﻿5 2 Transactions. — Miscellaneous. 



shortly to discuss the nature of the rules by which we ought to be guided, in 

 giving or in refusing credit to narratives of this kind in relation to a savage 

 people, who possess no other materials from which we can arrive at a knowledge 

 of their history. Tt may be assumed that a nari*ative of events which have not 

 come under the actual observation of those to whom they are communicated, 

 receives credence, amongst civilized people, in direct proportion, not only to the 

 faith of the hearers in the truthfulness of the narrator, but also to their own 

 experience as affecting the probable occuri'ence of the events narrated ; and that, 

 even then, the narrative has no higher value, so far as the actual knowledge 

 of those to whom it is communicated is concerned, than a plausible fiction, 

 against which they are either unable or unwilling to raise any presumptions, 

 and which they accordingly accept, without fui"ther proof, solely on account of 

 their faith and experience. But if the narrative in any degree conflicts with 

 a knowledge on their part of circumstances which, in the ordinary course of 

 things, must have so controlled the possible occurrence of the events narrated 

 as to render the narrative at all improbable, then faith in the truthfulness of the 

 narrator will not prevent doubt or disbelief, unless the alleged occurrences are 

 supported by independent proofs sufficient to remove such doubts. Educated 

 men refuse, in such a case, to accept any speculative theory, however otherwise 

 plausible, until they have received some positive testimony in support of it. 

 With uneducated people, on the other hand, with whom I should class such 

 an intelligent savage race as the New Zealand ers, the acceptance or rejection 

 of such narratives rests on a difierent basis, and the credit given depends upon 

 a different class of feelings. In such cases imagination takes an active part in 

 inducing belief, and the delight with which narratives involving the marvellous 

 are usually received, if the events narrated be sufiiciently I'emoved either in 

 point of time or of distance, indicates not only a less ci-itical judgment, but 

 also that faith is but little controlled by the teachings of experience, and that 

 even in cases which, to the educated mind, would appear very glaring and 

 absurd. I take the following illustrations of these positions from Chambei's' 

 " Book of Days " : — " Plasted, in his History of Kent, states that the popular 

 belief as to the two female figures, side by side, and close together, impressed 

 upon the Biddendon cakes, is, that they represent two maiden ladies, named 

 Preston, who, at a remote period, were born twins, and in the close bodily 

 union represented on the cakes ; whereas he ascertained, beyond a doubt, that 

 the impression in question was of quite recent origin, and that the figures 

 were meant to represent ' two widows as the general objects of a charitable 

 benefaction.' The story of the conjoined twins — though not inferring a thing 

 impossible or even unexampled — must, says the writer, be set down as one of 

 the cases of which so many are to be found in the legends of the common 

 people, where a tale is invented, by a simple and natural process, to account 



