550 
SUPERSTITION. — EVIL SPIRIT. — AMULETS. 
positions, and serve but to mislead those who, in search of such 
information, should draw conclusions from them. 
The superstition of the Bachapins, for it cannot be called reli- 
gion, is of the weakest and most absurd kind ; and, as before re- 
marked*, betrays the low state of their intellect. These people 
have no outward worship, nor, if one may judge from their never 
alluding to them, any private devotions ; neither could it be dis- 
covered that they possessed any very defined or exalted notion of a 
supreme and beneficent Deity, or of a great and first Creator. Those 
whom I questioned, asserted that every thing made itself; and 
that trees and herbage grew by their own will. Although they do 
not worship a good Deity, they fear a bad one, whom they name 
Muliimo (Mooleemo), a word which my interpreter translated by the 
Dutch word for Devil; and are ready to attribute to his evil dis- 
position and power, all which happens contrary to their wishes or 
convenience. 
How degraded a condition of the human heart, how deplorable 
a degree of ignorance of itself and of its final cause, does this pic- 
ture exhibit ! But it may, perhaps, be more common than we suspect. 
Instead of turning with cheerful gratitude towards the Author and 
Giver of all good, they forget to be thankful for what they receive, 
and think only of what is withheld ; they consider Beneficence as 
dormant ; and are insensible to the sun which daily shines upon 
them, while they behold no active spirit but Malignity, and feel only 
the passing storm. 
The principal object of their superstition appeared to be this 
evil spirit ; whose operations and influence they supposed themselves 
able to avert from their own persons and affairs or to direct toward 
their enemies, by the most childish observances or by the silliest 
beliefs. The representation of an amulet for this purpose to be worn 
round the neck, may be seen in the fifth figure of the 38th vignette. 
It is composed of four separate pieces of horn strung together ; of 
these, the two on the outside are made from the hoofs of one of the 
At page 427. 
