236 Journal of American Folk-Lore.
Manning, based on his experience of 1845, an ^ of Mrs - Langloh Parker at the present time. As to the origin of morality, the only difference be- tween Mr. Lang and his critic is, that he sees natural affection as well as the interest of the strongest as a formative cause of the morality. The question is, whether man first conceived of an immoral medicine-man, and later on purified the conception, or whether he first imagined a good, kind Maker, and then degraded the idea. He asks for a case in which we know that a dirty old medicine-man was elevated into a " kind supreme being, guardian of tribal morality."
In a rejoinder, Mr. Hartland pointed out that Mr. Lang's qualified de- fence is a variation from the unconditional statements of his book ; one of his chief complaints against Mr. Lang's method is, that he has dwelt on one set of beliefs, turning away from another set as mere myths. As to the accounts of Mr. Manning and of Mrs. Langloh Parker, the coincidences are just sufficient to furnish further ground for inquiry. Mr. Hartland does not deny the existence of kinship affection in Australian morality ; but the main purpose of the mysteries is to promote discipline, and to preserve the social organization.
In reviewing this controversy, the grand lesson to be drawn is that differences of interpretation of savage intelligence arise from the imperfec- tion of record. Give us a complete and unadorned account of Australian mysteries, such as perhaps can still be procured by supplying investigators who will undergo initiation, with all the indecencies, savageries, and cruelties, with the sacred legends and songs as well as the rites in detail ; then we shall see just what degree of analogy to the higher faiths these present. It is all a question of money ; the students could be procured. But unluckily this generation still finds it easier to speculate on imperfect accounts, than to make even a small outlay for the purpose of learning the unadorned truth. As to recent observations, the imperfection of the methods still employed has been the subject of observation in this Journal ; pieced-out notes go a very little way toward elucidation.
In the work here under examination, it was the opinion of Mr. Lang, that animism, so far from offering an explanation of the phenomena of religion, comes in later on, as a force calculated to deform and degrade the purity of the original intuitions. A basis for this position will be found in the " Introduction to the History of Religion," by F. B. Jevons, who holds that inchoate monotheism is the earlier stage, which is back of the ritual of polytheistic gods (p. 391). This proposition is a deduction from the totem theory, in which it is assumed that a single tribe has properly only a single divine object of worship. To the mind of the writer of this notice, such doctrine is an unfounded assumption.
W. W. Newell.
The High History of the Holy Grail. (The Temple Classics.) Translated from the French by Sebastian Evans. London : J. M. Dent & Co. 1898. 2 vols. pp. 305, 298.
These little volumes, very charming in appearance, present an English
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