The Ethnology and Climatology of Central Africa. 211 
or blame; and indeed no moral ideas, in our sense of the 
word, are involved in this stage of religion. Two classes of 
natural phenomena also deeply affect the minds of Central 
Africaus, in common with all other races in the same stage 
of development. They possess a consciousness of individual 
insignificance, as compared with the power and might 
exhibited by Nature. The people are oppressed with a 
sense of their powerlessness in counteracting the influences 
of storms, earthquakes, etc., and are therefore prone to 
imagine that these phenomena are but the embodiments of 
spirits or individuals possessing superhuman powers. Thus 
one finds in almost every village charms or votive huts 
dedicated to the various elements; and in Uganda I often 
saw miniature huts built near places struck by lightning. 
No stranger may approach any such hut, but the natives in 
passing are accustomed to make an offering of a few beads 
or bananas to propitiate the awful thunder god. The other 
phenomena referred to are the movements of the heavenly 
bodies. They affect the undeveloped mind with as great an 
awe as they do those highly civilised individuals who really 
comprehend something of their magnitude. The warmth of 
the sun impels them to gratitude ; the moon in her changing 
phases, to wonder and awe; the planets themselves are con- 
stantly the object of vague speculations; and starry pictures, 
formed by the phantasy of medicine-men and chiefs, are not 
only objects of veneration, but also in many cases are used as 
oracles, foretelling events or settling disputed points in policy. 
One can summarise all religions somewhat as follows :— 
First, those religions which do not raise a god to a higher 
standard than a man, and are without a strong moral 
tendency. These rest entirely upon the belief of spirits and 
ghosts connected with rain-making, medicine, and fortune- 
telling, as well as a considerable amount of superstition. 
Upon this basis two distinct kinds of religious belief are 
built: (1) a strong disposition to fetishism, and (2) a higher 
development possessing cosmological and mythological ideas. 
Secondly, we have those religions which raise the Godhead 
far above the human being, accompanied by moral laws, a 
striving after right for right’s sake, distinct ideas of a future 
