as the god of foreigners, and identified
with the Semitic Baal. In certain Egyptian districts he is
known to have been worshipped as the sun-god, but this
is to be explained by the influence of Semitic immigrants,
whose great god was declared to be Set, overcoming the local
prejudice against him.
The henotheism which Max Müller has attributed to
Hindu theology is also found in Egypt. Each god is
claimed as supreme, as creator. But another process of
thought tended to unification of divinity. It was peculiarly
Egyptian, and was aided by the desire for political unity
among the nomes. Different gods were identified with each
other and took each other’s names. Hence we have such
combinations as Osiris-Ra, Ptah-Sokar-Osiris, or the simple
merging of one god’s nature and attributes in those of another.
Again, when one dynasty attained to supreme power, the cult
THE RELIGION OF EGYPT 107
of its chief god was spread over the whole land, and all the
local gods were identified with it, or looked on as its manifest-
ations or its servants. This happened in the case of Ptah
and of Amon-Ra. With this, especially from the time of
the Hyksos, there was a marked tendency to merge all gods
in the sun or Ra, and to identify every god with Ra,
and add his name to theirs. This process of syncretism is
found in most religions, but it is nowhere so noticeable as in
Egypt. It marks an assertion of the latent belief in mono-
theism, but in priestly and philosophic circles it helped to
supply the basis for a pantheistic creed.
This process of combination took another form in Egypt,
viz. in the formation of triads and enneads. The triad in
any district consisted of a god, a goddess, and their son. As
the gods were mortal, the son was destined to take his father’s
place, therefore he was his exact counterpart. This gave
rise to strange epithets attached to the gods. They were
“self-begotten,” because each was father to the son who was
his veritable image; they were each called “the husband of
his mother,” since each son became by his mother the parent
of the divine son who, in turn, would replace him. Thus
the gods, mortal in one sense, were eternal in another, since
their personality was instantly merged in that of another who
was all that they were. Perhaps this was only a symbolic
way of expressing the idea of eternity. No explanation is
given as to why the goddess remained unchanged through all
the cycles of the divine generations. In other instances the
family triad was replaced by a simple combination of unrelated
divinities. The ennead of nine deities was a later attempt at
systematic grouping. One chief god stood at the head of
the others, who assisted him in governing the world and
formed his court. “As a rule there is no evidence that the
selection of the gods of an ennead was dictated by a profound
philosophy: its members were simply the principal national
deities headed by the god of the nome in question.”
The explanations of Egyptian animal-worship and its
* Wiedemann, op. cit. p. 106.
t
Io8 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
origins are both ancient and many. The priests said that the
gods had hidden themselves in bestial forms when Set warred
against Horus. Another early explanation claimed animal
gods as survivals of tribal badges. Of these and other views,
that which sees in the animal worshipped some quality char-
acteristic of the god connected with it is worthy of attention.
But it does not explain everything, and we must fall back on
Maclennan’s theory, approved by Sayce and other competent
scholars, which sees in totemism the origin of beast-worship
in Egypt. That totemism existed is proved by the fact that
different species of animals were revered and protected in
different nomes, and that quarrels between nomes were frequent
because the people of one had killed an animal of the sacred
species of another. The sacredness of the species lay in
their kinship to the people of a nome. Hence arose animal-
worship pure and simple. In other cases a god came to be
associated with a totem animal, as at Bubastis, where Bast
had a cat’s head. And when the animal and human kinship
was forgotten, it was held that a god assumed his particular
animal form when he visited the earth. In earlier times
certain gods were represented as animals, but, for some reason,
after the twelfth dynasty they were depicted only with animal
heads, and in time nearly all gods were so depicted. Besides
the local adoration of a single species, or the worship of beast-
headed gods, we must also note this, that some gods were
believed to be visibly incarnate in one particular animal, which
was therefore held in adoration, like the Apis bull, or the
Sukhos crocodile,
The influence of totemism was far-reaching in Egypt, and
it supplied the need of a visible object of worship. This
was also found in the belief that each king was a visible
incarnation of deity, the son of a god, the preceding monarch
being only his reputed father. His divine influence was felt
throughout the universe, sacrifice on an elaborate scale was
offered to him, worship was paid in special temples by a
special order of priests, and on his behalf the most extravagant
claims were made.
THE RELIGION of EGYPT Io9
The Egyptian temple was dedicated to one deity, who
had his abode there in his animal form or under some
symbol; there sacrifice and worship were paid him ; and
from thence he was borne in procession on the great festivals.
Sacred ways guarded by rows of sphinxes led the worshipper on
to the enclosing wall of the sacred precincts. Passing through
a gateway he went on to the temple building itself. Before
the doorway of the temple stood two obelisks, a statue of the
temple’s founder, and tall masts with gay streamers waving
from them. The doorway, or pylon, was a narrow entrance
between two lofty towers, and ushered the worshipper into
a colonnaded court open to the sky, and adorned with richly-
coloured sacred pictures. Passing onwards through a second
doorway he entered the dimly-lit and pillared hypostyle
court, beyond which was the mysterious dark sanctuary of
the god, flanked by rooms in which vestments and symbols
were stored. The whole edifice with its surroundings must
have presented a magnificent appearance, while its archi-
tecture contrived to give an air of mystery to the place, and
spoke of strange revelations of deity.
The priesthood was minutely organized, and was divided
into many offices of varying grades. The priests super-
intended the sacrifices, explained the oracles, studied the
sacred books, and, most important of all in one sense, to them
was entrusted the education of those who were afterwards to
become the great officers of the state. Besides daily services
ordered according to a stated ritual, and the offering of
sacrifices at occasional or stated times, the priests had charge
of the numerous religious festivals of which the Egyptians
were so fond, fonder almost than any other ancient people,
and which were always organized on a most magnificent
scale. Of these Herodotus has left a detailed account, which
is supplemented by the representations of them on the
In OIlumentS.
The Egyptian doctrine of the future life was connected
with the daily progress of the Sun in his bark through Duat
or Hades. Duat had twelve divisions, and the Sun's progress
II o RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
through each, accompanied by his train of gods, lasted one
hour. Each compartment was occupied by gods and
demons, and by the souls of the dead. Each time as the
Sun entered Duat the newly dead joined his train; some he
left in the first division; others passed through its gates and
were left behind in the succeeding divisions; others passed
on with him to the new day, their destiny being the happy
one of remaining for ever with Ra in his journey. All
those who gained immortality in Duat or with Ra must
have been his friends, but their place there or with him was
allotted according to their knowledge of those magic formulas
by which the doors of the divisions of Duat could be opened.
Those who could open all the doors passed on with Ra,
because they were well versed in the magical “open sesame.”
The others remained behind in darkness, with the daily
prospect of one short but crowded hour of glorious life as the
god passed through their division of Duat. At some period
in Egyptian history the idea of moral retribution competed
with that of magical powers, for other documents speak
of the dead passing before Osiris, the lord of Duat, and
being weighed in his scales against their deeds. The wicked
were punished; the righteous allotted a place according to
their degree of virtue. This doctrine is fully set forth in
the Book of the Dead, which, in its scheme of retribution,
gives a wonderful picture of the moral ideas of the Egyptians.
The dead are identified with Osiris, and spoken of as
“Osiris this or that,” while they have the power of
assuming various forms after death. The Book of the Dead
was an epitome of the Osirian faith, and it represented the
dead as passing not into the somewhat cheerless land of
Duat, but to a bright and happy state, Aalu, where all was
joy and peace. But whether in Duat or Aalu, the dead are
represented as continuing the ordinary occupations of life.
Some of these doctrines show how much a belief in
magic entered into the fabric of Egyptian religion. The
magical beliefs differed little from those current among lower
races, but they had been raised to a science and had been
THE RELIGION OF EGYPT I I I
consecrated by remaining in the sphere of religion. Besides
the belief in the virtue of magical formulas in the next world,
other magical ideas entered into the Egyptian’s hopes for
the future. Statuettes were buried with the dead man in the
belief that they would become his servants, and small models
of food, furniture, weapons, etc., were placed beside him
that they might also turn into actualities. This conception
is found among the modern Chinese, and it is entirely based
upon a belief in sympathetic magic. The virtue of a name
was also believed in by the Egyptians. To know the secret
name of the gods was to be able to compel them to do one’s
bidding. Conjurations and spells containing the name of
the gods, or in which the person called himself by their
names, warded off accidents and the attacks of dangerous
beasts. Sickness, being supposed to be caused by demons,
was mostly cured by exorcisms. Each day being the
memorial of some mythological occurrence, or some event
in divine history, had an auspicious or inauspicious signifi-
cance, which influenced the man born on that day through
his life, or prevented or accelerated work on such a day.
To neutralize such evil influence, magical means were
commonly resorted to. These ideas are world-wide, but
in Egypt they, more than elsewhere in civilized countries
save in Babylon, remained under the shadow of religion,
and from Egypt they exercised a vast influence over ancient
and modern Europe.
CHAPTER III
The Religion of China
CHINESE religion is associated in Western minds with the
names of Confucius and Lao-tsze, the respective fonnders of
Confucianism and Taoism in the sixth century B.c. These
two systems, along with Buddhism, which, entering the
country from India, fascinated the people, constitute the
native religions. Buddhism will receive a separate chapter
to itself, but before discussing the nature of the other two
faiths it is necessary to speak of the religion of China before
it was touched by these two philosophers. The nature of
that early religion, as it is dimly perceived in the records of
the sacred books, suggests (as there are other grounds for
supposing) a connection with the remote races of Babylonia.
It reveals itself as the worship of a crowd of spirits, whose
existence is clearly derived from an earlier animism. Some
of these spirits are the spirits of mountains, rivers, and other
departments of nature; others have no fixed sphere; others
are purely ancestral. At the head of these spirits is Shang-
ti, whom some think of as merely holding a high place
among the spirits, but who, with more likelihood, is the
representative of that divinity of whom primitive man knew
before animism had altered his conceptions of divinity. At
all events, it seems certain that Shang-ti had come to be re-
garded as a supreme, omnipotent, moral, eternal Ruler, under
whom were ranged the various orders of spirits, celestial,
terrestrial, and human. This early religion, with its elaborate
public and private worship, still exists under the name of
Confucianism, since Confucius reduced it to a system.
Confucius (551–478 B.C.), born of an aristocratic family,
lived at a time of great political and social disorder, when
I I 2.
THE RELIGION OF CHINA II 3
religion, too, had become corrupted by a mass of superstitions,
and numerous impostors preyed upon the fears of the people.
His success, and the veneration in which he has been held in
China by all classes alike, prove how much his work was
needed. Taking his stand upon the ancient religion, he
reduced it to a system, but he aimed rather at moral reform
than spiritual vision. Thus while insisting strongly upon the
whole order of the world and the course of man’s life being
submissive to Shang-ti, he relegated the worship of the
supreme God to the emperor on behalf of the people. But
upon all questions relating to the nature of Shang-ti, the
unseen world, or the future life, he was mostly silent. Re-
ligion, with him, was entirely an affair of filial piety, obedience
to one’s parents, ancestors, and rulers. Hence for the people
ancestral worship became the chief, if not the only, form of
religion. This was the basis of morality, and upon right
conduct Confucius insisted most of all. Man’s nature,
originally bestowed by Shang-ti, was good, and there was no
reason why, if he followed the promptings of his own con-
science and obeyed the “five constant virtues” (benevolence,
uprightness, politeness, knowledge, and faithfulness), he should
not attain to absolute perfection of life. “Reciprocity,” he
taught, was the word which might sum up all rules for moral
conduct. “What you do not want done to yourself, do not
do to others.” There is no doubt Confucius was a great
ethical prophet. It was also the task of Confucius to collect
and edit several ancient writings of authority which are now
venerated as the Sacred Books of Confucianism, along with a
volume of his own compilation, and four books in which his
teaching and that of Mencius, his great successor, have been
preserved. The contents of these volumes, divination, ritual,
history, poetry, morality, biography, govern the details of
conduct of all Chinese who pretend to the least veneration for
the great sage.
Lao-tsze, the contemporary of Confucius (born 604 B.C.),
was much more of a mystical philosopher, and Confucius
admitted his spiritual superiority. In his book, the Tao-te-
I
114 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
King, a small volume, but one of the most difficult to under-
stand, he teaches that behind the universe, behind even
Shang-ti himself, unchanged and unchanging, is the Tao, the
groundwork and source of all things. The perfect life is
attained not, as in Confucius’ system, by obeying moral
maxims, but by inward calm reflecting upon the Tao, by
nourishing the perceptive powers of the soul in purity and
rest. “Not to act is the source of all power,” is a frequent
saying of Lao’s. Moreover he advanced beyond Confucius’
negative golden rule of reciprocity by advocating the render-
ing of good for evil—an idea which Confucius seemed to
think ridiculous. One perceives in his teaching much of the
quietism of the mystics, and though his system has always
fascinated many in China, it is so vague that few can agree
upon the method of arriving at the blessed life. What is
called Taoism, therefore, as will presently be seen, has no
real connection with Lao-tsze, though he and his book are
held in profound reverence by Taoists.
Confucianism, as the state religion of China, is at once
ancestor-worship, monotheism, and polytheism. It is mono-
theistic in so far as Shang-ti is recognized as the Supreme god,
exercising over men a just and beneficent providence. But
as the people do not worship him except vicariously through
the official devotions of the emperor, he does not enter much
into their religion. The official worship takes place at
special times, and consists of vast sacrifices, sacrificial ban-
quets, and prayers. The emperor acts personally or by
deputy as priest, and at the same time adores the Spirit of
Earth, and the gods of sun, moon, stars, mountains, rivers,
and seas. To the people is thus left only the worship
of minor spirits and of the spirits of ancestors and great
men. The dead share the glory and blessings of their
descendants, who seek their advice, live in communion with
them, and pay them unflinching obedience. Tablets are set
up in each house as the home of the spirits, prayers are made
before them, men examine their consciences in presence of
their ancestors, who protect and consecrate the home. Con-
THE RELIGION OF CHINA II 5
fucianism is thus the prostration of a man’s whole being
before his dead ancestors, as well as before those spirits of
great men who, by order of the state, are to be worshipped.
Hence Confucius himself is one of the most venerated spirits
in China, and is practically a god. In each city is a temple
to his honour, at which sacrifice is offered officially twice a
year. .
Confucianism, supported by the state and by the intellectual
classes, prides itself upon its high ethics and the fact that it
allows no worship of images. The grosser needs of the
masses have forced the state, however, to tolerate and recog-
nize Taoism and Buddhism. In truth, the three faiths supple-
ment each other, and, as Dr. Edkins says, occupy the three
corners of a triangle—Confucianism the moral, Taoism the
material, Buddhism the metaphysical.
The relations of Chinese Buddhism and Taoism to the
teachings of their respective founders may be described as
that of degraded superstition to mysticism. So the spiritual
mysticism of Plotinus ended in the silly theurgy of Iambli-
chus. The corruption which Buddhism has undergone has
influenced Taoism, and though many of its gods might be
called indigenous, as many more are nothing but replicas of
the divinities of popular Buddhism. The chief god of Tao-
ism is Yuh-hwang-shang-te, the equivalent of Shang-ti, and,
like him, the controller of the universe and teacher of man-
kind. As the emperor is the earthly representative of Shang-
ti, so this great Taoist deity has his vicegerent in the human
pope of this faith, whose hereditary line is dimly connected
with a remote ancestor identified with the god. Correspond-
ing to the Buddhist trinity are the Three Holy Ones,
instructors and benefactors of mankind, whose immense images
are worshipped in every Taoist temple. One of these is vari-
ously said to be actually Lao-tsze raised to this eminence by
merit, or to have been incarnate in his human person. Another
triad of lesser gods preside over heaven, earth, and water,
for, on the whole, Taoism relegates all superintendence over
the universe to the lesser gods of the system, departmental

I 16 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
nature-gods, whose temples exist all over the empire. Thus
there are gods of the seas and rivers, of the stars (many of
whom have become incarnate in men who are now associated
with these stars or constellations), of the sun and moon, of
thunder, etc. All of these control the world and watch the
behaviour of men, presenting their report to their chief, Yuh-
hwang, one day in each year. Again, there are gods of
happiness, rank, old age, riches (much worshipped by mer-
chants), and diseases. Many of these must be traced back
to that early worship of spirits based on animism which pre-
ceded Confucianism, and they are the more easily believed in
since the different parts of the world are supposed to have a
real personality—an animistic doctrine. The earth lives be-
cause it gives plants for food to man, the sky because it gives
sunshine and rain ; but as many more have been invented to
satisfy the superstitious cravings of the people. The state,
however, has adopted some Taoist gods, and requires their
official worship. The gods of war and of literature, e.g.,
must be adored officially at stated periods by the officers of
the Government in their respective districts.
The complete and elaborate ceremonial of Taoist ritual is
in great part borrowed from Buddhism. According to
their size the temples contain a greater or smaller number of
images of the gods in the Taoist pantheon, arranged in order
of their rank in the halls and side chapels. As Buddhism
imagined an ascending series of heavens to exist, each peopled
with a different grade of deities, so Taoism has arranged its
unseen world. These chapels represent the divisions of the
heavens with their respective gods, spirits, and deified men.
