144 
however, while the worthy baronet quotes Robert Drury with 
evident satisfaction in order tobring out the present more debased 
features of the Malagassy native religion, he entirely suppresses 
Drury^s testimony just quoted. Which, then, came first the 
baser or the purer faith? Was this higher religious belief 
attained by progress, or was it the remnant of some nobler creed 
lost by degradation ? Dismissing all hasty speculation and 
unsafe generalization, let us endeavour to see what conclu- 
sions we may draw from actual facts. Of course, in a country 
which has neither history nor monuments, and where even 
traditions of the past are vague, it would be unsafe to look 
for facts in that direction. The only other source of evi- 
dence thereupon lies in those old proverbs and ancient sayings 
which come down through successive generations in almost all 
countries as a kind of moral inheritance from the past. . Aris- 
totle speaks of proverbs, e.g. 3 as “ fragments of an elder wisdom, 
which, on account of their brevity and aptness, have been pre- 
served amidst wreck and ruin.”* But are there such proverbs 
in Madagascar? And if so, do they bear testimony to the 
priority of Fetichism and Totemism, or to that of purer and 
nobler faith? One of their proverbs runs thus:— “Do not 
consider the secret valley, for God is overhead in which the 
truth of Divine Omniscience is evidently recognized. Another 
recognizes the Supreme Deity as Ruler and Disposer of events : 
— “ The wilfulness of man can be borne by the Creator ; for 
God alone bears rule.” Another says : Better be guilty 
with men than guilty before God ;” which directly implies a 
belief both in Divine Holiness and Justice. Now you will bear 
in mind that these are not modern sayings which have resulted 
from missionary labour, but old and indigenous, and common 
throughout the country, older far than the present idolatrous 
system of Madagascar, which is of comparatively modern date, 
some of their idols having been introduced within the memory 
of the people who were living at the time when our first 
missionaries entered the island. j* Thus we have clear evidence 
of a primeval Monotheism underlying a subsequent degradation 
of religious belief in Madagascar, the higher coming first, and 
the lower being brought out afterwards, — a discovery which is 
the very opposite to the assertion so dogmatically laid down by 
Sir John Lubbock and others of the same school.! 
7. Let it not be thought that in using this language i am 
* Quoted by Archbishop Trench, Proverbs and their Lessons , p. 30. 
f Madagascar and its People. By J ames Sibree. _ 
+ It might be relevant to remark that even Christian men, after being 
among Fetishers, are apt themselves to be influenced by Fetishism. 
