Introduction to the Science of Religion

SR No.: 011135
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Max Muller
Publisher: Longmans Green and Compny London
Publication Year: 1882
Total Pages: 346
Language: English
Classification: Book_English
File Size: 31 MB

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186
LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION.
among savage tribes. Suppose an educated native of India or China were to appear suddenly in the Black country, and address some questions in scarcely intelligible English to a dust-begrimed coal-heaver, and ask him what his ancestors had told him about the source of being — what account could he give to his countrymen of the state of religious faith in England, if all his information had been gathered from the answers which he would be likely to receive from such witnesses! Perhaps he would never hear the name of God except in a 'God bless you!' which people uttered in England as well as in Germany and many other countries, when any one present sneezed. It was in such an exclamation that Dr. Callaway first discovered one of the names of the deity among the Zulus. Asking an old man who lived at the mission station, whether the word Utikxo had come into use after the arrival of the missionaries, he received the answer (p. 64): No; the word Utikxo is not a word we learnt from the English; it is an old word of our own. It used to be always said when a man sneezes, “ May Utikxo ever regard me with favour." This Utikxo was supposed to have been concealed by Unkulunkulu (p. 67), and to be seen by no one. Men saw Unkulunkulu, and said that he was the creator of all things (Umveliqangi); they said this, because they did not see Him who made Unkulunkulu ; they therefore said that Unkulunkulu was God.
After these crude fragments picked up among the 1 P. 67. On the arrival of the English in this land of ours, the first who came was a missionary named Uyegana. On his arrival he taught the people, but they did not understand what he said . . . . and although he did not understand the people's language, he jabbered constantly to the people, and they could not understand what he said.'