The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1892-01-03
LOWERRACES' RELIGION.
ABORIGINAL CREEDS RESULT
FROM MISSIONARY TEACHING.

Developments OF Native Theology
From the Effects of Intercourse
with Civilized Fcreigners-No Ori9i.
nel Belief by Savsges In One SUI
preme Good Being and One Potent
Evil Being.
From the London Telegraph.
At a recent meeting of the Anthropologi-
cal Institute Of Great Britain and Ireland
in London, the president, DR.. Edward B.
Tylor. read an interesting paper on THE
Limits Of Savage Religion from which the
following points are taken:
DIR. Tylor pointed out that, IN defining the
religious systems OF the lower races so as 70
place them correctly in the history Of
culture, careful examination was necessary
TO separate the genuine developments
Of native theology from the effects
of intercourse with civilized foI
eigners. The borrowing in come
degree from the religious ideas inculcated
by foreigners was generally admitted but
he said that he would show that It had
taken place to a much greater extent than
had been supposed. Especially through
missionary influence since 500 ideas of dn
alistIc aud monotheistic deities and Of the
moral government OF the world had been
implanted on native polytheism in various
parts of the globe.
The mistaken attribution 60 barbario
races Of theological beliefs really belonging
to the cultured world as well as the actual
development among these races of new
religious formations under cultured in
tuence, had been due to three principal
causes. l. Direct adoption from foreign
teachers. The exaggeration OF genuine
native deties of a lower order into
a supreme god or devil 8. The con-
version Of native words denoting
whole class Of minor spiritual beings. such
as ghosts or demons, into individual
names alleged to be those Of a SUI
preme good deity or rival evil deity. Con-
spicuous among the cases Of borrowing
from the beliefs of higher culture was
the famous belief in the Great Spirit" of
the North American Indians. Philosophers
had long been wont, on the strength OF this
belief, 10 point TO 1.-THE poor Indian whose
untutorod mind secs God in clouds aud
hears him in the wind" but that the 'Great
| Spirit" belief was really the product Of the
tutored mind Of the Jesuit missionaries in
Canada was proved by their own records.
In South America, among the tribes of the
region of the Orinoco, missionaries and
travellers had recorded the names of great
tigine beings, good and evil, which, could
they be received as native to these rude
lower culture involved conception
Of supreme creative being, and
hardly less clear Of a great evil
being. Yet, when the names OF these re-
corded deisies were translated the result
| threw light on their probable origin outside
any native development OF religion. They
might vartously De interpreted as The
| Highest, Lord of All Creator and
Our Great Father" and these were OBJ
viously to be attributed to the missionary
teaching which had boon going on for three
| centuries.
The Manipuri tribe explained to Father
Gilij, who had written such valuable ac-
counts of the Orinoco tribe, how their spirit
Purrunaminari (~Lord OF alp created man
and formed woman after ward by extracting
a rib from man during his sleep; and fur
Their how, again in accordance with Genesis
light was created before the sun. They had
an account also reproducing the very de-
tails of the divine birth of the
Christian dogma; and all this Father
Gilij accepted as proof of sacred ira
dition having been preserved since
the beginning of the human race. reQard-
less OF the fact that there had been inter-
course with Europeans since 1886. These
tribes had stories Of q universal deluge told
as native traditions, with details plainly
borrowed from European teaching-such,
for instance. as the story of the great water
being sent by the Creator from which
whence he sent out n rat to see whether the
water had fallen, the rat returning with an
ear Of Indian corn.
Australia afforded much material for the
illustration Of she question in hand. Since
the period of European colonization a crowd
of alleged native names for the supreme
deity and a great evil deity had been re-
corded. Bishop Salvado Of the Benedictine
mission In West Australia gave an account
of the savages' belief in an omnipotent cre-
ator called "Montogon" believe to be a wise
old man OF their own race, and also IN a
malignant spirit, extremely feared, called
"Chegna" This region and its languages
had years before been excellently described
and studied by Sir George Grey and Advo-
cate General Moore; and, from their records,
1t appeared that the natives spoke of spirit,
"Mittagong," who was however, an lnsiR-
nificant demon identified with phosphorio
fungus. As for "Chenga," he was not an
individual at ALL The dead, or the spirits
Of the dead, we're called "djanga,n and this
word was applied by the savages to the
white men, whom they regarded as the
/, spirits Of their forefathers returned. This
mfsapplication Of the name of class TO a
, particular person was largely due Co the
fact that communication between savages
, and white men was carried on in
dog-English. when few words we're strung
together without particles or infections
Thus the savage, living in terror of beings
closely corresponding to our ghosts or
demons. learned to use the word ''deyiln in
connection with them. The white man,
accustomed to the ideas of dominant
satan, wrote the word in his notebook with
a capital letter, unconscious that he was
thus converting the savage's simple belief
in spirits into dualistic religion where
great personal evil was opposed 20 the great
good being.
The German Moravian missionaries who
went into the interior of Victoria in 1850
recorded that they found among the ma
tives belief in a spirit, "Baiame," the
creator Of all things, who dwelt above the
clouds. w. Hewitt also described this
"Baiame" as he found him, and gave ths
sollowing account, told by a native sorcerer,
who had. according to custom, gone to
"Baiameh for instruction in the super
natural: "My father had said we will go to
Balances camp. He got astrlde OF thread
and put me on another. and we held by
each others arms. AT the end of the two
threads was 'Wanbu,' the bird Of 'Baiame'
We went through the clouds, and On
the other side was the sky. We
went through the place where the doctors
go through and it kept opening and shut
ting very quickly. Ny father said that IL
it touched doctor as be was going through
1t would hurt its spirit, and, when he re-
turned home, he would sioken and die. On
/ fksa cfh cid Eofo lie