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PEIMITIVE   CULTUEE 


I 


PEIMITIVE    CULTUEE: 


BESBABCHES  INTO  THE  DEVELOPMENT  OP  MTTHOLOGT,  FHILOSOPHT, 

BEUQION.  LANQUAQE,  ART,  AND  CUSTOM. 


BY 


EDWARD  B.   TYLOR,   LL.D.,   F.R.S., 

AUTBOB  OF  *'  BE3BABCHB8  INTO  THE  EA.ELT  BIS10BT  OF  BAKKIND,"  ftO. 


"  Co  n'est  pas  danB  lea  possibility,  c'osi  dans  Vhomme  mSme  qaMl  faut  ^tudler  lliomme : 
il  no  s'agit  pas  d'imaginer  ce  qull  aurolt  pd  ou  dd  fairo,  maU  d3  rogarder  ce  qu'il  fait." 

-De  Drosses. 


IN    TWO    VOLUMES. 
VOL.    II. 


SECOND    EDITION. 


LONDON : 
JOHN  MORRAY,  ALBEMARLE  STREET. 

1873. 

[RiffUt  0/  Tranilation  and  Reproduction  reffrved.] 


ix>ki>ok: 

BRADBITET,  AORIW,   L  CO.,  TBINTEIM,  WltlTBrBlABS. 


I  _ 


CONTENTS 

OP 

THE     SECOND    VOLUME. 


CHAPTER  XIL 
ANIMIS&I  {caniinued). 

PAGE 

Doctrine  of  Soul's  Ezistenoe  after  Death  ;  its  mun  diyiaionB,  Trans- 
migration and  Future  Life— Transmigration  of  Souls :  re-birth 
in  Human  and  Animal  Bodies,  transf  erenoe  to  Plants  and  Objeota 
— Beeunection  of  Body  scarcely  held  in  savage  religion— Futoze 
Life :  a  general  though  not  uniyersal  doctrine  of  low  races — 
Continued  existence,  rather  than  Immortality  ;  second  death  of 
Soul — Ghost  of  Dead  remains  on  earth,  especially  if  corpse  un- 
buried  ;  its  attachment  to  bodily  remains^Feasts  of  the  Dead    .        1 

CHAPTER  XIIL 

ANIMISM  (eoTUinued). 

Jouzney  of  the  Soul  to  the  Land  of  the  Dead— Visits  by  the  Living 
to  the  B^ons  of  Departed  Souls— Coimezion  of  such  legends 
with  myths  of  Sunset :  the  Land  of  the  Dead  thus  imagined  aa 
in  the  West^-BeaUzation  of  current  religious  ideas,  whether  of 
savage  or  civilized  theology,  in  narratives  of  visits  to  the  Begions 
of  Souls— Localization  of  the  Future.  Life— Distant  earthly 
region:  Earthly  ParadlBC,  Isles  of  the  Blest— Subterranean 
Hades  or  Sheol— Sun,  Moon,  Stars — ^Heaven— Historical  course  of 
belief  as  to  such  localization— Nature  of  Future  Life— Continu- 
ance-theory, apparently  original,  belongs  especially  to  the  lower 
races  —  Transitional  theories  —  Betribution-theory,  apparently 
derived,  belongs  especially  to  the  higher  races — Doctrine  of  Moral 
Betribution  as  developed  in  the  higher  culture — Survey  of  Doc- 
trine of  Future  State,  from  savage  to  civilized  stages— Its  prao- 
tioal  effect  on  the  sentiment  and  conduct  of  Mankind         .  44 


VI  CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER  XIV. 

ANIMISM  (conHnuect). 

Animiam,  expanding  from  the  Doctrine  of  Souls  to  the  wider 
Doctrine  of  Spirits,  becomes  a  complete  Philosophy  of  Natural 
Beligion — Definition  of  Spirits  similar  to  and  apparently 
modelled  on  that  of  Sonls— Transition-stage :  classes  of  Sonls 
passing  into  good  and  evil  Demons — ^Manes-Worship^Doctrine 
of  Embodiment  of  Spirits  in  homan,  animal,  vegetable,  and 
inert  bodies — Demoniacal  Possession  and  Obsession  as  causes  of 
Disease  and  Orade-inspiration — Fetiehism — Disease-spirits  em- 
bodied— Ghost  attached  to  remains  of  Corpse-  Fetish  produced 
^  by  a  Spirit  embodied  in,  attached  to,  or  operating  through,  an 
Object — ^Analogues  of  Fetish-doctrine  in  Modem  Sdenoe— Stook- 
and-Stone-Worship— Idolatry — Survival  of  Animistic  Phraseo- 
logy in  modem  Language— Decline  of  Animistio  thgory  of 
Nature 108: 

CHAPTER  XV. 

ANIMISM  (continued). 

Spirits  regarded  as  personal  causes  of  Phenomena  of  the  World— Per- 
vading Spirits  as  good  and  evil  Demons  affecting  man— Spirits 
manifest  in  Dreams  and  Visions :  Nightmares ;  Inoubi  and 
Succubi  ;  Vampires  ;  Visionary  Demons— Demons  of  darkness 
repelled  by  fire — Demons  otherwise  manifest :  seen  by  animals  ; 
detected  l^  footprints — Spirits  conceived  and  treated  as  material 
— Guardian  and  Familiar  Spirits — Nature-Spirits  ;  historical 
course  of  the  doctrine — Spirits  of  Volcanos,  Whirlpools,  Bocks — 
Water-Worship :  Spirits  of  WeUs,  Streams,  Lakes,  etc. — Tree- 
Woxship :  Spirits  embodied  in  or  inhabiting  Trees ;  Spirits  of 
Groves  and  Forests — Animal- Worship  :  Animals  woriahipped, 
directly,  or  as  incarnations  or  representatives  of  Deities  ;  Totem- 
Worship  ;  Serpent-Worship — Species-Deities ;  their  relation  to 
Archetypal  Ideas    ....       * 184 

CHAPTER  XVI. 

ANIMISM  ioantinued). 

Higher  Deities  of  Polytheism— Human  characteristics  applied  to 
Deity— Lords  of  Spiritual  Hierarchy — Polytheism :  its  course  of 
development  in  lower  and  higher  Culture— Principles  of  its  inves- 
tigation ;  classification  of  Deities  according  to  central  concep- 
tions of  their  significance  and  function — Heaven-god — Bain-god 
— Thunder-god— Wind-god— Earth  god^— Water-god— Sea-god— 
Fire-god— Sxm-god— Moon-god 247 


CONTENTS.  Vll 


CHAPTER  XVII. 

ANIMISM  ieontinued). 

Polytheistn  oomprises  a  class  of  great  Deities,  mUng  the  oourae  of 
Nature  and  the  life  of  Man — Childbirth-god— Agricnltnze-god — 
War-god~God  of  the  Dead — First  Man  as  Diyine  Anoestor— 
Dualism;  its  rodimentary  and  unethical  nature  among  low 
races  ;  its  deyelopment  through  the  course  of  culture — Good  and 
Evil  Deity — Doctrine  of  Divine  Supremacy,  distinct  from,  while 
tflnding  towards,  the  doctrine  of  Monotheism— Idea  of  Supreme 
Deity  eyolved  in  yarious  forms  among  the  lower  races ;  its  place 
as  completion  of  the  Polytheistic  system  and  outcome  of  the 
Animistic  philosophy ;  its  continuance  and  development  among 
higher  nations-^General  survey  of  Animism  as  a  Philosophy  of 
Beligion*-Becapitulation  of  the  theory  advanced  as  to  its  deve- 
lopment through  successive  stages  of  culture  ;  its  primary  phases 
best  represented  among  the  lower  races,  while  survivals  of  these 
among  the  higher  races  mark  the  transition  from  savage  through 
barbaric  to  civilized  faiths — ^Transition  of  Animism  in  the 
History  of  Religion  ;  its  earlier  and  later  stages  as  a  Philosophy 
of  the  Universe ;  its  later  stages  as  the  principle  of  a  MonJ 
Institution 304 


CHAPTER  XVIII. 

BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

Religious  Rites  :  their  purpose  practical  or  symbolic — Prayer :  its 
oontinnity  from  low  to  high  levels  of  Culture ;  its  lower  phases 
Unethical ;  its  higher  phases  Ethical— Sacrifice :  its  original  Gift- 
theoiy  passes  into  the  Homage-theory  and  the  Abnefifation-theory 
— Manner  of  reception  of  Sacrifice  by  Deity — ^Material  Transfer  to 
elements,  fetish-animals,  priests ;  consumption  of  substance  by 
deity  or  idol  ;  offering  of  blood ;  transmission  by  fire ;  incense — 
Essential  Transfer:  consumption  of  essence,  savour,  eta — 
Spiritual  Transfer :  consumption  or  transmission  of  soul  of  offer- 
ing—Motive of  sacrificer— Transition  from  Gift-theory  to  Homage- 
theory:  insignificant  and  formal  offerings ;  sacrificial  banqnets — 
Abn^^Ktion-theory  ;  sacrifice  of  children,  etc. — Sacrifice  of  Sub- 
stitutes ;  part  given  for  whole ;  inferior  life  for  superior  ;  effigies 
— Modem  survival  of  Sacrifice  in  folklore  and  religion — Fasting, 
as  a  means  of  producing  ecstatic  vision  ;  its  course  from  lower 
to  higher'Culture—Drugs  used  to  produce  ecstacy— Swoons  and 
fits  induced  for  religious  purposes— Orientation :  its  relation  to 
Sun-myth  and  Snn-worship  ;  rules  of  East  and  West  as  to  burial 
of  dead,  position  of  worship,  and  structure  of  temple— Lnstration 


via  CONTENTS. 

by  Water  and  Fixe  :  its  transitioxi  from  material  to  i^ymbolio  pnii- 
fioation  ;  its  connexion  with  special  erents  of  life ;  its  appear- 
ance among  the  lower  races — Lustration  of  new-bom  children ; 
of  women  ;  of  those  polluted  by  bloodshed  or  the  dead— Lustra- 
tion continued  at  higher  levels  of  Culture — Conclusion        •       •    862 


CHAPTER   XIX. 

CONCLUSION. 

Practical  results  of  the  Study  of  Primitiye  Culture — Its  bearing  least 
upon  PositiTe  Science,  greatest  upon  Intelleotual,  Moral,  Social, 
and  Politioal  Philosophy — Language — Mythology — ^Ethics  and 
Law—BeUgicn — ^Action  of  the  Science  of  Culture,  as  a  means  of 
furthering  progress  and  removing  hindrance,  effectiTe  in  the 
course  of  Civilization      •••«■!•«       .    443 


PEIMITIVE    CULTUKE. 


/ 


CHAPTER    XIL 

AmmBU—cofUinued. 


Doctrine  of  Sotil's  Existence  after  Death  ;  its  main  divisions,  Transmigration 
and  Fnture  Life — Transmigration  of  Souls :  re-birth  in  Human  and 
Animal  Bodies,  transference  to  Plants  and  Objects — Resurrection  of 
Body  scarcely  held  in  savage  religion — Future  Life  :  a  general  though 
not  universal  doctrine  of  low  races — Continued  existence,  rather  than 
Immortality  ;  second  death  of  Soul — Ghost  of  Dead  remains  on  earth, 
especially  if  corpse  unburied  ;  its  attachment  to  bodily  remains— Feasts 
of  the  Dead. 

Having  thus  traced  upward  from  the  lower-  levels  of  cul- 
ture the  opinions  of  mankind  as  to  the  souls,  spirits,  ghosts, 
or  phantoms,  considered  to  belong  to  men,  to  the  lower 
animals,  to  plants,  and  to  things,  we  are  now  prepared  to 
investigate  one  of  the  great  religious  doctrines  of  mankind, 
the  belief  in  the  soul's  continued  existence  in  a  Life  after 
Death.  Here  let  us  once  more  call  to  mind  the  considera- 
tion which  cannot  be  too  strongly  put  forward,  that  the 
doctrine  of  a  Future  Life  as  held  by  the  lower  races  is  the 
all  but  necessary  outcome  of  savage  Animism.  The  evi- 
dence that  the  lower  races  believe  the  figures  of  the  dead 
seen  in  dreams  and  visions  to  be  their  surviving  souls,  not 
only  goes  far  to  account  for  the  comparative  universality  of 
their  belief  in  the  continued  existence  of  the  soul  after  the 
death  of  the  body,  but  it  gives  the  key  to  many  of  their 
speculations  on  the  nature  of  this  existence,  speculations 

VOL. -II.  B 


2  ANIMISM. 

rational  enough  from  the  savage  point  of  view,  though  apt 
to  seem  far-fetched  absurdities  to  moderns  in  their  much 
changed  intellectual  condition.     The  belief  in  a  Future  Life 
falls  into  two  main  divisions.     Closely  connected  and  even 
largely  overlapping  one  another,  both  world-wide  in  their 
distribution,  both  ranging  back  in  time  to  periods  of  un- 
known antiquity,  both  deeply  rooted  in  the  lowest  strata  of 
human  life  which  lie  open  to  our  observation,  these  two 
doctrines  have  in  the  modem  world  passed  into  wonderfully 
different  conditions.     The  one  is  the  theory  of  the  Trans- 
migration of  Souls,  which  has  indeed  risen  from  its  lower 
stages  to  establish  itself  among  the  huge  religious  communi- 
ties of  Asia,  great  in  history,  enormous  even  in  present  mass, 
yet  arrested  and  as  it  seems  henceforth  unprogressive  in 
development;    but  the   more   highly   educated  world  has 
rejected   the   ancient  belief,   and  it  now   only  survives  in 
Europe  in  dwindling  remnants.     Far  different  has  been  the 
history  of  the  other  doctrine,  that  of  the  independent  exist- 
ence of  the  personal  soul  after  the  death  of  the  body,  in  a 
Future  Life.     Passing  onward  through  change  after  change 
in  the  condition  of  the  human  race,  modified  and  renewed 
in  its  long  ethnic  course,  this  great  belief  may  be  traced 
from  its  crude  and  primitive  manifestations  among  savage 
races  to  its  establishment  in  the  heart  of  modern  religion, 
where   the  faith   in   a  future   existence  forms   at  once   an 
inducement  to  goodness,  a  sustaining  hope  through  suffer- 
ing and  across  the  fear  of  death,  and  an  answer  to  the  per- 
plexed problem  of  the  allotment  of  happiness  and  misery  in 
this  present  world,  by  the  expectation  of  another  world  to 
set  this  right. 

Li  investigating  the  doctrine  of  Transmigration,  it  will 
be  well  first  to  trace  its  position  among  the  lower  races,  and 
afterwards  to  follow  its  developments,  so  far  as  they  extend 
in  the  higher  civilization.  The  temporary  migration  of 
souls  into  material  substances,  from  human  bodies  down  to 
morsels  of  wood  and  stone,  is  a  most  important  part  of  the 
lower  psychology.     But  it  does  not  relate  to  the  continued 


ANIMISM.  3 

existence  of  the  soul  after  death,  and  may  be  more  conve- 
niently treated  of  elsewhere,  in  connexion  with  such  subjects 
as  dsBmoniacal  possession  and  fetish- worship.  We  are  here 
concerned  with  the  more  permanent  tenancy  of  souls  for 
successive  lives  in  successive  bodies. 

Permanent  transition,  new  birth,  or  re-incarnation  of 
human  souls  in  other  human  bodies,  is  especially  con- 
sidered to  take  place  by  the  soul  of  a  deceased  person 
animating  the  body  of  an  infant.  North  American  Indians 
of  the  Algonquin  districts,  when  little  children  died,  would 
bury  them  by  the  wayside,  that  their  souls  might  enter  into 
mothers  passing  by,  and  so  be  bom  again.^  In  North- West 
America,  among  the  Tacullis,  we  hear  of  direct  transfusion 
of  soul  by  the  medicine-man,  who,  putting  his  hands  on  the 
breast  of  the  dying  or  dead,  then  holds  them  over  the  head 
of  a  relative  and  blows  through  them  ;  the  next  child  born 
to  this  recipient  of  the  departed  soul  is  animated  by  it,  and 
takes  the  rank  and  name  of  the  deceased.^  The  Nutka 
Indians  not  without  ingenuity  accounted  for  the  existence 
of  a  distant  tribe  speaking  the  same  language  as  themselves, 
by  declaring  them  to  be  the  spirits  of  their  dead.^  In 
Greenland,  where  the  wretched  custom  of  abandoning  and 
even  plundering  widows  and  orphans  was  tending  to  bring 
the  whole  race  to  extinction,  a  helpless  widow  would  seek 
to  persuade  some  father  that  the  soul  of  a  dead  child  of  his 
had  passed  into  a  living  child  of  hers,  or  vice  versd,  thus 
gaining  for  herself  a  new  relative  and  protector.*  It  is 
mostly  ancestral  or  kindred  souls  that  are  thought  to  enter 
into  children,  and  this  kind  of  transmigration  is  therefore 
from  the  savage  point  of  view  a  highly  philosophical  theory, 
accounting  as  it  does  so  well  for  the  general  resemblance 
between  parents  and  children,  and  even  for  the  more  special 

'  Brebeuf  in  *Rel.  des  J&.  dans  la  Nouvelle  France/  1635,  p.  130;  Ch*le- 
Yoiz,  *NouveUe  France,*  voL  vi.  p.  75.     See  Brinton,  p.  253. 

*  Waitz,  voL  iii.  p.  195,  see  pp.  198,  213. 

*  Mayne,  *  British  Columbia,*  p.  181. 

*  Cranz,  *Gr6nland,'  pp.  248,  258,  see  p.  212.    See  also  Turner,  *  Polynesia,' 
p.  353 ;  Meiners,  voL  ii  p.  793. 

B  2 


4  ANIMISM. 

phenomena  of  atavism.  In  North- West  America,  among 
the  Koloshes,  the  mother  sees  in  a  dream  the  deceased 
relative  whose  transmitted  soul  will  give  his  likeness  to  the 
child ;  ^  and  in  Vancouver's  Island  in  1860  a  lad  was  much 
regarded  hy  the  Indians  because  he  had  a  mark  like  the 
scar  of  a  gxm-shot  wound  on  his  hip,  it  being  believed  that 
a  chief  dead  some  four  generations  before,  who  had  such  a 
mark,  had  returned.^  In  Old  Calabar,  if  a  mother  loses  a 
child,  and  another  is  bom  soon  after,  she  thinks  the  departed 
one  to  have  come  back.^  The  Wanika  consider  that  the  soul 
of  a  dead  ancestor  animates  a  child,  and  this  is  why  it 
resembles  its  father  or  mother ;  *  in  Guinea  a  child  bear- 
ing a  strong  resemblance,  physical  or  mental,  to  a  dead 
relative,  is  supposed  to  have  inherited  his  soul ;  ^  and  the 
Yorubas,  greeting  a  new-bom  infant  with  the  salutation, 
**  Thou  art  come ! "  look  for  signs  to  show  what  ancestral 
soul  has  returned  among  them.*  Among  the  Khonds  of 
Orissa,  births  are  celebrated  by  a  feast  on  the  seventh  day, 
and  the  priest,  divining  by  dropping  rice-grains  in  a  cup  of 
water,  and  judging  from  observations  made  on  the  person  of 
the  infant,  determines  which  of  his  progenitors  has  reap- 
peared, and  the  child  generally  at  least  among  the  northern 
tribes  receives  the  name  of  that  ancestor.^  In  Europe  the 
Lapps  repeat  an  instructive  animistic  idea  just  noticed  in 
America ;  the  future  mother  was  told  in  a  dream  what  name 
to  give  her  child,  this  message  being  usually  given  by  the 
very  spirit  of  the  deceased  ancestor,  who  was  about  to  be 
incarnate  in  her.®     Among  the  lower  races  generally  the 

1  Bastian,  'Psychologie/p.  28. 

'  Bastian,  *  Zur  vergl.  Psychologie,' in  Lazarus  and  Steinthars  *Zeitschrift,' 
Tol.  V.  p.  160,  etc.,  also  Papuas  and  other  races. 
8  Burton,  '  W.  &  W.  fr.  W.  Afr.'  p.  876. 

*  Krapf,  *E.  Afr.*  p.  201. 

*^J.  L,  Wilson,  *  W.  Afr.'  p.  210  ;  see  also  R.  Clarke,  *  Sierra  Leone,' p. 
159  ;  Burton,  Dahome,  vol.  iL  p.  158. 

*  Bastian,  1.  c. 

7  Macpherson,  p.  72  ;  also  TickcU  in  *  Joum.  As.  Soc,  Bengal,'  vol.  ix.  pp. 
793,  etc.  ;  Daltonin  'Tr.  £th.  Soc.'  vol.  vi.  p.  22  (similar  rite  of  Mundas  and 
Oraons). 

'  Klemm,  *  Culturgeschichte,'  vol  iii.  p.  77. 


ANIMISM.  5 

renewal  of  old  family  names  by  giving  them  to  new-bom 
children  may  always  be  suspected  of  involving  some  such 
thought.  The  following  is  a  curious  pair  of  instances  from 
the  two  halves  of  the  globe.  The  New  Zealand  priest 
would  repeat  to  the  infant  a  long  list  of  names  of  its 
ancestors,  fixing  upon  that  name  which  the  child  by  sneez- 
ing or  crying  when  it  was  uttered,  was  considered  to  select 
for  itself;  while  the  Cheremiss  Tatar  would  shake  the  baby 
till  it  cried,  and  then  repeat  names  to  it,  till  it  chose  itself 
one  by  leaving  off  crying.^ 

The  belief  in  the  new  human  birth  of  the  departed  soul, 
which  has  even  led  West  African  negroes  to  commit  suicide 
when  in  distant  slavery,  that  they  may  revive  in  their  own 
land,  in  fact  amounts  among  several  of  the  lower  races  to  a 
distinct  doctrine  of  an  earthly  resurrection.  One  of  the 
most  remarkable  forms  which  this  belief  assumes  is  when 
dark-skinned  races,  wanting  some  reasonable  theory  to 
account  for  the  appearance  among  them  of  human  crea- 
tures of  a  new  strange  sort,  the  white  men,  and  struck  with 
their  pallid  deathly  hue  combined  with  powers  that  seem 
those  of  superhuman  spiritual  beings,  have  determined  that 
the  manes  of  their  dead  must  have  come  back  in  this 
wondrous  shape.  The  aborigines  of  Australia  have  ex- 
pressed this  theory  in  the  simple  formula,  "  Blackfellow 
tumble  down,  jump  up  Whitefellow."  Thus  a  native  who 
was  hanged  years  ago  at  Melbourne  expressed  in  his  last 
moments  the  hopeful  belief  that  he  would  jump  up  White- 
fellow,  and  have  lots  of  sixpences.  The  doctrine  has  been 
current  among  them  since  early  days  of  European  inter- 
course, and  in  accordance  with  it  they  habitually  regarded 
the  Englishmen  as  their  own  deceased  kindred,  come  back 
to  their  country  from  an  attachment  to  it  in  a  former  life. 
Beal  or  imagined  likeness  completed  the  delusion,  as  when 

*  A.  S.  Thomson,  *Ncw  Zealand/  i.  118  ;  see  Sbortland,  'Traditions,*  p. 
145;  Turner,  'Polynesia,'  p.  363;  Bastian,  'Mensch,*  vol.  ii  p.  279; 
see  also  p.  276  (Samoieds).  Comp.iro  Charlevoix,  *Nouvelle  Franco,' 
vol.  V.  p.  426;  Steller,  *  Kasnts:'.hatka,'  p.  353;  Kracheniiinikow,  p. 
117.     See  Plath,  *Rel  der  altcn  Chinesen,'  ii.  p.  98. 


O  ANIMISM. 

Sir  George  Grey  was  hugged  and  wept  over  by  an  old 
woman  who  found  in  him  a  son  she  had  lost,  or  when  a 
convict,  recognized  as  a  deceased  relative,  was  endowed 
anew  with  the  land  he  had  possessed  during  his  former  life. 
A  similar  theory  may  be  traced  northward  by  the  Torres 
Islands  to  New  Caledonia,  where  the  natives  thought  the 
white  men  to  be  the  spirits  of  the  dead  who  bring  sickness, 
and  assigned  this  as  their  reason  for  wishing  to  kill  white 
men.^  In  Africa,  again,  the  belief  is  found  among  the 
Western  negroes  that  they  will  rise  again  white,  and  the 
Bari  of  the  White  Nile,  believing  in  the  resurrection  of  the 
dead  on  earth,  considered  the  first  white  people  they  saw  as 
departed  spirits  thus  come  back.^ 

Next,  the  lower  psychology,  drawing  no  definite  line  of 
demarcation  between  souls  of  men  and  of  beasts,  can  at 
least  admit  without  difficulty  the  transmission  of  human 
soTils  into  the  bodies  of  the  lower  animals.  A  series  of 
examples  from  among  the  native  tribes  of  America,  will 
serve  well  to  show  the  various  ways  in  which  such  ideas  are 
worked  out.  The  Ahts  of  Vancouver's  Island  consider  the 
living  man's  soul  able  to  enter  into  other  bodies  of  men 
and  animals,  going  in  and  out  like  the  inhabitant  of  a 
house.  In  old  times,  they  say,  men  existed  in  the  forms  of 
birds,  beasts,  and  fishes,  or  these  had  the  spirits  of  the 
Indians  in  their  bodies ;  some  think  that  after  death  they 
will  pass  again  into  the  bodies  of  the  animals  they  occupied 
in  this  former  state.*    In  another  district  of  North- West 

*  Grey,  *  Australia,'  voL  i.  p.  801,  vol.  ii.  p.  363,  [native's  accusation  against 
some  foreign  sailors  who  had  assaulted  him,  "djanga  Taal-wurt  kyle-gut 
homb-gur," — "one  of  the  dead  strnck  Taal-wurt  under  the  ear,"  etc.  The 
word  djanga=ih.G  dead,  the  spirits  of  deceased  persons  (see  Grey,  *  Vocab.'  of 
S.  W.  Australia),  had  come  to  be  the  usual  term  for  a  European.]  Lang, 
*  Queensland,*  pp.  34,  386  ;  Bon  wick,  *  Tasmanians,'  p.  188 ;  Scherzer,  *  Voy. 
of  Novara,'  vol.  iii.  p.  84  ;  Bastian,  'Psychologic, 'p.  222,  'Mensch,'  vol.  iii. 
pp.  362 — 8,  and  in  Lazarus  and  SteinthaFs  '  Zcitschrift,'  1.  c ;  Turner, 
« Polynesia,'  p.  424. 

8  Romer,  *  Guinea,'  p.  85  ;  Brun-RoUet,  '  Nil  Blanc,'  etc  p.  284. 

>  Sproat,  *  Savage  Life,'  ch.  xviii.,  zix,  zxi.  Souls  of  the  dead  appear 
in  dreams,  either  in  human  or  animal  forms,  p.  174.  See  also  Brinton,  p. 
145. 


ANIMISM.  7 

America,  we  find  Indians  believing  the  spirits  of  their  dead 
to  enter  into  bears,  and  travellers  have  heard  of  a  tribe 
begging  the  life  of  a  wrinkle-faced  old  she  grizzly  bear  as 
the  recipient  of  the  soul  of  some  particular  grandam,  whom 
they  fancied  the  creature  to  resemble.^  So,  among  the 
Esquimaux,  a  traveller  noticed  a  widow  who  was  living  for 
conscience'  sake  upon  birds,  and  would  not  touch  walrus- 
meat,  which  the  angekok  had  forbidden  her  for  a  time, 
because  her  late  husband  had  entered  into  a  walrus.^ 
Among  other  North  American  tribes,  we  hear  of  the  Pow- 
hatans  refraining  from  doing  harm  to  certain  small  wood- 
birds  which  received  the  souls  of  their  chiefs  ;*  of  Huron 
souls  turning  into  turtle-doves  after  the  burial  of  their  bones 
at  the  Feast  of  the  Dead  ;^  of  that  pathetic  funeral  rite  of 
the  Iroquois,  the  setting  free  a  bird  on  the  evening  of 
burial,  to  carry  away  the  soul.^  In  Mexico,  the  Tlascalans 
thought  that  after  death  the  souls  of  nobles  would  animate 
beautiful  singing  birds,  while  plebeians  passed  into  weasels 
and  beetles  and  such  like  vile  creatures.^  So,  in  Brazil, 
the  I^annas  say  that  the  souls  of  the  brave  will  become 
beautiful  birds  feeding  on  pleasant  fruits,  but  cowards  will 
be  turned  into  reptiles  J  Among  the  Abipones  we  hear  of 
certain  little  ducks  which  fly  in  flocks  at  night,  uttering  a 
mournful  hiss,  and  which  fancy  associates  with  the  soids  of 
the  dead ;®  while  in  Popayan.it  is  said  that  doves  were  not 
killed,  as  inspired  by  departed  souls.^  Lastly,  transmigra- 
tion into  brutes  is  also  a  received  doctrine  in  South  America, 
as  when  a  missionary  heard  a  Chiriquane  woman  of  Buenos 

*  Schoolcraft,  *  Indian  Tribes,'  part  iii.  p.  118. 

*  Hayes,  'Arctic  Boat  Journey,*  p.  198. 

»  Brinton,  '  Myths  of  New  World,'  p.  102. 
^  Brebeaf  in  'Kel.  des  J^s.'  1636,  p.  104. 

*  Morgan,  'Iroquois,'  p.  174. 

'  Clavigero,  'Measico,*  vol.  ii.  p.  5. 

7  Martins,  'Ethnog.  Amer.'  toI.  i.  p.  602  ;  Markham  in  'Tr.  £th.  Soc.' 
yol.  iii.  p.  195. 

8  DobrizhofFer,  *  Abipones,'  vol.  ii.  pp.  74,  270. 

*  Coreal  in  Brinton,  1.  c.    See  also  J.  O.  Muller,  p.  189  (Natchez),  228 
(Caribs),  402  (Peru). 


8  ANIMISM. 

Ayres  say  of  a  fox,  "  May  not  that  be  the  spirit  of  my  dead 
daughter?"^ 

In  Africa,  again,  mention  is  made  of  the  Maravi  thinking 
that  the  souls  of  bad  men  became  jackals,  and  good  men 
snakes.^  The  Zulus,  while  admitting  that  a  man  may  turn 
into  a  wasp  or  lizard,  work  out  in  the  fullest  way  the  idea 
of  the  dead  becoming  snakes,  a  creature  whose  change  of 
skin  has  so  often  been  associated  with  the  thought  of  re- 
surrection and  immortality.  It  is  especially  certain  green 
or  brown  harmless  snakes,  which  come  gently  and  fearlessly 
into  houses,  which  are  considered  to  be  "  amatongo "  or 
ancestors,  and  therefore  are  treated  respectfully,  and  have 
offerings  of  food  given  them.  In  two  ways,  the  dead  man 
who  has  become  a  snake  can  still  be  recognized;  if  the 
creature  is  one-eyed,  or  has  a  scar  or  some  other  mark,  it  is 
recognized  as  the  "  itongo  '*  of  a  man  who  was  thus  marked 
in  life  ;  but  if  he  had  no  mark,  the  "  itongo  '!  appears  in 
human  shape  in  dreams,  thus  revealing  the  personality  of 
the  snake.*  In  Guinea,  monkeys  found  near  a  graveyard 
are  supposed  to  be  animated  by  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  and 
in  certain  localities  monkeys,  crocodiles,  and  snakes,  being 
thought  men  in  metempsychosis,  are  held  sacred.*  It  is  to 
be  borne  in.  mind  that  notions  of  this  kind  may  form  in 
barbaric  psychology  but  a  portion  of  the  wide  doctrine  of 
the  soul's  future  existence.  For  a  conspicuous  instance  of 
this,  let  us  take  the  system  of  the  Gold-Coast  negroes. 
They  believe  that  the  "kla"  or  *' kra,"  the  vital  soul, 
becomes  at  death  a  "  sisa  "  or  ghost,  which  can  remain  in 
the  house  with  the  body,  plague  the  living,  and  cause  sick- 
ness, till  it  departs  or  is  driven  by  the  sorcerer  to  the  bank 
of  the  River  Wolta,  where  the  ghosts  build  themselves 
houses  and  dwell.     But  they  can  and  do  come  back  from 

^  Briuton,  p.  254  ;  see  also  Martius,  toL  i.  p.  446. 

*  Waitz,  vol.  ii.  p.  419  (Maravi). 

3  Callaway,  'Kel.  of  Amazulu,*  p.  196,  etc.  ;  Arbousset  and  Daumas,  p. 
237. 

*  J.  L.  Wilson,   *  W.  Afr/  pp.  210,  218.    See  also  Brun-Rollet,  pp.  200, 
234  ;  Meiners,  vol.  i.  p.  211. 


ANIMISM.  9 

this  Land  of  Souls.  They  can  be  bom  again  as  souls  in 
new  human  bodies,  and  a  soul  who  was  poor  before  will  now 
be  rich.  Many  will  not  come  back  as  men,  but  will  become 
animals.  To  an  African  mother  who  has  lost  her  child,  it 
is  a  consolation  to  say,  "  He  will  come  again." ^ 

In  higher  levels  of  culture,  the  theory  of  re-embodiment 
of  the  soul  appears  in  strong  and  varied  development. 
Though  seemingly  not  received  by  the  early  Aryans,  the 
doctrine  of  migration  was  adopted  and  adapted  by  Hindu 
philosophy,  and  forms  an  integral  part  of  that  great  system 
common  to  Brahmanism  and  Buddhism,  wherein  successive 
births  or  existences  are  believed  to  carry  on  the  consequences 
of  past  and  prepare  the  antecedents  of  future  life.  To  the 
Hindu  the  body  is  but  the  temporary  receptacle  of  the  soul, 
which,  "  bound  in  the  chains  of  deeds  "  and  *'  eating  the 
fruits  of  past  actions,"  promotes  or  degrades  itself  along  a 
series  of  embodiments  in  plant,  beast,  man,  deity.  Thus 
all  creatures  differ  rather  in  degree  than  kind,  all  are  akin 
to  man,  an  elephant  or  ape  or  worm  may  once  have  been 
human,  and  may  become  human  again,  a  pariah  or  barbarian 
is  at  once  low-caste  among  men  and  high-caste  among 
brutes.  Through  such  bodies  migrate  the  sinful  souls 
which  desire  has  drawn  down  from  primal  purity  into  gross 
material  being ;  the  world  where  they  do  penance  for  the 
guilt  incurred  in  past  existences  is  a  huge  reformatory,  and 
life  is  the  long  grievous  process  of  developing  evil  into 
good.  The  rules  are  set  forth  in  the  book  of  Manu  how 
souls  endowed  with  the  quality  of  goodness  acquire  divine 
nature,  while  souls  governed  by  passion  take  up  the  human 
state,  and  souls  sunk  in  darkness  are  degraded  to  brutes. 
Thus  the  range  of  migration  stretches  downward  from  gods 
and  saints,  through  holy  ascetics,  Brahmans,  nymphs,  kings, 
counsellors,  to  actors,  drunkards,  birds,  dancers,  cheats, 
elephants,  horses,  Sudras,  barbarians,  wild  beasts,  snakes, 
worms,  insects,  and  inert  things.  Obscure  as  the  relation 
mostly  is  between  the  crime  and  its  punishment  in  a  new 

^  Steinhauser  in  'Mag.  der  Evang.  Miss.*  Basel,  1856,  No.  2,  p.  185. 


10  ANIMISM. 

life,  there  may  be  discerned  through  the  code  of  penal 
transmigration  an  attempt  at  appropriateness  of  penalty, 
and  an  intention  to  punish  the  sinner  wherein  he  sinned. 
For  faults  committed  in  a  previous  existence  men  are 
afflicted  with  deformities,  the  stealer  of  food  shall  be 
d3'speptic,  the  scandal-monger  shall  have  foul  breath,  the 
horse-stealer  shall  go  lame,  and  in  consequence  of  their 
deeds  men  shall  be  born  idiots,  blind,  deaf  and  dumb,  mis- 
shaped, and  thus  despised  of  good  men.  After  expiation  of 
their  wickedness  in  the  hells  o^  torment,  the  murderer  of  a 
Brahman  may  pass  into  a  wild  beast  or  pariah;  he  who 
adulterously  dishonours  his  guru  or  spiritual  father  shall 
be  a  hundred  times  re-bom  as  grass,  a  bush,  a  creeper,  a 
carrion  bird,  a  beast  of  prey ;  the  cruel  shall  become  blood- 
thirsty beasts ;  stealers  of  grain  and  meat  shall  turn  into 
rats  and  vultures;  the  thief  who  took  dyed  garments, 
kitchen-herbs,  or  perfumes,  shall  become  accordingly  a  red 
partridge,  a  peacock,  or  a  musk-rat.  In  short,  "in  what- 
ever disposition  of  mind  a  man  accomplishes  such  and  such 
an  act,  he  shall  reap  the  fruit  in  a  body  endowed  with  such 
and  such  a  quality."  ^  The  recognition  of  plants  as  possible 
receptacles  of  the  transmigrating  spirit  well  illustrates  the 
conception  of  souls  of  plants.  The  idea  is  one  known  to 
lower  races  in  the  district  of  the  world  which  has  been  more 
or  less  under  Hindu  influence.  Thus  we  hear  among  the 
Dayaks  of  Borneo  of  the  human  soul  entering  the  trunks  of 
trees,  where  it  may  be  seen  damp  and  blood-like,  but  no 
longer  personal  and  sentient ;  *  and  the  Santals  of  Bengal 
are  said  to  fancy  that  uncharitable  men  and  childless  women 
are  eaten  eternally  by  worms  and  snakes,  while  the  good 
enter  into  fruit-bearing  trees.'  But  it  is  an  open  question 
whether  these  and  the  Hindu  ideas  are  originally  indepen- 
dent of  each  other,  and  if  not,  did  the  Hindus  adopt  the 

^  Mann,  xi.  xu.    Ward,   « Hindoos,'  vol.  i.  p.  164,  vol.  ii.  pp.  215,  847 
-52. 

2  St.  John,  '  Far  East,'  vol.  i.  p.  181. 

^  Hunter,  'Rural  Bengal,*  p.  210.    See  also  Shaw  in  'As.  Res.'  vol.  iv.  p. 
46  (Ri^malial  tribes). 


ANIMISM.  11 

ideas  of  the  indigenes,  or  vice  versd  ?  A  curious  commen- 
tary on  the  Hindu  working  out  of  the  conception  of  plant- 
souls  is  to  be  found  in  a  passage  in  a  17th  century  work, 
which  describes  certain  Brahmans  of  the  Coromandel  Coast 
as  eating  fruits,  but  being  careftil  not  to  pull  the  plants  up 
by  the  roots,  lest  they  should  dislodge  a  soul ;  but  few,  it 
is  remarked,  are  so  scrupulous  as  this,  and  the  consideration 
has  occurred  to  them  that  souls  in  roots  and  herbs  are  in 
most  yile  and  abject  bodies,  so  that  if  dislodged  they  may 
tecome  better  off  by  entering  into  the  bodies  of  men  or 
beasts.^  Moreover,  the  Brahmanic  doctrine  of  souls  trans- 
migrating into  inert  things  has  in  like  manner  a  bearing  on 
the  savage  theory  of  object-souls.' 

Buddhism,  like  the  Brahmanism  from  which  it  seceded, 
habitually  recognized  transmigration  between  superhuman 
and  human  beings  and  the  lower  animals,  and  in  an  ex- 
ceptional way  recognized  a  degradation  even  into  a  plant  or 
a  thing.  How  the  Buddhist  mind  elaborated  the  doctrine 
of  metempsychosis,  may  be  seen  in  the  endless  legends  of 
Gautama  himself  undergoing  his  550  births,  suffering  pain 
and  misery  through  countless  ages  to  gain  the  power  of 
freeing  sentient  beings  from  the  misery  inherent  in  all 
existence.  Four  times  he  became  Maha  Brahma,  twenty 
times  the  dewa  Sekra,  and  many  times  or  few  he  passed 
through  such  stages  as  a  hermit,  a  king,  a  rich  man,  a  slave, 
a  potter,  a  gambler,  a  curer  of  snake  bites,  an  ape,  an 
elephant,  a  bull,  a  serpent,  a  snipe,  a  fish,  a  frog,  the  dewa 
or  genius  of  a  tree.  At  last,  when  he  became  the  supreme 
Buddha,  his  mind,  like  a  vessel  overflowing  with  honey, 
overflowed  with  the  ambrosia  of  truth,  and  he  proclaimed 
his  triumph  over  life  : — 

'  Abraham  Kogcr,  'La  Porte  Onverte/  Amst  1670,  p.  107. 

3  Mann,  zii.  9  :  **  fartrajaih  karmmadoshaih  y&ti  sth&varat&m  narah  "— 
**  for  crimes  done  in  the  body,  the  man  goes  to  the  inert  (motionless)  state  ;  '* 
xii.  42,  "sth&var&h  krimakltilgcha  matsyfth  sarp&h  sakachhapfth  pafava^hs 
mrigaBchaiTa  jaghanyft  t&masl  gatih*' — "inert  (motionless)  things,  worms 
and  insects,  fish,  serpents,  tortoises  and  beasts  and  deer  also  are  the  last  dark 
form." 


12  ANIMISM. 

* ''  Painful  are  repeated  births. 

0  house-bmlder !  I  have  seen  thee, 

Thou  canst  not  build  again  a  house  for  me. 

Thy  rafters  are  broken 

Thy  roof-timbers  are  shattered, 

My  mind  is  detached, 

1  have  attained  to  the  extinction  of  desire.'* 

Whether  the  Buddhists  receive  the  full  Hindu  doctrine  of 
the  migration  of  the  individual  soul  from  birth  to  birth,  or 
whether  they  refine  away  into  metaphysical  subtleties  the 
notion  of  continued  personality,  they  do  consistently  and 
systematically  hold  that  a  man's  life  in  former  existences  is 
the  cause  of  his  now  being  what  he  is,  while  at  this  moment 
he  is  accumulating  merit  or  demerit  whose  result  will 
determine  his  fate  in  future  lives.  Memory,  it  is  true,  fails 
generally  to  recal  these  past  births,  but  memory,  as  we 
know,  stops  short  of  the  beginning  even  of  this  present  life. 
When  King  Bimsara's  feet  were  burned  and  rubbed  with  salt 
by  command  of  his  cruel  son  that  he  might  not  walk,  why  was 
this  torture  inflicted  on  a  man  so  holy  ?  Because  in  a 
previous  birth  he  had  walked  near  a  dagoba  with  his 
slippers  on,  and  had  trodden  on  a  priest's  carpet  without 
washing  his  feet.  A  man  may  be  prosperous  for  a  time  on 
account  of  the  merit  he  has  received  in  former  births,  but 
if  he  does  not  continue  to  keep  the  precepts,  his  next  birth 
will  be  in  one  of  the  hells,  he  will  then  be  bom  in  this  world 
as  a  beast,  afterwards  as  a  preta  or  sprite ;  a  proud  man 
may  be  bom  again  ugly  with  large  lips,  or  as  a  demon  or  a 
worm.  The  Buddhist  theory  of  "karma"  or  "action," 
which  controls  the  destiny  of  all  sentient  beings,  not  by 
judicial  reward  and  punishment,  but  by  the  inflexible  result 
of  cause  into  effect,  wherein  the  present  is  ever  determined 
by  the  past  in  an  unbroken  line  of  causation,  is  indeed  one 
of  the  world's  most  remarkable  developments  of  ethical 
speculation.^ 

»  Kiippeii,  'Religion  dos Buddlm, '  vol.  i.  pp.  35,  289,  etc.,  318  ;  Barthtflemy 
Saint-Hilaire,  *  Le  Bouddha  ot  sa  Religion,*  p.  122;  Hardy,  *  Manual  of 
lUiddliiiim/  pp.  98,  etc..  180,  818,  445,  etc. 


ANIMISM.  13 

Within  the  classic  world,  the  ancient  Egyptians  are 
described  as  maintaining  a  doctrine  of  migration,  whether 
by  successive  embodiments  in  a  "  cycle  of  necessity"  through 
creatures  of  earth,  sea,  and  air,  and  back  again  to  man,  or 
by  the  simpler  judicial  penalty  which  sent  back  the  wicked 
dead  to  earth  as  unclean  beasts.  The  pictures  and  hiero- 
glyphic sentences  of  the  Book  of  the  Dead  are  still  pre- 
served, and  though  the  ambiguity  of  its  formulas  and  the 
difficulty  of  distinguishing  material  from  mystical  meaning 
in  its  doctrine  make  it  of  little  use  as  a  check  upon  the 
classic  accounts,  yet  it  shows  at  least  that  notions  of 
metamorphosis  of  the  soul  did  hold  a  large  place  in  the 
Egyptian  religion.*  In  Greek  philosophy,  great  teachers 
stood  forth  to  proclaim  it.  Plato  had  mythit  knowledge  to 
convey  of  souls  entering  such  new  incarnations  as  their 
glimpse  of  real  existence  had  made  them  fit  for,  from  the 
body  of  a  philosopher  or  a  lover  down  to  the  body  of  a  tyrant 
and  usurper ;  of  souls  transmigrating  into  beasts  and  rising 
again  to  man  according  to  the  lives  they  led ;  of  birds  that 
were  light-minded  souls ;  of  oysters  suffering  in  banish- 
ment the  penalty  of  utter  ignorance.  Pythagoras  is  made 
to  illustrate  in  his  own  person  his  doctrine  of  metempsy- 
chosis, by  recognizing  where  it  hung  in  Here's  temple  the 
shield  he  had  carried  in  a  former  birth,  when  he  was  that 
Euphorbos  whom  Menelaus  slew  at  the  siege  of  Troy. 
Afterwards  he  was  Hermotimos,  the  Klazomenian  prophet 
whose  funeral  rites  were  so  prematurely  celebrated  while  his 
soul  was  out,  and  after  that,  as  Lucian  tells  the  story,  his 
prophetic  soul  passed  into  the  body  of  a  cock.  Mikyllos  asks 
this  cock  to  tell  him  about  Troy — ^were  things  there  really  as 
Komer  said  ?  But  the  cock,  replies,  "  How  should  Homer 
have  known,  O  Mikyllos  ?  When  the  Trojan  war  was  going 
on,  he  was  a  camel  in  Baktria ! " ' 

»  Herod,  ii.  123,  see  Rawlinaon's  Tr.;  Plutarch.  De  Iside  31,  72 ;  Wilkin- 
son, *  Ancient  Eg/  vol.  ii.  ch.  xvi.  ;  Bunsen,  *  Egypt's  Place  in  Univ.  Hist.' 
vols.  iv.  and  v. 

^  Plat.  Phaedo,  Timaus,  Phtedros,  Bepub.    Pindar.  Olymp.  ii.  antistr.  4 ; 


14<  ANIMISM. 

In  the  later  Jewish  philosophy,  the  Kabbalists  took  up  the 
doctrine  of  migration,  the  gilgul  or  "  rolling  on  **  of  souls, 
and  maintained  it  by  that  characteristic  method  of  Biblical 
interpretation  which  it  is  good  to  hold  up  from  time  to  time 
for  a  warning  to  the  mystical  interpreters  of  our  own  day. 
The  soul  of  Adam  passed  into  David,  and  shall  pass  into 
the  Messiah,  for  are  not  these  initials  in  the  very  name  of 
Ad(a)m,  and  does  not  Ezekiel  say  that  "  my  servant  David 
shall  be  their  prince  for  ever.*'  Cain's  soul  passed  into 
Jethro,  and  Abel's  into  Moses,  and  therefore  it  was  that 
Jethro  gave  Moses  his  daughter  to  wife.  Souls  migrate  into 
beasts  and  birds  and  vermin,  for  is  not  Jehovah  "  the  lord 
of  the  spirits  of  all  flesh  ?  "  and  he  who  has  done  one  sin 
beyond  his  go6d  works  shall  pass  into  a  brute«  He  who 
gives  a  Jew  unclean  meat  to  eat,  his  soul  shall  enter  into  a 
leaf,  blown  to  and  fro  by  the  wind ;  "  for  ye  shall  be  as  an 
oak  whose  leaf  fadeth ;  "  and  he  who  speaks  ill  words,  his 
soul  shall  pass  into  a  dumb  stone,  as  did  Nabal's,  '^  and  he 
became  a  stone."  *  Within  the  range  of  Christian  influence, 
the  Manichieans  appear  as  the  most  remarkable  exponents 
of  the  metempsychosis.  We  hear  of  their  ideas  of  sinners' 
souls  transmigrating  into  beasts,  the  viler  according  to  their 
crimes ;  that  he  who  kills  a  fowl  or  rat  will  become  a  fowl  or 
rat  himself;  that  souls  can  pass  into  plants  rooted  in  the 
ground,  which  thus  have  not  only  life  but  sense ;  that  the 
souls  of  reapers  pass  into  beans  and  barley,  to  be  cut  down 
in  their  turn,  and  thus  the  elect  were  careful  to  explain  to 
the  bread  when  they  ate  it,  that  it  was  not  they  who  reaped 
the  com  it  was  made  of;  that  the  souls  of  the  auditors,  that 
is,  the  spiritually  low  commonalty  who  lived  a  married  life, 
would  pass  into  melons  and  cucumbers,  to  finish  their  puri- 
fication by  being  eaten  by  the  elect.  But  these  details  come 
to  us  from  the  accounts  of  bitter  theological  adversaries,  and 

Ovid.  Metam.  xv.  160  ;  Lucian.  Somn.  17,  etc.    Philostr.  Vit.  Apollon.  Tyran. 
See  also  Mcyer*8  ConYersations-Jjexicon,  art.  '  Seelenwanderuug.*     For  re- 
birth in  old  Scandinavia,  see  Helgaqvidba,  iii.,  in  '  Edda.' 
^  £i»emnenger,  part  ii«  p.  28,  etc. 


ANIMISM.  15 

the  question  is,  how  much  of  them  did  the  Manichseans  really 
and  soberly  believe  ?  Allowing  for  exaggeration  and  con- 
structive imputation,  there  is  reason  to  consider  the  account 
at  least  founded  on  fact.  It  seems  clear  that  the  ManichsBan 
sect,  when  they  fused  together  Zarathustrism,  Buddhism^  and 
Christianity,  into  a  transcendental  ascetic  faith,  adopted  the 
Hindu  theory  of  penance  and  purification  of  souls  by 
migration  into  animals  and  plants,  probably  elaborating  it 
meanwhile  into  fresh  and 'fanciful  details.^  In  later  times^  the 
doctrine  of  metempsychosis  has  been  again  and  again  noticed 
in  a  district  of  South-western  Asia.  William  of  Buysbroek 
speaks  of  the  notion  of  souls  passing  from  body  to  body  as 
general  among  the  mediaeval  Nestorians,  even  a  somewhat 
intelligent  priest  consulting  him  as  to  the  souls  of  brutes, 
whether  they  could  find  refuge  elsewhere  so  as  not  to  be 
compelled  to  labour  after  death.  Babbi  Benjamin  of  Tudela 
records  in  the  12th  century  of  the  Druses  of  Mount  Hermon  : 
*'  They  say  that  the  soul  of  a  virtuous  man  is  transferred  to 
the  body  of  a  new-bom  child,  whereas  that  of  the  vicious 
transmigrates  into  a  dog,  or  some  other  animal"  Such  ideas 
indeed,  seem  not  yet  extinct  in  the  modem  Druse  nation. 
Among  the  Nassairi,  also,  transmigration  is  believed  in  as 
a  penance  and  purification :  we  hear  of  migration  of  un- 
believers into  camels,  asses,  dogs,  or  sheep,  of  disobedient 
Nassairi  into  Jews,  Sunnis,  or  Christians,  of  the  faithful 
into  new  bodies  of  their  own  people,  a  few  such  changes  of 
**  shirt "  (i.e.  body),  bringing  them  to  enter  paradise  or 
become  stars.^  An  instance  of  the  belief  within  the  limits 
of  modem  Christian  Europe  may  be  found  among  the  Bul- 
garians, whose  superstition  is  that  Turks  who  have  never 
eaten  pork  in  life  will  become  wild  boars  after  death.  A 
party  assembled  to  feasi  on  a  boar  has  been  known  to  throw 

*  Beansobre,  *  Hist,  de  Manich^e,*  etc.,  vol.  i.  pp.  245 — 6,  vol.  ii.  pp.  496—9. 
See  Augustin.  Contra  Faust ;  De  Hsres. ;  De  Quantitate  Animse. 

•  Gul.  de  Rnbruqnis  in  *  Rec.  des  Voy.  Soc.  de  G^ographie  de  Paris,'  vol. 
iv.  p.  856.  Benjamin  of  Tudela,  ed  and  tr.  by  Asher,  Hebrew  22,  Eng.  p.  62. 
Niebuhr,  '  Reisebesclir.  nach  Arabien,'  etc  vol.  ii.  pp.  438—443  ;  Meiueis, 
vol.  ii.  p.  796. 


16  ANIMISM. 

it  all  away,  for  tlie  meat  jumped  off  the  spit  into  the  fire, 
and  a  piece  of  cotton  was  found  in  the  ears,  which  the  wise 
man  decided  to  be  a  piece  of  the  ci-devant  Turk's  turban.* 
Such  cases,  however,  are  exceptional.  Metempsychosis  nfever 
became  one  of  the  great  doctrines  of  Christendom,  though 
not  unknown  in  medieeval  scholasticism,  and  though  main- 
tained by  an  eccentric  theologian  here  and  there  into  our 
own  times.  It  would  be  strange  were  it  not  so.  It  is  in  the 
very  nature  of  the  development  of  religion  that  speculations 
of  the  earlier  culture  should  dwindle  to  survivals,  yet  be 
again  and  again  revived.  Doctrines  transmigrate,  if  souls 
do  not ;  and  metempsychosis,  wandering  along  the  course  of 
ages,  came  at  last  to  animate  the  souls  of  Fourier  and 
Soame  Jenyns.* 

Thus  we  have  traced  the  ancient  theory  of  metempsy- 
chosis in  stage  after  stage  of  the  world's  civilization,  scattered 
among  the  native  races  of  America  and  Africa,  established 
in  old  Egypt,  elaborated  by  the  Hindu  mind  into  its  great 
system  of  ethical  philosophy,  reviving  and  failing  through 
classic  and  mediseval  Europe,  and  lingering  at  last  in  the 
modem  world  as  an  intellectual  crotchet,  of  little  account 
but  to  the  ethnographer  who  notes  it  down  as  an  item  of 


*  St.  Clair  and  Brophy,  'Bulgaria,'  p.  67.  Compare  the  tenets  of  the 
Russian  sect  of  Dukhobortzi,  in  Haxthausen,  'Russian  Empire,'  vol.  i.  p. 
288,  etc. 

3  Since  the  first  publication  of  the  above  remark,  M.  Louis  Figuier  has 
supplied  8  perfect  modem  instance  by  his  book,  entitled  '  Le  Lendemain  de  la 
Mort,'  translated  into  English  as  *  The  Day  after  Death  :  Our  Future  Life 
according  to  Science.'  Mis  attempt  to  revive  the  ancient  belief,  and  to  con- 
nect it  with  the  evolution-theory  of  modem  naturalists,  is  carried  out  with 
more  than  Buddhist  elaborateness.  Body  is  the  habitat  of  soul,  which  goes  out 
when  a  man  dies,  as  one  forsakes  a  buming  house.  In  the  course  of  develop- 
ment, a  soul  may  migrate  through  bodies  stage  after  stage,  zoophyte  and 
oyster,  grasshopper  and  eagle,  crocodile  and  dog,  till  it  arrives  at  man,  thence 
ascending  to  become  one  of  the  superhuman  beings  or  angels  who  dwell  in  the 
planetary  ether,  and  thence  to  a  still  higher  state,  the  secret  of  whose  nature 
M.  Figuier  does  not  endeavour  to  penetrate,  "  because  our  means  of  investi- 
gation fail  at  this  point."  The  ultimate  destiny  of  the  moregloriBed  being  is 
the  Sun  ;  the  pure  spirits  who  fonn  its  mass  of  burning  gases,  pour  out  germs 
and  life  to  start  the  course  of  planetary  existence.     (Note  to  2nd  edition.) 


ANIMISM.  17 

evidence  for  his  continuity  of  culture.  What,  we  may  well 
ask,  was  the  original  cause  and  motive  of  the  doctrine  of 
transmigration  ?  Something  may  be  said  in  answer,  though 
not  at  all  enough  for  full  explanation.  The  theory  that 
ancestral  souls  return,  thus  imparting  their  own  likeness  of 
mind  and  body  to  their  descendants  and  kindred,  has  been 
already  mentioned  and  commended  as  in  itself  a  very  reason- 
able and  philosophical  hypothesis,  accounting  for  the  phe- 
nomenon of  family  likeness  going  on  from  generation  to 
generation.  But  why  should  it  have  been  imagined  that 
men's  souls  could  inhabit  the  bodies  of  beasts  and  birds  ? 
As  has  been  already  pointed  out,  savages  not  um'eason- 
ably  consider  the  lower  animals  to  have  souls  like  their  own, 
and  this  state  of  mind  makes  the  idea  of  a  man's  soul  trans- 
migrating into  a  beast's  body  at  least  seem  possible.  But  it 
does  not  actually  suggest  the  idea.  The  view  stated  in  a 
previous  chapter  as  to  the  origin  of  the  conception  of  soul 
in  general,  may  perhaps  help  us  here.  As  it  seems  that  the 
first  conception  of  souls  may  have  been  that  of  the  souls  of 
men,  this  being  afterwards  extended  by  analogy  to  the  souls 
of  animals,  plants,  etc.,  so  it  may  seem  that  the  original 
idea  of  transmigration  was  the  straightforward  and  reason- 
able one  of  human  souls  being  re-bom  in  new  human  bodies, 
where  they  are  recognized  by  family  likenesses  in  successive 
generations.  This  notion  may  have  been  afterwards  extended 
to  take  in  re-birth  in  bodies  of  animals,  etc.  There  are  some 
well-marked  savage  ideas  which  will  fit  with  such  a  course 
of  thought.  The  half-human  features  and  actions  and 
characters  of  animals  are  watched  with  wondering  sympathy 
by  the  savage,  as  by  the  child.  The  beast  is  the  very  incar- 
nation of  familiar  qualities  of  man ;  and  such  names  as  lion, 
bear,  fox,  owl,  parrot,  viper,  worm,  when  we  apply  them  as 
epithets  to  men,  condense  into  a  word  some  leading  feature 
of  a  human  life.  Consistently  with  this,  we  see  in  looking 
over  details  of  savage  transmigration  that  the  creatures  often* 
have  an  evident  fitness  to  the  character  of  the  human  beings 
whose  souls  are   to   pass  into   them,   so  that  the  savage 

VOL.   II.  c 


s-j 


18  ANIMISM. 

philosopher's  fancy  of  transferred  souls  offered  something 
like  an  explanation  of  the  likeness  between  beast  and  man. 
This  comes  more  clearly  into  view  among  the  more  civilized 
races  who  have  worked  out  the  idea  of  transmigration  into 
ethical  schemes  of  retribution,  where  the  appropriateness  of 
the  creatures  chosen  is  almost  as  manifest  to  the  modern 
critic  as  it  could  have  been  to  the  ancient  believer.  Per- 
haps the  most  graphic  restoration  of  the  state  of  mind  in 
which  the  theological  doctrine  of  metempsychosis  was  worked 
out  in  long-past  ages,  may  be  found  in  the  writings  of  a 
modern  theologian  whose  spiritualism  often  follows  to  the 
extreme  the  intellectual  tracks  of  the  lower  races.  In  the 
spiritual  world,  says  Emanuel  Swedenborg,  such  persons  as 
have  opened  themselves  for  the  admission  of  the  devil  and 
acquired  the  nature  of  beasts,  becoming  foxes  in  cunning, 
etc.,  appear  also  at  a  flistance  in  the  proper  shape  of  such 
beasts  as  they  represent  in  disposition.*  Lastly,  one  of  the 
most  notable  points  about  the  theory  of  transmigration  is  its 
close  bearing  upon  a  thought  which  lies  very  deep  in  the 
history  of  philosophy,  the  development- theory  of  organic 
life  in  successive  stages.  An  elevation  from  the  vegetable 
to  the  lower  animal  life,  and  thence  onward  through  the 
higher  animals  to  man,  to  say  nothing  of  superhuman 
beings,  does  not  here  require  even  a  succession  of  distinct 
individuals,  but  is  brought  by  the  theory  of  metempsy- 
chosis within  the  compass  of  the  successive  vegetable  and 
animal  lives  of  a  single  being. 

Here  a  few  words  may  be  said  on  a  subject  which  cannot 
be  left  out  of  sight,  connecting  as  it  does  the  two  great 
branches  of  the  doctrine  of  future  existence,  but  which  it 
is  difficult  to  handle  in  definite  terms,  and  much  more  to 
trace   historically  by  comparing   the  views   of  lower   and 


'  Swedenborg,  *The  True  Christian  Religion,'  13.  Compare  the  notion 
attribated  to  the  foUowers  of  Basilides  the  Gnostic,  of  men  whose  souls  arc 
affected  by  spirits  or  dispositions  as  of  wolf,  ape,  lion,  or  bear,  wherefore 
their  souls  bear  the  properties  of  these,  and  imitate  their  deeds  (Clem.  Alex. 
Stromat.  ii.  c.  20). 


ANIMISIf.  19 

higher  races.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  a  bodily  renewal  or 
resurrection.  To  the  philosophy  of  the  lower  races  it  is 
by  no  means  necessary  that  the  surviving  soul  should  be 
provided  with  a  new  body,  for  it  seems  itself  to  be  of  a 
filmy  or  vaporous  corporeal  nature,  capable  of  carrying  on 
an  independent  existence  like  other  corporeal  creatures. 
Savage  descriptions  of  the  next  world  are  often  such  ab- 
solute copies  of  this,  that  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  say 
whether  the  dead  are  or  are  not  thought  of  as  having  bodies 
like  the  living ;  and  a  few  pieces  of  evidence  of  this  class 
are  hardly  enough  to  prove  the  lower  races  to  hold  original 
and  distinct  doctrines  of  corporeal  resurrection.^  Again, 
attention  must  be  given  to  the  practice,  so  common  among 
low  and  high  races,  of  preserving  relics  of  the  dead,  from 
mere  morsels  of  bone  up  to  whole  mummified  bodies.  It 
is  well  known  that  the  departed  soul  is  often  thought  apt 
to  revisit  the  remains  of  the  body.  But  how  far  the  pre- 
servation of  these  remains  may  be  connected  with  an  idea 
of  bodily  resurrection,  whether  among  the  native  races  of 
America,  or  in  ancient  Egypt,  or  elsewhere,. is  a  problem 
for  which  also  the  evidence  available  does  not  seem  suffi- 
cient.* In  discussing  the  closely  allied  doctrine  of  metem- 
psychosis, I  have  described  the  theory  of  the  souFs  trans- 
migration into  a  new  human  body  as  asserting  in  fact  an 
earthly  resurrection.  From  the  same  point  of  view,  a 
bodily  resurrection  in  Heaven  or  Hades  is  technically  a 
transmigration  of  the  soul.  This  is  plain  among  the  higher 
races,  in  whose  religion  these  doctrines  take  at  once  clearer 
definition  and  more  practical  import.  There  are  some  dis- 
tinct mentions  of  bodily  resurrection  in  the  Rig  Veda :  the 
dead  is  spoken  of  as  glorified,  putting  on  his  body  (tanu)  ; 
and  it  is  even  promised  that  the  pious  man  shall  be  bom  in 

'  See  J.  G.  Mailer,  *  Amer.  Urrel.'  p.  208  (Carihs) ;  but  compare  Roclieforfc, 
p.  429.    Steller,   '  Kamtschatka/  p.  269;  Castren,    'Finnische  Mythologie, -^ 
p.  119. 

^  See  for  American  eyidence  Brinton,  *  Myths  of  New  World/  p.  254,  etc. 
JFor  Egyptian  evidence  Birch's  tr.  of  *  Book  of  Dead '  in  Bunsen's  'Egypt.' 
voL  vi.  ;  Wilkinson,  etc. 

c  2 


20  ANIMISM. 

the  next  world  with  his  entire  body  (sarvatanA).  In  Brah- 
minism  and  Buddhism,  the  re-births  of  souls  in  bodies  to 
inhabit  heavens  and  hells  are  simply  included  as  particular 
cases  of  transmigration.  The  question  of  an  old  Persian 
doctrine  of  resurrection,  thought  by  some  to  be  related  to 
the  late  Jewish  doctrine,  is  obscure.*  In  early  Christianity, 
the  conception  of  bodily  resurrection  is  developed  with 
especial  strength  and  fulness  in  the  Pauline  doctrine.  For 
an  explicit  interpretation  of  this  doctrine,  such  as  commended 
itself  to  the  minds  of  later  theologians,  it  is  instructive  to 
cite  the  remarkable  passage  of  Origen,  where  he  speaks  of 
"corporeal  matter,  of  which  matter,  in  whatever  quality 
placed,  the  soul  always  has  use,  now  indeed  carnal,  but  after- 
wards indeed  subtler  and  purer,  which  is  called  spiritual."' 
Passing  from  these  metaphysical  doctrines  of  civilized 
theolog}%  we  now  take  up  a  series  of  beliefs  higher  in  prac- 
tical moment,  and  more  clearly  conceived  in  savage  thought. 
There  may  well  have  been,  and  there  may  still  be,  low  races 
destitute  of  any  belief  in  a  Future  State.  Nevertheless, 
prudent  ethnographers  must  often  doubt  accounts  of  such, 
for  this  reason,  that  the  savage  who  declares  that  the  dead 
live  no  more,  may  merely  mean  to  say  that  they  are  dead. 
"VMien  the  East  African  is  asked  what  becomes  of  his  buried 
ancestors,  the  "  old  people,"  he  can  reply  that  "  they  are 
ended,*'  yet  at  the  same  time  he  fully  admits  that  their 
ghosts  survive.'  In  an  account  of  the  religious  ideas  of  the 
Zulus,  taken  down  from  a  native,  it  is  explicitly  stated  that 
Unkulunkulu  the  Old-Old-One  said  that  people  "  were  to 
die  and  never  rise  again,"  and  that  he  allowed  them  "  to  die 
and  rise  no  more."  *  Knowing  so  thoroughly  as  we  now  do  the 

*  Aryan  evidence  in  *  Kig-Veda,'  x.  14,  8;  xi.  1,  8;  Manu,  xii.  16 — 22;  Max 
Muller,  * Todtenbestattung/  pp.  xii.  xiv.  ;  'Chips,*  vol.  L  p.  47;  Muir  in 
'  Joura.  As.  Soc.  Bengal,'  vol.  1.  1865,  p.  306  ;  Ward,  'Hindoos,'  vol.  ii.  pp. 
382,  347,  357  ;  Hang,  'Parsees,'  p.  266;  see  Alger,  'Future  Life.' 

^  Origen,  De.  Princip.  ii.  3,  2  :  "  materia;  corporalis,  cujus  matcriae  anima 
usum  semper  habet,  in  qualibet  qualitate  positaj,  nunc  quidem  caruali,  post- 
modnm  vcro  subtiliori  et  puriori,  quae  spiritalis  appellatur.*' 

'  Burton,  *  Central  Africa,'  vol.  ii.  p.  345. 

^  Callaway,  *Rel.  of  Amazulu,'  p.  84. 


ANIMISM.  21 

theology  of  the  Zulus,  whose  ghosts  not  only  survive  in  the 
under-world,  but  are  the  very  deities  of  the  living,  we  can 
put  the  proper  sense  to  these  expressions.  But  without 
such  information,  we  might  have  mistaken  them  for  denials 
of  the  soul's  existence  after  death.  This  objection  may  even 
apply  to  one  of  the  most  formal  denials  of  a  future  life  ever 
placed  on  record  among  an  uncultured  race,  a  poem  of  the 
Dinka  tribe  of  the  White  Nile,  concerning  Dendid  the  Creator : 

**  On  the  day  when  Dendid  made  all  things, 

He  made  the  sun ; 
And  the  son  comes  forth,  goes  down,  and  comes  again : 

He  made  the  moon ; 
And  the  moon  comes  forth,  goes  down,  and  comes  again : 

He  made  the  stars ; 
And  the  stars  come  forth,  go  down,  and  come  again  : 

He  made  man ; 
And  man  comes  forth,  goes  down  into  the  ground,  and  comes  no  more." 

It  is  to  be  remarked,  however,  that  the  close  neighbours 
of  these  Dinka,  the  Bari,  believe  that  the  dead  do  return  to 
live  again  on  earth,  and  the  question  arises  whether  it  is  the 
doctrine  of  bodily  resurrection,  or  the  doctrine  of  the  sur- 
viving ghost-soul,  that  the  Dinka  poem  denies.  The  mis- 
sionary Kaufmann  says  that  the  Dinka  do  not  believe  the 
immortality  of  the  soul,  that  they  think  it  but  a  breath,  and 
with  death  all  is  over ;  Brun-Kollet's  contrary  authority  goes 
to  prove  that  they  do  believe  in  another  life ;  both  leave  it 
an  open  question  whether  they  recognize  the  existence  of 
surviving  ghosts.^  The  case  is,  like  various  others  of  the 
same  kind,  incomplete. 

Looking  at  the  religion  of  the  lower  races  as  a  whole,  we 
shall  at  least  not  be  ill-advised  in  taking  as  one  of  its  general 
and  principal  elements  the  doctrine  of  the  soul's  Future 
Life.  But  here  it  is  needful  to  explain,  to  limit,  and  to 
reserve,  lest  modern  theological  ideas  should  lead  us  to  mis- 
construe more   primitive   beliefs.     In   such   enquiries  the 

^  Kaufmann,  'Schi]denuigenausCentralafrika,'p.  124;  G.  Lejcan  in  'Rev. 
dps  Deux  Mondes,'  Apr.  1,  1860,  p.  760  ;  see  Bnm-EoUet,  *  Nil  Blanc,'  pp. 
100,  234. 


22  ANIMISM. 

phrase  "  immortality  of  the  soul  *'  is  to  be  avoided  as  mis- 
leading. It  is  doubtful  how  far  the  lower  psychology  enter- 
tains at  all  an  absolute  conception  of  immortality,  for  past 
and  future  fade  soon  into  utter  vagueness  as  the  savage  mind 
quits  the  present  to  explore  them,  the  measure  of  months 
and  years  breaks  down  even  within  the  narrow  span  of 
himian  life,  and  the  survivor's  thought  of  the  soul  of  the 
departed  dwindles  and  disappears  with  the  personal  memory 
that  kept  it  alive.  Even  among  races  who  distinctly  accept 
the  doctrine  of  the  surviving  soul,  this  acceptance  is  not 
unanimous.  In  savage  as  in  civilized  life,  dull  and  careless 
natures  ignore  a  world  to  come  as  too  far  off,  while  sceptical 
intellects  are  apt  to  reject  its  belief  as  wanting  proof,  or 
perhaps  at  most  without  closer  scrutiny  to  prize  its  hope  as  a 
good  influence  in  human  life.  Far  from  a  life  after  death 
being  held  by  all  men  as  the  destiny  of  all  men,  whole  classes 
are  formally  excluded  from  it.  In  the  Tonga  islands,  the 
future  life  was  a  privilege  of  caste,  for  while  the  chiefs  and 
higher  orders  were  to  pass  in  divine  ethereality  to  the  happy 
land  of  Bolotu,  the  lower  ranks  were  believed  to  be  endowed 
only  with  souls  that  died  with  their  bodies ;  and  although 
some  of  these  had  the  vanity  to  claim  a  place  in  paradise 
among  their  betters,  the  populace  in  general  acquiesced  in 
the  extinction  of  their  own  plebeian  spirits.^  The  Nicara- 
guans  believed  that  if  a  man  lived  well,  his  soul  would  ascend 
to  dwell  among  the  gods,  but  if  ill,  it  would  perish  with  the 
body,  and  there  would  be  an  end  of  it.*  Granted  that  the 
soul  survives  the  death  of  the  body,  instance  after  instance 
from  the  records  of  the  lower  culture  shows  this  soul  to  be 
regarded  as  a  mortal  being,  liable  like  the  body  itself  to 
accident  and  death.  The  Greenlanders  pitied  the  poor  souls 
who  must  pass  in  winter  or  in  storm  the  dreadful  mountain 
where  the  dead  descend  to  reach  the  other  world,  for  then  a 

*  Mariner,  'Tonga  la.'  vol.  iL  p.  136. 

'  Oviedo,  '  Nicaragua,'  p.  50.  For  similar  statements,  see  Martins,  'Ethnog. 
Amer.'  vol  i.  p.  247  ;  Smith's  '  Virginia '  in  Pinkerton,  voL  xiiL  p.  41  ; 
Meiners,  vol.  iL  p.  760. 


ANIMISM.  23 

soul  is  like  to  come  to  harm,  and  die  the  other  death  where 
there  is  nothing  left,  and  this  is  to  them  the  dolefullest  thing 
of  all.i  Thus  the  Fijians  tell  of  the  fight  which  the  ghost 
of  a  departed  warrior  must  wage  with  the  soul-killing  Samu 
and  his  brethren ;  this  is  the  contest  for  which  the  dead  man 
is  armed  by  burying  the  war-club  with  his  corpse,  and  if  he 
conquers,  the  way  is  open  for  him  to  the  judgment-seat  of 
Ndeng.ei,  but  if  he  is  wounded,  his  doom  is  to  wander  among 
the  mountains,  and  if  killed  in  the  encounter  he  is  cooked 
and  eaten  by  Samu  and  his  brethren.  But  the  souls  of  un- 
married Fijians  will  not  even  survive  to  stand  this  wager  of 
battle ;  such  try  in  vain  to  steal  at  low  water  round  to  the 
edge  of  the  reef  past  the  rocks  where  Nangananga,  destroyer 
of  wifeless  souls,  sits  laughing  at  their  hopeless  efforts,  and 
asking  them  if  they  think  the  tide  will  never  flow  again,  till 
at  last  the  rising  flood  drives  the  shivering  ghosts  to  the 
beach,  and  Nangananga  dashes  them  in  pieces  on  the  great 
black  stone,  as  one  shatters  rotten  firewood.'  Such,  again, 
were  the  tales  told  by  the  Guinea  negroes  of  the  life  or 
death  of  departed  souls.  Either  the  great  priest  before 
whom  they  must  appear  after  death  would  judge  them,  send- 
ing the  good  in  peace  to  a  happy  place,  but  killing  the  wicked 
a  second  time  with  the  club  that  stands  ready  before  his 
dwelling ;  or  else  the  departed  shall  be  judged  by  their  god 
at  the  river  of  death,  to  be  gently  wafted  by  him  to  a  pleasant 
land  if  they  have  kept  feasts  and  oaths  and  abstained  from 
forbidden  meats,  but  if  not,  to  be  plunged  into  the  river  by 
the  god,  and  thus  drowned  and  buried  in  eternal  oblivion.' 
Even  common  water  can  drown  a  negro  ghost,  if  we  may 
believe  the  story  of  the  Matamba  widows  having  themselves 
ducked  in  the  river  or  pond  to  drown  off  the  souls  of  their 

»  Cranz,  'Gronland/  p.  259. 

*  Williams,  *Fiji,'  vol.  i.  p.  244.  See  *  Jonm.  Ind.  Archip.'  vol.  iii.  p.  113 
(Bayaks).  Compare  wasting  and  death  of  souIb  in  depths  of  Hades,  Taylor, 
'New  Zealand,' p.  232. 

'  Bosman,  'Guinea*  in  Pinkerton,  voL  xvi.  p.  401.  See  also  Waltz, 
*Anthropologie,'  vol.  ii.  p.  191  (W.  Afr.) ;  Callaway,  *Rel.  of  Amazulu^' 
p.  855. 


24  ANIMISM. 

departed  husbands,  who  might  still  be  hanging  about  them, 
clinging  closest  to  the  best  loved  wives.  After  this  cere- 
mony, they  went  and  married  again.^  From  such  details  it 
appears  that  the  conception  of  some  souls  suffering  extinc- 
tion at  death  or  dying  a  second  death,  a  thought  still  as 
heretofore  familiar  to  speculative  theology,  is  not  unknown 
in  the  lower  culture. 

The  soul,  as  recognized  in  the  philosophy  of  the  lower 
races,  may  be  defined  as  an  ethereal  surviving  being,  con- 
ceptions of  which  preceded  and  led  up  to  the  more  tran- 
scendental theory  of  the  immaterial  and  immortal  soul, 
which  forms  part  of  the  theology  of  higher  nations.  It  is 
principally  the  ethereal  surviving  soul  of  early  culture  that 
has  now  to  be  studied  in  the  religions  of  savages  and  bar- 
barians and  the  folklore  of  the  civilized  world.  That  this 
soul  should  be  looked  on  as  surviving  beyond  death  is  a 
matter  scarcely  needing  elaborate  argument.  Plain  ex- 
perience is  there  to  teach  it  to  every  savage ;  his  friend  or 
his  enemy  is  dead,  yet  still  in  dream  or  open  vision  he  sees 
the  spectral  form  which  is  to  his  philosophy  a  real  objective 
being,  carrying  personality  as  it  carries  likeness.  This 
thought  of  the  soul's  continued  existence  is,  however,  but 
the  gatewa}^  into  a  complex  region  of  belief.  The  doctrines 
wliich,  separate  or  compounded,  make  up  the  scheme  of 
future  existence  among  particular  tribes,  are  principally 
these :  the  theories  of  lingering,  wandering,  and  returning 
ghosts,  and  of  souls  dwelling  on  or  below  or  above  the  earth 
in  a  spirit-world,  where  existence  is  modelled  upon  the 
earthly  life,  or  raised  to  higher  glory,  or  placed  under  re- 
versed conditions,  and  lastly,  the  belief  in  a  division  between 
happiness  and  misery  of  departed  souls,  by  a  retribution  for 
deeds  done  in  life,  determined  in  a  judgment  after  death. 

"  All  argument  is  against  it ;  but  all  belief  is  for  it,*'  said 
Dr.  Johnson  of  the  apparition  of  departed  spirits.  The 
doctrine   that  ghost-souls   of  the   dead  hover  among  the 

*  Cavazzi,  Congo,  Matamba,  et  Angola,*  lib.  i.  270.    See  also  Liebrecht  in 
« Zcitschr.  fiir  Etlmologie,'  voL  v.,  p.  96,  (Tartaiy,  Scandinavia,  Greece). 


ANIMISM.  25 

living  is  indeed  rooted  in  the  lowest  levels  of  savage 
culture,  extends  through  barbaric  life  almost  without  a 
break,  and  survives  largely  and  deeply  in  the  midst  of  civi- 
lization. From  the  myriad  details  of  travellers,  mis- 
sionaries, historians,  theologians,  spiritualists,  it  may  be 
laid  down  as  an  admitted  opinion,  as  wide  in  distribution 
as  it  is  natural  in  thought,  that  the  two  chief  haunting- 
grounds  of  the  departed  soul  are  the  scenes  of  its  fleshly 
life  and  the  burial  place  of  its  body.  As  in  North  America 
the  Chickasaws  believed  that  the  spirits  of  the  dead  in 
their  bodily  shape  moved  about  among  the  living  in  great 
joy;  as  the  Aleutian  islanders  fancied  the  souls  of  the 
departed  walking  unseen  among  their  kindred,  and  accom- 
panying them  in  their  journeys  by  sea  and  land ;  as  Africans 
think  that  souls  of  the  dead  dwell  in  their  midst,  and  eat 
with  them  at  meal  times ;  as  Chinese  pay  their  respects  to 
kindred  spirits  present  in  the  hall  of  ancestors  ;^  so  multi- 
tudes in  Europe  and  America  live  in  an  atmosphere  that 
swarms  with  ghostly  shapes — spirits  of  the  dead,  who  sit  over 
against  the  mystic  by  his  midnight  fire,  rap  and  write  in  spirit- 
circles,  and  peep  over  girls'  shoulders  as  they  scare  them- 
selves into  hj'sterics  with  ghost-stories.  Almost  throughout 
the  vast  range  of  animistic  religion,  we  shall  find  the  souls 
of  the  departed  hospitably  entertained  by  the  survivors  on  set 
occasions,  and  manes-worship,  so  deep  and  strong  among 
the  faiths  of  the  world,  recognises  with  a  reverence  not 
without  fear  and  trembling  those  ancestral  spirits  which, 
powerful  for  good  or  ill,  manifest  their  presence  among 
mankind.  Nevertheless  death  and  life  dwell  but  ill 
together,  and  from  savagery  onward  there  is  recorded  many 
a  device  by  which  the  survivors  have  sought  to  rid  them- 
selves of  household  ghosts.  Though  the  unhappy  savage 
custom  of  deserting  houses  after  a  decease  may  mostly  be 
connected  with  other  causes,  such  as  horror  or  abnegation 
of  all  things  belonging  to  the  dead,  there  are  cases  where  it 

'  Schoolcraft,  '  Indian  Tribes/  part  i.  p.  810 ;  Bastion,  '  Psychologic,'  pp. 
Ill,  193;  Doolittle,  'Chinese,'  voL  i.  p.  235. 


26  ANIMISM. 

appears  that  the  place  is  simply  abandoned  to  the  ghost. 
In  Old  Calabar  it  was  customary  for  the  son  to  leave  his 
father's  house  to  decay,  but  after  two  years  he  might  re- 
build it,  the  ghost  being  thought  by  that  time  to  have 
departed ;  ^  the  Hottentots  abandoned  the  dead  man's 
house,  and  were  said  to  avoid  entering  it  lest  the  ghost 
should  be  within;*  the  Yakuts  let  the  hut  fall  in  ruins 
where  any  one  had  expired,  thinking  it  the  habitation  of 
demons ;  *  the  Karens  were  said  to  destroy  their  villages  to 
escape  the  dangerous  neighbourhood  of  departed  souls.* 
Such  proceedings,  however,  scarcely  extend  beyond  the 
limits  of  savagery,  and  only  a  feeble  survival  of  the  old 
thought  lingers  on  into  civilization,  where  from  time  to  time 
a  haunted  house  is  left  to  fall  in  ruins,  abandoned  to  a 
ghostly  tenant  who  cannot  keep  it  in  repair.  But  even  in 
the  lowest  culture  we  find  flesh  holding  its  own  against 
spirit,  and  at  higher  stages  the  householder  rids  himself 
with  little  scruple  of  an  unwelcome  inmate.  The  Green- 
landers  would  carry  the  dead  out  by  the  window,  not  by  the 
door,  while  an  old  woman,  waving  a  firebrand  behind,  cried 
**  piklerrukpok  !  "  i.  e.,  "  there  is  nothing  more  to  be  had 
here  ! "  ^ ;  the  Hottentots  removed  the  dead  from  the  hut  by 
an  opening  broken  out  on  purpose,  to  prevent  him  from 
finding  the  way  back  ;^  the  Siamese,  with  the  same  inten- 
tion, break  an  opening  through  the  house  wall  to  carry  the 
coffin  through,  and  then  hurry  it  at  full  speed  thrice  round 
the  house  j'^  the  Siberian  Chuwashes  fling  a  red-hot  stone 

'  Bastian,  '  Mensch/  vol.  ii.  p.  323. 
«  Kolben,  p.  679. 
»  Billings,  p.  125. 

•  Bastian,  *  Oestl.  Asien.'  vol.  L  p.  145 ;  Cross,  1.  c,  p.  311.  For  other 
cases  of  desertion  of  dwellings  after  a  death,  possibly  for  the  same  motive,  see 
Bourien,  'Tribes  of  Malay  Pen.' in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc'  vol.  iii.  p.  82;  Polack, 
*  M.  of  New  Zenlanders,*  voL  1.  pp.  204,  216  ;  Steller,  *  Kamtschatka,'  p.  271. 
But  the  Todas  say  that  the  buffaloes  slaughtered  and  the  hut  burnt  at  the 
funeral  are  transferred  to  the  spirit  of  the  deceased  in  the  next  world  ;  Shortt 
in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc.'  vol.  vii.  p.  247.    See  Waitz,  vol.  iii.  p.  199. 

•  Egeile,  'Greenland,*  p.  152 ;  Cranz,  p.  300. 

•  Bastian,  *  Mensch,'  voL  ii.  p.  323  ;  see  pp.  829,  363. 

7  Bowring,  *Siani,'  vol.  i.  p.  122  ;  Bastian,  'Oestl.  Asien.*  vol.  iii.  p.  258. 


ANIMISM.  27 

after  the  corpse  is  carried  oat,  for  an  obstacle  to  bar  the 
soul  from  coming  back  ;^  so  Brandenburg  peasants  pour  out 
a  pail  of  water  at  the  door  after  the  coffin,  to  prevent  the 
ghost  from  walking ;  and  Pomeranian  mourners  returning 
from  the  churchyard  leave  behind  the  straw  from  the  hearse, 
that  the  wandering  soul  may  rest  there,  and  not  come  back 
so  far  as'  home.'  In  the  ancient  and  medieval  world,  men 
habitually  invoked  supernatural  aid  beyond  such  material 
shifts  as  these,  calling  in  the  priest  to  lay  or  banish  in- 
truding ghosts,  nor  is  this  branch  of  the  exorcist's  art  even 
yet  forgotten.  There  is,  and  always  has  been,  a  prevalent 
feeling  that  disembodied  souls,  especially  such  as  have 
suffered  a  violent  or  untimely  death,  are  baneful  and  mali- 
cious beings.  As  Meiners  suggests  in  his  'History  of 
Religions,'  they  were  driven  unwillingly  from  their  bodies, 
and  have  carried  into  their  new  existence  an  angry  longing 
for  revenge.  No  wonder  that  mankind  should  so  generally 
agree  that  if  the  souls  of  the  dead  must  linger  in  the  world 
at  all,  their  fitting  abode  should  be  not  the  haunts  of  the 
living  but  the  resting-places  of  the  dead. 

After  all,  it  scarcely  se^ms  to  the  lower  animistic  philo- 
sophy that  the  connexion  between  body  and  soul  is  utterly 
broken  by  death.  Various  wants  may  keep  the  soul  from 
its  desired  rest,  and  among  the  chief  of  these  is  when  its 
mortal  remains  have  not  had  the  funeral  rites.  Hence  the 
deep-lying  belief  that  the  ghosts  of  such  will  walk.  Among 
some  Australian  tribes  the  ''  ingna,"  or  evil  spirits,  human 
in  shape,  but  with  long  tails  and  long  upright  ears,  are 
mostly  souls  of  departed  natives,  whose  bodies  were  left  to 
lie  unburied  or  whose  death  the  avenger  of  blood  did  not 
expiate,  and  thus  they  have  to  prowl  on  the  face  of  the 
earth,  and  about  the  place  of  death,  with  no  gratification 

>  Castrfn,  'Finn.  MyJ;h.*  p.  120. 

«  Wuttke,  '  Volksaberglaube,'  pp.  213—17.  Other  cases  of  taking  ont  the 
dead  by  a  gap  made  on  purpose  :  Arbousset  and  Daumas,  p.  502  (Bushmen) ; 
Magyar,  p.  861  (Klmbunda) ;  Moffat,  p.  807  (Bechnanas);  Waitz,  vol.  iii.  p. 
199  (Ojibwas); — their  motive  is  not  clear. 


28  ANIMISM. 

but  to  harm  the  living.^  In  New  Zealand,  the  ideas  were 
to  be  found  that  the  souls  of  the  dead  were  apt  to  linger 
near  their  bodies,  and  that  the  spirits  of  men  left  unburied, 
or  killed  in  battle  and  eaten,  would  wander  ;  and  the  bring- 
ing such  malignant  souls  to  dwell  within  the  sacred  burial- 
enclosure  was  a  task  for  the  priest  to  accomplish  with  his 
charms.^  Among  the  Iroquois  of  North  America  {he  spirit 
also  stays  near  the  body  for  a  time,  and  '*  unless  the  rites 
of  burial  were  performed,  it  was  believed  that  the  spirits  of 
the  dead  hovered  for  a  time  upon  the  earth,  in  a  state  of 
great  unhappiness.  Hence  their  extreme  solicitude  to  pro- 
cure the  bodies  of  the  slain  in  battle."^  Among  Brazilian 
tribes,  the  wandering  shadows  of  the  dead  are  said  to  be 
considered  unresting  till  burial.*  In  Turanian  regions  of 
North  Asia,  the  spirits  of  the  dead  who  have  no  resting- 
place  in  earth  are  thought  of  as  lingering  above  ground, 
especially  where  their  dust  remains.*  South  Asia  has  such 
beliefs :  the  Karens  say  that  the  ghosts  who  wander  on 
earth  are  not  the  spirits  of  those  who  go  to  Plu,  the  land  of 
the  dead,  but  of  infants,  of  such  as  died  by  violence,  of  the 
wicked,  and  of  those  who  by  accident  have  not  been  buried 
or  burned  ;  •  the  Siamese  fear  as  unkindly  spirits  the  souls 
of  such  as  died  a  violent  death  or  were  not  buried  with  the 
proper  rites,  and  who,  desii-ing  expiation,  invisibly  terrify 
their  descendants.'^  Nowhere  in  the  world  had  such 
thoughts  a  stronger  hold  than  in  classic  antiquity,  where  it 
was  the  most  sacred  of  duties  to  give  the  body  its  funeral 
rites,  that  the  shade  should  not  flit  moaning  near  the  gates 
of  Hades,  nor  wander  in  the  dismal  crowd  along  the  banks 

»  Oldfield  in  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc'  vol.  iii.  pp.  228,  236,  245. 
^  Taylor,  *New  Zealand,'  p.  221 ;  Schin*on,  p.  91 ;  see  Turner,  'Polynesia,' 
p.  283. 

*  Morgan,  *  League  of  Iroquois,*  p.  174. 
<  J.  G.  MUller,  P.-286. 

*  Gastrin,  *  Finn.  Myth.'  p.  126. 

*  Cross  in  *  Journ.  Amer.  Or.  Soc'  vol.  iv.  p.  309  ;  Mason  in  '  Journ.  As. 
Soc.  Bengal,' 1866,  part  ii.  p.  208.  See  also  J.  Anderson,  *Exp.  to  W. 
Yunnan,'  pp.  126,  181  (Shans). 

7  Bastian,  'Psychologie,'  pp.  51,  99—101. 


ANIMISM.  29 

of  Acheron.^     An  Australian  or  a  Karen  would  have  taken 
in  the  full  significance  of  the  fatal  accusation  against  the 
Athenian  commanders,  that  they  abandoned  the  bodies  of 
their  dead  in  the  sea-fight  of  Arginousai.     The  thought  is 
not  unknown  to  Slavonic  folklore  :  "  Ha  1  with  the  shriek 
the  spirit  flutters  from  the  mouth,  flies  up  to  the  tree,  from 
tree  to  tree,  hither  and  thither  till  the  dead  is  burned/'* 
In  medisBval  Europe  the  classic  stories  of  ghosts  that  haunt 
the  living  till  laid  by  rites  of  burial  pass  here  and  there  into 
new  legends,  where,  under   a    changed    dispensation,  the 
doleful  wanderer  now  asks  Christian  burial  in  consecrated 
earth.^     It  is  needless  to  give  here  elaborate  details  of  the 
world-wide  thought  that  when  the  corpse  is  buried,  exposed, 
burned,  or  otherwise  disposed  of  after  the  accepted  custom 
of  the  land,  the  ghost  accompanies  its  relics.     The  soul 
stays  near  the  Polynesian  or  the  American  Indian  burial- 
place  ;  it  dwells  among  the  twigs  and  listens  joyfully  to  the 
siuging  birds  in  the  trees  where  Siberian  tribes  suspend 
their  dead ;  it  lingers  by  the  Samoyed's  scaffolded  coffin ; 
it  haunts  the  Dayak's  place  of  burial  or  burning ;  it  inhabits 
the  little  soul-hut  above  the  Malagasy  grave,  or  the  Peru- 
vian house    of   sun-dried   bricks  ,*   it  is  deposited   in  the 
Boman  tomb  (animamque  sepulchro  condimus);  it  comes 
back  for  judgment  into  the  body  of  the  later  Israelite  and 
the  Moslem ;  it  inhabits,  as  a  divine  ancestral  spirit,  the 
palace-tombs  of  the  old  classic  and  new  Asiatic  world ;  it  is 
kept  down  by  the  huge  cairn  raised  over  Antar's  body  lest 
his  mighty-  spirit  should  burst  forth,  by  the  iron  nails  with 
which  the  Cheremiss  secures  the  corpse  in  its  coffin,  by  the 
stake  that  pins  down  the  suicide's  body  at  the  four-cross 
way.     And  through  all  the  changes  of  religious  thought 
from  first  to  last  in  the  course  of  human  history,  the  hover- 
ing ghosts  of  the  dead  make  the  midnight  burial-ground  a 

'  Lucian.  DeLiictu.     See  Puuly,  'Real.  Encyclop.' and  Smith,  *Dic.  of  Gr. 
and  Rom.  Ant.*  8.v.  *mferi.* 
'Hanusch,  'Slaw.  Myth.' p.  277. 
•  Calmet,  vol.  ii.  ch.  xxxvi.  j  Brand,  vol.  iii.  p.  67. 


30  ANIMISM. 

place  where  men*s  flesh  creeps  with  terror.  Not  to  discuss 
here  the  general  subject  of  the  funeral  rites  of  mankind,  of 
which  only  part  of  the  multifarious  details  are  directly  re- 
levant to  the  present  purpose,  a  custom  may  be  selected 
which  is  admirably  adapted  for  the  study  of  animistic 
religion,  at  once  from  the  clear  conception  it  gives  of  the 
belief  in  disembodied  souls  present  among  the  living,  and 
from  the  distinct  line  of  ethnographic  continuity  in  which  it 
may  be  traced  onward  from  the  lower  to  the  higher  culture. 
This  is  the  custom  of  Feasts  of  the  Dead. 

Among  the  funeral  offerings  described  in  the  last  chapter, 
of  which  the  purpose  more  or  less  distinctly  appears  to  be 
that  the  departed  soul  shall  take  them  away  in  some  ghostly 
or  ideal  manner,  or  that  they  shall  by  some  means  be  con- 
veyed to  him  in  his  distant  spirit-home,  there  are  given 
supplies  of  food  and  drink.  But  the  feasts  of  the  dead  with 
which  we  are  now  concerned  are  given  on  a  different  prin- 
ciple ;  they  are,  so  to  speak,  to  be  consumed  on  the  premises. 
They  are  set  out  in  some  proper  place,  especially  near  the 
tombs  or  in  the  dwelling-houses,  and  there  the  souls  of  the 
dead  come  and  satisfy  themselves.  In  North  America, 
among  Algonquins  who  held  that  one  of  a  man's  two  souls 
abides  with  the  body  after  death,  the  provisions  brought  to 
the  grave  were  intended  for  the  nourishment  of  this  soul ; 
tribes  would  make  offerings  to  ancestors  of  part  of  any 
dainty  food,  and  an  Indian  who  fell  by  accident  into  the 
fire  would  believe  that  the  spirits  of  his  ancestors  pushed 
him  in  for  neglecting  to  make  due  offerings.^  The  minds 
of  the  Hurons  were  filled  with  fancies  not  less  lifelike  than 
this.  It  seemed  to  them  that  the  dead  man's  soul,  in  his 
proper  human  figure,  walked  in  front  of  the  corpse  as  they 
carried  it  to  the  burial-gi'ound,  there  to  dwell  till  the  great 
feast  of  the  dead ;  but  meanwhile  it  would  come  and  walk 
by  night  in  the  village,  and  eat  the  remnants  in  the  kettles, 
wherefore  some  would  not  eat  of  these,  nor  touch  the  food 

*  Charlevoix,  'NouvelloFranco,' vol.  vi.  p.  75;  Schoolcraft,  'Indian Tribes,' 
part  i.  pp.  39,  83  ;  part  iv.  p.  65  ;  Tanner's  'Narr.'  p.  293. 


ANIMISM.  31 

at  funeral  feasts — though  some  indeed  would  eat  all.^  In 
Madagascar,  the  elegant  little  upper  chamber  in  King 
Badama's  mausoleum  was  furnished  with  a  table  and  two 
chairs,  and  a  bottle  of  wine,  a  bottle  of  water,  and  two 
tumblers  were  placed  there  conformably  with  the  ideas 
entertained  by  most  of  the  natives,  that  the  ghost  of  the 
departed  monarch  might  occasionally  visit  the  resting-place 
of  his  body,  meet  with  the  spirit  of  his  father,  and  partake 
of  what  he  was  known  to  be  fond  of  in  his  lifetime.'  The 
Wanika  of  East  Africa  set  a  cocoa-nut  shell  full  of  rice  and 
tembo  near  the  grave  for  the  ''koma"  or  shade,  which 
cannot  exist  without  food  and  drink.'  In  West  Africa  the 
Efik  cook  food  and  leave  it  on  the  table  in  the  little  shed 
or  "  devil-house  "  near  the  grave,  and  thither  not  only  the 
spirit  of  the  deceased,  but  the  spirits  of  the  slaves  sacrificed 
at  his  funeral,  come  to  partake  of  it.^  Farther  south,  in  the 
Congo  district,  the  custom  has  been  described  of  making  a 
channel  into  the  tomb  to  the  head  or  mouth  of  the  corpse, 
whereby  to  send  down  month  by  month  the  offerings  of  food 
and  drink.^ 

Among  rude  Asiatic  tribes,  the  Bodo  of  North-East  India 
thus  celebrate  the  last  funeral  rites.  The  friends  repair  to 
the  grave,  and  the  nearest  of  kin  to  the  deceased,  taking  an 
individual's  usual  portion  of  food  and  drink,  solemnly  pre- 
sents it  to  the  dead  with  these  words,  ''  Take  and  eat,  here- 
tofore you  have  eaten  and  drunk  with  us,  you  can  do  so  no 
more ;  you  were  one  of  us,  you  can  be  so  no  longer ;  we 
come  no  more  to  you,  come  you  not  to  us."  Thereupon  each 
of  the  party  breaks  off  a  bracelet  of  thread  put  on  his  wrist 
for  this  purpose,  and  casts  it  on  the  grave,  a  speaking  symbol 
of  breaking  the  bond  of  fellowship,  and  '^  next  the  party 

*  Brebenf  in  'Rel.  des  Jes.'  1636,  p.  104. 

»  Elliii,  'Madagascar,*  vol.  i.  pp.  253,  364.     Soo  Taylor,  *New  Zealand,'  p. 
220. 
'Krapf,  *E.  Afr.*p.  150. 

*  T.  J.  HutchinsoD,  p.  206. 

^  Cavazzi,  'Congo,  etc.*  book  i.  p.  264.     So  in  ancient  Greece,  Luciau. 
Charon,  22. 


32  ANIMISM. 

proceed  to  the  river  and  bathe,  and  having  thus  lustrated 
themselves,  they  repair  to  the  banquet  and  eat,  drink,  and 
make  merry  as  though  they  never  were  to  die."  ^  With  more 
continuance  of  affection,  Naga  tribes  of  Assam  celebrate 
their  funeral  feasts  month  by  month,  laying  food  and  drink 
on  the  graves  of  the  departed.*  In  the  same  region  of  the 
world,  the  Kol  tribes  of  Chota  Nagpur  are  remarkable  for 
their  pathetic  reverence  for  their  dead.  When  a  Ho  or  Munda 
has  been  burned  on  the  funeral  pile,  collected  morsels  of  his 
bones  are  carried  in  procession  with  a  solemn,  ghostly,  slid- 
ing step,  keeping  time  to  the  deep-sounding  drum,  and  when 
the  old  woman  who  carries  th^  bones  on  her  bamboo  tray 
lowers  it  &om  time  to  time,  then  girls  who  carry  pitchers  and 
brass  vessels  mournfully  reverse  them  to  show  that  they  are 
empty ;  thus  the  remains  are  taken  to  visit  every  house  in 
the  village,  and  every  dwelling  of  a  friend  or  relative  for 
miles,  and  the  inmates  come  out  to  mourn  and  praise  the 
goodness  of  the  departed ;  the  bones  are  carried  to  all  the 
dead  man's  favourite  haunts,  to  the  fields  he  cultivated,  to 
the  grove  he  planted,  to  the  threshing-floor  where  he  worked, 
to  the  village  dance-room  where  he  made  merry.  At  last 
they  are  taken  to  the  grave,  and  buried  in  an  earthen  vase 
upon  a  store  of  food,  covered  with  one  of  those  huge  stone 
slabs  which  European  visitors  wonder  at  in  the  districts  of 
the  aborigines  in  India.  Beside  these,  monumental  stones 
are  set  up  outside  the  village  to  the  memory  of  men  of  note  ;  • 
they  are  fixed  on  an  earthen  plinth  where  the  ghost,  resting 
in  its  walks  among  the  living,  is  supposed  to  sit  shaded  by 
the  pillar.  The  Kheriahs  have  collections  of  these  monu- 
ments in  the  little  enclosures  round  their  houses,  and  offer- 
ings and  libations  are  constantly  made  at  them.  With  what 
feelings  such  rites  are  celebrated  may  be  judged  from  this 
Ho  dirge : — 

**  We  never  scolded  you;  never  wronged  you ; 
Come  to  us  back ! 


*  Hodgson,  '  Abor.  of  India/ p.  180.         '  •Joiim.  Ind.  Archip.'  vol.  ii.  p.  235. 


ANIMISM.  33 

*    We  eyer  loved  and  cherislied  you ;  and  have  lived  long  together 

Uuder  the  same  roof ; 

Deeert  it  not  now  I 
The  rainy  nights,  and  the  oold  blowing  days,  are  coming  on ; 

Do  not  wander  here  I 
Do  not  stand  by  the  burnt  ashes ;  come  to  us  again  I 
Yon  cannot  find  shelter  nnder  the  peepul,  when  the  rain  comes  down. 
The  sanl  wiU  not  shield  you  from  the  oold  bitter  wind. 

Come  to  your  home ! 
It  is  swept  for  you,  and  clean;  and  we  are  there  who  loved  you  ever; 
And  there  is  rice  put  for  you  ;  and  water ; 

Come  home,  come  home,  come  to  us  again ! " 

• 

Among  the  Kol  tribes  this  kindly  hospitality  to  ancestral 
souls  passes  on  into  the  belief  and  ceremony  of  full  manes- 
worship  :  votive  offerings  are  made  to  the  "  old  folks  "  when 
their  descendants  go  on  a  journey,  and  when  there  is  sick- 
ness in  the  family  it  is  generally  they  who  are  first  pro* 
pitiated.^  Among  Turanian  races  of  North  Asia^  the  Chu- 
wash  put  food  and  napkins  on  the  grave,  saying,  "  Bise  at 
night  and  eat  your  fill,  and  there  ye  have  napkins  to  wipe 
your  mouths ! "  while  the  Cheremiss  simply  said,  "  That 
is  for  you,  ye  dead,  there  ye  have  food  and  drink !  "  In  this 
region  we  hear  of  offerings  continued  year  after  year,  and 
even  of  messengers  sent  back  by  a  horde  to  carry  offerings 
to  the  tombs  of  their  forefathers  in  the  old  land  whence 
they  had  emigrated.' 

Details  of  this  ancient  rite  are  to  be  traced  firom  the  level 
of  these  rude  races  far  upward  in  civilization^  South-East 
Asia  is  full  of  it,  and  the  Chinese  may  stand  as  its  repre- 
sentative. He  keeps  his  coffined  parent  for  years,  serving 
him  with  meals  as  if  alive.  He  summons  ancestral  souls 
with  prayer  and  beat  of  drum  to  feed  on  the  meat  and  drink 
set  out  on  special  days  when  they  are  thought  to  return 
home.     He  even   gives  entertainments  for  the  benefit  of 

'  Tickell  in  *  Jonrn.  As.  Soc.  Bengal,*  vol.  ix.  p.  795  ;  Dalton,  ibid.  1866, 
part  it.  p.  158,  etc.  ;  and  in  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc.*  vol.  vi.  p.  1,  etc.;  Latham, 
'  Descr.  £th.*  vol.  ii.  p.  415,  etc. 

>  Bastian,  ' Psychologic, *  p.  62  ;  Castrdn,  'Finn,  Myth.'  p.  121. 

VOL,    II.  D 


34  animism: 

destitute  and  unfortunate  bouIb  in  the  lower  regions,  such  as^ 
those  of  lepers  and  beggars.  Lanterns  are  lighted  to  show 
them  the  way,  a  feast  is  spread  for  them,  and  with  charac- 
teristic fancy,  some  victuals  are  left  over  for  any  blind  or 
feeble  spirits  who  may  be  late,  and  a  pail  of  gruel  is  provided 
for  headless  souls,  with  spoons  for  them  to  put  it  down  their 
throats  with.  Such  proceedings  culminate  in  the  so-called 
Universal  Bescue,  now  and  then  celebrated,  when  a  little 
house  is  built  for  the  expected  visitors,  with  separate  ac- 
commodation and  bath-rooms  for  male  and  female  ghosts.^ 
The  ancient  Egyptian  would  set  out  his  provision  of  cakes 
and  trussed  ducks  on  reed  scaffolds  in  the  tomb,  or  would 
even  keep  the  mummy  in  the  house  to  be  present  as  a  guest 
at  the  feast,  aiivbtnrrov  xal  aviJLTroTrjv  iiroiria-aTo,  as  Lucian  says.' 
The  Hindu,  as  of  old,  offers  to  the  dead  the  funeral  cakes, 
places  before  the  door  the  earthen  vessels  of  water  for  him 
to  bathe  in,  of  milk  for  him  to  drink,  and  celebrates  at  new 
and  full  moon  the  solemn  presentation  of  rice-cakes  made 
with  ghee,  with  its  attendant  ceremonies  so  important  for 
the  soul's  release  from  its  twelvemonth's  sojourn  with  Yama 
in  Hades,  and  its  transition  to  the  Heaven  of  the  Pitaras, 
the  Fathers.*  In  the  classic  world  such  rites  were  repre- 
sented by  funeral  feasts  and  oblations  of  food.^ 

In  Christian  times  there  manifests  itself  that  interesting 
kind  of  survival  which,  keeping  up  the  old  ceremony  in 
form,  has  adapted  its  motive  to  new  thoughts  and  feelings. 
The  classic  funeral  oblations  became  Christian,  the  silicer- 
nium  was  succeeded  by  the  feast  held  at  the  martyr's  tomb. 
Faustus  inveighs  against  the  Christians  for  carrying  oh  the 
ancient  rites  :  "  Their  sacrifices  indeed  ye  have  turned  into 
love-feasts,  their  idols  into  martyrs  whom  with  like  vows  ye 

'  Doolittle,  *  Chinese,*  vol.  L  p.  173,  etc. ;  vol.  ii.  p.  91,  etc.  ;  Meiners,  voL 
i  p.  806. 

'  Wilkinson,  'Ancient  Eg.'  vol.  ii.  p.  862 ;  Lucian.  De  Lnctn,  21. 

'  Mann,  iii. ;  Colebrooko,  'Essays,'  vol.  i.  p.  161,  etc. ;  Pictet,  'Origines 
Indo-Europ.*  part  ii.  p.  600  ;  Ward,  'Hindoos,'  voL  ii.  p.  882, 

*  Pauly,  * Real-Encydop.' a  v.  "funua;*'  Smith's  'Die'  &  v.  "funua." 
See  Meinera,  vol.  i.  pp.  805—19. 


ANDCISIL  33 

worship ;  ye  appease  the  shades  of  the  dead  with  wine  and 
meals,  ye  celebrate  the  Gentiles'  solemn  days  with  them, 
such  as  calends  and  solstices, — of  their  life  certainly  ye 
have  changed  nought,"  ^  and  so  forth.  The  story  of  Monica 
shows  how  the  custom  of  laying  food  on  the  tomb  for  the 
manes  passed  into  the  ceremony,  like  to  it  in  form,  of  set- 
ting food  and  drink  to  be  sanctified  by  the  sepulchre  of  a 
Christian  saint.  Saint-Foix,  who  wrote  in  the  time  of 
Louis  XIY.,  has  left  us  an  account  of  the  ceremonial  after 
the  death  of  a  King  of  France,  during  the  forty  days  before 
the  funeral  when  his  wax  effigy  lay  in  state.  They  con- 
tinued to  serve  him  at  meal-times  as  though  still  alive,  the 
officers  laid  the  table,  and  brought  the  dishes,  the  maitre 
d'hdtel  handed  the  napkin  to  the  highest  lord  present  to  be 
presented  to  the  king,  a  prelate  blessed  the  table,  the  basins 
of  water  were  handed  to  the  royal  arm-chair,  the  cup  was 
served  in  its  due  course,  and  grace  was  said  in  the  accus- 
tomed manner,  save  that  there  was  added  to  it  the  De  Pro- 
fundis.'  Spaniards  still  offer  bread  and  wine  on  the  tombs  of 
those  they  love,  on  the  anniversary  of  their  decease.*  The 
conservative  Eastern  Church  still  holds  to  ancient  rite.  The 
funeral  feast  is  served  in  Bussia,  with  its  table  for  the 
beggars,  laden  with  fish-pasties  and  bowls  of  shchi  and  jugs 
of  kvas,  its  more  delicate  dinner  for  friends  and  priests,  its 
incense  and  chants  of  ''  everlasting  remembrance  "  ;  and 
even  the  repetition  of  the  festival  on  the  ninth,  and  twentieth, 
and  fortieth  day  are  not  forgotten.  The  offerings  of  saucers 
of  kutiya  or  kolyvo  are  still  made  in  the  church ;  this  used 
to  be  of  parboiled  wheat  and  was  deposited  over  the  body, 
it  is  now  made  of  boiled  rice  and  raisins,  sweetened  with 
honey.  In  their  usual  mystic  fashion,  the  Greek  Christians 
now  explain  away  into  symbolism  this  remnant  of  primitive 
offering  to  the  dead :  the  honey  is  heavenly  sweetness,  the 

'  Augustin.  contra  Faustum,  xx.  4 ;  De  Civ.  Dei,  viii.  27.     See  Beausobre, 
vol.  ii.  pp.  633,  685. 

'  Saint-Foix,  'fissais  Historiques  sur  Paris,'  in  'CEuvres,'  vol.  iv.  p.  147, 
etc 

'  Lady  Herbert,  'Impressions  of  Spain,'  p.  8. 

D  2 


36  ANIMISM. 

shrivelled  raisins  will  be  full  beauteous  grapes,  tlie  grain 
typifies  the  resurrection,  "that  which  thou  sowest  is  not 
quickened  except  it  die.**  ^ 

In  the  calendar  of  many  a  people,  differing  widely  as  they 
may  in  race  and  civilization,  there  are  to  be  found  special 
yearly  festivals  of  the  dead.  Their  rites  are  much  the  same 
as  those  performed  on  other  days  for  individuals ;  their 
season  differs  in  different  districts,  but  seems  to  have  par- 
ticular associations  with  harvest-time  and  the  fall  of  the 
year,  and  with  the  year's  end  as  reckoned  at  midwinter  or 
in  early  spring.*  The  Karens  make  their  annual  offerings 
to  the  dead  in  the  "  month  of  shades,'*  that  is,  December  ;* 
the  Kocch  of  North  Bengal  every  year  at  harvest-home 
offer  fruits  and  a  fowl  to  deceased  parents;*  the  Barea  of 
East  Africa  celebrate  in  November  the  feast  of  Thiyot,  at 
once  a  feast  of  general  peace  and  merry-making,  of  thanks- 
giving for  the  harvest,  and  of  memorial  for  the  deceased, 
for  each  of  whom  a  little  pot-full  of  beer  is  set  out  two  days, 
to  be  drmik  at  last  by  the  survivors ;  ^  in  West  Africa  we 
hear  of  the  feast  of  the  dead  at  the  time  of  yam-harvest  ;• 
at  the  end  of  the  year  the  Haitian  negroes  take  food  to  the 
graves  for  the  shades  to  eat,  "  manger  zombi,*'  as  they  say.'' 
The  Roman  Feralia  and  LemuraUa  were  held  in  February 

'  H.  C.  Komanoif,  'Rites  and  Customs  of  Groco-Rossian  Church,'  p. 
249  ;  Ralston,  *  Songs  of  the  Russian  People,'  p.  135,  320  ;  St.  Clair  and 
Brophy,  *  Bulgaria,*  p.  77  ;  Brand,  '  Pop.  Ant'  vol.  i.  p.  115. 

^  Beside  the  accounts  of  annual  festivals  of  the  dead  cited  here,  see  the  fol- 
lowing :~ Santos,  Ethiopia,  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  ivi.  p.  685  (Sept.);  Brasseur, 
'Mexique,'  vol  iil  pp.  23,  522,  628  (Aug.,  Oct.,  Nov.);  Rivero  and  Tschudi, 
*  Peru,'  p.  134  (Pemvian  feast  dated  as  Nov.  2  in  coincidence  with  All  Souls', 
but  this  reckoning  is  vitiated  by  tonfusion  of  seasons  of  N.  and  S.  hemisphere, 
see  J.  G.  Miiller,  p.  389  ;  moreover,  the  Peruvian  feast  may  have  been  origi- 
nally held  at  a  diffureut  date,  and  transferred,  as  happened  elsewhere,  to  the 
Spanish  All  Souls');  Doolittle,  'Chinese,'  voL  ii.  pp.  44,  62  (esp.  Apr.); 
Caron,  'Japan*  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  vii.  p.  629  (Aug.). 

*  Mason,  'Karens,'  1.  c.  p.  238. 

^  HfHlg8<m,  *  Abor.  of  India,'  p.  147. 

*  Munzingcr,  'Ost.  Afrika,'  p.  473. 
«  Waitz,  vol.  ii.  p.  194. 

7  U.  D'Alaux  in  *  Rev.  dos  Doux  Moudes,'  May  16,  1852,  p.  768. 


ANIMISM.  87 

and  May.i     In  the  last  five  or  ten  days  of  their  year  the 
Zoroastrians  hold  their  feasts  for  departed  relatives,  when 
sonls  come  back  to  the  world  to  visit  the  living,  and  receive 
from  them  offermgs  of  food  and  clothing.^     The  custom  of 
setting  empty  seats  at  the  St.  John's  Eve  feast,  for  the 
departed  souls   of  kinsfolk,  is  said  to  have  lasted  on  in 
Europe  to  the  seventeenth  century.     Spring  is  the  season 
of  the  time-honoured  Slavonic  rite  of  laying  food  on  the 
graves  of  the  dead.     The  Bulgarians  hold  a  feast  in  the 
cemetery  on   Palm  Sunday,  and,  after  much   eating  and 
drinking,  leave  the  remains  upon  the  graves  of  their  friends, 
who,  they  are  persuaded,  wiU  eat  them  during  the  night. 
In  Bussia  such  scenes  may  still  be  watched  on  the  two 
appointed  days  called  Parents'  Days.     The  higher  classes 
have  let  the  rite  sink  to  prayer  at  the  graves  of  lost  re- 
latives, and  giving  alms  to  the  beggars  who  flock  to  the 
cemeteries.     But  the  people  still  "  howl "  for  the  dead,  and 
set  out  on  their  graves  a  handkerchief  for  a  tablecloth,  with 
gingerbread,  eggs,  curd-tarts,  and  even  vodka,  on  it ;  when 
the  weeping  is  over,  they  eat  up  the  food,  especially  com- 
memorating the  dead  in  Bussian  manner  by  partaking  of 
his  favourite  dainty,  and  if  he  were  fond  of  a  glass,  the 
vodka  is  sipped  with  the  ejaculation,  "  The  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  be  his  !    He  loved  a  drink,  the  deceased  !"*    When 
Odilo,  Abbot  of  Cluny,  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  century,  in- 
stituted the  celebration  of  All  Souls',*  he  set  on  foot  one  of 

>  Ovid.  Fast.  ii.  683 ;  v.  420. 

'  Bleek,  *  Avesta,*  vol.  ii.  p.  31 ;  vol.  iii.  p.  86 ;  Alger,  p.  137. 

»  Hanusch,  'Slaw.  Myth.*  pp.  874,  408  ;  St.  Clair  and  Brophy,  'Bulgaria,' 
p.  77  ;  Ronianoflf,  '  Greco-Bomaa  Church,'  p.  255. 

**  Petras  Damionus,  '  Vita  S.  Odilonis,'  in  the  Bollandist  'Acta  Sanctorum, 
Jan.  1,  has  the  quaint  legend  attached  to  the  new  ordinance.  An  island 
hermit  dwelt  near  a  volcano,  where  souls  of  the  wicked  were  toimeuted  in  the 
flames.  The  holy  man  heard  the  officiating  ddmons  lament  that  their  daily 
task  of  new  torture  was  interfered  with  by  the  prayers  and  alms  of  devout 
persons  leagued  against  them  to  save  souls,  and  especially  they  complained 
of  the  monks  of  Cluny.  Thereupon  the  hermit  sent  a  message  to  Abbot 
OdUo,  who  carried  out  the  work  to  the  efficacy  of  which  he  had  received  such 
perfect  spiritual  testimony,  by  decreeing  that  Nov.  2,  the  day  after  All  Saints*, 
bbould  be  set  apart  fur  services  for  the  departed. 


38  ANIMISM. 

those  revivals  which  bare  so  often  given  the  past  a  new 
lease  of  life.  The  Western  Church  at  large  took  up  the 
practice,  and  round  it,  on  the  second  of  November,  there 
naturally  gathered  surviving  remnants  of  the  primitive  rite 
of  banquets  to  the  dead.  The  accusation  against  the  earlj 
Christians,  that  they  appeased  the  shades  of  the  dead  with 
feasts  like  the  Gentiles,  would  not  be  beside  the  maik  now, 
fifteen  hundred  years  later.  All  Souls'  Day  keeps  up, 
within  the  limits  of  Christendom,  a  commemoration  of  the 
dead  which  combines  some  touches  of  pathetic  imagination 
with  relics  of  savage  animism  scarcely  to  be  surpassed  in 
Africa  or  the  South  Sea  Islands.  In  Italy  the  day  is  given 
to  feasting  and  drinking  in  honour  of  the  dead,  while  skulls 
and  skeletons  in  sugar  and  paste  form  appropriate  children's 
toys.  In  Tyrol,  the  poor  souls  released  from  purgatory  fire 
for  the  night  may  come  and  smear  their  bums  with  the 
melted  fat  of  the  ''  soul-light "  on  the  hearth,  or  cakes  are 
left  for  them  on  the  table,  and  the  room  is  kept  warm  for 
their  comfort.  Even  in  Paris  the  souls  of  the  departed 
come  to  partake  of  the  food  of  the  living.  In  Brittany  the 
crowd  pours  into  the  churchyard  at  evening,  to  kneel  bare- 
headed nt  the  graves  of  dead  kinsfolk,  to  fill  the  hollow  of 
the  tombstone  with  holy  water,  or  to  pour  libations  of  milk 
upon  it.  All  night  the  church  bells  clang,  and  sometimes 
a  solemn  procession  of  the  clergy  goes  round  to  bless  the 
graves.  In  no  household  that  night  is  the  cloth  removed, 
for  the  supper  must  be  left  for  the  souls  to  come  and  take 
their  part,  nor  must  the  fire  be  put  out,  where  they  will 
come  to  warm  themselves.  And  at  last,  as  the  inmates 
retire  to  rest,  there  is  heard  at  the  door  a  doleful  chant — it 
is  the  souls,  who,  borrowing  the  voices  of  the  parish  poor, 
have  come  to  ask  the  prayers  of  the  living.^ 

If  we  ask  how  the  spirits  of  the  dead  are  in  general  sup- 

^  Bastian,  'Mensch/yoi.  ii.  p.  836.  Meiners,  vol.  i.  p.  816;  vol.  ii.  p. 
290.  Wuttko,  'Deutsche  Volksaber^laube,'  p.  216.  Cortet,  'F^tes 
Beligienses/  p.  288  ;  '  Westminster  Rey.'  Jan.  1860 ;  Hersart  de  la  Ville- 
marque,  '  Chants  de  la  Bretagne,'  vol.  ii.  p.  807. 


ANIMISM.  39 

posed  to  feed  on  the  viands  set  before  them,  we  come  upon 
difficult  questions,  which  will  be  met  with  again  in  discuss- 
ing the  theory  of  sacrifice.  Even  where  the  thought  is 
certainly  that  the  departed  soul  eats,  this  thought  may  be 
very  indefinite,  with  far  less  of  practical  intention  in  it  than 
of  childish  make-believe.  Now  and  then,  however,  the 
sacrificers  themselves  offer  closer  definitions  of  their  mean- 
ing. The  idea  of  the  ghost  actually  devouring  the  material 
food  is  not  unexampled.  Thus,  in  North  America,  Algon- 
quin Indians  considered  that  the  shadow-like  souls  of  the 
dead  can  still  eat  and  drink,  often  even  telling  Father  Le 
Jeune  that  they  had  found  in  the  morning  meat  gnawed  in 
the  night  by  the  souls.  More  recently,  we  read  that  some 
Potawatomis  will  leave  off  providing  the  supply  of  food  at 
the  grave  if  it  lies  long  untouched,  it  being  concluded  that 
the  dead  no  longer  wants  it,  but  has  found  a  rich  hunting- 
ground  in  the  other  world.^  In  Africa,  again.  Father 
Cavazzi  records  of  the  Congo  people  furnishing  their  dead 
with  supplies  of  provisions,  that  they  could  not  be  persuaded 
that  souls  did  not  consume  material  food.^  In  Europe  the 
Esths,  offering  food  for  the  dead  on  All  Souls',  are  said  to 
have  rejoiced  if  they  found  in  the  morning  that  any  of  it 
was  gone.'    A  less  gross  conception  is  that  the  soul  con- 

'  Le  Jeane  in  'Rel.  des  J6s.'  1634,  p.  16  ;  Waitz,  vol.  iii.  p.  195. 

*  Cavazzi,  *  Congo,'  etc.  book  i  265. 

*  Grimm,  'D.  M.*  p.  865,  but  not  so  in  the  account  of  the  Feast  of  the 
Dead  in  Boeder,  'Ehsten  Abeigl.  Gebr.*  (ed.  Ereutswald),  p.  89.  Compare 
Martins,  'Ethnog.  Amer.'  vol.  i.  p.  345  (Gfts).  The  following  passage  from  a 
spiritualist  journal,  '*  The  Medium,"  Feb.  9,  1872,  shows  this  primitive  notion 
curiously  surviviDg  in  modem  England.  **  Every  time  we  sat  at  dinner,  we 
had  not  only  spirit- voices  calling  to  us,  but  spirit-hands  touching  us ;  and 
last  evening,  as  it  was  his  fareweU,  they  gave  us  a  special  manifestation,  un- 
asked for  and  unlooked  for.  He  sitting  at  the  right  hand  of  me,  a  vacant 
chair  opposite  to  him  began  moving,  and,  in  answer  to  whether  it  would  have 
some  dinner,  said  *' Yes."  I  then  asked  it  to  select  what  it  would  take,  when 
it  chose  croquets  des  pommes  de  terre  (a  French  way  of  dressing  potatoes,  about 
three  inches  long  and  two  wide.  1  will  send  you  one  that  you  may  see  it ) 
I  was  desired  to  put  this  on  the  chair,  either  in  a  tablespoon  or  on  a  plate. 
I  placed  it  in  a  tablespoon,  thinking  that  probably  the  plate  might  be  broken. 
In  a  few  seconds  I  was  told  that  it  was  eaten,  and  looking,  found  the  half  of 
it  gone,  with  the  marks  showing  the  teeth."    (Note  to  2nd  ed.) 


40  ANIKISM. 

fiumes  the  steam  or  savour  of  the  food,  or  its  essence  or 
spirit.  It  is  said  to  have  been  with  such  purpose  that  the 
Maoris  placed  food  by  the  dead  man's  side,  and  some  also 
with  him  in  the  grave.^  The  idea  is  well  displayed  among 
the  natives  in  Mexican  districts,  where  the  souls  who  come 
to  the  annual  feast  are  described  as  hovering  over  and 
smelling  the  food  set  out  for  them,  or  sucking  out  its 
nutritive  quality.^  The  Hindu  entreats  the  manes  to  quaff 
the  sweet  essence  of  the  offered  food ;  thinking  on  them,  he 
slowly  sets  the  dish  of  rice  before  the  Brahmans,  and  while 
they  silently  eat  the  hot  food,  the  ancestral  spirits  take 
their  part  of  the  feast,'  At  the  old  Slavonic  meals  for  the 
dead,  we  read  of  the  survivora  sitting  in  silence  and  throw- 
ing morsels  under  the  table,  fancying  that  they  could  hear 
the  spiiits  rustle,  and  see  them  feed  on  the  smell  and  steam 
of  the  viands.  One  account  describes  the  mourners  at  the 
funeral  banquet  inviting  in  the  departed  soul,  thought  to  be 
standing  outside  the  door,  and  every  guest  throwing  morsels 
and  pouring  drink  under  the  table,  for  him  to  refresh  him- 
self. What  lay  on  the  ground  was  not  picked  up,  but  was 
left  for  friendless  and  kinless  souls,  ^yhen  the  meal  was 
over,  the  priest  rose  from  table,  swept  out  the  house,  and 
hunted  out  the  souls  of  the  dead  '*  like  fleas,"  with  these 
words,  "  Ye  have  eaten  and  drunken,  souls,  now  go,  now 
go ! "  *  Many  travellers  have  described  the  imagination 
with  which  the  Chinese  make  such  offerings.  It  is  that  the 
spirits  of  the  dead  consume  the  impalpable  essence  of  the 
food,  leaving  behind  its  coarse  material  substance,  where- 
fore the  dutiful  sacrificers,  having  set  out  sumptuous  feasts 
for  ancestral  souls,  allow  them  a  proper  time  to  satisfy  their 
appetite,  and  then  fall  to  themselves.^  The  Jesuit  Father 
Christoforo  Borri  suggestively  translates  the  native  idea 
into  his  own  scholastic  phraseology.      In  Cochin  China, 

'  Taylor,  '  New  Zealand,*  p.  220,  see  104. 

'"  Brasseur,  'Mexique/  vol.  iiL  p.  24. 

'  Colebrooke,  *  Essays/  vol.  i.  p.  168,  etc.  ;  Mann.  iiL 

'*  Hanusch,  *  Slaw.  Myth,'  p.  408 ;  Uartkuoch,  *  Preussen/  part  i.  p.  187. 

»  Doolittle,  *  Chinese,'  voL  ii.  pp.  33,  48  ;  Moiners,  voL  i.  p.  818. 


ANIMISM.  41 

according  to  him,  people  believed  "  that  the  souls  of  the 
dead  have  need  of  corporeal  sustenance  and  maintenance, 
wherefore  several  times  a  year,  according  to  their  custom, 
they  make  splendid  and  sumptuous  banquets,  children  to 
their  deceased  parents,  husbands  to  their  wives,  friends  to 
their  friends,  waiting  a  long  while  for  the  dead  guest  to 
come  and  sit  down  at  table  to  eat."  The  missionaries 
argued  against  this  proceeding,  but  were  met  by  ridicule  of 
their  ignorance,  and  the  reply  '^  that  there  were  two  things 
in  the  food,  one  the  substance,  and  the  other  the  accidents 
of  quantity,  quality,  smell,  taste,  and  the  like.  The  im* 
material  souls  of  the  dead,  taking  for  themselves  the  sub- 
stance of  the  food,  which  being  immaterial  is  food  suited  to 
the  incorporeal  soul,  left  only  in  the  dishes  the  accidents 
which  corporeal  senses  perceive ;  for  this  the  dead  had  no 
need  of  corporeal  instruments,  as  we  have  said."  There- 
upon the  Jesuit  proceeds  to  remark,  as  to  the  prospect  of 
conversion  of  these  people,  "it  may  be  judged  from  the 
distinction  they  make  between  the  accidents  and  the  sub- 
stance of  the  food  which  they  prepare  for  the  dead,**  that  it 
will  not  be  very  difficult  to  prove  to  them  the  mystery  of 
the  Eucharist.^  Now  to  peoples  among  whom  prevails  the 
rite  of  feasts  of  the  dead,  whether  they  offer  the  food  in 
mere  symbolic  pretence,  or  whether  they  consider  the  souls 
really  to  feed  on  it  in  this  spiritual  way  (as  well  as  in  the 
cases  inextricably  mixed  up  with  these,  where  the  offering 
is  spiritually  conveyed  away  to  the  world  of  spirits),  it  can 
be  of  little  consequence  what  becomes  of  the  gross  material 
food.  When  the  Kafir  sorcerer,  in  cases  of  sickness,  de- 
clares that  the  shades  of  ancestors  demand  a  particular  cow, 
the  beast  is  slaughtered  and  left  shut  up  for  a  time  for  the 
shades  to  eat,  or  for  its  spirit  to  go  to  the  land  of  shades, 
and  then  is  taken  out  to  be  eaten  by  the  sacrificers.^  So, 
in  more  civilized  Japan,  when  the  survivors  have  placed 

'  Borriy  'Relatione  della  Kaova  MJssione  della  Comp.  di  Giosu,'  Rome, 
1631,  p.  208 ;  and  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  ix.  p.  822,  etc. 
'  Grout,  *Zalu  Land,'  p.  140  ;  see  Callaway,  *Re].  of  Amazuln,'  p.  11. 


42  AKIKISM. 

their  offering  of  unboiled  rice  and  water  in  a  hollow  made 
for  the  purpose  in  a  stone  of  the  tomb,  it  seems  to  them 
no  matter  that  the  poor  or  the  birds  really  carry  off  the 
grain,^ 

Such  rites  as  these  are  especially  exposed  to  dwindle  in 
survival.  The  offerings  of  meals  and  feasts  to  the  dead 
may  be  traced  at  their  last  stage  into  mere  traditional 
ceremonies,  at  most  tokens  of  affectionate  remembrance  of 
the  dead,  or  works  of  charity  to  the  living.  The  Boman 
Feralia  in  Ovid's  time  were  a  striking  example  of  such 
transition,  for  while  the  idea  was  recognized  that  the  ghosts 
fed  upon  the  offerings,  ''nimc  posito  pascitur  umbra  cibo," 
yet  there  were  but  "  parva  munera,"  fruits  and  grains  of 
salt,  and  corn  soaked  in  wine,  set  out  for  their  meal  in  the 
middle  of  the  road.  ''Little  the  manes  ask,  the  pious 
thought  stands  instead  of  the  rich  gift,  for  Styx  holds  no 
greedy  gods  :  " —  ' 

*'  Parva  petont  manes.    Pietas  pro  divite  grata  est 
Munere.    Non  avidos  Styx  habet  ima  decs. 

Togula  porrectds  satis  est  velata  coronis, 
Et  Bparsce  frages,  parcaque  mica  sails, 

Inque  mero  mollita  ceres,  violaeque  solutse : 
Ha)0  habeat  media  testa  relicta  via. 

Neo  migora  veto.    Sed  et  his  placabilis  umbra  est. "  * 

Still  farther  back,  in  old  Chinese  history,  Confucius  had 
been  called  on  to  give  an  opinion  as  to  the  sacrifices  to  the 
dead.  Maintainer  of  all  ancient  rites  as  he  was,  he  strin- 
gently kept  up  this,  ''  he  sacrificed  to  the  dead  as  if  they 
were  present,"  but  when  he  was  asked  if  the  dead  had 
knowledge  of  what  was  done  or  no,  he  declined  to  answer  the 
question ;  for  if  he  replied  yes,  then  dutiful  descendants  would 
injure  their  substance  by  sacrifices,  and  if  no,  then  undutiful 
children  would  leave  their  parents  unburied.  The  evasion 
was  characteristic  of  the  teacher  who  expressed  his  theory 

'  Caron,  'Japan/  vol.  vii.  p.  629;  see  Turpin,  *Siara/  ibid.  roL  ix.  p. 
590. 

>  Ovid.  Fart.  ii.  688. 


ANIMISM.  43 

of  worship  in  this  maxim,  ^*  to  give  oneself  earnestly  to  the 
duties  due  to  men,  and,  while  respecting  spiritual  beings, 
to  keep  aloof  from  them,  may  be  called  wisdom."  It  is  said 
that  in  our  own  time  the  Taepings  have  made  a  step  beyond 
Confucius ;  they  have  forbidden  the  sacrifices  to  the  spirits 
of  the  dead,  yet  keep  up  the  rite  of  visiting  their  tombs  on 
the  customary  day,  for  prayer  and  the  renewal  of  vows.* 
How  funeral  offerings  may  pass  into  commemorative  ban- 
quets and  feasts  to  the  poor,  has  been  shown  already.  If 
we  seek  in  England  for  vestiges  of  the  old  rite  of  funeral 
sacrifice,  we  may  find  a  lingering  survival  into  modern 
centuries,  doles  of  bread  and  drink  given  to  the  poor  at 
funerals,  and  ^'soul-mass  cakes"  which  peasant  girls 
perhaps  to  this  day  beg  for  at  farmhouses  with  the  tradi- 
tional formula, 

'*  Soul,  soul,  for  a  soul  cake, 
Pray  you,  mistress,  a  soul  cake."  ' 

Were  it  not  for  our  knowledge  of  the  intermediate  stages 
through  which  these  fragments  of  old  custom  have  come 
down,  it  would  seem  far-fetched  indeed  to  trace  their  origin 
back  to  the  savage  and  barbaric  times  of  the  institution  of 
feasts  of  departed  souls* 

*  Legge,  'Confncitis"  pp.  101-2, 130  ;  Bunsen,  'God  in  Hiatoiy,'  p.  271. 

•  Brand,  '  Pop.  Ant.'  vol.  i.  p.  392,  voL  il  p.  289. 


CHAPTER  XIII. 

AmUlS^— {continued). 