The liturgical worship in these temples is based upon that of
the Buddhists. Popular Taoist worship is intermingled with
magical rites and a system of divination which suggests a
stage little removed from that on which the savage medicine-
man rests his authority. For instance, a sick man comes to a
temple to pray before the shrine of the god who presides over
health. By various methods the priest obtains an oracle
from the god which suggests the appropriate medicine. Those
THE RELIGION OF CHINA I 17
who are benefited in this way believe it is entirely due to the
intervention of the god, whose shrine is adorned with the
votive tablets of worshippers grateful for the cures they have
obtained. Charms consecrated by contact with a Taoist
image are sold to frighten away demons, who dare not ap-
proach the god or anything connected with him. It is
thought that immortality is gained by a virtuous life, but it
has been attained through magical means, through eating a
herb of immortality, or drinking some elixir. Many of the
celestial spirits are men who have attained immortality in this
manner. Magic enters into Confucianism also, but there it is
strictly regulated, whereas in Taoism, as there is no limit to
the credulity of the people, so there is no bound to the
magical rites and remedies, the practice of divination and
sortilege, the making of amulets and charms, all consecrated
by connection with the religious worship. Lao-tsze's teach-
ing that by passivity men attain union with the Tao and its
power (in other words, enter Nirvana), and that he who knows
the Tao need fear neither serpents’ bites nor wild beasts' jaws,
has suggested the magic attainment of immortality and the
freedom from bodily ills by means of charms. Mysticism
has opened the door to magic."
Confucianism teaches an austere morality, comparable to
Stoicism, to be pursued for its own sake. Education, follow-
ing the Confucian ideal, is as much a system of moral training
as of intellectual growth, and in every school the Sacred
Books, in which that moral system is contained, are made
the object of study. On the other hand, in so far as Con-
fucianism is deficient in an appeal to religion, and does not
connect the idea of duty with any Divine law, its morality
lacks spiritual enthusiasm. The moral system of Taoism,
* It should be noted that Confucianism has no priesthood. The
great sacrifices made to Shang-ti are offered by the emperor alone
acting as high-priest. Similarly the sacrifices paid to the spirits
in the state temples throughout the country are performed by state
officials and magistrates. The worship of ancestors is conducted,
not by priests, but in each case by the head of the family or the
nearest relation.
I 18 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
perhaps the natural result of an individualistic philosophy
which sought only personal salvation by the Tao, is utilitarian.
The extremely popular handbook on Retribution lays down a
series of temporal rewards and punishments for all actions,
good and bad—the standard of right and wrong being entirely
Confucian. Thus the fame of Confucianism as a system of
morality has influenced this materialistic religion to no small
extent, Taoism, however, urging the claims of virtue by an
appeal to selfishness through its promise of rewards, riches,
rank, health, or long life.
Chinese ideas of the future life vary with the various
religions professed. The immaterial nature of the soul and
its continuance after death were primitive ideas in China, and
belonged to the pre-Confucian religion. The soul was and is
still regarded as a vapour, which leaves the body at death and
may appear enshrined in a thin material body as a ghost.
The early custom of sacrificing to dead ancestors proves that
this vapoury soul or shin was believed to live on after death.
Confucius, however, refused to discuss anything relating to the
shin, its nature or immortality. Hence Confucianism has no
doctrine of the future life. Any notions of future bliss pro-
fessed by Confucianists are derived from Taoism or Buddhism.
A follower of the sage will deny any knowledge of a future
state, or will say that the good will be happy hereafter,
whereas others will be annihilated at death. This is a Taoist
doctrine. Buddhists in China believe that man is relegated
to a happy paradise or a state of woe at death, after which he
enters upon a new life according to his merits. This metem-
psychosis goes on ad infinitum, but its ultimate aim is Nirvana,
the state in which there is neither being nor not-being. In
effect, however, Chinese Buddhists look forward to the
western paradise of Amitabha Buddha, where they will rest
for millions of years enjoying its sensuous sights and sounds.
This paradise is one of the “many inventions” of Chinese
Buddhism, and is eminently satisfying to the followers of that
creed. The Taoists have adopted all these Buddhist ideas.
They believe in a joyous heaven for the virtuous; metem-
THE RELIGION OF CHINA 119
psychosis for the less virtuous ; and final annihilation, pre-
ceded by ghastly tortures in hell, for the reprobate masses.
Chinese religion has thus made few spiritual advances upon
its primitive conditions. Confucianism has really robbed the
people of the belief in a Supreme God. Taoism, borrowing
the ideas of popular Buddhism, has supplied the lack of a
divinity, by raising the spirits of the primitive worship to the
place of gods. Again, both Confucianism and Taoism owe
to Buddhism any distinctive notions of immortality which
they now possess. It is thus that these three faiths, mutually
supplementary, may be professed consistently at the same
time. Confucianism suggests a high morality, fortified by
the example of the good and great. Buddhism fills up the
blank in the unseen by its metaphysical doctrines and its tale
of a blissful after-life, while it tempts the sensuous religious
moods by its elaborate ceremonial. Taoism, with its gods
for every occasion of life and its magical rites, appeals
to the superstitions which are dormant or active in every
human being according to his intellectual status. These
three religions exist side by side because none of them is
comprehensive.
CHAPTER IV
The Religion of India
IN spite of radical changes during the thousands of years of
its existence, the religion of India has preserved certain con-
stant features, e.g. a love of speculation and of subtle symbolism,
an unwillingness to admit the reality of the universe, a recog-
nition of unity under all diversity. These we find from
early times down to the present day, in Vedism, Brahmanism,
Buddhism, and Hinduism. Reserving Buddhism for separate
treatment, we shall point out the salient features of the other
three.
The immense antiquity of Vedic literature has led some to
see in it a picture of the undivided Aryan religion. But
while the basis of its myths, etc., may be Aryan, their form is
Indian, and the religious opinions are those of a people long
cut off from the other branches of the race, and already
given to speculation upon the meaning of the myths handed
down from long-past ages. The literature, too, is of varying
date and heterogeneous contents. Magic and disgusting
divine myths jostle pure nature-worship, monotheism, and
lofty ethics. In spite of this, Vedic literature has been
venerated through all ages, and still holds its ground as a
complete divine revelation, which has in turn given rise to a
copious sacred literature.
Two characteristics of Vedic religion are (1) polytheism,
based on frank nature-worship, and rising occasionally into
monotheism ; (2) a theory of the power of sacrifice, in itself,
and because of its mystical efficacy. The hymns scarcely
distinguish between the phenomena of nature and the gods
who have come to personify these. The gods are many in
I 2, O
THE RELIGION OF INDIA I2 I
number, but not graded in a hierarchy; they are described
now as of varying power, now as all equally great. All are
called Devas, creatures of light; all, in spite of strange myths
and a non-moral origin, are regarded by the poets as moral
governors who are quick to note and to punish or forgive the
sins of mortals. In the main each god has some province of
nature with which he is chiefly concerned, but the pantheistic
tendency of the Vedas obliterates any strict lines of depart-
mental government. It is impossible here even to record the
names and functions of all the Vedic gods; it must suffice
to refer briefly to the chief among them, viz. Varuna, Indra,
Agni, Soma, Ushas, and Aditi.
Varuna, whether originating from the all-embracing heaven
or from the encircling waters, is recognized as a universal
ruler, to whom not only the whole order of nature, but also
the most secret thoughts of men, are perfectly open. Thus,
more than any other Vedic god, he approaches most nearly
to Christian conceptions of deity as eternal and Supreme, and
as the only forgiver of sin. Hence the hymns addressed to
Varuna constantly remind one of the Psalms by their con-
ceptions of divinity and ethical tone. On the other hand, the
occasional strange and obscene myths told of Varuna show
that these ideas of his nature were gradually formed out of
cruder conceptions which still continued to clog the mind of
the later worshipper.
Next to Varuna, perhaps equal to him in the ideas enter-
tained of his power, is Indra, the thunder-god and rain-
giver, the victorious opponent of the demons who would keep
back the healthful light and the needful rain. These
qualitities of the god owe their origin to nature myths of
struggles between the powers of light and darkness, to myths
of heroes who wrest from creatures who have stolen them
fire and rain and light. Traces of these myths occur in the
hymns, they exist unaltered among the beliefs of savage
races. But such an idea of a god, though based on a naïve
dramatization of nature, easily lends itself to an ethical form.
It need not, therefore, surprise us that while mythologically
122 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
Indra is described as one who must be made drunk with
soma before he goes forth to victory, as a parricide and
adulterer, as a god with traits shared by the gods of savages,
from a religious and ethical point of view he is spoken of as
supreme king, in whom all creatures rejoice, the conqueror
of the hosts of evil, or is even identified with the supremely
ethical Varuna.
The mysterious nature of fire, its sudden appearance and
disappearance, its evident life, have suggested to many races
that it deserved worship, and to none more so than the
Hindus. Accordingly Agni, the god of fire, occupies a
most prominent place in the Vedas, and is worshipped now
simply as the actual flame, now as a most powerful god,
ruler of the universe, friend of men, forgiver of sin, and even
creator of all the gods. In heaven Agni has the form of
the sun, in the air that of the lightning, on earth that of the
sacrificial fire, and it is from this last point of view that the
curious ideas entertained of this god originated. As the
priest still used the primitive and therefore sacred method
of producing fire at the sacrifice, viz. by rubbing two sticks
together, so it came to be said that this mighty god was
created anew by the priest at every sacrifice—an excellent
example both of Hindu inconsequence and priestly power.
And as it was in the fire that the sacrifice was consumed
whereby the gods received its invisible essence, so Agni was
said to take the sacrifice to the gods, to be the god who
brought them life, and who, therefore, created them.
Soma was originally nothing more than the intoxicating
juice of a plant, which by itself or in some mystical form
was regarded as the immortal food of the gods, the most
acceptable sacrifice which could be offered to them. It only
remained to personify soma, who then became a god with
almighty attributes, giving life, power, and wisdom to gods
and men, indispensable at every sacrifice, and occupying in
sacrifice and religious thought much the same position as did
Agni.
No department of nature-worship is so prominent in the
THE RELIGION OF INDIA I23.
Vedas as the praise of the Dawn (Ushas)—a phenomenon
which perpetually amazed and charmed the Hindu psalmists,
and roused their sweetest poetical powers. The dawn was
personified as a beautiful maiden, old, but re-born daily
to fresh beauty, waking all creatures to life, sister of
night, and at once mother, daughter, and sister of the sun.
But puerile myths compete for recognition with religious
fancy, and the later literature is full of childish statements
regarding this fair goddess.
Aditi, mother of the bright gods, the Adityas, is a
goddess regarding whom much controversy has arisen. While
some regard her as a later abstraction from the Adityas,
others, like Max Müller, regard her as a personification of
the infinite and one of the earliest Indian religious con-
ceptions, suggested to men’s minds from “that heaving sea
of light or fire" from which the dawn springs, and which
always remained behind her. This was the infinite made
visible, and suggested the eternal infinite beyond, personified
as Aditi, mother of all the gods. It is certain that round
Aditi cling many advanced metaphysical ideas, but whether
these are so primitive as is claimed, is not so certain. She
figures in myths in a manner which does not suggest lofty
metaphysical thought, but points to its being a later addition
to the conceptions of a goddess to whom already some high
position has been given. What, however, is undoubtedly to
be gathered from a study of the Vedic gods is that while
they are divinized forms of natural phenomena, sky, sun,
thunder, dawn, etc., other ideas, such as those of infinity,
a world-order, and universal law, seem to have suggested
themselves naturally to the early Hindu mind, and to have
coloured their conceptions of deity.
An examination of ancient polytheistic religions points to
the existence of what Max Müller calls “henotheism,” and
which he defines thus:—“When these individual gods are
invoked they are not conceived as limited by the power of
others, as superior or inferior in rank. Each god is to the
mind of the suppliant as good as all the gods. He is felt
124 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
at the time as a real divinity, as supreme and absolute. . . .
All the rest disappear from the vision of the poet, and he
only who is to fulfil their desires stands in full light before the
eyes of the worshippers.” I Nowhere is henotheism better
exemplified than in the Vedas, though it existed also in
Babylon, Egypt, and Greece. It accounts for the similarity
of the language of adoration bestowed on the gods of Vedic
times, as well as the blending of their nature and functions.
One result of henotheism was the early appearance of that
striving after a world-unity which is a chief characteristic
of the next period of Hindu religion. Two epithets applied
to the greater gods in the hymns, Visvakarman, maker of all
things, and Pragāpati, lord of all men, were personified as
gods and addressed in terms which would suggest that
monotheism alone was the creed of Vedic India. In the
Rig Veda (x. 121) the latter is described as “he who alone
is God above all gods.” But such gods as these were
created solely out of the aspirations of philosophy.
As an example of the manner in which the Vedas preserve
myths and beliefs common to primitive thought everywhere,
we may mention Dyaus (heaven) and Prithivi (earth), who,
as in so many mythologies, appear as parents of all things,
and evidently, at an earlier period, had been thought of as
supreme. The same belief meets us in Polynesia, in Egypt,
and in Greece, and as in the last case it was Cronus who
separated heaven and earth, his parents, so in India the god
Indra is fabled to have done the same.
The worship of the Vedic period was largely sacrificial,
but towards its close the ideas about sacrifice were given a
mystical turn. The offering had omnipotent power, and the
gods were bound by it to obey the offerer. Hence the need
of an exact performance of the extensive and minute sacri-
ficial ritual. This mystic doctrine was aided by the growing
claims of the Brahmanic priests, who were now looked upon
as Superior even to the gods.
In the Brahmanic period ritual was all in all, and this,
* History of Sanskrit Literature, p. 2.
J/ ; P. 53
THE RELIGION OF INDIA I 25
with its complexity, sent the people to forms of worship
which suited them better. These, in some cases derived
from the aborigines, were the origin of the modern Hindu
cults. Metaphysical conceptions also dominated this age.
The gods are mere names, the sacrifices mere symbols, and
men must seek after the One Supreme Essence, Atman or
Brahman. All existence was Maya, illusion, and from this
the soul was set free by meditation and knowledge of the
Atman, till it was absorbed therein. All this is set forth in
the Upanishads, metaphysical books of the second age. Of
this philosophy there were several schools, and from it
Buddhism also took its rise, until it became the dominant
religion. Then it was overthrown by Brahmanism once
more, but not before it had modified it in many ways.
During this period arose the idea that every true Brahman
should depart into the forest, and there end his days in
solitary meditation upon the Atman and the absolute.
After Buddhism came Hinduism proper. Brahmanism, with
its ritual and metaphysics, still continues; but the people are
chiefly devoted to the new gods, Vishnu and Siva. Vishnu
already existed as a minor Vedic deity, identified later with
Krishna and Rama (heroes of the great epics), in whom he
incarnated himself. Vishnuism varies from a philosophy to
an excessively materialistic popular faith with an enormous
following, and divided into a large number of minor sects.
Siva is also a Vedic god, Rudra the thunderer, transformed
and exalted. In one sense Siva is the god of destruction,
whose form is terrible to gaze upon; but in another he is the
god of renewal and life, whose symbols are therefore the
Linga and Yoni–emblems of the productive powers of
nature. As in the case of Vishnuism, his worshippers are
extremely numerous and comprise all ranks, while the various
aspects of his nature admit of his being adored at once
by ascetics and voluptuaries. A branch of Sivaism is
Saktism, the worship of Sakti under many forms, always
female, for Sakti is conceived of as the female counterpart
or the wife of Siva. The worship of Sakti appeals to the
126 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
most immoral and superstitious elements of Hindu nature by
virtue of its sensual rites and magical practices.
Such are the gods of what might be called official
Hinduism. “Official” is really a misnomer, for the state
in India has neither been strong enough nor sufficiently
far-reaching in its influence to weld the various religious
manifestations and cults into one fixed system. In India
gods are made and unmade every day, and beneath the
worship of the great gods of Hinduism extends a mighty
and various pantheon of lesser deities worshipped by the
poorer classes, the rustics, and the aborigines. These cults
are not opposed to the worship of the great gods—nay, they
are so far recognized by Hinduism that the worshipful
godling, animal, saint, or hero is declared to be merely an
avatar of Vishnu. Thus what outwardly has the form of
multitudinous opposing cults, by this subtle teaching becomes
in reality one comprehensive system whose various phases
are linked together under the aegis of the great god.
Hinduism has also one comprehensive name for these lesser
deities. They are called “devatā,” demi-gods, as opposed
to the Deva, the mighty gods at the head of the universe.
Some of the devatā, the pure demi-gods, are served by
priests of the Brahmin castes; the others, impure demi-gods,
have for ministers members of the Dravidian tribes, and their
offerings are usually of such a kind as are abhorrent to strict
Hinduism. These impure devatā must thus have been
originally the deities of the aborigines. Some of the pure
devatā are Vedic deities who have suffered eclipse in the
course of ages; others are personifications of departments
of nature, of weather, etc. The influence of these demi-
gods may extend throughout a whole province, or may be
confined to one village; but it is always waxing or waning,
and a village god may easily rise to a lofty position in the
pantheon. Among millions in India the conception of the
powers of nature is almost as naif as it is among savages.
