Part 45

[Footnote 92: Jellinghaus, 'Sagen, Sitten und Gebräuche der Munda-Kolhs in Chota Nagpore,' in _Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie_, iii. 330 _sq._]

[Footnote 93: Stewart, 'Northern Cachar,' in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xxiv. 628.]

The Ainu of Japan believe in a great god or creator who bestows blessings upon the good and visits the bad with disease, unless they repent. They also say that good people go after death to the "island of the Great Spirit," or to the "kingdom of God," to lead a happy life; whereas bad people go to the "bad island," or to the "wet underground world," in which they suffer discomfort or, according to some, are burned in everlasting fires.[94] Of the pagan Samoyedes we are told that they regard the great Num as the creator of the universe, as an all-powerful and omniscient being, who protects the innocent, rewards the virtuous, and punishes the wicked.[95] But the primitive Num, who was simply the sky, was too far removed from the nomads who wandered across the frozen plain, to interfere to prevent catastrophe or accomplish their well-being; and in the provident actions and overseeing which some of the Samoyedes now ascribe to him, "we can clearly enough trace the influence of the missionary and the suggestion of the Christian faith."[96]

[Footnote 94: von Siebold, _Die Aino auf der Insel Yesso_, p. 24. Batchelor, _Ainu of Japan_, pp. 199, 235 _sqq._ Howard, _Life with Trans-Siberian Savages_, p. 193.]

[Footnote 95: Castrén, _op. cit._ iii. 14.]

[Footnote 96: Jackson, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxiv. 398. See also Castrén, _op. cit._ iii. 14-16, 182 _sqq._]

Dr. Rink asserts that the Greenlanders considered Tornarsuk as the supreme being on whom they were dependent for any supernatural aid, and in whose abodes in the depth of the earth all such persons as had striven and suffered for the benefit of their fellow men should find a happy existence after death.[97] Dr. Nansen, however, is of opinion that Tornarsuk owes a great deal to missionary influence.[98] That he was not so superior a being as is commonly stated is evident from Captain Holm's description of the Angmagsaliks in Eastern Greenland, where he is represented as a monster living in the sea, of about the same length as a big seal, but thicker.[99] And to judge from Egede's description dating from the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Tornarsuk's notions of justice, if he had any, must in olden times have been very limited, as he took to his subterranean paradise only women that died in labour and men that perished at sea.[100]

[Footnote 97: Rink, _Greenland_, p. 141.]

[Footnote 98: Nansen, _Eskimo Life_, p. 242.]

[Footnote 99: Holm, 'Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne,' in _Meddelelser om Grönland_, x. 115.]

[Footnote 100: Egede, _Description of Greenland_, p. 197.]

{679} The "Great Spirit" so often referred to in accounts of North American Indians, is described as a being too elevated and remote to take much interest in the destinies and actions of men and too benevolent by nature to require propitiation or worship. Schoolcraft asserts that in their oral traditions there is no attempt "to make man accountable to him, here or hereafter, for aberrations from virtue, good will, truth, or any form of moral right. With benevolence and pity as prime attributes the Great Transcendental Spirit of the Indian does not take upon himself a righteous administration of the world's affairs, but, on the contrary, leaves it to be filled, and its affairs, in reality, governed, by demons and fiends in human form."[101] Yet there are instances in which he is represented in a different light. The most essential moral precepts of the Iroquois "were taught as the will of the Great Spirit, and obedience to their requirements as acceptable in his sight";[102] but whilst highly gratified with their virtues, he detested their vices, and punished them for their bad conduct not only in this world but in a future state of existence.[103] The Potawatomis considered that rape was visited by the anger of the Great Spirit.[104] Ti-ra'-wa, the supreme being of the Pawnees, applauds valour, abhors theft, and punishes the wicked by annihilation, whilst the good dwell with him in his heavenly home.[105] The Indians of Alabama told Bossu that those who behave themselves foolishly and disregard the supreme being will after death go to a barren land full of thorns and briars, with no hunting and no wives, whereas those who neither rob nor kill nor take other men's wives will occupy a very fertile country and live there a happy life.[106] Keating states that, according to the beliefs of the Dacotahs, men go to the residence of the Great Spirit if they have been good and peaceable, or if they died by the hand of their enemy, but that their souls are doomed to the residence of the Evil Spirit if they perish in a broil with their own countrymen.[107] This statement, however, is not supported by other authorities. Prescott writes of the same Indians:--"They have very little notion of punishment for crime hereafter in eternity: indeed, they know very little about whether the Great Spirit has anything to do with their affairs, present or future."[108] {680} And among the Omaha and Ponka, who are branches of the same people, the old men used to say to their fellow tribesmen, "If you are good, you will go to the good ghosts; if you are bad you will go to the bad ghosts." But nothing was ever said of going to dwell with Wakanda, or with demons.[109] As regards the origin of the North American notion of the Great Spirit different opinions have been expressed. On the one hand we are told that it is essentially only "the Indian's conception of the white man's god," which belongs not to the untutored but to the tutored mind of the savage.[110] On the other hand it is argued that the belief in the Great Spirit must be a native product, since it is reported to have occurred already before the arrival of the earliest Jesuit missionaries.[111] Unfortunately, however, we cannot be sure that our informants have accurately interpreted the beliefs of the Indians. Mr. Dorsey has pointed out that a fruitful source of error has been a misunderstanding of their terms and phrases.[112] The Dacotah word _wakanda_, which has been rendered into "Great Spirit," simply means "mystery," or "mysterious," and signifies rather a quality than a definite entity. Among many tribes the sun is wakanda, among the same tribes the moon is wakanda, and so are thunder, lightning, the stars, the winds, as also various animals, trees, and inanimate objects or places of a striking character; even a man, especially a medicine-man, may be considered wakanda.[113] So, too, the Menomini term _mashä' ma' nid[=o]_, or "great unknown," is not to be understood as implying a belief in one supreme being; there are several manidos, each supreme in his own realm, as well as many lesser mysteries, or deities, or spirits.[114] Mr. Dorsey also observes that in many cases Indians have been quick to adopt the phrases of civilisation in communicating with white people, whilst in speaking to one another they use their own terms.[115] At the same time it seems to me that if the notion of a Great Spirit had altogether a Christian origin we might expect to find an idea of moral retribution more commonly associated with it than the {681} statements imply. It may be that among the North American Indians also, as among some other peoples, a vague conception of something like a supreme being has arisen through a personification of the mysteries in nature.[116] But if this be the case the interest which the Great Spirit in rare instances takes in human conduct may all the same be due to missionary influence. It is certainly not an original characteristic of his nature. Among the Iroquois and Pawnees, who attribute to their great god the function of a moral judge, he also receives offerings--[117] a circumstance which indicates that he cannot be regarded as a typical representative of his class.

[Footnote 101: Schoolcraft, _op. cit._ i. 35.]

[Footnote 102: Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_, p. 172.]

[Footnote 103: Seaver, _Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Jemison_, p. 155.]

[Footnote 104: Keating, _Expedition to the Source of St. Peter's River_, i. 127.]

[Footnote 105: Grinnell, _Pawnee Hero Stories_, p. 355. Lang, _Making of Religion_, p. 257.]

[Footnote 106: Bossu, _Travels through Louisiana_, i. 256 _sq._]

[Footnote 107: Keating, _op. cit._ i. 393 _sq._]

[Footnote 108: Schoolcraft, _op. cit._ ii. 195. _Cf._ _ibid._ iii. 229.]

[Footnote 109: Dorsey, 'Siouan Cults,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 419.]

[Footnote 110: Smith, 'Myths of the Iroquois,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ ii. 112. Tylor, 'Limits of Savage Religion,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxi. 284. Boyle, 'Paganism of the Civilised Iroquois,' _ibid._ xxx. 266.]

[Footnote 111: Lang, _Making of Religion_, p. 251 _sqq._ _Idem_, _Magic and Religion_, p. 19 _sqq._ Hoffmann, _op. cit._ p. 86 _sq._]

[Footnote 112: Dorsey, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 365 _sq._]

[Footnote 113: _Ibid._ p. 366. McGee, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xv. 181 _sqq._ _Cf._ James, _Expedition to the Rocky Mountains_, i. 268; Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 343.]

[Footnote 114: Hoffman, 'Menomini Indians,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xiv. 39, n. 1. _Cf._ Parkman, _Jesuits in North America_, p. lxxix.]

[Footnote 115: Dorsey, in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 365. See also Smith, _ibid._ ii. 112.]

[Footnote 116: The Great Spirit is represented by Schoolcraft (_op. cit._ i. 15) as a "Soul of the Universe which inhabits and animates every thing," and is supposed to exist under every possible form in the world, animate and inanimate. Of Ti-ra'-wa it is said that he "is in and of everything" (_supra_, i. 448).]

[Footnote 117: Seaver, _op. cit._ p. 155. _Supra_ i. 448.]