Journey  of  the  Soul  to  the  Land  of  the  Dead — ^Visits  by  the  living  to  the 
Belong  of  Departed  Souls — ^Connexion  of  such  legends  with  myths  of 
Sunset :  the  Land  of  the  Dead  thus  imagined  as  in  the  West — Realiza- 
tion of  current  religious  ideas,  whether  of  savage  or  civilized  theology, 
in  narratives  of  visits  to  the  Kegions  of  Souls —Localization  of  the  Future 
Life— Distant  earthly  region  :  £arthly  Paradise,  Isles  of  the  Blest — 
Subterranean  Hades  or  Sheol—Sun,  Moou,  Stars — Heaven — Historical 
course  of  belief  as  to  such  localization— Nature  of  Future  Life — Con- 
tinuance-theory, apparently  original,  belongs  especially  to  the  lower  races 
— Transitional  theories — Retribution -theory,  apparently  derived,  belongs 
especially  to  the  higher  races — Doctrine  of  Moral  Retribution  as  developed 
in  the  higher  culture— Survey  of  Doctrine  of  Future  State,  from  savage 
to  civilized  stages— Its  practical  effect  on  the  sentiment  and  conduct  of 
Mankind. 

The  departure  of  the  dead  man's  soul  from  the  world  of 
living  men,  its  journey  to  the  distant  land  of  spirits,  the  life 
it  will  lead  in  its  new  home,  are  topics  on  which  the  lower 
races  for  the  most  part  hold  explicit  doctrines.  When 
these  fall  under  the  inspection  of  a  modem  ethnographer, 
he  treats  them  as  myths ;  often  to  a  high  degree  intelligible 
and  rational  in  their  origin,  consistent  and  regular  in  their 
structure,  but  not  the  less  myths.  Few  subjects  have 
aroused  the  savage  poet's  mind  to  such  bold  and  vivid 
imagery  as  the  thought  of  the  hereafter.  Yet  also  a  survey 
of  its  details  among  mankind  displays  in  the  midst  of 
variety  a  regular  recurrence  of  episode  that  brings  the  ever- 
recurring  question,  how  far  is  this  correspondence  due  to 
transmission  of  the  same  thought  from  tribe  to  tribe,  and 
how  far  to  similar  but  independent  development  in  distant 
lands  ? 


ANIMISM.  45 

From  the  savage  state  up  into  the  midst  of  civilization^ 
the  comparison  may  be  carried  through.  Low  races  and 
high,  in  region  after  region,  can  point  out  the  very  spot 
whence  the  flitting  souls  start  to  travel  toward  their  new 
home.  At  the  extreme  western  cape  of  Yanua  Levu,  a  calm 
and  solemn  place  of  cliff  and  forest,  the  souls  of  the  Fijian 
dead  embark  for  the  judgment-seat  of  Ndengei,  and  thither 
the  living  come  in  pilgrimage,  thinking  to  see  there  ghosts 
and  gods.^  The  Baperi  of  South  Africa  will  venture  to 
creep  a  little  way  into  their  cavern  of  Marimatl6,  whence 
men  and  animals  came  forth  into  the  world,  and  whither 
souls  return  at  death.^  In  Mexico  the  cavern  of  Chalcha- 
tongo  led  to  the  plains  of  paradise,  and  the  Aztec  name  of 
Mictlan,  "  Land  of  the  Dead,"  now  Mitla,  keeps  up  the 
remembrance  of  another  subterranean  temple  which  opened 
the  way  to  the  sojourn  of  the  blessed.^  In  the  kingdom  of 
Prester  John,  Maundevile  tells  of  an  entrance  to  the  in* 
femal  regions :  *'  Sum  men  clepen  it  the  vale  enchanted, 
some  clepen  it  the  vale  of  develes,  and  some  clepen  it  the 
Tale  perilous.  In  that  vale  heren  men  often  tyme  grete 
tempestes  and  thonders,  and  grete  murmures  and  noyses, 
alle  dayes  and  nyghtes,  and  gret  noyse,  as  it  were  soun  of 
taboures  and  of  nakeres  and  trompes,  as  though  it  were  of  a 
gret  feste.  This  valle  is  alle  fuUe  of  develes,  and  hathe  ben 
alleways;  and  men  seyn  there  that -it  is  on  of  the  entrees  of 
helle.'*^  North  German  peasants  still  remember  on  the 
banks  of  the  swampy  Dromling  the  place  of  access  to  the 
land  of  departed  souls.^  To  us  Englishmen  the  shores  of 
lake  Avemus,  trodden  daily  by  our  tourists,  are  more 
familiar  than  the  Irish  analogue  of  the  place,  Lough  Derg, 
with  its  cavern  entrance  of  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory  leading 
down  to  the  awful  world  below.     The  mass  of  mystic  details 

>  Williams,  *Fiji,'  vol.  i.  p.  239  ;  Seemann,  *  Viti,'  p.  398. 
'  ArhotLsset  and  Daumas,  p.  347  ;  Casali's,  p.  247. 
'  Hrasseur,  *  Mexique, '  vol.  iii.  p.  20,  etc. 

*  Sir  John  Manndevile,  *  Voiage.' 

*  Wuttke,  *  Yolksabcrglaube,'  p.  215.    Other  cases  in  Bastian,  ^Mensch,' 
vol.  IL  pp.  58,  369,  etc. 


46  ANIMISIL 

need  not  be  repeated  here  of  the  soul's  dread  journey  by 
caverns  and  rocky  paths  and  weary  plains,  over  steep  and 
BUppery  mountams,  by  frail  bark  or  giddy  bridge  across 
gulfe  or  rushing  rivers,  abiding  the  fierce  onset  of  the  soul- 
destroyer  or  the  doom  of  the  stem  guardian  of  the  other 
world.  But  before  describing  the  spirit-world  which  is  the 
end  of  the  soul's  journey,  let  us  see  what  the  proof  is  which 
sustains  the  belief  in  both.  The  lower  races  claim  to  hold 
their  doctrines  of  the  future  life  on  strong  tradition,  direct 
revelation,  and  even  personal  experience.  To  them  the 
land  of  souls  is  a  discovered  country,  from  whose  bourne 
many  a  traveller  returns. 

Among  the  legendary  visits  to  the  world  beyond  the 
grave,  there  are  some  that  seem  pure  myth,  without  a  touch 
of  real  personal  history.  Ojibwa,  the  eponymic  hero  of  his 
North  American  tribe,  as  one  of  his  many  exploits  descended 
to  the  subterranean  world  of  departed  spirits,  and  came  up 
again  to  earth.^  When  the  Kamchadals  were  asked  how 
they  knew  so  well  what  happens  to  men  after  death,  they 
could  answer  with  their  legend  of  Haetsh  the  first  man. 
He  died  and  went  down  into  the  world  below,  and  a  long 
while  after  came  up  again  to  his  former  dwelling,  and  there, 
standing  above  by  the  smoke-hole,  he  talked  down  to  his 
kindred  in  the  house  and  told  them  about  the  life  to  come ; 
it  was  then  that  his  two*  daughters  whom  he  had  left  below 
followed  him  in  anger  and  smote  him  so  that  he  died  a 
second  time,  and  now  he  is  chief  in  the  lower  world,  and 
receives  the  Italmen  when  they  die  and  rise  anew.^  Thus, 
again,  in  the  great  Finnish  epic,  the  Kalewala,  one  great 
episode  is  Wainamoinen's  visit  to  the  land  of  the  dead. 
Seeking  the  last  charm-words  to  build  his  boat,  the  hero 
ti*avelled  with  quick  steps  week  after  week  through  bush 
and  wood  till  he  came  to  the  Tuonela  river,  and  saw  before 
him  the  island  of  Tuoni  the  god  of  death.  Loudly  he  called 
to  Tuoni's  daughter  to  bring  the  ferry-boat  across  : — 

1  Schoolcraft,  *  Algic.  Bes."  voL  il  pp.  32,  64,  and  nee  ante,  vol.  L  p.  312. 
»  Steller,  *Kamt8chatka,'  p.  271  ;  Klemm,  *C.  G.'  vol.  ii.  p.  312. 


ANIMISM.  47 

"  She,  the  yirgin  of  Manala, 
She,  the  washer  of  the  clothing, 
She,  the  wringer  of  the  linen. 
By  the  riyer  of  Tuonela, 
In  the  under-world  Manala, 
Spake  in  words,  and  this  their  meaning. 
This  their  answer  to  the  hearer : — 
'  Forth  the  boat  shall  oome  from  hither. 
When  the  reason  thou  hast  given 
That  hath  brought  thee  to  Manala, 
Neither  slain  by  any  siokness, 
Nor  by  Death  dragged  from  the  living, 
Nor  destroyed  by  other  ending.' " 

Wainamoinen  replies  with  lying  reasons.  Iron  brought  him, 
he  says,  but  Tuoni's  daughter  answers  that  no  blood  drips 
from  hi^  garment;  Fire  brought  him,  he  says,  but  she 
answers  that  his  locks  are  unsinged,  and  at  last  he  tells  his 
real  mission.  Then  she  ferries  him  over,  and  Tuonetar  the 
hostess  brings  him  beer  in  the  two-eared  jug,  but  Waina- 
moinen can  see  the  frogs  and  worms  within  and  will  not 
drinky  for  it  was  not  to  drain  Manala's  beer-jug  he  had 
come.  He  lay  in  the  bed  of  Tuoni,  and  meanwhile  they 
spread  the  hundred  nets  of  iron  and  copper  across  the  river 
that  he  might  not  escape ;  but  he  turned  into  a  reed  in  the 
swamp,  and  as  a  snake  crept  through  the  meshes : — 


« 


Tuoni's  son  with  hooked  fingers 
Iron-pointed  hooked  fingers 
Went  to  draw  his  nets  at  morning — 
Salmon-trout  he  found  a  hundred, 
Thousands  of  the  little  fishes, 
But  he  found  no  Wainamoinen, 
Not  the  old  Mend  of  the  billows. 
Then  the  ancient  Wainamoinen, 
Come  from  out  of  Tuoni's  kingdom, 
Spake  in  words,  and  this  their  meaning. 
This  their  answer  to  the  hearer : — 
'  Never  mayst  thou,  God  of  goodness. 
Never  sufibr  such  another 
Who  of  self-will  goes  to  Mana, 
fThrusts  his  way  to  Tuoni's  kingdom. 


48  ANIMISM. 

Many  they  who  trayel  thither, 

Few  who  thence  haye  found  the  home- way, 

From  the  houses  of  Tuoni 

From  the  dwellings  of  Manala.'  "  ^ 

It  is  enough  to  name  the  familiar  classic  analogues  of  these 
mythic  visits  to  Hades, — the  descent  of  Dionysos  to  bring 
back  Semele,  of  Orpheus  to  bring  back  his  beloved  Eury- 
dike,  of  Herakles  to  fetch  up  the  three-headed  Kerberos  at 
the  command  of  his  master  Eurystheus;  above  all,  the 
voyage  of  Odysseus  to  the  ends  of  the  deep-flowing  Ocean, 
to  the  clouded  city  of  Kimmerian  men,  where  shining  Helios 
looks  not  down  with  his  rays,  and  deadly  night  stretches 
always  over  wretched  mortals, — thence  they  passed  along 
the  banks  to  the  entrance  of  the  land  where  the  shades  of 
the  departed,  quickened  for  a  while  by  the  taste  of  si^crificial 
blood,  talked  with  the  hero  and  showed  him*  the  regions  of 
their  dismal  home.* 

The  scene  of  the  descent  into  Hades  is  in  very  deed 
enacted  day  by  day  before  our  eyes,  as  it  was  before  the  eyes 
of  the  ancient  myth-maker,  who  watched  the  sun  descend  to 
the  dark  under-world,  and  return  at  dawn  to  the  land  of 
living  men.  These  heroic  legends  lie  in  close-knit  con- 
nexion with  episodes  of  solar  myth.  It  is  by  the  simplest 
poetic  adaptation  of  the  Sun's  daily  life,  tj^pifying  Man's 
life  in  dawning  beauty,  in  mid-day  glory,  in  evening  death, 
that  mythic  fancy  even  fixed  the  belief  in  the  religions  of 
the  world,  that  the  Land  of  Departed  Souls  lies  in  the  Far 
West  or  the  World  Below.  How  deeply  the  myth  of  the 
Sunset  has  entered  into  the  doctrine  of  men  concerning  a 
Future  State,  how  the  West  and  the  Under- World  have 
become  by  mere  imaginative  analogy  Regions  of  the  Dead, 
how  the  quaint  day-dreams  of  savage  poets  may  pass  into 

*  Kalewala,  Ktine  xvi.  ;  see  Schiefner's  German  Translation,  and  Gastrin, 
*  Finn.  Mytli,'  pp.  128,  134.     A  Slavonic  myth  in  Hanuach,  p  412. 

'  Homer.  Odyss.  xi.  On  the  vivification  of  ghosts  by  sacrificc  of  blood, 
and  on  libations  of  milk  and  blood,  see  Meiners,  vol.  i.  p.  815,  vol.  ii.  p.  69  ; 
J.  G.  Miiller,  p.  86  ;  Rochholz,  *  Deutscher  Gkubo  und  Branch,'  vol.  i.  p. 
1,  etc. 


AI7IMISM.  49 

honoured  dogmas  of  classic  sages  and  modern  divines, — all 
this  the  crowd  of  details  here  cited  from  the  wide  range  of 
culture  stand  to  prove. 

Moreover,  visits  from  or  to  tlie  dead  are  matters  of  per- 
sonal experience  and  personal  testimony.  When  in  dream 
or  vision  the  seer  beholds  the  spirits  of  the  departed,  they 
give  him  tidings  from  the  other  world,  or  he  may  even  rise 
and  travel  thither  himself,  and  return  to  tell  the  living  what 
lie  has  seen  among  the  dead.  It  is  sometimes  as  if  the 
traveller's  material  body  went  to  visit  a  distant  land,  and 
sometimes  all  we  are  told  is  that  the  man's  self  went,  but 
whether  in  body  or  in  spirit  is  a  mere  detail  of  which  the 
story  keeps  no  record.  Mostly,  however,  it  is  the  seer's 
soul  which  goes  forth,  leaving  his  body  behind  in  ecstasy, 
sleep,  coma,  or  death.  Some  of  these  stories,  as  we  trace 
them  on  from  savage  into  civilized  times,  are  no  doubt  given 
in  good  faith  by  the  visionary  himself,  while  others  are 
imitations  of  these  genuine  accounts.^  Now  such  visions 
are  naturally  apt  to  reproduce  the  thoughts  with  which  the 
seer*s  mind  was  already  furnished.  Every  idea  once  lodged 
in  the  mind  of  a  savage,  a  barbarian,  or  an  enthusiast,  is 
ready  thus  to  be  brought  back  to  him  from  without.  It  is 
a  vicious  circle ;  what  he  believes  he  therefore  sees,  and 
what  he  sees  he  therefore  believes.  Beholding  the  reflexion 
of  his  own  mind  like  a  child  looking  at  itself  in  a  glass,  he 
humbly  receives  the  teaching  of  his  second  self.  The  Red 
Indian  visits  his  happy  hunting-grounds,  tlie  Tongan  his 
shadowy  island  of  Bolotu,  the  Greek  enters  Hades  and  looks 
on  the  Elysian  Fields,  the  Christian  beholds  the  heights  of 
Heaven  and  the  depths  of  Hell. 

Among  the  North  American  Indians,  and  especially  the 
Algonquin  tribes,  accounts  are  not  unusual  of  men  whose 
spirits,  travelling  in  dreams  or  in  the  hallucinations  of 
extreme  illness  to  the  land  of  the  dead,  have  returned  to 
reanimate   their    bodies,  and  tell  what   they    have    seen. 

*  See  for  exnmple,    various   details  in   Bastian,   *Mensch,*  vol.   iL   pp. 
•369-75,  etc. 

VOL.    II.  E 


50  ANIMISX. 

Their  experiences  have  been  in  great  measure  what  they 
were  taught  in  early  childhood  to  expect^  the  journey  along 
the  path  of  the  dead,  the  monstrous  strawberry  at  which 
the  jebi-ug  or  ghosts  refresh  themselves,  but  which  turned 
to  red  rock  at  the  touch  of  their  spoons,  the  bark  offered 
them  for  dried  meat  and  great  puff-balls  for  squashes,  the 
river  of  the  dead  with  its  snake-bridge  or  swinging  log,  the 
great  dog  standing  on  the  other  side,  the  villages  of  the 
dead  beyond.^  The  Zulus  of  our  own  day  tell  of  men  who 
have  gone  down  by  holes  in  the  ground  into  the  under- 
world, where  mountains  and  rivers  and  all  things  are  as 
here  above,  and  where  a  man  may  find  his  kindred,  for  the 
dead  live  in  their  villages,  and  may  be  seen  milking  their 
cattle,  which  are  the  cattle  killed  on  earth  and  come  to  life 
anew.  The  Zulu  Umpengula,  who  told  one  of  these  stories 
to  Dr.  Callaway,  remembered  when  he  was  a  boy  seeing  an 
ugly  little  hairy  man  called  Uncama,  who  once,  chasing  a 
porcupine  that  ate  his  mealies,  followed  it  down  a  hole  in 
the  ground  into  the  land  of  the  dead.  When  he  came  back 
to  his  home  on  earth  he  found  that  he  had  been  given  up 
for  dead  himself,  his  wife  had  duly  burnt  and  buried  his 
mats  and  blankets  and  vessels,  and  the  wondering  people  at 
sight  of  him  again  shouted  the  funeral  dirge.  Of  this  Zulu 
Dante  it  used  to  be  continually  said,  '*  There  is  the  man 
who  went  to  the  underground  people."^  One  of  the  most 
characteristic  of  these  savage  narratives  is  from  New  Zea- 
land. This  story,  which  has  an  especial  interest  from  the 
reminiscence  it  contains  of  the  gigantic  extinct  Moa,  and 
which  may  be  repeated  at  some  length  as  an  illustration  of 
the  minute  detail  and  life-like  reality  which  such  visionary 
legends  assume  in  barbaric  life,  was  told  to  Mr.  Shortland 
by  a  servant  of  his  named  Te  Wharewera.     An  aunt  of  this 

*  See  vol.  i.  p.  481 ;  also  below,  p.  52,  note.  Tanner's  *  Narr.*  p.  290  ; 
Schoolcraft,  'Indian  Tribes,'  part  iii.  p.  233;  Keating,  vol,  ii.  p.  154; 
Loskiel,  part  L  p.  35  ;  Smith,  *  Virginia, '  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  ziii.  p.  14.  See 
Cranz,  *  Gronland,'  p.  269. 

«  Callaway,  *Zulu  Tales,*  vol.  1.  pp.  316-20. 


AKIKI8M.  51 

man  died  in  a  solitary  hut  near  the  banks  of  Lake  Rotorua. 
Being  a  lady  of  rank  she  was  left  in  her  hut,  the  door  and 
windows  were  made  fast,  and  the  dwelling  was  abandoned, 
as  her  death  had  made  it  tapu.     But  a  day  or  two  after,  Te 
Wharewera  with  some  others  paddling  in  a  canoe  near  the 
place  at  early  morning  saw  a  figure  on  the  shore  beckoning 
to  them.     It  was  the  aunt  come  to  life  again,  but  weak  and 
cold  and  famished.     When  sufficiently  restored  by  their 
timely  help,  she  told  her  story.     Leaving  her  body,  her 
spirit  had  taken  flight  toward  the  North  Cape,  and  arrived 
at  the  entrance  of  Reigna.     There,  holding  on  by  the  stem 
of  the  creeping  akeake-plant,  she  descended  the  precipice, 
and  found  herself  on  the  sandy  beach  of  a  river.     Looking 
round,  she  espied  in  the  distance  an  enormous  bird,  taUer 
than  a  man,  coming  towards  her  with  rapid  strides.     This 
terrible  object  so  frightened  her,  that  her  first  thought  was 
to  try  to  return  up  the  steep  cliff ;  but  seeing  an  old  man 
paddling  a  small  canoe  towards  her  she  ran  to  meet  him, 
and  so  escaped  the  bird.     When  she  had  been  safely  ferried 
across,  she  asked  the  old  Charon,  mentioning  the  name  of 
her  family,  where  the  spirits  of  her  kindred  dwelt.     Follow- 
ing the  path  the  old  man  pointed  out,  she  was  surprised  to 
find  it  just  such  a  path  as  she  had  been  used  to  on  earth ; 
the  aspect  of  the  country,  the  trees,  shrubs,  and  plants  were 
all  familiar  to  her.     She  reached  the  village,  and  among  the 
crowd  assembled  there  she  found  her  father  and  many  near 
relations;   they  saluted  her,  and  welcomed  her  with  the 
wailing  chant  which  Maoris  always  address  to  people  met 
after  long  absence.     But  when  her  father  had  asked  about 
his  living  relatives,  and  especially  about  her  own  child,  he 
told  her  she  must  go  back  to  earth,  for  no  one  was  left  to 
take  care  of  his  grandchild.     By  his  orders  she  refused  to 
touch  the  food  that  the  dead  people  offered  her,  and  in 
spite  of  their  efforts  to  detain  her,  her  father  got  her  safely 
into  the  canoe,  crossed  with  her,  and  parting  gave  her  from 
under  his  cloak  two  enormous  sweet  potatoes  to  plant  at 
home  for  his  grandchild's  especial  eating.     But  as  she  began 

£   2 


52  animism: 

to  climb  the  precipice  again,  two  pursuing  infant  spirits 
pulled  her  back,  and  she  only  escaped  by  flinging  the  roots 
at  them,  which  they  stopped  to  eat,  while  she  scaled  the 
rock  by  help  of  the  akeake-stem,  till  she  reached  the  earth 
and  flew  back  to  where  she  had  left  her  body.  On  return- 
ing to  life  she  found  herself  in  darkness,  and  what  had 
passed  seemed  as  a  dream,  till  she  perceived  that  she  was 
deserted  and  the  door  fast,  and  concluded  that  she  had 
really  died  and  come  to  life  again.  TMien  morning  dawned, 
a  faint  light  entered  by  the  crevices  of  the  shut-up  house, 
and  she  saw  on  the  floor  near  her  a  calabash  partly  full  of 
red  ochre  mixed  with  water ;  this  she  eagerly  drained  to 
the  dregs,  and  then  feeUng  a  little  stronger,  succeeded  in 
opening  the  door  and  crawling  down  to  the  beach,  where 
her  friends  soon  after  found  her.  Those  who  listened  to 
her  tale  firmly  believed  the  reality  of  her  adventures,  but  it 
was  much  regretted  that  she  had  not  brought  back  at  least 
one  of  the  huge  sweet- potatoes,  as  evidence  of  her  visit  to 
the  land  of  spirits.'  Baces  of  North  Asia^  and  West  Africa* 
have  in  like  manner  their  explorers  of  the  world  beyond  the 
grave. 

Classic  literature  continues  the  series.     Lucian's  graphic 

^  Shortland,  ^Traditions  of  New  Zealand/  p.  150.  The  idea  in  this  Maori 
story,  that  the  living  who  tastes  the  food  of  the  dead  may  not  return,  appears 
again  among  the  Sioux  of  North  America.  Ahak-tah  (*Male  Elk  *)  seems  to 
die,  but  after  two  days  comes  down  from  the  funeral -scaffold  where  his  body 
had  been  laid,  and  tells  his  tale.  His  soul  had  travelled  by  the  path  of  braves 
through  the  beautiful  land  of  great  trees  and  gay  loud-singing  birds,  till  ho 
reached  the  river,  and  saw  the  homes  of  the  spirits  of  his  forefathers  on  the 
shore  beyond. '  Swimming  across,  he  entered  the  nearest  house,  where  he 
•found  his  uncle  sitting  in  a  comer.  Very  hungry,  he  noticed  some  wild  rice 
n  a  bark  dish.  **  I  asked  my  uncle  for  some  rice  to  eat,  but  he  did  not  give 
it  to  me.  Had  I  eaten  of  the  food  for  spirits,  I  never  should  have  returned 
to  earth.**  Eastman,  'Dacotah,'  p.  177.  The  analogy  of  this  with  the 
Homeric  episode  of  the  lotus-eaters  may  be  deep. 

«  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth,'  p.  189,  etc. 

•  Bosman,  'Guinea,'  Letter  19,  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi.  p.  601  ;  Burton, 
*Dahome,*  vol.  ii.  p.  158.  For  modern  visits  to  hell  and  heaven  by  Chris- 
fianizcd  negro  visionaries  in  America,  see  Macrae,  *  Americans  at  Home,* 
vol.  ii.  p.  91. 


ANIMISM.  53 

tales  represent  the  belief  of  their  age,  if  not  of  their  author. 
His  Eukrates  looks  down  the  chasm  into  Hades,  and  sees 
the  dead  reclining  on  the  asphodel  in  companies  of  kinsfolk 
and  friends  ;  among  them  he  recognizes  Sokrates  with  his 
bald  head  and  pot-belly,  and  also  his  own  father,  dressed  in 
the  clothes  he  was  buried  in.  Then  Kleodemos  caps  this 
story  with  his  own,  how  when  he  was  sick,  on  the  seventh 
day  when  his  fever  was  burning  like  a  furnace,  everyone 
left  him,  and  the  doors  were  shut.  Then  there  stood  before 
him  an  all-beauteous  youth  in  a  white  garment,  who  led  him 
through  a  chasm  into  Hades,  as  he  knew  by  seeing  Tantalos 
and  Tityos  and  Sisyphos  ;  and  bringing  him  to  the  court  of 
judgment,  where  were  Aiakos  and  the  Fates  and  the 
Erinyes,  the  youth  set  him  before  Pluto  the  King,  who  sat 
reading  the  names  of  those  whose  day  of  life  was  over. 
But  Pluto  was  angry,  and  said  to  the  guide,  "  This  one's 
thread  is  not  run  out,  that  he  should  depart,  but  bring  me 
Demylos  the  coppersmith,  for  he  is  living  beyond  the 
spindle."  So  Kleodemos  came  back  to  himself  free  from 
his  fever,  and  announced  that  Demylos,  who  was  a  sick 
neighbour,  would  die ;  and  accordingly  a  little  while  after 
there  was  heard  the  cry  of  the  mourners  wailing  for  him.^ 
Plutarch's  stories,  told  more  seriously,  are  yet  one  in  type 
with  the  mocking  Lucian's.  The  wicked,  pleasure-seeking 
Thespesios  lies  three  days  as  dead,  and  revives  to  tell  his 
vision  of  the  world  below*  One  Antyllos  was  sick,  and 
seemed  to  the  doctors  to  retain  no  trace  of  life ;  till,  waking 
without  sign,  of  insanity,  he  declared  that  he  had  been 
indeed  dead,  but  was  ordered  back  to  life,  those  who  brought 
him  being  severely  chidden  by  their  lord,  and  sent  to  fetch 
Nikander  instead,  a  well-known  currier,  who  was  accord- 
ingly taken  with  a  fever,  and  died  on  the  third  day.*  Such 
stories,  old  and  new,  are  current  among  the  Hindus  at  this 
day.     A  certain  man's  soul,  for  instance,  is  carried  to  the 

'  Lncian.  Philopseudes,  pp.  21-6. 

'  Plutarch.  De  Sera  Numinis  Vindicta,  zxii. ;  and  in  Easob.  Prtep.  Evang^ 
XL  36. 


54  ANIMISM. 

realm  of  Yama  by  mistake  for  a  namesake,  and  is  sent 
back  in  haste  to  regain  his  body  before  it  is  burnt ;  but  in 
the  meanwhile  he  has  a  glimpse  of  the  hideous  punishments 
of  the  wicked,  and  of  the  glorious  life  of  those  who  had 
mortified  the  flesh  on  earth,  and  of  suttee-widows  now 
sitting  in  happiness  by  their  husbands.^  Mutatis  mutandis 
these  tales  reappear  in  Christian  mythology,  as  when 
Gregory  the  Great  records  that  a  certain  nobleman  named 
Stephen  died,  who  was  taken  to  the  region  of  Hades,  and 
saw  many  things  he  had  heard  before  but  not  believed ;  but 
when  he  was  set  before  the  ruler  there  presiding,  he  sent 
him  back,  saying  that  it  was  this  Stephen's  neighbour — 
Stephen  the  smith — whom  he  had  commanded  to  be 
brought ;  and  accordingly  the  one  returned  to  life,  and  the 
other  died.* 

The  thought  of  human  visitors  revealing  the  mysteries  of 
the  world  beyond  the  grave,  which  indeed  took  no  slight 
hold  on  Christian  belief,  attached  itself  in  a  remark- 
able way  to  the  doctrine  of  Christ's  descent  into  Hades. 
This  dogma  had  so  strongly  established  itself  by  the  end  of 
the  4th  century,  that  Augustine  could  ask,  "  Quis  nisi  in- 
fidelis  negaverit  fuisse  apud  inferos  Christum  ?  "  '  A  dis- 
tinct statement  of  the  dogma  was  afterwards  introduced 
into  the  symbol  commonly  called  the  "Apostles'  Creed:" 
"  Descendit  ad  inferos,"  "  Descendit  ad  infema,"  "  He 
descended  into  hell/'*  The  Descent  into  Hades,  which 
had  the  theological  use  of  providing  a  theory  of  salvation 
applicable  to  the  saints  of  the  old  covenant,  imprisoned  in 
the  limbo  of  the  fathers,  is  narrated  in  full  in  the  apocryphal 
Gospel  of  Nicodemus,  and  is  made  there  to  rest  upon  a 
legend  which  belongs  to  the  present  group  of  human  visits 
to  the  other  world.     It  is  related  that  two  sons  of  Simeon, 

*  Ward,  'Hindoos,*  vol.  ii  p.  63. 

'  Gregor.  Dial,  iv-  86.     See  Calmet,  voL  ii.  ch.  49. 
'  Aagastin.  Epist.  clxiv.  2. 

*  See  Pearson,  'Exposition  of  the  Creed;'  Bingham,  *Ant.  Chr.  CL*  book  x. 
ch.  iii.  Art.  iii.  of  the  Church  of  England  was  reduced  to  its  present  state 
b}'  Archbp.  Parker's  revision. 


ANIMISM.  55 

named  Charinus  and  Leucius,  rose  from  their  tombs  at  the 
Resurrection,  and  went  about  silently  and  prayerfully  among 
men,  till  Annas  and  Caiaphus  brought  them  into  the  syna- 
gogue, and  charged  them  to  tell  of  their  raising  from  the 
dead.  Then,  making  the  sign  of  the  cross  upon  their 
tongues,  the  two  asked  for  parchment  and  wrote  their  record. 
They  had  been  set  with  all  their  fathers  in  the  depths  of 
Hades,  when  on  a  sudden  there  appeared  the  colour  of  the 
sun  like  gold,  and  a  purple  royal  light  shining  on  them  ; 
then  the  patriarchs  and  prophets,  from  Adam  to  Simeon 
and  John  the  Baptist,  rejoicing  proclaimed  the  coming  of  the 
light  and  the  fulfilment  of  the  prophecies  ;  Satan  and  Hades 
wrangled  in  strife  together ;  in  vain  the  brazen  gates  were 
shut  with  their  iron  bars,  for  the  summons  came  to  open 
the  gates  that  the  king  of  glory  may  come  in,  who  hath 
broken  the  gates  of  brass  and  cut  the  bars  of  iron  asunder ; 
then  the  mighty  Lord  broke  the  fetters  and  visited  them  who 
sat  in  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death ;  Adam  and  his 
righteous  children  were  delivered  from  Hades,  and  led  into 
the  glorious  grace  of  Paradise.^ 

Dante,  elaborating  in  the  *  Divina  Commedia  *  the  con- 
ceptions of  paradise,  purgatory,  and  hell  familiar  to  tbf 
actual  belief  of  his  age,  describes  them  once  more  in  the 
guise  of  a  living  visitor  to  the  land  of  the  dead.  Echoes  ir» 
mediaeval  legend  of  such  exploring  expeditions  to  the  world 
below  still  linger  faintly  in  the  popular  belief  of  Europe. 
It  has  been  thus  with  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory,*  the  cavern  in 
the  island  of  Lough  Derg,  in  the  county  Donegal,  which 
even  in  the  seventeenth  century  O'Sullevan  could  describe 
first  and  foremost  in  his  '  Catholic  History  *  as  "  the 
greatest  of  all  memorable  things  of  Ireland."  Mediaeval 
visits  to  the  other  world  were  often  made  in  the  spirit.  But 

*  Codex  Apocr.  N.  T.  Evatig.  Nicod.  ed.  Giles.  *  Apocryphal  Gospels/  etc. 
tr.  by  A.  "Walker ;  *  Gospel  of  Nicodemus.'  The  Greek  and  Latin  texts  differ 
much. 

•  The  following  details  mostly  from  T.  Wright,  *  St  Patrick's  Purgatory  ' 
(an  elaborate  critical  dissertation  on  the  mediffival  legends  of  visits  to  the 
other  world). 


56  ANIMISM. 

like  Ulysses,  Wainamoinen,  and  Dante,  men  eonld  here 
make  the  journey  in  body,  as  did  Sir  Owain  and  the  monk 
Gilbert.  When  the  pilgrim  had  spent  fifteen  days  in  prayer 
and  fasting  in  the  church,  and  had  been  led  with  litanies  and 
sprinkling  of  holy  water  to  the  entrance  of  the  purgatory, 
and  the  last  warnings  of  the  monks  had  failed  to  turn  him 
from  the  venture,  the  door  was  closed  upon  him,  and 
if  found  next  morning,  he  could  tell  the  events  of  his 
awful  journey — how  he  crossed  the  narrow  bridge  that  spans 
the  river  of  death,  how  he  saw  the  hideous  torments  of 
hell,  and  approached  the  joys  of  paradise.  Sir  Owain,  one 
of  King  Stephen's  knights,  went  thither  in  penance  for  his 
life  of  violence  and  rapine,  and  this  was  one  of  the  scenes 
he  beheld  in  purgatory  : — 

'*  There  oome  develes  other  mony  mo, 
And  b7dde  the  knygth  with  hem  to  go, 
And  ladde  him  into  a  fowle  contreye, 
Where  ever  was  nygth  and  never  day. 
For  hit  was  derke  and  wonther  colde : 
Yette  was  there  never  man  so  bolde, 
Hadde  he  never  so  mony  clothes  on, 
But  he  wolde  be  colde  as  ony  stone. 
Wynde  herde  he  none  blowe, 
But  faste  hit  frese  bothe  hye  and  lowe. 
They  browgte  him  to  a  felde  full  brode, 
Overe  suche  another  never  he  yode, 
For  of  the  lengthe  none  ende  he  knewe ; 
Thereover  algate  he  moste  nowe. 
As  he  wente  he  herde  a  crye, 
He  wondered  what  hit  was,  and  why, 
He  syg  ther  men  and  wymmen  also 
That  lowde  cryed,  for  hem  was  woo. 
They  leyen  thykke  on  every  londe, 
Faste  nayled  bothe  fote  and  honde 
With  nayles  glowyng  alle  of  brasse : 
They  ete  the  erthe  so  wo^hem  was ; 
Here  face  was  nayled  to  the  grownde. 
*  Spare,*  they  cryde,  *  a  lytylle  stounde.' 
The  develes  wolde  hem  not  spare : 
lo  hem  peyne  they  thowgte  yare.*' 


ANIMISM.  57 

When  Owain  had  seen  the  other  fields  of  punishment,  with 
their  fiery  serpents  and  toads,  and  the  fires  where  sinners 
were  hung  upr  by  their  offending  members,  and  roasted  on 
spits,  and  basted  with  molten  metal,  and  turned  about  on  a 
great  wheel  of  fire,  and  when  he  had  passed  the  Devil's 
Mouth  over  the  awful  bridge,  he  reached  the  fair  white  glassy 
wall  of  the  Earthly  Paradise,  reaching  upward  and  upward, 
and  saw  before  him  the  beautiful  gate,  whence  issued  a 
ravishing  perfume.  Then  he  soon  forgot  his  pains  and 
sorrows. 

"  As  he  stode,  and  was  so  fayne, 
Hym  thowgth  ther  oome  hym  agayne 
A  swyde  fa3rr  processyoun 
Of  alle  manere  menne  of  relygyoun, 
'Fayre  vestementes  they  hadde  on, 
So  ryche  syg  he  never  none. 
Myche  joye  hym  thowgte  to  se 
Bysshopes  yn  here  dygnit6 ; 
nkone  wente  other  be  and  be, 
Every  man  yn  his  degr6. 
He  syg  ther  monkes  and  chanones, 
And  freres  with  newe  shavene  crownes ; 
Ermytes  he  saw  there  amonge, 
And  nonnes  with  fulle  mery  songe ; 
Persones,  prestes,  and  vycaryes ; 
They  made  folle  mery  melodyes. 
He  syg  ther  kynges  and  emperoures, 
And  dukes  that  had  casteles  and  toures, 
Erles  and  barones  fele, 
That  some  tyme  hadde  the  worldes  wele. 
Other  folke  he  syg  also. 
Never  so  mony  as  he  dede  thoo. 
Wymmen  he  syg  ther  that  tyde : 
Myche  was  the  joye  ther  on  every  syde : 
For  alle  was  joye  that  with  hem  ferde, 
And  myche  solempnyt6  he  herde/' 

The  procession  welcomed  Owain,  and  led  him  about,  show- 
ing him  the  beauties  of  that  country  : — 

**  Hyt  was  grene,  and  folle  of  flowres 
Of  mony  dyvers  colowres ; 


^8  AKI1CI8M. 


Hyt  was  grene  on  every  syde, 

Ab  medewus  are  yn  aomeres  tyde. 

Ther  were  trees  growyng  fulle  grene  . 

Fulle  of  fruyte  ever  more,  y  wene ; 

For  ther  was  frwyte  of  mony  a  kynde, 

Such  yn  the  londe  may  no  mon  fynde. 

Ther  they  have  the  tree  of  lyfe, 

Theryn  ys  myrthe,  and  never  stryfe ; 

Frwyte  of  wysdom  also  ther  ys, 

Of  the  whyche  Adam  and  Eve  dede  amysse : 

Other  manere  frwytes  ther  were  fele, 

And  alle  manere  joye  and  wele. 

Moche  folke  he  syg  ther  dwelle, 

There  was  no  tongue  that  mygth  hem  telle ; 

Alle  were  they  doded  yn  ryche  wede, 

What  cloth  hit  was  he  kowthe  not  rede. 


There  was  no  wronge,  but  ever  rygth, 
Ever  day  and  nevera  nygth. 
They  shone  as  brygth  and  more  dere 
Than  ony  sonne  yn  the  day  doth  here. 


«> 


The  poem,  in  fifteenth-century  English,  from  which  these 
passages  are  taken,  is  a  version  of  the  original  legend  of 
earlier  date,  and  as  such  contrasts  with  a  story  really  dating 
from  early  in  the  fifteenth  century — ^William  Staunton's 
descent  into  Purgatory,  where  the  themes  of  the  old 
sincerely-believed  visionary  lore  are  fading  into  moral 
allegory,  and  the  traveller  sees  the  gay  gold  and  silver 
collars  and  girdles  burning  into  the  wearer*s  flesh,  and  the 
jags  that  men  were  clothed  in  now  become  adders  and 
dragons,  sucking  and  stinging  them,  and  the  fiends  drawing 
down  the  skin  of  women's  shoulders  into  pokes,  and  smiting 
into  their  heads  with  burning  hammers  their  gay  chaplets 
of  gold  and  jewels  turned  to  burning  nails,  and  so  forth. 
Late  in  this  fifteenth  centurj^  St.  Patricks  Purgatory  fell 
into  discredit,  but  even  the  destruction  of  the  entrance- 
building,  in  1497,  by  Papal  order,  did  not  destroy  the  ideal 
road.  About  1693,  an  excavation  on  the  spot  brought  to 
light  a  window  with  iron  stancliions ;  there  was  a  cry  for 


AjnmsbL  59 

holy  water  to  keep  the  spirits  from  breaking  out  from  prison, 
and  the  priest  smelt  brimstone  from  the  dark  cavity  below, 
which,  however,  unfortunately  turned  out  to  be  a  cellar.  In 
still  later  times,  the  yearly  pilgrimage  of  tens  of  thousands 
of  votaries  to  the  holy  place  has  kept  up  this  interesting 
survival  from  the  lower  culture,  whereby  a  communication 
may  still  be  traced,  if  not  from  Earth  to  Hades,  at  least 
from  the  belief  of  the  New  Zealander  to  that  of  the  Irish 
peasant. 

To  study  and  compare  the  ideal  regions  where  man  has 
placed  the  abodes  of  departed  souls  is  not  an  unprofitable 
task.  True,  geography  has  now  mapped  out  into  mere  earth 
and  water  the  space  that  lay  beyond  the  narrower  sea  and 
land  known  to  the  older  nations,  and  astronomy  no  longer 
recognizes  the  flat  earth  trodden  by  men  as  being  the  roof 
of  subterranean  halls,  nor  the  sky  as  being  a  solid  firma- 
ment, shutting  out  men's  gaze  from  strata  or  spheres  of 
empyrsean  regions  beyond.  Yet  if  we  carry  our  minds  back 
to  the  state  of  knowledge  among  the  lower  races,  we  shall 
not  find  it  hard  to  understand  the  early  conceptions  as  to 
the  locality  of  the  regions  beyond  the  grave.  They  are  no 
secrets  of  high  knowledge  made  known  to  sages  of  old ; 
they  are  the  natural  fancies  which  childlike  ignorance 
would  frame  in  any  age.  The  regularity  with  which  such 
conceptions  repeat  themselves  over  the  world  bears  testi- 
mony to  the  regularity  of  the  processes  by  which  opinion 
is  formed  among  mankind.  At  the  same  time,  the  student 
who  carefully  compares  them  will  find  in  them  a  perfect 
illustration  of  an  important  principle,  widely  applicable  to 
the  general  theory  of  the  formation  of  human  opinion. 
When  a  problem  has  presented  itself  to  mankind  at  large, 
susceptible  of  a  number  of  solutions  about  equally  plausible, 
the  result  is  that  the  several  opinions  thus  produced  will  be 
found  lying  scattered  in  country  after  country.  The  problem 
here  is,  given  the  existence  of  souls  of  the  dead  who  from 
time  to  time  visit  the  living,  where  is  the  home  of  these 
ghosts?    Why  men  in  one  district  should  have  preferred 


60  ANIMISM. 

the  earth,  in  another  the  under- world,  in  another  the  sky,; 
as  the  abode  of  departed  souls,  is  a  question  often  difficult 
to  answer.  But  we  may  at  least  see  how  again  and  again 
the  question,  was  taken  in  hand,  and  how  out  of  the  three  or 
four  available  answers  some  people  adopted  one,  some 
another,  some  several  at  once.  Primitive  theologians  had 
all  the  world  before  them  where  to  choose  their  place  of  rest 
for  the  departed,  and  they  used  to  the  full  their  speculative 
liberty. 

Firstly,  when  the  land  of  souls  is  located  on  the  surface 
of  the  earth,  there  is  choice  of  fit  places  among  wild  and 
cloudy  precipices,  in  secluded  valleys,  in  far-off  plains  and 
islands.  In  Borneo,  Mr.  St.  John  visited  the  heaven  of  the 
Idaan  race,  on  the  summit  of  Kina  Balu,  and  the  native 
guides,  who  feared  to  pass  the  night  in  this  abode  of  spirits, 
showed  the  traveller  the  moss  on  which  the  soulS  of  their 
ancestors  fed,  and  the  footprints  of  the  ghostly  buffaloes  that 
followed  them.  On  Gunung  Danka,  a  mountain  in  West 
Java,  there  is  such  another  *  Earthly  Paradise.'  The  Sajira 
who  dwell  in  the  district  indeed  profess  themselves  Moham- 
medans, but  they  secretly  maintain  their  old  belief,  and  at 
death  or  funeral  they  enjoin  the  soul  in  solemn  form  to  set 
aside  the  Moslem  Allah,  and  to  take  the  way  to  the  dwelling- 
place  of  his  own  forefathers'  souls  : — 

"  Step  up  the  bed  of  the  river,  and  cross  the  neck  of  land, 
Where  the  aren  trees  stand  in  a  clump,  and  the  pinangs  in  a  row. 
Thither  direct  thy  steps,  Laillah  being  set  aside." 

Mr.  Jonathan  Rigg  had  lived  ten  years  among  these  people, 
and  knew  them  well,  yet  had  never  found  out  that  their 
paradise  was  on  this  mountain.  AVhen  at  last  he  heard  of 
it,  he  made  the  ascent,  finding  on  the  top  only  a  few  river- 
stones,  forming  one  of  the  balai,  or  sacred  cairns,  common 
in  the  district.  But  the  popular  belief,  that  a  tiger  would 
devour  the  chiefs  who  permitted  a  violation  of  the  sacred 
place,  soon  received  the  sort  of  confirmation  which  such 
beliefs  receive  everywhere,  for  a  tiger  killed  two  children  a 


ANIMISM.  61 

few  days  later,  and  the  disaster  was  of  course  ascribed  to 
Mr.  Bigg's  profanation^i  The  Chilians  said  that  the  soul 
goes  westward  over  the  sea  to  Gulcheman,  the  dwelling- 
place  of  the  dead  beyond  the  mountains ;  life,  some  said, 
was  all  pleasure  there,  but  others  thought  that  part  would 
be  happy  and  part  miserable.'  Hidden  among  the  moun- 
tains of  Mexico  lay  the  joyous  garden-land  of  Tlalocan, 
where  maize,  and  pumpkins,  and  chilis,  and  tomatos  never 
failed,  and  where  abode  the  souls  of  children  sacrificed  to 
Tlaloc,  its  god,  and  the  souls  of  such  as  died  by  drowning 
or  thunderstroke,  or  by  leprosy  or  dropsy,  or  other  acute 
disease.'  A  survival  of  such  thought  may  be  traced  into 
mediaeval  civilization,  in  the  legends  of  the  Earthly  Para* 
dise,  the  fire-girt  abode  of  saints  not  yet  raised  to  highest 
bliss,  localized  in  the  utmost  East  of  Asia,  where  earth 
stretches-  up  towards  heaven.*  When  Columbus  sailed  west- 
ward across  the  Atlantic  to  seek  the  "  new  heaven  and  a 
new  earth  "  he  had  read  of  in  Isaiah,  he  found  them,  though 
not  as  he  sought.  It  is  a  quaint  coincidence  that  he  found 
there  also,  though  not  as  he  sought  it,  the  Earthly  Paradise 
which  was  another  main  object  of  his  venturous  quest.  The 
Haitians  described  to  the  white  men  their  Coaibai,  the 
paradise  of  the  dead,  in  the  lovely  Western  valleys  of  their 
island,  where  the  souls  hidden  by  day  among  the  cliffs  came 
down  at  night  to  feed  on  the  delicious  fruit  of  the  mamey- 
trees,  of  which  the  living  ate  but  sparingly,  lest  the  souls  of 
their  friends  should  want.*^ 

Secondly,  there  are  Australians  who  think  that  the  spirit 
of  the  dead  hovers  a  while  on  eai*th,  and  goes  at  last  toward 

*  SL  John/ Far  East,' vol.  i.  p.  278.  Rigg  in  'Journ.  Ind.  Archip.*  vol. 
iv.  p.  119.  See  also  Ellis,  *Polyn.  Res.'  vol,  1.  p.  397  ;  Baatian,  'OesU. 
AsieD,'  vol.  i.  p.  83  ;  Irving,  'Astoria,'  p.  142. 

«  MoUna,  'Chili,'  vol.  ii.  p.  89. 

<  Brassenr,  '  Mexiqne,'  vol.  iii.  p.  496  ;  Sahagan,  iiL  App.  c.  2,  x.  c.  29 ; 
Clavigero,  vol.  ii.  p.  6. 

"•  See  Wright,  L  c.  etc.  ;  Alger,  p.  391  ;  Maundevile,  etc 

*  *  History  of  Colon,*  ch.  61 ;  Pet.  Martyr.  Dec.  l  lib.  ix.  ;  Ir7ing,  *  Life 
of  Columbus,*  vol.  ii.  p.  121. 


62  ANIMISM. 

the  setting  sun,  or  westward  over  the  sea  to  the  island  of 
souls,  the  home  of  his  fathers.  Thus  these  rudest  savages 
have  developed  two  thoughts  which  we  meet  with  again  and 
again  far  onward  in  the  course  of  culture — ^the  thought  of 
an  island  of  the  dead,  and  the  thought  that  the  world  of 
departed  souls  is  in  the  West,  whither  the  Sun  descends  at 
evening  to  his  daily  death.^  Among  the  North  American 
Indians,  when  once  upon  a  time  an  Algonquin  hunter  left  his 
body  behind  and  visited  the  land  of  souls  in  the  sunny  south, 
he  saw  before  him  beautiful  trees  and  plants,  but  found  he 
could  walk  right  through  them.  Then  he  paddled  in  the 
canoe  of  white  shining  stone  across  the  lake  where  wicked 
souls  perish  in  the  storm,  till  he  reached  the  beautiful  and 
happy  island  where  there  is  no  cold,  no  war,  no  bloodshed, 
but  the  creatures  run  happily  about,  nourished  by  the  air 
they  breathe.'  Tongan  legend  says  that,  long  ago,  a  canoe 
returning  from  Fiji  was  driven  by  stress  of  weather  to 
Bolotu,  the  island  of  gods  and  souls  lying  in  the  ocean 
north-west  of  Tonga.  That  island  is  larger  than  all  theirs 
together,  full  of  all  finest  fruits  and  loveliest  flowers,  that 
fill  the  air  with  fragrance,  and  come  anew  the  moment  they 
are  plucked ;  birds  of  beauteous  plumage  are  there,  and  hogs 
in  plenty,  all  immortal  save  when  killed  for  the  gods  to  eat, 
and  then  new  living  ones  appear  immediately  to  fill  their 
places.  But  when  the  hungry  crew  of  the  canoe  landed, 
they  tried  in  vain  to  pluck  the  shadowy  bread-fruit,  they 
walked  through  unresisting  trees  and  houses,  even  as  the 
souls  of  chiefs  who  met  them  walked  unchecked  through 
their  solid  bodies.  Counselled  to  hasten  home  from  this 
land  of  no  earthly  food,  the  men  sailed  to  Tonga,  but  the 
deadly  air  of  Bolotu  had  infected  them,  and  they  soon  all 
died.^ 


>  Stanbridge  in  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc.'  vol.  i.  p.  299  j  G.  F.  Moore,  'Vocab.  W. 
Austr.'p.  83  ;  Bonwick,  'Tasmanians,*  p.  181. 

3  Schoolcraft,  '  Indian  Tribea,'  part  i.  p.  321  ;  see  part  iii.  p.  229. 

»  Mariner,  'Tonga  Is.'  vol.  ii.  p.  107.  See  also  Burton,  *  W.  and  W,  fr. 
W.  Africa,*  p.  154  (Gold  Coast). 


ANIMISM.  63 

Such  ideas  took  strong  hold  on  classic  thought,  in  the 
belief  in  a  paradise  in  the  Fortunate  Islands  of  the  far 
Western  Ocean.  Hesiod  in  the  *  Works  and  Days '  tells  of 
the  half-gods  of  the  Fourth  Age,  between  the  Age  of 
Bronze  and  the  Age  of  Iron.  When  death  closed  on  this 
heroic  race,  Zeus  granted  them  at  the  ends  of  Earth  a  life 
and  home,  apart  from  man  and  far  from  the  immortals. 
There  Kronos  reigns  over  them^  and  they  dwell  careless  in 
the  Islands  of  the  Happy,  beside  deep-eddying  Ocean — 
blest  heroes,  for  whom  the  grain-giying  field  bears,  thrice 
blooming  yearly,  the  honey-sweet  fruit : — 

'*  "Ertf*  IJToi  robt  ii\v  Bavdrov  r4\os  ifi^wdXu^f 
Toit  84  S/x*  Mp^tty  filoror  koI  4^6**  hvAatrat 
Zc2rt  Kpovt&ns  iwr4vnac€  irwr^p  is  uttpara  yolriSf 
Ti}Aov  ia^  idavdrttV  roiauf  Kp6vos  ifjifiaaiKtiti* 
Kol  rcl  fjAv  tmtoviraf  iuaiBia  Ov/ibr  Kxovt9$ 
*Ew  fiOKdpmf  itliaoun  itnf  'fiircay^y  fioBi^lr/iw, 
"OKfiioi  ^fMMf,  roTaof  fit\nfi4a  KOfnrhv 
Tpls  Ircos  6d^^J»^Ta  ^4p§i  (tlSttpot  SpovpcL,** 

These  Islands  of  the  Blest,  assigned  as  the  abode  of 
blessed  spirits  of  the  dead,  came  indeed  to  be  identified 
with  the  Elysian  Fields.  Thus  Pindar  sings  of  steadfast 
souls,  who  through  three  lives  on  either  side  have  endured 
free  fi'om  injustice  ;  then  they  pass  by  the  road  of  Zeus  to 
the  tower  of  Kronos,  where  the  ocean  breezes  blow  round 
the  islands  of  the  happy,  blazing  with  golden  flowers  of  land 
and  water.  Thus,  also,  in  the  famous  hymn  of  Kallistratos 
in  honour  of  Harmodios  and  Aristogeiton,  who  slew  the 
tyrant  Hipparchos : — 

"  ^tKroff  *Apfii9i,  otf  n  itot  r^niKas 
N^crotf  V  iv  futK^pcfitf  ire  ^>atr]p  clrai, 
Ipa  ir§p  voSfl^miy  'AxiAAc^f, 
Tv8«f8qr  re  ^aai  rhv  itrBK^  Aio/i^Sco.**  ^ 

This  group  of  legends  has  especial  interest  to  us  English- 
men, who  ourselves  dwell,  it  seems,  on  such  an  island  of  the 

*  Hesiod.  Opera  et  Dies,  165.     Pindar,  Olymp.  ii.  antistr.  4.    Callistrat. 
Hymu.  in  Ilgen,  Scolia  Grseca,  10.    Strabo,  iii.  2,  13  ;  Plin.  iv.  36. 


64  ANIMISM. 

dead.  It  is  not  that  we  or  our  country  are  of  a  more  ghostly- 
nature  than  others,  but  the  idea  is  geographical,  we  are 
dwellers  in  the  region  of  the  setting  sun,  the  land  of  death. 
The  elaborate  account  by  Procopius,  the  historian  of  the 
Gothic  War,  dates  from  the  6th  century.  The  island  of 
Brittia,  according  to  him,  lies  opposite  the  mouths  of  the 
Bhine,  some  200  stadia  oiF,  between  Britannia  and  Thule, 
and  on  it  dwell  three  populous  nations,  the  Angles,  Frisians, 
and  Britons.  (By  Brittia,  it  appears,  he  means  our  Great 
Britain,  his  Britannia  being  the  coast-land  from  modem 
Brittany  to  Holland,  and  his  Thule  being  Scandinavia.) 
In  the  course  of  his  history  it  seems  to  him  needful  to  record 
a  story,  mythic  and  dreamlike  as  he  thinks,  yet  which 
numberless  men  vouch  for  as  having  been  themselves  wit- 
nesses by  eye  and  ear  to  its  facts.  This  story  is  that  the 
souls  of  the  departed  are  conveyed  across  the  sea  to  the 
island  of  Brittia.  Along  the  mainland  coast  are  many 
villages,  inhabited  by  fishermen  and  tillers  of  the  soil 
and  traders  to  this  island  in  their  vessels.  They  are  sub- 
ject to  the  Franks,  but  pay  no  tribute,  having  from  of  old 
had  to  do  by  turns  the  burdensome  service  of  transporting 
the  souls.  Those  on  duty  for  each  night  stay  at  home  till 
the}'  hear  a  knocking  at  the  doors,  and  a  voice  of  one  unseen 
calling  them  to  their  work.  Then  without  delay  rising  from 
their  beds,  compelled  by  some  unknown  power  they  go  down 
to  the  beach,  and  there  they  see  boats,  not  their  own  but 
others,  lying  ready  but  empty  of  men.  Going  on  board  and 
taking  the  oars,  they  find  that  by  the  burden  of  the  multi- 
tude of  souls  embarked,  the  vessel  lies  low  in  the  water, 
gunwale  under  within  a  finger's  breadth.  In  an  hour  they 
are  at  the  opposite  shore,  though  in  their  own  boats  they 
would  hardly  make  the  voyage  in  a  night  and  day.  When 
they  reach  the  island,  the  vessel  becomes  empty,  till  it  is  so 
light  that  only  the  keel  touches  the  waves.  They  see  no 
man  on  the  voyage,  no  man  at  the  landing,  but  a  voice  is 
heard  that  proclaims  the  name  and  rank  and  parentage  of 
each  newly  arrived  passenger,  or  if  women,  those  of  their 


ANIMIS3L  65 

husbands.  Traces  of  this  remarkable  legend  seem  to  have 
survived,  thirteen  centuries  later,  in  that  endmost  district 
of  the  Britannia  of  Procopius  which  still  keeps  the  name 
of  Bretagne.  Near  Raz,  where  the  narrow  promontory 
stretches  westward  into  the  ocean,  is  the  '  Bay  of  Souls ' 
(boe  ann  anavo) ;  in  the  commune  of  Plouguel  the  corpse  is 
taken  to  the  churchyard,  not  by  the  shorter  road  by  land, 
but  in  a  boat  by  the  *'  Passage  de  TEnfer,"  across  a  little 
arm  of  the  sea ;  and  Breton  folklore  holds  fast  to  the  legend 
of  the  Cure  de  Braspar,  whose  dog  leads  over  to  Great 
Britain  the  souls  of  the  departed,  when  the  wheels  of  the 
soul-car  are  heard  creaking  in  the  air.  These  are  but 
mutilated  fragments,  but  they  seem  to  piece  together  with 
another  Keltic  myth,  told  by  Macpherson  in  the  last  century, 
the  voyage  of  the  boat  of  heroes  to  Flath-Innis,  Noble 
Island,  the  green  island  home  of  the  departed,  which  lies 
calm  amid  the  storms  far  in  the  Western  Ocean.  With  full 
reason,  also,  Mr.  Wright  traces  to  the  situation  of  Ireland 
in  the  extreme  West  its  especial  association  with  legends  of 
descents  to  the  land  of  shades.  Claudian  placed  at  the 
extremity  of  Gaul  the  entrance  where  Ulysses  found  a  way 
to  Hades — 

"  Est  locas  extremum  qua  pandit  Gallia  litus, 
Oceani  prsetentus  aquis,  ubi  fertur  Ulysses/'  etc. 

No  wonder  that  this  spot  should  have  been  since  identified 
with  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory,  and  that  some  ingenious  ety- 
mologist should  have  found  in  the  name  of  "Ulster"  a 
corruption  of  *'  Ulyssisterra,"  and  a  commemoration  of  the 
hero's  visit.^ 

Thirdly,  the  belief  in  a  subterranean  Hades  peopled  by 
the  ghosts  of  the  dead  is  quite  common  among  the  lower 
races.     The  earth  is  flat,  say  the  Italmen  of  Kamchatka, 

*  Procoji.  Do  Bello  Goth.  iv.  20  ;  Pint.  Fragm.  Comm.  in  Hesiod.  2 ; 
i^rimin,  •  D.  M.'  p.  793 ;  Hersart  de  Viliemarqu6,  vol.  i.  p.  136  ;  Souvestre, 
'Derniers  Bretons,'  p.  37  ;  Jas.  Macpherson,  *  Iiitrod.  to  Hist,  of  Great  Britain 
»ad  Ireland,'  2d.  ed.  London,  1772,  p.  180  ;  Wright,  *St.  Patrick's  Purgatory,' 
pp.  64,  129. 

VOL.   II.  F 


66  ANIMISM. 

for  if  it  were  round,  people  would  fall  off;  it  is  the  wrong 
side  of  another  heaven,  which  covers  another  earth  below, 
whither  the  dead  wiU  go  down  to  their  new  life,  and  so,  as 
Steller  says,  their  mundane  system  is  like  a  tub  with  three 
bottoms.^  In  North  America,  the  Tacullis  held  that  the 
soul  goes  after  death  into  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  whence 
it  can  come  back  in  human  shape  to  visit  Mends.^  In 
South  America,  Brazilian  souls  travel  down  to  the  world 
below  in  the  West,  and  Patagonian  souls  will  depart  to 
enjoy  eternal  drunkenness  in  the  caves  of  their  ancesti*al 
deities.'  The  New  Zealander  who  says  "  The  sun  has  re- 
turned to  Hades  "  (kua  hoki  mai  te  Ra  ki  te  Rua),  simi)ly 
means  that  it  has  set.  When  a  Samoan  islander  dies,  the 
host  of  spirits  that  surround  the  house,  waiting  to  convey 
his  soul  away,  set  out  with  him  crossing  the  land  and 
swimming  the  sea,  to  the  entrance  of  the  spirit- wo  rid. 
This  is  at  the  westernmost  point  of  the  westernmost  island, 
Savaii,  and  there  one  may  see  the  two  circular  holes  or 
basins  where  souls  descend,  chiefs  by  the  bigger  and 
plebeians  by  the  smaller,  into  the  regions  of  the  under- 
world. There  below  is  a  heaven,  earth,  and  sea,  and 
people  with  real  bodies,  planting,  fishing,  cooking,  as  in  the 
present  life ;  but  at  night  their  bodies  become  like  a  con- 
fused collection  of  fiery  sparks,  and  in  this  state  during  the 
hours  of  darkness  they  come  up  to  revisit  their  fonner 
abodes,  retiring  at  dawn  to  the  bush  or  to  the  lower 
regions.*  For  the  state  of  thought  on  this  subject"  among 
rude  African  tribes,  it  is  enough  to  cite  the  Zulus,  who  at 
death  will  descend  to  live  in  Hades  among  their  ancestors, 
the  "  Abapansi,*'  the  **  people  underground.*'^  From  among 
rude  Asiatic  tribes,  let  us  take  example  from  the  Karens. 

*  Steller,  *  Kamtschatka,'  p.  269. 

'  Harmon,  'Journal,'  p.  299  ;  see  Lewis  and  Clarke,  p.  139  (Mandans). 
^  J.  G.   Miiller,   'Amcr.  Urrelig.'  pp.  140,  287  ;  see  Humboldt  and  Bon- 
pland,  *  Voy.*  vo).  iii.  p.  132  ;  Falkner,  *  Patagonia,'  p.  114. 

*  Taylor,  'New  Zealand,'  p.  282  ;  Turner,  *  Tolynesia,'  p.  235. 

*  Callaway,   *Zulu  Tales,'  vol.  i.  p.  317,  etc.;  Arbousset  and  Daumas,  p. 
474.     See  also  Burton,  *  Dahome/  vol.  ii.  p.  157. 


ANIMISM.  67 

• 

They  are  not  quite  agreed  where  Plu,  the  land  of  the  dead, 
is  situate  ;  it  may  be  above  the  earth  or  beyond  the  horizon. 
But  the  dominant  and  seemingly  indigenous  opinion  is  that 
it  is  below  the  earth.  When  the  sun  sets  on  earth,  it  rises 
in  the  Karen  Hades,  and  when  it  sets  in  Hades  it  rises 
in  this  world.  Here,  again,  the  familiar  belief  of  the 
European  peasant  is  found ;  the  spirits  of  the  dead  may 
come  up  fi'om  the  land  of  shades  by  night,  but  at  daybreak 
must  return.^ 

Such  ideas,  developed  by  uncultured  races,  may  be  fol- 
lowed up  in  various  detail,  through  the  stage  of  religion  re- 
presented by  the  Mexican  and  Peruvian  nations,^  into  higher 
ranges  of  culture.  The  Boman  Orcus  was  in  the  bowels  of 
the  earth,  and  when  the  'lapis  manalis,'  the  stone  that 
closed  the  mouth  of  the  world  below,  was  moved  away  on 
certain  solemn  days,  the  ghosts  of  the  dead  came  up  to  the 
world  above,  and  partook  of  the  offerings  of  their  friends.* 
Among  the  Greeks,  the  land  of  Hades  was  in  the  world 
below,  nor  was  the  thought  unknown  that  it  was  the  sunset- 
realm  of  the  Western  god  (irpoy  iavipov  deov).  What  Hades 
seemed  like  to  the  popular  mind,  Lucian  thus  describes : — 
"  The  great  crowd,  indeed,  whom  the  wise  call  *  idiots,' 
believing  Homer  and  Hesiod,  and  the  other  myth-makers 
about  these  things,  and  setting  up  their  poetry  as  a  law, 
have  supposed  a  certain  deep  place  under  the  earth,  Hades^ 
and  that  it  is  vast,  and  roomy,  and  gloomy,  and  sunless, 
and  how  thought  to  be  lighted  up  so  as  to  behold  every  one 
within,  I  know  not.*'*  In  the  ancient  Egyptian  doctrine  of 
the  future  life,  modelled  as  it  was  on  solar  myth,  Amenti,  the 
western  region  of  the  departed,  is  an  under- world  or  Hades  ; 
the  dead  passes  the  gate  of  the  setting  sun  to  traverse  the 
roads  of  darkness,  and  behold  his  tsXher  Osiris  ;  and  with  a 

'  Mason,  '  Karens,*  1.  c.  p.  195  ;  Cross,  1.  c.  p.  313.     Turanian  examples  in 
Castren,  'Finn.  Myth.' p.  119. 
'  Sec  below,  pp.  79,  85. 

*  Festus,  s.  V.  **manali8,"  etc 

*  Sophocl.  (Edip.  Tyrann.  178 ;   Lucian.  De  Luctu,  2.     See  classic  details 
in  Pauly,  '  Real- Enoy clop.' art.  *inferi.* 

F  2 


68  ANIMISM. 

• 

like  solar  thought  the  Egyptian  priests,  representing  in 
symbolic  ceremony  the  scenes  of  the  other  world,  carried 
the  corpse  in  the  sacred  boat  across  to  the  burial-place,  on 
the  western  side  of  the  sacred  lake.^  So,  too,  the  cavernous 
Sheol  of  the  Israelites,  the  shadowy  x'egion  of  departed 
souls,  lay  deep  below  the  earth.  Through  the  great  Aryan 
religious  systems,  BraLmanism,  Zarathustrism,  Buddhism, 
and  onward  into  the  range  of  Islam  and  of  Christianity, 
subterranean  hells  of  purgatory  or  punishment  make  the 
doleful  contrast  to  heavens  of  light  and  glory. 

It  is,  however,  a  point  worthy  of  special  notice  that  the 
conception  of  hell  as  a  fiery  abyss,  so  familiar  to  the  religions 
of  the  higher  civilization,  is  all  but  unknown  to  savage 
thought,  so  much  so  that  if  met  with,  its  genuineness  is 
doubtful.  Captain  John  Smith's  'History  of  Virginia,' 
published  in  1624,  contains  two  different  accounts  of  the 
Indians'  doctrine  of  a  futiu'e  life.  Smith's  own  description 
is  of  a  land  beyond  the  mountains,  toward  sunset,  where 
chiefs  and  medicine-men  in  paint  and  feathers  shall  smoke, 
and  sing,  and  dance  with  their  forefathers,  while  the  common 
people  have  no  life  after  death,  but  rot  in  their  graves. 
Heriot's  description  is  of  tabernacles  of  the  gods  to  which 
the  good  are  taken  up  to  perpetual  happiness,  while  the 
wicked  are  carried  to  '  Popogusso,'  a  great  irit  which  they 
think  to  be  at  the  furthest  parts  of  the  world  where  the  sun 
sets,  and  there  burn  continually.*  Now  knowing  so  much 
as  we  do  of  the  religion  of  the  Algonquins,  to  whom  these 
Virginians  belonged,  we  may  judge  that  while  the  first 
account  is  genuinely  native,  though  perhaps  not  quite  cor- 
rectly understood,  the  second  was  borrowed  by  the  Indians 
from  the  white  men  themselves.  Yet  even  here  the  touch 
of  solar  myth  is  manifest,  and  the  description  of  the  fiery 
abyss  in  the  region  of  sunset  may  be  compared  with  one 

'  Birch  in  Bunsen's  'Egypt,'  vol.  v.;  Wilkinson,  'Ancient  Eg.*  vol.  ii.  p. 
868  ;  Alger,  p.  101. 

'  Smith,  Virginia,  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xiii.  pp.  14,  41 ;  vol.  xiL  p.  604  ;  seo 
below,  p.  95. 


ANIMISM.  69 

from  our  own  country,  in  the  Anglo-Saxon  dialogue  of 
Saturn  and  Solomon.  "  Saga  me  forhwan  byth  seo  sunne 
read  on  sefen  ?  Ic  the  secge,  forthon  heo  locath  on  helle. 
— Tell  me,  why  is  the  sun  red  at  even?  I  tell  thee, 
because  she  looketh  on  hell.'*^  To  the  same  belief  belongs 
another  striking  mythic  feature.  The  idea  of  volcanos 
being  mouths  of  the  under-world  seems  not  unexampled 
among  the  lower  races,  for  we  hear  of  certain  New  Zealanders 
casting  their  dead  down  into  a  crater.^  But  in  connexion 
with  the  thought  of  a  gehenna  of  fire  and  brimstone, 
Vesuvius,  Etna,  and  Hecla  had  spiritual  as  well  as  material 
terrors  to  the  mind  of  Christendom,  for  they  were  believed 
to  be  places  of  purgatory  or  the  very  mouths  of  the  pit 
where  the  souls  of  the  damned  were  cast  down.^  The 
Indians  of  Nicaragua  used  in  old  times  to  offer  human 
sacrifices  to  their  volcano  Masaya,  flinging  the  corpses  into 
the  crater,  and  in  later  years,  after  the  conversion  of  the 
country,  we  hear  of  Christian  confessors  sending  their 
penitents  to  climb  the  mountain,  and  (as  a  glimpse  of  hell) 
to  look  down  upon  the  molten  lava.* 

Fourthly,  in  old  times  and  new,  it  has  come  into  men's 
minds  to  fix  upon  the  sun  and  moon  as  abodes  of  departed 
souls.  When  we  have  learnt  from  the  rude  Natchez  of  the 
Mississippi  and  the  Apalaches  of  Florida  that  the  sun  is 
the  bright  dwelling  of  departed  chiefs  and  braves,  and  have 
traced  like  thoughts  on  into  the  theologies  of  Mexico  and 
Peru,  then  we  may  compare  these  savage  doctrines  with 
Isaac  Taylor's  ingenious  supposition  in  his  '  Physical 
Theory  of  Another  Life,' — the  sun  of  each  planetary  system 
is  the  house  of  the  higher  and  ultimate  spiritual  corporeity, 
and  the  centre  of  assembly  to  those  who  have  passed  on  the 
planets  their  preliminary  era  of  corruptible  organization. 
Or  perhaps  some  may  prefer  the  Rev.  Tobias  Swinden's 

^  Thorpe,  'Analecta  Anglo-Saxonica,'  p.  115. 

*  Schirren,  p.  151.     See  Taylor,  «N.  Z.'  p.  625. 

*  Meiners,  vol.  ii.  p.  781  ;  Maury,  *  Magie,*  etc.  p.  170. 

*  Oviedo,  'Nicaragua,'  p.  160 ;  Brinton,  p.  288. 


70  ANIMISM. 

book,  publislied  in  the  last  century,  and  translated  into 
French  and  German,  which  proved  the  sun  to  be  hell,  and 
its  dark  spots  gatherings  of  damned  souls.^  And  when  in 
South  America  the  Saliva  Indians  have  pointed  out  the 
moon,  their  paradise  where  no  mosquitos  are,  and  the 
Guaycurus  have  shown  it  as  the  home  of  chiefs  and 
medicine-men  deceased,  and  the  Polynesians  of  Tokelau  in 
like  manner  have  claimed  it  as  the  abode  of  departed  kings 
and  chiefs,  then  these  pleasant  fancies  may  be  compared 
with  that  ancient  theory  mentioned  by  Plutarch,  that  hell 
is  in  the  air  and  elysium  in  the  moon,'  and  again  with  the 
mediieval  conception  of  the  moon  as  the  seat  of  hell,  a 
thought  elaborated  in  profoundest  bathos  by  Mr.  M.  F* 
Tupper : 

**  I  know  thee  well,  O  Moon,  thou  cavem'd  realm, 
Sad  Satellite,  thou  giant  ash  of  death, 
Blot  on  God*8  firmament,  pale  home  of  crime, 
Scarr'd  prison-house  of  sin,  where  damned  souls 
Feed  upon  punishment.    Oh,  thought  sublime, 
That  amid  night's  black  deeds,  when  evil  prowls 
Through  the  broad  world,  thou,  watching  sinners  well, 
Qlarest  o*er  all,  the  wakeful  eye  of — Hell !  '* 

Skin  for  skin,  the  brown  savage  is  not  ill  matched  in  such 
speculative  lore  with  the  white  philosopher. 

Fifthly,  as  Paradise  on  the  face  of  the  earth,  and  Hades 
beneath  it  where  the  sun  goes  down,  are  regions  whose 
existence  is  asserted  or  not  denied  by  savage  and  barbaric 
science,  so  it  is  with  Heaven.  Among  the  examples  which 
display  for  us  the  real  course  of  knowledge  among  mankind, 
and  the  real  relation  which  primitive  bears  to  later  culture, 
the  belief  in  the  existence  of  a  firmament  is  one  of  the  most 

1  J.  O.  MGllcr,  *  Amer.  Urrel.'  p.  138,  see  also  220  (Caribs),  402  (Pcru^, 
C05,  660  (Mexico);  Brinton,  'Mytlis  of  New  World,*  p.  288;  Taylor, 
'Physical  Theory,'  ch.  xvi. ;  Alger,  *  Future  Life,'  p.  690  ;  see  also  above,  p. 
16,  note. 

'  Humboldt  and  Boiipland,  *  Voy.'  vol.  v.  p.  90  ;  Martina,  *Ethnog.  Amer.' 
vol.  i.  p  238 ;  Turner,  *  Polynesia, '  p.  631  ;  Plutarch.  De  Facie  in  Orbe  Lunse ; 
Alger,  1.  c. ;  Bastian,  *  Psycbologie,'  pp.  80,  89  (souls  in  stars.) 


ANIMISM.  71 

instructive.  It  arises  naturally  in  the  minds  of  children 
still,  and  in  accordance  with  the  simplest  childlike  thought, 
the  cosmologies  of  the  North  American  Indians  ^  and  the 
South  Sea  Islanders  ^  describe  their  flat  earth  arched  over 
by  the  solid  vault  of  heaven.  Like  thoughts  are  to  be 
traced  on  through  such  details  as  the  Zulu  idea  that  the 
blue  heaven  is  a  rock  encircling  the  earth,  inside  which  are 
the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and  outside  which  dwell  the 
l>eople  of  heaven  ;  the  modern  negro's  belief  that  there  is  a 
firmament  stretched  above  like  a  cloth  or  web ;  the  Finnish 
poem  which  tells  how  Ilmarinen  forged  the  firmament  of 
finest  steel,  and  set  in  it  the  moon  and  stars.'  The  New 
Zealander,  with  his  notion  of  a  solid  firmament,  through 
which  the  waters  can  be  let  down  on  earth  through  a  crack 
or  hole  fi:om  the  reservoir  of  rain  above,  could  well  explain 
the  passage  in  Herodotus  concerning  that  place  in  North 
Africa  where,  as  the  Libyans  said,  the  sky  is  pierced,  as 
well  as  the  ancient  Jewish  conception  of  a  firmament  of 
heaven,  "  strong  as  a  molten  mirror,"  with  its  windows 
through  *  which  the  rain  pours  down  in  deluge  from  the 
reservoirs  above,  windows  which  late  Babbiuical  literature 
tells  us  were  made  by  taking  out  two  stars.*  In  nations 
where  the  theorj^  of  the  firmament  prevails,  accounts  of 
bodily  journeys  or  spiritual  ascents  to  heaven  are  in  general 
meant  not  as  figure,  but  as  fact.  Among  the  lower  races, 
the  tendency  to  localize  the  region  of  departed  souls  above 
the  sky  seems  less  strong  than  that  which  leads  them  to 
l^lace  their  world  of  the  dead  on  or  below  the  Earth's  sur- 
face.     Yet   some   well-marked    descriptions    of    a   savage 

'  See  Schoolcraft,  'Indian Tribes, 'part  i.  pp.  269,  311  ;  Smith,  'Virginia* 
in  Plnkerton,  voL  xiii.  p.  64 ;  Waitz,  vol,  iii,  p.  223  ;  Squier,  *  Abor.  Mon. 
of  N.  Y.*  p.  156  ;  Catlin.  *N.  A.  Ind.'  vol.  i.  p.  180, 

*  Mariner,  'Tonga  Is.'  vol.  ii.  p.  134  ;  Turner,  *  Polynesia,' p.  103  ;  Taylor, 
*  New  Zealand,'  pp.  101,  -114,  266. 

»  (^allawoy,  *  Rel.  of  Amazuhi,'  p.  893  ;  Burton,  '  W.  and  W.  fr.  W.  Afr.' 
p.  4?54  ;  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  295. 

*  Herodot.  iv.  168,  see  186,  and  Rawlinson^s  note.  See  Smith's  'Die.  of 
the  Bible,*  s.  v.  "limiament."     Eisenmenger,  part  i.  p.  408. 


72  ANIMISM. 

Heaven  are  on  record,  the  following,  and  others  to  be  cited 
presently.  Even  some  Australians  seem  to  think  of  going 
lip  to  the  clouds  at  death,  to  eat  and  drink,  and  hunt  and 
fish  as  here.'  In  North  America,  the  Winnebagos  placed 
their  paradise  in  the  sky,  where  souls  travel  along  that 
'*Path  of  the  Dead"  which  we  call  the  Milky  Way ;  and, 
working  out  the  ever-recurring  solar  idea,  the  modeni 
Iroquois  speak  of  the  soul  going  upward  and  westward,  till 
it  comes  out  on  the  beauteous  plains  of  heaven,  with  people 
and  trees  and  tilings  as  on  earth.2  In  South  America  the 
Guarayos,  representatives  in  some  sort  of  the  past  condition 
of  the  Guarani  race,  worship  Tamoi  the  Grandfather,  the 
Ancient  of  Heaven ;  he  was  their  first  ancestor,  who  lived 
among  them  in  old  days  and  taught  them  to  till  tlie  ground ; 
tlien  rising  to  heaven  in  the  East  he  disappeared,  having 
promised  to  be  the  helper  of  his  people  on  eai'th,  and  to 
transport  them,  when  they  died,  from  the  top  of  a  sacred 
tree  into  another  life,  where  they  shall  find  their  kindred 
and  have  hunting  in  plenty,  and  possess  all  that  they 
])ossessed  on  earth ;  therefore  it  is  that  the  Guarayos  adorn 
tlieir  dead,  and  bum  their  weapons  for  them,  and  bury 
them  with  their  faces  to  the  East,  whither  they  are  to  go.* 
Among  American  peoples  whose  culture  rose  to  a  higher 
level  than  tliat  of  these  savage  tribes,  we  hear  of  the 
Peruvian  Heaven,  the  glorious  "  Upper  World,"  and  of 
the  temporary  abode  of  Aztec  warriors  on  heavenly  wooded 
plains,  where  the  sun  shines  when  it  is  night  on  eai*th, 
wherefore  \i  was  a  Mexican  sapng  that  the  sun  goes  at 
evening  to  lighten  the  dead.*  What  thoughts  of  heaven 
were  in  the  minds  of  the  old  Aryan  poets,  this  hymn  from 
the  Rig-Veda  may  show  : — 

"  Eyre,  *  Australia,'  voL  it  p.  867. 

•  Schoolcraft,  *  Indian  Tribes,*  part  iv.  p.  240  (but  compare  part  v.  p.  408) ; 
Morgan,  'Iroquois,' p.  176  ;  Sproat,  'Savage  Life,' p.  209. 

"  D'Orbigny,    'L'Homme  Am^ricain,'  vol.  ii.  pp.  319,  328;  see  Maitiua^ 
vol.  i.  p.  485  (Jumanas). 

*  J.  G.  MUUer,  p.  408  ;  Brasseur,  'Mexique,' vol.  iii.  p.  496  ;  Kingsborough, 
'Mexico/  Cod.  Letellier,  fol.  20. 


ANIMISM.  73 

"  Where  there  is  eternal  light,  in  the  world  where  the  sun  is  placed, 

in  that  immortal  imperishable  world  place  me,  O  Soma ! 
Where  king  Yaivasyata  reigns,  where  the  secret  place  of  heaven  is, 

where  these  mighty  waters  are,  there  make  me  immortal ! 
Where  life  is  free,  in  the  third  heayen  of  heavens,  where  the  worlds 

are  radiant,  there  make  me  immortal ! 
Where  wishes  and  desires  are,  where  the  place  of  the  bright  sun  is, 

where  there  is  freedom  and  delight,  there  make  me  immortal ! 
Where  there  is  happiness  and  delight,  where  joy  and  pleasure  reside, 

where  the  desires  of  our  desire  are  attained,  there  make  me 

immortal ! " ' 


In  such  bright  vague  thoughts  from  the  poet's  religion  of 
natiire,  or  in  cosmic  schemes  of  ancient  astronomy,  with 
their  artificial  glories  of  barbaric  architecture  exaggerated 
in  tlie  skies,  or  in  the  raptures  of  mystic  vision,  or  in 
the  calmer  teaching  of  the  theologic  doctrine  of  a  future 
life,  descriptions  of  realms  of  blessed  souls  in  heaven  are 
to  be  followed  through  the  religions  of  the  Brahman,  the 
Buddhist,  the  Parsi,  the  later  Jew,  the  Moslem,  and  the 
Christian. 

For  the  object,  not  of  writing  a  handbook  of  religions, 
but  of  tracing  the  relation  which  the  religion  of  savages 
bears  to  the  religion  of  cultured  nations,  these  details  are 
enough  to  show  the  general  line  of  human  thought  regard- 
ing the  local  habitations  of  departed  souls.  It  seems  plain 
from  the  most  cursory  inspection  of  these  various  localiza- 
tions, however  mu<?h  we  may  consider  them  as  inherited  or 
transmitted  from  people  to  people  in  the  complex  move- 
ments of  theological  history,  that  they  are  at  any  rate  not 
derived  from  any  single  religion  accepted  among  ancient  or 
primaeval  men.  They  bear  evident  traces  of  independent 
working  out  in  the  varied  definition  of  the  region  of  souls, 
as  on  earth  among  men,  on  earth  in  some  distant  country, 
below  the  earth,  above  or  beyond  the  sky.  Similar  ideas 
of  this  kind  are  found  in  different  lands,  but  this  simi- 

^  Max  Mtiller,    'Chips,'  vol.  i.  p.  46;   Roth  in   'Zeitschr.  d.  Deutsch. 
Morgcul.  Gcs,'  vol.  iv.  p.  427. 


74  ANIMISM. 

larity  seems  in  large  measure  due  to  independent  re- 
currence of  thoughts  so  obvious.  Not  less  is  independent 
fancy  compatible  witli  the  ever-recurring  solar  myth  in  such 
ideas,  placing  the  land  of  Death  in  the  land  of  Evening  or 
of  Night,  and  its  entrance  in  the  gates  of  Sunset.  Barbaric 
}'oets  of  many  a  distant  land  must  have  gazed  into  the  West 
to  read  the  tale  of  Life  and  Death,  and  tell  it  of  Man.  If, 
however,  we  look  more  closely  into  the  stages  of  intellectual 
history  to  which  these  theories  of  the  Future  World  belong, 
it  will  appear  that  the  assignment  of  the  realm  of  departed 
souls  to  the  three  great  regions,  Earth,  Hades,  Heaven,  has 
not  been  uniform.  Firstly,  the  doctrine  of  a  land  of  souls 
on  Earth  belongs  widely  and  deeply  to  savage  culture,  but 
dwindles  in  the  barbaric  stage,  and  survives  but  feebly  into 
the  mediaeval.  Secondly,  the  doctrine  of  a  subterranean 
Hades  holds  as  large  a  place  as  this  in  savage  belief,  and 
has  held  it  firmly  along  the  course  of  higher  religions, 
where,  however,  this  under-world  is  looked  on  less  and  less 
as  the  proper  abode  of  the  dead,  but  rather  as  the  dismal 
place  of  purgatory  and  hell.  Lastly,  the  doctrine  of  a 
Heaven,  floored  upon  a  firmament,  or  placed  in  the  upper 
air,  seems  in  early  savage  belief  less  common  than  the  other 
two,  but  }delds  to  neither  of  them  in  its  vigorous  retention 
by  the  thought  of  modem  nations.  These  local  theories 
appear  to  be  taken,  firstly  and  mostly,  in  the  most  absolute 
literal  sense,  and  although,  under  the  influence  of  physical 
science,  much  that  was  once  distinctly-meant  philosophy  has 
now  passed  among  theologians  into  imagery  and  metaphor, 
yet  at  low  levels  of  knowledge  the  new  canons  of  interpre- 
tation find  little  acceptance,  and  even  in  modem  Europe  the 
rude  cosmology  of  the  lower  races  in  no  small  measure 
retains  its  place. 

Turning  now  to  consider  the  state  of  the  departed  in 
these  their  new  homes,  we  have  to  examine  the  definitions 
of  the  Future  Life  which  prevail  through  the  religions  of 
mankind.  In  these  doctrines  there  is  much  similarity 
caused  by  tlie  spreading  of   established    beliefs  into  new 


ANIMISM.  75 

countries,  and  also  much  similarity  that  is  beyond  ^hat 
sach  transmission  can  account  for.  So  there  is  much  variety 
due  to  local  colour  and  circumstance,  and  also  much  variety 
beyond  the  reach  of  such  explanation.  The  main  causes  of 
both  similarity  and  variety  seem  to  lie  far  deeper,  in  the 
very  origin  and  inmost  meaning  of  the  doctrines.  The 
details  of  the  future  life,  among  the  lower  races  and  up* 
wards,  are  no  heterogeneous  mass  of  arbitrary  fancies. 
Classified,  they  range  themselves  naturally  round  central 
ideas,  in  groups  whose  correspondence  seems  to  indicate  the 
special  course  of  their  development.  Amongst  the  pictm-es 
into  which  this  world  has  shaped  its  expectations  of  the 
next,  two  great  conceptions  are  especially  to  be  discerned. 
The  one  is  that  the  future  life  is,  as  it  were,  a  reflexion  of 
this ;  in  a  new  world,  perhaps  of  dreamy  beauty,  perhaps 
of  ghostly  gloom,  men  are  to  retain  their  earthly  forms  and 
their  earthly  conditions,  to  have  around  them  tlieir  earthly 
friends,  to  possess  their  earthly  property,  to  carry  on  their 
earthly  occupations.  The  other  is  that  the  future  life  is  a 
compensation  for  this,  where  men's  conditions  are  re-allotted 
as  the  consequence,  and  especially  as  the  reward  or  punish- 
ment, of  their  earthly  life.  The  first  of  these  two  ideas  we 
may  call  (with  Captain  Burton)  the  '*  continuance-theory," 
contrasting  with  it  the  second  as  the  "  retribution- theor}\" 
Separately  or  combined,  these  two  doctrines  are  the  keys 
of  the  subject,  and  by  grouping  t^'pical  examples  under 
their  two  headings,  it  will  be  possible  to  sun'ey  systematic- 
ally man's  most  characteristic  schemes  of  his  life  beyond  the 
grave. 

To  the  doctrine  of  Continuance  belongs  especially  the 
savage  view  of  the  spirit-land,  that  it  is  as  the  dream-land 
where  the  souls  of  the  living  so  often  go  to  visit  the  souls 
of  the  dead.  There  the  soul  of  the  dead  Karen,  with  the 
souls  of  his  axe  and  cleaver,  builds  his  house  and  cuts  his 
rice ;  the  shade  of  the  Algonquin  hunter  hunts  souls  of 
beaver  and  elk,  walking  on  the  souls  of  his  snow-shoes 
over  the  soul  of  the   snow ;  the  fur- wrapped  Kamchadal 


76  ANIMISM. 

drives  his  dog-sledge  ;  the  Zulu  milks  his  cows  and  drives 
his  cattle  to  kraal ;  South  American  tribes  live  on,  whole  or 
mutilated,  healthy  or  sick,  as  they  left  this  world,  leading 
their  old  lives,  and  having  their  wives  with  them  again, 
tliough  indeed,  as  the  Araucanians  said,  they  have  no  more 
children,  for  they  are  but  souls.^  Soul-land  is  dream-land 
in  its  shadowy  unreal  pictures,  for  which,  nevertheless, 
material  reality  so  plainly  furnished  the  models,  and  it  ia 
dream-land  also  in  its  vivid  idealization  of  the  soberer 
thoughts  and  feelings  of  waking  life, 

**  There  was  a  time  when  meadow,  grove,  and  stream, 
The  earth,  and  every  common  sight. 
To  me  did  seem 
Apparelled  in  celestial  light, 
The  glory  and  the  freshness  of  a  dream." 

Well  might  the  Mohawk  Indian  describe  the  good  land  of 
paradise,  as  he  had  seen  it  in  a  dream.  The  shade  of  the 
Ojibwa  follows  a  wide  and  beaten  path  that  leads  toward  the 
West,  he  crosses  a  deep  and  rapid  water,  and  reaching  a 
country  full  of  game  and  all  things  the  Indian  covets,  he 
joins  his  kindred  in  their  long  lodge.*  So,  on  the  southern 
continent,  the  Bolivian  Yuracar^s  will  go,  all  of  them,  to  a 
future  life  where  there  will  be  plenty  of  hunting,  and 
Brazilian  forest-tribes  will  find  a  pleasant  forest  full  of 
calabash-trees  and  game,  where  the  souls  of  the  dead  will 
live  happily  in  company.'  The  Greenlanders  hoped  that 
their  souls — pale,  soft,  disembodied  forms  which  the  living 
could  not  grasp — would  lead  a  life  better  than  that  of  earth, 
and  never  ceasing.  It  might  be  in  heaven,  reached  by  the 
rainbow,  where  the  souls  pitch  their  tents  round  the  great 

*  Cross,  *  Karens,*  L  c.  pp.  809,  818  ;  Le  Jeune  in  *  Rel.  des  Jes.'  1634,  p. 
16  ;  Steller,  * Kamtschatka, '  p.  272  ;  Callaway,  'Zulu  Tales,*  vol.  i.  p.  816  ; 
Elemm,  'Cultur-Gesch.'  vol.  ii.  pp.  810,  816 ;  J.  G.  MUller,  *  Amer.  Uirel.' 
pp.  139,  286. 

*  Bastian,  *  Psychologie,*  p.  224;   Schoolcraft,   *  Indian  Tribes,'  part  ii. 

p.  185. 

*  D'Orbigny,  *  L^Homme  Am^ricain,'  vol.  L  p.  364 ;   Spix  and  Martins, 

'Brasilien,*  vol.  I  p.  883 ;  De  Laet,  Novus  Orbis,  xv.  2. 


ANIMISM.  77 

lake  rich  in  fish  and  fowl,  the  lake  whose  waters  above  the 
firmament  oveiilowing  make  rain  on  earth,  and  if  its  banks 
broke,  there  would  be  another  deluge.  But  gaining  the 
most  and  best  of  their  living  from  the  depths  of  the  sea, 
they  were  also  apt  to  think  the  land  of  Tomgarsuk  to  be' 
below  the  sea  or  earth,  and  to  be  entered  by  the  deep  holes 
in  the  rocks.  Perpetual  summer  is  there,  ever  beauteous 
sunshine,  and  no  night,  good  water  and  superfluity  of  birds 
and  fish,  seals  and  reindeer  to  be  caught  without  difficulty, 
or  found  alive  seething  in  a  great  kettle.^  In  the  Eimbunda 
country  of  South- West  Africa,  souls  live  on  in  "  Kalunga  " 
the  world  where  it  is  day  when  it  is  night  here ;  and  with 
plenty  of  food  and  drink,  and  women  to  serve  them,  and 
hunting  and  dancing  for  pastime,  they  lead  a  life  which 
seems  a  corrected  edition  of  this.*  When  we  compare  these 
pictures  of  the  future  life  with  such  as  have  expressed  the 
longings  of  more  cultured  nations,  there  appear  indeed 
different  details,  but  the  principle  is  ever  the  same — the 
idealization  of  earthly  good.  The  Norseman's  ideal  is 
sketched  in  the  few  broad  touches  which  show  him  in  Wal- 
halla,  where  he  and  the  other  warriors  without  number  ride 
forth  arrayed  each  morning  and  hew  each  other  on  Odin's 
plain,  till  the  slain  have  been  **  chosen  "  as  in  earthly  battle, 
and  meal-tide  comes,  and  slayers  and  slain  mount  and  ride 
home  to  feast  on  the  everlasting  boar,  and  drink  mead  and 
ale  with  the  ^sir.*  To  understand  the  Moslem's  mind, 
we  must  read  the  two  chapters  of  the  Koran  where  the 
Prophet  describes  the  faithful  in  the  garden  of  delights, 
reclining  on  their  couches  of  gold  and  gems,  served  by 
children  ever  young,  with  bowls  of  liquor  whose  fumes  will 
not  rise  into  the  drinkers'  heads,  living  among  the  thorn- 
less  lotus-trees  and  bananas  loaded  to  the  ground,  feasting 
on  the  finiits  they  love  and  the  meat  of  the  rarest  birds, 
with  the  houris  near  them  with  beautiful  black  eyes,  like 

*  Cranz,  *  GrSnland,'  p.  268. 

•  Magyar,  *  Sild-Afrika,' p.  336. 
'  £dda  :  *  Gylfagiuning. ' 


78  ANIMISM. 

pearls  in  the  shell,  where  no  idle  or  wicked  speech  is  heard, 
but  only  the  words  "  Peace,  Peace.** 

"  They  who  fear  the  judgment  of  God  shall  have  two  gardens. 
Which  of  the  benefits  of  Gbd  will  ye  deny  P 
Adorned  with  groye& 

'Wliich  of  the  benefits  of  God  will  ye  deny  ? 
In  each  of  them  shall  spring  two  fountains. 
Which  of  the  benefits  of  God  will  ye  deny  ? 
In  each  of  them  shall  grow  two  kinds  of  fruits. 
Which  oi  the  benefits  of  God  will  ye  deny  ? 
They  shall  lie  on  carpets  brocaded  with  silk  and  embroidered  with 

gold ;  the  fruits  of  the  two  gardens  shall  be  near,  easy  to  pluck. 
Which  of  the  benefits  of  God  will  ye  deny  ? 
Inhere  shall  be  young  virgins  with  modest  looks,  unprofoned  by  man 

or  jinn. 
Which  of  the  benefits  of  God  will  ye  deny  ? 
They  are  like  jacinth  and  coral. 
Which  of  the  benefits  of  God  will  ye  deny  ? 
What  is  the  recompence  of  good,  if  not  good  ? 
Which  of  the  benefits  of  God  will  ye  deny  ?  "  etc.* 

With  these  descriptions  of  Paradise  idealized  on  secular 
life,  it  is  interesting  to  compare  others  which  bear  the  im- 
press of  a  priestly  caste,  devising  a  heaven  after  their 
manner.  We  can  almost  see  the  faces  of  the  Jewish  rabbis 
settling  their  opinions  about  the  high  schools  in  the  firma- 
ment of  heaven,  where  Rabbi  Simeon  ben  Yochai  and  the 
great  Ilabbi  Eliezer  teach  Law  and  Talmud  as  they  taught 
when  they  were  here  below,  and  masters  and  learners  go 
prosing  on  with  the  weary  old  disputations  of  cross  question 
and  crooked  answer  that  pleased  their  souls  on  earth.*  Nor 
less  suggestively  do  the  Buddhist  heavens  reflect  the  minds 
of  the  ascetics  who  devised  them.  As  in  their  thoughts 
sensual  pleasure  seemed  poor  and  despicable  in  comparison 
with  mystic  inward  joy,  rising  and  rising  till  consciousness 
fades  in  trance,  so,  above  their  heavens  of  millions  of  years 
of  mere  divine  happiness,  they  raised  other  ranges  of 
heavens  where  sensual  pain  and  pleasure  cease,  and  enjoj'- 

*  *  Koran,*  ch.  Iv.  Ivi. 

'  Eii»eumenger,  'Euldecktes  Judenthum,' parti,  p.  7. 


ANIMISM.  79 

ment  becomes  intellectual,  till  at  a  higher  grade  even  bodily 
form  is  gone,  and  after  the  last  heaven  of  **  Neither- 
consciousness-nor-unconsciousness  "  there  foUows  Nirwana, 
as  ecstasy  passes  into  swoon.^ 

But  the  doctrine  of  the  continuance  of  the  soul's  life  has 
another  and  a  gloomier  side.  There  are  conceptions  of  an 
abode  of  the  dead  characterized  not  so  much  by  dreaminess 
as  by  ghostliness.  The  realm  of  shades,  especially  if  it  be 
a  cavern  underground,  has  seemed  a  dim  and  melancholy 
place  to  the  dwellers  in  this  "  white  world,"  as  the  Russian 
calls  the  land  of  the  living.  One  description  of  the  Hurons 
tells  how  the  other  world,  with  its  hunting  and  fishing,  its 
much-prized  hatchets  and  robes  and  necklaces,  is  like  this 
world,  yet  day  and  night  the  souls  groan  and  lament.* 
Thus  the  region  of  Mictlan,  the  subterranean  land  of  Hades 
whither  the  general  mass  of  the  Mexican  nation,  high  and 
low,  expected  to  descend  from  the  natural  death-bed,  was  an 
abode  looked  forward  to  with  resignation,  but  scarcely  with 
cheerfulness.  At  the  funeral  the  survivors  were  bidden  not 
to  mourn  too  much,  the  dead  was  reminded  that  he  had 
passed  and  suffered  the  labours  of  this  life,  transitory  as 
when  one  warms  himself  in  the  sun,  and  he  was  bidden  to 
have  no  care  or  anxiety  to  return  to  his  kinsfolk  now  that 
he  has  departed  for  ever  and  aye,  for  his  consolation  must 
be  that  they  too  will  end  their  labours,  and  go  whither  he 
has  gone  before.^  Among  the  Basutos,  where  the  belief  in 
a  future  life  in  Hades  is  general,  some  imagine  in  this  under- 
world valleys  ever  green,  and  herds  of  hornless  speckled 
cattle  owned  by  the  dead ;  but  it  seems  more  generally 
thought  that  the  shades  wander  *  about  in  silent  calm, 
experiencing  neither  joy  nor  sorrow.  Moral  retribution 
there  is  none.*     The  Hades  of  the  West  African  seems  no 

'  Hardy,  'Mannal  of  Buddhism,' pp.  6,  24;  Koppen,  *Rel.  dcs  Buddha/ 
vol   i.  p.  235,  etc. 

2  Brebeufiii  'Rel.  des  Jes.*  1636,  p.  106. 

>  Sahagun,  'Hist,  de  Nueva  Espalia,'  book  iii.  appendix  ch.  i.,  in  Kings- 
borough,  vol.  vii.;  Brasaear,  vol.  iii.  p.  571. 

*  Caaalls,  'Basutos,*  pp.  247,  254. 


80  ANIMISM. 

ecstatic  paradise,  to  judge  by  Captain  Burton's  description  : 
"  It  was  said  of  the  old  Egyptians  that  they  lived  rather  in 
Hades  than  upon  the  banks  of  the  Nile.  The  Dahomans 
declare  timt  this  world  is  man's  plantation,  the  next  is  bis 
home, — a  home  which,  however,  no  one  visits  of  his  own 
accord.  They  of  course  own  no  future  state  of  rewards 
and  punishments  :  there  the  King  will  be  a  King,  and  the 
slave  a  slave  for  ever.  Ku-to-men,  or  Deadman's  land,  the 
Dahomau's  other  but  not  better  world,  is  a  country  of 
ghosts,  of  umbrjE,  who,  like  the  spirits  of  the  nineteenth 
century  in  Europe,  lead  a  quiet  life,  except  when  by  means 
of  mediums  they  are  drawn  into  the  drawing-rooms  of  the 
living."  With  some  such  hopeless  expectation  the  neigh- 
bours of  the  Dahomans,  the  Yorubas,  judge  the  life  to  come 
in  tiieir  simple  proverb  that  "  A  comer  in  this  world  is 
better  than  a  comer  in  the  world  of  spirits." '  The  Finns, 
who  feared  the  ghosts  of  the  departed  as  unkind,  harmful 
beings,  fancied  them  dwelling  with  their  bodies  in  the  grave, 
or  else,  with  what  Castren  thinks  a  later  philosophy,  assigned 
them  their  dwelling  in  the  subterranean  Tuonela.  Tuonela 
was  like  this  upper  earth,  the  sun  shone  there,  tliere  was  no 
lack  of  land  and  water,  wood  and  field,  tilUi  and  meadow, 
there  were  bears  and  wolves,  snakes  and  pike,  but  all  tilings 
were  of  a  hurttiil,  dismal  kind,  the  woods  dark  and  swarm- 
ing with  wild  beasts,  the  water  black,  the  cornfields  bearing 
seed  of  snakes'  teeth,  and  there  stem  pitiless  eld  Tuoni, 
and  his  gi-im  wife  and  son  with  the  hooked  fingers  with  iron 
points,  kept  watch  and  ward  over  the  dead  lest  they  should 
escape.*  Scarce  less  dismal  was  the  classic  ideal  of  the 
dark  realm  below,  whither  the  shades  of  the  dead  must  go 
to  join  the  many  gone  before  (h  -aKfovrnv  U^trflai ;  penetrare 
ad  plures  ;  andare  tra  i  piu).  The  Roman  Orcus  holds  the 
pallid  souls,  rapacious  Orcus,  spaiing  neither  good  nor  bad, 

'  Burton, '  DHhonie.'  vol.  ii.  p.  166  ;  '  Tr.  Eth.  Soi;.'  vol.  iii,  p.  103  ;  '  Wil 
and  WisJom  from  W.  Aft.'  pp.  280,  HO ;  see  J.  G.  MUller,  p.  140. 
'  Outien,  'Finn.  Mjtli.'  p.  12B,  elc;  Kalewala,  Buuo  iv,  ivL  ilv.  elc.; 


ANIMISM.  81 

Gloomy  is  the  Greek  land  of  Hades,  dark  dwelling  of  the 
images  of  departed  mortals,  where  the  shades  carry  at  once 
their  living  features  and  their  dying  wounds,  and  glide  and 
cluster  and  whisper,  and  lead  the  shadow  of  a  life.  Like  the 
sayage  hunter  on  his  ghostly  prairie,  the  great  Orion  still 
bears  his  brazen  mace,  still  chases  over  the  meadows  of 
asphodel  the  flying  beasts  he  slew  of  yore  in  the  lonely 
mountains.  Like  the  rude  African  of  to-day,  the  swift- 
footed  Achilles  scorns  such  poor,  thin,  shadowy  life  ;  rather 
would  he  serve  a  mean  man  upon  earth  than  be  lord  of  all 
the  dead. 

•*  Tmly,  oxen  and  goodly  sheep  may  be  taken  for  booty, 
Tripods,  too,  may  be  bought,  and  the  yellow  beauty  of  horses; 
But  from  the  fence  of  the  teeth  when  once  the  soul  is  departed, 
Never  cometh  it  back,  regained  by  plunder  or  purchase."  ^ 

Where  and  what  was  Sheol,  the  dwelling  of  the  ancient 
Jewish  dead  ?  Though  its  description  is  so  suggested  by 
the  dark,  quiet,  inevitable  cavem-tomb,  that  the  two  con- 
ceptions melt  together  in  Hebrew  poetic  phrase,  nevertheless 
Sheol  is  not  a  mere  general  term  for  burial-places. 
Nations  to  whom  the  idea  of  a  subterranean  region  of 
departed  spirits  was  a  familiar  thought,  with  familiar  words 
to  express  it,  quite  naturally  use  these  words  in  Biblical 
translation  as  the  equivalents  of  Sheol.  To  the  Greek 
Septuagint,  Sheol  was  Hades,  and  for  this  the  Coptic  trans- 
lators had  their  long-inherited  Egyptian  najne  oi  Amenti, 
while  the  Vulgate  renders  it  as  Infemus,  the  lower  regions. 
The  Gothic  Ulfilas,  translating  the  Hades  of  the  New 
Testament,  could  use  Hdlja  in  its  old  German  sense  of  the 
dim  shadowy  home  of  the  dead  below  the  earth ;  and  tlie 
corresponding  word  Hell,  if  this  its  earlier  sense  be  borne 
in  mind,  fairly  translates  Sheol  and  Hades  in  the  English 
version  of  the  Old  and  New  Testament,  though  the  word 
has  become  misleading  to  uneducated  eai^s  by  being  used 
also  in  the  sense  of  Gehenna,  the  place  of  torment.     The 

»  Homer.  II.  ix.  405 ;  Odyss.  xl  218,  475 ;  Virg.  ^u.  vi.  243,  etc.  etc. 

VOL.    II.  o 


82  ANDnsM. 

early  Hebrew  historians  and  prophets,  holding  out  neither 
the  hope  of  everlasting  glory  nor  the  fear  of  everlasting 
agony  as  guiding  motives  for  man's  present  life,  lay  down 
little  direct  doctrine  of  a  Aiture  state,  yet  their  incidental 
mentions  justify  the  translators  who  regard  Sheol  as  Hades. 
Sheol  is  a  special  locality  where  dead  men  go  to  their 
dead  ancestors :  "  And  Isaac  gave  up  the  ghost,  and  died, 
and  was  gathered  unto  his  people  ....  and  his  sons  Esau 
and  Jacob  buried  him."  Abraham,  though  not  even  buried 
in  the  land  of  his  forefathers,  is  thus  **  gathered  unto  his 
people ;  *'  and  Jacob  has  no  thought  of  his  body  being  laid 
with  Joseph's  body,  torn  by  wild  beasts  in  the  wilderness, 
when  he  says,  "  I  shall  go  down  to  my  son  mourning  to 
Sheol "  ("  cis  ^bov  "  in  the  LXX.,  *'  epeset  eamenti "  in  the 
Coptic,  "  in  infemum  '*  in  the  Vulgate).  Sheol  (blMtt?  from 
bNtt7)  is,  as  its  name  implies,  a  cavernous  recess,  yet  it  is  no 
mere  surface-grave  or  tomb,  but  an  under-world  of  awful 
depth :  '*  High  as  Heaven,  what  doest  thou  ?  deeper  than 
Sheol,  what  knowest  thou  ?  "  "  Though  they  dig  into 
Sheol,  thence  shall  mine  hand  take  them ;  though  they  climb 
up  to  Heaven,  thence  wiU  I  bring  them  down."  Thither 
Jew  and  Gentile  go  down :  "  "What  man  liveth,  and  shall  not 
see  death  ?  shall  he  deliver  his  soul  from  the  hand  of  Sheol  ?  " 
Asshtir  and  all  her  company,  Elam  and  all  her  multitude, 
the  mighty  fallen  of  the  uncircumcised,  he  there.  The  great 
king  of  Babylon  must  go  down : — 

'*  Sheol  from  beneath  is  moved  because  of  thee,  to  meet  thee  at  thy 

coming: 
He  rouseth  for  thee  the  mighty  dead,  all  the  great  chiefSs  of  the 

earth  ; 
He  maketh  to  rise  up  from  their  thrones,  all  the  kings  of  the 

nations. 
All  of  them  shall  accost  thee,  and  shall  say  unto  thee : 
Art  thou,  even  thou  too,  become  weak  as  we  ?     Art  thou  made  like 

unto  us  P  " 

The  rephaim,  the  "  shades  "  of  the  dead,  who  dwell  in 
Sheol,  love   not  to  be  disturbed  from  their  rest  by  the 


A24IHISM.  83 

necromancer ;  ''  And  Samuel  said  to  Saul,  why  hast  thou 
disquieted  me  to  bring  me  up  ?  "  Yet  their  quiet  is  con- 
trasted in  a  tone  of  sadness  with  the  life  on  earth ;  "  What- 
soever thy  hand  findeth  to  do,  do  it  with  thy  might ;  for 
there  is  no  work,  nor  device,  nor  knowledge,  nor  wisdom,  in 
Sheol,  whither  thou  goest."  ^  Such  thoughts  of  the  life  of 
the  shades  below  did  not  disappear  when,  in  the  later  years 
of  the  Jewish  nation,  the  great  change  in  the  doctrine  of  the 
future  life  passed  in  so  large  a  measure  over  the  Hebrew 
mind,  their  earlier  thoughts  of  ghostly  continuance  giving 
place  to  the  doctrines  of  resurrection  and  retribution.  The 
ancient  ideas  have  even  held  their  place  on  into  Christian 
thought,  in  pictures  like  that  of  the  Limbus  Patrum,  the 
Hades  where  Christ  descended  to  set  free  the  patriarchs. 

The  Retribution-theory  of  the  future  life  comprises  in  a 
general  way  the  belief  in  different  grades  of  futtire  happiness, 
especially  in  different  regions  of  the  other  world  allotted  to 
men  according  to  their  lives  in  this.  This  doctrine  of  re- 
tribution is,  as  we  have  already  seen,  far  from  universal 
among  mankind,  many  races  recognizing  the  idea  of  a  spirit 
outiiving  the  body,  without  considering  the  fate  of  this 
spirit  to  depend  at  all  upon  the  conduct  of  the  living  man. 
The  doctrine  of  retribution  indeed  hardly  seems  an  original 
part  of  the  doctrine  of  the  future  life.  On  the  contrary,  if 
we  judge  that  men  in  a  primitive  state  of  culture  arrived  at 
the  notion  of  a  surviving  spirit,  and  that  some  races,  but  by 
no  means  all,  afterwards  reached  the  further  stage  of  re- 
cognizing a  retribution  for  deeds  done  in  the  body,  this 
theory  will  not,  so  far  as  I  know,  be  discountenanced  by 
facts.^    Even  among  the  higher  savages,  however,  a  con- 

^  Gen.  zxxy.  29  ;  zxy.  8  ;  xxxviL  35  ;  Job  xi.  8  ;  Amos  ix.  2  ;  Psalm 
Ixxxix.  48  ;  £zek.  zxxi.,  xxxii. ;  Isaiah  xiv.  9,  xxxyiii.  10-18  ;  1  Sam.  xxviii. 
15  ;  Eccles.  ix.  10.  This  argument  is  mainly  from  Alger,  '  Critical  History  of 
the  Doctrine  of  a  Future  Life.*  eh.  viii ;  see  F.  W.  Farrar  in  Smith's  *  Die.  of 
the  Bible,' art.  "helL" 

'  The  doctrine  of  reversal,  as  in  Eamschatka,  whore  rich  and  poor  will 
change  places  in  the  other  worid  (Steller,  pp.  2C9-72),  is  too  exceptional  in 
the  lower  culture  to  be  generalized.  See  Steinhauser,  '  Rel.  des  Negers. '  L 
c*  p.  185.     A  Wolof  proverb  is  **  The  more  powerful  one  is  in  this  world, 

o  2 


84  ANIMISM. 

nexion  between  man's  life  and  his  happiness  or  misery  after 
death  is  often  held  as  a  definite  article  of  theology,  and 
thence  it  is  to  be  traced  onward  through  barbaric  religions, 
and  into  the  very  heart  of  Christianity.  Yet  the  grounds 
of  future  reward  and  punishment  are  so  far  from  uniform 
among  the  religions  of  the  world,  that  they  may  differ 
widely  within  what  is  considered  one  and  the  same  creed. 
The  result  is  more  definite  than  the  cause,  the  end  than  the 
means.  Men  who  alike  look  forward  to  a  region  of  un- 
earthly happiness  beyond  the  grave,  hope  to  reach  that 
happy  land  by  roads  so  strangely  different,  that  the  path  of 
life  which  leads  one  nation  to  eternal  bliss  may  seem  to  the 
next  the  very  descent  into  the  pit.  In  noticing  among 
savage  and  barbaric  peoples  the  qualifications  which  deter- 
mine future  happiness,  we  may  with  some  distinctness 
define  these  as  being  excellence,  valour,  social  rank,  re- 
ligious ordinance.  On  the  whole,  however,  in  the  religions 
of  the  lower  range  of  culture,  unless  where  they  may  have 
been  affected  by  contact  with  higher  reKgions,  the  destiny 
of  the  soul  after  death  seems  comparatively  seldom  to  turn 
on  a  judicial  system  of  reward  and  punishment.  Such 
difference  as  they  make  between  the  future  conditions  of 
different  classes  of  souls,  seems  more  often  to  belong  to  a 
remarkable  intermediate  doctrine,  standing  between  the 
earlier  continuance-theory  and  the  later  retribution-theor}\ 
The  idea  of  the  next  life  being  similar  to  this  seems  to  have 
developed  into  the  idea  that  what  gives  prosperity  and  re- 
nown here  will  give  it  also  there,  so  that  earthly  conditions 
carry  on  their  contrasts  into  the  changed  world  after  death. 
Thus  a  man's  condition  after  death  will  be  a  result  of, 
rather  than  a  compensation  or  retribution  for,  his  condition 
during  life.  A  comparison  of  doctrines  held  at  various 
stages  of  culture  may  justify  a  tentative  speculation  as  to 
their  actual  sequence  in  history,  favouring  the  opinion  that 
tlirough  such  an  intermediate  stage  the  doctrine  of  simple 

the  more  servile  one  will  bo  in  the  next.*'    (Burton,  *Wit  and  Wisdom/ 
p.  28.) 


ANIMISM.  85 

fature  existence  was  actually  developed  into  the  doctrine  of 
future  reward  and  punishment,  a  transition  which  for  deep 
import  to  human  life  has  scarcely  its  rival  in  the  history  of 
religion. 

The  effect  of  earthly  rank  on  the  future  life,  as  looked  at 
by  the  lower  races,  brings  out  this  intermediate  stage  in 
bold  relief.  Mere  transfer  from  one  life  to  another  makes 
chiefs  and  slaves  here  chiefs  and  slaves  hereafter,  and  this 
natural  doctrine  is  very  usual.  But  there  are  cases  in 
which  earthly  caste  is  exaggerated  into  utter  difference  in 
the  life  to  come.  The  aerial  paradise  of  Raiatea,  with  its 
fragrant  ever-blooming  flowers,  its  throngs  of  youths  and 
girls  all  perfection,  its  luxurious  feasts  and  merrymakings, 
were  for  the  privileged  orders  of  Areois  and  chiefs  who 
could  pay  the  priests  their  heavy  charges,  but  hardly  for  the 
common  populace.  '  This  idea  reached  its  height  in  the 
Tonga  islands,  where  aristocratic  souls  would  pass  to  take 
their  earthly  rank  and  station  in  the  island  paradise  of 
Bolotu,  while  plebeian  souls,  if  indeed  they  existed,  would 
die  with  the  plebeian  bodies  they  dwelt  in.^  In  Vancouver's 
Island,  the  Ahts  fancied  Quawteaht's  calm  sunny  plenteous 
land  in  the  sky  as  the  resting-place  of  high  chiefs,  who  live 
in  one  great  house  as  the  Creator's  guests,  while  the  slain 
in  battle  have  another  to  themselves.  But  otherwise  all 
Indians  of  low  degree  go  deep  down  under  the  earth  to  the 
land  of  Chay-her,  with  its  poor  houses  and  no  salmon  and 
small  deer,  and  blankets  so  small  and  thin,  that  when  the 
dead  are  buried  the  friends  often  bury  blankets  with  them, 
to  send  them  to  the  world  below  with  the  departed  soul.*^ 
The  expectation  of  royal  dignity  in  the  life  after  death,  dis- 
tinct from  the  fate  of  ordinary  mortals,  comes  well  into  view 
among  the  Natchez  of  Louisiana,  where  the  sun-descended 
royal  family  would  in  some  way  return  to  the  Sun ;  thus 


>  Ellia,  'Polyn.  Res.'  vol.  L  pp.  245,  897;  see  also  Turner,  'Polynesia,' 
p.  237  (Samoans);  Mariner,  'Tonga  Is.'  voL  iL  p.  105. 
*  Sproat,  'Savage  life,'  p.  209. 


86  ANIMISM. 

also  in  the  mightier  empire  of  Peru,  where  each  saii- 
descended  Inca,  feeling  the  approach  of  death,  announced 
to  his  assembled  vassals  that  he  was  called  to  heaven  to  rest 
with  his  father  the  Sun.^  But  in  the  higher  religions,  the 
change  in  this  respect  from  the  doctrine  of  continuance  to 
tlie  doctrine  of  retribution  is  wonderful  in  its  completeness. 
The  story  of  that  great  lady  who  strengthened  her  hopes  of 
future  happiness  by  the  assurance,  "  They  will  think  twice 
before  they  refuse  a  person  of  my  condition/'  is  a  mere  jest 
to  modem  ears.  Yet,  like  many  another  modem  jest,  it  is 
only  an  archaism  which  in  an  older  stage  of  culture  had  in 
it  nothing  ridiculous. 

To  the  happy  land  of  Tomgarsuk  the  Great  Spirit,  says 
Cranz,  only  such  Greenlanders  come  as  have  been  valiant 
workers,  for  other  ideas  of  virtue  they  have  none ;  such  as 
have  done  great  deeds,  taken  many  whales  and  seals,  borne 
much  hardship,  been  drowned  at  sea,  or  died  in  childbirth.* 
Thus  Charlevoix  says  of  the  Indians  further  south,  that 
their  claim  to  hunt  after  death  on  the  prairies  of  eternal 
spring  is  to  have  been  good  hunters  and  warriors  here. 
Lescarbot,  speaking  of  the  belief  among  the  Indians  of 
Virginia  that  after  death  the  good  will  be  at  rest  and  the 
wicked  in  pain,  remarks  that  their  enemies  are  the  wicked 
and  themselves  the  good,  so  that  in  their  opinion  they  are 
after  death  much  at  their  ease,  and  principally  when  they 
have  well  defended  their  country  and  slain  their  enemies.' 
So  Jean  de  Lery  said  of  the  rude  Tupinambas  of  Brazil, 
tliat  they  think  the  souls  of  such  as  had  lived  virtuously, 
that  is  to  say,  who  have  well  avenged  themselves  and  eaten 
many  of  their  enemies,  will  go  behind  the  great  mountains 
and  dance  in  beautiful  gardens  with  the  souls  of  their 
fathers,  but  the  souls  of  the  effeminate  and  worthless,  who 

*  *Rec.  des  Voy.  au  Nord,*  vol.  v.  p.  23  (Natchez) ;  Garcilaso  de  la  Vega, 
*  Commentarios  Reales,'  lib.  i.  c.  23,  tr.  by  C.  R.  Markham ;  Prescott,  *  Peru,' 
vol.  i.  pp.  29,  83 ;  J.  G.  Mttller,  p.  402,  etc. 

»  Cranz,  'Gronland,*  p.  269. 

«  Charlevoix,  *  Nouvelle  Prance,*  vol  vi  p.  77  ;  Lescarbot,  *Hist  de  la 
Nouvelle  France,'  Paris,  1619,  p.  679. 


ANIMISM.  87 

have  not  striven  to  defend  their  country,  will  go  to  Aygnan, 
the  Evil  Spirit,  to  incessaiit  torments.^  More  characteristic, 
and  probably  more  genuinely  native  than  this,  is  the  fancy 
of  the  Caribs,  that  the  braves  of  their  nation  should  go 
after  death  to  happy  islands,  where  all  good  fruits  grow 
wild,  there  to  spend  their  time  in  dancing  and  feasting,  and 
to  have  their  enemies  the  Arawaks  for  slaves ;  but  the 
cowards  who  feared  to  go  to  war  should  go  to  serve  the 
Arawaks,  dwelling  in  their  waste  and  barren  lands  beyond 
the  mountains.' 

The  fate  of  warriors  slain  in  battle  is  the  subject  of  two 
singularly  contrasted  theories.  We  have  elsewhere  ex- 
amined the  deep-lying  belief  that  if  a  man*s  body  be 
wounded  or  mutilated,  his  soul  will  arrive  in  the  same  state 
in  the  other  world.  Perhaps  it  is  some  such  idea  of  the 
soul  being  spoilt  with  the  body  by  a  violent  death,  that 
leads  the  Mintira  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  though  not 
believing  in  a  future  reward  and  punishment,  to  exclude 
from  the  happy  paradise  of  "  Fruit  Island  "  (Pulo  Bua)  the 
souls  of  such  as  die  a  bloody  death,  condemning  them  to 
dwell  on  "  Eed  Land  "  (Tana  Mera),  a  desolate  barren 
place,  whence  they  must  even  go  to  the  fortunate  island  to 
fetch  their  food.^  In  North  America,  the  idea  is  mentioned 
among  the  Hurons  that  the  souls  of  the  slain  in  war  live  in 
a  band  apart,  neither  they  nor  suicides  being  admitted  to 
the  spirit- villages  of  their  tribe.  A  belief  ascribed  to  certain 
Indians  of  California  may  be  cited  here,  though  less  as  a 
sample  of  real  native  doctrine  than  to  illustrate  that  borrow- 
ing of  Christian  ideas  which  so  often  spoils  such  evidence 
for  ethnological  purposes.  They  held,  it  is  said,  that 
Niparaya,  the  Great  Spirit,  hates  war,  and  will  have  no 
warriors  in  his  paradise,  but  that  his  adversary  Wac,  shut 
up  for  rebellion  in  a  great  cave,  takes  thither  to  himseK  the 

»  Lery,  'Hist  d'un  Voy.  en  Br&U,'  p.  284  ;  Coreal,  *Voi.  aux  Indes  Occ' 
Tol.  L  p.  224. 

2  Rochefort,  *  Ilea  Antilles,'  p.  480. 
'  *  Jo  urn.  Ind.  Archip.*  vol.  i.  p.  325. 


88  ANIMISM. 

slain  in  battle.^  On  the  other  hand,  the  thought  which  shows 
out  in  BucH  bold  relief  in  the  savage  mind,  that  courage  is 
virtue,  and  battle  and  bloodshed  the  hero's  noblest  pursuit, 
leads  naturally  to  a  hope  of  glory  for  his  soul  when  his 
body  has  been  slain  in  fight.  Such  expectation  was  not 
strange  in  North  America,  to  that  Indian  tribe,  for  instance, 
who  talked  of  the  Great  Spirit  walking  in  the  moonlight  on 
his  island  in  Lake  Superior,  whither  slain  warriors  will  go 
to  him  to  take  their  pleasure  in  the  chace.*  The  Nicara- 
guans  declared  that  men  who  died  in  their  houses  went 
underground,  but  the  slain  in  war  went  to  serve  the  gods  in 
the  east,  where  the  sun  comes  from.  This  corresponds  in 
part  with  the  remarkable  threefold  contrast  of  the  future 
life  among  their  Aztec  kinsfolk.  Mictlan,  the  Hades  of  the 
general  dead,  and  Tlalocan,  the  Earthly  Paradise,  reached 
by  certain  special  and  acute  ways  of  death,  have  been 
mentioned  here  already.  But  the  souls  of  warriors  slain  in 
battle  or  sacrificed  as  captives,  and  of  women  who  died  in 
childbirth,  were  transported  to  the  heavenly  plains ;  there 
the  heroes,  peeping  through  the  holes  in  their  bucklers 
pierced  by  arrows  in  earthly  fight,  watched  the  Sim  arise  and 
saluted  him  with  shout  and  clash  of  arms,  and  at  noon  the 
mothers  received  him  with  music  and  dance  to  escort  him 
on  his  western  way.*  In  such  wise,  to  the  old  Norseman, 
to  die  the  "  straw-death  "  of  sickness  or  old  age  was  to  go 
down  into  the  dismal  loathly  house  of  Hela  the  Death- 
goddess  ;  if  the  warrior's  fate  on  the  field  of  battle  were 
denied  him,  and  death  came  to  fetch  him  from  a  peaceful 
couch,  yet  at  least  he  could  have  the  scratch  of  the  spear, 
Odin's  mark,  and  so  contrive  to  go  with  a  blood-stained 
soul  to  the  glorious  Walhalla.     Surely  then  if  ever,  says  a 

^  Brebeuf  in  'Bel.  des  Jes.'  1636,  p.  104;  see  also  Meiners,  voL  ii.  p.  769. 
J.  G.  Miiller,  pp.  89,  139. 

'  Chateaubriand,  *Voy.  en  Am^riqne'  (Religion). 

'  Oviedb,  *  Nicaragua/ p.  22;  Torquemada,  'Monarquia Indiana, 'book xiiL 
c.  48 ;  Sahagun,  book  iiL  app.  cb.  L-iii.  in  Eingsborough,  vol.  tH.  Compare 
Anderson,  '  Exp.  to  W.  Yunnan,'  p.  125.  (Shans,  good  men  and  mothers 
dying  in  childbirth  to  heaven,  bad  men  and  those  killed  by  the  sword  to 
heU.) 


ANIMISM.  89 

modem  writer,  the  kingdom  of  heaven  suffered  violence, 
and  the  violent  took  it  by  force.*  Thence  we  follow  the 
idea  onward  to  the  battle-fields  of  holy  war,  where  the 
soldier  earned  with  his  blood  the  unfading  crown  of  martyr- 
dom, and  Christian  and  Moslem  were  urged  in  mutual 
onset  and  upheld  in  agony  by  the  glimpse  of  paradise 
opening  to  receive  the  slayer  of  the  infidel. 

Such  ideas,  current  among  the  lower  races  as  to  the 
soul's  future  happiness  or  misery,  do  not  seem,  setting 
aside  some  exceptional  points,  to  be  thoughts  adopted  or 
degraded  from  doctrines  of  cultured  nations.  They  seem 
rather  to  belong  to  the  intellectual  stratum  in  which  they 
are  found.  If  so,  we  must  neither  ignore  nor  exaggerate 
their  standing  in  the  lower  ethics.  "  The  good  are  good 
warriors  and  hunters,"  said  a  Pawnee  chief;  whereupon  the 
author  who  mentions  the  saying  remarks  that  this  would  also 
be  the  opinion  of  a  wolf,  if  he  could  express  it.^  Neverthe- 
less, if  experience  has  led  societies  of  savage  men  to  fix  on 
certain  qualities,  such  as  courage,  skill,  and  industry,  as 
being  virtues,  then  many  moralists  will  say  that  such  a 
theory  is  not  only  ethical,  but  lying  at  the  very  foundation 
of  ethics.  And  if  these  savage  societies  further  conclude 
that  such  virtues  obtain  their  reward  in  another  world 
as  in  this,  then  their  theories  of  future  happiness  and 
misery,  destined  for  what  in  this  sense  they  call  good  and 
bad  men,  may  be  fairly  looked  on  as  belonging  to  morality, 
though  at  no  high  stage  of  development.  But  many  or 
most  writers,  when  they  mention  morality,  assume  a 
narrower  definition  of  it.  This  must  be  borne  in  mind  in 
appreciating  what  is  meant  by  the  statements  of  several 
well-qualified  ethnologists,  who  have,  in  more  or  less  degree, 
denied  a  moral  character  to  the  future  retribution  as  con- 
ceived in  savage  religion.  Mr.  Ellis,  describing  the  Society 
Islanders,  at  least  gives  an  explicit  definition.  When  he 
tried  to  ascertain  whether  they  connected  a  person's  con- 

'  Alger,  •  Future  Life,*  p.  93. 

2  Brinton,  'Myths  of  New  World,*  p.  300. 


90  ANIMISM. 

dition  in  a  future  state  with  his  disposition  and  conduct  in 
this,  lie  never  could  learn  that  they  expected  in  the  world 
of  spirits  any  difference  in  the  treatment  of  a  kind,  gene- 
rous, peaceful  man,  and  that  of  a  cruel,  parsimonious, 
quarrelsome  one.^  This  remark,  it  seems  to  me,  appUes  to 
savage  religion  far  and  wide.  Dr.  Brinton,  commenting  on 
tlie  native  religions  of  America,  draws  his  line  in  a  some- 
what different  place.  Nowhere,  he  says,  was  any  well- 
defined  doctrine  that  moral  turpitude  was  judged  and 
punished  in  the  next  world.  No  contrast  is  discoverable 
between  a  place  of  torments  and  a  realm  of  joy ;  at  the 
worst  but  a  negative  castigation  awaited  the  liar,  the  coward, 
or  the  niggard.^  Professor  J.  G.  Miiller,  in  his  '  American 
Religions,'  yet  more  pointedly  denies  any  "ethical  meaning" 
in  the  contrasts  of  the  savage  future  life,  and  looks  upon 
what  he  well  calls  its  "  light-side  "  and  "  shadow-side  "  not 
as  recompensing  earthly  virtue  and  vice,  but  rather  as 
caiTying  on  earthly  conditions  in  a  new  existence.* 

The  idea  that  admission  to  the  happier  region  depends 
on  the  performance  of  religious  rites  and  the  giving  of 
offerings,  seems  scarcely  known  to  the  lowest  savages.  It 
is  worth  while,  however,  to  notice  some  statements  which 
seem  to  mark  its  appearance  at  the  level  of  high  savagery 
or  low  barbarism.  Thus  in  the  Society  Islands,  though 
the  destiny  of  man's  spirit  to  the  region  of  night  or  to 
elysium  was  irrespective  of  moral  character,  we  hear  of 
neglect  of  rites  and  offerings  as  being  visited  by  the  dis- 
pleasure of  deities.*  In  Florida,  the  belief  of  the  Sun- 
worshipping  peoj)le  of  Achalaque  was  thus  described  :  those 
who  had  lived  well,  and  well  served  the  Sun,  and  given 
many  gifts  to  the  poor  in  his  honour,  would  be  happy  after 

*  Ellis,  'Polyn.  Res.*  vol.  i.  p.  397  ;  see  also  Williams,  *Fyi,'  voL  i.  p. 
243. 

^  Brinton,  p.  242,  etc. 

'  J.  G.  Muller,  'Amer.  Urrcl.*  pp.  87,  224.  See  also  the  opinions  of 
Meiners,  *  Gesch.  der  Religion,*  vol.  ii.  p.  768  ;  Wuttke,  *  Gesch.  des  Heiden- 
thuma,*  vol.  i.  p.  115. 

*  Ellifi,  1.  c.  ;  Moercnhoat,  *  Voyage,'  vol.  i.  p.  433. 


ANIMISM.  91 

death  and  be  changed  into  stars^  whereas  the  wicked  would 
be  carried  to  a  destitute  and  wretched  existence  among 
mountain  precipices,  where  fierce  wild  beasts  have  their 
dens.^  According  to  Bosman,  the  souls  of  Guinea  negroes 
reaching  the  river  of  death  must  answer  to  the  divine  judge 
how  they  have  lived ;  have  they  religiously  observed  the 
holy  days  dedicated  to  their  god,  have  they  abstained  from 
aU  forbidden  meats  and  kept  their  vows  inviolate,  they  are 
wafted  across  to  paradise  ;  but  if  they  have  sinned  against 
these  laws  they  are  plunged  in  the  river  and  there  drowned 
for  ever.'  Such  statements  among  peoples  at  these  stages 
of  culture  are  not  frequent,  and  perhaps  not  very  valid  as 
accounts  of  original  native  doctrine.  It  is  in  the  elaborate 
religious  systems  of  more  organized  nations,  in  modem 
Brahmanism  and  Buddhism,  and  degraded  forms  of  Chris- 
tianity, that  the  special  adaptation  of  the  doctrine  of  re- 
tribution to  the  purposes  of  priestcraft  and  ceremonialism 
has  become  a  commonplace  of  missionary  reports. 

It  is  well  not  to  speak  too  positively  on  a  subject  so 
difficult  and  doubtful  as  this  of  the  history  of  the  belief  in 
future  retribution.  Careful  criticism  of  the  evidence  is 
above  all  necessary.  For  instance,  we  have  to  deal  with 
several  statements  recorded  among  low  races,  explicitly 
assigning  reward  or  punishment  to  men  after  death,  accord- 
ing as  they  were  good  or  bad  in  life.  Here  the  first  thing 
to  be  done  is  to  clear  up,  if  possible,  the  question  whether 
the  doctrine  of  retribution  may  have  been  borrowed  from 
some  more  cultured  neighbouring  religion,  as  the  very  details 
often  show  to  have  been  the  case.  Examples  of  direct 
adoption  of  foreign  dogmas  on  this  subject  are  not  un- 
common in  the  world.  When  among  the  Dayaks  of  Borneo 
it  is  said  that  a  dead  man  becomes  a  spirit  and  lives  in  the 
jungle,  or  haunts  the  place  of  burial  or  burning,  or  when 
some  distant  mountain-top  is  pointed  to  as  the  abode  of 
spirits  of  departed  Mends,  it  is  hardly  needful  to  question 

1  Rochefort,  *  lies  Antilles,'  p.  378. 

■  Bosman,  *  Guinea/  letter  x. ;  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi.  p.  401. 


92  ANIMISM. 

the  originality  of  ideas  so  characteristically  savage.  But 
one  of  these  Dayak  tribes,  burning  the  dead,  says  that  "  as 
the  smoke  of  the  funeral  pile  of  a  good  man  rises,  the  soul 
ascends  with  it  to  the  sky,  and  that  the  smoke  from  the 
pile  of  a  wicked  man  descends,  and  his  soul  with  it  is  borne 
down  to  the  earth,  and  through  it  to  the  regions  below."* 
Did  not  this  exceptional  idea  come  into  the  Dayak's  mind 
by  contact  with  Hinduism  ?  In  Orissa,  again,  Khond  souls 
have  to  leap  across  the  black  unfathomable  river  to  gain  a 
footing  on  the  slippery  Leaping  Bock,  where  Dinga  Pennu, 
the  judge  of  the  dead,  sits  writing  his  register  of  all  men's 
daily  lives  and  actions,  sending  virtuous  souls  to  become 
blessed  spirits,  keeping  back  wicked  ones  and  sending  them 
to  suffer  their  penalties  in  new  births  on  earth.^  Here  the 
striking  myth  of  the  leaping  rock  is  perfectly  savage,  but 
the  ideas  of  a  judgment,  moral  retribution,  and  transmigra- 
tion, may  have  come  from  the  Hindus  of  the  plains,  as  the 
accompanying  notion  of  the  written  book  unquestionably 
did.  Dr.  Mason  is  no  doubt  right  in  taking  as  the  indi- 
genous doctrine  of  the  Karens  their  notion  of  an  under- 
world where  the  ghosts  of  the  dead  live  on  as  here,  while 
he  sets  down  to  Hindu  influence  the  idea  of  Tha-ma,  the 
judge  of  the  dead  (the  Hindu  Yama),  as  allotting  their  fate 
according  to  their  lives,  sending  those  who  liave  done  deeds 
of  merit  to  heaven,  those  who  have  done  wickedness  to  hell, 
and  keeping  in  hades  the  neither  good  nor  bad.*  How  the 
theory  of  moral  retribution  may  be  superposed  on  more 
primitive  doctrines  of  the  future  life,  comes  remarkably  into 
view  in  Turanian  religion.  Among  the  Lapps,  Jabme-Aimo, 
the  subterranean  "  home  of  the  dead  **  below  the  earth*, 
where  the  departed  have  their  cattle  and  follow  their  liveli- 
hood like  Lapps  above,  though  they  are  a  richer,  wiser, 

*  St  John,  *Far  East,*  vol.  i.  p.  181 ;  see  Mundy,  'Narrative,'  voL  L  p. 
382.  ^ 

^  Macpherson,  p.  92.    Compare  Moorenhout,  1.  c.  (Tahiti). 