The idea of spirits who preside over the departments of
nature has scarcely been attained; the river, the mountain,
THE RELIGION OF INDIA 127
the earth, are themselves divinities. Mountains are especially
venerated as themselves gods, or as the home of a god or
a demon. The Himalayas, where dwelt the great gods, are
considered highly sacred, but with many they are simply
divine in themselves. To think of them, much more to see
them, is to have one’s sins dried up like dew by the morning
sun. Of rivers the Ganges and Jumna are the most sacred,
but many lesser rivers, as well as lakes, wells and tanks, are
worshipped for their own sakes, or for the sake of the spirit
who inhabits them. The temples along the banks of the
sacred river, the customs of consigning the dead to its
waves, of using its waters to heal sickness, of bathing in it
to rid oneself in a moment of the sins of a lifetime, all
prove how divine the river is in India. So, too, the earth
is worshipped, and especially at the time of sowing, sacrifices
are made to it, in order that it may be propitious and yield
a bountiful harvest. It is regarded as a living, divine
being, who can give or withhold fertility, and by so doing
bless or ban the simple worshippers who think of themselves
as the children of the Earth-mother. This is a very
primitive train of thought preserved intact amid all the
religious revolutions in India. Animals are also worshipped
in a primitive manner, and among these Hanuman, the
monkey-god, is an excellent example of a demi-god with an
extended yet local influence. Whatever Hanuman was in
origin—a monkey pure and simple, or the fabled descendant
of some Vedic god—he is already in the Ramayana the
helper of Rama in his strife with Ravana, and is now a
powerful deity who, in every village, keeps off the spirits
of evil from his grateful worshippers. Because of him all
monkeys are sacred in India. Among other sacred animals
the serpent is next important, all the more so because it has
become associated with Siva. Snake shrines are found in
every village, and these animals are variously regarded as
controlling the weather, or as embodiments of ancestral
ghosts. But, however regarded, they have become more
important than they were in Vedic times, when they were
128 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
feared, and when the snake-demon Vritra was the embodi-
ment of evil. Some aboriginal serpent-worship has thus
had a far-reaching effect upon the Hindu mind, and has
completely altered fear into reverence. Another important
branch of local worship is that of the gods of disease. The
chief of these is Sitala, the goddess of small-pox, who,
whenever the marks of this fell disease are seen in man or
woman, is known to have taken up her abode in the body.
Mostly, however, there are demons who cause diseases, and
gods who avert them; hence the propitiatory rites of
worship go hand in hand with magic and exorcism—the
latter mostly in the hands of low-caste sorcerers. Every
Hindu worships his ancestors, the Pitris or fathers, and this,
in turn, has given rise to the canonization of saints, heroes,
as well as of any person who was notorious for good or evil
in life. This process goes on day by day in India; the
tomb becomes a shrine, the shrine may become a temple,
since the departed ghost often develops into a powerful
divinity. No worship is more popular, and a departed saint
will draw crowds of worshippers from all the sects, as well
as from Islám, to adore at his tomb, where miracles are
wrought as at the shrine of a mediaeval saint. But many of
the dead, e.g. those who remain unburied, become demons,
and they, along with a mighty host of other demoniac
beings, Rákshasas or vampires, etc., must be constantly
propitiated ; and this widespread worship has its roots in
abject fear, in that grovelling superstition which in all
religions keeps the masses of the ignorant a prey to imaginary
terr OrS.
These are but a few out of many examples of the
multiplicity of worshipful beings and objects in India. They
show sufficiently that, to the lower classes of minds, every
part of nature, every object, every animal, is possessed with
a divine spirit or energy. The gods manifest themselves
through the objects of sense. The more cultured Hindu
divides the universe into a few departments, each of which
is controlled by, is a manifestation of, a great divinity.
THE RELIGION OF INDIA I 29
Lastly, at the most philosophic stage, there is the conception
of one mighty power behind the phantasmagoria of nature,
which has made nature the veil behind which it hides from
the creature man. Now only those who can pierce through
the veil of illusion, which is the universe, will gaze upon
that which alone truly IS, and lose their being in It.
But here we touch the hem of Hindu philosophy, that
marvellously-woven fabric of speculative thought which
at present must remain beyond our purview. Hindu religion
thus ranges from pure Pantheism, now and then verging
into Monotheism, down through successive circles to the
most glaring Polytheism.
CHAPTER v
The Religion of Greece
HomeR, whose poems were the Bible of the Greeks,
represents to us not his own beliefs, but those of his age,
and indeed of many ages of Greek religious life. To him
we can go to understand the attitude of the Greek to his
gods, and what he believed of them. More almost than
in any other religion the Greeks had a settled pantheon
dwelling for the most part on Olympus, with Zeus as
Supreme ruler, and his will as the origin of all movement
in the physical and moral universe. Each of the other
deities, though subject to his will, has separate rights,
considerable liberty of action, and a distinct sphere of
government. Later theology depicted both Zeus and all
the gods as subject to the control of omnipotent Fate, but
of this there is little trace in Homer. The gods keep up.
a constant intercourse with men, and aid them in various
ways, often appearing on the earth, usually in some human
form which does not quite veil their godhead. On the other
hand, they are often represented as doing harm to men, by
way of righteous punishment, or out of revenge or even
jealousy—a conception found in other mythologies (Baby-
lonian, Negro, etc.). Myth told of the lustful amours and
evil passions of the gods, but this did not hinder the
existence of much real, simple piety among the Greeks,
the type of which is found in the swineherd Eumaeus in the
Odyssey. In the Homeric theology again, as in the religions
of people who worship personal divine rulers of the powers
of nature evolved from these powers themselves, there is at
I 3o
THE RELIGION OF GREECE I3 I
times scant differentiation between a god conceived as a ruler
and the power which he rules.
Even in the earliest stages of Greek religion known to us
the gods have definite names and forms, and are on the
whole detached from the natural forces which they personify.
They are represented in majestic and beautiful, but always
human forms. Many of them, and many of the rites
connected with their worship, show traces of a simple
nature-worship, such as has been seen existing among
primitive races, in the earlier stages of Greek religion.
Instances of animal-worship are not unknown in Greece,
while ritual, myth, and symbolism connected animals with
the gods, though in art they were never represented (as in
Egypt and Babylon) as partly human, partly animal. The
evidence points to the existence of totemism, in its social
and religious aspects, in early Greek religion. The Greeks,
like all the Aryan peoples, had before or after their final
separation passed through a stage of savagery, and the
religious beliefs and ritual of that time were never forgotten
as higher stages of religion were reached. Down to the
latest ages, when philosophers were teaching the existence
of one supreme God, the grossest superstitions, the most cruel
and impure ceremonies were being observed chiefly in out-
of-the-way places. It is in such forgotten corners that the
early forms of religion die hardest. It is in these savage
origins that the myths of the gods which so horrified the
later ages are to be looked for. They arose in a time when,
as to the Savage Australian or Negro, it was natural to think
that the gods should act as murderers, seducers, liars,
adulterers. The wonder really is that with such an ancestry
of Savage religious forms and beliefs, the Greek religion took
the direction it did, and became a thing of beauty, a joy for
ever, together with so much genuine piety, in our modern
sense of the word.
Greek mythology spoke of Uranus (Heaven) and Gaea
(Earth) as parents of a race of divinities or Titans, chief
among whom was Kronos. Uranus was dethroned by
132 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
Kronos, and the rule of the Titans began, till they in turn
were dethroned by their children, the Olympian gods. The
myth of heaven and earth and their children is told in genuine
savage style. Whether in these stories there is the reminis-
cence of gods once worshipped by the Greeks and then dis-
regarded, or the “vague record of the struggle of religions in
the Greek world” (Farnell, Cults of the Greek States, i. 25),
need not be here discussed. The Olympian gods are the
true deities of Greek religion. Some general aspects of their
worship must be referred to first. They numbered twelve,
worshipped collectively at Athens, etc. Zeus, Athene, and
Apollo worked in unison as “guardians of the moral law.”
Local cults sometimes regarded one attribute of a god, per-
haps originally the whole personality of a minor god swallowed
up in the Olympian. Lesser affairs were ruled by lesser
deities (Nymphs, Naiads, etc.), whose place is that of the
saints in mediaeval worship. One aspect of a god some-
times suggested affinity with an Oriental deity, and thus alien
cults came well-nigh to eclipse Hellenic faith.
Zeus, the highest god, attracted to himself savage myths
and monotheistic ideas, so that we have two sides to his wor-
ship. Though a sky-dweller, he had been first a god of
wind, rain, and thunder. The government of the universe he
shared with his brothers Poseidon, lord of ocean, and Hades,
lord of the under-world. As in Egypt, syncretism tended at
times to fuse the other gods in him. He protected the life
of the family, the clan, the city, the nation; avenged guilt;
and ruled the destinies of men. But in spite of his splendid
majesty, the Zeus of myth and of many local rituals inherited
much from a savage past, from totemism, and from primitive
speculation. Yet as many savage gods are moral rulers, the
higher aspects of Zeus may also have had an early origin.
Greek goddesses, unlike those of Egypt and Babylon, had a
distinct personality. Even Hera, queen of heaven, was no
shadowed by her consort, Zeus. She protected human mar-
riage and aided childbirth, thus becoming the type of the
Greek matron, while the myths which spoke of her jealousy
THE RELIGION OF GREECE I 33
of Zeus’s amours may have been a reflection of her religious
character as protectress of marriage. -
Round Apollo lingered myth and relics of animal-worship,
as the variety of animals associated with his local cults show.
But on the whole he was looked on as a solar god, the
spiritual counterpart of the sun, Helios, who daily traversed
the heavens in a golden cup, like Ra of Egypt. But he was
also the god of song and poetry, of the healing art, of
colonists, of divine inspiration. In this latter aspect his
shrine at Delphi became a centre of sweetness and light to
the whole of Greece. He asked purity of his worshippers,
who saw in him many traits of divine sympathy. And as his
worship aroused the highest ideals, so he was quick to punish
sin. But the more primitive aspects of his worship, the
animal and tree cults, were never forgotten, as in the Thargelia,
when two human victims were sacrificed to him. His sister
Artemis was later connected with the moon, as a result of
her relationship to the sun-god. But the pure virgin goddess,
patron of sylvan sport, had not always been pure, as local cult
and legend prove. Her earlier connection with rivers, vege-
tation, and animals like the wolf and bear, proves her to have
been once the divinity of simple nature-worshippers. Men
did not forget that she had been adored as a bear, for in the
Brauronia, the dance of girls called “bears ” showed that
Artemis had once been the bear-totem of a clan who looked
on bears as their kinsmen. It is less easy to see why she
became a chaste virgin goddess, since this had not always
been her character, but the more primitive characteristics led
to her later identification with the Oriental Cybele and
Astarte, neither chaste nor fair.
The myth which told how Athene, goddess of thought
and wisdom, sprung from the head of Zeus, after he had
swallowed her pregnant mother Metis in the form of a fly,
is a survival from savagery and has savage mythical parallels.
But as teacher of wisdom, preserver of the state, giver of victory
and peace, patron of arts and crafts, there is nothing savage
left in this goddess. Her virginal character was unsullied by
134 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
impure myths, nor did her worship mingle with that of any
Oriental goddess. Though at Athens she was confused with
an earth-goddess, she may have been a personification of
thought even in early times, a kind of culture-heroine who
inspired men with a knowledge of the rudiments of civiliza-
tion. She and Apollo are eminently characteristic of those
sides of Greek character which have so impressed all later
ages—the worship of the beautiful, the love of abstract
thought, the adoration of the ideal.
Aphrodite, goddess of love, is now generally recognized as
not purely Greek in origin, but Semitic (though the borrow-
ing must have taken place at a very early date), and to be
first cousin to such Semitic goddesses as Istar, Astarte, and
Mylitta. All these goddesses in their origin were spirits of
the earth and fertility. Their mythical mourning for a dead
lover or daughter (Tammuz, Adonis, Persephone), who is in
origin the spirit of vegetation, and their seeking the dead one
in the gloomy realms of the dead, typifies the yearly decay of
vegetation, when the earth looks dull and sad. At last the
lost one is found, and the goddess rejoices; in other words,
spring returns, when the earth is once more clad with abundant
vegetation. In this way we can account for the connection
of Aphrodite with Adonis in Greece. The worship of
Adonis was Semitic, but once brought into Greece it was
inevitably connected with that of Aphrodite. In Greece
Aphrodite soon became the type of beauty in women, the
personification of love, passing in the latest ages, by an inevit-
able corruption, into lawless desire, celebrated by impure rites.
This last aspect was really foreign to her character as con-
ceived by Greek religion, which was rather that of pure and
austere beauty and graceful womanhood.
It is not possible here to speak of the other Olympians—
Hermes, in whose nature so many diverse elements blended ;
Poseidon, lord of the ocean, and Ares, god of war, neither
much worshipped in Greece; Hephæstos, the god of fire
and of metal-working; and Hestia, the divinity who watched
over domestic life. We come now to refer to the Mysteries,
THE RELIGION OF GREECE I 35
which exercised so great an influence over Greek religion.
The foundation of the great Eleusinian mysteries was the
local mysteries of villages, in which certain ceremonies per-
formed were believed to aid in producing an abundant harvest.
In these the chief figure was Demeter, the earth-goddess.
Myth told how Pluto had carried off her daughter Persephone,
and how while Demeter went sorrowfully in search of her,
the earth was barren and dead. Demeter, on condition that
Persephone should be allowed to spend part of the year with
her, promised that during that time the earth should once
more be fertile. The primitive ritual probably included no
more than a propitiation of the earth-goddess in spring, and
certain imitative rites by which it was hoped vegetation would
return to the barren earth. The myth of Demeter and
Persephone was a dramatization of certain phenomena of
nature, expressed in the ritual acts of primitive agricultural
people in Greece, corresponding to scores of similar rites
among similar people everywhere. In course of time these
things were allegorized, and the myth of Demeter, with its
ethical germ, was applied to the destiny of the soul in the
other world. Those who witnessed the ritual as it was
finally performed before the initiated at Eleusis, after the
simple village mysteries had been raised to a high place in
the national religious life, believed they saw something which
had a mystical and saving efficacy upon their souls. The
mysteries as celebrated in the great temple at Eleusis included
initiation, fasting, purification, the eating of a sacramental
meal and the handling of certain sacred objects, and the
witnessing of dramatic representations which embodied the
chief elements of the myth. These mysteries became
very popular, and had a great effect in spiritualizing Greek
religion. In the same way the local Cretan myth and ritual
of Dionysos-Zagreus, which told how the god was torn to
pieces by the Titans and then revived again by Zeus, or
Demeter, according to local variants of the myth, received a
later ethical interpretation. At first the myth was nothing
but a local mystery in which an animal representing the god
136 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
was torn to pieces and eaten by the worshippers, who believed
that they were thus eating the god, whose life revived in
themselves. The rite was a survival of certain similar rites
found among savages, and originating in the belief that the life
of an animal or plant god could be imparted to his worship-
pers by slaying and eating him. The Dionysiac rites in
spreading through Greece assumed a distinctly sacramental
character, but their orgiastic nature, even though they were
supposed to give union with the god, removed far from them
the calm dignity of those of Eleusis.
The priesthood in Greece was not an organized hier-
archical unity, nor was it confined to any one class. Each
local cult, each temple, had its priests, who superintended the
sacrifices, explained the oracles, and organized the festivals
which were so great a part of the joyful Greek religion.
Usually each god had certain animals which it was customary
to offer him in sacrifice. These were slain singly, or, on
great occasions, in hecatombs, as we read so often in Homer.
The recognition of human dependence on the gods was pleas-
ingly set forth in the share given to the gods of every wine-
cup and of all flesh. Every meal thus became sacrificial.
Human sacrifices were not uncommon even in the later ages,
and by the witness of myth and ritual they must have entered
as largely into early Greek religion as into those of all savage
races. But, taken as a whole, sacrificial worship in Greece
was chiefly the expression of gratitude to the gods, or the
homage done by people who had no reason to suppose the
divine favours would cease to flow to them. The Greek
temple was less a place for worship than a house for the
image of the god, surrounded by pillared porticoes through
which the magnificent religious processions could pass on
festival days in presence of vast multitudes of spectators. The
variety of these festivals was endless, but all had a joyful
character. The great national festivals, e.g. that of the Pana-
thenaea, were at once an expression of the national life and
the national religion. Many of the elements of the Panathe-
naea, e.g. the games and dances, and the musical competitions,
THE RELIGION OF GREECE I 37
do not seem to us religious, but they must be regarded in the
light of being parts of one religious whole. The central act
of the festival was the great procession to the Parthenon,
with its sacrifices to Athene and sacrificial feasts, and the
prayers offered on behalf of the whole people.
The Homeric conception of the future state was general
throughout Greece. Over the subterranean region ruled
Hades, the brother of Zeus and the “mighty warden” of the
dead. Hither came the souls of all men alike, to endure a
joyless existence. A few favourites of the gods shared with
them Olympus or dwelt in the happy isles of the West, while
persistent sinners and godless men suffered fearful pangs in
Tartarus with the monsters of mythology, hateful to the gods.
