NEUOFFENBARUNGThe original inhabitants of Sumatra, Celebes and Ceylon from a spiritual point of
view (May 6, 1847)
Original content summary:
The peoples of Sumatra and Celebes. Those of Ceylon (that is, the natives). Land of the largest natural wonders. Reason for this peculiarity. "The Wild Hunt". Fata Morgana's nightly fireworks. Dancing fire columns. The apartments there in the holes of the earth. Their religious view; their chief priest is ruler. The most unselfish priesthood on earth. Effect of this behaviour, immense prestige and unlimited love. Miraculous power. Court of this chief priest, its inadequacy for Europeans. They are deists, their island is the world. Their other religious, spiritual, etc. views. Their opinion about Christ, otherwise good insights. This people has, in its simplicity, still the type of psychic abilities primitive times. They are Zendavesta- followers and NB. "Understanding," and loving Jesus, so they can easily come to the truth.
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1. In the neighborhood of our previously described island of Java, there are two larger islands called Sumatra and Celebes.
2. The peoples of these two islands are generally under the same constitution, and it would be unnecessary to repeat here what has already been given; only so much can be said that Sumatra is in every respect closer related to the island of Java than to the island of Celebes, which it is much more truly Chinese and sometimes also Borneonish, although there are Javanese among the Celebes.
3. But that on both islands, and particularly on the coasts, Europeans also have access and even settlements, brought about by the present conquests of the English, sometimes even the French, the Dutch, and the Spaniards, scarcely need to be mentioned;
Ceylon
4. Therefore we want to turn to another island, Ceylon, which, on it’s shores, has mostly European settlements, but still contains indigenous inhabitants in it’s many gorges, caves, and grottoes. This island is praised by many travellers as a land of incomprehensible wonders, and visited by many naturalists, because of the strange phenomena.
5. It is true that this island, of purely volcanic origin, has the greatest subterranean connections, which are even connected with the living bowels of the earth through large canals; that this causes some strange phenomena, which do not occur elsewhere, will be easy for you to understand, if you look back on everything that was communicated to you in the natural part of the earth's body, and partly also in the spiritual part of it.
6. The phenomena of the so-called "wild hunt", which are not unknown to you, not infrequently manifest with such intensity that it’s din often grow to such a vehemence that the inhabitants hide themselves in the deepest holes in order to prevent damage to their hearing.
7. In addition to these disturbing phenomena, there is an even greater quantity of meteoric phenomena, which, at certain times, occupy no less the eye than the noise would the ear.
8. Mirages of the rarest kind are almost in the order of the day, but they are always gentle, and tend to enrapture the observers rather than fill them with any fear;
9. but terrifying and frightful are the nocturnal fiery phenomena, which also occasionally cause small local devastations. These fiery phenomena sometimes consist of a multitude of the so-called "shooting stars," which shoots in all directions, sometimes very low, sometimes only a few klafters above the ground.
10. This fiery appearance is the least feared; somewhat more terrifying are those which sometimes flocks in thousands on the ground, and sometimes only a few feet above these, the fire-men, fire- dragons, fire-snakes, and the like. These phenomena are indeed very surprising and terrifying, especially because of their beautiful bright white light; but they are not dangerous to anyone because their light is quite cold.
11. More feared are the fire wheels and fire wreaths, which are of course a little rarer. These set certain materially related objects on fire, and people and animals, if they are touched by these wheels and wreaths, get electric shocks and sometimes also significantly painful burns; but the most feared in this country are the so-called dancing fire columns, which are basically nothing but fire tornadoes. These cause the greatest devastation where and when they appear. However, they occur only rarely, barely two or three times in a year, and usually only in certain places, and when they appear, they are announced a whole day in advance by a certain crackling in the air, which becomes louder and louder, at which appearance people and animals flee into their hiding places;
12. For in the interior of this island there are almost no huts at all, and even fewer houses, and, as has been shown before, people and animals live in holes in the ground, which the people who inhabit them decorate with all kinds of clumsy carvings and braidworks.
13. The inhabitants of this island have no king, but only a kind of chief priest, who has the reputation of a sorcerer, and whom the people believe to be the master of all these wonderful phenomena of this country. This sorcerer also has a considerable amount of assistants whom he teaches and then places them in all parts of this country which have the business of instructing the people in the particular religion, and also to prescribe the manner of behaviour necessary to avoid any damage from the phenomena.
