It is rare, in anthropological speculations, to light on a topic in which verifiable dates occur. The dates of the arrivals of missionaries and other Europeans, the dates of Mr. Hale's book, of Mr. Threlkeld's books, of Mr. Ridley's primer, are definite facts, not conjectures in the air. While this array of facts remains undemolished, science cannot logically argue that the superior beings of low savage belief are borrowed from Christian teachers and travellers. That idea is disproved also by the esoteric and hidden nature of the beliefs, and by the usual, though not universal, absence of prayer. The absence of prayer again, and of sacrifice, proves that gods not bribed or implored were not invented as powerful givers of good things, because good things were found not to be procurable by magic. This condition of belief is not what a European, whatever his bias, expects to find. He does not import this kind of ideas. If they are all misreports, due to misunderstandings in America and Australia from 1558 to 1898, what is the value of anthropological evidence? It ought to be needless to add that when good observers like Miss Kingsley find traces of Jesuit or other missionary teaching in regions, as Africa or Canada, where Jesuits actually taught in the past, I accept their decision.[43] My arguments against the theory of borrowing apply chiefly to cases where the beliefs reported were found already extant by the first white observers, to tribes where missionaries like Mr. Threlkeld could not introduce their names for deity, and to tribes which jealously conceal their theology from the whites. [1] _Natives of Central Australia_, London, 1899. [2] With a case of ignoring the evidence I deal in the following essay, _Magic and Religion_. [3] _Op. cit_. p. 284. [4] Le Jeune, _Relations_, 1633, p. 17. [5] _Ibid_., 1637, p. 49. [6] _Prim. Cult_. ii. 310. [7] _Historic of Travaile into Virginia_. By William Strachey, Gent, (a companion of Captain Smith). Hakluyt Society. Date _circ_.1612-1616. See _Myth, Ritual, and Religion_, i. xx-xxxix, 1899. [8] _Prim. Cult_. ii. p. 308. [9] _Prim. Cult_. ii. pp. 309, 310 (1873 and 1891). [10] _Prim. Cult_. ii. p. 308. [11] Howitt, _Journal of Anthropological Institute_, 1884, 1885. [12] _United States Exploring Expedition. Ethnology and Philology_ p. 110. [13] Ridley, _Kamilaroi Vocabularies_, p. 17 (1875). Also in an earlier Grammar, 1866. [14] _The Life and Adventures of William Buckley_, 1852, pp. 40-48. [15] Howitt, _J. A. I_., 1885. The Kurnai tribe. [16] Backhouse, _Narrative of a Visit to the Australian Colonies_, 1843, p. 555. Compare Threlkeld, _An Australian Language_, 1892, p. 47. This is a reprint of Mr. Threlkeld's early works of 1831-1857. [17] _Op. cit_. p. 47. [18] _Journal Anthrop. Inst_., 1885. [19] He was supposed to live on an island, on fish which came at his call, probably a childlike answer to a tedious questioner. [20] _Exploring Expedition of U. S_., 1846, p. 110.