^  Mason,  1.  c.  p.  195.  See  also  De  Brosses,  'Nav.  anx  Terres  Aastralos,' 
vol.  ii.  p.  482  (Caroline  Is.). 


ANIMISM.  93 

stronger  folk,  and  also  Saivo-Aimo,  a  yet  happier  "  home  of 
the  gods/'  are  conceptions  thoroughly  in  the  spirit  of  the 
lower  culture.  But  in  one  account  the  subterranean  abode 
becomes  a  place  of  transition,  where  the  dead  stay  awhile, 
and  then  with  bodies  renewed  are  taken  up  to  the  Heaven- 
god,  or  if  misdoers,  are  flung  into  the  abyss.  Castren  is 
evidently  right  in  rejecting  this  doctrine  as  not  native,  but 
due  to  Catholic  influence.  So^pt  the  end  of  the  16th  Rime 
of  tne  Finnish  Kalewala,  which  tells  of  Wainamoinen's  visit 
to  the  dismal  land  of  the  dead,  there  is  put  into  the  hero's 
mouth  a  second  speech,  warning  the  children  of  men  to 
harm  not  the  innocent,  for  sad  payment  is  in  Tuoni's  dwell- 
ing— ^the  bed  of  evil-doers  is  there,  with  its  glowing  red-hot 
stones  below  and  its  canopy  of  snakes  above.  But  the  same 
critic  condemns  this  moral  **  tag,"  as  a  later  addition  to  the 
genuine  heathen  picture  of  Manala,  the  imder-world  of  the 
dead.^  Nor  did  Christianity  scorn  to  borrow  details  from 
the  religions  it  abolished.  The  narrative  of  a  mediseval 
visit  to  the  other  world  would  be  incomplete  without  its 
description  of  the  awful  Bridge  of  Death ;  Acheron  and 
Charon's  bark  were  restored  to  their  places  in  Tartarus  by 
the  visionary  and  the  poet;  the  wailing  of  sinful  souls 
might  be  heard  as  they  were  hammered  white-hot  in  Vulcan's 
smithies ;  and  the  weighing  of  good  and  wicked  souls,  as  we 
may  see  it  figured  on  every  Egyptian  mummy-case,  now 
passed  into  the  charge  of  St.  Paul  and  the  Devil.^ 

The  foregoing  considerations  having  been  duly  weighed, 
it  remains  to  call  attention  to  the  final  problem,  at  what 
stage  of  religious  history  the  full  theological  doctrine  of 
judicial  retribution  and  moral  compensation  in  a  future  life 
may  have  arisen.  It  is  hard,  however,  to  define  where  this 
development  takes  place  even  at  a  barbaric  stage  of  culture. 
Thus  among  the  barbaric  nations  of  West  Africa,  there 

>  Castrtn,  *  Finn.  Myth,'  pp.  136, 144.  SeeGoorgi,  *  Reiso  in  Russ.  Reich,' 
voL  i.  p.  278.  Compare  accounts  of  Purgatory  among  the  North  American 
Indians,  apparently  derived  from  missionaries,  in  Morgan,  'Iroquois/  p.  169  ; 
Waitz,  Tol.  iii.  p.  345. 

=  SeoT.  Wright,  *St.  Patrick's  Purgatory.' 


94  ANIMIS&L 

appear  such  beliefs  as  that  in  Nuffi,  that  criminals  t^ho 
escape  their  punishment  here  will  receive  it  in  the  other 
world ;  the  division  of  the  Yoruba  under-world  into  an 
upper  and  a  lower  region  for  the  righteous  and  wicked ;  the 
Kini  doctrine  that  only  the  good  ¥rill  rejoin  their  ancestors 
in  heaven ;  the  Oji  doctrine  that  only  the  good  will  dwell 
after  death  in  the  heavenly  house  or  city  of  the  Deity  whom 
they  call  the  "Highest."^  ^ How  far  is  all  this  to  be  taken 
as  native  conception,  and  how  far  as  due  to  ages  of  Chri^an 
and  Moslem  intercourse,  to  which  at  any  rate  few  will 
scruple  to  refer  the  last  case  ? 

In  the  lower  ranges  of  civilization,  some  of  the  most  re- 
markable doctrines  of  this  class  are  recorded  in  North 
America.  Thus  they  appear  in  connexion  with  the  fancy 
of  a  river  or  gulf  to  be  passed  by  the  departing  soul  on  its 
way  to  the  land  of  the  dead,  one  of  the  most  remarkable 
traits  of  the  mythology  of  the  world.  This  seems  in  its 
origin  a  nature-m3rth,  connected  probably  with  the  Sun's 
passage  across  the  sea  into  Hades,  and  in  many  of  its 
versions  it  appears  as  a  mere  episode  of  the  souVs  journey, 
without  any  moral  sense  attached  to  it.  Brebeuf,  the  same 
early  Jesuit  missionary  who  says  explicitly  of  the  Hurons 
that  there  is  no  difference  in  their  future  life  between  the 
fate  of  the  virtuous  and  the  vicious,  mentions  also  among 
them  the  tree-trunk  that  bridges  the  river  of  death ;  here 
the  dead  must  cross,  the  dog  that  guards  it  attacks  some 
souls,  and  they  fall.  Yet  in  other  versions  this  myth  has  a 
moral  sense  attached  to  it,  and  the  passage  of  the  heaven- 
gulf  becomes  an  ordeal  to  separate  good  and  wicked.  To 
take  but  one  instance,  there  is  Catlings  account  of  the 
Choctaw  souls  journeying  far  westward,  to  where  the  long 
slippery  barkless  pine-log,  stretching  from  hill  to  hill, 
bridges  over  the  deep  and  dreadful  river;  the  good  pass 
safely  to  a  beauteous  Indian  paradise,  the  wicked  fall  into 
the  abyss  of  waters,  and  go  to  the  dark  hungry  wretched 

*  Waitz,  vol.  ii.  pp.  171,  191  ;  Bowen,  *  Yoruba  Laug.'  p.  xyL     See  J.  L. 
Wilaon,  p.  210. 


ANIMISM.  95 

land  where  they  are  henceforth  to  dwell.^  This  and  many 
similar  beliefs  current  in  the  religions  of  the  world,  which 
need  not  be  particularised  here,  seem  best  explained  as 
originaUy  nature-myths,  afterwards  adapted  to  a  religious 
purpose.  A  different  conception  was  recorded  so  early  as 
1622,  by  Captain  John  Smith  among  the  Massachusetts, 
whose  name  is  still  borne  by  the  New  England  district  they 
once  inhabited :  They  say,  at  first  there  was  no  king  but 
Kiehtan,  that  dwelleth  far  westerly  above  the  heavens, 
whither  all  good  men  go  when  they  die,  and  have  plenty  of 
all  things.  The  bad  men  go  thither  also  and  knock  at  the 
door,  but  he  bids  them  go  wander  in  endless  want  and 
misery,  for  they  shall  not  stay  there.'  Lastly,  the  Salish 
Indians  of  Oregon  say  that  the  good  go  to  a  happy  hunting- 
ground  of  endless  game,  while  the  bad  go  to  a  place  where 
there  is  eternal  snow,  hunger,  and  thirst,  and  are  tantalised 
by  the  sight  of  game  they  cannot  kill,  and  water  they  can- 
not drink.*  If,  now,  looking  at  these  records,  it  be  granted 
that  the  idea  of  moral  retribution  involved  in  them  is  of 
genuine  native  origin,  and  that  the  goodness  and  wickedness 
for  which  men  are  to  be  rewarded  and  punished  are  moral 
qualities,  however  undeveloped  in  definition,  this  will 
amount  to  an  admission  that  the  doctrine  of  moral  retri- 
bution at  any  rate  appears  within  the  range  of  savage 
theology.  This  by  no  means  invalidates  the  view  here  put 
forward  as  to  the  historical  development  of  this  doctrine, 
but  only  shows  at  how  early  a  stage  it  may  have  begun  to 
take  place.  The  general  mass  of  evidence  remains  to  show 
the  savage  doctrine  of  the  future  state,  as  originally  involv- 
ing no  moral  retribution,  or  arriving  at  this  through  transi- 
tional and  rudimentary  stages.^ 

»  Brebeuf  in  «Rel  des  Jea.'  1635,  p.  35  ;  1636,  p.  105.  Catlin,  'N.  A. 
IqcL'voL  ii  p.  127;  Long's  *Exp.'  vol.  i.  p.  180.  See  Brinton,  p.  247; 
Vfaitz,  Tol.  ii  p.  101,  vol.  iii.  p.  107  ;  and  the  collection  of  myths  of  the 
Ileayen-Bridge  and  Heaven-Gulf  in  *  Early  History  of  Mankind,*  chap.  xii. 

'  Smith,  '  New  England,"  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xiii.  p.  244. 

3  Wilson  in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc'  vol.  iii.  p.  303. 

*  The  remarks  on  this  subject  in  the  1st  edition  have  been  in  some  respects 


96  ANIMISM. 

In  strong  contrast  with  the  schemes  of  savage  future  ex- 
istence, I  need  but  set  before  the  reader's  mind  a  salient 
point  here  and  there  in  the  doctrine  of  distinct  and  unques- 
tionable moral  retribution,  as  held  in  religions  of  the  higher 
culture.  The  inner  mystic  doctrines  of  ancient  Egypt  may 
perhaps  never  be  extracted  now  from  the  pictures  and  hie- 
roglyphic formulas  of  the  *  Book  of  the  Dead.'  But  the 
ethnographer  may  satisfy  himself  of  two  important  points 
as  to  the  place  which  the  Egyptian  view  of  the  future  life 
occupies  in  the  history  of  religion.  On  the  one  hand^  the 
transmigration  into  animals,  the  connexion  kept  up  between 
corpse  and  soul,  the  good  and  evil  life  beyond  the  tomb,  the 
soul's  passage  into  the  dark  western  Hades  or  to  the  bright 
sun  in  heaven — all  these  are  conceptions  which  connect  the 
Egyptian  religion  with  the  reUgions  of  the  ruder  races  of 
mankind.  But  on  the  other  hand,  the  mixed  ethical  and 
ceremonial  standard  by  which  the  dead  are  to  be  judged 
adapts  these  primitive  and  even  savage  thoughts  to  a  higher 
social  development,  such  as  may  be  shown  by  fragments 
from  that  remarkable  **  negative  confession "  which  the 
dead  must  make  before  Osiris  and  the  forty-two  judges  in 
Amenti.  "  0  ye  Lords  of  Truth !  let  me  know  you ! 
.  .  .  Rub  ye  away  my  faults.  I  have  not  privily  done 
evil  against  mankind.  ...  I  have  not  told  falsehoods 
in  the  tribunal  of  Truth.  ...  I  have  not  done  any 
wicked  thing.  I  have  not  made  the  labouring  man  do  more 
than  his  task  daily.  ...  I  have  not  calimmiated  the 
slave  to  his  master.  ...  I  have  not  murdered.  .  •  . 
I  have  not  done  fraud  to  men.  I  have  not  changed  the 
measures  of  the  country.  I  have  not  injured  the  images  of 
the  gods.  I  have  not  taken  scraps  of  the  bandages  of  the 
dead.  I  have  not  committed  adultery.  I  have  not  with- 
held milk  from  the  mouths  of  sucklings.  I  have  not 
hunted  wild  animals  in  the  pasturages.     I  have  not  netted 

modified,  with  ixirticular  reference  to  the  argument  of  Prof.  Caldei-wood,  on 
*  Moral  Philosophy  and  Savage  Life'  in  'Contemporary  Hoview,' Jan.  1872. 
(Note  to  2nd  Ed.). 


ANIMISM.  97 

sacred  birds.     ...     I  am  pure !     I  am  pure  !     I   am 
pure!"i 

The  Vedic  hymns,  again,  tell  of  endless  happiness  for 
the  good  in  heaven  with  the  gods,  and  speak  also  of  the 
deep  pit  where  the  liars,  the  lawless,  they  who  give  no 
sacrifice,  will  be  cast.  The  rival  theories  of  continuance 
and  retribution  are  seen  in  instructive  coexistence  in  classic 
Greece  and  Rome.  What  seems  the  older  belief  holds  its 
ground  in  the  realm  of  Hades  ;  that  dim  region  of  bodiless, 
smoke-like  ghosts  remains  the  home  of  the  undistinguished 
crowd  in  the  ft^<ros  j3tos,  the  "middle  life,"  Yet  at  the 
same  time  the  judgment-seat  of  Minos  and  Rhadamanthos, 
the  joys  of  Elysium  for  the  just  and  good,  fiery  Tartarus 
echoing  with  the  wail  of  the  wicked,  represent  the  newer 
doctrine  of  a  moral  retribution.*  The  idea  of  purgatorial 
suffering,  which  hardly  seems  to  have  entered  the  minds  of 
the  lower  races,  expands  in  immense  vigour  in  the  great 
Aryan  religions  of  Asia.  In  Brahmanism  and  Buddhism, 
the  working  out  of  good  and  evil  actions  into  their  neces- 
sary consequence  of  happiness  and  misery  is  the  very  key 
to  the  philosophy  of  life,  whether  life's  successive  transmi- 
grations be  in  animal,  or  human,  or  demon  births  on  earth, 
or  in  luxurious  heaven-palaces  of  gold  and  jewels,  or  in  the 
agonizing  hells  where  Oriental  fancy  riots  in  the  hideous 
inventory  of  torture — caldrons  of  boiling  oil  and  liquid  fire ; 
black  dungeons  and  rivers  of  filth ;  vipers,  and  vultures, 
and  cannibals ;  thorns,  and  spears,  and  red-hot  pincers,  and 
whips  of  flame.  To  the  modem  Hindu,  it  is  true,  cere- 
monial morality  seems  to  take  the  upper  hand,  and  the 
question  of  happiness  or  misery  after  death  turns  rather  on 
ablutions  and  fasts,  on  sacrifices  and  gifts  to  brahmans^ 
than  on  purity  and  beneficence  of  life.    Buddhism  in  South- 

*  Bimsen,  'Egypt's  Place  in  Univ.  Hist'  vol.  iv.  p.  618, etc.  ;  Birch's  In- 
troduction to  and  translation  of  the  *  Book  of  the  Dead,'  ibid.  vol.  v.  ; 
Wilkinson,  'Ancient  Eg.'  vol.  v. 

»  For  details  see  Max  Miiller,  '  Chips,'  vol.  i.  p.  47  ;  Pauly,  **  Real  Encyclop.' 
and  Smith's  'Die.  of  Biog.  and  Myth.' 

VOL.  II.  H 


98  ANIMISM. 

East  Asia,  sadly  degenerate  from  its  once  high  estate,  is 
apt  to  work  out  the  doctrine  of  merit  and  demerit  into 
debtor  and  creditor  accounts  kept  in  good  and  bad  marks 
from  day  to  day ;  to  serve  out  so  much  tea  in  hot  weather 
counts  1  to  the  merit-side,  and  putting  a  stop  to  one's 
women  scolding  for  a  month  counts  1  likewise,  but  tliis 
may  be  balanced  by  the  oflFence  of  letting  them  keep  the 
bowls  and  plates  dirty  for  a  day,  which  counts  1  the  wrong 
way  ;  and  it  appears  that  giving  wood  for  two  coffins,  which 
count  SO  marks  each,  and  burying  four  bones,  at  10  marks 
a-piece,  would  just  be  balanced  by  murdering  a  child,  which 
counts  100  to  the  bad.^  It  need  hardly  be  said  here  that 
these  two  great  religions  of  Asia  must  be  judged  rather  in 
their  records  of  long  past  ages,  than  in  the  lingering  dege- 
neration of  their  modem  reality. 

In  the  Khordah-Avesta,  a  document  of  the  old  Persian 
religion,  the  fate  of  good  and  wicked  souls  at  death  is  pic- 
tured in  a  dialogue  between  Zarathustra  (Zoroaster),  and 
Ahura-Mazda  and  Anra-Mainyu  (Ormuzd  and  Ahriman). 
Z^athustra  asks,  "  Ahura-Mazda,  Heavenly,  Holiest, 
Creator  of  the  corporeal  world.  Pure  !  When  a  pure  man 
dies,  where  does  his  soul  dwell  during  this  night?'*  Then 
answers  Ahura-Mazda :  "Near  .his  head  it  sits  down,  re- 
citing the  Gatha  Ustavaiti,  praying  happiness  for  itself; 
'  Happiness  be  to  the  man  who  conduces  to  the  happiness  of 
each.  May  Ahura-Mazda  create,  ruling  after  his  wish.'  "  On 
this  night  the  soul  sees  as  much  joyfulness  as  the  whole 
living  world  possesses;  and  so  the  second  and  the  third  night. 
When  the  lapse  of  the  third  night  turns  itself  to  light,  then 
the  soul  of  the  pure  man  goes  forward,  recollecting  itself  by , 
the  perfume  of  plants.  A  wind  blows  to  meet  it  from  the 
mid-day  regions,  a  sweet-scented  one,  more  sweet-scented 
than  the  other  winds,  and  the  soul  of  the  pure  man  receives 
it — *  Whence  blows  this  wind,  the  sweetest-scented  which  I 
ever  have  smelt  with  the  nose  ? '     Then  comes  to  meet  him 

*  *Journ.  Ind.  Archip.'  new  ser.  vol.  ii.  p.  210.     See  Basiian,   'Oestl. 
Asien.' 


ANIMISM.  99 

his  own  law  (lus  rule  of  life)  in  the  figure  of  a  maiden, 
beautiful,  shining,  with  shining  arms,  powerful,  well-grown, 
slender,  large-bosomed,  with  praiseworthy  body,  noble,  with 
brilliant  face,  one  of  fifteen  years,  as  fair  in  her  growth  as 
the  fairest  creatures.  Then  to  her  speaks  the  soul  of  the 
pure  man,  asking,  '  What  maiden  art  thou  whom  I  have 
seen  here  as  the  fairest  of  maidens  in  body?'  She  answers, 
*  I  am,  O  youth,  thy  good  thoughts,  words,  and  works,  thy 
good  law,  the  own  law  of  thine  own  body.  Thou  hast 
made  the  pleasant  yet  pleasanter  to  me,  the  fair  yet  fairer, 
the  desirable  yet  more  desirable,  the  sitting  in  a  high  place 
sitting  in  a  yet  higher  place.'  Then  the  soul  of  the  pure 
man  takes  the  first  step  and  comes  to  the  first  paradise,  the 
second  and  third  step  to  the  second  and  third  paradise, 
the  fourth  step  and  arrives  at  the  Eternal  Lights.  To  the 
soul  speaks  a  pure  one  deceased  before,  asking  it,  '  How 
art  thou,  O  pure  deceased,  come  away  fi:om  the  fleshly 
dwellings,  from  the  corporeal  world  hither  to  the  invisible, 
from  the  perishable  world  hither  to  the  imperishable.  Hail! 
has  it  happened  to  thee  long  ? '  "  Then  speaks  Ahura- 
Mazda :  ^  Ask  not  him  whom  thou  askest,  for  he  is  come 
on  the  fearful  way  of  trembling,  the  separation  of  body  and 
soul.  Bring  him  hither  of  the  food,  of  the  full  fatness,  that 
is  the  food  for  a  youth  who  thinks,  speaks,  and  does  good, 
who  is  devoted  to  the  good  law  after  death — that  is  the  food 
for  a  woman  who  especially  thinks  good,  speaks  good,  does 
good,  the  following,  obedient,  pure  after  death.' "  And 
now  Zarathustra  asks,  when  a  wicked  one  dies,  where  his 
soul  dwells  ?  He  is  told  how,  running  about  near  the  head, 
it  utters  the  prayer,  Ke  maum : — '*  Which  land  shall  I 
praise,  whither  shall  I  go  praying,  0  Ahura-Mazda  ?" 
In  this  night  it  sees  as  much  unjoyfulness  as  the  whole 
living  world ;  and  so  the  second  and  the  third  night,  and  it 
goes  at  dawn  to  the  impure  place,  recollecting  itself  by  the 
stench.  An  evil-smelling  wind  comes  towards  him  from 
the  north,  and  with  it  the  ugly  hateful  maiden  who  is  his 
own  wicked  deeds,  and  the  soul  takes  the  fourth  step  into 

H  2 


100  ANIMISM. 

the  darkness  without  beginning,  and  a  wicked  soul  asks 
how  long — woe  to  thee  ! — art  thou  come  ?  and  the  mocking 
Anra-Mainyu,  answering  in  words  like  the  words  of  Ahura- 
Mazda  to  the  good,  bids  food  to  be  brought — ^poison,  and 
mixed  with  poison,  for  them  who  think  and  speak  and  do 
evil,  and  follow  the  wicked  law.  The  Parsi  of  our  own 
time,  following  in  obscure  tradition  the  ancient  Zoroastrian 
faith,  before  he  prays  for  forgiveness  for  all  that  he  ought 
to  have  thought,  and  said,  and  done,  and  has  not,  for  all 
that  he  ought  not  to  have  thought,  and  said,  and  done,  and 
has,  confesses  thus  his  faith  of  the  future  life : — "  I  am 
wholly  without  doubt  in  the  existence  of  the  good  Mazada- 
ya^nian  faith,  in  the  coming  of  the  resurrection  and  the 
later  body,  in  the  stepping  over  the  bridge  Chinvat,  in  an 
invariable  recompense  of  good  deeds  and  their  reward,  and 
of  bad  deeds  and  their  punishment.'*^ 

In  Jewish  theology,  the  doctrine  of  future  retribution 
appears  after  the  Babylonish  captivity,  not  in  ambiguous 
terms,  but  as  the  strongly-expressed  and  intensely-felt 
religious  conviction  it  has  since  remained  among  the  chil- 
dren of  Israel.  Not  long  afterward,  it  received  the  sanction 
of  Christianity. 

A  broad  survey  of  the  doctrine  of  the  Future  Life  among 
the  various  nations  of  the  world  shows  at  once  how  difficult 
and  how  important  is  a  systematic  theory  of  its  develop- 
ment. Looked  at  ethnographically,  the  general  relations 
of  the  lower  to  the  higher  culture  as  to  the  belief  in  future 
existence  may  be  defined  somewhat  as  follows  : — If  we  draw 
a  line  dividing  civilization  at  the  junction  of  savagery  and 
barbarism — about  where  the  Carib  and  New  Zealander  ends 
and  the  Aztec  or  Tatar  begins,  we  may  see  clearly  the 
difference  of  prevalent  doctrine  on  either  side.  On  the 
savage  side,  the  theory  of  hovering  ghosts  is  strong,  re- 
birth in  human  or  animal  bodies  is  often  thought  of,  but 
above  all  there  prevails  the  expectation  of  a  new  life,  most 

*  Spiegel,  'Avesta,'  ed.  BleeV,  vol.  iii.  pp.  186,  163;  see  vol.  i.  pp.  xviiL 
90,  141;  vol.  il  p.  68. 


ANIMISM.  101 

often  located  in  some  distant  earthly  region,  or  less  com- 
monly in  the  under-world  or  on  the  sky.  On  the  cultured 
side,  the  theory  of  hovering  ghosts  continues,  hut  tends  to 
subside  from  philosophy  into  folklore,  the  theory  of  re-birth 
is  elaborated  into  great  philosophic  systems,  but  eventually 
dies  out  under  the  opposition  of  scientific  biology,  while 
the  doctrine  of  a  new  life  after  death  maintains  its  place 
with  immense  power  in  the  human  mind,  although  the  dead 
have  been  ousted  by  geography  from  any  earthly  district, 
and  the  regions  of  heaven  and  hell  are  more  and  more 
spiritualized  out  of  definite  locality  into  vague  expressions 
of  future  happiness  and  misery.  Again,  on  the  savage  side 
we  find  the  dominant  idea  to  be  a  continuance  of  the  sorl 
in  a  new  existence,  like  the  present  life,  or  idealized  and 
exaggerated  on  its  model ;  while  on  the  cultured  side  the 
doctrine  of  judgment  and  moral  retribution  prevails  with 
paramount,  though  not  indeed  absolute  sway.  What,  then, 
has  been  the  historical  course  of  theological  opinion,  to 
have  produced  in  different  stages  of  culture  these  contrasted 
phases  of  doctrine  ? 

In  some  respects,  theories  deriving  savage  from  more 
civilized  ideas  are  tenable.     In  certain  cases,  to  consider  a 
particular  savage  doctrine  of  the  future  state  as  a  fragmen- 
tary, or  changed,  or  corrupted  outcome  of  the  religion  of 
higher  races,  seems  as  easy  as  to  reverse  this  view  by  taking 
savagery  as  representing  the  starting-point.     It  is  open  to 
anyone  to   suppose   that  the   doctrine   of   transmigration 
among  American  savages  and  African  barbarians  may  have 
been  degraded  from  elaborate  systems  of  metempsychosis 
established   among  philosophic  nations  like  the  Hindus ; 
that  the  North  American  and  South  African  doctrine  of 
continued  existence  in  a  subterranean  world  may  be  derived 
from  similar  beliefs  held  by  races  at  the  level  of  the  ancient 
Greeks ;  that  when  rude  tribes  in  the  Old  or  New  World 
assign  among  the  dead  a  life  of  happiness  to  some,  and  of 
misery  to   others,  this  idea  may  have  been  inherited  or 
adopted  from  cultured  nations  holding  more  strongly  and 


102  ANIMISM. 

sj'stematically  the  doctrine  of  retribution.  In  such  cases 
the  argument  is  to  a  great  extent  the  same,  whether  the 
lower  race  be  considef  ed  degenerate  descendants  of  a  higher 
nation,  or  whether  the  simpler  supposition  be  put  forward 
that  they  have  adopted  the  ideas  of  some  more  cultured 
people.  These  views  ought  to  have  full  attention,  for  dege- 
nerate and  borrowed  beliefs  form  no  small  item  in  the 
opinions  of  uncivilized  races.  Yet  this  kind  of  explanation 
is  more  adapted  to  meet  special  cases  than  general  con- 
ditions ;  it  is  rather  suited  to  piecemeal  treatment,  than  to 
comprehensive  study,  of  the  religions  of  mankind.  Worked 
out  on  the  large  scale,  it  would  endeavour  to  account  for 
the  doctrines  of  the  savage  world,  as  being  a  patchwork  of 
fragments  from  various  religions  of  high  nations,  trans- 
ported by  not  easily-conceived  means  from  their  distant 
homes  and  set  down  in  remote  regions  of  the  earth.  It 
may  be  safely  said  that  no  hypothesis  can  account  for  the 
varied  doctrines  current  among  the  lower  tribes,  without  the 
admission  that  religious  ideas  have  been  in  no  small  mea- 
sure developed  and  modified  in  the  districts  where  they  are 
current. 

Now  this  theory  of  development,  in  its  fullest  scope, 
combined  with  an  accessory  theory  of  degeneration  and 
adoption,  seems  best  to  meet  the  general  facts  of  the  case. 
A  hypothesis  which  finds  the  origin  of  the  doctrine  of  the 
future  life  in  the  primitive  animism  of  the  lower  races,  and 
thence  traces  it  along  the  course  of  religious  thought,  in 
varied  developments  fitted  to  exacter  knowledge  and  forming 
part  of  loftier  creeds,  may  well  be  maintained  ^s  in  reason- 
able accordance  with  the  evidence.  Such  a  theory,  as  has 
been  sufficiently  shown  in  the  foregoing  chapters,  affords  a 
satisfactory  explanation  of  the  occurrence,  in  the  midst  of 
cultured  religions,  of  intellectually  low  superstitions,  such 
as  that  of  offerings  to  the  dead,  and  various  others.  These, 
which  the  development  theory  treats  naturally  as  survivals 
from  a  low  stage  of  education  lingering  on  in  a  higher,  are 
by  no  means  so  readily  accounted  for  by  the  degeneration 


ANIMISM.  103 

theory.  There  are  more  special  arguments  which  favour 
the  priority  of  the  savage  to  the  civilized  phases  of  the 
doctrine  of  a  future  life.  If  savages  did  in  general  receive 
their  views  of  another  existence  from  the  religious  systems 
of  cultured  nations,  these  systems  can  hardly  have  been 
such  as  recognize  the  dominant  doctrines  of  heaven  and 
hell.  For,  as  to  the  locality  of  the  future  world,  savage 
races  especially  favour  a  view  little  represented  in  civilized 
belief,  namely,  that  the  life  to  come  is  in  some  distant 
earthly  country.  Moreover,  the  belief  in  a  fiery  abyss  or 
Gehenna,  which  excites  so  intensely  and  lays  hold  so  firmly 
of  the  imagination  of  the  most  ignorant  men,  would  have 
been  especially  adapted  to  the  minds  of  savages,  had  it 
come  down  to  them  by  tradition  from  an  ancestral  faith. 
Yet,  in  fact,  the  lower  races  so  seldom  recognize  such  an 
idea,  that  even  the  few  cases  in  which  it  occurs  lie  open  to 
suspicion  of  not  being  purely  native.  The  proposition  that 
the  savage  doctrines  descend  from  the  more  civilized  seems 
thus  to  involve  the  improbable  supposition,  that  tribes 
capable  of  keeping  up  traditions  of  Paradise,  Heaven,  or 
Hades,  should  nevertheless  have  forgotten  or  discarded  a 
tradition  of  Hell.  Still  more  important  is  the  contrast 
between  the  continuance-theory  and  the  retribution-theory 
of  the  future  existence,  in  the  sections  of  culture  where 
they  respectively  predominate.  On  the  one  hand,  the  con- 
tinuance-theory, with  its  ideas  of  a  ghostly  life  like  this,  is 
directly  vouched  for  by  the  evidence  of  the  senses  in  dreams 
and  visions  of  the  dead,  and  may  be  claimed  as  part  of  the 
"  Natural  Religion,"  properly  so  called,  of  the  lower  races. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  retribution-theory  is  a  dogma  which 
this  evidence  of  apparitions  could  hardly  set  on  foot,  though 
capable  of  afterwards  supporting  it.  Throughout  the  pre- 
sent study  of  animistic  religion,  it  constantly  comes  into 
view  that  doctrines  which  in  the  lower  culture  are  philo- 
sophical, tend  in  the  higher  to  become  ethical ;  that  what 
among  savages  is  a  science  of  nature,  passes  among  civi- 
lized nations  into  a  moral   engine.     Herein  lies  the  dis- 


104  ANIMISM. 

tinction  of  deepest  import  between  the  two  great  theories 
of  the  soul's  existence  after  bodily  death.  According  to  a 
development  theory  of  culture,  the  savage,  unethical  doc- 
trine of  continuance  would  be  taken  as  the  more  primitive, 
succeeded  in  higher  civilization  by  the  ethical  doctrine  of 
retribution.  Now  this  theory  of  the  course  of  religion  in 
the  distant  and  obscure  past  is  conformable  with  experience 
of  its  actual  history,  so  far  as  this  lies  within  our  know- 
ledge. Whether  we  compare  the  early  Greek  with  the  later 
Greek,  the  early  Jew  with  the  later  Jew,  the  ruder  races  of 
the  world  in  their  older  condition  with  the  same  races  as 
affected  by  the  three  missionary  religions  of  Buddhism, 
Mohammedanism,  Christianity,  the  testimony  of  history 
vouches  for  the  like  transition  towards  ethical  dogma. 

In  conclusion,  though  theological  argument  on  the  actual 
validity  of  doctrines  relating  to  the  future  life  can  have  no 
place  here,  it  will  be  well  not  to  pass  by  without  further 
remark  one  great  practical  question  which  lies  fairly  within 
the  province  of  Ethnography.  How,  in  the  various  stages 
of  culture,  has  the  character  and  conduct  of  the  living  been 
affected  by  the  thought  of  a  life  to  come  ?  If  we  take  the 
savage  beliefs  as  a  starting-point,  it  will  appear  that  these 
belong  rather  to  speculative  philosophy  than  to  practical  rule 
of  life.  The  lower  races  hold  opinions  as  to  a  future  state 
because  they  think  them  true,  but  it  is  not  surprising  that 
men  who  take  so  little  thought  of  a  contingency  three  days 
off,  should  receive  little  practical  impulse  from  vague  antici** 
pations  of  a  life  beyond  the  grave.  Setting  aside  the  con- 
sideration of  possible  races  devoid  of  all  thought  of  a 
future  existence,  there  unquestionably  has  been  and  is  a 
great  mass  of  mankind  whose  lives  are  scarcely  affected  by 
such  expectations  of  another  life  as  they  do  hold.  The 
doctrine  of  continuance,  making  death  as  it  were  a  mere 
journey  into  a  new  country,  can  have  little  direct  action  on 
men's  conduct,  though  indirectly  it  has  indeed  an  enormous 
and  disastrous  influence  on  society,  leading  as  it  does  to  the 
slaughter  of  wives  and  slaves,  and  the  destruction  of  pro- 


ANIMISM.  105 

perty,  for  the  use  of  the  dead  in  the  next  world.  If  this 
world  to  come  be  thought  a  happier  region,  the  looking  for- 
ward to  it  makes  men  more  willing  to  risk  their  lives  in 
battle,  promotes  the  habit  of  despatching  the  sick  and  aged 
into  a  better  life,  and  encourages  suicide  when  life  is  very 
hatefol  here.  When  the  half-way  house  between  continuance 
and  retribution  is  reached,  and  the  idea  prevails  that  the 
manly  virtues  which  give  rank  and  wealth  and  honour  here 
will  lead  hereafter  to  yet  brighter  glory ;  then  this  belief 
must  add  new  force  to  the  earthly  motives  which  make  bold 
warriors  and  mighty  chiefs.  But  among  men  who  expect  to 
become  hovering  ghosts  at  death,  or  to  depart  to  some 
gloomy  land  of  shades,  such  expectation  strengthens  the 
natural  horror  and  hatred  of  dissolution.  They  tend  to- 
ward the  modem  African's  state  of  mind,  whose  thought 
of  death  is  that  he  shall  drink  no  more  rum,  wear  no  more 
fine  clothes,  have  no  more  wives.  The  negro  of  our  own 
day  would  feel  to  the  utmost  the  sense  of  those  lines  in  the 
beginning  of  the  Iliad,  which  describe  the  heroes'  "  souls  " 
being  cast  down  to  Hades,  but  "  themselves  "  left  a  prey  to 
dogs  and  carrion  birds. 

Rising  to  the  level  of  the  higher  races,  we  mark  the 
thought  of  future  existence  taking  a  larger  and  larger  place 
in  the  convictions  of  religion,  the  expectation  of  a  judg- 
ment after  death  gaining  in  intensity  and  becoming,  what  it 
scarcely  seems  to  the  savage,  a  real  motive  in  life.  Yet  this 
change  is  not  to  be  measured  as  proceeding  throughout  in 
any  direct  proportion  with  the  development  of  culture.  The 
doctrine  of  the  future  life  has  hardly  taken  deeper  and 
stronger  root  in  the  higher  than  in  the  middle  levels  of 
civiUzation..  The  Osiris-mummy  carried  round  at  Egyptian 
feasts  symbolized  not  dissolution,  but  entrance  into  glory,  to 
the  nation  who  looked  for  their  real  life  not  on  the  banks  of 
the  Nile,  but  in  the  sunset  regions  of  the  mystic  Amenti. 
The  Moslem  says  that  men  sleep  in  life  and  wake  in  death ; 
the  Hindu  likens  the  body  which  a  soul  has  quitted  to  the 
bed  he  rises  from  in  the  morning.     The  story  of  the  ancient 


106  ANIMISM. 

GetflB,  who  wept  at  births  and  laughed  at  funerals,  embodies 
an  idea  of  the  relation  of  this  life  to  the  next  which  comes 
to  the  surface  again  and  again  in  the  history  of  religion, 
nowhere  perhaps  touched  in  with  a  lighter  hand  than  in 
the  Arabian  Nights'  tale  where  Abdallah  of  the  Sea  indig- 
nantly breaks  off  his  friendship  with  Abdallah  of  the  Land, 
when  he  hears  that  the  dwellers  on  the  land  do  not  feast  and 
sing  when  one  of  them  dies,  like  the  dwellers  in  the  sea, 
but  mourn  and  weep  and  tear  their  garments.  Such  thoughts 
lead  on  into  the  morbid  asceticism  that  culminates  in  the 
life  of  the  Buddhist  saint,  eating  his  food  with  loathing 
from  the  alms-bowl  that  he  carries  as  though  it  held 
medicine,  wrapping  himself  in  grave-clothes  from  the  ceme- 
tery, or  putting  on  his  disfigured  robe  as  though  it  were  a 
bandage  to  cover  a  sore,  whose  looking  forward  is  to  death 
for  deliverance  from  the  misery  of  life,  whose  dreamiest 
hope  is  that  after  an  inconceivable  series  of  successive 
existences  he  may  find  in  utter  dissolution  and  not-being  a 
refuge  even  from  heaven. 

The  belief  in  future  retribution  has  been  indeed  a  power- 
ful engine  in  shaping  the  life  of  nations.  Powerful  both  for 
good  and  evil,  it  has  been  made  the  servant-of-all-work  of 
many  faiths.  Priesthoods  have  used  it  unscrupulously  for 
their  professional  ends,  to  gain  wealth  and  power  for  their 
own  caste,  to  stop  intellectual  and  social  progress  beyond 
the  barriers  of  their  consecrated  systems.  On  the  banks  of 
the  river  of  death,  a  band  of  priests  has  stood  for  ages  to 
bar  the  passage  against  all  poor  souls  who  cannot  satisfy 
their  demands  for  ceremonies,  and  formulas,  and  fees.  This 
is  the  dark  side  of  the  picture.  On  the  bright  side,  as  we 
study  the  moral  standards  of  the  higher  nations,  and  see 
how  the  hopes  and  fears 'of  the  life  to  come  have  been 
brought  to  enforce  their  teachings,  it  is  plain  that  through 
most  widely  differing  religions  the  doctrine  of  future  judg- 
ment has  been  made  to  further  goodness  and  to  check 
wickedness,  according  to  the  shifting  rules  by  which  men 
have  divided  right  from  wrong.     The  philosophic  schools 


ANIMISM.  107 

which  from  classic  times  onward  have  rejected  the  belief  in 
ft  future  existence,  appear  to  have  come  back  by  a  new  road 
to  the  veiy  starting  point  which  perhaps  the  rudest  races  of 
men  never  quitted.  At  least  this  seems  true  as  regards  the 
doctrine  of  future  retribution,  which  is  alike  absent  from 
the  belief  of  classes  of  men  at  the  two  extremes  of  culture. 
How  far  the  moral  standard  of  life  may  have  been  adjusted 
throughout  the  higher  races  with  reference  to  a  life  here- 
after, is  a  problem  difficult  of  solution,  so  largely  do  un- 
believers in  this  second  life  share  ethical  principles  which 
have  been  more  or  less  shaped  under  its  influence.  Men 
who  live  for  one  world  or  for  two,  have  high  motives  of 
virtue  in  common  ;  the  noble  self-respect  which  impels  them 
to  the  life  they  feel  worthy  of  them ;  the  love  of  goodness 
for  its  own  sake  and  for  its  immediate  results  ;  and  beyond 
this,  the  desire  to  do  good  that  shall  survive  the  doer,  who 
wiU  not  indeed  be  in  the  land  of  the  living  to  see  his  work, 
but  who  can  yet  discount  his  expectations  into  some  measure 
of  present  satisfaction.  Yet  he  who  believes  that  his  thread 
of  life  will  be  severed  once  and  for  ever  by  the  fatal  shears, 
well  knows  that  he  wants  a  purpose  and  a  joy  in  life,  which 
belong  to  him  who  looks  for  a  life  to  come.  Few  men  feel 
real  contentment  in  the  expectation  of  vanishing  out  of  con- 
scious existence,  henceforth,  like  the  great  Buddha,  to  exist 
only  in  their  works.  To  remain  incarnate  in  the  memory  of 
friends  is  something.  A  few  great  spirits  may  enjoy  iii  the 
reverence  of  future  ages  a  thousand  years  or  so  of  "  sub- 
jective immortality ;  '*  though  as  for  mankind  at  large,  the 
individual's  personal  interest  hardly  extends  beyond  those 
who  have  lived  in  his  time,  while  his  own  memory  scarce 
outlives  the  third  and  fourth  generation.  But  over  and 
above  these  secular  motives,  the  belief  in  immortality 
extends  its  powerful  influence  through  life,  and  culminates 
at  the  last  hour,  when,  setting  aside  the  very  evidence  of 
their  senses,  the  mourners  smile  through  their  tears,  and 
say  it  is  not  death  but  life. 


CHAPTER    XIV. 

AKIMISM  (conHnued), 

Animism,  expanding  from  the  Doctrine  of  Sonls  to  the  wider  Doctrine  of 
Spirits,  becomes  a  complete  Philosophy  of  Natural  Religion — Definition 
of  Spirits  similar  to  and  apparently  modelled  on  that  of  Sonls — Transition- 
stage  :  classes  of  Sonls  passing  into  good  and  evil  Demons — Manes- Wor- 
ship— Doctrine  of  Embodiment  of  Spirits  in  human,  animal,  yegetable, 
and  inert  bodies— Demoniacal  Possession  and  Obsession  as  causes  of 
Disease  and  Oracle-inspiration — Fetishism— Disease-spirits  embodied— 
Ghost  attached  to  remains  of  Corpse—  Fetish  produced  by  a  Spirit  em- 
bodied in,  attached  to,  or  operating  through,  an  Object — ^Analogues  of 
Fetish-doctrine  in  Modem  Science— Stock-and-Stone  Worship— Idolatry 
— Survival  of  Animistic  Phraseology  in  modern  Language — Decline  of 
Animistic  theory  of  Nature. 

The  general  scheme  of  Animism,  of  which  the  doctrine  of 
souls  hitherto  discussed  forms  part,  thence  expands  to  com- 
plete'the  full  general  philosophy  of  Natural  Beligion  among 
mankind.  Conformably  with  that  early  childlike  philosophy 
in  which  human  life  seems  the  direct  key  to  the  understand- 
ing of  nature  at  large,  the  savage  theory  of  the  universe 
refers  its  phenomena  in  general  to  the  wilful  action  of  per- 
vading personal  spirits.  It  was  no  spontaneous  fancy,  but 
the  reasonable  inference  that  effects  are  due  to  causes,  which 
led  the  rude  men  of  old  days  to  people  with  such  ethereal 
phantoms  their  own  homes  and  haunts,  and  the  vast  earth 
and  sky  beyond.  Spirits  are  simply  personified  causes.  As 
men's  ordinary  life  and  actions  were  held  to  be  caused  by 
souls,  so  the  happy  or  disastrous  events  which  affect  man- 


ANIMISM.  109 

kind,  as  well  as  the  manifold  physical  operations  of  the 
outer  world,  were  accounted  for  as  caused  by  soul-like  beings, 
spirits  whose  essential  similarity  of  origin  is  evident  through 
all  their  wondrous  variety  of  power  and  function.  Much 
that  the  primitive  animistic  view  thus  explains,  has  been 
indeed  given  over  by  more  advanced  education  to  the 
*'  metaphysical  "  and  "  positive  "  stages  of  thought.  Yet 
animism  is  still  plainly  to  be  traced  onward  from  the  intel- 
lectual state  of  the  lower  races,  along  the  course  of  the 
higher  culture,  whether  its  doctrines  have  been  continued 
and  modified  into  the  accepted  philosophy  of  religion,  or 
whether  they  have  dwindled  into  mere  survivals  in  popular 
superstition.  Though  all  I  here  undertake  is  to  sketch  in 
outline  such  features  of  this  spiritualistic  philosophy  as  I 
can  see  plainly  enough  to  draw  at  all,  scarcely  attempting 
to  clear  away  the  haze  that  covers  great  parts  of  the  subject, 
yet  even  so  much  as  I  venture  on  is  a  hard  task,  made  yet 
harder  by  the  responsibility  attaching  to  it.  For  it  appears 
that  to  follow  the  course  of  animism  on  from  its  more 
primitive  stages,  is  to  account  for  much  of  mediaeval  and 
modem  opinion  whose  meaning  and  reason  could  hardly  be 
comprehended  without  the  aid  of  a  development-theory  of 
culture,  taking  in  the  various  processes  of  new  formation, 
abolition,  survival,  and  revival.  Thus  even  the  despised 
ideas  of  savage  races  become  a  practically  important  topic  to 
the  modern  world,  for  here,  as  usual,  whatever  bears  on  the 
origin  of  philosophic  opinion,  bears  also  on  its  vaHdity. 

At  this  point  of  the  investigation,  we  come  fully  into  sight 
of  the  principle  which  has  been  all  along  implied  in  the  use 
of  the  word  Animism,  in  a  sense  beyond  its  narrower  mean- 
ing of  the  doctrine  of  souls.  By  using  it  to  express  the 
doctrine  of  spirits  generally,  it  is  practically  asserted  that 
the  ideas  of  souls,  demons,  deities,  and  any  other  classes  of 
spiritual  beings,  are  conceptions  of  similar  nature  through- 
out, the  conceptions  of  souls  being  the  original  ones  of  the 
series.  It  was  best,  from  this  point  of  view,  to  begin  with 
a  careful  study  of  souls,  which  are  the  spirits  proper  to  men, 


110  ANIMISM. 

animals,  and  things,  before  extending  the  survey  of  the 
spirit-world  to  its  fullest  range.  If  it  be  admitted  that  souls 
and  other  spiritual  beings  are  conceived  of  as  essentially 
similar  in  their  nature,  it  may  be  reasonably  argued  that  the 
class  of  conceptions  based  on  evidence  most  direct  and 
accessible  to  ancient  men,  is  the  earlier  and  fundamental 
class.  To  grant  this,  is  in  effect  to  agree  that  the  doctrine 
of  souls,  founded  on  the  natural  perceptions  of  primitive 
man,  gave  rise  to  the  doctrine  of  spirits,  which  extends 
and  modifies  its  general  theory  for  new  purposes,  but  in 
developments  less  authenticated  and  consistent,  more  fanci- 
ful and  far-fetched.  It  seems  as  though  the  conception  of 
a  human  soul,  when  once  attained  to  by  man,  served  as  a 
type  or  model  on  which  he  framed  not  only  his  ideas  of 
other  souls  of  lower  grade,  but  also  his  ideas  of  spiritual 
beings  in  general,  from  the  tiniest  elf  that  sports  in  the  long 
grass  up  to  the  heavenly  Creator  and  Ruler  of  the  world, 
the  Great  Spirit. 

The  doctrines  of  the  lower  races  fully  justify  us  in  classing 
their  spiritual  beings  in  general  as  similar  in  nature  to  the 
souls  of  men.  It  will  be  incidentally  shown  here,  again 
and  again,  that  souls  have  the  same  qualities  attributed  to 
them  as  other  spirits,  are  treated  in  like  fashion,  and  pass 
without  distinct  breaks  into  every  part  of  the  general 
spiritual  definition.  The  similar  nature  of  soul  and  other 
spirit  is,  in  fact,  one  of  the  commonplaces  of  animism,  from 
its  rudest  to  its  most  cultured  stages.  It  ranges  from  the 
native  New  Zealanders'  and  West  Indians'  conceptions  of 
the  "  atua  "  and  the  **  cemi,"  beings  which  require  special 
definition  to  show  whether  they  are  human  souls  or  demons 
or  deities  of  some  other  class,^  and  so  onward  to  the  decla- 
ration of  Philo  Judseus,  that  souls  demons,  and  angels 
differ  indeed  in  name,  but  are  in  reality  one,'  and  to  the 
state  of  mind  of  the  modern  Roman  Catholic  priest,  who  is 

>  See  Taylor,  *  New  Zealand,*  p.  134;  J.  G.  MUller,  '  Amerikaniaohe  Urro- 
llgionen,'  p.  171. 
^  Philo  Jud.  de  Gigantibua,  iv. 


ANIMISM.  Jll 

cantioned  in  the  rubric  concerning  the  examination  of  a 
possessed  patient,  not  to  believe  the  demon  if  he  pretends 
to  be  the  soul  of  some  saint  or  deceased  person,  or  a  good 
angel  (neque  ei  credatur,  si  dsemon  simularet  se  esse  ani- 
mam  alicujus  Sancti,  vel  defuncti,  vel  Angelum  bonum).^ 
Nothing  can  bring  more  broadly  into  view  the  similar 
nature  of  souls  and  other  spiritual  beings  than  the  ex- 
istence of  a  full  transitional  series  of  ideas.  Souls  of  dead 
men  are  in  fact  considered  as  actually  forming  one  of  the 
most  important  classes  of  demons  and  deities. 

It  is  quite  usual  for  savage  tribes  to  live  in  terror  of  the 
souls  of  the  dead  as  harmful  spirits.  Thus  Australians 
have  been  known  to  consider  the  ghosts  of  the  unburied 
dead  as  becoming  malignant  demons.^  New  Zealanders 
have  supposed  the  souls  of  their  dead  to  become  so  changed 
in  nature  as  to  be  malignant  to  their  nearest  and  dearest 
friends  in  life;^  the  Caribs  said  that,  of  man's  various 
souls,  some  go  to  the  seashore  and  capsize  boats,  others  to 
the  forests  to  be  evil  spirits :  ^  among  the  Sioux  Indians 
the  fear  of  the  ghost's  vengeance  has  been  found  to  act  as  a 
check  on  murder ;  **  of  some  tribes  in  Central  Africa  it  may 
be  said  that  their  main  religious  doctrine  is  the  belief  in 
ghosts,  and  that  the  main  characteristia  of  these  ghosts  is 
to  do  harm  to  the  living.*  The  Patagonians  lived  in  terror 
of  the  souls  of  their  wizards,  which  become  evil  demons 
after  death  ;^  Turanian  tribes  of  North  Asia  fear  their 
shamans  even  more  when  dead  than  when  alive,  for  they 
become  a  special  class  of  spirits  who  are  the  hurtfullest  in 
all  nature,  and  who  among  the  Mongols  plague  the  living  on 

^  Rituale  Romannm  :  De  Exorcizandis  Obsessis  a  Dsemonio. 

*  Oldfield,  *Abor.  of  Australia*  in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc*  vol.  iii.  p.  236.     See 
Bonwick,  '  Tasmanians,'  p.  181. 

»  Taylor,  *New  Zealand/  p.  104. 

*  Kochefort,  <  lies  Antilles/  p.  429. 

*  Schoolcraft,  '  Indian  Tribes,'  part  ii.  p.  195 ;  M.  Eastman,    '  Dahcotah,* 
p.  72. 

*  Barton,  'Central  Afr.'  vol.  ii.  p.  344  ;  Schlegel,  '  Ewe-Sprache,'  p.  xxv. 
7  Falkner,  'Patagonia,'  p.  116 ;  but  c£  Musters,  p.  180. 


112  ANIMISM. 

purpose  to  make  them  bring  offerings.^  In  China  it  is  held 
that  the  multitudes  of  wretched  destitute  spirits  in  the 
world  below,  such  as  souls  of  lepers  and  beggars,  can  sorely 
annoy  the  living ;  therefore  at  certain  times  they  are  to  be 
appeased  with  offerings  of  food,  scant  and  beggarly ;  and  a 
man  who  feels  unwell,  or  fears  a  mishap  in  business,  will 
prudently  have  some  mock-clothing  and  mock-money  burnt 
for  these  "  gentlemen  of  the  lower  regions."*  Notions  of 
this  sort  are  widely  prevalent  in  Indo-Ghina  and  India; 
whole  orders  of  demons  there  were  formerly  human  souls, 
especially  of  people  left  unburied  or  slain  by  plague  or 
violence,  of  bachelors  or  of  women  who  died  in  childbirth, 
and  who  henceforth  wreak  their  vengeance  on  the  living. 
They  may,  however,  be  propitiated  by  temples  and  offerings, 
and  thus  have  become  in  fact  a  regular  class  of  local  deities.' 
Among  them  may  be  counted  the  diabolic  soul  of  a  certain 
wicked  British  officer,  whom  native  worshippers  in  the 
Tinnevelly  district  still  propitiate  by  offering  at  his  grave 
the  brandy  and  cheroots  he  loved  in  life.*  India  even 
carries  theory  into  practice  by  an  actual  manufacture  of 
demons,  as  witness  the  two  following  accounts.  A  certain 
brahman,  on  whose  lands  a  kshatriya  raja  had  built  a  house, 
ripped  himself  up  in  revenge,  and  became  a  demon  of  the 
kind  called  brahmadasyu,  who  has  been  ever  since  the 
terror  of  the  whole  country,  and  is  the  most  common  village 
deity  in  Kharakpur.^  Toward  the  close  of  the  last  century 
there  were  two  brahmans,  out  of  whose  house  a  man  had 
wrongfully,  as  they  thought,  taken  forty  rupees ;  whereupon 
one  of  tlie  brahmans  proceeded  to  cut  off  his  own  mother's 


»  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth.' p.  122. 

»  Doolittie,  *  Chinese,'  vol  i.  p.  206. 

■  BastioD,  *  Oestl.  Asien,'  vol  ii.  pp.  129,  416 ;  vol.  iii.  pp.  29,  257,  278 ; 
'Psychologic,*  pp.  77,  99  ;  Cross,  'Karens,'  1.  c.  p.  816 ;  Elliot  in  'Journ. 
Eth.  Soc.*  vol-  i.  p.  116  ;  Buchanan,  'Mysore,  etc.*  in  Pinkerton,  voL  viii, 
p.  677. 

*  Shortt,  'Tribes  of  India,'  in  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc.*  vol.  vii.  p.  192;  Tinling, 
'  Tour  round  India,*  p.  19. 

'  Bastian,  *  Psychologic,*  p.  101. 


ANIMISM.  113 

liead,  with  the  professed  view,  entertained  by  both  mother 
and  son,  that  her  spirit,  excited  by  the  beating  of  a  large 
drum  daring  forty  days,  might  haunt,  torment,  and  pursue 
io  death  the  taker  of  their  money  and  those  concerned  with 
him.  Declaring  with  her  last  words  that  she  would  blast 
the  thief,  the  spiteful  hag  deliberately  gave  up  her  life  to 
take  ghostly  vengeance  for  those  forty  rupees.^  By  in- 
stances like  these  it  appears  that  we  may  trace  up  from  the 
psychology  of  the  lower  races  the  faniiliar  ancient  and 
modem  European  tales  of  baleful  ghost-demons.  The  old 
fear  even  now  continues  to  vouch  for  the  old  belief. 

Happily  for  man*s  anticipation  of  death,  and  for  the 
treatment  of  the  sick  and  aged,  thoughts  of  horror  and 
Ixatred  do  not  preponderate  in  ideas  of  deified  ancestors, 
who  are  regarded  on  the  whole  as  kindly  patron  spirits,  at 
least  to  their  o^vn  kinsfolk  and  worshippers.  Manes-wor- 
ship is  one  of  the  great  branches  of  the  religion  of  mankind. 
Its  principles  are  not  difficult  to  understand,  for  they 
plainly  keep  up  the  social  relations  of  the  living  world. 
The  dead  ancestor,  now  passed  into  a  deity,  simply  goes  on 
protecting  his  own  family  and  receiving  suit  and  service 
from  them  as  of  old  ;  the  dead  chief  still  watches  over  his 
own  tribe,  still  holds  his  authority  by  helping  friends  and 
harming  enemies,  still  rewards  the  right  and  sharply  pun- 
ishes the  wrong.  It  will  be  enough  to  show  by  a  few  cha- 
racteristic examples  the  general  position  of  manes-worship 
among  mankind,  from  the  lower  culture  upward.^  In  the 
two  Americas  it  appears  not  unfrequently,  from  the  low 
savage  level  of  the  Brazilian  Camacans,  to  the  somewhat 
higher  stage  of  northern  Indian  tribes  whom  we  hear  of  as 
praying  to  the  spuits  of  their  forefathers  for  good  weather 
or  luck  in  hunting,  and  fancying  when  an  Indian  falls  into 
the  fire  that  the  ancestral  spirits  pushed  him  in  to  punish 

*  Sir  J.  Shore  in  *  Asiatic  Res.*  vol.  iv.  p.  831. 

'  For  some  collections  of  details  of  manes-worship,  see  Meiners,  *  Geschichte 
der  Beligiouen/  vol.  i.  book  8 ;  Bastian,  *  Mensch,*  yol.  ii.  pp.  402-11  ; 
*  Paychologie,'  pp.  72-114. 

VOL.  II.  r 


114  ANIMISM. 

neglect  of  the  customary  gifts>  while  the  Natchez  of  Louis- 
iana are  said  to  have  even  gone  so  far  as  to  build  temples 
for  dead  men.^  Turning  to  the  dark  races  of  the  Pacific,, 
we  find  the  Tasmanians  laying  their  sick  round  a  corpse 
on  the  funeral  pile,  that  the  dead  might  come  in  the  night 
and  take  out  the  devils  that  caused  the  diseases ;  it  is  as- 
serted in  a  general  way  of  the  natives,  that  they  believed 
most  implicitly  in  the  return  of  the  spirits  of  their  departed 
friends  or  relations  to  bless  or  injure  them  as  the  case  might 
be.^  In  Tanna,  the  gods  are  spirits  of  departed  ancestoi*s, 
aged  chiefs  becoming  deities  after  death,  presiding  over  the 
growth  of  yams  and  fruit  trees,  and  receiving  from  the 
islanders  prayer  and  offerings  of  first  fruits.*  Nor  are  the 
fairer  Polynesians  behind  in  this  respect.  Below  the  great 
mythological  gods  of  Tonga  and  New  Zealand,  the  souls  of 
chiefs  and  warriors  form  a  lower  but  active  and  powerful 
order  of  deities,  who  in  the  Tongan  paradise  intercede  for 
man's  benefit  with  the  higher  deities,  who  direct  the  Maori 
war  parties  on  the  march,  hover  over  them  and  give  them 
courage  in  the  fight,  and,  watching  jealously  their  own 
tribes  and  families,  punish  any  violation  of  the  sacred  laws, 
of  tapu.*  Thence  we  trace  the  doctrine  into  the  Malay 
islands,  where  the  souls  of  deceased  ancestors  are  looked 
to  for  prosperity  in  life  and  help  in  distress.*  In  Mada- 
gascar, the  worship  of  the  spirits  of  the  dead  is  remarkably 
associated  with  the  Yazimbas,  the  aborigines  of  the  island, 
who  are  said  still  to  survive  as  a  distinct  race  in  the  inte- 
rior, and  whose  peculiar  graves  testify  to  their  former  occu- 
pancy of  other  districts.  These  graves,  small  in  size,  and 
distinguished  by  a  cairn  and  an  upright  stone  slab  or  altaiv 

^  J.  G.  MuUer,  'Amer.  Urrel.*  pp.  73, 173,  209,  261  ;  Schoolcraft,  'Indiait 
Tribes,'  part  i.  p.  39,  part  iii.  p.  237  ;  Waitz,  *  Antluropologie,*  vol.  iii.  pp. 
191,  204. 

2  Backhouse,  '  Australia,'  p.  105  ;  Bonwick,  '  Tasmanians,*  p.  182. 

*  Turner,  'Polynesia,'  p.  88. 

''  Mariner,  *  Tonga  Is.'  vol.  li.  p.  104  ;  S.  S.  Farmer,  p.  126;  Shortland, 
•Trads.  of  N.  Z.'  p.  81  ;  Taylor,  'New  Zealand,'  p.  108. 

6  J.  R.  Forster,  'Observations,'  p.  60i  ;  Marsden,  'Sumatra,'  p.  258; 
•Joum.  Ind.  Archip.'  vol.  ii.  p.  234. 


ANIMISM.  115 

are  places  which  the  Malagasy  regard  with  equal  fear  and 
veneration,  and  their  faces  become  sad  and  serious  when 
they  even  pass  near.     To  take  a  stone  or  pluck  a  twig  from 
one  of  these  graves,  to  stumble  against  one  in  the  dark^ 
would  be  resented  by  the  angry  Vazimba  inflicting  disease, 
or  coming  in  the  night  to  carry  off  the  offender  to  the 
region  of  ghosts.     The  Malagasy  is' thus  enabled  to  account 
for  every  otherwise  unaccountable  ailment  by  his  having 
knowingly  or  unknowingly  given  offence  to  some  Vazimba. 
They  are  not  indeed  always  malevolent,  they  may  be  pla* 
cable  or  implacable,  or  partake  of  both  characters.     Thus 
it  comes  to  pass,  that  at  the  altar-slab  which  long  ago  some 
rude  native  femily  set  up  for  commemoration  or  dutiful 
oltering  of  food  to  a  dead  kinsman,  a  barbaric  supplanting 
race  now  comes  to  smear  the  burnt  fat  of  sacrifice,  and  set 
up  the  heads  of  poultry  and  sheep  and  the  horns  of  bullocks, 
that  the  mysterious  tenant  may  be  kind,  not  cruel,  with  his. 
superhuman  powers.^ 

On  the  continent  of  Africa,  manes-worship  appears  with 
cxtremest  definiteness  and  strength.  Thus  Zidu  wamors, 
aided  by  the  "  amatongo,'*  the  spirits  of  their  ancestors, 
conquer  in  the  battle ;  but  if  the  dead  turn  their  backs  on 
tlie  living,  the  living  fall  in  the  fight,  to  become  ancestral 
spirits  in  their  turn.  In  anger  the  "  itongo "  seizes  a 
living  man's  body  and  inflicts  disease  and  death  ;  in  bene- 
ficence he  gives  health,  and  cattle,  and  corn,  and  all  men 
wish.  Even  the  little  children  and  old  women,  of  small 
account  in  life,  become  at  death  spirits  having  much  power, 
the  infants  for  kindness,  the  crones  for  maUce.  But  it  is. 
especially  the  head  of  each  family  who  receives  the  worship 
of  his  kin.  Why  it  is  naturally  and  reasonably  so,  a  Zulu 
thus  explains.  "  Although  they  worship  the  many  Ama- 
tongo  of  their  tribe,  making  a  great  fence  around  them  for 
their  protection ;  yet  their  father  is  far  before  all  others 
-when  they  worship  the  Amatongo.     Their  father  is  a  great 

'  ElliB,  'Madagascir,'  vol.  i.  pp.  123,  423.      As  to  the  connexion  of  tlio 
YazimbM  with  the  Mazimba  of  East  Africa,  sec  Waitz,  vol.  11.  p.  860,  426. 

X  2 


116  ANIMISM. 

treasure  to  them  even  when  he  is  dead.  And  those  of  his 
children  who  are  akeady  grown  up  know  him  thoroughly, 
his  gentleness,  and  his  bravery."  "  Black  people  do  not 
worship  all  Amatongo  indifferently,  that  is,  all  the  dead  of 
their  tribe.  Speaking  generally,  the  head  of  each  house  is 
worshipped  by  the  children  of  that  house  ;  for  they  do  not 
know  the  ancients  who  are  dead,  nor  their  laud-giving 
names,  nor  their  names.  But  their  father  whom  they  knew 
is  the  head  by  whom  they  begin  and  end  in  their  prayer, 
for  they  know  him  best,  and  his  love  for  his  children ;  they 
remember  his  kindness  to  them  whilst  he  was  Uving ;  they 
compare  his  treatment  of  them  whilst  he  was  living,  sup- 
port themselves  by  it,  and  say,  *  He  will  still  treat  us  in  the 
same  way  now  he  is  dead.  We  do  not  know  why  he  should 
regard  others  besides  us ;  he  will  regard  us  only.'  "^  We 
shall  see  in  another  place  how  the  Zulu  follows  up  the  doc- 
trine of  divine  ancestors  till  he  reaches  a  first  ancestor  of 
man  and  creator  of  the  world,  the  primaeval  Unkulunkulu. 
In  West  Africa,  manes-worship  displays  in  contrast  its  two 
special  types.  On  the  one  hand,  we  see  the  North  Guinea 
negroes  transferring  the  souls  of  the  dead,  according  to 
their  lives,  to  the  rank  of  good  and  evil  spirits,  and  if  evil 
worshipping  them  the  more  zealously  as  fear  is  to  their 
minds  a  stronger  impulse  than  love.  On  the  other  hand, 
in  Southern  Guinea,  we  see  the  deep  respect  paid  to  the 
aged  during  life,  passing  into  worship  when  death  has 
raised  them  to  yet  higher  influence.  There  the  living  bring 
to  the  images  of  the  dead  food  and  drink,  and  even  a  small 
portion  of  their  profits  gained  in  trade ;  they  look  especially 
to  dead  relatives  for  help  in  the  trials  of  life,  and  "  it  is  no 
uncommon  thing  to  see  large  groups  of  men  and  women,  in 
times  of  peril  or  distress^  assembled  along  the  brow  of  some 
commanding  eminence,  or  along  the  skirts  of  some  dense 

^  Callaway,  '  Religious  System  of  Amazala,'  part  ii.  ;  see  also  Arbonsset  and 
Dauraas,  p.  469  ;  Casalis,  '  Basutos,'  pp.  248-54  ;  "Waltz,  '  Anthiopolc^gu^' 
Tol.  ii.  pp.  411,  419  ;  Magyar,  'Beisen  in  Siid-Afrika,'  pp.  21,  S36  (Congo); 
Cava2zi,  'Congo,' lib.  i 


ANIMISM.  117 

forest^  calling  in  the  most  piteous  and  touching  tones  upon 
the  spirits  of  their  ancestors/'  ^ 

In  Asia,  manes-worship  comes  to  the  surface  in  aU  direc- 
tions. The  rude  Veddas  of  Ceylon  believe  in  the  guardian- 
ship of  the  spirits  of  the  dead ;  these^  they  say,  are  "  ever 
watchful,  coining  to  them  in  sickness,  visiting  them  in 
dreams,  giving  them  flesh  when  hunting ;  "  and  in  every 
calamity  and  want  they  call  for  aid  on  the  ''kindred 
spirits,"  and  especially  the  shades  of  departed  children, 
the  **  infant  spirits."  *  Among  non-Hindu  tribes  of  India, 
whose  religions  more  or  less  represent  prae-Brahmanic  and 
prse-Buddhistic  conditions,  wide  and  deep  traces  appear  of 
an  ancient  and  surviving  cultus  of  ancestors.^  Among 
Turanian  tribes  spread  over  the  northern  regions  of  the 
Old  World,  a  similar  state  of  things  may  be  instanced  from 
the  Mongols,  worshipping  as  good  deities  the  princely  souls 
of  Genghis  Khan's  family,  at  whose  head  stands  the  divine 
Genghis  himself.*  Nor  have  nations  of  the  higher  Asiatic 
culture  generally  rejected  the  time-honoured  rite.  In  Japan 
the  "Way  of  the  Kami,"  better  known  to  foreigners  as  the 
Sin-tu  religion,  is  one  of  the  officially  recognized  faiths,  and 
in  it  there  is  still  kept  up  in  hut  and  palace  the  religion  of 
the  rude  old  mountain-tribes  of  the  land,  who  worshipped 
their  divine  ancestors,  the  Kami,  and  prayed  to  them  for 
help  and  blessing.  To  the  time  of  these  ancient  Kami,  say 
the  modem  Japanese,  the  rude  stone  implements  belong 
which  are  found  in  the  ground  in  Japan  as  elsewhere :  to 
modem  ethnologists,  however,  these  bear  witness  not  of  divine 
but  savage  parentage.^    In  Siam  the  lower  orders  scruple  to 

>  J.  L.  WUson,  *W.  Afi-.'  pp.  217,  388-93.     See  Wailz,  vol.  ii.  pp.  18U 

-  Bailoy  in  *Tr.   Eth.  Soc.'    vol.   ii.    p.    301.      Compare  Taylor,   *New 
Zealand,' p.  153. 

*  Buchanan,  '  Mysore,'  in  Pinkerton,  voL  viii.  pp.  67i-7.    See  Macphcrson, 
*  India,*  p.  95  (Khonds) ;  Hunter,  *  Rural  Bengal,'  p.  183  (Santals). 

^  CJastrtn,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  122;  Bastian,  *  Psychologie,'  p.  90.     See  Pal- 
grave,  '  Arabia,'  vol.  i.  p.  373. 

*  Siebold,   'Nippon,*  vol.  i.  p.  3,  vol.  ii.  p.  51;   Kempfer,  'Japin,'  iiv 
Finkerton,  vol.  vii.  pp.  672,  680,  723,  755. 


118  ANIMISM. 

worship  the  great  gods,  lest  through  ignorance  they  should 
blunder  in  the  complex  ritual ;  they  prefer  to  pray  to  the 
"  theparak,"  a  lower  class  of  deities  among  whom  the  souls 
of  great  men  take  their  places  at  death.^  In  China,  as 
ever}'  one  knows,  ancestor-worship  is  the  dominant  religion 
of  the  land,  and  interesting  problems  are  opened  out  to  the 
Western  mmd  by  tlie  spectacle  of  a  great  people  who  for 
thousands  of  j^ears  have  been  thus  seeking  the  living  among 
the  dead.  Nowhere  is  the  connexion  between  pai*ental 
authority  and  conservatism  more  graphically  shown.  The 
worship  of  ancestors,  begim  during  their  life,  is  not  inter- 
rupted but  intensified  when  death  makes  them  deities.  The 
Chinese,  prostrate  bodily  and  mentally  before  the  memorial 
tablets  that  contain  the  souls  of  his  ancestors,  little  thinks 
that  he  is  all  the  while  proving  to  mankind  how  vast  a 
power  unlimited  filial  obedience,  prohibiting  change  from 
ancestral  institutions,  may  exert  in  stopping  the  advance  of 
civilization.  The  thought  of  the  souls  of  the  dead  as  sharing 
the  happiness  and  glory  of  their  descendants  is  one  which 
widely  pervades  the  world,  but  most  such  ideas  would  seem 
vague  and  weak  to  the  Chinese,  who  will  try  hard  for  honours 
in  his  competitive  examination  with  the  special  motive  of 
glorif}dng  his  dead  ancestors,  and  whose  titles  of  rank  will 
raise  his  deceased  father  and  grandfather  a  grade  above 
himself,  as  though,  with  us,  Zachary  Macaulay  and  Copley 
the  pamter  should  now  have  viscounts'  coronets  officially 
placed  on  their  tombstones.  As  so  often  happens,  what  is 
jest  to  one  people  is  sober  sense  to  another.  There  are 
300  millions  of  Chinese  who  would  hardly  see  a  joke  in 
Charles  Lamb  reviling  the  stupid  age  that  would  not  read 
him,  and  declaring  that  he  would  write  for  antiquity.  Had 
he  been  a  Chinese  himself,  he  might  have  written  his  book 
in  all  seriousness  for  the  benefit  of  his  great-great-grand- 
father. Among  the  Chinese,  manes-worship  is  no  rite  of 
mere  afiection.  The  living  want  the  help  of  the  ancestral 
spirits,  who  reward  virtue  and  punish  vice  :  '*  The  exalted 

*  Bastian.  'Oestl.  Asien.*  voL  iii.  p.  250. 


AI^IMISM.  119 

ancestor  will  biing  thee,  O  Prince,  much  good  !  " — "  An- 
cestors and  fathers  will  abandon  3'ou  and  give  you  up,  and 
come  not  to  help,  and  ye  will  die."  If  no  help  comes  in 
iim^  of  need,  the  Chinese  will  reproach  his  ancestor,  or 
even  come  to  doubt  his  existence.  Thus  in  a  Chinese  ode 
ihe  sufferers  in  a  dreadful  drought  cry,  *'  Heu-tsi  cannot  or 
will  not  help.  .  .  .  Our  ancestors  have  surely  perished. 
-  .  .  Father,  mother,  ancestors,  how  could  you  calmly 
bear  this !  "  Nor  does  manes-worsliip  stop  short  with  direct 
family  ties ;  it  is  naturally  developed  to  produce,  by  deifica- 
tion of  the  heroic  dead>  a  series  of  superior  gods  to  whom 
worship  is  given  by  the  public  at  large.  Thus,  according  to 
legend,  the  War-god  or  Military  Sage  was  once  in  human 
life  a  distinguished  soldier,  the  Mechanics'  god  was  a  skilful 
workman  and  inventor  of  tools,  the  Swine-god  was  a  hog- 
breeder  who  lost  his  pigs  and  died  of  sorrow,  and  the 
Oamblers'  god,  a  desperate  gamester  who  lost  his  all  and 
<lied  of  want,  is  represented  by  a  hideous  ima^e  called  a 
^^  devil  gambling  for  cash,"  and  in  this  shape  receives  the 
prayers  and  offerings  of  confirmed  gamblers,  his  votaries. 
The  spirits  of  San-kea  Ta-te,  and  Chang-yuen-sze  go  to 
partake  of  the  offerings  set  out  in  their  temples,  returning 
flushed  and  florid  from  their  meal ;  and  the  spirit  of  Con- 
fucius is  present  in  the  temple,  where  twice  a  year  the 
Emperor  does  sacrifice  to  him.^ 

The  Hindu  unites  in  some  degree  with  the  Chinese  as  to 
rancestor-worship,  and  especially  as  to  the  necessity  of  having 
a  son  by  blood  or  adoption,  who  shall  offer  the  proper  sacri- 
fices to  him  after  death.  '*  May  there  be  born  in  our  lineage,*' 
the  manes  are  supposed  to  say,  '^  a  man  to  offer  to  us,  on  the 
thirteenth  day  of  the  moon,  rice  boiled  in  milk,  honey  and 
ghee."  Offerings  made  to  the  divine  manes,  the  "  pitris  " 
•(patres,  fathers)  as  they  are  called,  preceded  and  followed  by 
offerings  to  the  greater  deities,  give  to  the  worshipper  merit 

^  Plath,  'Religion  der  alten  Chinesen,'  part  i.  p.  65,  part  iL  p.  89 ;  Doo- 
little,  'Chinese,*  vol.  i.  pp.  vi.  viii. ;  vol.  ii.  p.  378;  'Journ.  Ind.  Archip,* 
I^ew  Ser.  vol.  ii.  p.  863  ;  Legge,  'Confucius,*  p.  92. 


1 20  ANIMISM. 

and  happiness.^  In  classic  Europe,  apotheosis  lies  part 
within  the  limits  of  myth,  where  it  was  applied  to  fabled 
ancestors,  and  part  within  the  limits  of  actual  history,  aa 
where  Julius  and  Augustus  shared  its  honours  with  the  yile- 
Domitian  and  Gommodus.  The  most  special  representa- 
tives of  ancestor-worship  in  Europe  were  perhaps  the  ancient 
Bomans,  whose  word  '^  manes"  has  become  the  recognized 
name  for  ancestral  deities  in  modem  civUized  language ; 
they  embodied  them  as  images,  set  them  up  as  household 
patrons,  gratified  them  with  offerings  and  solemn  homage,, 
and  counting  them  as  or  among  the  infernal  gods,  inscribed 
on  tombs  D.  M.,  "  Diis  Manibus."  *  The  occurrence  of 
this  D.  M.  in  Christian  epitaphs  is  an  often-noticed  case  of 
religious  survival. 

Although  full  ancestor-worship  is  not  practised  in  modem 
Christendom,  there  remains  even  now  within  its  limits  a 
weU-marked  worship  of  the  dead.  A  crowd  of  saints,  who- 
were  once  men  and  women,  now  form  an  order  of  inferior 
deities,  active  in  the  affairs  of  men  and  receiving  from  them 
reverence  and  prayer,  thus  coming  strictly  under  the  defini- 
tion of  manes.  This  Christian  cultus  of  the  dead,  belonging 
in  principle  to  the  older  manes-worship,  was  adapted  to 
answer  another  purpose  in  the  course  of  religious  transition 
in  Europe.  The  local  gods,  the  patron  gods  of  particular 
ranks  and  crafts,  the  gods  from  whom  men  sought  special 
help  in  special  needs,  were  too  near  and  dear  to  the  inmost 
heart  of  prse-Christian  Europe  to  be  done  away  with  without 
substitutes.  It  proved  easier  to  replace  them  by  saints  who 
could  undertake  their  particular  professions,  and  even  suc- 
ceed them  in  their  sacred  dwellings.  The  system  of  spirit- 
ual division  of  labour  was  in  time  worked  out  with  won- 
derful minuteness  in  the  vast  array  of  professional  saints^ 
among  whom  the  most  familiar  to  modem  English  ears- 
are  St.  Cecilia,  patroness  of  musicians ;   St.  Luke^  patron 

^  Manu,  book  iiL 

*  Details  in  Paiily,  '  Real-Encyclop.  *  s.  v.  *  inferi  j'  Smith's  •  Die  of  Or.  and 
Eoxn.  Biog.  and  Myth. ;'  Heincrs,  Uartung,  etc. 


ANIMISM.  121 

of  painters ;  St.  Peter,  of  fishmongers ;  St.  Valentine,  of 
lovers ;  St.  Sebastian,  of  archers ;  St.  Crispin,  of  cobblers  ; 
St.  Hubert,  who  cures  the  bite  of  mad  dogs ;  St.  Yitus^ 
who  deHvers  madmen  and  sufferers  from  the  disease  which 
bears  his  name ;  St.  Fiacre,  whose  name  is  now  less  known 
by  his  shrine  than  by  the  hackney-coaches  called  after  him 
in  the  seventeenth  century.  Not  to  dwell  here  minutely 
on  an  often-treated  topic,  it  will  be  enough  to  touch  on  two 
particular  points.  First,  as  to  the  direct  historical  suc- 
cession of  the  Christian  saint  to  the  heathen  deity,  the- 
following  are  two  very  perfect  illustrations.  It  is  well 
known  that  Bomulus,  mindful  of  his  own  adventurous  in- 
fancy, became  after  death  a  Soman  deity  propitious  to  the 
health  and  safety  of  young  children,  so  that  nurses  and 
mothers  would  carry  sickly  infants  to  present  them  in  his 
little  round  temple  at  the  foot  of  the  Palatine.  In  after 
ages  the  temple  was  replaced  by  the  church  of  St.  Theo- 
dorus,  and  there  Dr.  Conyers  Middleton,  who  drew  public 
attention  to  its  curious  history,  used  to  look  in  and  see  ten 
or  a  dozen  women,  each  with  a  sick  child  in  her  lap,  sitting^ 
in  silent  reverence  before  the  altar  of  the  saint.  The 
ceremony  of  blessing  children,  especially  after  vaccination,. 
may  still  be  seen  there  on  Thursday  mornings.^  Again,. 
Sts.  Cosmas  and  Damianus,  according  to  Maury,  owe  their 
recognized  office  to  a  similar  curious  train  of  events.  They 
were  martyrs  who  suffered  under  Diocletian,  at  Mgmm  ia 
Cilicia.  Now  this  place  was  celebrated  for  the  worship 
of  iEsculapius,  in  whose  temple  incubation,  i.  e.,  sleeping 
for  oracular  dreams,  was  practised.  It  seems  as  though  the 
idea  was  transferred  on  the  spot  to  the  two  local  saints,  for 
we  next  hear  of  them  as  appearing  in  a  dream  to  the 
Emperor  Justinian,  when  he  was  ill  at  Byzantium.  They 
cured  him,  he  built  them  a  temple,  their  cultus  spread  far 
and  wide,  and  they  frequently  appeared  to  the  sick  to  show 
them  what  they  should  do.  Legend  settled  that  Cosmas- 
and  Damianus  were  physicians  while  they  lived  on  earth,. 

^  Middleton,  *  Letter  from  Rome  ; '  Murray's  '  Handbook  of  Kome.' 


122  ANIMISM. 

and  at  any  rate  they  are  patron-saints  of  the  profession  of 
medicine  to  this  day.^  Second,  as  to  the  actual  state  of 
hagiolatry  in  modem  Europe,  it  is  obvious  on  a  broad  view 
that  it  is  declining  among  the  educated  classes.  Yet  modem 
examples  may  be  brought  forward  to  show  ideas  as  extreme 
as  those  which  prevailed  more  widely  a  thousand  years  ago. 
In  the  Church  of  the  Jesuit  College  at  Eome  lies  buried 
St.  AJoysius  Gonzaga,  on  whose  festival  it  is  customary 
especially  for  the  college  students  to  write  letters  to  him, 
which  are  placed  on  his  gaily  decorated  and  illuminated 
altar,  and  afterwards  burnt  unopened.  The  miraculous 
answering  of  these  letters  is  vouched  for  in  an  English  book 
of  1870.  To  the  same  year  belongs  an  English  tract  com- 
memorating a  late  miraculous  cure.  An  Italian  lady  afflicted 
with  a  tumour  and  incipient  cancer  of  the  breast  was  ex- 
horted by  a  Jesuit  priest  to  recommend  herself  to  the 
Blessed  John  Berchmans,  a  pious  Jesuit  novice  from  Bel- 
gium, who  died  in  1621,  and  was  beatified  in  1866.  Her 
adviser  procured  for  her  "three  small  packets  of  dust 
gathered  from  the  coffin  of  this  saintl}^  innocent,  a  little 
oross  made  of  the  boards  of  the  room  the  blessed  youth 
occupied,  as  well  as  some  portion  of  the  wadding  in  which 
his  venerable  head  was  wrapped."  During  nine  days* 
devotion  the  patient  accordingly  invoked  the  Blessed  John, 
swallowed  small  portions  of  his  dust  in  water,  and  at  last 
pressed  the  cross  to  her  breast  so  vehemently  that  she  was 
seized  with  sickness,  went  to  sleep,  and  awoke  without  a 
symptom  of  the  complaint.  And  when  Dr.  Panegrossi  the 
physician  beheld  the  incredible  cure,  and  heard  that  the 
patient  had  addressed  herself  to  the  Blessed  Berchmans,  he 
bowed  his  head,  saying,  "  When  such  physicians  interfere, 
we  have  nothing  more  to  say !  *'  ^     To  sum  up  the  whole 


'  L.  F.  Alfred  Manry,  'Magie,  etc.*  p.  249  ;  'Acta  Sanctorum/  27  Sep.: 
Oregor.  Turon.  De  Gloria  Martyr,  i.  98. 

'  J.  R.  Beste,  'Nowadays  at  Home  and  Abroad/  London,  1870,  voL  ii. 
p.  44  ;  'A  New  Miracle  at  Rome  ;  being  an  Account  of  a  Miraculous  Care, 
«tc.  etc.'  London  (Washbourne),  1870. 


ANIMISM.  1 23 

liistory  of  manes- worship,  it  is  plain  that  in  our  time  the 
dead  still  receive  worship  from  far  the  larger  half  of  man- 
kindy  and  it  may  have  been  much  the  same  ever  since  the 
remote  periods  of  primitive  culture  in  which  the  religion  of 
the  manes  probably  took  its  rise. 

It  has  now  been  seen  that  the  theory  of  souls  recognizes 
them  as  capable  either  of  independent  existence,  or  of  in- 
habiting human,  animal,  or  other  bodies.  On  the  ,prin- 
<;iple  here  maintained,  that  the  general  theoiy  of  spirits  is 
modelled  on  the  theory  of  souls,  we  shall  be  able  to  account 
for  several  important  branches  of  the  lower  philosophy  of 
religion^  which  without  such  explanation  may  appear  in 
great  measure  obscure  or  absurd.  Like  souls,  other  spirits 
are  supposed  able  either  to  exist  and  act  flitting  free  about 
the  world,  or  to  become  incorporate  for  more  or  less  time  in 
solid  bodies.  It  will  be  well  at  once  to  get  a  secure  grasp . 
of  this  theory  of  Embodiment,  for  without  it  we  shall  be 
stopped  every  moment  by  a  difficulty  in  understanding  the 
nature  of  spirits,  as  defined  in  the  lower  animism.  The 
theory  of  embodiment  serves  several  highly  important  pur- 
poses in  savage  and  barbarian  philosophy.  On  the  one 
hand  it  provides  an  explanation  of  the  phenomena  of  morbid 
exaltation  and  derangement,  especially  as  connected  with 
abnormal  utterance,  and  this  view  is  so  far  extended  as  to 
produce  an  almost  general  doctrine  of  disease.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  enables  the  savage  either  to  "  lay  **  a  hurtful 
spirit  in  some  foreign  body,  and  so  get  rid  of  it,  or  to  carry 
about  a  useful  spirit  for  his  service  in  a  material  object,  to 
set  it  up  as  a  deity  for  worship  in  the  body  of  an  animal,  or 
in  a  block  or  stone  or  image  or  other  thing,  which  contains 
the  spirit  as  a  vessel  contains  a  fluid :  this  is  the  key  to 
strict  fetishism,  and  in  no  small  measure  to  idolatry.  In 
briefly  considering  these  various  branches  of  the  Embodi- 
ment-theory, there  may  be  conveniently  included  certain 
groups  of  cases  often  impossible  to  distinguish  apart.  These 
cases  belong  theoretically  rather  to  obsession  than  posses- 
sion, the   spirits  not  actually  inhabiting  the  bodies,  but 


124  ANIMISM. 

hanging  or  hovering  about  them  and  affecting  them  from 
the  outside. 

As  in  normal  conditions  the  man's  soul^  inhabiting  his 
body,  is  held  to  give  it  life^  to  think,  speak,  and  act  through 
it,  so  an  adaptation  of  the  self-same  principle  explains  ab- 
normal conditions  of  body  or  mind,  by  considering  the  new 
symptoms  as  due  to  the  operation  of  a  second  soul-like 
being,  a  strange  spirit.  The  possessed  man,  tossed  and 
shaken  in  fever,  pained  and  wrenched  as  though  some  live 
creature  were  tearing  or  twisting  him  within,  pining  aB 
though  it  were  devouring  his  vitals  day  by  day,  rationally 
finds  a  personal  spiritual  cause  for  his  sufferings.  In 
hideous  dreams  he  may  even  sometimes  see  the  very  ghost 
or  nightmare-fiend  that  plagues  liim.  Especially  when  the 
mysterious  unseen  power  throws  him  helpless  on  the  ground,, 
jerks  and  writhes  him  in  convulsions,  makes  him  leap  upon 
the  bystanders  with  a  giant's  strength  and  a  wild  beast's- 
ferocity,  impels  him,  with  distorted  face  and  frantic  gesture^ 
and  voice  not  his  own  nor  seemingly  even  human,  to  pour 
forth  wild  incoherent  raving,  or  with  .thought  and  eloquence 
beyond  his  sober  faculties  to  command,  to  counsel,  to  fore- 
tell— such  a  one  seems  to  those  who  watch  him,  and  even  to 
himself,  to  have  become  the  mere  instrument  of  a  spirit 
which  has  seized  him  or  entered  into  him,  a  possessing 
demon  in  whose  personality  the  patient  believes  so  im- 
plicitly that  he  often  imagines  a  personal  name  for  it,  which 
it  can  declare  when  it  speaks  in  its  own  voice  and  character 
through  his  organs  of  speech  ;  at  last,  quitting  the  medium's 
spent  and  jaded  body,  the  intruding  spirit  departs  as  it. 
came.  This  is  the  savage  theory  of  dfiemoniacal  possession 
and  obsession,  which  has  been  for  ages,  and  still  remains,, 
the  dominant  theory  of  disease  and  inspiration  among  the 
lower  races.  It  is  obviously  based  on  an  animistic  inter- 
pretation, most  genuine  and  rational  in  its  proper  place  in 
man's  intellectual  history,  of  the  actual  symptoms  of  the 
cases.  The  general  doctrine  of  disease-spirits  and  oracle- 
spirits  appears  to  have  its  earliest,  broadest,  and  most  con- 


ANIMISM.  125 

sistent  position  within  the  limits  of  savagery.     When  we 
have  gained  a  clear  idea  of  it  in  this  its  original  home,  we 
shall  be  able  to  trace  it  along  from  grade  to  grade  of  civiliza- 
tion, breaking  away  piecemeal  under  the  influence  of  new 
medical  theories,  yet  sometimes  expanding  in  revival,  and 
at  least  in  lingering  survival  holding  its  place  into  the  midst 
of  our  modem  life.     The  possession-theory  is  not  merely 
known  to  us  by  the  statements  of  those  who  describe  diseases 
in  accordance  with  it.    Disease  being  accounted  for  by  attack 
of  spirits,  it  naturally  follows  that  to  get  rid  of  these  spirits 
is  the  proper  means  of  cure.     Thus  the  practices  of  the 
exorcist  appear  side  by  side  with  the  doctrine  of  possession, 
from  its  first  appearance  in  savagery  to  its   survival  in 
modem  civilization,  and  nothing  could  display  more  vividly 
the  conception  of  a  disease  or  a  mental  afiPection  as  caused 
by  a  personal  spiritual  being  than  the  proceedings  of  the 
exorcist  who  talks  to  it,  coaxes  or  threatens  it,  makes  ojBfer- 
ings  to  it,  entices  or  drives  it  out  of  the  patient's  body,  and 
induces  it  to  take  up  its  abode  in  some  other.     That  the 
two  great  effects  ascribed  to   such   spiritual  influence  in 
obsession  and  possession,  namely,  the  infliction  of  ailments 
and  the  inspiration  of  oracles,  are  not  only  mixed  up  to- 
gether but  often  run  into  absolute  coincidence,  accords  with 
the  view  that  both  results  are  referred  to  one  common  cause. 
Also  that  the  intruding  or  invading  spirit  may  be  either  a 
human  soul  or  may  belong  to  some  other  class  in  the  spirit- 
ual hierarchy,  countenances  the  opinion  that  the  possession- 
theory  is  derived  from,  and  indeed  modelled  on,  the  ordi- 
nary theory  of  the  soul  acting  on  the  body.     In  illustrating 
the  doctrine  by  typical  examples  from  the  enormous  mass 
of  available  details,  it  will  hardly  be  possible  to  discriminate 
among  the  operating  spirits,  between  those  which  are*  souls 
and  those  which  are  demons,  nor  to  draw  an  exact  line 
between  obsession  by  a  demon  outside  and  possession  by  a 
demon  inside,  nor  between  the  condition  of  the  demon- 
tormented  patient  and  the  demon-actuated  doctor,  seer,  or 
priest.    In  a  word,  the  confusion  of  these  conceptions  in  the 


126  ANIMISM. 

savage  mind  only  fairly  represents  their  intimate  connexion 
in  the  Possession-theory  itself. 

In  the  Australian-Tasmanian  district,  disease  and  death 
are  ascribed  to  more  or  less  defined  spiritual  influences  ; 
descriptions  of  a  demon  working  a  sorcerer's  wicked  will  by 
coming  slyly  behind  his  victim  and  hitting  him  with  hi& 
club  on  the  back  of  his  neck,  and  of  a  dead  man's  ghost 
angered  by  having  his  name  uttered,  and  creeping  up  inta 
the  utterer's  body  to  consume  his  liver,  are  indeed  pecu- 
liarly  graphic  details  of  savage  animism.^  The  theory  of 
disease-spirits  is  well  stated  in  its  extreme  form  among  the 
Mintira,  a  low  race  of  the  Malay  peninsula.  Their  "  hantu  '* 
or  spirits  have  among  their  functions  that  of  causing  ail- 
ments;  thus  the  ''hantu  kalumbahan"  causes  small-pox ; 
the  "  hantu  kamang ''  brings  on  inflammation  and  swellings 
in  the  hands  and  feet;  when  a  person  is  wounded,  the 
''  hantu  pari  "  fastens  on  the  wound  and  sucks,  and  this  is 
the  cause  of  the  blood  flowing.  And  so  on,  as  the  describer 
says,  "  To  enumerate  the  remainder  of  the  hantus  would  be 
merely  to  convert  the  name  of  every  species  of  disease 
known  to  the  Mintira  into  a  proper  one.  If  any  new 
disease  appeared,  it  would  be  ascribed  to  a  hantu  bearing 
the  same  name.''  ^  It  will  help  us  to  an  idea  of  the  distinct 
personality  which  the  disease-demon  has  in  the  minds  of 
the  lower  races,  to  notice  the  Ohing  Laut  of  this  district 
placing  thorns  and  brush  in  the  paths  leading  to  a  part 
where  small-pox  had  broken  out,  to  keep  the  demons  off"; 
just  as  the  Khonds  of  Orissa  try  with  thorns,  and  ditches,, 
and  stinking  oil  poured  on  the  ground,  to  barricade  the  paths 
to  their  hamlets  against  the  goddess  of  small-pox,  Jugah 
Pennu.^    Among  the  Dayaks  of  Borneo,  "  to  have  beea 


*  Oldfield  in  *  Tr.  Eth.  Soc.'  vol.  iii.  p.  235  ;  see  Grey,  *  Anstralia,'  vol  ii. 
p.  387.     Bonwick,  'Tasmanians,*  pp.  183,  195. 

'  *  Jonrn.  Ind.  Archip.*  vol.  i.  p.  307. 

^  Bastian,  *Psycliologie,'  p.  204;  MenBch,  toI.  ii.  p.  73,  see  p.  125 
(Battas) ;  Macpherson,  'India,'  p.  370.  See  also  Mason,  'Karens,' 1.  c  p^ 
201. 


ANIMISM.  1 27 

smitten  by  a  spirit "  is  to  be  ill ;  sickness  may  be  caused 
by  invisible  spirits  inflicting  invisible  wounds  with  invisible 
spears,  or  entering  men's  bodies  and  driving  out  their  souls,, 
or  lodging  in  their  hearts  and  making  them  raving  mad. 
In  the  Indian  Archipelago,  the  personal  semi-human  nature 
of  the  disease-spirits  is  clearly  acknowleged  by  appeasing 
them  with  feasts  and  dances  and  o£Ferings  of  food  set  out 
for  them  away  in  the  woods,  to  induce  them  to  quit  their 
victims,  or  by  sending  tiny  proas  to  sea  with  offerings,  that 
spirits  which   have    taken  up  their  abode  in  sick  men's 
bowels  may  embark  and  not  come  back.^     The  animistic 
theory  of  disease  is  strongly  marked  in  Polynesia,  where 
every  sickness  is  ascribed  to  spiritual  action  of  deities,, 
brought  on  by  the  offerings  of  enemies,  or  by  the  victim'^ 
violation  of  the  laws  of  tapu.     Thus  in  New  Zealand  each 
ailment  is  caused  by  a  spirit,  particularly  an  infant  or  un- 
developed human  spirit,  which  sent  into  the  patient's  body 
gnaws  and  feeds  inside ;  and  the  exorcist,  finding  the  path 
by  which  such  a  disease-spirit  came  from  below  to  feed  on 
the  vitals  of  a  sick  relative,  will  persuade  it  by  a  charm  to 
get  upon  a  flax-stalk  and  set  off  home.     We  hear,  too,  of 
an  idea  of  the  parts  of  the  body — forehead,  breast,  stomach, 
feet,  etc. — being  apportioned  each  to  a  deity  who  inflicts 
aches  and  pains  and  ailments  there.^     So  in  the  Samoaii 
group,  when  a  man  was  near  death,  people  were  anxious  to 
part  on  good  terms  with  him,  feeling  assured  that  if  he 
died  with  angry  feelings  towards  any  one,  he  would  certainly 
return  and  bring  calamity  on  that  person  or  some  one  closely 
allied  to  him.     This  was  considered  a  £requent  source  of 
disease  and  death,  the  spirit  of  a  departed  member  of  the 
family  returning  and  taking  up  his  abode  in  the  head,  chest,, 
or  stomach  of  a  living  man,  and  so  causing  sickness  and 


*  'Jcmrn.  Ind.  Arcliip.'  vol.  iii.  p.  110,  vol.  iv.  p.  194;  St.  John,  *Fnr 
East/  vol.  i.  pp.  71,  87 ;  Beeckman  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  ix.p.  133  ;  Mciners^ 
voL  i.  p.  278.     See  also  Doollttle,  'Chinese,*  vol.  i.  p.  159. 

*8hortlaml,  *Trads.  of  N.  Z.'  pp.  97,  114,  125;  Taylor,  '  New  Zealand,' 
pp.  48,  137. 


128  AKIMISM. 

death.     If  a  man  died  suddenly,  it  was  thought  that  he  was 
eaten  by  the  spirit  that  took  him ;  and  though  the  soul  of 
one  thus  devoured  would  go  to  the  common  spirit-land  of 
the  departed,  yet  it  would  have  no  power  of  speech  there, 
and  if  questioned  could  but  beat  its  breast.     It  completes 
this  account  to  notice  that  the  disease-inflicting  souls  of  the 
departed  were  the  same  which  possessed  the  living  under 
more  favourable  circumstances,  coming  to  talk  through  a 
certain  member  of  the  family,  prophes3dng  future  events, 
and  giving  directions  as  to  family  affairs.^     Farther  east,  in 
the  Georgian  and  Society  Islands,  evil  demons  are  sent  to 
scratch  and  tear  people  into  convulsions  and  hysterics,  to 
torment  poor  wretches  as  with  barbed  hooks,  or  to  twist  and 
knot  inside  them  till  they  die  writhing  in  agony.     But  mad- 
men are  to  be  treated  with  great  respect,  as  entered  by  a 
god,  and  idiots  owe  the  kindness  with  which  they  are  ap- 
peased and  coaxed  to  the  belief  in  their  superhuman  in- 
spiration.*   Here,  and  elsewhere  in  the  lower  culture,  the 
old  real  belief  has  survived  which  has  passed  into  a  jest  of 
civilized  men  in  the  famous  phrase  of  the  "  inspired  idiot." 
American  ethnography  carries  on  the  record  of  rude  races 
ascribing  disease  to  the  action  of  evil  spirits.     Thus  the 
Dacotas  believe  that  the  spirits  punish  them  for  misconduct, 
especially  for  neglecting  to  make  feasts  for  the  dead ;  these 
spirits  have  the  power  to  send  the  spirit  of  something,  as  of 
a  bear,  deer,  turtle,  fish,  tree,  stone,  worm,  or  deceased 
person,  which   entering  the  patient   causes   disease;    the 
medicine-man's  cure  consists  in  reciting  charms  over  him, 
singing  "  He-le-li-lah,  etc.,"  to  the  accompaniment  of  a 
gourd-rattle  with   beads   inside,  ceremonially   shooting   a 
symbolic  bark  representation   of   the   intruding  creature, 
sucking  over  the  seat  of  pain  to  get  the  spirit  out,  and 

»  Turner,  'Polynesia,'  p.  236. 

'  Ellis,  *Polyn.  Res/  vol.  i.  pp.  868,  895,  etc.,  yol.  ii.  pp.  198,  274; 
Cook,  '8rd  Voy.'  vol.  iii.  p.  181.  Details  of  the  superhuman  character 
ascribed  to  weak  or  deranged  persons  among  other  races,  in  Schoolcraft, 
part  iv.  p.  49  ;  Martius,  vol.  i.  p.  633 ;  Meiners,  vol.  i.  p.  323 ;  Waitz,  Tol. 
IL  p.  181. 


ANIMISM.  1 29 

firing  guns  at  it  as  it  is  supposed  to  be  escaping.^  Such 
processes  were  in  full  vogue  in  the  West  Indies  in  the  time 
of  Columbus,  when  Friar  Boman  Pane  put  on  record  his 
quaint  account  of  the  native  sorcerer  pulling  the  disease  off 
the  patient's  legs  (as  one  pulls  off  a  pair  of  trousers),  going 
•out  of  doors  to  blow  it  away,  and  bidding  it  begone  to  the 
moimtain  or  the  sea ;  the  performance  concluding  with  the 
regular  sucking-cure  and  the  pretended  extraction  of  some 
stone  or  bit  of  flesh,  or  such  thing,  which  the  patient  is 
assured  that  his  patron-spirit  or  deity. (cemi)  put  into  him 
to  cause  the  disease,  in  punishment  for  neglect  to  build  him 
a  temple  or  honour  him  with  prayer  or  offerings  of  goods.- 
Patagonians  considered  sickness  as  caused  by  a  spirit  enter- 
ing the  patient's  body ;  "  they  believe  every  sick  person  to 
be  possessed  of  an  evil  demon ;  hence  their  physicians 
always  carry  a  drum  with  figures  of  devils  painted  on  it, 
which  they  strike  at  the  beds  of  sick  persons  to  drive  out 
from  the  body  the  evil  demon  which  causes  the  disorder."  ^ 
In  Africa,  according  to  the  philosophy  of  the  Basutos  and 
the  Zulus,  the  causes  of  disease  are  the  ghosts  of  the  dead, 
come  to  draw  the  living  to  themselves,  or  to  compel  them 
to  sacrifice  meat-offerings.  They  are  recognized  by  the 
diviners,  or  by  the  patient  himself,  who  sees  in  dreams  the 
departed  spirit  come  to  torment  him.  Congo  tribes  in  like 
maimer  consider  the  souls  of  the  dead,  passed  into  the  ranks 
of  powerful  spirits,  to  cause  disease  and  death  among  man- 
kind. Thus,  in  both  these  districts,  medicine  becomes  an 
almost  entirely  religious  matter  of  propitiatory  sacrifice  and 
prayer  addressed    to    the    disease-inflicting  manes.      The 


»  Schoolcraft,  'Indian  Tribes,'  part  i.  p.  260,  part  ii.  pp.  179,  199,  part 
tiL  p.  498  ;  M.  Eastman,  *Dahcotah,'  p.  xxiii.  84,  41,  72.  See  also  Gregg^ 
^Commerceof  Prairies,' vol.  ii.  p.  297  (Comanches);  Morgan,  *  Iroquois,*  p. 
163 ;  Sproat,  p.  l74(Aht8);  ISgede,  'Greenland,'  p.  186  ;  Cranz,  p.  269. 

*  Roman  Pane,  jdx.  in  *  life  of  Colon  * ;  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xii.  p.  87. 

»  D'Orbigny,  •L'Homme  Am6ricain/  voL  ii  pp.  78,  168;  Musters, 
'Patagonians,'  p.  180.  See  also  J.  O.  MUller,  pp.  207,  231  (Caribs) ;  Spix 
«nd  Martina,  'Brasilien,*  vol  i.  p.  70  ;  Martins,  'Ethnog.  Amer.'  vol.  L  p^ 
646  (MacusiB). 

VOL.  u.  K 


130  ANIMISM. 

Barolongs  give  a  kind  of  worship  to  deranged  persons,  as 
under  the  direct  influence  of  a  deity ;  while  in  East  AMca 
the  explanation  of  madness  and  idiocy  is  simple  and 
typical — "he  has  fiends."^  Negroes  of  West  Africa,  on 
the  supposition  that  an  attack  of  illness  has  been  caused 
by  some  spiritual  being,  can  ascertain  to  their  satisfaction 
what  manner  of  spirit  has  done  it,  and  why.  The  patient 
may  have  neglected  his  "  wong  "  or  fetish-spirit,  who  has 
therefore  made  him  ill ;  or  it  may  be  his  own  "  kla  '*  or 
personal  guardian-spirit,  who  on  being  summoned  explains 
that  he  has  not  been  treated  respectfully  enough,  etc. ;  or  it 
may  be  a  "  sisa "  or  ghost  of  some  dead  man,  who  has 
taken  this  means  of  making  known  that  he  wants  perhaps  a 
gold  ornament  that  was  left  behind  when  he  died.'  Of 
course,  the  means  of  cure  will  then  be  to  satisfy  the  demands 
of  the  spirit.  Another  aspect  of  the  negro  doctrine  of 
disease-spirits  is  displayed  in  the  foUowing  description  from 
Guinea,  by  the  Kev.  J.  L.  Wilson,  the  missionary : — *'  De- 
moniacal possessions  are  common,  and  the  feats  performed 
by  those  who  are  supposed  to  be  under  such  influence  are 
certainly  not  unlike  those  described  in  the  New  Testament* 
Frantic  gestures,  convulsions,  foaming  at  the  mouth,  feats 
of  supernatural  strength,  furious  ravings,  bodily  lacerations, 
gnashing  of  teeth,  and  other  things  of  a  similar  character, 
may  be  witnessed  in  most  of  the  cases  which  are  supposed 
to  be  imder  diabolical  influence."*  The  remark  several 
times  made  by  travellers  is  no  doubt  true,  that  the  spiritual- 
istic theory  of  disease  has  tended  strongly  to  prevent 
progress  in  the  medical  art  among  the  lower  races.  Thus 
among  the  Bodo  and  Dhimal  of  North-East  India,  who 
ascribe  all  diseases  to  a  deity  tormenting  the  patient  for 
some  impiety  or  neglect,  the  exorcists  divine  the  offended 

^  Casalis,  'Basutos,'  p.  247;  Callaway,  'Rel.  of  Amazuln/ p.  147,  etc  ; 
Magyar,  ' Siid-Afrika,'  p.  21,  etc.  ;  Burton,  'Central  Aft-.'  vol.  ii  pp.  Z20, 
854 ;  Bteere  in  '  Joum.  Anthrop.  Inst'  voL  i.  1871,  p.  cxItu. 

'  Steinhanser,  '  Religion  des  Negers,'  in  '  Mogoz.  der  Evang.  MiBsiooB  und 
Bibel-Gesellschaften,'  Basel,  1856,  No.  2,  p.  189. 

•  J.  L.  Wilson,  *  W.  Afr.'  pp.  217,  888. 


ANIMISM.  131 

• 

god  and  appease  him  with  the  promised  sacrifice  of  a  hog ; 
these  exorcists  are  a  class  of  priests,  and  the  people  have 
no  other  doctors.^  Where  the  world-wide  doctrine  of 
disease-demons  has  held  sway,  men's  minds,  full  of  spells 
and  ceremonies,  have  scarce  had  room  for  thought  of  drugs 
and  regimen. 

The  cases  in  which  disease-possession  passes  into  oracle- 
possession  are  especially  connected  with  hysterical,  convul* 
sive,  and  epileptic  affections.  Mr.  Backhouse  describes  a 
Tasmanian  native  sorcerer,  ''  affected  with  fits  of  spasmodic 
contraction  of  the  muscles  of  one  breast,  which  he  attributes, 
as  they  do  aU  other  diseases,  to  the  devil " ;  this  malady 
served  to  prove  his  inspiration  to  his  people.^  When  Dr. 
Mason  was  preaching  near  a  village  of  heathen  Pwo,  a  man 
fell  down  in  an  epileptic  fit,  his  familiar  spirit  having  come 
over  him  to  forbid  the  people  to  listen  to  the  missionary, 
and  he  sang  out  his  denunciations  like  one  frantic.  This 
man  was  afterwards  converted,  and  told  the  missionary  that 
''he  could  not  account  for  his  former  exercises,  but  that  it 
certainly  appeared  to  him  as  though  a  spirit  spoke,  and  he 
most  tell  what  was  communicated.''  In  this  Karen  district 
flourishes  the  native  "  wee  "  or  prophet,  whose  business  is 
to  work  himself  into  the  state  in  which  he  can  see  departed 
spirits,  visit  their  distant  home,  and  even  recall  them  to  the 
body,  thus  raising  the  dead ;  these  wees  are  nervous  excit- 
able men,  such  as  would  become  mediums,  and  in  giving 
oracles  they  go  into  actual  convulsions.^  Dr.  Callaway's 
details  of  the  state  of  the  Zulu  diviners  are  singularly  in- 
structive. Their  symptoms  are  ascribed  to  possession  by 
"  amatongo  "  or  ancestral  spirits ;  the  disease  is  common, 
firom  some  it  departs  of  its  own  accord,  others  have  the 
ghost  laid  which  causes  it,  and  others  let  the  affection  take 
its  course  and  become  professional  diviners,  whose  powers 
of  finding  hidden  things  and  giving  apparently  inaccessible 

*  Hodgson,  'Abor.  of  India/ pp.  168,  170. 

*  Backhouse,  'Australia,*  p.  108. 

'  Mason  in  Bastian,  '  Oestl.  Asien,'  vol.  ii.  p.  414.    Cross,  1.  c.  p.  805. 

K  2 


132  ANIMISM. 

information  are  vouched  for  by  native  witnesses,  who  at  the 
same  time  are  not  blind  to  their  tricks  and  their  failures. 
The  most  perfect  description  is  that  of  a  hysterical  vision- 
ary, who  had  "  the  disease  which  precedes  the  power  to 
divine."  This  man  describes  that  well-known  symptom  of 
hysteria,  the  heavy  weight  creeping  up  within  him  to  his 
shoulders,  his  vivid  dreams,  his  waking  visions  of  objects 
that  are  not  there  when  he  approaches,  the  songs  that  come 
to  him  without  learning,  the  sensation  of  flpng  in  the  air. 
This  man  was  "  of  a  family  who  are  very  sensitive,  and  be- 
come doctors."^  Persons  whose  constitutional  unsoundness 
induces  morbid  manifestations  are  indeed  marked  out  bv 
nature  to  become  seers  and  sorcerers.  Among  the  Pata- 
gonians,  patients  seized  with  falling  sickness  or  St.  Yitus's 
dance  were  at  once  selected  for  magicians,  as  chosen  by  tlie 
demons  themselves  who  possessed,  distorted,  and  convulsed 
them.'  Among  Siberian  tribes,  the  shamans  select  children 
liable  to  convulsions  as  suitable  to  f  be  brought  up  to  the 
profession,  which  is  apt  to  become  hereditary  with  the 
epileptic  tendencies  it  belongs  to.^  Thus,  even  in  the  lower 
culture,  a  class  of  sickly  brooding  enthusiasts  begin  to  have 
that  power  over  the  minds  of  their  lustier  fellows,  which 
they  have  kept  in  so  remarkable  a  way  through  the  course 
of  history. 

Morbid  oracular  manifestations  are  habitually  excited  on 
purpose,  and  moreover  the  professional  sorcerer  commonly 
exaggerates  or  wholly  feigns  them.  In  the  more  genuine 
manifestations  the  medium  may  be  so  intensely  wrought 
upon  by  the  idea  that  a  possessing  spirit  is  speaking  from 
within  him,  that  he  may  not  only  give  this  spirit's  name  and 
speak  in  its  character,  but  possibly  may  in  good  faith  alter 
his  voice  to  suit  the  spiritual  utterance.  This  gift  of  spirit- 
utterance,  which  belongs  to  "  ventriloquism  "  in  the  ancient 
and  proper  sense  of  the  term,  of  course  lapses  into  sheer 

'  Callaway,  '  Religion  of  Amazulu/  pp.  183,  etc.,  259,  etc. 
<  Falkner,  '  Patagonia,*  p.  116.     See  also  Bochefort,  *  lies  Antilles,*  p.  418 
(Caribs). 
'  Georgi,  'Beise  im  Rnss.  Reich,*  vol.  i.  p.  280  ;  Meinen,  vol.  ii.  p.  488. 


AlilMISH.  133 

trickery.  Bat  that  the  phenomena  should  be  thus  artificially 
excited  or  dishonestly  counterfeited,  rather  confirms  than 
alters  the  present  argument.  Beal  or  simulated,  the  details 
of  oracle-possession  alike  illustrate  popular  belief.  The 
Patagonian  wizard  begins  his  performance  with  drumming 
and  rattling  till  the  real  or  pretended  epileptic  fit  comes  on 
by  the  demon  entering  him,  who  then  answers  questions 
from  within  him  with  a  faint  and  mournful  voice.^  Among 
the  wild  Yeddas  of  Ceylon,  the  "  devil-dancers  "  have  to 
work  themselves  into  paroxysms,  to  gain  the  inspiration 
whereby  they  profess  to  cure  their  patients.^  So,  with  furious 
dancing  to  the  music  and  chanting  of  the  attendants,  the 
Bodo  priest  brings  on  the  fit  of  maniacal  inspiration  in 
which  the  deity  fills  him  and  gives  oracles  through  him.^ 
In  Kamchatka  the  female  shamans,  when  Billukai  came 
do¥m  into  them  in  a  thunderstorm,  would  prophesy ;  or, 
receiving  spirits  with  a  cry  of  ^*  hush !  *'  their  teeth  chattered 
as  in  fever,  -and  they  were  ready  to  divine.^  Among  the 
Singpho  of  South-East  Asia,  when  the  "  natzo "  or  con- 
juror is  sent  for  to  a  sick  patient,  he  calls  on  his  '^  nat "  or 
demon,  the  soul  of  a  deceased  foreign  prince,  who  descends 
into  him  and  gives  the  required  answers.^  In  the  Pacific 
Islands,  spirits  of  the  dead  would  enter  for  a  time  the  body 
of  a  living  man,  inspiring  him  to  declare  future  events,  or 
to  execute  some  commission  firom  the  higher  deities.  The 
symptoms  of  oracular  possession  among  savages  have  been 
especially  well  described  in  this  region  of  the  world.  The 
Fijian  priest  sits  looking  steadfastly  at  a  whale's  tooth 
ornament,  amid  dead  silence.  In  a  few  minutes  he 
trembles,  slight  twitchings  of  face  and  limbs  come  on, 
which  increase  to  strong  convulsions,  with  swelling  of 
the  veins,  murmurs  and  sobs.    Now  the  god  has  entered 

*  Falkner,  L  c.     , 

*  Tennent,  'Ceylon,' vol.  ii.  p.  441.   See  Latham,  *  Descr.  Eth.'  vol.  ii.  p.  460. 
'  Hodgson,  '  Abor.  of  India,'  p.  172. 

*  Steller,  *  Kamtschatka,'  p.  278. 

'  Bafitiaii,  '  Oestl.  Asien,'  vol.  ii.  p.  828,  see  vol.  iii.  p.  201,  '  Psychologie,' 
f.  139.     See  aUo  Bomer,  '  Quinea,'  p.  69. 


134  ANIMISM. 

him,  and  with  eyes  rolling  and  protruding,  unnatural 
voice,  pale  face  and  livid  lips,  sweat  streaming  from 
every  pore,  and  the  whole  aspect  of  a  furious  madman,  he 
gives  the  divine  answer,  and  then,  the  symptoms  subsiding^ 
he  looks  round  with  a  vacant  stare,  and  tlie  deity  returns  to 
the  land  of  spirits.  In  the  Sandwich  Islands,  where  the 
god  Oro  thus  gave  his  oracles,  his  priest  ceased  to  act  or 
speak  as  a  volimtary  agent,  but  with  his  limbs  convulsed, 
his  features  distorted  and  terrific,  his  eyes  wild  and  strained, 
he  would  roll  on  the  ground  foaming  at  the  mouth,  and 
reveal  the  will  of  the  possessing  god  in  shrill  cries  and 
sounds  violent  and  indistinct,  which  the  attending  priests 
duly  interpreted  to  the  people.  In  Tahiti,  it  was  often 
noticed  that  men  who  in  the  natural  state  showed  neither 
ability  nor  eloquence,  would  in  such  convulsive  delirium 
burst  forth  into  earnest  lofty  declamation,  declaring  the  w^il 
and  answers  of  the  gods,  and  prophesying  future  events,  in 
well-knit  harangues  full  of  the  poetic  figure  knd  metaphor 
of  the  professional  orator.  But  when  the  fit  was  over,  and 
sober  reason  returned,  the  prophet's  gifts  were  gone.^ 
Lastly,  the  accounts  of  oracular  possession  in  Africa  show 
the  primitive  ventriloquist  in  perfect  types  of  morbid 
knavery.  In  Sofala,  after  a  king's  funeral,  his  soul  would 
enter  into  a  sorcerer,  and  speaking  in  the  familiar  tones 
that  all  the  bystanders  recognized,  would  give  counsel  to 
the  new  monarch  how  to  govern  his  people.*  About  a 
century  ago,  a  negro  fetish-woman  of  Guinea  is  thus 
described  in  the  act  of  answering  an  enquirer  who  has  come 
to  consult  her.  She  is  crouching  on  the  earth,  with  her 
head  between  her  knees  and  her  hands  up  to  her  face,  till, 
becoming  inspired  by  the  fetish,  she  snorts  and  foams  and 
gasps.  Then  the  suppliant  may  put  his  question,  "  Will 
my  friend  or  brother  get  well  of  this  sickness  ?  " — "  What 
shall  I  give  thee  to  set  him  free  from  his  sickness  ?"  and  so 

^  KlUa,  *Polyn.  Res.'  toL  i  pp.  852,  878 ;  Moercnhout,  'Voyage,'  toI.  i. 
p.  479  ;  Mariner,  *  Tonga  Wands,'  vol.  i.  p.  105  ;  Williams,  *Fyi,'  voLL  p.  873. 
'  Dos  Santos,  *  Ethiopia, '  in  Pinkerton^  vol.  xvi.  p.  686. 


ANIMISM.  135 

forth.  Then  the  fetish-woman  answers  in  a  thin^  whistling 
voice,  and  with  the  old-fashioned  idioms  of  generations  past ; 
and  thus  the  suppliant  receives  his  command,  perhaps  to 
kill  a  white  cock  and  put  him  at  a  four-cross  way,  or  tie  him 
up  for  the  fetish  to  come  and  fetch  him,  or  perhaps  merely 
to  drive  a  dozen  wooden  pegs  into  the  ground,  so  to  bury 
his  friend's  disease  with  them.^ 

The  details  of  demoniacal  possession  among  barbaric  and 
<dvilized  nations  need  no  elaborate  description,  so  simply 
do  they  continue  the  savage  cases.^  But  the  state  of  things 
we  notice  here  agrees  with  the  conclusion  that  the  possession- 
theory  belongs  originally  to  the  lower  culture,  and  is 
gradually  superseded  by  higher  medical  knowledge.  Survey- 
ing its  course  through  the  middle  and  higher  civilization,  we 
«hall  notice  first  a  tendency  to  limit  it  to  certain  peculiar 
and  severe  affections,  especially  connected  with  mental  dis- 
order, such  as  epilepsy,  hysteria,  delirium,  idiocy,  madness ; 
and  after  this  a  tendency  to  abandon  it  altogether,  in  con- 
sequence of  the  persistent  opposition  of  the  medical  faculty. 
Among  the  nations  of  South-East  Asia,  obsession  and  pos- 
session by  demons  is  strong  at  least  in  popul&r  belief.  The 
.Chinese  attacked  with  dizziness,  or  loss  of  the  use  of  his 
limbs,  or  other  unaccountable  disease,  knows  that  he  has 
been  influenced  by  a  malignant  demon,  or  punished  for  some 
offence  by  a  deity  whose  name  he  will  mention,  or  affected 
by  his  wife  of  a  former  existence,  whose  spirit  has  after  a 
long  search  discovered  him.  Exorcism  of  course  exists,  and 
when  the  evil  spirit  or  influence  is  expelled,  it  is  especially 
apt  to  enter  some  person  standing  near ;  hence  the  common 
saying,  ''  idle  spectators  should  not  be  present  at  an  exor- 
cism.*' Divination  by  possessed  mediums  is  usual  in  China 
among  such  is  the  professional  woman  who  sits  at  a  table  in 
contemplation,  till  the  soul  of  a  deceased  person  from  whom 

^  Romer,  'Guinea,'  p.  57.  See  also  Steinhaoaer,  L  c.  pp.  182,  189 ;  J.  B. 
Scblegel,  '  Ewe-Sprache,*  p.  xyL 

'  DetailB  from  Tatar  races  in  Gastrin,  '  Finn.  Myth.'  pp.  164,  178,  etc.  * 
Bastiau,  *  Psychologie,'  p.  90  ;  from  Abyssinia  in  Parkyns,  '  life  in  A./  ch. 
xzziiL 


136  ANIMISM. 

commiinication  is  desired  enters  her  body  and  talks  througb 
her  to  the  living ;  also  the  man  into  whom  a  deity  is  brought 
by  invocations  and  mesmeric  passes,  when,  assuming  the- 
divine  figure  and  attitude,  he  pronounces  the  oracle.^  In 
Birma,  the  fever-demon  of  the  jungle  seizes  trespassers  on 
his  domain,  and  shakes  them  in  ague  till  he  is  exorcised,, 
while  falls  and  apoplectic  fits  are  the  work  of  other  spirits*. 
The  dancing  of  women  by  demoniacal  possession  is  treated 
by  the  doctor  covering  their  heads  with  a  garment,  and 
thrashing  them  soimdly  with  a  stick,  the  demon  and  not  the 
patient  being  considered  to  feel  the  blows ;  the  possessing^ 
spirit  may  be  prevented  from  escaping  by  a  knotted  and 
charmed  cord  hung  roimd  the  bewitched  person's  neck,  and 
when  a  sufficient  beating  has  induced  it  to  speak  by  the 
patient's  voice  and  declare  its  name  and  business,  it  may 
either  be  allowed  to  depart,  or  the  doctor  tramples  on  the 
patient's  stomach  till  the  demon  is  stamped  to  death.  For 
an  example  of  invocation  and  offerings,  one  characteristio 
story  told  by  Dr.  Bastian  will  suffice.  A  Bengali  cook  was- 
seized  with  an  apoplectic  fit,  which  his  Birmese  wife  declared 
was  but  a  just  retribution,  for  the  godless  fellow  had  gone 
day  after  day  to  market  to  buy  pounds  and  pounds  of  meat^ 
yet  in  spite  of  her  remonstrances  would  never  give  a  morsel 
to  the  patron-spirit  of  the  town ;  as  a  good  wife,  however,, 
she  now  did  her  best  for  her  suffering  husband,  placing  neai* 
him  little  heaps  of  coloured  rice  for  the  "  nat,"  and  putting 
on  his  fingers  rings  with  prayers  addressed  to  the  same 
offended  being — '*  Oh  ride  him  not !  " — "  Ah  let  him  go  !  '^ 
— "  Grip  him  not  so  hard  !  " — "  Thou  shalt  have  rice  !  "— 
"  Ah,  how  good  that  tastes !  "  How  explicitly  Buddhism 
recognizes  such  ideas,  may  be  judged  from  one  of  the  ques- 
tions officially  put  to  candidates  for  admission  as  monks  or 
talapoins — "  Art  thou  afflicted  by  madness  or  the  other  illSh 
caused  by  giants,  witches,  or  evil  demons  of  the  forest  and 
mountain  ?  "  *    Within  our  own  domain  of  British  India^ 

'  Doolittle,  'Chinese,'  vol.  i.  p.  148,  vol.  ii.  pp.  110,  820. 

«  BaBtian,  'Oestl.  Asien,' vol.  v,  pp.  108,  152,  881,  418,  vol.  iii.  p.  247^ 


ANIMISM.  137 

the  possession-theory  and  the  rite  of  exorcism  belonging 
to  it  may  be  perfectly  studied  to  this  day.  There  the  doc- 
trine of  sadden  aihnent  or  nervous  disease  being  due  to  a 
blast  or  possession  by  a  "  bhut/'  or  being,  that  is,  a  demon,, 
is  recognized  as  of  old ;  there  the  old  witch  who  has  pos- 
sessed a  man  and  made  him  sick  or  deranged,  will  answer 
spiritually  out  of  his  body  and  say  who  she  is  and  where  she 
lives;  there  the  frenzied  demoniac  may  be  seen  ravings 
writhing,  tearing,  bursting  his  bonds,  till,  subdued  by  the 
exorcist,  his  fury  subsides,  he  stares  and  sighs,  falls  help- 
less to  the  ground,  and  comes  to  himself;  and  there  the 
deities  caused  by  excitement,  singing,  and  incense  to  enter 
into  men's  bodies,  manifest  their  presence  with  the  usual 
hysterical  or  epileptic  symptoms,  and  speaking  in  their  own 
divine  name  and  personality,  deliver  oracles  by  the  vocal 
organs  of  the  inspired  medium.^ 

Opinions  similar  to  these  were  current  in  ancient  Greece 
and  Rome,  to  whose  languages  indeed  our  own  owes  the  tech- 
nical terms  of  the  subject,  such  as  ''  demoniac  "  and  *'  exor- 
cist." Thus  Homer's  sick  men  racked  with  pain  are  tormented 
by  a  hateful  demon  {(rrvycpbs  b4  ol  ixp<i€  baCiAcop),  So  to  Pytha- 
goras the  causes  of  disease  in  men  and  beasts  are  demons 
pervading  the  air.  ''  Epilepsy  "  {iTrCKqyjns)  was,  as  its  name 
imports,  the  *'  seizure "  of  the  patient  by  a  superhuman 
agent :  the  agent  being  more  exactly  defined  in  ''  nympho- 
lepsy,"  the  state  of  being  seized  or  possessed  by  a  nymph>. 
i.  e.,  rapt  or  entranced  (yvfKf>6KqTrTos,  lymphatus).  The 
causation  of  mental  derangement  and  delirious  utterance  by 
spiritual  possession  was  an  accepted  tenet  of  Greek  philo- 
sophy. To  be  insane  was  simply  to  have  an  evil  spirit,  as  when 
Sokrates  said  of  those  who  denied  demoniac  or  spiritual 

etc.  See  also  Bowring,  '  Siam/  toL  i.  p.  189  ;  '  Journ.  lod.  Archip.'  vol.  iv. 
p.  507,  YoL  yi.  p.  614 ;  Tarpin  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  ix.  p.  761 ;  Kempfer,. 
'Japan,'  ibid,  toL  vii  pp.  701,  780,  etc 

*  Ward,  'Hindoos,'  toL  i.  p.  166,  vol,  iL  p.  183;  Roberts,  'Oriental 
lUostiations  of  the  ScriptureSy'  p.  529  ;  Bastlan,  '  Psychologie,'  pp.  164, 
184-7.  Sanskrit  pai9Acha-gTaha= demon-seizure,  possession.  Ancient  evi- 
dence in  Pictet^  '  Origines  ludo-Europ.'  part  iL  ch.  v. ;  Spiegel,  '  Avesta.* 


1 


1S8  ANIMISM. 

knowledge,  that  they  themselves  were  demoniac  {batiAovav 
'f<l>ri),  and  Alexander  ascribed  to  the  influence  of  offended 
Dionysos  the  ungovernable  drunken  fury  in  which  he  killed 
his  friend  Kleitos  ;  raving  madness  was  obsession  or  posses- 
sion by  an  evil  demon  {KCLKobaifxovCa),  So  the  Romans  called 
madmen  "  larvati/'  "  larvarum  pleni/'  full  of  ghosts. 
Patients  possessed  by  demons  stared  and  foamed,  and  the 
spirits  spoke  from  within  them  by  their  voices.  The  craft 
of  the  exorcist  was  well  known.  As  for  oracular  possession, 
its  theory  and  practice  remained  in  fullest  vigour  through 
the  classic  world,  scarce  altered  from  the  times  of  lowest 
barbarism.  Gould  a  South  Sea  islander  have  gone  to  Delphi 
to  watch  the  convulsive  struggles  of  the  Pythia,  and  listen 
to  her  raving,  shrieking  utterances,  he  would  have  needed 
no  explanation  whatever  of  a  rite  so  absolutely  in  conformity 
with  his  own  savage  philosophy.^ 

The  Jewish  doctrine  of  possession^  at  no  time  in  its  long 
•course  exercised  a  direct  influence  on  the  opinion  of  the 
civilized  world  comparable  to  that  produced  by  the  mentions 
of  demoniacal  possession  in  the  New  Testament.  It  is 
needless  to  quote  here  even  a  selection  from  the  familiar 
passages  of  the  Gospels  and  Acts  which  display  the  manner 
in  which  certain  described  symptoms  were  currently  ac- 
<;ounted  for  in  public  opinion.  Begarding  these  documents 
from  an  ethnographic  point  of  view,  it  need  only  be  said 
that  they  prove,  incidentally  but  absolutely,  that  Jews  and 
Christians  at  that  time  held  the  doctrine  which  had  pre- 
vailed for  ages  before,  and  continued  to  prevail  for  ages 
after,  referring  to  possession  and  obsession  by  spirits  the 
aym^toms  of'm Ja.  epUepsy,  dumbness,  ddirfous  and 
oracular  utterance,  and  other  morbid  conditions,  mental  and 
bodily.^    Modem  missionary  works,  such  as  have  been  cited 

1  Homer.  Ody8s.  v.  896,  x.  64 ;  Diog.  Laert  viii.  1 ;  Plat  Phedr. .  Tim. 
«tc.  ;  PauBAiu  iv.  27|  2 ;  Xen.  Mem.  I.  i.  9  ;  Plutarch.  Vit  Alex.  De  Orac 
Def. ;  Lucian.  PhilopaendeB ;  Petron.  Arbiter,  Sat. ;  etc  etc. 

2  Joseph.  Ant.  Jud.  viii.  2,  6.  EiseDmenger,  'Entdeoktes  Judenthum,* 
part  il.  p.  454.    See  Maury,  p.  290. 

*  Matth.  ix.  82,  zi  18,  xlL  22,  xviL  15 ;  Mark,  L  28,  ix.  17  ;  Lnke,  ir. 


ANIMISM.  139 

here,  give  the  most  striking  evidence  of  the  correspondence 
•of  these  demoniac  83anptoms  with  such  as  may  still  he 
-observed  among  uncivilized  races.  During  the  early 
•centuries  of  Christianity,  demoniacal  possession  indeed 
becomes  peculiarly  conspicuous,  perhaps  not  from  unusual 
prevalence  of  the  animistic  theory  of  disease,  but  simply 
because  a  period  of  intense  religious  excitement  brought  it 
more  than  usually  into  requisition.  Ancient  ecclesiastical 
records  describe,  under  the  well-known  names  of  *'  dse- 
moniacs  "  (6aifiowC<^€vo4),  "possessed"  {KaT^6fi€voi),  "ener- 
^mens  "  {kv€pya6yL€voC)y  the  class  of  persons  whose  bodies 
are  seized  or  possessed  with  an  evil  spirit;  such  attacks 
being  frequently  attended  with  great  commotions  and  vexa* 
tions  and  disturbances  of  the  body,  occasioning  sometimes 
frenzy  and  madness,  sometimes  epileptic  fits,  and  other 
violent  tossings  and  contortions.  These  energumens  formed 
a  recognized  part  of  an  early  Christian  congregation,  a 
•standing-place  apart  being  assigned  to  them  in  the  church. 
The  church  indeed  seems  to  have  been  the  principal  habita- 
tion of  these  afflicted  creatures,  they  were  occupied  in 
sweeping  and  the  like  out  of  times  of  worship,  daily  food 
was  provided  for  them,  and  they  were  imder  the  charge  of  a 
special  order  of  clergy,  the  exorcists,  whose  religious  func- 
tion was  to  cast  out  devils  by  prayer  and  adjuration  and  lay- 
ing on  of  hands.  As  to  the  usual  symptoms  of  possession, 
Justin,  Tertullian,  Chrysostom,  Cyril,  Minucius,  Cyprian, 
«nd  other  early  Fathers,  give  copious  descriptions  of  demons 
entering  into  the  bodies  of  men,  disordering  their  health  and 
minds,  driving  them  to  wander  among  the  tombs,  forcing 
them  to  writhe  and  wallow  and  rave  and  foam,  howling  and 
declaring  their  own  diabolical  names  by  the  patients'  voices, 
but  when  overcome  by  conjuration  or  by  blows  administered 
to  their  victims,  quitting  the  bodies  they  had  entered,  and 
acknowledging  the  pagan  deities  to  be  but  devils.^ 

83,  89,  vii.  88,  tiiL   27,  ix.  89,  xiii.  11 ;  John,  x.  20 ;  Acts,  xvL  16,  xix. 
18  ;  etc. 

