[23] Burton, Lake Regions of Central Africa, ii. 348.
[24] New, Life, Wanderings, and Labours in Eastern Africa, p. 103 sq.
[25] Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa, p. 153.
[26] Campbell, Second Journey in the Interior of South Africa, ii. 204.
[27] Moffat, Missionary Labours in Southern Africa (ed. 1842), p. 262.
[28] Rowley, Religion of the Africans, p. 55. Kingsley, Travels in West Africa, p. 443. Mockler-Ferryman, British Nigeria, p. 255 sq.
[29] Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, pp. 12, 18, 20. Cf. Cruickshank, Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast, ii. 134.
Of many savages it is reported that they have notions of good, as well as of evil spirits, but that they chiefly or exclusively worship the evil ones, since the others are supposed to be so good that they require no offerings or homage.[30] But adoration of supernatural beings which are considered at least occasionally beneficent is also very prevalent among uncivilised peoples.[31] The gods of the pagan Lapps were all good, although they took revenge upon those who offended them.[32] Among the Navaho Indians of New Mexico “the gods who are supposed to love and help men the most receive the greatest honour”; whereas the evil spirits are not worshipped except, rumour says, by the witches.[33] The belief in guardian or tutelary spirits of tribes, clans, villages, families, or individuals, is extremely widespread.[34] These spirits may be exacting enough—they are often greatly feared by their own worshippers, and sometimes described as distinctly malignant by nature;[35] but their general function is nevertheless to afford assistance to the person or persons with whom they are associated. At the same time it should be noticed that the goodness of many savage gods only consists in their readiness to help those who please them by offerings or adoration; and in no case does their benevolence prove that they take an active interest in morality at large. A friendly supernatural being is not necessarily a guardian of men’s behaviour towards their fellow men. In Morocco the patron saint of a town, village, or tribe is not in the least concerned about any kind of conduct which has not immediate reference to himself.[36] It is believed that even the robber may, by invoking a dead saint, secure his assistance in an unlawful enterprise.
[30] Wilken, Het Animisme bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel, p. 207 sq. Perham, ‘Sea Dyak Religion,’ in Jour. Straits Branch Roy. Asiatic Soc. no. 10, p. 220; St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, i. 69 sq. (Sea Dyaks). Blumentritt, ‘Der Ahnencultus und die religiösen Anschauungen der Malaien des Philippinen-Archipels,’ in Mittheil. d. kais. u. kön. Geograph. Gesellsch. in Wien, xxv. 166 sqq. Prain, ‘Angami Nagas,’ in Revue coloniale internationale, v. 489. Forsyth, op. cit. pp. 141, 143 (Gonds). Hooker, Himalayan Journals, i. 126 (Lepchas). Robertson, History of America, i. 383; Müller, Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen, pp. 150, 151, 232, 260; Dorman, Origin of Primitive Superstition, p. 30 (American Indians). Sproat, Scenes and Studies of Savage Life, p. 212 (Ahts). Falkner, Description of Patagonia, p. 116; Prichard, Through the Heart of Patagonia, p. 97.
[31] See supra, [ii. 615 sq.]