________________
132
LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF RELIGION.
who say that the Mongol tribes paid great reverence to the sun, the fire, and the water, but that they believed also in a great and powerful God, whom they called Natagai (Natigay) or Itoga.
In modern times we have chiefly to depend on Castrén, who had eyes to see and ears to hear what few other travellers would have seen or heard, or understood. Speaking of the Tungusic tribes, he says,
they worship the sun, the moon, the stars, the earth, fire, the spirits of forests, rivers, and certain sacred localities; they worship even images and fetishes, but with all this they retain a faith in a supreme being which they call Buga?' "The Samoyedes,' he says, 'worship idols and various natural objects; but they always profess a belief in a higher divine power which they call Num.
This deity which is called Num is also called Juma by the Samoyedes ?, and is in fact the same deity which in the grand mythology of Finland is known under the name of Jumala. The mythology of Finland has been more carefully preserved than the mythologies of all the other Altaic races, and in their ancient epic poems which have been kept up by oral tradition for centuries, and have been written down
sprinkle it before the door of the house; and that done, they deem that their god, and his family have had their share of the dinner.' Marco Polo,' ed. Yule, vol. i. p. 248. Colonel Yale traces these Nagatay back to the Ongot of the Tunguses, and the Nogat of the Buriates. Marco Polo himself ascribes the same worship of the Nagatay to the Cathayans, i.e. Chinese (vol. i. p. 437), but Colonel Yule thinks that this may be due to a confusion of Chinese with Tartars. See also vol. ii. p. 478. 1 Is this the Russian bog,' god ? Castrén, Vorlesungen über Finnische Mythologie,' p. 13.
