or them with a zeal and tenderness that would be real beautiful in
many American mothers; and, in return, the children are very noble in
their relations to their mothers. "Curse me, but do not speak ill of
my mother," is a saying in vogue throughout nearly all Africa. The old
are venerated, and when they become sick they are abandoned to die
alone.

It is not our purpose to describe the religions and superstitions of
Africa.[99] To do this would occupy a book. The world knows that this
poor people are idolatrous,--"_bow down to wood and stone_." They do
not worship the true God, nor conform their lives unto the teachings
of the Saviour. They worship snakes, the sun, moon, and stars, trees,
and water-courses. But the bloody human sacrifice which they make is
the most revolting feature of their spiritual degradation. Dr.
Prichard has gone into this subject more thoroughly than our time or
space will allow.

"Nowhere can the ancient African religion be studied better
than in the kingdom of Congo. Christianity in Abyssinia, and
Mohammedanism in Northern Guinea, have become so mingled
with pagan rites as to render it extremely difficult to
distinguish between them.

"The inhabitants of Congo, whom I take as a true type of the
tribes of Southern Guinea generally, and of Southern Central
Africa, believe in a supreme Creator, and in a host of
lesser divinities. These last they represent by images; each
has its temple, its priests, and its days of sacrifice, as
among the Greeks and Romans."[100]

The false religions of Africa are but the lonely and feeble reaching
out of the human soul after the true God.

FOOTNOTES:

[88] Stanley's Through the Dark Continent, vol. ii. pp. 320, 321; see,
also, pp. 3, 78, 123, 245, 414.

[89] Western Africa, p. 455.

[90] Western Africa, p. 456.

[91] Western Africa, p. 470.

[92] Equatorial Africa, p. 531.

[93] Savage Africa, p. 212.

[94] Through the Dark Continent, vol. ii. pp, 470, 471.

[95] Through the Dark Continent, vol. ii. pp. 482, 483.

[96] History of English Literature, vol i. pp. 48. 49.

[97] Equatorial Africa, pp. 448, 449.

[98] On the intellectual faculties of the Negro, see Prichard, third
ed., 1837, vol. ii. p. 346, sect. iii. Peschel's Races of Men, p. 462,
_sq._, especially Blumenbach's Life and Works, p. 305, _sq_ Western
Africa, p. 379,--all of chap. xi.

[99] See Prichard, fourth ed., 1841