But such retribution was exceptional, since the gods punished
men for their crimes in this life. A nobler conception of
future existence probably arose with the extension of the
Eleusinian mysteries and among the philosophers, just as a
higher conception of deity, undoubtedly monotheistic, was
fostered by both and also by the dramatists. But to all
intents and purposes Greek religion remained polytheistic in
its most popular aspects.
CHAPTER VI
The Religion of Rome
HEGEL said of the Roman gods that they were not human
beings, like those of Greece, but soulless machines. Roman
religion was, to the last, more animistic than any other civil-
ized faith. The primitive method of thought which believes
that everything has its spirit caused the Romans to assign a
spirit not only to trees and hills and streams, but to the store-
room, the threshold, the state, and to such abstractions as
fortune, hope, victory. Out of this crowd of spirits emerge
in early times a few gods of nature, agriculture, etc., who had
each been at first a class of spirits. Worship was regulated
by a minute ritual; unless a man followed it closely, and
knew the exact name and titles of the spirit or deity addressed,
all was in vain. At first the Romans had no mythology, and
probably no images or temples. The influence of Greece
supplied these ; it gave a fuller and richer personality to the
homely Roman deities who were identified with the Greek
gods, and invested them with an exuberant mythology at the
hands of poets like Virgil.
Early Roman religion thus shows more clearly than others
what that of the undivided Aryans had been—the worship of
many spirits with little individuality, and of a few divinities,
chiefly of nature, to whom man’s needs had given a more
definite personality. With the Romans to the last the Manes,
or spirits of the dead, and the Lares and Penates, tutelary
household spirits, had no individuality, and were worshipped
as a class. Yet the people preferred their worship to that of
the great state gods. Their connection with the sacred
hearth points back to a primitive fire and ancestor worship,
138
THE RELIGION OF ROME I39
whose obligations bound the Roman as strongly as those of
the state worship. - - -
The indigenous Roman gods were connected with natural
phenomena, with birth and growth and increase, with agri-
culture and the pastoral life. The separate existence of each
of these gods resulted from the fusion of several spirits of the
same class. As there were many Manes, so there had been
a Mars for each community, a Vesta for every hearth, a Juno
for every woman, before the great Mars, Vesta, and Juno had
come to be. Among these native deities thus formed Saturn
was a god of sowing and planting invoked by husbandmen.
Later myth made him the teacher of agriculture and the arts
of civilization, the ruler of the golden age of peace. Finally
he was identified with the Greek Kronos. The Saturnalia,
in which all ranks mingled and licence prevailed, had been
at first nothing but a joyful harvest festival. Faunus, dear to
shepherds, watched over flocks and herds, and was later
equated with Pan. In Tellus we recognize the earth-spirit of
primitive worship, but when the Romans made their own
Ceres, the goddess of growth, one with the Greek earth-
goddess Demeter, Tellus took over the functions of Ceres.
So Liber, god of wine, was identified with Dionysus, and his
wife Libera with Persephone. Pales gave fruitfulness to
flocks; Flora watched over the blossoms; Pomona guarded
the fruits of the earth. Neptune was from the earliest times
a sea-god. Vesta, whose temple and fire on the Forum were
the centre of the state unity, was at first the goddess of fire,
like the god Agni of the Vedas. Vulcan, another early fire-
god, was later apportioned as the deity of those who use fire
in their craft, e.g. smiths. These, and gods like Pales;
Vertumnus, god of seasons; Silvanus, of woods; Ops, of
harvest, show clear traces of primitive nature-worship.
With the development of civic life, the functions of some
of these gods changed, or other gods (sometimes those of one
branch of the Roman people) attained more prominence.
Of these Janus had an unique character as the god of begin-
nings and openings. All enterprises began with his worship;
14o RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
January, the opening month, was sacred to him; gates were
under his protection; some saw in him the beginner of all
movement, the Creator, so that he was at times called “god
of gods.” His connection with war is not clear, but the fact
that the gate of his temple was opened only in time of war
was probably based on the animistic idea that a spirit can be
enclosed in a certain place, and only allowed to leave it by
permission of his worshippers. Jupiter was at first a mere
sky-spirit. Hence arose his titles of light-bringer, shower-
sender, thunderer, etc., and the corresponding functions
ascribed to him. But as Zeus became supreme in the Greek
pantheon, so did Jupiter in the Roman, only the Romans had
no indigenous mythology besmirching his sacred character,
until the poets borrowed it from Greece. With his rise to
the divine supremacy, new functions became his, and he was
regarded as the source of all blessings, the father of the nation,
the giver of victory, “as the severe requirements imposed
on his priest evince, and as results from his whole character,
pre-eminently the god of purity and holiness.” The numer-
ous attributes which centred in his personality may have
resulted from the combination of several local cults, or may
simply have been the expression of his supreme majesty and
power. Language was exhausted to describe that power and
majesty, and it is certain that no other polytheistic divinity
has so much of these qualities as the Roman Jupiter Optimus
Maximus. In the capitol at Rome, Jupiter, with Juno his
consort, and Minerva, formed a kind of triad. Juno was a
divine amplification of womanhood, in whom all the functions
of womanhood had their place, while Minerva was the
patroness of all kinds of work and craftsmanship and learning.
Hence in later times she was identified with the Greek
Athene. Mars was originally a field or corn spirit, then a
god of the harvest, as the earliest record of offerings made to
him shows. As such there must have been something in his
personality which suggested the character by which he was
known best of all in later times, viz. the god of war, whose
priests, the Salii, performed a mystic dance clad in armour;
THE RELIGION OF ROME I4 I
the god who protected his country and was the champion of
1tS Clt1zenS.
The non-sensuous character of the native Roman religion,
apart from its lack of mythology, is seen in the worship
of certain moral abstractions, the personification of ethical
qualities, Faith, modesty, concord, hope, piety, constancy,
liberality, were all worshipped, and in the same way adoration
was paid to peace, victory, liberty, health, fame, fortune, provi-
dence, etc. This is one of the most curious aspects of
Roman religion. The functions and attributes of a god
became deities, and where any action of human life seemed
outside the divine care, a god was readily invented for it, so
that all life was brought under the shadow of religion. This,
in many cases, seems almost comic to us, but it was done in
all seriousness by the Romans, and is really a testimony to
their reverence. This personification of abstractions and of
functions recalls the Yazatas of the Persian religion, while the
Persian Fravashis have their counterpart in the Roman genii,
spiritual beings one of whom attached itself to and regulated
the life of every individual, or presided over every place—
vineyard, theatre, town, etc.
The influence of the Greek religion upon that of Rome was
twofold. (I) It resulted, as has been seen, in the identifica-
tion of existing Roman with Greek deities, and in the exten-
sion of the mythology, functions, and ritual of these deities to
those of Rome, not always for the better. (2) Many purely
Greek gods and Greek forms of worship were introduced,
and, in the ease of those which had a sensuous aspect, found a
ready soil in the time of Roman decadence. In the same
way many Oriental cults were welcomed at Rome, e.g. those
of Cybele, the great mother of the gods, of Isis, Osiris,
and Serapis, of Mithra (see p. 157); while the Bacchic orgi-
astic worship gave a kind of religious sanction to sensuality,
though it was rigorously suppressed by the state. If it be
asked why so simple and pure a religion as that of Rome
adopted such excrescences, the answer is to be found in the
fact that the people, through the vast empire they had obtained,
142 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
had lost their original simplicity of character, and found their
religion, with its lack of art and of enthusiasm, insufficient to
supply satisfaction to their new desires and emotions. The
national bent of mind, which produced Stoicism as the char-
acteristic Roman philosophy, could no longer rest satisfied
with pale abstractions and sternly sober deities. Unfortun-
ately the sources from which the new inspiration came were
those which produced incredible religious licence, and com-
pletely altered the whole genius of the Roman religion.
Oriental and Egyptian monarchs had been worshipped as
gods, and with the strong Roman tendency to find a god for
everything, it was an easy step to make Caesar the divine
representative of the state, a god in human form to whom
the most extravagant worship came to be paid. At first
this worship was confined to the provinces; but gradually it
found its way to Rome, and now the worship of the emperor
became a symbol of the majesty of the empire. Divine
epithets were showered on even the most unworthy wearers
of the purple, and even on their wives and children. Sacred
games were held in their honour; they had a special priest-
hood, and at last they were recognized as the living incarna-
tions of Jupiter Optimus Maximus. The practice of
worshipping the Manes of the dead, and of officially enrolling
the spirits of the dead Caesars among the gods, had effectually
paved the way for this strange idolatry, and the example of
foreign nations confirmed it.
The Roman priesthood was an all-important body, corre-
sponding in authority to the mighty power of the state
religion. Worship rather than belief was the test at once
of orthodoxy and loyalty, and this worship was entirely
regulated by the priests. Of these, roughly speaking, there
were two classes—those attached to particular deities, those
whose duties were general and not confined to any one cult.
Of the former the fifteen Flamens were most important.
The Flamen Dialis was the high-priest of Jupiter. He had
many privileges resulting from his office, but at the same
time his life was burdened with many restrictions. In
THE RELIGION OF ROME I43
these we see the survival of savage taboos. The other
Flamines Maiores were the Flamen Martialis (the priest
of Mars) and the Flamen Quirinalis (the priest of Quirinus).
Of the Flamines Minores little is known. Mars had also
special priests known as Salii, whose yearly sacred dance in
full armour has already been referred to. The goddess
Vesta had the famous virgin priesthood of Vestales, who
cleansed and guarded her temple, her sacred relics, and,
above all, watched that the holy fire on her altar should
never be extinguished. In the same way every god, great
or small, had his altar and his priest, whose duty it was to
see that the ritual and sacrifice were done according to due
custom. The state religion as a whole was regulated by
the general priesthoods. Most important among these were
the Pontifices, with their great chief, the Pontifex Maximus.
They had a special supervision of all religious rites; they
regulated the kalendar, and in their hands was the decision of
questions affecting marriage, and inheritance. Another im-
portant body was the Augurs, who read the divine will as it
was supposed to be revealed by the state of the sky, the
flight of birds, and by a hundred casual appearances or
events. This body of priests throws considerable light on
an aspect of Roman religion which it possesses in common
with many others, but which was carried on to an enormous
extent. No undertaking, great or small, was ever begun
without resorting to divination, and discovering the purpose
of the gods by means of omens. Other general priesthoods
were the Epulones, who had charge of all festival banquets
in honour of the gods; the Fratres Arvales, whose office
was connected with the fruitfulness of the land, and the
body of priests who had charge of the oracular Sibylline
books.
The reverential character of Roman worship is seen in the
fact that the Roman covered his face when praying to the
gods, as if to emphasize the sense of humility. Prayer was
a marked feature of all Roman worship, public or private.
In addition to the god specially invoked, all the gods were
144 RELIGION: Its origin AND FORMS
appealed to at the same time, and their titles carefully
enumerated, lest any offence might be given. At the same
time not only the reverential attitude of the worshipper, but
also the very words themselves were supposed to be effica-
cious. Hence the proper words and no others must be used.
The same idea meets us in the sacrificial observances. There
must be no departure from the prescribed ritual, which was
always very complicated, else the whole ceremony would
be worse than useless. This formality, joined with the need
of an equally formal purity, obtained by lustration or fumi-
gation, has an exact parallel in the Vedic sacrifices. Each
god had, as a rule, certain favourite animals to be chosen as
victims, and in some cases even human sacrifices were offered.
The third important part of Roman worship was the multi-
plicity of festivals throughout the year, which were carefully
observed by abstinence from work, by processions and sacri-
fices, and by sacred banquets.
The insistence upon religion as a state affair, the externality
of all its ordinances, the abstract nature of most of the gods,
the lack of mythology, justify the epithet of monotonous
so often attached to the Roman faith. At the same time it
presents, apart from the presence of foreign elements, an
ethical purity, a reverential attitude, and a disciplinary
obedience which few other religions possess to so marked a
degree.
CHAPTER VII
The Religion of Scandinavia
The groups of people who form the Teutonic branch of
the Aryan race had the same general form of religion. They
venerated ancestors, they worshipped the powers of nature,
often with cruel rites. We shall here confine ourselves to
that of the Scandinavian group, premising the absence of the
philosophic side of religion, as found in India, as well as of
obscene and disgusting divine myths, as in Greece. The
greatest affinity is with Persian religion, because Persians and
Teutons made so much of that conflict between the powers
of nature and between gods and demoniac powers found in
all Aryan religion. This dualism was less ethical among
the Teutons than with the Persians, though it still had an
ethical tendency.
Scandinavian religion and mythology are known to us
chiefly from the Eddas—Icelandic collections of poems and
prose writings dating from the eleventh and twelfth centuries.
The redaction dates from Christian times, and it is more
than possible that some part of the form of the mythology is
due to Christian influence. From the Eddas we learn of the
twelve Aesir or gods; the goddesses; the giants, embodi-
ments of savage nature ; the elves and other semi-divine
beings. Chief of the gods is Odin, at first a personification
of the wind, at last the all-father, creator, and moral governor
of the universe. From his palace in Asgard he rules men,
but, as god of war, he loves warriors, whom, after death in
battle, he welcomes to his halls. Frigga was his consort, but
so little do the goddesses differ that she was later identified
with Freya, wife of the sea-god, goddess of the earth, then
of fertility and of love.
I 45 L.
146 RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
Thor, as god of thunder, personified force, and fought per-
petually against the giants with his mighty hammer, Mjölnir.
From this aspect of his character was developed a gentler
one, in which he appears as the protector of the people and
the god of civilization. Thor, with Odin and Loke, formed
an early Scandinavian triad of great gods always warring
against the giants, who represent the rude forces of nature
and winter. At first, therefore, Loke must have been god
of some department of nature which, when an ethical turn
was given to the primitive religion and mythology, could
only be construed as evil in its effects. Hence he became
to the Scandinavians the embodiment of evil, and though
standing latterly midway between gods and giants in his na-
ture, he is constantly thwarting the gods until they conquer him,
and is the father of the three powers of destruction—the Fenris
wolf, the Midgard serpent, and the goddess Hel or death.
The god Baldur is one of the most attractive figures of this
religion, as he is the wisest and best of the gods. His earliest
character was that of a god of light, akin to the Slavonic god
of day, Baldag. His death at Loke's hands will be referred
to later, meanwhile it is to be observed that he represented
to the Scandinavians all that was mild and pure and good.
Hence he is always called Baldur the fair or white. Gods
and men praised him continually, and nothing unclean could
ever enter into his heavenly palace. The god Tyr is usually
claimed as the early Scandinavian equivalent of Zeus and
Jupiter, with whose names and that of the Vedic Dyaus his
name is connected philologically. There is little doubt that
he was to some tribes a sky-god, but his final position was
quite subordinate. He became a god of battle, dispensing
valour to men, but also stirring up strife. His place as god
of the sky fell to Freyr, who was regarded as the beneficent
giver of sunlight and rain, lord of the harvest and, therefore,
of wealth and peace. He was said to be the son of Njörd,
god of sea and wind, who was much invoked by sailors and
fishermen.
Of the other deities, Bragi was god of speech and elo-
THE RELIGION OF SCANDINAVIA 147
quence and poetry; Heimdall was the watchman of the gods,
who kept constant and sleepless ward over the frontiers of
heaven lest the Jötuns should enter thither unobserved ;
Hodur, Vidar, Vali, and Ullur were strong divinities, famous
in fight; while Forsete was the god of judgment. On the
whole all these gods reflect in their later functions and attri-
butes the manly, upright, and warlike characteristics of the
Scandinavians. Though the gods delight in fighting and
drinking, as did their worshippers, they are ethical in their
nature, courageous, just, lovers of truth and righteousness.
The idea of a fate controlling gods and men entered into
Scandinavian religion as much as it did into the Greek
and Roman. It was embodied in the myth of the three
Norns or goddesses of destiny (akin to the Roman Parcae
and the Greek Moirae), whose names meant Past, Present,
and Future. “There is no resisting fate,” say the Sagas
over and over again, and in the mythologic conception that
the gods must die because so it is fated, the power of this
idea is once more seen.
The mythology which works up to this conception of the
death of the gods has at once a religious and ethical aspect.
Moreover it gives a consistent view of the whole world-
drama from its origin to its close. There are four distinct
periods in this drama, in each of which the dualistic conflict
may be traced. There is first the period anterior to chaos
in which a bright southern region of fire existed, called Mus-
pelheim, where sat Surtur, who is to come at the end of
time, and, having vanquished the gods, to give the world up
as a prey to fire. To the north lay Niflheim, the region of
freezing cold and dark clouds. From it came torrents of
venom flowing from the evil dragon Nidhug and his brood,
and turning into ice in Ginunga-gap, the abysmal division
between the two regions. A warm blast from the south
melted the ice, and from it formed the giant Ymer, from
whom sprang the evil Jötuns. This introduced the period
of chaos, in which the giants held high revel. From one of
them, Bor, there were born Odin and his brothers, and through
148 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
their struggles with their giant ancestry, chaos was brought to
a close. Ymer was slain, and in his blood the Jötuns were
drowned, save one who lived to perpetuate his evil race.
Thus, though the gods were born of the Jötuns, as the Greek
deities were of the Titans, they were in ceaseless conflict
with them. Out of Ymer’s body Odin formed heaven and
earth, and in this orderly cosmos produced the human race.
