VII.

(Lecture II., page 33.)

SAVAGE NOTIONS OF EVIL.

The following illustrative passages are from Sir John Lubbock’s well-known volume on the ‘Origin of Civilisation and the Primitive Condition of Man’ (3d ed.):—

“The Hottentots, according to Thunberg, have very vague ideas about a good Deity. ‘They have much clearer notions about an evil spirit, whom they fear, believing him to be the occasion of sickness, death, thunder, and every calamity that befalls them.’ The Bechuanas attribute all evil to an invisible god, whom they call Murimo, and ‘never hesitate to show their indignation at any ill experienced, or any wish unaccomplished, by the most bitter curses.’”—P. 212.

“The Abipones of South America, so well described by Dobritzhoffer, had some vague notions of an evil spirit, but none of a good one. The Coroados of Brazil ‘acknowledge no cause of good, or no God, but only an evil principle, which . . . leads him astray, vexes him, brings him into difficulty and danger, and even kills him.’”—P. 213.

“When Burton spoke to the Eastern negroes about the Deity, they eagerly asked where he was to be found, in order that they might kill him; for they said, ‘Who but he lays waste our homes, and kills our wives and cattle?’”—P. 214.