In South America, too, several tribes have been found to believe in a benevolent Great Spirit, who is indifferent to men's behaviour and is not worshipped by them.[118] Of the Passés, however, we are told by a Portuguese official who travelled in Brazil in 1774-75 that they have the idea of a creator who rewards good people by allowing their souls to stay with him and punishes the wicked by turning their souls into evil spirits.[119] But according to Mr. Bates "these notions are so far in advance of the ideas of all other tribes of Indians . . . that we must suppose them to have been derived by the docile Passés from some early missionary or traveller."[120] Of the Fuegians, again, Admiral Fitzroy writes:--"A great black man is supposed to be always wandering about the woods and mountains, who is certain of knowing every word and every action; who cannot be escaped, and who influences the weather according to men's conduct." Of this influence our informant gives the following instance. A native related a story of his brother who once killed a man--one of those very wild men who wander about in the woods supporting themselves by theft--because he stole from him a bird. Afterwards he was very sorry for what he had done, particularly when it began to blow hard. In telling the story, the brother said:--"Rain come down--snow come down--hail come down--wind blow--blow--very much blow. Very bad to kill man. Big man in woods no like it, he very angry." The same native also reproached the surgeon {682} of the Beagle for shooting some young ducks with the old bird:--"Very bad to shoot little duck--come wind--come rain--blow--very much blow."[121] In the latter case, however, no mention was made of the black man in the woods. From Admiral Fitzroy's account Mr. Andrew Lang draws the conclusion that the Fuegians have evolved the idea of a high deity, an ethical judge, who "makes for righteousness," who searches the heart, who almost literally "marks the sparrow's fall," and whose morality is so much above the ordinary savage standard that he regards the slaying of a stranger and an enemy, caught redhanded in robbery, as a sin.[122] This statement may serve as a specimen of the spirit in which its author deals with the subject of supreme beings in savage beliefs. There is after all some difference between a high moral god and a mythical weather doctor who lives in the woods and sends bad weather if a wild man, who also lives in the woods, is killed. Mr. Bridges, our most trustworthy authority on the Fuegians, says nothing of the black man, but states that nearly all the old men among the Fuegians are medicine-men, and that these wizards make frequent incantations in which they seem to address themselves to a mysterious being called Aïapakal. And they also believe in another spirit, named Hoakils, from whom they pretend to obtain a supernatural power over life and death.[123]

[Footnote 118: Bernau, _Missionary Labours in British Guiana_, p. 49. Hoffmann, _op. cit._ p. 90 _sqq._]

[Footnote 119: Ribeiro de Sampaio, _Diario da viagem_, p. 79.]

[Footnote 120: Bates, _The Naturalist on the River Amazons_, ii. 244. _Cf._ _ibid._ ii. 162; Dobrizhofter, _Account of the Abipones_, ii. 57 _sq._; Müller, _Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen_, p. 289.]

[Footnote 121: King and Fitzroy, _Voyages of the "Adventure" and "Beagle,"_ ii. 180.]

[Footnote 122: Lang, _Making of Religion_, pp. 188, 198. The same description of the Fuegian black man is repeated by M. Hoffmann (_op. cit._ p. 40).]

[Footnote 123: Bridges, quoted by Hyades and Deniker, _Mission scientifique du Cap Horn_, vii. 256.]

The South African Bushmans, another very backward people, are likewise represented by Mr. Lang and M. Hoffmann as believers in a supreme being.[124] A native said to Mr. Orpen that Cagn made all things, and that the people prayed to him:--"O Cagn! O Cagn! are we not your children, do you not see our hunger? Give us food." And he gave them what they asked for both hands full. But although he was at first very good and nice, he afterwards "got spoilt through fighting so many things."[125] However, according to another statement, made by a person who from childhood had much intercourse with Bushmans and knew their language, they did not believe in a God or the great father of men, but in a devil who made everything with his left hand.[126] The Hottentots spoke of Tsui-goab as "the giver of all blessings, the Father on high, All-father, the {683} avenger, who fought daily the battle for his people." They thus identified him with the ancestor of the tribe, but Tsui-goab was also the name by which they called the Infinite.[127] Among the pagans of Africa there is, in fact, a very widespread belief in a benevolent supreme deity, a creator or maker of things, who lives in or above the sky, who generally takes no concern whatever in the affairs of mankind, who mostly receives no worship, and is, as a rule, totally indifferent to good or evil.[128] In some rare instances only he is described as a judge of human conduct. Thus some of the Bechuanas believe that a being who is vaguely called by the name of Lord and Master of things, Mongalinto, punishes thieves by striking them with the lightning.[129] According to an old writer, Father Santos, the natives of Sofala in South-Eastern Africa acknowledge a god, called Molungo, "who both in this and the world to come they fancy measures retribution for the good and evil done in this." They believe in the existence of twenty-seven paradises, where everyone enjoys a pleasure proportionate to the merits of his life; while those who have passed their lives in wickedness are supposed to be condemned to a privation from the sight of the holy presence of Molungo, and to suffer torments in one of the thirteen hells they assume to exist, each according to the evil he has done.[130] The Baluba, a Bantu people of Equatorial Africa, have the notion of a creator, named Fidi-Mukullu, who punishes the souls of the wicked before they are reborn on earth, whereas the good return to life again, in the shape of chiefs or other important persons, immediately after they have died.[131] The Awemba, {684} another Bantu people, who inhabit the stretch of country lying between Lake Tanganyika and Lake Bangweolo, acknowledge a supreme being, Leza, who "is the Judge of the dead, and condemns thieves, adulterers and murderers to the state of Vibanda, or Viwa (evil spirits), exalting the good to the rank of _mipashi_, or benevolent spirits."[132] Other natives in the neighbourhood of Lake Tanganyika recognise a creator called Kabesa, who lives in the sky and admits to his abode the souls of good people after death, but turns away the souls of the wicked.[133] The Akikuyu of British East Africa recognise three gods all of whom are called Ngai. One of them, however, is considered the supreme deity. "If a man is good this Ngai can give him much property. If he does wrong the same power can strike him down with disease and cause his livestock to dwindle away. . . . The sudden death of a man, for instance by lightning, is ascribed to some evil act of his life being punished by Ngai."[134] Proyart tells us that the Negroes of Loango believed in a supreme being, Zambi, who had created all that is good in the world, who was himself good and loved justice in others, and who severely punished fraud and perjury.[135] It is of course impossible to say exactly how far the statements referring to African supreme beings represent unadulterated native beliefs. In criticising Kolb's account of the supreme and perfect god of the Hottentots, Bishop Callaway observes, "Nothing is more easy than to enquire of heathen savages the character of their creed, and during the conversation to impart to them . . . ideas which they never heard before, and presently to have these come back again as articles of their own original faith, when in reality they are but the echoes of one's own thoughts."[136] With reference to the West African native Miss Kingsley likewise remarks that he has a wonderful power of assimilating foreign forms of belief, and that when he once has got hold of a new idea it remains in his mind long after the missionaries who put it there have passed away.[137] And besides the teaching of missionaries there are in Africa several factors which for centuries have tended to introduce foreign conceptions, namely, intercourse with European settlers, the operations of the slave trade, and the influence of Muhammedanism.[138] But at the same {685} time it seems exceedingly probable that the African belief in a supreme being has a native substratum. In many cases he is apparently the heaven god;[139] but he may also be a mythical ancestor, as the Hottentot god Tsui-goab and the Zulu god Unkulunkulu; or a personification of the supernatural, as is suggested by such names as the Masai Ng[)a]i, the Monbuttu Kilima, and the Malagasy Andriamanitra;[140] or the assumed cause of anything which particularly fills the savage mind with wonder or awe. Among the natives of Northern Guinea, according to Mr. Wilson, "every thing which transpires in the natural world beyond the power of man, or of spirits, who are supposed to occupy a place somewhat higher than man, is at once and spontaneously ascribed to the agency of God."[141] Nay, for reasons which will be stated immediately, I am even of opinion that the function of a moral judge, occasionally attributed to the great god of African pagans, has in some instances an independent origin.

[Footnote 124: Lang, _Making of Religion_, p. 210. Hoffmann, _op. cit._ p. 40 _sq._]

[Footnote 125: Orpen, 'Glimpse into the Mythology of the Maluti Bushmen,' in _The Cape Monthly Magazine_, N.S. ix. 2.]

[Footnote 126: Campbell, _Second Journey in the Interior of South Africa_, i. 29.]

[Footnote 127: Hahn, _The Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi_, pp. 122, 126 _sq._]

[Footnote 128: Livingstone, _Missionary Travels_, p. 641 (tribes of the Zambesi). Rattray, _Stories and Songs in Chinyanja_, p. 198 (natives of Central Angoniland). Stigand, 'Natives of Nyassaland,' in _Jour. Roy. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvii. 130. Roscoe, 'Bahima,' _ibid._ xxxvii. 108 _sq._ Wilson and Felkin, _Uganda_, i. 206. Beltrame, _Il Fiume Bianco e i Dénka_, pp. 191, 192, 276 _sq._ Kingsley, 'Fetish View of the Human Soul,' in _Folk-Lore_, viii. 142 _sq._; _Idem_, _Travels in West Africa_, pp. 442, 508. Parkinson, 'Asaba People of the Niger,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvi. 312. Bosman, _Description of the Coast of Guinea_, pp. 121 _sq._ (Gold Coast natives), 348 (Slave Coast natives). Cruickshank, _Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast_, ii. 126 _sq._ Ellis, _Tshi-speaking Peoples of the Gold Coast_, p. 26 _sqq._ _Idem_, _E[(w]e-speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast_, p. 33 _sq._ Winterbottom, _Native Africans in the Neighbourhood of Sierra Leone_, i. 222. Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 209 (natives of Northern Guinea). Rowley, _Religion of the Africans_, pp. 15, 16, 54. Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 347 _sqq._ Lang, _Making of Religion_, p. 230 _sqq._ Hoffmann, _op. cit._ p. 45 _sqq._]

[Footnote 129: Arbousset and Daumas, _Exploratory Tour to the North-East of the Colony of Good Hope_, p. 322 _sq._]

[Footnote 130: Santos, 'History of Eastern Ethiopia,' in Pinkerton, _Collection of Voyages and Travels_, xvi. 687.]

