In this people, religious ideas are exceedingly primitive and indefinite. They seem to propitiate nature, however, when they wish rain, for they offer up to the rain-spirit votive offerings of bananas, grain, and beer, which they place beneath the trees. This seems to be their only religious rite according to Gregory, who, in all probability is in error. For, in the next sentence, he informs us that these negroes practice circumcision. He thinks that they perform this operation for sanitary reasons, “as the natives have continually to ford streams and wade through swamps abounding in the larvæ of Bilharzia haematuria, the rite no doubt lessens the danger of incurring hæmaturia.”¹⁸ This is bestowing upon ignorant and savage negroes a psychical acuteness which far transcends that of the laity of civilized races! What do the Wa-kamba know of sanitation, hæmaturia, and the larva of Bilharzia!¹⁹ Circumcision among these people always occurs at puberty, and is, unquestionably, a phallic rite. Parenthetically, it may be stated here that a few of the primitive peoples still in existence appear to have grasped the idea of the life-giving principle, and to have established worship of the functio generationis without having experienced certain preliminary psychical stages necessary for its evolution from nature-worship. I believe, however, that this is apparent and not real; nature-worship, very probably, at one time existed among all these people.

The Kikuyu have a very elaborate system of theogony, in which all of the phenomena of nature with which they are acquainted are deified. A goat is invariably sacrificed to the sun when they set out on a journey, and its blood is carried along and sprinkled on the paths and bridges in order to appease the spirits of the forest and the river.

Stuhlmann places this tribe among the Bantu; from the evidence of other observers, however, they seem to be Nilotic Hamites, and belong properly to the Masai.²⁰ This would account for the similarity of method in circumcision, which, among both Kikuyu and Masai, is incomplete. Johnston calls attention to this very peculiar method and describes it minutely in a Latin foot-note.²¹

The Masai are mixed devil, nature, and phallic worshipers; the last mentioned cult being evolved, beyond question, from nature-worship. It may be set down as an established fact that, where nature-worship does not exist in some form or other among primitive peoples, phallic worship is likewise absent. Indeed, such peoples generally have no religious feeling whatever. They may have some shadowy idea of an evil spirit like the “Aurimwantya dsongo ngombe auri kinemu,” the Old Man of the Woods²² of the Wa-pokomo, but that is all.

Carl Lumholtz, writing of the Australians, says: “The Australian blacks do not, like many other savage tribes, attach any ideas of divinity to the sun or moon. On one of our expeditions the full moon rose large and red over the palm forest. Struck by the splendor of the scene, I pointed at the moon and asked my companions, ‘Who made it?’ They answered, ‘Other blacks.’ Thereupon I asked, ‘Who made the sun?’ and got the same answer. The natives also believe that they themselves can produce rain, particularly with the help of wizards. To produce rain they call milka. When on our expeditions we were overtaken by violent tropical storms, my blacks always became enraged at the strangers who had caused the rain.”²³ In regard to their belief in the existence of a double or soul, the same author sums up as follows: “Upon the whole, it may be said that these children of nature are unable to conceive a human soul independent of the body, and the future life of the individual lasts no longer than his physical remains.”²⁴ Mr. Mann, of New South Wales, who, according to Lumholtz, has made a thirty years’ study of the Australians, says that the natives have no religion whatever, except fear of the “devil-devil.”²⁵ Another writer, and one abundantly qualified to judge, says that they acknowledge no supreme being, have no idols, and believe only in an evil spirit whom they do not worship. They say that this spirit is afraid of fire, so they never venture abroad after dusk without a fire-stick.²⁶

“I verily believe we have arrived at the sum total of their religion, if a superstitious dread of the unknown can be so designated. Their mental capacity does not admit of their grasping the higher truths of pure religion,” says Eden.²⁷ It is simply an inherent fear of the unknown; the natural, inborn caution of thousands of years of inherited experiences.

In these savages we see a race whose psychical status is so low in the intellectual scale that they have not evolved any idea of the double or soul. The mental capacity of the Australians, I take it, is no lower than was that of any race (no matter how intellectual it may be at the present time) at one period of its history. All races have a tendency toward psychical development under favorable surroundings; it has been a progress instead of a decadence, a rise instead of a fall! Evolution has not ceased; nor will it end until Finis is written at the bottom of Time’s last page.

