278 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



admitted, as indeed it is the truth, that there are some savages 

 among whom hitherto religious ideas taken in a restricted 

 sense, a belief in divine beings have not been found, it must 

 be noticed, that they are generally those peoples of whom our 

 knowledge is very scanty, and that on becoming better ac- 

 quainted with them, religious sentiments have been detected, 

 as is sufficiently indicated by certain superstitious ceremonies. 

 We would here only mention a few such instances. It has been 

 asserted, that the inhabitants of the Arru Islands neither be- 

 lieved in G od nor a future life j 1 yet they possess carved images 

 of men and beasts, who protect their habitations from evil 

 spirits. 2 The Dajaks, on the Lundu river, in the north-east of 

 Borneo, have neither priests, nor temples, nor images ; still, 

 they have omens and augurs, 3 and traces of old Hindoo worship 

 have also been found among them. Neither images nor any 

 religious worship have been met with in New Caledonia ; 4 still, 

 the natives have their tabus, magic, and magicians. Thus, 

 Anderssen 5 could find nothing approaching religious worship 

 among the Ovambos ; yet, he observes, very justly, that on 

 nearer acquaintance we shall find that they, too, have some 

 idea, though a very crude one, of an invisible power. 



It is certain that all peoples do not believe in a God who 

 directs everything in the world ; but if by religious belief be 

 understood the conviction of the existence of invisible mys- 

 terious powers which, in various modes, influence the pheno- 

 mena of nature, so that man and his fate is dependent on their 

 favour, we may safely assert, that every people possesess a kind 

 of religion. No doubt, in peoples standing in the lowest 

 scale of civilization, this religion is merely a belief in spectres, 

 still, the religious element is recognizable. Moral ideas appear 

 not originally allied with these religious views. Thus, we find 

 that the Kamtschadales consider only the transgression of 

 their superstitious customs as sin ; to pierce coal with a knife, 

 to scrape off the snow from the shoes, etc., they consider as 



1 Cooke Taylor, " Natural History of Soc.," i, p. 167, 1840. 



2 Kolff, " Voyage of the Brig Dourga," translated by W. Earl, p. 159, 1840. 



3 Brooke, " Narrative of events in Borneo and Celebes," i, p. 23, 2nd ed., 1848; 

 Journ. E. G. S., xxiii, p. 78. 



4 Lascazas, in " Nouv. ann. des Voy.," i, p. 332, 1855. 



5 " Eeisen in Siidwest Afrika, Deutch," von Lotze, i, p. 214, 1858. 



