470 BELIEF IN WITCHCRAFT. 



among the tribes they visited. However this may be, those 

 who assert that even the lowest savages believe in a Deity, 

 affirm that which is entirely contrary to the evidence. The 

 direct testimony of travellers on this point is indirectly cor- 

 roborated by their other statements. How, for instance, can 

 a people who are unable to count their own fingers, possibly 

 raise their mind so far as to admit even the rudiments of a 

 religion.* The fetish worship, which is so widely prevalent 

 in Africa, can hardly be called a religion ; and even the 

 South Sea Islanders, who were in many respects so highly 

 civilised, are said to have been seriously offended with their 

 Deity if they thought that he treated them with undue 

 severity, or without proper consideration. According to 

 Kotzebue, the Kamtschatkans adored their deities "when 

 their wishes were fulfilled, and insulted them when their 

 affairs went amiss. " f When the missionaries introduced a 

 printing-press into Feegee " the heathen at once declared 

 it to be a God." { 



The savage almost everywhere is a believer in witchcraft. 

 Confusing together subjective and objective relations, he 

 is a prey to constant fears. Nor is the belief in sorcery 

 altogether shaken off even by the most civilised nations. 

 James the First was under the impression that by melting 

 little images of wax " the persons that they bear the name 

 of may be continually melted or dried away by continual 

 sickness." As regards pictures, the most curious fancies 

 exist among savage races. They have a very general dislike to 

 be represented, thinking that the artist thereby acquires some 

 mysterious power over them. If the picture is like, so much 

 the worse. So much life, they argue, could not be put into 

 the drawing except at the expense of the original. Kane on 



* See, for instance, Grey's Creed of Christendom, p. 212. 



t New Voyage Round the World, yol. ii., p. 13. 



J Figi and the Figians, vol. ii., p. 222. 