'  For  general  evidence  see  Bingham,  '  Antiquities  of  Christian  Church/ 


140  ANIMISM. 

Oq  a  subject  so  familiar  to  educated  readers  I  may  be 
excused  from  citing  at  length  a  vast  mass  of  documents^ 
barbaric  in  nature  and  only  more  or  less  civilized  in  circum- 
stance^ to  illustrate  the  continuance  of  the  doctrine  of  pos- 
session and  the  rite  of  exorcism  through  the  middle  ages 
and  into  modem  times.  A  few  salient  examples  wiU  suffice. 
For  a  t3rpe  of  medical  details^  we  may  instance  the  recipes 
in  the  '  Early  English  Leechdoms, ' :  a  cake  of  the  ''  thost  '^ 
of  a  white  hound  baked  with  meal  is  to  be  taken  against  the- 
attack  by  dwarves  (i.  e,  convulsions) ;  a  drink  of  herbs 
worked  up  off  clear  ale  with  the  aid  of  garlic,  holy  water^ 
and  singing  of  masses,  is  to  be  drunk  by  a  fiend-sick  patient 
out  of  a  church-bell.  Philosophical  argument  may  be  fol- 
lowed in  the  dissertations  of  the  '  Malleus  Maleficarum/ 
concerning  demons  substantially  inhabiting  men  and  causing 
illness  in  them,  enquiries  which  may  be  pursued  under  the 
auspices  of  Glanvil  in  the  '  Saducismus  Triumphatus.' 
Historical  anecdote  bears  record  of  the  convulsive  clair- 
voyant demon  who  possessed  Nicola  Aubry,  and  under  the 
Bishop  of  Laon's  exorcism  testified  in  an  edifying  mannei" 
to  the  falsity  of  Calvinism ;  of  Charles  VI.  of  France,  who 
was  possessed,  and  whose  demon  a  certain  priest  tried  in 
vain  to  transfer  into  the  bodies  of  twelve  men  who  were 
chained  up  to  receive  it ;  of  the  German  woman  at  Elbin- 
gerode  who  in  a  fit  of  toothache  wished  the  devil  might 
enter  into  her  teeth,  and  who  was  possessed  by  six  demons 
accordingly,  which  gave  their  names  as  Schalk  der 
Wahrheit,  Wirk,  Widerkraut,  Myrrha,  Knip,  Stiip;  of 
George  Lukins  of  Yatton,  whom  seven  devils  threw  into 
fits  and  talked  and  sang  and  barked  out  of,  and  who  was 
delivered  by  a  solemn  exorcism  by  seven  clergymen  at  the 
Temple  Church  at  Bristol  in  the  year  1788.^     A  strong 

book  iii.  cIl  iv. ;  Calmet,  '  Dissertation  sur  lea  EspriU ; '  Maury,  '  Magie,^ 
etc.  ;  Lecky,  *Hist.  of  Kationalism.*  Among  particular  passages  are  TertoU. 
Apolog.  23  ;  Do  Spectaculis,  26  ;  Chiysostom.  ITomil.  xxyiii  in  Matth.  iv. ;. 
Cyril.  Hierosol.  Catech.  xvi.  16  ;  Minuc.  Fel,  Octavius.  xxi. ;  Concil.  Carthag, 
iv.  ;  etc.,  etc 

»  Detaila  in  Cockayne,  *  Leechdoms,  to,  of  Early  England,*  vol.  i.  p.  ?.05^ 


ANIMISM.  14>1 

-sense  of  the  permanence  of  the  ancient  doctrine  may  be 
gained  from  accounts  of  the  state  of  public  opinion  in 
Europe,  from  Greece  and  Italy  to  France,  where  within  the 
last  century  derangement  and  hysteria  were  still  popularly 
ascribed  to  possession  and  treated  by  exorcism,  just  as  in 
the  dark  ages.^  In  the  year  1861,  at  Morzine,  at  the  south 
of  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  there  might  be  seen  in  full  fury  an 
-epidemic  of  diabolical  possession  worthy  of  a  Red  Indian 
-settlement  or  a  negro  kingdom  of  West  Africa,  an  outburst 
which  the  exorcisms  of  a  superstitious  priest  had  so  aggra- 
vated that  there  were  a  hundred  and  ten  raving  demoniacs 
in  that  single  village.'  The  following  is  from  a  letter 
written  in  1862  by  Mgr.  Anouilh,  a  French  missionary- 
bishop  in  China.  "Le  croiriez-vous  ?  dix  villages  se  sont 
<!onvertis.  Le  diable  est  furieux  et  fait  les  cent  coups.  II  y 
ft  eu,  pendant  les  quinze  jours  que  je  viens  de  precher,  cinq 
ou  six  possessions.  Nos  catechum^nes  avec  Teau  benite 
chassent  les  diables,  guerissent  les  malades.  J'ai  vu  des 
choses  merveilleuses.  Le  diable  m'est  d'un  grand  secoui*s 
pour  convertir  les  paiens.  Comme  au  temps  de  Notre- 
Seigneur,  quoique  pfere  du  mensonge,  il  ne  pent  s'empecher 
de  dire  la  verite.  Voyez  ce  pauvre  possede  faisant  mille 
<contorsions  et  disant  a  grands  cris  :  '  Pourquoi  preches-tu 
la  vraie  religion  ?  Je  ne  puis  souffrir  que  tu  m'enl^ves  mes 
disciples.' — '  Comment  t'appelles-tu  ?  *  lui  demande  le  cate- 
^^histe.  Apr6s  quelques  refiis  :  '  Je  suis  Tenvoye  de  Lucifer ' 
— *Combien  etes-vous?' — 'Nous  sommes  vingt-deux.' 
L'eau  benite  et  le  signe  de  la  croix  ont  d^livre  ce  possede."  * 
To  conclude  the  series  with  f.  modern  spiritualistic  instance, 

roi  ii  p.  187,  855;  Sprenger,  'MaUens  MaleficaraiD/  part  ii.  ;  Calmet, 
'  DiBSertation,*  toI.  i.  ch.  xxiv.j  Horst,  '  Zauber-Bibliothek  ; '  Bastian, 
'Menach,'  vol.   ii.  p.    567,   &c.  ;    *  Psychologie,*  p.   115,   etc.;    VolUiro, 

*  Qaestions  sur  TEncyclop^o,*  art.  *  Superstition ' ;  « Encyclopaedia  Britaii- 
nica,'  art  'Possession.* 

•  '  See  Hanry,  'Magie,*  etc.  part  ii.  ch.  ii. 

*  A.  Ck>n8tans,  '  Rel.  sar  nne  Epidemic  d'Hyst^ro-Ddmonopathie,  en  1S61.* 
2nded.  Paris,  1863.  For  descriptions  of  such  outbreaks,  among  the  North 
American  Indians,  see  Le  Jeune  in  '  Rel.  des  J^.  dans  la  Nouvelle  France,' 
1689 ;  Brinton,  p.  275,  and  in  Guinea,  see  J.  L.  Wilson,  *  Western  Africa,'  p.  21 7. 

*  Ganme,  'L'Ean  Benite  au  Dix-Keuyi^me  Si^le,'  3rd  ed.  Paris,  1866,  p.  853. 


142  ANIMISM. 

one  of  those  where  the  mediums  feel  themselves  entered  and 
acted  through  hy  a  spirit  other  than  their  own  soul.  The 
Eev.  Mr.  West  of  Philadelphia  describes  how  a  certain  pos- 
sessed medium  went  through  the  sword  exercise,  and  fell 
down  senseless ;  when  he  came  to  himself  again,  the  spirit 
within  him  declared  itself  to  be  the  soul  of  a  deceased  ancestor 
of  the  minister's,  who  had  fought  and  died  in  the  American 
War.^  We  in  England  now  hardly  hear  of  demoniacal  posses- 
sion except  as  a  historical  doctrine  of  divines.  We  have  dis- 
carded from  religious  services  the  solemn  ceremony  of  casting 
out  devils  from  the  bodies  of  the  possessed,  a  rite  to  this  day 
officially  retained  in  the  Bituals  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
Churches.  Cases  of  diabolical  influence  alleged  from  time 
to  time  among  ourselves  are  little  noticed  except  by  news- 
paper paragraphs  on  superstition  and  imposture.  If,  how- 
ever, we  desire  to  understand  the  doctrine  of  possession,  its 
origin  and  influence  in  the  world,  we  must  look  beyond 
countries  where  public  opinion  has  passed  into  this  stage, 
and  must  study  the  demoniac  theory  as  it  still  prevails  in 
lower  and  lowest  levels  of  culture. 

It  has  to  be  thoroughly  understood  that  the  changed  aspect 
of  the  subject  in  modem  opinion  is  not  due  to  disappearance 
of  the  actual  manifestations  which  early  philosophy  attri- 
buted to  demoniacal  influence.  Hysteria  and  epilepsy,, 
delirium  and  mania,  and  such  like  bodily  and  mental  de- 
rangement, still  exist.  Not  only  do  they  still  exist,  but 
among  the  lower  races,  and  in  superstitious  districts  among 
the  higher,  they  are  still  explained  and  treated  as  of  old.  It 
is  not  too  much  to  assert  that,  the  doctrine  of  demoniacal 
possession  is  kept  up,  substantially  the  same  theoiy  to 
account  for  substantially  the  same  facts,  by  half  the  human 
race,  who  thus  stand  as  consistent  representatives  of  their 
forefathers  back  into  primitive  antiquity.  It  is  in  the 
civilized  world,  under  the  influence  of  the  medical  doctrines 
which  have  been  developing  since  classic  times,  that  the 
early  animistic  theory  of  these  morbid  phenomena  has  been 

*  "West  in  *  Spiritual  Telegraph,*  cited  by  Bastian. 


ANIMISM.  143 

gradually  superseded  by  views  more  in  accordance  with 
modem  science,  to  the  great  gain  of  our  health  and  happi- 
ness. The  transition  which  has  taken  place  in  the  famous 
insane  colony  of  Gheel  in  Belgium  is  t3rpical.  In  old  days, 
the  lunatics  were  carried  there  in  crowds  to  be  exorcised 
from  the  demons  at  the  church  of  St.  Dymphna ;  to  Gheel 
they  still  go,  but  the  physician  reigns  in  the  stead  of  the 
exorcist.  Yet  wherever,  in  times  old  or  new,  we  find  de- 
moniacal influences  brought  forward  to  account  for  affec- 
tions which  scientific  physicians  now  explain  on  a  different 
principle,  we  must  be  careful  not  to  misjudge  the  ancient 
doctrine  and  its  place  in  history.  As  belonging  to  the 
lower  culture  it  is  a  perfectly  rational  philosophical  theory 
to  account  for  certain  pathological  facts.  But  just  as 
mechanical  astronomy  gradually  superseded  the  animistic 
astronomy  of  the  lower  races,  so  biological  pathology  gra- 
dually supersedes  animistic  pathology,  the  immediate  opera- 
tion of  personal  spiritual  beings  in  both  cases  giving  place 
to  the  operation  of  natural  processes. 

We  now  pass  to  the  consideration  of  another  great  branch 
of  the  lower  religion  of  the  world,  a  development  of  the 
same  principles  of  spiritual  operation  with  which  we  have 
become  familiar  in  the  study  of  the  possession-theory.  This 
is  the  doctrine  of  Fetishism.  Centuries  ago,  the  Portu- 
guese in  West  Africa,  noticing  the  veneration  paid  by  the 
negroes  to  certain  objects,  such  as  trees,  fish,  plants,  idols^ 
pebbles>  claws  of  beasts,  sticks,  and  so  forth,  very  fairly 
compared  these  objects  to  the  amulets  or  talismans  with 
which  they  were  themselves  familiar,  and  called  Hxemfeitigo 
or  "  charm,"  a  word  derived  from  Latin  factitius,  in  the 
sense  of  *'  magically  artful."  Modem  French  and  English 
adopted  this  word  from  the  Portuguese  as  fetiche,  fetish, 
although  curiously  enough  both  languages  had  already  pos- 
sessed the  word  for  ages  in  a  different  sense,  Old  French 
faitis,  "  well  made,  beautiftil,"  which  Old  English  adopted 
tisfetys,  "  well  made,  neat."  It  occurs  in  the  commonest  of 
all  quotations  from  Chaucer : 


144  ANIMISM. 

"  And  Frensch  sche  spak  fal  faire  ^xAfetysly, 
Aftar  the  soole  of  Stratford  atte  Bowe, 
For  Frensoli  of  Parys  was  to  hire  unknowe." 

The  President  de  Brosses,  a  most  original  thinker  of  the 
last  century,  struck  by  the  descriptions  of  the  African  wor- 
ship of  material  and  terrestrial  objects,  introduced  the  word 
Fetichisme  as  a  general  descriptive  term,^  and  since  then  it 
has  obtained  great  currency  by  Comte's  use  of  it  to  denote 
a  general  theory  of  primitive  religion,  in  which  external 
objects  are  regarded  as  animated  by  a  life  analogous  to 
man's.  It  seems  to  me,  however,  more  convenient  to  use 
the  word  Animism  for  the  doctrine  of  spirits  in  general,  and 
to  confine  the  word  Fetishism  to  that  subordinate  department 
which  it  properly  belongs  to,  namely,  the  doctrine  of  spirits 
embodied  in,  or  attached  to,  or  conveying  influence  through, 
certain  material  objects.  Fetishism  will  be  taken  as  in- 
cluding the  worship  of  "  stocks  and  stones,'*  and  thence  it 
passes  by  an  imperceptible  gradation  into  Idolatry. 

Any  object  whatsoever  may  be  a  fetish.  Of  course,  among 
the  endless  multitude  of  objects,  not  as  we  should  say 
physically  active,  but  to  which  ignorant  men  ascribe  mys- 
terious power,  we  are  not  to  apply  indiscriminately  the  idea 
of  their  being  considered  vessels  or  vehicles  or  instruments 
of  spiritual  beings.  They  may  be  mere  signs  or  tokens  set 
up  to  represent  ideal  notions  or  ideal  beings,  as  fingers  or 
sticks  are  set  up  to  represent  numbers.  Or  they  may  be 
symbolic  charms  working  by  imagined  conveyance  of  their 
special  properties,  as  an  iron  ring  to  give  firmness,  or  a 
kite's  foot  to  give  swift  flight.  Or  they  may  be  merely  re- 
garded in  some  undefined  way  as  wondrous  ornaments  or 
curiosities.  The  tendency  runs  through  aU  human  nature 
to  collect  and  admire  objects  remarkable  in  beauty,  form, 
quality,  or  scarceness.  The  shelves  of  ethnological  museums 
show  heaps  of  the  objects  which  the  lower  races  treasure  up 

^  (C.  de  Brosses. )  *  Da  culte  des  dieuz  fifitiches  oa  ParaUMe  de  raucienne  Re- 
ligion de  TBgypte  ayec  la  religion  actuelle  de  Nightie.*  1760.  [De  Brosses 
supposed  the  yrord/itiche  connected  with  chose /46f  fadum,} 


ANIMISM.  145 

3Uid  hang  about  their  persons — teeth  and  claws,  roots  and 
berries,  shells  and  stones,  and  the  like.  Now  fetishes  are  in 
great  measure  selected  from  among  such  things  as  these,  and 
the  principle  of  their  attraction  for  savage  minds  is  clearly 
the  same  which  still  guides  the  superstitious  peasant  in 
-collecting  curious  trifles  "  for  luck."  The  principle  is  one 
which  retains  its  force  in  far  higher  ranges  of  culture  than 
the  peasant's.  Compare  the  Ostyak's  veneration  for  any 
peculiar  little  stone  he  has  picked  up,  with  the  Chinese  love 
of  collecting  curious  varieties  of  tortoise-shell,  or  an  old- 
fashioned  English  conchologist's  delight  in  a  reversed  shell. 
The  turn  of  mind  which  in  a  Gold-Coast  negro  would  mani- 
fest itself  in  a  museum  of  monstrous  and  most  potent 
fetishes,  might  impel  an  Englishman  to  collect  scarce 
postage-stamps  or  queer  walking-sticks.  In  the  love  of 
abnormal  curiosities  there  shows  itseK  a  craving  for  the 
marvellous,  an  endeavour  to  get  free  from  the  tedious  sense 
of  law  and  uniformity  in  nature.  As  to  the  lower  races^ 
were  evidence  more  plentiful  as  to  the  exact  meaning  they 
attach  to  objects  which  they  treat  with  mysterious  respect, 
it  would  very  likely  appear  more  often  and  more  certainly 
than  it  does  now,  that  these  objects  seem  to  them  connected 
with  the  action  of  spirits,  so  as  to  be,  in  the  strict  sense  in 
which  the  word  is  here  used,  real  fetishes.  But  this  must 
not  be  taken  for  granted.  To  class  an  object  as  a  fetish, 
demands  explicit  statement  that  a  spirit  is  considered  as 
embodied  in  it  or  acting  through  it  or  communicating  by  it, 
or  at  least  that  the  people  it  belongs  to  do  habitually  think 
this  of  such  objects ;  or  it  must  be  shown  that  the  object 
is  treated  as  having  personal  consciousness  and  power,  is 
talked  with,  worshipped,  prayed  to,  sacrificed  to,  petted  or 
ill-treated  with  reference  to  its  past  or  future  behaviour  to 
its  votaries.  In  the  instances  now  selected,  it  will  be  seen 
that  in  one  way  or  another  they  more  or  less  satisfy  such 
conditions.  In  investigating  the  exact  significance  of  fetishes 
in  use  among  men,  savage  or  more  civilized,  the  pecu- 
liar difficulty  is  to  know  whether  the  effect  of  the  object  is 

VOL.  II.  L 


146  AlflMISM. 

thought  due  to  a  whole  personal  spirit  embpdied  in  or 
attached  to  it,  or  to  some  less  definable  influence  exerted 
through  it.  In  some  cases  this  point  is  made  clear,  but 
in  many  it  remains  doubtful. 

It  will  help  us  to  a  clearer  conception  of  the  nature  of  a^ 
fetish,  to  glance  at  a  curious  group  of  notions  which  con- 
nect a  disease  at  once  with  spiritual  influence,  and  with  the 
presence  of  some  material  object.  They  are  a  set  of  illus- 
trations of  the  savage  principle,  that  a  disease  or  an  actual 
disease-spirit  may  exist  embodied  in  a  stick  or  stone  or 
such  like  material  object.  Among  the  natives  of  Australia, 
we  hear  of  the  sorcerers  extracting  from  their  own  bodies, 
by  passes  and  manipulations  a  magical  essence  called 
**  boylj'a,"  which  they  can  make  to  enter  the  patient's  body 
like  pieces  of  quartz,  which  causes  pain  there  and  consumes 
the  flesh,  and  may  be  magically  extracted  either  as  invisible 
or  in  the  form  of  a  bit  of  quartz.  Even  the  spirit  of  the 
waters,  *' nguk-wonga,"  which  had  caused  an  attack  of 
erysipelas  in  a  boy's  leg  (he  had  been  bathing  too  long^ 
when  heated)  is  declared  to  have  been  extracted  by  the 
conjiu'ors  from  the  affected  part  in  the  shape  of  a  shaiT> 
stone.^  The  Caribs,  who  very  distinctly  referred  diseases 
to  the  action  of  hostile  demons  or  deities,  had  a  similar 
sorcerer's  process  of  extracting  thorns  or  splinters  from  the 
affected  part  as  the  peccant  causes,  and  it  is  said  that  in 
the  i\iitilles  morsels  of  stone  and  bone  so  extracted  were 
wrapped  up  in  cotton  by  the  women,  as  protective  fetishes 
in  childbirth.^  The  Malagasy,  considering  all  diseases  as. 
inflicted  by  an  evil  spirit,  consult  a  diviner,  whose  method 
is  often  to  remove  the  disease  by  means  of  a  '^faditra;*" 
this  is  some  object,  such  as  a  little  grass,  ashes,  a  sheep,  a 
pumpkin,  the  water  the  patient  has  rinsed  his  mouth  with, 
or  what  not,  and  when  the  priest  has  counted  on  it  the  evils 

'  Grey,  ' Atistralia,'  vol.  ii.  p.  337;  Eyre,  'Australia,'  vol.  ii.  p.  362; 
Oldficld  in  *Tr.  Etli.  Soc'  vol.  iii.  p.  235,  etc.  ;  G.  F.  Moore,  'Vocab.  of  S. 
W.  Auatr.*  pp.  18,  98,  103.     See  Bonwick,  *  Tasmanians, '  p.  195. 

«  fliocliefoi-t,  *Ilcs  Antilles,' pp.  419,  608  ;  J.  O.  Miiller,  pp.  173,  207,  217. 


ANIMISM.  147 

that  may  injure  the  patient,  and  charged  the  faditra  to  take 
them  away  for  ever,  it  is  thrown  away,  and  the  malady  with 
it.^  Among  those  strong  believers  in  disease-spirits,  the 
Dayaks  of  Borneo,  the  priest,  waving  and  jingling  charms 
over  the  affected  part  of  the  patient,  pretends  to  extract 
stones,  splinters,  and  bits  of  rag,  which  he  declares  are 
spirits ;  of  such  evil  spirits  lie  will  occasionally  bring  half- 
a-dozen  out  of  a  man's  stomach,  and  as  he  is  paid  a  fee  of 
six  gallons  of  rice  for  each,  he  is  probably  disposed  (like  a 
chiropodist  under  similar  circumstances)  to  extract  a  good 
many.^  The  most  instructive  accounts  of  this  kind  are 
those  which  reach  us  from  Africa.  Dr.  Callaway  has  taken 
down  at  length  a  Zulu  account  of  the  method  of  stopping 
out  disease  caused  by  spirits  of  the  dead.  If  a  widow  is. 
troubled  by  her  late  husband's  ghost  coming  and  talking  to 
her  night  after  night  as  though  still  alive,  till  her  health  is^ 
affected  and  she  begins  to  waste  away,  they  find  a  "  nyanga^^ 
or  sorcerer  who  can  bar  out  the  disease.  He  bids  her  not 
lose  the  spittle  collected  in  her  mouth  while  she  is  dream- 
ing, and  gives  her  medicine  to  chew  when  she  wakes.  Then 
he  goes  with  her  to  lay  the  "  itongo,"  or  ghost ;  perhaps- 
he  shuts  it  up  in  a  bulb  of  the  inkomfe  plant,  making  a 
hole  in  the  side  of  this,  putting  in  the  medicine  and  the 
dream-spittle,  closing  the  hole  with  a  stopper,  and  re- 
planting the  bulb.  Leaving  the  place,  he  charges  her  not 
to  look  back  till  she  gets  home.  Thus  the  dream  is  barred;. 
it  may  still  come  occasionally,  but  no  longer  infests  the 
woman ;  the  doctor  prevails  over  the  dead  man  as  regards 
that  dream.  In  other  cases  the  cure  of  a  sick  man  attacked 
by  the  ancestral  spirits  may  be  effected  with  some  of  his 
blood  put  into  a  hole  in  an  anthill  by  the  doctor,  who  closes 
the  hole  with  a  stone,  and  departs  without  looking  back ;  or 
the  patient  may  be  scarified  over  the  painful  place,  and  the 
blood  put  into  the  mouth  of  a  frog,  caught  for  the  purpose 
and  carried  back.     So  the  disease  is  barred  out  from  the 

>  EUis,  'Madagascar,'  vol.  i.  pp.  221,  232,  422. 
«  St.  JoLn,  'Far  East,'  vol.  i.  p.  211,  see  72. 

L  2 


148  ANIMISM. 

man.^  In  West  Africa,  a  case  in  point  is  the  practice  of 
transferring  a  sick  man's  ailment  to  a  live  fowl,  which  is  set 
free  with  it,  and  if  any  one  catches  the  fowl,  the  disease 
goes  to  him.^  Captain  Burton's  account  from  Central  Africa 
is  as  follows.  Disease  being  possession  by  a  spirit  or  ghost, 
the  "mganga"  or  sorcerer  has  to  expel  it,  the  principal 
remedies  being  drumming,  dancing,  and  drinking,  till  at 
last  the  spirit  is  enticed  from  the  body  of  the  patient  into 
some  inanimate  article,  technically  called  a  '*  keti  "  or  stool 
for  it.  This  may  be  an  ornament,  such  as  a  peculiar  bead 
or  a  leopard's  claw,  or  it  may  be  a  nail  or  rag,  which  by 
being  driven  into  or  hung  to  a  *'  devil's  tree  "  has  the  effect 
of  laying  the  disease- spirit.  Or  disease-spirits  may  be  ex- 
tracted by  chants,  one  departing  at  the  end  of  each  stave, 
when  a  little  painted  stick  made  for  it  is  flung  on  the 
f(round,  and  some  patients  may  have  as  many  as  a  dozen 
ghosts  extracted,  for  here  also  the  fee  is  so  much  apiece.' 
In  Siam,  the  Laos  sorcerer  can  send  his  "  phi  phob  "  or 
demon  into  a  victim's  body,  where  it  turns  into  a  fleshy  or 
leathery  lump,  and  causes  disease  ending  in  death.^  Thus, 
on  the  one  hand,  the  spirit-theory  of  disease  is  brought 
into  connexion  with  that  sorcerer's  practice  so  extraordi- 
narily prevalent  among  the  lower  races,  of  pretending  to 
extract  objects  from  the  patient's  body,  such  as  stones, 
bones,  balls  of  hair,  &c.,  which  are  declared  to  be  causes  of 
disease  conveyed  by  magical  means  into  him ;  of  this  pro- 
ceeding I  have  given  some  account  elsewhere,  under  the 
name  of  the  "  sucking-cure."^  On  the  other  hand,  we  see 
among  the  lower  races  that  well  known  conception  of  a 
disease  or  evil  influence  as  an  individual  being,  which  may 
be  not  merely  conveyed  by  an  infected  object  (though  this 
of  course  mkj  have  much  to  do  with  the  idea),  but  may  be 

'  Callaway,  '  Religion  of  Amnzulu/ p.  814. 

-  Steinhauser,  1.  c.  p.  141.    See  also  Steere,  'East  Afr.  Tribes/ in  'Joiim. 
Authrop.  Soc.'  vol.  i.  p.  czlviii. 

*  Burton,  'Central  Africa/  yoL  iL  p.  852.     See  'Sindh/  p.  177. 

*  Bastian,  'Oestl.  Asien,'  vol.  iii  p.  275. 

*  *  Early  Hist,  of  Mankind/  ch.  x.    See  Bastian,  ^Menscli/  vol.  ii.p.  116,  etc 


ANIMISM.  141) 

removed  by  actual  transfer  from  the  patient  into  some  other 
animal  or  object.  Thus  Pliny  informs  us  how  pains  in  the 
stomach  may  be  cured  by  transmitting  the  aihnen^  from  the 
patient's  body  into  a  puppy  or  duck,  which  will  probably 
die  of  it  ;^  it  is  considered  baneful  to  a  Hindu  woman  to  be 
a  man's  third  wife,  wherefore  the  precaution  is  taken  of 
first  betrothing  him  to  a  tree,  which  dies  in  her  stead ;  ^ 
after  the  birth  of  a  Chinese  baby,  its  father's  trousers  are 
hung  in  the  room  wrong  side  up,  that  aU  evil  influences 
may  enter  into  them  instead  of  into  the  child.^  Modern 
folklore  still  cherishes  such  ideas.  The  ethnographer  may 
still  study  in  the  "  white  witchcraft  "  of  European  peasants 
the  arts  of  cuiing  a  man's  fever  or  headache  by  transferring 
it  to  a  crawfish  or  a  bird,  or  of  getting  rid  of  ague  or  gout  or 
warts  by  giving  them  to  a  willow,  elder,  fir,  or  ash-tree» 
with  suitable  charms,  "  Goe  morgen,  olde,  ick  geef  oe  do 
Kolde,"  "  Goden  Abend,  Herr  Fleder,  hier  bring  ick  mieii 
Feber,  ick  bind  em  di  an  und  gah  davan,"  "Ash-trec, 
ashen  tree,  pray  buy  this  wart  of  me,"  and  so  forth ;  or  of 
nailing  or  plugging  an  ailment  into  a  tree-trunk,  or  con- 
veying it  away  by  some  of  the  patient's  hair  or  nail-parings 
or  some  such  thing,  and  so  bur}'ing  it.  Looking  at  these 
proceedings  from  a  moral  point  of  view,  the  practice  of 
transferring  the  ailment  to  a  knot  or  a  lock  of  hair  and 
burying  it  is  the  most  harmless,  but  another  device  is  a 
very  pattern  of  wicked  selfishness.  In  England,  warts  may 
be  touched  each  with  a  pebble,  and  the  pebbles  in  a  bag  left 
on  the  road  to  church,  to  give  up  their  ailments  to  the  un- 
lucky finder ;  in  Germany,  a  plaister  from  a  sore  may  be 
left  at  a  cross-way  to  transfer  the  disease  to  a  passer-by ; 
I  am  told  on  medical  authority  that  the  bunches  of  flowers 
which  children  offer  to  travellers  in  Southern  Europe  are 
sometimes  intended  for  the  ungracious  purpose  of  sending 
some  disease  away  from  their  homes.*     One  case  of  this 

'  Plin.  XXX.  14,  20.     Cardan,  *Do  Var.  Beruin,' cap.  xliiL 

*  Ward, '  HindooB,*  voL  i.  p.  184,  vol.  iL  p.  247. 
'  Doolittle,  *  Chinese,*  vol.  i.  p.  122. 

*  Grimm,  'D.  M.'  pp.  1118-28;  Wuttke, '  Volksaberglattbe,*pp.  165-70  ; 


150  ANIMISM. 

group,  mentioned  to  me  by  Mr,  Spottiswoode,  is  particu- 
larly interesting.  In  Thuringia  it  is  considered  tliat  a 
string  of  fowan-berries,  a  rag,  or  any  small  article,  touched 
by  a  sick  person  and  then  hung  on  a  bush  beside  some 
forest  path,  imparts  the  malady  to  any  person  who  may 
touch  this  article  in  passing,  and  frees  the  sick  person  from 
the  disease.  This  gives  great  probability  to  Captain  Bur- 
ton's suggestion  that  the  i*ags,  locks  of  hair,  and  what  not, 
hung  on  trees  near  sacred  places  by  the  superstitious  from 
Mexico  to  India  and  from  Ethiopia  to  Ireland,  are  depo- 
sited there  as  actual  receptacles  of  disease ;  the  African 
'*  devil's  trees  "  and  the  sacred  trees  of  Sindh,  hung  with 
rags  through  which  votaries  have  transferred  their  com- 
plaints, being  typical  cases  of  a  praetice  surviving  in  lands 
of  higher  cultm'e. 

The  spirits  which  enter  or  otherwise  attach  themselves  to 
objects  may  be  human  souls.  Indeed  one  of  the  most 
natural  cases  of  the  fetish-theory  is  when  a  soul  inhabits  or 
haunts  the  relics  of  its  foimer  body.  It  is  plain  enough 
that  by  a  simple  association  of  ideas  the  dead  person  is 
imagined  to  keep  up  a  connexion  with  his  remains.  Thus 
we  read  of  the  Mandan  women  going  year  after  year  to  take 
food  to  the  skulls  of  their  d^ad  kinsfolk,  and  sitting  by  tlie 
hour  to  chat  and  jest  in  their  most  endearing  strain  with 
the  relics  of  a  husband  or  child  ;^  thus  tlie  Guinea  negroes, 
who  keej)  the  bones  of  parents  in  chests,  will  go  to  talk 
with  them  in  the  little  huts  which  serve  for  thek  tombs.^ 
And  thus,  from  the  savage  who  keeps  and  carries  with  his 
household  propert}'^  the  cleaned  bones  of  his  forefathers,*  to 

Urand,  'Pop.  Ant.*  vol.  ii.  p.  375,  vol.  iii.  x>.  286  ;  Halliwell,  *  Pop.  Bliymes; 

p.  208  ;  R.  Hunt,  '  Pop.  Romances,*  2nd  Series,  p.  211  ;  Hylten-Cavallius, 
*Warend  och  Wirdarne,'  vol.  L  p.  178.  It  is  said,  however,  that  rag* 
fastened  on  trees  by  Gypsies,  which  passers-by  avoid  with  horror  as  having 
diseases  thus  banned  into  them,  are  only  signs  left  for  the  infomiatiou  of  fellow 
vagrants  ;  Liebich,  '  Die  Zigeaner,'  p.  96. 

>  Catlin,  •  N.  A.  Indians,*  vol.  i.  p.  00. 

»  J.  U  Wilson,  *  W  Africa/  p.  894. 

*  Mciners,  *  Gesch.  der  Rel.*  vol.  i.  p.  305 ;  J.  G.  MUlKr,  p.  £03. 


»  ANIMISM.  151 

Ihe  mourner  among  ourselves  who  goes  to  weep  at  the  grave 
of  one  beloved,  imagination  keeps  together  the  personality 
and  the  relics  of  the  dead.  Here,  then,  is  a  course  of 
thought  open  to  the  animistic  thinker,  leading  him  on  from 
fancied  association  to  a  belief  in  the  real  presence  of  a 
4spiritual  being  in  a  material  object.  Thus  there  is  no 
-difficulty  in  understanding  how  the  Karens  thought  the 
spirits  of  the  dead  might  come  back  from  the  other  world 
to  re-animate  their  bodies ;  ^  nor  how  the  Marian  islanders 
-should  have  kept  the  dried  bodies  of  their  dead  ancestors 
in  their  huts  as  household  gods,  and  even  expected  them  to 
give  oracles  out  of  their  skulls ;  ^  nor  how  the  soul  of  a 
dead  Carib  might  be  thought  to  abide  in  one  of  his  bones, 
taken  fi'om  the  grave  and  carefully  wrapped  in  cotton,  in 
which  state  it  could  answer  questions,  and  even  bewitch  an 
-enemy  if  a  morsel  of  his  property  were  wrapped  up  with  it;' 
nor  how  the  dead  Santal  should  be  sent  to  his  fathers  b}'  the 
ceremony  of  committing  to  the  sacred  river  morsels  of  his 
skull  from  the  funeral-pile.^  Such  ideas  are  of  great  interest 
in  studying  the  burial  rites  of  mankind,  especially  the  habit 
of  keeping  relics  of  the  dead  as  vehicles  of  superhuman 
power,  and  of  even  preserving  the  whole  body  as  a  mummy, 
as  in  Peru  and  Egypt.  The  conception  of  such  human 
relics  becoming  fetishes,  inhabited  or  at  least  acted  through 
by  the  souls  which  formerly  belonged  to  them,  would  give  a 
rational  explanation  of  much  relic-worship  otherwise  obscure* 
A  further  stretch  of  imagination  enables  the  lower  races 
to  associate  the  souls  of  the  dead  with  mere  objects,  a 
practice  which  may  have  had  its  origin  in  the  merest  child- 
ish make-believe,  but  which  would  lead  a  thorough  savage 
iinimist  straight  on  to  the  conception  of  the  soul  entering 

^  Mason,  Karens,  L  c.  p.  281. 

^  Meinora,Tol.  iL  pp.  721-8. 

'  Rochefort,  '  lies  AntiUes,' p.  418.  See  Martins,  '  Ethnog.  Amer.'  vol.  L 
p.  485  (Yamanas  swallow  ashes  of  deceased  witli  liquor,  that  he  may  live 
jigain  in  them.) 

*  Hunter,  '  Rural  Bengal,'  p.  210.  See  Bastian,  '  Psychologie, '  }>.  73 ;  J. 
<G.  Miiller,  <  Amer.  UrrcL'  pp.  209,  262,  289,  401,  419. 


1 52  ANIMISM. 

the  object  as  a  body.    Mr.  Darwin  saw  two  Malay  women 
in   Keeling  Island  who  held  a  wooden  spoon  dressed  in 
clothes  like  a  doll ;  this  spoon  had  been  carried  to  the  grave 
of  a  dead  man,  and  becoming  inspired  at  full  moon,  in  fact 
lunatic,  it  danced  about  convulsively  like  a  table  or  a  hat  at 
a  modem  spirit-seance.^     Among  the   Salish   Indians  of 
Oregon,  the  conjurors  bring  back  men's  lost  souls  as  little 
stones  or  bones  or  splinters,  and  pretend  to  pass  them  down 
through  the  tops  of  their  heads  into  their  hearts,  but  great 
care  must  be  taken  to   remove   the   spirits  of    any   dead 
people  that  may  be  in  the  lot,  for  the   patient  receiving- 
one  would  die.^     There  are  indigenous  Kol  tribes  of  India 
who  work  out  this  idea  curiously  in  bringing  back  the  soul 
of  a  deceased  man  into  the  house  after  the  funeral,  apparently 
to  be  worshipped  as  a  household  spirit ;  while  some  catch 
the  spirit  re-embodied  in  a  fowl  or  fish,  the  Binjwar  of  Rae- 
pore  bring  it  home  in  a  pot  of  water,  and  the  Bunjia  in  a. 
pot  of  flour.'     The  Chinese  hold  such  theories  with  extreme 
distinctness,  considering  one  of  a  man's  three  spirits  to  take 
up  its    abode    in  the    ancestral  tablet,   where  it  receives, 
messages  and  worship  from  the  survivors ;  while  the  long 
keeping  of  the  dead  man's  gilt  and  lacquered  coffin,  and  the 
reverence  and  offerings  continued  at  the  tomb,  are  connected 
with  the  thought  of  a  spirit  lingering  about  the  corpse. 
Consistent  with  these  quaint  ideas  are  ceremonies  in  vogue 
in  China,  of  bringing  home  in  a  cock  (live  or  artificial)  the 
spirit  of  a  man  deceased  in  a  distant  place,  and  of  enticing" 
into  a  sick  man's  coat  the  departing  spirit  which  has  already 
left  his  body,  and  so  conveying  it  back.*    Tatar  folk-lore 
illustrates  the  idea  of  soul-embodiment  in  the  quaint  but 
intelligible  story  of  the  demon-giant  who  could  not  be  slain,, 
for  he  did  not  keep  his  soul  in  his  body,  but  in  a  twelve- 

'  Darwin,  *J6anial,'p.  458. 

3  Bastian,  'Mensch,'  vol.  ii  p.  320. 

'  Beport  of  Jabbnlpore  Ethnological  Committee,  Nagpore,  186S,  part  i. 
p.  5. 

^  Doolittle,  *  Chinese,'  voL  i.  pp.  15J,  207,  214,  vol.  ii.  p.  401 ;  sec  Plath„ 
'Keligion  der  alten  Chinesen/  part  i.  p.  59,  part  ii.  p.  101. 


ANIMISM.  15$ 

headed  snake  carried  in  a  bag  on  his  horse's  back;  the  hero 
finds  out  the  secret  and  kills  the  snake,  and  then  the  giant 
dies  too.  This  tale  is  curious^  as  very  likely  indicating  the 
original  sense  of  a  well-known  group  of  stories  in  European 
folklore,  the  Scandinavian  one,  for  instance,  where  the  giant 
cannot  be  made  an  end  of,  because  he  keeps  his  heai*t  not 
in  his  body,  but  in  a  duck's  egg  in  a  well  far  away ;  at  last 
the  young  champion  finds  the  egg  and  crushes  it,  and  the 
giant  bursts.^  Following  the  notion  of  soul-embodiment 
into  civilized  times,  we  learn  that  "  A  ghost  may  be  laid  for 
any  term  less  than  an  hundred  years,  and  in  any  place  or 
body,  full  or  empty ;  as,  a  solid  oak — ^the  pommel  of  a  sword 
— a  barrel  of  beer,  if  a  yeoman  or  simple  gentleman — or  a 
pipe  of  wine,  if  an  esquire  or  a  justice."  This  is  from 
Grose's  bantering  description  in  the  last  century  of  the  art 
of  "  laying  "  ghosts,*  and  it  is  one  of  the  many  good  instances- 
of  articles  of  serious  savage  belief  surviving  as  jests  among 
civilized  men. 

Thus  other  spiritual  beings,  roaming  free  about  the  world,, 
find  fetish-objects  to  act  through,  to  embody  themselves  in,, 
to  present  them  visibly  to  their  votaries.  It  is  extremely 
difficult  to  draw  a  distinct  line  of  separation  between  the 
two  prevailing  sets  of  ideas  relating  to  spiritual  action 
through  what  we  call  inanimate  objects.  Theoretically  we 
can  distinguish  the  notion  of  the  object  actuig  as  it  were  by 
the  will  and  force  of  its  own  proper  soul  or  spirit,  from  the 
notion  of  some  foreign  spirit  entering  its  substance  or  act- 
ing on  it  from  without,  and  so  using  it  as  a  body  or  instru- 
ment. But  in  practice  these  conceptions  blend  almost, 
inextricably.  This  state  of  things  is  again  a  confirmation 
of  the  theory  of  animism  here  advanced,  which  treats  both 
sets  of  ideas  as  similar  developments  of  the  same  original 


*  Gastrin,   'Finn.  Myth,'  p.  187;  D$sent,  'Norse  Tales,' p.  69;   Lane,. 
•Thousand  and  One  Nights,*  voL  iii.  p.  816;  Grimm,   *D.  M/  p.   1033. 
See  also  Bastian,  *  Psjchologie,'  p.  218.     Eisenmenger,  'Judenthum,'  part. 
ii.  p.  89. 

3  Brand,  *  Pop.  Ant.*  vol.  iii.  p.  72. 


154*  ANIMISM. 

idea,  that  of  the  human  soul,  so  that  they  may  well  shade 
imperceptibly  into  one  another.  To  depend  on  some 
typical  descriptions  of  fetishism  and  its  allied  doctrines  in 
different  grades  of  culture,  is  a  safer  mode  of  treatment  than 
to  attempt  too  accurate  a  general  definition. 

There  is  a  quaint  story,  dating  from  the  time  of  Columbus, 
which  shows  what  mysterious  personality  and  power  rude 
tribes  could  attach  to  lifeless  matter.  The  cacique  Hatuey, 
it  is  related,  heard  by  his  spies  in  Hispaniola  that  the 
Spaniards  were  coming  to  Cuba.  So  he  called  his  people 
together,  and  talked  to  them  of  the  Spaniards — how  they 
persecuted  the  natives  of  the  islands,  and  how  they  did  such 
things  for  the  sake  of  a  great  lord  whom  they  much  desired 
and  loYed.  Then,  taking  out  a  basket  with  gold  in  it,  he 
said,  "  Ye  see  here  their  lord  whom  they  serve  and  go  after ; 
and,  as  ye  have  heard,  they  ore  coming  hither  to  seek  this 
lord.  Therefore  let  us  make  him  a  feast,  that  when  they 
•come  he  may  tell  them  not  to  do  us  harm."  So  they  danced 
and  sang  from  night  to  mornmg  before  the  gold-basket,  and 
then  the  cacique  told  them  not  to  keep  the  Christian's  lord 
anywhere,  for  if  they  kept  him  in  tlieu*  very  bowels  they 
would  have  to  bring  him  out ;  so  he  bade  them  cast  him  to 
the  bottom  of  the  river,  and  this  they  did.^  If  this  story 
be  thought  too  good  to  be  true,  at  any  rate  it  does  not  ex* 
aggerate  authentic  savage  ideas.  The  *'  maraca  '*  or  cere- 
monial rattle,  used  by  certain  rude  Brazilian  tribes,  was  an 
eminent  fetish.  It  was  a  calabash  with  a  handle  and  a  hole 
for  a  mouth,  and  stones  inside ;  yet  to  its  votaries  it  seemed 
no  mere  rattle,  but  the  receptacle  of  a  spirit  that  spoke  &om 
it  when  shaken ;  therefore  the  Indians  set  up  their  maracas, 
talked  to  them,  set  food  and  drink  and  burned  incense  be- 
fore them,  held  annual  feasts  in  their  honour,  and  would 
even  go  to  war  with  their  neighboiu's  to  satisfy  the  rattle- 
spirits*  demand  for  human  victims.^  Among  the  North 
American  Indians,  the  fetish-theoiy  seems  involved  in  that 

^  Herrera,  '  Hist  de  las  Indias  Occidentales,'  Dec.  i.  ix.  3. 
*  I.ery,  Br^sil,  p.  249 ;  J.  G.  MUller,  pp.  210,  262. 


ANIMLSM.  155 

remarkable  and  general  proceeding  known  as  getting 
■**  medicine.'*  Each  youth  obtains  in  a  vision  or  dream  a 
-sight  of  his  medicine,  and  considering  how  thoroughly  the 
idea  prevails  that  the  forms  seen  in  visions  and  dreams  are 
'Spirits,  this  of  itself  shows  the  animistic  nature  of  the 
matter.  The  medicine  thus  seen  may  be  an  animal,  or  part 
of  one,  such  as  skin  or  claws,  feather  or  shell,  or  such  a 
thing  as  a  plant,  a  stone,  a  knife,  a  pipe ;  this  object  he 
must  obtain,  and  thenceforward  through  life  it  becomes  his 
protector.  Considered  as  a  vehicle  or  receptacle  of  a  spirit, 
its  fetish-nature  is  shown  in  many  ways ;  its  owner  will  do 
homage  to  it,  make  feasts  in  its  honour,  sacrifice  horses, 
dogs,  and  other  valuable  objects  to  it  or  its  spirit,  fast  to 
appease  it  if  offended,  have  it  buried  with  him  to  conduct 
him  as  a  guardian-spirit  to  the  happy  hunting-grounds. 
Beside  these  special  protective  objects,  the  Indians,  especially 
the  medicine-men  (the  word  is  French,  "  medecin,"  applied 
to  these  native  doctors  or  conjurors,  and  since  stretched  to 
take  in  all  that  concerns  their  art),  use  multitudes  of  other 
fetishes  as  means  of  spiritual  influence.^  Among  the 
Turanian  tribes  of  Northern  Asia,  where  Castren  describes 
the  idea  of  spirits  contained  in  material  objects,  to  which 
they  belong,  and  wherein  they  dwell  in  the  same  incompre- 
hensible way  as  the  souls  in  a  man's  body,  we  may  notice 
the  Ostyak's  worship  of  objects  of  scarce  or  peculiar  quality, 
and  also  the  connexion  of  the  shamans  or  sorcerers  with 
fetish-objects,  as  where  the  Tatars  consider  the  innumer- 
able rags  and  tags,  bells  and  bits  of  iron,  that  adorn  the 
shaman's  magic  costume,  to  contain  spirits  helpful  to  their 
owner  in  his  magic  craft.^  John  Bell,  in  his  journey  across 
Asia  in  1719,  relates  a  story  which  well  illustrates  Mongol 
ideas  as  to  the  action  of  self-moving  objects.  A  certain 
Bussian  merchant  told  him  that  once  some  pieces  of  damask 

*  Schoolcraft,  'Indian  Tribes ' ;  Waitz,  vol.  iii.  ;  Catlin,  «N.  A.  Ind.'  vol. 
L  p.  86 ;  Keating,  Narrative,  vol.  L  p.  421 ;  J.  G.  Miillcr,  p.  74,  etc  See 
Cranz,  Qronland,  p.  274. 

•  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Mytli.'  pp.  162,  221,  220  ;  Meinere,  vol.  i.  p.  170. 


156  ANIMISM. 

were  stolen  out  of  his  tent.  He  complained,  and  the 
Kutuchtu  Lama  ordered  the  proper  steps  to  be  taken  to  find 
out  the  thief.  One  of  the  Lamas  took  a  bench  with  four 
feet,  and  after  turning  it  several  times  in  different  directions^ 
at  last  it  pointed  directly  to  the  tent  where  the  stolen  goods 
lay  concealed.  The  Lama  now  mounted  astride  the  bench, 
and  soon  carried  it,  or,  as  was  commonly  believed,  it  carried 
him,  to  the  very  tent,  where  he  ordered  the  damask  to  be. 
produced.  The  demand  was  directly  complied  with :  for  it 
is  vain  in  such  cases  to  offer  any  excuse.^ 

A  more  recent  account  from  Central  Africa  may  be  placed 
as  a  pendant  to  this  Asiatic  account  of  divination  by  a  fetish- 
object.  The  Rev.  H.  Rowley  says  of  the  Manganja,  that 
they  believed  the  medicine-men  could  impart  a  power  for 
good  or  evil  to  objects  either  animate  or  inanimate,  which 
objects  the  people  feared,  though  they  did  not  worship  them. 
This  missionary  once  saw  this  art  employed  to  detect  the 
thief  who  had  stolen  some  com.  The  people  assembled 
round  a  large  fig-tree.  The  magician,  a  wild-looking  man, 
produced  two  sticks,  like  our  broomsticks,  which  after 
mysterious  manipulation  and  gibberish  he  delivered  to  four 
young  men,  two  holding  each  stick.  A  zebra-tail  and  a. 
calabash-rattle  were  given  to  a  young  man  and  a  boy.  The 
medicine-man  rolled  himself  about  in  hideous  fashion,  and 
chanted  an  imceasing  incantation ;  the  bearers  of  the  tail 
and  rattle  went  round  the  stick-holders,  and  shook  these 
implements  over  their  heads.  After  a  while  the  men  with 
the  sticks  had  spasmodic  twitchings  of  the  arms  and  legs,, 
these  increased  nearly  to  convulsions,  they  foamed  at  the 
mouth,  their  eyes  seemed  starting  from  their  heads,  they 
realized  to  the  full  the  idea  of  demoniacal  possession*. 
According  to  the  native  notion,  it  was  the  sticks  which  were 
possessed  primarily,  and  through  them  the  men,  who  could 
hardly  hold  them.  The  sticks  whirled  and  dragged  the  men 
round  and  round  like  mad,  through  bush  and  thorny  shrub, 
and  over  every  obstacle,  nothing  stopped  them,  their  bodies- 

'  Bell  in  Pink^rton,  vol.  yii.  p.  857. 


ANIMISM.  157 

were  torn  and  bleeding;  at  last  they  came  back  to  the 
assembly,  whirled  round  again,  and  rushed  down  the  path 
to  fall  panting  and  exhausted  in  the  hut  of  one  of  a  chief's 
wives,  the  sticks  rolling  to  her  very  feet,  denouncing  her  as 
the  thief.  She  denied  it,  but  the  medicine-man  answered, 
*'  The  spirit  has  declared  her  guilty,  the  spirit  never  lies." 
However,  the  **  muavi  "  or  ordeal-poison  was  administered 
to  a  cock,  as  deputy  for  the  woman ;  the  bird  threw  it  up, 
and  she  was  acquitted.^ 

Fetishism  in  the  lower  civilization  is  thus  by  no  means 
confined  to  the  West  African  negro  with  whom  we  specially 
associate  the  term.  Yet,  what  with  its  being  in  fact  ex- 
tremely prevalent  there,  and  what  with  the  attention  of 
foreign  observers  have  been  particularly  drawn  to  it,  the 
accounts  from  West  Africa  are  certainly  the  fullest  and 
most  minute  on  record.  The  late  Professor  Waitz's 
generalization  of  the  principle  involved  in  these  is  much  to 
the  purpose.  He  thus  describes  the  negro's  conception 
of  his  fetish.  ''  According  to  his  view,  a  spirit  dwells  or  can 
dwell  in  every  sensible  object,  and  often  a  very  great  and 
mighty  one  in  an  insignificant  thing.  This  spirit  he  does 
not  consider  as  bound  fast  and  unchangeably  to  the  corporeal 
thing  it  dwells  in,  but  it  has  only  its  usual  or  principal 
abode  in  it.  The  negro  indeed  in  his  conception  not  un- 
commonly separates  the  spirit  from  the  sensible  object 
which  it  inhabits,  he  even  sometimes  contrasts  the  one  with 
the  other,  but  most  usually  combiaes  the  two  as  forming  a 
whole,  and  this  whole  is  (as  the  Europeans  call  it)  the 
*'  fetish,"  the  object  of  his  religious  worship."  Some  fur- 
ther particulars  wiU  show  how  this  principle  is  worked  out. 
Fetishes  (native  names  for  them  are  "  grigri,"  "juju," 
etc.),  may  be  mere  curious  mysterious  objects  that  strike  a 
negro's  fancy,  or  they  may  be  consecrated  or  affected  by 
a  priest  or  fetish-man ;  the  theory  of  their  influence  is  that 
they  belong  to  or  are  made  effectual  by  a  spirit  or  demon, 
yet  they  have  to  stand  the  test  of  experience,  and  if  they 

'  H.  Rowley,  '  Universities'  Mission  to  Central  Africa/  p.  217. 


158  ANIMISM. 

fail  to  bring  their  owner  luck  and  safety,  he  discards  them 
for  some  more  powerful  medium.  The  fetish  can  see  and 
hear  and  understand  and  act,  its  possessor  worships  it,, 
talks  familiarly  with  it  as  a  dear  and  faithful  friend,  pours- 
libations  of  rum  over  it,  and  in  times  of  danger  calls  loudly 
and  earnestly  on  it  as  if  to  wake  up  its  spirit  and  energy* 
To  give  an  idea  of  the  sort  of  things  which  are  chosen  aa 
fetishes,  and  of  the  manner  in  which  they  are  associated 
with  spiritual  influences,  Romer's  account  from  Guinea 
about  a  century  ago  may  serve.  In  the  fetish-house,  he 
says,  there  hang  or  lie  thousands  of  rubbishy  trifles,  a  pot 
with  red  earth  and  a  cock's  feather  stuck  in  it,  pegs  wound 
over  with  yam,  red  parrots'  feathers,  men's  hair,  and  so 
forth.  The  principal  thing  in  the  hut  is  the  stool  for  the 
fetish  to  sit  on,  and  the  mattress  for  him  to  rest  on,  the 
mattress  being  no  bigger  tlian  a  man's  hand  and  the  stool 
in  proportion,  and  there  is  a  little  bottle  of  brandy  always 
ready  for  him.  Here  the  word  fetish  is  used  as  it  often  is, 
to  denote  the  spiiit  which  dwells  in  this  rudimentary  temple, 
but  we  see  that  the  innumerable  quaint  trifles  which  we  call 
fetishes  were  associated  with  the  deity  in  his  house.  Homer 
once  peeped  in  at  an  open  door,  and  found  an  old  negro 
caboceer  sitting  amid  twenty  thousand  fetishes  in  his  private 
fetish-museum,  thus  performing  his  devotions.  The  old 
man  told  him  he  did  not  know  the  hundredth  part  of  the 
use  they  had  been  to  him ;  his  ancestors  and  he  had  col- 
lected them,  each  had  done  some  service.  The  visitor  took 
up  a  stone  about  as  big  as  a  hen's  egg,  and  its  owner  told 
its  history.  He  was  once  going  out  on  important  business, 
but  crossing  the  threshold  he  trod  on  this  stone  and  hurt 
himself.  Ha  ha !  thought  he,  art  thou  here  ?  So  he  took 
the  stone,  and  it  helped  him  through  his  undertaking  for 
days.  In  our  own  time.  West  Africa  is  still  a  world  of 
fetishes.  The  traveller  finds  them  on  every  path,  at  every 
ford,  on  every  house-door,  they  hang  as  amulets  round 
every  man's  neck,  they  guard  against  sickness  or  inflict  it 
if  neglected,  they  bring  rain,  they  fill  the  sea  with  fishes 


ANIMISH.  159 

willing  to  swim  into  the  fisherman's  net,  they  catch  and 
punish  thieves,  they  give  their  owner  a  bold  heart  and  con- 
found his  enemies,  there  is  nothing  that  the  fetish  cannot 
do  or  undo,  if  it  be  but  the  right  fetish.  Thus  the  one- 
sided logic  of  the  barbarian,  making  the  most  of  all  that  fits 
and  glossing  over  all  that  fails,  has  shaped  a  universal 
fetish-philosophy  of  the  events  of  life.  So  strong  is  the 
pervading  influence,  that  the  European  in  Africa  is  apt  to 
catch  it  from  the  negro,  and  himself,  as  the  saying  is, 
*'  become  black.**  Thus  even  yet  some  traveller,  watching 
a  white  companion  asleep,  may  catch  a  glimpse  of  some 
claw  or  bone  or  such-like  sorcerer's  trash  secretly  fastened 
round  his  neck.^ 

European  life,  lastly,  shows  well-marked  traces  of  the 
ancient  doctrine  of  spirits  or  mysterious  influences  inhabit- 
ing objects.  Thus  a  mediaeval  devil  might  go  into  an  old 
sow,  a  straw,  a  barleycorn,  or  a  willow-tree.  A  spirit  might 
be  carried  about  in  a  solid  receptacle  for  use  : — 

''  Besides  in  glistering  glasses  fayfe,  or  else  in  christall  cleare, 
They  sprightes  enclose." 

Modem  peasant  folklore  knows  that  spirits  must  have  some 
animal  body  or  other  object  to  dwell  in,  a  feather,  a  bag,  a 
bush,  for  instance.  The  Tyrolese  object  to  using  grass  for 
toothpicks  because  of  the  demons  that  may  have  taken  up 
their  abode  in  the  straws.  The  Bulgarians  hold  it  a  great 
sin  not  to  fumigate  the  flour  when  it  is  brought  from  the 
mill  (particularly  if  the  mill  be  kept  by  a  Turk)  in  order  to 
prevent  the  devil  from  entering  into  it.*  Amulets  are  stiU 
carried  in  the  most  civilized  countries  of  the  world,  by  the 

"  TVaitz,  '  Anthropologie,*  vol.  ii.  p.  174  ;  Riimer,  'Guinea,*  p.  56,  etc.  ; 
J.  L.  AVilson,  'West  Africa,*  pp.  186,  211-6,  275,  838;  Burton,  *  Wit  and 
Wisdom  from  W.  Afr.'  pp.  174,  455;  Steinhauser,  1.  c.  p.  184;  Bosman, 
Guinea,  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi  p.  397  ;  Meiners,  *Gesch.  der  Relig.*  vol.  i. 
p.  178.  See  also  Ellis,  'Madagascar,'  vol.  i.  p.  896;  Flacourt,  'Madag.'p. 
191. 

*  Brand,  'Popular  Antiquities,* vol.  iii.  p.  255,  etc.  Bastian,  'Psychologic,' 
p.  171.  Wuttke,  'Deutsche  Volksaberglaube,'  pp.  75-95,  225,  etc.  St. 
Clair  and  Brcphy,  '  Bulgaria,'  p.  46. 


160  ANIMISM. 

ignorant  and  superstitious  with  real  savage  faith  in  their 
mysterious  virtues,  by  the  more  enlightened  in  quaint  sur- 
vival from  the  past.  The  mental  and  physical  phenomena 
of  what  is  now  called  "  table-turning  "  belong  to  a  class  of 
proceedings  which  we  have  seen  to  be  familiar  to  the  lower 
races,  and  accounted  for  by  them  on  a  theory  of  extra- 
human  influence  which  is  in  the  most  extreme  sense  spirit- 
ualistic. 

In  giving  its  place  in  the  history  of  mental  development 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  lower  races  as  to  embodiment  in  or 
penetration  of  an  object  by  a  spuit  or  an  influence,  there  is 
no  slight  interest  in  comparing  it  with  theories  familiar  to 
the  philosophy  of  cultured  nations.     Thus  Bishop  Berkeley 
remarks  on  the  obscure  expressions  of  those  who  have  de- 
scribed the  relation  of  power  to  the  objects  which  exert  it. 
He  cites  Torricelli  as  likening  matter  to  an  enchanted  vase 
of  Circe  serving  as  a  receptacle  of  force,  and  declaring  that 
power  and  impulse  are  such  subtle  abstracts  and  refined 
quintessences,  that  they  cannot  be  enclosed  in  any  other 
vessels  but  the  inmost  materiality  of  natural  solids ;  also 
Leibnitz  as  comparing  active   primitive  power  to  soul  or 
substantial  form.      Tlius,   says  Berkele}'',   must   even  the 
greatest  men,  when  they  give  way  to  abstraction,  have  re- 
course to  words  having  no  certain  signification,  and  indeed 
mere  scholastic  shadows.^     We  may  fairly  add  that  such 
passages  show  the  civilized  metaphysician  falling  back  on 
such  primitive  conceptions  as  still  occupy  the  minds  of  the 
rude  natives  of  Siberia  and  Guinea.     To  go  yet  farther,  I 
will  ventm*e  to  assert  that  the  scientific  conceptions  current 
in  my  own  schoolboy  days,  of  heat  and  electricity  as  in- 
\dsible  fluids  passing  in  and  out  of  solid  bodies,  are  ideas 
which  reproduce  with  extreme  closeness  the  special  doctrine 
of  Fetishism. 

Under  the  general  heading  of  Fetishism,  but  for  con- 
venience sake  separately,  may  be  considered  the  worship  of 
'^stocks  and  stones.'*      Such   objects,   if  merely  used  as 

*  Berkeley,  'Concorning  Motion,*  in  'Works,*  vol.  ii.  p.  86. 


ANIMISM.  161 

altars,  are  not  of  the  nature  of  fetishes,  and  it  is  first 
necessary  to  ascertain  that  worship  is  actually  addressed 
to  them.  Then  arises  the  difficult  question,  are  the  stocks 
and  stones  set  up  as  mere  ideal  representatives  of  deities, 
or  are  these  deities  considered  as  physically  connected  with 
them,  embodied  in  them,  hovering  about  them,  acting 
through  them  ?  In  other  words,  are  they  only  symbols,  or 
have  they  passed  in  the  minds  of  their  votaries  into  real 
fetishes  ?  The  conceptions  of  the  worshippers  ai*e  sometimes 
in  this  respect  explicitly  stated,  may  sometimes  be  faii*ly 
inferred  from  the  circumstances,  and  are  often  doubtful. 

Among  the  lower  races  of  America,  the  Dacotas  would 
pick  up  a  round  boulder,  paint  it,  and  then,  addressing  it 
as  grandfather,  make  offerings  to  it  and  pray  to  it  to  deliver 
them  from  danger  :  ^  in  the  West  India  Islands,  mention  is 
made  of  three  stones  to  which  the  natives  paid  great  devo- 
tion— one  was  profitable  for  the  crops,  another  for  women 
to  be  delivered  without  pain,  the  third  for  sunshine  and 
rain  when  they  were  wanted ;  ^  and  we  hear  of  Brazilian 
tribes  setting  up  stakes  in  the  ground,  and  making  offerings 
before  them  to  appease  their  deities  or  demons.'^  Stone- 
worship  held  an  important  place  in  the  midst  of  the  com- 
paratively high  culture  of  Peru,  where  not  only  was  rever- 
ence given  to  especial  curious  pebbles  and  the  like,  but 
stones  were  placed  to  represent  the  penates  of  households 
and  the  patron-deities  of  villages.  It  is  related  by  Monte- 
sinos  that  when  the  worship  of  a  certain  sacred  stone  was 
given  up,  a  parrot  flew  from  it  into  another  stone,  to  which 
adoration  was  paid  :  and  though  this  author  is  not  of  good 
credit,  he  can  hardly  have  invented  a  story  which,  as  we 
shall  see,  so  curiously  coincides  with  the  Polynesian  idea  of 
a  bird  conveying  to  and  firom  an  idol  the  spirit  which  em- 
bodies itself  in  it.* 

'  Schoolcraft,  '  Indian  Tribes/  part  ii.  p.  196,  part  iii.  p.  229. 
'  Herrera,  '  Indias  Occidental es,*  dec.  i  iii.  8. 

•  De  Laet,  Novas  Orbis,  xv.  2. 

*  Garcilaso  de  la  Vega,  '  Commentarios  Reales,'  i  9  ;  J.  G.  Miiller,  pp.  263, 
811,  871,  887  ;  Waitz,  vol.  iv.  p.  464  ;  see  below,  p.  175. 

VOL.  II.  M 


1G2  ANIMISM. 

In  Africa,  stock-and-stone  worship  is  found  among  the 
Damaras  of  the  South,  whose  ancestors  are  represented  at 
the  sacrificial  feasts  by  stakes  cut  from  trees  or  bushes  con- 
secrated to  them,  to  which  stakes  the  meat  is  first  offered ;  ^ 
among  the  Dinkas  of  the  White  Nile,  where  the  missionaries 
saw  an  old  woman  in  her  hut  offering  the  first  of  her  food 
and  drink  before  a  short  thick  staff  planted  in  the  ground, 
that  the  demon  might  not  hurt  her ; '  among  the  Gallas  of 
Abyssinia,  a  people  with  a  well-marked  doctrine  of  deities^ 
and  who  are  known  to  worship  stones  and  logs,  but  not 
idols.'  In  the  island  of  Sambawa,  the  Orang  Dongo  attri- 
bute all  supernatural  or  incomprehensible  force  to  the  sun, 
moon,  trees,  &c.,  but  especially  to  stones,  and  when  troubled 
by  accident  or  disease,  they  carry  offerings  to  certain  stones 
to  implore  the  favour  of  their  genius  or  dewa.*  Similar 
ideas  are  to  be  traced  through  the  Pacific  islands,  both 
among  the  lighter  and  the  darker  races.  Thus  in  the 
Society  Islands,  rude  logs  or  fragments  of  basalt  columns,, 
clothed  in  native  cloth  and  anointed  with  oil,  received 
adoration  and  sacrifice  as  divinely  powerful  by  virtue  of  the 
atua  or  deity  which  had  filled  them.*  So  in  the  New 
Hebrides  worship  was  given  to  water-worn  pebbles,*  while 
Fijian  gods  and  goddesses  had  their  abodes  or  shrines  in 
black  stones  like  smooth  round  milestones,  and  there  re- 
ceived their  offerings  of  food.7  The  curiously  anthropo- 
morphic idea  of  stones  being  husbands  and  wives,  and  even 
having  children,  is  familiar  to  the  Fijians  as  it  is  to  the 
Peruvians  and  the  Lapps. 

The  Turanian  tribes  of  North  Asia  display  stock-and- 
stone  worship  in  full   sense  and  vigour.     Not  only  were 

^  Habn,  'Gramm.  dcs  Hercr6,*  s.  v.  'omu-makisina.' 
2  Kanfmann,  'Central-Afrika,'  (White  Nile),  p.  131. 
»  Waitz,  vol.  ii.  pp.  618,  528. 

*  Zollinger  in  'Jonrn.  Ind.  Archip.'yol.  ii.  p.  692. 

*  Ellis,  *Polyn.  Res.'yol.  i.  p.  887.     See  also  Ellis,   *  Madagascar,' Tol.  i. 
p.  899. 

.   •  Turner,  'Polynesia,'  pp.  847,  626. 
7  Williams,  'Fiji,'  vol.  i.  p. 220;  Seemnnn,  Viti,  pp.  66,  89. 


ANIMISM.  16ii 

stones,  especially  curious  ones  and  such  as  were  like  men 
or  animals,  objects  of  veneration,  but  we  learn  that  they 
were  yenerated  because  mighty  spirits  dwelt  in  them.  The 
Samoyed  travelling  ark-sledge,  with  its  two  deities,  one 
with  a  stone  head,  the  other  a  mere  black  stone,  both 
dressed  in  green  robes  with  red  lappets,  and  both  smeared 
with  sacrificial  blood,  may  serve  as  a  type  of  stone-worship. 
And  as  for  the  Ostyaks,  had  the  famous  King  Log  presented 
himself  among  them,  they  would  without  more  ado  have 
wrapped  his  sacred  person  in  rags,  and  set  him  up  for  wor- 
ship on  a  mountain-top  or  in  the  forest.^  The  frequent 
stock-and-stone  worship  of  modem  India  belongs  especially 
to  races  non-Hindu  or  part-Hindu  in  race  and  culture. 
Among  such  may  serve  as  examples  the  bamboo  which 
stands  for  the  Bodo  goddess  Mainou,  and  for  her  receives 
the  annual  hog,  and  the  monthly  eggs  offered  by  the  women ;  * 
the  stone  under  the  great  cotton-tree  of  every  Khond  village, 
shrine  of  Nadzu  Pennu  the  village  deity ;  ^  the  clod  or  stone 
under  a  tree,  which  in  Behar  will  represent  the  deified  soul 
of  some  dead  personage  who  receives  worship  and  inspires 
oracles  there  ;  *  the  stone  kept  in  every  house  by  the  Baka- 
d4ra  and  Beta\dara,  which  represents  their  god  B{lta,  whom 
they  induce  by  sacrifice  to  restrain  the  demon-souls  of  the 
dead  from  troubling  them ;  ^  the  two  rude  stones  placed 
nnder  a  shed  among  the  Shanars  of  Tinnevelly,  by  the 
medium  of  which  the  great  god  and  goddess  receive  sacri- 
fice, but  which  are  thrown  away  or  neglected  when  done 
with.^     The  remarkable  groups  of  standing-stones  in  India 


'  Castren,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  198,  etc.,  204,  etc. ;  « Voyages  au  Nord,'  vol. 
TiiL  pp.  108,  410 ;  Klemm,  •  C.  Q:  vol.  iii.  p.  120.  See  also  Steller, 
'  Kamtschatka,'  pp.  265,  276. 

'Hodgson,  'Abor.  of  India,'  p.  174.  See  also  Macrae  in  'As.  Res.' vol. 
viL  p.  196 ;  Dalton,  Kols,  in  «Tr.  Eth.  Soc.'  vol.  vL  p.  88. 

*  Macpherson,  India,  pp.  108,  858. 

^  Boatian,  *  Psychologie,'  p.  177.  See  also  Shortt,  <  Tribes  of  Keilgherrics,' 
in  *  Tr.  Eth.  Soc.*  vol.  viL  p.  281. 

*  EUiot  in  <  Joam.  Eth.  Soc*  vol.  i.  1869,  p.  115. 

^  Buchanan,  '  Mysore/  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  vii.  p.  789. 

M  2 


164  ANIMISM. 

are  in  many  cases  at  least  set  up  for  each  stone  to  represent 
or  embody  a  deity.  Mr.  Hislop  remarks  that  in  every  part 
of  Southern  India,  four  or  five  stones  may  often  be  seen  in 
the  ryot*s  field,  placed  in  a  row  and  daubed  with  red  paint, 
which  they  consider  as  guardians  of  the  field  and  call  the 
five  Pandus;  he  reasonably  takes  these  Hindu  names  to 
have  superseded  more  ancient  native  appellations.  In  the 
Indian  groups  it  is  a  usual  practice  to  daub  each  stone  with 
red  paint,  forming  as  it  were  a  great  blood-spot  where  the 
face  would  be  if  it  were  a  shaped  idol.^  In  India,  moreover, 
the  rites  of  stone-worship  are  not  unexampled  among  the 
Hindus  proper.  Shashti,  protectress  of  children,  receives 
worship,  vows,  and  offerings,  especially  from  women ;  yet 
they  provide  her  with  no  idol  or  temple,  but  her  proper 
representative  is  a  rough  stone  as  big  as  a  man's  head, 
smeared  with  red  paint  and  set  at  the  foot  of  the  sacred 
vata-tree.  Even  Siva  is  worshii)ped  as  a  stone,  especially 
that  Siva  who  will  afflict  a  child  with  epileptic  fits,  and  then, 
speaking  by  its  voice,  will  announce  that  he  is  Panch&nana 
the  Five-faced,  and  is  pimishing  the  child  for  insulting  his 
image  ;  to  this  Siva,  in  the  form  of  a  clay  idol  or  of  a  stone 
beneath  a  sacred  tree,  there  are  offered  not  only  flowers  and 
fiiiits,  but  also  bloody  sacrifices.^ 

This  stone-worship  among  the  Hindus  seems  a  survival 
of  a  rite  belonging  originally  to  a  low  civilization,  probably 
a  rite  of  the  rude  indigenes  of  the  land,  whose  religion, 
largely  incorporated  into  the  religion  of  the  Aryan  invaders, 
has  contributed  so  much  to  form  the  Hinduism  of  to-day. 
It  is  especially  interesting  to  survey  the  stock-and-stone 
worship  of  the  lower  culture,  for  it  enables  us  to  explain  b}' 
the  theory  of  survival  the  appearance  in  the  Old  World,  in 
the  very  midst  of  classic  doctrine  and  classic  art,  of  the 

1  Elliot  in  'Joum.  Eth.  Soc.'  vol.  i.  pp.  »6, 115,  126.  Lubbock,  'Origin 
of  Civilization,*  p.  222.  Forbes  Ledie,  *  Early  Races  of  Scotland,'  voL  ii.  p. 
462,  etc.  Prot  Idebrecht,  in  *  Ztachr.  fitr  Ethnologic,'  voL  v.,  p.  100,  compares 
the  field-protecting  Priapos-hormes  of  ancient  Italy,  daubed  with  minium. 

*  Ward,  <  Hindoos, *Tol.  ii.  pp.  142, 182,  etc.,  see  221.  See  also  Latham,  'Descr. 
Eth.*  voL  ii  p.  289.    (Siah-push,  stone  offered  to  the  representative  of  deity). 


ANIMISM.  165 

worship  of  the  same  rude  objects,  whose  veneration  no 
doubt  dated  from  remote  barbaric  antiquity.  As  Mr.  Grote 
says,  speaking  of  Greek  worship,  "  The  primitive  memorial 
erected  to  a  god  did  not  even  pretend  to  be  an  image,  but 
was  often  nothing  more  than  a  pillar,  a  board,  a  shapeless 
stone  or  a  post,  receiving  care  and  decoration  from  the 
neighbourhood,  as  well  as  worship.^'  Such  were  the  log 
that  stood  for  Artemis  in  Euboea,  the  stake  that  repre- 
sented PaUas  Athene,  "  sine  effigie  rudis  palus,  et  informe 
lignum,"  the  unwrought  stone  (Xttfos  ipybs)  at  Hyettos 
which  ''after  the  ancient  manner"  represented  Herakles^ 
the  thirty  such  stones  which  the  Fharseans  in  like  archaic: 
fashion  worshipped  for  the  gods,  and  that  one  which  re- 
ceived such  honour  in  Boeotian  festivals  as  representing  the 
Thespian  Eros.  Theophrastus,  in  the  4th  century  B.C.,. 
depicts  the  superstitious  Greek  passing  the  anointed  stones 
in  the  streets,  taking  out  his  phial  and  pouring  oil  on  them,, 
falling  on  his  knees  to  adore,  and  going  his  way.  Six  cen- 
turies later,  Amobius  could  describe  from  his  own  heathen 
life  the  state  of  mind  of  the  stock-and-stone  worshipper^ 
telling  how  when  he  saw  one  of  the  stones  anointed .  with 
oil,  he  accosted  it  in  flattering  words,  and  asked  benefits 
from  the  senseless  thing  as  though  it  contained  a  present 
power .^  The  ancient  and  graphic  passage  in  the  book  of 
Isaiah  well  marks  stone-worship  within  the  range  of  the 
Semitic  race : 

**  Among  the  smooth  stones  of  the  valley  is  thy  portion : 
They,  they  ore  thy  lot : 

Even  to  them  hast  thou  poured  a  drink-offering. 
Hast  thou  offered  a  meat-offering.''' 


•  Grote,  *  Hist,  of  Greece,'  vol.  iv.  p.  132 ;  "Welcker,  *  Giiechische  Qotter- 
lelirc,'  Yol.  i.|p.  220.  Meiners,  toI.  i.  p.  150,  etc.  Details  esp.  in  Poasonias; 
Thoophrast  Charoct.  xvL  ;  Tacit.  Hist.  ii.  3 ;  Amobius,  Adv.  Gent  ;  Ter- 
tallianns  ;  Clemens  Alexandr. 

'  Is.  Irii.  6.   The  first  line,  "behhalkey-nahhallih^lkech/' turns  ou  the  pun' 


1G6  ANIMISM. 

Long  afterwards,  among  the  local  deities  which  Mohammed 
found  in  Arabia,  and  which  Dr.  Sprenger  thinks  he  even 
acknowledged  as  divine  during  a  moment  when  he  well  nigh 
broke  down  in  his  career,  were  Manah  and  L&t,  the  one  a 
rock,  the  other  a  stone  or  a  stone  idol ;  while  the  veneration 
of  the  black  stone  of  the  Kaaba,  which  Captain  Burton 
thinks  an  aerolite,  was  undoubtedly  a  local  rite  which  the 
Prophet  transplanted  into  his  new  religion,  where  it 
flourishes  to  this  day.^  The  curious  passage  in  Sanchonia- 
thon  which  speaks  of  the  Heaven-god  forming  the  "baetyls, 
animated  stones ''  (S^bs  Oifpavbs  BainiKia,  XCdovs  iix\lrvxpvsy 
Hir)\airri<Taik€vo$)  perhaps  refers  to  meteorites  or  supposed 
thunderbolts  fallen  from  the  clouds.  To  the  old  Phoenician 
religion,  which  made  so  deep  a  contact  with  the  Jewish  world 
on  the  one  side  and  the  Greek  and  Roman  on  the  other^ 
there  belonged  the  stone  pillars  of  Baal  and  the  wooden 
Ashera-cones,  but  how  far  these  objects  were  of  the  character 
of  altars,  symbols,  or  fetishes,  is  a  riddle.^  We  may  still 
sa}'  with  Tacitus,  describing  the  conical  pillar  which  stood 
instead  of  an  image  to  represent  the  Paphian  Venus — **  et 
ratio  in  obscm'o." 

There  are  accounts  of  formal  Chiistian  prohibitions  of 
stone-worship  in  France  and  England,  reaching  on  into  the 
«arly  middle  ages,^  which  show  this  barbaric  cultus  as  then 
distinctly  lingering  in  popular  religion.  Coupling  this  fact 
with  the  accounts  of  the  groups  of  standing-stones  set  up  to 
represent  deities  in  South  India,  a  plausible  solution  is  sug- 
gested for  an  interesting  problem  of  Preliistoric  Archfleologj^ 
in  Europe.  Are  the  menhirs,  cromlechs,  etc.,  idols,  and  circles 

on  hhlk=sinootIi  (stone),  and  also  lot  or  portion  ;  a  double  sense  probably 
connected  with  tlie  use  of  smooth  pebbles  fur  casting  lots. 

*  Sprenger,  *  Mohammad/  vol.  ii.  p.  7,  etc.  Burton,  El  Medinab,  etc  vol. 
ii.  p.  157. 

-  Euseb.  Pnep.  Evang.  i,  10.  Movers,  Ph5nizier,  vol.  i.  pp.  105,  669,  and 
seo  index,  *  Saule,'  etc  See  De  Brosses,  *Dieux  Fetiches,'  p.  135  (considers 
bsetyl=beth-el,  etc.). 

'  Lubbock,  « Origin  of  Civ.'  p.  225.  Leslie,  *  Ear]}-  Tnccs  of  Scotland,' 
Tol.  i.  x>.  256. 


ANIMISM.  167 

and  lines  of  idols,  worshipped  by  remotely  ancient  dwellers 
in  the  land  as  representatives  or  embodiments  of  their  gods  ? 
It  may  well  be  so :  yet  the  ideas  with  which  stone-worship 
is  carried  on  by  different  races  are  multifarious,  and  the 
^^i^ogy  may  be  misleading.  It  is  remarkable  to  what  late 
times  full  and  genuine  stone-worship  has  survived  in 
Europe.  In  certain  mountain  districts  of  Norway,  up  to 
the  end  of  the  last  century,  the  peasants  used  to  preserve 
round  stones,  washed  them  every  Thursday  evening  (which 
seems  to  show  some  connection  with  Thor),  smeared  them 
<with  butter  before  the  fire,  laid  them  in  the  seat  of  honour 
on  fresh  straw,  and  at  certain  times  of  the  year  steeped 
them  in  ale,  that  they  might  bring  luck  and  comfort  to  the 
house.^  In  an  account  dating  from  1851,  the  islanders  of 
Inniskea,  off  Mayo,  are  declared  to  have  a  stone  carefully 
wrapped  in  flannel,  which  is  brought  out  and  worshipped  at 
certain  periods,  and  when  a  storm  arises  it  is  supplicated  to 
send  a  wreck  on  the  coast.^  No  savage  ever  showed  more 
'Clearly  by  his  treatment  of  a  fetish  that  he  considered  it  a 
personal  being,  than  did  these  Norwegians  and  Irishmen. 
The  ethnographic  argument  from  the  e^tence  of  stock- 
rand-stone  worship  among  so  many  nations  of  comparatively 
high  culture  seems  to  me  of  great  weight  as  bearing  on 
religious  development  among  mankind.  To  imagine  that 
peoples  skilled  in  carving  wood  and  stone,  and  using  these 
arts  habitually  in  making  idols,  should  have  gone  out  of 
their  way  to  invent  a  practice  of  worshix^ping  logs  and 
pebbles,  is  not  a  likely  theory^  But  on  the  other  hand,  when 
it  is  considered  how  such  a  rude  object  serves  to  uncultured 
men  as  a  divine  image  or  receptacle,  there  is  nothing  strange 
in  its  being  a  relic  of  early  barbarism  holding  its  place 
:flgainst  more  artistic  models  through  ages    of  advancing 

*  Nilsson,  'Primitive  Inhabitants  ofScandinavia,' p.  241.  See  also  Meiners, 
vol.  ii.  p.  671  (speaking  stones  in  Norway,  etc.). 

*  Earl  of  Hoden,  '  Progress  of  Reformation  in  Ireland/  London,  1851,  p. 
HI.  Sir  J.  £.  Tennent  in  '  Notes  and  Queries,'  Feb.  7,  1852.  See  Dorlaso^ 
''Antiquities  of  Cornwall,'  Oxford,  1754,  book  lii.  ch.  2, 


168  ANIKISH. 

civilization,    by  virtue  of  the    traditional   sanctity  which 
belongs  to  survival  from  remote  antiquity. 

By  a  scarcely  perceptible  transition,  we  pass  to  Idolatr}'. 
A  few  chips  or  scratches  or  daubs  of  paint  suffice  to  convert 
the  rude  post  or  stone  into  an  idol.  Difficulties  which  com- 
plicate the  study  of  stock-and- stone  worship  disappear  in 
the  worship  of  even  the  rudest  of  unequivocal  images,  which 
can  no  longer  be  mere  altars,  and  if  symbols  must  at  least 
be  symbols  of  a  personal  being.  Idolatry  occupies  a  re- 
markable district  in  the  history  of  religion.  It  hardly 
belongs  to  the  lowest  savagery,  which  simply  seems  not  to 
have  attained  to  it,  and  it  hardly  belongs  to  the  highest 
civilization,  which  has  discarded  it.  Its  place  is  inter- 
mediate, ranging  from  the  higher  savagery  where  it  first 
clearly  appears,  to  the  middle  civilization  where  it  reaches 
its  extreme  development,  and  thenceforward  its  continuance 
is  in  dwindling  survival  and  sometimes  expanding  revivaL 
The  position  thus  outlined  is,  however,  very  difficult  to  map 
exactly.  Idolatry  does  not  seem  to  come  in  uniformly  among 
the  higher  savages;  it  belongs,  for  instance,  fully  to  the 
Society  Islanders,  but  not  to  the  Tongans  and  Fijians. 
Among  higher  nations,  its  presence  or  absence  does  not 
necessarily  agree  with  particular  national  affinities  or  levels 
of  culture — compare  the  idol-worshipping  Hindu  with  his- 
ethnic  kinsman  the  idol-hating  Parsi,  or  the  idolatrous. 
Phoenician  with  his  ethnic  kinsman  the  Israelite,  among^ 
whose  people  the  incidental  relapse  into  the  proscribed 
image-worship  was  a  memory  of  disgrace.  Moreover,  its. 
tendency  to  revive  is  ethnographically  embarrassing.  The 
ancient  Vedic  religion  seems  not  to  recognize  idolatry,  yet 
the  modem  Brahmans,  professed  followers  of  Vedic  doc- 
trine, are  among  the  greatest  idolators  of  the  world.  Early 
Christianity  by  no  means  abrogated  the  Jewish  law 
against  image- worship,  yet  image-worship  became  and 
still  remains  widely  spread  and  deeply  rooted  in  Christen- 
<lom. 

Of  Idolatrj',  so -far  as  its  nature  is  symbolic  or  representa- 


ANIMISM.  169^ 

tive,  I  have  given  some  account  elsewhere.^  The  old  and 
greatest  difficulty  in  investigating  the  general  subject  is. 
this,  that  an  image  may  be,  even  to  two  votaries  kneeling: 
side  by  side  before  it,  two  utterly  different  things ;  to  the 
one  it  may  be  only  a  symbol,  a  portrait,  a  memento ;  while 
to  the  other  it  is  an  intelligent  and  active  being,  by  virtue 
of  a  life  or  spirit  dwelling  in  it  or  acting  through  it.  In 
both  cases  Image-worship  is  connected  with  the  belief  in 
spiritual  beings,  and  is  in  fact  a  subordiaate  development 
of  animism.  But  it  is  only  so  far  as  the  image  approxi- 
mates to  the  nature  of  a  material  body  provided  for  a  spirit,, 
that  Idolatr}'  comes  properly  into  connection  with  Fetishism* 
It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  it  is  proposed  to  examine 
here  its  purpose  and  its  place  in  history.  An  idol,  so  far  aa 
it  belongs  to  the  theory  of  spirit-embodiment,  must  combine 
the  characters  of  portrait  and  fetish.  Bearing  this  in  mind, 
and  noticing  how  far  the  idol  is  looked  on  as  in  some  way 
itself  an  energetic  object,  or  as  the  very  receptacle  enshrin- 
ing a  spiritual  god,  let  us  proceed  to  judge  how  far,  along 
the  course  of  civilization,  the  idea  of  the  image  itself  exert- 
ing power  or  being  nctuaUy  animate  has  prevailed  in  the 
mind  of  the  idolater. 

As  to  the  actual  origin  of  idolatry,  it  need  not  be  sup- 
posed that  the  earliest  idols  made  by  man  seemed  to  their 
maker  living  or  even  active  things.  It  is  quite  likely  thai 
the  primary  intention  of  the  image  was  simply  to  serve  as  a 
sign  or  representative  of  some  divine  personage,  ahd  cer- 
tainly  this  original  character  is  more  or  less  maintained  in 
the  world  through  the  long  history  of  image-worship.  At  a. 
stage  succeeding  this  original  condition,  it  may  be  argued, 
the  tendency  to  identify  the  symbol  and  the  symbolized,  a 
tendency  so  strong  among  children  and  the  ignorant  every- 
where, led  to  the  idol  being  treated  as  a  living  powerful 
being,  and  thence  even  to  explicit  doctrines  as  to  the  manner 
of  its  energy  or  animation.  It  is,  then,  in  this  secondary 
stage^  where  the  once  merely  representative  image  is  passing 

'  *  Early  Hist,  of  Mankind,'  chap.  vi. 


170  ANIMISM. 

into  the  active  image-fetish,  that  we  are  particularly  con* 
^emed  to  understand  it.    Here  it  is  reasonable  to  judge  the 
idolator  by  his  distinct  actions  and  beliefs.     A  line  of  illus- 
trative examples  will  caiTy  the  personality  of  the  idol  through 
grade  after  grade  of  civihzation.     Among  the  lower  races, 
such  thoughts  are  displayed  by  the  Kurile  islander  throwing 
his  idol  into  the  sea  to  calm  the  storm  ;  by  the  negro  who 
feeds   ancestral  images  and  brings   them  a  share  of  his 
trade  profits,  but^will  beat  an  idol  or  fling  it  into  the  fire  if 
it  cannot  give  him  luck  or  preserve  him  from  sickness ;  by 
famous  idols  of  Madagascar,  of  which  one  goes  about  of 
himself  or  guides  his  bearers,  and  another  answers  when 
spoken  to — at  least,  they  did  this  till  they  were  ignominiously 
found  out  a  few  years  ago.     Among  Tatar  peoples  of  North 
Asia  and  Europe,  conceptions  of  this  class  are  illustrated 
*  by  the  Ostyak,  who  clothes  his  puppet  and  feeds  it  with 
broth,  but  if  it  brings  him  no  sport  will  try  the  effect  of  a 
good  thrashing  on  it,  after  which  he  will  clothe  and  feed  it 
again;  by  the  Lapps,  who  fancied  their  uncouth  images 
-could  go  about  at  will ;  or  the  Esths,  who  wondered  that 
their  idols  did  not  bleed  when  Dieterich  the  Christian  priest 
hewed  them  down.     Among  high  Asiatic  nations,   what 
could  be  more  anthropomorphic  than  the  rites  of  modern 
Hinduism,  the  dances  of  the  nautch-girls  before  the  idols, 
the  taking  out  of  Jagannath  in  procession  to  pay  visits,  the 
spinning  of  tops  before  Krishna  to  amuse  him  ?   Buddhism 
is  a  religion  in  its  principles  little  favourable  to  idolatry. 
Yet,  from  setting  up  portrait-statues  of  Gautama  and  other 
saints,  there  developed  itself  the  full  worship  of  images,  and 
•even  of  images  with  hidden  joints  and  cavities,  which  moved 
and  spoke  as  in  our  own  middle  ages.     In  China,  we  read 
-stories  of  worshippers  abusing  some  idol  that  has  failed  in 
its  duty.     "How  now,"  they  say,  "3'ou  dog  of  a  spu'it;  we 
have  given  you  an  abode  in  a  splendid  temple,  we  gild  you 
And  feed  you  and  fumigate  you  with  incense,  and  yet  you 
jire  so  ungrateful  that  you  won't  listen  to  our  prayera  !  "  So 
they  drag  him  in  the  diit,  and  then,  if  tliey  get  what  they 


ANIMISM.  171 

^ant,  it  is  but  to  clean  him  and  set  him  up  again,  with 
apologies  and  promises  of  a  new  coat  of  gilding.  There  is 
what  appears  a  genuine  story  of  a  Chinaman  who  had  paid 
an  idol  priest  to  cure  his  daughter,  but  she  died ;  whereupon 
the  swindled  worshipper  brought  an  action  of  law  against 
the  god,  who  for  his  fraud  was  banished  from  the  province* 
The  classic  instances,  again,  are  perfect — ^the  dressing  and 
anointing  of  statues,  feeding  them  with  delicacies  and  divert- 
ing them  with  raree-shows,  summoning  them  as  witnesses ; 
the  story  of  the  Arkadian  youths  coming  back  from  a  bad 
clay's  hunting  and  revenging  themselves  by  scourging  and 
pricking  Pan's  statue,  with  its  companion  tale  of  the  image 
which  fell  upon  the  man  who  ill-treated  it;  the  Tyrians 
-chaining  the  statue  of  the  Sun-god  that  he  might  not 
abandon  their  city ;  Augustus  chastising  in  effigy  the  ill- 
behaved  Neptune;  Apollo's  statue  that  moved  when  it 
would  give  an  oracle ;  and  the  rest  of  the  images  which 
brandished  weapons,  or  wept,  or  sweated,  to  prove  their 
.supernatural  powers.  Such  ideas  continued  to  hold  their 
place  in  Christendom,  as  was  natural,  considering  how 
directly  the  holy  image  or  picture  took  the  place  of  the 
household  god  or  the  mightier  idol  of  the  temple.  The 
Hussian  boor  covering  up  the  saint's  picture  that  it  may  not 
see  him  do  wrong ;  the  Mingrelian  borrowing  a  successful 
neighbom*'s  saint  when  his  own  crop  fails,  or  when  about  to 
peijure  himself,  choosing  for  the  witness  of  his  deceitful 
•oath  a  saint  of  mild  countenance  and  merciful  repute ;  the 
peasant  of  Southern  Europe,  alternately  coaxing  and  tramp- 
ling on  his  special  saint-fetish,  and  ducking  the  Virgin  or 
St.  Peter  for  rain ;  the  winking  and  weeping  images  that  are 
worked,  even  at  this  day,  to  the  greater  glory  of  God,  or 
rather  to  the  greater  shame  of  Man — these  are  but  the 
extreme  instances  of  the  worshipper's  endowment  of  the 
sacred  image  with  a  life  and  personality  modelled  on  his 
own.* 

^  For  general  collections  of  evidenco,  see  especially  Meiners,  'Gcschiclite 
-dcr  Religioncm,*  voL  i.  books  i.  and  v.  ;  Bastian,  *Mcnscli/  vol.  ii.  ;  "Waitz, 


172  ANIMISM. 

The  appearance  of  idolatry  at  a  grade  above  the  lowest  of 
known  human  culture,  and  its  development  in  extent  and 
elaborateness   under  higher  conditions  of  civilization^  are 
well  displayed  among  the  native  races  of  America.     "  Con- 
spicuous by  its  absence  "  among  many  of  the  lower  tribes^ 
image-worship  comes  plainly  into  view  toward  the  upper 
levels  of  savagery,  as2.where,  for  instance,  Brazilian  native*, 
tribes  set  up  in  their  huts,  or  in  the  recesses  of  the  forest^ 
their  pigmy  heaven-descended  figures  of  wax  or  wood ;  *  or 
where  the  M andans,  howling  and  whining,  made  their  prayers 
before  puppets  of  grass  and  skins ;  or  where  the  spiritual 
beings  of  the  Algonquins  ("  manitu  "  or  "  oki  ")  were  repre- 
sented  by,    and  in  language   identified   with,   the   carved 
wooden  heads  or  more  complete  images  to  which  worship 
and  sacrifice  were  offered.    Among  the  Virginians  and  other 
of  the  more  cultured   Southern   tribes,  these  idols  even 
had  temples  to   dwell  in.*      The   discoverers  of  the  New 
World  found  idolatry  an  accepted   institution  among  the 
islanders  of  the  West  Indies.     These  strong  animists  are 
recorded  to  have  carved  their  little  images  in  the  shapes  in 
which  they  believed  the  spirits  themselves  to  have  appeared 
to  them ;  and  some  human  figures  bore  the  names  of  ancestors, 
in   memoiy   of    them.       The  images  of  such  "  cemi "  or 
spirits,  some  animal,  but  most  of  human  type,  were  found 
by  thousands ;  and  it  is  even  declared  that  an  island  near 
Ha}'ti  had  a  population  of  idol-makers,  who  especially  made 
images  of  nocturnal  spectres.    The  spirit  could  be  conveyed 
with  the  image,  both  were  called  '*  cemi,"  and  in  the  local 
accounts  of  sacrifices,  oracles,  and  miracles,  the  deity  and 
the  idol  are  mixed  together  in  a  way  which  at  least  showa 
the   extreme  closeness^  of  their   connexion  in  the  native 

'Anthropologie;'  De  Brosses,  'Dienx  Fetiches,' etc  Particalar  details  ul 
J.  L.  Wilson,  *  W.  Afr.'  p.  893  ;  Ellis,  'Madagascar,'  voL  i.  p.  896 ;  Castx^n> 
'Finnische  Mythologie/  p.  193,  etc.;  Ward,  'Hindoos,'  vol.  ii. ;  Kbppen> 
*  llcl.  des  Buddha,*  vol.  i.  p.  493,  etc.  ;  Grote,  *Hist.  of  Greece.' 

*  J.  G.  Miiller,  *  Aincr.  Urrelig.'  p.  268 ;  Meiners,  vol.  i.  p.  168. 

-'  LoskicI,  »Iud.  of  N.  A.' vol.  i.  p.  39.  Smith,  'Vii^ia,' inPinkcrton,. 
vol.  xiii.  p.  14.     Waitz,  vol.  iii.  p.  203 ;  J.  G.  Muller,  pp.  95-8,  128. 


ANIMISM.  173 

mind.^     If  we  pass  to  the  far  higher  culture  of  Peru,  we 
find  idols  in  full  reverence,  some  of  them  complete  figures, 
hut  the  great  deities  of  Sun  and  Moon  figured  by  discs  with 
human  countenances,  like  those  which  to  this  day  represent 
them  in  symbol  among  ourselves.     As  for  the  conquered 
neighbouring  tribes  brought  under    the   dominion   of  the 
Incas,  their  idols  were  carried,  half  trophies  and  half  hos- 
tages, to  Cuzco,  to  rank  among  the  inferior  deities  of  the 
Peruvian  Pantheon.^    In  Mexico,  idolatry  had  attained  to  its 
full  barbaric  development.     As  in  the  Aztec  mind  the  world 
swarmed  with  spiritual  deities,  so  their  material  representa- 
tives the  idols  stood  in  the  houses,  at  the  comers  of  the 
streets,  on  every  hill  and  rock,  to  receive  from  passers-by  some 
little  offering — a  nosegay,  a  whiff  of  incense,  a  drop  or  two  of 
blood ;  while  in  the  temples  more  huge  and  elaborate  images 
enjoyed  the  dances  and  processions  in  their  honour,  were 
fed  by  the  bloody  sacrifice  of  men  and  beasts,  and  received 
the  tribute  and  reverence  paid  to  the  great  national  gods.^ 
Up  to  a  certain  point,  such  evidence  bears  upon  the  present 
question.     We  learn  that  the  native  races  of  the  New  World 
had  idols,  that  those  idols  in  some  sort  represented  ances- 
tral souls  and  other  deities,  and  for  them  received  adora- 
tion and  sacrifice.      But  whether  the  native  ideas  of  the 
connexion  of  spirit  and  image  were  obscure,  or  whether  the 
foreign  observers  did  not  get  at  these  ideas,  or  partly  for 
both  reasons,  there  is  a  general  want  of  express  statement 
how  far  the  idols  of  America  remained  mere  symbols  or 
portraits,  or  how  far  they  had  come  to  be  considered  the 
animated  bodies  of  the  gods. 

It  is  not  always  thus,  however.     In  the  island  regions  of 

*  Fernando  Colombo,  *  Vita  del  Amm.  CrLstoforo  Colombo,'  Venice,  1571, 
p.  127,  etc ;  and  *  Life  of  Colon,'  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xii.  p.  84.  Heirera, 
dec.  i  iii.  3.  Bochefort,  '  lies  Antilles,'  pp.  421-1.  Waitz,  vol.  iii.  p.  384  ; 
J.  G.  MttUer,  pp.  171-6,  182,  210,  282. 

*  Preacott,  *  Peru,*  voL  i.  pp!  71,  89  ;  Waite,  vol.  iv.  p.  458 ;  J.  G.  MUUer, 
pp.  822,  371. 

'  firasseur,  *  Mexique,*  vol.  iii.  p.  486  ;  Waitz,  voL  iv.  p.  149  ;  J.  G.  MQller, 
p.  642. 


174  ANIMISM. 

the  Southern  Hemisphere,  while  image-worship  scarcely 
appears  among  the  Andaman  islanders,  Tasmanians,  or 
Australians,  and  is  absent  or  rare  in  various  Papuan  and 
Polynesian  districts,  it  prevails  among  the  majority  of  the 
island  tribes  who  have  attained  to  middle  and  high  savage 
levels.  In  Polynesian  islands,  where  the  meaning  of  the 
native  idolatry  has  been  carefully  examined,  it  is  found  ta 
rest  on  the  most  absolute  theory  of  spirit-embodiment.. 
Thus,  New  Zealanders  set  up  memorial  idols  of  deceased 
persons  near  the  burial-place,  talking  affectionately  to  them 
as  if  still  alive,  and  casting  garments  to  them  when  they 
passed  by,  and  preserve  in  their  houses  small  carved 
wooden  images,  each  dedicated  to  the  spirit  of  an  ancestor.. 
It  is  distinctly  held  that  such  an  atua  or  ancestral  deity 
enters  into  the  substance  of  an  image  in  order  to  hold  con- 
verse with  the  living.  A  priest  can  by  repeating  charms, 
cause  the  spirit  to  enter  into  the  idol,  which  he  will  even  jerk 
by  a  string  round  its  neck  to  arrest  its  attention  ;  it  is  the 
same  atua  or  spirit  which  will  at  times  enter  not  the  image 
but  the  priest  himself,  throw  him  into  convulsions,  and  de* 
liver  oracles  through  him ;  while  it  is  quite  understood  that 
the  images  themselves  are  not  objects  of  worship,  nor  do 
they  possess  in  themselves  any  virtue,  but  derive  their 
sacredness  from  being  the  temporary  abodes  of  spirits.^ 
In  the  Society  Islands,  it  was  noticed  in  Captain  Cook's  ex- 
ploration that  the  carved  wooden  images  at  burial-places, 
were  not  considered  mere  memorials,  but  abodes  into  which 
the  souls  of  the  departed  retired.  In  Mr.  Ellis's  account 
of  the  Polynesian  idolatry,  relating  as  it  seems  especially  to 
this  group,  the  sacred  objects  might  be  either  mere  stocks 
and  stones,  or  carved  wooden  images,  from  six  to  eight  feet 
long  down  to  as  many  inches.  Some  of  these  were  to  re- 
present "  tii,"  divine  manes  or  spirits  of  the  dead,  while 
others  were  to  represent  *'  tu,"  or  deities  of  higher  rank 
and  power.  At  certain  seasons,  or  in  answer  to  the  prayers 
of  the  priests,  these  spiritual  beings  entered  into  the  idols, 

^Shortland,  'Trade,  of  N.  Z.'  etc.  p.  88;  Taylor,  pp.  171,  188,  212. 


ANIMISM.  175 

which  then  became  very  powerful,  but  when  the  spirit  de- 
parted, the  idol  remained  only  a  sacred  object.  A  god 
often  came  to  and  passed  from  an  image  in  the  body  of  a 
bird,  and  spiritual  influence  could  be  transmitted  from  an 
idol  by  imparting  it  by  contact  to  certain  valued  kinds  of 
feathers,  which  could  be  carried  away  in  this  "  inhabited  *'' 
state,  and  thus  exert  power  elsewhere,  and  transfer  it  to 
new  idols.  Here  then  we  have  the  similarity  of  souls  to 
other  spirits  shown  by  the  similar  way  in  which  both  be- 
come embodied  in  images,  just  as  these  same  people  con- 
sider both  to  enter  into  human  bodies.  And  we  have  the 
pure  fetish,  which  here  is  a  feather  or  a  log  or  stone,  brought 
together  with  the  more  elaborate  carved  idol,  all  under  one 
common  principle  of  spirit  embodiment.^  In  Borneo,  not- 
withstanding the  Moslem  prohibition  of  idolatry,  not  only 
do  images  remain  in  use,  but  the  doctrine  of  spirit-embodi- 
ment is  distinctly  applied  to  them.  Among  the  tribes  of 
Western  Sarawak  the  priestesses  have  made  for  them  rude 
figures  of  birds,  which  none  but  they  may  touch.  These 
are  supposed  to  become  inhabited  by  spirits,  and  at  the 
great  harvest  feasts  are  hung  up  in  bunches  of  ten  or  twenty 
in  the  long  common  room,  carefully  veiled  with  coloured 
handkerchiefs.  Again,  among  some  Dayak  tribes,  they  will 
make  rude  figures  of  a  naked  man  and  woman,  and  place 
these  opposite  to  one  another  on  the  path  to  the  farms.  On 
their  heads  are  head-dresses  of  bark,  by  their  sides  is  the 
betel-nut  basket,  and  in  their  hands  a  short  wooden  spear. 
These  figures  are  said  to  be  inhabited  each  by  a  spirit  who 
prevents  inimical  influences  from  passing  on  to  the  farms, 
and  likewise  from  the  farms  to  the  village,  and  evil  betide 
the  profane  wretch  who  lifts  his  hand  against  them — ^violent 
fever  and  sickness  would  be  sure  to  follow.* 
West  Africa  naturally  applies  its  familiar  fetish-doctrine 

^  J.  K.  Foreter,  'Obs.  during  Voyage/  London,  1778,  p.  684,  etc.  Ellis^ 
^Polyn.  Res.'  vol.  i.  p.  281,  etc.,  828,  etc.  See  also  Earl,  '  Papuans,'  p.  84  ; 
Bastian,  'Psychologie,'  p.  78  (Nias). 

s  St  John,  *Far  £ast,'  vol.  i.  p.  198. 


176  ANIBnSM. 

of  spirit-embodiment  to  images  or  idols.  How  an  image 
may  be  considered  a  receptacle  for  a  spirit,  is.  well  shown 
here  by  the  straw  and  rag  figures  of  men  and  beasts  made 
in  Calabar  at  the  great  triennial  purification,  for  the  ex- 
pelled spirits  to  take  refuge  in,  whereupon  they  are  got  rid 
of  over  the  border.^  As  to  positive  idols,  nothing  could 
be  more  explicit  than  the  Gold- Coast  account  of  certain 
wooden  figures  caUed  "  amagai,''  which  are  specially 
treated  by  a  "wong-man"  or  priest,  and  have  a  "wong" 
or  deity  in  connexion  with  them  ;  so  close  is  the  connexion 
conceived  between  spirit  and  image,  that  the  idol  is  itself 
called  "  wong."*  So  in  theEwe  district,  the  same  "  edro  '* 
or  deity  who  inspires  the  priest  is  also  present  in  the  idol, 
and  "  edro  **  signifies  both  god  and  idol.'^  Waitz  sums  up 
the  principles  of  West  AMcan  idolatry  in  a  distinct  theory 
of  embodiment,  as  follows  :  "  The  god  himself  is  invisible, 
but  the  devotional  feeling  and  especially  the  lively  fancy  of 
the  negro  demands  a  visible  object  to  which  worship  may  be 
directed.  He  wishes  really  and  sensibly  to  behold  the  god, 
and  seeks  to  shape  in  wood  or  clay  the  conception  he  has 
formed  of  him.  Now  if  the  priest,  whom  the  god  liimself 
at  times  inspires  and  takes  possession  of,  consecrates  this 
figure  to  him,  the  idea  has  only  to  follow  that  the  god  may 
in  consequence  be  pleased  to  take  up  his  abode  in  the 
figure,  to  which  he  may  be  specially  invited  by  the  conse- 
cration, and  thus  image-worship  is  seen  to  be  comprehen- 
sible enough.  Denham  found  that  even  to  take  a  man  s 
portrait  was  dangerous  and  caused  mistrust,  from  the  fear 
that  a  part  of  the  living  man's  soul  might  be  conveyed  by 
magic  into  the  artificial  figure.  The  idols  are  not,  as  Bos- 
man  thinks,  deputies  of  the  gods,  but  merely  objects  in 
which  the  god  loves  to  place  himself,  and  which  at  the  same 
time  display  him  in  sensible  presence  to  his  adorers.     The 

^  Hutchinson  in  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc.'  vol.  i.  p.  386  ;  see  Bastian,  'Psychologic, 
p.  172. 

^  Steinhaufier,  in  '  Magaz.  der  Evang.  Misuonen,'  Basel,  1856,  No.  2,  p. 
181. 

•  Schl^l,  Ewe-Sprache,  p.  xri. 


ANIMISM.  177 

god  is  also  by  no  means  bound  fast  to  his  dwelling  in  the 
image,  he  goes  out  and  in,  or  rather  is  present  in  it  some- 
times with  more  and  sometimes  with  less  intensity.*'^ 

Castren's  wide  and  careful  researches  among  the  rude 
Turanian  tribes  of  North  Asia,  led  him  to  form  a  similar 
conception  of  the  origin  and  nature  of  their  idolatry.  The 
idols  of  these  people  are  uncouth  objects,  often  mere  stones 
or  logs  with  some  sort  of  human  countenance,  or  sohietimes 
more  finished  images,  even  of  metal ;  some  are  large,  some 
mere  dolls ;  they  belong  to  individuals,  or  families,  or 
tribes ;  they  may  be  kept  in  the  yurts  for  private  use,  or 
set  up  in  sacred  groves  or  on  the  steppes  or  near  the  hunt- 
ing and  fishing  places  they  preside  over,  or  they  may  even 
have  special  temple-houses;  some  open-air  gods  are  left 
naked,  not  to  spoil  good  clothes,  but  others  under  cover  are 
decked  out  with  all  an  Ostyak's  or  Samoyed's  wealth  of 
scarlet  cloths  and  costly  furs,  necklaces  and  trinkets ;  and 
lastly,  to  the  idols  are  made  rich  offerings  of  food,  clothes, 
furs,  kettles,  pipes,  and  the  rest  of  the  inventory  of  Siberian 
nomade  wealth.  Now  these  idols  are  not  to  be  taken  as 
mere  symbols  or  portraits  of  deities,  but  the  worshippers 
mostly  imagine  that  the  deity  dwells  in  the  image  or,  so  to 
speak,  is  embodied  in  it,  whereby  the  idol  becomes  a  real 
god  capable  of  giving  health  and  prosperity  to  man.  On 
the  one  hand,  the  deity  becomes  serviceable  to  the  wor- 
shipper by  being  thus  contained  and  kept  for  his  use,  and 
on  the  other  hand,  the  god  profits  by  receiving  richer  offer- 
ings, failing  which  it  would  depart  from  its  receptacle.  We 
even  hear  of  numerous  spirits  being  contained  in  one  image, 
and  flying  off  at  the  death  of  the  shaman  who  owned  it;  In 
Buddhist  Tibet,  as  in  West  Africa,  the  practice  of  conjuring 
into  puppets  the  demons  which  molest  men  is  a  recognized 
rite ;  while  in  Siam  the  making  of  clay  puppets  to  be  ex- 
posed on  trees  or  by  the  roadside,  or  set  adrift  with  food- 

*  Waitz,  •  Anthropologie,' voL^ii.  p.  188;  Denharn,  *TrBTcla,'Tol,  i.  p.  118; 
Romer,  '  Gkiiuea  ; '  Bosman,  '  Guinea,'  in  Pinkerton,  toL  xvi.  Sec  aUa 
LiyingBtone,  'S.  Afr.'  p.  282  (Balouda.) 

VOL.  n.  N 


178  ANIMISM.. 

offerings  in  baskets^  is  a  recognized  manner  of  expelling 
disease-spirits.^  In  the  image-worship  of  modem  India^ 
there  crop  up  traces  of  the  embodiment-theory.  It  is  pos- 
sible for  the  intelligent  Hindu  to  attach  as  little  real  per- 
sonality to  a  divine  image^  as  to  the  man  of  straw  which  he 
makes  in  order  to  celebrate  the  funeral  rites  of  a  relative 
whose  body  cannot  be  recovered.  He  can  even  protest 
against  being  treated  as  an  idolater  at  all,  declaring  the 
images  of  his  gods  to  be  but  symbols,  bringing  to  his  mind 
thoughts  of  the  real  deities,  as  a  portrait  reminds  one  of  a 
friend  no  longer  to  be  seen  in  the  body.  Yet  in  the  popular 
religion  of  his  country,  what  could  be  more  in  conformity 
with  the  fetish-theory  than  the  practice  of  making  tem- 
porary hollow  clay  idols  by  tens  of  thousands,  which  receive 
no  veneration  for  themselves,  and  only  become  objects  of 
worship  when  the  officiating  brahman  has  invited  the  deity 
to  dweU  in  the  image,  performing  the  ceremony  of  the 
**  adhivAsa  "  or  inhabitation,  after  which  he  puts  in  the  eyes 
and  the  "  prana,"  i.  e.,  breath,  life,  or  soul.^ 

Nowhere,  perhaps,  in  the  wide  history  of  religion,  can 
we  find  definitions  more  full  and  absolute  of  the  theory  of 
deities  actually  animating  their  images,  than  in  those  pas- 
sages from  early  Christian  writers  which  describe  the  nature 
and  operation  of  the  heathen  idols.  Amobius  introduces 
the  heathen  as  declaring  that  it  is  not  the  bronze  or  gold  and 
silver  material  they  consider  to  be  gods,  but  they  worship 
in  them  those  beings  which  sacred  dedication  introduces, 
and  causes  to  inhabit  the  artificial  images.'  Augustine 
cites  as  follows  the  opinions  attributed  to  Hermes  Trisme- 
gistus.  This  Egyptian,  he  tells  us,  considers  some  gods  as 
made  by  the  highest  Deity,  and  some  by  men ;  ''he  asserts 
the  visible  and  tangible  images  to  be  as  it  were  bodies  of 

*  Castr^n,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  193,  etc.  ;  Bastian,  'Psych.'  p.  84>  208, 
'OestL  Asicn,'  vol.  iii.  p.  293,  486.  See  '  Jotirn.  Ind.  Archip.'  yoL  ii.  p.  850 
(Chmese.) 

•  Max  Mailer,  'Chips,'  vol.  i,  p.  xvii. ;  Ward,  'Hindoos,'  vol.  i.  p.  198, 
vol.  ii  p.  XXXV.  164,  234,  292,  485. 

'  Amobius  Adversoa  Gentes,  vi.  17-19., 


ANIMISM.  179 

gods^  for  there  are  within  them  certain  invited  spirits^  of 
some  avail  for  doing  harm,  or  for  fulfilling  certain  desires 
of  those  who  pay  them  divine  honours  and  rites  of  worship. 
By  a  certain  art  to  connect  these  invisible  spirits  with  visible 
objects  of  corporeal  matter,  that  such  maybe  as  it  were 
animated  bodies,  effigies  dedicate  and  subservient  to  the 
spirits — this  is  what  he  calls  making  gods,  and  men  have 
received  this  great  and  wondrous  power."  And  further, 
this  Trismegistus  is  made  to  speak  of  ''  statues  animated 
with  sense  and  full  of  spirit,  doing  so  great  things ;  statues 
prescient  of  the  future,  and  predicting  it  by  lots,  by  priests, 
by  dreams,  and  by  many  other  ways."  ^  This  idea,  as  ac- 
cepted by  the  early  Christians  themselves,  with  the  qualifi- 
cation that  the  spiritual  beings  inhabiting  the  idols  were  not 
beneficent  deities  but  devils,  is  explicitly  stated  by  Minucius 
Felix,  in  a  passage  in  the  '  Octavius,'  which  gives  an  in- 
structive account  of  the  animistic  philosophy  of  Christianity 
towards  the  beginning  of  the  third  century  :  ''  Thus  these 
impure  spirits  or  demons,  as  shown  by  the  magi,  by  the 
philosophers,  and  by  Plato,  are  concealed  by  consecration 
in  statues  and  images,  and  by  their  afflatus  obtain  the 
authority  as  of  a  present  deity  when  at  times  they  inspire 
priests,  inhabit  temples,  occasionally  animate  the  filaments 
of  the  entrails,  govern  the  flight  of  birds,  guide  the  falling 
of  lots,  give  oracles  enveloped  in  many  falsehoods  .  .  . 
also  secretly  creeping  into  (men's)  bodies  as  thin  spirits, 
they  feign  diseases,  terrify  minds,  distort  limbs,  in  order  to 
compel  men  to  their  worship  ;  that  fattening  on  the  steam 
of  altars  or  their  offered  victims  fi:om  the  flocks,  they  may 
seem  to  have  cured  the  ailments  which  they  had  constrained. 
And  these  are  the  madmen  whom  ye  see  rush  forth  into 

'  AugOBtimis  *De  Civ.  Dei,*  viii.  23  :  "at  ille  visibilia  et  controctabilia 
nmulacra,  velut  corpora  deonim  esse  asserit ;    inesse  autem  his  quosdam 

spiritiis  invitatoSi  etc Hos  ergo  spiritos  invisibiles  per  artem 

qnandam  yisibilibus  rebus  corporalis  inateriae  copulare,  ut  sint  quasi  animata 
corpora,  illis  spiritibas  dicata  et  snbdita  simulacra,  etc."  See  also  Ter* 
tullianus  De  Spectaculis  zii.  :  *'  In  mortaorum  autem  idolis  dsemouia  con- 
aistont,  etc." 

K  2 


180  ANIMISM. 

public  places  ;  and  the  very  priests  without  the  temple  thus 
go  mad,  thus  rave,  thus  whirl  about.  •  .  •  All  these 
things  most  of  you  know,  how  the  very  demons  confess  of 
themselves,  so  often  as  they  are  expelled  by  us  from  the 
patient's  bodies  with  torments  of  word  and  fires  of  prayer. 
Saturn  himself,  and  Serapis,  and  Jupiter,  and  whatsoever 
demons  ye  worship,  overcome  by  pain  declare  what  they 
are ;  nor  surely  do  they  lie  concerning  their  iniquity,  above 
all  when  several  of  you  are  present.  Believe  these  wit- 
nesses, confessing  the  truth  of  themselves,  that  they  are 
demons.  For  adjured  by  the  true  and  only  God,  they 
shudder  reluctant  in  the  wretched  bodies  ;  and  either  they 
issue  forth  at  once,  or  vanish  gradually,  according  as  the 
faith  of  the  patient  aids,  or  the-  grace  of  the  curer 
favours."  ^ 

The  strangeness  with  which  such  words  now  fall  upon 
our  ears  is  full  of  significance.  It  is  one  symptom  of  that 
vast  quiet  change  which  has  come  over  animistic  philosophy 
in  the  modern  educated  world.  Whole  orders  of  spiritual 
beings,  worshipped  in  polytheistic  religion,  and  degraded  in 
early  Christendom  to  real  but  evil  demons,  have  since 
passed  from  objective  to  subjective  existence,  have  faded 
from  the  Spiritual  into  the  Ideal.  By  the  operation  of 
similar  intellectual  changes,  the  general  theory  of  spirit- 
embodiment,  having  fulfilled  the  great  work  it  had  for  ages 
to  do  in  religion  and  philosophy,  has  now  dwindled  within 
the  limits  of  the  educated  world  to  near  its  vanishing-point. 
The  doctrines  of  Disease-possession  and  Oracle-possession, 
once  integral  parts  of  the  higher  philosophy,  and  still  main- 
taining a  vigorous  existence  in  the  lower  culture,  seem  to 
be  dying  out  within  the  influence  of  the  higher  into  dog- 
matic survival,  conscious  metaphor^  and  popular  super- 
stition. The  doctrine  of  spirit-embodiment  in  objects. 
Fetishism;  now  scarcely  appears  outside  barbaric  regions, 

*  Marcus  Minucius  Felix,  Octavius,  cap.  xxvii. :  **  Isti  igiturimpuri  spiritus, 
dtemones,  ut  oetensum  a  magis,  a  philosophis,  et  a  Platone  sub  statuis  et 
imaginibus  consecrati  delitescunt,  etc.*' 


ANIMISM.  181 

save  in  the  peasant  folklore  which  keeps  it  up  amongst  us 
with  so  many  other  remnants  of  harharic  thought.  And 
the  like  theory  of  spiritual  influence  as  applied  to  Idolatry, 
though  still  to  be  studied  among  savages  and  barbarians, 
and  on  record  in  past  ages  of  the  civilized  world,  has  per- 
ished so  utterly  amongst  ourselves,  that  few  but  students 
are  aware  of  its  ever  having  existed* 

To  bring  home  to  our  minds  the  vastness  of  the  intel- 
lectual tract  which  separates  modern  from  savage  philo- 
sophy, and  to  enable  us  to  look  back  along  the  path  where 
step  by  step  the  mind's  journey  was  made,  it  will  serve  us 
to  glance  over  the  landmarks  which  language  to  this  day 
keeps  standing.  Our  modem  languages  reach  back  through 
the  middle  ages  to  classic  and  barbaric  times,  where  in  this 
matter  the  transition  from  the  crudest  primaeval  animism  is 
quite  manifest.  We  keep  in  daily  use,  and  turn  to  modem 
meaning,  old  words  and  idioms  which  carry  us  home  to  the 
philosophy  of  ancient  days.  We  talk  of  ** genius"  still, 
but  with  thought  how  changed.  The  genius  of  Augustus 
was  a  tutelary  demon,  to  be  sworn  by  and  to  receive  oflfer- 
ings  on  an  altar  as  a  deity.  In  modern  English,  Shakspere, 
Newton,  or  Wellington,  is  said  to  be  led  and  prompted  by 
his  genius,  but  that  genius  is  a  shrivelled  philosophic  meta- 
phor. So  the  word  *'  spirit "  and  its  kindred  terms  keep 
up  with  wondrous  pertinacity  the  traces  which  connect  the 
thought  of  the  savage  with  its  hereditary  successor,  the 
thought  of  the  philosopher.  Barbaric  philosophy  retains 
as  real  what  civilized  language  has  reduced  to  simile.  The 
Siamese  is  made  drunk  with  the  demon  of  the  arrack  that 
possesses  the  drinker,  while  we  with  so  different  sense  still 
extract  the  "  spirit  of  wine.*'  *  Look  at  the  saying  ascribed 
to  Pythagoras,  and  mentioned  by  Porphyry.  "  The  soimd 
indeed  which  is  given  by  striking  brass,  is  the  voice  of  a 
certain  demon  contained  in  that  brass.*'  These  might  have 
been  the  representative  words  of  some  savage  animistic  philo- 

*  Bastiai),  'OestL  Aden,*  vol.  ii  p.  455.     See  Spiegel,  'Avesta,'  vol.  ii. 
p.  54. 


182  ANIMISM. 

sopher;  but  with  the  changed  meaning  brought  by  centuries 
of  philosophizing,  Oken  hit  upon  a  definition  ahnost  iden- 
tical in  form,  that  "What  sounds,  announces  its  spirit" 
('*  Was  tout,  gibt  seinen  Geist  kund.*')  ^  What  the  sayage 
would  have  meant,  or  Porphyry  after  him  did  mean,  was  that 
the  brass  was  actually  animated  by  a  spirit  of  the  brass  apart 
&om  its  matter,  but  when  a  modem  philosopher  takes  up 
the  old  phrase,  all  he  means  is  the  qualities  of  the  brass. 
As  for  our  own  selves  and  our  feelings,  we  still  talk  of 
*'  animal  spirits,"  of  being  in  "  good  and  bad  spirits,**  only 
recalling  with  an  effort  the  long  past  metaphysics  which 
such  words  once  expressed.  The  modem  theory  of  the 
mind  considers  it  capable  of  performing  even  exalted  and 
unusual  functions  without  the  intervention  of  prompting  or 
exciting  demons;  yet  the  old  recognition  of  such  beings 
crops  up  here  and  there  in  phrases  which  adapt  animistic 
ideas  to  commonplaces  of  human  disposition,  as  when  a 
man  is  still  said  to  be  animated  by  a  patriotic  spirit,  or 
possessed  by  a  spirit  of  disobedience.  In  old  times  the 
iyyaaTpCfivdo^,  or  *'  ventriloquus  **  was  really  held  to  have  a 
spirit  rumbling  or  talking  from  inside  his  body,  as  when 
Eurykles  the  soothsayer  was  inspired  by  such  a  familiar ; 
or  when  a  certain  Patriarch  mentioning  a  demon  heard  to 
speak  out  of  a  man*s  belly,  remarks  on  the  worthy  place  it 
had  chosen  to  dwell  in.  In  the  tune  of  Hippokrates,  the 
giving  of  oracular  responses  by  such  ventriloquism  was 
practised  by  certain  women  as  a  profession.  To  this  day 
in  China  one  may  get  an  oracular  response  from  a  spirit 
apparently  talking  out  of  a  medium's  stomach,  for  a  fee  of 
about  twopence-hal^enny.  How  changed  a  philosophy  it 
marks,  that  among  ourselves  the  word  ''ventriloquist" 
should  have  sunk  to  its  present  meaning.'    Nor  is  that 


^  Porphyr,  de  Vita  Pytbagorae.  Oken,  '  Lohrbuch  der  Naturphaosophie,* 
2758. 

^  Saidas,  &  v.  lyyaffTplftv$of ;  Isidor.  Gloss  s.  v.  *  pnecantatores ;  * 
Bastian,  *  Mensch.'  vol.  iL  p.  678.  Maury,  « Magie/  etc.  p.  269.  Doolittlc, 
*  Chinese,' voL  ii.  p.  116. 


ANIMISM.  183 

change  less  significant  which,  starting  with  the  conception 
of  a  man  being  really  lvO€09,  possessed  by  a  deity  within 
him,  carries  on  a  metamorphosed  relic  of  this  thorough 
animistic  thought,  from  ivOova-Latrfios  to  ^'  enthusiasm." 
With  all  this,  let  it  not  be  supposed  that  such  change  of 
opinion  in  the  educated  world  has  come  about  through 
wanton  incredulity  or  decay  of  the  religious  temperament. 
Its  source  is  the  alteration  in  natural  science,  assigning  new 
causes  for  the  operations  of  nature  and  the  events  of  life. 
The  theory  of  the  immediate  action  of  personal  spirits  has 
here,  as  so  widely  elsewhere,  given  place  to  ideas  of  force 
and  law.  No  indwelling  deity  now  regulates  the  life  of  the 
burning  sun,  no  guardian  angels  drive  the  stars  across  the 
arching  firmament,  the  divine  Ganges  is  water  flowing  down 
into  the  sea  to  evaporate  into  cloud  and  descend  again  in 
rain.  No  deity  simmers  in  the  boiling  pot,  no  presiding 
spirits  dwell  in  the  volcano,  no  howling  demon  shrieks  from 
the  mouth  of  the  lunatic.  There  was  a  period  of  human 
thought  when  the  whole  universe  seemed  actuated  by 
spiritual  life.  For  our  knowledge  of  our  own  history,  it 
is  deeply  interesting  that  there  should  remain  rude  races 
yet  living  under  the  philosophy  which  we  have  so  far  passed 
from,  since  Physics,  Chemistry,  Biology,  have  seized  whole 
provinces  of  the  ancient  Animism,  setting  force  for  life  and 
law  for  will. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

'  AmUlBU  {eoniinued): 

Spirits  regarded  as  personal  causes  of  Phenomena  of  the  World— Pervadin;^ 
Spirits  as  good  and  evil  Demons  affecting  man — Spirits  manifest  in 
Dreams  and  Visions  :  Nightmares  ;  Incubi  and  Succubi  ;*  Vampires  f 
Visionary  Demons — ^Denions  of  darkness  repelled  by  fire— Demons  other- 
wise manifest :  seen  by  animals  ;  detected  by  footprints — Spirits  conceiyed 
and  treated  as  material — Guardian  and  Familiar  Spirits — Nature-Spirits ; 
historical  course  of  the  doctrine — Spirits  of  Volcanos,  Whirlpools,  Bocks- 
— Water- Worship  :  Spirits  of  Wells,  Streams,  Lakes,  &c. — Tree-Wor- 
ship :  Spirits  embodied  in  or  inhabiting  Trees  ;  Spirits  of  Groves  and 
Forests — Animal- Worship  :  Animals  worshipped,  directly,  or  as  incarna- 
tions or  representatives  of  Deities ;  Totem- Worship  ;  Serpent- Worship— 
Species-Deities  ;  their  relation  to  Archetypal  Ideas. 
» 

We  have  now  to  enter  on  the  final  topic  of  the  investiga- 
tion of  Animism,  by  completing  the  classified  survey  of 
spiritual  beings  in  general,  from  the  myriad  souls,  elves, 
fairies,  genii,  conceived  as  filling  their  multifarious  offices  in 
man's  life  and  the  world's,  up  to  the  deities  who  reign,  few 
and  mighty,  over  the  spiritual  hierarchy.  In  spite  of  end- 
less diversity  of  detail,  the  general  principles  of  this  investi- 
gation seem  comparatively  easy  of  access  to  the  enquirer,, 
if  he  will  use  the  two  keys  which  the  foregoing  studies 
supply :  first,  that  spiritual  beings  are  modelled  by  man  on 
his  primary  conception  of  his  own  human  soul,  and  second,, 
that  their  purpose  is  to  explain  nature  on  the  primitive 
childlike  theory  that  it  is  truly  and  throughout  *'  Animated 
Nature."  If,  as  the  poet  says,  *' Felix  qui  potuit  rerum 
cognoscere  causas,"  then  rude  tribes  of  ancient  men  had 
within  them  this  source  of  happiness,  that  they  could 
explain  to  their  own  content  the  causes  of  things.     For  to* 


ANIMISM.  1^^ 

them  spiritual  beings,  elves  and  gnomes,  ghosts  and  manes, 
demons  and  deities,  were  the  living  personal  causes  of 
universal  life.  "  The  first  men  found  everything  easy,  the 
mysteries  of  nature  were  not  so  hidden  from  them  as  from 
US,"  said  Jacob  Bohme  the  mystic.  True,  we  may  well 
answer,  if  these  primitive  men  believed  in  that  animistic 
philosophy  of  nature  which  even  now  survives  in  the  savage 
mind.  They  could  ascribe  to  kind  or  hostile  spirits  all  good 
and  evil  of  their  own  lives,  and  all  striking  operations  of 
nature ;  they  lived  in  familiar  intercourse  with  the  living 
and  powerful  souls  of  their  dead  ancestors,  with  the  spirits, 
of  the  stream  and  grove,  plain  and  mountain,  they  knew 
well  the  living  mighty  Sun  pouring  his  beams  of  light  and 
heat  upon  them,  the  living  mighty  Sea  dashing  her  fierce 
billows  on  the  shore,  the  great  personal  Heaven  and  Earth 
protecting  and  producing  all  things.  For  as  the  human 
body  was  held  to  live  and  act  by  virtue  of  its  own  inhabiting 
spirit-soul,  so  the  operations  of  the  world  seemed  to  be 
carried  on  by  the  influence  of  other  spirits.  And  thus 
Animism,  starting  as  a  philosophy  of  human  life,  extended 
and  expanded  itself  till  it  became  a  philosophy  of  nature  at 
large. 

To  the  minds  of  the  lower  races  it  seems  that  all  nature 
is  possessed,  pervaded,  crowded,  with  spiritual  beings.  In 
seeking  by  a  few  types  to  give  an  idea  of  this  conception  of 
pervading  Spirits  in  its  savage  and  barbaric  stage,  it  is  not 
indeed  possible  to  draw  an  absolute  line  of  separation  between 
spirits  occupied  in  affecting  for  good  and  ill  the  life  of  Man, 
and  spirits  specially  concerned  in  carrying  on  the  operations, 
of  Nature.  In  fact  these  two  classes  of  spiritual  beings  blend 
into  one  another  as  inextricably  as  do  the  original  animistic 
doctrines  they  are  based  on.  As,  however,  the  spirits  con- 
sidered directly  to  affect  the  life  and  fortune  *  of  Man  lie 
closest  to  the  centre  of  the  animistic  scheme,  it  is  well  to 
give  them  precedence.  The  description  and  function  of 
these  beings  extend  upwards  from  among  the  rudest  human 
tribes.     Milligan  writes  of  the  natives  of  Tasmania:  "They 


18C  ANIMISM. 

ivere  i>olytheists,  that  is,  they  believed  in  guardian  angels 
or  spirits,  and  ii^  a  plurality  of  powerful,  but  generally  evil- 
disposed  beings,  inhabiting  crevices  and  caverns  of  rocky 
mountains,  and  making  temporary  abode  in  hollow  trees  and 
solitary  valleys  :  of  these  a  few  were  supposed  to  be  of  great 
power,  while  the  majority  were  much  of  the  nature  and 
attributes  of  the  goblins  and  elves  of  our  native  land."  ^ 
Oldfield  writes  of  the  aborigines  of  Australia,  "  The  number 
of  supernatural  beings,  feared  if  not  loved,  that  they  acknow- 
ledge, is  exceedingly  great ;  for  not  only  are  the  heavens 
peopled  with  such,  but  the  whole  face  of  the  country  swarms 
with  them ;  every  thicket,  most  watering-places,  and  all 
Tocky  places  abound  with  evil  spirits.  In  like  manner, 
every  natural  phenomenon  is  believed  to  be  the  work  of 
demons,  none  of  which  seem  of  a  benign  nature,  one  and 
all  apparently  striving  to  do  all  imaginable  mischief  to  the 
poor  black  fellow."^  It  must  be  indeed  an  unhappy  race 
among  whom  such  a  demonology  could  shape  itself,  and  it 
is  a  relief  to  find  that  other  people  of  low  culture,  while 
recognizing  the  same  spiritual  world  swarming  about  them, 
do  not  find  its  main  attribute  to  be  spite  against  themselves. 
Among  the  Algonquin  Indians  of  North  America,  School- 
.  craft  finds  the  very  groundwork  of  their  religion  in  the 
belief  "  that  the  whole  visible  and  invisible  creation  is 
animated  with  various  orders  of  malignant  or  benign 
spirits,  who  preside  over  the  daily  affidrs  and  over  the  final 
destinies  of  men.'' '  Among  the  Khonds  of  Orissa,  Mac- 
pherson  describes  the  greater  gods  and  tribal  manes,  and 
helow  these  the  order  of  minor  and  local  deities :  ''  They 
are  the  tutelary  gods  of  every  spot  on  earth,  having  power 
over  the  functions  of  nature  which  operate  there,  and  over 
everytliing  relating  to  human  life  in  it.     Their  number  is 

'  Bonwick,  'Tasmanians/ p.  182. 

'  Oldfield  in  <Tr.  £th.  Soc/  vol.  iiL  p.  228. 

'  Schoolcraft,  '  Algic  Res.'  vol.  L  p.  41.  '  Indian  Tribes,*  toL  iiL  p.  827. 
TTaitz,  vol.  iii.  p.  191.  See  also  J.  G.  MliUer,  p.  175.  (Antilles  Islanders) ; 
Brasseur,  *  Mozique,*  vol.  iii  p.  48& 


ANIMISM.  187 

tmlimited.  They  fill  all  nature,  in  which  no  power  or  object, 
from  the  sea  to  the  clods  of  the  field,  is  without  its  deity. 
They  are  the  guardians  of  hills,  groves,  streams,  fountains, 
paths,  and  hamlets,  and-  are  cognizant  of  every  human 
action,  want,  and  interest  in  the  locality,  where  they  pre- 
side." ^  Describing  the  animistic  mjiihology  of  the  Turanian 
tribes  of  Asia  and  Europe,  Castren  has  said  that  every  land, 
mountain,  rock,  river,  brook,  spring,  tree,  or  whatsoever  it 
may  be,  has  a  spirit  for  an  inhabitant ;  the  spirits  of  the 
trees  and  stones,  of  the  lakes  and  brooks,  hear  with  pleasure 
the  wild  man's  pious  prayers  and  accept  his  offerings.*  Such 
are  the  conceptions  of  the  Guinea  negro,  who  finds  the 
abodes  of  Iiis  good  and  evil  spirits  in  great  rocks,  hollow 
trees,  mountains,  deep  rivers,  dense  groves,  echoing  caverns, 
and  who  passing  silently  by  these  sacred  places  leaves  some 
offering,  if  it  be  but  a  leaf  or  a  shell  picked  up  on  the 
beach.^  Such  are  examples  which  not  unfairly  picture  the 
belief  of  the  lower  races  in  a  world  of  spirits  on  earth,  and 
fiuch  descriptions  apply  to  the  state  of  men's  minds  along 
the  course  of  civilization. 

The  doctrine  of  ancient  philosophers  such  as  Pythagoras* 
and  lamblichus,^  of  spiritual  beings  swarming  through  the 
atmosphere  we  breathe,  was  carried  on  and  developed  in 
special  directions  in  the  discussions  concerning  the  nature 
and  functions  of  the  world-pervading  host  of  angels  and 
devils,  in  the  writings  of  the  early  Christian  Fathers.^ 
Theologians  of  modem  centuries  have  for  the  most  part 
seen  reason  to  reduce  within  comparatively  narrow  limits 
the  action  ascribed  to  external  spiritual  beings  on  mankind ; 

>  Macphenon,  'India,'  p.  90.    See  also  Cross,  Earena,  in  'Jonm.  Amer. 
Or.  Soc.*  vol.  iv.  p.  815  ;  Williams,  *  Fiji,'  voL  i.  p.  289. 
'  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Mytli,'p.  114,  182,  etc. 
»  J.  L.  Wilson,  '  W.  Afr.'  p.  218,  388 ;  Waitz,  vol.  ii.  p.  171. 

*  Diog.  Laert.  YiU  Fythagor.  82. 

*  lamblichns,  ii. 

*  Collected  passages  in  Calmet,  'Diss,  sur  les  Esprits;'  Horst,  'Zauber- 
Bibliothek,'  toL  ii.  p.  268,  etc.  ;  vol.  yL  p.  49,  etc.  ;  see  Migne'a 
Dictionaries. 


