Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/34

 2 2 Presidential Address,

general ideas of the natives upon relii^ious matters, it occurred to me to inquire what had caused them to believe in the first instance that a god or spirit dwelt in the tree. The evidence I collected at once exploded my former theory, and I learned then, for the first time, that the tree was merely planted to afford shade for a tutelary deity, that that deit)' was obtained from and appointed by one of the higher deities through tiie priests, and that the tree itself, apart from the deity, was an ordinary tree, and nothing more. This explanation was so much at variance with my former ideas, and with all I had heard and read upon the subject, that I received it with extreme caution ; and it was only after a series of enquiries extending over some months, that I suffered myself to be convinced that I had at last arrived at the truth."" The moral of this lies in the application thereof.

Again, in some modern treatises on the beliefs and usages of backward races I notice a tendency to accept more pre- cise definitions of myth and beliefs than, in the nature of things, are procurable. Writers who lack practical acquaint- ance with field work, and who are trained in the creeds and dogmatic theology of the higher religions, are naturally disposed to define savage beliefs in a series of formulae. But the trained explorer usually finds that, while the savage has a very clear knowledge of the social laws of his group, of the tabus which everywhere control his action, of the laws of marriage which it is often a matter of life and death to violate, he is unable, or has no desire, to formulate his religious views. So far as his religion is part and parcel of his social law, as is often the case, he shows little reticence. But, if the investigation be extended to magic, demonolog}-, and similar subjects which are the very bed-rock of his beliefs, he takes care to keep this side of his mental equip- ment concealed in a secret chamber of his brain to which no foreigner has access. Where we might e.x-pect to find


 * The Tshi-Speakiiifi Peoples of the Gold Coast of West Africa, pp. 1 84- 5.