14. The rare thing about this matter is that this chief priest, together with his assistants, is the most benevolent priesthood on the whole surface of the earth, for he does not require any gift in the least; only the assistants are allowed to accept food and drink when they go among the people.
15. But the people, perceiving the benevolence of this priest, is eager to give him the most beautiful and exquisite animals of their herds, of which he never takes anything more than what he needs for his very simple household supplies.
16. But for this reason he enjoys such a tremendous respect among the people, and a love so unlimited that he only need to be waving in case of need, and the whole nation, great and small, would be equiped and on their feet to be his greatest benefactor, as well as his protector.
17. You may find it strange about this so-called spell-priest that he, as well as his assistants, really possesses a magical power by means of which he can command all the animals, and they follow him on a wink, and no animal from the greatest to the smallest on this island is excluded. This, however, also procures him the greatest respect when he sometimes passes through a whole pack of rapacious
animals completely uninjured as if through a flock of sheep. Serpents, snakes, crocodiles are an ordinary sight on this magician's yard, and not one of these animals dare to make the slightest movement without his hint; only when he commands them do they move quickly from their court, and seek their food.
18. The court of this chief priest is roughly in the middle of this island, and is completely inaccessible to any European, partly because of very dense scrub, partly because of steep, near unsurpassed rocky mountains, and partly also because the many troops of animals are here more abundantly at home than anywhere else. The natural phenomena discussed above, which even the most courageous Europeans do not trust so much, are a considerable obstacle; and so this island remains accessible only along the coasts at the European settlements, but the interior knows as little about the Europeans as does the interior of Africa and many other countries.
19. The religion of this people is just as rare as their country; they believe in a god, who, however, is not visible to any mortal and is conceivable in his way. But this god from time to time consecrates a man who, in his name, takes care of the earthly affairs because they are too petty for God, and too unworthy of Him.
20. They hold their island for the whole world, which floats like a nut on the endless waters.
21. Sun, moon, and stars are ruled by god alone, but the management of the earth, which is too small to be guided by God alone, is the concern of the chief priest consecrated by God; for the people have the grandest idea of the stars, and holds the smallest star as infinitely greater than the earth.
22. But God is in the sun, therefore the sun is also worshipped by them; but they regard the moon as a heavenly world, where they and their chief priest go after the death of the body, when they have lived uprightly and modestly on their small earth.
23. Only with the stars do they fare somewhat worse; for these people merely populate them with animal souls, which, according to their belief, are much greater and more perfect than on their earth.
24. They know little about Christ, and now and then there are some who know nothing at all about Him. They are of the opinion that He was once a chief priest on their island, but He had removed His hand, and went to some other Earth, to make the people happy there, because their ancestors became disobedient to Him; for though they regard their land as the only earth, they nevertheless believe that there may be in the sea, which is infinite in their opinion, other floating world-bodies on which similar people reside, but they are nowhere as perfect as they are; they came to this conclusion due to circumstances, having had not infrequent encounters with Europeans, discovering that they are not so perfect masters of animals as they themselves are.
25. They have also sometimes seen the fleets of ships, and have heard the cannonade; but they think that this is a pure play of children, for the fireworks which their chief priest brings out is not to be compared with the triviality of a cannon flash, and the floating ship they hold for a merely floating hollowed out egg, which has laid by a mighty fire-dragon.
26. They exceedingly despise the luxury articles offered to them by the Europeans, for they say, We bring about greater things with our will than you do with your hands”; there is therefore no trade possible with this people. The coastal inhabitants deal only with elephant teeth, which are usually obtained free of charge from the indigenous people. The island offers besides this, nothing commercial.
27. By this account you can easily see that this people is still very simple, and knows very few needs; exactly because of this simplicity, however, there still exist in the vigorous type of psychic sphere which was natural to the primitive peoples of the earth. They still have the same spiritual power which once the first people of the earth possessed; According to their religion they are still the purest Zendavestas, and have also, up to the present, neither added nor taken away anything from it.
28. With these people, it is an easy task in the spirit-world to introduce them to the gospel, for they easily love Christ, and are initially of the inclination to follow Him in the beyond as their chief priest initiated by God in their world whom their ancestors not readily obeyed, transferring this original sin to all descendants; therefore, everyone the afterlife needs to please this insulted Man of God.
29. This reason is, indeed, somewhat ridiculous, but it is easy to see that, in spite of that, it is nevertheless a good point of reference, whereby the people of this country can come to the light of the true gospel.
30. There is nothing more worthy of note in these people, so we shall return to another country, next time.