[112] Dorsey, in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 365 sq.
[113] Ibid. p. 366. McGee, in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xv. 181 sqq. Cf. James, Expedition to the Rocky Mountains, i. 268; Tylor, op. cit. ii. 343.
[114] Hoffman, ‘Menomini Indians,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xiv. 39, n. 1. Cf. Parkman, Jesuits in North America, p. lxxix.
[115] Dorsey, in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 365. See also Smith, ibid. ii. 112.
[116] The Great Spirit is represented by Schoolcraft (op. cit. i. 15) as a “Soul of the Universe which inhabits and animates every thing,” and is supposed to exist under every possible form in the world, animate and inanimate. Of Ti-ra’-wa it is said that he “is in and of everything” (supra, [i. 448]).
[117] Seaver, op. cit. p. 155. Supra [i. 448].
In South America, too, several tribes have been found to believe in a benevolent Great Spirit, who is indifferent to men’s behaviour and is not worshipped by them.[118] Of the Passés, however, we are told by a Portuguese official who travelled in Brazil in 1774–75 that they have the idea of a creator who rewards good people by allowing their souls to stay with him and punishes the wicked by turning their souls into evil spirits.[119] But according to Mr. Bates “these notions are so far in advance of the ideas of all other tribes of Indians … that we must suppose them to have been derived by the docile Passés from some early missionary or traveller.”[120] Of the Fuegians, again, Admiral Fitzroy writes:—“A great black man is supposed to be always wandering about the woods and mountains, who is certain of knowing every word and every action; who cannot be escaped, and who influences the weather according to men’s conduct.” Of this influence our informant gives the following instance. A native related a story of his brother who once killed a man—one of those very wild men who wander about in the woods supporting themselves by theft—because he stole from him a bird. Afterwards he was very sorry for what he had done, particularly when it began to blow hard. In telling the story, the brother said:—“Rain come down—snow come down—hail come down—wind blow—blow—very much blow. Very bad to kill man. Big man in woods no like it, he very angry.” The same native also reproached the surgeon of the Beagle for shooting some young ducks with the old bird:—“Very bad to shoot little duck—come wind—come rain—blow—very much blow.”[121] In the latter case, however, no mention was made of the black man in the woods. From Admiral Fitzroy’s account Mr. Andrew Lang draws the conclusion that the Fuegians have evolved the idea of a high deity, an ethical judge, who “makes for righteousness,” who searches the heart, who almost literally “marks the sparrow’s fall,” and whose morality is so much above the ordinary savage standard that he regards the slaying of a stranger and an enemy, caught redhanded in robbery, as a sin.[122] This statement may serve as a specimen of the spirit in which its author deals with the subject of supreme beings in savage beliefs. There is after all some difference between a high moral god and a mythical weather doctor who lives in the woods and sends bad weather if a wild man, who also lives in the woods, is killed. Mr. Bridges, our most trustworthy authority on the Fuegians, says nothing of the black man, but states that nearly all the old men among the Fuegians are medicine-men, and that these wizards make frequent incantations in which they seem to address themselves to a mysterious being called Aïapakal. And they also believe in another spirit, named Hoakils, from whom they pretend to obtain a supernatural power over life and death.[123]
[118] Bernau, Missionary Labours in British Guiana, p. 49. Hoffmann, op. cit. p. 90 sqq.
[119] Ribeiro de Sampaio, Diario da viagem, p. 79.
[120] Bates, The Naturalist on the River Amazons, ii. 244. Cf. ibid. ii. 162; Dobrizhofter, Account of the Abipones, ii. 57 sq.; Müller, Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen, p. 289.