Page:Myth, Ritual, and Religion (Volume 2).djvu/15



CHAPTER XII.

GODS OF THE LOWEST RACES.

Gods of Australia—Chiefly birds—Yet with moral interests—Bushmen gods—Cagn, the grasshopper—Hottentot gods—"Wounded knee," a dead sorcerer—Melanesian gods—Qat and the spider—Aht and Maori beast-gods and men-gods—Samoan form of totem-gods—One god incarnate in many animal shapes—One for each clan—They punish the eating of totems.

from the general to the particular, we may begin our sketch of mythical gods among undeveloped races with those of the natives of Australia. On so large a continent, peopled by tribes speaking so many different languages and dialects, it is to be expected that a considerable variety of myths will abound. But the natives of Australia were all, when discovered, and still (when uninfluenced by the teaching of missionaries) remain, on much the same low level of civilisation. The men, like the animals of this continent, appear in some respects to belong to an older