the religion of the
negroes (p. 61). Mr. Muller then goes on to prove that 'no religion
consists of fetichism only,' choosing his examples of higher elements in
negro religion from the collections of Waitz. It is difficult to see
what bearing this has on his argument. De Brosses (p. 20) shows that
_he_, at least, was well aware that many negro tribes have higher
conceptions of the Deity than any which are implied in fetich-worship.
Even if no tribe in the world is exclusively devoted to fetiches, the
argument makes no progress. Perhaps no extant tribe is in the way of
using unpolished stone weapons and no others, but it does not follow that
unpolished stone weapons are not primitive. It is just as easy to
maintain that the purer ideas have, by this time, been reached by aid of
the stepping-stones of the grosser, as that the grosser are the
corruption of the purer. Mr. Max Muller constantly asserts that the
'human mind advanced by small and timid steps from what is intelligible,
to what is at first sight almost beyond comprehension' (p. 126). Among
the objects which aided man to take these small and timid steps, he
reckons rivers and trees, which excited, he says, religious awe. What he
will not suppose is that the earliest small and timid steps were not
unaided by such objects as the fetichist treasures--stones, shells, and
so forth, which suggest no idea of infinity. Stocks he will admit, but
not, if he can help it, stones, of the sort that negroes and Kanekas and
other tribes use as fetiches. His reason is, that he does not see how
the scraps of the fetichist can appeal to the feeling of the Infinite,
which feeling is, in his theory, the basis of religion.

After maintaining (what is readily granted) that negroes have a religion
composed of many elements, Mr. Muller tries to discredit the evidence
about the creeds of savages, and discourses on the many minute shades of
progress which exist among tribes too often lumped together as if they
were all in the same condition. Here he will have all scientific
students of savage life on his side. It remains true, however, that
certain elements of savage practice, fetichism being one of them, are
practically ubiquitous. Thus, when Mr. Muller speaks of 'the influence
of public opinion' in biassing the narrative of travellers, we must not
forget that the strongest evidence about savage practice is derived from
the 'undesigned coincidence' of the testimonies of all so