470 BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT. among the tribes they visited. However this may be, those who assert that even the lowest savages believe in a Deity, affirm that which is entirely contrary to the evidence. The direct testimony of travellers on this point is indirectly corroborated by their other statements. How, for instance, can a people who are unable to count their own fingers, possibly raise their mind so far as to admit even the rudiments of a religion. The fetish worship, which is so widely prevalent in Africa, can hardly be called a religion; and even the South Sea Islanders, who were in many respects so highly civilised, are said to have been seriously offended with their Deity if they thought that he treated them with undue severity, or without proper consideration. According to Kotzebue, the Kamtschatkans adored their deities "when their wishes were fulfilled, and insulted them when their affairs went amiss."+ When the missionaries introduced a printing-press into Feegee "the heathen at once declared it to be a God."+ The savage almost everywhere is a believer in witchcraft. Confusing together subjective and objective relations, he is a prey to constant fears. Nor is the belief in sorcery altogether shaken off even by the most civilised nations. James the First was under the impression that by melting little images of wax "the persons that they bear the name of may be continually melted or dried away by continual sickness." As regards pictures, the most curious fancies exist among savage races. They have a very general dislike to be represented, thinking that the artist thereby acquires some mysterious power over them. If the picture is like, so much the worse. So much life, they argue, could not be put into the drawing except at the expense of the original. Kane on * See, for instance, Grey's Creed of Christendom, p. 212. Figi and the Figians, vol. ii., p. 222. BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT. 471 one occasion freed himself from some importunate Indians, by threatening to draw them if they did not go away. I have already mentioned (p. 425) the danger in which Catlin found himself from sketching a chief in profile, and thereby as it was supposed depriving him of half his face. So again a mysterious connexion is supposed to exist between a cut lock of hair and the person to whom it belonged. In various parts of the world the sorcerer gets clippings of the hair of his enemy, parings of his nails or leavings of his food, convinced that whatever evil is done to these, will react on their former owner. Even a piece of clothing, or the ground on which a person has trodden, will answer the purpose, and among some tribes the mere knowledge of a person's name is supposed to give a mysterious power. The Indians of British Columbia have a great horror of telling their names. Among the Algonquins a person's real name is communicated only to his nearest relations and dearest friends: the outer world address him by a kind of nickname. Thus, the true name of La Belle Sauvage was not Pocahontas, but Matokes, which they were afraid to communicate to the English. In some tribes these name-fancies take a different form. According to Ward, it is an unpardonable sin for a Hindoo woman to mention the name of her husband. The Kaffirs have a similar custom, and so have some East African tribes. In many parts of the world the names of the dead are avoided with superstitious horror. This is the case in great parts of North and South America, in Siberia, among the Papuans and Australians, and even in Shetland, where it is said that widows are very reluctant to mention their departed husbands. Throughout Australia, among some of the Brazilian tribes, in parts of Africa, and in various other countries, natural death is regarded as an impossibility. In the New Hebrides "when a man fell ill, he knew that some sorcerer was burn 472 GENERAL INFERIORITY OF SAVAGES. ing his rubbish, and shell-trumpets, which could be heard for miles, were blown to signal to the sorcerers to stop, and wait for the presents which would be sent next morning. Night after night, Mr. Turner used to hear the melancholy too-tooing of the shells, entreating the wizards to stop plaguing their victims."* Savages never know but what they may be placing themselves in the power of these terrible enemies. The sufferings and privations which they thus undergo, the horrible tortures which they sometimes inflict on themselves, and the crimes which they are led to commit, are melancholy in the extreme. It is not too much to say that the horrible dread of unknown evil hangs like a thick cloud over savage life, and embitters every pleasure. Perhaps it will be thought that in the preceding chapter I have selected from various works all the passages most unfavorable to savages, and that the picture I have drawn of them is unfair. In reality the very reverse is the case. Their real condition is even worse and more abject than that which I have endeavoured to depict. I have been careful to quote only from trustworthy authorities, but there are many things stated by them which I have not ventured to repeat; and there are other facts which even the travellers themselves were ashamed to publish. Tylor, l.c. p. 129; Turner's Polynesia, pp. 18, 89, 424. † See Brown. New Zealand and its Aborigines, p. 80. 1 CHAPTER XIV. I HAVE already expressed my belief that the simpler arts and implements have been independently invented by various tribes, and in very different parts of the world. Even at the present day we may, I think, obtain glimpses of the manner in which they were, or may have been, invented. Some monkeys are said to use clubs, and to throw sticks and stones at those who intrude upon them. We know that they use round stones for cracking nuts, and surely a very small step would lead from that to the application of a sharp stone for cutting. When the edge became blunt, it would be thrown away, and another chosen; but after awhile accident, if not reflection, would show, that a round stone would crack other stones, as well as nuts, and thus the savage would learn to make sharp-edged stones for himself. At first, as we see in the drift specimens, these would be coarse and rough, but gradually the pieces chipped off would become smaller, the. blows would be more cautiously and thoughtfully given, and at length it would be found that better work might be done by pressure than by blows. From pressure to polishing would again be but a small step. In making flint implements sparks would be produced; in polishing them it would not fail to be observed that they became hot, and in this way it is easy to see how the two methods of obtaining fire may have originated. 474 THE PRIMITIVE CONDITION OF MAN. The chimpanzee builds himself a house or shelter almost equal to that of some savages. Our earliest ancestors therefore may have had this art; but even if not, when they became hunters, and as we find to be the case with all hunting tribes, supplemented the inefficiency of their weapons by a wonderful acquaintance with the manners and customs of the animals on which they preyed, they could not fail to observe, and perhaps to copy, the houses which various species of animals construct for themselves. The Esquimaux have no pottery; they use hollow stones as a substitute, but we have seen how they sometimes improve upon these by a rim of clay. To extend this rim, diminish, and at last replace the stone, is an obvious process. In hotter countries, vessels of wood, or the shells of fruits such as cocoa-nuts and gourds, are used for holding liquids. These of course will not stand fire, but by plastering them on the outside with clay they would be enabled to do so. There is some evidence that this obvious improvement has been made by several separate tribes even in modern times.* Other similar cases might be mentioned, in which by a very simple and apparently obvious process, an important improvement is secured. It seems very improbable that any such advantage should ever be lost again. There is no evidence, says Mr. Tylor,† "of any tribe giving up the use of the spindle to twist their thread by hand, or having been in the habit of working the fire-drill with a thong, and going back to the clumsier practice of working it without, and it is even hard to fancy such a thing happening." What follows from this argument? Evidently that the lowest races of existing savages must, always assuming the common origin of the human race, be at least as far advanced as were our ancestors when they spread over the earth's surface. See Tylor, Early History of Mankind, p. 269. tl.c. p. 364. |