'Nothing is more easy than to inquire of heathen savages the nature of
their creed, and during the conversation to impart to them great truths
and ideas which they never heard before, and presently to have these
come back to one as articles of their own original faith....'[17]
But Kolb's Hottentots, as Dr. Callaway notes, say that Ticquoa 'is a
good _man_' They did not get that from Kolb, or any missionary: as I
have said it is the regular preanimistic savage theory, as in Australia
and the Andaman Isles. Later investigations down to Hahn tell us of
Tsui Goab, 'wounded knee,' a Hottentot being who is only an idealised
medicine-man. Shaw says that 'the _older_ Kaffirs used to speak of
Umdali, the Creator;' but Moffat found no trace of anything higher
than Morimo, another mythical first ancestor, who came out of the
earth. Livingstone asserts just the reverse. 'There is no necessity
for beginning to tell even the most degraded of these people of the
existence of God, or of a future state, the facts being universally
admitted.'[18] As to the Bechuana Morimo, Mr. Hartland gives the
etymology of his name: it is said to be derived from _gorimo_, above,
with the singular prefix _mo_. It would thus mean 'Him who is above.'
But why, then, did Morimo come out of a hole in the earth? Was he once
'He who is above,' and was he confused with the first man? The plural,
_Barimo,_ seems to mean the spirits of the dead. Molsino, _teste_
Cassilis, is used for an ancestral ghost. Mr. Hartland is 'inclined to
regard Morimo not as a once supreme deity fading away, but as a god in
process of becoming.'[19] I feel that I have no grounds whereon to base
even a conjecture.
A curious piece of evidence by Dr. Callaway is given in a note not in
his book. One Zulu account is that Unkulunkulu was created by Utikxo.
Now Unkulunkulu was visible, Utikxo was invisible, and so was more
prominent and popular.'[20] Thus regarded, Unkulunkulu is the demiurge
and deputy of Utikxo, as sometimes are Daramulun, Tundun, Hobamok,
Okee, Bobowissi, the deputies of Baiame, Mungan-ngaur, Kiehtan, Ahone,
Nyankupon, and so on. The idea is usual in savage theologies. Now Dr.
Callaway cites the evidence of another Zulu: I We had this word before
the missionaries came; we had God (Utikxo) long ago; for a man when
dying would utter his last words, saying, "I am going home; I am going
up on high." For there is a word in a song which says:
Guide me, O Hawk!
That I may go heavenward,
To seek the one-hearted man,
Away from double-hearted men,
Who deal in blessing and cursing.
We see, then, that those people used to speak of a matter of the
present time, which we clearly understand by the word which the
missionaries teach us.... So we say there is no God' (no new God) 'who
has just come to us.' Dr. Callaway explains: 'That God of whom the
missionaries speak is not a new God, but the same God of whom we spoke
by the terms Ukqamata and Utikxo.'[21]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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