The human species

by A. de Quatrefages

Of all the peoples, concerning whose beliefs we possess an almost sufficient amount of information, the Australians certainly take the first place. Upon this point I am entirely agreed with Sir John Lubbock. But I cannot hold with him, that these populations do not believe in a god of any kind; that they never offer prayers; that they have no form of worship at all.

In support of his opinion my eminent colleague quotes Eyre, Collins, and MacGillivray; but he forgets Cunningham, Dawson, Wilkes, Salvado, and Stanbridge. In comparing the information obtained by these travellers in different parts of New Holland, we everywhere observe a similar foundation in the beliefs, which well deserve to be termed religious.

The Australians admit a good principle, called, according to the locality, Coyan, Motogon, Pupperimbul, who is sometimes spoken of by them as a kind of giant, at others as a kind of spirit. Coyan is beneficent, and regards the recovery of lost children as almost his special duty. To obtain his favour, darts are offered to him. If the child is not found, it is supposed that he is angry. In New-Nursie, Motogon is the creator. He had only to cry: Earth, appear! Water, appear! and to breathe in order to give birth to all things that exist. Without being so precise, the natives of Tyrril Lake ascribe the creation of the sun to Pupperimbul, who belonged to a class of beings resembling men, but who had been transported to heaven before the appearance of the present race. In south-east Australia, Coyan watches over the evil principle, called Potoyan, Wandong, Cienga, who roams about at night to devour men as well as children, and against whom they protect themselves by fire. The moon, again, is, in the opinion of the Australians, a malevolent being, whose evil influence is counteracted by the sun. Several good and evil genii, Balumbals and Wanguls, complete this rudimentary mythology, which has also its fabulous monsters, its great serpents hidden in deep rivers, etc. The Australians believe, moreover, in a kind of immortality of the soul, which passes successively from one body to another. But before finding a new abode, the spirits of the dead wander for a certain length of time in the forests, and the natives very often affirm that they have been seen or heard.

True, these are not very noble beliefs. There is, however, here something of a very different nature from what Sir John Lubbock’s view of the matter would lead us to expect. The idea of creation by the word and breath of a powerful being is a noble conception, and appears distinctly in several tribes: oblations and prayer have been proved in others. In all we observe the germ of that belief in dualism, that antagonism of benevolent and malevolent super-human powers, which is found in the greatest religions, and which is the basis even of Christianity. As to the belief in another life, no one has of late, I believe, denied the possession of it to the Australians.

In treating of the religion of the Polynesians, Lubbock quotes chiefly Mariner, Williams, and Sir George Grey. These authorities are unexceptional as regards their statement upon what they have discovered. But their silence upon certain points does not justify us in concluding that there are real gaps in those cases. Other travellers have gone much further than they went, known what they were ignorant of, and have imparted the knowledge to us. Moerenhout was the first, I believe, to publish original documents upon the most ancient Tahitian traditions. Others followed; and, thanks to favourable circumstances, I have been able to profit by these researches. In the work which I published eight years before that of Lubbock, I reviewed and discussed the principal documents for which we are indebted to Captain Lavaud, General Ribourt, the missionary Orsmond, M. Gaussin, and others. All these documents, obtained from chiefs belonging to the most ancient families and well versed in the traditions of their ancestors, have the appearance of incontestable authenticity, and throw an entirely fresh light upon the early history of religion, at least in Tahiti. I believe I have defined with sufficient clearness what these religious beliefs were, and established beyond a doubt that, side by side with notions arising entirely from superstition, the Tahitians had attained conceptions remarkable for their purity and elevation.

Let us first prove that in the island where Wallis declared he had not been able to discover the least trace of religious worship, this worship was, on the contrary, mixed up with the most trivial acts of life. It was even productive of melancholy consequences. Formalism reigned supreme-Trusting in his religious observances, in the prayers of his priests, and in the indulgence of his gods, the Tahitian thought himself at liberty to do almost anything. He combined the strongest and most simple faith with manners remarkable for their violence and licentiousness. But does not all Europe of the Middle Ages, and, even at the present time, do not many provinces, which in other respects are by no means behind the age, present phenomena of a similar nature.

Yet the Tahitians believed in another life, in rewards and punishment after death. Their paradise, of which they gave an enticing description, was reserved for the chiefs, and for those who had made sufficient offerings to the gods, that is to say, to the priests. Was not, and is not this still, the object of pious donations?

The souls of the remainder, whose life had been regular, went at once into Po, into obscurity, a kind of limbo, where there seems to have been neither pain nor pleasure of a very decided nature. But guilty souls were condemned to undergo a certain number of times, a scratching of the flesh upon every bone. Their sins expiated, they too were admitted into Po. The Tahitians thus admit a kind of purgatory and no hell. It should also be observed that the punishment inflicted upon the guilty supposes a kind of materiality of the soul. But is not this also the case with those torments which nearly all our Christian populations still believe to be reserved for the sinner cast into the flames of hell.

We find in the pantheon of the Tahitians a hierarchy equal to, but much exceeding in number that of the Greeks and Romans. At the lowest extremity of the scale we find innumerable Tiis, whose duty it was to preside in every place over the smallest actions, the smallest movements of the soul, even to the wishes of day and night. Above the latter come the Oromotouas, who represented the domestic gods, the Lares and Manes of the ancients. The inferior Atouas, dwelling upon the earth, inhabiting rivers, woods, valleys, and mountains, answer very fairly to the Fauns, Sylvans, Dryads, Oreads, &c. Moreover, it is from among the divinities of this class that the various professions choose their patrons. The singers, choreographers, and doctors had four, sailors twelve, and agriculturists thirteen. The gods of the first rank were Atouas properly so called. They also were equally numerous. But nine of them, created (oriori) directly by Taaroa, before the formation of man, composed, correctly speaking, the divine family.

Finally, above all those divinities, stood the Supreme God. There can be no doubt as to the conception which the Tahitians formed of the latter. Traditions, collected at different times by different persons, and from equally different sources, agree perfectly upon this point. The song received by Moerenhout from the lips of a harepo began thus: “He was; Taaroa was his name; he existed in space; no earth, no heaven, no men.” The manuscript of General Ribourt describes him as toïvi, having had no parents, and existing from time immemorial. The sacred song translated by M. Goussin begins with the following declaration: “Taaroa the great orderer, is the origin of the earth. Taaroa is toïvi; he has no father, no posterity.”