188  ANIMISK. 

yet  there  are  Bome  who  retain  to  the  full  the  angelology  and 
demonology  of  Origen  and  Tertollian.  These  two  yiews 
may  be  well  contrasted  by  setting  side  by  side  the  judg* 
ments  of  two  ecclesiastics  of  the-  Boman  Churchy  as  to  the 
belief  in  pervading  demons  prevalent  in  uncivilized  countries. 
The  celebrated  commentator,  Dom  Calmet,  lays  down  in 
the  most  explicit  terms  the  doctrine  of  angels  and  demons, 
as  a  matter  of  dogmatic  theology.  But  he  is  less  inclined 
to  receive  unquestioned  the  narratives  of  particular  mani* 
festations  in  the  mediaeval  and  modem  world.  He  mentions 
indeed  the  testimony  of  Louis  Vivez,  that  in  the  newly  dis- 
covered countries  of  America,  nothing  is  more  common  than 
to  see  spirits  which  appear  at  noonday,  not  only  in  the 
coimtry  but  in  towns  and  villages,  speaking,  commanding, 
sometimes  even  striking  men ;  and  the  account  by  Olaus 
Magnus  of  the  spectres  or  spirits  seen  in  Sweden  and  Nor- 
way, Finland  and  Lapland,  which  do  wonderful  things,  some 
even  serving  men  as  domestics  and  driving  the  cattle  out  to 
pasture.  But  what  Calmet  remarks  on  these  stories,  is  that 
the  greater  ignorance  prevails  in  a  country,  the  more  super- 
stition reigns  there.^  It  seems  that  in  our  own  day,  how- 
ever, the  tendency  is  to  encourage  less  sceptical  views. 
Monsignor  Gaume's  book  on  '  Holy  Water,'  which  not  long 
since  received  the  special  and  formal  approval  of  Pius  IX., 
appears  "  at  an  epoch  when  the  millions  of  evil  angels  which 
surround  us  are  more  enterprising  than  ever;"  and  here 
Olaus  Magnus'  story  of  the  demons  infesting  Northern 
Europe  is  not  only  cited  but  corroborated.*  On  the  whole, 
the  survey  of  the  doctrine  of  pervading  spirits  through  all 
the  grades  of  culture  is  a  remarkable  display  of  intellectual 
continuity.  Most  justly  does  Ellis  the  missionary,  depict- 
ing the  South  Sea  Islanders'  world  crowded  with  its  in- 
numerable pervading  spirits,  point  out  the  closeness  of  cor- 
respondence here  between  doctrines  of  the  savage  and  the 


^  Calmet,  '  Diasertotion  snr  les  EsprltSi*  yoL  i.  ch.  xlviii. 
3  Gaume,  *  L*Eau  B^nite  au  XIX-«  Si^cle,*  p.  295,  341. 


ANIMISM.  189 

civilized  animist,  expressed  as  both  may  be   in   Milton's 
familiar  lines  : —      ^ 

**  Millions  of  spiritual  creatures  walk  the  earth, 
Unseen,  both  when  we  wake,  and  when  we  sleep.*'  ^ 

As  with  souls,  so  with  other  spirits,  man's  most  distinct 
and  direct  intercourse  is  had  where  they  become  actually 
present  to  his  senses  in  dreams  and  visions.  The  belief 
that  such  phantoms  are  real  and  personal  spirits,  suggested 
and  maintained  as  it  is  by  the  direct  evidence  of  the  senses 
of  sight,  touch,  and  hearing,  is  naturally  an  opinion  usual 
in  savage  philosophy,  and  indeed  elsewhere,  long  and  ob- 
stinately resisting  the  attacks  of  the  later  scientific  doctrine. 
The  demon  Koin  strives  to  throttle  the  dreaming  Austra- 
lian ;  *  the  evil  "  na "  crouches  on  the  stomach  of  the 
Karen ;  ^  the  North  American  Indian,  gorged  with  feasting, 
is  visited  by  nocturnal  spirits ;  *  the  Caribs,  subject  to 
hideous  dreams,  often  woke  declaring  that  the  demon 
Maboya  had  beaten  them  in  their  sleep,  and  they  could 
still  feel  the  pain.^  These  demons  are  the  very  elves 
and  nightmares  that  to  this  day  in  benighted  districts  of 
Europe  ride  and  throttle  the  snoring  peasant,  and  whose 
names,  not  forgotten  among  the  educated,  have  only 
made  the  transition  from  belief  to  jest.'  A  not  less  dis- 
tinct product  of  the  savage  animistic  theory  of  dreams 
as  real  visits  from  personal  spiritual  beings,  lasted  on 
without  a  shift  or  break  into  the  belief  of  mediaeval 
Christendom.  This  is  the  doctrine  of  the  incubi  and 
succubi,  those  male   and  female  nocturnal  demons  which 

»  Ellis,  '  Polyn.  Res/  vol.  L  p.  881. 

'  Backhoixse,  'Australia,'  p.  655  ;  Grey,  'Australia,'  vol.  ii.  p.  837. 

'  Mason,  'Karens,'  1.  c.  p.  211. 

^  Schoolcraft,  '  Indian  Tribes,'  part  iiL  p.  226. 

^  Rochefort,  *  Antilles,'  p.  419. 

•  Grimm  '  D.  M.'  p.  1198 ;  Hanusch,  « Slaw.  Myth.'  p.  832 ;  St.  Clair  & 
Brophy,  '  Bulgaria,' p.  59;  Wnttke,  '  Yolksaberglaube,'  p.  122;  Bastian, 
*  Psychologie,'  p.  108  ;  Brand,  voL  iii.  p.  279  ;  The  mare  in  nightmare 
means  spirit,  df,  or  nymph ;  compare  Anglo-Sax.  wudumoere  (wood- mare) 
secho. 


190  ANIMISM. 

consort  sexually  with  men  and  women.  We  may  set  out 
with  their  descriptions  among  the  islanders  of  the  Antilles, 
where  they  are  the  ghosts  of  the  dead^  vanishing  when 
clutched ;  ^  in  New  Zealand,  where  ancestral  deities  "  form 
attachments  with  females  and  pay  them  repeated  visits/* 
while  in  the  Samoan  Islands  such  intercourse  of  mis- 
chievous inferior  gods  caused  '^  many  supernatural  concep- 
tions ;  '*  *  and  in  Lapland,  where  details  of  this  last  extreme 
class  have  also  been  placed  on  record.*  From  these  lower 
grades  of  culture  we  may  follow  the  idea  onward.  Formal 
rites  are  specified  in  the  Hindu  Tantra^  which  enable  a 
man  to  obtain  a  companion-nymph  by  worshipping  her  and 
repeating  her  name  by  night  in  a  cemetery.*  Augustine,  in 
an  instructive  passage,  states  the  popular  notions  of  the 
visits  of  incubi,  vouched  for,  he  tells  us,  by  testimony  of 
such  quantity  and  quality  that  it  may  seem  impudence  to 
deny  it ;  yet  he  is  careful  not  to  commit  himself  to  a  positive 
belief  in  such  spirits.*^  Later  theologians  were  less  cautious, 
and  grave  argumentation  on  nocturnal  intercourse  witii 
incubi  and  succubi  was  carried  on  till,  at  the  height  of 
mediaeval  civilization,  we  find  it  accepted  in  full  belief  by 
ecclesiastics  and  lawyers.  Nor  are  we  to  count  it  as  an 
ugly  but  harmless  superstition,  when  for  example  we  find  it 
set  forth  in  the  Bull  of  Pope  Innocent  VIII.  in  1484,  as  an 

*  *  Vita  del  Axum.  Christoforo  Colombo,'  ch.  xiii.  ;  and  Life  of  Colon  in 
Finkerton,  vol.  xii.  p.  84, 

2  Taylor,  'New  Zealand,*  p.  149,  889.  Mariner,  'Tonga  Is.'  voL  ii.  p. 
119. 

*  H5gstr0m,  '  Lapmark/  ch.  xi. 

*  Ward,  'Hindoos,'  vol.  ii.  p.  151.  See  also  Born,  ' Cocliin-Cliina,'  in 
Finkerton,  vol.  ix.  p.  828. 

*  Augustin.  *  De  Civ.  Dei, '  xv.  23  :  **  Et  qnoniam  creberrima  fama  est,  mnl- 
tiqne  se  expertos,  vel  ab  eis  qui  experti  essent,  de  quorum  Me  dubitaudum 
non  esset,  audisse  confirmant,  Silvanos  et  Faunos,  quos  vulgo  incubos  vocant, 
improbos  ssepe  extitisse  mulieribus,  et  earum  appetisseac  peregisse  concubitnm; 
et  quosdam  da^mones,  quos  Dusios  Galli  nimcupant,  banc  assidue  immunditiam 
et  tentare  et  efficere  ;  plures  talesque  asseverant,  nt  hoc  negare  impndentue 
videatur ;  non  hinc  aliqnid  audeo  definire,  ntmm  aliqiii  spiritus  .  .  .  possint 
etiam  banc  pati  libidinem;  ut  .  .  .  .  sentientibus  feminibus  miaceantur/' 
fiee  also  Grimm,  *  D.  M.'  p.  449,  479  ;  Hannsch,  '  Slaw.  Myth.'  p.  882 ; 
Cockayne,  *  Ijccchdoras  of  Eorly  England, '  vol.  i.  p.  xxxviii.  vol.  ii.  p.  845. 


ANIMISM.  191 

accepted  accusation  against  *'  many  persons  of  both  sexes, 
forgetful  of  their  own  salvation,  and  falling  away  from  the. 
Catholic  faith."  The  practical  outcome  of  this  belief  is 
known  to  students  who  have  traced  the  consequence  of  the 
Papal  Bull  in  the  legal  manual  of  the  witchcraft  tribunals, 
drawn  up  by  the  three  appointed  Inquisitors,  the  infamous 
Malleus  Maleficarum  ;  and  have  followed  the  results  of  this 
again  into  those  dreadful  records  which  relate  in  iheir  bald 
matter-of-fact  phraseology  the  confessions  of  the  crime  of 
diabolic  intercourse,  wrung  from  the  wretched  victims 
worked  on  by  threat  and  persuasion  in  the  intervals  of  the 
rack,  till  enough  evidence  was  accumulated  for  clear  judg- 
ment, and  sentence  of  the  stake.^  I  need  not  dwell  on  the 
mingled  obscenity  and  horror  of  these  details,  which  here 
only  have  their  bearing  on  the. history  of  animism.  But  it 
will  aid  the  ethnographer  to  understand  the  relation  of 
modem  to  savage  philosophy,  if  he  will  read  Bichard  Bur- 
ton's seriously  believing  account  in  the  *  Anatomy  of  Melan- 
choly,' where  he  concludes  with  acquiescence  in  a  declara- 
tion lately  made  by  Lipsius,  that  on  the  showing  of  daily 
narratives  and  judicial  sentences,  in  no  age  had  these 
lecherous  demons  appeared  in  such  numbers  as  in  his  own 
time — and  this  was  about  a.d.  1600.^ 

In  connexion  with  the  nightmare  and  the  incubus,  another 
variety  of  nocturnal  demon  requires  notice,  the  vampire* 
Inasmuch  as  certain  patients  are  seen  becoming  day  by  day, 
without  apparent  cause,  thin,  weak,  and  bloodless,  savage 
animism  is  called  upon  to  produce  a  satisfactory  explana- 
tion, and  does  so  in  the  doctrine  that  there  exist  certain 
demons  which  eat  out  the  souls  or  hearts  or  suck  the  blood 
of  their  victims.     The  Polynesians  said  that  it  was  the 

^  The  'Malleus  Maleficarum'  was  published  about  1489.  See  on  the 
general  subject,  Horst,  'Zauber-Bibliothek,'  toI.  vi.  ;  Ennemoser,  'Magic,' 
Tol.  ii.  :  Maury,  *Magie/  etc.  p.  256  ;  Lecky,  'Hist,  of  Rationalism,'  yo1«  L 

'  Burton,  'Anatomy  of  Melancholy/  iii  2.  "  Unum  dixero,  non  opinari 
me  ullo  retro  sevo  tantam  copiam  Sutyrorum,  et  salaclum  istorum  Geniorum  se 
ostendisse,  quantum  nunc  quotidiante  narrationes,  et  judiciales  sententioe 
proferunt." 


192  ANIMISM. 

departed  souls  (tii)  which  quitted  the  graves  and  grave-idols 
to  creep  by  night  into  the  houses,  and  devour  the  heart  and 
entrails  of  the  sleepers,  and  these  died.^  The  ICarens  tell 
of.  the  "  kephu/*  which  is  a  wizard's  stomach  going  forth  in 
the  shape  of  a  head  and  entrails,  to  devour  the  souls  of 
men,  and  they  die.'  The  Mintira  of  the  Malay  Peninsula 
have  their  "hantu  penyadin;  "  he  is  a  water-demon,  with  a 
dog's  head  and  an  alligator's  mouth,  who  sucks  blood  from 
men's  thumbs  and  great  toes,  and  they  die.^  It  is  in  Sla- 
vonia  and  Hungary  that  the  demon  blood-suckers  have  their 
principal  abode,  and  to  this  district  belongs  their  special 
name  of  vampire,  Polish  upior,  Bussian  upir.  There  is  a 
whole  literature  of  hideous  vampire-stories,  which  the  stu- 
dent will  find  elaborately  discussed  in  Calmet.  The  shortest 
way  of  treating  the  belief  is  to  refer  it  directly  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  savage  animism.  We  shall  see  that  most  of  its 
details  fall  into  their  places  at  once,  and  that  vampires  are 
not  mere  creations  of  groimdless  fancy,  but  causes  conceived 
in  spiritual  form  to  account  for  specific  facts  of  wasting 
disease.  As  to  their  nature  and  physical  action,  there  are 
two  principal  theories,  but  both  keep  close  to  the  original 
animistic  idea  of  spiritual  beings,  and  consider  these  demons 
to  be  human  souls.  The  first  theory  is  that  the  soul  of  a 
living  man,  often  a  sorcerer,  leaves  its  proper  body  asleep 
and  goes  forth,  perhaps  in  the  visible  form  of  a  straw  or 
fluff  of  down,  slips  through  keyholes  and  attacks  its  sleep- 
ing victim.  If  the  sleeper  should  wake  in  time. to  clutch 
this  tiny  soul-embodiment,  he  may  through  it  have  his 
revenge  by  maltreating  or  destroying  its  bodily  owner. 
Some  say  these  **mury"  come  by  night  to  men,  sit  upon 
their  breasts  and  suck  their  blood,  while  others  think  it  is 
only  children's  blood  they  suck,  they  being  to  grown  people 
mere  nightmares.  Here  we  have  the  actual  phenomenon 
of  nightmare,  adapted  to  a  particular  purpose.     The  second 

^  J«  R.  Forster,  '  Observations  duiisg  Voyago  xotmd  World,*  p.  548. 

'  Cross,  '  Karens,'  1.  c.  p.  812. 

•  '  Joum.  Ind.  Archip.*  vol.  i.  p.  807. 


ANIMISM.  19 


o 


theory  is  that  the  soul  of  a  dead  man  goes  out  frcfm  its 
buried  corpse   and  sucks  the  blood  of  living  men.      The 
yiotim  becomes  thin^  languid,  and  bloodless,  falls   into  a 
rapid  decline  and  dies.     Here  again  is  actual  experience, 
but  a  new  fancy  is  developed  to  complete  the  idea.     The 
corpse  thus  supplied  by  its  returning  soul  with  blood,  is 
imagined  to  remain  unnaturally  fresh  and  supple  and  ruddy ; 
and  accordingly  the   means   of  detecting  a  vampire  is   to 
open  his  grave,  where  the  re-animated  corpse  may  be  found 
to  bleed  when  cut,  and  even  to  move  and  shriek.       One 
way  to  lay  a  vampire  is  to  stake  down  the  corpse  (as  with 
suicides  and  with  the  same  intention) ;  but  the  more  effec- 
tual plan  is  to  behead  and  bum  it.     This  is  the  substance 
of  the  doctrine  of  vampires.     StiU,  as  one  order  of  demon? 
is  apt  to  blend  into  others,  the  vampire-legends  are  much 
mixed  with  other  animistic  folk-lore.     Vampires  appear  in 
the  character  of  the    poltergeist  or  knocker,    as    causing 
those  disturbances  in  houses   which  modem    spiritualism 
refers  in  like  manner  to  souls  of  the  departed.     Such  was 
the  ghost  of  a  certain  surly  peasant  who  came  out  of  his 
grave  in  the  island  of  Mycone  in  1700,  after  he  had  been 
buried  but  two  days ;  he  came  into  the  houses,  upset  the 
furniture,  put  the  lamps  out,  and  carried  on  his  tricks  till 
the  whole  population  went  wild  with  terror.      Toumefort 
happened  to  be  there  and  was  present  at  the  exhumation  ; 
his  account  is  curious  evidence  of  the  way  an  excited  mob 
could  persuade  themselves,  without  the  least   foundation 
of  fact,  that  the  body  was  warm  and  its  blood  red.     Again, 
the    blood-sucker  is    very  generally  described   imder  the 
Slavonic  names  of  werewolf  (wilkodlak,  brukolaka,  &c.); 
the  descriptions  of  the  two  creatures  are  inextricably  mixed 
up,  and  a  man  whose  eyebrows  meet,  as  if  his  soul  were 
taking  flight  like  a  butterfly,  to  enter  some    other  body, 
may  be  marked  by  this  sign  either  as  a  werewolf  or  a  vam- 
pire.     A  modem  accoimt  of  vampirism  in  Bulgaria  well 
illustrates  the  nature  of  spirits  as  conceived  in  such  beliefs 

as  these.    A  sorcerer  armed  with  a  saint's  picture  will  hunt 
VOL.  n.  o 


1S4  ANIMISM. 

a  yampire  into  a  bottle  containing  some  of  the  filthy  food 
that  the  demon  loves ;  as  soon  as  he  is  fairly  inside  he  is 
corked  down,  the  bottle  is  thrown  into  the  fire,  and  the 
vampire  disappears  for  ever.^ 

As  to  the  savage  visionary  and  the  phantoms  he  beholds, 
the  Greenlander  preparing  for  the  profession  of  sorcerer 
may  stand  as  type,  when,  rapt  in  contemplation  in  his 
desert  solitude,  emaciated  by  fasting  and  disordered  by  fits, 
he  sees  before  him  scenes  with  figures  of  men  and  animals, 
which  he  believes  to  be  spirits.  Thus  it  is  interesting  to 
read  the  descriptions  by  Zulu  converts  of  the  dreadful 
creatures  which  they  see  in  moments  of  intense  religious 
exaltation,  the  snake  with  great  eyes  and  very  fearful,  the 
leopard  creeping  stealthily,  the  enemy  approaching  with  his 
long  assagai  in  his  hand — these  coming  one  after  another 
to  the  place  where  the  man  has  gone  to  pray  in  secret,  and 
striving  to  frighten  him  from  his  knees.*  Thus  the  visionary 
temptations  of  the  Hindu  ascetic  and  the  mediaeval  saint  are 
happening  in  our  own  day,  though  their  place  is  now  rather 
in  the  medical  handbook  than  in  the  record  of  miracle. 
Like  the  disease- demons  and  the  oracle-demons,  these 
spiritual  groups  have  their  origin  not  in  fancy,  but  in  real 
phenomena  interpreted  on  animistic  principles. 

In  the  dark  especially,  harmful  spirits  swarm.  Bound 
native  Australian  encampments.  Sir  George  Grey  used  to 
see  the  bush  dotted  with  little  moving  points  of  fire  ;  these 
were  the  firesticks  carried  by  the  old  women  sent  to  look 
after  the  young  ones,  but  who  dared  not  quit  the  firelight 
without  a  brand  to  protect  them  from  the  evil  spirits.^  So 
South  American  Indians  would  carry  brands  or  torches  for 
fear  of  evil  demons  when  they  ventured  into  the   dark.* 

^  J.  v.  Grobmann,  '  AberglanbenausBolimen,'  etc.  p.  24;  Calmet,  'Diss, 
sur  les  Esprits,*  vol.  ii.  ;  Grimm,  'D.  M.*  p.  1048,  etc.  ;  St,  Clair  and 
Brophy,  *  Bulgaria,'  p.  49  ;  sec  Ralston,  'Songs  of  Russian  People,'  p.  409. 

'  Cranz,  'Grouland,*  p.  268.     Callaway,  *Rel.  of  Amazulu,'  p.  246,  etc. 

•  Grey,  'Australia,*  vol.  ii.  p.  802.  See  also  Bon  wick,  'Tasmanians,'  p. 
180. 

*  Southey,  'Brazil,'  part  i.  p.  238.     See  also  Rochefort,  p.   418;  J.  G. 


ANIMISM.      '  195 

Tribes  of  the  Malay  Peninsula  light  fires  near  a  mother  at 
childbirth,  to  scare  away  the  evil  spirits.^  Such  notions 
extend  to  higher  levels  of  civilization.  In  Southern  India, 
where  for  fear  of  pervading  spirits  only  pressing  need  will 
induce  a  man  to  go  abroad  after  sundown,  the  unlucky 
wight  who  has  to  venture  into  the  dark  will  carry  a  fire- 
brand to  keep  off  the  spectral  foes.  Even  in  broad  day- 
light, the  Hindu  lights  lamps  to  keep  off  the  demons,'  a 
ceremony  which  is  to  be  noticed  again  at  a  Chinese  wed- 
ding.* In  Europe,  the  details  of  the  use  of  fire  to  drive  off 
demons  and  witches  are  minute  and  explicit.  The  ancient 
Norse  colonists  in  Iceland  canned  fire  round  the  lands  they 
intended  to  occupy,  to  expel  the  evil  spirits.  Such  ideas 
liave  brought  into  existence  a  whole  group  of  Scandinavian 
customs,  still  remembered  in  the  country,  but  dying  out  in 
practice.  Till  a  child  is  baptized,  the  fire  must  never  be 
let  out,  lest  the  trolls  should  be  able  to  steal  the  infant ;  a 
live  coal  must  be  cast  after  the  mother  as  she  goes  to  be 
churched,  to  prevent  the  trolls  from  carrying  her  off  bodil}^ 
or  bewitching  her ;  a  live  coal  is  to  be  thrown  after  a  troll- 
wife  or  witch  as  she  quits  a  house,  and  so  forth.*  Into 
modem  times,  the  people  of  the  Hebrides  continued  to 
protect  the  mother  and  child  from  evil  spirits,  by  carrying 
fire  roimd  them.^  In  modern  Bulgaria,  on  the  Feast  of 
St.  Demetrius,  lighted  candles  are  placed  in  the  stables  and< 
the  wood-shed,  to  prevent  evil  spirits  from  entering  into- 


rrailer,  p.  273  (Carlbs);  Cranz,    'Gronland/  p.   801;  Schoolcraft,   'Indian 
Tribes,*  part  iii.  p.  140. 

*  '  Jonrn.  Ind.  Archip.'  vol.  i.  pp.  270,  298  ;  voL  iL  'iT.  S.'  p.  117. 

'  Roberts,  'Oriental  Illustrations,'  p.  531;  Colebrooke  iu  *As.  Res.'  toI. 
vii.  p.  274. 

*  Boolittle,  'Chinese,'  vol.  i.  p.  77. 

^  Hylten-Cavallius,  'Wiirond  och  "Wirdame,*  vol.  i.  p.  191;  Atkinson, 
•Glossary  of  Cleveland  Dial.*  p.  697.  [Prof.  liebrecht,  in  'Zeitschrift  fur 
Jlthnologie,'  voL  v.  1873,  p.  99,  adds  a  comparison  of  the  still  usual  German 
custom  of  keeping  a  light  burning  in  the  lying-in  room  till  the  child  is 
baptized  (Wuttke,  2nd  ed.  Ko.  583),  and  the  similar  ancient  Roman  practice 
whence  the  goddess  Candelifera  had  her  name  (note  to  2nd  ed. ).} 

*  Martin,  *  Western  Islands,'  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  iii.  p.  612. 

o  2 


196  ANIMISM. 

the  domestic  animals.^  Nor  did  this  ancient  idea  remain 
a  mere  lingering  notion  of  peasant  folklore.  Its  adoption 
by  the  Church  is  obvious  in  the  ceremonial  benediction  of 
candles  in  the  Boman  Bitual :  *'  Ut  quibuscumque  locis 
accensae,  sive  positsB  fuerint,  discedant  principes  tenebra- 
rum,  et  contremiscant,  et  fugiant  pavidi  cum  omnibus 
ministris  suis  ab  habitationibus  illis,  etc."  The  metrical 
translation  of  Naogeorgus  shows  perfectly  the  retention  of 
primitive  animistic  ideas  in  the  middle  ages : — 

'*  •    .    .    .    a  wondrous  force  and  might 
Doth  in  these  candels  lie,  which  if  at  any  time  they  light, 
They  sure  beleve  that  neyther  storm  or  tempest  dare  abido. 
Nor  thnnder  in  the  skies  be  heard,  nor  any  devil's  spide, 
Kor  fearefall  sprightes  that  walke  by  night,  nor  hurts  of  frost 
or  luule.*'  * 

Animals  stare  and  startle  when  we  see  no  cause ;  is  it 
that  they  see  spirits  invisible  to  man  ?  Thus  the  Green - 
lander  says  that  the  seals  and  wildfowl  are  scared  by 
spectres,  which  no  human  eye  but  the  sorcerer's  can  be- 
hold ; '  and  thus  the  Khonds  hold  that  their  flitting 
ethereal  gods,  invisible  to  man,  are  seen  by  beasts.^  Tho 
thought  holds  no  smaU  place  in  the  folklore  of  the  world. 
Telemachos  could  not  discern  Athene  standing  near  him, 
for  not  to  all  do  the  gods  visibly  appear ;  but  Odysseus  sav.- 
her,  and  the  dogs,  and  they  did  not  bark,  but  with  low 
whine  slunk  across  the  dwelling  to  the  further  side.^  So 
in  old  Scandinavia,  the  dogs  could  see  Hela  the  death- 
goddess  move  unseen  by  men ;  *  so  Jew  and  Moslem, 
hearing  the  dogs  howl,  know  that  they  have  seen  the 
Angel  of  Death  come  on  his   awful  errand ;  ^  while  the 

^  St.  Clair  and  Brophj,  '  Bulgaria,'  p.  44. 

^  Ritoale  Romanuni ;  Benedictio  Candelarum.    Brand,  '  Popular  Antiqui- 
ties,'vol.  i,  p.  46. 

*  Cranz,  *  Gronland,'  p.  267,  see  296. 

*  Macpherson,  '  India,*  p  100. 
^  Homer.  Odysa.  xyL  160. 

*  Grimm,  *D.  M.' p.  632. 

7  Eisenmenger,  'Judenthum,'  part  i.  p.  872.    Lane,  '  Thousand  and  One 
Nights,'  vol.  ii  p.  56. 


ANIMISM.  197 

beliefs  that  animals  see  spirits,  and  that  a  dog's  melancholy 
howl  means  death  somewhere  near,  are  stUl  familiar  to  our 
own  popular  superstition. 

Another  means  by  which  men  may  detect  the  presence  of 
invisible  spirits,  is  to  adopt  the  thief-catcher's  well-known 
device  of  strewing  ashes.  According  to  the  ideas  of  a  cer- 
tain stage  of  animism,  a  spirit  is  considered  substantial 
enough  to  leave  a  footprint.  The  following  instances  relate 
sometimes  to  souls,  sometimes  to  other  beings.  The  Philip- 
pine islanders  expected  the  dead  to  return  on  the  third  day 
to  his  dwelling,  wherefore  they  set  a  vessel  of  water  for  him 
to  wash  himself  clean  from  the  grave-mould,  and  strewed 
ashes  to  see  footprints.^  A  more  elaborate  rite  forms  part 
of  the  funeral  customs  of  the  Hos  of  North-East  India. 
On  the  evening  of  a  death,  the  near  relatives  perform  the 
ceremony  of  calling  the  dead.  Boiled  rice  and  a  pot  of 
water  are  placed  in  an  inner  room,  and  ashes  sprinkled 
from  thence  to  the  threshold.  Two  relatives  go  to  the 
place  where  the  body  was  burnt,  and  walk  roxmd  it  beating 
ploughshares  and  chanting  a  plaintive  dirge  to  call  the  spirit 
home;  while  two  others  watch  the  rice  and  water  to  see 
if  they  are  disturbed,  and  look  for  the  spirit-footsteps  in 
the  ashes.  If  a  sign  appears,  it  is  received  with  shivering 
horror  and  weeping,  the  mourners  outside  coming  in  to 
join.  Till  the  survivors  are  thus  satisfied  of  the  spirit's 
return,  the  rite  must  be  repeated.'  In  Yucatan  there  is 
mention  of  the  custom  of  leaving  a  child  alone  at  night  in  a 
place  strewn  with  ashes ;  if  the  footprint  of  an  animal  were 
found  next  morning,  this  animal  was  the  guardian  deity  of 
the  chUd.'  Beside  this  may  be  placed  the  Aztec  ceremony 
at  the  second  festival  of  the  Sun-god  Tezcatlipoca,  when 
they  sprinkled  maize-flour  before  his  sanctuary,  and  his 

^  Bastiao,  'Psychologie/ p.  162.  Other  localities  in  'Joam.  Ind.  Archip.' 
Tol.  iv.  p.  388. 

2  TickeU  in  *  Joura.  Aa.  Soc.  Bengal,'  vol.  ix,  p.  795.  The  dirge  ia  givea 
above,  p.  82. 

'  De  Brosaea,  '  Dieux  Fetiches, '  p.  46. 


1 98  ANIMISM. 

high-priest  watched  till  he  beheld  the  divine  footprintSy 
and  then  shouted  to  announce,  ''  Our  gi*eat  god  is  come."  ^ 
Among  such  rites  in  the  Old  World,  the  Talmud  contains 
a  salient  instance  ;  there  are  a  great  multitude  of  devils,  it 
is  said ;  and  he  who  will  be  awai*e  of  tliem  let  him  take 
sifted  ashes  and  strew  them  by  his  bed,  and  in  the  earl}- 
morning  he  shall  see  as  it  were  marks  of  cocks'  feet.~ 
This  is  an  idea  that  has  widely  spread  in  the  modem 
world,  as  where  in  German  folklore  the  little  "  earth- 
men  "  make  footprints  like  a  duck's  or  goose's  in  the 
strewn  ashes.  Other  marks,  too,  betoken  the  passage  of 
spirit-visitors  ;  *  and  as  for  ghosts,  our  own  superstition  is 
among  the  most  striking  of  the  series.  On  St.  Mark's 
Eve,  ashes  ai^e  to  be  sifted  over  the  hearth,  and  the  foot- 
print will  be  seen  of  any  one  who  is  to  die  within  the  year ; 
many  a  mischievous  wight  has  made  a  superstitious  family 
miserable  by  slily  coming  down  stairs  and  marking  the 
print  of  some  one's  shoe.*  Such  details  as  these  maj^ 
justify  us  in  thinking  that  the  lower  races  are  apt  to  ascribe 
to  spirits  in  general  that  kind  of  ethereal  materiality  which 
we  have  seen  they  attribute  to  souls.  Explicit  statements 
on  the  subject  are  scarce  till  we  reach  the  level  of  early 
Christian  theology.  The  ideas  of  Tertullian  and  Origen, 
as  to  tlie  thin  yet  not  immaterial  substance  of  angels  and 
demons,  probably  represent  the  conceptions  of  piimitive 
animism  far  more  clearly  than  the  doctrine  which  Calmet 
lays  down  with  the  weight  of  theological  dogma,  that 
angels,  demons,  and  disembodied  souls  are  pure  im- 
material spirit;  but  that  when  spirits  appear,  act,  speak, 
walk,  eat,  and  so  forth,  they  must  produce  tangible 
bodies    by    either    condensing    the    air,    or    substituting 

*  ClavigerOy  *  Messico/  vol.  ii.  p.  79. 
'  Tractat  Berachoth. 

»  Grimm,  'D.  M.*  pp.  420,  1117;  St  Clair  and  BropLy,  'Bulgaria/ 
p.  54.  See  also  Bastian,  'MenscL'  roL  ii.  p.  325  ;  Tschudi,  'Peru,*  yoL  ii. 
p.  855. 

*  Brand,  'Popular  Antiquities/  vol.  i.  \\  103.  See  Boeclor,  'Ehstcn 
Abergl.*  p.  78. 


ANJMISK.  199 

other  terrestrial  solid  bodies  capable  of  performing  these 
functions.^ 

No  wonder  that  men  should  attack  such  material  beings 
by  material  means,  and  even  sometimes  try  to  rid  them- 
selves by  a  general  clearance  from  the  legion  of  ethereal 
beings  hovering  around  them.  As  the  Australians  annually 
drive  from  their  midst  the  accumulated  ghosts  of  the  last 
year's  dead,  so  the  Gold  Coast  negroes  from  time  to  time 
turn  out  with  clubs  and  torches  to  drive  the  evil  spirits 
from  their  towns ;  rushing  about  and  beating  the  air  with 
frantic  howling,  they  drive  the  demons  into  the  woods,  and 
then  come  home  and  sleep  more  easily,  and  for  a  while 
afterwards  enjoy  better  health.^  When  a  baby  was  bom  in 
a  Kalmuk  horde,  the  neighbours  would  rush  about  crjring 
and  brandishing  cudgels  about  the  tents,  to  drive  off  the 
harmful  spirits  who  might  hurt  mother  and  child.^  Keep* 
ing  up  a  closely  allied  idea  in  modem  Europe,  the  Bohe- 
mians at  Pentecost,  and  the  Tyrolese  on  Walpurgisnacht^ 
hunt  the  witches,  invisible  and  imaginary,  out  of  house  and 
stall.* 

Closely  allied  to  the  doctrine  of  souls,  and  almost  rival- 
ling it  in  the  permanence  with  which  it  has  held  its  place 
through  all  the  grades  of  animism,  is  the  doctrine  of  patron, 
guardian,  or  familiar  spirits.  These  are  beings  specially 
attached  to  individual  men,  soul-like  in  their  nature,  and 
-sometimes  considered  as  actually  being  human  souls. 
These  beings  have,  like  all  others  of  the  spiritual  world  as 
originally  conceived,  their  reason  and  purpose.  The 
special  functions  which  they  perform  are  twofold.  First, 
while  man's  own  proper  soul  serves  him  for  the  ordinary 
purposes  of  life  and  thought,  there  are  times  when  powers 

>  Tertullian.  Do  Camo  Christi,  vi. ;  Adv.  Marcion.  iL  ;  Origcn.  De  Princip. 
i.  7.     See  Horst,  1.  c.     Calmet,  *  Dissertation/  vol.  i.  ch.  xlvi. 

*  J.  L.  Wilson,  '  W.  Afr/  p.  217.     See  Bosman,   'Guinea,'  in  Pinkerton, 
vol.  xvi.  p.  402. 

<  Pallas,  'Reisen/  voL  L  p.  360. 

*  Grimm,  'D.  M.'  p.  1212;   Wuttke,    *  Volkaabcrglaube,*  p.   119;  seo 
HylUn-Cavallios,  part  L  p.  178  (Sweden). 


200  ANIMISM. 

and  impressions  out  of  the  coui*se  of  the  mind's  noimal 
action^  and  words  that  seem  spoken  to  him  by  a  voice  from 
without,  messages  of  mysterious  knowledge,  of  counsel  or 
warning,  seem  to  indicate  the  intervention  of  as  it  were  a 
second  superior  soul,  a  familiar  demon.  And  as  enthu- 
siasts, seers,  sorcerers,  are  the  men  whose  minds  most 
often  show  such  conditions,  so  to  these  classes  more  than 
to  others  the  informing  and  controlling  patron-spirits  are 
attached.  Second,  while  the  common  expected  events  of 
daily  life  pass  unnoticed  as  in  the  regular  course  of  things,, 
such  events  as  seem  to  fall  out  with  especial  reference  to 
an  individual,  demand  an  intervening  agent ;  and  thus  the 
decisions,  discoveries,  and  deliverances,  which  civilized 
men  variously  ascribe  to  their  own  judgment,  to  luck,  and 
to  special  interposition  of  Providence,  are  accounted  for  in 
the  lower  culture  by  the  action  of  the  patron-spirit  or 
guardian-genius.  Not  to  crowd  examples  from  all  the  dis- 
tricts of  animism  to  which  this  doctrine  belongs,  let  us 
follow  it  by  a  few  illustrations  from  the  lower  grades  of 
savagery  upward.  Among  the  Watchandis  of  Australia,  it 
is  held  that  when  a  warrior  slays  his  first  man,  the  spirit  of 
the  dead  enters  the  slayer's  body  and  becomes  his  **  woo- 
rie"  or  warning  spirit ;  taking  up  its  abode  near  his  liver, 
it  informs  him  by  a  scratching  or  tickling  sensation  of  the 
approach  of  danger.^  In  Tasmania,  a  native  has  been 
heard  to  ascribe  his  deliverance  to  the  preserving  care  of 
his  deceased  father's  spirit,  now  become  his  guardian 
angel.*  That  the  most  important  act  of  the  North 
American  Indian's  religion  is  to  obtain  his  individual 
patron  genius  or  deity,  is  well  known.  Among  the  Esqui- 
maux, the  sorcerer  qualifies  for  his  profession  by  getting  a 
'' tomgak"  or  spirit  which  will  henceforth  be  his  familiar 
demon,  and  this  spirit  may  be  the  soul  of  a  deceased 
parent.'    In  Chili,  as  to  guardian  spirits,  it  has  been  re* 

»  Oldfield,  '  Abor.  of  Australia,'  in  *  Tr.  Eth.  Soc.'  ToL  iii  p.  240. 

'  Bonwick,  'Tasmanians^'p.  182. 

»  Craiiz,  *Gr9nland,'  p.  268 ;  Egede,  p.  187. 


ANIMISM.  201 

marked  that  every  Arancanian  imagines  he  has  one  in 
his  service  ;  "  I  keep  my  amchi-malghen  (guardian  nymph) 
still,"  being  a  common  expression  when  they  succeed  in 
any  undertaking.^  The  Caribs  display  the  doctrine  well  in 
both  its  general  and  special  forms.  On  the  one  hand,  there 
is  a  guardian  deity  for  each  man,  which  accompanies  his 
soul  to  the  next  life ;  on  the  other  hand,  each  sorcerer  haa 
his  familiar  demon,  which  he  evokes  in  mysterious  dark- 
ness by  chants  and  tobacco-smoke  ;  and  when  several 
sorcerers  call  up  their  familiars  together,  the  consequence 
is  apt  to  be  a  quarrel  among  the  demons,  and  a  fight.'  In 
Africa,  the  negro  has  his  guardian  spirit — ^how  far  identified 
with  what  Europeans  call  soul  or  conscience,  it  may  be 
hard  to  determine ;  but  he  certainly  looks  upon  it  as  a 
being  separate  firom  himself,  for  he  summons  it  by  sorcery, 
builds  a  little  fetish-hut  for  it  by  the  wayside,  rewards  and 
propitiates  it  by  libations  of  liquor  and  bits  of  food.^  In 
Asia,  the  Mongols,  each  with  his  patron  genius,^  and  the 
Laos  sorcerers  who  can  send  their  familiar  spirits  into 
others'  bodies  to  cause  disease,^  are  examples  equally  to  the 
purpose. 

Among  the  Aryan  nations  of  Northern  Europe,*  the  old 
doctrine  of  man's  guardian  spirit  may  be  traced,  and  in 
classic  Greece  and  Home  it  renews  with  philosophic  elo» 

quence  and  cultured  custom  the  ideas  of  the  Australian 

•  * 

and  the  African.  The  thought  of  the  spiritual  guide  and 
protector  of  the  individual  man  is  happily  defined  by 
Menander,  who  calls  the  attendant  genius,  which  each  man 
has  from  the  hour  of  birth,  the  good  mystagogue  (i.e.,  the 
novice's  guide  to  the  mysteries)  of  this  life. 

»  Molina*  'Chili,*  yoI.  ii.  p.  86. 

»  Rochefort,  'lies  AntiUes/  p.  418  ;  J.  G.  Mttller,   '  Amcr.  UrreL'  p.  171, 
217. 

»  Waitz,  vol.  ii.  p.  182 ;  J.  L.  Wilson,   *  W.  Afr.'  p.  387;  Steinhauser,  1.  c. 
p.  134.     Compare  Callaway,  p.  827,  etc. 

•  Bastian,  '  Psychologie,'  p.  75. 

•  Bastian,-  'OestL  Asien,'  vol.  iii  p.  275. 

•  Grimm,  'D.  M.'p.  829;  Rochholz,  'DeDt8cher[Glaiibe,'  part  i.  p.  92; 
Hanusch,  '  Slaw.  Mytiius,*  p.  247. 


202  ANIMISM. 

^'^Avorri  9aifi»v  &y$p2  ovfurapUrraTeu 
EbOht  ywofiirtjf  fiwrraywyhi  rov  filov. 
*AyaB6v  K€uehp  yhp  tiaifiov*  oh  fOfutrrdov 
Eh^tu  rh¥  0lof  fiXdrrorra  xp^^'r^v.     IlcCrra  7^^ 
Ac?  iryaS^if  cTyoi  rhy  Btdy,** 

Ingrained  in  the  Platonic  system,  the  doctrine  has  its 
salient  example  in  the  warning  spirit  which  Sokrates  felt 
within  him  dissuading  from  wrong.^  In  the  Eoman  world, 
the  doctrine  came  to  be  accepted  as  a  philosophy  of  human 
life.  Each  man  had  his  "  genius  natalis/'  associated  with 
him  from  birth  to  death,  influencing  his  action  and  liis  fate, 
standing  represented  by  its  proper  image  as  a  lar  among 
the  household  gods ;  and  at  weddings  and  joyous  times, 
and  especially  on  the  anniversary  of  the  birthday  when 
genius  and  man  bega^n  their  united  career,  worship  was 
paid  with  song  and  dance  to  the  divine  image,  adorned  with 
garlands,  and  propitiated  with  incense  and  libations  of 
wine.  The  demon  or  genius  was,  as  it  were,  the  man's 
<)ompanion  soul,  a  second  spiritual  ego.  The  Egyptian 
iLstrologer  warned  Antonius  to  keep  far  from  the  young 
Octavius,  "  for  thy  demon,"  said  he,  "  is  in  fear  of  his ;  " 
and  truly  in  after  years  that  genius  of  Augustus  had  be- 
come an  imperial  deity,  by  whom  Romans  swore  solemn 
oaths,  not  to  be  broken.*  The  doctrine  which  could  thus 
personify  the  character  and  fate  of  the  individual  man, 
proved  capable  of  a  j^et  further  development  Converting 
into  animistic  entities  the  inmost  operations  of  the  human 
mind,  a  dualistic  philosophy  conceived  as  attached  to  every 
mortal  a  good  and  an  evil  genius,  whose  efiforts  through  life 
drew  him  backwai*d  and  forward  toward  virtue  and  vice, 
happiness  and  misery.     It  was  the  kakodaemon  of  Brutus 

^  Menander,  205,  ap.  Clement.  Stromat.  v.  Xenophon,  Memorab.  See 
Plotin.  £imead.  ill  4 ;  Porphyr.  Plotin. 

'  Pauliis  DiacoDus  :  *' (Senium  appellant  Denm,  qui  vim  obtineret  rertim 
omniom  generandarwn,**  Censorin.  de  Die  Natali,  8  :  "Enndem  esse  geninm 
«t  larem,  miilti  veteres  memorisB  prodiderant.*'  TibulL  Eleg.  i.  2,  7  ;  Ovid, 
Trist  iii.  18,  18,  v.  5,  10 ;  Horat.  Epiat  ii.  1,  140,  Od.  iv.  11,  7.  Appian. 
4le  Bellis  Parth.  p.  156.    Tertullian.  Apol.  xxiii. 


ANIMISM.  203 

-which  appeared  to  him  by  night  in  his  tent:  ''I  am  thy 
evil  genius/'  it  said,  "  we  meet  again  at  Philippi."  ^ 

As  we  study  the  shapes  which  the  attendant  spirits  of  the 
individual  man  assumed  in  early  and  mediaeval  Christendom, 
it  is  plain  that  the  good  and  evil  angels  contending  for  man 
from  birth  to  death,  the  guardian  angel  watching  and  pro- 
tecting him,  the  familiar  spirit  giving  occult  knowledge  or 
serving  with  magic  art,  continue  in  principle,  and  even  in 
detail,  the  philosophy  of  earlier  culture.  Such  beings  even 
take  visible  form.  St.  Frances  had  a  familiar  angel,  not 
merely  that  domestic  one  that  is  given  as  a  guardian  to 
every  man,  but  this  was  as  it  were  a  boy  of  nine  years  old, 
with  a  face  more  splendid  than  the  sun,  clad  in  a  little 
white  tunic  ;  it  was  in  after  years  that  there  came  to  her  a 
second  angel,  with  a  column  of  splendom*  rising  to  the  sky, 
and  three  golden  palm-branches  in  his  hands.  Or  such 
attendant  beings,  though  invisible,  make  their  presence 
evident  by  their  actions,  as  in  Calmet's.  account  of  that 
Cistercian  monk  whose  familiar  genius  waited  on  him,  and 
used  to  get  his  chamber  ready  when  he  was  coming  back 
from  the  country,  so  that  people  knew  when  to  expect  him 
home.^  There  is  a  pleasant  quaintness  in  Luther's  remark 
concerning  guardian  angels,  that  a  prince  must  have  a 
greater,  stronger,  vdser  angel  than  a  count,  and  a  count 
than  a  common  man.^  Bishop  Bull,  in  one  of  his  vigorous 
sermons,  thus  sums  up  a  learned  argument :  ''I  cannot  but 
judge  it  highly  probable,  that  every  faithful  person  at  least 
hath  his  particular  good  Genius  or  Angel,  appointed  by  God 
over  him,  as  the  Guardian  and  Guide  of  his  Life."     But  he 


'  Serv.  in  Yirg.  Mn,  ri.  743  :  ''Cum  nascinmr,  daoBgeniossortimur  :  unus 
hoitatnr  ad  bona,  alter  depravat  ad  mala,  quibus  assistentiboB  post  mortem 
ant  asserimur  in  meliorem  vitam,  ant  condemnamur  in  deteriorem."  Horat. 
Epist.  it  187  ;  Yaler.  Max.  i.  7 ;  Plutarch.  Brutus.  See  Pauly,  '  Boal- 
Encydop. ;'  Smith's  'Die.  of  Biog.  &  Myth.*  s.  v.  'genius.' 

'  Acta  Sanctorum  Bolland :  S.  Francisca  Romana  iz.  Mart  Calmet, 
^  DisaertatioD,'  ch.  iv.  xxz. ;  Bastian,  'Mensch,'  vol.  IL  pp.  140,  347,  voL  iL 
p.  10 ;  Wright,  '  St.  Patrick's  Purgatory,'  p.  88. 

*  Bochholz,  p.  98. 


204  ANIMISM. 

will  not  insist  on  the  belief,  provided  that  the  general 
ministry  of  angels  be  accepted.^  Swedenborg  will  go  beyond 
this.  ''Every  man/'  he  says,  '^is  attended  by  an  associate 
spirit ;  for  without  such  an  associate,  a  man  would  be  inca- 
pable of  thinking  analytically,  rationally,  and  spiritually.*' ' 
Yet  in  the  modem  educated  world  at  large,  this  group  of 
beliefs  has  passed  into  the  stage  of  survival.  The  concep- 
tion of  the  good  and  evil  genius  contending  for  man  through 
life,  indeed,  perhaps  never  had  much  beyond  the  idealistic 
meaning  which  art  and  poetry  still  give  it.  The  traveller 
in  France  may  hear  in  our  own  day  the  peasant's  saluta- 
tion, "  Bonjour  a  vous  et  i  votre  compagnie  !  "  {i.e.,  your 
guardian  angel}.'  But  at  the  birthday  festivals  of  English 
childien,  how  few  are  even  aware  of  the  historical  sequence^ 
plain  as  it  is,  from  the  rites  of  the  classic  natal  genius  and 
the  mediseval  natal  saint!  Among  us,  the  doctrine  of 
guardian  angels  is  to  be  found  in  commentaries,  and  may 
be  sometimes  mentioned  in  the  pulpit ;  but  the  once  dii^tinct 
conception  of  a  present  guardian  spirit,  acting  on  each 
individual  man  and  interfering  with  circumstances  on  his 
behalf,  has  all  but  lost  its  old  reality.  The  familiar  demon 
which  gave  occult  knowledge  and  did  wicked  work  for  the 
magician,  and  sucked  blood  from  miserable  hags  by  witch- 
teats,  was  two  centuries  ago  as  real  to  the  popular  mind  aa 
the  alembic  or  the  black  cat  with  which  it  was  associated. 
Now,  it  has  been  cast  down  to  the  limbo  of  unhallowed 
superstitions. 

To  turn  from  Man  to  Nature.  General  mention  has  been 
made  already  of  the  local  spirits  which  belong  to  mountain 
and  rock  and  valley,  to  well  and  stream  and  lake,  in  brief 
to  those  natural  objects  and  places  which  in  early  ages 
aroused  the  savage  mind  to  mythological  ideas,  such  as 
modem  poets  in  their  altered  intellectual  atmosphere  strive 

'  Bnll,  'SennoDS,*  2nd  Ed.  London,  1714,  voL  il  p.  506. 
*  Swedenborg,   'True  Christian  Religion,'  380.      See  also  A.  J.   DaTis^ 
'  Philosophy  of  Spiritual  Intercourse/  p.  38. 
'  D.  Honnier,  'Traditions  Populaires,'  p.  7. 


ANIMISM.  205 

to  reproduce.     In  discussing  these  imaginary  beings,  it  is 
above  all  things  needful  to  bring  our  minds  into  s}'mpathy 
with  the  lower  philosophy.     Here  we  must  seek  to  realize 
to  the  utmost  the  definition  of  the  Nature- Spirits,  to  under- 
stand with  what  distinct  and  full  conviction  savage  philo- 
sophy believes  in  their  reality,  to  discern  how,  as  living 
causes,  they  filled  their  places  and  did  their  daily  work  in 
the  natural  philosophy  of  primaeval  man.     Seeing  how  the 
Iroquois  at  their  festivals  could  thank  the  invisible  aids  or 
good  spirits,  and  with  them  the  trees,  shrubs,  and  plants, 
the  springs  and  streams,  the  fire  and  wind,  the  sun,  moon, 
and  stars — ^in  a  word,  every  object  that  ministered  to  their 
wants — ^we  may  judge  what  real  personality  they  attached 
to  the  myriad  spirits  which  gave  animated  life  to  the  world 
around  them.*    The  Gold  Coast  negro's  generic  name  for 
a  fetish-spirit  is  ^'wong;"   these  aerial  beings  dwell  in 
temple-huts  and  consume  sacrifices,  enter  into  and  inspire 
their  priests,  cause  health  and  sickness  among  men,  and 
execute  the  behests  of  the  mighty  Heaven-god.     But  part 
or  all  of  them  are  connected  with  material  objects,  and  the 
negro  can  say,  "  In  this  river,  or  tree,  or  amulet,  there  is  a 
wong."    But  he  more  usually  says,  "  This  river,  or  tree, 
or  amulet  is  a  wong."      Thus  among  the  wongs  of  the 
land  are  rivers,  lakes,  and  springs,  districts  of  land,  termite- 
hills,  trees,  crocodiles,  apes,  snakes,  birds,  and  so  on.^    In 
a  word,  his  conceptions  of  animating  souls  and  presiding 
spirits  as  efficient  causes  of  all  nature  are  two  groups  of 
ideas  which  we  may  well  find  it  hard  to  distinguish,  for  the 
sufficient  reason  that  they  are  but  vaiying  developments  of 
the  same  fundamental  animism. 

In  the  doctrine  of  nature-spirits  among  nations  which 
have  reached  a  higher  grade  of  culture,  we  find  at  once 
traces  of  such  primitive  thought,  and  of  its  change  under 

^  L.  H.  Morgan,  'Iroquois/  p.  64.  Brebenf  in  'Rel.  des  Jes.'  16S6,  p. 
107.    See  Schoolcraft,  •  Tribes,'  voL  iii.  p.  887. 

'  Steinliaiiser,  '  Religion  des  Negers,'  in  '  Magazin  der  Evang.  Missionen/ 
Basel,  1856;  No.  2,  jf.  127,  etc. 


206  ANIMISM. 

* 

new  intellectual  conditions.  Knowing  the  thoughts  of  rude^ 
Turanian  tribes  of  Siberia  as  to  pervading  spirits  of  nature, 
we  are  prepared  to  look  for  re-modelled  ideas  of  the  same 
class  among  a  nation  whose  religion  shows  plain  traces  of 
evolution  from  the  low  Turanian  stage.  The  archaic  sys- 
tem of  manes-worship  and  nature-worship,  which  survives 
as  the  state  religion  of  China,  fully  recognizes  the  worship 
of  the  numberless  spirits  which  pervade  the  universe.  The- 
belief  in  their  personality  is  vouched  for  by  the  sacrifices^ 
offered  to  them.  "  One  must  sacrifice  to  the  spirits/*  saya 
Confucius,  "  as  though  they  were  present  at  the  sacrifice.'^ 
At  the  same  time,  spirits  were  conceived  as  embodied  in 
material  objects.  Confucius  says,  again :  **  The  action  of 
the  spirits,  how  perfect  is  it !  Thou  perceivest  it,  and 
yet  seest  it  not !  Incorporated  or  immembered  in  things, 
they  cannot  quit  them.  They  cause  men,  clean  and  pure 
and  better  clothed,  to  bring  them  sacrifice.  Many,  many, 
are  there  of  them,  as  the  broad  sea,  as  though  they  were 
above  and  right  and  left."  Here  are  traces  of  such  a  primi- 
tive doctrine  of  personal  and  embodied  nature-spirits,  as  i& 
still  at  home  in  the  religion  of  rude  Siberian  hordes.  But 
it  was  natural  that  Chinese  philosophers  should  find  means 
of  refining  into  mere  ideality  these  ruder  animistic  crea- 
tions. Spirit  (shin),  they  tell  us,  is  the  fine  or  tender  part 
in  all  the  ten  thousand  things ;  all  that  is  extraordinary  or 
supernatural  is  called  spirit ;  the  unsearchable  of  the  male 
and  female  principles  is  called  spirit ;  he  who  knows  the 
way  of  passing  away  and  coming  to  be,  he  knows  the  work- 
ing of  spirit.^ 

The  classic  Greeks  had  inherited  from  their  barbaric  an- 
cestors a  doctrine  of  the  universe  essentially  similar  to  that 
of  the  North  American  Indian,  the  West  African,  and  the 
Siberian.  We  know,  more  intimately  than  the  heathen 
religion  of  our  own  land,  the  ancient  Greek  scheme  of 
nature-spirits  impelling  and  directing  by  their  personal 
power  and  will  the  functions  of  the  universe ;  the  ancient 

*  Plath,  '  Keligion  der  Altcn  Chinesen,'  part  i.  p.  44. 


ANIMISM.  207 

Greek  religion  of  nature,  developed  by  imagination,  adorned 
by  poetry,  and  consecrated  by  faith.  History  records  for 
our  instruction,  how  out  of  the  midst  of  this  splendid  and 
honoured  creed  there  were  evolved  the  germs  of  the  new 
philosophy.  Led  by  minuter  insight  and  stricter  reason, 
thoughtful  Greeks  began  the  piecemeal  supersession  of  the 
archaic  scheme,  and  set  in  n^ovement  the  transformation  of 
animistic  into  physical  science,  which  thence  pervaded  the 
whole  cultured  world.  Such,  in  brief,  is  the  history  of 
the  doctrine  of  nature-spirits  from  first  to  last.  Let  us 
endeavour,  by  classifying  some  of  its  principal  special 
groups,  to  understand  its  place  in  the  history  of  the  human 
intellect. 

What  causes  volcanos?  The  Australians  account  for 
volcanic  rocks  by  the  tradition  that  the  sulky  undergroxmd 
"  ingna"  or  demons  made  great  fires  and  threw  up  red-hot 
stones.^  The  Kamchadals  say  that  just  as  they  themselves 
warm  up  their  winter-houses,  so  the  "  kamuli  *'  or  moun- 
tain-spirits heat  up  the  moxmtains  in  which  they  dwell,  and 
fling  the  brands  out  of  the  chimney.*  The  Nicaraguans 
ofifered  human  sacrifices  to  Masaya  or  Popogatepec  (Smok- 
ing-Mountain),  by  throwing  the  bodies  into  the  crater. 
It  seems  as  though  it  were  a  controlling  deity,  not  the 
mountain  itself,  that  they  worshipped ;  for  we  read  of  the 
chiefs  going  to  the  crater,  whence  a  hideous  old  naked 
woman  came  out  and  gave  them  counsel  and  oracle ;  at  the 
edge  were  placed  earthen  vessels  of  food  to  please  her,  or 
to  appease  her  when  there  was  a  storm  or  earthquake.^ 
Thus  animism  provided  a  theory  of  volcanos,  and  so  it  was 
likewise  with  whirlpools  and  rocks.  In  the  Vei  country  in 
West  Africa,  there  is  a  dangerous  rock  on  the  Mafa  river, 
which  is  never  passed  without  offering  a  tribute  to  the 
spirit  of  the  flood — ^a  leaf  of  tobacco,  a  handful  of  rice,  or 

>  Oldfield,  *  Abor.  of  Austr.*  in  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc.*  voL  iii.  p.  232. 
'  Stellcr,  'Kamtschatka,'  pp.  47,  265. 

'  Ovicdo,  'Nicaragua/  in  Ternaux-Compans,  part  xiv.  pp.  132, 160.  Com- 
pare Catlin,  *  N.  A.  Ind.'  vol.  ii.  p.  169. 


208  ANIMISM. 

a  drink  of  rum.  An  early  missionary  account  of  a  rock- 
demon  worshipped  by  the  Huron  Indians  will  show  with 
what  absolute  personality  savages  can  conceive  such  a  being. 
In  the  hollow  of  a  certain  sacred  rock,  it  is  related,  dwells 
an  "  oki "  or  spirit  who  can  give  success  to  travellers, 
wherefore  they  put  tobacco  into  one  of  the  cracks,  and  pray 
thus  :  "  Demon  who  dwellest  in  this  place,  behold  tobacco 
I  present  to  thee ;  help  us,  keep  us  from  shipwreck,  defend 
us  against  our  enemies,  and  vouchsafe  that  when  we  have 
made  a  good  trade,  we  may  return  safe  and  sound  to  our 
village."  Father  Marquette  relates  how,  travelling  on  a 
river  in  the  then  little  known  region  of  Western  America, 
he  was  told  of  a  dreadful  place  to  which  the  canoe  was  just 
drawing  near,  where  dwells  a  demon  waiting  to  devour  such 
as  dare  to  approach ;  this  terrific  manitu  proved  on  arrival 
to  be  some  high  rocks  in  the  bend  of  the  river,  against 
which  the  current  runs  violently.*  Thus  the  missionary 
found  in  living  belief  among  the  savage  Indians  the  very 
thought  which  had  so  long  before  passed  into  the  classic 
tale  of  Skylla  and  Charybdis. 

In  those  moments  of  the  civilized  man's  life  when  he 
casts  off  hard  dull  science,  and  returns  to  childhood's 
fancy,  the  world-old  book  of  animated  nature  is  open  to 
him  anew.  Then  the  well- worn  thoughts  come  back  fresh 
to  him,  of  the  stream's  life  that  is  so  like  his  own ;  once 
more  he  can  see  the  rill  leap  down  the  hillside  like  a  child, 
to  wander  playing  among  the  flowers ;  or  can  follow  it  as, 
grown  to  a  river,  it  rushes  through  a  mountain  gorge, 
henceforth  in  sluggish  strength  to  carry  heavy  burdens 
across  the  plain.  In  all  that  water  does,  the  poet's  fancy 
can  discern  its  personality  of  life.  It  gives  fish  to  the 
fisher,  and  crops  to  the  husbandman;  it  swells  in  fury 
and  lays  waste  the  land;    it  grips  the  bather  with  chill 

»  Creswick,  'VeySj'in'Tr.  Eth.  Soc.'  vol.  vi.  p.  859.  See  Du  Cbailla, 
'Ashango-land/p.  106. 

»  Brebenf  in  '  Rel.  dee  Jea.*  1686,  p.  108.  Long's  Exp.  vol.  i.  p.  46.  See 
lioskiel,  *  Indians  of  N.  A.'  part  i.  p.  45. 


ANIMISM.  203 

and  cramp,  and  holds  with  inexorable  grasp  its  drowning 
victim  :* 

"  Tweed  said  to  TiU, 

*  What  gars  ye  rin  sae  still  P  * 
Till  said  to  Tweed, 

*  Though  ye  rin  wi'  speed, 
And  I  rin  slaw, 

Yet,  where  ye  drown  ae  man, 
I  drown  twa.'  '* 

What  ethnography  has  to  teach  of  that  great  element  of 
the  religion  of  mankind,  the  worship  of  well  and  lake, 
brook  and  river,  is  simply  this— that  what  is  poetry  to  us 
was  philosophy  to  early  man ;  that  to  his  mind  water  acted 
not  by  laws  of  force,  but  by  life  and  will ;  that  the  water- 
spirits  of  prim«yal  mythology  are  as  souls  which  cause  the 
water's  rush  and  rest,  its  kindness  and  its  cruelty ;  that 
lastly  man  finds,  in  the  beings  which  with  such  power  can 
work  him  weal  and  woe,  deities  with  a  wider  influence  over 
his  life,  deities  to  be  feared  and  loved,  to  be  prayed  to  and 
praised  and  propitiated  with  sacrificial  gifts. 

In  Australia,  special  water- demons  infest  pools  and 
watering-places.  In  the  native  theory  of  disease  and 
death,  no  j>ersonage  is  more  prominent  than  the  water- 
spirit,  which  afflicts  those  who  go  into  unlawful  pools  or 
bathe  at  unlawful  times,  the  creature  which  causes  women 
to  pine  and  die,  and  whose  very  presence  is  death  to  the 
beholder,  save  to  the  native  doctors,  who  may  visit  the 
water-spirit's  subaqueous  abode  and  return  with  bleared 
eyes  and  wet  clothes  to  tell  the  wonders  of  their  stay.'  It 
would  seem  that  creatures  with  such  attributes  come  natu- 
rally into  the  category  of  spiritual  beings,  but  already 
among  the  rude  natives  of  Australia  and  Van  Diemen's 

^  For  details  of  the  belief  in  water-spirits  as  the  cause  of  drowning,  see 
€nUe,.Yol.  i.  p.  109. 

»  Oldfield  in  *  Tr.  Eth.  Soc.*  yoL  iii.  p.  828  ;  Eyre,  voL  ii.  p.  362 ;  Grey, 
YoL  ii  p.  S89 ;  Bastian,  '  Yorstellungen  von  Wasser  and  Feaer,*  in  'Zeitschrift 
iir  Ethnologie,*  voL  L  (contains  a  general  collection  of  details  as  to  water- 
^iship). 

VOL.    II.  P 


210  ANIMISM. 

Land^  in  such  stories  as  that  of  the  bunyip  which  carries 
off  the  native  women  to  his  retreat  below  the  waters,  there 
appears  that  confusion  between  the  spiritual  water-demon 
and  the  material  water-monster,  which  runs  on  into  the 
midst  of  European  mythology  in  such  conceptions  as  that 
of  the  water-kelpie  and  the  sea-serpent.^  America  gives 
cases  of  other  principal  animistic  ideas  concerning  water. 
The  water  has  its  own  spirits,  writes  Cranz,  among  the 
Greenlanders,  so  when  they  come  to  an  untried  spring,  an 
angekok  or  the  oldest  man  must  drink  first,  to  free  it  from 
a  harmful  spirit.*  "  Who  makes  this  river  flow  ?"  asks  the 
Algonquin  hunter  in  a  medicine-song,  and  his  answer  is, 
"  The  spirit,  he  makes  this  river  flow.**  In  any  great  river, 
or  lake,  or  cascade,  there  dwell  such  spirits,  looked  upon  as 
mighty  manitus.  Thus  Carver  mentions  the  habit  of  the 
Bed  Indians,  when  they  reached  the  shores  of  Lake  Su- 
perior or  the  banks  of  the  Mississippi,  or  any  other  great 
body  of  water,  to  present  to  the  spirit  who  resides  there 
some  kind  of  offering;  this  he  saw  done  by  a  Winnebago 
chief  who  went  with  him  to  the  Falls  of  St.  Anthony. 
Franklin  saw  a  similar  sacrifice  made  by  an  Indian,  whose 
wife  had  been  afflicted  with  sickness  by  the  water-spirits, 
and  who  accordingly  to  appease  them  tied  up  in  a  small 
bundle  a  knife  and  a  piece  of  tobacco  and  some  other 
trifling  articles,  and  committed  them  to  the  rapids.'  On 
the  river-bank,  the  Peruvians  would  scoop  up  a  handful  of 
water  and  drink  it,  praying  the  river-deity  to  let  them  cross 
or  to  give  them  fish,  and  they  threw  maize  into  the  stream 
as  a  propitiatory  offering ;  even  to  this  day  the  Indians  of 
the  Cordilleras  perform  the  ceremonial  sip  before  they  will 
pass  a  river  on  foot  or  horseback.*    Africa  displays  well  the 

>  Compare  Bonwick,  '  Tasmanians,'  p.  20S,  and  Taylor,  *  New  Zealand,'  p. 
48,  with  Forbes  Leslie,  Brand,  &c. 

2  Cranz,  *  Gronland,'  p.  267. 

»  Tanner,  *Karr.'  p.  841  ;  Caryer,  'Travels,'  p.  883;  Franklin,  *  Journey 
to  Polar  Sea,'  vol.  ii.  p.  245 ;  Lubbock,  *  Origin  of  Civilization,*  pp.  213-20 
(contains  details  as  to  water-worship) ;  see  Brinton,  p.  124. 

^  Bivero  and  Tschudi,   '  Fenivian  Ant.*    p.  161  ;    Gareilaso  de  la  Ve^ 


ANIMISM.  211 

rites  of  water-worship.  In  the  East,  among  the  Wanika, 
cveiy  spring  has  its  spirit,  to  which  oblations  are  made ; 
in  the  West,  in  the  Akra  district,  lakes,  ponds,  and  rivers 
received  worship  as  local  deities.  In  the  South,  among  the 
ICafirs,  streams  are  venerated  as  personal  beings,  or  the 
abodes  of  personal  deities,  as  when  a  man  crossing  a  river 
will  ask  leave  of  its  spirit,  or  having  crossed  will  throw  in  a 
stone ;  or  when  the  dwellers  by  a  stream  will  sacrifice  a 
beast  to  it  in  time  of  drought,  or,  warned  by  illness  in  the 
tribe  that  their  river  is  angry,  will  cast  into  it  a  few  hand- 
fuls  of  millet  or  the  entrails  of  a  slaughtered  ox.^  Not 
less  strongly  marked  are  such  ideas  among  the  Tatar  races 
of  the  North.  Thus  the  Ostyaks  venerate  the  river  Ob, 
and  when  fish  is  scanty  wiU  hang  a  stone  about  a  rein-deer's 
neck  and  cast  it  in  for  a  sacrifice.  Among  the  Buraets,  who 
are  professing  Buddhists,  the  old  worship  ma}^  still  be  seen 
at  the  picturesque  little  mountain  lake  of  Ikeougoun,  where 
they  come  to  the  wooden  temple  on  the  shore  to  offer  sa- 
crifices of  milk  and  butter  and  the  fat  of  the  animals  which 
they  bum  on  the  altars.  So  across  in  Northern  Europe, 
almost  every  Esthonian  village  has  its  sacred  sacrificial 
spring.  The  Esths  could  at  times  even  see  the  churl  with 
blue  and  yellow  stockings  rise  from  the  holy  brook  Woh- 
handa,  no  doubt  that  same  spirit  of  the  brook  to  whom  in 
older  days  there  were  sacrificed  beasts  and  little  children ; 
in  newer  times,  when  a  German  landowner  dared  to  build  a 
ixiill  and  dishonour  the  sacred  water,  there  came  bad  seasons 
that  lasted  year  after  year,  and  the  country  people  burned 
down  the  abominable  thing.*  As  for  the  water-worship 
prevailing  among  non-Arj'an  indigenes  of  British  India,  it 

'Oomm.  Real.'  i  10.  See  also  J.  G.  Mttller,  'Ainer.  Urrelig.'  pp.  258,  260, 
1*82. 

»  Krapf,  *E.  Afr.'  p.  198;  Steinhauser,  1.  c.  p.  181 ;  Villault  in  Astley, 
vol.  L  p.  668;  Backhouse,  'Afr.'p.  280;  Callaway,  'Zulu  Tales,  vol.  i  p. 
90 ;  Bastian,  L  c 

»  Gastrin,  *  Vorlesungen  fiber  die  Altaischen  Vblker, '  p.  11 4.  *  Finn.  Mytb.  * 
p.  70.  Atkinson,  'Siberia^'  p.  444.  Boeder,  ' Ehsten  Aberglaub.  Gebrauche^* 
ed.  Kreutzwald,  p.  6. 

p  2 


212  ANIMISM. 

seems  to  reach  its  climax  among  the  Bodo  and  Dhimal  of 
the  North-East,  tribes  to  whom  the  local  rivers  are  the  local 
deities,^  so  that  men  worship  according  to  their  water-sheds, 
and  the  map  is  a  pantheon. 

Nor  is  such  reverence  strange  to  Aryan  nations.  To  the 
modem  Hindu,  looking  as  he  still  does  on  a  river  as  a  living 
personal  being  to  be  adored  and  sworn  by,  the  Ganges  is  no 
solitary  water  deity,  but  only  the  first  and  most  familiar  of 
the  long  list  of  sacred  streams.'  Turn  to  the  classic  world, 
and  we  but  find  the  beliefs  and  and  rites  of  a  lower  barbaric 
culture  holding  their  place,  consecrated  by  venerable  an- 
tiquity and  glorified  by  new  poetry  and  art.  To  the  great 
Olympian  assembly  in  the  halls  of  cloud-compelling  Zeus, 
came  the  Bivers,  all  save  Ocean,  and  thither  came  the 
nymphs  who  dwell  in  lovely  groves  and  at  the  springs  of 
streams,  and  in  the  grassy  meads ;  and  they  sate  upon  the 
polished  seats : — 

"  Oifrt  rts  oZv  norafi&y  &Wi}f,  t^Sa^*  'CiKtayoTb, 
Oih^  ipa  Svfipdmy  ral  r*  HXfrea  leoX^  y^fioyrat, 
Kcd  wTfyiis  iroTOfiSiy,  Mil  iricta  iroi^cyra. 
'E\96yr§s  V  is  9&fia  Aibs  yc^cXin^prrao, 
Utarfs  tuBoT&apffuf  i^l(ayoy,  ta  Ait  warpl 
"Htpaurros  wt^iicrty  ^virfo-i  irpair(9w<riy" 

Even  against  Hephaistos  the  Fire-god,  a  Biver-god  dared 
to  stand  opposed,  deep-eddying  Xanthos,  called  of  men 
Skamandros.  He  rushed  down  to  overwhelm  Achilles  and 
bury  him  in  sand  and  slime,  and  though  Hephaistos  pre- 
vailed against  him  with  his  flames,  and  forced  him,  with  the 
fish  skurrying  hither  and  thither  in  his  boiling  waves  and 
the  willows  scorched  upon  his  banks,  to  rush  on  no  more 
but  stand,  yet  at  the  word  of  white-armed  Here,  that  it  was 
not  fit  for  mortals*  sake  to  handle  so  roughly  an  immortal 
god,  Hephaistos  quenched  his  furious  fire,  and  the  returning 
flood  sped  again  along  his  channel : — 

>  Hodj;8oii,  'Abor.  of  India/  p.  164;  Hunter,  'Rural  Bengal,'  p.  184. 
See  also  Lubbock,  1.  c  ;  Forbes  Leslie,  'Early  Races  of  Scotland,*  yoL  i.  p. 
168,  voL  ii  p.  497. 

«  Ward, '  Hindoos,'  vol  u.  p.  206,  etc. 


ANIMISM.  21 3 

""H^euart,  irx^Of  r^Kvov  h.y(ucXUs'  oh  yiip  foucty 
'ABdiwroy  $§hy  Sd€  fiporw  Zytiea  rrv^kiCetyt 

"Ai^oppoy  9*  ipa  KVfui  Kvr4v<nno  icaX&  ^^Bptu** 

To  beings  thus  conceived  in  personal  divinity,  full  wor- 
ship was  given.  Odysseus  invokes  the  river  of  Scheria; 
Skamandros  had  his  priest  and  Spercheios  his  grove ;  and 
sacrifice  was  done  to  the  rival  of  Herakles,  the  river-god 
Acheloos,  eldest  of  the  three  thousand  river-children  of  old 
Okeanos.^  Through  the  ages  of  the  classic  world,  the 
river-gods  and  the  water-nymphs  held  their  places,  till 
within  the  bounds  of  Christendom  they  came  to  be  classed 
with  ideal  beings  like  them  in  the  mythology  of  the  northern 
nations,  the  kindly  sprites  to  whom  offerings  were  given  at 
springs  and  lakes,  and  the  treacherous  nixes  who  entice  men. 
to  a  watery  death.  In  times  of  transition,  the  new  Chris- 
tian authorities  made  protest  against  the  old  worship,, 
passing  laws  to  forbid  adoration  and  sacrifice  to  foun- 
tains— as  when  Duke  Bretislav  forbade  the  stiU  half- 
pagan  country  folk  of  Bohemia  to  offer  libations  and 
sacrifice  victims  at  springs,*  and  in  England  Ecgbert's 
Poenitentiale  proscribes  the  like  rites,  "  if  any  man  vow  or 
bring  his  offerings  to  any  weU"  "  if  one  hold  his  vigils  at 
any  well."'  But  the  old  veneration  was  too  strong  to  be 
put  down,  and  with  a  varnish  of  Christianity  and  sometimes, 
the  substitution  of  a  saint's  name,  water-worship  has  held 
its  own  to  our  day.  The  Bohemians  will  go  to  pray  on  the 
river-bank  where  a  man  has  been  drowned,  and  there  they 
will  cast  in  oq  offering,  a  loaf  of  new  bread  and  a  pair  of 

*  Homer.  II.  xx.  xxL  See  Gladstone,  'Juventus  Mundi,' pp.  190,  845„ 
etc  etc. 

'  Cosmas,  book  iii.  p.  197,  "  snperstitiosas  institntiones,  quas  yillani  adhuo 
semipagani  in  Pentecosten  tertia  sive  quarta  feria  obeeryabant  offerentes 
libamina  super  fontes  mactabant  victimas  et  demooibus  immolabant." 

*  Poenitentiale  Ecgberti,  ii.  22,  <*  gif  bwilc  man  his  nlmessan  gefaftte  oththe 
bringe  to  hwilcon  wylle ; '*  iv.  19,  **gif  hwAhis  wseccan  et  anigum  wylle 
hsebbe."    Grimm,  *D.  M.*  p.  649,  etc    See  Hylt^n-Cavallius,   'WarendocK 
Wirdame,'  part  L  pp.  181,  171  (Sweden). 


214  ANIMISM. 

wax-candles.  On  Christmas  Eve  they  will  put  a  spoonful 
of  each  dish  on  a  plate^  and  after  supper  throw  the  food 
into  the  well,  with  an  appointed  formula,  somewhat 
thus : — 

"  House- father  gives  thee  greeting, 
Thee  by  me  entreating : 
Springlet,  share  our  feast  of  Yule, 
But  give  us  water  to  the  full; 
When  the  land  is  plagued  with  drought, 
Drive  it  with  thy  well-spring  out."  * 

It  well  shows  the  unchanged  survival  of  savage  thought 
in  modem  peasants*  minds,  to  find  still  in  Slavonic  lands 
the  very  same  fear  of  drinking  a  harmful  spirit  in  the  water, 
that  has  been  noticed  among  the  Esquimaux.  It  is  a  sin  for 
a  Bulgarian  not  to  throw  some  water  out  of  every  bucket 
brought  from  the  fountain ;  some  elemental  spirit  might  be 
floating  on  the  surface,  and  if  not  thrown  out,  might  take 
up  his  abode  in  the  house,  or  enter  into  the  body  of  some 
one  drinking  from  the  vessel.'  Elsewhere  in  Europe,  the 
list  of  still  existing  water-rites  may  be  extended.  The 
ancient  lake-offerings  of  the  South  of  France  seem  not  yet 
forgotten  in  La  Lozere,  the  Bretons  venerate  as  of  old 
their  sacred  springs,  and  Scotland  and  Ireland  can  show  in 
parish  after  parish  the  sites  and  even  the  actual  survivals  of 
such  observance  at  the  holy  wells.  Perhaps  Welshmen  no 
longer  offer  cocks  and  hens  to  St.  Tecla  at  her  sacred  well 
jand  church  of  Llandegla,  but  Cornish  folk  still  drop  into 
the  old  holy-wells  offerings  of  pins,  nails,  and  rags,  expect- 
ing from  their  waters  cure  for  disease,  and  omens  from  their 
bubbles  as  to  health  and  marriage.^ 

The  spirits  of  the  tree  and  grove  no  less  deserve  our 

^  Grohmann,  *  Aberglauben  aus  Bohmen  and  MUhren,'  p.  43,  etc.  Hannsch, 
*  Slaw.  Myth.'  p.  291,  etc.     Ralston,  '  Songs  of  Russian  People,'  p.  189,  etc. 

*  St.  Clair  and Brophy,  'Bulgaria,'  p.  46.  Similar  ideas  in  Grohmann,  p. 
44.    Eisenmenger,  '£ntd.  Judenthum,'  part  i.  p.  426. 

•  Maury,  *Magie,'  etc.  p.  158.  Brand,  *Pop.  Ant.'  vol.  ii.  p.  866,  etc. 
Bunt,  *Pop.  Rom.  2nd  Series/  p.  40,  etc.  Forb  s  Leslie,  *  Early  Races  of 
Scotland,' vol.  i.  p.  156,  etc. 


ANIMISM.  215 

istudy  for  their  illustrations  of  man's  primitive  animistic 
theory  of  nature.  This  is  remarkably  displayed  in  that 
stage  of  thought  where  the  individual  tree  is  regarded  as  a 
conscious  personal  being,  and  as  such  receives  adoration  and 
sacrifice.  Whether  such  a  tree  is  looked  on  as  inhabited, 
like  a  man,  by  its  own  proper  life  or  soul,  or  as  possessed, 
like  a  fetish,  by  some  other  spirit  which  has  entered  it  and 
uses  it  for  a  body,  is  often  hard  to  determine.  Shelley's 
lines  well  express  a  doubting  conception  familiar  to  old 
barbaric  thought — 

'*  "Whether  the  sensitive  plant,  or  that 
Which  within  its  boughs  hke  a  spirit  sat 
Ere  its  outward  form  had  known  decay, 
Now  felt  this  change,  I  cannot  say." 

But  this  vagueness  is  yet  again  a  proof  of  the  principle  which 
I  have  confidently  put  forward  here,  that  the  conceptions  of 
the  inherent  soul  and  of  the  embodied  spirit  are  but  modi- 
fications of  one  and  the  same  deep-lying  animistic  thought. 
The  Mintu'a  of  the  Malay  Peninsula  believe  in  '^hantu 
kayu,"  i.  e.  '*  tree-spirits,"  or  *'  tree-demons,"  which  fre- 
quent every  species  of  tree,  and  afflict  men  with  diseases ; 
some  trees  are  noted  for  the  malignity  of  their  demons.^ 
Among  the  Dayaks  of  Borneo,  certain  trees  possessed  by 
spirits  must  not  be  cut  down ;  if  a  missionary  ventured  to 
fell  one,  any  death  that  happened  afterwards  would  naturally 
be  set  down  to  this  crime.*  The  belief  of  certain  Malays  of 
Sumatra  is  expressly  stated,  that  certain  venerable  trees  are 
the  residence,  or  rather  the  material  frame,  of  spirits  of  the 
woods.^  In  the  Tonga  Islands,  we  hear  of  natives  laying 
offerings  at  the  foot  of  particular  trees,  with  the  idea  of 
their  being  inhabited  by  spirits.*  So  in  America,  the 
Ojibwa  medicine-man  has  heard  the  tree  utter  its  complaint 

*  '  Jouin.  I  lid.  Archip.'  vol.  i.  p.  307. 

'  Beeker,  Dyaks,  in  '  Journ.  Ind.  Archip.*  vol.  iii.  p.  111. 
3  Marsden,  *  Sumatra,*  p.  801. 

*  S.  S.  Farmer,  *Tonga,*  p.  127. 


216  ANIMISM. 

when  wantonly  cut  down.'  A  carious  and  suggestive 
description  bearing  on  this  point  is  given  in  Friar  Boman 
Pane's  account  of  the  religion  of  the  Antilles  islanders, 
drawn  up  by  order  of  Columbus.  Certain  trees,  he  declares, 
were  believed  to  send  for  sorcerers,  to  whom  they  gave 
orders  how  to  shape  their  trunks  into  idols,  and  these 
*'  cemi  **  being  then  installed  in  temple-huts,  received  prayer 
and  inspired  their  priests  with  oracles.^  Africa  shows  as 
well-defined  examples.  The  negro  woodman  cuts  down 
certain  trees  in  fear  of  the  anger  of  their  inhabiting  demons, 
but  he  finds  his  way  out  of  the  difficulty  by  a  sacrifice  to 
his  own  good  genius,  or,  when  he  is  giving  the  first  cuts  to 
the  great  asorin-tree,  and  its  indwelling  spirit  comes  out 
to  chase  him,  he  cunningly  drops  palm-oil  on  the  ground, 
and  makes  his  escape  while  the  spirit  is  licking  it  up.^  A 
negro  was  once  worshipping  a  tree  with  an  offering  of  food, 
when  some  one  pointed  out  to  him  that  the  tree  did  not 
eat ;  the  negro  answered,  "  O  the  tree  is  not  fetish,  the 
fetish  is  a  spirit  and  invisible,  but  he  has  descended  into 
this  tree.  Certainly  he  cannot  devour  our  bodily  food,  but 
he  enjoys  its  spiritual  part  and  leaves  behind  the  bodily 
which  we  see."*  Tree-worship  is  largely  prevalent  in 
Africa,  and  much  of  it  may  be  of  this  fully  animistic  kind; 
as  where  in  Whidah  Bosinan  says  that  "  the  trees,  which 
are  the  gods  of  the  second  rank  of  this  country,  are  only 
prayed  to  and  presented  with  offerings  in  time  of  sickness, 
more  especially  fevers,  in  order  to  restore  the  patients  to- 
health;"*^  or  where  in  'Abyssinia  the  Gallas  made  pil- 
grimage from  all  quarters  to  their  sacred  tree  Wodanabe  on 
the  banks  of  the  Hawash,  worshipping  it  and  praying  to  it 
for  riches,  health,  life,  and  every  blessing.^ 

'  Bastian,    'Der  Baum  in  Teigleichender   Ethnologie,'  in  Lazaras   and 
Steinthal's  'Zeitachrift  fur  Volkerpsychologie,*  etc.  vol.  v.  1868. 
'  Chr.  Colombo,  ch.  xiz. ;  and  in  Pinkerton,  toL  xii  p.  87. 
»  Burton,  '  W.  *  W.  fr.  W.  Afr.'  pp.  206,  243. 

•  Waitz,  voL  ii.  p.  188. 

•  Bosnian,  letter  19,  and  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi.  p.  600. 

•  Krapf,  'E.  Afr.'  p.  77  ;  Prichard,  '  N.  H.  of  Man,»  p.  290  ;  Waltz,  vol.  ii* 
p.  618.     See  also  Merolla,  'Congo/  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi.  p.  236. 


ANIMISM.  217 

The  position  of  tree-worship  in  Southern  Asia  in  relation 
to  Buddhism  is  of  particular  interest.  To  this  day  there 
are  districts  of  this  region,  Buddhist  or  under  strong 
Buddhist  influence,  where  tree-worship  is  still  displayed  with 
absolute  clearness  of  theory  and  practice.  Here  in  legend 
a  dryad  is  a  being  capable  of  marriage  with  a  human  hero,, 
while  in  actual  fact  a  tree-deity  is  considered  human  enough 
to  be  pleased  with  dolls  set  up  to  swing  in  the  branches. 
The  Talein  of  Birmah,  before  they  cut  down  a  tree,  oflfer 
prayers  to  its  "kaluk  "  (t.g.,  *'kelah  "),  its  inhabiting  spirit 
or  soul.  The  Siamese  offer  cakes  and  rice  to  the  takhien- 
tree  before  they  fell  it,  and  believe  the  inhabiting  nymphs 
or  mothers  of  trees  to  pass  into  guardian-spirits  of  the  boats 
built  of  their  wood,  so  that  they  actually  go  on  offering 
sacrifice  to  them  in  this  their  new  condition.^  These  people 
have  indeed  little  to  learn  from  any  other  race,  however 
savage,  of  the  principles  of  the  lower  animism.  The  ques- 
tion now  arises,  did  such  tree-worship  belong  to  the  local 
religions  among  which  Buddhism  established  itself?  There 
is  strong  evidence  that  this  was  the  case.  Philosophic 
Buddhism,  as  known  to  us  by  its  theological  books,  does 
not  include  trees  among  sentient  beings  possessing  mind^ 
but  it  goes  so  far  as  to  acknowledge  the  existence  of  the 
*'  dewa  "  or  genius  of  a  tree.  Buddha,  it  is  related,  told  a 
story  of  a  tree  crying  out  to  the  brahman  carpenter  who- 
was  going  to  cut  it  down,  **  I  have  a  word  to  say,  hear  my 
word  !  "  but  then  the  teacher  goes  on  to  explain  that  it  was 
not  really  the  tree  that  spoke,  but  a  dewa  dwelling  in  it. 
Buddha  himself  was  a  tree-genius  forty-three  times  in  the 
course  of  his  transmigrations.  Legend  says  that  during  one 
such  existence,  a  certain  brahman  used  to  pray  for  protec- 
tion to  the  tree  which  Buddha  was  attached  to;  but  the 
transformed  teapher  reproved  the  tree-worshipper  for  thus 

1  Bastiao,  'Oesa  Arien/  yoI.  ii.  pp.  457,  461,  voL  iii.  pp.  187,  251,  289^ 
497.  For  details  of  tree-worship  from  other  Asiatic  districts,  see  Ainsworth, 
•Yezidi8,'in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc'  vol,  i.  p.  28  ;  Jno.  Wilson.  'Parsi  Religion," 
p.  262. 


218  ANIMLSAL 

addressing  himself  to  a  senseless  thing,  which  hears  and 
knows  nothing.^  As  for  the  famous  Bo  tree,  its  miraculous 
glories  are  not  confined  to  the  ancient  Buddhist  annals; 
for  its  surviving  descendant,  grown  from  the  branch  of  the 
parent  tree  sent  by  King  Asoka  from  India  to  Ceylon  in 
the  3rd  century  B.C.,  to  this  day  receives  the  worship  of  the 
pilgrims  who  come  by  thousands  to  do  it  honour,  and  offer 
prayer  before  it.  Beyond  these  hints  and  relics  of  the  old 
worship,  however,  Mr.  Fergusson^s  recent  investigations, 
published  in  his  "  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,"  have 
brought  to  light  an  ancient  state  of  things  which  the  ortho- 
•dox  Buddhist  literature  gives  little  idea  of.  It  appears 
from  the  sculptures  of  the  Sanchi  tope  in  Central  India, 
that  in  the  Buddhism  of  about  the  1st  century  a.d.,  sacred 
trees  had  no  small  place  as  objects  of  authorized  worship. 
It  is  especially  notable  that  the  representatives  of  indigenous 
race  and  religion  in  India,  the  Nagas,  characterized  by  their 
tutelary  snakes  issuing  from  their  backs  between  their 
shoulders  and  curving  over  their  heads,  and  other  tribes 
actually  drawn  as  human  apes,  are  seen  adoring  the  divine 
tree  in  the  midst  of  unquestionable  Buddhist  surroundings.^ 
Tree-worship,  even  now  well  marked  among  the  indigenous 
tribes  of  India,  was  obviously  not  abolished  on  the  Buddhist 
conversion.  The  new  philosophic  religion  seems  to  have 
amalgamated,  as  new  religions  ever  do,  with  older  native 
thoughts  and  rites.  And  it  is  quite  consistent  with  the 
habits  of  the  Buddhist  theologians  and  hagiologists,  that 
when  tree-worship  was  suppressed,  they  should  have  slurred 
over  the  fact  of  its  former  prevalence,  and  should  even 
have  used  the  recollection  of  it  as  a  gibe  against  the  hostile 
Brahmans. 

Conceptions  like  those  of  the  lower  races  in  character, 
and  rivalling  them  in  vivacity,  belong  to  the  mythology  of 
Greece  and  Borne.  The  classic  thought  of  the  tree  inha- 
bited by  a  deity  and  uttering  oracles,  is  like  that  of  other 

^  Hardy,  '  Manual  of  Budhism,'  pp.  100,  448. 

'  Fergusson,  *  Tree  and  Serpent  Woraliip,*  pi.  xxiv.  xxn.  etc. 


ANIMISM.  219 

regions.  Thus  the  sacred  palm  of  Negra  in  Yemen,  whose 
demon  was  propitiated  by  prayer  and  sacrifice  to  give  ora- 
xhHbi  response/  or  the  tall  oaks  inhabited  by  the  gods, 
where  old  Slavonic  people  used  to  ask  questions  and  hear 
the  answers,-  have  their  analogue  in  the  prophetic  oak  of 
Dodona,  wherein  dwelt  the  deity,  "  raiei;  6'  ivl  itvOyAvt 
4>riyov.**^  The  Homeric  hymn  to  Aphrodite  tells  of  the 
tree-nymphs,  long-lived  yet  not  immortal — they  grow  with 
their  high-topped  leafy  pines  and  oaks  upon  the  mountains, 
hut  when  the  lot  of  death  draws  nigh,  and  the  lovely  trees 
iire  sapless,  and  the  bark  rots  away  and  the  branches  fall, 
then  their  spirits  depart  from  the  light  of  the  sun : — 

"  K6fjL^ttu  /uy  BpS^wrof  hpttrK^ot  $a0vKo\irot, 
ot  r(^c  yaterdowrty  6pos  fi^ya  re  (dBt6y  t€' 
at  y  oifrw-  ByfiTois  06^  iiBaydrouriy  ciroyrai* 
9iifAy  fi\y  (^owi  ical  ififiporoy  cTSop  l^ovcrt, 
uroi  re  /trr'  itBaydroiei  KctKhy  x^f^*^  tpp^ayro, 
rfi<ri  tk  ]Sc<Ai}yo(  re  xoi  €iiaKoiros  *Kpy^i<^im\s 
fiicryoyr*  iy  ^t\&rrirt  fivxv  o^*i»y  ipoiyruy. 
Tpffi  8'  ifi  ^  i\drai  ^^  Spvts  in^ucdpTiyoi 
ytiyofi4yiifriy  t^wrtuf  4w\  x^ovX  fiorrua^ipy, 
KctKalf  niKtBdovirai,  iy  ottpeo'iy  in^Xourty' 
•  •*••• 

&XX'  5re  Kty  Sjj^  /loipa  TopearfiKp  Baydroio, 
iL(dytTcu  fiky  xpiirov  iirX  xBovl  SeySpca  KtiKk, 
<pKoihs  8*  ifiiptTtptt^iy^ti,  Tlwrovat  8*  Aw*  5^oi, 
r&y  84  Bt  6fiov  r^vx^l  Ktlrti  ^dos  ^cXtoto."  * 

The  hamadryad's  life  is  bound  to  her  tree,  she  is  hurt 
when  it  is  wounded,  she  cries  when  the  axe  threatens,  she 
dies  with  the  fallen  trunk : — 

'*  Non  sine  hamadryadis  fato  cadit  arborea  trabs."  * 

How  personal  a  creature  the  tree-nympth  was  to  the 
classic  mind,  is  shown  in  legends  like  that  of  Paraibios^ 

*  Tabaiy  in  Bastian,  L  c.  p.  295. 

'  Hartknoch,  '  Alt-und  Neues  Preussen/  part  i.  ch.  v. 

*  See  Pauly,  *  Real-Encyclopedie.'    Homer.  Odyss.  xiv.  327,  xix.  296. 

*  Hymn.  Homer.  Aplirod.  257. 

*  Ansonii  Idvll.  De  Histor.  7. 


220  ANIMISM. 

whose  father,  regardless  of  the  hamadryad's  entreaties,  cut 
down  her  ancient  trunk,  and  in  himself  and  in  his  offspring 
suffered  her  dire  vengeance.^  The  ethnographic  student 
finds  a  curious  interest  in  transformation-myths  like  Ovid's, 
keeping  up  as  they  do  vestiges  of  philosophy  of  archaic 
type — ^Daphne  turned  into  the  laurel  that  Apollo  honours 
for  her  sake,  the  sorrowing  sisters  of  Phaethon  changing  into 
trees,  yet  still  dropping  blood  and  crying  for  mercy  when 
their  shoots  are  torn.*  Such  episodes  mediseval  poetry 
could  still  adapt,  as  in  the  pathless  infernal  forest  whose 
knotted  dusk-leaved  trees  revealed  their  human  animation 
to  the  Florentine  when  he  plucked  a  twig, 

**  AUor  porsi  la  mano  nn  pooo  avante, 
E  colai  un  ramoscel  da  un  gran  pmno : 
E'  1  tronco  suo  grid6 :  Perch6  mi  schiante  P  *" 

or  the  myrtle  to  [which  Buggiero  tied  his  hippogriff,  who" 
tugged  at  the  poor  trunk  till  it  murmured  and  oped  its 
mouth,  and  with  doleful  voice  told  that  it  was  Astolfo, 
enchanted  by  the  wicked  Alcina  among  her  other  lovers, 

■ 

*'  D*  entrar  o  in  fera  o  in  fonto  o  in  legno  o  in  Basso."  ^ 

If  these  seem  to  us  now  conceits  over  quaint  for  beauty ,. 
we  need  not  scruple  to  say  so.  They  are  not  of  Dante  and 
Ariosto,  they  are  sham  antiques  from  classic  models.  And 
if  even  the  classic  originals  have  become  unpleasing,  we 
need  not  perhaps  reproach  ourselves  with  decline  of  poetic 
taste.  We  have  lost  something,  and  the  loss  has  spoiled 
our  appreciation  of  many  an  old  poetic  theme,  yet  it  is  not 
always  our  sense  of  the  beautiful  that  has  dwindled,  but 
the  old  animistic  philosophy  of  nature  that  is  gone  from 
us,  dissipating  from  such  fancies  their  meaning,  and  with 

^  Apollon.  Hhod.  Argonautica,  iL  476.     See  Welcker,   'Griech.  GOtterL 
vol.  iii.  p.  57. 
«  OvicL  Mctamm.  i.  462,  ii.  845,  xi.  67. 

•  Dante,  *  Divina  Commedia,'  '  Infemo,'  canto  xiii. 

*  Ariosto,  'Orlando  Furioso,*  canto  vi. 


ANIMISM.  221 

their  meaning  their  loveliness.  Still,  if  we  look  for  living 
men  to  whom  trees  are,  as  they  were  to  our  distant  fore- 
fathers, the  habitations  and  embodiments  of  spirits,' we 
shall  not  look  in  vain.  The  peasant  folklore  of  Europe 
still  knows  of  willows  that  bleed  and  weep  and  speak  when 
hewn,  of  the  fairy  maiden  that  sits  within  the  fir-tree,  of 
that  old  tree  in  Rugaard  forest  that  must  not  be  felled,  for 
an  elf  dwells  within,  of  that  old  tree  on  the  Heinzenberg 
near  Zell,  which  uttered  its  complaint  when  the  woodman 
cut  it  down,  for  in  it  was  Our  Lady,  whose  chapel  now 
stands  upon  the  spot.^  One  may  still  look  on  where  Fran- 
conian  damsels  go  to  a  tree  on  St.  Thomas's  day,  knock 
thrice  solemnly,  and  listen  for  the  indwelling  spirit  to  give 
answer  by  raps  from  within,  what  manner  of  husbands  they 
are  to  have.*  ^ 

In  the  remarkable  document  of  mythic  cosmogony,  pre- 
served by  Eusebius  under  the  alleged  authorship  of  the 
Phoenician  Sanchoniathon,  is  the  following  passage  :  ''  But 
these  first  men  consecrated  the  plants  of  the  earth,  and 
judged  them  gods,  and  worshipped  the  things  upon  which 
they  themselves  lived  and  their  posterity,  and  all  before 
them,  and  (to  these)  they  made  libations  and  sacrifices.'*  ^ 
From  examples  such  as  have  been  here  reviewed,  it  seems 
that  direct  and  absolute  tree-worship  of  this  kind  may  in- 
deed lie  very  wide  and  deep  in  the  early  history  of  religion. 
But  the  whole  tree-cultus  of  the  world  must  by  no  means 
be  thrown  indiscriminately  into  this  one  category.  It  is 
only  on  such  distinct  evidence  as  has  been  here  put  forward, 
that  a  sacred  tree  may  be  taken  as  having  a  spirit  em- 
bodied in  or  attached  to  it.  Beyond  this  limit,  there  is 
a  wider  range  of  animistic  conceptions  connected  with  tree 
and  forest  worship.  The  tree  may  be  the  spirit's  perch  or 
shelter  or  favourite  haunt.     Under  this  definition  come  the 

>  Orimm, '  D.  H/  p.  615,  etc.     Bastian,  'Der  Baum/ 1.  c.  p.  297 ;  Hanuach, 
•  Slaw.  Myth.' p.  818, 

*  Wuttke,  •  Volksaberglaube,'  p.  57,  see  188. 

•  Euseb.  'Pnep.  Evang.'  i.  10. 


222  ANIMISM. 

trees  hung  with  objects  which  are  the  receptacles  of  disease- 
spirits.     As  places  of  spiritual  resort,  there  is  no  real  dis- 
tinction between  the  sacred  tree  and  the  sacred  grove.    The 
tree  may  serve  as  a  scaffold  or  altar,  at  once  convenient  and 
conspicuous,  where    offerings    can    be    set   out  for    some 
spuitual  being,  who  may  be  a  tree-spirit,  or  perhaps  the 
local  deity,  living  there  just  as  a  man  might  do  who  had  hia 
hut  and  owned  his    plot   of  land   around.      The   shelter 
of  some  single  tree,   or  the  solemn  seclusion  of   a  forest 
grove,  is  a  place  of  worship  set  apart  by  nature,  of  some 
tribes  the  only  temple,  of  many  tribes  perhaps  the  earliest. 
Lastly,  the  tree  may  be  merely  a  sacred  object  patronized 
by  or  associated  with  or  symbolizing  some  divinity,  often 
one  of  those  which  we  shall  presently  notice  as  presiding 
over  a  whole  species  of  trees  or  other  things..     How  all 
these  conceptions,  from  actual  embodiment  or  local  resi- 
dence or  visit  of  a  demon  or  deity,   down  to  ;mere  ideal 
association,  can  blend  together,  how  hard    it  often  is  to 
distinguish  them,  and  yet  how  in  spite  of  this  confusion 
they    conform    to   the    animistic    theology   in    which    all 
have  their  essential  principles,  a  few  examples  will  show 
better  than  any  theoretical  comment.^      Take  the  groups 
of  malicious  wood-fiends  so  obviously  devised  to  account 
for  the  mysterious  influences  that  beset  the    forest  wan- 
derer.      In   the  Australian  bush,  demons  whistle  in  the 
branches,    and    stooping    with    outstretched    arms    sneak 
among  the  trunks  to  seize  the  wayfarer ;  the  lame  demon 
leads  astray  the  hunter  in  the  Brazilian  forest ;  the  Karen 
crossing  a  fever-haunted  jungle  shudders  in  the  grip  of  the 
spiteful  "phi,*'  and  runs  to  lay  an  offering  by  the  tree  he 
rested  under   last,  from  whose    boughs  the  malaria-fiend 
came  down  upon  him ;  the  negro  of  Senegambia  seeks  to 
pacify  the  long-haired  tree-demons  that  send  diseases ;  the 
terrific  cry  of  the  wood-demon  is  heard  in  the  Finland 

*  Further  details  as  to  tree-worship  in  Bastias,  'DerBaum,*  etc.  here 
cited;  Lubbock,  'Origin  of  Civilization,*  p.  206,  etc.  ;  Fei^sson,  'Tree  and 
Serpent  "Worship,*  etc. 


ANIMISM.  223 

forest;  the  baleful  shapes  of  teiror  that  glide  at  night 
through  our  own  woodland  are  familiar  still  to  peasant  and 
poet.^  The  North  American  Indians  of  the  Far  "West^ 
entering  the  defiles  of  the  Black  Mountains  of  Nebraska, 
will  often  hang  offerings  on  the  trees  or  place  them  on  the 
rocks,  to  propitiate  the  spirits  and  procure  good  weather 
and  hunting.'  In  South  America,  Mr.  Darwin  describes  the 
Indians  offering  their  adorations  by  loud  shouts  when  they 
came  in  sight  of  the  sacred  tree  standing  solitary  on  a 
high  part  of  the  Pampas,  a  landmark  visible  from  afar.  To 
this  tree  were  hanging  by  threads  numberless  offerings  such 
as  cigars,  bread,  meat,  pieces  of  cloth,  &c.,  down  to  the  mere 
thread  pulled  from  his  poncho  by  the  poor  wayfarer  who 
had  nothing  better  to  give.  Men  would  pour  libations  of 
spirits  and  mate  into  a  certain  hole,  and  smoke  upwards  to 
gratify  Walleechu,  and  all  around  lay  the  bleached  bones 
of  the  horses  slaughtered  as  sacrifices.  AH  Indians  made 
their  offerings  here,  that  their  horses  might  not  tire,  and 
that  they  themselves  might  prosper.  Mr.  Darwin  reason- 
ably judges  on  this  evidence  that  it  was  to  the  deity  Wal- 
leechu that  the  worship  was  paid,  the  sacred  tree  being  only 
his  altar;  but  he  mentions  that  the  Gauchos  think  the 
Indians  consider  the  tree  as  the  god  itself,  a  good  example 
of  the  misunderstanding  possible  in  such  cases.^  The  New 
Zealanders  would  hang  an  offering  of  food  or  a  lock  of  hair 
gn  a  branch  at  a  landing  place,  or  near  remarkable  rocks  or 
trees  would  throw  a  bunch  of  rushes  as  an  offering  to  the 
spirit  dwelling  there.^  The  Dayaks  fasten  rags  of  their 
clothes  on  trees  at  cross  roads,  fearing  for  their  health  if 
they  neglect  the  custom ;  ^  the  Macassar  man  halting  to  eat 
in  the  forest  will  put  a  morsel  of  rice  or  fish  on  a  leaf,  and 
lay  it  on  a  stone  or  stump.'    The  divinities  of  African  tribes 

'  Bastian,  'Der  Banm/  L  c.  etc. 
'  Inring,  'Astoria,'  vol.  ii.  ch.  viii. 

*  Darwin,  'Journal,'  p.  68. 

*  Polack,  'New  Z.*  vol.  ii.  p.  6  ;  Taylor,  p.  171,  see  99. 
»  St  John,  'Far  East,'  vol.  i.  p.  89. 

*  Wallace,  'Eiutern  Archipelago,'  vol.  i.  p.  338. 


224  ANIMISM. 

may  dwell  in  trees  remarkable  for  size  and  age,  or  inhabit 
sacred  groves  where  the  priest  alone  may  enter .^  Trees 
treated  as  idols  by  the  Congo  people,  who  put  calabashes  of 
palm  wine  at  their  feet  in  case  they  should  be  thirsty ;  *  and 
among  West  African  negro  tribes  father  north,  trees  hung 
with  rags  by  the  passers-by,  and  the  great  baobabs  pegged 
to  hang  offerings  to,  and  serving  as  shrines  before  which 
sheep  are  sacrificed,^  display  well  the  rites  of  tree  sacrifice, 
though  leaving  undefined  the  precise  relation  conceived 
between  deity  and  tree. 

The  forest  theology  that  befits  a  race  of  hunters  is 
dominant  still  among  Turanian  tribes  of  Siberia,  as  of  old 
it  was  across  to  Lapland.  Full  well  these  tribes  know  the 
gods  of  the  forest.  The  Yakuts  hang  on  any  remarkably 
fine  tree  iron,  brass,  and  other  trinkets;  they  choose  a 
green  spot  shaded  by  a  tree  for  their  spring  sacrifice  of 
horses  and  oxen,  whose  heads  are  set  up  in  the  boughs ; 
they  chant  their  extemporised  songs  to  the  Spu'it  of  the 
Forest,  and  liang  for  him  on  the  branches  of  the  trees  along 
the  roadside  offerings  of  horsehair,  emblems  of  their  most 
valued  possession.  A  clump  of  larches  on  a  Siberian  steppe, 
a  grove  in  the  recesses  of  a  forest,  is  the  sanctuary  of  a 
Turanian  tribe.  Gaily-decked  idols  in  their  warm  fur-coats, 
each  set  up  beneath  its  great  tree  swathed  with  cloth  or 
tinplate,  endless  reindeer-hides  and  peltry  hanging  to  the 
trees  around,  kettles  and  spoons  and  snuff-horns  and  house- 
hold valuables  strewn  as  offerings  before  the  gods — such  is 
the  description  of  a  Siberian  hoi}'  grove,  at  the  stage  when 
the  contact  of  foreign  civilization  has  begun  by  ornament- 
ing the  rude  old  ceremonial  it  must  end  by  abolishing.^  A 
race  ethnologically  allied  to  these  tribes,  though  risen  to 
higher  culture,  kept  up  remarkable  relics  of  tree-worship  in 
Northern  Eurape.     In  Esthonian  districts,  within  the  pre- 

*  Prichard,  '  Nat.  Hist  of  Man,»  p.  631. 
-  Mei'olk  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi.  p.  236. 

*  Lubbock,  p.  198;  Baatisn,  1.  c. ;  Park,  'Travels,'  voL  i.  pp.  64,  106. 

*  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  86,  etc.  191,  etc.  ;  Latham,  'Descr.  Eth.'  vol. 
i.  p.  868  ;  Simpson,  *  Journey,'  voL  ii.  p.  261. 


ANIMISM.  225 

sent  century,  the  traveller  might  often  see  the  sacred  tree, 
generally  an  ancient  lime,  oak,  or  ash,  standing  inviolate  in 
a  sheltered  spot  near  the  dwelling-house,  and  old  memories 
are  handed  down  of  the  time  when  the  first  blood  of  a 
slaughtered  beast  was  sprinkled  on  its  roots,  that  the  cattle 
might  prosper,  or  when  an  oflfering  was  laid  beneath  the 
holy  linden,  on  the  stone  where  the  worshipper  knelt  on  his 
bare  knees  moving  from  east  to  west  and  back,  which  stone 
he  kissed  thrice  when  he  had  said,  "  Receive  the  food  as  an 
offering !  "  It  may  well  have  been  an  indwelling  tree-deity 
for  whom  this  worship  was  intended,  for  folklore  shows  that 
the  Esths  recognized  such  a  conception  with  the  utmost 
distinctness  ;  they  have  a  tale  of  the  tree-elf  who  appeared 
in  personal  shape  outside  his  crooked  birch- tree,  whence 
he  could  be  summoned  by  three  knocks  on  the  trunk  and 
the  inquiry,  *'  Is  the  crooked  one  at  home  ?  "  But  also  it 
may  have  been  the  Wood-Father  or  Tree- King,  or  some 
other  deity,  who  received  sacrifice  and  answered  prayer  be- 
neath his  sacred  tree,  as  in  a  temple.^  If,  again,  we  glance 
at  the  tree-and-grove  worship  of  the  non- Aryan  indigenous 
tribes  of  British  India,  we  shall  gather  clear  and  instructive 
hints  of  its  inner  significance.  In  the  courtyard  of  a  Bodo 
house  is  planted  the  sacred  "  sij  "  or  euphorbia  of  Batho, 
the  national  god,  to  whom  imder  this  representation  the 
*'  deoshi  "  or  priest  offers  prayer  and  kills  a  pig.^  When 
the  Khonds  settle  .a  new  village,  the  sacred  cotton-tree  must 
be  planted  with  solemn  rites,  and  beneath  it  is  placed  the 
stone  which  enshrines  the  village  deity .^  Nowhere,  per- 
haps, in  the  world  in  these  modem  days  is  the  original 
meaning  of  the  sacred  grove  more  picturesquely  shown  than 
among  the  Mundas  of  Chota-Nagpur,  in  whose  settlements 
a  sacred  grove  of  sal-trees,  a  remnant  of  the  primaeval  forest 
spared  by  the  woodman's  axe,  is  left  as  a  home  for  the 

'  Boeder,  *  Ehsten  Aberglaubische  Gebriiuche,'  etc.  ed.  Kreiitzwald,  pp.  2, 
112,  146. 
«  Hodgson,  *Abor.  of  India, 'pp.  165,  178. 
*  Maq>her8on,  p.  61. 

vol.  II.  Q 


226  ANIMISM. 

spirits,  and  in  this  hallowed  place  offerings  to  the  gods  are 
made.^ 

Here,  then,  among  the  lower  races,  is  surely  evidence 
enough  to  put  on  their  true  historic  footing  the  rites  of  tree 
and  grove  which  we  find  flourishing  or  surviving  within  the 
range  of  Semitic  or  Aryan  culture.  Mentions  in  the  Old 
Testament  record  the  Canaanitish  Ashera-worship,  the 
sacrifice  under  every  green  tree,  the  incense  rising  beneath 
oak  and  willow  and  shady  terebinth,  rites  whose  obstinate 
revival  proves  how  deeply  they  were  rooted  in  the  old  reli- 
gion of  the  land.^  The  evidence  of  these  Biblical  passaget^ 
is  corroborated  by  other  evidence  from  Semitic  regions,  as 
in  the  lines  by  Silius  Italicus  which  mention  the  prayer  and 
sacrifice  in  the  Numidian  holy  groves,  and  the  records  of 
the  council  of  Carthage  which  show  that  in  the  5th  century, 
an  age  after  Augustine's  time,  it  was  still  needful  to  urge 
that  the  relics  of  idolatry  in  trees  and  groves  should  be 
done  away.'  From  the  more  precise  descriptions  which  lie 
within  the  range  of  Aryan  descent  and  influence,  examples 
may  be  drawn  to  illustrate  every  class  of  belief  and  rite  of 
the  forest.  Modem  Hinduism  is  so  largely  derived  from 
the  religions  of  the  non-Aryan  indigenes,  that  we  may  fairly 
explain  thus  a  considerable  part  of  the  tree-worship  of 
modem  India,  as  where  in  the  Birbhum  district  of  Bengal 
a  great  annual  pilgrimage  is  made  to  a  shrine  in  the  jungle^ 
to  make  offerings  of  rice  and  money  and  sacrifice  animals  to 
a  certain  ghost  who  dwells  in  a  bela-tree.*  In  thoroughly 
Hindu  districts  we  may  see  the  pippala  (Ficus  religiosa) 
planted  as  the  village  tree,  the  "  chaityalaru "  of  Sanskrit 

*  Dalton,  *Kols,'  in  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc'  vol.  vi.  p.  34.  Bastian,  'Oestl.  Asien.' 
vol.  i.  p.  134,  vol.  iii.  p.  25J. 

*  Dent,  xii,  3  ;  xvi.  21.  Judges  vi.  25.  1  Kings  xiv.  23  ;  xv.  13  ;  xviii. 
19.  2  Kings  xvii.  10  ;  xxiii.  4.  Is.  Mi.  6.  Jerem.  xvii.  2.  Ezek.  vi.  13  ; 
XX.  28.     Hos.  iv.  13,  etc.  etc. 

3  Sil.  Ital.  Punica,  iii.  676,  690.  Harduin,  Acta  Condlionim,  vol.  i.  For 
further  evidence  as  to  Semitic  tree-and-gi*ove  wcrj-hip,  sceMoveis,  ^Phonizicr,* 
vol.  i.  p.  560,  etc. 

*  Hunter,  *  Enrol  Bengal,*  pp.  131,  194. 


ANIMISM.  227 

literature,  while  the  Hindu  in  private  life  plants  the  banyan 
and  other  trees  and  worships  them  with  divine  honours.^ 
Greek  and  Boman  mythology  give  perfect  types  not  only  of 
the  beings  attached  to  individual  trees,  but  of  the  dryads, 
fauns,  and  satyrs  living  and  roaming  in  the  forest — crea- 
tures whose  analogues  are  our  own  elves  and  fairies  of 
the  woods.  Above  these  graceful  fantastic  beings  are  the 
higher  deities  who  have  trees  for  shrines  and  groves  for 
temples.  Witness  the  .description  in  Ovid*s  story  of 
Eiisichthon : — 

"  And  Ceres'  grove  he  ravaged  with  the  axe, 
They  say,  and  shamed  with  iron  the  ancient  glades. 
There  stood  a  mighty  oak  of  age-long  strength, 
Festooned  with  garlands,  bearing  on  its  tnmk 
Memorial  tablets,  proofs  of  helpful  vows. 
Beneath,  the  dryads  led  their  festive  dance, 
And  circled  hand-in-hand  the  giant  bole.'' ' 

In  more  prosaic  fashion,  Cato  instructs  the  woodman 
how  to  gain  indemnity  for  thinning  a  holy  grove ;  he  must 
ofiFer  a  hog  in  sacrifice  with  this  prayer,  "  Be  thou  god  or 
goddess  to  whom  this  grove  is  sacred,  permit  me,  by  the 
expiation  of  this  pig,  and  in  order  to  restrain  the  over- 
growth of  this  wood,  etc.,  etc."*  Slavonic  lands  had  their 
groves  where  burned  the  everlasting  fire  of  Piorun  the 
Heaven-god ;  the  old  Prussians  venerated  the  holy  oak  of 
Bomowe,  with  its  drapery  and  images  of  the  gods,  standing 
in  the  midst  of  the  sacred  inviolate  forest  where  no  twig 
might  be  broken  nor  beast  slain ;  and  so  on  down  to  the 
elder-tree  beneath  which  Pushkait  was  worshipped  with 
offerings  of  bread  and  beer.*  The  Keltic  Heaven-god, 
whose  image  was  a  mighty  oak,  the  white-robed  Druids 

^  Boehtlingk  k  Roth,  s.  y.   ' chaityataru.*    Ward,   'Hindoos/  vol.  ii.  p. 
204. 

'  Ovid.  Metamm.  viii.  741. 

»  Cato  de  Re  Rustica,  139  ;  Plin.  xvii.  47. 

*  Hanusch,  'Slaw.  M3^th.'  pp.  98,  229.     Hartknoch,  part  i.  ch.  v.  vii.  ; 
Grimm,  *  D.  M.*  p.  67. 

Q  2 


228  ANIMISM. 

climbing  the  sacred  tree  to  cut  the  mistletoe,  and  sacrificing 
the  two  white  bulls  beneath,  are  types  from  another  national 
group.^  Teutonic  descriptions  begin  with  Tacitus,  "  Lucos 
ac  nemora  consecrant,  deorumque  nominibus  adpellant 
secretum  illud,  quod  sola  reverentia  vident,"  and  the 
curious  passage  which  describes  the  Semnones  entering 
the  sacred  grove  in  bonds,  a  homage  to  the  deity  that  dwelt 
there ;  many  a  century  after,  the  Swedes  were  still  hold- 
ing solemn  sacrifice  and  hanging  the  carcases  of  the 
slaughtered  beasts  in  the  grove  hard  by  the  temple  of 
Upsal.^  With  Christianity  comes  a  crusade  against  the 
holy  trees  and  groves.  Boniface  hews  down  in  the  presence 
of  the  priests  the  huge  oak  of  the  Hessian  Heaven-god,  and 
builds  of  the  timber  a  chapel  to  St.  Peter.  Amator  expos- 
tulated witli  the  hunters  who  hung  the  heads  of  wild  beasts 
to  the  boughs  of  the  sacred  pear-tree  of  Auxerre,  "  Hoc 
opus  idololatrise  culture  est,  non  christianae  elegantissimte 
disciplinse ;  "  but  this  mild  persuasion  not  availing,  he 
chopped  it  down  and  burned  it.  In  spite  of  all  such  efforts, 
the  old  religion  of  the  tree  and  grove  sm'vived  in  Em'ope 
often  in  most  pristine  form.  Within  the  last  two  hundred 
years,  there  were  old  men  in  Gothland  who  would  "  go  to 
pray  under  a  great  tree,  as  their  forefathers  had  done  in 
their  time  ";  and  to  this  day  the  sacrificial  rite  of  pouring 
milk  and  beer  over  the  roots  of  trees  is  said  to  be  kept  up 
on  out-of-the-way  Swedish  farms.^  In  Bussia,  the  Lyeshy 
or  wood-demon  still  protects  the  birds  and  beasts  in  his 
domain,  and  drives  his  flocks  of  field-mice  and  squirrels 
from  forest  to  forest,  when  we  should  say  they  are  migrating. 
The  hunter's  luck  depends  on  his  treatment  of  the  forest- 
spirit,  wherefore  he  will  leave  him  as  a  sacrifice  the  first 
game  he  kills,  or  some  smaller  offering  of  bread  or  salted 
pancake  on  a  stump.  Or  if  one  falls  ill  on  returning  from 
the  forest,  it  is  known  that  tliis  is  the  Lyeshy's  doing,  so 

'  Maxim.  Tyr.  yiii.  ;  Flin.  xvi.  95. 

2  Tacit  Germania,  9,  39,  etc.  ;  Grimm,   *D.  M.'  p.  66. 

•  Hylt^n-Cavallius,  'Warend  och  Wirdame,'  parti,  p.  142. 


ANIMIS>f.  229 

the  patient  carries  to  the  wood  some  bread  and  salt  in  a 
clean  rag,  and  leaving  it  with  a  prayer,  comes  home  cured. ^ 
Names  like  Holyoake  and  Holywood  record  our  own  old 
memories  of  the  holy  trees  and  groves,  memories  long 
lingering  in  the  tenacious  peasant  mind ;  and  it  was  a  great 
and  sacred  Knd^n-tree  with  three  stems,  standing  in  the 
parish  of  Hvitaryd  in  South  Sweden,  which  with  curious 
fitness  gave  a  name  to  the  family  of  Linnaus,  Lastly, 
Jacob  Grimm  even  ventures  to  connect  historically  the 
ancient  sacred  inviolate  wood  with  the  later  royal  forest,  an 
ethnological  argument  which  would  begin  with  the  savage 
adoring  the  Spirit  of  the  Forest,  and  end  with  the  modem 
landowner  preserving  his  pheasants.® 

To  the  modem  educated  world,  few  phenomena  of  the 
lower  civilization  seem  more  pitiable  than  the  spectacle  of 
a  man  worshipping  a  beast.  We  have  learnt  the  lessons  of 
Natural  History  at  last  thoroughly  enough  to  recognize  om* 
superiority  to  our  "younger  brothers,"  as  the  Kcfd  Indians 
call  them,  the  creatures  whom  it  is  our  place  not  to  adore 
but  to  understand  and  use.  By  men  at  lower  levels  of  cul- 
ture, however,  the  inferior  animals  are  viewed  with  a  very 
different  eye.  For  various  motives,  they  have  become  ob- 
jects of  veneration  ranking  among  the  most  important  in 
the  lower  ranges  of  religion.  Yet  I  must  here  speak  shortly 
and  slightly  of  Animal-worship,  not  as  wanting  in  interest, 
but  as  over-abounding  in  difficulty.  Wishing  rather  to 
bring  general  principles  into  view  than  to  mass  uninter- 
preted facts,  all  I  can  satisfactorily  do  is  to  give  some  select 
examples  from  the  various  groups  of  evidence,  so  as  at  once 
to  display  the  more  striking  features  of  the  subject,  and  to 
trace  the  ancient  ideas  upward  from  the  savage  level  far 
into  the  higher  civilization. 

First  and  foremost,  uncultured  man  seems  capable  of 
simply  worshipping  a  beast  as  beast,  looking  on  it  as  pos- 
sessed of  power,  courage,  cunning,  beyond  his  own,  and 

>  Balaton,  'Songs  of  Russian  People,' p.  153,  see  288. 
3  Grimm,  *D.  M.'  p.  62,  etc. 


2  so  ANIMISM. 

rtiiimated  like  a  man  bj  a  soul  which  continues  to  exist  after 
bodily  death,  powerful  as  ever  for  good  and  harm.     Then 
this  idea  blends  with  the  thought  of  the  creature  as  being 
an  incarnate  deity,  seeing,  hearing,  and  acting  even  at  a 
distance,  and  continuing  its  power  after  the  death  of  the 
animal  body  to  which  the  divine  spirit  was  attached.    Thus 
the  Kamchadals,  in  their  simple  veneration  of  all  things 
that  could  do  them  harm  or  good,  worshipped  the  whales 
that  could  overturn  their  boats,  and  the  bears  and  wolves 
of  whom  they  stood  in  fear.     The  beasts,  they  thought, 
could  understand  their  language,  and  therefore  they  ab- 
stained from  calling  them  by  their  names  when  they  met 
them,  but  propitiated  them  with  certain  appointed  formulas.^ 
Tribes  of  Peru,  says  Garcilaso  de  la  Vega,  worshipped  the 
fish  and  vicunas  that  provided  them  food,  the  monkeys  for 
their  cunning,  the  sparrowhawks  for  their  keen  sight.    The 
tiger  and  the  bear  were  to  them  ferocious  deities,  and  man- 
kind, mere  strangers  and  intruders  in  the  land,  might  well 
adore  these  beings,  its  old  inhabitants  and  lords.^     How, 
indeed,  can  we  wonder  that  in  direct  and  simple  awe,  the 
Philippine  islanders,  when  they  saw  an  alligator,  should 
have  prayed  him  with  great  tenderness  to  do  them  no  harm, 
and  to  this  end  offered  him  of  whatever  they  had  in  their 
boats,  casting  it  into  the  water.^      Such  rites  display  at 
least  a  partial  truth  in  the  famous  apophthegm  which  attri- 
butes to  fear  the  origin  of  religion :  "  Primos  in  orbe  deos 
fecit  timoTf^'  *    In  discussing  the  question  of  the  souls  of 
animals  in  a  previous  chapter,  instances  were  adduced  of 
men  seeking  to  appease  by  apologetic  phrase  and  rite  the 
^animals  they  killed.*      It  is  instructive   to   observe  how 
naturally  such  personal  intercourse  between  man  and  animal 
may  pass  into  full  worship,  when  the  creature  is  powerful 

*  Steller,  '  Kamtschatka,'  p.  276. 

^  Garcilaso  de  la  Vega,  *  Comentarios  Reales,*  i.  ch.  ix.  etc. 

•  Marsden,  '  Sumatra,'  p.  803. 

*  PetroD.  Arb.  Fragm. ;  Statius,  iii.  Thel>.  661. 

•  See  ante,  ch.  xi. 


ANIMISM.  231 

or  dangerous  enough  to  claim  it.  When  the  StiSns  of 
Kambodia  asked  pardon  of  the  beast  they  killed,  and  offered 
sacrifice  in  expiation,  they  expressly  did  so  through  fear 
lest  the  creature's  disembodied  soul  should  come  and  tor- 
ment them.^  Yet,  strange  to  say,  even  the  worship  of  the 
animal  as  divine  does  not  prevent  the  propitiatory  ceremony 
from  passing  into  utter  mockery.  Thus  Charlevoix  de- 
scribes North  American  Indians  who,  when  they  had  killed 
a  bear,  would  set  up  its  head  painted  with  many  colours, 
and  offer  it  homage  and  praise  while  they  performed  the 
painful  duty  of  feasting  on  its  body.'  So  among  the  Ainos, 
the  indigenes  of  Yesso,  the  bear  is  a  great  divinity.  It  is 
true  they  slay  him  when  they  can,  but  while  they  are  cut- 
ting him  up  they  salute  him  with  obeisances  and  fair 
speeches,  and  set  up  his  head  outside  the  house  to  preserve 
them  from  misfortune.'  In  Siberia,  the  Yakuts  worship 
the  bear  in  common  with  the  spirits  of  the  forest,  bowing 
toward  his  favourite  haunts  with  appropriate  phrases  of 
prose  and  verse,  in  praise  of  the  bravery  and  generosity  of 
their  "  beloved  uncle."  Their  kindred  the  Ostyaks  swear 
in  the  Bussian  courts  of  law  on  a  bear's  head,  for  the  bear, 
they  say,  is  all-knowing,  and  will  slay  them  if  they  lie. 
This  idea  actually  serves  the  people  as  a  philosophical, 
though  one  would  say  rather  superfluous,  explanation  of  a 
whole  class  of  accidents:  when  a  hunter  is  killed  by  a 
bear,  it  is  considered  that  he  must  at  some  time  have  for- 
sworn himself,  and  now  has  met  his  doom.  Yet  these 
Ostyaks,  when  they  have  overcome  and  slain  their  deity, 
will  stuff  its  skin  with  hay,  kick  it,  spit  on  it,  insult  and 
mock  it  till  they  have  satiated  their  hatred  and  revenge, 
and  are  ready  to  set  it  up  in  a  yurt  as  an  object  of 
worship.* 

Whether  an  animal  be  worshipped  as  the  receptacle  or 

'  Mouhot,  'Indo-Chiua,'  vol.  L  p.  252. 
-  Charlevoix,  *  Nouvelle  France,*  vol.  v.  p.  443. 
3  W.  M.  Wood  in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc'  vol.  iv.  p.  86. 

*  Simpson,  'Journey,'  voL  iL  p.   269  ;  Krman,   'Siberia/  yoL  i.  p.  492  ; 
Latham,  *Doscr.  Eth.*  vol.  i.  p.  466  ;  'Journ.  Ind.  Ar.Mp.*  vol.  iv.  p.  590, 


232  ANIMISM. 

incarnation  of  an  indwelling  divine  soid  or  other  deity,  or 
as  one  of  tlie  myriad  representatives  of  the  presiding  god 
of  its  class,  the  case  is  included  under  and  explained  by  the 
general  theory  of  fetish-worship  already  discussed.  Evi- 
dence which  displays  these  two  conceptions  and  their  blend- 
ing is  singularly  perfect  in  the  islands  of  the  Pacific.  In  the 
Georgian  group,  certain  herons,  kingfishers,  and  woodpeckers 
were  held  sacred  and  fed  on  the  sacrifices,  with  the  distinct 
view  that  the  deities  were  embodied  in  the  birds,  and  in  this 
form  came  to  eat  the  offered  food  and  give  the  oracular  re- 
sponses by  their  cries.^  The  Tongans  never  killed  certain 
birds,  or  the  shark,  whale,  etc.,  as  being  sacred  shrines  in 
which  gods  were  in  the  habit  of  visiting  earth ;  and  if  they 
chanced  in  sailing  to  pass  near  a  whale,  they  would  offer 
scented  oil  or  kava  to  him.'  In  the  Fiji  Islands,  certain 
birds,  fish,  plants,  and  some  men,  were  supposed  to  have 
deities  closely  connected  with  or  residing  in  them.  Thus, 
the  hawk,  fowl,  eel,  shark,  and  nearly  every  other  animal 
became  the  shrine  of  some  deity,  which  the  worshipper  of 
that  deity  might  not  eat,  so  that  some  were  even  tabued 
from  eating  human  flesh,  the  shrine  of  their  god  being  a 
man.  Ndengei,  the  dull  and  otiose  supreme  deity,  had  his 
shrine  or  incarnation  in  the  serpent.^  Every  Samoan 
islander  had  his  tutelary  deity  or  "aitu,"  appearing  in 
some  animal,  an  eel,  shark,  dog,  turtle,  etc.,  which  species, 
became  his  fetish,  not  to  be  slighted  or  injured  or  eaten,  an 
offence  which  the  deity  would  avenge  by  entering  the  sin- 
ner's body  and  generating  his  proper  incarnation  within  him 
till  he  died.*  The  *'  atua  *'  of  the  New  Zealander,  corre- 
sponding with  this  in  name,  is  a  divine  ancestral  soul,  and 
is  also  apt  to  appear  in  the  body  of  an  animal.^  If  we  pass 
to  Sumatra,  we  shall  find  that  the  veneration  paid  by  the 


>  Ellis,  *Polyn.  Res.'  vol.  i.  p.  886. 

^  Farmer,  *  Tonga,*  p.  126  ;  Mariner,  vol.  ii..  p.  106. 

»  Williams,  '  Fiji,'  vol.  1.  p.  217,  etc. 

*  Turner,  '  Polynesia,'  p.  288. 

»  ShorUand,  *Trads.  of  N.  Z.'  ch.  iv. 


ANIMISNf.  233 

Malays  to  the  tiger^  and  their  habit  of  apologizing  to  it 
when  a  trap  is  laid,  is  connected  with  the  idea  of  tigers 
being  animated  by  the  souls  of  departed  men.^  In  other 
districts  of  the  world,  one  of  the  most  important  cases 
connected  with  these  is  the  worship  paid  by  the  North 
American  Indian  to  his  medicine-animal,  of  which  he  kills^ 
one  specimen  to  preserve  its  skin,  which  thenceforth  re- 
ceives adoration  and  grants  protection  as  a  fetish.*  In 
South  Africa,  as  has  been  already  mentioned,  the  Zulus 
hold  that  divine  ancestral  shades  are  embodied  in  certain 
tame  and  harmless  snakes,  whom  their  human  kinsfolk 
receive  with  kindly  respect  and  propitiate  with  food.^  In 
West  Africa,  monkeys  near  a  grave-yard  are  supposed  to 
be  animated  by  the  spirits  of  the  dead,  and  the  general 
theory  of  sacred  and  worshipped  crocodiles,  snakes,  birds, 
bats,  elephants,  hyaenas,  leopards,  etc.,  is  divided  between 
the  two  great  departments  of  the  fetish-theory,  in  some 
cases  the  creature  being  the  actual  embodiment  or  per- 
sonation of  the  spirit,  and  in  other  cases  sacred  to  it  or 
under  its  protection.*  Hardly  any  region  of  the  world 
displays  so  perfectly  as  this  the  worship  of  serpents  as 
fetish-animals  endowed  with  high  spiritual  qualities,  to  kill 
one  of  whom  would  be  an  offence  unpardonable.  For  a 
single  description  of  negro  ophiolatry,  may  be  cited  Bos- 
man's  description  from  Whydah  in  the  Bight  of  Benin ; 
here  the  highest  order  of  deities  were  a  kind  of  snakes 
which  swarm  in  the  villages,  reigned  over  by  that  huge 
chief  monster,  uppermost  and  greatest  and  as  it  were  the 
grandfather  of  all,  who  dwelt  in  his  snake-house  beneath  a 
lofty  tree,  and  there  received  the  royal  offerings  of  meat 
and  drink,  cattle  and  money  and  stuffs.     So  heartfelt  was 

'  Marsden,  'Sumatra,*  p.  292. 

*  Loskiel,  *Ind.  of  N.  A.'  part  L  p.  40 ;  Catlin,  *N.  A.  Ind.'  vol.  L 
p.  86 ;  Schoolcraft,  *  Tribes,'  part  j.  p.  84,  part  v.  p.  662 ;  Waitz,  vol.  iii. 
p.  190. 

'  Secants,  p.  8;  Callaway,  'Rel.  of  Amazuln,' p.  196. 

*  Steinhanser,  *  Religion  des  Negers,*  1.  c.  p.  133.  J.  L.  Wilson,  *  W.  AfrJ 
pp.  210,  218.     Schlegel,  *  Ewc-Sprache,*p.  xv. 


234  ANIMISM. 

the  veneration  of  the  snakes,  that  the  Dutchmen  made  it  a 
means  of  clearing  their  warehouses  of  tiresome  visitors  ;  as 
Bosman  says,  "If  we  are  ever  tired  with  the  natives  of  this 
coimtry,  and  would  fain  be  rid  of  fhem,  we  need  only  speak 
ill  of  the  snake,  at  which  they  immediately  stop  their  ears 
and  run  out  of  doors.**  ^  Lastly,  among  the  Tatar  tribes 
of  Siberia,  Castren  finds  the  explanation  of  the  veneration 
which  the  nomade  pays  to  certain  animals,  in  a  distinct 
fetish-theory  which  he  thus  sums  up :  "  Can  he  also  con- 
trive to  *^propitiate  the  snake,  bear,  wolf,  swan,  and  various 
other  birds  of  the  air  and  beasts  of  the  field,  he  has  in 
them  good  protectors,  for  in  them  are  hidden  mighty 
spirits.** » 

The  cases  of  a  divine  ancestral  soul  worshipped  as  in- 
carnate in  an  animal  bodv,  form  a  link  between  manes- 
worship  and  beast-worship,  and  this  connexion  is  made 
otherwise  in  another  department  of  the  religion  of  the 
lower  races,  the  veneration  of  a  particular  species  of  animal 
by  a  particular  family,  clan,  or  tribe.  It  is  well  known 
that  numerous  tribes  of  mankind  connect  themselves  with, 
oall  themselves  by  the  name  of,  and  even  derive  their 
mythic  pedigree  from,  some  animal,  plant,  or  thing,  but 
most  often  an  animal.  Among  the  Algonquin  Indians  of 
North  America,  the  name  of  such  a  tribe-animal,  as  Bear, 
Wolf,  Tortoise,  Deer,  Babbit,  etc.,  serves  to  designate  each 
of  a  number  of  clans  into  which  the  race  is  divided,  a  man 
belonging  to  each  such  clan  being  himself  actually  spoken 
of  as  a  bear,  wolf,  etc.,  and  the  figures  of  these  creatures 
indicating  his  clan  in  the  native  picture-writing.  Such 
creatures  must  be,  so  far  as  possible,  distinguished  from 
the  mere  patron-animal  of  an  individual,  the  "  medicine  ** 
just  mentioned  among  the  American  Indians.     The  name 


^  Bosman,  'Guinea,'  letter  19;  in  Pinkerton,  voL  zvi.  p.  499.  See 
Burton,  '  Dahome, '  ch.  iv.,  zvii.  An  account  of  the  Yauduux  serpent-worship 
still  carried  on  among  the  negroes  of  Hajrti,  in  'Lippincott's  Magazine,* 
Philadelphia,  March  1870. 

