[140] See supra, [ii. 586 sq.]
[141] Wilson, op. cit. p. 209. See also Livingstone, Expedition to the Zambesi, p. 521 sq., quoted supra, [ii. 594].
Generally speaking, then, it seems that the All-father, supreme being, or high god of savage belief may be traced to several different sources. When not a “loan-god” of foreign extraction, he may be a mythical ancestor or headman; or a deification of the sky or some large and remote object of nature, like the sun; or a personification or personified cause of the mysteries or forces of nature. The argument that the belief in such a being is “irreducible” because it prevails among savages who worship neither ancestors nor nature,[142] can carry no weight in consideration of the fact that he himself, as a general rule, is no object of worship. In various instances we have reason to suppose that even though the notion of a supreme being is fundamentally of native origin, foreign conceptions have been engrafted upon it; and to these belongs in particular the idea of a heavenly judge who in the after-life punishes the wicked and rewards the good. But we are not entitled to assume that the idea of moral retribution as a function of the great god has in every case been adopted from people of a higher culture. A mythical ancestor or headman may of his own accord approve of virtue and disapprove of vice; and, besides, justice readily becomes the attribute of a god who is habitually appealed to in curses or oaths. That the supreme being of savages is thus invoked, is in some cases directly stated by our authorities. In making solemn treatises, the Hurons called on Oki, the heaven god.[143] The Negroes of Loango, who believed that Zambi, the supreme being, punished fraud and perjury, took his name in testimony of the truth.[144] Among the Awemba the supreme god Leza, who is believed to reward the good and to punish thieves, adulterers, and murderers, is invoked both in blessings and curses, the injured man praying that Leza will send a lion to devour the evildoer.[145] In the Ew̔e-speaking Ho tribe on the Slave Coast the great god Mawu, who is said to inflict punishment on the wicked, is frequently appealed to in law-cases, by the judge as well as by the plaintiff and the accused.[146] In Northern Guinea the name of the supreme being is solemnly called on three times at the ratification of an important treaty, or when a person is condemned to undergo the “red-water ordeal.”[147] Of the Mpongwe we are told that “when a covenant is about to be formed among the different tribes, Mwetyi [the supreme being] is always invoked as a witness, and is commissioned with the duty of visiting vengeance upon the party who shall violate the engagement. Without this their national treaties would have little or no force. When a law is passed which the people wish to be especially binding, they invoke the vengeance of Mwetyi upon every transgressor, and this, as a general thing, is ample guarantee for its observance.”[148] Among the East African Wakamba, when the supposed criminal is to undergo the ordeal of the hatchet, a magician makes him repeat the following words:—“If I have stolen the property of so and so, or committed this crime, let Mulungu respond for me; but if I have not stolen, nor done this wickedness, may he save me.” The magician then passes the red-hot iron four times over the flat hand of the accused; and the people believe that if he is guilty, his hand will be burned, but that, if innocent, he will suffer no injury.[149] Among the Masai a person who is accused of cattle-lifting and on that account subjected to the ordeal of drinking a mixture of blood and milk, has first to swear, “O God, I drink this blood, if I have stolen the cattle this blood will kill me.” Should he not die within a fortnight he is considered innocent.[150] The Madi of Central Africa have various means of trial by ordeal, through which it is believed that the guilt of a suspected individual can be detected; and “before any of these trials the men look up and solemnly invoke some invisible being to punish him if guilty, or help him if innocent.”[151] Of the natives of the Zambesi, all of whom have an idea of a supreme being, Livingstone states that, when undergoing an ordeal, “they hold up their hands to the Ruler of Heaven, as if appealing to him to assert their innocence.”[152]
[142] Lang, Magic and Religion, p. 42. Hoffmann, op. cit. pp. 122, 126, 131.
[143] Tylor, op. cit. ii. 342.
[144] Proyart, loc. cit. p. 594.
[145] Sheane, in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxxvi. 151.
[146] Spieth, Die Ew̔e-Stämme, p. 415.
[147] Wilson, Western Africa, p. 210.
[148] Ibid. p. 392.