224 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



meant" " I proceeded, through Sacheuse, to inquire if he believed 

 in an evil spirit ; but he could not be made to understand what it 

 meant. He could not be made to understand what a good or evil 

 spirit meant." The probable fact of the matter was that Sacheuse 

 could not speak the Eskimo dialect of those he was catechising. 

 If he did not speak to them in " an unknown tongue," he certainly 

 did in an unfamiliar tongue, the result being a general misunder- 

 standing all round. If Sacheuse had been able to ask his listeners, 

 " Do you believe in a benevolent Creator called ' Torngarsuk ' or 

 ' Anguta ' ? " it is most likely he would have received his answer in 

 the shape of a definite affirmative. 



" On Damood Island, between Australia and New Guinea," 

 writes Sir John Lubbock, " Jukes could find no traces of any re- 

 ligious belief or observance." * This certainly is not to be won- 

 dered at, as he only spent part of a day there (March 21, 1845), 

 and the effort at interchange of views was singularly weak, as 

 the natives knew only a few words of English, and the English 

 visitors knew nothing of the native language. The portion of the 

 day spent on the island was taken up with bartering with the 

 natives on the seashore, and during part of this time Captain 

 Black wood and Mr. Jukes struck " off for a walk across the island," 

 in company with one of the natives. During this walk Jukes 

 noticed a superior kind of house which he thought might have 

 been a temple or a place for depositing the dead, or a chiefs house, 

 but " they could not make out which," for the simple reason that 

 they could not communicate with their guide. 



The case of the Aru Islanders is a striking instance of Sir 

 John's method of quotation. Here are his words : " Mr. Wallace, 

 who had excellent opportunities for judging, and whose merits as 

 an observer no one can question, tells us that in the Aru Islands 

 he could find no trace of a religion ; adding, however, that he was 

 but a short time among them." \ Mr. Wallace, however, does not 

 agree with Sir John Lubbock as to his " excellent opportunities 

 for judging," for he says, " I could not get much real knowledge of 

 the customs of the Aru people during the short time I was among 

 them." The natives, he tells us, when in contact with foreign races 

 were reserved and taciturn ; and that as he could not speak the Aru 

 language, and the natives had " an imperfect knowledge of Malay," 

 he could not " make out very clearly " what at times they said. " I 

 saw no signs of any religion " may mean that, in his rambles as a 

 naturalist through the country about Wanumbai, he never came 

 across anything like a temple or altar. Indeed, no one can read 

 Mr. Wallace's singularly interesting book without noticing that he 



* Jukes, Voyage of the Fly, vol. i, p. 164. 

 f Wallace, Malayan Archipelago. 