To this third period belong the adventures of Odin and his
descendants in their war with the Jötuns. But the conflict
of Baldur with Loke is elaborated with most detail. “The
gods were not ignorant,” says the Edda, “that Loke's
children (the Fenris wolf, the Midgard serpent, and Hela)
were growing up in the country of the giants; they were
apprized by many oracles of all the evils they must suffer from
them.” Hence the serpent was thrown by them into the
ocean, where he increased in size and compassed the world;
Hela was precipitated into Niflheim, or hell, where she
became ruler of the nine realms and of all who died of sick-
ness or old age; while the Fenris wolf was bound fast, though
Tyr lost his right hand in the process. But in spite of this
conquest they will at last break forth and enter into final con-
flict with the bright gods. Loke's spiteful malice was now
increased, and his jealousy burned chiefly against Baldur,
beloved of gods and men. All things had vowed never to
hurt him ; but Loke discovered that, because of its insignifi-
cance, the mistletoe had been passed over. By its means he
caused Baldur's death and imprisonment in the gloomy realms
of Hela. Then, pursued himself by the gods, he was captured
and chained beneath the earth, subjected to terrible tortures.
The fourth period is in the future, and is that of Ragnarok,
the twilight of the gods, in which heaven and earth are
consumed. The Fenris wolf breaks loose and devours the
sun. The moon and stars are destroyed. Earth is shaken
to its foundation. The hills fall ; the ocean rushes over the
earth. From the sea comes the Midgard serpent, vomiting
forth fire and venom. The giants of fire come riding forth,
and are joined by these monsters as well as by Loke and the
THE RELIGION OF SCANDINAVIA I 49
giants of frost. And now the gods, putting on their armour,
advance to meet this dread array. Odin fights the wolf and
is slain, but the beast is rent by another god and dies. The
serpent is slain by Thor, though the god falls dead before
his venom. Loke and Heimdall fight till both succumb to
their wounds. In the end gods and giants are all consumed
by the fire which Surtur flings forth from Muspelheim. Then
there is ushered in the age of peace and the beginning of a
world fairer than any that has yet been, when the gods will
revive and rule over the new heavens and earth.
In this long war between gods and giants many resem-
blances to the Persian dualistic conflict may be traced. But
while that of Ormazd and Ahriman is entirely ethical, that
of the gods and giants, of Baldur and Loke, has only an
ethical colouring due to the persistence of the nature myths
on which the whole idea of the conflict is founded. This
ethical colouring is apparent enough in the Edda, and was
doubtless not forgotten by those to whom this mythology was
a living force. Moreover, whereas the evil principle in
Mazdeism afflicts the race of men, the warfare of the Scandi-
navian mythology is carried on only among the supernatural
powers. The giants and Loke do not tempt men to evil,
though their evil influence is felt in the world, and by them
its ruin is accomplished. The spirits of the brave, however,
are taken to the abode of the gods, and there exercise them-
selves in the art of war, so that they may assist them in the
final conflict. This all goes to prove that under the strife of
the elements, of gods and giants, there was a deep-seated
sense of the conflict of spiritual and material, of soul and
sense. And this moral conception of struggle entered into
the life of the Northern people, making them hardy, resolute,
and daring, and as much loftier than the nations of Southern
Europe as the active Persians were above the dreamy Hindus.
The form of Scandinavian dualism resulted from the harsh
natural surroundings in which that people found themselves,
but which were broken up in the beautiful spring-time, itself
a prophecy of the future immortal reign of peace.
150 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
In their ideas of the future life the Scandinavians had not
advanced beyond those of races at a much lower level. What
admitted men to the heaven of the gods was courage, strength,
and a warrior's death, and there, in Valhalla, they tasted to
the full the joys which they had pursued on earth—war,
wassail, and song. Cowardice and death in bed through
sickness condemned men to the gloomy regions of Hela.
The idea of retribution on more strictly moral principles grew
up later, and gave rise to the idea of a future judgment and
division between the good and the wicked at the time of the
restoration of the gods.
It was thought that by the employment of runes, or magic
spells, the spirits of the dead could be made to speak. Magic
was much sought after, and took the form chiefly of charms to
raise or quiet the storm, to become invisible, to give extraordin-
ary strength, to make the body invulnerable. Giving of oracles
was chiefly in the hands of prophetesses or wise women, to
whom even the mightiest warriors paid respect. The position
of these women was doubtless due to the general courtesy
paid to women as a whole among the early Scandinavians.
This is reflected also in the incident of Thor’s battle with a
sorceress. When he told it to the other gods, they cried,
“Shame, Thor, to strike a woman ”
The priesthood was held in high honour, partly from the
fact that it was largely recruited from the ranks of the nobles,
but chiefly from the authority which lay in its hands. The
priest was the exponent of divine and human law, as his title
Ewarto announced. On the whole, however, the cultus and
forms of worship were somewhat primitive, and in their crude
expression reflected the rough nature of the people. It was
believed that the duties of religion were summed up in the
maxim, “To serve the gods with prayer and sacrifice; to do
no wrong or unjust action; and to be fearless in fight.”
Besides the usual animal sacrifices, human victims were fre-
quently offered. After a battle the prisoners taken were
offered to the gods who had given victory, as a thankoffering.
But sacrifices of children were also offered on special occa-
THE RELIGION OF SCANDINAVIA I 51
sions. This aspect of the worship is out of keeping with the
character of the gods as reflected in the mythology, and
shows that the popular opinion of them could not have been
so high.
Tacitus (Germania, cap. 9) tells us that the Germans
shrank from enclosing their deities within the walls of temples,
and from giving them the semblance of humanity. Much of
the worship was carried on in sacred groves, but temples were
latterly not unknown. The great festivals of the year were
rooted in the primitive nature-worship. The Beltane festival,
some of the rites of which have survived in most northern
Christian countries, was held at midsummer in honour of the god
of light, whose name Baldur, not that of the oriental Baal, may
be traced in the word Beltane. Fires were lit as symbols
of the powers of the god, and to judge from the custom of
leaping through these fires in later times, probably human
sacrifices were consumed in them. Similarly the spring
festival was in honour of the earth-divinity, and had for its
purpose the fruitful growth of the crops. Many of the rites
and ideas of this ancient faith survive still, almost unchanged,
among the peasantry, in spite of the existence of Christianity
among them ; while our names of certain days of the week
recall at once the Scandinavian gods, Odin, Thor, Freya, and
Tyr.
CHAPTER VIII
Mazdeism and Zoroaster; Mithraism
PERSIANs and Hindus were one united branch of the Aryan
family who continued living together after their separation
from the other Aryan races, and until their final separation
from each other, when the one branch turned to India, the
other to Iran or Persia. Their religion, therefore, must at
that time have been one and the same, but it is certain
that the differences of their environment and of their history
after their separation turned that primitive religion into two
quite different directions. The rich luxuriance of the land
in which the Hindus found themselves gave a great impulse
to a florid nature-worship and suggested that dreamy philo-
sophy so characteristic of Indian thought. In Iran the struggle
for existence was keen, and as it resulted in forming a robust
nation, so it moulded their primitive faith into a noble ethical
form, in which the idea of a struggle between alien powers
(found as one of the many elements of Vedic religion) was
emphasized and made the centre of the new creed. These
moulding influences of environment were also given a concrete
form by the great prophet of Iran, Zoroaster. But while
thus diverging from Hindu ideas, it should be noted that
Mazdeism retains many conceptions to be found in Vedism,
and indeed among most Aryan races. There is e.g. the idea
that prayer and sacrifice assist the gods in their battle with the
powers of evil, while many of the nature-gods of the one
religion are to be found under a different name and highly
spiritualized in the other.
Our knowledge of this faith is obtained from the Zend-
avesta, the sacred book of the Persians, containing documents
of many different epochs. Its earliest portions, the Gathas,
I 52
MAZDEISM AND 2.OROASTER I 53
hymns resembling those of the Vedas, are the work of Zoro-
aster himself. His importance in the development of Maz-
deism is seen from the fact that he is introduced into the
Zend-avesta as the person to whom Ahura Mazda delivers
the law. The date of his life is still uncertain; probably he
did not live after 800 B.C. In the Gathas he is represented
as receiving a divine call, going forth to preach, and gradu-
ally obtaining disciples. In one sense he simply brought to
definite form the religious ideas of his race; in another he
was a reformer, giving ethical form to these ideas. Every
religion with a high moral purpose has had some great teacher
to lay the foundation of that morality. Hence the import-
ance of Buddha, Confucius, and Mohammed in their respec-
tive faiths. Similarly Zoroaster took the elements of a
polytheistic nature-religion, and because his mind had brooded
over the problem of evil, he forced them to take such spiritual
and ethical shape as would make them the answer to that
problem. The universal struggle between good and evil,
light and darkness, order and disorder, corresponded to divine
realities, and men must declare for the good, for light and
order. Spiritually they could do so by following his doctrine ;
practically by following agriculture and a pastoral life, reduc-
ing chaos to cosmos, unlike their Turanian enemies, symbols
of restlessness and sin.
Dualism runs through most religions, as the conflict between
the powers of nature, or between gods and Titans, or gods
and demons. But Mazdeism, as conceived by Zoroaster, is
the dualistic religion. He taught how Ahura Mazda, the
supreme god, chose right from the beginning, and how all
who would do right must follow him. Ahura, like Varuna,
must first have been a god of the sky. But with Zoroaster
there was no doubt of his eternal and spiritual nature, as
creator, guardian of men, supreme lord, all holy, all pure.
Through his six attributes, Good Mind, Law and Order,
Perfect Holiness, Sovereignty, Immortality, Well-being, he
makes himself known to men. A tendency to personify these
attributes ended in their becoming separate divine beings, the
154 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
Amesha-spentas, subordinate creators and guardians of the
lin 1WeI See
The spirits called Yazatas had a twofold origin. Some
had been primitive Aryan deities, like Mithra, an ancient god
of light, who became Ahura’s watchful servant; Apam Napat,
the lightning; and Haoma, the sacrificial liquid conceived
as a god (cf. Hindu Soma). Others were the personificatión
of ideas like faith, prayer, hearing, and justice, and therefore
akin to the Amesha-spentas as well as to many Roman
deities. Another group of spirits, the Fravashis, recall the
Roman genius. At first the spirits of the dead (the Hindu
Pitris), they became archetypal doubles of every existing
creature and also guardian angels. Thus from Ahura down-
wards there was a series of graded divinities, all ranged on
the side of light and truth, and opposed to the hosts of
darkness.
Of these hosts the head was Angra Mainyu (Ahriman),
with creative powers which he used for evil ends. From his
dark realm he produced evil spirits to oppose the good spirits
of Ahura’s creation. After dire conflict he and his hosts
were routed, only to renew on earth their evil work. All
evil or unclean plants and animals were his creation; temptation
and sin came from him. Man must ever choose between
Ahura’s pure will and the snares of Angra Mainyu. Those
who choose the latter will suffer dire torments in the other
world. Thus Angra Mainyu riots in producing evil, and in
neutralizing or turning to harm the good wishes of Ahura.
But each day brings nearer the final victory of good. The
prophet who is to come will convert the souls of men, and
when the sinful have been purified there will come the resur-
rection of the dead. Then Ahriman will cause a comet to
ignite the world. The earth will be melted, and in a liquid
stream of fire will pour down into the realm of darkness. All
created beings will pass through it; the good will receive no
hurt; the wicked will be cleansed; darkness will be
abolished; and even Ahriman and his hosts will be purged
and forgiven. The victory of good will be assured, and a
MAZDEISM AND 205&OASTER I 55
new world of eternal righteousness will rise over the forgotten
scenes of ancient strife.
This conception of the dualistic world-drama is at once
mythological, religious, and ethical. How nobly it was
translated into the language of everyday life is seen in the
pages of the Avesta. It was the duty of men to fight with
Ahura against his foes and theirs by living a pure and holy
life, and thus lessening the dominion of evil. Only minds of
the highest order could have formulated this creed of strife as
an answer to the problem of evil, and urged their fellows to
practise it hour by hour. In this creed of ethical dualism we
seem to see the highest aspect of that physical dualism which
runs through all mythologies. The gods war against nature,
against monsters, dragons, and giants. These mighty forces
are overcome by skill and prudence rather than by physical
force. And thus, as in Persia, where men made much of
this conflict, they learnt slowly the importance of the spiritual
compared with the material side of life. The dualism became
purely ethical. While such dualism must always be incon-
sistent and only a temporary answer to the problem of evil, it
seeks to call forth the highest virtues of the soul, and in doing
so passes insensibly from an impossible dualism to monotheism.
The whole mythology as sketched here probably belongs to
the latest period of Mazdeism, and by that time a being
superior and anterior to both Ahura and Ahriman had been
imagined. This was Zerana-Akerana, all-embracing, infinite
time, delegating all his functions to Ahura and overcoming
evil through him.
In this Persian world-drama there is much in common with
that of Scandinavia, though the ethical advance made by the
former is very marked. The idea that the souls of the dead
must cross a narrow bridge (Chinvat), across which the
righteous pass with ease, but the wicked fall off into the
realms of darkness to be tormented there till the end of time,
is also found among the Scandinavians. Perhaps the two
conceptions had a common source in some ancient Aryan
myth of the world beyond the grave.
156 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
The practical side of this religion, the means taken to live
a holy life obedient to Ahura, became more and more trivial
and conventionally ritualistic as time went on. The idea that
to reclaim any part of the earth from Ahriman it must be
made useful and productive, caused agriculture and the pastoral
life to be regarded as sacred duties. So, too, the care of all
“clean ’’ animals and the destruction of all noxious creatures
was a religious act. Fire, as a symbol of Ahura, played an
important part in this religion. The daily sacrifices were
shown to it in a kind of symbolic offering, not consumed upon
it; its sacredness is seen in the fact that the priest covered
his mouth with a cloth in approaching it, lest his breath should
defile it; while, as a symbol of the highest divinity, it took
the place of images, which were quite unknown in Persia.
Sacrifice was elaborately and minutely ordered as a pious deed,
and in order to obtain the help of Ahura and the various
classes of spirits under him. It tended, as in India, to become
a mere act of ritual magic. The same is true of prayer and
of the recitation of the sacred texts, to which the most ex-
travagant powers were attached in later times. The treat-
ment of the dead is a curious comment on the ideas of
purity and impurity engendered by this religion. Since
Ahriman was supposed to take possession of the corpse as
soon as the soul left it, it at once became impure. The
question then was how to dispose of it without polluting the
earth, since fire was too sacred to be used as a means of con-
suming it. “Towers of Silence” were therefore erected
where corpses might be exposed to be eaten by vultures, until
only the dry bones were left to crumble into dust. Finally,
the same formal deterioration is seen in the idea of ritual purifi-
cation. Much of the sacred literature is full of rules for the
exact rites to be performed by the believer after every sin,
every act of uncleanness, wilful or accidental. But in spite
of these puerilities we cannot close our eyes to the higher side
of Mazdeism, in spite of its later corruptions. Its aspirations
after the divine, for purity, for a holy life, and its expressions
of sorrow for evil, remind us that, in these respects, it must
MITHRAISM $ 157
take a high place among the religions of the world. Its later
corruptions and its formalism could not stand before the
fanaticism of Islam, and save for a few representatives in out-
lying parts of Persia and its modern adherents, the Parsees
in India, it has become as dead as the faiths of Egypt and
Babylon.
Mithraism
One side of Mazdeism, the cult of Mithra, an ancient
Aryan god of light, made subordinate to Ahura, yet almost
equal to him in power and attributes, gave it a far-spreading
influence in the West for many centuries. Mazdeism spread
over a great part of Asia Minor, but there, possibly through
Greek influences, the only part of the creed which was
assimilated by the people was the worship of Mithra, con-
ceived as the beautiful personification of the sun. The causes
which led to the selection of this subordinate Zoroastrian
spirit for worship as an absolutely supreme god are still
obscure, owing to the destruction of monuments and docu-
ments by the followers of Mohammed. The cult flourished
in Asia Minor and was brought to Rome (as Plutarch says)
by Pompey’s piratical captives from Cilicia. There, where
the old religion, as has been seen, was ceasing to be vener-
ated, it found a ready home among the multitude who looked
to the East for a new faith. The monuments of this worship
have been traced wherever the Roman armies went, even in
Britain, and prove how acceptable it was, and how readily
one religion succeeds another which has not adapted itself to
the growing needs of any race.
Mithra was regarded as a mediator between men and the
unknowable supreme God, Infinite Time, but in effect he
must have been looked upon as himself supreme. On the
monuments of his cult he is represented as a beautiful youth,
driving a sword into the neck of a prostrate bull on which he
kneels. At the same time the bull is being devoured by a
158 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
dog, a scorpion, and a crab. No satisfying key has yet been
found to this evidently symbolic representation, though in all
probability some reference to a combat with the powers of
evil is intended. It is evident, however, that this was only
part of an elaborate but eclectic dogmatic system. Mithraism
was also an ethical system and a ritual cult. A certain degree
of moral purity was insisted on, and elaborate rites of initia-
tion, with purificatory acts and the inculcation of asceticism,
characterize the system. What is known of the ritual points
to the existence of an organized hierarchy, a worship which
falls into line with that of the Greek mysteries, and a sacra-
mental system.
