[203] Loskiel, History of the Mission of the United Brethren among the Indians in North America, i. 15.
[204] Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 142.
[205] Villot, Mœurs, coutumes et institutions des indigènes de l’Algérie, p. 47.
[206] Schuermann, ‘Aboriginal Tribes of Port Lincoln,’ in Woods, Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 226. Cf. Nelson, ‘Eskimo about Bering Strait,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xviii. 304.
[207] Chanler, op. cit. pp. 247, 252.
[208] Dawson, Australian Aborigines, p. 52.
[209] Angas, Savage Life and Scenes in Australia and New Zealand, i. 317.
[210] Charlevoix, History of Paraguay, i. 406.
[211] Niebuhr, Travels in Arabia, ii. 216.
The beliefs held regarding the dead also influence the treatment of the aged whose lives are drawing to an end. Certain African tribes treat their old people with every kindness in order to secure their goodwill after death.[212] A missionary in East Africa heard a negro say with reference to an old man, “We will do what he says, because he is soon going to die.”[213] The Omahas “were afraid to abandon their aged on the prairie when away from their permanent villages lest Wakanda should punish them”;[214] and in this case it seems that Wakanda, at least originally meant the ghost of the dead. The Niase is an egoist ever in his respect for the old, because he hopes that they will protect and assist him when they are dead.[215] In China the doctrine that ghosts may interfere at any moment with human business and fate, either favourably or unfavourably, “enforces respect for human life and a charitable treatment of the infirm, the aged, and the sick, especially if they stand on the brink of the grave.”[216] The regard for the aged and the worship of the dead are often mentioned together in a way which suggests that there exists an intrinsic connection between them. Of the Dacotahs Prescott observes, “Veneration is very great in some Indians for old age, and they all feel it for the dead.”[217] The worship of ancestors is a distinguishing characteristic of the religious system of Southern Guinea; the “profound respect for aged persons, by a very natural operation of the mind, is turned into idolatrous regard for them when dead.”[218] “The Barotse chiefly worship the souls of their ancestors…. Cognate to this worship of ancestors is the great respect displayed for parents and the old—especially the eldest of a family or tribe.”[219] Among the Herero “the tomb of a father is the most important of all holy places, the soul of a father the oracle most often consulted.”[220] The Aetas of the Philippine Islands “have a profound respect for old-age and for their dead.”[221] The Ossetes “show the greatest love and veneration to their parents, to old age generally, and especially to the memory of their ancestors.”[222] In cases like these, however, it is impossible accurately to distinguish between cause and effect. Whilst the worship of the dead is, in the first place, due to the mystery of death, it is evident that the regard in which a person is held during his lifetime also influences the veneration which is bestowed on his disembodied soul.