Religions of Primitive Peoples

by Daniel G. Brinton

This is one of the most primitive of religious beliefs and is discovered in the rudest tribes. The Yahgans of Tierra del Fuego say that the invisible spirits go about at night; the Australian tribes everywhere manifested a deep dread of the darkness, not like the unconscious shuddering of a child on entering a dark room, but because they believed spirits walked in the gloom seeking whom they could devour. It is then, said they, that Cuchi (Kootche) goes forth, either in the form of a snake or some nocturnal bird. He it is who causes sickness among men. The thunder is the growl of his anger, the whirlwinds his breath, and the aurora australis the fitful light of his camp fire.[84]

Associated with the gloom of night, was the darkness of the storm, which in many mythologies is contrasted with the sunshine in some divine struggle. Endless are the tales and rites which bear upon this contest in early religions. Indeed, according to some, they are the chief staple of all mythologies.[85]

4. I have already mentioned that the idea of Power is one of the first to be connected with deity. The god is one who can do more than man. Especially any sudden and striking display of force, either in the material or immaterial world, stimulates the religious sense. The historian Buckle claimed that the inhabitants of countries subject to earthquakes are peculiarly superstitious. In myths and names, the hurricane of the tropics, the storm-winds of higher latitudes, indeed all sudden and tremendous outbreaks of natural violence, are regarded as exhibitions of divine Power.

Notably is this the case with the thunder storm. That manifestation of tremendous power has excited the religious feelings of all races. Moreover, the highly charged electrical atmosphere exerts a special influence on the nervous system, predisposing it to emotional outbreaks. The roll and reverberation of the thunder, the zigzag flash and destructive blow of the lightning and the roar of the tempest, combine to present the phenomenon as a manifest display of supernatural power. Hence in innumerable tribes the thunder god was identified with, or was the peer of, the highest in the Pantheon.[86] The same is true of potent and coercive mental traits. Their possessors are regarded as partaking of the deific being to a greater extent than others, or even actually divine. It is not merely that they excite the emotion of fear. That is a shallow interpretation of the psychic process. Underlying it is the deeper suggestion of energy, of action, of the spiritual mastery of material existence. This is as real, though not so clear, in the mind of the savage as in that of the philosopher.

This is also seen in the names and titles applied to the concept of Divinity by all nations. They speak of God “All-mighty,” the “Omnipotent Ruler”; and ever the attribute of indefinite power belongs to the great gods.

In early religions the manifestations of power are personified as single deities. We thus find in native American myths the figures of Huracan, the hurricane; Huemac, the Strong Hand, god of earthquakes, and numberless thunder, lightning, and storm gods.

5. It has been remarked by a German historian that the richest development of early poetry has been found among tribes dwelling by the ocean or among mountains; and another writer has claimed that the most rapid development of religions has taken place where the broad expanses of deserts or seas have stimulated the mind to contemplation of spacial magnitude on earth and in the sky.[87]

The languages of primitive peoples bear traces of this. In the Aztec tongue any wide level prairie is called teotlalli, godland; and the ocean, teoatl, godwater; among the Peruvians the term huaca, holy, is synonymous with “vast” or “immense.” With the Polynesians taula, the ocean space, is the home of the gods and where the souls go at death. The traveller Castren once stood on the shore of the Arctic Ocean with a Samoyed. Turning to the native, he asked, “where is Num?” (their chief god). “There,” instantly replied the Samoyed, waving his hand toward where “loomed the dark broad sea.”[88]

In many cults this idea is attempted expression by assigning to deities hugeness of size. The colossal stone images of Easter Island, the huge statues of the Maoris, are endeavours to present it to the senses.