There are yet other people who believe in the supernatural, yet who have no idea of immortality. When Gregory ascended the glacier of Mount Kenya, the water froze in the cooking-pots which had been filled over night. His carriers were terribly alarmed by the phenomenon, and swore that the water was bewitched! The explorer scolded them for their silliness and bade them set the pots on the fire, which, having been done, “the men sat round and anxiously watched; when it melted they joyfully told me that the demon was expelled, and I told them they could now use the water; but as soon as my back was turned they poured it away, and refilled their pots from the adjoining brook.”²⁸

Stanley declares that no traces of religious feeling can be found in the Wahuma. “They believe most thoroughly in the existence of an evil influence in the form of a man, who exists in uninhabited places, as a wooded, darksome gorge, or large extent of reedy brake, but that he can be propitiated by gifts; therefore the lucky hunter leaves a portion of the meat, which he tosses, however, as he would to a dog, or he places an egg, or a small banana, or a kid-skin, at the door of the miniature dwelling, which is always at the entrance to the zeriba.”²⁹

This observer shows that he does not know the true meaning of the word religion; the example that he gives demonstrates the fact that these negroes do have religious feeling. The simple act of offering propitiatory gifts to the “evil influence” is, from the very nature of the deed, a religious observance. Furthermore, these savages have charms and fetiches innumerable, which, in my opinion, are relics of nature-worship. The miniature house mentioned by Stanley is common to the majority of the equatorial tribes, and seems to be a kind of common fetich; i. e., one that is enjoyed by the entire tribe. It is mentioned by Du Chaillu, Chaillé Long, Stanley, and many others.³⁰

Du Chaillu tells of one tribe, the Bakalai, in which the women worship a particular divinity named Njambai.³¹ This writer is even more inexact than Stanley, hence, we get very little scientific data from his voluminous works. From what he says of Njambai,³² I am inclined to believe that he is a negro Priapus; this, however, is a conjectural belief and has no scientific warrant.

The Tucuña Indians of the Amazon Valley, who resemble the Passés, Jurís, and Muahés in physical appearance and customs, social and otherwise, are devil-worshipers. They are very much afraid of the Jupari, or devil, who seems to be “simply a mischievous imp, who is at the bottom of all those mishaps of their daily life, the causes of which are not very immediate or obvious to their dull understandings. The idea of a Creator or a beneficent God has not entered the minds of these Indians.”³³

The Peruvians, at the time of the Spanish conquest, worshiped nature; that is, the sun was deified under the name of Pachacamac, the Giver of Life, and was worshiped as such. The Inca, who was his earthly representative, was likewise his chief priest, though there was a great High Priest, or Villac Vmu, who stood at the head of the hierarchy, but who was second in dignity to the Inca.³⁴ The moon, wife of the sun, the stars, thunder, lightning, and other natural phenomena were also deified. But, as it invariably happens, where nature-worship is allowed to undergo its natural evolution, certain elements of phallic worship had made their appearance. These I will discuss later on.

The great temple of the sun was at Cuzco, “where, under the munificence of successive sovereigns, it had become so rich that it received the name of Coricancha, or ‘the Place of Gold.’”³⁵ According to the relacion of Sarmiento, and the commentaries of Garcilasso and other Spanish writers, this building, which was surrounded by chapels and smaller edifices, and which stood in the heart of the city, must have been truly magnificent with its lavish adornments of virgin gold!

Unlike the Aztecs, a kindred race of people, the Peruvians rarely sacrificed human beings to their divinities, but, like the religion of the former, the religion of the latter had become greatly developed along ceremonial lines, as we will see later on in this essay.

It is a far cry from Peru to Japan, from the Incas to the Ainus, yet these widely separated races practiced religions that were almost identical in point of fundamental principles. Both worshiped nature, but the Peruvians were far ahead of the Ainus in civilization, and their religion, as far as ritual and ceremony are concerned, far surpassed that of the “Hairy Men” when viewed from an æsthetic standpoint. Ethically, I am inclined to believe the religion of the Ainus is just as high as was that of the Incas.

