214 FROM THE NIGER TO THE NILE 



their groping towards the realisation of one by their belief in 

 an evil spirit. With primitive man the sense of well-being and 

 the enjoyment of the good things of earth seem such natural 

 and abiding conditions, that his intelligence accepts them 

 unconsciously, and would find no need to develop if those 

 conditions always prevailed. Therefore since man's intelli- 

 gence is only quickened by adversity, and since it is only by 

 want and suffering that thought is born, it is natural that 

 the awakened faculty should acknowledge the power that 

 created it and see a moving spirit behind the forces of evil, 

 which are always more or less sudden and violent, and fail 

 to recognise intention or form in the slower-moving, all- 

 pervading good. To give an example, the native tills his 

 field, grows his corn and thanks no one for the harvest but 

 himself. A flood or storm comes and wrecks his crop and 

 then he sits down to think ; with the result that he comes 

 to believe there is some one more powerful and more hungry 

 than himself , and thereupon determines not to let the spoiler 

 get so hungry again, so feeds him with offerings of corn. In 

 this way, I imagine, first sprang in the mind of primitive 

 man the conception of a power beyond himself, till in process 

 of time the means by which he sought to propitiate it came to 

 be believed in as possessing a virtue of their own ; and so we 

 find the native wearing charms for the safety of his person 

 that take a form appertaining to his industry or calling. 

 Thus among tribes like the Munjiaand Banda,who are farmers 

 and hunters, the feathers of white fowls and teeth of wild 

 animals are worn as ju-ju ; while the Banziri, who are 

 fisher-folk upon the Ubangui, use shells and fish bones ; the 

 Mobatti of the Welle basin, who are basket-makers, wear 