Mithraism was at the best a spurious development of
Mazdeism, aided by elements drawn from every conceivable
source. Its greatest hold among the Romans seems to have
been in the army, since the soldiers were brought in contact
with foreign cults most of all, and since Mithra as an uncon-
quered deity must have appealed strongly to the unconquered
legions of Rome. Protected by the emperors, and adopted
by some of them during a long period, it finally ceased to
exist in the fourth century, when it was supplanted by
Christianity.
CHAPTER IX
Buddhism
THE Brahmanic conception of the Atman with which men
sought union and release from earthly turmoil, prepared the
way for Buddha's doctrine of the universe as a fleeting show,
and of the still Nirvana, the reward of those who had ceased
to desire the things of the world. From Vedic times, too,
the idea of re-birth had been steadily growing, and this, in
an altered form, is a chief Buddhist doctrine. Even Bud-
dhistic monasticism had been anticipated in the Brahmanic
retirement from the world to the forest, as well as in the
formation of fraternities of those who sought absorption in
the infinite. But these fraternities had not the generous
purpose of Buddha’s monastic ideals ; their secret doctrine
remained their own; they did not go forth to preach it to a
perishing world. It remained for some one to put all these
ideas into simple form, and to proclaim to all the way of
release from polytheism, from the hunger of desire and the
endless chain of re-birth. Buddha did this with such a
success as could not have been imagined.
The story of his life current among his followers “bristles
with the supernatural.” In denying this some deny even the
existence of Buddha, and, like Senart, turn his story into a
solar myth. But the facts of his life may be disentangled
and show us Gotama, or Buddha (the enlightened one), as
born in the sixth century B.c., of a princely family in Oudh.
His early dissatisfaction with the world made him renounce
it and begin a wandering ascetic life. His two spiritual
teachers failed to satisfy him, and with five other seekers he
began a more rigorous discipline. Asceticism still proving
of no effect, he renounced it. His companions left him, as
I 59
16o RELIGION: ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
one who had betrayed his ideals. Then, sitting in solitude
under the famous Bo tree, enlightenment came, and he saw
the path to rest and peace. Must he preach it to the world 2
He foresaw the difficulties, but he conquered his fears and
his own wish for solitary quietude. His former companions
were his first converts, and to them he preached the sermon
at Benares by which he “set in motion the wheel of the
law.” After a life of preaching, after founding the Buddhist
church and arranging its monastic discipline, his death took
place about 480 B.C.
In what did Buddha’s enlightenment consist It was the
apprehension of what constituted suffering and sorrow, of the
reason why life was full of these, of the path to their
extinction. It was, again, the entrance on that path and the
actual attainment of the goal. “Extinct is re-birth, finished
the sacred course, duty done, no more shall I return to this
world; this I knew,” said Buddha at his conversion. In
one word, the Buddhist teaching is, Deliverance. But from
what? From desire and ignorance, which cause content-
ment with the world, introduce suffering and sorrow, and
prolong the chain of re-birth. All this is formulated in
the four sacred truths. (1) The sacred truth of suffer-
ing. Birth, old age, sickness, death, separation from the
beloved, are suffering. (2) The sacred truth of the origin
of suffering. Desire of existence leads to re-birth, and
desire in its many forms causes unrest. (3) The sacred
truth of the extinction of suffering, viz. by the annihilation
of all desire. (4) The sacred truth of the path which leads
to the extinction of suffering, viz. the eightfold path of
Right Faith, Right Resolve, Right Speech, Right Action,
Right Living, Right Effort, Right Thought, Right Self-
concentration. -
Buddhism, in spite of its doctrine of re-birth, does not
postulate the soul’s existence. It sets forth a chain of
causes which produce re-birth. Ignorance of the four truths
causes “conformations,” i. e. all that makes up existence and
forces men to cling to life. These, in a dying man, produce
BU DDHISM I 6i
consciousness, the basis of the new existence. This con-
sciousness is a life-germ which “seeks and finds in the womb
the material stuffs from which it forms a new state of being
coined in name and material form.” These originate the
senses, which, producing contact with the outer world, cause
sensation. This produces desire—the clinging to existence,
which, again, causes suffering, to our ignorance a part of
true being. The chain of causes leading to re-birth is, in
fact, a circle, of which every link leads on to the next.
When enlightenment comes, as it did to Buddha, and when
desire no longer causes the clinging to existence, the chain
of re-birth is at an end, Nirvana is won. Is Nirvana the
total annihilation of personal being This is the natural
conclusion which one would come to, considering what leads
to the formation of a new existence. Buddha’s disciples
questioned him whether the Perfect One lived on after
death enjoying Nirvana, or whether he absolutely ceased
to be. To this Buddha, like Confucius, gave no definite
answer. The knowledge would not aid human progress to
perfection, therefore he affirmed nothing and denied nothing
as to Nirvana. What seems to be the truth as to Nirvana,
as to its being actual annihilation or perfect existence, is that
its meaning is absolutely incapable of being expressed in the
terms of human thought or language. Dr. Oldenberg, after
a careful examination of the original texts bearing on the
subject, comes to this conclusion when he says of Nirvana
that it is not being in the ordinary sense, but still assuredly
not a non-being; a sublime positive, of which thought has
no idea, for which language has no expression. Other
students have, it is just to say, come to the opposite con-
clusion, and think of Nirvana as annihilation. In practice,
however, we may suppose that to the ordinary Buddhist
re-birth is akin to transmigration of the soul, and Nirvana is
positive rest from the cycle of migration in a perfect state of
existence and enjoyment.
* Oldenberg, Buddha, His Life, etc., p. 229.
M
162 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
Buddhism is a religion without a God, for though gods
are admitted to exist, they are bound in the same chain of
re-birth as man. Man, by delivering himself from his own
miseries, becomes his own divinity. The tendency has been,
however, to exalt Buddha as a God, or as a Saviour, even
though he has entered Nirvana, and, in fact, in Northern
Buddhism he is worshipped along with a whole series of
gods suited to the popular fancy. From the first Buddhism
abandoned the system of Vedic sacrifices as folly, and in so
doing took up a position of antagonism to Brahmanism. In
the same way it discarded the Brahmanic system of self-
mortification as useless. Deliverance was not to be obtained
in that way any more than by the opposite extreme of
plunging into pleasure. Suffering was in fact the great evil
of life; why, then, should it be increased ? In affirming the
evil of all earthly existence Buddhism appears to be tho-
roughly pessimistic, and the Buddhist the most melancholy
of men. In reality the Buddhist is happy in the knowledge
that the goal of deliverance is at hand, not for him only, but
for all men.
The fourth truth—-that of the path to the extinction of
suffering by means of right faith, right resolve, etc.—reminds
us that Buddhism has its positive side as a noble system of
ethics. To be upright is so far to decrease the suffering of
life and to bring the goal of deliverance nearer. Not to
kill, not to steal, not to commit adultery, not to lie, not to
be drunken—these negative commandments, with their positive
contraries, make up the elements of Buddhist righteousness.
But these are only the preliminary steps; there must also
be constant inner self-discipline and self-watchfulness; and
above all, the practice of meditation, of withdrawing oneself
from every desire, and thus anticipating the hour when desire
shall have ceased and Nirvana be attained. For the majority
of men it could only be after countless existences that desire
would finally be annihilated. All are liable to re-birth in some
of the countless worlds of Buddhist cosmogony. But at last
men may attain some of the higher stages of existence, as
BUDDHISM 163
e.g. that in which they will be re-born only in the higher
and purer worlds; that in which they will return but once
to existence; that in which they will be re-born in the
heaven of the gods; lastly, that of the Arhat or saint
who will enter Nirvana at death.
The church which Buddha founded was really a monastic
system outside of which were the lay Buddhists, for whom a
code of less strict discipline was arranged. Any one who is
not discarded by disease or by the claims of some other
upon him, may “take refuge in Buddha, his doctrine, and
his order.” He is first received as a postulant and remains
a novice for two years, at the end of which time he is fully
admitted as a monk, puts on the yellow robe, and has his
hair and beard shaved off. The ceremony of “ordination ”
implies no imparting of a spiritual gift; it is simply an out-
ward form of admission. The monk takes four vows—not
to be unchaste; not to steal ; not to kill, even a worm or an
ant; not to be boastful. The daily life of the monks is very
simple. At early morning, and for several hours, all join in
reciting the sacred writings or scriptures, or listen to a dis-
course by one of their number. Then, armed with the
alms-bowl, they go from house to house begging food, return-
ing in the afternoon to a common meal, and until evening
remain in silence or in devout conversation. Twice a month
all meet for confession of sins to each other, and once a
year, at the end of the rainy season, at the Pavarana or
“invitation,” each monk invites his fellows to acknowledge
all faults committed during that period. These, and the
practice of meditation, which is to Buddhism what prayer is
to other faiths, constitute what may be called genuine
Buddhist worship. All else is really foreign to primitive
Buddhism. But there have been added, even where
Buddhism has remained purest, the adoration of Buddha’s
relics, pilgrimages, and festivals. It is customary in many
places for the laity to hear sermons preached by the monks.
The order of nuns is similar to that of monks, but the
two are kept quite separate, and this order is always second to
164 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
the other. The Buddhist laity take no formal vow, but on
asserting their desire to take refuge with Buddha, his church,
and his order, they are expected to live temperately and
chastely. They look upon it as a privilege to give food to
the monks in their begging excursions, by which means they
are brought in contact with what may be called the clergy,
and from time to time they may be admitted to the community
to listen to discussions or to hear sermons. The layman can-
not expect to enter Nirvana as a layman; that is reserved for
monks. Accordingly he hopes that in some future existence
he will be able to become a monk and enter on the path of
final deliverance.
Of the various sects into which Indian Buddhism inevit-
ably divided because of there being no real unitive principle
in the “church,” it is impossible to speak here. It was
due to these, quite as much as to Brahmanic opposition and
the spread of Islam, that Buddhism disappeared from India
after many centuries of glorious life and princely patronage.
Meanwhile it had become, through missionary effort, the
religion of Ceylon, of Siam, and Burma. Buddhism in
these lands has adhered more closely to the original type
than in the North, viz. in Nepaul, Japan, China, and Tibet.
It is customary, therefore, to speak of Southern and
Northern Buddhism as distinct (the difference was first
noted by Burnouf). The sacred books of Southern
Buddhism, like those of the North, are divided into three
parts, Tripitaka, but they are much less copious than the
vast literature found e.g. in Tibet. It is in the North, too,
that Buddhism has departed most widely from its original
foundation, and has been deeply influenced by the current
religious beliefs with which it found itself surrounded. Some
of these excrescences will be referred to presently.
Buddhism was introduced into China in the first century
of our era, and for several centuries to come was alternately
patronized and persecuted by the emperors. But it con-
tinued not only to keep its footing in China, but to spread
among the people, and for centuries past it has existed side
BUDDHISM 165
by side with Confucianism and Taoism, influencing and
being influenced by both, but especially the latter. Here
Buddha is regarded as a god, but the popular worship is
mainly directed to Poosa, a kind of personified abstraction
of the Bodhisatwas, viz. those Buddhist disciples who,
having passed from earth, have power over nature, which
they lovingly exert for the benefit of men. The doctrine
of a beautiful paradise in the West, to which all good
Buddhists hope to go, has taken the place of Nirvana in
practical thought, and its ruler, Amitābha or Mito, is much
prayed to. Another deity, Kwanyin, is regarded sometimes
as male, sometimes as female, but the chief characteristic
of this divinity is the quality of mercy. Ceremonies on
behalf of the dead are resorted to—an instance of the
influence of Confucianism. In all these ways, and above all
in the popular resort to magic, Chinese Buddhism has added
to its original form.
These doctrines are also found in Tibet, where Buddhism
is the state religion, and supported as such by the Chinese
Government. Buddhism was already corrupt when it was
introduced into Tibet in the seventh century, and since then
it has undergone some curious developments. It has become
a complex hierarchical religion, with gorgeous ceremonies,
worship of images and relics, and many other rites which
bear a curious resemblance to those of Roman Catholicism.
But what gives it its title of Lamaism is the fact that the
Dalai-Lama, or pope, is held to be a living incarnation of
Buddha, who at his death transmigrates into and is re-born
as an infant. The lesser ranks of the clergy are in their
turn perpetually recruited by the re-birth of Buddhist
saints. It is also held, among other metaphysical subtleties,
that in each age of the universe there are five Buddhas ;
each of these has a corresponding heavenly counterpart,
called a Dhyani-Buddha, as well as another abstract
personality—the Dhyani-Bodhisatwa. In the present age
four Buddhas have appeared, and one is yet to come. The
present Buddha is worshipped in his Dhyani-Buddha form
I66 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
as the god Amitābha, and in his Bodhisatwa form as
Avalokiteswara. This is the philosophic doctrine, but for
the people it resolves itself into polytheism; many additional
godlings as well as saints are worshipped ; while the Grand
Lama is adored in the most extravagantly superstitious
IIla III]Cl, -
The life of the lamas or monks is more artificial and
formal than that of the monks of Southern Buddhism. The
formal reading of the sacred books, the repetition of prayers,
the turning of the prayer-wheels with their sacred formula,
constitute the greater part of their duties, and all obtain
for them great merit. Buddhism in China and Tibet,
though based on the primitive foundation, should really be
classed as a separate religion, since it has altered through the
growth of new ideas, and by its attracting to itself the beliefs
of other faiths, until its pure original is scarcely recognizable
1In 18.
Buddhism, as promulgated by its founder, commends itself
as a system which appeals to a high morality, to self-
denial, and to benevolence, while it urges the pursuit of
ideals such as the temporal world does not contain. Again,
it opened its gate of deliverance to all men, irrespective of
caste, and directed its attention most to the great problem of
human existence, viz. the evil and suffering and sorrow which
enter so much into all lives. Yet it was not, as is sometimes
represented, as a protest against the caste system that it
originated, and, once more, it never deals with personal
sorrows and troubles, but always with evil in the abstract.
Its great faults are that it says nothing of God, nothing of
the soul, with the inevitable result that, transplanted to lands
where the need of these verities was strongly felt, they were
at once supplied in ways which could never have commended
themselves to Buddha.
CHAPTER X
Mohammedanism
ISLAM, the religion of submission, as it sprung up among
a people who had preserved most faithfully their Semitic
characteristics, has also remained faithful to Semitic religious
conceptions. In nearly every case the gods of the Semites
were lofty and terrible deities, before whom man crouched
in fear, unlike those of the Aryan race. And Islam in its
conception of Allah has made this the foundation-stone
of the faith. It is a religion of fear, not of love; it is
ultra-Calvinistic in its idea of destiny and its denial of
free-will; while every one of its dogmas is marked out with
the utmost precision and the frankest literalism. Probably
for these very reasons it succeeded from the first among
barbaric races, on whom fear, fate, and precision always make
a deep impression. Thus the religious experience of an
enthusiast, preached with authority, commended itself to
millions, mostly of an inferior civilization, and became one of
the so-called universal religions.
Among the people of the Arabian peninsula, the early
Semitic religion, out of which the faiths of Babylon, Assyria,
Phoenicia, and Israel had arisen, had remained with little
change, save in the way of deterioration. It had many
deities, of whom Allah was chief, but scarcely worshipped.
The worship of natural objects, of stones (like the Kaabah),
and of images was dear to the people. Debased forms of
Judaism and Christianity also flourished. Many Arabs,
known as Hanifites, rejected these, as well as the native
religion, held a simple monotheism and absolute submission
to Allah, and practised asceticism and meditation. Mo-
hammed came in contact with all these faiths, and his
167
168 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
doctrine took form from them, but especially from Hanifism.
His originality lay in his giving monotheism a firm basis,
proclaiming it as an absolute revelation, and making it the
centre of a definite creed and worship.
He was born in 57 I A.D., and even in boyhood was
thoughtful and serious. Until he became the husband of his
rich employer, Kadijah, his lot was a hard one. He was
much given to meditation, and the chaotic state of the
medley of religions made him a doubter. In a time of
bodily and mental weariness and pain his visions began.
Terror took hold of his soul, but at last came the conviction,
received with enthusiasm, that there was but one God, and
that he was commissioned to be His prophet. If it be said
the task was self-imposed, and that he was a vulgar impostor,
we must remember that for years he was subject to contumely
and persecution, and that, compared with the faiths of
Arabia, his doctrine was sublime. An unique personality
and an unique enthusiasm, misdirected no doubt, explain all.
At first only his wife and family believed in him, but as
years went on, disciples increased. So also did persecution
from the pagan Arabs at Mecca. The Hijra, or flight to
Medina, where he had many disciples, took place in
622 A.D., and from that hour Islam began its career of
conquest, and the prophet his rôle of statesman, lawgiver,
soldier, and king. With success came the weaknesses
which stained his career, and the revelations by which he
excused them. After Mecca was conquered and made
the holy city of Islam, and after the submission of the Arab
tribes, views of wider dominion came to the prophet, but
his death in 632 A.D. prevented his seeing their fulfilment.
