[48] Rig-Veda, x. 130. Barth, op. cit. p. 37.
[49] Laws of Manu, iii. 75 sqq.
[50] See Darmesteter, Ormazd et Ahriman, p. 327; Idem, in Sacred Books of the East (1st edit.), iv. p. lxviii.
[51] Yasts, viii. 23 sq.
Men are induced by various motives to offer sacrificial gifts to supernatural beings. In early religion the most common motive is undoubtedly a desire to avert evils; and we have reason to believe that such a desire was the first source of religious worship. In spite of recent assertions to the contrary, the old saying holds true that religion was born of fear. Those who maintain that the savage is little susceptible to this emotion,[52] and that he for the most part takes his gods joyously,[53] show ignorance of facts. One of his characteristics is great nervous susceptibility,[54] and he lives in constant apprehension of danger from supernatural powers. We are told of the Samoyedes that a sudden blow on the outside of a tent will sometimes throw the occupants into spasms. “The Indian,” says Parkman, “lived in perpetual fear. The turning of a leaf, the crawling of an insect, the cry of a bird, the creaking of a bough, might be to him the mystic signal of weal or woe.”[55] From all quarters of the uncivilised world we hear that terror or fear is the predominant element in the religious sentiment, that savages are more inclined to ascribe evil than good to the influence of supernatural agents, that their sacrifices and other acts of worship more frequently have in view to avert misfortunes than to procure positive benefits, or that, even though benevolent deities are believed in, much more attention is paid to malignant ones.[56] And even among peoples who have passed beyond the stage of savagery fear still remains a prominent factor in their religion. The great bulk of Homeric cult-operations lay in propitiatory rites in avoidance of evil.[57] “No one,” says Sir Monier-Williams, “who has ever been brought into close contact with the Hindūs in their own country can doubt the fact that the worship of at least ninety per cent. of the people of India in the present day is a worship of fear.”[58] In one of the Pahlavi texts we read that “he is not to be considered as faithful who has no fear of the sacred beings.”[59] The Egyptian Amon Râ, who is praised as “the beautiful and beloved god, who giveth life by all manner of warmth, by all manner of fair cattle,” is at the same time styled “Lord of fear, great one of terror.”[60] The Psalmist says that “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom,”[61] and, as Nöldeke points out, “the fear of God” was used in its literal sense.[62] Although the Koran has much to tell about the loving kindness of God, the god of Islam evokes much more fear than love. Faith is said by Muhammedan theologians to “stand midway between hope and fear.”[63]
[52] Gruppe, Die griechischen Culte und Mythen, p. 244 sq.
[53] Grant Allen, Evolution of the Idea of God, p. 347.
[54] See Brinton, Religions of Primitive Peoples, p. 14.
[55] Parkman, Jesuits in North America, p. lxxxiv.
[56] Dorman, Origin of Primitive Superstitions, p. 391 (American Indians generally). Müller, Geschichte der Amerikanischen Urreligionen, pp. 84, 171, 214, 260. von Spix and von Martius, Travels in Brazil, ii. 243 (Coroados). Brett, Indian Tribes of Guiana, p. 361 sq.; Im Thurn, Among the Indians of Guiana, p. 367 sq. Dunbar, ‘Pawnee Indians,’ in Magazine of American History, viii. 736. McGee, ‘Siouan Indians,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xv. 184. Murdoch, ‘Ethn. Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,’ ibid. ix. 432 (Point Barrow Eskimo). Ross, ‘Eastern Tinneh,’ in Smithsonian Report, 1866, p. 306. Radloff, Schamanenthum, p. 15 (Turkish tribes of the Altai). Fawcett, Saoras, p. 57. Campbell, Wild Tribes of Khondistan, p. 163 sq. Hunter, Annals of Rural Bengal, i. 181 sq. (Santals). Mouhot, Travels in the Central Parts of Indo-China, ii. 29 (Bannavs of Cambodia). Man, ‘Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,’ in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 157. Wilken, Het animisme bij de volken van den Indischen Archipel, p. 207 sq. St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, i. 69, 70, 178; Low, Sarawak, p. 253; Selenka, Sonnige Welten, p. in (Dyaks). von Brenner, Besuch bei den Kannibalen Sumatras, p. 216. Kubary, ‘Die Palau-Inseln,’ in Jour. des Museum Godeffroy, iv. 44 (Pelew Islanders). Williams and Calvert, Fiji, p. 189. Percy Smith, ‘Uea,’ in Jour. Polynesian Soc. i. 114. Turner, Samoa, p. 21. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 336 (Tahitians). Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, pp. 104, 148; Yate, Account of New Zealand, p. 141; Polack, op. cit. i. 244 (Maoris). Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika’s, pp. 338, 339, 341 (Hottentots). Decle, Three Years in Savage Africa, p. 153 (Matabele). Livingstone, Missionary Travels, p. 435 (peoples inhabiting the country north of the Zambesi). Monrad, Skildring af Guinea-Kysten, p. 2 (Negroes of Accra). See also Karsten, Origin of Worship, p. 44 sqq.; infra, [p. 665 sqq.]