SAVAGE MODES OF PRAYER.

Wananga, Volume 5, Issue 48, 30 November 1878, Page 600

SAVAGE MODES OF PRAYER.

The Sioux Indians, abusing their Great Spirit for sending them storms, or the Kamscadals cursing Kutka for having created the mountains so high and the streams so rapid, exposed a state of thought relating to the gods which is most difficult to reconcile with the savages' habitual dread of them, but which is too well authenticated to admit of doubt. Franklin saw a Cree hunter tie an offering (a cotton hankerchief, looking-glass, tin-pan, some ribbon, and tobacco,) to the value of twenty skins round an image of the god Kepoocbikan, at the same time praying to him in a rapid monotomous tone to be propitious, explaining to him the value of his presents, and strongly cautioning him against ingratitude. If all the prayers and presents made to their god by tbe Taihitians to save their chiefs from dying proved in vain, his image was inexorably banished from the temple and destroyed. The Ostiaks of Siberia, if things went badly with them, would pull down from their place of honour in the hut and in every way maltreat the idols they generally honoured so much ;

the idols whose mouths were always so diligently smeared with fish fat, and within whose reach a constant supply of snuff lay always ready. The Chinese are said to do the same by their household gods, if for a long- time they are deaf to their prayers, and so do the Cingalese, so that the practice is more than an Impulsive manifestation of merely local feeling. That such feelings occasionally crop out in civilized Catholic countries is matter of more surprise, but it is an authenticated historical fact that the good people of Castelbranco, in Portugal, were once so an«ry with St. Anthony for letting the Spaniards plunder their town contrary to his agreement that they broke many of his statues in pieces, and taking the head off one they specially revered, substituted for it the head of St. Francis. Neapolitan fishermen are said to this day to throw their saints overboard if they do not help them in a storm ; and, if occasion calls for it, the images of the Virgin or St. Januarius, worn in Neapolitan caps, are in danger of being trodden under foot and destroyed: and once during a famine the latter saint received very clear intimation that unless corn came by a certain time he would forfeit his saintship. It is. perhaps, a refinement of thought when a present becomes an advisable accompaniment to a simple petition; but the principle of exchange once entered into, the relations between the man and the supernatural lead logically from the offerings of fruits and flowers to the sacrifice of animals and of men. Some Algonkin Indians, mistaking once a missionary for a god, and petitioning his mercy, begged him to let the earth yield them corn, the rivers fish, and to prevent sickness from slaying or hunger from tormenting them. Their request they backed with the offer of a pipe. The whole of the savages" philosophy of sacrifice is contained in this ridiculous incident. Prescott coming with some Indians to a lake they were to cross, saw his companions light their pipes and smoke by way of invoking the winds to be calm ; and the Huons offered a similar prayer with tobacco to a local god, saying, " Oki, thou who livest on this spot, we offer thee tobacco. Help us, save us from shipwreck, defend us from our enemies, give us good trade, and bring us safe back to our villages." In the Island of Tanna, the village priest, addressing the spirits of departed chiefs (thought to preside over the "xowth. of yams and fruits) after the first fruits of vegetation bad been deposited on a stone, on the branch of a tree, or on a rude altar of sticks, would pray, " Compassionate father, here is some food, eat it be kind to us on account of it;" and iij Samoa, too, a libation of ava at the evening meal was the offering, in return for which the father of a family ■would beg of the gods health and prosperity, productives for his plantations, and for his tx-ibe generally a strong and large population for war. In Fiji, again, •when the chief priests and leading men assembled to discuss public affairs in the yaquona or kava circle, the chief herald, as the water was poured into the kava after naming the gods for whom the libation •was prepared, would say, "Be gracious, ye lords, the gods, that the rain may cease, and the sun shine forths" and again, when the potion was ready, " Let the god ; he of a gracious mind, and send a wind from the east." — Gentlemen's Magazine.