Chap. II. 
MENTAL POWERS. 
67 
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 I 
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, the 
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 
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 
savages 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 
experienced. The Fuegians appear to be in this respect 
in an intermediate condition, 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 retributive punish- 
ment for wasting human food. So again he related 
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 God, or practised 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 remarkable, as with savages the belief in 
bad spirits is far more common than the belief in good 
spirits. 
