tion to current theories. It is also in contradiction with the
opinions entertained by myself before I made an independent examination
of the evidence. Like others, I was inclined to regard reports of a
moral Creator, who observes conduct, and judges it even in the next
life, as rumours due either to Christian influence, or to mistake. I
well know, however, and could, and did, discount the sources of error.
I was on my guard against the twin fallacies of describing all savage
religion as "devil worship," and of expecting to find a primitive
"divine tradition". I was also on my guard against the modern bias
derived from the "ghost-theory," and Mr. Spencer's works, and I kept an
eye on opportunities of "borrowing".(1) I had, in fact, classified all
known idola in the first edition of this work, such as the fallacy of
leading questions and the chance of deliberate deception. I sought the
earliest evidence, prior to any missionary teaching, and the evidence
of what the first missionaries found, in the way of belief, on their
arrival. I preferred the testimony of the best educated observers, and
of those most familiar with native languages. I sought for evidence in
native hymns (Maori, Zuni, Dinka, Red Indian) and in native ceremonial
and mystery, as these sources were least likely to be contaminated.

(1) Making of Religion, p. 187.

On the other side, I found a vast body of testimony that savages had no
religion at all. But that testimony, en masse, was refuted by Roskoff,
and also, in places, by Tylor. When three witnesses were brought to
swear that they saw the Irishman commit a crime, he offered to bring
a dozen witnesses who did NOT see him. Negative evidence of squatters,
sailors and colonists, who did NOT see any religion among this or
that race, is not worth much against evidence of trained observers and
linguists who DID find what the others missed, and who found more the
more they knew the tribe in question. Again, like others, I thought
savages incapable of such relatively pure ideas as I now believe some of
them to possess. But I could not resist the evidence, and I abandoned
my a priori notions. The evidence forcibly attests gradations in the
central belief. It is found in various shades, from relative potency
down to a vanishing trace, and it is found in significant proportion
to the prevalence of animistic ideas, being weakest where they are most
developed, strongest where they are least developed. There