people once, even here in Europe;
strong and terrible savages, who ate human beings. Of course, the
legends and tales about them became ridiculous and exaggerated as they
passed from mouth to mouth over the Christmas fire, in the days when no
one could read or write. But that the tales began by being true any one
may well believe who knows how many cannibal savages there are in the
world even now. I think that, if ever there was an ogre in the world, he
must have been very like a certain person who lived, or was buried, in a
cave in the Neanderthal, between Elberfeld and Dusseldorf, on the Lower
Rhine. The skull and bones which were found there (and which are very
famous now among scientific men) belonged to a personage whom I should
have been very sorry to meet, and still more to let you meet, in the wild
forest; to a savage of enormous strength of limb (and I suppose of jaw)
likewise

"like an ape,
With forehead villainous low,"

who could have eaten you if he would; and (I fear) also would have eaten
you if he could. Such savages may have lingered (I believe, from the old
ballads and romances, that they did linger) for a long time in lonely
forests and mountain caves, till they were all killed out by warriors who
wore mail-armour and carried steel sword, and battle-axe, and lance.

But had these people any religion?

My dear child, we cannot know, and need not know. But we know this--that
God beholds all the heathen. He fashions the hearts of them, and
understandeth all their works. And we know also that He is just and
good. These poor folks were, I doubt not, happy enough in their way; and
we are bound to believe (for we have no proof against it), that most of
them were honest and harmless enough likewise. Of course, ogres and
cannibals, and cruel and brutal persons (if there were any among them),
deserved punishment--and punishment, I do not doubt, they got. But, of
course, again, none of them knew things which you know; but for that very
reason they were not bound to do many things which you are bound to do.
For those to whom little is given, of them shall little be required. What
their religion was like, or whether they had any religion at all, we
cannot tell. But this we can tell, that known unto God are all His works
from the creation of the world; and that His mercy is over all His works,
and He hateth nothing that He has made. These men and women, whatever
they were, were God's work; a