284 People lolio have no Idea of a Supreme Power. 



Mr. Wallace, who had excellent opportunities for judging, and 

 whose merits as an observer no one can question, tells us, that among 

 the people of Wanumbia, hi the Aru islands, he could find no trace of 

 a religion ; adding, however, that he was but a short time among them.' 



The Yenadies and the Villees, according to Dr. Shortt, are entirely 

 without any belief in a future state, and again. Hooker tells us that 

 the Lepchas of Northern India have no religion. Captain Grant 

 could find " no distinct form of religion" in some of the comparatively 

 civilized tribes visited by him. According to Burchell, the Bachapins 

 (Caffres) had no form of worship or religion. They thought that 

 everything made itself, and that trees and herbage grew by their own 

 will. They had no belief in a good deity, but some vague idea of an 

 evil being. Indeed, the first idea of a god is almost always as an evil 

 spirit. 



Speaking of the Foulahs of Wassoulo, in Central Africa, Caillie 

 states: "I tried to discover whether they had any religion of their 

 own; whether they worshiped fetishes, or the sun, moon, or stars; 

 but I could never perceive any religious ceremony among them." 

 Again, he says of the Bambaras, that, "like the people of Wassoulo, 

 they have no religion," adding, however, " that they have great faith 

 in charms." 



Burtoii also states, that some of the tribes in the lake districts of 

 Central Africa "admit neither God, nor angel, nor devil." Living- 

 stone mentions that on one occasion, after talking to a Bushman for 

 some time, as he supposed, about the Deity, he found that the savage 

 thought he was speaking about Sekomi, the principal chief of the 

 district. 



Speaking of the Esquimaux, Boss says: " Ervick being the senior 

 of the first party that came on board, was judged to be the most 

 pi-oper person to question on the subject of religion, I directed Sach- 

 euse to ask him if he had any knowledge of a Supreme Being, but 

 after trying every word used in his own language to express it, he 

 could not make him understand what he meant. It was distinctly 

 ascertained that he did not worship the sun, moon, stars, or any image 

 or living creature. When asked what the sun or moon was for, he 

 said, to give light. He had no knowledge or idea how he came into 

 being, or of a future state ; but said that when he died he would be 

 put into the ground. Having fully ascertained that he had no idea of 

 a baneficent Supreme Being, I proceeded through Sacheuse to inquire 

 if he believed in an evil spirit, but he could not be made to under- 

 stand what it meant. He was positive that in this incantation he did 

 not receive assistance from anything, nor could he be made to under- 

 stand what a good or an evil spirit meant. 