[Footnote 131: Wissmann, Wolf, &c., _Im Innern Afrikas_, p. 158. Wissmann, _Quer durch Afrika_, p. 379.]

[Footnote 132: Sheane, 'Awemba Religion,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvi. 150 _sq._ ]

[Footnote 133: Schneider, _Die Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker_, p. 84.]

[Footnote 134: Tate, 'Kikuyu Tribe,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxiv. 263.]

[Footnote 135: Proyart, 'History of Loango,' in Pinkerton, _Collection of Voyages and Travels_, xvi. 594.]

[Footnote 136: Callaway, _Religious System of the Amazulu_, p. 105 _sq._]

[Footnote 137: Kingsley, in _Folk-Lore_, viii. 150.]

[Footnote 138: _Cf._ Rowley, _Religion of the Africans_, pp. 28, 90; Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 229 _sq._; Cruickshank, _op. cit._ ii. 126.]

[Footnote 139: See Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 347 _sqq._]

[Footnote 140: See _supra_, ii. 586 _sq._]

[Footnote 141: Wilson, _op. cit._ p. 209. See also Livingstone, _Expedition to the Zambesi_, p. 521 _sq._, quoted _supra_, ii. 594.]

Generally speaking, then, it seems that the All-father, supreme being, or high god of savage belief may be traced to several different sources. When not a "loan-god" of foreign extraction, he may be a mythical ancestor or headman; or a deification of the sky or some large and remote object of nature, like the sun; or a personification or personified cause of the mysteries or forces of nature. The argument that the belief in such a being is "irreducible" because it prevails among savages who worship neither ancestors nor nature,[142] can carry no weight in consideration of the fact that he himself, as a general rule, is no object of worship. In various instances we have reason to suppose that even though the notion of a supreme being is fundamentally of native origin, foreign conceptions have been engrafted upon it; and to these belongs in particular the idea of a heavenly judge who in the after-life punishes the wicked and rewards the good. But we are not entitled to assume that the idea of moral retribution as a function of the great god has in every case been adopted {686} from people of a higher culture. A mythical ancestor or headman may of his own accord approve of virtue and disapprove of vice; and, besides, justice readily becomes the attribute of a god who is habitually appealed to in curses or oaths. That the supreme being of savages is thus invoked, is in some cases directly stated by our authorities. In making solemn treatises, the Hurons called on Oki, the heaven god.[143] The Negroes of Loango, who believed that Zambi, the supreme being, punished fraud and perjury, took his name in testimony of the truth.[144] Among the Awemba the supreme god Leza, who is believed to reward the good and to punish thieves, adulterers, and murderers, is invoked both in blessings and curses, the injured man praying that Leza will send a lion to devour the evildoer.[145] In the E[(w]e-speaking Ho tribe on the Slave Coast the great god Mawu, who is said to inflict punishment on the wicked, is frequently appealed to in law-cases, by the judge as well as by the plaintiff and the accused.[146] In Northern Guinea the name of the supreme being is solemnly called on three times at the ratification of an important treaty, or when a person is condemned to undergo the "red-water ordeal."[147] Of the Mpongwe we are told that "when a covenant is about to be formed among the different tribes, Mwetyi [the supreme being] is always invoked as a witness, and is commissioned with the duty of visiting vengeance upon the party who shall violate the engagement. Without this their national treaties would have little or no force. When a law is passed which the people wish to be especially binding, they invoke the vengeance of Mwetyi upon every transgressor, and this, as a general thing, is ample guarantee for its observance."[148] Among the East African Wakamba, when the supposed criminal is to undergo the ordeal of the hatchet, a magician makes him repeat the following words:--"If I have stolen the property of so and so, or committed this crime, let {687} Mulungu respond for me; but if I have not stolen, nor done this wickedness, may he save me." The magician then passes the red-hot iron four times over the flat hand of the accused; and the people believe that if he is guilty, his hand will be burned, but that, if innocent, he will suffer no injury.[149] Among the Masai a person who is accused of cattle-lifting and on that account subjected to the ordeal of drinking a mixture of blood and milk, has first to swear, "O God, I drink this blood, if I have stolen the cattle this blood will kill me." Should he not die within a fortnight he is considered innocent.[150] The Madi of Central Africa have various means of trial by ordeal, through which it is believed that the guilt of a suspected individual can be detected; and "before any of these trials the men look up and solemnly invoke some invisible being to punish him if guilty, or help him if innocent."[151] Of the natives of the Zambesi, all of whom have an idea of a supreme being, Livingstone states that, when undergoing an ordeal, "they hold up their hands to the Ruler of Heaven, as if appealing to him to assert their innocence."[152]

[Footnote 142: Lang, _Magic and Religion_, p. 42. Hoffmann, _op. cit._ pp. 122, 126, 131.]

[Footnote 143: Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 342.]

[Footnote 144: Proyart, _loc. cit._ p. 594.]

[Footnote 145: Sheane, in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxvi. 151.]

[Footnote 146: Spieth, _Die E[(w]e-Stämme_, p. 415.]

[Footnote 147: Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 210.]

[Footnote 148: _Ibid._ p. 392.]

[Footnote 149: Krapf, _Travels in Eastern Africa_, p. 173.]

[Footnote 150: Marker, _Die Masai_, p. 211.]

[Footnote 151: Felkin, 'Notes on the Madi,' in _Proceed. Roy. Soc. Edinburgh_, xii. 334.]

[Footnote 152: Livingstone, _Missionary Travels_, p. 641 _sq._]

It has often been said that the oath and ordeal involve a belief in the gods as vindicators of truth and justice, that they are "appeals to the moral nature of the Divinity."[153] If this were true, moral retribution would certainly be an exceedingly common function of savage gods. But, as we have noticed before,[154] the efficacy ascribed to an oath is originally of a magic character, and if it contains an appeal to a god he is, according to primitive notions, a mere tool in the hand of the person invoking him. So also the ordeal is essentially a magical ceremony. In many cases at least, it contains a curse or an oath which has reference to the guilt or innocence of a suspected person, and the {688} proper object of the ordeal is then to give reality to the imprecation for the purpose of establishing the validity or invalidity of the suspicion.

[Footnote 153: Tiele, _Elements of the Science of Religion_, i. 86. Réville, _Les religions des peuples non-civilisés_, i. 103. Brinton, _Religions of Primitive Peoples_, p. 225. Schneider, _Religion der afrikanischen Naturvölker_, p. 255. Hodgson, _Miscellaneous Essays_, i. 126. Dahn, _Bausteine_, ii. 21, 24. Gummere, _Germanic Origins_, p. 183.]

[Footnote 154: _Supra_, ii. 118 _sqq._]

Thus in West Africa the common ordeal which consists in drinking a certain draught or "eating the fetish" is regularly accompanied by an oath or a curse.[155] In the Calabar the accused person, before swallowing the ju-ju drink _mbiam_, which is made of filth and blood, recites an oath beginning with the words, "If I have been guilty of this crime," and ending with the words, "Then, Mbiam, Thou deal with me!" And whenever this ordeal is used the greatest care is taken that the oath shall be recited in full.[156] Of the Negroes of the Gold Coast Bosman states that "if any person is suspected of thievery, and the indictment is not clearly made out, he is obliged to clear himself by drinking the oath-draught, and to use the imprecation, that the Fetiche may kill him if he be guilty of thievery."[157] In Ashantee, "when any one denies a theft, an aggry bead is placed in a small vessel, with some water, the person holding it puts his right foot against the right foot of the accused, who invokes the power of the bead to kill him if he is guilty, and then takes it into his mouth with a little of the water."[158] Among the Negroes of Northern Guinea, in the case of the "red-water ordeal," the accused "invokes the name of God three times, and imprecates his wrath in case he is guilty of the particular crime laid to his charge." He then steps forward and drinks freely of the "red water"--that is, a decoction made from the inner bark of a tree of the mimosa family. If it nauseates and makes him vomit freely, he is at once pronounced innocent, whereas, if it causes vertigo and he loses self-control, it is regarded as evidence of guilt.[159] According to an old account, the Negroes of Sierra Leone have a "water of cursing," boiled of barks and herbs. The witch-doctor puts his divining-staff into the pot and drops or presses the water out of it upon the arm or leg of the suspected person, muttering over it these words:--"Is he guilty of this, or hath he done this or that; if yea, then let it scald or burn him, till the very skin come off." If the person remains unhurt they hold him innocent, and proceed to {689} the trial of another, till the guilty is discovered.[160] Among the Wadshagga of Eastern Africa the medicine-man gives to the accused a poisonous draught with the words, "If you fall down, you have committed the crime and told a lie, if you remain standing we recognise that you have spoken the truth."[161]

[Footnote 155: See, besides the references below, Monrad, _Skildring af Guinea-Kysten_, p. 35 _sq._ (Negroes of Accra); Beecham, _Ashantee_, p. 215 _sqq._; Ratzel, _op. cit._ iii. 130.]

[Footnote 156: Kingsley, _Travels in West Africa_, p. 465.]

[Footnote 157: Bosman, _op. cit._ p. 125.]

[Footnote 158: Bowdich, _Mission to Ashantee_, p. 267.]