Literature is indebted to the Rev. John Batchelor for that which is, probably, the most readable book that has ever been published about these interesting people; from a scientific standpoint, however, this work is greatly lacking. Many ethnologists and anthropologists considered the Ainu autochthonic to Japan; I am forced to conclude from the evidence, however, that he is an emigrant, and that he came originally from North China or East Siberia. Be he emigrant or indigene, one thing is certain, namely, that he has been an inhabitant of the Japanese Archipelago for thousands of years. The oldest book in the Japanese language has this in it anent the Ainus: “When our august ancestors descended from heaven in a boat, they found upon this island several barbarous races, the most fierce of whom were the Ainu.”³⁶

The Ainu is probably the purest type of primitive man in existence. I had been led to believe by the work of Miss Bird³⁷ that these people were on a par with the Australians, and that they had no religious ideas whatever. (Vogt seems to advance this conclusion also,³⁸ while De Quatrefages^{39 40} appears to have omitted this people from his tabulation. Peschel places them among the Giliaks on the Lower Amoor, and the inhabitants of the Kurile Islands.⁴¹ These tribes are mixed nature, devil, and phallic worshipers.) Batchelor, however, shows very clearly that these people do have a religion, and that this religion is highly developed.

Their chief god, or rather goddess (for the Ainus regard the female as being higher than the male as far as gods are concerned), is the sun.⁴² Like the Peruvians, they regard the sun as the Creator, but they are unlike them in the fact that they think that they cannot reach the goddess by direct appeal. She must be addressed through intermediaries or messengers. These messengers, the goddess of the fire, the goddess of the water, etc., are in turn addressed through the agency of inao, or prayer-sticks. This intermediary idea is curiously like some practices of the Roman Catholic church, or, rather, of communicants, who get the saints to carry their petitions to God.

The inao are peculiar, inasmuch as nothing exactly like them is known. The feather prayer-plumes of some of the Western Indians are used for like purposes, but these are offered directly to the Great Spirit, and not to intermediaries. “Inao, briefly described, are pieces of whittled willow wood, having the shavings attached to the top.”⁴³ Like the Aleutians, when these people kill a bear or other wild animal, they propitiate its spirit by bestowing upon it the most fulsome compliments, and, like the religion of these Indians, the religion of the Ainus has developed along natural lines, and shows certain phallic elements.

We see from the examples here given, that religious feeling had its origin in the idea of propitiation; in fact, that it was born in fear, and by fear was it fostered. We see, furthermore, that man was not created with religious feeling as a psychical trait, but that he acquired it later on. We see, finally, that religious feeling is based, primarily and fundamentally, on one of the chief laws of nature—self-protection. The evolution and growth of Ethics demonstrate this beyond peradventure.

It is not at all probable that man in the beginning, just after his evolution from his ape-like ancestor, had, at first, any belief whatever in supernatural agencies. In his struggle for existence, all of his powers were directed toward the procurement of his food and the preservation of life; the pithecoid man was only a degree higher than the beasts in the scale of animal life. His psychic being, as yet, remained, as it were, in ovo, and a long period of time must have elapsed before he began to formulate and to recognize a system of theogony. After years of experience, during which the laws of heredity and progressive evolution played prominent parts, he took precedence over other animals, and his struggle for existence became easier. He then had time to study the wonderful and, to him, mysterious phenomena of nature. His limited knowledge could not explain the various natural operations by which he was surrounded, therefore he looked upon them as being mysterious and supernatural. His psychical being became active and inquiring, to satisfy which he created a system of gods which was founded on natural phenomena. At first, the gods of primitive man were, probably, few in number, and the chief god of all was the sun. Man early recognized the sun’s importance in the economy of nature; this beautiful star, rising in the east in the morning, marching through the heavens during the day, and sinking behind the western horizon in the evening, must have been, to the awakening soul of man, a source of endless conjecture and debate. What was more natural than his making the sun the greatest god in his system of theogony? Man recognized in him the source of all life, and, when he arrived at an age when he could use abstract ideation in formulating his religion, he deified the life-giving function as he noticed it in himself; he began to worship the generative principle. Solar worship and its direct descendant, phallic worship, at one time or another were the religions of almost every race on the face of the globe. Solar worship, owing to its material quality, has long since been abandoned by civilized man; but phallic worship, the first abstract religion evolved by man, has taken deeper root; its fundamental principles are still present, though they have their seat in our subliminal consciousness, and we are, therefore, not actively conscious of their existence. But before entering on the discussion of this last point, let us turn for a time to a study of phallic worship.