Then I asked him whether these they eat up went thither too? "Yes."
From these things I began to instruct him in the knowledge of the true God. I told him the great Maker of all things lived up there, pointing up towards heaven. He was omnipotent, and could do every thing for us, give every thing to us, and take every thing from us. Thus, by degrees, I opened his eyes. He listened with great attention, and received with pleasure the notion of Jesus Christ being sent to redeem us, and of the manner of making our prayers to God, and his being able to hear us, even in heaven. He told me one day if our God could hear us up beyond the sun, he must needs be a greater God than their Kathooloo, who slept but a little way off on another island, and yet could not hear till they went up to the great mountains to speak to him. I asked him if ever he went thither to speak to him?
He said, No. They never went that were young men. None went thither but the old men, whom he called their Walla-kay. That is, as I made him explain it to me, their religious, or clergy. They went to say O, so he call'd saying prayers, and then came back and told them what Kathooloo said.
I asked him if any went to where their Kathooloo slept to wake him, at which he seemed both terrified and amaz'd that I could ask such a thing. Great Kathooloo, he explain'd, could not awake or be awoken until "the stars is right." He said also there were none who knew where the island was now, which I took to mean no one remember'd. When I said this he shook his head and said "No" and did try to explain again. After many minutes, during which he moved shells and stones across the floor of my cave, I came to understand his words. The savages believ'd their Kathooloo's island had sunk beneath the waves in the distant past, as would a foundering ship, and now moved beneath the seas like some great whale or turtle, waiting to rise to the surface "when the stars is right." It could be anywhere beneath the sea, observ'd Friday, very distant or very near. Thus only their Walla-kay could know where the island was at a certain time and speak to their god.
By this I observ’d there was priestcraft even among the most blinded, ignorant pagans in the world. The policy of making a secret of religion, in order to preserve the veneration of the people to the clergy, was not only to be found in the Roman, but perhaps among all religions in the world, even among the most brutish and barbarous savages.
I endeavour'd to clear up this fraud to my man Friday. I told him islands could not move beneath the sea. The pretence of their old men going up to the mountains to their god Kathooloo was a cheat, and their bringing word from thence what he said was much more so. If they met with any answer, or spake with any one there, it must be with an evil spirit. Then I entered into a long discourse with him about the Devil, his rebellion against God, his enmity to man, the reason of it, his setting himself up in the dark parts of the world to be worshipped instead of God, and the many stratagems he made use of to delude mankind to their ruin.
I found it was not so easy to imprint right notions in his mind about the Devil as it was about the being of a God. The poor creature became insistent we again discuss'd his sleeping Kathooloo, and it was clear to me the two had become one in his mind, and it seem'd easiest to continue his lessons with such a belief.
He then so puzzled me by a question meerly natural and innocent, I scarce knew what to say to him. I had been talking a great deal to him of the power of God, his omnipotence, his aversion to sin, his being a consuming fire to the workers of iniquity, and Friday listened with great seriousness to me all the while.
After this, I had been telling him how Kathooloo was God's enemy in the hearts of men, and used all his malice and skill to defeat the good designs of Providence, and to ruin the kingdom of Christ in the world, and the like.
"Well," said Friday, "but you say God is so strong, so great. Is he not much strong, much might as Great Kathooloo?"
"Yes, yes," said I, "Friday, God is stronger than Kathooloo. God is above Kathooloo, and therefore we pray to God to tread him down under our feet and enable us to resist his temptations."
"But," said he again, "if God much stronger, much might as Kathooloo, why God no kill Great Kathooloo in his sleep, so make him no more do wicked?"
I was surprised at this question. After all, tho’ I was now an old man, I was but a young doctor and ill qualified for a casuist, or a solver of difficulties. At first, I could not tell what to say, so I pretended not to hear him and asked him what he said. But he was too earnest for an answer to forget his question, so he repeated it in the very same broken words as above.