2 94 TEE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Closely allied to fetishism, yet indicating some advance in the evo- 

 lution of religious belief s, is ancestor- worshijD. This easily arises when 

 man has developed far enough to begin to meditate upon the phenomena 

 of death. At the very outset it is likely that death did not arouse much 

 more interest than it does now among brutes. Britton asserts that 



The evidence is mountain-liigh that in the earliest and rudest period of 

 human history the corpse inspired so little terror that it was nearly always 

 eaten by the surviving friends. 



But even this custom was probably of a religious origin. A traveler 

 (D'Orbigny) in Bolivia tells us of an old Indian he met there whose 

 only regret in giving up his old religion and adopting Christianity was 

 that his body would now be devoured by worms, instead of being eaten 

 by his relatives. 



At all events, it early became an elaborate and solemn religious rite to 

 provide the body with carefully prepared viands for its last long journey. 

 Any neglect on the part of the survivors would be severely punished. 

 For the soul of the departed would continue to roam about without a 

 home, unless it was properly attended to its final resting place. Hence 

 it became the world-wide custom among savage tribes to place in the 

 tomb or on the funeral pyre such articles as the weapons, the clothing 

 and ornaments of the deceased. In many cases the wives or slaves or 

 companion-in-arms were slain or slew themselves to accomjoany a chief- 

 tain to his long home. Often among the American Indians they were 

 interred in the same mound, and many such mounds exist in different 

 parts of the country. 



When a tribe had survived so long as to have a history, and to trace 

 its descent through the male head of the family, a decided change in 

 their religious views usually followed. As Giddings describes it : 



While the household may continue to regard natural objects and forces and 

 •miscellaneous spirits with superstitious feelings, they entertain for the soul of 

 the departed founder of the house the strongest feeling of veneration. They 

 think of the ancestral spirit as their protector in the land of shades. To the 

 ancestral spirit, therefore, they pay their principal devotions. 



We find it generally true that the family tomb was near the house 

 and not far from the entrance. The children were brought up under 

 its shadow, and constantly addressed to it their prayers. Within the 

 house on the family altar burned the sacred fire that went out only with 

 the extinction of the family. Around this fire all the household dead 

 were supposed frequently to assemble to hear their mighty deeds nar- 

 rated and to be reverenced and adored. 



All the ancient Semitic tribes were ancestor-worshippers, and so 

 were the Aryans when they first appeared on the shores of the Mediter- 

 ranean. The Egyptians carried the cult to a high state of perfection, 

 and the manes-worship which long held sway among the Eomans is an 



