iv.] RELIGIOUS STATE. 135 



more fabulous, extravagant and ludicrous than their own 

 vain stories about lions, hyenas and jackals'." 



He found no legends, or altars, or unknown Gods, to 

 appeal to in their case. They "look on the sun with the 

 eyes of an ox." Yet these people are acute reasoners, and 

 minute observers of men and manners. 



Dr Vanderkemp long before asserted his view of the 

 Atheism of some South Africans, saying of the Kafirs that 

 he never could perceive that they had any religion or idea 

 of the existence of a God. 



Mr Moffat says both of the Hottentots and Nam aquas, 

 that they have no word in their language expressing the 

 conception of Deity 2 . Neither could he find any innate 

 ideas of a Divine Being in the minds of the savages. They 

 say that their old men knew of God, but that they them- 

 selves have not been taught concerning Him. One chief, 

 lamenting that so wise a man as the missionary should vend 

 such fables for truth, said to his people around him, — 

 pointing to Mr Moffat, — " e There is Ra-Mary (father of 

 Mary), who tells me, that the heavens w r ere made, the 

 earth also, by a beginner, whom he calls Morimo. Have 

 you ever heard anything to be compared with this ? He 

 says that the sun rises and sets by the power of Morimo ; 

 as alst) that Morimo causes winter to follow summer, the 

 winds to blow, the rain to fall, the grass to grow, and the 

 trees to bud;' and casting his arm above and around him, 

 added, ' God works in everything you see or hear! Did 

 you ever hear such words ?' Seeing them ready to burst 

 into laughter, he said, ' Wait, I shall tell you more : Ra- 

 Mary tells me that we have spirits in us which will never 

 die ; and that our bodies, though dead and buried, will rise 

 and live again. Open your ears to-day ; did you ever hear 

 litlamane (fables) like these?' This was followed by a 



1 Missionary Labours, p. 245. 2 Ibid. p. 257. 



