92 THE DESCENT OF MAN. 



ties of imagination, curiosity, reason, &c., had been fairly well 

 developed in the mind of man, his dreams would not have led him 

 to believe in spirits, any more than in the case of a dog. 



The tendency in savages to imagine that natural objects and 

 agencies are animated by spiritual or living essences, is perhaps 

 illustrated by a little fact which I once noticed: my dog, a full- 

 grown and very sensible animal, was lying on the lawn during a 

 hot and still day; but at a little distance a slight breeze occasion- 

 ally moved an open parasol, which would have been wholly dis- 

 regarded by the dog, had any one stood near it. As it was, every 

 time that the parasol slightly moved, the dog growled fiercely 

 and barked. He must, I think, have reasoned to himself in a 

 rapid and unconscious manner, that movement without any ap- 

 parent cause indicated the presence of some strange living agent, 

 and that no stranger had a right to be on his territory. 



The belief in spiritual agencies would easily pass into the 

 belief in the existence of one or more gods. For savages would 

 naturally attribute to spirits the same passions, the same love of 

 vengeance or simplest form of justice, and the same affections 

 which they themselves feel. The Fuegians appear to be in this 

 respect in an intermediate condition, for when the surgeon on 

 board the "Beagle" shot some young ducklings as specimens, York 

 Minster declared in the most solemn manner, "Oh, Mr. Bynoe, 

 "much rain, much snow, blow much;" and this was evidently a 

 retributive punishment for wasting human food. So again he 

 related how, when his brother killed a "wild man," storms long 

 raged, much rain and snow fell. Yet we could never discover 

 that the Fuegians believed in what we should call a God, or prac- 

 ticed any religious rites; and Jemmy Button, with justifiable 

 pride, stoutly maintained that there was no devil in his land. 

 This latter assertion is the more remarkable, as with savages the 

 belief in bad spirits is far more common than that in good ones. 



of civilization,' 1870. In a like manner Mr. Herbert Spencer, in his 

 ingenious essay in the 'Fortnightly Review' (May 1st, 1870, p. 535), ac- 

 counts for the earliest forms of religious belief throughout the world, 

 by man being led through dreams, shadows, and other causes, to look 

 at himself as a double essence, corporeal and spiritual. As the spiritual 

 being is supposed to exist after death and to be powerful, it is propi- 

 tiated by various gifts and ceremonies, and its aid invoked. He then 

 further shows that names or nicknames given from some animal or 

 other object, to the early progenitors or founders of a tribe, are sup- 

 posed after a long interval to represent the real progenitor of the tribe; 

 and such animal or object is then naturally believed still to exist as 

 a, spirit, is held sacred, and worshipped as a god. Nevertheless I can- 

 not but suspect that there is a still earlier and ruder stage, when any- 

 thing which manifests power or movement is thought to be endowed 

 with some form of life, and with mental faculties analogous to our own. 



