In the following pages are described only those modern religious beliefs whose history can be traced back to about 4000 bc. The reader is thus enabled, from the evidence laid before him, to judge for himself the state of negro religion as it was a short while after the Flood; and if he at all Should give the subject his earnest considera tion, he must perforce come to the palpable conclusion that the modern Bantu negro has descended in the scale of civilisation, whereas his remote ancestors lived up to higher ideals which he, at least, has never attained, and for which he has showed no aspirations. It will, moreover, be readily granted that the negro's belief in the former superiority of his ante diluvian forefathers, and his faith in the divinity Of man, entitle him to a share of the world's esteem, almost in preference to those of our own age who, presuming to be wise and learned evolutionists, endeavour to trace the religious history of humanity back to a stage of bestial degradation in defiance of the best traditions of men to the contrary.