THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGION 293 



the region of the Congo. They found some of these peoples paying 

 homage to such objects as a piece of wood, a feather, the fin of a fish, 

 the claw of a bird, the hoof of a goat. Others among them regarded 

 with reverential awe a big rock, a grove of trees, some such animal as a 

 snail, a snake, a lizard or a crocodile. In fact, anything became an ob- 

 ject of worship to them when they fancied that a powerful unseen being 

 had attached himself to it. 



The fact that no man ever worships a material object is well illus- 

 trated by the treatment accorded a fetish. If a fetish brings good luck, 

 it may be sold for a high price if the owner wishes to part with it. If 

 it brings bad luck, it is thrown away or demolished. For all virtue 

 has gone out of it. The spirit that was in it has departed, and it has 

 lost its power. The favorite fetish of a Papuan of New Guinea is a 

 little wooden doll with a bright-colored rag tied around it. If a stroke 

 of ill fortune comes to him when he has this in his belt, he will take it 

 out and stamp on it, or tear it in pieces with his teeth, and cast it from 

 him as utterly of no value. 



As we go about over the surface of the earth, we find that different 

 tribes have selected different objects for their fetishes, according as the 

 objects have impressed themselves upon them as possessing superhu- 

 man powers. Among the Maoris of New Zealand spiders were paid 

 divine honors; for it was in their gossamer threads that they fancied 

 the souls of the departed ascended heavenwards. 



Some of the Indian tribes of the northwest regarded the raven, or 

 the thunder-bird, as they called it, as especially sacred; and according 

 to Capt. Cook, the Sandwich Islanders also did so. The peacock, the 

 swan, the rooster, the eagle and the dove, have been the favorite fetishes 

 of other tribes. In Australia and Polynesia the lizard was greatly 

 revered. The Chaldeans paid the fish divine honors. In Egypt the ox 

 was especially sacred, and so it is in parts of India. In certain of the 

 Piji Islands the shark is worshipped, just as the alligator is in the 

 Philippines. The Samoyeds in Siberia make a fetish of the whale and 

 the polar bear. 



But the most widely worshipped of all animals is the serpent. Mr. 

 Ferguson, in his work on " Tree and Serpent Worship," finds that the 

 serpent was accorded divine honors by nearly all the nations of an- 

 tiquity, and is now worshipped in many parts of Asia, Africa and 

 America. Among the Lithuanians in southern Eussia, says a high au- 

 thority " every family entertained a real serpent as a household god." 

 Sir John Lubbock tells us that in Liberia 



No negro would intentionally injure a serpent, and any one doing so by 

 accident would assuredly be put to death. Some English sailors once having 

 killed one which they found in their house, were furiously attacked by the 

 natives who killed them all and burned the house. 