[Footnote 159: Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 225 _sq._]

[Footnote 160: Dapper, _Africa_, p. 405.]

[Footnote 161: Volkens, _Der Kilimandscharo_, p. 249.]

Among the Hawaiians, in the ordeal called _wai haalulu_, "prayer was offered by the priest" while a large dish of water was placed before the culprit, who was required to hold his hands over the fluid; and if it shook, his fate was sealed.[162] Among the Tinguianes in the district of El Abra in Luzon, if a man is accused of a crime and denies it, the headman of the village, who is also the judge, causes a handful of straw to be burned in his presence. The accused then holds up an earthern pot and says, "May my belly be changed to a pot like this if I am guilty of the crime of which I am accused." If he remains unchanged in body, the judge declares him innocent.[163] The following ordeal is in use among the Tunguses of Siberia. A fire is made and a scaffold erected near the hut of the accused. A dog's throat is then cut and the blood received in a vessel. The body is put on the wood of the fire, but in such a position that it does not burn. The accused passes over the fire, and drinks two mouthfuls of the blood, the rest whereof is thrown into the fire; and the body of the dog is placed on the scaffold. Then the accused says:--"As the dog's blood burns in the fire, so may what I have drunk burn in my body; and as the dog put on the scaffold will be consumed, so may I be consumed at the same time if I be guilty."[164]

[Footnote 162: Jarves, _History of the Hawaiian Islands_, p. 20.]

[Footnote 163: Lala, _Philippine Islands_, p. 100.]

[Footnote 164: Hartland, _Legend of Perseus_, ii. 85 _sq._]

The "trial of jealousy" mentioned in the Old Testament involved a curse pronounced by the priest to the effect that the holy water which the woman suspected of adultery had to drink should cause her belly to swell and her thigh to rot.[165] In India the ordeal was expressly regarded as a form of the oath, the same word, _[s.]apatha_, being used to denote both.[166] We have seen above that in the Middle Ages every judicial combat was necessarily preceded by an oath, which essentially decided the issue of the fight and the question of guilt.[167] So also at the moment when the hot iron was raised and the accused took {690} it into his hand, the Deity was invoked to manifest the truth.[168] The ordeal of the Eucharist involved the following formula recited by the victim:--"Et si aliter est quam dixi et juravi, tunc hoc Domini nostri Jesu Christi corpus non pertranseat gutur meum, sed hæreat in faucibus meis, strangulet me suffocet me ac interficiat me statim in momento."[169]

[Footnote 165: _Numbers_, v. 20 _sqq._]

[Footnote 166: Jolly, 'Beiträge zur indischen Rechtsgeschichte,' in _Zeitschr. d. Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellsch._ xliv. 346. Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, p. 510, n. 1. See also Patetta, _Le ordalie_, p. 14.]

[Footnote 167: _Supra_, i. 505.]

[Footnote 168: Beames, in his _Translation of Glanville_, p. 351 _sq._]

[Footnote 169: Dahn, _op. cit._ ii. 16.]

To the list of ordeals which contain an oath or a curse as their governing element many other instances might probably be added in which no imprecation has been expressly mentioned by our authorities in their short descriptions of the ceremonies. This is all the more likely to be the case as magical practices often imply imprecations which are not formally expressed.[170] But there may also be ordeals which have a different origin. Thus the custom of swimming witches seems to have arisen from the notion that everything unholy is repelled by water and unable to sink into its depths;[171] and the ordeal of touching the corpse of a murdered person no doubt originated in the belief that the soul of such a person lingered about the body until appeased by the shedding of the murderer's blood and that "by the murderer's approach, and especially by his polluted touch, the soul was excited to an instant manifestation of its indignation, by appearing in the form in which it was supposed to subsist, viz. in that of blood."[172] However, even though all ordeals have not the same foundation, it seems highly improbable that any people, in the first instance, resorted to this method of discovering innocence and guilt from a belief in a god who is by his nature a guardian of truth and justice.

[Footnote 170: See, for instance, Westermarck, '_L-[(]âr_, or the Transference of Conditional Curses in Morocco,' in _Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor_, p. 361 _sqq._]

[Footnote 171: Binsfeldius, _Tractatus de confessionibus maleficorum et sagarum_, p. 315. In the North-East of Scotland it was believed that, if a person committed suicide by drowning, the body did not sink, but floated on the surface (Gregor, _Folk-Lore of the North-East of Scotland_, p. 208).]

[Footnote 172: Pitcairn, _Criminal Trials in Scotland_, iii. 187.]

Nor must we make any inference as to the moral character of gods from the mere prevalence of a belief in {691} a future world where men are in some way or other punished or rewarded for their conduct during their life. Such a belief is said to be fairly common among uncivilised races;[173] and, although in several cases it is undoubtedly due to Christian or other foreign influence,[174] I agree with Dr. Steinmetz that we are not entitled to {692} assume that it is so in all.[175] It seems that the savage mind may by itself, in various ways, come to the idea of some kind of moral retribution after death. First, the condition of the dead man is often supposed to depend upon the attentions bestowed on him by the survivors. Mr. Turner was told that, in the belief of the St. Augustine Islanders in Polynesia, the souls of the departed "if good" went to a land of brightness and clear weather in the heavens, but "if bad" were sent to mud and darkness; and the answer to his next question informed him that in this case "goodness" meant that the friends of the deceased had given him a good funeral feast, and that "badness" meant that his stingy friends had provided nothing at all.[176] Although Mr. Turner sees no moral distinction in these terms, there may be one nevertheless. Speaking of the Efatese, in the New Hebrides, Mr. Macdonald observes:--"A man's condition in the future would be, to some extent, happy or miserable according to his life here. Supposing he were a worthless fellow, very scanty worship would be rendered to him at his death and few animals slain to accompany him to the spirit world; and thus he would occupy an inferior position there corresponding to his social worthlessness here. This belief," our informant adds, "has undoubtedly great influence in making men strive to live so as to obtain the good opinion of their fellows, and leave an honourable memory behind them at death."[177] The Bushmans, who maintain that the dead will ultimately go to a land abounding in excellent food, put a spear by the side of a departed friend in order that, when he arises, he may have something to defend himself with and procure a living; but, if they hate the person, they deposit no spear, so that on his resurrection he may either be murdered or starved.[178] The dead may also have to suffer from the curses of those whom they injured while alive. At Motlav, in the {693} Banks Islands, relatives "watch the grave of a man whose life was bad, lest some man wronged by him should come at night and beat with a stone upon the grave, cursing him."[179] At Gaua, in the same group, "when a great man died his friends would not make it known, lest those whom he had oppressed should come and spit at him after his death, or _govgov_ him, stand bickering at him with crooked fingers and drawing in the lips, by way of curse."[180] The Maoris were careful to prevent the bones of their dead relatives from falling into the hands of their enemies, "who would dreadfully desecrate and ill-use them, with many bitter jeers and curses."[181] A person may, moreover, himself during his lifetime directly provide for his comfort in the life to come, and if the act by which he does so is apt to call forth approval its result is easily interpreted as its reward. Thus the Kukis of India believe that all enemies whom a person has killed will in his future abode be in attendance on him as slaves;[182] and this belief probably accounts for their opinion that nothing more certainly ensures future happiness than destroying a number of enemies.[183] We have further to notice the common idea that a person's character after his death remains more or less as it was during his life. Hence the souls of bad people are supposed to reappear in the shape of obnoxious animals[184] or become evil spirits,[185] and this may lead to the notion that they have to do so as a punishment for their wickedness.[186] And as the revengeful feelings of men likewise are believed to last beyond death, offenders may in the {694} other world have to suffer from the hands of those whom they injured in this.[187] Some of the Nagas of Central India maintain that "a murdered man's soul receives that of his murderer in the spirit world and makes him his slave."[188] The Chippewas think that in the land of the dead "the souls of bad men are haunted by the phantoms of the persons or things they have injured."[189] In Aurora, in the New Hebrides, the belief prevails that the ghosts of those whom a man has wronged in this world take a full revenge upon him after death.[190] According to the Banks Islanders, if a person has killed a good man without cause, the good man's ghost withstands his murderer, when the latter after death wants to enter into Panoi, the good place; but if one man has killed another in fair fight he will not be withstood by the person whom he slew.[191] And not only the offended party but the other dead as well may, from dislike or fear, be anxious to refuse the souls of bad people admittance to their company. In the belief of the Pentecost Islanders, when the soul of a murdered man comes to the land of ghosts with the instrument of death upon him, he tells who killed him, and when the murderer arrives the ghostly people will not receive him, but he has to stay apart with other murderers.[192] The Iroquois allot separate villages even to the souls of those who have died in war and of those who have committed suicide, because the other dead are afraid of their presence.[193] Among the Negroes of Northern Guinea, according to Mr. Wilson, "the only idea of a future state of retribution is implied in the use of a separate burial-place for those who have died 'by the red-water ordeal' or who have been guilty of grossly wicked deeds";[194] and if a person's body is buried apart, his soul will naturally remain equally isolated.[195] That the frequent idea of the bad being separated {695} from the good after death is largely due to the assumed unwillingness of the latter to associate with dangerous or disreputable souls, seems probable from the fact that, in the beliefs of the lower races, paradise generally plays a much more prominent part than hell, the lot of the wicked being to suffer want rather than to be subjected to torments.[196] But, finally, it must also be remembered that the other world is a creation of men's fancy, and may therefore be formed in accordance with their hopes and wishes. Beyond the gloom of death they imagine a paradise where life is much happier than here on earth.[197] Why, then, might not their moral feelings, only too often ungratified in the reality of the present, occasionally seek satisfaction in the dreams of the future?