The divine sanction claimed by Mohammed for wholesale
slaughter and his love of women cannot be excused. Yet
our disgust is mitigated on reflecting how very often extra-
ordinary success produces evil fruit in the lives of even the
most noble. Goethe felt this when he planned his drama
of Mohammed, in which he intended to show how men who
try to realize a great idea, in coming into contact with the
MOHAMIMEDANISM 169
world must place themselves on a level with it, and thus be
liable to deterioration. In this respect, apart from his
teaching, Mohammed compares unfavourably with Buddha.
And his weaknesses reacted on his religion, and became its
most dominant notes. Intolerance and bloodshed have
always marked its way, while its attitude to women has
always been notably inferior.
The ready adoption of Islam by the scattered and hostile
tribes of Arabia, and their sudden consolidation into one
people bent on the progress of their faith, can only partly be
explained by the sanction given to bloodshed and lust—those
primitive passions of humanity, ever lying so near the surface
and ready to burst forth with volcanic fury. The appeal was
really made in the name of religion, and in the name of
religion it was accepted. The revelation of the absolute
unity of God came with the force of a tornado upon the
minds of the superstitious Arabs, and stirred their hearts to
the most profound depths. Their nature-worship was swept
away in a moment, and God stood out before them as the
Person before whom they must lie in resigned submission, but
from whom, if they were faithful to him, came high visions of
dominion and future joy. The appeal of religion is never in
vain, if it be but authoritative and inspiring. Islam was both,
and its success cannot be wholly explained by its appeal to
baser passions.
Mohammed's revelations during twenty-three years form the
contents of the Quran, but their final arrangement, arbitrary
and inconsecutive, was made long after his death. To the
Mohammedan the Quran is not a book about religion; it is
his religion, as well as a law-book, a military, social, and com-
mercial code. “Burn the libraries,” said Omar ; “their
value is contained in this book.” From the Mohammedan’s
point of view this is absolutely true, for the Quran is co-
eternal with God, and was first written in rays of light on a
tablet standing by His throne. From this Gabriel made the
revelations to the prophet. We cannot, therefore, wonder at
the marvellous reverence with which the Quran is regarded.
17o RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
No other Sacred Book is exactly parallel to it in the influ-
ence it holds over all parts of life, in its intense realization of
the unseen, in its promises of future sensual joys, and in the
stupendous but absurd claims made for it.
The essential doctrine of Islam is that of the unity and
supremacy of God. He is omniscient, almighty, the creator,
the moral governor of the universe. He is represented as a
Being who acts arbitrarily and who is without love; to whom
men are mere slaves to be ruled with a selfishly despotic hand.
In his essence he is thus nothing but autocratic will, a being
who is to be feared, but not one with whom man can have
any communion or fellowship. In proclaiming this inap-
proachable, sombre God, Mohammed was carrying the
Semitic conception of deity to its logical conclusion. This
is seen again in his doctrine of predestination, which far
exceeds that of Calvin in its cruelty and horror. The
faithful Moslem hopes to go to his sensual paradise, but all
others are condemned irretrievably to eternal punishment. In
Palgrave's striking words, God “burns one individual
through all eternity, amid red-hot chains and seas of molten
fire, and seats another in the plenary enjoyment of an ever-
lasting brothel, between forty celestial concubines, just and
equally for his own good pleasure and because he wills it.”
The terrible gulf between God, the tyrant, and man, the
submissive slave, is partially bridged over by the Moslem
doctrines of angels, prophets, and saints. Angels are sinless
beings, two of whom accompany every man as his guardians,
one recording his good deeds, the other his evil deeds. Some
kind of intercession for men is attributed to the angels. Akin
to them, though of an evil nature and subject to death, are the
Jinn, or devils, of whom Iblis, or Satan, is the chief. They
are much feared by the Moslem, as they are supposed to work
many evils to men, and the belief in them has given rise to
countless superstitions, which can, however, be paralleled in
the beliefs of low races everywhere. Prophets are men
through whom God has revealed his unalterable will to the
world. Beginning with Adam, they number several thou-
MOHAMIMEDANISM 171
sands, including Christ, and end with Mohammed, the last
and greatest of the line. This part of the creed of Islam is
entirely borrowed from Judaism; hence the Jewish Pentateuch
and Psalms, and the Christian Gospels, are recognized as
inspired, but hopelessly corrupt. The Saints of Islam are men
of particular holiness, the favourites of God, who are able to
perform the most astounding miracles. Alive or dead, they
are believed to confer blessings on men, and to have the power
of intercession with God on their behalf. Hence reverence
for their lives has, in some cases, passed into actual worship of
the living saint, or at his shrine when dead. This practice is
an excrescent growth upon primitive Mohammedanism and is
unknown to the Quran. -
The doctrine of the future state is mapped out with a
strange precision and materialism. After death, and until the
day of judgment and resurrection, all Souls are in a kind of
intermediate state about which various opinions exist, Souls
which will finally go to paradise are in a blissful condition,
but those doomed to hell are kept in prisons and tortured.
At the day of judgment the final doom is pronounced. All
alike, having had their bodies restored to them, pass over the
narrow bridge Sirat. The righteous do this with ease and
enter Paradise; to the wicked it is sharper than a sword and
red-hot, hence they fall off into the pit of hell. Hell, which
is divided into seven compartments, for Moslems, Christians,
Jews, Sabians, Magians, idolaters, and hypocrites, will be a
place of eternal fire for all but Moslems and professors of
God’s unity sent thither for their sins. These will eventually
leave it. Between heaven and hell is a place where those who
are too bad for heaven and too good for hell must remain.
Paradise is a place of sensual delights. The believer, restored
to eternal youth and strength, lives a sumptuous life of un-
speakable joy, drinks wine that cannot intoxicate, and is
surrounded by women of stainless perfections. It is just to
say that a more spiritual reward is given to those of a higher
sanctity, viz. a species of beatific vision and the enjoyment of
the presence of God for ever.
172 RELIGION : ITS ORIGIN AND FORMS
The value of these crude beliefs must not be judged too
absolutely. Taken from various sources, Persian, Jewish,
Christian, by a visionary enthusiast, and moulded with stern
logic, they are infinitely inferior to Jewish or Christian beliefs,
and indeed to many pagan systems. The doctrine of God
e.g. has forbidden any great advance in culture and civiliza-
tion. But, when compared with many of the grossly super-
stitious faiths which it supplanted, these doctrines have a
positive value. With the advance of the world it cannot
remain as the final form of religion and ethics for the races
whom now it sways. It hides more than it reveals God, and
it makes men virtuous by outward precept rather than out of
real love of noble conduct. --
After Mohammed's death the promulgation of his religion
was extraordinarily rapid. Fired by the idea that it was
God’s will that his faith should be accepted by the world, the
Moslem hosts had planted the crescent in Palestine, Syria,
Persia, Egypt, N. Africa, and Spain within the next hundred
years. For centuries after, Europe was in constant terror of
its further spread, but with the capture of Constantinople in
1453 the limit of European conquest was reached. The
races among whom it has been welcomed and accepted with
sincerity are not high in the scale of civilization. At present
its most secure strongholds are Turkey, Asia Minor, N.
Africa, Persia, and Malaysia, while there are numerous
Mohammedans in India and China.
More than any other religion Islam has shown itself unable
to develop from within and to adapt itself to the varying needs
of successive ages. The absolute authority of the Quran is
the cause why, as Palgrave says, “Islam is lifeless, and,
because lifeless, cannot grow, cannot advance, cannot change,
and was never intended to do so.” Such changes as exist
have been added to the primitive doctrine from without, and
they have given rise to various divisions within Mohammed-
anism, akin to the divisions of Christendom.
Orthodox Moslems are known as Sunnites, because they
accept the traditional teaching of Mohammed, or Sunna.
MOHAMIMEDANISM 173
These traditions, like those of the Jewish rabbis, have swelled
to an enormous number, and regulate every detail of life. But
even among Sunnites there are four Schools, Hanafis, Shafiees,
Malikees, and Hambelis, called after their respective founders,
who interpreted the Quran and the growing mass of traditions
in different ways.
The Shiites, the next great sect of Islam, reject the Sunna
of the orthodox, though they have evolved a Sunna of their
own, and in general apply an allegorical method to the Quran.
Arising through adhesion to the cause of Ali as the successor
of Mohammed as against the claims of those who opposed
him, Shi-ism has found a home in Persia, where it is the
form of Islam still extant. Sunnites regard all Shiites as no
better than infidels, and destined to eternal punishment.
The sect of Wahabis had their origin in Arabia in the
eighteenth century, when Mohammed Wahab tried to restore
the primitive form of Islam and to remove the abuses which
had gathered round the faith in course of time. The move-
ment was one for stern simplicity in religion and life, for
greater devotion, and for sexual purity, but it met only with
partial success. -
An interesting attempt to engraft on Islam principles wholly
foreign to it is found in Sufism, a movement within Islam,
rather than a separate sect, having for its purpose a mystical
union with God. We have seen how no communion with
God is possible to the Moslem, since God is entirely separate
from the world. Sufism is a kind of pantheism engrafted on
Islam from early times, and possibly introduced from Buddh-
ism. The object of Sufism is mystical absorption of the soul
in God, to be obtained by the practice of the love of God, by
asceticism, meditation, and ecstasy. In effect, however, the
final stage is not so much union with God, as that the Sufite
becomes God in a true pantheistic sense. Obviously this is
no native growth in Islam, but it has supplied Islam with some
of its most rapturous and beautiful religious aspirations and
poetry.
The following list of works, though not exhaustive, will
be found useful for further study.
I. GENERAL.
C. P. Tiele. Outlines of the History of Ancient Religions.
39 Elements of the Science of Religion.
C. DE LA SAUSSAYE. Introduction to the Science of Religion.
ALBERT REVILLE. Prolegomena of the History of Religions.
A. LANG. Myth, Ritual and Religion.
93. The Making of Religion.
E. CAIRD. The Evolution of Religion.
S. BARING-Gould. The Origin of Religious Belief.
J. A. MACCULLOCH. Comparative Theology.
2. PRIMITIVE BELIEFs.
A. REVILLE. Les Religions des Peuples non-civilisés.
J. G. FRAZER. The Golden Bough. 2nd ed. 1900.
53 Totemism.
A. LANG. Magic and Religion.
E. Tylor. Primitive Culture.
FR. MAx Müller. Gifford Lectures on Physical, Anthro-
pological, and Psychical Religion.
H. SPENCER. Principles of Sociology. Pts. I–III.
29 Ceremonial Inſtitutions.
LoRD Avebury. Origin of Civilization.
D. G. BRINTon. Myths of the New World.
W. W. SKEAT. Malay Magic.
R. M. DoRMAN. Origin of Primitive Superstitions.
JAMES FERGusson. Tree and Serpent Worship.
C. S. WAKE. Serpent Worship, with a Chapter on Totemism.
, I 74
BIBLIOGRAPHY I75
3. HIGHER RELIGIONS.
A. H. SAYCE. The Religion of Ancient Assyria and
& . Babylonia.
99 The Religions of Egypt and Babylon.
. JASTRow. The Religion of Babylonia and Assyria.
P. TiELE. Comparative History of the Egyptian and
Mesopotamian Religions.
. W. KING. Babylonian Religion.
. WIEDEMANN. Religion of the Ancient Egyptianſ.
A. WALLIs BUDGE. Egyptian Religion.
2 3 Egyptian Magic. -
2 3 The Gods of the Egyptians.
P. Le PAGE RENouf. Religion of Ancient Egypt.
Records of THE PAST. Ist and 2nd Series.
Joseph EDKINs. Religion in China.
R. K. Douglas. Confucianism and Taoism.
J. J. G.Root. The Religious Systems of China.
F. MAx Müller. Hibbert Lectures on the Religions of
India.
A. BARTH. The Religions of India.
MoniER WILLIAMs. Religious Thought and Life in India.
W. Mu'iR. Sanskrit Texts.
L. R. FARNELL. Cults of the Greek States.
W. E. GLADSTONE. Juventus Mundi,
FoucART. Des Associations Religieuses chez les Grecs.
. CAMPBELL. Religion in Greek Literature.
. CURTIUs. History of Greece.
. GRANGER. The Worship of the Romans.
. PRELLER. Römische Mythologie.
. G. LELAND. Etruscan Roman Remains.
TheoDoRe MoMMSEN. History of Rome.
JAcOB GRIMM. Teutonic Mythology.
P. H. MALLET. Northern Antiquities.
R. ANDERSEN. Norse Mythology.
M. HAUG. On the Language and Religion of the Parsees.
JAMEs DARMESTETER. Ormazd et Ahriman.
M
;
C
176 BIBLIOGRAPHY
F. CUMont. Textes et Monuments relatif aux Mystères de
Mithra. -
T. W. RHYs DAVIDs. Indian Buddhism.
H. OLDENBERG. Buddha : His Life, Doctrine, and Order.
EUGENE BURNouf. Introduction à l'histoire du Bouddhisme
Indien.
S. BEAL. Buddhism in China.
J. EDKINs. Chinese Buddhism.
SIR. W. Muir. Life of Mahomet.
A. KUENEN. National Religions and Univerſal Religions.
Much information as to the religions of India, China,
Persia, etc., and Mohammedanism will be found in the series
of the Sacred Books of the East, with their valuable
translations and introductions.
INDEX
AALU, I Io
Abstractions, 141
Adar, 97
Aditi, 123
Adityas, 123
Adonis, 97, 134
Aesir, I 45
AEtiological myths, go
Africans, 7, 29, 34, 44, 68.
Negroes, etc.
Agni, 31, 122, 139
Ahriman, 149, 154
Ahura-mazda, 153.
Ainos, 7
Akbar, 3
Alattu, Ioo
Allah, 167
Amatongo, 52
American Indians, 23, 24, 29, 30,
31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41,
44, 48, 59, 64, 68, 72–80, 88, 9o
Amesha-spentas, 154
Amitabha, 118, 165
Amon, Io.4, Io'7
Amulet, 58
Anatum, 96
Ancestor. See Ghosts
Andamanese, 17, 87
Angekok, 68
Angels, 17o
Animal guardian, 44
worship, 39 sq., 77, Ioz,
IO7, I27, I 3 I, I 33
Animism, 14, 16, 18, 19, 20 sq.,
56, 58, 87, I 12, 128, 138
See
17
Anna, Anu, 96
Annunaki, 99
Anthropological School, 7
Apep, Io:3
Aphrodite, 134
Apis, IoS
Apollo, 4o, I 32 ſq.
Apologists, Christian, 46
Arabia, 28, 167 sq.
Arallu, 36, Ioo
Arhat, 163
Arnold, M., 13
Artemis, 133
Arunta, 77
Asgard, 145
Asiatic tribes, 29, 30,
51, 58, 7o, 74
Assam, 37
Astarte, 133
Astronomy, Io;
Athena, 81, 132 sq., I-40
Atman, 125, 159
Augurs, 143
Augustine, St., 2
Australians, 7, 17, 41, 44, 51,
58, 63, 65, 72, 73, 77, 9o
Avalokiteswara, 166
4vebury, Lord, 9, 14, 15,
6o
3 I; 33,
44;
Babylonian religion, 36, 43
demonology, 50, 99
ethics, 98, IoI
future life, 74, 1oo
gods, 27, 95 sq.
N
=
178
INDEX
Babylonian religion, magic, 65–
67, 96, 99
— — mythology, 88, Iol
priesthood, 69, 70, 98
— worship and sacrifice,
81–82, 84, 97 -
Bacchic rites, 141
Baldag, 146
Baldur, 146, 148
Banier, Abbé, 7
Basutos, 72.
Bel, 96, 97, Io9, 151
Beltane, 152
Bhâts, 5o
Bodhisatwas, 165
Bor, 148
Bragi, 147
Brahmanism, 124 sq.
Brahmans, 30, 70
Brauronia, 133
Breath, 71
Buddha, 7, 37, 153, 159
Buddhism, 37, 58, 77, I 15 sq.
doctrines, 160 sq.
ethics, 162
future life, 162
— monasticism, 163
origin, 16o
varieties of, 164 sq.
worship, 166
Burnouf, 164
Bushmen, 17
*
Callaway, Bp. , 65
Cambodians, 37
Canaanites, 85
Cannibalism, 85
Carib8, 72, 74
Carthaginians, 85
Casaubon, Dr., I
Castren, 23
Catholicism, 53
Ceres, 139
Chahalka, 53
Charms, 58, 59, 68, 15o
Chibchas, 31
Chinese religion, 1 12 sq. See
Confucianism, Taoism
ancestor worship, 52,
-*-*.
79, II 4.
-º-º-º-º-º-º-º:
animism, I 12
ethics, I 13, I 14, 117
future life, 118 -
gods, 27, 29, 35, 47,
*-º-m - ºf
I I 5 *q. -
— magic, 6 I, 65, 67, I I I,
I I
— mythology, 89
nature worship, I 14,
I 16
priesthood, 69, 117
sacred books, I 13
— —— worship and sacrifice,
82, 85, I 14, II 6
—— temples, I 15
Chinvat, 155 • .