3  Gastrin,  *  Finn.  Myth.*  p.  196,  see  228. 


ANIMISM.  2S5 

or  symbol  of  an  Algonquin  clan-animal  is  called  ''  dodaim/' 
and  this  word,  in  its  usual  form  of  *'  totem,"  has  become 
an  accepted  term  among  ethnologists  to  describe  similar 
<;ustomary  surnames  over  the  world,  the  system  of  dividing 
tribes  in  this  way  being  called  Totemism.  The  origin  of 
totemism  of  course  comes  within  the  domain  of  mythology, 
while  the  social  divisions,  marriage  arrangements,  and  so 
forth,  connected  with  it,  form  a  highly  important  part  of 
the  law  and  custom  of  mankind  at  certain  stages  of  culture. 
It  only  comes  within  the  province  of  religion  so  far  as  the 
clan-animals,  etc.,  are  the  subjects  of  religious  observance, 
or  are  actually  treated  as  patron-deities.  To  some  extent 
this  seems  to  happen  among  the  Algonquins  themselves, 
some  accounts  describing  the  totem-animal  as  being  actually 
regarded  as  the  sacred  object  or  "  medicine  "  or  protector 
of  the  family  bearing  its  name  and  symbol.^  This  is  the 
<}ase  among  certain  Australian  tribes ;  a  family  has  some 
■animal  (or  vegetable)  as  its  "kobong,"  its  friend  or  pro- 
tector, and  a  mysterious  connexion  subsists  between  a  man 
and  his  tribe-animal,  of  which  species  he  is  reluctant  to  kill 
one,  for  it  might  be  his  own  protector,  while  if  his  kobong 
be  a  vegetable,  there  are  restrictions  on  his  gathering  it.^ 
So  in  South  Africa  the  Bechuana  people  are  divided  into 
clans  :  Bakuena,  men  of  the  crocodile  ;  Batlapi,  of  the  fish  ; 
Bataung,  of  the  lion ;  Bamorara,  of  the  wild  vine.  A  man 
does  not  eat  his  tribe  animal  or  clothe  himself  in  its  skin, 
and  if  he  must  kill  it  as  hurtful,  the  lion  for  instance,  he 
asks  pardon  of  it  and  purifies  himself  from  the  sacrilege.^ 
So  in  Asia,  among  the  Kols  of  Chota-Nagpur,  we  find  many 
of  the  Oraon  and  Munda  clans  named  after  animals,  as  Eel, 
Hawk,  Crow,  Heron,  and  they  must  not  kill  or  eat  what 
they  are  named  after ;  it  is  to  be  noticed,  however,  that 
this  only  forms  one  part  of  a  system  of  tribal  food-prohi- 

*  James,  'Long's  Exp.'  yoL  i.  ch.  xv. ;  John  Long,  'Voyages  and  Trayels, 
p.  86.     Wnitx,  voL  iii.  p.  190.     See  'Early  History  of  Mankind,'  p.  286. 
'  Grey,  'Australia,'  vol.  ii.  p.  228. 
^  Casalis,  *  Basntos,'  p.  211 ;  Livingstone,  p.  18. 


236  ANIMISM. 

bitions.^  Among  the  Yakuts  of  Siberia,  again,  each  tribe 
looks  on  some  particular  animal  as  sacred,  and  abstains 
from  eating  it.^  These  facts  seem  to  indicate  not  mere 
accidental  peculiarities,  but  a  wide-spread  common  principle 
acting  among  mankind  in  the  lower  culture.  Mr.  M'Len- 
nan,  in  a  remarkable  investigation,  has  endeavoured  ta 
account  for  much  of  the  wide-spread  animal-worship  of  the 
world  by  considering  it  as  inherited  from  an  early  "  totem- 
stage  of  society."  ^  If  this  view  be  more  or  less  admitted 
as  just,  the  question  then  arises,  what  is  the  origin  of  to- 
temism  ?  Sir  John  Lubbock,  in  his  work  on  the  Origin  of 
Civilization,*  and  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer,^  have  favoured  the 
idea  of  its  springing  from  the  really  very  general  practice 
of  naming  individual  men  after  animals.  Bear,  Deer,  Eagle, 
etc.,  these  becoming  in  certain  cases  hereditary  tribe-names. 
It  must  be  admitted  as  possible  that  such  personal  epithets 
might  become  family  surnames,  and  eventually  give  rise  to 
myths  of  the  families  being  actually  descended  from  the 
animal^  in  question  as  ancestors,  whence  might  arise  many 
other  legends  of  strange  adventures  and  heroic  deeds  of 
ancestors,  to  be  attributed  to  the  quasi-human  animals 
whose  names  they  bore ;  at  the  same  time,  popular  mystifi- 
cation between  the  great  ancestor  and  the  creature  whose 
name  he  held  and  handed  down  to  his  race,  might  lead  to 
veneration  for  the  creature  itself,  and  thence  to  fuU  animal- 
worship.  All  this  might  indeed  possibly  happen,  and  when 
it  did  happen  it  might  set  an  example  which  other  families 
could  imitate,  and  thus  bring  on  the  systematic  division  of 
a  whole  people  into  a  number  of  totem-clans,  each  referred 
to  a  mythic  animal  ancestor.  Yet,  while  granting  that 
such  a  theory  affords  a  rational  interpretation  of  the  obscure 
facts  of  totemism,  we  must  treat  it  as  a  theory  not  vouched 

^  Dalton  in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc*  vol.  vi.  p.  86, 

*  Jjatham,  *Dcscr.  Eth.'  vol.  i.  p.  364. 

*  J.  F.  M'Lennan  in  *  Fortnightly  Review,'  186»-70. 

*  Lubbock,  'Origin  of  Civilization,' p.  183. 

*  Spencer  in  *  Fortnightly  Review,*  1870. 


ANIMISM.  237 

for  by  sufficient  evidence,  and  within  our  knowledge  liable 
to  mislead,  if  pushed  to  extremes.  It  offers  plausible  yet 
quite  unsound  explanations  of  points  of  mythology  and 
theology  which  seem  to  have  direct  and  reasonable  explana- 
tions of  their  own.  We  may  well  shrink  from  using  too 
confidently  a  method  of  myth-interpretation  which  can 
account  for  solar  and  lunar  nature-myths,  by  referring  them 
to  traditions  of  human  heroes  and  heroines  who  chanced  to 
bear  the  names  of  Sun  and  Moon.  As  to  animal-worship, 
when  we  find  men  paying  distinct  and  direct  reverence  to  the 
lion,  the  bear,  or  the  crocodile  as  mighty  superhuman  beings, 
or  adoring  other  beasts,  birds,  or  reptiles  as  incarnations  of 
spiritual  deities,  we  can  hardly  supersede  such  well-defined 
developments  of  animistic  religion,  by  seeking  their  origin 
in  personal  names  of  deceased  ancestors,  who  chanced  to 
be  called  Lion,  Bear,  or  Crocodile. 

The  three  motives  of  animal-worship  which  have  been 
described,  viz.,  direct  worship  of  the  animal  for  itself,  in- 
direct worship  of  it  as  a  fetish  acted  through  by  a  deity, 
and  veneration  for  it  as  a  totem  or  representative  of  a  tribe- 
ancestor,  no  doubt  account  in  no  small  measure  for  the 
phenomena  of  Zoolatry  among  the  lower  races,  due  allow- 
ance being  also  made  for  the  effects  of  myth  and  symbolism, 
of  which  we  may  gain  frequent  glimpses.  Notwithstanding 
the  obscurity  and  complexity  of  the  subject,  a  survey  of 
Animal- worship  as  a  whole  may  yet  justify  an  ethnographic 
view  of  its  place  in  the  history  of  civilization.  If  we  turn 
from  its  appearances  among  the  less  cultured  races  to  notice 
the  shapes  in  which  it  has  held  its  place  among  peoples 
advanced  to  the  stage  of  national  organization  and  stereo- 
typed religion,  we  shall  find  a  reasonable  cause  for  its  new 
position  in  the  theory  of  development  and  survival,  whereby 
ideas  at  first  belonging  to  savage  theology  have  in  part  con- 
tinued to  spread  and  solidify  in  their  original  manner,  while 
in  part  they  have  been  changed  to  accommodate  them  to  more 
advanced  ideas,  or  have  been  defended  from  the  attacks  of 
reason  by  being  set  up  as  sacred  mysteries.  Ancient  E  gypt  was 


238  ANIMISM. 

a  land  of  sacred  cats  and  jackals  and  hawks,  whose  mummies 
are  among  us  to  this  day,  but  the  reason  of  whose  worship 
was  a  subject  too  sacred  for  the  Father  of  History  to  dis- 
cuss. Egyptian  aoimal-worship  seems  to  show,  in  a  double 
line,  traces  of  a  savage  ancestry  extending  into  ages  lying 
far  behind  even  the  remote  antiquity  of  the  Pyramids* 
Deities  patronising  special  sacred  animals,  incarnate  in 
their  bodies,  or  represented  in  their  figures,  have  nowhere 
better  examples  than  the  bull- dynasty  of  Apis,  Horus 
wearing  the  head  of  his  sacred  hawk,  Bubastis  and  her  csi, 
Thoth  and  his  cynocephalus  and  ibis,  the  cow-headed 
Hathor  and  the  hippopotamus  Typhon.  Moreover,  the 
local  character  of  many  of  the  sacred  creatures,  worshipped 
in  certain  nomes  yet  killed  and  eaten  with  impunity  else- 
where, fits  remarkably  with  that  character  of  tribe-fetishes 
and  deified  totems  with  which  Mr.  M*Lennan's  argument  is 
concerned.  See  the  men  of  Oxyrynchos  reverencing  and 
sparing  the  fish  oxyrynchos,  and  those  of  LatopoUs  like- 
wise worshipping  the  latos.  At  Apollinopolis  men  hated 
crocodiles  and  never  lost  a  chance  of  killing  them,  while 
the  people  of  the  Arsinoite  nome  dressed  geese  and  fish  for 
these  sacred  creatures,  adorned  them  with  necklaces  and 
bracelets,  and  mummified  them  sumptuously  when  they 
died.*  In  the  modem  world  the  most  civilized  people 
among  whom  animal-worship  vigorously  survives,  lie  within 
the  range  of  Brahmanism,  where  the  sacred  animal,  the 
deity  incarnate  in  an  animal  or  invested  with  or  symbolized 
by  its  shape,  may  to  this  day  be  studied  in  clear  example.  • 
The  sacred  cow  is  not  merely  to  be  spared,  she  is  as  a  deity 
worshipped  in  annual  ceremony,  daily  perambulated  and 
bowed  to  by  the  pious  Hindu,  who  offers  her  fresh  grass 
and  flowers;  Hanuman  the  monkey -god  has  his  temples 
and  his  idols,  and  in  him  Siva  is  incarnate,  as  Durga  is  in 
the  jackal ;    the  wise  Ganesa  wears  the  elephant*s  head ; 

*  Herod,  ii.  ;  Plularch,  I)e  Iside  &  Osiride  ;  Strabo,  xvii.  1 ;  Wilkinson, 
*  Ancient  Eg.' vol.  i.  ch.  iv.  etc.  Bnnsen,  'Egypt's  Place  in  Uniy.  Hist.' 
2nd  Edition,  with  notes  by  Birch,  vol.  i. 


ANIMISM.  239 

the  divine  king  of  birds,  Garuda,  is  Vishnu's  vehicle  ;  the 
forms  of  fish,  and  boar,  and  tortoise,  were  assumed  in 
those  avatar-legends  of  Vishnu  which  are  at  the  intellectual 
level  of  the  Red  Indian  myths  they  so  curiously  resemble.^ 
The  conceptions  which  underlie  the  Hindu  creed  of  divine 
animals  were  not  ill  displayed  by  that  Hindu  who,  being 
shown  the  pictures  of  Matthew,  Mark,  Luke,  and  John 
with  their  respective  man,  lion,  ox,  and  eagle,  explained 
these  quite  naturally  and  satisfactorily  as  the  avatars  or 
vehicles  of  the  four  evangelists. 

In  Animal-worship,  some  of  the  most  remarkable  cases 
of  development  and  survival  belong  to  a  class  from  which 
striking  instances  have  already  been  taken.  Serpent-wor- 
ship unfortunately  fell  years  ago  into  the  hands  of  specu- 
lative writers,  who  mixed  it  up  with  occult  philosophies, 
Druidical  mysteiies,  and  that  portentous  nonsense  called 
the  "  Arkite  Symbolism,"  till  now  sober  students  hear  the 
very  name  of  Ophiolatry  with  a  sliiver.  Yet  it  is  in  itself 
a  rational  and  instructive  subject  of  inquiry,  especially 
notable  for  its  width  of  range  in  mythology  and  religion. 
We  may  set  out  among  the  lower  races,  with  such  accounts 
as  those  of  the  Bed  Indian's  reverence  to  the  rattlesnake, 
as  grandfather  and  king  of  snakes,  as  a  divine  protector 
able  to  give  fair  winds  or  cause  tempests ;  *  or  of  the  wor- 
ship of  great  snakes  among  the  tribes  of  Peru  before  they 
received  the  religion  of  the  Incas,  as  to  whom  an  old  author 
says,  "  They  adore  the  demon  when  he  presents  himself  to 
them  in  the  figure  of  some  beast  or  serpent,  and  talks  with 
them."  *  Thenceforth  such  examples  of  direct  Ophiolatry 
may  be  traced  on  into  classic  and  barbaric  Europe;  the 
great  serpent  which  defended  the  citadel  of  Athens  and 
enjoyed  its  monthl}'^  honey-cakes  ;  *  the  Roman  genius  loci 
appearing  in  the  form  of  the  snake  (Nullus  enim  locus  sine 

'  Ward,  'Hindoos,'  voL  ii.  p.  195,  etc. 

2  Schoolcraft,  part  iii.  p.  231  ;'  Brintoii,  p.  108,  etc. 

'  Garcilaso  de  la  Vega,  *  Comentarios  Reales,*  i.  9, 

*  Herodot.  Yiii.  41. 


240  ANIMISM. 

genio  est,  qui  per  anguoiii  plerumque  ostenditur) ;  ^  the  old 
Prussian  serpent-worship  and  offering  of  food  to  the 
household  snakes ;  ^  the  golden  viper  adored  by  the  Lom- 
bards, till  Barbatus  got  it  in  his  hands  and  the  goldsmiths 
made  it  into  paten  and  chalice.^  To  this  day,  Europe  has 
not  forgotten  in  nursery  tales  or  more  serious  belief  the 
snake  that  comes  with  its  golden  crown  and  drinks  milk  out 
of  the  child's  porringer ;  the  house- snake,  tame  and  kindly 
but  seldom  seen,  that  cares  for  the  cows  and  the  children 
and  gives  omens  of  a  death  in  the  family;  the  pair  of 
household  snakes  which  have  a  mj'stic  connexion  of  life 
and  death  with  the  husband  and  housewife  themsel^es.^ 
Serpent-worship,  apparently  of  the  directest  sort,  was  pro- 
minent in  the  indigenous  religions  of  Southern  Asia.  It 
now  even  appears  to  have  maintained  no  mean  place  in 
early  Indian  Buddhism,  for  the  sculptures  of  the  Sanchi 
tope  show  scenes  of  adoration  of  the  five-headed  snake- 
deity  in  his  temple,  performed  by  a  race  of  serpent-wor- 
shippers, figuratively  represented  with  snakes  growing  from 
their  shoulders,  and  whose  raja  himself  has  a  five-headed 
snake  arching  hood- wise  over  his  head.  Here,  moreover, 
the  totemtheor}^  comes  into  contact  with  ophiolatry.  The 
Sanskrit  name  of  the  snake,  "  naga,"  becomes  also  the 
accepted  designation  of  its  adorers,  and  thus  mythological 
interpretation  has  to  reduce  to  reasonable  sense  legends  of 
serpent-races  who  turn  out  to  be  simply  serpent-worship- 
pers, tribes  who  have  firom  the  divine  reptiles  at  once  their 
generic  name  of  Nagas,  and  with  it  their  imagined  ancestral 
descent  fi'om  serpents.^  In  different  ways,  these  Naga 
tribes  of  South  Asia  are  on  the  one  hand  analogues  of  the 

'  Somas  ad  ^d.  t.  95. 

'  Hartkuoch,  'Preussen,'  part  i.  pp.  143,  162. 

'  Grimm,  *D.  M.*  p.  648. 

*  Orimm,  'D.  M.*p.  650.  Rochholz,  'Dcutscher  Olaube,'  etc.  vol.  L  p. 
140.  Monnier,  *  Traditions  Populaires,' p.  644.  Grohmann,  '  Aberglaaben 
aus  Bohmen,*  etc.,  p.  78.    Balaton,  ''Songs  of  Russian  People,'  p.  175. 

*  FergTisson,  'Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,'  p.  55,  etc.  pL  xxiv.  McLennan, 
].  c.  p.  568,  etc. 


ANIMISM.  241 

Snake  Indians  of  America,  and  on  the  other  of  the  Ophio- 
genes  or  Serpent-race  of  the  Troad,  kindred  of  the  vipers 
whose  bite  they  could  cure  by  touch,  and  descendants  of  an 
ancient  hero  transformed  mto  a  snake.^ 

Serpents  hold  a  prominent  place  in  the  religions  of  the 
worldy  as  the  incarnations,  shrines,  or  symbols  of  high 
deities.  Such  were  the  rattlesnake  worshipped  in  the 
Natchez  temple  of  the  Sun,  and  the  snake  belonging  in 
name  and  figure  to  the  Aztec  deity  Quetzalcoatl ;  ^  the 
snake  as  worshipped  still  by.  the  Slave  Coast  negro,  not  for 
itself  but  for  its  indwelling  deity ; '  the  snake  kept  and  fed 
with  milk  in  the  temple  of  the  old  Slavonic  god  Potrimpos  ;* 
the  serpent-symbol  of  the  healing  deity  Asklepios,  who 
abode  in  or  manifested  himself  through  the  huge  tame 
snakes  kept  in  his  temples  '^  (it  is  doubtful  whether  this  had 
any  original  connexion  with  the  adoption  of  the  snake,  from 
its  renewal  by  casting  its  old  sloughy  as  the  accepted  emblem 
of  new  life  or  immortality  in  later  symbolism)  ;  and  lastly, 
the  Phoenician  serpent  with  its  tail  in  its  mouth,  symbol  of 
the  world  and  of  the  Heaven-god  Taaut,  in  its  original 
meaning  probably  a  mythic  world-snake  like  the  Scandina- 
vian Midgard-worm,  but  in  the  changed  fancy  of  later  ages 
adapted  into  an  emblem  of  eternity .•  It  scarcely  seems 
proved  that  savage  races,  in  all  their  mystic  contemplations 
of  the  serpent,  ever  developed  out  of  their  own  minds  the 
idea,  to  us  so  familiar,  of  adopting  it  as  a  personification  of 
evilJ  In  ancient  times,  we  may  ascribe  this  character  per- 
haps to  the  monster  whose  well-known  form  is  to  be  seen 
on  the  mummy-cases,  the  Apophis-serpent  of  the  Egyptian 

»  Strabo,  xiii.  1,  14. 

*  J.  G.  Miiller,  '  Amer.  Urrel.'  pp.  62,  585. 

*  J.  B.  Schlflgel,  'Ewe-Sprache,'  p.  xiy. 

*  Hanusch,  'Slaw.  Myth.*  p.  217. 

*  PaoBan.  ii  28  ;  ^lian.  xvi  89.    See  Welcker,  *  Griech.  GotterL'  yoL  ii. 
p.  784. 

*  Macrob.  SatarnaL  i.  9,    Movers,  'Phdnizier/  vol.  i.  p.  500. 

7  Details  such  as  in  Schoolcraft,  'Ind.  Tribes,'  part  i  pp.  88,  414,  may  be 
ascribed  to  Christian  intercourse.    See  Brinton,  p.  121. 

TOU  II.  K 


242  ANIMISM. 

Hades ;  ^  and  it  unequivocally  belong  to  the  Wicked  Ser- 
pent of  the  Zarathustrians,  Aji  Dahaka,'  a  figure  which 
bears  so  remarkable  a  relation  to  that  of  the  Semitic  serpent 
of  Eden,  which  may  possibly  stand  in  historical  connexion 
with  it.  A  wondrous  blending  of  the  ancient  rites  of  Ophi- 
olatry with  mystic  conceptions  of  Gnosticism  appears  in  the 
cultus  which  tradition  (in  truth  or  slander)  declares  the  semi- 
Christian  sect  of  Ophites  to  have  rendered  to  their  tame 
snake,  enticing  it  out  of  its  chest  to  coil  round  the  sacra- 
mental bread,  and  worshipping  it  as  representing  the  great 
king  from  heayen  who  in  the  beginning  gave  to  the  man 
and  woman  the  knowledge  of  the  mysteries.^  Thus  the 
extreme  types  of  religious  veneration,  from  the  soberest 
matter-of-fact  to  the  dreamiest  mysticism,  find  their  places- 
in  the  worship  of  animals.'^ 

Hitherto  in  the  study  of  animistic  doctrine,  our  attention 
has  been  turned  especially  to  those  minor  spirits  whose 
functions  concern  the  closer  and  narrower  detail  of  man's- 
life  and  its  surroundings.  In  passing  thence  to  the  con- 
sideration of  divine  beings  whose  functions  have  a  wider 
scope,  the  transition  may  be  well  made  through  a  special 
group.  An  acute  remark  of  Auguste  Comte's  calls  attention 
to  an  important  process  of  theological  thought,  which  we 
may  here  endeavour  to  bring  as  clearly  as  possible  before 
our  minds.  In  his  "  Philosophie  Positive,"  he  defines 
deities  proper  as  differing  by  their  general  and  abstract 
character  from  pure  fetishes  (i.  e.,  animated  objects),  the 
humble  fetish  governing  but  a  single  object  from  which 
it  is  inseparable,  while  the  gods  administer  a  special  order 
of  phenomena  at  once  in  different  bodies.    When,  he  con- 

^  Lepsius,  '  Todtenbnch  *  and  Birch's  transl.  in  Bunsen's  *  Egypt,'  toL  v. 

*  Spiegel,  *  Avesta,*  tr.  by  Bleek,  vol.  it  p.  61,  voL  iiL  p.  35. 

^  Epiphan.  Ady.  Hieres.  zzxyii.  TertuUian.  DePrsescript  contra  Hsereticos^ 
47. 

^  Farther  coUoctions  of  evidence  relating  to  Zoolatry  in  general  may  be* 
found  in  Bastian,  'Das  Thier  in  seiner  mythologischen  Bedentung/  in 
Bantian  and  Hartmann's  'Zeitschrift  fUr  Ethnologic,'  vol.  i.  ;  Meiners, 
*  Geschiclite  der  Beligionen/  vol.  i. 


ANIMISM.  243 

tinues,  the  similar  vegetation  of  the  dijQferent  oaks  of  a 
forest  led  to  a  theological  generalization  from  their  common 
phenomena,  the  abstract  being  thus  produced  was  no  longer 
the  fetish  of  a  single  tree,  but  became  the  god  of  the  forest ; 
here,  then,  is  the  intellectual  passage  from  fetishism  to 
polytheism,  reduced  to  the  inevitable  preponderance  of 
specific  over  individual  ideas.^  Now  this  observation  of 
Comte's  may  be  more  immediately  applied  to  a  class  of 
divine  beings  which  may  be  accurately  called  species-deities* 
It  is  highly  suggestive  to  study  the  crude  attempts  of  bar- 
baric theology  to  account  for  the  uniformity  observed  in 
large  classes  of  objects,  by  making  this  generalization  from 
individual  to  specific  ideas.  To  explain  the  existence  of 
what  we  call  a  species,  they  would  refer  it  tb  a  common 
ancestral  stock,  or  to  an  original  archetjrpe,  or  to  a  species- 
deity,  or  they  combined  these  conceptions.  For  such  spe- 
culations, classes  of  plants  and  animals  offered  perhaps  an 
early  and  certainly  an  easy  subject.  The  uniformity  of  each 
kind  not  only  suggested  a  common  parentage,  but  also  the 
notion  that  creatures  so  wanting  in  individuality,  with 
qualities  so  measured  out  as  it  were  by  line  and  rule,  might 
not  be  independent  arbitrary  agents,  but  mere  copies  from 
%  common  model,  or  mere  instruments  used  by  controlling 
deities.  Thus  in  Polynesia,  as  has  been  just  mentioned,. 
certain  species  of  animals  were  considered  as  incarnations 
of  certain  deities,  and  among  the  Samoans  we  learn  that 
the  question  as  to  the  individuality  of  such  creatures  was. 
actually  asked  and  answered.  If,  for  instance,  a  village 
god  were  accustomed  to  appear  as  an  owl,  and  one  of  his 
votaries  found  a  dead  owl  by  the  roadside,  he  would  mourn 
over  the  sacred  bird  and  bury  it  with  much  ceremony,  but 
the  god  himself  would  not  be  thought  to  be  dead,  for  he 
remains  incarnate  in  all  existing  owls.^  According  to 
Father  Geronimo  Boscana,  the  Acagchemen  tribe  of  Upper 
California  furnish  a  curious  parallel  to  this  notion.     They 

*  Comte,  *  Philosophie  Positive,'  vol.  v.  p.  101. 

*  Turner,  '  Tolyncsia,'  p.  242. 

n  3 


244  ANIMISIL 

worshipped  the  "  panes  "  bird,  which  seems  to  have  been 
an  eagle  or  vulture^  and  each  year,  in  the  temple  of  each 
Tillage,  one  of  them  was  solemnly  killed  without  shedding 
blood,  and  the  body  burned.  Yet  the  natives  maintained 
and  believed  that  it  was  the  same  individual  bird  they  sacri- 
ficed each  year,  and  more  than  this,  that  the  same  bird  was 
slain  by  each  of  the  villages.^  Among  the  comparatively 
cultured  Peruvians,  Acosta  describes  another  theory  of 
celestial  archetypes.  Speaking  of  star-deities,  he  says  that 
shepherds  venerated  a  certain  star*  called  Sheep,  another 
star  called  Tiger  protected  men  from  tigers,  etc. :  *'  And 
generally,  of  all  the  animals  and  birds  there  are  on  the 
earth,  they  believed  that  a  like  one  lived  in  heaven,  in  whose 
charge  wer^  their  procreation  and  increase,  and  thus  they 
accounted  of  divers  stars,  such  as  that  they  call  Chacana, 
find  Topatorca,  and  Mamana,  and  Mizco,  and  Miquiquiray, 
find  other  such,  so  that  in  a  manner  it  appears  that  they 
were  drawing  towards  the  dogma  of  the  Platonic  ideas."  « 
The  North  American  Indians  also  have  speculated  as  to  the 
common  ancestors  or  deities  of  species.  One  missionary 
notes  down  their  idea  as  he  foimd  it  in  1634.  '^  They  say, 
moreover,  that  all  the  animals  of  each  species  have  an  elder 
brother,  who  is  as  it  were  the  principle  and  origin  of  all  the 
individuals,  and  this  elder  brother  is  marvellously  great  and 
powerful.  The  elder  brother  of  the  beavers,  they  told  me, 
is  perhaps  as  large  as  our  cabin."  Another  early  account 
is  thiat  each  species  of  animals  has  its  archetype  in  the  land 
of  souls  ;  there  exists,  for  example,  a  manitu  or  archetj^e 
of  all  oxen,  which  animates  all  oxen.^  Here,  again,  occurs 
a  noteworthy  correspondence  with  the  ideas  of  a  distant 
race.     In  Buyan,  the  island  paradise  of  Eussian  myth,  there 


1  Brinton,  'Myths  of  New  World,'  p.  106. 

'  Acosta,  'Historia  de  las  Indias/  book  y.  c.  iv.  ;  Rivero  &  Tschudi,  pp. 
161,  179  ;  J.  G.  Mailer,  p.  865. 

'  ]  je  Jeane  in  *  ReL  des  Jes .  dans  la  Nouvelle  France, '  1634,  p .  13.  Lafitau, 
'Moeurs  des  Saavages,'  vol.  L  p.  870.  See  also  Waitz,  yoL  iii  p.  194; 
Schoolcraft,  part  iU.  p.  827. 


ANIMIS^t  245 

are  to  be  found  the  Suake  older  than  all  snakes,  and  the 
prophetic  Haven,  elder  brother  of  all  ravens,  and  the  Bird, 
the  largest  and  oldest  of  all  birds,  with  iron  beak  and 
copper  claws,  and  the  Mother  of  Bees,  eldest  among  bees.^ 
Moi^an's  comparatively  modem  account  of  the  Iroquois 
mentions  their  belief  in  a  spirit  of  each  species  of  trees 
and  plants,  as  of  oak,  hemlock,  maple,  whortleberry,  rasp- 
beny,  spearmint,  tobacco ;  most  objects  of  nature  being 
thus  under  the  care  of  protecting  spirits.^  The  doctrine  of 
such  species-deities  is  perhaps  nowhere  more  definitely 
stated  than  by  Castren  in  his  '^  Finnish  Mythology."  In 
his  description  of  the  Siberian  nature-worship,  the  lowest 
level  is  exemplified  by  the  Samoyeds,  whose  direct  worship 
of  natural  objects  for  themselves  may  perhaps  indicate  the 
original  religious  condition  of  the  whole  Turanian  race. 
But  the  doctrine  of  the  comparatively  cultured  heathen 
Finns  was  at  a  different  stage.  Here  every  object  in  nature 
has  a  *'  haltia,"  a  guardian  deity  or  genius,  a  being  which 
was  its  creator  and  thenceforth  became  attached  to  it. 
These  deities  or  genii  are,  however,  not  boimd  to  each 
single  transitory  object,  but  are  free  personal  beings  which 
have  movement,  form,  body,  and  soul.  Their  existence  in 
no  wise  depends  on  the  existence  of  the  individual  objects, 
for  although  no  object  in  nature  is  without  its  guardian 
deity,  this  deity  extends  to  the  whole  race  or  species.  This 
ash-tree,  this  stone,  this  house,  has  indeed  its  particular 
*'haltia,"  yet  these  same  "lialtiat"  concern  themselves 
with  other  ash-trees,  stones,  and  houses,  of  which  the  indi- 
"dduals  may  perish,  but  their  presiding  genii  live  on  in  the 
species.^  It  seems  as  thoifgh  some  similar  view  ran  through 
the  doctrine  of  more  civilized  races,  as  in  the  well-known 

^  Ralston^  '  Songs  of  the  Rnssian  People/  p.  375.     The  Slayonic  myth  of 
Bnyan,  willi  its  dripping  oak  and  the  snake  (rarafena  lying  beneath,  is. 
ohvionsly  connected  with  the  Scandinavian   myth    of  the  dripping  ash, 
Yggdrasill,  the  snake  Nidhogg  below,  and  the  two  Swans  of  the  Urdhar-foant^ 
parents  of  all  swans. 

'  Morgan,  '  Iroquois,*  p.  162. 

»  Ckatrtn,  'Finn.  Myth.*  pp.  106,  160, 189,  etc 


246  ANIMISM. 

^Ryptian  and  Greek  examples  where  whole  species  of  ani* 
nS  plants,  or  things,  st^d  as  symboUc  off  and  as  pro- 
tected  by,  particular  deities.  The  thought  appears  with 
most  perfect  clearness  in  the  Rabbinical  philosophy  which 
apportions  to  each  of  the  2100  species,  of  plants  for  in- 
stance, a  presiding  angel  in  heaven,  and  assigns  this  as  the 
motive  of  the  Levitical  prohibition  of  mixtures  among  ani- 
mals and  plants.^  The  interesting  likeness  pointed  out  by 
Father  Acosta  ^between  these  crude  theological  conceptions 
and  the  civilized  philosophical  conceptions  which  have  re- 
placed them,  was  again  brought  into  view  in  the  last  century 
by  the  President  De  Brosses,  in  comparing  the  Bed  Indians* 
archetypes  of  species  with  the  Platonic  archetypal  ideas.^ 
As  for  animals  and  plants,  the  desire  of  naturalists  to  ascend 
to  primal  unity  to  some  extent  finds  satisfaction  in  a  theory 
tracing  each  species  to  an  origin  in  a  single  pair.  AbA 
though  this  is  out  of  the  question  with  inanimate  objects, 
oui'  language  seems  in  suggestive  metaphor  to  lay  hold  on 
the  same  thought,  when  we  say  of  a  dozen  similar  swords, 
or  garments,  or  chairs,  that  they  have  the  same  pattern 
(patronus,  as  it  were  father),  whereby  they  were  shaped 
from  their  matter  (materia,  or  mother  substance). 

^  Eisenmenger,  *Judenthum,'  part  ii.  p.  876;  Bafitian,  'Menscli,'  vol.  iii- 
p.  194. 
«  De  Brosses,  'Pienx  Fetiches,'  p.  58. 


CHAPTER  XVI. 

ANIMISM— con<in«(«(^ 

Higher  Deities  of  Polytheiflm — Human  characteristics  applied  to  Deity-— Lords 
of  Spiritual  Hierarchy— Polytheism  :  its  coarse  of  development  in  lower  . 
and  higher  Culture — Principles  of  its  investigation  ;  classification  of 
Deities  according  to  central  conceptions  of  their  significance  and  function 
— Heaven-god — Rain-god—Thunder-god— Wind-god— Earth-god — ^Water- 
god— Sea-god — Fire-god — S.un-god — ^Moon-god. 

Surveying  the  religions  of  the  world  and  studying  the 
descriptions  of  deity  among  race  after  race,  we  may  recur 
to  old  polemical  terms  in  order  to  define  a  dominant  idea  of 
theology  at  large.  Man  so  habitually  ascribes  to  his  deities 
human  shape,  human  passions,  human  nature,  that  we  may- 
declare  him  an  Anthropomorphite,  an  Anthropopathite,  and 
^to  complete  the  series)  an  Anthropophysite.  In  this  state  . 
of  religious  thought,  prevailing  as  it  does  through  so  im- 
mense a  range  among  mankind,  one  of  the  strongest  con- 
firmations may  be  found  of  the  theory  here  advanced  con- 
cerning the  development  of  Animism.  This  theory  that 
the  conception  of  the  himian  soul  is  the  very  "  fons  et 
origo"  of  the  conceptions  of  spirit  and  deity  in  general, 
lias  been  already  vouched  for  by  the  fact  of  human  souls 
being  held  to  pass  into  the  characters  of  good  and  evil 
demons,  and  to  ascend  to  the  rank  of  deities.  But  beyond 
ibis,  as  we  consider  the  nature  of  the  great  gods  of  the 
nations,  in  whom  the  vastest  functions  of  the  universe  are 
Tested,  it  will  still  be  apparent  that  these  mighty  deities  are 
modelled  on  human  souls,  that  in  great  measure  their  feeling 
and  sympathy,  their  character  and  habit,  their  will  and 
action,  even  their  material  and  form,  display  thi*oughout 


248  ANIMISM. 

their  adaptations^  exaggerations  and  distortions,  charac- 
teristics shaped  upon  those  of  the  human  spirit.  The  key^ 
to  investigation  of  the  Dii  Majorum  Gentium  of  the  world 
is  the  reflex  of  humanity,  and  as  we  behold  their  figures  in 
their  proper  districts  of  theology,  memory  ever  brings  back 
the  Psalmist's  words,  '^  Thou  thoughtest  I  was  altogether 
as  thyself." 

The  higher  deities  of  Polytheism  have  their  places  in  the 
general  animistic  system  of  mankind.  Among  nation  after 
nation  it  is  still  clear  how,  man  being  the  type  of  deity,, 
human  society  and  goverment  became  the  model  on  which 
divine  society  and  government  were  shaped.  As  chiefs  and 
kings  are  among  men,  so  are  the  great  gods  among  the 
lesser  spirits.  They  differ  from  the  souls  and  minor 
spiritual  beings  which  we  have  as  yet  chiefly  considered,, 
but  the  difference  is  rather  of  rank  than  of  nature.  They 
are  personal  spirits,  reigning  over  personal  spirits.  Above 
the  disembodied  souls  and  manes,  the  local  genii  of  rocks 
and  fountains  and  trees,  the  host  of  good  and  evil  demons,, 
and  the  rest  of  the  spiritual  commonalty,  stand  these 
mightier  deities,  whose  influence  is  less  confined  to  local  or 
individual  interests,  and  who,  as  it  pleases  them,  can  act 
directly  within  their  vast  domain,  or  control  and  operate 
through  the  lower  beings  of  their  kind,  their  servants,, 
agents,  or  mediators.  The  great  gods  of  Polytheism,  whose 
dominion  thus  stretches  far  and  wide  over  the  world,  are 
not,  any  more  than  the  lower  spirits,  creations  of  a  civilized 
theology.  In  the  rudest  religions  of  the  lower  races,  their 
principal  types  were  already  cast,  and  thenceforward,  for 
many  an  age  of  progressing  or  relapsing  culture,  it  became 
the  work  of  poet  and  priest,  legend-monger  and  historian,, 
theologian  and  philosopher,  to  develop  and  renew,  to  de- 
grade and  abolish,  the  mighty  lords  of  the  Pantheon. 

With  little  exception,  wherever  a  savage  or  barbaric  sys- 
tem of  religion  is  thoroughly  described,  reigning  deities^ 
make  their  appearance  in  the  spiritual  world  as  distinctly 
as  chiefs  in  the  human  tribe.     These  beings  need  by  no 


ANIMISM.  249 

means  correspond  in  nature  and  function  between  tribe  and 

tribe^  yet  for  the  most  part  each  is  a  dejSnite  theological 

figure  with  a  definite  meaning  and  origin^  and  as  such 

recurs  in  many  districts,  while  its  definition  finds  its  proper 

pigeon-hole  in  the   ethnographer's  generalization.      This 

state  of  things  comes  into  view  at  a  glance.    Even  among: 

the  AustraUans,  above  the  swarming  souls,  nature-spirits, 

demons,  there  stand  out  mythic  figures  of  higher  divinity ; 

Nguk-wonga,  the  Spirit  of  the  Waters ;  Biam,  who  gives- 

ceremonial  songs  and  causes  disease,  and  is  perhaps  the- 

same  as  Baiame  the  creator ;  Nambajandi  and  Warrugura, 

lords  of  heaven  and  the  nether  world.^     In  South  America^ 

if  we  look  into  the  theology  of  the  Manaos  (whose  name  is 

well  known  in  the  famous  legend  of  El  Dorado  and  the 

golden  city  of  Manoa),  we  see  Mauari  and  Saraua,  who  may 

be  called  the  Good  and  EvU  Spirit,  and  beside  the  latter 

the  two  Gamainhas,  Spirits  of  the  Waters  and  the  Forest.* 

In  North  America  the  description  of  a  solemn  Algonquin 

sacrifice  introduces  us  to  twelve  dominant  manitus  or  gods ; 

first  the  Great  Manitu  in  heaven,  then  the  Sun,  Moon^ 

Earth,  Fire,  Water,  the  House-god,  the  Indian  com,  and 

the  four  Winds  or  Cardinal  Points.^      The  Polynesian's 

crowd  of  manes,  and  the  lower  ranks  of  deities  of  earthy 

sea,  and  air,  stand  below  the  great  gods  of  Peace  and  War,. 

Oro  and  Tane  the  national  deities  of  Tahiti  and  Huahine, 

Raitubu  the  Sky-producer,  Hina  who  aided  in  the  work  of 

forming  the  world,  her  father  Taaroa,  the  uncreate  Creator 

who  dwells  in  Heaven.*  Among  the  Land  Dayaks  of  Borneo,. 

the   commonalty  of  spirits   consists   of  the   souls  of  the 

departed,  and  of  such  beings  as  dwell  in  the  noble  old 

forests  on  the  tops  of  lofty  hills,  or  such  as  hover  about 

villages  and  devour  the  stores  of  rice;   above  these  are 

Tapa,  creator  and  preserver  of  man,  and  lang,  who  taught 

"  Eyre,  '  Auatralia,'  voL  il  p.  862  ;  Oldfield  in  *  Tr.  Eth.  Soa'  voL  iii.  p. 
228  ;  Lang,  <  Queensland,'  p.  444. 
*  Martins,  'Ethnog.  Amer.*  vol.  i,  p.  688. 
'  Loskiel,  '  Ind.  of  N.  America,'  part  i.  p.  48. 
-•  Ellis,  'Polyn.  Res-'voL  i.  p.  822. 


250  ANIMISM. 

the  Dayaks  their  religion,  Jirong,  whose  function  is  the 
birth  and  death  of  men,  and  Tenabi,  who  made,  and  still 
causes  to  flourish,  the  eaiiJi  and  all  things  therein  save  the 
human  race.^  In  West  Africa,  let  us  take  an  example  from 
the  theology  of  the  Slave  Coast,  a  systematic  scheme  of  all 
nature  as  moved  and  quickened  by  spirits,  kindly,  or  hostile 
to  mankind.  These  spirits  dwell  in  field  and  wood,  moun- 
4iain  and  valley ;  they  live  in  air  and  water;  multitudes  of 
them  have  been  human  souls,  such  ghosts  hover  about  the 
graves  and  near  the  living,  and  have  influence  with  the 
under-gods,  whom  they  worship ;  among  these  "  edrO  *'  are 
the  patron-deities  of  men  and  families  and  tribes;  through 
these  subordinate  beings  works  the  highest  god,  Mawu. 
The  missionary  who  describes  this  negro  hierarchy  quite 
«imply  sees  in  it  Satan  and  his  Angels.^  In  Asia,  the 
Samoyed*s  little  spirits  tliat  are  bound  to  his  little  fetishes, 
and  the  little  elves  of  wood  and  stream,  have  greater  beings 
^bove  them,  the  Forest-Spirit,  the  River-Spirit,  the  Sun 
And  Moon,  the  Evil  Spirit  and  the  Good  Spirit  above  all.* 
The  countless  host  of  the  local  gods  of  the  Ehonds  per- 
vade the  world,  rule  the  functions  of  nature,  and  control 
the  life  of  men,  and  these  have  their  chiefs ;  above  them 
rank  the  deified  souls  of  men  who  have  become  tutelary 
£ods  of  tribes ;  above  these  are  the  six  great  gods,  the  Bain- 
goi,  the  goddess  of  Firstfruits,  the  god  of  Increase,  the  god 
of  Hunting,  the  iron  god  of  War,  the  god  of  Boundaries, 
with  which  group  stands  also  the  Judge  of  the  Dead,  and 
above  all  other  gods,  the  Sun-god  and  Creator  Boora 
Fennu,  and  his  wife  the  mighty  Earth-goddess,  Tari  Pennu> 
The  Spanish  conquerors  found  in  Mexico  a  complex  and 
systematic  hierarchy  of  spiritual  beings ;  numberless  were 
the  little  deities  who  had  their  worship  in  house  and  lane, 

*  St.  John,  'Far  East,'  voL  i.  p.  180. 

'  J.  B.  Schlegel,  'Schiissel  zur  Ewo  Sprache/  p.  xiL  ;  compare  Bofvren, 
**  Yoruba  Lang.'  in  'Smithsonian  Ck>ntrib.'  vol.  i  p.  xvL 

*  Samoiedia,  in  Pinkerton,  toI.  i.  p.  581. 
^  Macpherson,  p.  84,  etc. 


ANIMISM.  251 

grove  and  temple,  and  from  these  the  worshipper  could 
pass  to  gods  of  flowers  or  of  pulque,  of  hunters  and  gold-^ 
smiths,  and  then  to  the  great  deities  of  the  nation  and  the 
world,  the  figures  which  the  mythologist  knows  so  well, 
Centeotl  the  Earth-goddess,  Tlaloc  the  Water-God,  Huit- 
2ilopochtli  the  War-god,  Mictlanteuctli  the  Lord  of  Hades, 
Tonatiuh  and  Metztli  the  Sun  and  Moon.^  Thus,  starting 
from  the  theology  of  savage  tribes,  the  student  arrives  at 
the  polytheistic  hierarchies  of  the  Aryan  nations.  In 
ancient  Greece,  the  cloud-compelling  Heaven-god  reigns 
over  such  deities  as  the  god  of  War  and  the  goddess  of 
Love,  the  Sun-god  and  the  Moon-goddess,  the  Fire-god  and 
the  ruler  of  the  Under-world,  the  Winds  and  Rivers,  the 
nymphs  of  wood  and  well  and  forest.'  Li  modem  India, 
Brahma-Vishnu-Siva  reign  prominent  over  a  series  of 
divinities,  heterogeneous  and  often  obscure  in  nature,  but 
among  whom  stand  out  in  clear  meaning  and  purpose  such 
figures  as  Indra  of  Heaven  and  Surya  of  the  Sun,  Agni  of 
the  Fire,  Pavana  of  the  Winds  and  Varuna  of  the  Waters, 
Yama  lord  of  the  Under-world,  K&ma  god  of  Love  and 
Karttikeya  of  War,  Panchanana  who  gives  epilepsy  and 
Manas4  who  preserves  from  snake-bites,  the  divine  Bivers, 
and  below  these  the  ranks  of  nymphs,  elves,  demons,  minis- 
tering spirits  of  heaven  and  earth — Gandharvas,  Apsaras, 
Siddhas,  Asuras,  Bhutas,  B&kshasas.^ 

The  8fystematic  comparison  of  polytheistic  religions  has 
been  of  late  years  worked  with  admirable  results.  These 
have  been  due  to  the  adoption  of  comparatively  exact 
methods,  as  where  the  ancient  Aryan  deities  of  the  Veda 
have  been  brought  into  connexion  with  those  of  the  Homeric 
poems,  in  some  cases  as  clearly  as  where  we  Englishmen 
can  study  in  the  Scandinavian  Edda  the  old  gocb  of  our 
own  race,  whose  names  stand  in  local  names  on  the  map  of 
England,  and  serve  as  counters  to  reckon  our  days  of  the 

^  Clayigero,  '  Messico,*  vol.  ii  ch.  i. 

^  Gladstone,  '  Jayentus  Mandi,*  ch..  viL  etc. 

»  Ward,  'Hindoos,'  vol.  ii. 


252  ANIMISM. 

week.  Yet  it  need  scarcely  be  said  that  to  compare  in  Ml 
Retail  the  deities  even  of  closely  connected  nations^  and  a 
fortiori  those  of  tribes  not  nnited  in  language  and  history, 
is  still  a  difficult  and  unsatisfactory  task.  The  old-fashioned 
identifications  of  the  gods  and  heroes  of  dijBferent  nations 
admitted  most  illusory  evidence.  Some  had  little  more 
ground  than  similar-sounding  names,  as  when  the  Hindu 
Brahma  and  Prajftpati  were  discovered  to  be  the  Hebrew 
Abraham  and  Japhet,  and  when  even  Sir  William  Jones 
identified  Woden  with  Buddha.  With  not  much  more 
stringency,  it  is  still  often  taken  as  matter  of  course  that 
the  Keltic  Beal,  whose  bealtines  correspond  with  a  whole 
class  of  bonfire-customs  among  several  branches  of  the  Aryan 
race,  is  the  Bel  or  the  Baal  of  the  Semitic  cultus.  Unfor* 
tunately,  classical  scholarship  at  the  Renaissance  started 
the  subject  on  an  unsound  footing,  by  accepting  the  Greek 
deities  with  the  mystified  shapes  and  perverted  names  they 
had  assumed  in  Latin  literature.  That  there  was  a  partial 
soundness  in  such  comparisons,  as  in  identifying  Zeus  and 
Jupiter,  Hestia  and  Vesta,  made  the  plan  all  the  more  mis* 
leading  when  Eronos  came  to  figure  as  Saturn,  Poseidon 
as  Neptune,  Athene  as  Minerva.  To  judge  by  example  of 
the  possible  results  of  comparative  theology  worked  on  such 
principles,  Thoth  being  identified  with  Hermes,  Hermes 
with  Mercury,  and  Mercury  with  Woden,  there  comes  to 
pass  the  absurd  transition  from  the  Egyptian  ibis-headed 
divine  scribe  of  the  gods,  to  the  Teutonic  heaven-dwelling 
driver  of  the  raging  tempest.  It  is  not  in  this  loose  fashion 
that  the  mental  processes  are  to  be  sought  out,  which  led 
nations  to  arrange  so  similarly  and  yet  so  diversely  their 
array  of  deities. 

A  twofold  perplexity  besets  the  soberest  investigator  on 
this  ground,  caused  by  the  modification  of  deities  by  deve* 
lopment  at  home  and  adoption  from  abroad.  Even  among 
the  lower  races,  gods  of  long  traditional  legend  and  worship 
acquire  a  mixed  and  complex  personality.  The  mythologist 
who  seeks  to  ascertain  the  precise  definition  of  the  Bed 


ANIMISM.  253 

Indian  Michabu  in  his  various  characters  of  Heaven-god 
and  Water-gody  Creator  of  the  Earth  and  first  ancestor  of 
Man,  or  who  examines  the  personality  of  the  Foljmesian 
Maui  in  his  relation  to  Sun,  lord  of  Heaven  or  Hades,  first 
Man,  and  South  Sea  Island  hero,  will  sympathize  with  the 
Semitic  or  Aryan  student  bewildered  among  the  hetero- 
geneous attributes  of  Baal  and  Astarte,  Herakles  and 
Athene.  Sir  William  Jones  scarcely  overstated  the  per- 
plexity of  the  problem  in  the  following  remarkable  forecast 
delivered  more  than  eighty  years  ago,  in  the  first  anniver- 
sary discourse  before  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  at  a 
time  when  glimpses  of  the  relation  of  the  Hindu  to  the 
Greek  Pantheon  were  opening  into  a  new  broad  view  of 
comparative  theology  in  his  mind.  '*  We  must  not  be  sur- 
prised," he  says,  "  at  finding,  on  a  close  examination,  that 
the  characters  of  all  the  Pagan  deities,  male  and  female, 
melt  into  each  other  and  at  last  into  one  or  two ;  for  it 
seems  a  well-founded  opinion,  that  the  whole  crowd  of  gods 
and  goddesses  in  ancielit  Eome,  and  modern  Yaranes 
[Benares]  mean  only  the  powers  of  nature,  and  principally 
those  of  the  Sun^  expressed  in  a  variety  of  ways  and  by  a 
multitude  of  fanciful  names."  As  to  the  travelling  of  gods 
from  country  to  country,  and  the  changes  they  are  apt  to 
suffer  on  the  road,  we  may  judge  by  examples  of  what  has 
happened  within  our  knowledge.  It  is  not  merely  that  one 
nation  borrows  a  god  from  another  with  its  proper  figure 
and  attributes  and  rites,  as  where  in  Home  the  worshipper  of 
the  Sun  might  take  his  choice  whether  he  would  adore  in 
the  temple  of  the  Greek  Apollo,  the  Egyptian  Osiris,  the 
Persian  Mithra,  or  the  Syrian  Elagabalus.  The  intercourse 
of  races  can  produce  quainter  results  than  this.  Any 
Orientalist  will  appreciate  the  wonderful  hotchpot  of  Hindu 
and  Arabic  language  and  religion  in  the  following  details, 
noted  down  among  rude  tribes  of  the  Malay  Peninsula.  We 
hear  of  Jin  Bumi  the  Earth-god  (Arabic  jin  =  demon, 
Sanskrit  bhumi  =:  earth) ;  incense  is  burnt  to  Jewajewa 
(Sanskrit   dewa  =  god)   who  intercedes  with  Pirman  the 


254  AKIMISH. 

supreme  invisible  deity  above  the  sky  (Brahma?);  the- 
Moslem  Allah  T^a,  with  his  wife  Nabi  Mahamad  (Prophet 
Mohammed)^  appear  in  the  Hinduized  characters  of  creator 
and  destroyer  of  all  things ;  and  while  the  spirits  worshipped 
in  stones  are  called  by  the  Hindu  term  of  **  dewa  "  or  deity^ 
Moslem  conversion  has  so  far  influenced  the  mind  of  the 
stone-worshipper,  that  he  will  give  to  his  sacred  boulder 
the  title  of  a  Prophet  Mohammed.^  If  we  would  have 
examples  nearer  home,  we  may  trace  the  evil  demon  Aeshma 
Daeva  of  the  ancient  Persian  religion  becoming  the  Asmo* 
deus  of  the  book  of  Tobit,  afterwards  to  find  a  place  in  the 
devilry  of  the  middle  ages,  and  to  end  his  career  as  the 
Diable  Boiteux  of  Le  Sage.  Even  the  Aztec  war-god 
Huitzilopochtli  may  be  found  figuring  as  the  demon  Yizli* 
puzli  in  the  popular  drama  of  Doctor  Faustus. 

In  ethnographic  comparisons  of  the  religions  of  mankind,, 
unless  there  is  evidence  of  direct  relation  between  gods  be- 
longing to  two  peoples,  the  safe  and  reasonable  principle  is 
to  limit  the  identification  of  deities  to  the  attributes  they 
have  in  common.  Thus  it  is  proper  to  compare  the  Dendid 
of  the  White  Nile  with  the  Aryan  Indra,  in  so  far  as  both 
are  Heaven-gods  and  Rain-gods ;  the  Aztec  Tonatiuh  with 
the  Greek  Apollo,  in  so  far  as  both  are  Sun-gods;  the 
Australian  Baiame  with  the  Scandinavian  Thor,  in  so  £ai- 
as  both  are  Thunder-gods.  The  present  purpose  of  dis- 
playing Polytheism  as  a  department  of  Animism  does  not 
require  that  elaborate  comparison  of  systems  which  would 
be  in  place  in  a  manual  of  the  religions  of  the  world.  The 
great  gods  may  be  scientifically  ranged  and  treated  accord- 
ing to  their  fundamental  ideas,  the  strongly-marked  and 
intelligible  conceptions  which,  under  names  often  obscure 
and  personalities  often  mixed  and  mystified,  they  stand  to 
represent.  It  is  enough  to  show  the  similarity  of  principle 
on  which  the  theologic  mind  of  the  lower  races  shaped 
those  old  familiar  types  of  deity,  with  which  our  first 
acquaintance  was  gained  in  the  pantheon  of  classic  mytho- 

*  *  Jonrn.  Tnd.  Areliip.'  toI.  i.  pp.  33,  265,  275,  838,  vol.  ii  p.  C92. 


ANIMISM.  255 

lofgr.  It  will  be  observed  that  not  all,  but  the  principal 
figures,  belong  to  strict  Nature-worship.  These  may  be 
here  first  surveyed.  They  are  Heaven  and  Earth,  Bain 
and  Thunder,  Water  and  Sea,  Fire  and  Sun  and  Moon,, 
worshipped  either  directly  for  themselves,  or  as  animated 
by  their  special  deities,  or  these  deities  are  more  fully  set 
apart  and  adored  in  anthropomorphic  shape — ^a  group  of 
conceptions  distinctly  and  throughout  based  on  the  princi- 
ples of  savage  fetishism.  True,  the  great  Nature-gods  are 
huge  in  strength  and  far-reaching  in  influence,  but  this  is 
because  the  natural  objects  they  belong  to  are  immense  in 
size  or  range  of  action,  pre-eminent  and  predominant 
among  lesser  fetishes,  though  still  fetishes  themselves. 

In  the  religion  of  the  North  American  Indians,  the 
Heaven-god  displays  perfectly  the  gradual  blending  of  the 
material  sky  itself  with  its  personal  deity.  In  the  early 
times  of  French  colonization.  Father  Brebeuf  describes  the 
Hurons  addressing  themselves  to  the  earth,  rivers,  lakes, 
and  dangerous  rocks,  but  above  all  to  heaven,  believing  that 
it  is  all  animated,  and  some  powerful  demon  dwells  therein* 
He  describes  them  as  speaking  directly  to  heaven  by  its 
personal  name  **  Aronhiate  ! "  Thus  when  they  throw  to- 
bacco into  the  fire  as  sacrifice,  if  it  is  Heaven  they  address, 
they  say  "  Aronhiftte !  (Heaven  !)  behold  my  sacrifice,  have 
pity  on  me,  aid  me  !  "  They  have  recourse  to  Heaven  in 
almost  all  their  necessities,  and  respect  this  great  body 
above  all  creatures,  remarking  in  it  particularly  something 
divine.  They  imagine  in  the  sky  an  "  oki,"  i-  e.  demon  or 
power,  which  rules  the  seasons  of  the  year  and  controls  the 
winds  and  waves.  They  dread  its  anger,  calling  it  to  wit- 
ness when  they  make  some  important  promise  or  treaty, 
saying,  Heaven  hears  what  we  do  this  day,  and  fearing 
chastisement  should  their  word  be  broken.  One  of  their 
renowned  sorcerers  said.  Heaven  will  be  angry  if  men  mock 
him ;  when  they  cry  every  day  to  Heaven,  Aronhiate !  yet 
give  him  nothing,  he  will  avenge  himself.  Etymology  again 
suggests  the  divine  sky  as  the  inner  meaning  of  the  Iroquois 


256  ANIMISM. 

supreme  deity,  Taronhiawagon  the  ''sky-comer"  or  "sky- 
holder/'  who  had  his  festival  about  the  winter  solstice,  who 
brought  the  ancestral  race  out  of  the  mountain,  taught  them 
hunting,  marriage,  and  religion,  gave  them  com  and  beans, 
squashes  and  potatoes  and  tobacco,  and  guided'  them  on 
their  migrations  as  they  spread  over  the  land.  Among  the 
North  American  tribes,  not  only  does  the  conception  of  the 
personal  divine  Heaven  thus  seem  the  fundamental  idea  of 
the  "  Master  of  Heaven,"  the  Heaven-god,  but  it  may  ex- 
pand into  a  yet  more  general  thought  of  divinity  in  the 
Great  Spirit  in  Heaven.^  In  South  Africa,  the  Zulus  speak 
of  the  Heaven  as  a  person,  ascribing  to  it  the  power  of  ex- 
ercising a  will,  and  they  also  speak  of  a  Lord  of  Heaven, 
whose  wrath  they  deprecate  during  a  thunderstorm.  In  the 
native  legends  of  the  Zulu  princess  in  the  country  of  the 
Half-Men,  the  captive  maiden  expostulates  personally  with 
the  Sky,  for  only  acting  in  an  ordinary  way,  and  not  in  the 
way  she  wishes,  to  destroy  her  enemies  : — 

"  Listen,  yon  heaven.    Attend;  mayoya,  listen. 
Listen,  heaven.    It  does  not  thunder  with  loud  thimder. 
It  thunders  in  an  undertone.    What  is  it  doing  ? 
It  thunders  to  produce  rain  and  change  of  season." 

Thereupon  the  clouds  gather  tumultudhsly ;  the  princess 
sings  again  and  it  thunders  terribly,  and  the  Heaven  kills 
the  Half-Men  round  about  her,  but  she  is  left  unharmed.^ 
West  Africa  is  another  district  where  the  Heaven-god  reigns, 
in  whose  attributes  may  be  traced  the  transition  from  the 
direct  conception  of  the  personal  sky  to  that  of  the  supreme 
creative  deity.  Thus  in  Bonny,  one  word  serves  for  god, 
heaven,  cloud ;  and  in  Aquapim,  Yankupong  is  at  once^the 
highest  god  and  the  weather.     Of  this  latter  deity,  the 

^  Brebeuf  in  *  BeL  des.  Jes.',  1686,  p.  107 ;  Lafitau,  *  Mo&urs  des  Sanvages 
Am^riquains,'  toI.  i.  p.  132.  Schoolcraft,  *  Iroquois,*  p.  86,  etc.  237. 
Brinton,  *  Myths  of  New  World,*  pp.  48,  172.  J.  G.  Miiller,  '  Amer.  TJrrelig.* 
p.  119. 

*  Callaway,  *Zti1u  Tales,'  vol.  L  p.  203. 


ANIMISM.  257 

Nyankupon  of  the  Oji  nation,  it  is  remarked  by  Riis  :  *'  The 
idea  of  him  as  a  supreme  spirit  is  obscure  and  uncertain, 
and  often  confounded  with  the  visible  heavens  or  sky,  the 
upper  world  j(sorro)  which  lies  beyond  human  reach ;  and 
hence  the  same  word  is  used  also  for  heavens,  sky,«md  even 
for  rain  and  thunder/'^  The  same  transition  from  the 
divine  sky  to  its  anthropomorphic  deity  shows  out  in  the 
theology  of  the  Tatar  tribes.  The  rude  Samoyed's  mind 
scarcely  if  at  all  separates  the  visible  personal  Heaven  from 
the  divinity  united  with  it  under  one  and  the  same  name,  Num. 
Among  the  more  cultured  Finns,  the  cosmic  attributes  of  the 
Heaven-god,  Ukko  the  Old  One,  display  the  same  original 
nature ;  he  is  the  ancient  of  Heaven,  the  father  of  Heaven,  the 
bearer  of  the  Firmament,  the  god  of  the  Air,  the  dweller  on 
the  Clouds,  the  Cloud-driver,  the  shepherd  of  the  Cloud- 
lambs.^  So  far  as  the  evidence  of  language,  and  document, 
and  ceremony,  can  preserve  the  record  of  remotely  ancient 
thought,  China  shows  in  the  highest  deity  of  the  state 
religion  a  like  theologic  development.  Tien,  Heaven,  is  in 
personal  shape  the  Shang-ti  or  Upper  Emperor,  the  Lord 
of  the  Universe.  The  Chinese  books  may  idealize  this 
supreme  divinity ;  they  may  say  that  his  command  is  fate, 
that  he  rewards  the  good  and  punishes  the  wicked,  that  he 
loves  and  protects  the  people  beneath  him,  that  he  mani- 
fests himself  through  events,  that  he  is  a  spuit  full  of  in- 
sight, penetrating,  fearful,  majestic.  Yet  they  cannot  refine 
him  so  utterly  away  into  an  abstract  celestial  deity,  but 
that  language  and  history  still  recognize  him  as  what  he 
was  in  the  beginning,  Tien,  Heaven.^ 

With  such  evidence  perfectly  accords  the  history  of  the 

*  Waitz,  *  Anthropologie,'  vol.  ii.  p.  168,  etc. ;  Burton,  *W.  &  W.  fr.  W. 
Afr.'p.76. 

«  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Mytli.'  p.  7,  etc. 

•  Plath,  'Religion  nnd  Caltus  der  alten  Chinesen,'  part  i.  p.  18,  etc.  ; 
part  ii.  p.  32;  Doolittle,  'Chinese,*  vol.  ii.  p.  396.  See  Max  Muller, 
•Lectures,'  2d.  S.  p.  437  ;  Legge,  'Confucius,' p.  100.  For  further  evidence 
as  to  savage  and  barbaric  worship  of  the  Heaven  as  Supreme  Deity,  see  chap, 
xvii 

VOL.  ir.  8 


So8  ANIKISH. 

Heaven-god  among  onr  Indo-European  race.  The  being 
adored  by  the  primitive  Aryan  was — 

"  .    •    .     .     the  whole  circle  of  the  heavens,  for  him 
A  sensitive  existence,  and  a  Qod, 
With  lifted  hands  invoked,  and  songs  of  praise." 

The  evidence  of  Aryan  language  to  this  effect  has  been  set 
forth  with  extreme  clearness  by  Professor  Max  Muller.  In 
the  first  stage^  the  Sanskrit  Dyu  (Dyaus),  the  bright  sky^ 
is  taken  in  a  sense  so  direct  that  it  expresses  the  idea  of 
day,  and  the  storms  are  spoken  of  as  going  about  in  it ;  while 
Greek  and  Latin  rival  this  distinctness  in  such  terms  as 
ivhios,  "  in  the  open  air,"  ft;6toy,  **  well-skyed,  calm,"  sub 
divo,  "  in  the  open  air,"  sub  Jove  frigido,  "  under  the  cold 
sky,"  and  that  graphic  description  by  Ennius  of  the  bright 
firmament,  Jove  whom  all  invoke  : — 

**  Aspioe  hoc  sublime  candens,  quern  invocant  omnes  Jovem." 

In  the  second  stage,  Dyaus  pitar.  Heaven- father,  stands  in 
the  Veda  as  consort  of  Prithivi  matar,  Earth-mother,  ranked 
high  or  highest  among  the  bright  gods.  To  the  Greek  he 
is  Zevy  irarrjp,  the  Heaven-father,  Zeus  the  AU-seer,  the 
Cloud-compeller,  King  of  Gods  and  Men.  As  Max  Muller 
writes  :  "  There  was  nothing  that  could  be  told  of  the  sky 
nat  was  not  in  some  form  or  other  ascribed  to  Zeus.  It 
was  Zeus  who  rained,  who  thundered,  who  snowed,  who 
hailed,  who  sent  the  lightning,  who  gathered  the  clouds,, 
who  let  loose  the  winds,  who  held  the  rainbow.  It  is  Zeus 
who  orders  the  days  and  nights,  the  months,  seasons,  and 
years.  It  is  he  who  watches  over  the  fields,  who  sends  rich 
harvests,  and  who  tends  the  flocks.  Like  the  sky,  Zeus, 
dwells  on  the  highest  mountains ;  like  the  sky,  Zeus  em- 
braces the  earth ;  like  the  sky,  Zeus  is  eternal,  imchanging^ 
the  highest  god.  For  good  and  for  evil,  Zeus  the  sky  and 
Zeus  the  god  are  wedded  together  in  the  Greek  mind,  Ian* 
gnage  triumphing  over  thought,  tradition  over  religion.'* 
The  same  Aryan  Heaven-father  is  Jupiter,  in  that  original 


ANIMISM.  259 

name  and  nature  which  he  bore  in  Borne  long  before  they 
arrayed  him  in  the  borrowed  garments  of  Greek  myth,  and 
adapted  him  to  the  ideas  of  classic  philosophy.^  Thus,  in 
nation  after  nation,  took  place  the  great  religious  develop- 
ment by  which  the  Father-Heaven  became  the  Father  in 
Heaven. 

The  Bain-god  is  most  often  the  Heaven-god  exercising  a 
special  function,  though  sometimes  taking  a  more  distinctly 
individual  form,  or  blending  in  characteristics  with  a  general 
Water-god,  The  Dinkas  of  the  White  Nile,  with  a  thought 
which  travellers  in  their  land  can  well  understand,  seem  to 
identify  their  heaven-dwelling  Creator  with  the  all-producing 
Great  Bain,  under  the  name  of  Dendid ;  among  the  Da- 
maras  the  highest  deity  is  Omakuru  the  Bain-giver,  who 
dwells  in  the  far  North ;  while  to  the  negro  of  West  Africa 
the  Heaven-god  is  the  rain-giver,  and  may  pass  in  name 
into  the  rain  itself.^  Pachacamac,  the  Peruvian  world- 
creator,  has  set  the  Bain-goddess  to  pour  waters  over  the 
land,  and  send  down  hail  and  snow.^  The  Aztec  Tlaloc 
was  no  doubt  originally  a  Heaven-god,  for  he  holds  the 
thunder  and  lightning,  but  he  has  taken  especially  the  attri- 
butes of  Water-god  and  Bain-god ;  and  so  in  Nicaragua  the 
Bain-god  Quiateot  (Aztec  quiahuitl=rain,  teotl=god)  to 
whom  children  were  sacrificed  to  bring  rain,  shows  his 
larger  celestial  nature  by  being  also  sender  of  thunder  and 
lightning.^  The  Bain-god  of  the  Khonds  is  Pidzu  Pennu^ 
whom  the  priests  and  elders  propitiate  with  eggs  and  arrack 
and  rice  and  a  sheep,  and  invoke  with  quaintly  pathetic 

prayers.     They  tell  him  how,  if  he  will  not  give  water,  the 

'MaxMCQler,  'LectoreR,' 2iid  Series,  p.  425;  Grimm,  'D.  M.*  ch.  iz.  ; 
Cioero  De  Natura  Deoram.  iii.  4.  Connexion  of  the  Sanskrit  Dyu  with  the 
Scandinavian  Tyr  and  the  Anglo  Saxon  Tiw  is  perhaps  rather  of  etymology 
than  definition. 

*  Lejoan,  *Le  Haut-Nil/etc,  in  Rev.  D.  M.  Apr.  1, 1862.  Waitz,  «Anthro- 
pologie,'  vol.  ii.  p.  169  (W,  Afr.)  p.  416  (Damaras). 

*  Markham,  .'QuichuaGr.  and  Die/  p.  9  ;  J.  G.  MUller,  'Amer.  UrrcL*  pp. 
818,  868. 

*  Ibid.  pp.  496-9  ;  Oviedo,  'Nicaragua,'  pp.  40,  72. 

8  2 


260  ANIMISM. 

land  must  remain  unploughed,  the  seed  will  rot  in  the 
ground,  they  and  their  children  and  cattle  wUl  die  of  want, 
the  deer  and  the  wild  hog  will  seek  other  haunts,  and  then 
of  what  avail  will  it  be  for  the  Eain-god  to  relent,  how  little 
any  gift  of  water  will  avail,  when  there  shall  be  left  neither 
man,  nor  cattle,  nor  seed  ;  so  let  him,  resting  on  the  sky, 
pour  waters  down  upon  them  through  his  sieve,  till  the  deer 
•are  drowned  out  of  the  forests  and  take  refuge  in  the 
houses,  till  the  soil  of  the  mountains  is  washed  into  the 
valleys,  till  the  cooking-pots  burst  with  the  force  of  the 
swelling  rice,  till  the  beasts  gather  so  plentifully  in  the 
green  and  favoured  land,  that' men's  axes  shall  be  blunted 
with  cutting  up  the  game.^  With  perfect  meteorological 
fitness,  the  Kol  tribes  of  Bengal  consider  their  great  deity 
Marang  Burn,  Great  Mountain,  to  be  the  Bain-god. 
Marang  Burn,  one  of  the  most  conspicuous  hills  of  the 
plateau  near  Lodmah  in  Chota-Nagpur,  is  the  deity  himself 
or  his  dwelling.  Before  the  rains  come  on,  the  women 
climb  the  hill,  led  by  the  wives  of  the  pahans,  with  girls 
drumming,  to  carry  offeiings  of  milk  and  bel-leaves,  which 
are  jout  on  the  flat  rock  at  the  top.  Then  the  wives  of  the 
pahans  kneel  with  loosened  hair  and  invoke  the  deity,  be- 
•seeching  him  to  give  the  crops  seasonable  rain.  They 
rshake  their  heads  violently  as  they  reiterate  this  prayer, 
till  they  work  themselves  into  a  frenzy,  and  the  movement 
becomes  involuntary.  They  go  on  thus  wildly  gesticula- 
ting, tUl  a  cloud  is  seen ;  then  they  rise,  take  the  drums, 
and  dance  the  kurrun  on  the  rock,  till  Marang  Bum's  re- 
sponse to  their  prayer  is  heard  in  the  distant  rumbling  of 
thunder,  and  they  go  home  rejoicing.  They  must  go  fasting 
to  the  mount,  and  stay  there  till  there  is  "  a  sound  of 
abundance  of  rain,"  when  they  get  them  down  to  eat 
and  drink.  It  is  said  that  the  rain  always  comes  before 
evening,  but  the  old  women  appear  to  choose  their 
own  moment  for  beginning  the  fast.^    It  was  to  Ukko  the 

*  Macpherson,  *  India,'  pp.  89,  355. 

*  Dalton,  Kols,  in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc.*  vol.  vi  p.  34.    Compare  1  Kings  xviii. 


ANIMISM.  261 

Heaven- god,  that  in  oljcl  days  the  Finn  turned  with  such 

prayers : — 

«  XJkko,  thou,  0  Q-od  above  ns, 
Thou,  0  Father  in  the  heavens, 
Thou  who  rulest  in  the  cloud-land, 
And  the  little  cloud-lambs  leadest, 
Send  us  down  the  rain  from  heaven, 
Make  the  clouds  to  drop  with  honey, 
Let  the  drooping  com  look  upward. 
Let  the  grain  with  plenty  rustle."  ^ 

Quite  like  this  were  the  classic  conceptions  of  Zeis  vinos, 
Jupiter  Pluvius.  They  are  typified  in  the  famous  Athenian 
prayer  recorded  by  Marcus  Aurelius,  "  Bain,  rain,  0  dear 
Zeus,  on  the  plough-lands  of  the  Athenians,  and  the 
plains !  *'  *  and  in  Petronius  Arbiter's  complaint  of  the 
irreligion  of  his  times,  that  now  no  one  thinks  heaven  is 
heaven,  no  one  keeps  a  fast,  no  one  cares  a  hair  for  Jove, 
but  all  men  with  closed  eyes  reckon  up  their  goods.  Afore- 
time the  ladies  walked  up  the  hill  in  their  stoles  with  bare 
feet  and  loosened  haii*  and  pure  minds,  and  entreated  Jove 
for  water ;  then  all  at  once  it  rained  bucketsfuU,  then  or 
never,  and  they  all  went  home  wet  as  drowned  rats.'^  In 
later  ages,  when  drought  parched  the  fields  of  the  mediaeval 
husbandman,  he  transferred  to  other  patrons  the  functions 
of  the  Rain-god,  and  with  procession  and  litany  sought 
help  from  St.  Peter  or  St.  James,  or,  with  more  of  mytho- 
logical consistency,  from  the  Queen  of  Heaven.  As  for 
ourselves,  we  have  lived  to  see  the  time  when  men  shrink 
from  addressing  even  to  Supreme  Deity  tlie  old  customary 
rain-prayers,  for  the  rainfall  is  passing  from  the  region  of 
the  supernatural,  to  join  the  tides  and  seasons  in  the  realm 
of  physical  science. 

*  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  86  ;  Kalewala,  Rune  ii.  317. 

*  Aarc.  Antonin.  v.  7.  **  E^X^  *A9rjvalwy,  Itrov,  tcotf,  2  ^i\€  ZcC,  Karii  r^r 
ipo^pas  r&p  *ABr\ycdoav  irctl  rnv  vMctv" 

'  Pctron.  Arbiter.  Sat  xliv.  "Antea  Btolatce  ibant  nudispedibus  inclivum, 
passis  capUIis,  mentibus  puris,  et  Jovem  aniiaiu  ezorabant.  Itaque  statim 
urceatim  plovebat :  aut  tunc  aut  nnnquam  ;  et  omnes  redibant  udi  tanqaam 
mnres."    See  Grimm,  *D.  M.'  p.  160. 


262  ANIMISM. 

The  place  of  the  Thunder-god  ui  polytheistic  religion  is 
similar  to  that  of  the  Bain-god,  in  many  cases  even  to 
entire  coincidence.  But  his  character  is  rather  of  wrath 
than  of  beneficence,  a  character  which  we  have  half  lost  the 
power  to  realize,  since  the  agonizing  terror  of  the  thunder- 
storm which  appals  savage  minds  has  dwindled  away  in 
ours,  now  that  we  behold  in  it  not  the  manifestation  of 
divine  wi'ath,  but  the  restoration  of  electric  equilibrium* 
North  American  tribes,  as  the  Mandans,  heard  in  the 
thunder  and  saw  in  the  lightning  the  clapping  wings  and 
flashing  eyes  of  that  awful  heaven-bird  which  belongs  to,  or 
even  is,  the  Great  Manitu  himself.^  The  Dacotas  could 
show  at  a  place  called  Thunder-tracks,  near  the  source  of 
the  St.  Peter's  Biver,  the  footprints  of  the  thunder-bird 
five  and  twenty  miles  apart.  It  is  to  be  noticed  that  these 
Sioux,  among  their  varied  fancies  about  thunder-birds  and 
the  like,  give  unusually  well  a  key  to  the  great  thunderbolt- 
myth  which  recurs  in  so  many  lands.  They  consider  the 
lightning  entering  the  ground  to  scatter  there  in  all  direc- 
tions thunderbolt-stones,  which  are  flints,  &;c.,  their  reason 
for  this  notion  being  the  very  rational  one,  that  these  siliceous 
stones  actually  produce  a  flash  when  struck.^  In  an  account 
of  certain  Carib  deities,  who  were  men  and  are  now  stars, 
occurs  the  name  of  Savacou,  who  was  changed  into  a  great 
bird ;  he  is  captain  of  the  hurricane  and  thunder,  he  blows 
fire  through  a  tube  and  that  is  lightning,  he  gives  the  great 
rain.  Bochefort  describes  the  effect  of  a  thunderstorm  on 
the  partly  Europeanized  Caribs  of  the  West  Indies  two 
centuries  ago.  When  they  perceive  its  approach,  he  says, 
they  quickly  betake  themselves  to  their  cabins,  and  range 
themselves  in  the  kitchen  on  their  little  seats  near  the  fire ; 
hiding  their  faces  and  leaning  their  heads  in  their  hands 
and  on  their  knees,  they  fall  to  weeping  and  lamenting  in 
their  jargon  "  Maboya  mouche  fache  contre  Caraibe,"  i.e., 

»  Pr.  Max  y.  Wied,  *N.  Amer/ vol.  ii  pp.  162,  228 ;  J.  G.  Miiller,  p.  120  ; 
Waitz,  vol.  ill.  p.  179. 

*  Keating,  'Narr.'vol.  i.  p.  407;  Eastman,  '  Dahcotah,' p.  71;  Brinton, 
p.  160,  etc.  ;  see  M*Coy,  'Baptist  Indian  Missions,'  p.  853. 


ANIMISM.  263 

Maboya  (the  evil  demon)  is  very  angry  with  the  Caribs* 
This  they  say  also  when  there  comes  a  hurricane,  not  leaving 
off  this  dismal  exercise  till  it  is  over,  and  there  is  no  end  to 
their  astonishment  that  the  Christians  on  these  occasions 
manifest  no  such  affliction  and  fear.^  The  Tupi  tribes  of 
Brazil  are  an  example  of  a  race  among  whom  the  Thunder 
or  the  Thunderer,  Tupan,  flapping  his  celestial  wings  and 
hashing  with  celestial  light,  was  developed  into  the  very 
representative  of  highest  deity,  whose  name  still  stands 
among  their  Christian  descendants  as  the  equivalent  of 
God.^  In  Peru,  a  mighty  and  far-worshipped  deity  was 
Catequil  the  Thunder- god,  child  of  the  Heaven-god,  he 
who  set  free  the  Indian  race  from  out  of  the  ground  by 
turning  it  up  with  his  golden  spade,  he  who  in  thunder- 
flash  and  clap  hurls  from  his  sling  the  small  round  smooth 
thunderstones,  treasured  in  the  villages  as  fire-fetishes  and 
<;harms  to  kindle  the  flames  of  love.  How  distinct  in  per- 
sonality and  high  in  rank  was  the  Thunder  and  Lightning 
<Chuqui  yUayUapa)  in  the  religion  of  the  Incas,  may  be 
judged  from  his  huaca  or  fetish-idol  standing  on  the  bench 
beside  the  idols  of  the  Creator  and  the  Sun  at  the  great 
Solar  festival  in  Cuzco,  when  the  beasts  to  be  sacrificed  were 
led  round  them,  and  the  priests  prayed  thus :  *'  O  Creator, 
and  Sun,  and  Thunder,  be  for  ever  young  !  do  not  grow  old. 
Let  aU  things  be  at  peace !  let  the  people  multiply,  and  their 
food,  and  let  all  other  things  continue  to  increase/'^ 

In  AMca,  we  may  contrast  the  Zulu,  who  perceives  in 
thunder  and  lightning  the  direct  action  of  Heaven  or 
Heaven's  lord,  with  the  Yoruba,  who  assigns  them  not  to 
Olorun  the  Lord  of  Heaven,  but  to  a  lower  deity,  Shango 
the  Thunder-god,  whom  they  call  also  Dzakuta  the  Stone- 
caster,  for  it  is  he  who  (as  among  so  many  other  peoples 

^  De  la  B(nrde,  *  Caraibes,'  p.  530 ;  Bochefort,  <  lies  Antilles/  p.  431. 

*  De  Laet,  *  Noyus  Orbis,*  xy.  2.  Waitz,  vol.  iii.  p.  417 ;  J.  G.  Miiller,  p. 
1270 ;  also  421  (thunderstorms  by  anger  of  Son,  in  Camana,  etc.). 

'  Brinton,  p.  153  ;  Herrera,  'IndiasOccidentales,*  Dec.  y.  4.  J.  G.  Mttller, 
p.  827.  '  Rites  and  Laws  of  the  Yncas/  tr.  &  ed.  by  C.  R.  Markham,  p.  16, 
«ee  81 ;  Prescott,  'Peru,'  vol.  L  p.  86. 


S64  ANimsM. 

who  have  forgotten  their  Stone  Age)  flings  down  from 
heaven  the  stone  hatchets  which  are  found  in  the  gronnd, 
and  preserved  as  sacred  objects.^  In  the  religion  of  the 
Kamchadalsy  Billukai,  the  hem  of  whose  garment  is  the 
rainbow,  dwells  in  the  clouds  with  many  spirits,  and  sends 
thunder  and  lightning  and  rain.^  Among  the  Ossetes  of  the 
Caucasus  the  Thunderer  is  Hya,  in  whose  name  mytholo- 
gists  trace  a  Christian  tradition  of  Elijah,  whose  fiery 
chariot  seems  indeed  to  have  been  elsewhere  identified  with 
that  of  the  Thunder-god,  while  the  highest  peak  of  ^gina, 
once  the  seat  of  Pan-hellenic  Zeus,  is  now  called  Mount 
St.  Elias.  Among  certain  Moslem  schismatics,  it  is  even 
the  historical  Ali,  cousin  of  Mohammed,  who  is  enthroned 
in  the  clouds,  where  the  thunder  is  his  voice,  and  the  light- 
ning the  lash  wherewith  he  smites  the  wicked.*  Among  the 
Turanian  or  Tatar  race,  the  European  branch  shows  most 
distinctly  the  figure  of  the  Thunder-god.  To  the  Lapps^ 
Tiermes  appears  to  have  been  the  Heaven-god,  especially 
conceived  as  Aija  the  Thunder-god ;  of  old  they  thought 
the  Thunder  (Aija)  to  be  a  living  being,  hovering  in  the  air 
and  hearkening  to  the  talk  of  men,  smiting  such  as  spoke  of 
him  in  an  unseemly  way ;  or,  as  some  said,  the  Thunder- 
god  is  the  foe  of  sorcerers,  whom  he  drives  from  heaven 
and  smites,  and  then  it  is  that  men  hear  in  thunder-peals^ 
the  hurtling  of  his  arrows,  as  he  speeds  them  from  his 
bow,  the  Rainbow.  In  Finnish  poetry,  likewise,  Ukko^ 
the  Heaven-god  is  portrayed  with  such  attributes.  The 
Bunes  call  him  Thunderer,  he  speaks  through  the  clouds, 
his  fiery  shirt  is  the  lurid  storm-cloud,  we  hear  of  his  stones* 
and  his  hammer,  he  flashes  his  fiery  sword  and  it  lighten?, 
or  he  draws  his  mighty  rainbow,  Ukko's  bow,  to  shoot  his 
fiery  copper  arrows,  wherewith  men  would  invoke  him  to 

*  Bowen,  'Tornba  Lang.'  p.  xvi.  in  'Smithsonian  Contr/  voL  i.  See 
Barton,  *Daliome/  vol.  ii.  p.  142.  Details  as  to  thunder-axes,  etc.  in  'Early 
Hist,  of  Mankind,*  ch.  yiii. 

*  Steller,  *  Kamtschatka,'  p.  266. 

*  Klcmm,  *C.  G.'  vol.  iv.  p.  85.  (Ossetes,  etc.)  See  Welckcr,  vol.  i.  pt 
170  ;  Grimm,  *D.  M.'  p.  158.     Bastion,  'Mensch,'  vol.  ii.  p.  428  (Ali-scct.).: 


ANIMISM.  265^ 

smite  their  enemies.  Or  when  it  is  dark  in  his  heavenly- 
house  he  strikes  fire^  and  that  is  lightning.  To  this  day 
the  Finlanders  call  a  thunderstorm  an  "  ukko,"  or  an  "  uk- 
konen/'  that  is^  ''  a  little  ukko/'  and  when  it  lightens  they 
say,  "  There  is  Ukko  striking  fire  !  "^ 

What  is  the  Aryan  conception  of  the  Thunder-god,  but  a 
poetic  elaboration  of  thoughts  inherited  from  the  savage 
state  through  which  the  primitive  Aryans  had  passed?  The 
Hindu  Thunder-god  is  the  Heaven-god  Indra,  Indra*s  bow 
is  the  raiabow,  Indra  hurls  the  thunderbolts,  he  smites  his- 
enemies,  he  smites  the  dragon-clouds,  [and  the  rain  pours, 
down  on  earth,  and  the  sim  shines  forth  again*  The  Veda 
is  full  of  Indra's  glories :  '^  Now  wiU  I  sing  the  feats  of 
Indra,  which  he  of  the  thunderbolt  did  of  old.  He  smote 
Ahi,  then  he  poured  forth  the  waters ;  he  divided  the  rivera 
of  the  mountains.  He  smote  Ahi  by  the  mountain ;  Tvash- 
tar  forged  for  him  the  glorious  bolt." — '*  Whet,  O  strong 
Indra,  the  heavy  strong  red  weapon  against  the  enemies  ! " 
— "  May  the  axe  (the  thunderbolt)  appear  with  the  Ught ;. 
may  the  red  one  blaze  forth  bright  with  splendour ! " — 
''  When  Indra  hurls  again  and  again  his  thunderbolt^ 
then  they  believe  in  the  brilliant  god."  Nor  is  Indra  merely 
a  great  god  iu  the  ancient  Aryan  pantheon,  he  is  the  very 
patron-deity  of  the  invading  Aryan  race  in  India,  to  whose 
help  they  look  in  their  conflicts  with  the  dark-skinned  tribes- 
of  the  land.  "  Destroying  the  Dasyus,  Indra  protected  the 
Aryan  colour" — ''Indra  protected  in  battle  the  Aryan 
worshipper,  he  subdued  the  lawless  for  Manu,  he  conquered 
the  black  skin."  '  This  Hindu  Indra  is  the  offspring  of 
Dyaus  the  Heaven.  But  in  the  Greek  religion,  Zeus  is- 
himself  Zeus  Kerauneios,  the  wielder  of  the  thunderbolt,, 
and  thunders  from  the  cloud-capped  tops  of  Ida  or  Ol^nn- 
pos.  In  like  manner  the  Jupiter  Capitolinus  of  Bome  is. 
himself  Jupiter  Tonans : 

*  Castren,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  89,  etc. 

3  '  Big-Vcda,»  i.  82.  1,  55.  5,  180.  8,  165  ;  iil  84.  9  ;  vi.  20 ;  x.  43.  9,  89, 
9.  Max  Muller,  *  Lectures, *  2ndS.  p.  427  ;  'Chips,'  vol.  i.'p.  42,  vol.  ii.  p^ 
828.     See  Miiir,  *  Sanskrit  Texts.' 


266  ANIMISM. 

"  Ad  penetrale  Num^e,  Oapitolinomque  Tonantem."  ^ 

Thus,  also,  it  was  in  accurate  language  that  the  old  Slavonic 
nations  were  described  as  adoring  Jupiter  Tonans  as  their 
liighest  god.  He  was  the  cloud-dwelling  Heaven-god,  his 
weapon  the  thunder-bolt,  the  lightning-flash,  his  name 
Perun  the  Smiter  (Perkun,  Perkunas).  In  the  Lithuanian 
•district,  the  thunder  itself  is  Perkun;  in  past  times  the 
peasant  would  cry  when  he  heard  the  thunder  peal  "  Dewe 
Perkune  apsaugog  mus ! — God  Perkun  spare  us  !  "  and  to 
this  day  he  says,  "Perkunas  grayja! — ^Perkun  is  thunder- 
ing !  '*  or  *'  Wezzajs  barrahs  ! — the  Old  One  growls !  "  *  The 
•old  German  and  Scandinavian  theology  made  Thunder, 
Donar,  Thor,  a  special  deity  to  rule  the  clouds  and  rain, 
and  hurl  his  crushing  hammer  through  the  air.  He  reigned 
iiigh  in  the  Saxon  heaven,  till  the  days  came  when  the 
Christian  convert  had  to  renounce  him  in  solemn  form, 
^'  ec  forsacho  Thunare  ! — ^I  forsake  Thunder !  "  Now,  his 
survival  is  for  the  most  part  in  mere  verbal  form,  in  the 
•etymology  of  such  names  as  Donnersberg,  Thorwaldsen, 
Thursday.* 

In  the  polytheism  of  the  lower  as  of  the  higher  races,  the 
Wind-gods  are  no  unknown  figures.  The  Winds  them- 
selves, and  especially  the  Four  Winds  in  their  four  regions, 
take  name  and  shape  as  personal  divinities,  while  some 
deity  of  wider  range,  a  Wind-god,  Storm-god,  Air-god,  or 
the  mighty  Heaven-god  himself,  may  stand  as  compeller  or 
controller  of  breeze  and  gale  and  tempest.  We  have 
■already  taken  as  examples  from  the  Algonquin  mythology 
of  North  America  the  four  winds  whose  native  legends 
have  been  versified  in  "  Hiawatha ;  '*  Mudjekeewis  the  West 
Wind,  Father  of  the  Winds  of  Heaven,  and  his  children, 
Wabun  the  East  Wind,  the  moming-bringer,  the  lazy 
Shawondasee  the  South  Wind,  the  wild  and  cruel  North 

*  Homer,  IL  viii.  170,  xvii.  595.     Ovid.  Fast  iL  69.     See  Max  Miifler, 
•*  Lectures/  1.  c.  ;  "Welcker,  'Griech.  GbtterL' voL  iL  p.  194. 
«  Hanusch,  *Slaw.  Myth.*  p.  257. 
'  Grimm,  'Deutsche  Myth.'  ch.  viii.  Edda ;  Gylfa^^inniiig^  21,  44. 


ANIMISM.  267 

Windy  the  fierce  Eabibonokka.  Viewed  in  their  religious 
aspect,  these  mighty  beings  correspond  with  four  of  the 
great  manitus  sacrificed  to  among  the  Delawares,  the  West, 
South,  East,  and  North ;  while  the  Iroquois  acknowledged 
a  deity  of  larger  grasp,  Gaoh,  the  Spirit  of  the  Winds,  who 
holds  them  pnsoned  in  the  mountains  in  the  Home  of  the 
Winds.^  The  Polynesian  Wind-gods  are  thus  described  by 
Ellis :  ''  The  chief  of  these  were  Yeromatautoru  and  Tairibu, 
brother  and  sister  to  the  children  of  Taaroa,  their  dwelling 
was  near  the  great  rock,  which  was  the  foundation  of  the 
world.  Hurricanes,  tempests,  and  all  destructive  winds, 
were  supposed  to  be  confined  within  them,  and  were  em- 
ployed by  them  to  punish  such  as  neglected  the  worship  of 
the  gods.  In  stormy  weather  their  compassion  was  sought 
by  the  tempest-driven  mariner  at  sea,  or  the  friends  of  such 
on  shore.  Liberal  presents,  it  was  supposed,  would  at  any 
time  purchase  a  calm.  If  the  first  failed,  subsequent  ones 
were  certain  of  success.  The  same  means  were  resorted  to 
for  procuring  a  storm,  but  with  less  certainty.  Whenever 
the  inhabitants  of  one  island  heard  of  invasion  from  those 
of  another,  they  immediately  carried  large  offerings  to  these 
deities,  and  besought  them  to  destroy  by  tempest  the  hos- 
tile fleet  whenever  it  might  put  to  sea.  Some  of  the  most 
intelligent  people  still  think  evil  spirits  had  formerly  great 
power  over  the  winds,  as  they  say  there  have  been  no  such 
fearful  storms  since  they  abolished  idolatrj^  as  there  were 
before.''  Or,  again,  the  great  deity  Maui  adds  a  new  com- 
plication to  his  enigmatic  solar-celestial  character  by  appear- 
ing as  a  Wind-god.  In  Tahiti  he  was  identified  with  the 
East  Wind ;  in  New  Zealand  he  holds  all  the  winds  but  the 
west  in  his  hands,  or  he  imprisons  them  with  great  stones 
rolled  to  the  mouths  of  their  caves,  save  the  West  Wind 

^  Schoolcraft,  '  Algic  Kes.'  voL  i.  p.  189,  voL  ii.  p.  214  ;  Loskiel,  part  L 
p.  48;  Waitz,  vol.  iii.  p.  190.  Morgan,  'Iroquois/  p.  157  ;  J.  G.  MQller, 
p.  56  ;  Further  American  evidence  in  Brinton,  'Myths  of  New  World,'  pp. 
^0,  74;  Cranz,  'Gronland,'  267  (SiUagiksartok,  Weather-spirit);  De  la 
Borde,  '  Caraibes,'  p.  580  (Oarib-Star  Curumon,  makes  the  billows  and  npeets 
canoes). 


268  ANIMISM. 

which  he  cannot  catch  or  prison,  so  that  it  almost  always^ 
blows.^  To  the  Kamchadal,  it  is  Billukai  the  Heaven-gocL 
who  comes  down  and  drives  his  sledge  on  earth,  and  men 
see  his  traces  in  the  wind-drifted  snow.*  To  the  Finn, 
while  there  are  traces  of  subordinate  Wind-gods  in  his- 
mythology,  the  great  ruler  of  wind  and  stonn  is  Ukko  the 
Heaven-god ;  *  while  the  Esth  looked  rather  to  Tuule-ema, 
Wind's  Mother,  and  when  the  gale  shrieks  he  will  stiU  say 
*'  Wind's  mother  wails,  who  knows  what  mothers  shall  wail 
next."  *  Such  instances  from  Allophylian  mythology ''  show 
t3rpes  which  are  found  developed  in  full  vigour  by  the  Aryait 
races.  In  the  Vedic  hymns,  the  Storm-gods,  the  MarutSi 
toss  the  clouds  across  the  surging  sea ;  Indra  the  Heaven- 
god,  with  the  swift  Maruts  who  break  through  the  strong- 
hold, finds  in  their  hiding  places  the  bright  cows,  the  days.^ 
No  effort  of  the  Red  Indian's  personifying  fancy  in  the 
tales  of  the  dancing  Pauppuk-keewis  the  Whirlwind,  or  that 
fierce  and  shifty  hero,  Manabozho  the  North-West  Wind, 
can  more  than  match  the  description  in  the  Iliad,  of 
Achilles  calling  on  Boreas  and  Zephyros  with  libations  and 
vows  of  sacrifice,  to  blow  into  a  blaze  the  funeral  pyre  of 
Patroklos — 

"  ....    his  prayer 
Swift  Iris  heard,  and  bore  it  to  the  Winds. 
They  in  the  hall  of  gusty  Zeph3nni8 
Were  gathered  round  the  feast ;  in  haste  appearing. 
Swift  Iris  on  the  stony  threshold  stood. 
They  saw,  and  rising  all,  besought  her  each 
To  sit  beside  him ;  she  with  their  requests 
Befiised  compliance,  and  addressed  tbem  thus,"  &c. 

^  Ellis,  *  Polyn.  Rc8.'  vol.  i.  p.  829,  (compare  with  the  Maori  Tempest-god 
Tawhirimatea,  Grey,  *  Polyn.  Myth.*  p.  6) ;  Scliirren,  '  "Wandersago  der 
Nenseelander,*  etc.  p.  85  ;  Yate,  *New  Zealand,'  p.  144.  See  also  Mariner, 
'Tonga.  Is,'  vol.  ii.  p.  115. 

3  Stoller,  'Eamschatka,'p.  266. 

'  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth.' pp.  37,  68. 

*  Boeder,  pp.  106,  147. 

*  See  also  Klemm,  'Cultur-Gesch.'  vol,  iv.  p.  85  (Circassian  "Water-god 
and  Wind-god). 

/  *  Rig- Veda,'  tr.  by  Max  Mullcr,  i.  6.  6,  19.  7. 


ANIMISM.  269 

-SJolus  with  the  winds  imprisoned  in  his  cave  has  the 
'Office  of  the  Red  Indian  Spirit  of  the  Winds,  and  of  the 
Polynesian  Maui.  With  quaint  adaptation  to  nature-myth 
and  even  to  moral  parable,  the  Harpies,  the  Storm-gusts 
that  whirl  and  snatch  and  dash  and  smirch  with  eddying 
dust-clouds,  become  the  loathsome  bird-monsters  sent  to 
hover  over  the  table  of  Phineus  to  claw  and  defile  his  dainty 
viands.^  If  we  are  to  choose  an  Aryan  Storm-god  for  ideal 
grandeur,  we  must  seek  him  in 

*'  .     .    .     .    the  hall  where  Bunic  Odin 
Howls  his  war-song  to  the  gale." 

Jacob  Grimm  has  defined  Odin  or  Woden  as  "  the  all- 
penetrating  creative  and  formative  power."  But  we  can 
hardly  ascribe  such  abstract  conceptions  to  his  barbaric 
worshippers.  As  little  may  we  seek  his  real  nature  among 
the  legends  which  degrade  h\m  to  a  historical  king  of 
Northern  men,  an  "  Othinus  rex.*'  See  the  AU-father  sit- 
ting cloud-mantled  on  his  heaven-seat,  overlooking  the  deeds 
of  men,  and  we  must  discern  in  him  the  attributes  of  the 
Heaven-god.  Hear  the  peasant  say  of  the  raging  tempest, 
that  it  is  "  Odin  faring  by;  "  trace  the  mythological  transi- 
tion from  Woden's  tempest  to  the  ''Wiitende  Heer,"  the 
**  Wild  Huntsman  "  of  our  own  grand  storm-myth,  and  we 
shall  recognize  the  old  Teutonic  deity  in  his  function  of 
cloud-compeller,  of  Tempest-god.*  The  *'  rude  Carinthian 
boor  "  can  show  a  relic  from  a  yet  more  primitive  stage  of 
mental  history,  when  he  sets  up  a  wooden  bowl  of  various 
meats  on  a  tree  before  his  house,  to  fodder  the  wind  that  it 
may  do  no  harm.  In  Swabia,  Tyrol,  and  the  Upper  Pala- 
tinate, when  the  storm  rages,  they  will  fling  a  spoonful  or 
a  handful  of  meal  in  the  face  of  the  gale,  with  this  formula 
in  the  last-named  district,  "Da Wind,  hast  du  Mehl  fiir 
dein  Kind,  aber  aufhoren  musst  du  1 "  ' 

*  Homer,  IL  xxiiL  192  (Lord  Derby's  trans.)  Odys.  xx.  66,  77 ;  ApoUon. 
Ehod.  Aigonantica  ;  ApoUodor.  L  9.  21 ;  Virg.  Mu,  i.  66  ;  Welckcr,  *  Giiech. 
Ootterl/  voL  I  p.  707,  vol  iii.  p.  67. 

«  Grimm,  'Deutsche  Myth.*  pp.  121,  871. 

»  Wuttke,  'Deutsche  Volksabergl.'  p.  86. 


270  ANIMISM. 

The  Earth-deity  takes  an  important  place  in  polytheistic 
religion.  The  Algonquins  would  sing  medicine-songs  to 
Mesukkummik  Okwi^  the  Earth,  the  Great- Grandmother  of 
all.  In  her  charge  (and  she  must  be  ever  at  home  in  her 
lodge)  are  left  the  animals  whose  flesh  and  skins  are  man's- 
food  and  clothing,  and  the  roots  and  medicines  of  sovereign 
power  to  heal  sickness  and  kill  game  in  time  of  hunger ; 
therefore  good  Indians,  never  dig  up  the  roots  of  which 
their  medicines  are  made,  without  depositing  an  offering  in 
the  earth  for  Mesukkummik  Okwi.^  In  the  list  of  fetish- 
deities  of  Peruvian  tribes,  the  Earth,  adored  as  Mamapacha> 
Mother  Earth,  took  high  subordinate  rank  below  Sim  and 
Moon  in  the  pantheon  of  the  Incas,  and  at  harvest-time 
ground  com  and  libations  of  chicha  were  offered  to  her 
that  she  might  grant  a  good  harvest.^  Her  i*ank  is  similar 
in  the  Aquapim  theology  of  West  Africa ;  first  the  Highest 
God  in  the  firmament,  then  the  Earth  as  universal  mother,, 
then  the  fetish.  The  negro,  offering  his  libation  before 
some  great  undertaking,  thus  calls  upon  the  triad :  '^  Grea* 
tor !  come  drink  !  Earth,  come  drink !  Bosumbra,  come 
drink!  "8 

Among  the  indigenes  of  India,  the  Bygah  tribes  of 
Seonee  show  a  well-marked  worship  of  the  Earth.  They 
call  her  "Mother  Earth"  or  Dhurteemah,  and  before 
praying  or  eating  their  food,  which  is  looked  on  always  aa 
a  daily  sacrifice,  they  invariably  offer  some  of  it  to  the 
earth,  before  using  the  name  of  any  other  god.*  Of  all 
religions  of  the  world,  perhaps  that  of  the  Khonds  of  Orissa 
gives  the  Earth-goddess  her  most  remarkable  place  and 
function.  Boora  Pennu  or  Bella  Pennu,  the  Light-god  or 
Sun-god,  created  Tari  Pennu  the   Earth-goddess  for  hia 

*  Tanner's  * Narratire,*  p.  198  ;  Loskiel,  1.  c     See  also  Rochefort,   'lies 
-AntiUes,'  p.  414 ;  J.  G.  MuUer,  p.  178  (Antilles). 

^  Garcilaso  de  la  Yega,  '  Commentarios  Reales,'  1.  10  ;    Rivero  &  Tschndi^ 
p.  161 ;  J.  G.  Miiller,  p.  369. 
■  Waitz,  *  Anthropologie,'  vol.  IL  p.  170. 

*  'Report  of  Ethnological  Committee,  Jubbulpora  Exhibition,*  1866-7. 
Kagpore,  1868,  part  ii.  p.  54. 


ANIMISM.  271 

consort,  and  from  them  were  bom  the  other  great  gods.^ 
But  strife  arose  between  the  mighty  parents^  and  it  became 
the  wife's  work  to  thwart  the  good  creation  of  her  husband,, 
and  to  cause  all  physical  and  moral  ill.  Thus  to  the  Sun- 
worshipping  sect  she  stands  abhorred  on  the  bad  eminence 
of  the  Evil  Deity.  But  her  own  sect,  the  Earth-worship- 
ping sect,  seem  to  hold  ideas  of  her  nature  which  are  more 
primitive  and  genuine.  The  functions  which  they  ascribe 
to  her,  and  the  rites  with  which  they  propitiate  her,  display 
her  as  the  Earth-mother,  raised  by  an  intensely  agricultural 
race  to  an  extreme  height  of  divinity.  It  was  she  who  with 
drops  of  her  blood  made  the  soft  muddy  ground  harden  into 
firm  earth ;  thus  men  learnt  to  offer  human  victims,  and  the 
whole  earth  became  firm ;  the  pastures  and  ploughed  fields 
came  into  use,  and  there  were  cattle  and  sheep  and  poultry 
for  man's  service ;  hunting  began,  and  there  were  iron  and 
ploughshares  and  harrows  and  axes,  and  the  juice  of  the 
palm-tree ;  and  love  arose  between  the  sons  and  daughters 
of  the  people,  making  new  households,  and  society  with  its. 
relations  of  father  and  mother,  and  wife  and  child,  and  the 
bonds  between  ruler  and  subject.  It  was  the  Khond  Earth- 
goddess  who  was  propitiated  with  those  hideous  sacrifices, 
the  suppression  of  which  is  matter  of  recent  Indian  his- 
tory. With  dances  and  drunken  orgies,  and  a  mystery  play 
to  explain  in  dramatic  dialogue  the  purpose  of  the  rite,  the 
priest  offered  Tari  Pennu  her  sacrifice,  and  prayed  for 
children  and  cattle  and  poultry  and  brazen  pots  and  all 
wealth;  every  man  and  woman  wished  a  wish,  and  they 
tore  the  slave-victim  piecemeal,  and  spread  the  morsels 
over  the  fields  they  were  to  fertilize.^  In  Northern  Asia, 
also,  among  the  Tatar  races,  the  office  of  the  Earth-deity  is 
strongly  and  widely  marked.  Thus  in  the  nature-worship 
of  the  Tunguz  and  Buraets,  Earth  stands  among  the  greater 
divinities.  It  is  especially  interesthig  to  notice  among  the 
Finns  a  transition  like  that  just  observed  from  the  god 

'  Macpherson,  '  India,*  chap.  vi. 


272  ANIMISM. 

Heaven  to  the  Heaven-god.     In  the  designation  of  Maa- 
•ema,  Earth-mother,  given  to  the  earth  itseK,  we  seem  to 
trace  survival  from  the  stage  of  direct  nature-worship,  while 
the  passage  to  the  conception  of  a  divine  being  inhabiting 
and  ruling  the  material  substance,  is  marked  by  the  use  of 
the  name  Maan  emo.  Earth's  mother,  for  the  ancient  sub- 
terranean goddess  whem  men  would  ask  to  make  the  grass 
shoot  thick  and  the  thousandfold  ears  mount  high,  or  might 
«ven  entreat  to  rise  in  person  out  of  the  earth  to  give  them 
strength.     The  analogy  of  other  m}i;hologies  agrees  with 
the  definition  of  the  divine  pair  who  reign  in  Finn  theology : 
as  Ukko  the  Grandfather  is  the  Heaven-god,  so  his  spouse 
Akka  the  Grandmother  is  the  Earth-goddess.^     Thus    in 
the  ancient  nature- worship  of  China,  the  personal  Earth 
holds  a  place  below  the  Heaven.     Tien  and  Tu  are  closely 
associated  in  the  national  rites,  and  the  idea  of  the  pair 
as   universal   parents,   if   not   an    original   conception   in 
Chinese   theology,   is   at  any  rate  developed  in  Chinese 
classic  symbolism.    Heaven  and  Earth  receive  their  solemn 
sacrifices  not  at  the  hands  of  common  mortals  but  of  the 
Son  of  Heaven,  the  Emperor,  and  his  great  vassals  and 
mandarins.     Yet  their  adoration  is  national ;  they  are  wor- 
shipped by  the  people  who  oflfer  incense  to  them  on  the 
hill-tops  at  their  autumn  festival,  they  are  adored  by  suc- 
cessful candidates  in  competitive  examination,  and,  espe- 
cially  and    appropriately,   the   prostration    of   bride    and 
bridegroom  before  the  father  and  mother  of  all  things,  the 
"  worshipping  of  Heaven  and  Earth,'*  is  the  all-important 
ceremony  of  a  Chinese  marriage.^ 

The  Vedic  hymns  commemorate  the  goddess  Prithivi,  the 
broad  Earth,  and  in  their  ancient  strophes  the  modem 
Brahmans  still  pray  for  benefits  to  mother  Earth  and  father 
Heaven,  side  by  side  : — 

^  Georgi,  '  Reiso  im  Kuas.  Reich.'  voL  i.  pp.  275,  317.  Gastrin, '  Finn.  Myth.' 
p.  86,  etc. 

*  Plath,  *  Religion  derAltenChinesen/  part  i.  pp.  86,  73,  part  ii.  p.  82- 
Doolittie,  *  Chinese,'  voL  L  pp.  86,  854,  413,  voL  ii.  pp.  67,  880,  455. 


ANIMISIC  273 

**  Taono  Y&to  mayobhu  y&tu  bhealu^am  tanmftU  Pritliiyt  tatpitA 
Dyauh." » 

Greek  religion  shows  a  transition  to  have  taken  place  like 
that  among  the  Turanian  tribes^  for  the  older  simpler 
nature-deity  Gaia,  Trj  isivrtov  iirjrrjp,  Earth  the  All-Mother, 
seems  to  have  faded  into  the  more  anthropomorphic  De- 
meter,  Earth-Mother,  whose  eternal  fire  burned  in  Man- 
tinea,  and  whose  temples  stood  far  and  wide  over  the  land 
which  she  made  kindly  to  the  Greek  husbandman.'  The 
Romans  acknowledged  her  plain  identity  as  Terra  Mater, 
Ops  Mater.*  Tacitus  could  rightly  recognize  this  deity  of 
his  own  land  among  German  tribes,  worshippers  of  "  Ner- 
thum  (or,  Hertham),  id  est  Terram  matrem,''  Mother  Earth, 
whose  holy  grove  stood  in  an  ocean  isle,  whose  chariot 
drawn  by  cows  passed  through  the  land  making  a  season  of 
peace  and  joy,  till  the  goddess,  satiated  with  mortal  conver- 
sation, was  taken  back  by  her  priest  to  her  temple,  and  the 
chariot  and  garments  and  even  the  goddess  herself  were 
washed  in  a  secret  lake,  which  forthwith  swallowed  up  the 
ministering  slaves — "  hence  a  mysterious  terror  and  sacred 
ignorance,  what  that  should  be  which  only  the  doomed  to 
perish  might  behold."  *  If  in  these  modem  days  we  seek 
in  Europe  traces  of  Earth-worship,  we  may  find  them  in 
curiously  distinct  survival  in  Germany,  if  no  longer  in  the 
Christmas  food-ofierings  buried  in  and  for  the  earth  up  to 
early  in  this  century,^  at  any  rate  among  Gypsy  hordes. 
Dewel,  the  great  god  in  heaven  (dewa,  deus),  is  rather 
feared  than  loved  by  these  weatherbeaten  outcasts,  for  he 
harms  them  on  their  wanderings  with  his  thunder  and 
lightning,  his  snow  and  rain,  and  his  stars  interfere  with 
their  dark  doings.  Therefore  they  curse  him  foully  when 
misfortune  falls  on  them,  and  when  a  child  dies,  they  say 
that  Dewel  has  eaten  it.    But  Earth,  Mother  of  all  good, 

»  « Big- Veda,'  i.  89.  4,  etc.  etc 

*  Welcker,  'Griech.  GotterL'  voL  i.  p.  885,  etc. 

*  VoTTo  de  Ling.  Lat.  iv, 

^  Tacit  Germania,  40.    Grimm, « Deutsche  Myth.'  p.  229,  etc. 

*  Wuttke,  'Deutsche  Volksabergl.'  p.  87. 

VOL.  II.  T 


274  ANIMISM. 

self-existing  from  the  beginning,  is  to  them  holy,  so  holy" 
that  they  take  heed  never  to  let  the  drinking-cup  touch, 
the  ground,  for  it  would  become  too  sacred  to  be  used  by 
nien.^ 

Water-worship,  as  we  have  seen,  may  be  classified  as  a 
special  deparhnent  of  religion.  It  by  no  means  follows, 
however,  that  savage  water-worshippers  should  necessarily 
have  generalized  their  ideas,  and  passed  beyond  their  par- 
ticular water-deities  to  arrive  at  the  conception  of  a  general 
deity  presiding  over  water  as  an  element.  Divine  springs, 
streams,  and  lakes,  water-spirits,  deities  concerned  with  the 
clouds  and  rain,  are  frequent,  and  many  details  of  them  are 
cited  here,  but  I  have  not  succeeded  in  finding  among  the 
lower  races  any  divinity  whose  attributes,  fairly  criticized,, 
will  show  him  or  her  to  be  au  original  and  absolute  ele- 
mental Water-god.  Among  the  deities'  of  the  Dakotas, 
Unktahe  the  fish-god  of  the  waters  is  a  master-spirit  of 
sorcery  and  religion,  the  rival  even  of  the  mighty  Thiinder-^ 
bird.*  In  the  Mexican  pantheon,  Tlaloc  god  of  rain  and 
waters,  fertilizer  of  earth  and  lord  of  paradise,  whose  wife 
is  Chalchihuitlicue,  Emerald- Skirt,  dwells  among  the 
mountain-tops  where  the  clouds  gather  and  pour  down  the 
streams.^  Yet  neither  of  these  mythic  beings  approaches 
the  generality  of  conception  that  belongs  to  full  elemental 
deity,  and  even  the  Greek  Nereus,  though  by  his  name  he 
should  be  the  very  personification  of  water  (vripos),  seems 
too  exclusively  marine  in  his  home  and  family  to  be  cited 
as  the  Water-god.  Nor  is  the  reason  of  this  hard  to  find* 
It  is  an  extreme  stretch  of  the  power  of  theological  gene- 
ralization to  bring  water  in  its  myriad  forms  under  one 
divinity,  though  each  individual  body  of  water,  even  the 
smallest  stream  or  lake,  can  have  its  personal  individuality 
or  indwelling  spirit. 

^  Liebicb,  'Die  Zigeaner/  pp.  80,  84. 

'  Schoolcraft,  Indian  Tribes/  part  iu.  p.  485  ;  Eastman,   '  Dahcotah,' p. 
i.  118,  161. 
*  Clavigero,  vol.  ii.  p.  14. 


ANIMISM.  275 

Islanders  and  coast-dwellers  indeed  live  face  to  face  with 
mighty  water-deities,  the  divine  Sea  and  the  great  Sea-gods. 
What  the  sea  may  seem  to  an  uncultured  man  who  first 
beholds  it,  we  may  learn  among  the  Lampongs  of  Sumatra  : 
**  The  inland  people  of  that  country  are  said  to  pay  a  kind 
of  adoration  to  the  sea,  and  to  make  to  il  an  offering  of 
cakes  and  sweetmeats  on  their  beholding  it  for  the  first 
time,  deprecating  its  power  of  doing  them  mischief."  ^  The 
higher  stage  of  such  doctrine  is  where  the  sea,  no  longer 
itself  personal,  is  considered  as  ruled  by  indwelling  spirits. 
Thus  Tuaraatai  and  Buahatu,  principal  among  marine 
deities  of  Polynesia,  send  the  sharks  to  execute  their  ven- 
geance. Hiro  descends  to  the  depths  of  the  ocean  and 
dwells  among  the  monsters,  they  lull  him  to  sleep  in  a 
cavern,  the  Wind-god  profits  by  his  absence  to  raise  a 
violent  storm  to  destroy  the  boats  in  which  Hiro's  firiends 
are  sailing,  but,  roused  by  a  friendly  spirit-messenger,  the 
Sea-god  rises  to  the  surface  and  quells  the  tempest.*  This 
South  Sea  Island  myth  might  well  have  been  in  the  Odyssey. 
We  may  point  to  the  Guinea  Coast  as  a  barbaric  region 
where  Sea-worship  survives  in  its  extremest  form.  It  ap- 
pears from  Bosman's  account,  about  1700,  that  in  the 
i-eligion  of  Whydah,  the  Sea  ranked  only  as  younger  bro- 
ther in  the  three  divine  orders,  below  the  Serpents  and 
Trees.  But  at  present,  as  appears  fi"om  Captain  Burton's 
evidence,  the  religion  of  Whydah  extends  through  Dahome, 
and  tlie  divine  Sea  has  risen  in  rank.  "  The  youngest 
brother  of  the  triad  is  Hu,  the  ocean  or  sea.  Formerly  it 
was  subject  to  chastisement,  like  the  Hellespont,  if  idle  or 
useless.  The  Huno,  or  ocean  priest,  is  now  considered  the 
liighest  of  all,  a  fetish  king,  at  Whydah,  where  he  has  600 
wives.  At  stated  times  he  repairs  to  the  beach,  begs  '  Ag- 
bwe,'  the  .  .  .  ocean  god,  not  to  be  boisterous,  and  throws 
in  rice  and  com,  oil  and  beans,  cloth,  cowries,  and  other 
▼alnables.  ...  At  times  the  King  sends  as  an  ocean  sa- 

^  Marsden,  '  Sumatra,'  p.  801 ;  see  also  303  (Tagals). 
«  Ellit,  '  PolyxJ  Rca.'  vol.  i.  p.  828. 

T   2 


276  ANIMISM. 

orifice  from  Agbome  a  man  carried  in  a  hammock,  with  the 
dresSi  the  stool,  and  the  umbrella  of  a  caboceer ;  a  canoe 
takes  him  out  to  sea,  where  he  is  thrown  to  the  sharks."  ^ 
While  in  these  descriptions  the  individual  divine  personality 
of  the  sea  is  so  well  marked,  an  account  of  the  closely  re- 
lated Slave  Coast  religion  states  that  a  great  god  dwells  in 
the  sea,  and  it  is  to  him,  not  to  the  sea  itself,  that  offerings 
are  cast  in.^  In  South  America  the  idea  of  the  divine 
Sea  is  clearly  marked  in  the  Peruvian  worship  of  Mama- 
cocha.  Mother  Sea,  giver  of  food  to  men.^  Eastern  Asia, 
both  in  its  stages  of  lower  and  higher  civiUzation,  contri- 
butes members  to  the  divine  group.  In  Kamchatka,  Mitgk 
the  Great  Spirit  of  the  Sea,  fish-like  himself,  sends  the  fish 
up  the  rivers.^  Japan  deifies  separately  on  land  and  at  sea 
the  lords  of  the  waters ;  Midsuno  Kami,  the  Water-god,  is 
worshipped  during  the  rainy  season ;  Jebisu,  the  Sea-god,  is 
younger  brother  of  the  Sun.^ 

Among  barbaric  races  we  thus  find  two  conceptions 
current,  the  personal  divine  Sea  and  the  anthropomorphic 
Sea-god.  These  represent  two  stages  of  development  of 
one  idea — the  view  of  the  natural  object  as  itself  an  ani- 
mated being,  and  the  separation  of  its  animating  fetish-soul 
as  a  distinct  spiritual  deity.  To  follow  the  enquiry  into 
classic  times  shows  the  same  distinction  as  strongly  marked. 
When  Kleomenes  marched  down  to  Thyrea,  having  slaugh- 
tered a  bull  to  the  sea  (a-<l>ayui(rifi€pos  bi  rfj  OaXiaari  ravpoi*) 
he  embarked  his  army  in  ships  for  the  Tirynthian  land  and 
Nauplia.^  Cicero  makes  Cotta  remark  to  Balbus  that  *'  our 
generals>  embarking  on  the  sea,  have  been  accustomed  to 
immolate  a  victim  to  the  waves,"   and  he  goes  on  to  argue, 

^  Bosman,  '  Goinea,'  letter  six. ;  in  Pinkerton,  voL  zvi  p.  494.    Burton, 
'Dabome,'  vol.  ii.  p.  141.     See  also  below,  cbap.  xviii.  (sacrifice). 

*  Scblegel,  *  Ewe  Spracbe,'  p.  xiv. 

'  Garcilaso  'de  la  Vega,  '  Commentarios  Seales/  i  10,  vL  17 ;  Rlrero  ft 
Tschudi,  'Peru,' p.  161. 

<  Steller,  'Eamtscbatka^^p.  265. 
»  Siebold,  *  Nippon,'  part  v.  p.  0. 

•  Herod,  vi.  76. 


ANIMISM.  277 

not  unfairly,  that  if  the  Earth  herself  is  a  goddess,  what  is 
she  other  than  Tellus,  and  ''if  the  Earth,  the  Sea  too, 
whom  thou  saidst  to  be  Neptune.'*  ^  Here  is  direct  nature- 
worship  in  its  extremest  sense  of  fetish-worship.  But  in 
the  anthropomorphic  stage  appear  that  dim  prae-Olympian 
figure  of  Nereus  the  Old  Man  of  the  Sea,  father  of  the  Ne- 
reids in  their  ocean  caves,  and  the  Homeric  Foseid5n  the 
Earth-shaker,  who  stables  his  coursers  in  his  cave  in  the 
^gean  deeps,  who  harnesses  the  gold-maned  steeds  to  his 
chariot  and  drives  through  the  dividing  waves,  while  the 
subject  sea-beasts  come  up  at  the  passing  of  their  lord,  a 
king  so  little  boimd  to  the  element  he  governs,  that  he  can 
come  from  the  briae  to  sit  in  the  midst  of  the  gods  id  the 
assembly  on  Olympos,  and*  ask  the  will  of  Zeus.' 

Fire-worship  brings  into  view  again,  though  under  dif- 
ferent aspects  and  with  different  results^  the  problems  pre- 
sented by  water-worship.  The  real  and  absolute  worship 
of  fire  falls  into  two  great  divisions,  the  first  belonging 
rather  to  fetishism,  the  second  to  polytheism  proper,  and 
the  two  apparently  representing  an  earlier  and  later  stage  of 
theological  ideas.  The  first  is  the  rude  barbarian's  adora- 
tion of  the  actual  flame  which  he  watches  writhing,  roaring, 
devouring  like  a  live  animal ;  the  second  belongs  to  an  ad- 
vanced generalization,  that  any  individual  fire  is  a  mani- 
festation of  one  general  elemental  being,  the  Fire-god. 
Unfortunately,  evidence  of  the  exact  meaning  of  fire-worship 
among  the  lower  races  is  scanty,  while  the  transition  from 
fetishism  to  polytheism  seems  a  gradual  process  of  which 
the  stages  elude  close  definition.  Moreover,  it  must  be 
borne  in  mind  that  rites  performed  with  fire  are,  though 
often,  yet  by  no  means  necessarily,  due  to  worship  of  the 
fire  itself.  Authors  who  have  indiscriminately  mixed  up 
such  rites  as  the  new  fire,  the  perpetual  fire,  the  passing 

• 

'  Cicero,  De  Natara  Deoram,  iii  20. 

'  Homer,  IL  i.  538,  ziiL  18,  zx.  18.    Gladstone,  '  Jayentus  Mnndi.'  Welcker, 
'Grioch.  GotterL' vol.  i.pb  616,  etc    Coz,   'Mythology  of  Aryan  Nations/ 
vol.  ii.  ch.  vi. 


278 .  ANIMISM. 

through  the  fire,  classing  them  as  acts  of  fire-worship,  with- 
out proper  evidence  as  to  their  meaning  in  any  particular 
case,  have  added  to  the  perplexity  of  a  subject  not  too  easy 
to  deal  with,  even  under  strict  precautions.  Two  sources 
of  error  are  especially  to  be  noted.  On  the  one  hand,  fire 
happens  to  be  a  usual  means  whereby  sacrifices  are  trans- 
mitted to  departed  souls  and  deities,  in  general ;  and  on  the 
other  hand,  the  ceremonies  of  earthly  fire-worship  are  habi- 
tually and  naturally  transferred  to  celestial  fire-worship  in 
the  religion  of  the  Sun. 

It  may  best  serve  our  present  purpose  to  carry  a  line  of 
some  of  the  best-defined  facts  which  seem  to  bear  on  fire- 
worship  proper,  from  savagery  on  into  the  higher  culture. 
In  the  last  century,  Loskiel,  a  missionary  among  the  North 
American  Indians,   remarks  that    ^'In   great   danger,   an 
Indian  has  been  observed  to  lie  prostrate  on  his  face,  and 
throwing  a  handful  of  tobacco  into  the  fire,  to  call  aloud,  as 
in  an  agony  of  distress,  *  There,  take  and  smoke,  be  paci- 
fied, and  don't  hurt  me.'  *'     Of  course  this  may  have  been 
a  mere  sacrifice  transmitted  to  some  other  spiritual  being 
through  fire,  but  we  have  in  this  region  explicit  statements 
as  to  a  distinct  fire-deity.     The  Delawares,  it  appears  from ' 
the  same  author,  acknowledged  the  Fire-manitu,  first  parent 
of  all  Indian  nations,  and  celebrated  a  yearly  festival  in  his 
honour,  when  twelve  manitus,  animal  and   vegetable,   at- 
tended him  as  subordinate  deities.^   In  North-West  America, 
in  Washington  Irving's  account  of  the  Chinooks  and  other 
Columbia  River  tribes,  mention  is  made  of  the  spirit  which 
inhabits  fire.     Powerful  both  for  evil  and  good,  and  seem- 
ingly rather  evil  than  good  in  nature,  this  being  must  be 
kept  in  good  humour  by  frequent  offerings.    The  Fire-spirit 
has  great  influence  with  the  winged  aerial  supreme  deity, 
wherefore  the  Indians  implore  him  to  be  their  interpreter, 
to  procure  them  success  in  hunting  and  fiishing,  fleet  horses, 
obedient  wives,  and  male  children.*     In  the   elaborately 

'  Loskiel,  <  Ind.  of  N.  A/  part  i.  pp.  41,  45.    See  also  J.  G.  HUller,  p.  55. 
^  Irving,  'Astoria,'  voL  ii  oh.  xxii. 


ANIMISK  279 

^systematic  religion  of  Mexico,  there  appears  in  his  proper 
place  a  Fire-god,  closely  related  to  the  Sun-god  in  character, 
but  keeping  well  marked  his  proper  identity.  His  name 
was  Xiuhteuctli,  Fire-lord,  and  they  called  him  likewise 
Huehueteotl,  the  old  god.  Great  honour  was  paid  to  this 
^od  Fire,  who  gives  them  heat,  and  bakes  their  cakes,  and 
roasts  their  meat.  Therefore  at  every  meal  the  fbrst  morsel 
and  libation  were  cast  into  the  fife,  and  every  day  the  deity 
had  incense  burnt  to  him.  Twice  in  the  year  were  held  his 
solemn  festivals.  At  the  first,  a  felled  tree  was  set  up  in 
his  honour,  and  the  sacrificers  danced  round  his  fire  with 
the  human  victims,  whom  afterwards  they  cast  into  a  great 
fire,  only  to  drag  them  out  half  roasted  for  the  priests  to 
complete  the  sacrifice.  The  second  was  distinguished  by 
the  rite  of  the  new  fire,  so  well  known  in  connexion  with 
solar  worship ;  the  friction-fire  was  solemnly  made  before 
the  image  of  Xiuhteuctli  in  his  sanctuary  in  the  court  of 
ihe  great  teocalli,  and  the  game  brought  in  at  the  great 
hunt  which  began  the  festival  was  cooked  at  the  sacred 
fire  for  the  banquets  that  ended  it.^  Polynesia  well  knows 
from  the  mythological  point  of  view  Mahuika  the  Fire-god, 
who  keeps  the  volcano-fire  on  his  subterranean  heu*th, 
whither  Maui  goes  down  (as  the  Sun  into  the  Underworld) 
to  bring  up  fire  for  man;  but  in  the  South  Sea  islands 
there  is  scarcely  a  trace  of  actual  rites  of  fire-worship.^  In 
West  Africa,  among  the  gods  of  Dahome  is  Zo  the  fire- 
fetish  ;  a  pot  of  fire  is  placed  in  a  room,  and  sacrifice  is 
offered  to  it,  that  fire  may  "  live  "  there,  and  not  go  forth 
to  destroy  the  house.* 

Asia  is  a  region  where  distinct  fire-worship  may  be  pecu- 
liarly well  traced  through  the  range  of  lower  and  higher 
civilization.     The  rude  Eamchadals,  worshipping  all  things 

^  Torqnemada,  'Monarquia  Indiana,'  vL  c.  28,  x.  c.  22,  80 ;  Brasseur 
■*  Meziqae,*  vol.  iiL  pp.  492,  522,  536. 

^  Schirren,  *  Wander8agederKeu86elander/etc.p.32;  Tomer,  'Polynesia^ 
pp.  252,  527. 

*  Burton,  'Dahome,'  vol.  ii  p.  148  ;  Sfehlegel,  *  Ewe  Sprache,'  p.  X7. 


280  ANIMISM. 

that  did  them  harm  or  good,  worshipped  the  fire,  offering 
to  it  noses  of  foxes  and  other  game,  so  that  one  might  tell 
by  looking  at  fars  whether  they  had  been  taken  by  baptized 
or  heathen  hunters.^  The  Ainos  of  Tesso  have  many  gods,, 
but  Fire  is  the  principal  deity,  to  whom,  not  to  Sun,  Moon, 
and  Stars,  they  pray  for  all  they  need.'  Turanian  tribes- 
likewise  hold  fire  a  sacred  element,  many  Tunguz,  Mongol, 
and  Turk  tribes  sacrifice  to  Fire,  and  some  clans  will  not 
eat  meat  without  first  throwing  a  morsel  upon  the  hearth* 
The  following  passage  from  a  Mongol  wedding-song  to  the 
personified  Fire,  seems  curiously  to  acknowledge  the  prece- 
dence of  the  ancient  friction-fire  made  by  the  wooden  drill, 
over  that  made  by  the  more  modem  flint  and  steels 
*'  Mother  Ut,  Queen  of  Fire,  thou  who  art  made  firom  the 
elm  that  grows  on  the  mountain-tops  of  Changgai-Chan 
and  Burchatu-Chan,  thou  who  didst  come  forth  when 
heaven  and  earth  divided,  didst  come  forth  from  the  foot- 
steps of  Mother  Earth,  and  wast  formed  by  the  King  of 
Gods.  Mother  Ut,  whose  father  is  the  hard  steel,  whose 
mother  is  the  flint,  whose  ancestors  are  the  elm-trees, 
whose  shining  reaches  to  the  sky  and  pervades  the  earth. 
Goddess  Ut,  we  bring  thee  yellow  oil  for  oflering,  and  a 
white  wether  with  yellow  head,  thou  who  hast  a  manly  son, 
a  beauteous  daughter-in-law,  bright  daughters.  To  thee,. 
Mother  Ut,  who  ever  lookest  upward,  we  bring  brandy  in 
bowls,  and  fat  in  both  hands.  Give  prosperity  to  the 
King's  son  (the  bridegroom),  to  the  King's  daughter  (the 
bride),  and  to  aU  the  people ! "  ^  As  an  analogue  to 
Hephaistos  the  Greek  divine  smith,  inay  stand  the  Cir- 
cassian Fire-god,  Tleps,  patron  of  metal-workers  and  the 
peasants  whom  he  has  provided  with  plough  and  hoe.^ 

>  Steller,  <Kamtschatka,'  p.  276. 

s  Bickmore,  Ainos,  in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc'  vol.  vii.  p.  20. 

»  Castrdn,  'Finn.  Myth.* p.  57  ;  Billings,  *N.  Russia,'  p.  128  (YaJnita)  ; 
Bastian,  'Yorstellnngen  yon  WasserondFener/in  'Zeitschr.  fUr  Ethnologie,* 
ToL  L  p.  888  (Mongols). 

"*  Elemm,  'Cultnr-Gesch.'  vol,  vi«  p.  85  (Circassia).  "Welcker,  vol  L  p- 
668. 


ANDasic  281 

The  fire-worship  of  Assyria,  Chaldaea,  Phoenicia,  is. 
famous  in  history,  the  fire-pillars,  the  temple  of  the  Tynan 
Baal  where  stood  no  image  but  the  eternal  fire  burning  on 
the  hearth,  the  Canaanitish  Moloch  to  whom  (whether  in 
actual  or  symbolic  sacrifice)  children  passed  through  the 
fire.  ''And  they  built  the  high  places  of  Baal,  in  the 
valley  of  the  son  of  Hinnom,  to  cause  their  sons  and  their 
daughters  to  pass  through  to  Moloch."  ^  But  the  records 
which  have  reached  us  of  these  ancient  deities  are  obscure 
and  complex  in  their  definition,  and  their  study  is  perhaps 
more  valuable  in  compiling  the  history  than  in  elucidating 
the  principles  of  religion.  For  this  scientific  purpose,  the 
more  full  and  minute  documents  of  Aryan  religion  can  give 
a  better  answer.  In  various  forms  and  under  several 
names,  the  Fire-god  is  known.  Nowhere  does  he  carry  his 
personality  more  distinctly  than  under  his  Sanskrit  name 
of  Agni,  a  word  which  keeps  its  quality,  though  not  its 
divinity,  in  the  Latin  "  ignis."  The  name  of  Agni  is  the 
first  word  of  the  first  hymn  of  the  Rig- Veda  :  "  Agnim  ile 
puro-hitam  yajnasya  devam  ritvijam! — Agni  I  entreaty 
divine  appointed  priest  of  sacrifice  !  '*  The  sacrifices  which 
Agni  receives  go  to  the  gods,  he  is  the  mouth  of  the  gods, 
but  he  is  no  lowly  minister,  as  it  is  said  in  another  hymn  : 

"  No  god  indeed,  no  mortal  is  beyond  the  might  of  thee,  the  mighty 
one,  with  the  Maruts  come  hither,  O  Agni ! " 

Such  the  mighty  Agni  is  among  the  gods,  yet  he  comes 
within  the  peasant's  cottage  to  be  protector  of  the  domestic 
hearth.  His  worship  has  survived  the  transformation  of 
the  ancient  patriarchal  Yedic  religion  of  nature  into  the 
priest-ridden  ritualistic  Hinduism  of  our  own  day,  where 
Agni  still,  as  among  the  ruder  Mongol  hordes  north  of  the 
Himalaya,  is  new-bom  of  the  twirling  fire-sticks,  and 
receives  the  melted  butter  of  the  sacrifice.^    Among  the 

'  2  Kings,  zziii  10 ;  Jerem.  zzzii.  85 ;  etc  Movers,  '  Phonizier,*  vol.  i. 
p.  327  etc.,  887  etc.,  iOl. 

«  'Big. Veda,'  i  1.  1,  19.  2,  iiL  1.  18,  etc.  ;  Max  MUllcr,  vol.  L  p.  89. 
Ward,  'Hindoo^*  yol.  ii.  p.  68. 


282  ANIKISM. 

records  of  fire-worship  in  Asia,  is  the  account  in  Jonas 
Hanway's  '  Travels/  dating  from  about  1740,  of  the  ever- 
lasting fire  at  the  burning  wells  near  Baku,  on  the  Caspian. 
At  the  sacred  spot  stood  several  ancient  stone  temples, 
mostly  arched  vaults  10  to  15  feet  high.  One  little  temple 
was  still  used  for  worship,  near  the  altar  of  which,  about 
three  feet  high,  a  large  hollow  cane  conveyed  the  gas  up 
from  the  ground,  burning  at  the  mouth  with  a  blue  flame. 
Here  were  generally  forty  or  fifty  poor  devotees,  come  on 
pilgrimage  from  their  country  to  make  expiation  for  them- 
selves and  others,  and  subsisting  on  wild  celery,  etc.  These 
pilgrims  are  described  as  marking  their  foreheads  with 
8affi*on,  and  having  great  veneration  for  a  red  cow ;  they 
wore  little  clothing,  and  the  holiest  of  them  kept  one  arm 
on  their  heads,  or  continued  unmoved  in  some  other  pos- 
ture ;  they  are  described  as  Ghebers,  or  Gours,  the  usual 
Moslem  term  for  Fire-worshippers.^ 

In  general,  this  name  of  Ghebers  is  applied  to  the 
Zoroastrians  or  Parsis,  whom  a  modem  European  would  all 
but  surely  point  to  if  asked  to  instance  a  modem  race  of 
Fire-worshippers.  Classical  accounts  of  the  Persian  reli- 
^on  set  down  fire-worship  as  part  and  parcel  of  it ;  the 
Magi,  it  is  recorded,  hold  the  gods  to  be  Fire  and  Earth 
and  Water ;  and  again,  the  Persians  reckon  the  Fire  to  be 
a  god  {6€0(f>opova'iv).^  On  the  testimony  of  the  old  religious 
books  of  the  Parsis  themselves.  Fire,  as  the  greatest  Ized, 
as  giver  of  increase  and  health,  as  craving  for  wood  and 
scents  and  fat,  seems  to  take  the  distinctest  divine  per- 
sonality. Their  doctrine  that  Ardebehist,  the  presiding 
angel  or  spirit  of  fire,  is  adored,  but  not  the  material  object 
he  belongs  to,  is  a  perfect  instance  of  the  development  of 
the  idea  of  an  elemental  divinity  from  that  of  an  animated 
fetish.     When,  driven  by  Moslem  persecution  from  Persia, 


i  Hanway,  *  Journal  of  Travels,'  London,  1758,  vol.  L  cli.  Ivii. 
^  Diog.  Laert.  Prooem.  iL  6.    Sextus  Empiricus  adv.  Physicos^  iz.  ;  Stnlxv 
^v.  8, 18. 