[Footnote 173: Thomson, _Savage Island_, p. 94. Percy Smith, 'Futuna,' in _Jour. Polynesian Soc._ i. 39. Seemann, _Viti_, p. 400; Williams and Calvert, _Fiji_, p. 208. Codrington, _Melanesians_, p. 274 _sq._ (Banks' Islanders). Inglis, _New Hebrides_, p. 31; Turner, _Samoa_, p. 326 (people of Aneiteum). Campbell, _A Year in the New Hebrides_, p. 169 (people of Tana). Schwaner, _Borneo_, i. 183 (natives of the Barito district). Selenka, _op. cit._ pp. 88, 94, 112 (Dyaks). von Brenner, _op. cit._ p. 240 (Bataks of Sumatra), de Mas, _Informe sobre el estado de las Islas Filipinas_, 'Orijen, &c.' p. 14. Best, 'Prehistoric Civilisation in the Philippines,' in _Jour. Polynesian Soc._ i. 200 (Tagalo-Bisaya tribes). Worcester, _Philippine Islands_, p. 110 (Tagbanuas of Palawan). Smeaton, _Loyal Karens of Burma_, p. 186 _sq._ Anderson, _Mandalay to Momien_, p. 146 (Kakhyens). Lewin, _Wild Races of South-Eastern India_, p. 243 _sq._ (Pankhos and Bunjogees). Hunter, _Rural Bengal_, i. 210 (Santals). Macrae, 'Account of the Kookies,' in _Asiatick Researches_, vii. 195; Butler, _Travels in Assam_, p. 88 (Kukis). Stewart, 'Notes on Northern Cachar,' in _Jour. Asiatic Soc. Bengal_, xxiv. 620 (Old Kukis), 632 (Nagas). Macpherson, _Memorials of Service in India_, p. 92 _sqq._ (Kandhs). Thurston, 'Todas of the Nilgiris,' in the Madras Government Museum's _Bulletin_, i. 166 _sq._ Breeks, _Tribes and Monuments of the N[=i]lagiris_, p. 28 (Todas and Badagas). Radloff, _op. cit._ p. 11 _sq._ (Turkish tribes of the Altai). Georgi, _Russia_, i. 106 (Chuvashes). Cranz, _History of Greenland_, i. 186. Hall, _Arctic Researches among the Esquimaux_, p. 571 _sq._ Lyon, _Private Journal_, p. 372 _sqq._ (Eskimo of Igloolik). Boas, 'Central Eskimo,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ vi. 590. Nelson, 'Eskimo about Bering Strait,' _ibid._ xviii. 423. Douglas, quoted by Petroff, _Report on Alaska_, p. 177 (Thlinkets). Harrison, 'Religion and Family among the Haidas,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxi. 17 _sqq._ Duncan, quoted by Mayne, _Four Years in British Columbia_, p. 293 _sq._ (Coast Indians of British Columbia). Mackenzie, _Voyages to the Frozen and Pacific Oceans_, p. cxix. (Chippewyans). Morgan, _League of the Iroquois_, p. 168 _sqq._ Harmon, _Journal of Voyages in the Interior of North America_, p. 364 _sq._ (Indians on the East side of the Rocky Mountains). Keating, _op. cit._ i. 110 _sq._ (Potawatomis); ii. 158 _sq._ (Chippewas). Say, quoted by Dorsey, 'Siouan Cults,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xi. 422 (Kansas). Stevenson, 'Sia,' _ibid._ xi. 145 _sq._ Bartram, in _Trans. American Ethn. Soc._ iii. pt. i. 27 (Creek and Cherokee Indians). Powers, _Tribes of California_, pp. 34, 58, 59, 91, 110, 144, 155, 161. Buchanan, _North American Indians_, p. 235 _sqq._; Heriot, _Travels through the Canadas_, pp. 362, 536; Catlin, _North American Indians_, i. 156, and ii. 243; Domenech, _Great Deserts of North America_, ii. 380 (various Indian tribes of North America), von Martius, _Beiträge zur Ethnographie Amerika's_, i. 247 (Guatós). von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 435 (Paressi). de Azara, _Voyages dans l'Amérique méridionale_, ii. 138 (Payaguás). Bosman, _op. cit._ p. 424 (people of Benin). Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 217 (Negroes of Northern Guinea). Reade, _Savage Africa_, p. 539 (Ibos). Mungo Park, _Travels in the Interior of Africa_, p. 250 (Mandingoes). Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 83 _sqq._ Marillier, _La survivance de l'âme et l'idée de justice chez les peuples non civilisés_, p. 33 _sqq._ Steinmetz, _Ethnologische Studien zur ersten Entwicklung der Strafe_, ii. 368 _sqq._]

[Footnote 174: _Cf._ Tylor, _op. cit._ ii. 84, 91 _sqq._; Marillier, _loc. cit._ p. 32 _sq._]

[Footnote 175: Steinmetz, _Studien_, ii. 366 _sqq._ _Idem_, 'Continuität oder Lohn und Strafe im Jenseits der Wilden,' in _Archiv f. Anthropologie_, xxiv. 577 _sqq._]

[Footnote 176: Turner, _Samoa_, p. 292 _sq._]

[Footnote 177: Macdonald, _Oceania_, p. 209.]

[Footnote 178: Campbell, _Second Journey in the Interior of South Africa_, i. 29.]

[Footnote 179: Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 269.]

[Footnote 180: _Ibid._ p. 269.]

[Footnote 181: Colenso, _Maori Races_, p. 28.]

[Footnote 182: Dalton, _Ethnology of Bengal_, p. 46.]

[Footnote 183: Macrae, 'Account of the Kookies,' in _Asiatick Researches_, vii. 195.]

[Footnote 184: Hill and Thornton, _Aborigines of New South Wales_, p. 4. Ratzel, _op. cit._ i. 317 (Solomon Islanders). Junghuhn, _Die Battaländer auf Sumatra_, ii. 338 (natives of Bali and Lombok). Cross, quoted by Mac Mahon, _Far Cathay and Farther India_, p. 203 (Karens). Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, ii. 419 (Maravi). Southey, _History of Brazil_, iii. 392 (Guaycurus). Powers, _Tribes of California_, pp. 144 (Tatu), 155 (Kato Pomo).]

[Footnote 185: Bailey, 'Wild Tribes of the Veddahs,' in _Trans. Ethn. Soc._ N.S. ii. 302, n. [double dagger] (Sinhalese), von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 349 (Bakaïri).]

[Footnote 186: See Steinmetz, _Studien_, ii. 376; _Idem_, in _Archiv für Anthropologie_, xxiv. 603 _sq._]

[Footnote 187: _Cf._ Marillier, _loc. cit._ p. 44 _sq._]

[Footnote 188: Fytche, _Burma_, i. 354.]

[Footnote 189: Keating, _op. cit._ ii. 158 _sq._]

[Footnote 190: Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 279 _sq._]

[Footnote 191: _Ibid._ p. 274.]

[Footnote 192: _Ibid._ p. 288.]

[Footnote 193: Brebeuf, 'Relation de ce qui s'est passé dans le pays des Hurons,' in _Relations des Jésuites_, 1636, p. 104 _sq._ Hewitt, 'The Iroquoian Concept of the Soul,' in _Jour. of American Folk-Lore_, viii. 109.]

[Footnote 194: Wilson, _Western Africa_, p. 210.]

[Footnote 195: See _supra_, ii. 236 _sqq._]

[Footnote 196: This is especially the case among the Indians of North America (_cf._ Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 242 _sq._; Dorman, _op. cit._ p. 33; Steinmetz, in _Archiv f. Anthrop._ xxiv. 591). See also Codrington, _op. cit._ p. 274 _sq._ (Banks' Islanders).]

[Footnote 197: Dove, 'Aborigines of Tasmania.' in _Tasmanian Jour. Natural Science_, i. 253. Polack, _Manners and Customs (of the New Zealanders_, i. 254; Dieffenbach, _Travels in New Zealand_, ii. 118. Percy Smith, 'Futuna,' in _Jour. Polynesian Soc._ i. 39. Batchelor, _Ainu of Japan_, p. 225. Steller, _op. cit._ p. 269 (Kamchadales). Cranz, _op. cit._ i. 186 (Greenlanders). Robertson, _History of America_, ii. 202. Arbousset and Daumas, _op. cit._ p. 343 (Bechuanas).]

The belief in a moral retribution after death may thus originate in various ways, quite independently of any notion of a god who acts as a judge of human conduct. When such a belief is said to prevail among a savage people it is by no means the rule that the rewards or punishments are associated with the activity of a divine being. And when, as is sometimes the case, the fate of the dead is supposed to depend upon the will of a high god, the notions held about the other world, and especially about the place reserved for the wicked, in several instances suggest influence from a more advanced religion. But on the other hand it is not an idea which seems incompatible with genuine savage thought that, in cases where the souls of men are believed to go to live with gods, the latter select their companions and, like the human inhabitants of the other world, refuse admittance to undesirable individuals.

