674 ECCLESIASTICAL INSTITUTIONS. 



to those chapters, I think it better to state afresh, in brief, the 

 doctrine they contain. I do this partly because that doctrine, 

 at variance both with current beliefs and the beliefs of the 

 inythologists, needs re-emphasizing; partly because citing a 

 further series of illustrations will strengthen the argument ; 

 and partly because a greater effect may be wrought by 

 bringing the several groups of facts and inferences into 

 closer connexion. 



As typifying that genesis of religious conceptions to be 

 delineated in this chapter, a statement made by Mr. Brough 

 Smyth in his elaborate work The Aborigines of Victoria 

 may first be given. When an Australian, of mark as a 

 hunter or counsellor, is buried, the medicine-man, seated or 

 lying beside the grave, praising the deceased and listening for 

 his replies, said &quot; The dead man had promised that if his 

 murder should be sufficiently avenged his spirit would not 

 haunt the tribe, nor cause them fear, nor mislead them into 

 wrong tracks, nor bring sickness amongst them, nor make loud 

 noises in the night.&quot; Here we may recognize the essential 

 elements of a cult. There is belief in a being of the kind 

 we call supernatural a spirit. There are praises of this 

 being, which he is supposed to hear. On condition that his 

 injunctions are fulfilled, he is said to promise that he will 

 not make mischievous use of his superhuman powers will 

 not hurt the living by pestilence, nor deceive them, nor 

 frighten them. 



Is it not manifest that from germs of this kind elaborate 

 religions may be evolved ? When, as among the ancestor- 

 worshipping Malagasy, we find, as given by M. Reville, the 

 prayer, &quot; Nyang, mechant et puissant esprit, ne fais pas 

 gronder le tonnerre sur nos tetes. Dis a la mer de rester 

 dans ses bords. fipargne, Nyang, les fruits qui murissenb. 

 Ne seche pas le riz dans sa fleur ;&quot; it is a conclusion scarcely 

 to be resisted that Nyang is but the more developed form of 

 a spirit such as that propitiated and petitioned by the 

 Australian. On reading the Japanese sayings, &quot; that the 