Al^IMISM.  283 

Parsi  exiles  landed  in  Gujarat,  they  described  their  reli- 
gion in  an  officiftl  document  as  being  the  worship  of  Agni 
or  Fire,  thus  claiming  for  themselves  a  place  among  recog- 
nized Hindu  sects.^    In  modem  times,  though  for  the  most 
part  the  Parsis  have  found  toleration  and   prosperity  in 
India,  yet  an  oppressed  remnant  of  the  race  still  keeps  up 
the  everlasting  fires  at  Yezd  and  Eirman,  in  their  old  Per- 
sian land.    The  modem  Parsis,  as  in  Strabo's  time,  scruple 
to  defile  the  fire  or  blow  it  with  their  breath,  they  abstain 
from  smoking  out  of  regard  not  to  themselves  but  to  the 
sacred  element,  and  they  keep  up  consecrated  ever-burning 
fires  before  which  they  do  worship.     Nevertheless,  Prof. 
Max  Miiller  is  able  to  say  of  the  Parsis  of  our  own  day : 
"  The  so-called  Fire-worshippers  certainly  do  not  worship 
the  fire,  and  they  naturally  object  to  a  name  which  seems 
to  place  them  on  a  level  with  mere  idolators.     All  they 
admit  is,  that  in  their  youth  they  are  taught  to  face  some 
luminous   object  while  worahipping   God,   and   that  they 
regard  the  fire,  like  other  great  natural  phenomena,  as  an 
•emblem  of  the  Divine  power.     But  they  assure  us  that  they 
never  ask  assistance  or  blessings  from   an  imintelligent 
material  object,  nor  is  it  even  considered  necessary  to  turn 
the  face  to  any  emblem  whatever  in  praying  to  Ormuzd."  * 
Now,  admitting  this  view  of  fire-worship  as  true  of  the  more 
intelligent  Parsis,  and  leaving  aside  the  question  how  far 
among  the  more  ignorant  this  symbolism  may  blend  (as  in 
such  cases  is  usual)  into  actual  adoration,  we  may  ask  what 
is  the  history  of  ceremonies  which  thus  imitate,  yet  are  not, 
fire-worship.    The  ethnographic  answer  is  clear  and  instruc- 
tive.    The  Parsi  is  the  descendant  of  a  race  in  this  respect 
represented  by  the  modern  Hindu,  a  race  who  did  simply 
and  actually  worship  Fire.     But  the  development  of  the 
more  philosophic  Zarathustrian  doctrines  has  led  to  a  result 
<k>nunon  in  the  history  of  religion,  that  the  ancient  distinctly 

^  John  Wilson,   'The  Parai  Religion,'  ch.  iv;  'ATe6ta,'tr.  by  Spiegel  & 
Bleek,  Ta^na,  L  bd. 
»  Max  MiUler,  'Chips,*  vol.  L  p.  169. 


284  ANIMISM. 

meant  rite  has  dwindled  to  a  symbol^  to  be  preseryed  with 
changed  sense  in  a  new  theology.  ^ 

Somewhat  of  the  same  kind  may  have  taken  place  among 
the  European  race  who  seem  in  some  respects  the  closest, 
relatives  of  the  old  Persians.  Slavonic  history  possibly 
keeps  up  some  trace  of  direct  and  absolute  fire-worship,  as 
where  in  Bohemia  the  Pagans  are  described  as  worshipping 
fires,  groves,  trees,  stones.  But  though  the  Lithuanians 
and  Old  Prussians  and  Russians  are  among  the  nations 
whose  especial  rite  it  was  to  keep  up  sacred  everlasting  fires, 
yet  it  seems  that  their  fire-rites  were  in  the  symbolic  stage, 
ceremonies  of  their  great  celestial-solar  religion,  rather  than 
acts  of  direct  worship  to  a  Fire-god.^  Classical  religion, 
on  the  other  hand,  brings  prominently  into  view  the  special 
deities  of  fire.  Hephaistos,  Yulcan,  the  divine  metallurgist 
who  had  his  temples  on  ^tna  and  Lipari,  stands  in  especial 
connexion  with  the  subterranean  volcanic  fire,  and  combines 
the  nature  of  the  Polynesian  Mahuika  and  the  Circassian 
Tleps.  The  Greek  Hestia,  the  divine  hearth,  the  ever- 
virgin  venerable  goddess,  to  whom  Zeus  gave  fair  office 
instead  of  wedlock,  sits  in  the  midst  of  the  house,  receiv- 
ing &i : — 

"  Tf  dh  weeriip  Ztbs  9wKt  KttShy  y4pas  ianX  ydfMto^ 
Kai  re  fi4<r^  oT[k^  KOfi'  &p*  l(cro  inap  jXoucra." 

In  the  high  halls  of  gods  and  men  she  has  her  everlasting, 
seat,  and  without  her  are  no  banquets  among  mortals,  for 
to  Hestia  first  and  last  is  poured  the  honey-sweet  wine : — 

.  *A9tafdr»y  re  Oc«y  X<¥^  ipxofJt^yMf  r*  Mp^wf 
"EHfniP  ilZtoif  IXaxc,  irpco-/3i}t8a  rifiiii^f 
Ka\hp  l^xowra  y4pas  ko)  rifuoy'  ol  yitp  tir^p  <roG 
Zl/<awivm  Byrrroi&ip,  1i^  ol  wpSry  trvfidrp  re 
'Effrl'p  ifx^y^^^^  (nr4y9€i  fAt\tifB4a  olyoy.'** 

In  Greek  civil  life,  Hestia  sat  in  house  and  assembly  as> 

•   1  Hannsch,  'Slaw.  Myth.'  pp.  88,  98. 

3  Homer.  Hymn.  Apliod.  29,  Hestia  1.    Welcker,  'Griech.  Gdtterl.'  voL  iL 
pp.  686,  691. 


ANIMISM.  286 

representative  of  domestic  and  social  order.  Like  her  in 
name  and  origin^  but  not  altogether  in  development^  is 
Vesta  with  her  ancient  Boman  cultus,  and  her  retinue  of 
virgins  to  keep  up  her  pure  eternal  fire  in  her  temple^  need- 
ing no  image^  for  she  herself  dwelt  within : — 

"  Esse  diu  stultos  YestsB  simulacra  putavi : 
Mox  didici  corvo  nulla  subesee  tholo. 
Ignis  inextmctoB  templo  oelatnr  in  illo. 
EfBgiem  nullam  Yesta  neo  ignis  habet."  ^ 

The  last  lingering  relics  of  fire-worship  in  Europe  reach  us, 
as  usual^  both  through  Turanian  and  Aryan  channels  of 
folklore.  The  Esthonian  bride  consecrates  her  new  hearth 
and  home  by  an  offering  of  money  cast  into  the  fire^  or  laid 
on  the  oven  for  Tule-ema,  Fire-mother.*  The  Carinthian 
peasant  will ''  fodder  "  the  fire  to  make  it  kindly,  and  throw 
lard  or  dripping  to  it,  that  it  may  not  bum  his  house.  To 
the  Bohemian  it  is  a  godless  thing  to  spit  into  the  fire, 
'*  God's  fire  "  as  he  calls  it.  It  is  not  right  to  throw  away 
the  crumbs  after  a  meal,  for  they  belong  to  the  fire.  Of 
every  kind  of  dish  some  should  be  given  to  the  fire,  and  if 
some  runs  over  it  is  wrong  to  scold,  for  it  belongs  to  the 
fire.  It  is  because  these  rites  are  now  so  neglected  that 
harmful  fires  so  offcen  break  out.' 

What  the  Sea  is  to  Water- worship,  in  some  measure  the 
Sun  is  to  Fire-worship.  From  the  doctrines  and  rites  of 
earthly  fire,  various  and  ambiguous  in  character,  generalized 
from  many  phenomena,  applied  to  many  purposes,  we  pass 
to  the  religion  of  heavenly  fire,  whose  great  deity  has  a 
perfect  definiteness  from  his  embodiment  in  one  great  indi- 
vidual fetish,  the  Sun. 

Bivalling  in  power  and  glory  the  all-encompassing  Heaven, 
the  Sun  moves  eminent  among  the  deities  of  nature,  no 
mere  cosmic  globe  affecting  distant  material  worlds  by  force 

^  0?id.  Fast  vL  295. 

*  Boeder,  'Ehsten  AbeigL  Gebr.'  p.  29,  etc 

'  Wnttke,  '  Yolksabeigl.'  p.  86.    GrShmann,  '  AbergUuben  ana  Bdhiaen/ 
p.  41. 


286  ANIKISM. 

in  the  guise  of  light  and  heat  and  gravitji  but  a  living 
reigning  Lord : — 

"  O  thou,  that  with  sorpassmg  glory  Grown'd, 
Look'st  from  thy  sole  dominion  like  the  God 
Of  this  new  world." 

It  is  no  exaggeration  to  say,  with  Sir  William  Jones,  that- 
one  great  fountain  of  all  idolatry  in  the  four  quarters  of  the^ 
globe  was  the  veneration  paid  by  men  to  the  sun  :  it  is  na 
more  than  an  exaggeration  to  say  with  Mr.  Helps  of  the 
sun-worship  in  Peru,  that  it  was  inevitable.    Sun-worship  is- 
by  no  means  universal  among  the  lower  races  of  mankind,, 
but  manifests  itself  in  the  upper  levels  of  savage  religion 
in  districts  far  and  wide  over  the  earth,  often  assuming  the 
prominence  which  it  keeps  and  develops  in  the  faiths  of 
the  barbaric  world.     Why  some  races  are  sim-worshippers 
and  others  not,  is  indeed  too  hard  a  question  to  answer  in 
general  terms.     Yet  one  important  reason  is  obvious,  that 
the  Sun  is  not  so  evidently  the  god  of  wild  hunters  and 
fishers,  as  of  the  tillers  of  the  soil,  who  watch  him  day  by 
day  giving  or  taking  away  their  wealth  and  their  very  life. 
On  the  geographical  significance  of  sun-worship,  D'Orbigny 
has  made  a  remark,  suggestive  if  not  altogether  sound, 
connecting  the  worship  of  the  sun  not  so  much  with  the 
torrid  regions  where  his  glaring  heat  oppresses  man  all  day 
long,  and   drives  him  to   the   shade   for  refuge,  as  with 
climates  where  his  presence  is  welcomed  for  his  life-giving 
heat,  and  nature  chills  at  his  departure.     Thus  while  the 
low  sultry  forests  of  South  America  show  little  prominence 
of  Sun-worship,  this  is  the  dominant  organized  cultus  of 
the   high  table-lands  of  Peru   and   Cundinamarca.^     The 
theory  is  ingenious,  and  if  not  carried  too  far  may  often  be 
supported.    We  may  well  compare  the  feelings  with  which 
the    sun-worshipping   Massagetsa   of    Tartary   must    have 
sacrificed  their  horses  to  the  deity  who  freed  them  from  the 
miseries  of  winter,  with  the  thoughts  of  men  in  those  bum> 

*  D'Orbigny,  'UHomme  Am6ricain,'  vol.  i.  p.  242. 


ANIMISM.  287 

ing  lands  of  Central  Africa  where,  as  Sir  Samuel  Baker 
says,  '^  the  rising  of  the  sun  is  always  dreaded  ...  the  sun. 
is  regarded  as  the  common  enemy,"  words  which  recall 
Herodotus'  old  description  of  the  Atlantes  or  Atarantes  who 
dwelt  in  the  interior  of  Africa,  who  cursed  the  sun  at  his 
rising,  and  abused  him  with  shameful  epithets  for  afflicting 
them  with  his  burning  heat,  them  and  their  land.^ 

The  details  of  Sun-worship  among  the  native  races  of 
America  give  an  epitome  of  its  development  among  man* 
kind  at  large.  Among  many  of  the  ruder  tribes  of  the 
northern  continent,  the  Sun  is  looked  upon  as  one  of  the 
great  deities,  as  representative  of  the  greatest  deity,  or  as 
that  greatest  deity  himself.  Indian  chiefs  of  Hudson's  Bay 
smoked  thrice  to  the  rising  sun.  In  Vancouver  Island  men 
pray  in  time  of  need  to  the  sun  as  he  mounts  toward  the 
zenith.  Among  the  Delawares  the  sun  received  sacrifice  as 
second  among  the  twelve  great  manitus ;  the  Virginians 
bowed  before  him  with  uplifted  hands  and  eyes  as  he  rose 
and  set ;  the  Pottawatomis  would  climb  sometimes  at  sun- 
rise on  their  huts,  to  kneel  and  offer  to  the  luminary  a  mess 
of  Indian  com ;  his  likeness  represented  the  Great  Manitu 
in  Algonquin  picture-writings.  Father  Hennepin,  whose 
name  is  well  known  to  geologists  as  the  earliest  visitor  to 
the  Falls  of  Niagara,  about  1678,  gives  an  account  of  the 
native  tribes,  Sioux  and  others,  of  this  far-west  region. 
He  describes  them  as  venerating  the  Siln,  "  which  they 
recognize,  though  only  in  appearance,  as  the  Maker  and 
Preserver  of  all  things  ;  '*  to  him  first  they  offer  the  calumet 
when  they  light  it,  and  to  him  they  often  present  the  best  and 
most  delicate  of  their  game  in  the  lodge  of  the  chief,  "  who 
profits  more  by  it  than  the  Sun."  The  Creeks  regarded  the 
Sun  as  symbol  or  minister  of  the  Great  Spirit,  sending 
toward  him  the  first  puff  of  the  calumet  at  treaties,  and 
bowing  reverently  toward  him  in  confirming  their  council 
talk  or  haranguing  their  warriors  to  battle.^    Among  the 

*  Herod,  i.  216,  iv.  184.    Baker,  'Albert  Nyanza,'  vol.  L  p.  144. 

^  Waitz,  '  Anthropologie,'  vol.  iii.  p.  181  (Hudson's  B.,  Pottawaiomios),  20& 


288  ANIMISM. 

rude  Botocudos  of  Brazil,  the  idea  of  the  Sun  as  the  great 
good  deity  seems  not  unknown;  the  Araucanians  are 
described  as  bringing  offerings  to  him  as  highest  deity ;  the 
Puelches  as  ascribing  to  the  sun,  and  praying  to  him  for, 
all  good  things  they  possess  or  desire ;  the  Diaguitas  of 
Tucuman  as  having  temples  dedicated  to  the  Sun,  whom 
they  adored,  and  to  whom  they  consecrated  birds'  feathers, 
which  they  then  brought  back  to  their  cabins  and  sprinkled 
from  time  to  time  with  the  blood  of  animals.^ 

Such  accounts  of  Sun-worship  appearing  in  the  lower 
native  culture  of  America,  may  be  taken  to  represAit  its 
first  stage.     It  is  on  the  whole  within  distinctly  higher  cul- 
ture that  its  second  stage  appears,  where  it  has  attained  to 
full  development  of  ritual  and  appurtenance,  and  become  in 
some  cases  even  the  central  doctrine  of  national  religion 
and  statecraft.  .  Sun-worship  had  reached  this  level  among 
the  Natchez  of  Louisiana,  with  whom  various  other  tribes  of 
this  district  stood  in  close  relation.     Every  morning  at  sun- 
rise the  great  Sun-chief  stood  at  the  house-door  facing  the 
east,  shouted  and  prostrated  himself  thrice,  and  smoked 
first  toward  the   sun,  and   then   toward   the   other  three 
quarters.     The  Sun-temple  was  a  circular  hut  some  thirty 
feet  across  and  dome-roofed  :  here  in  the  midst  was  kept  up 
the  everlasting  fire,  here  prayer  was  offered  thrice  daily,  and 
here  were  kept  images  and  fetishes  and  the  bones  of  dead 
chiefs.     The  Natchez  government  was  a  solar  hierarchy. 
At  its  head  stood  the  great  chief,  called  the  Sim  or  the 

(TixginiaxiB).  J.  O.  Miiller,  'Amer.  TJrrel.*  p.  117  (Delawares,  Sioux,  Mingos, 
etc.).  Sproat,  *Ind.  of  Vancouver's  1/  in  *Tr.  Eth.  See.' vol.  v.  p.  258. 
Loakiel,  *  Ind.  of  N.  A.'  part  i  p.  43  (Delawares).  Hennepin,  '  Voyage  daxiB 
TAm^rique,'  p.  802  (Sioux),  oto.  Bartram,  '  Creek  and  Cherokee  Ind.*  in  'Tr. 
Amer.  Eth.  Soc'  voL  iii  parti,  pp.  20,  26  ;  see  also  Schoolcraft,  ' Ind.  Tribes,* 
part  iL  p.  127  (Comanches,  etc.) ;  Morgan,  'Iroquois,'  p.  164 ;  Oregg,  vol.  ii. 
p.  288  (Shawnees) ;  but  compare  the  remarks  of  Brinton,  'Myths  of  Kew 
World,' p.  141. 

>  Martins,  <Ethnog.  Amer.'  voL  L  p.  827  (Botocudos).  Waitz,  vol  iiL  p. 
518  (Araucanians).  Dobrizhoffer,  vol.  ii.  p.  89  (Puelches).  Charlevoix, 
'Hist  du  Paraguay,'  voL  i.  p.  881  (Diaguitas).  J.  G.  MfiUer,  p.  256 
(Botocudos^  Aucas,  Diaguitas). 


^  ANIMISM.  289 

Son's  brother,  high  priest  and  despot  over  his  people.  By 
his  side  stood  his  sister  or  nearest  female  relative,  the 
female  chief  who  of  all  women  was  alone  permitted  to 
enter  the  Sun-temple.  Her  son,  after  the  custom  of  female 
succession  common  among  the  lower  races,  would  succeed 
to  the  primacy  and  chiefship  ;  and  the  solar  family  took  to 
themselves  wives  and  husbands  from  the  plebeian  order, 
who  were  their  inferiors  in  life,  and  were  slain  to  follow  them 
as  attendants  in  death.^  Another  nation  of  sun-worship- 
pers were  the  Apalaches  of  Florida,  whose  daily  service  was 
to  salute  the  Sun  at  their  doors  as  he  rose  and  set.  The 
Sun,  they  said,  had  built  his  OAvn  conical  mountain  of 
Olaimi,  with  its  spiral  path  leading  to  the  cave-temple,  in 
the  east  side.  Here,  at  the  four  solar  festivals,  the 
worshippers  saluted  the  rising  sun  with  chants  and  incense 
iis  his  rays  entered  the  sanctuary,  and  again  when  at  mid- 
<1ay  the  sunlight  poured  down  upon  the  altar  through  the 
hole  or  shaft  pierced  for  this  purpose  in  the  rocky  vault  of 
the  cave ;  through  this  passage  the  sun-birds,  the  tonat- 
zuli,  were  let  fly  up  sunward  as  messengers,  and  the  cere- 
mony was  over.*  Day  by  day,  in  the  temples  of  Mexico, 
the  rising  sun  was  welcomed  with  blast  of  horns,  and 
incense,  and  offering  of  a  little  of  the  oflSciators'  own  blood 
drawn  from  their  ears,  and  a  saciifice  of  quails.  Saying, 
the  Sun  has  risen,  we  know  not  how  he  will  fulfil  his  course 
nor  whether  misfortune  will  happen,  they  prayed  to  him — 
*'Our  Lord,  do  your  office  prosperously.''  In  distinct  and 
absolute  personality,  the  divine  Sun  in  Aztec  theology  was 
Tonatiuh,  whose  huge  pyramid-mound  stands  on  the  plain 
of  Teotihuacan,  a  witness  of  his  worship  for  future  ages. 
Beyond  this,  the  religion  of  Mexico,  in  its  complex  system 
or  congeries  of  great  gods,  such  as  results  &om  the  mixture 
and  aUiance  of  the  deities  of  several  nations,  shows  the 
.solar  element  rooted  deeply  and  widely  in  other  personages 


*  Charlevoix,  'Nouvello  France,*  vol.  vi.  p.  172;  Waitz,  vol.  iii.  p.  217# 
'  Rochefort,  '  lies  Antilles/  book  ii.  ch.  viii. 

VOL.  II.  u 


290  ANIMISM. 

of  its  divine  mythology,  and  attributes  especially  to  the 
Sun  the  title  of  Teotl,  God.^  Again,  the  high  plateau  of 
Bogota  in  New  Granada  was  the  seat  of  the  semi-civilized: 
Chibchas  or  Muyscas,  of  whose  mythology  and  religion  the 
leading  ideas  were  given  by  the  Sun.  The  Sun  was  the 
great  deity  to  whom  the  human  sacrifices  were  offered,  and 
especially  that  holiest  sacrifice,  the  blood  of  a  pure  captive 
youth  daubed  on  a  rock  on  a  mountain-top  for  the  rising 
sun  to  shine  on.  In  native  Muysca  legend,  the  mythic 
civilizer  of  the  land,  the  teacher  of  agriculture,  the  founder 
of  the  theocracy  and  institutor  of  sun-worship,  is  a  figure 
in  whom  we  cannot  fail  to  discern  the  personal  Sun  him- 
self.' It  is  thus,  lastly,  in  the  far  more  celebrated  native 
theocracy  to  the  south.  In  the  great  religion  of  Peru,  the 
Sun  was  at  once  ancestor  and  founder  of  the  dynasty  of 
Incas,  who  reigned  as  his  representatives  and  almost  in  his. 
person,  who  took  wives  from  the  convent  of  virgins  of  the 
Sun,  and  whose  descendants  were  the  solar  race,  the  ruling 
aristocracy.  The  Sun's  innumerable  flocks  of  llamas  grazed 
on  the  mountains,  and  his  fields  were  tilled  in  the  valleys,, 
his  temples  stood  throughout  the  land,  and  first  among 
them  the  "  Place  of  Gold  "  in  Cuzco,  where  his  new  fire  was 
kmdled  at  the  annual  solar  festival  of  Eaymi,  and  where  his 
splendid  golden  disc  with  human  countenance  looked  forth 
to  receive  the  first  rays  of  its  divine  original.  Sun-worship 
was  ancient  in  Peru,  but  it  was  the  Incas  who  made  it  the 
great  state  religion,  imposing  it  wherever  theirwide  conquests 
reached,  till  it  became  the  central  idea  of  Peruvian  life.^ 

'  Torquemada,  'Monarquia  Indiana,'  ix.  c.  34  ;  Sahagan,  'Hist,  de  Nneva 
Espafia,'  ii.  App.  in  Kingsboroagh,  'Antiquities  of  Mexico  ;'  Waits,  vol.  iv* 
p.  188 ;  J.  6.  MtQler,  p.  474,  etc. ;  Brasseor,  'Mezique,*  toL  iii.  p.  437  ; 
Tylor,  *  Mexico/  p.  141. 

^  Piedrahita,  '  Hist.  Gen.  de  las  Conqoistas  del  Nneyo  Reyno  de  Granada,^ 
Antwerp,  1688  :  parti,  book  i.  c.  iiL  iv.  ;  Humboldt,  'Yues  desCordill^res;* 
Waitz,  voL  iv.  p.  852,  etc. ;  J.  G.  Miiller,  p.  482,  etc. 

'  Garcilaso  de  la  Yega,  '  Commentarios  Realets,*  lib.  i.  c.  4,  iii.  c  20  ;  v.  c. 
2,  6  ;  'Kites  and  Laws  of  the  Yncas,*  tr.  &  ed.  by  C.  R.  Markham,  (Hakluyt 
Soc,  1873)  p.  84  ;  Prescott,  'Peru,'  book  i.  ch.  iii.;  Waitz,  vol.  iv.  p.  447, 
«tc.  ;  J.  G.  Mikller,  p.  862,  etc 


ANIMISIL  291 

The  culture  of  the  Old  World  never  surpassed  this  highest 
range  of  Sun-worship  in  the  New. 

In  Australia  and  Pol3mesia  the  place  of  the  solar  god  or 
hero  is  rather  in  myth  than  in  religion.  In  Africa,  though 
found  in  some  districts,^  Sun-worehip  is  not  very  con- 
spicuous out  of  Egypt.  In  tracing  its  Old  World  develop- 
ment, we  begin  among  the  ruder  Allophylian  tribes  of  Asia, 
and  end  among  the  great  polytheistic  nations.  The  north- 
east quarter  of  India  shows  the  doctrine  well  defined  among 
the  indigenous  stocks.  The  Bodo  and  Dhimal  place  the  Sun 
in  the  pantheon  as  an  elemental  god,  though  in  practical 
rank  below  the  sacred  rivers.^  The  Kol  tribes  of  Bengal^ 
Mundas,  Oraons,  Santals,  know  and  worship  as  supreme^ 
Sing-bonga,  the  Sun-god ;  to  him  some  tribes  offer  white 
animals  in  token  of  his  purity,  and  while  not  regarding  him 
as  author  of  sickness  or  calamity,  they  will  resort  to  him 
when  other  divine  aid  breaks  down  in  sorest  need.^  Among 
the  Khonds,  Bura  Pennu  the  Light-god,  or  Bella  Pennu 
the  Sun-god,  is  creator  of  all  things  in  heaven  and  earth, 
and  great  first  cause  of  good.  As  such,  he  is  worshipped 
by  his  own  sect  above  the  ranks  of  minor  deities  whom  he 
brought  into  being  to  carry  out  the  details  of  the  universal 
work.^  The  Tatar  tribes  with  much  unanimity  recognize  as 
a  great  god  the  Sun,  whose  figure  may  be  seen  beside  the 
Moon's  on  their  magic  drums,  from  Siberia  to  Lapland,. 
Castren,  the  ethnologist,  speaking  of  the  Samoyed  expres- 
sion for  heaven  or  deity  in  general  (jilibeambaertje)  tells  an 
anecdote  from  his  travels,  which  gives  a  lively  idea  of  the 
thorough  simple  nature-religion  still  possible  to  the  wan- 
derers of  the  steppes.  **  A  Samoyed  woman,"  he  says,  "  told 
me  it  was  her  habit  every  morning  and  evening  to  step  out 
of  her  tent  and  bow  down  before  the  sun ;  in  the  morning 

1  Meiners,  '  G«sch.  der  Rel.*  vol.  L  p.  888.     Burton,  '  Central  Afr.*  vol.  ii« 
p.  846  ;  '  Dahome/  toI.  il  p.  147. 

*  Hodgson,  '  Abor.  of  India,'  pp.  167,  175  (Bodoa,  etc.). 

*  Dalton,  *Kola,'  in  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc'  rol.  vl  p.  83  (Oraons,  etc.);  Hunter, 
'Annala  of  Rural  Bengal,'  p.  184  (Santals). 

^  Macphenon,  <  India,'  p.  84,  etc.  (Ehonda). 

u  2 


292  ANIMISM. 

sajingi  '  When  thou  Jilibeambaertje  risest,  I  too  rise  from 
my  bed !  *  in  the  evening,  *  When  thou  Jilibeambaertje  sinkest 
down,  I  too  get  me  to  rest! '  The  woman  brought  this  as  a 
proof  of  her  assertion  that  even  among  the  Samoyeds  they 
said  their  morning  and  evening  prayers,  but  she  added  with 
pity  that  there  were  also  among  them  wild  people  who  never 
sent  up  a  prayer  to  God."  Mongol  hordes  may  still  be  met 
with  whose  shamans  invoke  the  Sun,  and  throw  milk  up 
into  the  air  as  an  offering  to  him,  while  the  Karagas  Tatars 
would  bring  to  bim  as  a  sacrifice  the  head  and  heart  of  bear 
or  stag.  Tunguz,  Ostyaks,  Woguls,  worship  him  in  a 
character  blending  with  that  of  their  highest  deity  and 
Heaven-god;  while  among  the  Lapps,  Baiwe  the  Sun, 
though  a  mighty  deity,  stood  in  rank  below  Tiermes  the 
Thunder-god,  and  the  great  celestial  ruler  who  had  come  to 
bear  the  Norwegian  name  of  Storjunkare.^ 

In  direct  personal  nature-worship  like  that  of  Siberian 
nomades  of  our  day,  the  solar  cultus  of  the  ancient  pastoral 
Aryans  had  its  source.  The  Vedic  bards  sing  of  the  great 
god  Surya,  knower  of  beings,  the  all-revealer  before  whom 
the  stars  depart  with  the  nights  like  thieves.  We  approach 
Surya  (they  say)  shining  god  among  the  gods,  light  most 
glorious.  He  shines  on  the  eight  regions,  the  three  worlds, 
the  seven  rivers ;  the  golden-handed  Savitar,  all-seeing, 
goes  between  heaven  and  earth.  To  him  they  pray,  "  On 
thy  ancient  paths,  O  Savitar,  dustless,  well  made,  in  the 
air,  on  those  good-going  paths  this  day  preserve  us  and 
bless  us,  O  God !  '*  Modern  Hinduism  is  full  of  the 
ancient  Sun-worship,  in  offerings  and  prostrations,  in  daily 
rite  and  appointed  festival,  and  it  is  Savitar  the  Sun  who 
is  invoked  in  the  "gayatri,"  the  time-honoured  formula 
repeated  day  by  day  since  long-past  ages  by  every  Brah- 
man :  *'  Tat  Savitur  varenyam  bhargo  devasya  dhimahi, 
dhiyo  yo  nah  prakodayat. — Let  us  meditate  on  the  desirable 

*  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth.*  pp.  16,51,  etc.  Meinera,  1.  c  Georgi,  'Beise  im 
Russ.  Reich.*  vol.  L  pp.  275,  317.  Klemm,  '  Cultur-Geschichte,*  vol.  m.  p.  87. 
Sun-Worehip  in  Japan,  Siebold,  *  Nippon,*  part.  v.  p.  9.  For  further  evidoDce 
as  to  savage  and  barbaric  worship  of  the  Sun  as  Supreme  Deity,  see  chap.  xvif. 


ANIMISM.  ii93 

light  of  the  divine  Sun ;  may  he  rouse  our  minds  ! "  Every 
morning  the  Brahman  worships  the  sun,  standing  on  one 
foot  and  resting  the  other  against  his  ankle  or  heel,  looking 
towards  the  east,  holding  his  hands  open  before  him  in  a 
hollow  form,  and  repeating  to  himself  these  prayers :  "  The 
rays  of  light  announce  the  splendid  fiery  sun,  beautifully 
rising  to  illumine  the  universe." — "He  rises,  wonderful, 
the  eye  of  the  sun,  of  water,  and  of  fire,  collective  power  of 
gods ;  he  fills  heaven,  earth,  and  sky  with  his  luminous  net ; 
he  is  the  soul  of  all  that  is  fixed  or  locomotive.** — "  That 
eye,  supremely  beneficial,  rises  pure  firom  the  east ;  may  we 
see  him  a  hundred  years ;  may  we  live  a  hundred  years ; 
may  we  hear  a  hundred  years." — "  May  we,  preserved  by 
the  divine  power,  contemplating  heaven  above  the  region  of 
darkness,  approach  the  deity,  most  splendid  of  luminaries!  "^ 
A  Vedic  celestial  deity,  Mitra  the  Friend,  came  to  be  deve- 
loped in  the  Persian  religion  into  that  great  ruling  divinity 
of  light,  the  victorious  Mithra,  lord  of  life  and  head  of  all 
created  beings.  The  ancient  Persian  Mihr-Yasht  invokes 
him  in  the  character  of  the  dawning  sun-light,  Mithra  with 
wide  pastures,  whom  the  lords  of  the  regions  praise  at  early 
dawn,  who  as  the  first  heavenly  Yazata  rises  over  Hara 
before  the  sim,  the  immortal  with  swift  steeds,  who  first 
with  golden  form  seizes  the  fair  summits,  then  surrounds 
the  whole  Aryan  region.  Mithra  came  to  be  regarded  as 
the  very  Sun,  as  where  Bacchus  addresses  the  Tyrian  Bel, 
"  €&•€  (rif  MCOprjiy  *Hikios  BajSvXoJvos."  His  worship  spread 
from  the  East  across  the  Koman  empire,  and  in  Europe  he 
takes  rank  among  the  great  solar  gods  absolutely  identified 
with  the  personal  Sun,  as  in  this  inscription  on  a  Boman 
altar  dating   from    Trajan's   time — "  Deo    Soli  Mithrae."  * 

*  'Rig- Veda,'  i.  S5,  50  ;  iu.  62,  10.  Max  Miiller,  'Lectures,*  2nd  Ser.  pp. 
378,  411 ;  'Chips,'  vol.  i.  p.  19.  Colebrooke,  'Essajs,'  voL  I  pp.  30,  133 
Ward,  *  Hindoos,'  vol.  ii.  p.  42. 

*  *  Khordah-Avesta,'  xxvL  in  Avesta  tr.  by  Spiegel,  vol.  iii.  See  Cox. 
•Mythology  of  Aryan  Nations,' vol.  i.  p.  334,  vol.  iL  p.  354.  Strabo,  xv.  8, 
13.     Nonnus,  xl  400.     Movers,   'Fhonizier,'  vol.  i.  p.  180  :   "  *H\iif  MlBpa^ 


294  ANIMISM. 

The  earlier  Sun-worship  of  Europe,  upon  which  this  new 
Oriental  variety  was  intruded,  in  ceiiain  of  its  developments 
shows  the  same  clear  personality.  The  Greek  Helios,  to 
whom  horses  were  sacrificed  on  the  mountain-top  of  Tau- 
getos,  was  that  same  personal  Sun  to  whom  Sokrates,  when 
he  had  staid  rapt  in  thought  till  daybreak,  offered  a  prayer 
before  he  departed  (Ittcit'  &x€t^  Airiwv  'jrpo<r€V^iix€vos  r<p  ^Xi^).^ 
Gsesar  devotes  to  the  German  theology  of  his  time  three 
lines  of  his  Commentaries.  They  reckon  in  the  number  of 
the  gods,  he  says,  those  only  whom  they  perceive  and  whose 
benefits  they  openly  enjoy,  Sun  and  Vulcan  and  Moon,  the 
rest  they  know  not  even  by  report.*  It  is  true  that  Caesar's 
short  summary  does  no  justice  to  the  real  number  and 
quality  of  the  deities  of  th§  German  pantheon,  yet  his 
forcible  description  of  nature-worship  in  its  most  primitive 
stage  may  probably  be  true  of  the  direct  adoration  of  the 
sun  and  moon,  and  possibly  of  fire.  On  the  other  hand, 
European  sun-worship  leads  into  the  most  perplexing  pro- 
blems of  mythology.  Well  might  Cicero  exclaim,  "How 
many  suns  are  set  forth  by  the  theologians  !  *'  *  The 
modern  student  who  shall  undertake  to  discriminate  among 
the  Sun-gods  of  European  lands,  to  separate  the  solar  and 
non-solar  elements  of  tlie  Greek  Apollo  and  Herakles,  or 
the  Slavonic  Perun  and  Swatowit,  has  a  task  before  him 
complicate  with  that  all  but  hopeless  difficulty  which  besets 
the  study  of  myth,  the  moment  that  the  clue  of  direct  com- 
parison with  nature  falls  away. 

The  religion  of  ancient  Egypt  is  one  of  which  we  know 
much,  yet  little — much  of  its  temples,  rites,  names  of 
deities,  liturgical  formulas,  but  little  of  the  esoteric  reli- 
gious ideas  which  lay  hidden  within  these  outer  manifesta- 
tions.    Yet  it  is  clear  that  central  solar  conceptions  as  it 

*  Plat.  Sympos.  xxxxi.   SeeWelcker,  *  Griech.  Gotterlehre,*  voL  i.  pp.  400, 
412. 

'  Ceeaar  de  Bello  Gallico,  vi.  21  :  "Deoram  numcro  eos  solos  ducunt,  qaos 
cernunt  et  quorum  aperteopibus  juvantur,  Solemet  Yulcanuin  et  Luuam,  reli 
quos  ne  faina  qnidem  acceperunt.*' 

*  Cicero  de  Natura  Deorum,  iii.  21. 


ANIMISM.  295 

*were  radiate  through  the  Egyptian  theology.  Ba,  who 
traverses  in  his  boat  the  upper  and  lower  regions  of  the 
universe,  is  the  Sun  himself  in  plain  cosmic  personality. 
And  to  take  two  obvious  instances  of  solar  characters  in 
other  deities,  Osiris  the  manifester  of  good  and  truth,  who 
dies  by  the  powers  of  darkness  and  becomes  judge  of  the 
dead  in  the  west-land  of  Amenti,  is  solar  in  his  divine 
nature,  as  is  also  Har-p-chroti  (Harpokrates)  the  new-bom 
Sun  of  the  winter  solstice.^  In  the  religions  of  the  Semitic 
race,  the  place  of  the  Sim  is  marked  through  a  long  range 
of  centuries.  The  warning  to  the  Israelites  lest  they 
should  worship  and  serve  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  and  the 
mention  of  Josiah  taking  away  the  horses  that  the  Kings  of 
Judah  had  given  to  the  sun,  and  burning  the  chariots  of 
the  sun  with  fire,*  agree  perfectly  with  the  recognition  in 
Palmyra  of  the  Lord  Sun,  Baal-Shemesh,  and  with  the 
identification  of  the  Assyrian  Bel  and  the  T3nrian  Baal  with 
the  Sun.  Syrian  religion,  like  Persian,  introduced  a  new 
phase  of  Sun-worship  into  Bome,  the  cultus  of  Elagabal^ 
and  the  vile  priest-emperor  who  bore  this  divine  name 
made  it  more  intelligible  to  classic  ears  as  Heliogabalus.' 
Eusebius  is  a  late  writer  as  regards  Semitic  religion,  but 
with  such  facts  as  these  before  us  we  need  not  withhold  our 
confidence  firom  him  when  he  describes  the  Phoenicians  and 
Egyptians  as  holding  Sim,  Moon,  and  Stars  to  be  gods,  sole 
^causes  of  the  generation  and  destruction  of  all  things.^ 

The  widely  spread  and  deeply  rooted  religion  of  the  Sun 
naturally  offered  strenuous  resistance  to  the  invasion  of 
Christianity,  and  it  was  one  of  the  great  signs  of  the  reli- 
gious change  of  the  civilized  world  when  Constantino,  that 
ardent  votary  of  the  Sun,  abandoned  the  faith  of  Apollo  for 
that  of  Christ.     Amalgamation  even  proved  possible  be- 

*  See  Bnnsen,  *  Egypt's  Place  in  Univ.  Hist.  ;  *  Wilkinson,  *  Ancient  Egyp- 
tians,* etc. 

*  Dent,  iv,  19,  zvii.  8  ;  II  Kings  zxiii.  11. 

*  Mdvers,  'Phonizier,'  vol.  i.  pp.  162, 180,  etc.     Lamprid.  Heliogabal.  L 
^  Euseb.  Pneparat  Evang.  i.  6. 


296  ANIMISM. 

tween  the  doctrines  of  Sabseism  and  Christianity,  and  in 
and  near  Armenia  a  sect  of  Sun-worshippers  have  lasted  on 
into  modem  times  under  the  profession  of  Jacobite  Chris* 
tians ;  ^  a  parallel  case  within  the  limits  of  Mohammedanism 
being  that  of  Beduin  Arabs  who  still  continue  the  old  ado* 
ration  of  the  rising  sun,  in  spite  of  the  Prophet's  expressed 
command  not  to  bow  before  the  sun  or  moon,  and  in  spite 
of  the  good  Moslem's  dictum,  that  ''the  sun  rises  between 
the  devil's  horns."  *  Actual  worship  of  the  sim  in  Chris- 
tendom soon  shrank  to  the  stage  of  survival.  In  Lucian's 
time  the  Greeks  kissed  their  hands  as  an  act  of  worship  to 
the  rising  sun ;  and  Tertullian  had  still  to  complain  of 
many  Christians  that  with  an  affectation  of  adoring  the 
heavenly  bodies  they  would  move  their  lips  toward  the  sun- 
rise (Sed  et  plerique  vestrum  affectatione  aliquando  et  ccelestia 
adorandi  ad  soUs  ortum  labia  vibratis).'  In  the  5th  century, 
Leo  the  Great  complains  of  certain  Christians  who,  before 
entering  the  Basilica  of  St.  Peter,  or  from  the  top  of  a  hilly 
would  turn  and  bow  to  the  rising  sun ;  this  comes,  he  says, 
partly  of  ignorance  and  partly  of  the  spirit  of  paganism.^ 
To  this  day,  in  the  Upper  Palatinate,  the  peasant  takes  off 
his  hat  to  the  rising  sun;  and  in  Pomerania,  the  fever- 
stricken  patient  is  to  pray  thrice  turning  toward  the  sun  at 
sunrise,  ''Dear  Sun,  come  soon  down,  and  take  the 
seventy-seven  fevers  from  me.  In  the  name  of  God  the 
Father,  etc." « 

For  the  most  part,  the  ancient  rites  of  solar  worship  are 
represented  in  modern  Christendom  in  two  ways ;  by  the 
ceremonies  connected  with  turning  to  the  east,  of  which  an 
account  is  given  in  an  ensuing  chapter  under  the  heading 
of  Orientation ;    and  in  the  continuance  of  the  great  sun- 

*  Neander,  'Church  History,' vol.  vi.  p.  841.     Carsten  Kiehuhr,  'Beiso- 
heschr.*  vol.  ii.  p.  896.  j 

*  Palgrave,  '  Arabia^'  voL  i.  p.  9  ;  vol.  ii.  p.  258.     See  Koran,  xli.  87. 

*  Tertullian.  Apolog.  adv.  Gentes,  zyi.     See  Lncian  de  Saltat.  zvii.  ;  com* 
pare  Job  zzxL  26. 

*  Leo.  I.  Serm.  Tiii.  in  Natal.  Dom. 

*  Wuttke,  *  Volltsaberglaube,'  p.  160. 


ANIMISM.  297 

festivals,  countenanced  by  or  incorporated  in  Christianity. 
Spring-tide,  reckoned  by  so  many  peoples  as  New- Year,  has 
in  great  measure  had  its  solar  characteristics  transferred  to 
the  Paschal  festival.  The  Easter  bonfires  with  which  the 
North  German  hills  used  to  be  ablaze  mile  after  mile,  are 
not  altogether  given  up  by  local  custom.  On  Easter  morn- 
ing in  Saxony  and  Brandenburg,  the  peasants  still  climb  the 
hiU-tops  before  dawn,  to  see  the  rising  sun  give  his  three 
joyful  leaps,  as  our  forefathers  used  to  do  in  England  in  the 
days  when  Sir  Thomas  Browne  so  quaintly  apologized  for 
declaring  that  ''  the  sun  doth  not  dance  on  Easter  Day."' 
The  solar  rite  of  the  New  Fire,  adopted  by  the  Boman 
Church  as  a  Paschal  ceremony,  may  still  be  witnessed  in 
Europe,  with  its  solemn  curfew  on  Easter  Eve,  and  the 
ceremonial  striking  of  the  new  holy  fire.  On  Easter  Eve, 
under  the  solemn  auspices  of  the  Greek  Church,  a  mob  of 
howling  fanatics  crush  and  trample  to  death  the  victima 
who  faint  and  fall  in  their  struggles  to  approach  the  most 
shameless  imposture  of  modem  Christendom,  the  miracu* 
lous  fire  from  heaven  which  descends  into  the  Holy  Sepul* 
chre.^  Two  other  Christian  festivals  have  not  merely  had 
solar  rites  transferred  to  them,  but  seem  distinctly  them- 
selves of  solar  origin.  The  Boman  winter-solstice  festival, 
as  celebrated  on  December  26  (YIII.  Kal.  Jan.)  in  con- 
nexion with  the  worship  of  the  Sun-god  Mithra,  appears  to 
have  been  instituted  in  this  special  form  by  Aurelian  about 
A.D.  278,  and  to  this  festival  the  day  owes  its  apposite  name 
of  Birthday  of  the  Unconquered  Sun,  "  Dies  Natalis  Solis. 
invicti."  With  full  symbolic  appropriateness,  though  not 
with  historical  justification,  the  day  was  adopted  in  the 
Western  Church,  where  it  appears  to  have  been  generally 
introduced  by  the  4th  century,  and  whence  in  time  it  passed 
to  the  Eastern  Church,  as  the  solemn  anniversary  of  the 
birth  of  Christ,  the  Christian  Dies  Natalis,  Christmas  Day.. 

*  Grimm,  'Deutsche  Myth.*  p.  581,  etc.  Wuttke,  pp.  17,  98.  Brand,. 
'  Pop.  Ant'  vol.  i.  p.  167,  etc.  *  Early  Hist  of  Mankind,'  p.  260.  Murray** 
'  Handbook  for  Syria  and  Palestine,'  1868,  p.  162. 


1 


298  ANDUSH 

Attempts  have  been  made  to  ratify  this  date  as  matter  of 
liistory,  but  no  valid  nor  even  consistent  early  Christian 
tradition  vouches  for  it.  The  real  solar  origin  of  the  festival 
is  clear  from  the  writings  of  the  Fathers  after  its  institution. 
In  religious  symbolism  of  the  material  and  spiritual  sun, 
Augustine  and  Gregory  of  Nyssa  discourse  on  the  glowing 
light  and  dwindling  darkness  that  follow  the  Nativity,  while 
Leo  the  Great,  among  whose  people  the  earlier  solar  mean- 
ing of  the  festival  evidently  remained  in  strong  remem- 
brance, rebukes  in  a  sermon  the  pestiferous  persuasion,  as 
he  calls  it,  that  this  solemn  day  is  to  be  honoured  not  for 
the  birth  of  Christ,  but  for  the  rising,  as  they  say,  of  the  new 
sun.^  As  for  modem  memory  of  the  sun-rites  of  mid- winter, 
Europe  recognizes  Christmas  as  a  primitive  solar  festival  by 
bonfires  which  our  "yule-log,"  the  " souche  de Noel,**  still 
keeps  in  mind ;  while  the  adaptation  of  ancient  solar  thought 
to  Christian  allegory  is  as  plain  as  ever  in  the  Christmas 
service  chant,  "  Sol  novus  oritur."*  The  solar  Christmas 
festival  has  its  pendant  at  Midsummer.  The  summer 
solstice  was  the  great  season  of  fire-festivals  throughout 
Europe,  of  bonfires  on  the  heights,  of  dancing  round  and 
leaping  through  the  fires,  of  sending  blazing  fire-wheels  to 
roll  down  from  the  hills  into  the  valleys  in  sign  of  the  sun's 
descending  course.  These  ancient  rites  attached  themselves 
in  Christendom  to  St.  John's  Eve.^  It  seems  as  though 
the  same  train  of  symbolism  which  had  adapted  the  mid- 
winter festival  to  the  Nativity,  may  have  suggested  the 
dedication  of  the  midsummer  festival  to  John  the  Baptist, 
in  clear  allusion  to  his  words,  "  He  must  increase,  but  I 
must  decrease." 

^  See  Panly, ' Keal-Encyclop.*  s.  v.  'Sol ;'  Bingham,  'Antiquities of Christiaii 
HDhorch,'  book  zz.  ch.iy.  ;  Neander,  '  Chiucli  Hist '  toI.  iiL  p.  437  ;  Beausobre, 
'Hist,  de  Manich^e,'  vol.  ii.  p.  691 ;  Gibbon,  ch.  xzii.;  Creuzer,  'Symbolik,' 
Tol.  L  p.  761,  etc 

>  Grimm,  <D.  M/  pp.  593,  1223.  Brand,  'Popular  Antiquities,'  vol  L  p. 
467.     Monnler,  'Traditions  Populaires,'  p.  188. 

s  Grimm,  'D.  M.'  p.  583 ;  Brand,  voL  i.  p.  298  ;  Wattke,  pp.  14,  140. 
Beausobre,  1.  c. 


ANIMISM.  299 

Moon-worship,  naturally  ranking  below  Sun-worship  in 
importance,  ranges  through  nearly  the  same  district  of 
culture.  There  are  remarkable  cases  in  which  the  Moon 
is  recognized  as  a  great  deity  by  tribes  who  take  less  ac- 
count, or  none  at  all,  of  the  Sun.  The  rude  savages  of 
Brazil  seem  especially  to  worship  or  respect  the  moon,  by 
which  they  regulate  their  time  and  festivals,  and  draw  their 
omens.  They  would  hold  up  their  hands  to  the  moon  with 
wonder-struck  exclamations  of  teh !  teh !  they  would  have 
'Children  smoked  by  the  sorcerers  to  preserve  them  from 
moon-given  sickness,  or  the  women  would  hold  up  their 
babes  to  the  liuninary.  The  Botocudos  are  said  to  give  the 
highest  rank  among  the  heavenly  bodies  to  Taru  the  Moon, 
iis  causing  thunder  and  lightning  and  the  failure  of  vege- 
tables and  fruits,  and  as  even  sometimes  falling  to  the  earth, 
whereby  many  men  die.^  An  old  account  of  the  Caribs 
describes  them  as  esteeming  the  Moon  more  than  the  Sun, 
and  at  new  moon  coming  out  of  their  houses  crying  '^Be- 
hold the  Moon  !  "  *  The  Ahts  of  Vancouver's  Island,  it  is 
stated,  worship  the  Sun  and  Moon,  particularly  the  full 
moon  and  the  sun  ascending  to  the  zenith.  Begarding  the 
Moon  as  husband  and  the  Sun  as  wife,  their  prayers  are 
more  generally  addressed  to  the  Moon  as  the  superior  deity; 
he  is  the  highest  object  of  their  worship,  and  they  speak  of 
him  as  "  looking  down  upon  the  earth  in  answer  to  prayer, 
and  seeing  everybody."  ^  With  a  somewhat  different  turn 
of  mythic  fancy,  the  Hurons  seem  to  have  considered  Aata- 
-entsic  the  Moon  as  maker  of  the  earth  and  man,  and  grand- 
mother of  louskeha  the  Sun,  with  whom  she  governs  the 
world.*  In  Africa,  Moon-worship  is  prominent  in  an  im- 
mense district  where  Sun-worship  is  unknown  or  insignifi- 
<;ant.    Among  south-central  tribes,  men  will  watch  for  the 

^  Spix  and  Martins,  'Reisein  Brasilien/  vol.  i.  pp.  877,  381  ;  Martins, 
"•Ethnog.  Amer.*  vol.  L  p.  327;  Pr.  Max.  v.  Wied,  vol.  ii.  p.  58  ;  J.  G- 
JMiiUer,  pp.  218,  25i  ;  also  Musters,  '  Fatagonians,'  pp.  58,  179. 

*  Do  la  Borde,  *  Caraibes,*  p.  525. 

•  Sproat,  'Savage  Life,'  p.  206  ;  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc.*  voL  r.  p.  258. 
^  Brcbeuf  in  'Rol.  dea  Jes.*  1535,  p.  34. 


300  AKIMISlf. 

first  glimpse  of  the  new  Moon,  which  they  hail  with  shouts 
of  kua !   and  Tociferate  prayers  to  it ;  on  such  an  occasion 
Dr.  Livingstone's  Makololo  prayed,  "  Let  our  journey  with 
the  white  man  be  prosperous ! "  etc.^     These  people  keep 
holiday  at  new-moon,  as  indeed  in  many  countries   her 
worship  is  connected  with  the  settlement  of  periodic  festivals* 
Negro  tribes  seem  almost  universally  to  greet  the  new  Moon, 
whether  in  delight  or  disgust.     The  Guinea  people  fling 
themselves  about  with  droll  gestures,  and  pretend  to  throw 
firebrands  at  it ;   the  Ashango  men  behold  it  with  super- 
stitious fear ;  the  Fetu  negroes  jumped  thrice  into  the  air 
with  hands  together  and  gave  thanks.'    The  Congo  people 
fell  on  their  knees,  or  stood  and  clapped  their  hands,  crying^ 
**  So  may  I  renew  my  life  as  thou  art  renewed  ! "  *    The 
Hottentots  are  described  early  in  the  last  century  as  dancing 
and  singing  all  night  at  new  and  full  moon,  calling  the  Moon 
the   Great  Captain,  and   crj^ing  to  him  "  Be   greeted !  *^ 
"  Let  us  get  much  honey  !  "     "  May  our  cattle  get  much  to 
eat  and  give  much  milk  !  "     With  the  same  thought  as  that 
just  noticed  in  the  district  north-west  of  them,  the  Hotten- 
tots connect  the  Moon  in  legend  with  that  fatal  message 
sent  to  Man,  which  ought  to  have  promised  to  the  human 
race  a  moon-like  renewal  of  life,  but  which  was  perverted 
into  a  doom  of  death  like  that  of  the  beast  who  brought  it.* 
The  more  usual  status  of  the  Moon  in  the  religions  of 
the  world  is,  as  nature  suggests,  that  of  a  subordinate  com- 
panion deity  to  the  Sun,  such  a  position  as  is  acknowledged 
in  the  precedence  of  Sunday  to  Monday.     Their  various- 
mutual  relations  as  brother  and  sister,  husband  and  wife,, 
have  already  been  noticed  here  as  matter  of  mythology^ 
As  wide-lying  rude  races  who  place  them  thus  side  by  side 
in  their  theology,  it  is  enough  to  mention  the  Delawares  of 

*  Livingstone,  *S.  Afr.'  p.  285  ;  Waitz,  vol.  ii.  pp.  175,  342. 

^  Romer,  '  Guinea,'  p. 84 ;  Du  Chaillu,  * Asliango-land,* p.  428 ;  see  Parchafi, 
vol.  V.  p.  766.     MttUer,  'Fetn,'  p.  47. 

•  Merolla,  'Congo,'  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvi.  p.  273. 

<  Koibe,  *  Beschryving  van  de  Kaap  de  Goede  Hoop,'  part  i  xxix.     See 
auto,  vol.  i.  p.  355. 


ANIMISM.  801 

North- America,^  the  Ainos  of  Yesso,*  the  Bodos  of  North- 
East  India,*  the  Tunguz  of  Siberia.*  This  is  the  state  of 
things  which  continues  at  higher  levels  of  systematic  civili- 
zation. Beside  the  Mexican  Tonatiuh  the  Sun,  Metztli  the 
Moon  had  a  smaller  pyramid  and  temple  ;  ^  in  Bogota,  the 
Moon,  identified  in  local  myth  with  the  Evil  Deity,  had 
her  place  and  figure  in  the  temple  beside  the  Sun  her  hus- 
band ;  •  the  Peruvian  Mother-Moon,  Mama-Quilla,  had  her 
silver  disc-face  to  match  the  golden  one  of  her  brother  and 
husband  the  Sun,  whose  companion  she  had  been  in  the 
legendary  civilizing  of  the  land.''^  In  the  ancient  Kami- 
religion  of  Japan,  the  supreme  Sim-god  ranks  high  above 
the  Moon-god,  who  was  worshipped  under  the  form  of  a 
fox.®  Among  the  historic  nations  of  the  Old  World,  docu- 
ments of  Semitic  culture  show  Sun  and  Moon  side  by  side. 
For  one,  we  may  take  the  Jewish  law,  to  stone  with  stones 
till  they  died  the  man  or  woman  who  ^'  hath  gone  and 
served  other  gods,  and  worshipped  them,  either  the  sun, 
or  moon,  or  any  of  the  host  of  heaven."  For  another,  let 
us  glance  over  the  curious  record  of  the  treaty-oath  between 
PhUip  of  Macedon  and  the  general  of  the  Carthaginian  and 
Libyan  army,  which  so  well  shows  how  the  original  identity 
of  nature-deities  may  be  forgotten  in  their  different  local 
shapes,  so  that  the  same  divinity  may  come  twice  or  even 

Herakles  and  Apollo  stand  in  company  with  the  personal 
Sun,  and  as  well  as  the  personal  Moon  there  is  to  be  seen 
the  Carthaginian  goddess,  whom  there  is  good  reason  to 
look  on  as  herself  wholly  or  partly  of  lunar  nature.  This 
is  the  list  of  deities  invoked  :  '^Before  Zeus  and  Hera  and 

^  Loskiel,  '  Ind.  of  N.  A/  part  i.  p.  43. 

•  Bickmore,  'Ainos,'  in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc.'  voL  vii.  p.  20. 

•  Hodgson,  'Abor.  of  India,' p.  167. 

•  Geoi^  '  Reise  im  Ross.  E.*  vol.  L  p.  275. 

•  davigero,  'Messico,*  vol.  ii.  pp.  9,  85  ;  Tylor,  *  Mexico,'  1.  c. 

•  Waitz,  voL  iv.  p.  362. 

'  Prescott,  '  Fern/  vol.  i  p.  90.    But  compare  GkircQaso  de  la  Yega,  iiL  21. 
'  Siebold,  'Nippon,'  part  t.  p.  9. 


302  ANIMISM. 

Apollo ;  before  the  goddess  of  the  Carthaginians  {baCfioios 
Kapxv^vCa>v)  and  Herakles  and  lolaos ;  before  Ares,  Triton^ 
Poseidon ;  before  the  gods  who  fought  with  the  annies^ 
and  Sun  and  Moon  and  Earth;  before  the  rivers  and 
meadows  and  waters ;  before  all  the  gods  who  rule  Mace- 
donia and  the  rest  of  Greece  ;  before  all  the  gods  who  were 
at  the  war,  they  who  have  presided  over  this  oath."  ^ 
When  Lucian  visited  the  famous  temple  of  Hierapolis  in 
Syria,  he  saw  the  images  of  the  other  gods,  "  but  only  of 
the  Sun  and  Moon  they  show  no  images."  And  when 
he  asked  why,  they  told  him  that  the  forms  of  other  god& 
were  not  seen  by  all,  but  Sun  and  Moon  are  altogether 
clear,  and  all  men  see  them.'  In  Egyptian  theology,  not 
to  discuss  other  divine  beings  to  whom  a  lunar  nature  has 
been  ascribed,  it  is  at  least  certain  that  Aah  is  the  Moon  in 
absolute  personal  divinity.*  In  Aryan  theology,  the  personal 
Moon  stands  as  Selene  beside  the  more  anthropomorphic 
forms  of  Hekate  and  Artemis,^  as  Luna  beside  the  less 
understood  Lucina,  and  Diana  with  her  borrowed  attri- 
butes,* while  our  Teutonic  forefathers  were  content  with  his 
plain  name  of  Moon.^  As  for  lunar  survivals  in  the  higher 
religions,  they  are  much  like  the  solar.  Monotheist  as  he 
is,  the  Moslem  still  claps  his  hands  at  sight  of  the  new 
moon,  and  says  a  prayer.^  In  Europe  in  the  15th  century 
it  was  matter  of  complaint  that  some  still  adored  the  new 
moon  with  bended  knee,  or  hood  or  hat  removed,  and  to 
this  day  we  may  still  see  a  hat  raised  to  her,  half  in  conser- 
vatism and  half  in  jest.  It  is  with  reference  to  silver  as  the 
lunar  metal,  that  money  is  turned  when  the  act  of  adoration 

^  Denteron.  zviL  3 ;  Polyb.  viL  9  ;  see  Movers,  'Phonizier,'  pp.  159,  536,. 
605. 

'  Lncian  de  Syria  Dea,  ir.  34. 

'  WilkinsoD,  *  Ancient  Egyptians,'  vol.  iv.  p.  289,  vol.  v.  p.  5.  Btinsen^ 
'  Egypt,'  vol.  It.     See  Plutarch.  Is.  et  Osir. 

^  Welcker,  'Griech.  GdtterL'  voL  i  p.  550,  etc. 

*  Cic.  de  Nat.  Deor.  ii.  27. 

•  Grimm,  '  D.  M.'  ch.  xxiL 

7  Akerblad,  *  Lettre  k  Italinaky.'  Burton,  <  Central  Air.'  yoL  IL  p.  846^ 
Hango  Park,  'Travels,'  in  'Pinkerton,'  vol.  xvi.  p.  875. 


ANIMISM.  80$ 

is  performed^  while  practical  peasant  wit  dwells  on  the  iU* 
luck  of  haying  no  piece  of  silver  when  the  new  moon  is  first- 
seen.^ 

Thus,  in  tracing  the  development  of  Nature-Worship,  it 
appears  that  though  Fire,  Air,  Earth,  and  Water  are  not 
yet  among  the  lower  races  systematized  into  a  quaternion  of 
elements,  their  adoration,  with  that  of  Sun  and  Moon,  shows 
already  arising  in  primitive  culture  the  familiar  tyi>es  of 
those  great  divinities,  who  received  their  further  develop- 
ment in  the  higher  Polytheism. 

'  Grimm,  *  D.  M.'  pp.  29,  667 ;  Brand,  vol.  iii.  p.  146 ;  Forbes  Leslie,, 
'Early  Races  of  Scotland/  toL  L  p.  186. 


CHAPTEK  XVII. 

ANIMISM— (cow^mutfii). 

Polytheism  comprises  a  class  of  Great  Deities,  ruling  the  course  of  Nature  and 
the  life  of  Man— Childbirth-god — ^Agriculture-god — War-god — God  of 
the  Dead— First  Man  as  Divine  Ancestor — Dualism  ;  its  rudimentary 
and  unethical  nature  among  low  races ;  its  development  through  the 
course  of  culture — Good  and  Evil  Deity — Doctrine  of  Divine  Supremacy, 
distinct  from,  while  tending  towards,  the  doctrine  of  Monotheism— Idea 
of  Supreme  Deity  evolved  in  various  forms  among  the  lower  races  ;  its 
place  as  completion  of  the  Polytheistic  system  and  outcome  of  the 
Animistic  philosophy ;  its  continuance  and  development  among  higher 
nations — General  survey  of  Animism  as  a  Philosophy  of  Religion- Re- 
capitulation of  the  theory  advanced  as  to  its  development  through 
successive  stages  of  culture  ;  its  primary  phases  best  represented  among 
the  lower  races,  while  survivals  of  these  among  the  higher  races  mark 
the  transition  from  savage  through  barbaric  to  civilized  faiths — Transition 
of  Anunism  in  the  History  of  Religion  ;  its  earlier  and  later  stages  as  a 
Philosophy  of  the  Universe  ;  its  later  stages  as  the  principle  of  a  Moral 
Institution. 

Polytheism  acknowledges,  beside  great  fetish-deities  like 
Heaven  and  Earth,  Sun  and  Moon,  another  class  of  great 
gods  whose  importance  lies  not  in  visible  presence,  but 
in  the  performance  of  certain  great  offices  in  the  course 
of  Nature  and  the  life  of  Man.  The  lower  races  can 
furnish .  themselves  with  such  deities,  either  by  giving  the 
recognised  gods  special  duties  to  perform,  or  by  attributing 
these  functions  to  beings  invented  in  divine  personality  for 
the  purpose.  The  creation  of  such  divinities  is  however 
carried  to  a  much  greater  extent  in  the  complex  systems  of 
the  higher  polytheism.  For  a  compact  group  of  examples 
showing  to  what  different  ideas  men  will  resort  for  a  deity 
to  answer  a  special  end,  let  us  take  the  deity  presiding  over 


ANIMISM.  S05 

• 

Cliildbirth.  In  the  West  Indies,  a  special  diyinity  occupied 
with  this  function  took  rank  as  one  of  the  great  indigenous 
fetish-gods ;  ^  in  the  Samoan  group,  the  household  god  of 
the  father's  or  mother's  family  was  appealed  to ; '  in  Peru  the 
Moon  takes  to  this  office,^  and  the  same  natural  idea  recurs 
in  Mexico ;  ^  in  Esthonian  religion  the  productive  Earth- 
mother  appropriately  becomes  patroness  of  human  birth ;« 
classic  theology  carries  on  both  these  ideas*  in  so  far  as  the 
Greek  Hera  represents  the  Earth  ^  and  the  Boman  Lucina 
the  Moon  ;^  and  to  conclude  the  list,  the  Chinese  work  out 
the  problem  from  the  manes-worshipper's  point  of  view^ 
for  the  goddess  whom  they  call  ^'  Mother  "  and  propitiate 
with  many  a  ceremony  and.  sacrifice  to  save  and  prosper 
their  children,  is  held  to  have  been  in  human  life  a  skilful 
midwife.® 

The  deity  of  Agriculture  may  be  a  cosmic  being  affecting 
the  weather  and  the  soil,  or  a  mythic  giver  of  plants  and 
teacher  of  their  cultivation  and  use.  Thus  among  the 
Iroquois,  Heno  the  Thunder,  who  rides  through  the  heavens 
on  the  clouds,  who  splits  the  forest-trees  with  the  thunder- 
bolt-stones he  hurls  at  his  enemies,  who  gathers  the  clouds 
and  pom^  out  the  warm  rains,  was  fitly  chosen  as  patron  of 
husbandry,  invoked  at  seed-time  and  harvest,  and  called 
Grandfather  by  his  children  the  Indians.*  It  is  interesting 
to  notice  again  on  the  southern  continent  the  working  out 
of  this  idea  in  the  Tupan  of  Brazilian  tribes ;  Thunder  and 
Lightning,  it  is  recorded,  they  call  Tupan,  considering 
themselves  to   owe  to  him  their  hoes  and  the  profitable 


'  Herrera,  'IndiasOccidentaleSj'Dec.  i  8,  8  ;  J.  G.  Miiller,  <  Amer.  TJmL 
pp.  175,  221. 

^  Turner,  *  Polynesia,'  p.  174. 

*  Bivero  and  Tschudi,  *  Peru,*  p.  160. 

*  Eingaborough,  *  Mexico/  vol.  y.  p.  179. 

*  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  89. 

«  Welcker,  *  Griech.  GdtterL'  voL  L  p.  871. 

7  Ovid.  Fast  ii.  449. 

"  Doolittle,  'Chinese,'  vol  L  p.  264. 

*  Morgan,  'Iroquois,'  p.  158. 

YOU  II.  X 


.  906  ANIMISM. 

art  of  tillage,  and  therefore  acknowledging  him  as  a  deity.' 
Among  the  Guarani  race,  Tamoi  the  Ancient  of  Heaveir 
had  no  less  rightful  claim,  in  his  character  of  heaven-god,  to 
be  venerated  as  the  divine  teacher  of  agriculture  to  his 
people.'  In  Mexico,  Genteotl  the  Grain-goddess  received 
homage  and  offerings  at  her  two  great  festivals,  and  took 
care  of  the  growth  and  keeping  of  the  com.'  In  Polynesia,, 
we  hear  in  the  Society  Islands  of  Ofanu  the  god  of  hus- 
bandry, in  the  Tonga  Islands  of  Alo  Alo  the  fanner,  god  of 
wind  and  weather,  bearing  office  as  god  of  harvest,  and 
receiving  his  offering  of  yams  when  he  had  ripened  them.-*^ 
A  picturesque  figure  from  barbaric  Asia  is  Fheebee  Yau,  the 
Geres  of  the  Karens,  who  sits  on  a  stump  and  watches  the 
growing  and  ripening  com,  to  fill  the  granaries  of  the  frugal 
and  industrious.^  The  Khonds  worship  at  the  same  shrine,. 
a  stone  or  tree  near  the  vUlage,  both  Burbi  Pennu  the  god- 
dess of  new  vegetation,  and  Pidzu  Pennu  the  rain-god.^ 
Among  Finns  and  Esths  it  is  the  Earth-mother  who  appro- 
priately undertakes  the  task  of  bringing  forth  the  fruits.'' 
And  so  among  the  Greeks  it  is  the  same  being,  Demeter  the 
Earth-mother,  who  performs  this  function,  while  the  Boman 
Ceres  who  is  confused  with  her  is  rather,  as  in  Mexico,  b 
goddess  of  grain  and  fruit.^ 

The  War-god  is  another  being  wanted  among  the  lower 
races,  and  formed  or  adapted  accordingly.  Areskove  the 
Iroquois  War-god  seems  to  be  himself  the  great  celestial 
deity ;  for  his  pleasant  food  they  slaughtered  human  victims,, 
that  he  might  give  them  victory  over  their  enemies ;  as  a- 
pleasant  sight  for  him  they  tortured  the  war-captives ;  on 

*  De  Laet,  *  Novua  Orbis,'  xv.  2 ;    Waitz,  voL  iii  p.  417 ;  Brinton,  pp. 
152,  185  ;  J.  G.  Miiller,  p.  271,  etc. 

'  D'Orbigny,  'L*Homme  Am6ricain,'  vol.  ii.  p.  819. 
'  Clavigero,  'Messico,*  vol.  ii.  pp.  16,  68,  75. 

*  EUis,  'Polyn.  Rea.*  vol.  i.  p.  388.     Mariner,  *  Tonga  la.*  voL  iL  p.  115- 

*  Ooaa,  in  '  Journ.  Amer.  Oriental  Soc.'  voL  iv.  p.  816  ;  Mason,  p.  215. 
'  Macpherson,  'India,' pp.  91,  855. 

7  Cartrtn,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  89. « 

»  Wdcker,  'Griech.  Gotteri.'  vol.  ii.  p.  467.     Cox,  'Mythology  of  Aryan 
I^ationa,'  vol.  ii.  p.  808. 


ANIMISM.  307 

Mm  the  war-chief  called  in  solemn  council^  and  the  warriors, 
shouting  his  name,  rushed  into  the  battle  he  was  surveying 
from  on  high.  Canadian  Indians  before  the  fight  would 
look  toward  the  sun,  and  their  leader  prayed  to  the  Great 
Spirit;  Floridan  Indians  prayed  to  the  Sun  before  their 
wars.^  Araucanians  of  Chili  entreated  Pillan  the  Thunder- 
god  that  he  would  scatter  their  enemies,  and  thanked  him 
amidst  their  cups  after  a  victory.*  The  very  name  of  Mexico 
seems  derived  from  Mexitli,  the  national  War-god,  identical 
or  identified  with  the  hideous  gory  Huitzilopochtli.  Not  to 
attempt  a  general  solution  of  the  enigmatic  nature  of  this 
inextricable  compound  parthenogenetic  deity,  we  may 
notice  the  association  of  his  principal  festival  with  the 
winter-solstice,  when  his  paste  idol  was  shot  through  with 
an  arrow,  and  being  thus  kiUed,  was  divided  into  morsels 
and  eaten,  wherefore  the  ceremony  was  called  the  teoqualo 
or  **  god-eating."  This  and  other  details  tend  to  show 
Huitzilopochtli  as  originally  a  nature-deity,  whose  life  and 
death  were  connected  with  the  year's,  while  his  functions  of 
War-god  may  be  of  later  addition.^  Polynesia  is  a  region 
where  quite  an  assortment  of  war-gods  may  be  collected. 
Such,  to  take  but  one  example,  was  Tairi,  war-god  of  King 
Kamehameha  of  the  Sandwich  Islands,  whose  hideous  image, 
covered  with  red  feathers,  shark-toothed,  mother-of-pearl- 
eyed,  with  helmet-crest  of  human  hair,  was  carried  into 
battle  by  his  special  priest,  distorting  his  own  face  into 
hideous  grins,  and  uttering  terrific  yells  which  were  con- 
sidered to  proceed  from  the  god.*  Two  examples  from  Asia 
may  show  what  different  original  conceptions  may  serve  to 
shape  such  deities  as  these  upon.  The  Khond  War-god, 
who  entered  into  all  weapons,  so  that  from  instruments  of 
peace  they  became  weapons  of  war,  who  gave  edge  to  the 

»  J.  G.  MaUer,  *  Amer.  Urrel.*  pp.  141,  271,  274,  591,  etc. 
'  Dobrizhoffer,  *  Abipones,'  vol.  ii.  p.  90. 

*  ClaTigero,  'Messico,'  vol.  ii.  pp.  17,  81. 

*  Ellis,  'Polyn.  Res.'  vol  i.  p.   826  ;  voL  iv.  p.   158.     See  also  Mariner, 
'Tonga  Is.'  voL  iL  p.  112 ;  Williams,  'Fiji,*  vol.  i.  p.  218. 

X  2 


308  ANIMISM. 

axe  and  point  to  the  arrow,  is  the  very  personified  spirit  of 
tribal  war,  his  token  is  the  relic  of  iron  and  the  iron 
weapons  buried  in  his  sacred  grove  which  stands  near  each 
group  of  hamlets,  and  his  name  is  Loha  Pennu  or  Iron- 
god.^  The  Chinese  War-god,  Kuang  Ta,  on  the  other  hand^ 
is  an  ancient  military  ghost ;  he  was  a  distinguished  officer, 
as  well  as  a  *'  faithful  and  honest  courtier,"  who  flourished 
during  the  wars  of  the  Han  dynasty,  and  emperors  since 
then  have  delighted  to  honour  him  by  adding  to  his  usual 
title  more  and  more  honorary  distinctions.'  Looking  at 
these  selections  from  the  army  of  War-gods  of  the  different 
regions  of  the  world,  we  may  well  leave  their  classic 
analogues,  Ares  and  Mars,  as  beings  whose  warlike  function 
we  recognize,  but  not  so  easily  their  original  nature.' 

It  would  be  easy,  going  through  the  religious  systems  of 
Polynesia  and  Mexico,  Greece  and  Bome,  India  and  China, 
to  give  the  names  and  offices  of  a  long  list  of  divinities, 
patrons  of  hunting  and  fishing,  carpentering  and  weaving, 
and  so  forth.  But  studying  here  rather  the  continuity  of 
polytheistic  ideas  than  the  analysis  of  polytheistic  divinities, 
it  is  needless  to  proceed  farther  in  the  comparison  of  these 
deities  of  special  function,  as  recognized  to  some  extent  in 
the  lower  civilization,  before  their  elaborate  development 
became  one  of  the  great  features  of  the  higher. 

The  great  polytheistic  deities  we  have  been  examining, 
concerned  as  they  are  with  the  earthly  course  of  nature  and 
human  life,  are  gods  of  the  living.  But  even  in  savage 
levels  man  began  to  feel  an  intellectual  need  of  a  God  of  the 
Dead,  to  reign  over  the  souls  of  men  in  the  next  life,  and 
this  necessity  has  been  supplied  in  various  ways.  Of  the 
deities  set  up  as  lords  of  Deadman's  Land,  some  are  beings 
whose  original  meaning  is  obscure.  Some  are  distinctly 
nature-deities  appointed  to  this  office,  often  for  local  reasons, 

1  MacphersoD,  '  India,*  pp.  90,  360. 

2  Doolittle,  *  Chinese/  voL  i  p.  267. 

»  Welckep,  *Griecli.  Gkitterl.*  voL  L  p.  413.     Cox,  'Mytb.  of  Aryan  N.% 
voL  iL  pp.  254,  811. 


ANIMISM.  303 

as  happening  to  belong  to  the  regions  where  the  dead  take 
up  their  abode.  Some^  again,  are  as  distinctly  the  deified 
souls  of  men.  The  two  first  classes  may  be  briefly  instanced 
together  in  America^  where  the  light-side  and  shadow-side 
(as  Dr.  J.  G.  MliUer  well  calls  them)  of  the  conception  of  a 
fdture  life  are  broadly  contrasted  in  the  definitions  of  the 
liord  of  the  Dead.  Among  the  Northern  Indians  this  may 
be  Tarenyawagon  the  Heaven-god,  or  the  Great  Spirit  who 
receive^  good  warriors  in  his  happy  hunting-grounds,  or  his 
grandmother,  the  bloodthirsty  Death-goddess  Atahentsic.^ 
In  Brazil,  the  Underworld-god,  who  places  good  warriors 
and  sorcerers  in  Paradise,  contrasts  with  Aygnan  the  evil 
deity  who  takes  base  and  cowardly  Tupi  souls,^  much  as 
the  Mexican  Tlaloc,  Water-god  and  lord  of  the  earthly 
paradise,  contrasts  with  Mictlanteuctli,  ruler  of  the  dismal 
dead-land  in  the  shades  below.^  In  Peru  there  seems  to 
have  existed  a  belief  that  the  spirits  of  the  departed  went  to 
be  with  the  Creator  and  Teacher  of  the  World — "  Bring  us 
too  near  to  thee  .  .  .  that  we  may  be  fortunate,  being  near 
to  thee,  O  Uira-cocha !  "  There  are  also  statements  as  to  . 
an  underworld  of  shades,  the  land  of  the  demon  Supay.^ 
Accounts  of  this  class  must  often  be  suspected  of  giving 
ideas  mis-stated  under  European  influence,  or  actually 
adopted  from  Europeans,  but  there  is  in  some  a  look  of 
imtouched  genuineness.  Thus  in  Polynesia,  the  idea  of  a 
Devil  borrowed  from  colonists  or  missionaries  may  be  sus- 
pected in  such  a  figure  as  the  evil  deity  Wiro,  chief  of 
Beigna,  the  New  Zealander's  western  world  of  departed 
souls.  But  few  conceptions  of  deity  are  more  quaintly 
original  than  that  of  the  Samoan  deity  Saveasiuleo,  at  once 

*  J.  G.  Mttller,  '  Amcr.  UrreL'  pp.  187,  etc.  272,  286,  etc  500,  etc.  See 
Sproat,  p.  218  (A^^ts),  cited  ante,  p.  85.  Chay-her  signifies'  not  only  the 
world  below,  but  Death  personified  as  a  boneless  greybeard  who  wanders  at 
night  stealing  men's  sonls  away. 

«  Lery,  'Bresil,*  p.  234. 

•  Clavigero,  voL  ii.  pp.  14,  17 ;  Brasseur,  'Mexique,'  vol.  iii.  p.  495. 

^  '  Rites  and  Laws  of  Yncas,'  tr.  and  ed.  by  0.  R.  Markham,  pp.  82,  48 
(prayer  from  M.S.  communication  by  C.  B.  M.) ;  Qarcilaso  de  la  Vega,  lib.  ii«. 
c.  2,  7  ;  Brinton,  *  Myths  of  New  World,'  p.  251. 


310  ANIMISM. 

ruler  of  destinies  of  war  and  other  affairs  of  men,  and 
chief  of  the  subterranean  Bulotu,  with  the  human  upper 
half  of  his  body  reclining  in  his  great  house  in  company 
with  the  spirits  of  departed  chiefs^  while  his  tail  or  extremity 
stretched  far  away  into  the  sea,  in  the  shape  of  an  eel  or 
-serpent.  Different  in  name  and  nature,  yet  not  so  different 
ns  to  be  in  either  beyond  recognition,  this  being  reappears 
in  the  kindred  myths  of  the  neighbouring  group,  the  Tonga 
Islands.  The  Tongan  Hikuleo  has  his  home  in  the  spirit- 
land  of  Bulotu,  here  conceived  as  out  in  the  far  western  sea* 
Here  we  are  told  the  use  of  his  tail.  His  body  goes  away 
on  journeys,  but  his  tail  remains  watching  in  Bulotu,  and 
thus  he  is  aware  of  what  goes  on  in  more  places  than  one* 
Hikuleo  used  to  carry  off  the  first-bom  sons  of  Tongan 
•chiefs,  to  people  his  island  of  the  blest,  and  he  so  thinned 
the  ranks  of  the  living  that  at  last  the  other  gods  were 
moved  to  compassion.  Tangaloa  and  Maui  seized  Hikuleo, 
passed  a  strong  chain  round  him,  and  fastened  one  end  to 
heaven  and  the  other  to  earth.  Another  god  of  the  dead, 
of  well-marked  native  type,  is  the  Barotongan  Tiki  (no 
doubt  a  solar  deity,  a  Maui),  to  whose  long  house,  a  place 
of  unceasing  joys,  the  dead  are  to  find  their  way.^  Among 
Turanian  tribes,  there  are  Samoyeds  who  believe  in  a  deity 
called  A',  dwelling  in  impenetrable  darkness,  sending  disease 
and  death  to  men  and  reindeer,  and  ruling  over  a  crowd  of 
spirits  which  are  manes  of  the  dead.  Tatars  tell  of  the 
nine  Irle- Chans,  who  in  their  gloomy  subterranean  kingdom 
not  only  rule  over  souls  of  the  dead,  but  have  at  their  com- 
mand a  multitude  of  ministering  spirits,  visible  and  invisible. 
In  the  gloomy  under- world  of  the  Finns  reigns  Mana  or 
Tuoni,  a  being  whose  nature  is  worked  out  by  personifica- 
tion from  the  dismal  dead-land  or  death  itself.^    Much  the 

*  Turner,  'Polynesia,*  p.  237;  Farmer,  'Tonga,'  p.  126.  Yate,  *Kew 
Zealand,'  p.  140;  J.  Williams,  'Missionary  Enterprise,'  p.  145.  See 
Schirren,  '  Wandersagen  der  Keaseeliinder,'  p.  89;  Williams,  'Fvji,' vol.  L 
p.  246. 

'   «•  Gastrin,    'Finn.  Myth.'  pp.    128,    147,   155;   Waitz,  vol.   u.  p.   171 
<Africa). 


ANIMISM.  8]  I 

aame  may  be  said  of  the  Greek  Aides,  Hades,  and  the 
Scandinavian  Hel,  whose  names,  perhaps  not  so  much  by 
confusion  as  with  a  sense  of  their  latent  significance,  have 
become  identified  in  language  with  the  doleful  abodes  over 
which  a  personifying  fancy  set  them  to  preside.^  As  apr 
propriately,  though  working  out  a  different  idea,  the  ancient 
Egyptians  conceived  their  great  solar  deity  to  rule  in  the 
regions  of  his  western  under-world — Osiris  is  Lord  of  the 
Dead  in  Amenti.^ 

In  the  world's  assembly  of  great  gods,  an  important  place 
must  be  filled  up  by  the  manes-worshipper  in  logical 
development  of  his  special  system.  The  theory  of  family 
manes,  carried  back  to  tribal  gods,  leads  to  the  recognition 
of  superior  deities  of  the  nature  of  Divine  Ancestor  or  First 
Man,  and  it  is  of  course  reasonable  that  such  a  being,  if 
recognized,  should  sometimes  fill  the  place  of  lord  of  the 
dead,  whose  ancestral  chief  he  is.  There  is  an  anecdote 
Among  the  Mandans  told  by  Prince  Maximilian  von  Wied, 
which  brings  into  view  conceptions  lying  in  the  deepest 
recesses  of  savage  religion,  the  idea  of  the  divine  first 
ancestor,  the  mythic  connexion  of  the  sun's  death  and 
descent  into  the  under- world  with  the  like  fate  of  man,  and 
the  nature  of  the  spiritual  intercourse  between  man's  own 
soul  and  his  deity.  The  First  Man,  it  is  said,  promised 
the  Mandans  to  be  their  helper  in  time  of  need,  and  then 
departed  into  the  West.  It  came  to  pass  that  the  Mandans 
were  attacked  by  foes.  One  Mandan  would  send  a  bird  to 
Ihe  great  ancestor  to  ask  for  help,  but  no  bird  could  fly  so 
far.  Another  thought  a  look  would  reach  him,  but  the  hills 
walled  him  in.  Then  said  a  third,  thought  must  be  the 
tsafest  way  to  reach  the  First  Man.  He  wrapped  himself  in 
his  buffalo-robe,  fell  down,  and  spoke,  "  I  think — ^I  have 
thought — I  come  back."  Throwing  off  the  fur,  he  was 
bathed  in  sweat.     The  divine  helper  he  had  called  on  in  his 

»  Welcker,  'Griech.  Gdtterl/rol.  L  p.  896.    Grimm,   'Deutsch.  Myth, 
p.  288. 
'  •  Book  of  Dead,'  tr.  by  Birch,  in  Bunaen,  *  Egypt,'  vol.  v. 


S12  ANIMISM. 

distress  appeared.^  There  is  instructive  variety  in  the  ways 
in  which  the  lower  American  races  work  out  the  conception 
of  the  divine  forefather.  The  Mingo  tribes  revere  and 
make  offerings  to  the  First  Man,  he  who  was  saved  at  the 
great  deluge^  as  a  powerful  deity  under  the  Master  of  Life, 
or  even  as  identified  with  him ;  some  Mississippi  Indians 
said  that  the  first  Man  ascended  into  heaven,  and  thunders- 
there;  among  the  Dog-ribs,  he  was  creator  of  sun  and 
moon ;  ^  Tamoi,  the  grandfather  and  ancient  of  heaven  of 
the  Guaranis,  was  their  first  ancestor,  who  dwelt  among 
them  and  taught  them  to  till  the  soil,  and  rose  to  heaven  in 
the  east,  promising  to  succour  them  on  earth,  and  at  death 
to  carry  them  from  the  sacred  tree  into  a  new  life  where 
they  should  all  meet  again,  and  have  much  hunting.' 

Polynesia,  again,  has  thoroughly  worked  the  theory  of 
divine  ancestors  into  the  native  system  of  multiform  and 
blending  nature-deities.  Men  are  sprung  from  the  divine 
Maui,  whom  Europeans  have  therefore  called  the  '^  Adam 
of  New  Zealand,"  or  from  the  Barotongan  Tiki,  who  seems 
his  equivalent  (Mauitiki),  and  who  again  is  the  Tii  of 
the  Society  Islands ;  it  is,  however,  the  son  of  Tii,  who 
precisely  represents  a  Polynesian  Adam,  for  his  name  is. 
Taata,  i.e.,  Man,  and  he  is  the  ancestor  of  the  human  race. 
There  is  perhaps  also  reason  to  identity  Maui  and  the  First 
Man  with  Akea,  first  King  of  Hawaii,  who  at  his  earthly 
death  descended  to  rule  over  his  dark  subterranean  kingdom,, 
where  his  subjects  are  the  dead  who  recline  under  the 
spreading  kouLes.  and  drink  of  the  infernal  rivers,  and 
feed  on  lizards  and  butterflies.^  In  the  mythology  of  Kam- 
chatka, the  relation  between  the  Creator  and  the  First  Man 
is  one  not  of  identity  but  of  parentage.    Among  the  sons  of 

*  Pr.  Max  V.  Wied,  *  N.  Amerika/  voL  iL  p.  157. 

«  J.  G.  MUllep,  *  Amer.  Urrel.'  pp.  188,  etc.  228,  255.  Catlin,  'KT.  A.  Ind.^ 
voL  L  pp.  169,  177  ;  Pr.  Max  v.  Wied,  toI.  ii.  pp.  149,  etc.  Compare  Sproat,. 
'Savage  life,'  p.  179  (Quawteaht  the  Great  Spirit  is  also  First  Man). 

s  D'Orbigny,  '  L'Homme  Amfiricain,'  toI.  ii.  p.  819. 

^  Schirren,  'Wandersagen  der  KeuaeeUinder,'  p.  64,  etc.,  88,  etc.;  EUiB,. 
*  Polyn.  Res.*  toI.  i.  p.  Ill,'  toI.  iv.  pp.  146,  866. 


ANIMISM.  313 

Kutka  the  Creator  is  Haetsh  the  First  Man^  who  dwelt  oa 
earthy  and  died,  and  descended  into  Hades  to  be  chief  of 
the  under- world ;  there  he  receives  the  dead  and  new-risen 
Kamchadals,  to  continue  a  life  like  that  of  earth  in  his 
pleasant  subterranean  land  where  mildness  and  plenty  pre- 
vail, as  they  did  in  the  regions  above  in  the  old  days  when 
the  Creator  was  still  on  earth.^  Among  all  the  lower  races 
who  have  reasoned  out  this  divine  ancestor,  none  excel 
those  consistent  manes-worshippers,  the  Zulus.  Their 
worship  of  the  manes  of  the  dead  has  not  only  made  the 
clan-ancestors  of  a  few  generations  back  into  tribal  deities 
(Unkulunkulu),  but  beyond  these,  too  far  off  and  too  little 
known  for  actual  worship,  yet  recognized  as  the  original 
race-deity  and  identified  with  the  Creator,  stands  the  First 
Man,  he  who  "  broke  off  in  the  beginning,*'  the  Old-Old- 
One,  the  great  Unkulunkulu.  While  the  Zulu's  most 
intense  religious  emotions  are  turned  to  the  ghosts  of  the 
departed,  while  he  sacrifices  his  beloved  oxen  and  prays 
with  agonising  entreaty  to  his  grandfather,  and  carries  his 
tribal  worship  back  to  those  ancestral  deities  whose  praise- 
giving  names  are  stiQ  remembered,  the  First  Man  is  beyond 
the  reach  of  such  rites.  '^  At  first  we  saw  that  we  were 
made  by  Unkulunkulu.  But  when  we  were  ill  we  did  not 
worship  him,  nor  ask  anything  of  him.  We  worshipped 
those  whom  we  had  seen  with  our  eyes,  their  death  and 

their  life  among  us Unkulunkulu  had  no  longer  a 

son  who  could  worship  him ;  there  was  no  going  back  to 
the  beginning,  for  people  increased,  and  were  scattered 
abroad,  and  each  house  had  its  own  connections;  there  was 
no  one  who  said,  'For  my  part  I  am  of  the  house  of 
Unkulunkulu.'  "  Nay  more,  the  Zulus  who  would  not  dare 
to  affiront  an  *'  idhlozi,"  a  common  ghost,  that  might  be 
angry  and  kill  them,  have  come  to  make  open  mock  of  the 
name  of  the  great  first  ancestor.  When  the  grown-up 
people  wish  to  talk  privately  or  eat  something  by  them- 
selves, it  is  the  regular  thing  to  send  the  children  out  to 

^  StcUer,  <  Kamtschatka/  p.  271. 


SI  4  ANimSM. 

call  at  the  top  of  their  voices  for  Unkulunkulu.  "The 
name  of  Unkulunkulu  has  no  respect  paid  to  it  among  black 
men;  for  his  house  no  longer  exists.  It  is  now  like 
the  name  of  a  very  old  crone,  which  has  no  power  to  do 
even  a  little  thing  for  herself,  but  sits  continually  where  she 
eat  in  the  morning  till  the  sun  sets.  And  the  children 
make  sport  of  her,  for  she  cannot  catch  them  and  flog  them, 
but  only  talk  with  her  mouth.  Just  so  is  the  name  of  Un- 
kulunkulu when  all  the  children  are  told  to  go  and  call  him. 
He  is  now  a  means  of  making  sport  of  children.''  ^ 

In  Aryan  religion,  the  savage  divinities  just  described 
give  us  analogues  for  the  Hindu  Yama,  throughout  his 
threefold  nature  as  Sun,  as  First  Man,  as  Judge  of  the 
Dead.  Professor  Max  Miiller  thus  depicts  his  solar  origin^ 
which  may  indeed  be  inferred  from  his  being  called  the 
child  of  Vivasvat,  himself  the  very  Sun  :  '*  The  sun,  con- 
ceived as  setting  or  dying  every  day,  was  the  first  who  had 
trodden  the  path  of  life  from  East  to  West — the  first 
mortal — ^the  first  to  show  us  the  way  when  our  course  is 
run,  and  our  sun  sets  in  the  far  West.  Thither  the  fathers 
followed  Yama;  there  they  sit  with  him  rejoicing,  and 
thither  we  too  shall  go  when  his  messengers  (day  and  night) 

have  found  us  out Yama  is  said  to  have  crossed  the 

rapid  waters,  to  have  shown  the  way  to  many,  to  have  first 
known  the  path  on  which  our  fathers  crossed  over."  It  is 
s,  perfectly  consistent  myth-formation,  that  the  solar  Yama 
should  become  the  first  of  mortals  who  died  and  discovered 
the  way  to  the  other  world,  who  guides  other  men  thither 
and  assembles  them  in  a  home  which  is  secured  to  them  for 
«ver.  As  representative  of  death,  Yama  had  even  in  early 
Aryan  times  his  aspects  of  terror,  and  in  later  Indian  theo- 
logy he  becomes  not  only  the  Lord  but  the  awful  Judge  of 
the  Dead,  whom  some  modem  Hindus  are  said  to  worship 
alone  of  all  the  gods,  alleging  that  their  future  state  is  to 
be  determined  only  by  Yama,  and  that  they  have  nothing 
therefore  to  hope  or  fear  from  any  beside  him.     In  these 

Callaway,  'Religion  of  Amazalo,'  pp.  1-104. 


ANIMISM.  315 

'days,  Hindu  and  Farsi  in  Bomba}'^  are  learning  from 
rscholars  in  Europe  the  ancient  connexion  of  their  long 
antagonistic  faiths,  and  have  to  hear  that  Yama  son  of 
Vivasyat  sitting  on  his  awful  judgment-seat  of  the  dead,  to 
reward  the  good  and  punish  the  wicked  with  hideous 
tortures,  and  Yima  son  of  Yivanh&o  who  in  primseval  days 
reigned  over  his  happy  deathless  kingdom  of  good  Zarathu- 
strian  men,  are  but  two  figures  developed  in  the  course  of 
4iges  out  of  one  and  the  same  Aryan  sun-myth.^  Within 
the  limits  of  Jewish,  Christian,  and  Moslem  theology,  the 
First  Man  scarcely  occupies  more  than  a  place  of  pre- 
cedence among  the  human  race  in  Hades  or  in  Heaven,  not 
the  high  office  of  Lord  of  the  Dead.  Yet  that  tendency  to 
•deify  an  ideal  ancestor,  which  we  observe  to  act  so  strongly 
on  lower  races,  has  taken  effect  also  here.  The  Babbinical 
Adam  is  a  gigantic  being  reaching  from  earth  to  heaven,  for 
the  definition  of  whose  stature  Kabbi  Eliezer  cites  Deute- 
ronomy iv.  82,  ''  God  made  man  (Adam)  upon  the  earth. 
And  from  one  end  of  heaven  to  the  other."  *  It  is  one  of 
the  familiar  episodes  of  the  Koran,  how  the  angels  were 
bidden  to  bow  down  before  Adam,  the  regent  of  Allah  upon 
«arth,  and  how  Eblis  (Diabolus)  swelling  with  pride,  refused 
ihe  act  of  adoration.^  Among  the  Gnostic  sect  of  the 
Valentinians,  Adam  the  primal  man  in  whom  the  Deity 
liad  revealed  himself,  stood  as  earthly  representative  of  the 
Demiurge,  and  was  even  counted  among  the  iBons.^ 

The  figures  of  the  great  deities  of  Polytheism,  thus 
traced  in  outline  according  to  the  determining  idea  on 
which  each  is  shaped,  seem  to  show  that  conceptions 
originating  imder  rude  and  primitive  conditions  of  human 
ihought  and  passing  thence  into  the  range  of  higher  culture, 

*  'Big- Veda,*  x:  '  Atharya-Veda,'  xviii.  Max  MOller,  *  Lectnres,'  2iid  Ser. 
p.  514.  Muir,  *Yama,'  etc.  in  'Joum.  As.  Soc.  N,  S.'  vol.  1.  1865.  Roth 
in  'Ztachx.  Dentsch.  Morgenl.  6.'  vol.  iv.  p.  426.  Ward,  'Hindoos/  voL  iL 
p.  60.   Avesta  :  '  Yendidad/  ii  Pictet,  'Origines  Indo-Europ.*  part  ii.  p.  621. 

'  Eisenmenger,  part  L  p.  865. 

*  Koran,  ii.  28,  vii.  10,  etc 

^  Neander,  'Hist,  of  Chr.'  vol.  u.  pp.  81,  109,  174. 


316  ANIMISM. 

may  suffer  in  the  course  of  ages  the  most  various  fates,  to 
be  expanded,  elaborated,  transformed,  or  abandoned.  Yet 
the  philosophy  of  modem  ages  still  to  a  remarkable  degree 
follows  the  primitive  courses  of  savage  thought,  even  as  the 
highways  of  our  land  so  often  follow  the  unchanging  tracks 
of  barbaric  roads.  Let  us  endeavour  timidly  and  circum- 
spectly to  trace  onward  from  savage  times  the  courses  of 
vast  and  pregnant  generalization  which  tend  towards  the 
two  greatest  of  the  world's  schemes  of  religious  doctrine,, 
the  systems  of  Dualism  and  Monotheism. 

Rudimentary  forms  of  Dualism,  the  antagonism  of  a  Good 
and  Evil  Deity,  are  well  known  among  the  lower  races  of 
mankind.  The  investigation  of  these  savage  and  barbaric- 
doctrines,  however,  is  a  task  demanding  peculiar  caution. 
The  Europeans  in  contact  with  these  rude  tribes  since  their 
discovery,  themselves  for  the  most  part  holding  strongly 
dualistic  forms  of  Christianity,  to  the  extent  of  practically 
subjecting  the  world  to  the  contending  influences  of  armies 
of  good  and  evil  spirits  under  the  antagonistic  control  of 
Ood  and  Devil,  were  liable  on  the  one  hand  to  mistake  and 
exaggerate  savage  ideas  in  this  direction,  so  that  their 
records  of  native  religion  can  only  be  accepted  with  reserve,, 
while  on  the  other  hand  there  is  no  doubt  that  dualistic 
ideas  have  been  largely  introduced  and  developed  among  the 
savages  themselves,  under  this  same  European  influence. 
For  instance,  among  the  natives  of  Australia,  we  hear  of 
the  great  deity  Nambajandi  who  dwells  in  his  heavenly 
paradise,  where  the  happy  shades  of  black  men  feast  and 
dance  and  sing  for  evermore ;  over  against  him  stands  the 
great  evil  being  Warrugura,  who  dwells  in  the  nethermost 
regions,  who^  causes  the  great  calamities  which  befal  man- 
kind, and  whom  the  natives  represent  with  horns  and  taU, 
although  no  homed  beast  is  indigenous  in  the  land.^  There 
may  be  more  or  less  native  substratum  in  all  this,  but  the 
hints  borrowed  from  popular  Christian  ideas  are  unmistake- 

*  Oldfield  in  *  Tr.  Eth.  Soc.'  toL  iii.  p.  228.     See  also  Eyr    voL  ii.  p.  856  j 
liang,  'Queensland,'  p.  444. 


ANIMISM.  317 

able.  Thus  also,  among  the  North  American  Indians,  the 
native  religion  was  modified  under  the  influence  of  ideas 
borrowed  from  the  white  men,  and  there  arose  a  full 
dualistic  scheme,  of  which  Loskiel,  a  Moravian  missionary 
conversant  especially  with  Algonquin  and  Iroquois  tribes, 
gives  the  following  suggestive  particulars,  dating  from  1794. 
^^  They  (the  Indians)  seem  to  have  had  no  idea  of  the  Devil, 
as  the  Prince  of  Darkness,  before  the  Europeans  came  into 
the  country.  They  consider  him  now  as  a  very  powerful 
spirit,  but  unable  to  do  good,  and  therefore  call  him  The 
Evil  One.  Thus  they  now  believe  in  two  Beings,  the  one 
supremely  good,  and  the  other  altogether  evil.  To  the 
former  they  ascribe  all  good,  and  to  the  latter  all  evil. 
About  thirty  years  ago,  a  great  change  took  place  in  the 
religious  opinions  of  the  Indians.  Some  preachers  of  their 
own  nation  pretended  to  have  received  revelations  from 
above,  to  have  travelled  into  heaven,  and  conversed  with 
God.  They  gave  different  accounts  of  their  exploits  on  the 
journey,  but  all  agreed  in  this,  that  no  one  could  enter  into 
heaven  without  great  danger ;  for  the  road,  say  they,  runs 
close  by  the  gates  of  hell.  There  the  Devil  lies  in  ambush, 
and  snatches  at  every  one  who  is  going  to  God.  Now  those 
who  have  passed  by  this  dangerous  place  unhurt,  come  first 
to  the  Son  of  God,  and  through  him  to  God  himself,  from 
whom  they  pretend  to  have  received  a  commandment,  to 
instruct  the  Indians  in  the  way  to  heaven.  By  these 
preachers  the  Indians  were  informed  that  heaven  was  the 
dwelling  of  God,  and  hell  that  of  the  Devil.  Some  of  their 
preachers  confessed  that  they  had  not  reached  the  dwelling 
of  God,  but  had  however  approached  near  enough  to  hear 
the  cocks  crow,  and  to  see  the  smoke  of  the  chimneys  in 
heaven,  &c.,  &c."  ^ 

Such  unequivocal  proofs  that  savage  tribes  can  adopt  and 
work  into  the  midst  of  their  native  beliefs  the  European 
doctrine  of  the  Good  and  Evil  Spirit,  must  induce  us  to 
criticize  keenly  all  recorded  accounts  of  the  religion  of  un- 

^  Loskielt  'Indians  in  North  America,'  part  i*  p.  84. 


318  ANIMISM. 

cultured  tribes,  lest  we  should  mistake  the  confused  reflexioir 
of  Christendom  for  the  indigenous  theology  of  Australia  or 
Canada.    It  is  the  more  needful  to  bring  this  state  of  things^ 
into  the  clearest  light,  in  order  that  the  religion  of  the  lower 
tribes  may  be  placed  in  its  proper  relation  to  the  religion 
of  the  higher  nations.     Genuine  savaige   faiths  do  in  fact 
biing  to  our  view  what  seem  to  be  rudimentary  forms  of 
ideas  which  underlie  dualistic  theological  schemes  among- 
higher  nations.     It  is  certain  that  even  among  rude  savage 
hordes,  native  thought  has  already  turned  toward  the  deep 
problem  of  good  and  evil.      Their  crude  though  earnest- 
speculation  has  already  tried  to  solve  the  great  mystery 
which  still  resists  the  efforts  of  moralists  and  theologians.. 
But  as  in  general  the  animistic  doctrine  of  the  lower  race& 
is  not  yet  an  ethical  institution,  but  a  philosophy  of  man 
and  nature,  so  savage  dualism  is  not  yet  a  theory  of  abstract 
moral  principles,  but  a  theory  of  pleasure  or  pain,  profit  or 
loss,  affecting  the   individual  man,  his  family,  or  at  the 
utmost  stretch,  his  people.     This  narrow  and  rudimentary 
distinction  between  good  and  evil  was  not  unfairly  stated  by 
the  savage  who  explained  that  if  anybody  took  away  his  wife,, 
that  would  be  bad,  but  if  he  himself  took  someone's  else,  that 
would  be  good.     Now  by  the  savage  or  barbarian  mind,  the 
spiritual  beings  which  by  their  personal  action  account  for 
the  events  of  life  and  the  operations  of  nature,  are  apt  to 
be  regarded  as  kindly  or  hostile,  sometimes  or  always,  like 
the  human  beings  on  whose  type  they  are  so   obviously 
modelled.     In  such  a  case,  we  may  well  judge  by  the  safe 
analogy  of  disembodied  human  souls,  and  it  appears  that 
these  are  habitually  regarded  as  sometimes  Mends  and 
sometimes  foes  of  the  living.     Nothing  could  be  more  con- 
clusive in  this  respect  than  an  account  of  the  three  days*^ 
battle  between  two  factions  of  Zulu  ghosts  for  the  life  of  a 
man  and  wife  whom  the  one   spiritual  party  desired  to 
destroy  and  the  other  to  save ;  the  defending  spirits  pre- 
vailed, dug  up  the  bewitched  charm-bags  which  had  been 
buried  to  cause  -sympathetic  disease,  and  flung  these  objects 


ANIMISM.  819 

into  the  midst  of  the  assembly  of  the  people  watching  in 
silence,  just  as  the  spirits  now  fling  real  flowers  at  a  table- 
rapping  seance.^    For  spirits  less  closely  belonging  to  the 
definition  of  ghosts,  we  may  take  Bochefort's  remark  in  the 
17th  century  as  to  the  two  sorts  of  spirits,  good  and  bad, 
recognized  by  the  Garibs  of  the  West  Indies.     This  writer 
declares  that  their  good  spirits  or  divinities  are  in  fact  so 
many  demons  who  seduce  them  and  keep  them  enchained 
in  their  damnable  servitude ;  but  nevertheless,  he  says,  the 
people  themselves   do   distinguish    them  from   their    evil 
spirits.^    Nor  can  we  pronounce  this  distinction  of  theirs 
unreasonable,  learning  from  other  authorities  that  it  was. 
the  office  of  some  of  these  spirits  to  attend  men  as  familiar 
genii,  and  of  others  to  inflict  diseases.     After  the  numerous, 
details  which  have  incidentally  been  cited  in  the  present 
▼olnmes,  it  will  be  needless  to   offer  farther  proof  that 
spiritual  beings  are  really  conceived  by  savages  and  barba- 
rians as  ranged  in  antagonistic  ranks  as  good  and  evil,  L  e.^ 
friendly  and  hostile  to  themselves.    The  interesting  inquiry 
on  which  it  is  here  desirable  to  collect  evidence,  is  this :. 
how  far  are  the  docrines  of  the  higher  nations  anticipated  in 
principle  among  the  lower  tribes,  in  the  assignment  of  the 
conduct  of  the  universe  to  two  mighty  hostile  beings,  in 
whom  the  contending  powers  of  good  and  evil  are  personi- 
fied, the  Good  Deity  and  the  Evil  Deity,  each  the  head 
and  ruler  of  a  spiritual  host  like-minded  ?     The  true  an- 
swer seems  to  be  that  savage  belief  displays  to  us  primitive 
conceptions    which,    developed    in    systematic    form    and 
attached  to  ethical  meaning,  have  their  place  in  religious 
systems  of  which  the  Zoroastrian  is  the  type. 

First,  when  in  district  after  district  two  special  deities 
with  special  native  names  are  contrasted  in  native  religion 
as  the  Good  and  Evil  Deity,  it  is  in  many  cases  easier  to 
explain  these  beings  as  native  at  least  in  origin,  than  to 
suppose  that  foreign  intercourse  should  have  exerted  the 

^  Callaway,  *Rcl.  of  Ainazuln,' p.  348. 

*  Rochefort,  *  lies  AntUlea,*  p.  416.     See  J.  G.  MUller,  p.  207. 


S20  ANIHISBC. 

consistent  and  far-reaching  influence  needed  to  introduce 
them.  Second,  when  the  deities  in  question  are  actually 
polytheistic  gods,  such  as  Sun,  Moon,  Heaven,  Earth,  con- 
sidered as  of  good  or  evil,  i.  e.,  favourable  or  unfavourable 
aspect,  this  looks  like  native  development,  not  innovation 
derived  from  a  foreign  religion  ignoring  such  divinities. 
Third,  when  it  is  held  that  the  Good  Deity  is  remote  and 
otiose,  but  the  Evil  Deity  present  and  active,  and  worship 
is  therefore  directed  especially  to  the  propitiation  of  the 
hostile  principle,  we  have  here  a  conception  which  appears 
native  in  the  lower  culture,  rather  than  derived  from  the 
higher  culture  to  which  it  is  unfamiliar  and  even  hateful. 
Now  Dualism,  as  prevailing  among  the  lower  races,  will  be 
seen  in  a  considerable  degree  to  assert  its  originality  by 
satisfying  one  or  more  of  these  conditions. 

There  have  been  recorded  among  the  Indians  of  North 
America  a  group  of  mythic  beliefs,  which  display  the  funda- 
mental idea  of  dualism  in  the  very  act  of  germinating  in 
savage  religion.  *Yet  the  examination  of  these  myths  leads 
us  first  to  destructive  criticism  of  a  picturesque  but  not 
ancient  member  of  the  series.  An  ethnologist,  asked  to 
point  out  the  most  striking  savage  dualistic  legend  of  the 
world,  would  be  likely  to  name  the  celebrated  Iroquois  myth 
of  the  Twin  Brethren.  The  current  version  of  this  legend 
is  that  set  down  in  1825  by  the  Christian  chief  of  the  Tos- 
caroras,  David  Cusick,  as  the  belief  of  his  people.  Among 
the  ancients,  he  relates,  there  were  two  worlds,  the  lower 
world  in  darkness  and  possessed  by  monsters,  the  upper 
world  inhabited  by  mankind.  A  woman  near  her  travail 
sank  from  this  upper  region  to  the  dark  world  below.  She 
alighted  on  a  Tortoise,  prepared  to  receive  her  with  a  little 
earth  on  his  back,  which  Tortoise  became  an  island.  The 
celestial  mother  bore  twin  sons  into  the  dark  world,  and 
died.  The  Tortoise  increased  to  a  great  island,  and  the 
twins  grew  up.  One  was  of  gentle  disposition,  and  was 
called  Enigorio,  the  Good  Mind ;  the  other  was  of  insolent 
character,  and  was  named  Enigonhahetgea,  the  Bad  Mind 


ANIMISM.  S21 

(or  Brinton*s  translations,  Ugly  Spirit  and  Beautiful  Spirit, 
may  be  more  accurate).     The  Good  Mind,  not  contented  to 
remain  in  darkness,  wished  to  create  a  great  light ;  the  Bad 
Mind  desired  that  the  world  should  remain  in  its  natural 
state.     The  Good  Mind  took  his  dead  mother's  head  and 
made  it  the  sun,  and  of  a  remnant  of  her  body  he  made  the 
moon.     These  were  to  give  light  to  the  day  and  to  the 
night.     Also  he  created  many  spots  of  light,  now  stars: 
these   were   to  regulate  the  days,  nights,   seasons,  years. 
Where  the  light  came  upon  the  dark  world,  the  monsters 
were  displeased,  and  hid  themselves  in  the  depths,  lest  man 
should  find  them.    The  Good  Mind  continued  the  creation, 
formed  many  creeks  and  rivers  on  the  Great  Island,  created 
small  and  great  beasts  to  inhabit  the  forests,  and  fishes  to 
inhabit  the  waters.     When  he  had  made  the  universe,  he 
doubted  concerning  beings  to  possess  the  Great   Island. 
He  formed  two  images  of  the  dust  of  the  ground  in  his  own 
likeness,  male  and  female,  and  by  breathing  into  their  nos- 
trils gave  them  living  souls,  and  named  them  Ea-gwe-howe, 
that  is  '^  real  people ;  "  and  he  gave  the  Great  Island  all  the 
animals  of  game  for  their  maintenance ;  he  appointed  thun- 
der to  water  the  earth  by  frequent  rains ;  the  island  became 
fruitful,  and  vegetation  afforded  to  the  animals  subsistence. 
The  Bad  Mind  went  throughout  the  island  and  made  high 
mountains  and  waterfalls  and  great  steeps,  and  created  rep- 
tiles injurious  to  mankind;  but  the  Good  Mind  restored 
the  island  to  its  former  condition.     The  Bad  Mind  made 
two  clay  images  in  the  form  of  man,  but  while  he  was  giving 
them  existence  they  became  apes ;  and  so  on.     The  Good 
jVfind  accomplished  the  works  of  creation,  notwithstanding 
the  imaginations  of  the  Bad  Mind  were  continually  evil ; 
thus  he  attempted  to  enclose  all  the  animals  of  game  in  the 
earth  away  from  mankind,  but  his  brother  set  them  firee, 
and  traces  of  them  were  made  on  the  rocks  near  the  cave 
where  they  were  shut  in.     At  last  the  brethren  came  to 
single  combat  for  the  mastery  of  the  universe.     The  Good 
Mind  falsely  persuaded  the  Bad  Mind  that  whipping  with 

VOL.   IL  Y 


322  ANIMISM. 

flags  would  destroy  his  own  life,  but  he  himself  used  the 
deer-hornSy  the  instrument  of  death.  After  a  two  days'* 
fight,  the  Good  Mind  slew  his  brother  and  crushed  him  in 
the  earth ;  and  the  last  words  of  the  Bad  Mind  were  that 
he  would  have  equal  power  over  men's  souls  after  death ; 
then  he  sank  down  to  eternal  doom  and  became  the  Evil 
Spirit.  The  Good  Mind  visited  the  people,  and  then  retired 
from  the  earth.^ 

This  is  a  graphic  tale.  Its  version  of  the  cosmic  mytit 
of  the  World-Tortoise,  and  its  apparent  philosophical  myth 
of  fossil  footprints,  have  much  mythological  interest.  But 
its  Biblical  copying  extends  to  the  very  phraseology,  and 
only  partial  genuineness  can  be  allowed  to  its  main  theme. 
Dr.  Brinton  has  profitably  criticized  this,  referring  to  earl}' 
American  writers  to  show  how  much  dualistic  fancy  has 
sprung  up  since  the  times  of  first  intercourse  between 
natives  and  white  men,  and  pointing  out  the  habit  of  Euro- 
pean  narrators  to  make  distinctions  between  good  and  evil 
spirits  in  ways  foreign  to  Indian  thought.  When  we  com- 
pare this  legend,  he  says,  with  the  version  of  the  same 
legend  given  by  Father  Brebeuf,  missionary  to  the  Hurons 
in  1686,  we  find  its  whole  complexion  altered ;  the  moral 
dualism  vanishes ;  the  names  of  Good  and  Bad  Mind  do^ 
not  appear ;  it  is  the  story  of  loskeha  the  White  One,  witli 
his  brother  Tawiscara  the  Dark  One,  and  we  at  once  per- 
ceive that  Christian  influence  in  the  course  of  two  centuries, 
had  given  the  tale  a  meaning  foreign  to  its  real  intent. 

Brinton's  tracing  of  the  myth  to  its  earlier  stage  is  quite 
just,  and  in  great  measure  also  his  view  as  to  the  develop- 
ment of  its  dualism.  Yet  if  we  go  back  to  the  earliest 
sources  and  examine  this  myth  of  the  White  One  and  the 
Dark  One,  we  shall  find  it  to  be  itself  one  of  the  most  per- 
fect examples  the  world  can  show  of  the  rise  of  primitive 
dualism  in  the  savage  mind.     Father  Brebeuf  s  stoiy  is  as. 

1  Schoolcraft,  *  Indian  Tribes,'  part  v.  p.  682;  see  part  i  p.  316,  part 
vi.  p.  166;  'Iroqnois,'  p.  36,  see  237;  Brinton,  'Mytlis  of  New  Vorld,' 
^63. 


ANIMISM.  323 

follows :  Aataentsic  the  Moon  fell  from  heaven  on  earth, 
and  bore  two  sons,  Taouiscaron  and  looskeha,  who  being 
grown  np  qoarrelled ;  judge,  he  says,  if  there  be  not  in  this 
a  touch  of  the  death  of  AbeL  They  came  to  combat,  but 
with  very  different  weapons.  louskeha  had  a  stag-horn, 
Taouiscaron  contented  himself  with  some  wild-rose  berries, 
persuading  himself  that  as  soon  as  he  should  thus  smite  his 
brother,  he  would  fall  dead  at  his  feet ;  but  it  fell  out  quite 
otherwise  than  he  had  promised  himself,  and  louskeha 
struck  him  so  heavy  a  blow  in  the  side  that  the  blood 
gushed  forth  in  streams.  The  poor  wretch  fled,  and  from 
his  blood  which  fell  upon  the  land  came  the  flints  which  the 
savages  still  call  Taouiscara,  from  the  victim's  name.  From 
this  we  see  it  to  be  true  that  the  original  myth  of  the  two 
brothers,  the  White  One  and  the  Dark  One,  had  no  moral 
element.  It  seems  mere  nature-myth,  the  contest  between 
Day  and  Night,  for  the  Hurons  knew  that  louskeha  was  the 
Sun,  even  as  his  mother  or  grandmother  Aataentsic  was  the 
Moon.  Yet  in  the  contrast  between  these  two,  the  Huron 
mind  had  already  come  to  the  rudimentary  contrast  of  the 
Oood  and  Evil  Deity.  louskeha  the  Sun,  it  is  expressly 
said,  seemed  to  the  Indians  their  benefactor ;  their  kettle 
would  not  boil  were  it  not  for  him  ;  it  was  he  who  learnt 
from  the  Tortoise  the  art  of  making  fire ;  without  him  they 
would  have  no  luck  in  hunting ;  it  is  he  who  makes  the  com 
to  grow.  louskeha  the  Sun  takes  care  for  the  living  and 
all  things  concerning  life,  and  therefore,  says  the  mis- 
sionary, they  say  he  is  good.  But  Aataentsic  the  Moon, 
the  creatress  of  earth  and  man,  makes  men  die  and  has 
charge  of  their  departed  souls,  and  they  say  she  is  evil, 
louskeha  and  Taouiskaron,  the  Sun  and  Moon,  dwell  to- 
gether in  their  cabin  at  the  end  of  the  earth,  and  thither  it 
was  that  the  four  Indians  made  the  mythic  journey  of  which 
various  episodes  have  been  more  than  once  cited  here ; 
true  to  their  respective  characters,  the  Sun  receives  the 
travellers  kindly  and  saves  them  from  the  harm  the  beau-* 
teous  but  hurtful  Moon  would  have  done  them.     Another 

T  2 


324  ANIMISM, 

missionary  of  still  earlier  time  identifies  louskeha  with  the 
supreme  deity  Atahocan  :  "  louskeha,"  he  says,  "  is  good 
and  gives  growth  and  fair  weather ;  his  grandmother  Eata- 
hentsic  is  wicked  and  spoils."^  Thus  in  early  Iroquois 
legend,  the  Sun  and  Moon,  as  god  and  goddess  of  Day  and 
Night,  had  already  acquired  the  characters  of  the  great 
friend  and  enemy  of  man,  the  Good  and  Evil  Deity.  And 
as  to  the  related  cosmic  legend  of  Day  and  Night,  contrasted 
in  the  persons  of  the  two  brothers,  the  .White  One  and 
the  Dark  One,  though  this  was  originally  pure  unethic 
nature-myth,  yet  it  naturally  took  the  same  direction  among 
the  half-Europeanized  Indians  of  later  times,  becoming  a 
moral  myth  of  Good  and  Evil.  We  have  thus  before  us 
the  profoundly  interesting  fact,  that  the  rude  North  American 
Indians  have  more  than  once  begun  the  same  mjiliologic 
transition  which  in  ancient  Asia  shaped  the  contrast  of  light 
and  darkness  into  the  contrast  of  righteousness  and  wicked- 
ness, by  following  out  the  same  thought  which  still  in  the 
European  mind  arrays  in  the  hostile  forms  of  Light  and 
Darkness  the  contending  powers  of  Good  and  Evil. 

Judging  by  such  evidence  as  this,  at  once  of  the  rudi- 
mentary dualism  springing  up  in  savage  animism,  and  of 
the  tendency  of  this  to  amalgamate  with  similar  thought 
brought  in  by  foreign  intercourse,  we  may  fairly  account  for 
many  systems  of  this  class  found  in  the  native  religions  of 
America.  While  the  character  and  age  of  the  evidence  may 
lead  us  to  agree  with  Waitz  that  the  North  American  Indian 
dualism,  the  most  distinct  and  universal  feature  of  their 
religion,  is  not  to  be  referred  to  a  modem  and  Christian 
origin,  yet  we  shall  be  cautious  in  claiming  anything  that 
may  be  borrowed  civilized  theology,  as  being  genuine  evi- 
dence of  primitive  development.  The  Algonquin's  belief 
recognizes  the  antagonistic  Kitchi  Manitu  and  Matchi  Ma* 
nitu,  the  Great  Spirit  and  Evil  Spirit,  who  preside  over  the 

^  Brebeuf  in  '  Rel.  des  Jesuitcs  dans  laNonvelle  France/  1635,  p.  84,  1686, 
p.  100.  Sagard,  'Hifitoire  da  Canada,'  Paris,  1636,  p.  490.  L.  H.  Morgan^ 
*  Iroquois,*  p.  156. 


ANIMISM.  325 

spiritual  contending  hosts  which  fill  the  world  and  struggle 
for  the  mastery  over  it.  They  are  especially  associated,  the 
one  with  light  and  warmth,  the  other  with  damp  and  dark- 
ness, while  some  tribes  identify  them  with  Sun  and  Moon. 
Here  the  nature-religion  of  the  savage  may  have  been 
developed,  but  was  not  set  on  foot,  by  the  foreigner.  In 
the  extreme  north-west,  we  may  doubt  any  native  origin  in 
the  semi-Christianized  Kodiak's  definition  of  Shljem  Sho& 
the  creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  to  whom  offerings  were 
made  before  and  after  the  hunt,  as  contrasted  with  Ijak  the 
bad  spirit  dwelling  in  the  earth.  In  the  extreme  south-east, 
we  may  find  more  originality  among  the  Floridan  Indians 
two  or  three  centuries  ago,  for  they  are  said  to  have  paid 
solemn  worship  to  the  Bad  Spirit  Toia  who  plagued  them 
with  visions,  but  to  have  had  small  regard  for  the  Good 
Spirit,  who  troubles  himself  little  about  mankind.^  On 
the  southern  continent,  Martins  makes  this  characteristic 
remark  as  to  the  rude  tribes  of  Brazil :  ''All  Indians  have 
a  lively  conviction  of  the  power  of  an  evil  principle  over 
them ;  in  many  there  dawns  also  a  glimpse  of  the  good ;  but 
they  revere  the  one  less  than  they  fear  the  other.  It  might 
be  thought  that  they  hold  the  Good  Being  weaker  in  rela- 
tion to  the  fate  of  man  than  the  Evil."  This  generalization 
is  to  some  extent  supported  by  statements  as  to  particular 
tribes.  The  Macusis  are  said  to  recognize  the  good  creator 
Macunaima,  **  he  who  works  by  night,"  and  his  evil  adver- 
sary Epel  or  Horiuch :  of  these  people  it  is  observed  that 
"  All  the  powers  of  nature  are  products  of  the  Good  Spirit, 
when  they  do  not  disturb  the  Indian's  rest  and  comfort,  but 
the  work  of  evil  spirits  when  they  do."  Uauuloa  and  Lo- 
cozy,  the  good  and  evil  deity  of  the  Yumanas,  live  above  the 
earth  and  toward  the  sun  :  the  Evil  Deity  is  feared  by  these 


1  Waitz,  'Anthropologies  yoL  iiL  pp.  182,  830,  8S5,  845;  La  Fotherie, 
*  Hist  d^  TAm^r.  Septentrionale,'  Paris,  1722,  vol.  i  p.  121 ;  J.  Q.  MUller, 
p.  149,  etc.  Schoolcraft,  'Indian  Tribes,'  part  i  p.  35,  etc.,  320,  412; 
Catlin,  vol.  1.  p.  156  ;  Gregg,  '  Commerce  of  Prairies,'  vol.  iL  pp.  238,  305 ; 
Cranz,  *  Gronland,' p.  263. 


326  ANIMISM. 

savages,  but  the  Good  Deity  will  come  to  eat  fruit  with  the 
departed  and  take  their  souls  to  his  dwelling,  wherefore  they 
bury  the  dead  each  doubled  up  in  his  great  earthen  pot,  with 
fruit  in  his  lap,  and  looking  toward  the  sunrise.     Even  the 
rude  Botocudos  ar«  thought  to  recognize  antagonistic  prin- 
ciples of  good  and  evil  in  the  persons  of  the  Sun  and  Moon.^ 
This  idea  has  especial  interest  from  its  correspondence  on 
the  one  hand  with  that  of  the  Iroqupis  tribes,  and  on  the 
other  with  that  of  the  comparatively  civilized  Muyscas  of 
Bogota,  whose  good  deity  is  unequivocally  a  mythic  Sun, 
thwarted  in  his  kindly  labours  for  man  by  his  wicked  wife 
Huythaca  the  Moon.*    The  native  religion  of  Chili  is  said 
to  have  placed  among  the  subaltern  deities  Meulen,  the 
friend  of  man,  and  Huecuvu  the  bad  spirit  and  author  of 
evil.    These  people  can  hardly  have  learnt  from  Christianity 
to  conceive  their  evil  spirit  as  simply  and  fully  the  general 
cause  of  misfortune :    if  the  earth  quakes,  Huecuvu  has 
given  it  a  shock;    if  a  horse  tires,  Huecuvu  has  ridden 
him ;  if  a  man  falls  sick,  Huecuvu  has  sent  the  disease 
into  his  body,  and  no  man  dies  but  that  Huecuvu  suffocates 
him.' 

In  Africa,  again,  rudimentary  dualism  is  not  ill  repre- 
sented in  native  religion.  An  old  account  from  Loango 
describes  the  natives  as  theoretically  recognizing  Zambi  the 
supreme  deity,  creator  of  good  and  lover  of  justice,  and 
over  against  him  Zambi-anbi  the  destroyer,  the  counsellor 
of  crime,  the  author  of  loss  and  accident,  of  disease  and 
death.  But  when  it  comes  to  actual  worship,  as  the  good 
God  will  always  be  favourable,  it  is  the  god  of  evil  who 
must  be  appeased,  and  it  is  for  his  satisfaction  that  men 

^  Martias,  '  Etlmog.  Amer/  vol.  i.  pp.  827,  i%5, 588, 645,  see  247,  898,  427» 
€96.  See  also  J.  Q.  Muller,  'Amer.  IJrrelig.'  pp.  259,  etc.,  408,  423; 
D'Orbignj,  '  L* Homme  Am^ricain/ vol.  i.  p.  405,  voL  ii.  p.  257;  Falknor, 
'Patagonia/  p.  114;  Mnsters,  ' Patagonians,'  p.  179;  litzroy,  'Yoy.  of 
Adventure  and  Beagle,'  vol.  i  pp.  180,  190. 

'  Piedrahita,  <  Hist  de  Nnev.  Granada,'  part  i.  book  L  ch.  8. 

'  Molina,  'Hist  of  Chili,'  vol.  ii.  p.  84  ;  Febros,  <Diccionario  ChUeuV 
AV. 


ANIMISM.  327 

abstain  some  from  one  kind  of  food  and  some  from  another.^ 
Among  accounts  of  the  two  rival  deities  in  West  Africa,  one 
<lescribes  the  Guinea  negroes  as  recognizing  below  the  Su- 
preme Deity  two  spirits  (or  classes  of  spirits),  Ombwiri  and 
Onyambe,  the  one  kind  and  gentle,  doing  good  to  men  and 
rescuing  them  from  harm,  the  other  hateful  and  wicked, 
ivhose  seldom  mentioned  name  is  heard  with  imeasiness  and 
<1ispleasure.^  It  would  be  scarcely  profitable,  in  an  inquiry 
where  accurate  knowledge  of  the  doctrine  of  any  insignifi- 
'Cant  tribe  is  more  to  the  purpose  than  vague  speculation  on 
the  theology  of  the  mightiest  nation,  to  dwell  on  the  enig- 
matic traces  of  ancient  Egyptian  dualism.  Suffice  it  to  say 
that  the  two  brother-deities  Osiris  and  Seti,  Osiris  the  bene- 
ficent solar  divinity  whose  nature  the  blessed  dead  took  on 
them,  Seti  perhaps  a  rival  national  god  degraded  to  a  Ty- 
phon,  seem  to  have  become  the  representative  figures  of  a 
contrasted  scheme  of  light  and  darkness,  good  and  evil ;  the 
sculptured  granite  still  commemorates  the  contests  of  their 
long-departed  sects,  where  the  hieroglyphic  square-eared 
heast  of  Seti  has  been  defaced  to  substitute  for  it  the  figure 
of  Osiris.* 

The  conception  of  the  light-god  as  the  good  deity  in  con- 
trast to  a  rival  god  of  evil,  is  one  plainly  suggested  by 
nature,  and  naturally  recurring  in  the  religions  of  the  world* 
The  Khonds  of  Orissa  may  be  counted  its  most  perfect 
modem  exponents  in  barbaric  culture.  To  their  supreme 
<;reative  deity,  Bura  Pennu  or  Bella  Pennu,  Light-god  or 
Sun-god,  there  stands  opposed  his  evil  consort  Tari  Pennu 
the  Earth-goddess,  and  the  history  of  good  and  evil  in  the 
-world  is  the  history  of  his  work  and  her  counterwork.  He 
<;reated  a  world  paradisaic,  happy,  harmless ;  she  rebelled 
iigainst  him,  and  to  blast  the  lot  of  his  new  creature,  man. 


*  Proyart,  <  Loango/ in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xvl  p.  604.  Bastian,  'Monach.' 
ToL  iL  p.  109.  See  Eolbe,  'Kaap  de  Goede  Hoop,'  part  L  zziz.  ;  Waits, 
voL  ii.  p.  842  (Hottentots).  • 

*  J.  L.  WUson,  '  W.  Afr.'  pp.  217,  887.     Waitz,  vol.  ii.  p.  178. 

*  Birch,  in  Bunsen,  vol.  v.  p.  136.    Wilkinson,  '  Ancient  Eg.'  etc 


328  ANIMISK 

she  brought  in  disease^  and  poison^  and  all  disorder,  "  sow- 
ing  the  seeds  of  sin  in  mankind  as  in  a  ploughed  field."' 
Death  became  the  diyine  punishment  of  wickedness,  the 
spontaneously  fertile  earth  went  to  jungle  and  rock  and 
mud,  plants  and  animals  grew  poisonous  and  fierce,  through- 
out nature  good  and  evil  were  commingled,  and  still  the 
fight  goes  on  between  the  two  great  powers.  So  far  all 
Khonds  agree,  and  it  is  on  the  practical  relation  of  good 
and  evil  that  they  split  into  their  two  hostile  sects  of  Bura 
and  Tan.  Bura's  sect  hold  that  he  triumphed  over  Tari^ 
in  sign  of  her  discomfiture  imposed  the  cares  of  childbirth 
on  her  sex,  and  makes  her  still  his  subject  instrument 
wherewith  to  punish ;  Tari's  sect  hold  that  she  still  main- 
tains the  struggle,  and  even  practically  disposes  of  the  hap- 
piness  of  man,  doing  evil  or  good  on  her  own  account,  and 
allowing  or  not  allowing  the  Creator's  blessings  to  reach 
mankind.^ 

Now  that  the  sacred  books  of  the  Zend-Avesta  are  open 
to  us,  it  is  possible  to  compare  the  doctrines  of  savage 
tribes  with  those  of  the  ^eat  faith  through  which  of  all 
others  Dualism  seems  to  have  impressed  itself  on  the 
higher  nations.  The  religion  of  Zarathustra  was  a  schism 
from  that  ancient  Aryan  nature-worship  which  is  represented 
in  a  pure  and  early  form  in  the  Veda,  and  in  depravity  and 
decay  in  modem  Hinduism.  The  leading  thought  of  the 
Zarathustrian  faith  was  the  contest  of  Good  and  Evil  in  the 
world,  a  contrast  typified  and  involved  in  that  of  Day  and 
Night,  Light  and  Darkness,  and  brought  to  personal  shape 
in  the  warfare  of  Ahura-Mazda  and  Anra-Mainyu,  the  Good 
and  Evil  Deity,  Ormuzd  and  Ahriman.  The  prophet 
Zarathustra  said :  *'  In  the  beginning  there  was  a  pair  of 
twins,  two  spirits,  each  of  a  peculiar  activity.  These  are 
the  good  and  the  base  in  thought,  word,  and  deed.  Choose 
one  of  these  two  spirits.  Be  good,  not  base  !  "  The  sacred 
Vendidad  begins  with  the  record  of  the  primaeval  contest  of 
thef  two  principles.  Ahara-mazda  created  the  best  of  regions 

*  Macpherson,  'India,' p.  84. 


ANIMISM.  329 

and  lands^  the  Aryan  home,  Sogdia,  Bactria^  and  the  rest ; 
Anra-Mainyu  against  his  work  created  snow  and  pestilence, 
buzzing  insects  and  poisonous  plants,  poverty  and  sickness, 
sin  and  unbelief.  The  modem  Parsi,  in  passages  of  his 
formularies  of  confession,  still  keeps  alive  the  old  antagonism. 
I  repent,  he  says,  of  aU  kinds  of  sins  which  the  evil  Ahriman 
produced  amongst  the  creatures  of  Ormazd  in  opposition. 
"  That  which  was  the  wish  of  Ormazd  the  Creator,  and  I 
ought  to  have  thought  and  have  not  thought,  what  I  ought 
to  have  spoken  and  have  not  spoken,  what  I  ought  to  have 
done  and  have  not  done ;  of  these  sins  repent  I  with 
thoughts,  words,  and  works,  corporeal  as  well  as  spiritual, 
earthly  as  well  as  heavenly,  with  the  three  words  :  Pardon, 
O  Lord,  I  repent  of  sin.  That  which  was  the  wish  of 
Ahriman,  and  I  ought  not  to  have  thought  and  yet  have 
thought,  what  I  ought  not  to  have  spoken  and  yet  have 
spoken,  what  I  ought  not  to  have  done  and  yet  have  done  ; 
of  these  sins  repent  I  with  thoughts,  words,  and  works, 
corporeal  as  well  as  spiritual,  earthly  as  well  as  heavenly, 
with  the  three  words :  Pardon,  O  Lord,  I  repent  of  sin.*^ 
..."  May  Ahriman  be  broken,  may  Ormazd  increase."  ^ 
The  Izedis  or  Yezidis,  the  so-caJled  Devil-worshippers,  still 
remain  a  numerous  though  oppressed  people  in  Mesopotamia 
and  adjacent  countries.  Their  adoration  of  the  sun  and 
horror  of  defiling  fire  accord  with  the  idea  of  a  Persian 
origin  of  their  religion  (Persian  ized  =  god),  an  origin  un- 
derlying more  superficial  admixture  of  Christian  and  Moslem 
elements.  This  remarkable  sect  is  distinguished  by  a 
special  form  of  dualism.  While  recognizing  the  existence 
of  a  Supreme  Being,  their  peculiar  reverence  is  given  to 
Satan,  chief  of  the  angelic  host,  who  now  has  the  means  of 
doing  evil  to  mankind,  and  in  his  restoration  will  have  the 
power  of  rewarding  them.  "  Will  not  Satan  then  reward 
the  poor  Izedis,  who  alone  have  never  spoken  ill  of  him,  and 
have  suffered  so  much  for  him  ?  **  Martyrdom  for  the  rights 

*  Avesta  (Spiegel  and  Bleock) :  Yendidad,  i.  ;  '  Khoidah-A.*  xly.  xlvi.  Max 
JfUller,  'Lectures,'  Ist  Ser.  p.  208. 


