The Belief in Immortality and the Worship of the Dead, Volume I | Page 2

of God, if it exists, only possible through
experience, 11 sq.; the nature of experience, 12 sq.; two kinds of
experience, an inward and an outward, 13 sq.; the conception of God
reached historically through both kinds of experience, 14; inward
experience or inspiration, 14 sq.; deification of living men, 16 sq.;
outward experience as a source of the idea of God, 17; the tendency to
seek for causes, 17 sq.; the meaning of cause, 18 sq.; the savage
explains natural processes by the hypothesis of spirits or gods, 19 sq.;
natural processes afterwards explained by hypothetical forces and
atoms instead of by hypothetical spirits and gods, 20 sq.; nature in
general still commonly explained by the hypothesis of a deity, 21 sq.;
God an inferential or hypothetical cause, 22 sq.; the deification of dead
men, 23-25; such a deification presupposes the immortality of the
human soul or rather its survival for a longer or shorter time after death,
25 sq.; the conception of human immortality suggested both by inward
experience, such as dreams, and by outward experience, such as the
resemblances of the living to the dead, 26-29; the lectures intended to
collect evidence as to the belief in immortality among certain savage
races, 29 sq.; the method to be descriptive rather than comparative or
philosophical, 30.
Lecture II.--The Savage Conception of Death
The subject of the lectures the belief in immortality and the worship of
the dead among certain of the lower races, p. 31; question of the nature
and origin of death, 31 sq.; universal interest of the question, 32 sq.; the
belief in immortality general among mankind, 33; belief of many
savages that death is not natural and that they would never die if their
lives were not cut prematurely short by sorcery, 33 sq.; examples of
this belief among the South American Indians, 34 sqq.; death
sometimes attributed to sorcery and sometimes to demons, practical
consequence of this distinction, 37; belief in sorcery as the cause of
death among the Indians of Guiana, 38 sq., among the Tinneh Indians
of North America, 39 sq., among the aborigines of Australia, 40-47,
among the natives of the Torres Straits Islands and New Guinea, 47,
among the Melanesians, 48, among the Malagasy, 48 sq., and among

African tribes, 49-51; effect of such beliefs in thinning the population
by causing multitudes to die for the imaginary crime of sorcery, 51-53;
some savages attribute certain deaths to other causes than sorcery, 53;
corpse dissected to ascertain cause of death, 53 sq.; the possibility of
natural death admitted by the Melanesians and the Caffres of South
Africa, 54-56; the admission marks an intellectual advance, 56 sq.; the
recognition of ghosts or spirits, apart from sorcery, as a cause of
disease and death also marks a step in moral and social progress, 57 sq.
Lecture III.--Myths of the Origin of Death
Belief of savages in man's natural immortality, p. 59; savage stories of
the origin of death, 59 sq.; four types of such stories:--
(1) The Story of the Two Messengers.--Zulu story of the chameleon and
the lizard, 60 sq.; Akamba story of the chameleon and the thrush, 61 sq.;
Togo story of the dog and the frog, 62 sq.; Ashantee story of the goat
and the sheep, 63 sq.
(2) The Story of the Waxing and Waning Moon.--Hottentot story of the
moon, the hare, and death, 65; Masai story of the moon and death, 65
sq.; Nandi story of the moon, the dog, and death, 66; Fijian story of the
moon, the rat, and death, 67; Caroline, Wotjobaluk, and Cham stories
of the moon, death, and resurrection, 67; death and resurrection after
three days suggested by the reappearance of the new moon after three
days, 67 sq.
(3) The Story of the Serpent and his Cast Skin.--New Britain and
Annamite story of immortality, the serpent, and death, 69 sq.; Vuatom
story of immortality, the lizard, the serpent, and death, 70; Nias story of
immortality, the crab, and death, 70; Arawak and Tamanchier stories of
immortality, the serpent, the lizard, the beetle, and death, 70 sq.;
Melanesian story of the old woman and her cast skin, 71 sq.; Samoan
story of the shellfish, two torches, and death, 72.
(4) The Story of the Banana.--Poso story of immortality, the stone, the
banana, and death, 72 sq.; Mentra story of immortality, the banana, and
death, 73.

Primitive philosophy in the stories of the origin of death, 73 sq.; Bahnar
story of immortality, the tree, and death, 74; rivalry for the boon of
immortality between men and animals that cast their skins, such as
serpents and lizards, 74 sq.; stories of the origin of death told by
Chingpaws, Australians, Fijians, and Admiralty Islanders, 75-77;
African and American stories of the fatal bundle or the fatal box, 77