THE RELIGION OF SAVAGES. 22 i 



or a privilege, or a charm, or a preservative against evil, or an 

 engine of evil against others, it matters little as to whether it be 

 rendered to God, or spirit, or goblin, or devil, because, whatever 

 the worship is rendered to, the worshiper honestly feels he is in 

 the presence of one whose power is needed to aid him in his life 

 or work, and without whose help he can not be successful. 



The chief contestant of universal religiousness has been, and 

 is, Sir John Lubbock, although the force of circumstances has 

 driven him of late to change his mode of presenting his contest. 

 In the earlier editions of his Prehistoric Times he claims that 

 " almost all the most savage races " are " entirely without a re- 

 ligion," " without idea of deity," and that the " almost universal 

 testimony of travelers " supports this assertion. In his fifth edi- 

 tion (1890) he still claims that " almost all the savage races " are 

 " entirely without a religion, without idea of deity," but he pro- 

 ceeds to define what religion is not. It is not " a mere fear of the 

 unknown," it is not " a more or less vague belief in witchcraft," 

 it is something " higher " than all this ; and if this " higher esti- 

 mate " of religion be adopted then his original assertion remains 

 true, that " many, if not all, of the most savage races " are " entire- 

 ly without a religion, without any idea of a deity." The object of 

 this definition of the word religion is plain. Between the years 

 1869 and 1890 evidence as to the religiousness of savage tribes 

 kept pouring in from all quarters of the world ; the list of un- 

 believing savages made public by Sir John Lubbock in 1869 

 was seriously interfered with, and the position taken by Waitz, 

 that " the religious element, so far from being absent from uncul- 

 tured peoples, influences their whole conception of Nature," was 

 powerfully substantiated. Then Sir John Lubbock repairs his 

 damaged argument, working with the implements of the most 

 bigoted member of an old-fashioned missionary society. He de- 

 fines religion as something spiritually " higher " than the belief 

 of a Hottentot or Eskimo, and then repeats his assertion of 1869 

 that " all of the most savage races are entirely without " such " a 

 religion." 



Sir John Lubbock's method (pursued consistently through all 

 editions) of adducing evidence in favor of his assertion as to the 

 non-religiousness of savage tribes is palpably unreliable, as far 

 as he professes to give the full intention of the authors quoted. 

 Bates, Caillie, Ross, and others certainly say all that Sir John 

 Lubbock quotes, but they say much more ; and what is left un- 

 quoted often throws a totally different light on each quotation. 

 He quotes Caillie as follows: "I tried to discover whether the 

 Foulahs (of Wassoula, in central Africa) had any religion of 

 their own ; whether they worshiped fetiches, or the sun, moon, 

 or stars ; but I could never perceive any religious ceremony 



