132 THE DESCENT OF MAN 



the faculties of imagination, curiosity, reason, etc. , 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 1 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 occasionally moved an open parasol, which 

 would have been wholly disregarded by the dog, had any 

 one stood near it. As it was, every time that the parasol 

 slightly moved, t"Ee dog growled fiercely and barked. He 

 must, I think, have reasoned to himself, in a rapid and 

 unconscious manner, that movement without any apparent 

 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 sav- 

 ages 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 Fue- 

 gians appear to be, in this respect, in an intermediate con- 

 dition, 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 retribu- 

 tive punishment for wasting human food. So again he re- 

 lated 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 Grod, or practiced 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 remark- 

 earlier and ruder stage, when anything which manifests power or movement is 

 thought to be endowed with some form of Ufe, and with mental faculties analo- 

 gous to our own. 



