hing argument against the mythologists who adopt the
method we have just explained. Let us see if the blow be so very
crushing. To put the case in a nutshell, the Hottentots have commonly
been described as a race which worshipped a dead chief, or conjurer--Tsui
Goab his name is, meaning Wounded Knee, a not unlikely name for a savage.
Dr. Hahn, on the other hand, labours to show that the Hottentots
originally worshipped no dead chief, but (as a symbol of the Infinite)
the Red Dawn. The meaning of the name Red Dawn, he says, was lost; the
words which meant Red Dawn were erroneously supposed to mean Wounded
Knee, and thus arose the adoration and the myths of a dead chief, or
wizard, Tsui Goab, Wounded Knee. Clearly, if this can be proved, it is
an excellent case for the philological school, an admirable example of a
myth produced by forgetfulness of the meaning of words. Our own opinion
is that, even if Tsui Goab originally meant Red Dawn, the being, as now
conceived of by his adorers, is bedizened in the trappings of the dead
medicine-man, and is worshipped just as ghosts of the dead are
worshipped. Thus, whatever his origin, his myth is freely coloured by
the savage fancy and by savage ideas, and we ask no more than this
colouring to explain the wildest Greek myths. What truly 'primitive'
religion was, we make no pretence to know. We only say that, whether
Greek religion arose from a pure fountain or not, its stream had flowed
through and been tinged by the soil of savage thought, before it widens
into our view in historical times. But it will be shown that the logic
which connects Tsui Goab with the Red Dawn is far indeed from being
cogent.

Tsui Goab is thought by the Hottentots themselves to be a dead man, and
it is admitted that among the Hottentots dead men are adored. 'Cairns
are still objects of worship,' {203a} and Tsui Goab lies beneath several
cairns. Again, soothsayers are believed in (p. 24), and Tsui Goab is
regarded as a deceased soothsayer. As early as 1655, a witness quoted by
Hahn saw women worshipping at one of the cairns of Heitsi Eibib, another
supposed ancestral being. Kolb, the old Dutch traveller, found that the
Hottentots, like the Bushmen, revered the mantis insect. This creature
they called Gaunab. They also had some moon myths, practised adoration
of the moon, and danced at dawn. Thunberg (1792) saw the cairn-worship,
and, on asking its meaning, was told that a Hottentot lay buri