[8] Parkman, Jesuits in North America, p. lxxviii. See also Eastman, Dacotah, p. xx.; Schoolcraft, Indian Tribes of the United States, ii. 195 (Dacotahs).
That many savage gods are so thoroughly selfish as to care about nothing else than what concerns their own interests, may also be inferred from the character attributed to them. We have seen that the altruistic sentiment is the chief source from which moral emotions spring, and of the gods of various uncivilised peoples we hear not only that they are totally destitute of benevolent feelings, but that they are of a malicious nature and mostly intent on doing harm to mankind.[9]
[9] See Meiners, Geschichte der Religionen, i. 405; Tylor, Primitive Culture, ii. 329; Avebury, Origin of Civilisation, p. 232 sqq.; Roskoff, Geschichte des Teufels, i. 20 sq.; Frazer, Golden Bough, iii. 40 sqq.; Karsten, Origin of Worship, p. 46 sqq.
The Maoris of New Zealand regarded their deities as the causes of pain, misery, and death, as mighty enemies from whom nobody ever thought of getting any aid or good, but who were to be rendered harmless by means of charms or spells or by sacrifices offered to appease their wrath.[10] The Tahitians “supposed their gods were powerful spiritual beings, in some degree acquainted with the events of this world, and generally governing its affairs; never exercising any thing like benevolence towards even their most devoted followers, but requiring homage and obedience, with constant offerings; denouncing their anger, and dispensing destruction on all who either refused or hesitated to comply.”[11] The Fijians “formed no idea of any voluntary kindness on the part of their gods, except the planting of wild yams, and the wrecking of strange canoes and foreign vessels on their coast”;[12] and that some of these beings were conceived as positively wicked is indicated by the names given them—“the adulterer,” “the rioter,” “the murderer,” and so forth.[13] The people of Aneiteum, in the New Hebrides, maintained that “earth and air and ocean were filled with natmasses, spiritual beings, but all malignant, who ruled over everything that affected the human race…. Their deities, like themselves, were all selfish and malignant; they breathed no spirit of benevolence.”[14]
[10] Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, pp. 104, 148. Colenso, Maori Races of New Zealand, p. 62. Cf. Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand, ii. 118.
[11] Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 336.
[12] Williams and Calvert, Fiji, p. 195.
[13] Ibid. p. 185.
[14] Inglis, In the New Hebrides, pp. 30, 32.
The Santal of India believes in no god from whose benignity he may expect favour, but in “a multitude of demons and evil spirits, whose spite he endeavours by supplications to avert.” Even his family god “represents the secret principle of evil, which no bolts can shut out, and which dwells in unseen but eternally malignant presence beside every hearth.”[15] The Kamchadales do not seem to have hoped for anything good from their deities; Kutka himself, the creator of the universe and the greatest of the gods, was once caught in adultery and castrated.[16]