Forlong - Rivers of Life

536
Rivers of Life, or Faiths of Man in all Lands.
tors. Sir J. Lubbock gives us the names of a score of distinguished travellers who
aver that many races have no religion at all, 1 and points out others who have not the
slightest notion of what immortality means; some tribes cross-question the missionaries,
saying they make assertions about this without an iota of evidence, whilst wild Arab
Bedawins begged Captain Burton to tell them where Eesa (Allah or God) was to be
found, vowing “if we could but catch him, we would spear him on the spot—for
who but he lays waste our homes, and kills our cattle and wives;” upon which Burton
remarks that “atheism is the natural condition of the savage and uninstructed mind.”
As I have elsewhere said, and as our author here points out, the statement as to
these rude tribes having no religion arises from a difference of opinion as to what the term
religion means. Thus, most believe in dreams, and act as obediently and trustingly in
regard to their visions as did Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, and others. Many, without
believing in immortality, hold that the spirits of their departed friends linger round
their bodies; they say they have seen and spoken to them in their dreams, a proof of
immortality as good as most can advance. There is a difference, says Burton, between
ghosts and spirits; “some negroes believe in a present immaterial, ghostly (query,
aereal or spiritual) state,” but have no notion of a defined spiritual existence. The
distinction is fine, but of some importance in these hazy matters. That it is quite common
to convert the Great Ancestor into the Great Creator—a term we only apply to
God—we have continual evidences in the early histories of rude peoples; and once
started, of course the name God continues into the civilized stage, so that Bra, or
Adam—the Phallic emblem—in time, becomes Brahma, the Great God, and BRAHM,
the ineffable one. Thus Adam—the Phallus—is also the first man, or Creator; and
with Zulus, this “first man,” the Onkulun-Kula (Zulu?) is as near as an ignorant
Zulu can approach to the meaning, 2 “Creator” or God. The spokesman of a tribe said
to the Rev. Mr. Moffat, when he explained to them the attributes of the Christian’s
God, precisely what the Bedawins of Africa remarked to Burton: “Would that I could
catch it, I would transfix it with my spear”—which justifies to some extent the inference,
that men of free, independent, and good natural judgement, would reject Christianity
and the Jewish God; for, says Moffat, “this man’s judgement on other subjects
would command my attention.” 3 The question is thus raised as to what religion we
would all this day choose, were we quite free to do so.
Few rude peoples have troubled themselves about the creation of the world, nor have
wise men like Buddha or Confucius permitted their less enlightened followers to indulge
in such incomprehensible problems, discouraging all enquiry by recommending that
they should each try how best to perform the duties of his or her sphere. “What,” said
the Abipones, “have we to do with the creator and governor of the heavens and stars?”
1 Origin of Civil., p. 122.
2 The Rev. Canon Callaway, quoted in Lubbock’s Origin of Civil., p. 162. 3 Loc. Cit., p. 163.