, "are
left to inhabit the regions of Mbulu, and the immortality even of these
is sometimes disputed. The belief in a future state is universal in
Fiji; but their superstitious notions often border upon transmigration,
and sometimes teach an eventual annihilation."[784]

* * * * *

[Sidenote: Concluding observations.]

Here I must break off my survey of the natural belief in immortality
among mankind. At the outset I had expected to carry the survey further,
but I have already exceeded the usual limits of these lectures and I
must not trespass further on your patience. Yet the enquiry which I have
opened seems worthy to be pursued, and if circumstances should admit of
it, I shall hope at some future time to resume the broken thread of
these researches and to follow it a little further through the labyrinth
of human history. Be that as it may, I will now conclude with a few
general observations suggested by the facts which I have laid before
you.

[Sidenote: Strength and universality of the natural belief in
immortality among savages. Wars between savage tribes spring in large
measure from their belief in immortality. Economic loss involved in
sacrifices to the dead.]

In the first place, then, it is impossible not to be struck by the
strength, and perhaps we may say the universality, of the natural belief
in immortality among the savage races of mankind. With them a life after
death is not a matter of speculation and conjecture, of hope and fear;
it is a practical certainty which the individual as little dreams of
doubting as he doubts the reality of his conscious existence. He assumes
it without enquiry and acts upon it without hesitation, as if it were
one of the best-ascertained truths within the limits of human
experience. The belief influences his attitude towards the higher
powers, the conduct of his daily life, and his behaviour towards his
fellows; more than that, it regulates to a great extent the relations of
independent communities to each other. For the state of war, which
normally exists between many, if not most, neighbouring savage tribes,
springs in large measure directly from their belief in immortality;
since one of the commonest motives for hostility is a desire to appease
the angry ghosts of friends, who are supposed to have perished by the
baleful arts of sorcerers in another tribe, and who, if vengeance is not
inflicted on their real or imaginary murderers, will