Les noms de nombre se rattacheraient de très-près aux pronoms, s'il fallait ajouter foi aux vues ingénieuses que M. Lepsius lui-même, dans la seconde des dissertations précitées, a émises sur ce sujet. Enfin, quelque étrange que puisse paraître un emprunt portant sur des éléments linguistiques aussi essentiels, on n'ose regarder un tel emprunt comme impossible, quand on voit le pehlvi (dont la réalité comme langue parlée n'est pas, il est vrai, bien certaine) offrir des pronoms, des noms de nombre, des prépositions, des conjonctions sémitiques, à côté d'éléments non moins fondamentaux appartenant aux idiomes iraniens.'

APPENDIX II.

Religions of the barbarous tribes of Africa.

(See above, pp. 22, 23.)

THE special interest attaching at the present day to explorations in that mighty tract of unknown country, which is vaguely termed the highlands and lowlands of Central Africa, induces me to add a few brief notes on some remarkable analogies which may be traced between the aspects of religion there and in the other parts of heathendom. I do so from a further wish to illustrate, as far as may be, the religious condition of Egypt anterior to the coming of that second race of immigrants who stamped a widely different character on many of her sacred institutions.

The great work of Dr Livingstone has pointed here and there to some remote connexion in primeval ages between Egypt and South-Central Africa. Thus, the animal-worship of the Old Egyptians, which had ever formed their strongest and most startling peculiarity in the eyes of Greece and Rome (see above, pp. 55 sq.) is traceable as far southward as the Bechuana tribes. These tribes are also named after certain animals. 'The term Bakatla means, "they of the monkey;" Bakuena, "they of the alligator;" Batlápi, "they of the fish," each tribe having a superstitious dread of the animal after which it is called... A tribe never eats the animal which is its namesake, using the term ila, "hate" or "dread," in reference to killing it' (Missionary Travels, p. 13: cf. above, pp. 57, 70). Prichard, in like manner, has collected observations bearing upon this point from earlier travellers in South Africa: 'If a person has been killed by an elephant, they offer a sacrifice, apparently to appease the demon supposed to have actuated the animal. One who kills by accident a makem, or Balearic crane, or a brom-vogel, a species of tucan, must offer a calf in atonement. Sometimes they imagine that a shulúga, or spirit, resides in a particular ox [cf. the Apis of Egypt, above, p. 57, and n. 3], and propitiate it by prayers when going on hunting expeditions: Researches, II. 289. From the Rev. J. Shooter's Kafirs of Natal and the Zulu Country, Lond. 1857, we have learned, again, not only that serpents and some other reptiles are there regarded as 'incarnations of spirits

departed' (p. 162), but also that Zulus are very scrupulous in abstaining from the flesh of a particular group of animals (p. 215), some of which, however, as in different nomes of ancient Egypt, are eaten freely by their neighbours.

Dr Livingstone has further drawn attention to the fact that striking coincidences exist between the customs of Egypt and Central Africa, e. g. in pounding maize (p. 196), in dressing the hair (pp. 304, 443), in spinning and weaving (pp. 399, 400), and other matters but one of the most important links supplied by him for drawing together the first populations of the two districts will be found in his comparison of the African dialects with the language of the Old Egyptians. He thinks it nearly certain (1) that all the tongues now spoken to the South of the Equator, with the exception of the Bush or Hottentot, are strictly homogeneous, and (2) that the Sichuana tongue, as now elevated by the powerful Bechuana chieftains, bears, in structure, very close resemblance to the language of Egyptian monuments. He has handled this subject in a small unpublished work, for some knowledge of which I am indebted to the valuable edition of Dr Livingstone's Cambridge Lectures, by the Rev. William Monk (Camb. 1858), pp. 106--121.

But, to my own mind, the most conclusive testimony flowing from late researches of Dr Livingstone may readily be brought to bear upon a somewhat larger question, viz. the affinity in thought and feeling and traditions between the natives of Central Africa and the primitive layer of human population, not in Egypt only, but in other and far-distant countries. As Dr Livingstone was himself, apparently, unconscious of any such relationship, his observations will of course possess the greater value. I shall cite a few examples; at the same time illustrating Dr Livingstone's account by references to the Third Part of this work, and by adducing, here and there, the testimony of other writers.

