Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/247

 Bibliographical Notes. 235

animistic doctrine ; this is, that the idea of God as, to use the writer's words, " a primal eternal being, author of all things, the father and friend of man, the invisible, omniscient guardian of morality, belongs to the lowest savages, who reverence this supreme deity without idol-worship or sacrifice, as immutable, impeccable, all-seeing, benevolent, and lovable. To establish a doctrine so widely different from received opinion, one would expect to find an elaborate examination of savage morality in its higher aspect ; but the scope of inquiry is limited, the most important part of the examination being concerned with Australians as examples of the lowest intelligence, and with their mysteries.

The views of Mr. Lang are traversed by Mr. E. S. Hartland in " Folk- Lore" (December, 1898). With his usual clearness and common sense, Mr. Hartland points out that the true character of Australian divine per- sonages widely differs from the quality required by the theory. Thus Daramulun, patron of the Murring tribes, lived on earth, died, and now dwells with ghosts in the sky. He had a wife who was an emu, and he himself seems to have had progeny, and to be indeed a tribal ancestor. He presides over a cruel initiation rite, involving cannibalistic features, the youths being at times bitten to death. The idea that religious belief is quite a different thing from myth, Mr. Hartland maintains, is not to be allowed ; myths are essentially sacred, although shifting beliefs. Of crea- tion, in the Hebrew sense, savage cosmogony is ignorant ; the so-called creators find the actual universe already in existence. As to moral char- acter, the chief Australian spirits are little better than apotheoses of the wizard. Mr. Lang regards the five precepts laid on neophytes of the Kurnai as being in essence parallel with Hebrew commandments ; but Mr. Hartland considers them as quite other in scope. The injunction to obey elders is intended to strengthen the power of the old men ; that to live in peace with friends is a remnant of Gentile custom ; to share with those who are friendly is equally a survival of tribal communism; not to interfere with married women is an injunction appropriate to a society which has recently emerged from group marriage ; to refrain from forbid- den food is a rule avowedly dependent on superstition. In general, in order to comprehend Australian life, it is necessary to put aside Christian and civilized conceptions.

To these criticisms Mr. Lang, in the following number of " Folk-Lore," responded in a moderate tone, affirming that his intention had been only to affirm, that the concept of an immortal and holy deity had been among the religious conceptions of early man, who associated with this belief ideas quite contradictory. He maintained that the notions of divine power, goodness, and generosity might easily occur, even to savages. In the use of the term Our Father to denote the chief deity, love is implied. In primitive religion appear what we call rational factors ; the fancy con- nected with the presentation, degrading the purity of the conceptions, resulted in myth, abounding in elements which to us are irrational. The probability of European influence in producing the higher Australian notions he minimizes, pointing out correspondences in the accounts of Mr.

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