Religious ideas have no doubt already at the savage {696} stage begun to influence the moral consciousness even in points which have no direct bearing upon the personal interests of gods; but this influence is not known to have been so great as it has often been represented to be. I can find no solid foundation for the statements made by recent writers, that "the historical beginning of all morality is to be found in religion";[198] that even in the earliest period of human history "religion and morality are necessary correlates of each other";[199] that "all moral commandments originally have the character of religious commandments";[200] that in ancient society "all morality--as morality was then understood--was consecrated and enforced by religious motives and sanctions";[201] that the clan-god was the guardian of the tribal morality.[202] From various facts stated in this and earlier chapters I have been led to the conclusion that among uncivilised races the moral ideas relating to men's conduct towards one another have been much more influenced by the belief in magic forces which may be utilised by man, than by the belief in the free activity of gods.

[Footnote 198: Pfleiderer, _Philosophy and Development of Religion_, iv. 230.]

[Footnote 199: Caird, _Evolution of Religion_, i. 237.]

[Footnote 200: Wundt, _Ethik_, p. 99.]

[Footnote 201: Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, p. 267. _Cf._ _ibid._ p. 53.]

[Footnote 202: Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religion_, pp. 112. 177.]

CHAPTER LI

GODS AS GUARDIANS OF MORALITY (_continued_)

FROM the gods of savage races we shall now pass to consider the attitudes of more civilised gods towards matters of worldly morality.

The deities of ancient Mexico were generally clothed with terror, and delighted in vengeance and human sacrifices. But there was also the god Quetzalcoatl, generous of gifts, mild and gentle, and so averse from such sacrifices that he shut his ears with both hands when they were mentioned.[1] The god Tezcatlipoca, again, was looked upon as the austere guardian of law and morals; but, as Sir E. B. Tylor observes, the remarkable Aztec formulas collected by Sahagun, in which this deity is so prominent a figure, show traces of Christian admixture in their material, as well as of Christian influence in their style.[2] It seems that the Mexicans had reached no fixed or systematic conclusions as to the relation of the moral to the religious life.[3] They held that departed souls attained different degrees of felicity or of wretchedness according to their different modes of death. Warriors who died on the battle-field or in the hands of the enemy's priests, and merchants who died on their journey, went to the house of the sun; those who were killed by lightning, who were drowned, {698} or who died from some incurable disease went to a terrestrial paradise; and those who died of old age or any ordinary disease went to a land of darkness and desolation, where they after a time sunk in a sleep which knew no waking.[4]

[Footnote 1: Brinton, _Myths of the New World_, p. 294 _sq._ Bancroft, _Native Races of the Pacific States_, iii. 259.]

[Footnote 2: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii. 344.]

[Footnote 3: Réville, _Hibbert Lectures on the Native Religions of Mexico and Peru_, p. 104 _sq._]

[Footnote 4: Bancroft, _op. cit._ iii. 532 _sqq._ Clavigero, _History of Mexico_, i. 242 _sq._]

Among the ancient Peruvians morality obtained a religious sanction through the divinity ascribed to their rulers. "They considered every mere order of the king to be a divine decree," says Garcilasso de la Vega; "how much more would they venerate the special laws instituted for the common good. They said that the sun had ordered these laws to be made, and had revealed them to his child the Ynca; and hence a man who broke them was held to be guilty of sacrilege."[5] According to the beliefs of the higher classes the Incas were after death transported to the mansion of the Sun, their father, where they still lived together as his family. The nobles would either follow them there or would live beneath the earth under the sceptre of Supay, the god of the dead. There was no idea of positive suffering inflicted on the wicked under his direction, but the subterranean abode was gloomy and dismal. Exceptional considerations of birth, rank, or valour in war determined the passage of chosen souls to heaven, where their lot would be far happier than that of the souls who remained in the regions below. The common people, on the other hand, thought of the future life as a continuation, pure and simple, of the present existence.[6]

[Footnote 5: Garcilasso de la Vega, _Royal Commentaries of the Yncas_, i. 148.]

[Footnote 6: Réville, _op. cit._ p. 236 _sqq._]

The great gods of ancient Egypt were mostly conceived as friendly beings.[7] Amon Râ, "the king of the gods," was, in his character of the sun god, the creator, preserver, and supporter of all living things. He it is who makes pasture for the herds and fruit trees for men, on his account the Nile comes and mankind lives. He is verily {699} of kindly heart: "when men call to him he delivers the fearful from the insolent." He is "the vizier of the poor, who takes no bribes," and who does not corrupt witnesses; and to him officials pray for promotion.[8] Thoth, the moon god, was also the god of all wisdom and learning, who gave men "speech and writing," who discovered the written characters, and by his arithmetic enabled gods and men to keep account of their possessions.[9] Osiris ruled over the whole of Egypt as king, and instructed its inhabitants in all that was good--in agriculture as well as in the true religion--and gave them laws.[10] After a long and blessed reign, however, he fell a prey to the machinations of his brother Set, and, having been slain, was constrained to descend into the Underworld, where he evermore lived and reigned as judge and king of the dead. But the wicked god Set was also an object of worship; for he was strong and mighty, a terror to gods and men, and kings were anxious to secure his favour.[11] We have noticed above that certain Egyptian gods were believed to be guardians of truth;[12] and closely connected with this function was their love of justice. Thoth, who was called to witness by him who wished to give assurance of his honesty and good faith,[13] was styled "the judge in heaven";[14] while his wife Ma[=a], or Maat, was the goddess of both truth and justice, and her priests were the supreme judges.[15] But it seems that the Egyptian gods after all chiefly took notice of such acts as concerned their own wellbeing. {700} This is true even of Osiris, "the great god, the lord of justice,"[16] in whose presence the judgment of the dead was given which decided upon their admission into his kingdom. In thousands upon thousands of funerary inscriptions we read words like these:--"May a royal offering be given to Osiris, that he may grant all manner of good things, food and drink to the soul of the deceased."[17] And whilst the living paid him his dues in sacrifices repeated from year to year at regular intervals, the dead were not allowed to receive directly the sepulchral meals or offerings of kindred on feast-days, but all that was addressed to them must first pass through the hands of the god.[18] In the "Negative Confession," which the worshippers of Osiris taught to their dead, great importance was attached to religious offences, such as to snare the birds of the gods, to catch the fish in their lakes, to injure the herds in the temple domains, to diminish the food in the temples, to revile the god. At the same time the list of offences which excluded the dead from Osiris' kingdom contained very many of a social character--murder, oppression, stealing, robbing minors, fraud, lying, slander, reviling, adultery.[19] But the meaning of this seems to have been not so much that the god was animated by a righteous desire to punish the wicked and reward the good, as, rather, that he did not like to have any rascals among his vassals. As to the fate of the non-justified dead very little is said, and the punishment devised for them seems to have been a comparatively modern invention.[20] Nay, the virtuous dead themselves depended for their welfare {701} upon their knowledge of magic words and formulas, upon amulets laid in their tombs, and upon the offerings made to them by their kindred. Ignorant souls, or those ill prepared for the struggle, were overcome by hunger and thirst, were attacked by demons and poisonous animals in traversing the regions of the Underworld, and, when in Osiris' kingdom, had to work and till the land and earn their own living if the offerings ceased.[21] The Book of the Dead is itself essentially a collection of spells intended to secure to the dead victory over evil demons and protection from the gods; and the "Negative Confession" is a later addition, which shows that originally the conduct of earthly life was not considered at all.[22] So also in the book of Am Dûat the whole doctrine of a future life is based upon a belief in the power of magic, with the single exception that nobody can look forward to possessing fields in Dûat who in life has been an enemy of the god Râ.[23]

[Footnote 7: On Egyptian gods as guardians of morality see, generally, Gardiner, 'Egyptian Ethics and Morality,' in Hastings, _Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics_, v. 479 _sq._]

[Footnote 8: Erman, _Handbook of Egyptian Religion_, pp. 58-60, 83. Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, p. 114.]

[Footnote 9: Erman, _op. cit._ p. 11. Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 220.]

[Footnote 10: Erman, _op. cit._ p. 32. _Idem_, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, p. 270. Maspero, _op. cit._ p. 174. Plutarch, _De Iside et Osiride_, 13. Diodorus Siculus, _Bibliotheca historica_, i. 14, 15, 25. Kaibel, _Epigrammata Græca_, p. xxi.]

[Footnote 11: It is probable that Set originally was the divine protector of the kings of Upper Egypt, while Osiris' son Horus, who defeated him, was the protector of the kings of Lower Egypt (Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 19 _sq._).]

[Footnote 12: _Supra_, ii. 115.]

[Footnote 13: _Supra_, ii. 121.]

[Footnote 14: Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 11.]

[Footnote 15: _Supra_, ii. 115. Wiedemann, _op. cit._ p. 142. Amélineau, _L'évolution des idées morales dans l'Égypte ancienne_, pp. 182, 187. Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 21.]

[Footnote 16: Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 101.]

[Footnote 17: Wiedemann, _op. cit._ p. 217.]

[Footnote 18: Maspero, _op. cit._ p. 117.]

[Footnote 19: Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 103 _sqq._]

[Footnote 20: Wiedemann, _op. cit._ p. 95 _sq._ _Idem_, _Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul_, p. 55. Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 105. In the Pyramid texts we read that, if among the deceased there is one of whom it can be said, "There is no evil which he hath done," the saying penetrates to the sun god, and he receives him kindly in heaven. The deceased also profits with regard to his reception there if he has never spoken evil of the king nor slighted the gods. But, as a rule, it is rather bodily cleanliness which the gods demand of their new companion in heaven, and they themselves help to purify him (Erman, p. 94).]