Church, theologians of Eastern, 3
Cicero, 2, 13
Comparative Theology, 16
Comte, 5
Conformations, Buddhist, 160
Confucianism, 1 12, 165
Confucius, I 12 sq., 153, 161
Cosmogony, Ioo
Crusades, 3
Cudworth, 3
Cybele, 133, 141
Dahomey, 33, 39, 51
Dance, sacred, 73
Daphne, 5, 7
Darwin, 77
Davkina, 97
Dead, Book of, 1 Io
feeding the, 52 sq.
festival of, 52
symbolic representation of,
52, 55
worship of, 41.
Death, origin of, 72 sq.
De Brosses, 4, 14, 54
Deity, primitive conception of, 15
See Ghosts
INDEX
179
Delphi, 133
Demeter, 135
Demonology, 49, 95, 99, 128,
153. See Spirits
Devas, 121
Devata, 126
Dhyani, 165
Diisoteria, 82
Dionysos, 135, 139
Disease, caused by spirits, 49 sq.,
62, 68, 73, I 11, 128
transference of, 83
Divination, 62, 68, 143
Dorman, 45, 5o
Dreams, 71
Dualism, 145, 149, 153
Duat, Io9
Dulaure, 4
Dupuis, 4
Dyaks, 74
Dyaus, 124, 146
Ea, 82, 96, 97
Earth divinity, 29, 64, 89, 97,
Io3, 124, 127, I 3 I, I 35, I 39,
146
worship, 29, 30, 151
Eddas, 145
Egyptian religion, Io2 sq.
animal worship, 8, 43,
44, Io2, Io?
character of, 1oz.
ethics, 1 Io
— — future life, 52, 77, Io9
gods, 40, Ioz
— — magic, 63, 65, 67, I Io
monotheism, Io9
— — mythology, 88, Io;
priesthood, 69, 70,
-*-
-*-
*m-
*-*-
Io9
temples, Io9
— —— worship and sacrifice,
81, 84, Io9
Ehsuhman, 55, 65
Eleusinia, 135, 137
Ellis, Major, 54, 6o
Ellis, W., 4o
Elpenor, 49
Elves, 145
Enki, 96
Enlightenment, Buddhist, 16o
Enlil, 96
Enneads, 107
Epulones, 143
Erinnys, 5
Eskimo, 18, 67, 72, 77, 89
Ethics, 98, IoI, I Io, I 13, I 17,
156, 16o, 162, 171
Eucharistic sacrifices.
fice
Euhemeristic school, 6
Euhemerus, 46, 47
Eumaus, 130
Exorcism, 66, 68, 95, 99, 11 1,
128
Expiation.
See Sacri-
See Sacrifice
Faber, 4
Farmer, 4.
Farnell, 132
Fate, 147
Faunus, I 39
Fear in religion, 25, 48, 49 sq.
Fenimore Cooper, 74
Fenris wolf, 146, 148
Fertility, 69
Fetichism, 4, 14, 54 sq.
Fijians, 72, 73
Finns, 23, 29, 66
Fire worship, 31, 122, 139, 155
Flamens, 142
Flora, 139
Folk-festivals, 30, 151
Folk-tales, 38, 83
Forsete, 147
Fratres arvales, 143
Fravashis, 141, 154
Frazer, f. G., 8, 41, 62
Freya, 146
Freyr, 146
Frigga, 145
| Fuegians, 67
13e
INDEX
Future life, 71 sq., Ioo, Io9, I 18,
137, 15o, 155, 162, 172
Gaea, 13 I
Genii, 141
Germans, 30
Ghosts as animals, 41, 78
demons, 49, 128
*-i-º-º-º- smºs-s-sº sºme gods, 46, 49, 53, 8o
expulsion of, 72
—— fear of, 48, 49
feeding, 79 sq.
hurtful, 1oo
—— propitiation of, 48, 85
+ worship of, 46 sq., 79, 113,
I39
Giants, 145, 149
Gilgamesh, IoI
Ginunga, gap, I47
God of early man, I 5 sq.
Islam, 170
Goddesses, 97, IoA.
Gods and men, 73, 75, 97
— Titans, 145, 153–155
departmental, 27
of nature, 28 sq.
Goethe, 168
Gotama. See Buddha
Greek religion, 130 sq.
influence on Roman
religion, 141
future life, 74, 137
gods, 27, 31, 131 sq.
—— —— lower elements in, 8,
43, I 3 I 37.
magic, 66
— — mysteries, I 35
— — mythology, 88–89, 130
priesthood, 68, 136
worship and sacrifice,
33, 80 sq., 136 . . .
of spirits, 53
sº-sºº
•-ºº-º-º:
*-*-º-
smºmºsºms
Grote, 23
Grove, sacred, 37
Guardian divinities, 45, 98, 141
I 54
2
Guatemalans, 44, 53
Guiana, 18, 23, 49
Hades, 96, 132, 137
Hambelis, 173
Hanifis, 173
Hanifites, 169
Hanuman, 127
Hapi, Ioa.
Harvey Islanders, 56
Heaven, worship of 29, 89, Io9,
I 24, I 3 I
Hebrews, 66, 74, 81, IoI, IoS
Hegel, 138
Heimdall, 147, 149
Hel, 146, 148
Helios, 133
Henotheism, IoS, 123
Hephæstos, 134
Hera, 132
Hermes, 134
Herodotus, 2, Io2, Io9
Hertha, 30
Hestia, 31, 134
Hijra, 168
Himalayas, 36, 127
Hinduism, 34, 37, 70, 72, 77,
I 25 sq., I 52
Hobbes, 3
Hodur, 147
Homer, 130
Horus, Io;
Hume, 3
Hyksos, 107
Hymns, 96, 99, IoA.
Iamblichus, 115
Igigi, 99
Image, magical, 64
Im Thurn, 23
Incas, 30
India, aborigines of, 7, 30, 35,
37, 40, 41, 44, 48, 49, 51, 58,
6 I, 64, 65, 66, 77, 81, 85,
126
religion of, 120 sq.
INDEX
181
India, religion, ancestor worship,
47, 53, 128
animal worship, 43,
I
2.
7
demonology, 49, 128
— gods, 30, 12I sq., 125 sq.
henotheism, 123
magic, 83
— metaphysics, 125
— monotheism, 124
— mythology, 89, 124
nature worship, 127
periods of, 12o
— worship and sacrifice,
31, 84, 12 I, I24
Indra, 121
Inferior races, magic among, 66
Infinite, 14
Iona cross, 58
Ishtar, 96, 97, I 34
Isis, IoA, IoS, Ioë, I 41
=
Janus, I 39
Japanese, 33, 61
Jinn, 17o
Jötuns, 147 sq
Juno, I 39 ſq.
Kaabah, 169
Kafirs, 17, 18
Rant, I 3
Kerberos, 5
Khem, Ioa.
Khirwars, 37
Khnum, IoA.
Khonds, 64, 74
Khunsu, Ioa.
Åingsley, 67
King worship, IoS, 142
Krishna, 125
Kronos, 131, 139
Ruhn, 6
Lamaism, 70, 165, 166
Lang, 8, 16
Language, disease of, 5
Lao-tsze, I 14
Lapps, 66
Lares, 138
Liber, Libera, 139
Lithuanians, 37
Loke, 146, 148
Love in religion, 26, 48, 5.1
Lucretius, I 3
Lyell, 41
Maclemman, Io9
Madagascar, 40, 73
Magic, 25, 58, 59, 63, 85, 99,
IoI, IIo, I 16, 128, 15o, 155
and religion, 62 sq.
Malays, 5o, 51, 66, 72, 77
Malikees, 173
Man, primitive, 15, 21, 78
myths of origin of, 9o
Manabozho, 88 *
Mandans, 52
Manes, 138, 142
Manitou, 44, 45, 57, 59, 61
Manitousiou, 68
Maoris, 72
Mariner, 24
Mars, 139 sq.
Maya, 125
Mazdeism, 149, 152 sq.
divinities, 153 sq.
dualism, 153
ethics, 156
future life, 155
— — mythology, 154 sq.
sacred books, 153
— worship and sacrifice,
156
Medicine-man.
Sorcerer
Melanesians, 56, 72, 87
Mencius, I 13
Ment, IoA.
Metaphysics, 125
Metis, 133
Mexicans, 31, 35, 67, 70, 74,
75, 85
See Priesthood,
I 82
INDEX
Midgard serpent, 146, 148
Min, IoA.
Minerva, 14o
Mithra, 30, 141, 157
Miztecs, 52
Mohammed, 153, 157, 168
Mohammedanism, 167 sq.
doctrines of, 17o
— — future life, 171
origin, 167 sq.
— — Quran, 169
sects, 172
spread of, 168, 172
Moirae, 147
Monasticism, 163
Monotheism, 14, 26, 124, 170
Moon deity, 97, 104
Mountains, worship of, 34, 127
Müller, Max, 5, 13, 14, 34, Ioë,
I 2
Minising the dead, 52
Mundaris, 37
Muspelheim, 147
Myers, F. W. H., 71
Mysteries, 134
Mysticism, I 14, 115, 173
Mythology, 5 sq., 87 sq.,
I31, 147, I 54
-
12 I,
Nabu, 97
Nagual, 45
Naiads, 132
Name, 70, 97, Ioo
Nana Nyankupon, 18
Nannar, 97
Nature myths, 89
worship, 29 sq., 131, 153
Negroes, 17, 25, 32, 35, 36, 47,
48, 58 sq., 6 I, 64, 73, 77, 81
Nephthys, Io;
Neptune, 33, 139
Nergal, 97, Ioo
New Caledonia, 59
New Hebrides, 51, 74
Nicaraguans, 72
Nidhug, 147
Niflheim, 147, 148
Nirvana, 161
Njord, 146
Norns, 147
Num, 17, 29
Nut, to 3
Oceanus, 33
Odin, 145, 143
Odyssey, 130
Oldenberg, 61
Olympian gods, 132
Omar, 169
Ops, 139
Ormazd, 149
Osiris, 105, Ioff, I Io, 141
Ostyaks, 52
Pacarissa, 44
Palaeolithic man, 21, 72
Pales, 139
Palgrave, 17o, 172
Pan, 139
Panathenaea, 31, 136
Pantheons, 27
Papuans, 18, 48
Parcae, 147
Parsis, 65, 157
Patagonians, 49, 74, 78
Pataris, 48
Penates, 138
Persephone, 135, 139
Persia, 27, 30, 32, 152
Personality, 68, 83
Peruvians, 30, 32, 33, 34, 45,
52, 69, 70, 76, 89
Philological school, 5
Philosophy, primitive, 63, 64
Phoibos, 5, 7
Piaculum, 84.
Pitris, 128, 154
Plato, 2, 33
Plotinus, 115
Plutarch, 2, IoS, 157
Polynesians, 7, 18, 23, 33, 44,
52, 53, 68, 7.0, 89
INDEX
133
Polytheism, 14, 26, 27, 103, 116,
120, 126
Pomona, 139
Pontifex, 143
Poosa, 165
Poseidon, 33, 96, 132, 134
Pragapati, 124
Prayer, 98, 143
Priesthood, 28, 55 sq., 65, 67 sq.,
97, Io9, 117, 136, 141, 1.5o
Prithivi, 124
Prometheus, 7
Prophetesses, 150
Prophets, 27, 153, 17o
Propitiation. See Sacrifice
Prussians, 49
Psychology, primitive, 72
Psychorragy, 71
Ptah, 103, to 6
Puluga, 87
Qamata, 18
Qasavara, 87
Qat, 87
Quran, 169
Ra, IoS, I Io, I 33
Ragnarok, 148
Rain-making, 62, 64, 65, 69
Rakshasas, 5o, 128
Rama, 125, 127
Raman, 97
Re-birth, 77, 159
Relics, 56
Religion, aim of science of, I
and magic, 62
and mythology, 87
— definition, 13
development, 19, 27
origin, 1.3, 46
pathology of, 9
primitive, 8, 14
Renaissance, 3
Retribution, 75, 118, 15o
Reville, 13 **
Rig Veda, 34
River worship, 33, Ioq, 127
Robertson Smith, 84
Roman religion, 138 sq.
gods, 27, 31, 139 ſq.
— — influenced by Greece,
I 41
138
— —— priesthood, 142
— —— worship and sacrifice,
33, 84, 142 ſq.
of dead, 52, 53,
lack of mythology in,
133, 142
y of emperors, 142
Rudra, 125
Sacred books, 113, 120, 125
Sacrifice, Io9, 114, 120, 122, 124,
136, 144, 15o, 156
— eucharistic, 79 sq., 136
human, 30, 33, 35, 64, 34,
90, 136, 15o
origin of, 79
— piacular, 83 sq.
primitive, 30–36, 62, 65,
I 27, 135
symbolic, 35, 111, 154
to ghosts, 48, 49, 51, 72,
73, 79 sq.
totem, 84
votive, 82, 117
Sagas, 147
Saints, 53, 128, 163, 170 sq.
S. Fillan, 58
S. Marmam, 6o
Sakti, 125
Salii, 141
Samas, 97
Samoa, 23
Samoyedes, 7, 17, 29
Sandwich Islands, 73
Saranya, 5
Sarmatans, 30
Sarvari, 5
Sasabonsum, 54
Saturn, 139.
184
INDEX
Saturnalia, 139
Savages, mental condition of, 21
Sayce, Io&
Scandinavian religion, 145 sq.
dualism, 149
future life, 150
gods, 145 sq.
— magic, 66, 150
— mythology, 88, 147
nature worship, 37,
=
146 sq.
****
priesthood, 150
worship and sacrifice,
85, I5o, I 5 I
Scape animal, 84
Schoolcraft, 23
Schwartz, 6
Scott, 49
Sea, worship of, 32
sºmeºmºmº
Seb, Io; ---
Semites, 33, 44, 167
Senart, 7, 159
Serapis, 141
Serpent worship, 39, 127
Set, IoS sq.
Shadow, 71
Shafiees, 173
Shaman, 57, 59, 66
Shang-ti, 29, 82, 152 sq.
Shape-shifting, 40, 41, 62, 69,
76, 88
Shiites, 173 -
Shin, 118
Shinto, 67
Silvanus, 139
Sin, 84, 97, IoI, 127
Sirat, 171
Sitala, 128
Siva, 125
Slavs, 37, 56
Soma, 122
Sorcerer, 55, 62, 65, 67, 69, 83,
128
as demon, 49, 79
Soul, 23, 46, 71, 78, 83, 118, 160
and Osiris myth, 105
Spells, 62, 96, 99, 111
Spencer, 7, 14, 40, 44,46, 47, 56
Spirits, 18 sq., 23, 63, 69, 73,
95, 99, I 38
departmental, 26 ge
hostile, 27. See Demon-
ology * *
nature, 26, 36, -126
tutelary, 26, 54
Spirit-world, 73 sq.
Srahmandazi, 48
Stoicism, 142
Strauss, 13
Sufism, 173
Suhman, 54, 57, 59
Sukhos, 108
Sumatrans, 32
Sumerians, 95
Sun god, 97, Io9, Iob
worship, 30
Sunnites, 172
Superstition, 8
Surtur, 147
Syncretism, Io'7, 132
Tabu, 73
Tacitus, 151
Tahitians, 23, 74
Tammuz, 97, 134
Taoism, 67, I 14 sq., 165
Tao-te-king, I 14
Tartaros, 137
Tasmanians, 74
Tatars, 18, 30, 57, 59
Tellus, 139
Temple, 98, Io9, I 16, 151
Teopix.gui, 68
Thargelia, 133
Theism, primitive, 16 sq., 29
Thessalians, 66
Thor, 146
Thoth, Ioq sq.
Tibet, 70, 165
Ti'en, 29
Tiki, 53
Titans, 131, 135, 148
INDEX
Tongans, 24, 72
Totemism, 14, 41 sq., 70, 76, 78,
34, 9o, 95, IoS, Io9, 131
range of, 44, 59
restraints in, 42
Transformation. See Shape-shift-
ing
Transmigration, 43, 51, 76 sq.,
I 19, 161
Tree worship, 36, 133
Triad, 95, 96, Io'ſ, I 15, 146
Tripitaka, 164
Tshi-speaking race, 18, 26, 33,
65, 74
Turner, 23
Tylor, 8, 14, 22
Tyr, 146, 148
Ukko, 29
Unkulunkulu, 52
Upanishads, 125
Uranus, 131
Ushas, 123
Ut, 31
Valhalla, 150
Vali, 147
Vampires, 5o, 128
Varuna, 121
Vedas, 5, 88
Vedism, 30, 31, 34,
I 52
8o, I 20,
**
i
Vertumnus, 139
Vesta, 31, 139
Vestales, 143
Vidar, 147
Vishnu, 125
Vishvakarman, 124
Vritra, 128
Vulcan, 139
Wahabis, 173
Wanaki, 24.
Water, 32
demons, 5o
sprites, 34
Wells, holy, 34
Wends, 74
Wiedemann, Io?
Witches, 65, 66, 84
Xiuhteuctli, 31
Yahveh, Io;
Yazatas, 141, 154
Yehl, 88
Ymer, 147 sq.
Yuh-hwang, 115
Zendavesta, 152
Zerana Akerana, 153
Zeus, 7, 81, 87, 96, 130 sq., 135
Zoroaster, 152
Zulus, 41, 52, 65, 77, 9o
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