[94] von Siebold, Die Aino auf der Insel Yesso, p. 24. Batchelor, Ainu of Japan, pp. 199, 235 sqq. Howard, Life with Trans-Siberian Savages, p. 193.
[95] Castrén, op. cit. iii. 14.
[96] Jackson, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxiv. 398. See also Castrén, op. cit. iii. 14-16, 182 sqq.
Dr. Rink asserts that the Greenlanders considered Tornarsuk as the supreme being on whom they were dependent for any supernatural aid, and in whose abodes in the depth of the earth all such persons as had striven and suffered for the benefit of their fellow men should find a happy existence after death.[97] Dr. Nansen, however, is of opinion that Tornarsuk owes a great deal to missionary influence.[98] That he was not so superior a being as is commonly stated is evident from Captain Holm’s description of the Angmagsaliks in Eastern Greenland, where he is represented as a monster living in the sea, of about the same length as a big seal, but thicker.[99] And to judge from Egede’s description dating from the earlier part of the eighteenth century, Tornarsuk’s notions of justice, if he had any, must in olden times have been very limited, as he took to his subterranean paradise only women that died in labour and men that perished at sea.[100]
[97] Rink, Greenland, p. 141.
[98] Nansen, Eskimo Life, p. 242.
[99] Holm, ‘Ethnologisk Skizze af Angmagsalikerne,’ in Meddelelser om Grönland, x. 115.
[100] Egede, Description of Greenland, p. 197.
The “Great Spirit” so often referred to in accounts of North American Indians, is described as a being too elevated and remote to take much interest in the destinies and actions of men and too benevolent by nature to require propitiation or worship. Schoolcraft asserts that in their oral traditions there is no attempt “to make man accountable to him, here or hereafter, for aberrations from virtue, good will, truth, or any form of moral right. With benevolence and pity as prime attributes the Great Transcendental Spirit of the Indian does not take upon himself a righteous administration of the world’s affairs, but, on the contrary, leaves it to be filled, and its affairs, in reality, governed, by demons and fiends in human form.”[101] Yet there are instances in which he is represented in a different light. The most essential moral precepts of the Iroquois “were taught as the will of the Great Spirit, and obedience to their requirements as acceptable in his sight”;[102] but whilst highly gratified with their virtues, he detested their vices, and punished them for their bad conduct not only in this world but in a future state of existence.[103] The Potawatomis considered that rape was visited by the anger of the Great Spirit.[104] Ti-ra’-wa, the supreme being of the Pawnees, applauds valour, abhors theft, and punishes the wicked by annihilation, whilst the good dwell with him in his heavenly home.[105] The Indians of Alabama told Bossu that those who behave themselves foolishly and disregard the supreme being will after death go to a barren land full of thorns and briars, with no hunting and no wives, whereas those who neither rob nor kill nor take other men’s wives will occupy a very fertile country and live there a happy life.[106] Keating states that, according to the beliefs of the Dacotahs, men go to the residence of the Great Spirit if they have been good and peaceable, or if they died by the hand of their enemy, but that their souls are doomed to the residence of the Evil Spirit if they perish in a broil with their own countrymen.[107] This statement, however, is not supported by other authorities. Prescott writes of the same Indians:—“They have very little notion of punishment for crime hereafter in eternity: indeed, they know very little about whether the Great Spirit has anything to do with their affairs, present or future.”[108] And among the Omaha and Ponka, who are branches of the same people, the old men used to say to their fellow tribesmen, “If you are good, you will go to the good ghosts; if you are bad you will go to the bad ghosts.” But nothing was ever said of going to dwell with Wakanda, or with demons.[109] As regards the origin of the North American notion of the Great Spirit different opinions have been expressed. On the one hand we are told that it is essentially only “the Indian’s conception of the white man’s god,” which belongs not to the untutored but to the tutored mind of the savage.[110] On the other hand it is argued that the belief in the Great Spirit must be a native product, since it is reported to have occurred already before the arrival of the earliest Jesuit missionaries.[111] Unfortunately, however, we cannot be sure that our informants have accurately interpreted the beliefs of the Indians. Mr. Dorsey has pointed out that a fruitful source of error has been a misunderstanding of their terms and phrases.[112] The Dacotah word wakanda, which has been rendered into “Great Spirit,” simply means “mystery,” or “mysterious,” and signifies rather a quality than a definite entity. Among many tribes the sun is wakanda, among the same tribes the moon is wakanda, and so are thunder, lightning, the stars, the winds, as also various animals, trees, and inanimate objects or places of a striking character; even a man, especially a medicine-man, may be considered wakanda.[113] So, too, the Menomini term mashä’ ma’ nidō, or “great unknown,” is not to be understood as implying a belief in one supreme being; there are several manidos, each supreme in his own realm, as well as many lesser mysteries, or deities, or spirits.[114] Mr. Dorsey also observes that in many cases Indians have been quick to adopt the phrases of civilisation in communicating with white people, whilst in speaking to one another they use their own terms.[115] At the same time it seems to me that if the notion of a Great Spirit had altogether a Christian origin we might expect to find an idea of moral retribution more commonly associated with it than the statements imply. It may be that among the North American Indians also, as among some other peoples, a vague conception of something like a supreme being has arisen through a personification of the mysteries in nature.[116] But if this be the case the interest which the Great Spirit in rare instances takes in human conduct may all the same be due to missionary influence. It is certainly not an original characteristic of his nature. Among the Iroquois and Pawnees, who attribute to their great god the function of a moral judge, he also receives offerings—[117] a circumstance which indicates that he cannot be regarded as a typical representative of his class.
[101] Schoolcraft, op. cit. i. 35.