Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/382

Rh 364 KELIGIONS they borrowed much from the Germanic, especially from the Scandinavian, mythology. It is highly probable that the other branches of the same ethnic family, the Mongolian and the Turkish, and the other members of the same branch, e.g., the Magyars, originally did not differ much from the Finnic in religious ideas and customs. Unfortunately we are here able to judge only by analogy, partly because we are but imper- fectly informed, partly because most of these nations have long been converted to Buddhism, Mohammedanism, and Christianity. Nor do we know in how far the Tibetans, Burmese, Siamese, and other peoples nearly related to the Chinese had originally a similar worship, as all of them are now faithful Buddhists. The question whether the religion of the primitive inhabitants of Mesopotamia (Sumer-Akkad) has any genea- logical relation to that of the Chinese and the Ural-Altaic family, as some scholars now try to prove, is not yet ripe for solution. Iskimo. The Aboriginal Religions of America. The religions of the Eskimo (Esquimantsic, Ashkimeg, as their Redskin neighbours call them) or Innuyt (i.e., "men," as they call themselves) should be clearly distinguished from those of the other American nations. Though some of their cus- toms and notions resemble those of the latter, there are others, and it would seem the most important, which are of the same character as those prevailing among the Ural- Altaians and Mongols. Now, as they belong ethnically to the Hyperborsean or Arctic nations, who inhabit not only the extreme north of America from east to west, but also the islands between the two continents and besides a part of the east of Siberia, and as these Hyperboreans are physically akin to the Mongolian race, we might suppose that the American elements in the Eskimo religion have been borrowed, and that it must be considered to have been originally a member of the Ural-Altaic family. Their division of the world of spirits into those of the sea, the fire, the mountains, and the winds, with Torngarsuk (chief of spirits), the heaven-god, as the highest, and their belief in the magical power of their sorcerers, the Angekoks, do not differ from those which characterize the Ural-Altaic religions. At any rate the religion of the Eskimo is the connecting link between the latter and those of the American aborigines. ther That all the other religions of North and South America imeri " are most closely allied is generally admitted, and is indeed eions t )e y n d doubt. Several myths, like those of the sun-hero, of the moon-goddess, of the four brothers (the winds), 1 are found in their characteristic American form among the most distant tribes of both continents. Some religious customs, scarcely less characteristic, such as the sweating bath, intended to cause a state of ecstasy, the ball-play, a kind of ordeal, the sorcery by means of the rattle, are all but generally practised. Fetichism and idolatry are much less developed among the Americans than among other uncivilized and semi-civilized races, but a marked tendency to gloomy rites and bloody self-torture is common to all. The American family of religions may be divided into the following principal groups. (1) Those of the Redskins of North America, from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico, all of whom have in common the worship of the great spirit (Kitche Manitoo, Michabo, Wahcon[da], Anduagni, Oki) who is the ghost of heaven, the highest wind-god, to whom all other spirits, even those of the sun and the moon, are 1 The myth of the four brothers is met with, e.g., among the Algonkins, the Mayas in Yucatan, the Tzendal branch of the Maya race, the Tarascos in Michoacan near Mexico, the Aztecs, by whom it is combined with that of Quetzalcoatl, all through North America, and even in Peru. See Brinton, Hero Myths, pp. 44, 162, 216, 208, 73, 179. subordinate; also the hero myth which has sprung from that belief, and the so-called totetnism, i.e., the adoption of a special tutelar genius, usually in animal form, for every individual family. (2) Those of the Aztec nuv, comprising the Aztecs, Toltecs, and Nahuas, who are spread from Vancouver's Island to Nicaragua. To this branch belongs that strange mixture of more elevated religious ideas and barbarous rites which was the state worship of the Mexican empire, but which for its purer elements was indebted to the conquered race, the Mayas (see MKXICO). (3) Those of the original inhabitants of the Antilles, to whom the Mayas in Yucatan and the Natchez between the Red River and the Mississippi seem to be nearly related. They are one of the most gifted nations of the American race, with an interesting mythology and highly-developed religious ideas, but perhaps weakened by civilization and therefore unable to withstand the more warlike barbarous tribes, by whpm they were finally sub- jugated. (4) That of the Muyscas (Chibchas) in South America. Originally they seem to have had the same worship as the Nicaraguans. At least the Nicaraguan god Fomagazdad, the creator of mankind and the consort of the moon-goddess, acts a part in the principal myth of the Muyscas, under the name of Fomagata. But after the latter had reached a higher stage of civilization they adored the god Bochika as its principal founder, and Fomagata became a dethroned tyrant, while the moon- goddess, now an evil deity, tried to spoil the beneficent works of Bochika. There is some likeness between their hierarchical political institutions and those of Peru, but they were never subjected to the power of the Incas, and it is not proved that they borrowed their culture from them. (5) Those of the Quichua, Aymara, and their rela- tives, which culminated in the sun worship of the Incas in Peru, spread by them throughout all the countries they conquered, and even reformed by some of them to a toler- ably pure and elevated theism (not monotheism, as Dr Brinton contends). This most interesting religion ranks highest among all the faiths of the two American con- tinents, those of Central America not excepted. This remarkable progress is not to be derived from the influence of foreign settlers, come from Asia or Europe, but is here, as well as in Central America, the product of natural growth favoured by happy circumstances. (6) Those of the warlike Caribs and Arowaks, extending along the whole of the north coast of South America, who subjugated the peaceful inhabitants of the Antilles to their rule. The Brazilian aborigines (Tupi-guaranos, Indios mansos), who form a distinct group, and the south-eastern and southern tribes (Abipones, Pampas Indians, Puelches, Pata- gonians or Tehuelches, Fuegians) have religious notions and customs quite in accordance with the low degree of their civilization. Only the Araucanians, though ethnic- ally the nearest relations of the Fuegians and perhaps of the Pampas Indians, have a somewhat advanced sun wor- ship, but seem to have been influenced by the ascendency of Peruvian culture. Lastly we come to the Malayo-Folynesian family of Ma religions. The primitive ethnic unity of this widely p scattered race, which, including the Micronesians and ne Melanesians, inhabits the islands in th& Great Pacific from Easter Island to the Pelew Archipelago, the East Indian Archipelago, and the Malay Peninsula, and to which belong the Hovas of Madagascar, has been established on sufficient evidence. As to their primitive religious unity we cannot be equally positive. The original religions of the Malay archipelago have given place first to Brahmanism and Buddhism, afterwards to Mohammedanism, lastly, though only sporadically, to Christianity. But, so far as we can judge from what has still survived of the aboriginal