The African idea of God. According to the verdict of early travellers in Southern Africa, the natives of that region were esteemed 'the most brutal and barbarous in the world, neither worshipping God nor any idol;' and the general absence of all forms of public worship, both among the Kafirs and the Bechuanas of the present day, has caused the charge of atheism to be continually repeated (Livingstone, pp. 158, 159). Such also, we

have seen already (Part III. p. 177), was precisely the condition of the Papuan Family, exposing them to similar charges. Yet in neither case are we at liberty to argue that the thought of a superior race of beings, superhuman and invisible, had been quite obliterated from the native mind. With reference to South Africa, Dr Livingstone appears to be at variance on this point with Mr Moffat, his friend and predecessor (Missionary Labours, p. 245): for, writing of the people towards the mouths of the Zambesi (pp. 641, 642), he affirms that they have a clear idea of a Supreme Being. That being 'is named Morimo, Molungo, Reza, Mpámbe, in the different dialects spoken. The Barotse name him Nyámpi, and the Balonda Zámbi. All promptly acknowledge him as the ruler over all.' Dr Livingstone, however, confesses plainly in another passage (pp. 158, 159), while speaking of the Kafirs and Bechuanas, that this notion of the deity, though present, seems to be inoperative at the best; and since the form Morimo is probably identical with Barimo, and both the nouns are also used in the plural number as equivalent to 'spirits,' we are fully entitled to infer that there, as in the wild tribes of America, the Morimo is only a Great Spirit, acting as the highest member of a group,-in other words, 'the brightest inmate of a crowded pantheon' (Part III. p. 128). I may observe that Morimo, as the nearest possible approximation, has been hitherto adopted by missionaries in rendering the name of the Supreme Being. We further ascertain that in the Kafir tribes some memories are still lingering of a 'Great-Great' and a 'First Appearer;' and in one single district of Natal the Great-Great is actually worshipped, though the recollection of him is very dim' (Shooter, p. 160).

Offerings to and for the dead. Hegel seems to fancy (Phil. of Hist. p. 99, Lond. 1857) that this kind of worship was the special characteristic of the African negroes, their idea being that departed 'ancestors exercise vengeance and inflict upon man various injuries.' We have seen, however, that the practice was all but universal in China (Part III. 32, 33), among the wild tribes of America (Part III. p. 125, n. 1), among the Papuans (Ibid. p. 176), and the Maori (Ibid. p. 196); and was further recognised as one chief part of the religion of the Old Egyptians (above, p. 78). The soul of the deceased was commonly believed, in Asia, Africa, America and Oceanica, to linger for a certain period near the place of sepulture, and also to

derive while there a sort of gratification from the offerings which were made in her behalf. Thus, to take one striking specimen from Dr Livingstone's work (p. 434; cf. pp. 319, 641, 642): 'The same superstitious ideas being prevalent through the whole of the country north of the Zambesi, seems to indicate that the people must originally have been one. All believe that the souls of the departed still mingle among the living, and partake in some way of the food they consume. In sickness, sacrifices of fowls and goats are made to appease the spirits. It is imagined that they wish to take the living away from earth and all its enjoyments. When one man has killed another, a sacrifice is made, as if to lay the spirit of the victim. A sect is reported to exist who kill men in order to take their hearts and offer them to the Barimo.' Mr Shooter also, speaking of the Kafirs of Natal, has made a similar observation (p. 161); and when he adds that the attention of departed spirits is thought to be restricted to their own relatives,—a father caring for the family and a chief for the tribe, which they respectively left behind them, we need only turn to China or New Zealand to discover a most vivid and exact resemblance (Part III. p. 34, p. 196).

Slaughter of servants in honour of their chiefs. The horrible practice of burning widows which had long prevailed in Hindustan, and which was also found by early missionaries in the Wendic tribes of northern Europe (see the letter of Boniface, Opp. ed. Giles, I. 132 sq.) had extended southward to the Fíjí islands (Part III. p. 181, n. 1), where slaves and even children of the deceased were put to death at his funeral (cf. Herod. IV. 71, 72). Dr Livingstone, while speaking of the negroes of South-Central Africa (p. 318), produces the same gloomy picture: 'When a chief dies, a number of servants are slaughtered with him to form his company in the other world.' He then adds: 'As we go north, the people become more bloodily superstitious.'

Transmigration. We have seen that both in civilised and barbarous countries the idea of immortality was always prone to clothe itself in more or less elaborate theories on the transmigration of the human soul. Such theories, we have further seen, prevailed in all the polished circles of Hindustan and Egypt, but the traces of them were observable as well among the wild tribes of America (e. g. Part III. p. 133). It is probable that in almost every case the spirit was supposed to linger for a time in the vicinity of her old dwelling, and then to start upon her wander