The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1932, Page 124

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Ses trees, in the jungle, and in other places.

124-

THE LUTHERAN PIONEER

natural powers is the essence and central force of
heathenism, together with the belief that good and
evil powers can be made favorable and submissive
by means of magic and of sacrifice.” (Jellinghaus,
Die Kols, p. 38.) ‘The superstition of the Kols
and their fear of demons are shown in their belief
that almost every mountain, river, pond, road, or
village has an evil bonga (demon, devil), who seeks
to inflict all kinds of injury and who torments
people through their great eagerness for offerings.’
The Kols, naturally so cheerful and joyous, often
get a dark, desperate look under the burden of their
sacrifices to demons and in their desperation take a
drink. The whole life of the Kols is interwoven
with fear of evil spirits. They feel themselves
threatened by them everywhere, for their number
is legion. Fear of the bongas deprives them of all
courage and cripples their power. The life of the
inhabitants of Nias is dominated by fear of the
spirits of their ancestors. The Dyaks of Borneo
are impelled by fear to worship evil spirits (saniang,
hantu) and are afraid of the spirits of the dead.
The Mentawey islanders are afraid of the sianitu,
evil demons, who are appeased by sacrifices. The
Alfurus on Celebes are afraid of evil spirits, espe-
cially the spirits of the dead. The Sumbanese are
completely dominated by the same fear. The
Papuans worship ancestors and also dreaded spirits,
whose number is very great. The Karens in farther
India and the inhabitants of the Bismarck Archi-
pelago are dominated by the same fear of spirits.
Among the Hindus also the power of heathenism
consists not only in the spirit of caste, but also in
the belief in sorcery, spells, maledictions, and en-
chantments by the directions of the Brahmanical
books. ‘

-“Fear also rules in the religions of Africa,
whose spirit-worship is closely related to Indonesian
Animism. In West Africa all diseases are traced
back to evil spirits, of whom the world is full. The
worship of the Ewe is given to the spirits and is
determined by fear, as the spirits have always evil
designs against men. Wurm says that the Sudan
and Bantu Negroes practise the same demon-
worship. The more they fear ancestors and the
losangos, the evil spirits, the less they fear God.

From these ancestors and evil spirits comes all evil.

The Dinkas in Sudan live in constant fear of the
jorks, evil spirits, who are supposed to dwell in
The
fereros believe that evil spirits govern this earth.
in every misfortune and distress they are

afraid of the dangerous influence of their ancestors
and have an enormous number of sacrifices, whose
sole motive is the fear of spirits. The sacrifices
at birth, circumcision, and confinement owe their
origin and their continuance to this fear. The sacri-
ficial cult, nay, the whole religious views and usages
of the Hereros are only too eloquent a testimony
to the fact that of them as of all heathen the. words
of the apostle hold good that they are all their life-
time in bondage through the fear of death. Besides
of ancestors they are afraid of other dead persons
and hideous evil spirits, and in every illness they
see some enchantment. The Waganda are afraid
of evil spirits; indeed, they occupy the central place
in their religious life— spirits of nature (lubare)
and spirits of ancestors (mulimu). Hence the
Waganda are in the highest degree superstitious,
even the enlightened Kabaka Mtesa being no ex-
ception to this rule. Missionary Roesler has de-
voted an essay to ‘fear in the life of the Shambalas,’
in which he shows that the religious life of the
Shambalas is entirely determined by fear. Above
all they are afraid of the envious, malicious dead.
‘For he [the ancestor spirit] is greedy and takes
pleasure in hurting men, visiting them and their
cattle with all manner of disease, with locusts, and
smallpox, and bringing misfortune on the land.’
That is how matters stand among all Bantu tribes.
We read of the Kambas: ‘The influence which they
[the dead] exercised when in the body continues;
nay, it seems as if the power of the dead over the
life of his descendants is greater than when he
lived, and it is greater there than it was here upon
earth. The main point is that the spirits are
jealously determined not to be overlooked. They
demand their share of all that is going on, especially
in joyous events, else they will bring misfortune
on their descendants.’ The Bush Negroes of Suri-
nam are enslaved by fear and worship of the spirits
of the departed (jorkas).

“Tt is a dismal picture that is unrolled before
our eyes —every heathen a slave of fear, with no
joy in life, but bondage everywhere. But fear
reigns beyond the bounds of the low animistic re-
ligions. The deeper religious speculations of the
civilized peoples of Asia have failed to drive away
this specter. A highly educated Hindu, a Tamil
interpreter of the Kural, depicts the feelings that
seize him who approaches an idol. His hair stands
on end through fear, tears flow from his eyes, and
his body trembles. Earnest Tamils assure us that
they themselves have experienced this dread.”