[Footnote 21: Erman, _Life in Ancient Egypt_, p. 315 _sqq._ _Idem_, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 99 _sq._ Maspero, _op. cit._ p. 185 _sq._ _Idem_, _Études de mythologie et d'archéologie égyptiennes_, i. 347. Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, pp. 279, 296. _Idem_, _Egyptian Doctrine of the Immortality of the Soul_, p. 60 _sq._]

[Footnote 22: Maspero, _Études_, i. 348. Amélineau, _op. cit._ p. 243. Renouf, in _Book of the Dead_, p. 220. Erman, _Egyptian Religion_, p. 101.]

[Footnote 23: Wiedemann, _Religion of the Ancient Egyptians_, p. 94 _sq._ Maspero, _Études_, ii. 163.]

The religion of the Chaldeans was a religion of dread. Everywhere they felt themselves surrounded by hostile demons; feared above all were the seven evil spirits, who were everywhere and yet invisible, who slipped through bolts and doorposts and sockets, and who had power even to bewitch the gods.[24] In their incessant warfare against these fiends men were assisted by the more propitious among the deities: by Marduk, the "merciful" god, the god of the youthful sun of spring and early morning;[25] {702} by Ea, the "good" god, the god of the waters of the deep and the source of wisdom;[26] by Gibil-Nusku, the lord of fire, who put to flight the demons of night when the fire was kindled on the household hearth, and who in the flame carried to the other gods the sacrifices offered them;[27] as also by the tutelary deities of each individual, household, and city.[28] The gods were on the whole favourably disposed towards man. But they helped only those who piously observed the prescribed rites, who recited the conventional prayers and offered them sacrifices; on such persons they bestowed a happy old age and a numerous posterity. On the other hand, he who did not fear his god would be cut down like a reed; and by neglecting the slightest ceremonial detail the king excited the anger of the deities against himself and his subjects.[29] During the whole of their lives the Chaldeans were haunted by the dread of offending their gods, and they continually implored pardon for their sins.[30] But the sinner became conscious of his guilt only as a conclusion drawn from the fact that he was suffering from some misfortune, which he interpreted as a punishment sent by an offended god. It mattered little what had called forth the wrath of the god or whether the deity was acting in accordance with just ideas;[31] and in none of the penitential psalms known to us is there any indication that the notion of sin comprised offences against fellow men. It is true that in the incantation series 'Shurpu' not only offences against gods and ceremonial transgressions, but a large number of wrongs of a social character, are included in the list of possible causes of the suffering which the incantation is intended to remove. On behalf of the afflicted individual the exorciser asks:--"Has he sinned against a god, Is his {703} guilt against a goddess, Is it a wrongful deed against his master, Hatred towards his elder brother, Has he despised father or mother, Insulted his elder sister, Has he given too little,[32] Has he withheld too much, For 'no' said 'yes,' For 'yes' said 'no'? . . . Has he fixed a false boundary, Not fixed a just boundary, Has he removed a boundary, a limit, or a territory, Has he possessed himself of his neighbour's house, Has he approached his neighbour's wife, Has he shed the blood of his neighbour, Robbed his neighbour's dress?" and so forth.[33] But I fail to see any legitimate ground for the conclusion which Schrader and Zimmern have drawn from these passages, to wit, that the gods were believed to be angry with persons guilty of any of the offences enumerated.[34] It seems to me quite obvious that the evils which were hypothetically associated with injuries inflicted upon fellow men were ascribed, not to the avenging activity of a god, but to the curses of the injured party. The gods are expressly invoked to relieve the unhappy individual from the curses under which he is suffering, whether he has been cursed by his father, mother, elder brother, elder sister, friend, master, king, or god, or has approached an accursed person, or slept in such a person's bed, or sat on his chair, or eaten from his dish or drunk from his cup.[35] In these incantations there is no plea for forgiveness; the possible causes for the suffering are enumerated simply because the mention of the real cause is supposed to go a long way towards expelling the evil.[36] Some of the gods, however, are invoked as judges. This is frequently the case with Shamash, the sun god, "the supreme judge of heaven and earth," who, seated on a throne in the chamber of judgment, receives the supplications of men.[37] Of the moon god Sin it is said in a hymn {704} dedicated to him that his "word produces truth and justice, so that men speak the truth."[38] And the lord of fire is addressed as a judge, who burns the evildoers and annihilates the bad,[39] and is exhorted by the conjurer to help him to his right;[40] but this probably means little more than the invocation, "Eat my enemies, destroy those who have done harm to me."[41] Of a moral retribution after death there is no trace in the Chaldean religion. Those who have obtained the goodwill of the gods receive their reward in this world, by a life of happiness and of good health, but the moment that death ensues the control of the gods comes to an end. All mankind, kings and subjects, virtuous and wicked, go to Aralû, the gloomy subterranean realm presided over by Allatu and her consort Nergal, where the dead are doomed to everlasting sojourn or imprisonment in a state of joyless inactivity. A kind of judgment is spoken of, but nothing indicates that it is based on moral considerations.[42] According to the Gilgamesh epic, however, the fortunes awaiting those who die are not all alike. Those who fall in battle seem to enjoy special privileges, provided that they are properly buried and there is someone to make them comfortable in their last hour and to look after them when dead. But he whose corpse remains in the field has no rest in the earth, and he whose spirit is not cared for by any one is consumed by gnawing hunger.[43]

[Footnote 24: Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and Assyria_, p. 260 _sqq._ Smith, _Chaldean Account of Genesis_, pp. 87, 88, 106 _sq._ _Idem_, _Chaldäische Genesis_, edited by Delitzsch, pp. 83, 306 _sq._]

[Footnote 25: Mürdter-Delitzsch, _Geschichte Babyloniens und Assyriens_, p. 31. Sayce, _Hibbert Lectures on the Religion of the Ancient Babylonians_, p. 98. King, _Babylonian Magic and Sorcery_, p. 52 _sqq._ Jensen, _Die Kosmologie der Babylonier_, pp. 87, 88, 249 _sq._ Schrader-Zimmern, _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_, p. 372 _sq._]

[Footnote 26: Hommel, _Die semitischen Völker und Sprachen_, i. 374 _sqq._ Mürdter-Delitzsch, _op. cit._ p. 27. Sayce, _op. cit._ pp. 131, 140.]

[Footnote 27: Tallqvist, 'Die assyrische Beschwörungsserie Maqlû,' in _Acta Soc. Scient. Fennicæ_, xx. 25, 28 _sq._]

[Footnote 28: Mürdter-Delitzsch, _op. cit._ p. 37 _sq._ Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, pp. 643, 674, 682 _sq._]

[Footnote 29: Jeremias, _Die babylonisch-assyrischen Vorstellungen vom Leben nach dem Tode_, p. 46 _sq._ Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, pp. 697, 705.]

[Footnote 30: See Zimmern, _Babylonische Busspsalmen_, _passim_.]

[Footnote 31: _Cf._ Jastrow, _op. cit._ p. 313 _sqq._]

[Footnote 32: In mercantile transactions (Jastrow, _op. cit._ p. 291, n. 2).]

[Footnote 33: Zimmern, _Beiträge zur Kenntnis der babylonischen Religion_, 'Die Beschwörungstafeln [vS]urpu,' p. 3 _sqq._]

[Footnote 34: _Idem_, in Schrader, _Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament_, p. 612.]

[Footnote 35: Zimmern, _Die Beschwörungstafeln [vS]urpu_, ii. 89-93, 99-104, pp. 7, 23.]

[Footnote 36: See Jastrow, _op. cit._ p. 292.]

[Footnote 37: Tallqvist, _Maqlû_, ii. 94. Zimmern, _[vS]urpu_, ii. 130, p. 9. _Idem_, _Babylonische Hymnen und Gebete_, p. 13. Mürdter-Delitzsch, _op. cit._ p. 28. Schrader-Zimmern, _op. cit._ p. 368. Jastrow, _op. cit._ pp. 71, 120, 209 _sqq._]

[Footnote 38: Zimmern, _Babylonische Hymnen und Gebete_, p. 12.]

[Footnote 39: Tallqvist, _Maqlû_, i. 95; ii. 70, 89, 116, 130, 131, 184.]

[Footnote 40: _Ibid._ i. 114.]

[Footnote 41: _Ibid._ i. 116; ii. 120.]

[Footnote 42: Jeremias, _op. cit._ _passim_. Schrader-Zimmern, _op. cit._ p. 636 _sq._ Jastrow, _op. cit._ p. 565 _sqq._ Jensen, _op. cit._ p. 217 _sqq._]

[Footnote 43: Haupt, 'Die zwölfte Tafel des babylonischen Nimrod-Epos,' in _Beiträge zur Assyriologie_, i. 69 _sq._ Jensen, 'Das Gilgamí[vs] (Nimrod)-Epos,' xii. 6, in _Assyrisch-Babylonische Mythen und Epen_, p. 265.]

