Not content with Okeus, capital O and all, before the arrival of
missionaries; not content with Kiehtan, whose etymology (in 1871)
'apparently' means 'Great Spirit,' before the arrival of Jesuits in New
England, Mr. Tylor, in 'Primitive Culture,' adds to these deities 'the
Greenlanders' Torngarsuk, or Great Spirit (his name is an augmentative
of "torngak," "spirit" [in 1891 "demon"]),' before the arrival of
missionaries! For, says Mr. Tylor, 'he seems no figure derived from the
religion of Scandinavian colonists, ancient or modern.... He so clearly
held his place as supreme deity in the native mind that, as Cranz the
missionary alleges, many Greenlanders, hearing of God and His Almighty
power, were apt to fall on the idea that it was their Torngarsuk who
was meant.'[8]
Now, in 1891, Mr. Tylor dropped out 'he seems no figure derived from
the religion of Scandinavian colonists, ancient or modern;' and he
added that Torngarsuk was later identified, not with our God, but
with our Devil: a foible characteristic, I may say--as Mr. Tylor
said concerning Captain Smith and Oki--of 'a half-educated and
whole-prejudiced European.' For the Algonquin Indians Mr. Tylor cited
Father Le Jeune (1633): 'When the missionary talked to them of an
almighty creator of heaven and earth, they began to say to one another
Atahocan, Atahocan.' But his name had fallen into contempt and a verb,
_Nitatahocan_, meant 'I tell an old fanciful story.' In 1558 Thevet
credits the Canadian Indians with belief in 'a creator' Andouagni, not
approached with prayers. None of these beings can have been borrowed
from Europeans. It will presently be seen that between 1871 and 1892
Mr. Tylor became sceptical as to the records of a Great Spirit in
America. But he retained Oki in the sense of Supreme Deity.
Here, then, from Virginia to Greenland, Mr. Tylor presented in 1871
evidence for a being of supreme power, called bynames which, perhaps,
mean 'Great Spirit.' In his essay of 1892 he does not refer to his
earlier work and his evidence there for a Great Spirit, nor tell us
why he has changed his mind. He now attributes the Great Spirit to
missionary influence. We naturally ask in what respect he has found
the early evidence on which he previously relied lacking in value.
Mr. Tylor, in 'Primitive Culture,'[9] gives a yet earlier reference
than the others for a Virginian Creator. He cites Heriot (an author of
1586). Again: 'They believe in one who made all things, but pay him no
honour,' writes Père L'Allemant in 1626, in a region where 'il n'y ait
point eu de religieux.'
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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