Chap. II. MENTAL POWERS. 67 



The tendency in savages to imagine that natural 

 objects and agencies are animated by spiritual or living 

 essences, is perhaps illustrated by a little fact which I 

 once noticed : my dog, a full-grown and very sensible 

 animal, was lying on the lawn during a hot and still 

 day ; but at a little distance a slight breeze occasionally 

 moved an open parasol, which would have been wholly 

 disregarded by the dog, had any one stood near it. As 

 it was, every time that the parasol slightly moved, the 

 dog growled fiercely and barked. He must, I think, 

 have reasoned to himself in a rapid and unconscious 

 manner, that movement without any apparent cause 

 indicated the presence of some strange living agent, and 

 no stranger had a right to be on his territory. 



The belief in spiritual agencies would easily pass into 

 the belief in the existence of one or more gods. For 

 savages would naturally attribute to spirits the same 

 passions, the same love of vengeance or simplest form 

 of justice, and the same affections which they themselves 

 experienced. The Fuegians appear to be in this respect 

 in an intermediate condition, for when the surgeon on 

 board the " Beagle ' : shot some young ducklings as 

 specimens, York Minster declared in the most solemn 

 manner, " Oh ! Mr. Bynoe, much rain, much snow, blow 

 " much ;" and this was evidently a retributive punish- 

 ment for wasting human food. So again he related 

 how, when his brother killed a " wild man," storms long 

 raged, much rain and snow fell. Yet we could never 

 discover that the Fuegians believed in what we should 

 call a God, or practised any religious rites ; and Jemmy 

 Button, with justifiable pride, stoutly maintained that 

 there was no devil in his land. This latter assertion is 

 the more remarkable, as with savages the belief in 

 bad spirits is far more common than the belief in good 

 spirits. 



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