206 RELIGIOUS FEELING 



of worship, their faith resting upon a simple belief in magic, 

 like that of the natives of Madi and Obbo. Although 

 without an idea of a Supreme Being, the whole country 

 bowed down to sorcery .... utterly devoid of a belief in a 

 deity and without a vestige of superstition,' says Baker. 

 After recounting a long conversation with a certain chief, 

 the object of which, was to bring out any glimmer of a 

 religious sense, Sir Samuel is obliged to confess, 'In this 

 wild, naked* savage there was not even a superstition upon 

 which to found a religious feeling. There was a belief in 

 matter, and to his understanding everything was material. 

 It was extraordinary to find so much clearness of perception 

 combined with such complete obtuseness to anything ideal.* 

 Baker had, in fact, to give up ' the religious argument as a 

 failure.' 



Of the Andaman Islanders, Dr. Mouat says, ' They have 

 no conception of a Supreme Being. They have never risen 

 from the effects they see around them even to the most im- 

 perfect notion of a Cause. They have never ascended in 

 thought from the works to a Creator, or even to many 

 creators that is to say, polytheism.' l Lieutenant Low, of 

 H.H. Indian Navy, similarly remarks of them, ' They do not 

 believe in the existence of a Supreme Being, and perform no 

 religious ceremony of any sort.' 2 Again, according to the 

 evidence of the French castaway Narcisse Pellier, who lived 

 seventeen years among them, the blacks of Night Island, on 

 the N.E. coast of Queensland (Australia), 'have no knowledge 

 of any Superior Being and no form of religion of any kind 

 whatever.' Indeed, ' the Australian has no words to ex- 

 press the ideas of God, religion, righteousness, sin;' and 

 ' there are numerous examples of savage nations .... who 

 have no words in their language to express such ideas ' 

 (Biichner). 



In short, Lubbock points out how ample and varied is 

 the evidence that goes to show ' that there are races of men 

 altogether devoid of religion,' and that * the question as to 



1 ' Adventures and Researches among the Andaman Islanders,' 1863 

 p. 303. 



* ' The Land of the Sun : Sketches of Travel,' 1870, p. 168. 



