Very many peoples offer prayers to their ancestors and treat them as gods. The Kaffirs pray and sacrifice to their dead relatives, believing that the spirits of the dead haunt their late dwelling-places, and, according to their characters, help or torment their descendants. As they are able to cause good or evil after death, these play the part of gods. But, as Lubbock points out (“Origin of Civilisation”), it must be remembered that the god of a savage is only a being like unto himself, although probably rather more powerful, and I shall show that there are many intermediate stages between true gods and mere dead parents whose malice is to be feared, or whose kindness is to be supplicated. The North American Indians[187] pray to the spirits of their forefathers for good weather or luck in hunting, and fancy when an Indian falls into the fire that the ancestral spirits pushed him in to punish neglect of the customary gifts, while the natives of Louisiana are said to have even gone so far as to build temples for dead men. In Polynesia “at Tanna, the gods are spirits of departed ancestors, aged chiefs becoming deities after death, presiding over the growth of yams and fruit-trees, and receiving from the islanders prayer and offerings of first fruits.”[188] In the Malay Islands “the souls of deceased ancestors are looked to for prosperity in life and help in distress.” In Africa ancestor-worship is well developed. The Zulu warriors, “aided by the amatongo,’ the spirits of their ancestors, conquer in the battle. Even the little children and old women, of small account in life, become at death spirits having much power, the infants for kindness, the crones for malice. But it is especially the head of each family who receives the worship of his kin.”[189] The Zulu adores his father, when he is a chief, above all others, and is convinced that a father remembering his love for his children, will not forget them when he is dead. “The Zulu follows up the doctrine of divine ancestors till he reaches a first ancestor of man and creator of the world, the primeval Unkulunkulu.”[190] So great is the number of instances that it is too difficult to choose from them. The fundamental idea is always identical, although details and accessories vary, as one passes from the hardly idealised relatives of negro tribes and goes progressively to the “Father Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth” of the Nicene Creed. The conception of a future life in the form of immortality or some kindred state, associated with the conception of many gods or of one God, has been developed to satisfy the craving for life and to combat the fear of death, that is to say, to defeat the greatest contradiction in the constitution of man. I must now inquire how far the different religions have been successful in this object.