In a still higher degree than the Chaldean religion Zoroastrianism represents an incessant struggle against evil spirits. Here everything in heaven and on earth is engaged in the conflict; it is a war between two mighty sovereigns, Ahura Mazda and Angra Mainyu, and their respective forces.[44] Whatever works for the good of man comes from {705} and strives for Ahura Mazda, whatever works for the harm of man comes from and strives for Angra Mainyu. There can be no doubt that the powers of goodness will absolutely triumph in the end; but though Angra Mainyu and his band have been defeated, the battle is still raging. Ahura Mazda, being the originator of everything good in the world, is also the founder of the order of the universe, "the creator of the righteous order."[45] In the Vendîdâd he is asked about the rules of life, and he is pleased to answer;[46] M. Darmesteter observes that the Avesta and the Pentateuch are the only two religious books known in which legislation descends from the heavens to the earth in a series of conversations between the lawgiver and his god.[47] The sacred law of Zoroastrianism enjoins charity[48] and industry,[49] it condemns the murder of a believer,[50] abortion,[51] theft,[52] non-payment of debts,[53] and, with special emphasis, falsehood and breach of faith,[54] and unnatural intercourse.[55] But the "good thoughts, words, and deeds" most urgently insisted upon are orthodoxy, prayer, and sacrifice; whilst the greatest sins are apostasy, transgressions of the rules of ceremonial cleanliness, and offences against sacred beings. It is less criminal to kill a man than to serve bad food to a shepherd's dog; for the manslayer gets off with ninety stripes, whereas the bad master will receive two hundred.[56] And the killing of a water dog is punished with ten thousand stripes.[57] Offenders will be liable to penalties not only here below, but in the next world as well, where Ahura Mazda, "the discerning arbiter,"[58] establishes "evil for the evil, and happy blessings for the good."[59] The views accepted in regard to the future life, {706} whilst incomplete in the Gathas, are expanded in the Younger Avesta, and fully given in the Pahlavi books.[60] The man who has lived for Ahura Mazda will have a seat near him in heaven, and there he remains undecaying and immortal, unalarmed and undistressed, full of glory and delight; whereas the wicked soul will be tormented in the darkness of hell, "the dwelling of the demons."[61] The good deeds of the virtuous and the bad deeds of the wicked, in the form of maidens, come to meet them on their roads to paradise or hell.[62] But the fate of the dead is not merely influenced by their conduct towards their fellow men while alive. It is said that "he who wishes to seize the heavenly reward, will seize it by giving gifts to him who holds up the Law."[63] And the soul of him who recites the prayer Ahuna Vairya in the manner prescribed crosses over the bridge which separates this world from the next, and reaches the highest paradise.[64]

[Footnote 44: According to the _Vendîdâd_ (i. 3 _sqq._) Angra Mainyu constantly countercreated the creations of Ahura Mazda. But this idea is not yet to be found in the Gathas, where the wickedness of Ako Mainyu is only represented as an attempt to destroy the good creation (see Lehmann, _Zarathustra_, ii. 75, 165).]

[Footnote 45: _Yasna_, xxxi. 7. Darmesteter, _Ormazd et Ahriman_, pp. 19, 24, 88, &c.]

[Footnote 46: _Vendîdâd_, xviii. 13 _sqq._]

[Footnote 47: Darmesteter, in _Sacred Books of the East_, iv. (2nd edit.) p. lviii.]

[Footnote 48: _Supra_, i. 551.]

[Footnote 49: _Supra_, ii. 275.]

[Footnote 50: _Vendîdâd_, iii. 41; v. 14.]

[Footnote 51: _Ibid._ xv. 9 _sqq._]

[Footnote 52: _Supra_, ii. 60. _Yasna_, xi. 3.]

[Footnote 53: _Vendîdâd_, iv. 1.]

[Footnote 54: _Supra_, ii. 93.]

[Footnote 55: _Supra_, ii. 479 _sq._]

[Footnote 56: _Vendîdâd_, iv. 40; xiii. 24; xv. 3.]

[Footnote 57: _Ibid._ xiv. 1 _sq._]

[Footnote 58: _Yasna_, xxix. 4.]

[Footnote 59: _Ibid._ xliii. 5.]

[Footnote 60: _Cf._ Jackson, _Avesta Grammar_, i. p. xxviii.]

[Footnote 61: _Vendîdâd_, xix. 28 _sqq._ _Yasts_, xxii. _Bundahis_, ch. xxx. _Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad_ ii. 123 _sqq._ ch. vii. _Ardâ Vîrâf_, ch. xvii. _Cf._ Geiger, _Civilization of the Eastern Ir[=a]nians_, i. 101.]

[Footnote 62: _Dînâ-î Maînôg-î Khirad_, ii. 125, 167 _sqq._]

[Footnote 63: _Yasts_, xxiv. 30.]

[Footnote 64: Geiger, _op. cit._ i. 73. See also _Yasts_, xii. 335; xxiv. 39, 47 _sq._; Darmesteter, _Ormazd et Ahriman_, p. 28.]

In Vedic religion we likewise meet with a conflict between gods and demons, but the struggle is too unequal to result in anything like the Zoroastrian dualism.[65] Various misfortunes are attributed to the ill-will of evil spirits, but their power is comparatively slight, and the greater demons, like V[r.]tra, are represented as defeated or destroyed by the gods.[66] On the other hand there is among the great gods themselves one who has a distinctly malevolent character, namely Rudra, a god of storm,[67] "terrible like a wild beast";[68] but though the hymns {707} addressed to him chiefly express fear of his dreadful shafts and deprecations of his wrath, he is also sometimes supplicated to confer blessings upon man and beast.[69] With this exception the great gods are all beneficent beings,[70] though of course liable to punish those who offend them. Varuna has established heaven and earth,[71] has made the celestial bodies to shine[72] and the rivers to flow.[73] He rules over nature by laws which are fixed and immutable, and which must be followed by the gods themselves.[74] He sees and knows everything, because he is the infinite light and the sun is his eye;[75] and in connection with Mithra he is said to dispel and punish falsehood.[76] Varuna has even been represented as "the supreme moral ruler," but it seems to me that scholars have generally credited him with a somewhat more comprehensive sense of justice than the hymns imply.[77] Every hymn to Varuna contains a prayer for forgiveness, but there is no indication that the sins which excite his wrath include ordinary moral wrongdoing. That sin and moral guilt are not identical conceptions in the Rig-Veda is fairly obvious from the fact that forgiveness of sin is also sought from Indra,[78] whose favour is only won by those who contribute to his wellbeing or who destroy persons neglectful of his worship.[79] The Vedic religion is pre-emiently ritualistic. The pious man _par préférence_ is he who makes the _soma_ flow in abundance and whose hands are always full of butter, the reprobate man is he who is penurious towards the gods;[80] and just like the other gods, {708} Varuna visits with disease those who neglect him,[81] and is appeased by sacrifices and prayers.[82] After death the souls of those who have practised rigorous penance,[83] of those who have risked their lives in battle,[84] and above all of those who have bestowed liberal sacrificial gifts,[85] go with the smoke arising from the funeral pile to the heavenly world, where the Fathers dwell with Yama--the first man who died[86]--and Varuna, the two kings who reign in bliss.[87] There they enjoy an endless felicity among the gods, clothed in glorious bodies and drinking the celestial _soma_, which renders them immortal.[88] Yet there are different degrees of happiness in this heavenly mansion. The performance of rites in honour of the manes causes the souls to ascend from a lower to a higher state; indeed, if no such offerings are made they do not go to heaven at all.[89] Another source of happiness for the dead is their own pious conduct during their lifetime; for in the abode of bliss they are united with what they have sacrificed and given, especially reaping the reward of their gifts to priests.[90] Unworthy souls, on the other hand, are kept out of this abode by Yama's dogs, which guard the road to his kingdom.[91] As to the destiny in store for those who are not admitted to heaven, the hymns have little to tell. Zimmer and others erroneously argue that a race who believe in future rewards for the good must logically believe in future punishments for the wicked.[92] So far as I can see, all the traces of such a belief which are to be found in the Vedic literature are requests made to gods, {709} or simply curses, to the effect that evil-doers may be thrown into deep and dismal pits under the earth.[93] They do not imply that gods of their own accord punish wicked people after death.

[Footnote 65: _Cf._ Barth, _Religions of India_, p. 13.]

[Footnote 66: Oldenberg, _Die Religion des Veda_, p. 281. Macdonell, _Vedic Mythology_, p. 18.]

[Footnote 67: Muir, _Original Sanskrit Texts_, v. 147. Barth, _op. cit._ p. 14. Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 77.]

[Footnote 68: Oldenberg, _op. cit._ pp. 63, 281, 284. Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 18. Bergaigne, _La religion védique_, iii. 152 _sqq._]

[Footnote 69: Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 75 _sq._]

[Footnote 70: Oldenberg, _op. cit._ pp. 60, 281. Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 18.]

[Footnote 71: _Rig-Veda_, viii. 42. 1.]

[Footnote 72: _Ibid._ i. 24. 10; vii. 87. 5.]

[Footnote 73: _Ibid._ ii. 28. 4.]

[Footnote 74: _Ibid._ viii. 41. 7. Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 26. Bohnenberger, _Der altindische Gott Varu[n.]a_, p. 38 _sqq._]

[Footnote 75: _Supra_, ii. 598. Darmesteter, _Essais orientaux_, p. 126.]

[Footnote 76: Macdonell, _op. cit._ p. 26.]

[Footnote 77: Macdonell, _op. cit._ pp. 20, 26. Whitney, 'On the main Results of the later Vedic Researches in Germany,' in _Jour. American Oriental Soc._ iii. 326. Roth, 'On the Morality of the Veda,' _ibid._ iii. 340 _sq._ Bergaigne, _op. cit._ iii. 156. Darmesteter, _Essais orientaux_, p. 111. Bohnenberger, _op. cit._ p. 49 _sqq._]

[Footnote 78: Oldenberg, _op. cit._ p. 299.]

[Footnote 79: _Ibid._ pp. 282, 283, 300.]