240 A NATUBALIST IN CELEBES ch. x 



country folk who firmly believe that the flint implements 

 that they from time to time find upon their fields are 

 thunderbolts. Strange as it may at first seem to many of 

 us, this is but one example out of many which help to sup- 

 port the view that the fundamental ideas of primitive man 

 are the same all the world over. Just as the little black 

 baby of the negro, the brown baby of the Malay, the yellow 

 baby of the Chinaman are in face and form, in gestures 

 and habits, as well as in the first articulate sounds they 

 mutter, very much alike, so the mind of man, whether he 

 be Aryan or Malay, Mongolian or Negrito, has in the 

 course of its evolution passed through stages which are prac- 

 tically identical. In the intellectual childhood of mankind 

 natural phenomena, or some other causes of which we are 

 at present ignorant, have induced thoughts, stories, legends, 

 and myths that in their essentials are identical among all 

 the races of the world with which we are acquainted. 



The first series of beliefs I shall deal with are those 

 concerning the origin of the world, of mankind, and of the 

 heavenly bodies, and the current ideas concerning the 

 present support or basis of the world. In other words I 

 shall now briefly describe the cosmogony and cosmology of 

 the Minahassers. 



The first legend is, or rather was, for most of the natives 

 are Christians now, current in the northern districts of 

 Minahassa. 



It may be thought a very unsatisfactory explanation 

 of the origin of the world on account of the vague reference 

 in the beginning to Lumimuiit's home and parents, but 

 after all it is quite as good as any other explanation offered 

 by primitive man. The mind is finite and the universe is 

 infinite, and consequently it is necessary for man when he 

 attempts to explain universal problems to draw the line 

 somewhere. The line is most generally drawn between the 