330  ANIMISM. 

of  Satan !  exclaims  the  German  traveller  to  whom  an  old 
white-bearded  devil-worshipper  thus  set  forth  the  hopes  of 
his  religion.^ 

Direct  worship  of  the  Evil  Principle,  familiar  as  it  is  to 
low  barbaric  races,  is  scarcely  to  be  found  among  people 
higher  in  civilization  than  these  persecuted  and  stubborn 
sectaries  of  Western  Asia.  So  far  as  such  ideas  extend  in 
the  development  of  religion,  they  seem  fair  evidence  how 
far  worship  among  low  tribes  turns  rather  on  fear  than  love« 
That  the  adoration  of  a  Good  Deity  should  have  more  and 
more  superseded  the  propitiation  of  an  Evil  Deity,  is  the 
sign  of  one  of  the  great  movements  in  the  education  of 
mankind,  a  result  of  happier  experience  of  life,  and  of 
larger  and  more  gladsome  views  of  the  system  of  the 
universe.  It  is  not,  however,  through  the  inactive  systems 
of  modem  Parsism  and  Izedism  that  the  mighty  Zoroastrian 
dualism  has  exerted  its  main  influence  on  mankind.  We 
must  look  back  to  long  past  ages  for  traces  of  its  contact 
with  Judaism  and  Christianity.  It  is  often  and  reasonably 
thought  that  intercourse  between  Jews  and  ancient  Persians 
was  an  effective  agent  in  producing  that  theologic  change 
which  differences  the  later  Jew  of  the  Eabbinical  books  from 
the  earlier  Jew  of  the  Pentateuch,  a  change  in  which  one  im- 
portant part  is  the  greater  prominence  of  the  dualistic  scheme* 
So  in  later  times  (about  the  fourth  century),  the  contact  of 
Zoroastrism  and  Christianity  appears  to  have  been  influential 
in  producing  Manichseism.  We  know  Manichseism  mostly  on 
the  testimony  of  its  adversaries,  but  thus  much  seems  clear, 
that  it  is  based  on  the  very  doctrine  of  the  two  antagonistic 
principles  of  good  and  evil,  of  spirit  and  matter.  It  sets  on 
the  one  hand  God,  original  good  and  source  of  good  alone, 
primal  light  and  lord  of  the  kingdom  of  light,  and  on  the 
other  hand  the  Prince  of  Darkness,  with  his  kingdom  of 
darkness,  of  matter,  of  confusion,  and  destruction.  The 
theory  of    ceaseless    conflict    between    these    contending 

>  Lftyard,  'Ninereh,' voL  i.p.  297  ;  Ainsworth,  *Izedis,'m  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc* 
▼oL  i.  p.  11. 


ANIMISM.  831 

powers  becomes  a  key  to  the  physical  and  moral  nature  and 
course  of  the  universe.^  Among  Christian  or  semi-Christiati 
-sectSy  the  Manichseans  stand  as  representatives  of  dualism 
pushed  to  its  utmost  development.  It  need  scarcely  be  said, 
however^  that  Christian  dualism  is  not  bounded  by  the 
limits  of  this  or  that  special  sect.  In  so  far  as  the  Evil 
Being,  with  his  subordinate  powers  of  darkness,  is  held  to 
'exist  and  act  in  any  degree  in  independence  of  the  Supreme 
Deity  and  his  ministering  spirits  of  light,  so  far  theological 
schools  admit,  though  in  widely  different  grades  of  impor- 
tance, a  philosophy  of  nature  and  of  life  which  has  its  basis 
rather  in  dualism  than  in  monotheism. 

We  now  turn  to  the  last  objects  of  our  present  survey, 
those   theological  beliefs  of  the  lower  tribes  of  mankind 
which  point  more  or  less  distinctly  toward  a  docti-ine  of 
Monotheism.     Here  it  is  by  no  means  proposed  to  examine 
savage  ideas  from  the  point  of  view  of  doctrinal  theology, 
an    undertaking    which    would   demand    arguments   quite 
beyond  the  present  range.     Their  treatment  is  limited  to 
classifying  the  actual  beliefs  of  the  lower  races,  with  some 
ethnographic  considerations  as  to  their  origin  and  their 
relation  to  higher  religions.     For  this  purpose  it  is  desir- 
-able  to  distinguish  the  prevalent  doctrines  of  the  uncultured 
world  from  absolute  monotheism.     At  the  outset,  care  is 
needed  to  exclude  an  ambiguity  of  which  the  importance 
often  goes  unnoticed.     How  are  the  mighty  but  subordinate 
divinities,  recognized  in  different  religions,  to  be  classed  ? 
Beings  who  in  Christian   or  Moslem   theology  would  be 
called  angels,  saints,  demons,  would  under  the  same  defini- 
tions be  called    deities  in  polytheistic  systems.      This  is 
obvious,  but  we  may  realize  it  more  distincUy  from  its 
actually  having  happened.     The    Chuwashes,    a    race   of 
Turkish  affinity,  are  stated  to  reverence  a  god  of  Death, 
who  takes  to  himself  the  souls  of  the  departed,  and  whom 
they  call  Esrel;  it  is  curious  that  Castren,  in  mentioning 

^  Baausobre,   'Hist,  de    Manich6e/   etc.    Neander,   'Hist,   of  Christian 
Beligion,'  voL  ii.  p.  167,  etc. 


332  ANimsM. 

this^  should  fail  to  point  out  that  this  deity  is  no  other  than  ^ 
Azrael  the  angel  of  death,  adopted  under  Moslenr  influence.^ 
Again,  in  the  mixed  Pagan  and  Christian  religion  of  the 
Circassians,  which  at  least  in  its  recently  prevalent  form 
would  be  reckoned  polytheistic,  there  stand  beneath  the 
Supreme  Being  a  number  of  mighty  subordinate  deities,  of 
whom  the  principal  are  lele  the  Thmider-god,  Tleps  the 
Fire-god,  Seoseres  the  god  of  Wind  and  Water,  Misitcha 
the  Forest-god,  and  Mariam  the  Virgin  Mary.'  If  the 
monotheistic  criterion  be  simply  made  to  consist  in  the 
Supreme  Deity  being  held  as  creator  of  the  universe  and 
chief  of  the  spiritual  hierarchy,  then  its  application  to 
savage  and  barbaric  theology  will  lead  to  perplexing  conse- 
quences. Baces  of  North  and  South  America,  of  Africa,, 
of  Polynesia,  recognizing  a  number  of  great  deities,  are 
usually  and  reasonably  considered  polytheists,  yet  under 
this  definition  their  acknowledgment  of  a  Supreme  Creator, 
of  which  various  cases  will  here  be  shown,  would  entitle 
them  at  the  same  time  to  the  name  of  monotheists.  To- 
mark  off  the  doctrines  of  the  lower  races,  closer  definition 
is  required,  assigning  the  distinctive  attributes  of  deity  to 
none  save  the  Almighty  Creator.  It  may  be  declared  that, 
in  this  strict  sense,  no  savage  tribe  of  monotheists  has  been 
ever  known.  Nor  are  any  fair  representatives  of  the  lower 
culture  in  a  strict  sense  pantheists.  The  doctrine  which 
they  do  widely  hold,  and  which  opens  to  them  a  course 
tending  in  one  or  other  of  these  directions,  is  polytheism 
culminating  in  the  rule  of  one  supreme  divinity.  High 
above  the  doctrine  of  souls,  of  divine  manes,  of  local  nature- 
spirits,  of  the  great  deities  of  class  and  element,  there  are 
to  be  discerned  in  savage  theology  shadowings,  quaint  or 
majestic,  of  the  conception  of  a  Supreme  Deity,  henceforth 
to  be  traced  onward  in  expanding  power  and  brightening 
glory  along  the  history  of  religion.  It  is  no  unimportant 
task,  partial  as  it  is,  to  select  and  group  the  typical  data^ 

»  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  165. 

'  Elemm,  *  Cultur-Gesch.'  vol.  vi.  p.  85, 


ANIMISM,  333 

ivhich  show  the   nature   and  position   of  the  doctrine   of 
supremacy,  as  it  comes  into  view  within  the  lower  culture. 

On  the  threshold  of  the  investigation,  there  meets  us  the 
same  critical  difficulty  which  obstructs  the  study  of  primi- 
tive duaUsm.  Among  low  tribes  who  have  been  in  contact 
with  Christianity  or  Mohammedanism,  how  are  we  to  tell  to 
what  extent,  under  this  foreign  influence,  dim,  uncouth 
ideas  of  divine  supremacy  may  have  been  developed  into 
more  cultured  forms,  or  wholly  foreign  ideas  implanted? 
We  know  how  the  Jesuit  missionaries  caught  and  trained 
into  their  own  theology  the  native  Canadian  thought  of  a 
Great  Manitu,  how  they  took  up  the  native  Brazilian  name 
of  the  divine  Thunder,  Tupan,  and  adapted  its  meaning  to 
convey  in  Christian  teaching  the  idea  of  God.  Thus,  again, 
we  find  most  distinctly-marked  African  ideas  of  a  Supreme 
Deity  in  the  West,  where  intercourse  with  Moslems  has 
actually  Islamized  or  semi-Islamized  whole  negro  nations, 
and  the  name  of  Allah  is  in  all  men's  mouths.  The  ethno- 
grapher must  be  ever  on  the  look-out  for  traces  of  such 
foreign  influence  in  the  definition  of  the  Supreme  Deity 
acknowledged  by  any  uncultured  race,  a  divinity  whose 
nature  and  even  whose  name  may  betray  his  adoption  from 
abroad.  Thus  the  supreme  Iroquois  deity,  Neo  or  Hawa- 
neu,  the  pre-existent  creator,  has  been  triumphantly  adduced 
to  show  the  monotheism  underlying  the  native  creeds  of 
America.  But  Dr.  Brinton  considers  this  divinity  as 
derived  from  Christian  instruction,  and  his  very  name  but 
a  corruption  of  Dieu,  le  bon  Dieu.^  Among  the  list  of 
supreme  deities  of  the  lower  races  who  are  also  held  to  be 
first  ancestors  of  man,  we  hear  of  Louquo,  the  uncreate  first 
Carib,  who  descended  from  the  eternal  heaven,  made  the 
flat  earth,  and  produced  man  from  his  own  body.  He  lived 
long  on  earth  among  men,  died  and  came  to  life  again  after 
three  days,  and  returned  to  heaven.*  It  would  be  hardly 
reasonable  to  enumerate,  amo  ng  genuine  deities  of  native 

*  Brinton,  'Myths  of  New  World,*  p.  68.     Schoolcraft,  'Iroquois,*  p.  88. 
*^De  la  Borde,  '  Caraibes,'  p.  524.     J«  G.  Miiller,  '  Amer.  Urrel.'  p.  228t 


334  ANIMISM. 

West  Indian  religion,  a  being  with  characteiistics  thus  on 
the  face  of  them  adopted  from  the  religion  of  the  white 
men.  Yet  even  in  such  extreme  cases,  it  does  not  neces- 
sarily follow  that  the  definitions  of  these  deities,  vitiated  as 
they  are  for  ethnographical  use  by  foreign  influence,  have 
not  to  some  extent  a  native  substratum.  In  criticising: 
details,  moreover,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  how  largely  the 
similarities  in  the  religions  of  different  races  may  be  of  in- 
dependent  origin,  and  how  closely  allied  are  many  ideas  in 
the  rude  native  theologies  of  savages  to  ideas  holding  an 
immemorial  place  in  the  religions  of  their  civilized  in- 
vaders. For  the  present  purpose,  however,  it  is  well  to 
dwell  especially  on  such  evidence  as  by  characteristic  traits- 
or  early  date  is  farthest  removed  from  suspicion  of  being 
borrowed  from  a  foreign  source. 

In  surveying  the  peoples  of  the  world,  the  ethnographer 
finds  some  who  are  not  shown  to  have  any  definite  concep- 
tion of  a  supreme  deity ;  and  even  where  such  a  conception 
is  placed  on  record,  it  is  sometimes  so  vaguely  asserted,  or 
on  such  questionable  authority,  that  he  can  but  take  note 
of  it  and  pass  on.  In  numerous  cases,  however,  illustrated 
by  the  following  collection  from  different  regions,  "certain 
leading  ideas,  singly  or  blended,  may  be  traced.  There  are 
many  savage  and  barbaric  religions  which  solve  their 
highest  problem  by  the  simple  process  of  raising  to  divine 
primacy  one  of  the  gods  of  polytheism  itself.  Even  the 
siystem  of  the  manes-worshipper  has  been  stretched  to  reach 
the  limit  of  supreme  deity,  in  the  person  of  the  primaeval 
ancestor.  More  frequently,  it  is  the  natiu'e-worshipper  s 
principle  which  has  prevailed,  giving  to  one  of  the  great 
nature-deities  the  precedence  of  the  rest.  Here,  by  no  re- 
condite speculation,  but  by  the  plain  teaching  of  nature, 
the  choice  has  for  the  most  part  lain  between  two  mighty 
visible  divinities,  the  all-animating  Sun  and  the  all-encom- 
passing Heaven.  In  the  study  of  such  schemes,  we  are  on 
intellectual  terra  firma.  There  is  among  the  religions  of 
the  lower  races  another  notable  group  of  systems,  seemingly 


ANIMISM.  335 

in  close  connection  with  the  first.  These  display  to  us  a 
heavenly  pantheon  arranged  on  the  model  of  an  earthly 
political  constitution,  where  the  commonalty  are  crowds  of 
human  souls  and  other  tribes  of  world-pervading  spirits, 
the  aristocracy  are  great  polytheistic  gods,  and  the  King  is 
the  Supreme  Deity.  To  this  comparatively  intelligible  side 
of  the  subject,  a  more  perplexed  and  obscure  side  stands 
contrasted.  Among  men  whose  theory  of  the  soul  animat- 
ing the  body  has  already  led  them  to  suppose  a  divine  spirit 
animating  the  huge  mass  of  earth  or  sky,  this  idea  needs 
but  a  last  expansion  to  become  a  doctrine  of  the  universe 
as  animated  by  one  greatest,  all-pervading  divinity,  the 
World-Spirit.  Moreover,  where  speculative  philosophy, 
savage  or  cultured,  grapples  with  the  vast  fundamental 
world-problem,  the  solution  is  attained  by  ascending  from 
the  Many  to  the  One,  by  striving  to  discern  through  and 
beyond  the  Universe  a  First  Cause.  Let  the  basis  of  such 
reasoning  be  laid  in  theological  ground,  then  the  First 
Cause  is  realised  as  the  Supreme  Deity.  In  such  ways, 
the  result  of  carrying  to  their  utmost  Umits  the  animistic 
conceptions  which  pervade  the  philosophy  of  religion,  alike 
among  low  races  and  high,  is  to  reach  an  idea  of  as  it  were 
a  soul  of  the  world,  a  shaper,  animator,  ruler  of  the  uni- 
verse, a  Great  Spirit.  In  no  small  measure,  such  defini- 
tion answers  to  that  of  the  highest  deity  adored  by  the 
lower  races  of  mankind.  As  we  enter  these  regions  of 
transcendental  theology,  however,  we  are  not  to  wonder 
that  the  comparative  distiactness  belonging  to  conceptions 
of  lower  spiritual  beings  here  fades  away.  Human  souls, 
subordinate  nature-spirits,  and  huge  polytheistic  nature- 
gods,  carry  with  the  defined  special  functions  they  perform 
some  defined  character  and  figure,  but  beyond  such  limits 
form  and  fimction  blend  into  the  infinite  and  universal  in 
the  thought  of  supreme  divinity.  To  realize  this  vast  idea, 
two  especial  ways  are  open,  and  both  are  trodden  even  by  un- 
cultured men.  The  first  way  is  to  fuse  the  attributes  of  the 
great  polytheistic  powers  into  more  or  less  of  common  person- 


336  ANIMISBL 

ality,  thus  conceiving  that,  after  all,  it  is  the  same  Highest 
Being  who  holds  up  the  heavens,  shines  in  the  sun,  smites 
his  foes  in  the  thunder,  stands  first  in  the  human  pedigree  as 
the  divine  ancestor.  The  second  way  is  to  remove  the  limit 
of  theologic  speculation  into  the  region  of  the  indefinite 
and  the  inane.  An  unshaped  divine  entity  looming  vast, 
shadowy,  and  calm  beyond  and  over  the  material  world,  too 
benevolent  or  too  exalted  to  need  human  worship,  too  huge, 
too  remote,  too  indifferent,  too  supine,  too  merely  existent, 
to  concern  himself  with  the  petty  race  of  men, — ^this  is  a 
mystic  form  or  formlessness  in  which  savage  and  barbaric 
tribes  have  not  seldom  pictured  the  Supreme. 

Thus,  then,  it  appears  that  the  theology  of  the  lower 
races  already  reaches  its  climax  in  conceptions  of  Supreme 
Deity,  and  that  these  conceptions  in  the  savage  and  barbaric 
world  are  no  copies  stamped  from  one  common  type,  but 
outlines  widely  varying  among  mankind.  The  degenera- 
tion-theory, in  some  instances  no  doubt  with  justice,  may 
claim  such  beliefs  as  mutilated  and  perverted  remnants  of 
higher  religions.  Yet  for  the  most  part,  the  development- 
theory  is  competent  to  account  for  them  without  seeking 
their  origin  in  grades  of  culture  higher  than  those  in  which 
they  are  found  existing.  Looked  upon  as  products  of 
natural  religion,  such  doctrines  of  divine  supremacy  seem 
in  no  way  to  transcend  the  powers  of  the  low-cultured  mind 
to  reason  out,  nor  of  the  low-cultured  imagination  to  deck 
with  mythic  fancy.  There  have  existed  in  times  past,  and 
do  still  exist,  many  savage  or  barbaric  people  who  hold 
such  views  of  a  highest  god  as  they  may  have  attained  to 
of  themselves,  without  the  aid  of  more  cultured  nations. 
Among  these  races.  Animism  has  its  distinct  and  consistent 
outcome,  and  Polytheism  its  distinct  and  consistent  com- 
pletion, in  tne  doctrine  of  a  Supreme  Deity. 

The  native  religions  of  South  America  and  the  West 
Indies  displaj'  a  well-marked  series  of  types.  The  primacy 
of  the  Sun  was  long  ago  well  stated  by  the  Moluches  when 
a  Jesuit  missionary  preached  to  them,  and  they  replied. 


ANIMISM.  337 

^'  Till  this  hour,  we  never  knew  nor  acknowledged  anything 
^greater  or  better  than  the  Sun."  ^     So  when  a  later  mis- 
:8ionary  argued  with  the  chief  of  the  Tobas,  "  My  god  is 
.good  and  punishes  wicked  people,"  the  chief  replied,  "  My 
God  (the  Sun)  is  good  likewise ;  but  he  punishes  nobody, 
satisfied  to  do  good  to  all."  ^    In  various  manifestations, 
moreover,  there  reigns  in  native  faiths  a  supreme  being 
whose  characteristics   are   those  of  the  Heaven-god.      It 
is  thus  with  the  Tamoi  of  tiie  Guaranis,  that  beneficent 
deity  worshipped  in  his  blended  character  of  ancestor  of 
mankind   and   ancient   of  heaven,    lord    of    the   celestial 
paradise."  ^    It  is  so  with  the  highest  deity  of  the  Arauca- 
nians,  Fillan  the  Thunder  or  the  Thunderer,  called  also 
Huenu-Pillan  or  Heaven-Thunder,  and  Vuta-gen  or  Great 
Being.      "The    universal    government    of   Pillan,"    says 
Molina,  '^  is  a  prototype  of  the  Araucanian  polity.     He  is 
the  great  Toqui  (Governor)  of  the  invisible  world,  and  as 
such  has  his  Apo-Ulmenes,  and  his  Uhnenes,  to  whom  he 
entrusts  the  administration  of  affairs  of  less  importance. 
These  ideas  are  certainly  very  rude,  but  it  must  be  acknow- 
ledged that  the  Araucanians  are  not  the  only  people  who 
have  regulated  the  things  of  heaven  by  those  of  the  earth."  ^ 
A  different  but  not  less  characteristic  type  of  the  Supreme 
Deity  is  placed  on  record  among  the.  Caribs,  a  beneficent 
power  dwelling  in  the  skies,  reposing  in  his  own  happi- 
ness, careless  of  mankind,  and  by  them  not  honoured  nor 
adored.*^ 

The  theological  history  of  Peru,  in  ages  before  the 
Spanish  conquest,  has  lately  had  new  light  thrown  on  it  by 
the  researches  of  Mr.  Markham.  Here  the  student  comes 
into  view  of  a  rivalry  full  of  interest  in  the  history  of 
barbaric  religion,  the  rivalry  between   the    Creator    and 

^  Dobrizhofler,  'Abipones,'  toL  iL  p.  89. 

«  Hutchinaon,  'Chaco  Ind.'  in  *Tr.  Eth.  Soc'  vol.  iiL  p.  827. 

•  D'Orbigny,  *  L'Homme  Axn^ricaln,'  voL  iL  p.  819. 

^  Molina,  '  HUt  of  Chili/  toL  iL  p.  84,  etc     Compare  Febres,  'Diccionario 
Chilefio.' 

*  Bochefort,  '  Des  Antilles,'  p.  415.     Musters,  '  Patagonians,*  p.  179. 

VOL.   II.  S 


338  ANIMISM. 

llie  divine  Sun.  The  Supreme  Deity  in  the  religion  of 
the  Incas  was  Uiracocha,  whose  titles  were  Pachayachachic, 
*  Teacher  of  the  World/  and  Pachacamac^  *  Creator  of  the 
World/  The  Sun  (with  whom  was  coupled  his  sister-wife 
the  Moon)  was  the  diyine  ancestor,  the  dawn  or  origin,  the 
totem  or  lar,  of  the  Inca  family.  The  three  great  deities 
were  the  Creator,  Sun,  and  Thunder;  their  images  were 
brought  out  together  at  great  festivals  into  the  square  of 
Cuzco,  llamas  were  sacrificed  to  all  three,  and  they  could  be 
addressed  in  prayer  together,  *'  O  Creator,  and  Sun,  aiid 
Thunder,  be  for  ever  young,  multiply  the  people,  and  let 
them  always  be  at  peace."  Yet  the  Thunder  and  Light- 
ning was  held  to  come  by  the  command  of  the  Creator,  and 
the  following  prayer  shows  clearly  that  even  "  our  father 
the  Sun  "  was  but  his  creature  :— 

"  TJiracochal  Thou  who  gavest  being  to  the  Sun,  and  afterwaids 
said  let  there  be  day  and  night  Baise  it  and  cause  it  to  shine,  and 
preserve  that  which  thou  hast  created,  that  it  may  give  light  to  men. 
Grant  this,  TJiraoooha! 

*'  Sun !  Thou  who  art  in  peace  and  safety,  shine  upon  us,  keep  us 
from  sickness,  and  keep  us  in  health  and  safety." 

Among  the  transitions  of  religion,  however,  it  is  not  strange 
that  a  subordinate  god,  by  virtue  of  his  nearer  intercourse 
and  power,  should  usurp  the  place  of  the  Supreme  Deity. 
Among  the  various  traces  of  this  taking  place  under  the 
Incas,  are  traditions  of  the  great  temple  at  Cuzco  called 
**  the  Golden  Place,  the  house  of  the  Teacher  of  the  World,'* 
where  Manco  Ccapac  originally  set  up  a  flat  oval  golden 
plate  to  signify  the  Creator ;  Mayta  Ccapac,  it  is  said,  re- 
newed the  Creator's  symbol,  but  Huascar  Inca  took  it 
down,  and  set  up  in  its  stead  in  the  place  of  honour  a 
round  golden  plate  like  the  sun  with  rays.  The  famous 
temple  itself,  Ccuricancha  the  '*  Golden  Place,"  was  known 
to  the  Spaniards  as  the  temple  of  the  Sun ;  no  wonder  that 
the  idea  has  come  to  be  so  generally  accepted,  that  the  Sun 
was  the  chief  god  of  Peru.  There  is  even  on  record  a 
memorable  protest  made  by  one  Inca,  who  dared  to  den^- 


that  the  Sun  could  be  the  maker  of  all  things,  comparing 
him  to  a  tethered  beast  that  must  make  ever  the  same  daily 
round,  and  to  an  arrow  that  must  go  whither  it  is  sent,  not 
whither  it  will.  ^  But  what  availed  philosophic  protest,  even 
from  the  head  of  church  and  state  himself,  against  a  state 
church  of  which  the  world  has  seldom  seen  the  equal  for 
stiff  and  solid  organization  ?  The  Sun  reigned  in  Peru  till 
Pizarro  overthrew  him,  and  his  splendid  golden  likeness 
came  down  from  the  temple  wall  to  be  the  booty  of  a  Gasti- 
lian  soldier,  who  lost  it  in  one  night  at  play.^ 

Among  rude  tribes  of  the  North  American  continent, 
evidence  of  the  primacy  of  the  divine  Sun  is  not  unknown. 
We  may  perhaps  distrust  Father  Sagard's  early  identifica- 
tion of  Atahocan  the  Creator  with  louskeha  the  Sun.  Yet 
Father  Hennepin's  account  of  the  Sioux  worshipping  the 
San  as  the  Creator  is  explicit  enough,  and  agrees  with  the 
argument  of  the  modem  Shawnees,  that  the  Sun  animates 
everything,  and  therefore  must  be  the  Master  of  Life  or 
Great  Spirit.^  It  is  the  widespread  belief  in  this  Great 
Spirit,  whatever  his  precise  nature  and  origin,  that  has 
long  and  deservedly  drawn  the  attention  of  European 
thinkei*s  to  the  native  religions  of  the  North  American 
tribes.  True,  this  is  a  district  in  which  the  native  doctrine 
has  been  at  times  described  by  Europeans  in  exaggerated 
and  mistaken  terms,  converting  it  into  a  rude  analogue  of 
theism,  while  also  the  ideas  of  the  Indians  themselves  came 
to  be  remodelled  under  Christian  influence.     It  has  even 

^  '  Narratives  of  the  Kites  and  Laws  of  the  Yncas,*  trans,  from  the  original 
Spanish  MSS.,  and  ed.  by  C.  R.  Markham,  Hakluyt  Soc.  1878,  p.  ix.  5,  16, 
30,  76,  84,  154,  etc.  The  above  remarks  are  based  on  the  early  evidence  here 
printod  for  the  first  time,  and  on  private  suggestions  for  which  I  am  also 
indebted  to  Mr.  Markham.  The  title  Pachacamac  has  been  also  considered  to 
mean  Animator  or  Sonl  of  the  World,  camani=I  create,  camac= creator, 
camasgool  (note  to  2nd  cd.).  Garcilasode  laYega,  lib.  i.,  ii.  c.  2,  iii.  c.  20  ; 
llerrera,  dec  r.  4 ;  Brinton,  'Myths  of  New  World,'  p.  177,  see  142  ;  Rivero 
and  Tschndi,  '  Peruvian  Antiquities,*  ch.  vii.  ;  Waltz,  vol.  iv.  p.  447  ;  J.  6. 
Milller,  p.  817,  eto. 

'  Sogard,  'Hist  da  Canada,* p.  490.  Hennepin,  'Toy.  dans  TAm^riqa*," 
ju  832.    Gregg,  'Commerce  cf  Pmiries,'  vo\  ii.  p.  287. 

z  2 


S40  ANIMISIC. 

been  thought  that  the  whole  doctrine  of  the  Great  Spirit 
was  borrowed  by  the  savages  from  missionaries  and  colonists. 
But  this  view  will  not  bear  examination.  After  due  allow- 
ance made  for  mis-rendering  of  savage  answers  and  impor- 
tation of  white  men's  thoughts,  it  can  hardly  be  judged  that 
a  divine  being  whose  characteristics  are  often  so  unlike 
what  European  intercourse  would  have  suggested,  and  who 
is  heard  of  by  such  early  explorers  among  such  distant 
tribes,  could  be  a  deity  of  foreign  origin.  The  Green- 
landers'  Tomgarsuk  or  Great  Spirit  (his  name  is  an  augmen- 
tative of  "tomgak" — "spirit")  seems  no  figure  derived 
from  the  religion  of  Scandinavian  colonists,  ancient  or 
modem.  He  is  the  oracular  deity  whom  the  angekoks  go 
in  spirit  to  consult  about  sickness  and  weather  and  sport, 
and  to  whose  summer-land  beneath  the  sea  Greenland  souls 
hope  to  descend  at  death.  Imperfectly  defined  by  native 
theologians,  thought  to  be  beneficent  and  therefore  scarcely 
worshipped,  he  so  clearly  held  his  place  as  supreme  deity 
in  the  native  mind,  that,  as  Cranz  the  missionary  relates, 
many  Greenlanders  hearing  of  God  and  his  almighty 
power  were  apt  to  fall  on  the  idea  that  it  was  their  Tom- 
garsuk who  was  meant.^  In  like  manner,  Algonquin  In- 
dians, early  in  the  17th  century,  hearing  of  the  white  man's 
Deity,  identified  him  with  one  known  to  their  own  native 
belief,  Atabocan  the  Creator.  When  Le  Jeune  the  mis- 
sionary talked  to  them  of  an  almighty  creator  of  heaven 
and  earth,  they  began  to  say  to  one  another,  "  Atahocan, 
Atahocan,  it  is  Atahocan  !"  The  traditional  idea  of  such 
a  being  seems  indeed  to  have  lain  in  utter  mythic  vagueness 
in  their  thoughts,  for  they  had  made  his  name  into  a  verb, 
''  Nitatahocan,"  meaning,  "  I  tell  a  fable,  an  old  fanciful 
story."  2 

The  Great  Spirit  of  the   North  American  Indians  is 
especially  known  to  us  in  name  and  nature  as  the  Eitchi 

^  Cranz,  '  GrOnland/  p.  263. 

'  Le  Jeune  in  '  Bel.  des  J^soites  dana  la  NonveUe  France,'  1638,  p.  16  ; 
1684,  p.  13.  \ 


ANIMISM.  341 

Manitu  of  the  Ojibwas  and  other  Algonquin  tribes.  In  late 
times,  Schoolcraft  represents  this  deity  as  a  pantheistic  Soul 
of  the  Universe,  inhabiting  and  animating  all  things,  re- 
cognized in  rocks  and  trees,  in  cataracts  and  clouds^  in 
thunder  and  lightning,  in  tempest  and  zephyr,  beconling 
incarnate  in  birds  and  beasts  as  titular  deities,  existing  in 
the  world  under  every  possible  form,  animate  and  inani- 
mate.^ Whether  the  Red  Indian  mind  even  in  modem 
times  really  entertained  this  extreme  pantheistic  scheme^ 
we  may  well  doubt.  In  early  times  of  American  discovery, 
the  records  show  a  quite  different  and  more  usual  concep- 
tion of  a  supreme  deity.  Among  the  more  noteworthy  of 
these  older  documents  are  the  following.  Jacques  Cartier, 
in  his  second  Canadian  voyage  (1585)  speaks  of  the  people 
having  no  valid  belief  in  God,  for  they  believe  in  one  whom 
they  call  Cudouagni,  and  say  that  he  often  speaks  with 
them,  and  tells  them  what  the  weather  will  be ;  they  say 
that  when  he  is  angry  with  them  he  casts  earth  in  their 
eyes.  Thevefs  statement  somewhat  later  is  as  follows : 
'*  As  to  their  religion,  they  have  no  worship  or  prayer  to 
Ood,  except  that  they  contemplate  the  new  moon,  called  in 
their  language  Osannaha,  saying  that  Andouagni  calls  it 
thus,  sending  it  little  by  little  to  advance  or  retard  the 
waters.  For  the  rest,  they  fully  believe  that  there  is  a 
Creator,  greater  than  the  Sun,  the  Moon,  and  the  Stars,. 
and  who  holds  all  in  his  power.  He  it  is  whom  they  call^ 
Andouagni,  without  however  having  any  form  or  method  of 
prayer  to  him.*  In  Virginia  about  1586,  we  learn  from 
Heriot  that  the  natives  believed  in  many  gods,  which  they 
call  "mantoac,**  but  of  different  sorts  and  degrees,  also- 
that  there  is  one  chief  god  who  first  made  other  principal 
gods,  and  afterwards  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars  as  petty 
gods.     In  New  England,  in  1622,  Winslow  says  that  they 

'  Schoolcraft,  '  Indian  Tribes,*  part  i.  p.  15. 

*  Cartier,  *  Relation  ; '  Hakluyt,  vol.  iii.  p.  212  ;  Lescarbot,  *  Nourelle 
France,*  p.  618.  Thevet,  'Singularitez  de  la  France  Antarctiqae,'  Paris, 
1558,  ch.  77.  See  also  J.  G.  Mailer,  p.  102.  Andouagni  is  perhaps  a  mis> 
copied  form  of  Cudouagni.     Other  formS|  Cndruagni,  etc.,  occur* 


3^2  .ANIMISM. 

believe,  as  do  the  Virginians,  in  many  divine  powers,  yet  of 
one  above  all  the  rest ;  the  Massachusetts  call  their  great 
god  Kiehtan,  who  made  all  the  other  gods ;  he  dwells  far 
westerly  above  the  heavens,  whither  all  good  men  go  when 
they  die ;  "  They  never  saw  Kiehtan,  but  they  hold  it  a 
great  charge  and  dutie,  that  one  age  teach  another ;  and  to 
him  they  make  feasts,  and  cry  and  sing  for  plentie  and 
victorie,  or  anything   is   good."     Brinton's  etymology  is 
plausible,  that  this  Kiehtan  is   simply  the    Great    Spirit 
(Kittanitowit,  Great  Living  Spirit,  an  Algonquin  word  com- 
poimded  of  " Kitta " — great;  "manito" — spirit;  "wit" — 
termination  indicating  life).     Another  famous  native  Ameri- 
can name  for  the  supreme  deity  is  Oki.      Captain  John 
Smith,  the  hero  of  the  colonization  of  Virginia  in  1607,  he 
who  was  befriended  by  Pocahontas,  *'  La  Belle  Sauvage," 
thus  describes  the  religion  of  the  country,  and  especially  of 
her  tribe,  the  Powhatans :  "  There  is  yet  in  Virginia  no 
place  discovered  to  be  so  Savage  in  which  they  haue  not  a 
Beligion,  Deer,  and  Bow  and  Arrowes.     All  things  thai 
are  able  to  doe  them  hurt  beyond  their  prevention,  they 
adore  with  their  kinde  of  divine  worship ;  as  the  fire,  water, 
lightning,  thunder,  our  Ordnance  peeces,  horses,  &c.     But 
their  chiefe  god  they  worship  is  the  Devill.     Him  they  call 
Okee,  and  serue  him  more  of  feare  than  loue.     They  sa}' 
they  haue  conference  with  him,  and  fashion  themselves  as 
neare  to  his  shape  as  they  can  imagine.     In  their  Temples 
they  haue    his    image  evill   favouredly  carved,  and   then 
painted  and  adorned  with  chaines  of  copper,  and  beads,  and 
covered  with  a  skin  in  such  manner  as  the  deformities  may 
well  suit  with  such  a  God."  ^     This  quaint  account  deserves 
to  be  quoted  at  length  as  an  example  of  the  judgment  which 
a  half-educated  and  whole-prejudiced  European  is  apt  to 
pass  on  savage  deities,  which  from  his  point  of  view  seem 
of  simply  diabolic  nature*     It  is  known  from  other  sources 

^  Smithy  '  Hist  of  Viiginia/  London,  1682 ;  in  Pinkerton,  voL  ziii.  pp.  13» 
89 ;  New  England,  ibid.  p.  2ii.  Brinton,  p.  68 ;  Waite,  toL  Ui.  p.  177, 
^tc. ;  J.  G.  duller,  pp.  99,  etc. ;  Loskiel,  part  L  pp.  83,  48* 


ANIMISM*  343 

that  Okiy  a  word  apparently  meaning  that  which  is  "  above/* 
was  in  fact  a  general  name  for  spirit  or  deity.  We  may 
Judge  the  real  belief  of  these  Indians  better  from  Father 
Brebeuf 's  description  of  the  Heaven-god,  cited  here  in  a 
former  chapter :  they  imagine  in  the  heavens  an  Oki,  that 
is>  a  Demon  or  power  ruling  the  seasons  of  the  year,  and 
'Controlling  the  winds  and  waves,  a  being  whose  anger  they 
fear,  and  whom  they  call  on  in  making  solemn  treaties.^ 
The  longer  rude  tribes  of  America  have  been  in  contact 
with  Eliropean  belief^  the  less  confidently  can  we  ascribe  to 
purely  native  sources  the  theologic  schemes  their  religions 
have  settled  into.  Yet  the  Creeks  towards  the  end  of  the 
last  century  preserved  some  elements  of  native  faith.  They 
believed  in  the  Great  Spirit,  the  Master  of  Breath  (a  being 
whom  Bartram  represents  as  a  soul  and  governor  of  the 
imiverse) :  to  him  they  would  address  their  frequent  prayers 
and  ejaculations,  at  the  same  time  paying  a  kind  of  homage 
to  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars,  as  the  mediators  or  ministers 
of  the  Great  Spirit,  in  dispensing  his  attributes  for  their 
comfort  and  well-being  in  this  life.*  In  our  own  day,  among 
the  wild  Comanches  of  the  prairies,  the  Great  Spirit,  their 
creator  and  supreme  deity,  is  above  Sun  and  Moon  and 
Earth ;  towards  him  is  sent  the  first  puff  of  tobacco-smoke 
before  the  Sun  receives  the  second,  and  to  him  is  offered 
the  first  morsel  of  the  feast' 

Turning  from  the  simple  faiths  of  savage  tribes  of  North 
America,  to  the  complex  religion  of  the  half-civilized 
Mexican  nation,  we  find  what  we  might  naturally  expect, 
B,  cumbrous  polytheism  complicated  by  mixture  of  several 
national  pantheons,  and  beside  and  beyond  this,  certain 
appearances  of  a  doctrine  of  divine  supremacy.     But  these 

^  Brebeuf  in  *  ReL  dee  J^'  1686,  p.  107 ;  see  above,  p.  255.    Brinton,  p. 
47 ;  Sagard,  p.  494  ;  J.  G.  Miiller,  p.  108.    For  other  mention  of  a  Supremo 
Deity  among  Korth  American  tribes  see  Joutel,   'Journal  du  Voyage,  etc. 
Paris,  1718,  p.  224  (Louisiana) ;  Sproat  in  '  Tr.  £th.  Soc.*  vol.  t.  p.  253 
^Tancourer's  I.). 
>  '  Bartram  in  'Tr.  Amer.  Eth.  Soc.'  yoL  iii.  pp.  20,  26. 

*  Schoolcraft,  'Ind.  Tribes,'  part  iL  p.  127. 


344  ANDnsn 

doctrines  seem  to  have  been  spoken  of  more  definitely  than 
the  evidence  warrants.  A  remarkable  native  development 
of  Mexican  theism  must  be  admitted,  in  so  far  as  we  may 
receive  the  native  historian  Ixtlilxochitl's  account  of  the 
worship  paid  by  NezahualcoyotI,  the  poet-king  of  Tezcuco^ 
to  the  invisible  supreme  Tloque  Nahuaque,  he  who  has  all 
in  him,  the  cause  of  causes,  in  whose  star-roofed  pyramid 
stood  no  idol,  and  who  there  received  no  bloody  sacrifice, 
but  only  flowers  and  incense.  Yet  it  would  have  been 
more  satisfactory  were  the  stories  told  by  this  Aztec  pane- 
gyrist of  his  royal  ancestor  confirmed  by  other  records* 
Traces  of  divine  supremacy  in  Mexican  religion  are  espe- 
cially associated  with  Tezcatlipoca,  "  Shining  Mirror,"  & 
deity  who  seems  in  his  original  nature  the  Sun-god,  and 
thence  by  expansion  to  have  become  the  soul  of  the  worlds 
creator  of  heaven  and  earth,  lord  of  all  things,  Supreme 
Deity.  Such  conceptions  may  in  more  or  less  measulre 
have  arisen  in  native  thought,  but  it  should  be  pointed  out 
that  the  remarkable  Aztec  religious  formulas  collected  by 
Sahagun,  in  which  the  deity  Tezcatlipoca  is  so  prominent 
a  figure,  show  traces  of  Christian  admixture  in  their  mate- 
rial, as  well  as  of  Christian  influence  in  their  style.  For 
instance,  all  students  of  Mexican  antiquities  know  the 
belief  in  Mictlan,  the  Hades  of  the  dead.  But  when  one 
of  these  Aztec  prayer-formulas  (concerning  auricular  con- 
fession, the  washing  away  of  sins,  and  a  new  birth)  makes 
mention  of  sinners  being  plunged  into  a  lake  of  intolerable 
misery  and  torment,  the  introduction  of  an  idea  so  obviously 
European  condemns  the  composition  as  not  purely  native.. 
The  question  of  the  actual  developments  of  ideas  verging  on 
pantheism  or  theism,  among  the  priests  and  philosophers- 
of  native  Mexico,  is  one  to  be  left  for  further  criticism.* 

In  the  islands  of  the  Pacific,  the  idea  of  Supreme  Deity 
8  especially  manifested  in  that  great  mythologic  divinity  o€ 

^  Prescott,  '  Mexico/  book  i.  ch.  vi  Sahagun,  *  Hist,  de  Nnera  EspaSia,*" 
lib.  TL  in  Eingsborough,  yoI.  y.  ;  Torquemada,  'Monaiq.  Ind.'  lib.  x.  c  14* 
VTaltz,  ToL  iy.  p.  186 ;  J.  G.  Mfdler,  p.  621,  etc 


ANIMISM.  bio 

the  Polynesian  race,  whom  the  New  Zealanders  call  Tan* 
garoa,  the  Hawaiians  Kanaroa,  the  Tongans  and  Samoans- 
Tangaloa,  the  Georgian  and  Society  islanders  Taaroa. 
Students  of  the  science  of  religion  who  hold  polytheism  to- 
be  but  the  mis-development  of  a  primal  idea  of  divine 
unity,  which  in  spite  of  corruption  continues  to  pervade  it,, 
might  well  choose  this  South  Sea  Island  divinity  as  their 
aptest  illustration  from  the  savage  world.  Taaroa,  says 
Moerenhout,  is  their  supreme  or  rather  only  god ;  for  all 
the  others,  as  in  other  known  polytheisms,  seem  scarcely 
more  than  sensible  figures  and  images  of  the  infinite  attri- 
butes united  in  his  divine  person.  The  following  is  given 
as  a  native  poetic  definition  of  the  Creator.  ''He  was; 
Taaroa  was  his  name  ;  he  abode  in  the  void.  No  earth,  no- 
sky,  no  men.  Taaroa  calls,  but  nought  answers ;  and  alone 
existing,  he  became  the  universe.  The  props  ai*e  Taaroa ; 
the  rocks  are  Taaroa ;  the  sands  are  Taaroa ;  it  is  thus  he 
himself  is  named."  According  to  EUis,  Taaroa  is  described 
in  the  Leeward  Islands  as  the  eternal  parentless  uncreate 
Creator,  dwelling  alone  in  the  highest  heaven,  whose  bodily 
form  mortals  cannot  see,  who  after  intervals  of  innumerable 
seasons  casts  off  his  body  or  shell  and  becomes  renewed. 
It  was  he  who  created  Hina  his  daughter,  and  with  her  aid 
formed  the  sky  and  earth  and  sea.  He  founded  the  world 
on  a  solid  rock,  which  with  all  the  creation  he  sustains  by 
his  invisible  power.  Then  he  created  the  ranks  of  lesser 
deities  such  as  reign  over  sea  and  land  and  air,  and  govern 
peace  and  war,  and  preside  over  physic  and  husbandry,  and 
canoe-building,  and  roofing,  and  theft.  The  version  from 
the  Windward  Islands  is  that  Taaroa's  wife  was  the  rock,, 
the  foundation  of  all  things,  and  she  gave  birth  to  earth  and 
sea.  Now,  fortunately  for  our  understanding  of  this  myth^ 
the  name  of  Taaroa's  wife,  with  whom  he  begat  the  lesser 
deities,  was  taken  down  in  Tahiti  in  Captain  Cook's  time.. 
She  was  a  rock  called  Papa,  and  her  name  plainly  suggests, 
her  identity  with  Papa  the  Earth,  the  wife  of  Eangi  the 
Heaven  in  the  New  Zealand  myth  of  Heaven  and  Earthy 


346  ANIMISM. 

the  great  first  parents.     If  this  inference  be  just,  then  it 
seems  that  Taaroa  the  Creator  is  no  personification  of  a 
primseval  theistic   idea,   but    simply  the   divine   personal 
Heaven  transformed  into  the  supreme  Heaven-god.     Thus, 
when  Turner  gives  the  Samoan  myths  of  Tangaloa  in  hea- 
ven presiding  over  the  production  of  the  earth  from  beneath 
the  waters^  or  throwing  down  from  the  sky  rocks  which  are 
now  islands,  the  classic  name  by  which  he  calls  him  is  that 
which  rightly  describes  his  nature   and   mythic  origin — 
Tangaloa,  the  Polynesian  Jupiter.     Yet  in  island  district 
after  district,  we  find  the  name  of  the  mighty  heavenly 
'Creator  given  to  other  and  lesser  mythic  beings.    In  Tahiti, 
the  manes-worshipper's  idea  is  applied  not  only  to  lesser 
deities,  but  to  Taaroa  the  Creator  himself,  whom  some 
maintained  to  be  but  a  man  deified  after  death.     In  the 
New  Zealand  mythology,  Tangaroa  figures  on  the  one  hand 
as  Sea-god  and  father  of  fish  and  reptiles,  on  the  other  as 
the  mischievous  eaves-dropping  god  who  reveals  secrets* 
In  Tonga,  Tangaloa  was  god  of  artificers  and  arts,  and  his 
priests  were  carpenters ;  it  was  he  who  went  forth  to  fish, 
and  dragged  up  the  Tonga  islands  from  the  bottom  of  the 
sea.     Here,  then,  he  corresponds  with  Maui,  and  indeed 
Tangaroa  and  Mam  are  found  blending  in  Polynesia  evea 
io  full  identification.     It  is  neither  easy  nor  safe  to  fix  to 
definite  origin  the  Protean  shapes  of  South  Sea  mythology, 
but  on  the  whole  the  native  myths  are  apt  to  embody  cosmic 
ideas,  and  as  the  idea  of  the  Sun  preponderates  in  Maui,  so 
the  idea  of  the  Heaven  in  Taaroa.^    In  the  Fiji  Islands, 
whose  native  mythology  is  on  the  whole  distinct  from  that 
•of  Polynesia  proper,  a  strange  weird  figure  takes  the  su- 
preme place  among  the  gods.     His  name  is  Ndengei,  the 
.serpent  is  his  shrine,  some  traditions  represent  him  with  a 

^  Moerenhont,  '  Yoy.  auz  lies  du  Grand  Oo^an,'  yol.  L  pp.  419,  437.     TSXhs, 

*  Polyn.  Res.'  voL  i.  p.  321,  etc    J.  R.  Forster,  •  Voyage  roand  the  World,* 

pp.  540,  667.     Grey,  'Polyn.  Myth.'  p.  6.    Taylor,  'New  Zealand,'  p.  118; 

.see  above,  voL  i  p.  290.    Turner,   'Polynesia,*  p.  244.     Mariner,  'Tongik 

Is.' vol.  ii.[pp.  116,  121.    Schirren,  'Wandersagen  der  Neuseelander,'  pp. 

'€S,  89. 


ANIMISM.  347 

serpent's  head  and  body  and  the  rest  of  him  stone.  He 
passes  a  monotonous  existence  in  his  gloomy  cayern,  feeling 
no  emotion  nor  sensation,  nor  any  appetite  but  hunger ;  he 
lakes  no  interest  in  any  one  but  Uto,  his  attendant,  and 
gives  no  sign  of  life  beyond  eating,  answering  his  priest, 
and  changing  his  position  from  one  side  to  the  other.  No 
wonder  Ndengei  is  less  worshipped  than  most  of  the  inferior 
gods.  The  natives  have  even  made  a  comic  song  about 
him,  where  he  talks  with  his  attendant,  Uto,  who  has  been 
to  attend  the  feast  at  Bakiraki,  where  Ndengei  has  espe- 
<cially  his  temple  and  worship. 

Ndengei,  **  Have  you  been  to  the  sharing  of  food  to-day  ?  *' 

Uto,         "  Yes:  and  turtles  formed  a  part;  bat  only  the  under- 

shell  was  shared  to  us  two. " 
Ndengei,  ''  Indeed,  Uto  I    This  is  very  bad.    How  is  it  P    We  made 

them  men,  placed  them  on  the  earth,  gave  them  food, 

and  yet  they  share  to  us  only  the  under-shell.    Uto, 

how  is  this?" » 

The  native  religion  of  Africa,  a  land  pervaded  by  the  doc- 
trines of  divine  hierarchy  and  divine  supremacy,  affords  apt 
evidence  for  the  problem  before  us.  The  capacity  of  the 
manes-worshipper's  scheme  to  extend  in  this  direction  may 
be  judged  from  the  religious  speculations  of  the  Zulus, 
where  we  may  trace  the  merging  of  the  First  Man,  the 
Old-Old-One,  Unkulunkulu,  into  the  ideal  of  the  Creator, 
Thunderer,  and  Heaven-god.^  If  we  examine  a  collection 
of  documents  illustrating  the  doctrines  of  the  West  African 
races  lying  between  the  Hottentots  on  the  south  and  the 
Berbers  on  the  north,  we  may  fairly  judge  their  conceptions, 
influenced  as  these  may  have  been  by  foreign  intercourse, 
to  be  nevertheless  for  the  most  part  based  on  native  ideas 
of  the  personal  Heaven.*    Whether  they  think  of  their 

»  Waiiams,  'Fyi,'  voL  i  p.  217. 

*  Callaway,  *  Religion  of  Amazuln,'  part  t    See  ante,  pp.  116,  818. 

»  See  especially  Waitz,  toL  ii  p.  167,  etc. ;  J.  L.  Wihon,  *  W.  Afr.*  pp. 
'209,  887 ;  Bosnian,  Muugo  Park,  etc.  Comp.  Ellia,  ^  Madagascar,'  vol.  L  p. 
^90. 


848  ANIMISM. 

supreme  deity  as  actively  pervading  and  governing  his  uni- 
verse, or  as  acting  through  his  divine  subordinates,  or  a& 
retiring  from  his  creation  and  leaving  the  lesser  spirits  to 
work  their  will,  he  is  always  to  their  minds  the  celestial 
ruler,  the  Heaven-god.  Examples  may  be  cited,  each  in  it& 
way  full  of  instruction.  In  the  mind  of  the  Gold-coast- 
negro,  tendencies  towards  theistic  religion  seem  to  have  been 
mainly  developed  through  the  idea  of  Nyongmo,  the  personal 
Heaven,  or  its  animating  personal  deity.  Heaven,  wide- 
arching,  rain-giving,  Hght-giving,  who  has  been  and  is  and 
shall  be,  is  to  him  the  Supreme  Deity.  The  sky  is  Ny- 
ongmo's  creature,  the  clouds  are  his  veil,  the  stars  his  face- 
ornaments.  Creator  of  all  things,  and  of  their  animating: 
powers  whose  chief  and  elder  he  is,  he  sits  in  majestic  rest 
surroimded  by  his  children,  the  wongs,  the  spirits  of  the 
air  who  serve  him  and  represent  him  on  earth.  Though 
men's  worship  is  for  the  most  part  paid  to  these,  reverence 
is  also  given  to  Nyongmo,  the  Eldest,  the  Highest.  Every 
day,  said  a  fetish-man,  we  see  how  the  grass  and  com  and 
trees  spring  forth  by  the  rain  and  sunshine  that  Nyongmo 
sends,  how  should  he  not  be  the  Creator?  Again,  the 
mighty  Heaven-god,  far  removed  from  man  and  seldom 
roused  to  interfere  in  earthly  interests,  is  the  type  on  which 
the  Guinea  negros  may  have  modelled  their  thoughts  of  a 
Highest  Deity  who  has  abandoned  the  control  of  his  world 
to  lesser  and  evil  spirits.^  The  religion  of  another  district 
seems  to  show  clearly  the  train  of  thought  by  which  such 
ideas  may  be  worked  out.  Among  the  Kimbunda  race  o€ 
Congo,  Suku-Vakange  is  the  highest  being.  He  takes  little 
interest  in  mankind,  leaving  the  real  government  of  the 
world  to  the  good  and  evil  kilulu  or  spirits,  into  whose  ranks 
the  souls  of  men  pass  at  death.  Now  in  that  there  are  more- 
bad  spirits  who  torment,  than  good  who  favour  living  men,, 
human  misery  would  be  unbearable,  were  it  not  that  from 

'  Steinhauser,  ' Beligion *de8  Kegera,'  in  'Mag.  der  Miss.*  Basel,  1856. 
Ko.  2,  p.  128.  J.  L.  Wilson,  *W.  Afr.' pp.  92,  209;  Romer,  *  Guinea,'  p^ 
42.     See  also  Waitz,  vol.  ii.  pp.  171,  419. 


ANIMISM.  349 

lime  to  time  Suku-Vakange,  enraged  at  the  wickedness  of 
the  evil  spirits,  terrifies  them  with  thunder,  and  punishes 
the  more  obstinate  with  his  thunderbolts.  Then  he  returns 
to  rest,  and  lets  the  kilulu  rule  again.^  Who,  we  may  ask, 
is  this  diyinity,  calm  and  indijSerent  save  when  his  wrath 
bursts  forth  in  storm,  but  the  Heaven  himself?  The  rela- 
tion of  the  Supreme  Deity  to  the  lesser  gods  of  polytheism 
is  graphically  put  in  the  following  passage,  where  an  American 
missionary  among  the  Yorubas  describes  the  relation  of 
Olorung,  the  Lord  of  Heaven,  to  his  lesser  deities  (orisa), 
among  whom  the  chief  are  the  androgynous  Obatala,  repre- 
senting the  reproductive  power  of  nature,  and  Shango  the 
Thunder-god.  "The  doctrine  of  idolatry  prevalent  in 
Yoruba  appears  to  be  derived  by  analogy  from  the  form  and 
•customs  of  the  civil  government.  There  is  but  one  king  in 
the  nation,  and  one  God  over  the  universe.  Petitioners  to 
the  king  approach  him  through  the  intervention  of  his 
•servants,  courtiers,  and  nobles:  and  the  petitioner  con- 
ciliates the  courtier  whom  he  employs  by  good  words  and 
presents.  In  like  manner  no  man  can  directiy  approach 
Ood;  but  the  Almighty  himself,  they  say,  has  appointed 
various  kinds  of  orisas,  who  are  mediators  and  intercessors 
between  himself  and  mankind.  No  sacrifices  are  made  to 
Ood,  because  he  needs  nothing ;  but  the  orisas,  being  much 
like  men,  are  pleased  with  offerings  of  sheep,  pigeons,  and 
other  things.  They  conciliate  the  orisa  or  mediator  that  he 
may  bless  them,  not  in  his  own  power,  but  in  the  power  of 
Ood."' 

Booted  as  they  are  in  the  depths  of  nature-worship,  the 
•doctrines  of  the  supreme  Sun  and  Heaven  both  come  to  the 
surface  again  in  the  native  religions  of  Asia.  The  divine 
Sun  holds  his  primacy  distinctiy  enough  among  the  rude 
indigenous  tribes  of  India.  Although  one  sect  of  the 
Khonds  of  Orissa  especially  direct  their  worship  to  Tari 

^  Magyar,  'Reiaen  in  SUd-Afrika,'  pp.  125,  885. 

'  Bowen,   'Gr.   and  Die.  of  Toraba,'  p.   xtL  in  'Smithaonian   Contr.* 


S50  ANIMISM. 

Pennn  the  Earth-goddess,  yet  even  they  agree  theoretically^ 
^ith  the  sect  who  worship  Bura  Pennu  or  Bella  Pennu,. 
Light-god  or  Sun-god,  in  giving  to  him  supremacy  above- 
the  manes-gods  and  nature-gods,  and  all  spiritual  powers.^ 
Among  the  Kol  tribes  of  Bengal,  the  acknowledged  primate 
of  all  classes  of  divinities  is  the  beneficent  supreme  deity,. 
Sing-bonga,  Sun-god.  Among  some  Munda  tribes  his. 
authority  is  so  real  that  they  will  appeal  to  him  for  help 
where  recourse  to  minor  deities  has  failed ;  while  among  the 
Santals  his  cultus  has  so  dwindled  away  that  he  receives  less 
practical  worship  than  his  malevolent  inferiors,  and  is  scarce 
honoured  with  more  than  nominal  dignity  and  an  occasional 
feast.*  These  are  rude  tribes  who,  so  far  as  we  know,  have 
never  been  other  than  rude  tribes.  The  Japanese  are  a 
comparatively  civilized  nation,  one  of  those  so  instructive  to 
the  student  of  culture  from  the  stubborn  conservatism  with 
which  they  have  consecrated  by  traditional  reverence,  and 
kept  up  by  state  authority,  the  religion  of  their  former 
barbarism.  This  is  the  Kami-religion,  Spirit-religion,  the 
remotely  ancient  faith  of  divine  spirits  of  ancestors,  nature- 
spirits,  and  polytheistic  gods,  which  still  holds  official  place 
by  the  side  of  the  imported  Buddhism  and  Confucianism* 
In  this  ancient  faith  the  Sun-god  is  supreme.  He  is  "  Ama- 
terasu  oho  Kami,"  the  "  heaven-enlightening  great  Spirit." 
Below  him  stand  all  lesser  kamis  or  spirits,  through  whom,, 
as  m  ediators,  guardians,  and  protectors,  worship  is  paid  by 
men.  The  Sun-god's  race,  as  in  Peru,  is  the  royal  family, 
and  his  spirit  animates  the  reigning  ruler,  the  Son  of 
Heaven.  Kempfer,  in  his  *  History  of  Japan,'  written  early 
in  the  18th  century,  showed  how  absolutely  the  divine  Tensio 
Dai  Sin  was  looked  upon  as  ruler  of  the  minor  powers,  by 
his  mention  of  the  Japanese  tenth  month,  called  the  "  god- 
less month,*'  because  then  the  lesser  gods  are  considered  to 
be  away  from   their  temples,   gone  to  pay  their  annual 

^  Macplierson,  '  India,'  p.  84,  etc. 
Dalton,   *  Kola,'  in  *  Tr.  Eth.  Soc*  voL  vi.  p.  82.   Hunter,  *  Eural  Bengal/ 
p.  184. 


ANIMISM.  351 

homage  to  their  celestial  Dairi.  He  describes,  as  it  was  m 
his  time,  the  great  Japanese  place  of  pilgrimage,  Ysse,  the 
home  of  Tensio  Dai  Sin.  There  may  be  seen  the  small 
cavern  in  a  hill  near  the  sea,  where  he  once  hid  himself, 
depriving  the  world,  sun,  and  stars  of  their  light,  and  thus 
showing  himself  to  be  lord  of  light  and  supreme  above  all 
gods.  Within  his  small  ancient  temple  hard  by,  there  are 
to  be  seen  round  the  walls  pieces  of  cut  white  paper,  symbols 
of  purity,  and  in  the  midst  nothing  but  a  polished  metal 
mirror,  emblem  of  the  all-seeing  eye  of  this  great  god.^ 

Over  the  vast  range  of  the  Tatar  races,  it  is  the  type  of 
the  supreme  Heaven  that  comes  prominently  into  view. 
Nature-worshippers  in  the  extreme  sense,  these  rude  tribes 
conceived  their  ghosts  and  elves  and  demons  and  great 
powers  of  the  earth  and  air  to  be,  like  men  themselves, 
within  the  domain  of  the  divine  Heaven,  almighty  and  all- 
encompassing.  To  trace  the  Samoyed*s  thought  of  Num 
the  personal  Sky  passing  into  vague  conceptions  of  pervad- 
ing deity ;  to  see  with  the  Tunguz  how  Boa  the  Heaven- 
god,  unseen  but  all-knowing,  kindly  but  indifferent,  has 
divided  the  business  of  his  world  among  such  lesser  powers 
as  sun  and  moon,  earth  and  fire ;  to  discern  the  meaning  of 
the  Mongol  Tengri,  shading  from  Heaven  into  Heaven-god, 
and  thence  into  god  or  spirit  in  general ;  to  follow  the 
records  of  Heaven-worship  among  the  ancient  Turks  and 
Hiong-nu ;  to  compare  the  supremacy  among  the  Lapps  of 
Tiermes,  the  Thunderer,  with  the  supremacy  among  the 
Finns  of  Jumala  and  Ukko,  the  Heaven-god  and  heavenly 
Grandfather — ^such  evidence  seems  good  ground  for  Castren*s 
argument,  that  the  doctrine  of  the  divine  Sky  underlay  the 
first  Turanian  conceptions,  not  merely  of  a  Heaven-god,  but 
of  a  highest  deity  who  in  after  ages  of  Christian  conversion 
blended  into  the  Christian  God.*   Here,  again,  we  may  have 

'  Siebold,  'Nippon,*  part  v.  p.  9.  Eempfer,  'Japan,'  ch.  xL  in  Pinkerton, 
ToL  Tii.    Wnttke,  'Gescb.  d.  Heidenthnma,'  part  ii  p.  220. 

*  Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth.'  p.  1,  etc.  Klemm,  'Cultur-Gesch.' vol.  uL  p. 
101.  Samoiedia  in  '  Pinkerton/  vol.  I  p.  581.  Geoigi,  ReiseimBuss.  Roich.' 
ToL  L  p.  275. 


352  ANIMISM. 

the  advantage  of  studj^mg  among  a  cultured  racet  he  survi- 
val of  religion  from  ruder  ancient  times,  kept  up  by  official 
ordinance.  The  state  religion  of  China  is  in  its  dominant 
doctrine  the  worship  of  Tien,  Heaven,  identified  with  Shang- 
ii,  the  Emperor-above,  next  to  whom  stands  Tu,  Earth; 
while  below  them  are  worshipped  great  nature-spirits  and 
ancestors.  It  is  possible  that  this  faith,  as  Professor  Max: 
Miiller  argues,  may  be  ethnologically  and  even  linguistically 
part  and  parcel  of  the  general  Heaven-worship  of  the 
Turanian  tribes  of  Siberia.  At  any  rate,  it  is  identical  with 
it  in  its  primary  idea,  the  adoration  of  the  supreme  Heaven. 
Dr.  Legge  charges  Confucius  with  an  inclination  to  sub- 
stitute in  his  religious  teaching  the  name  of  Tien,  Heaven, 
for  that  known  to  more  ancient  religion  and  used  in  more 
ancient  books,  Shang-ti,  the  personal  ruling  Deity.  But  it 
seems  rather  that  the  sage  was  in  fact  upholding  the  tradi- 
tions of  the  ancient  faith,  thus  acting  according  to  the 
character  on  which  he  prided  himself,  that  of  a  transmitter 
and  not  a  maker,  a  preserver  of  old  knowledge,  not  a  new 
revealer.  It  is  in  accordance  with  the  usual  course  of 
theologic  development,  for  the  divine  Heaven  to  reign  in 
rude  mythologic  religion  over  the  lesser  spirits  of  the  world, 
before  the  childlike  poetic  thought  passes  into  the  states- 
man's conception  of  a  Celestial  Emperor.  As  Plath  well 
remarks,  ''  It  belongs  to  the  Chinese  system  that  all  nature 
is  animated  by  spirits,  and  that  all  these  follow  one  order. 
As  the  Chinese  cannot  think  of  a  Chinese  Empire  with  an 
Emperor  only,  and  without  the  host  of  vassal-princes  and 
officials,  so  he  cannot  think  of  the  Upper  Emperor  without 
the  host  of  spirits."  Developed  in  a  different  line,  the  idea 
of  a  supreme  Heaven  comes  to  pervade  Chinese  philosophy 
and  ethics  as  a  general  expression  of  fate,  ordinance,  duty. 
*'  Heaven's  order  is  nature  " — "  The  wise  man  readily  awaits 
Heaven's  command  " — "  Man  must  first  do  his  own  part ; 
when  he  has  done  all,  then  he  can  wait  for  Heaven  to  com- 
plete it " — "  All  state  officers  are  Heaven's  workmen,  and 
represent  him" — "How  does  Heaven  speak?     The  four 


ANmisM.  353 

seasons  have  their  course,  the  hundred  things  arise,  what 
speaks  he  ?  " — "  No,  Heaven  speaks  not ;  by  the  course  of 
events  he  makes  himself  understood,  no  more."  ^ 

These  stray  scraps  from  old  Chinese  literature  are  intel- 
ligible to  European  ears,  for  our  Aryan  race  has  indeed 
worked  out  religious  ideas  from  the  like  source  and  almost 
in  the  like  directions.  The  Samoyed  or  Tunguz  Heaven- 
god  had  his  analogue  in  Dyu,  Heaven,  of  the  Vedic  hymns. 
Once  meaning  the  sky,  and  the  sky  personified,  this  Zeus 
came  to  mean  far  more  than  mere  heaven  in  the  minds  of 
Greek  poets  and  philosophers,  when  it  rose  toward  "  that 
conception  which  in  sublimity,  brightness,  and  infinity 
transcended  all  others  as  much  as  the  bright  blue  sky 
transcended  all  other  things  visible  upon  earth."  At  the 
lower  level  of  mjrthic  religion,  the  ideal  process  of  shaping 
the  divine  world  into  a  monarchic  constitution  was  worked 
out  by  the  ancient  Greeks,  on  the  same  simple  plan  as  among 
such  barbarians  as  the  Kols  of  Chota-Nagpur  or  the  Gallas 
of  Abyssinia ;  Zeus  is  King  over  Olympian  gods,  and  below 
these  again  are  marshalled  the  crowded  ranks  of  demigods, 
heroes,  demons,  nymphs,  ghosts.  At  the  higher  level  of 
theologic  speculation,  exalted  thoughts  of  universal  cause 
and  being,  of  physical  and  moral  law,  took  personality  under 
the  name  of  Zeus.  It  is  in  direct  derivation  along  this 
historic  line,  that  the  classical  heaven -cultus  still  asserts 
itself  in  song  and  pageant  among  us,  in  that  quaintest  of 
quaint  survivals,  the  factitious  religion  of  the  Italian  Opera, 
where  such  worship  as  artistic  ends  require  is  still  addressed 
to  the  divine  Cielo.  Even  in  our  daily  talk,  colloquial  ex- 
pressions caU  up  before  the  mind  of  the  ethnographer  out- 
lines of  remotest  religious  history.  Heaven  grants,  forbids, 
blesses  still  in  phrase,  as  heretofore  in  fact. 

Vast  and  difficult  as  is  the  research  into  the  full  scope 
and  history  of  the  doctrine  of  supremacy  among  the  higher 

• 

*  Plath,  *ReL  der  Alten  Chinesen,' part  i.  p.  18,  etc.  Se«  Max  Mailer, 
^Lectures  on  Science  of  Religion,  No.  III.  in  ♦Fraser's  Mag.'  1870.  Leggc, 
*  Confucins,*  p.  100. 

VOL.   II.  X  X 


354  ANIMISM. 

nations^  it  may  be  at  least  seen  that  helpfiil  clues  exist  to 
lead  the  explorer.  The  doctrine  of  mighty  nature-spirits, 
inhabiting  and  controlling  sky  and  earth  and  sea,  seems  to 
expand  in  Asia  into  such  ideas  as  that  of  Mahatman  the 
Great  Spirit,  Faramatman  the  Highest  Spirit,  taking  per- 
sonality as  Brahma  the  all-pervading  uniyersal  soul^ — in 
Europe  into  philosophic  conceptions  of  which  a  grand  type 
stands  out  in  Kepler's  words,  that  the  uniyerse  is  a  harmo- 
nious whole,  whose  soul  is  God.  There  is  a  saying  of 
Comte's  that  throws  strong  light  upon  this  track  of  specula- 
tive theology :  he  declares  that  the  conception  among  the 
ancients  of  the  Soul  of  the  Universe,  the  notion  that  the 
earth  is  a  vast  living  animal,  and  in  our  own  time,  the 
obscure  pantheism  which  is  so  rife  among  German  meta- 
physicians, are  only  fetishism  generalized  and  made  syste- 
matic.^ Polytheism,  in  its  inextricable  confusion  of  the 
persons  and  functions  of  the  great  divinities,  and  in  its 
assignment  of  the  sovereignty  of  the  world  to.  a  supreme 
being  who  combines  in  himself  the  attributes  of  several  such 
minor  deities,  tends  toward  the  doctrine  of  fundamental 
unity.  Max  Miiller,  in  a  lecture  on  the  Veda,  has  given 
the  name  of  kathenotheism  to  the  doctrine  of  divine  unity 
in  diversity  which  comes  into  view  in  these  instructive 
lines : — 

«  Indram  Mitram  Yarunam  Agnim  khxii  atho 
divyah  sa  suparno  Garutm&n : 
Ekam  sad  vipr&  bahudha  vadanti  Agnim 
Tamam  Mfttari9v&naixi  dhxih." 

**  They  call  >iiTn  Indra,  Mitra,  Yarana,  Agni;  then  he  is  the  bean- 
tifdl-winged  heavenly  Gamtmat :  That  which  is  One  the  wise  oall  it 
in  divers  manners;  they  caU  it  Agni,  Yama,  M&tari9van."  ' 

*  See  Colebrooke,  '  Essays,*  vol.  ii.  Wnttke,  *  Heidenthmn,'  part  i.  p.  254. 
Ward,  'Hindoos,'  voL  i.  p.  xxi.  vol.  ii.  p.  1. 

3  Comte,  *PhiloBophie  Positivo.*  Cf.  'Bp.  Berkeley's  *Siris';  and  for  a 
modem  dissertation  on  the  nniversal  ether  as  the  divine  sonl  of  the  world,  see 
Phil.  Spiller,  *  Gott  im  lachte  der  Katarwissensehaften/  Berlin,  1873  (note  to 
2nded.). 

»  •  Rig- Veda,'  i.  164,  46.    Max  MuUer,  '  Chips/  vol  i,  pp.  27,  241. 


ANIMISM.  355 

The  figure  of  the  supreme  deity,  be  he  Heaven-god,  Sun- 
god,  Great  Spirit,  beginning  akeady  in  savage  thought  to 
take  the  form  and  function  of  a  divine  ruler  of  the  world, 
represents  a  conception  which  it  becomes  the  age-long  work 
of  systematic  theology  to  develope  and  to  define.  Thus  in 
Greece  arises  Zeus  the  highest,  greatest,  best,  "who  was 
and  is  and  shall  be,"  "  beginning  and  chief  of  aU  things," 
*'  who  rules  over  all  mortals  and  immortals,"  "  Zeus  the  god 
of  gods."^  Such  is  Ahura  Mazda  in  the  Persian  faith, 
among  whose  seventy-two  names  of  might  are  these  :  Crea- 
tor, Protector,  Nourisher,  Holiest  Heavenly  One,  He.aling, 
Priest,  Most  Pure,  Most  Majestic,  Most  Knowing,  Most 
Ruling  at  Will.®  There  may  be  truth  in  the  assertion  that 
the  esoteric  religion  of  ancient  Egj^t  centred  in  a  doctrine 
of  divine  unity,  manifested  through  the  heterogeneous  crowd 
of  popular  deities.^  It  may  be  a  hopeless  task  to  disentangle 
the  confused  personalities  of  Baal,  Bel,  and  Moloch,  and  no 
antiquary  may  ever  fully  solve  the  enigma  how  far  the  divine 
name  of  El  carried  in  its  wide  range  among  the  Jewish  and 
other  Semitic  nations  a  doctrine  of  divine  supremacy.*  The 
great  Syro-Phcenician  kingdoms  and  religions  have  long  since 
passed  away  into  darkness,  leaving  but  antiquarian  relics  to 
vouch  for  their  former  might.  Far  other  has  been  the 
history  of  their  Jewish  kindred,  still  standing  fast  to  their 
ancient  nationality,  still  upholding  to  this  day  their  patri- 
archal religion,  in  the  midst  of  nations  who  inherit  from 
the  faith  of  Israel  the  belief  in  one  God,  highest,  almighty, 
who  in  the  beginning  made  the  heavens  and  the  earth,  whose 
throne  is  established  of  old,  who  is  from  everlasting  to 
everlasting. 

Before  now  bringing  these  researches  to  a  close,  it  will  be 
well  to  state  compactly  the  reasons  for  treating  the  animism 

'  See  "Welcker,  *  Griech.  GStterlehre,'  pp.  143,  175. 
'  Ayesta;  trans,  by  Spiegel,  'Ormazd-Yasht*  12. 

■  Wilkinson,  'Ancient  Eg.'  voL  iv.  ch.  xil ;  Bansen,   'Egypt,*  ^ol.  iv.  p. 
325. 
*•  Morers,  'PliiJnizier,'  vol.  i.  p.   169,  etc.    Sec  Max  MUller,  'Lecture,* 

IIL  1.  C. 

A    A   2 


35G  ANIMISM. 

of  the  modern  savage  world  as  more  or  less  representing  the 
animism  of  remotely  ancient  races  of  mankind.  Savage 
animism,  founded  on  a  doctrine  of  souls  carried  to  an  extent 
far  beyond  its  limits  in  the  cultivated  world,  and  thence 
expanding  to  a  yet  wider  doctrine  of  spiritual  beings  ani- 
mating and  controlling  the  universe  in  all  its  parts,  becomes 
a  theory  of  personal  causes  developed  into  a  general  philo- 
sophy of  man  and  nature.  As  such,  it  may  be  reasonably 
accounted  for  as  the  direct  product  of  natural  religion, 
using  this  term  according  to  the  sense  of  its  definition  by 
Wilkins :  "I  caU  that  natural  religion,  which  men  might 
know,  and  should  be  obliged  unto,  by  the  meer  principles  of 
reason,  improved  by  consideration  and  experience,  without 
the  help  of  revelation."^  It  will  scarcely  be  argued  by 
theologians  familiar  with  the  religions  of  savage  tribes,  that 
they  are  dii'ect  or  nearly  direct  products  of  revelation,  for 
the  theology  of  our  time  would  abolish  or  modify  their 
details  till  scarce  one  was  left  intact.  The  main  issue  of 
the  problem  is  tliis,  whether  savage  animism  is  a  primary- 
formation  belonging  to  the  lower  culture,  or  whether  it  con- 
sists, mostly  or  entirely,  of  beliefs  originating  in  some 
higher  culture,  and  conveyed  by  adoption  or  degradation 
into  the  lower.  The  evidence  for  the  first  alternative, 
though  not  amounting  to  complete  demonstration,  seems 
reasonably  strong,  and  not  met  by  contrary  evidence  ap- 
proaching it  in  force.  The  animism  of  the  lower  tribes, 
self-contained  and  self-supporting,  maintained  in  close  con- 
tact with  that  direct  evidence  of  the  senses  on  which  it 
appears  to  be  originall}''  based,  is  a  system  which  might 
quite  reasonably  exist  among  mankind,  had  they  never  any- 

^  Cited  in  Jolinson*s  Dictiouary.  The  term  "  natural  religion  '*  is  used  in 
various  and  even  incompatible  senses.  Thus  Butler  in  his  'Analogy  of 
Beligion,  Natural  and  Revealed,  to  the  Constitution  and  Course  of  Nature,* 
signifies  by  *'  natural  religion ''  a  primceval  system  which  he  expressly  argues 
to  havtf  been  not  reasoned  out,  but  taught  first  by  revelation.  This  system, 
of  which  the  main  tenets  are  the  belief  in  one  Ood,  the  Creator  and  Moral 
Governor  of  the  World,  and  in  a  future  state  of  moral  retribution,  differs  in 
tlio  extreme  from  the  actual  religions  of  the  lower  races. 


AXIMISM.  337 

where  risen  above  the  savage  condition.  Now  it  does  not 
seem  that  the  animism  of  the  higher  nations  stands  in  a 
connexion  so  direct  and  complete  with  their  mental  state- 
It  is  by  no  means  so  closely  limited  to  doctrines  evidenced 
by  simple  contemplation  of  nature.  The  doctrines  of  the 
lower  animism  appear  in  the  higher  often  more  and  more 
modified,  to  bring  them  into  accordance  with  an  advancing 
intellectual  condition,  to  adapt  them  at  once  to  the  limits  of 
stricter  science  and  the  needs  of  higher  faith  ;  and  in  the 
higher  animism  these  doctrines  are  retained  side  by  side 
with  other  and  special  beliefs,  of  which  the  religions  of  the 
lower  world  show  scarce  a  germ.  In  tracing  the  course  of 
animistic  thought  from  stage  to  stage  of  history,  instruction 
is  to  be  gained  alike  from  the  immensity  of  change  and 
f^om  the  intensity  of  permanence.  Savage  animism,  both 
by  what  it  has  and  by  what  it  wants,  seems  to  represent  the 
earlier  system  in  which  began  the  age-long  course  of  the 
education  of  the  world.  Especially  it  is  to  be  noticed  that 
various  beliefs  and  practices,  which  in  the  lower  animism 
stand  firm  upon  their  grounds  as  if  they  grew  there,  in  the 
higher  animism  belong  rather  to  peasants  than  philosophers, 
exist  rather  as  ancestral  relics  than  as  products  belonging 
to  their  age,  are  falling  from  full  life  into  survival.  Thus 
it  is  that  savage  religion  can  frequently  explain  doctrines 
and  rites  of  civilized  religion.  The  converse  is  far  less  often 
the  case.  Now  this  is  a  state  of  things  which  seems  to 
carry  a  historical  as  weU  as  a  practical  meaning.  The 
degradation-theory  would  expect  savages  to  hold  beliefs  and 
customs  intelligible  as  broken-down  relics  of  former  higher 
civilization.  The  development-theory  would  expect  civilized 
men  to  keep  up  beliefs  and  customs  which  have  their  reason- 
able meaning  in  less  cultured  states  of  society.  So  far  as 
the  study  of  survival  enables  us  to  judge  between  the  two 
theories,  it  seems  that  what  is  intelligible  religion  in  the 
lower  culture  is  often  meaningless  superstition  in  the  higher> 
and  thus  the  development-theory  has  the  upper  hand. 
Moreover,  this  evidence  fits  with  the  teaching  of  prehistoric 


Sod  ANIMISM. 

archaeology.  Savage  life,  carrying  on  into  our  own  day  the 
life  of  the  Stone  Age,  may  be  legitimately  claimed  as  repre- 
senting remotely  ancient  conditions  of  mankind,  intellectual 
and  moral  as  well  as  material.  If  so,  a  low  but  progressive 
state  of  animistic  religion  occupies  a  like  ground  in  savage 
and  in  primitive  culture. 

Lastly,  a  few  words  of  explanation  may  be  offered  as  to 
the  topics  which  this  survey  has  included  and  excluded.  To 
those  who  have  been  accustomed  to  find  theological  subjects 
dealt  with  on  a  dogmatic,  emotional,  and  ethical,  rather 
than  an  ethnographic  scheme,  tlie  present  investigation 
may  seem  misleading,  because  one-sided.  This  one-sided 
treatment,  however,  has  been  adopted  with  full  considera- 
tion. Thus,  though  the  doctrines  here  examined  bear  not 
only  on  the  development  but  the  actual  truth  of  religious 
systems,  I  have  felt  neither  able  nor  willing  to  enter  into 
this  great  argument  fully  and  satisfactorily,  while  experience 
has  shown  that  to  dispose  of  such  questions  by  an  occasional 
dictatorial  phrase  is  one  of  the  most  serious  of  errors.  The 
scientific  value  of  descriptions  of  savage  and  barbarous 
religions,  drawn  up  by  travellers  and  especially  by  mission- 
aries, is  often  lowered  by  their  controversial  tone,  and  by 
the  affectation  of  infallibility  with  which  their  relation  to 
the  absolutely  true  is  settled.  There  is  something  pathetic 
in  the  simplicity  with  which  a  narrow  student  will  judge  the 
doctrines  of  a  foreign  religion  by  their  antagonism  or  con- 
formity to  his  own  orthodoxy,  on  points  where  utter  differ- 
ence of  opinion  exists  among  the  most  learned  and  enlight- 
ened scholars.  The  systematization  of  the  lower  religions, 
the  reduction  of  their  multifarious  details  to  the  few  and 
simple  ideas  of  primitive  philosophy  which  form  the  com- 
mon  groundwork  of  them  all,  appeared  to  me  an  urgently 
needed  contribution  to  the  science  of  religion.  This  work 
I  have  carried  out  to  the  utmost  of  my  power,  and  can  now 
only  leave  the  result  in  the  hands  of  other  students,  whose 
province  it  is  to  deal  with  such  evidence  in  wider  schemes 
4of  argument.     Again,  the  intellectual  rather  than  the  emo* 


AXimsM.  359 

tional  side  of  reUgion  has  here  been  kept  in  yiew.  Even  in 
the  life  of  the  rudest  savage,  religious  belief  is  associated 
with  intense  emotion,  with  awful  reverence,  with  agonizing 
terror,  with  rapt  ecstasy  when  sense  and  thought  utterly 
transcend  the  common  level  of  daily  life.  How  much  the 
more  in  faiths  where  not  only  does  the  believer  experience 
such  enthusiasm,  but  where  his  utmost  feelings  of  love  and 
hope,  of  justice  and  mercy,  of  fortitude  and  tenderness  and 
self-sacrificing  devotion,  of  unutterable  misery  and  dazzling 
happmess,  twme  and  clasp  round  the  fabric  of  reUgion. 
Language,  dropping  at  times  from  such  words  as  soul  and 
spirit  their  mere  philosophic  meaning,  can  use  them  in  full 
<!onformity  with  this  tendency  of  the  religious  mind,  as 
phrases  to  convey  a  mystic  sense  of  transcendent  emotion. 
Yet  of  all  this  religion,  the  religion  of  vision  and  of  passion, 
little  indeed  has  been  said  in  these  pages,  and  even  that 
little  rather  in  incidental  touches  than  with  purpose.  Those 
to  whom  religion  means  above  all  things  religious  feeling, 
may  say  of  my  argument  that  I  have  written  soullessly  of 
the  soul,  and  unspiritually  of  spiritual  things.  Be  it  so  :  I 
accept  the  phrase  not  as  needing  an  apology,  but  as  ex- 
pressing a  plan.  Scientific  progress  is  at  times  most 
furthered  by  working  along  a  distinct  intellectual  line, 
without  being  tempted  to  diverge  from  the  main  object  to 
what  lies  beyond,  in  however  intimate  connexion.  The 
Anatomist  does  well  to  discuss  bodily  structure  independ- 
ently of  the  world  of  happiness  and  misery  which  depends 
upon  it.  It  would  be  thought  a  mere  impertinence  for  a 
strategist  to  preface  a  dissertation  on  the  science  of  war, 
by  an  enquiry  how  far  it  is  lawful  for  a  Christian  man  to 
bear  weapons  and  serve  in  the  wars.  My  task  has  been 
here  not  to  discuss  Religion  in  all  its  bearings,  but  to 
pourtray  in  outline  the  great  doctrine  of  Animism,  as  /ound 
in  what  I  conceive  to  be  its  earliest  stages  among  the  lower 
races  of  mankind,  and  to  show  its  transi9ission  along  the 
lines  of  religious  thought. 

The  almost  entire  exclusion  of  ethical   questions  from 


SCO  ANIMISM. 

this  investigation  has  more  than  a  mere  reason  of  arrange* 
ment.     It  is  due  to  the  very  nature  of  the  subject.     To 
some  the  statement  may  seem  startling,  yet  the  evidence 
seems  to  justify  it>  that  the  relation  of  morality  to  religion 
is  one  that  only  belongs  in  its  rudiments,  or  not  at  all,  to 
rudimentary  civilization.     The  comparison  of  savage  and 
civilized  religions  brings  into  view,  by  the  side  of  deep- 
lying  resemblance  in  their  philosophy,  a  deep-lying  contrast 
in  their  practical  action  on  human  life.     So  far  as  savage 
religion   can   stand   as  representing  natural  religion,  the 
popular  idea  that  the  moral  government  of  the  universe  is 
an  essential  tenet  of  natural  religion  simply  falls  to  the 
ground.     Savage  animism  is  almost  devoid  of  tliat  ethical 
element  which  to  the  educated  modem  mind  is  the  very 
mainspring  of  practical  religion.     Not,  as  I  have  said,  that 
morality  is  absent  from  the  life  of  the  lower  races.    Without 
a  code  of  morals,  the  very  existence  of  the  rudest  tribe 
would  be  impossible ;  and  indeed  the  moral  standards  of 
even  savage  races  are  to  no  small  extent  well-defined  and 
l^raiseworthy.     But  these  ethical  laws  stand  on  their  owu 
ground  of  tradition  and  public  opinion,   comparatively  in- 
dependent of  the  animistic  beliefs  and  rites  which  exist 
beside   them.     The  lower   animism  is  not  immoral,  it  is 
unmoral.     For  this  plain  reason,  it  has  seemed  desirable  to 
keep  the  discussion  of  animism,  as  far  as  might  be,  separate 
from  that  of  ethics.     The  general  problem  of  the  relation  of 
morality  to  religion  is  difficult,  intricate,  and  requiring  im- 
mense array  of  evidence,  and  may  be  perhaps  more  profit- 
ably discussed  in  connexion  with  the  ethnography  of  morals. 
To  justify  their  present  separation,  it  wiQ  be  enough  to 
refer  in  general  terms  to  the   accounts  of  savage  tribes 
whose  ideas   have   been   little   affected  by  civilized  inter- 
course ;  proper  caution  being  used  not  to  trust  vague  state- 
ments about  good  and  evil,  but  to  ascertain  whether  these 
are  what  philosophic  moralists  would  call  virtue  and  vice^ 
righteousness  and  wickedness,  or  whether  they  are  mere 
personal  advantage  and  disadvantage.     The  essential  con- 


_  J 


ANIHISM.  361 

nexion  of  theology  and  morality  is  a  fixed  idea  in  many 
minds.  But  it  is  one  of  the  lessons  of  history  that  subjects- 
may  maintain  themselves  independently  for  ages,  till  the 
event  of  coalescence  takes  place.  In  the  course  of  history^ 
religion  has  in  various  ways  attached  to  itself  matters  small 
and  great  outside  its  central  scheme,  such  as  prohibition  of 
special  meats,  observance  of  special  days,  regulation  of  mar- 
riage as  to  kinship,  division  of  society  into  castes,  ordinance 
of  social  law  and  civil  government.  Looking  at  religion 
from  a  political  point  of  view,  as  a  practical  influence  on 
human  society,  it  is  clear  that  among  its  greatest  powers 
has  been  its  divine  sanction  of  ethical  laws,  its  theological 
enforcement  of  morality,  its  teaching  of  moral  government 
of  the  universe,  its  supplanting  the  "  continuance-doctrine  '* 
of  a  fiiture  life  by  the  "retribution-doctrine"  supplying 
moral  motive  in  the  present.  But  such  alliance  belongs 
almost  wholly  to  religions  above  the  savage  level,  not  to 
the  earlier  and  lower  creeds.  It  will  aid  us  to  see  how 
much  more  the  fruit  of  religion  belongs  to  ethical  influence 
than  to  philosophical  dogma,  if  we  consider  how  the  intro- 
duction of  the  moral  element  separates  the  religions  of  the 
world,  united  as  they  are  throughout  by  one  animistic 
principle,  into  two  great  classes,  those  lower  systems  whose 
best  result  is  to  supply  a  crude  childlike  natural  philosophy, 
and  those  higher  faiths  which  implant  on  this  the  law  of 
righteousness  and  of  holiness,  the  inspiration  of  duty  and 
of  love. 


CHAPTER  XVIIL 

RITES  AND  CEREMONIEa 

Beligions  Rites  :  their  purpose  practical  or  symbolic — Prayer  :  its  continuity 
from  low  to  high  levels  of  Culture  ;  its  lower  phases  Unethical ;  its  higher 
phases  Etliical — Sacrifice  :  its  original  Gift-theory  passes  into  the  Homage- 
theory  and  the  Abnegation-theory — Manner  of  reception  of  Sacrifice  by 
Deity — Material  Transfer  to  elements,  fetish-animals,  priests ;  consump- 
tion of  substance  by  deity  or  idol ;  offering  of  blood ;  transmission  by 
fire ;  incense — Essential  Transfer  :  consumption  of  essence,  savour,  etc. 
— Spiritual  Transfer :  consumption  or  transmission  of  soul  of  offering — 
Motive  of  Sacrificer — Ti-ansition  from  Gift-theory  to  Homage-theory  : 
insignificant  and  formal  oiferings;  sacrificial  banquets — Abnegation 
theory ;  sacrifice  of  children,  etc — Sacrifice  of  Substitutes ;  part  given 
for  whole  ;  inferior  life  for  superior ;  effigies — Modern  survival  of  Sacrifice 
in  folklore  and  religion — Fasting,  as  a  means  of  producing  ecstatic  vision  ; 
its  course  from  lower  to  higher  Culture — Drugs  used  to  produce  ecstasy — 
Swoons  and  fits  induced  for  religious  purposes — Orientation  :  its  relation 
to  Sun-mjTth  and  Sun- Worship  ;  rules  of  East  and  West  as  to  burial  of 
dead,  position  of  worship,  and  structure  of  temple— Lustration  by  Water 
and  Fire  :  its  transition  from  material  to  symbolic  purification ;  its 
connexion  with  special  events  of  life ;  its  appearance  among  the  lower 
races — Lustration  of  new-bom  children  ;  of  women  ;  of  those  polluted  by 
bloodshed  or  the  dead — Lustration  continued  at  higher  levels  of  Culture 
—Conclusion.    ' 

Beligious  rites  fall  theoretically  into  two  divisions, 
though  these  blend  in  practice.  In  part,  they  are  ex- 
pressive and  symbolic  performances,  the  dramatic  utter- 
ance of  religious  thought,  the  gesture-language  of  theology. 
In  part,  they  are  means  of  intercourse  with  and  influence 
on  spiritual  beings,  and  as  such,  their  intention  is  as 
directly  practical  as  any  chemical  or  mechanical  process, 
for  doctrine  and  worship  correlate  as  theory  and  practice* 
In  the  science  of  religion,  the  study  of  ceremony  has  its 


ANIMISM.  363 

-strong,  and  weak  sides.  On  the  one  hand^  it  is  generally 
easier  to  obtain  accurate  accounts  of  ceremonies  by  eye- 
\ritnesses,  than  anything  like  trustworthy  and  intelligible 
statements  of  doctrine ;  so  that  very  much  of  our  know- 
ledge of  reUgion  in  the  savage  and  barbaric  world  consists 
in  acquaintance  with  its  ceremonies.  It  is  also  true  that 
some  religious  ceremonies  are  marvels  of  permanence, 
holding  substantially  the  same  form  and  meaning  through 
age  after  age,  and  far  beyond  the  range  of  historic  record. 
On  the  other  hand^  the  signification  of  ceremonies  is  not  to 
be  rashly  decided  on  by  mere  inspection.  In  the  long  and 
varied  course  in  which  religion  has  adapted  itself  to  new 
intellectual  and  moral  conditions,  one  of  the  most  marked 
processes  has  affected  time-honoured  religious  customs, 
whose  form  has  been  faithfully  and  even  servilely  kept  up, 
while  their  nature  has  often  undergone  transformation.  In 
the  religions  of  the  great  nations,  the  natural  difficulty  of 
following  these  changes  has  been  added  to  by  the  sacer- 
dotal tendency  to  ignore  and  obliterate  traces  of  the  in- 
evitable change  of  religion  from  age  to  age,  and  to  convert 
into  mysteries  ancient  rites  whose  real  barbaric  meaning  is 
too  far  out  of  harmony  with  the  spirit  of  a  later  time.  The 
•embarrassments,  however,  which  beset  the  inquirer  into  the 
•ceremonies  of  a  single  religion,  diminish  in  a  larger  com- 
parative study.  The  ethnographer  who  brings  together 
examples  of  a  ceremony  from  different  stages  of  culture 
-can  often  give  a  more  rational  account  of  it,  than  the 
priest,  to  whom  a  special  signification,  sometimes  very 
imlike  the  original  one,  has  become  matter  of  oi-thodoxy. 
As  a  contribution  to  the  theory  of  religion,  with  especial 
view  to  its  lower  phases  as  explanatory  of  the  higher,  I 
have  here  selected  for  ethnographic  discussion  a  group  of 
sacred  rites,  each  in  its  way  full  of  instruction,  different  as 
these  ways  are.  All  have  early  place  and  rudimentary 
meaning  in  savage  culture,  all  belong  to  barbaric  ages,  all 
have  their  representatives  within  the  limits .  of  modem 
Christendom.     They   are   the  rites  of  Prayer,   Sacrifice, 


SG4i  RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

Fasting  and  other  methods  of  Artificial  Ecstasy,  Orienta- 
tion^ Lustration. 

Prayer,  "the  soul's  sincere  desire,  uttered  or  unex- 
pressed," is  the  address  of  personal  spirit  to  personal  spirit.. 
So  far  as  it  is  actually  addressed  to  disembodied  or  deified 
human  souls,  it  is  simply  an  extension  of  the  daily  inter* 
course  between  man  and  man ;  while  the  worshipper  who 
looks  up  to  other  divine  beings,  spiritual  after  the  nature  of 
his  own  spirit,  though  of  place  and  power  in  the  universe 
far  beyond  his  own,  still  has  his  mind  in  a  state  where 
prayer  is  a  reasonable  and  practical  act.  So  simple  and 
familiar  indeed  is  the  nature  of  prayer,  that  its  study  does 
not  demand  that  detail  of  fact  and  argument  which  must  be 
given  to  rites  in  comparison  practically  insignificant.  It 
is  not  indeed  to  be  claimed  as  an  immediate  or  necessary 
outcome  of  animistic  belief,  for  especially  at  low  levels  of 
civilization  there  are  many  races  who  distinctly  admit  the 
existence  of  spirits,  but  are  not  certainly  known  to  pray  to- 
them  even  in  thought.  Beyond  this  lower  level,  however^ 
animism  and  prayer  become  more  and  more  nearly  conter- 
minous ;  and  a  view  of  their  relation  in  their  earlier  stages^ 
may  be  easiest  and  best  gained  from  a  selection  of  actual 
prayers  taken  down  word  for  word,  within  the  limits  of 
ssiYoge  and  barbaric  Ufe.  These  agree  with  an  opinion  that 
prayer  appeared  in  the  religion  of  the  lower  culture,  but 
that  in  this  its  earlier  stage  it  was  unethical.  The  accom- 
plishment of  desire  is  asked  for,  but  desire  is  as  yet  limited 
to  personal  advantage.  It  is  at  later  and  higher  moral 
levels,  that  the  worshipper  begins  to  add  to  his  entreaty  for 
prosperity  the  claim  for  help  toward  virtue  and  against  vice^ 
and  prayer  becomes  an  instrument  of  morality. 

In  the  Papuan  Island  of  Tanna,  where  the  gods  are  the 
spirits  of  departed  ancestoi*s,  and  preside  over  the  growth 
of  fruits,  a  prayer  after  the  ofi*ering  of  first-fruits  is  spoken 
aloud  by  the  chief  who  acts  as  high  priest  to  the  silent 
assembly  :  "  Compassionate  father  !  Here  is  some  food 
for  you ;  eat  it ;  be  kind  to  us  on  account  of  it !  "     Then. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  365 

•all  shout  together.^  In  the  Samoan  Islands,  when  the 
libation  of  ava  was  poured  out  at  the  evening  meal,,  the 
head  of  the  family  prayed  thus  : — 

"  Here  is  aya  for  you,  O  gods  !  Look  kindly  towards  this  family : 
let  it  prosper  and  increase ;  and  let  us  all  be  kept  in  health.  Let  our 
plantations  be  productiye ;  let  food  grow ;  and  may  there  be  abundance 
of  food  for  us,  your  creatures.  Ilere  is  aya  for  you,  our  war  gods ! 
Let  there  be  a  strong  and  numerous  people  for  you  in  this  land 

"  Here  is  aya  for  you,  O  sailing  gods  (gods  who  come  in  Tongan 
<»noe8  and  foreign  yessels).  Do  not  come  on  shore  at  this  place ;  but 
be  pleased  to  depart  along  the  ocean  to  some  other  land." ' 

Among  the  Indians  of  North  America,  the  Sioux  will  say, 
*'  Spirits  of  the  dead,  have  mercy  on  me  !  **  then  they  will 
tidd  what  they  want,  if  good  weather  they  say  so,  if  good 
luck  in  hunting,  they  say  so.*  Among  the  Osages,  prayers 
used  not  long  since  to  be  oflFered  at  daybreak  to  Wohkonda, 
the  Master  of  Life.  The  devotee  retired  a  little  from  the 
camp  or  company,  and  with  aflFected  or  real  weeping,  in  loud 
uncouth  voice  of  plaintive  piteous  tone,  howled  such  prayers 
as  these  : — "  Wohkonda,  pity  me,  I  am  very  poor;  give  me 
what  I  need ;  give  me  success  against  mine  enemies,  that 
I  may  avenge  the  death  of  my  friends.  May  I  be  able  to 
take  scalps,  to  take  horses !  &c.*'  Such  prayers  might  or 
might  not  have  allusion  to  some  deceased  relative  or  friend.^ 
How  an  Algonquin  Indian  undertakes  a  dangerous  voyage, 
we  may  judge  from  John  Tanner's  account  of  a  fleet  of 
frail  Indian  bark  canoes  setting  out  at  dawn  one  calm  morn- 
ing on  Lake  Superior.  We  had  proceeded,  he  writes,  about 
two  hundred  yards  into  the  lake,  when  the  canoes  all 
stopped  together,  and  the  chief,  in  a  very  loud  voice,  ad- 
dressed a  prayer  to  the  Great  Spirit,  entreating  him  to 
give  us  a  good  look  to  cross  the  lake.     "  You,"  said  he, 

*  Turner,  'Polynesia,'  p.  88  ;  see  p.  427. 

'  Ibid  p.  200;  see  174.     See  also  Ellis,   'Polyn.  Res/  voL  i.  p.  843. 
Mariner^  'Tonga  Is.'  yol.  ii.  p.  285. 
»  Schoolcraft,  'Ind.  Tribes,'  part  iii.  p.  237. 
^  M'Coy,  'Baptist  Indian  Missions,'  p.  859. 


866  BITES  AKD  CEREMONIES. 

''have  made  this  lake,  and  you  have  made  tjs,  your 
children ;  you  can  now  cause  that  the  water  shall  remain 
smooth  while  we  pass  over  in  safety.**  In  this  manner  he 
continued  praying  for  five  or  ten  minutes ;  he  then  threw 
into  the  lake  a  small  quantity  of  tobacco,  in  which  each  of 
the  canoes  followed  his  example.^  A  Nootka  Indian,  pre- 
paring for  war,  prayed  thus :  "  Great  Quahootze,  let  me 
live,  not  be  sick,  find  the  enemy,  not  fear  him,  find  him 
asleep,  and  kill  a  great  many  of  him.'*^  There  is  more 
pathos  in  these  lines  from  the  war-song  of  a  Delaware : — 

**  O  Ghreat  Spirit  there  above 
Have  pity  on  my  children 
And  my  wife ! 

Prevent  that  they  shall  mourn  for  me ! 
Let  me  succeed  in  this  undertaking, 
That  I  may  slay  my  enemy 
And  bring  home  the  tokens  of  victory 
To  my  dear  family  and  my  friends 
That  we  may  rejoice  together    .    .    • 
Have  pity  on  mo  and  protect  my  life, 
And  I  will  bring  thee  an  offering."  > 

The  following  two  prayers  are  among  those  recorded  by 
Molina,  from  the  memory  of  aged  men  who  described  ta 
him  the  religion  of  Peru  under  the  Incas,  in  whose  rites, 
they  had  themselves  borne  part.  The  first  is  addressed  ta 
the  Sun,  the  second  to  the  World-creator  :— 

*'  O  Sun !  Thou  who  h^t  said,  let  there  be  Cuzcos  and  Tampus, 
grant  that  these  thy  children  may  conquer  all  other  people*  We 
beseech  thee  that  thy  children  the  Yncas  may  be  conquerors  always, 
for  this  hast  thou  created  them." 

"  O  conquering  Uiracocha !  Ever  present  Uiracocha !  Thou  who 
art  in  the  ends  of  the  earth  without  equal  I  Thou  who  gavest  life  and 
valour  to  men,  saying,  *  Let  this  be  a  man  ! '  and  to  women,  saying, 
<  Let  this  be  a  woman ! '  Thou  who  madest  them  and  gavest  them, 
being  I    Watch  over  them  that  they  may  live  in  health  and  peace. 

*  Tanner,  'Narrative,' p.  46. 

«  BrintoD,  '  Myths  of  New  World/  p.  297. 

'  Ilcclvcweldor,  *Ind.  Vrakerschaften,'  p.  354. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  S67 

Thon  wlio  'art  in  the  higli  heayeiis,  and  among  the  olouds  of  tlie 
tempest,  grant  this  with  long  life,  and  accept  this  sacrifice,  O  TJira- 
cooha!"^ 

• 

In  Afirica,  the  Zulas^  addressing  the  spirits  of  their  ances- 
tors, think  it  even  enough  to  call  upon  them  without  saying 
what  they  want,  taking  it  for  granted  that  the  spirits  know^ 
so  that  the  mere  utterance  ''People  of  our  house!"  is  a 
prayer.  When  a  Zulu  sneezes,  and  is  thus  for  the  moment 
in  close  relation  to  the  divine  spirits,  it  is  enough  for  him 
to  mention  what  he  wants  ("  to  wish  a  wish,"  as  our  own 
folklore  has  it),  and  thus  the  words  "A  cow ! "  "  Children !  *^ 
are  prayers.  Fuller  forms  are  such  as  these  :  ''  People  of 
our  house !  Cattle  !  " — "  People  of  our  house  !  Good  luck 
and  health  !  " — "  People  of  our  house !  Children  !  "  On 
occasions  of  ancestral  cattle-sacrifice  the  prayers  extend  to 
actual  harangues,  as  when,  after  the  feast  is  over,  the  head- 
man speaks  thus  amid  dead  silence :  ''  Yes,  yes,  our  people, 
who  did  such  and  such  noble  acts,  I  pray  to  you — I  pray 
for  prosperity  after  having  sacrificed  this  bullock  of  yours. 
I  say,  I  cannot  refuse  to  give  you  food,  for  these  cattle 
which  are  here  you  gave  me.  And  if  you  ask  food  of  me 
which  you  have  given  me,  is  it  not  proper  that  I  should 
give  it  to  you  ?  I  pray  for  cattle,  that  they  may  fill  this 
pen.  I  pray  for  com,  that  many  people  may  come  to  this 
village  of  yours,  and  make  a  noise,  and  glorify  you.  I  ask 
also  for  children,  that  this  village  may  have  a  large  popula- 
tion, and  that  your  name  may  never  come  to  an  end."  So 
he  finishes.^  From  among  the  negro  races  near  the  equator, 
the  following  prayers  may  be  cited,  addressed  to  that  Su- 
preme Deity  whose  nature  is,  as  we  have  seen,  more  or  less 
that  of  the  Heaven-god.  The  Gold  Coast  negro  would 
raise  his  eyes  to  Heaven  and  thus  address  him :  ''  God, 
give  me  to-day  rice  and  yams,  gold  and  agries,  give  me 

*  *  Narratives  of  Rites  and  Laws  of  Yncas,*  tr.  and  ed.  by  C.  R-  Markham, 
p.  31,  83.     See  also  Brinton,  p.  298. 

3  Callaway,  *  Religion  of  Amaznln/  pp.  124,  141,  174,  182.  'Remarks  on 
Zala  lang.'  Pietermaritzburg,  1870,  p.  22. 


368  RITES  AND  CEEEMONIES. 

slaves,  riches^  and  health,  and  that  I  may  be  brisk  and 
swift !  "  the  fetish-man  will  often  in  the  morning  take  water 
.in  his  mouth  and  say,  '^  Heaven !  grant  that  I  may  have 
something  to  eat  to-day ; "  and  when  giving  medicine  shown 
him  by  the  fetish,  he  will  hold  it  up  to  heaven  first,  and 
say,  "Ata  Nyongmo  !  (Father  Heaven  !)  bless  this  medicine 
that  I  now  give.**  The  Yebu  would  say,  "  God  in  heaven, 
protect  me  from  sickness  and  death.  God  give  me  happi- 
ness and  wisdom  !  "  *  WTien'the  Manganja  of  Lake  Nyassa 
were  offering  to  the  Supreme  Deity  a  basketful  of  meal  and 
a  pot  of  native  beer,  that  he  might  give  them  rain,  the 
priestess  dropped  the  meal  handful  by  handful  on  the  ground, 
each  time  calling,  in  a  high-pitched  voice,  "  Hear  thou,  0 
God,  and  send  rain  !  '*  and  the  assembled  people  responded, 
clapping  their  hands  soMy  and  intoning  (they  always  intone 
their  prayers)  "  Hear  thou,  O  God !  "  ^ 

Typical  forms  of  prayer  may  be  selected  in  Asia  near  the 
junction-line  of  savage  and  barbaric  culture.  Among  the 
Karens  of  Birma,  the  Harvest-goddess  has  offerings  made 
to  her  in  a  little  house  in  the  paddy-field,  in  which  two 
strings  are  put  for  her  to.  bind  the  spirits  of  any  persons 
who  may  enter  her  field.  Then  they  entreat  her  on  this 
wise  :  "  Grandmother,  thou  guardest  my  field,  thou  watchest 
over  my  plantation.  Look  out  for  men  entering ;  look 
sharp  for  people  coming  in.  If  they  come,  bind  them  with 
this  string,  tie  them  with  this  rope,  do  not  let  them  go !  *' 
And  at  the  threshing  of  the  rice  they  say  :  "  Shake  thyself. 
Grandmother,  shake  thyself.  Let  the  paddy  ascend  till  it 
equals  a  hill,  equals  a  mountain.  Shake  thyself.  Grand- 
mother, shake  thyself!"*  The  following  are  extracts  from 
the  long-drawn  prayers  of  the  Khonds  of  Orissa :  "  O  Boora 
Pennu!  and  O  Tari  Pennu,  And  all  other  gods!  (naming 
them).  You,  O  Boora  Pennu!  created  us,  giving  us  the 
attribute  of  hunger ;  thence  com  food  was  necessary  to  us, 

*  Waitz,  vol.  ii.  p.  169.    Steinhanser,  L  c.  p.  129. 

'  Kowley,  *  Universities*  Mission  to  Central  Africa,'  p.  226. 

•  Mason,  *  Karens,'  1.  c.  p.  215. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  369 

and  thence  were  necessary  producing  fields.     You  gave  us 
every  seed,  and  ordered  us  to  use  bullocks,  and  to  make 
ploughs,  and  to  plougL     Had  we  not  received  this  art,  we 
might  still  indeed  have  existed  upon  the  natural  fruits  of 
the  jungle  and  the  plain,  but,  in  our  destitution,  we  could 
not  have  performed  your  worship.     Do  you,  remembering 
this — ^the  connexion  betwixt  our  wealth  and  your  honour — 
grant  the  prayers  which  we  now  oflFer.     In  the  morning,  we 
rise  before  the  light  to  our  labour,  carrying  the  seed.     Save 
us  from  the  tiger,  and  the  snake*,  and  from  stumblingblocks. 
Let  the  seed  appear  earth  to  the  eating  birds,  and  stones  to 
the  eating  animals  of  the  earth.     Let  the  grain  spring  up 
suddenly  like  a  dry  stream  that  is  swelled  in  a  night.     Let 
the  earth  yield  to  our  ploughshares  as  wax  melts  before  hot 
iron.     Let  the  baked  clods  melt  like  hailstones.     Let  our 
ploughs  spring  through  the  [furrows  with  a  force  like  the 
recoil  of  a  bent  tree.     Let  there  be  such  a  return  from  our 
seed,  that  so  much  shall  fall  and  be  neglected  in  the  fields, 
and  so  much  on  the  roads  in  carrying  it  home,  that,  when 
we  shall  go  out  next  year  to  sow,  the  paths  and  the  fields 
shall  look  like  a  young  corn-field.     From  the  first  times  we 
have  lived  by  your  favour.     Let  us  continue  to  receive  it; 
Kemember  that  the  increase  of  our  produce  is  the  increase 
of  your  worship,  and  that  its  diminution  must  be  the  diminu* 
tion  of  your  rites."     The  following  is  the  conclusion  of  a 
prayer  to  the  Earth-goddess :  '^  Let  our  herds  be  so  nume* 
rous  that  they  cannot  be  housed ;  let  children  so  abound 
that  the  care  of  them  shall  overcome  their  parents — as  shall 
be  seen  by  their  burned  hands ;  let  our  heads  ever  strike 
against  brass  pots  innumerable  hanging  from  our  roofs ;  let 
the  rats  form  their  nests  of  shreds  of  scarlet  cloth  and  silk ; 
let  all  the  kites  in  the  country  be  seen  in  the  trees  of  our 
village,  from  beasts  being  killed  there  every  day.    We  are 
ignorant  of  what  it  is  good  to  ask  for.    You  know  what  is 
good  for  us.    Give  it  to  us  I "  ^ 

>  Macpherson,  <  India,'  pp.  110, 128.    See  also  Hunter,  'Bond  Bengpd,' 
132  (Santals). 

VOL.  n.  B  B 


370  BITES  AND  CEBEHONIES. 

Such  are  types  of  prayer  in  the  lower  levels  of  culture, 
and  in  no  small  degree  they  remain  characteristic  of  Hie 
higher  nations.    If,  in  long-past  ages,  the  Chinese  raised 
themselves  from  the  condition  of  rude  Siberian  tribes  to 
their  peculiar  culture,  at  any  rate  their  conservative  religion 
has  scarce  changed  the  matter-of-fact  prayers  for  rain  and 
good  harvest,  wealth  and  long  life,  addressed  to  manes  and 
nature-spirits  and  merciful  Heaven.^   In  other  great  national 
religions  of  the  world,  not  the  whole  of  prayer,  but  a  smaller 
or  larger  part  of  it,  holds -closely  to  the  savage  definition* 
This  is  a  Vedic  prayer  :  "  "What,  Indra,  has  not  yet  been 
given  me  by  thee,  Lightning-hurler,  all  good  things  bring 
us  hither  with  both  hands    ....    with  mighty  riches 
fill  me,  with  wealth  of  cattle,  for  thou  art  great !  "^    This  is 
Moslem  :  **  O  Allah !  unloose  the  captivity  of  the  captives, 
and  annul  the  debts  of  the  debtors :  and  make  this  town  to 
be  safe  and  secure,  and  blessed  with  wealth  and  plenty,  and 
all  the  towns  of  the  Moslems,  O  Lord  of  all  creatures !  and 
decree  safety  and  health  to.  us  and  to  aU  travellers,  and 
pilgrims,  and  warriors,  and  wanderers,  upon  thy  earth, 
and  upon  thy  sea,  such  as  are  Moslems,  O  Lord  of  all  crea- 
tures 1  '*'    Thus  also,  throughout  the  rituals  of  Christendom, 
stand  an  endless  array  of  supplications  unaltered  in  principle 
from  savage  times — that  the  weather  may  be  adjitsted  io 
our  local  needs,  that  we  may  have  the  victory  over  all  our 
enemies,  that  life  and  health  and  wealth  and  happiness  may 
be  ours.  « 

So  far,  then,  is  permanence  in  culture :  but  now  let  us 
glance  at  the  not  less  marked  lines  of  modification  and  new 
formation.  The  vast  political  effect  of  a  common  faith  in 
developing  the  idea  of  exclusive  nationality,  a  process 
scarcely  expanding  beyond  the  germ  among  savage  tribes, 
but  reaching  its  full  growth  in  the  barbaric  world,  is  apt  to 
have  its  outward  manifestation  in  hostility  to  those  of  another 

>  Plath,  *  Religion  der  ChiDesen,'  part  iL  p.  2  ;  Doolittle,  toL  ii.  p.  116. 
*  'Sama-Yeda,*  i.  4,  2.    V^nttke,   'GoscIl  dea  Heidenthums,'  part  ii  P> 
842. 
»  Lane,  'Modem  Fgyptian^/Tol.  i.  p.  128. 


BITES  AND  C£JK£MONI£Si  871 

creed,  a  sentiment  which  finds  vent  in  characteristic  prayers. 
Such  are  these  from  the  Kig-Veda :  *•  Take  away  our 
calamities.  By  sacred  yerses  may  we  overcome  those  who 
employ  no  holy  hymns !  Distinguish  between  the  Aryas  and 
those  who  are  Dasyus :  chastising  those  who  observe  no 
sacred  rites,  subject  them  to  the  sacrificer  •  •  •  Indra 
subjects  the  impious  to  the  pious,  and  destroys  tl^e  irre- 
ligious by  the  religious."  ^  The  following  is  from  the  closing 
prayer  which  the  boys  in  many  schools  in  Cairo  used  to 
repeat  some  years  ago,  and  very  likely  do  still :  "  I  seek 
refuge  with  Allah  from  Satan  the  accursed.  In  the  name  of 
Allah,  the  Compassionate,  the  Merciful  .  •  •  O  Lord  of 
all  creatures !  0  Allah !  destroy  the  infidels  and  polytheists, 
thine  enemies,  the  enemies  of  the  religion !  O  Allah !  make 
their  children  orphans,  and  defile  their  abodes,  and  cause 
their  feet  to  slip,  and  give  them  and  their  families  and  their 
households  and  their  women  and  their  children  and  their 
relations  by  marriage  and  their  brothers  and  their  friends 
and  their  possessions  and  their  race  and  their  wealth  and 
their  lands  as  booty  to  the  Moslems !  0  Lord  of  all 
creatures!"*  Another  powerful  tendency  of  civilization, 
that  of  regulating  human  affairs  by  fixed  ordinance,  has 
since  early  ages  been  at  work  to  arrange  worship  into 
mechanical  routine.  Here,  so  to  speak,  religion  deposits 
itself  in  sharply  defined  shape  from  a  supersaturated  solu- 
tion, and  crystallizes  into  formalism.  Thus  prayers,  from 
1>eing  at  first  utterances  as  free  and  flexible  as  requests  to  a 
living  patriarch  or  chief,  stiffened  into  traditional  formulas, 
whose  repetition  required  verbal  accuracy,  and  whose  nature 
practically  assimilated  more  or  less  to  that  of  charms. 
Liturgies,  especially  in  those  three  quarters  of  the  world 
where  the  ancient  liturgical  language  has  become  at  once 
imintelligible  and  sacred,  are  crowded  with  examples  of  this 
bistorical  process.  Its  extremest  development  in  Europe 
is  coimected  with  the  use  of  the  rosary.     This  devotional 

^  'Big-YedA,'  i.  51,  8,  x.  105,  8.     Mair,  'Sanskrit  Texts,'  part  iL  di.  iii. 
'  Lanr*,  'Modem  Egyptianf*/  vol.  ii.  p.  383. 

n  B  3 


372  Rn*£S  AND  CEEEMONIES. 

calculating-machine  is  of  Asiatic  invention ;  it  had  if  not  its 
origin  at  least  its  special  development  among  the  ancient 
Buddhists,  and  its  108  balls  still  slide  through  the  modem 
Buddhist's  hands  as  of  old,  measuring  out  the  sacred 
formulas  whose  reiteration  occupies  so  large  a  fraction  of  a 
pious  life.  It  was  not  till  toward  the  middle  ages  that  the 
rosary  passed  into  Mohammedan  and  Christian  lands,  and 
finding  there  conceptions  of  prayer  which  it  was  suited  to 
accompany,  has  flourished  ever  since.  How  far  the  Buddhist 
devotional  formulas  themselves  partake  of  the  nature  of 
prayer,  is  a  question  opening  into  instructive  considerations^ 
which  need  only  be  suggested  here.  By  its  derivation  from 
Brahmanism  and  its  fusion  with  the  beliefs  of  rude  spirit- 
worshipping  populations.  Buddhism  practically  retains  in 
no  small  measure  a  prayerful  temper  and  even  practice.  Yet, 
according  to  strict  and  special  Buddhist  philosophy,  where 
personal  divinity  has  faded  into  metaphysical  idea,  even 
devotional  utterances  of  desire  are  not  prayers ;  as  Koppen 
says,  there  is  no  '^  Thou !  *'  in  them.  It  must  be  only  with 
reservation  that  we  class  the  rosary  in  Buddhist  hands  as  an 
instrument  of  actual  prayer.  The  same  is  true  of  the  still 
more  extreme  development  of  mechanical  religion,  the 
prayer-mill  of  the  Tibetan  Buddhists.  This  was  perhaps 
originally  a  symbolic  "  chakra  "  or  wheel  of  the  law,  but  has 
become  a  cylinder  mounted  on  an  axis,  which  by  each  rota- 
tion is  considered  to  repeat  the  sentences  written  on  the 
papers  it  is  filled  with,  usually  the  '*  Om  mani  padme  hum !  ** 
Prayer-mills  vary  in  size,  from  the  little  wooden  toys  held 
in  the  hand,  to  the  great  drums  turned  by  wind  or  water- 
power,  which  repeat  their  sentences  by  the  million.^  The 
Buddhist  idea,  that  '^  merit "  is  produced  by  the  recitation 
of  these  sentences,  may  perhaps  lead  us  to  form  an  opinion 
of  large  application  in  the  study  of  religion  and  superstition, 
namely,  that  the  theory  of  prayers  may  explain  the  origin  of 
charms.    Charm-formulas  are  in  very  many  cases  actual 

>  See  Koppen,  *Beligion  des  Buddlia,'  vol.  I  pp.  845,  556  ;  vol  ii.  pp.  808^ 
819.    Compare  Fergnaoon,  '  Tree  and  Serpent  Worship,'  pi.  xlii. 


i 


RITES  AND  C£BEM0N1£S.  873 

prayers,  and  as  such  are  intelligible.  Where  they  are  mere 
verbal  forms,  producing  their  effect  on  nature  and  man  by 
some  xmexplained  process,  may  not  they  or  the  types  they 
were  modelled  on  have  been  originally  prayers,  since 
dwindled  into  mystic  sentences  ? 

The  worshipper  cannot  always  ask  wisely  what  is  for  his 
good,  therefore  it  may  be  well  for  him  to  pray  that  the 
greater  power  of  the  deity  may  be  guided  by  his  greater 
wisdom — ^this  is  a  thought  which  expands  and  strengthens 
in  the  theology  of  the  higher  nations.  The  simple  prayer 
of  Sokrates,  that  the  gods  would  give  such  things  as  are 
good,  for  they  know  best  what  are  good/  raises  a  strain  of 
supplication  which  has  echoed  through  Christendom  from 
its  earliest  ages.  Greatest  of  all  changes  which  difference  the 
prayers  of  lower  from  those  of  higher  nations,  is  the  work- 
ing out  of  the  general  principle  that  the  ethical  element,  so 
scanty  and  rudimentary  in  the  lower  forms  of  religion,  be- 
comes in  the  higher  its  most  vital  point ;  while  it  scarcely 
appears  as  though  any  savage  prayer,  authentically  native  in 
its  origin,  were  ever  directed  to  obtain  moral  goodness  or 
to  ask  pardon  for  moral  sin.  Among  the  semi-civilized 
Aztecs,  in  the  elaborate  ritual  which  from  its  early  record 
and  its  original  chai*acteristics  seems  to  have  at  least  a. 
partial  authenticity,  we  mark  the  appearance  of  ethical 
prayer.  Such  is  the  supplication  concerning  the  newly- 
elect  ruler:  ''Make  him.  Lord,  as  your  true  image,  and 
permit  him  not  to  be  proud  and  haughty  in  your  throne  and 
court ;  but  vouchsafe.  Lord,  that  he  may  calmly  and  care- 
fully rule  and  govern  them  whom  he  has  in  charge,  the 
people,  and  permit  not.  Lord,  that  he  may  injure  or  vex  his- 
subjects,  nor  without  reason  and  justice  cause  loss  to  any  ; 
and  permit  not.  Lord,  that  he  may  spot  or  soil  your  throne 
or  court  with  any  injustice  or  wrong,  etc."*  Moral  prayer,. 
sometimes  appearing  in  rudiment,  sometimes  shrunk  inta 

^  Xenoph.  Memorabilia  Socrat  i  8,  2. 

'  Sahagun,  'Retorica,  etc.,  de  la  Gente  Mexicana,'  lib.  yi.  e.  4,  in  Kings- 
borough  ;  '  Antiquities  of  Mexico/  vol.  v. 


374  KITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

insignificance^  sometimes  overlaid  by  formalism^  sometimes 
maintained  firm  and  vigorous  in  the  inmost  life^  has  its 
place  without  as  well  as  within  the  Jewish- Christian  scheme. 
The  ancient  Aryan  prayed:  ''Through  want  of  strength, 
thou  strong  and  bright  god,  have  I  gone  wrong;  have 
mercy,  almighty,  have  mercy !  .  .  .  .  Whenever  we  men, 
O  Varuna,  commit  an  offence  before  the  heavenly  host,  when- 
-ever  we  break  the  law  through  thoughtlessness,  have  mercy, 
almighty,  have  mercy  !  "  ^  The  modem  Parsi  prajrs  :  "  Of 
my  sins  which  I  have  committed  against  the  ruler  Ormazd, 

against  men,  and  the  different  kinds  of  men Deceit, 

<jontempt,  idol-worship,  lies,  I  repent  of.  ...  .  All  and 
every  kind  of  sin  which  men  have  committed  because  of 
me,  or  which  I  have  committed  because  of  men ;  pardon,  I 
repent  with  confession  I  "  ^  As  a  general  rule  it  would  be 
misleading  to  judge  utterances  of  this  kind  in  the  religions 
of  classic  Greece  and  Borne  as  betokening  the  intense 
habitual  prayerfulness  which  pervades  the  records  of 
Judaism,  Mahommedanism,  Christianity.  Moralists  admit 
that  prayer  can  be  made  an  instnunent  of  evil,  that  it  may 
give  comfort  and  hope  to  the  superstitious  robber,  that  it 
may  strengthen  the  heart  of  the  soldier  to  slay  his  foes  in 
an  unrighteous  war,  that  it  may  uphold  the  tyrant  and  the 
bigot  in  their  persecution  of  freedom  in  life  and  thought* 
Philosophers  dwell  on  the  subjective  operation  of  prayer,  as 
acting  not  directly  on  outward  events,  but  on  the  mind  and  will 
of  the  worshipper  himself,  which  it  influences  and  confirms. 
The  one  argument  tends  to  guide  prayer,  the  other  to  sup- 
press it.  Looking  on  prayer  in  its  effect  on  man  himself 
through  the  course  of  history,  both  must  recognize  it  as  even 
in  savage  religion  a  means  of  strengthening  emotion,  of  sus* 
taining  coun^e  and  exciting  hope,  while  in  higher  fedths  it  be- 
<;omes  a  great  motive  power  of  the  ethical  system,  controlling 
and  enforcing,  under  an  ever-present  sense  of  supematoral 
intercourse  and  aid,  the  emotions  and  energies  of  moral  life.. 

*  *  Rig- Veda/  vii.  89.  3.     Max  MtlUer,  'Chips,'  voL  i.  p.  89. 

*  'Areata,'  tr.  by  Spiegel ;  •  Khordah-ATesto,'  Patet  QocL 


BITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  375 

Sacrifice  has  its  apparent  origin  in  the  same  early  period 
of  culture  and  its  place  in  the  same  animistic  scheme  as 
prayer,  with  which  through  so  long  a  range  of  history  it  has 
l>een  carried  on  in  the  closest  connexion.  As  prayer  is  a 
request  made  to  a  deity  as  if  he  were  a  man,  so  sacrifice 
is  a  gift  made  to  a  deity  as  if  he  were  a  man.  The  human 
types  of  both  may  be  studied  unchanged  in  social  life  to  this 
day.  The  suppliant  who  bows  before  his  chief,  laying  a 
gift  at  his  feet  and  making  his  humble  petition,  displays  the 
anthropomorphic  model  and  origin  at  once  of  sacrifice  and 
prayer.  But  sacrifice,  though  in  its  early  stages  as  intelli- 
^ble  as  prayer  is  in  early  and  late  stages  alike,  has  passed 
in  the  course  of  religious  history  into  transformed  condi* 
tions,  not  only  of  the  rite  itself  but  of  the  intention  with 
which  the  worshipper  performs  it.  And  theologians,  having 
particularly  turned  their  attention  to  the  rite  as  it  appears 
in  the  higher  religions,  have  been  apt  to  gloss  over  with 
mysticism  ceremonies  which,  when  traced  ethnographically 
ap  from  their  savage  forms,  seem  open  to  simply  rational 
interpretation.  Many  details  of  sacrifice  have  already  been 
given  incidentally  here,  as  a  means  of  elucidating  the  nature 
of  the  deities  they  are  offered  to.  Moreover,  a  main  part 
of  the  doctrine  of  sacrifice  has  been  anticipated  in  examining 
the  offerings  to  spirits  of  the  dead,  and  indeed  the  ideal  dis- 
tinction between  soul  and  deity  breaks  down  among  the 
lower  races,  when  it  appears  how  often  the  deities  receiving 
sacrifice  are  themselves  divine  human  souls.  In  now  at^ 
tempting  to  classify  sacrifice  in  its  course  through  the  reli- 
gions of  the  world,*  it  seems  a  satisfactory  plan  to  group 
the  evidence  as  far  as  may  be  according  to  the  manner 
in  which  the  offering  is  given  by  the  worshipper,  and  re- 
'Ceived  by  the  deity.  At  the  same  time,  the  examples  may 
he  so  arranged  as  to  bring  into  view  the  principal  lines  along 
which  the  rite  has  undergone  alteration.  The  ruder  con- 
•ception  that  the  deity  takes  and  values  the  offering  for  itself, 
gives  place  on  the  one  hand  to  the  idea  of  mere  homage 
expressed  by  a  gift,  and  on  the  other  to  the  negative  view 


376  BITBS  AND  C£BEMONIES. 

that  the  virtue  lies  in  the  worshipper  depriving  himself  of 
something  prized.  These  ideas  may  be  broadly  distin- 
gnished  as  the  gift-theory^  the  homage-theory^  and  the 
abnegation-theory.  Along  all  three  the  usual  ritualistic 
change  may  be  traced,  from  practical  reality  to  formal 
ceremony*  The  originally  valuable  offering  is  compromised 
for  a  smaller  tribute  or  a  cheaper  substitute^  dwindling  at 
last  to  a  mere  trifling  token  or  symbol. 

The  gift-theory,  as  standing  on  its  own  independent 
basis,  properly  takes  the  first  place.  That  most  childlike 
kind  of  offering,  the  giving  of  a  gift  with  as  yet  no  definite 
thought  how  the  receiver  can  take  and  use  it,  may  be  the 
most  primitive  as  it  is  the  most  rudimentary  sacrifice. 
Moreover,  in  tracing  the  history  of  the  rite  from  level  to 
level  of  culture,  tlie  same  simple  unshaped  intention  may 
still  largely  prevail,  and  much  of  the  reason  why  it  is  often 
found  difficult  to  ascertain  what  savages  and  barbarians- 
suppose  to  become  of  the  food  and  valuables  they  offer  to 
the  gods,  may  be  simply  due  to  ancient  sacrificers  knowing 
as  little  about  it  as  modem  ethnologists  do,  and  caring  less. 
Yet  rude  races  begin  and  civilized  races  continue  to  furnish 
with  the  details  of  their  sacrificial  ceremonies  the  key  also  tO" 
their  meaning,  the  explanation  of  the  manner  in  which  the 
offering  is  supposed  to  pass  into  the  possession  of  the  deity* 

Beginning  with  cases  in  which  this  transmission  is  per- 
formed bodily,  it  appears  that  when  the  deity  is  tlie  personal 
AVater,  Earth,  Fire,  Air,  or  a  fetish-spirit  animating  or 
inhabiting  such  element,  he  can  receive  and  sometimes 
actually  consume  the  offerings  given  over  to  this  material 
medium.  How  such  notions  may  take  shape  is  not  ill 
shown  in  the  quaintly  rational  thought  noticed  in  old  Peru^ 
that  the  Sun  drinks  the  libations  poured  out  before  him ; 
and  in  modern  Madagascar,  that  the  Angatra  drinks  the 
arrack  left  for  him  in  the  leaf-cup.  Do  not  they  see  the 
liquids  diminish  from  day  to  day  ?  ^     The  sacrifice  to  Water 

^  Gardlaso  de  la  Yega,  '  CommentarioB^Realcs,'  y.  19.    Ellis,  '  MadagasetT,** 
vol.  i.  p.  421. 


BITES  AJUD  CEREMONIES.  37? 

is  exemplified  by  Indians  canght  in  a  storm  on  the  North 
American  lake^  who  would  appease  the  angry  tempest- 
raising  deity  by  tjring  the  feet  of  a  dog  and  throwing  it 
overboard,*  The  following  case  from  Ouinea  well  shows 
tlie  principle  of  such  offerings.  Once  in  1698,  the  sea 
being  unusually  rough,  the  headmen  complained  to  the 
king,  who  desired  them  to  be  easy,  and  he  would  make  the 
sea  quiet  next  day.  Accordingly  he  sent  his  fetishman 
with  a  jar  of  palm  oil,  a  bag  of  rice  and  com,  a  jar  of  pitto^ 
a  bottle  of  brandy,  a  piece  of  painted  caUco,  and  several 
other  things  to  present  to  the  sea.  Being  come  to  the  sea- 
side, he  made  a  speech  to  it,  assuring  it  that  his  king  was. 
its  friend,  and  loved  the  white  men  ;  that  they  were  honest 
fellows  and  came  to  trade  with  him  for  what  he  wanted ;. 
and  that  he  requested  the  sea  not  to  be  angry,  nor  hinder 
them  to  land  their  goods ;  he  told  it,  that  if  it  wanted  palm 
oil,  his  king  had  sent  it  some ;  and  so  threw  the  jar  with 
the  oil  into  the  sea,  as  he  did,  with  the  same  compliment,, 
the  rice,  com,  pitto,  brandy,  calico,  &c.'  Among  the  North 
American  Indians  the  Earth  also  receives  offerings  buried 
in  it.  The  distinctness  of  idea  with  which  such  objects 
may  be  given  is  well  shown  in  a  Sioux  legend.  The  Spirit 
of  the  Earth,  it  seems,  requires  an  offering  from  those  wha 
perform  extraordinary  achievements,  and  accordingly  the 
prairie  gapes  open  with  an  earthquake  before  the  victorious: 
hero  of  the  tale ;  he  casts  a  partridge  into  the  crevice,  and 
springs  over.'  One  of  the  most  explicit  recorded  instances 
of  the  offering  to  the  Earth,  is  the  hideous  sacrifice  to  the 
Earth-goddess  among  the  Khonds  of  Orissa,  tearing  the 
flesh  of  the  human  victim  from  the  bones,  the  priest  burying- 
half  of  it  in  a  hole  in  the  earth  behind  his  back  without 

'  CharleToiz,  'Kouv.  Fr.'  vol.  L  p.  894.  See  oIbo  Smith,  'Yiiginia,'  va 
*  Pinkerton,'  vol.  xiii.  p.  41. 

'  Phillips  in  Astley's  'Voyages,' vol. ii.  p.  411  ;  Lubbock,  'Origin  of  Civi- 
liiation/  p.  216.  Bosnian,  '  Guinea,*  in  ' Pinkerton,*  vol.  xvi.  p.  500.  Bastian 
in  <  Ztschr.  ftlr  Ethnologic,*  1869,  p.  815. 

'  Schoolcraft,  '  Algic  Bes.*  vol.  il  p.  75.  See  also  Tanner,  'Narr.'  p.  193^ 
«nd  aboTe,  p.  270. 


378  RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

looking  round,  and  each  householder  carrying  off  a  particle 
to  bury  in  like  manner  in  his  favourite  field.^  For  offerings 
to  the  Fire,  we  may  take  for  an  example  the  Yakuts,  who 
not  only  give  him  the  first  spoonful  of  food,  but  instead  of 
washing  their  earthen  pots  allow  him  to  clean  out  the  re- 
mains.' Here  is  a  New  Zealand  charm  called  Wangaihau, 
i.e.,  feeding  the  Wind : — 

'*  Lift  up  his  offering, 
To  tJenga  a  ie  Bangi  his  offering, 
Eat,  0  inyifiible  one,  listen  to  me, 
Let  that  food  bring  you  down  fbom  the  sky."  * 

Beside  this  may  be  set  the  quaint  description  of  the  Fanti 
negroes  assisting  at  the  sacrifice  of  men  and  cattle  to  the 
local  fetish ;  the  victims  were  considered  to  be  carried  up  in 
A  whirlwind  out  of  the  midst  of  the  small  inner  ring  of 
priests  and  priestesses;  this  whirlwind  was,  however,  not 
perceptible  to  the  senses  of  the  surrounding  worshippers.* 
These  series  of  details  collected  from  the  lower  civilization 
throw  light  on  curious  problems  as  to  sacrificial  ideas  in 
the  religions  of  the  classic  world ;  such  questions  as  what 
Xerxes  meant  when  he  threw  the  golden  goblet  and  the 
-sword  into  the  Hellespont,  which  he  had  before  chained 
And  scourged ;  why  Hannibal  cast  animals  into  the  sea  as 
Tictims  to  Poseidon;  what  religious  significance  underlay 
the  patriotic  Boman  legend  of  the  leap  of  Marcus 
<]Jurtius.^ 

Sacred  animals,  in  their  various  characters  of  divine 
beings,  incarnations,  representatives,  agents,  symbols,  nata- 
Tally  receive  meat  and  drink  offerings,  and  sometimes  other 
^rifts.  For  examples,  may  be  mentioned  the  sun-birds 
(tonatzuli),  for  which  the  Apalaches  of  Florida  set  out 

*  Macphenon,  'Iudia,'p.  129. 

'  Billings,  *  Exp.  to  Northern  Russia,*  p.  125.    Chinese  sacrifioes  buried 
for  earth  spirits,  see  ante,  toL  i.  p.  107  ;  Plath,  part  IL  p.  50. 
»  Taylor,  'New  Zealand,'  p.  182. 

*  Romer,  *  Gninea,*  p.  67. 

*  Herod,  yii.  85,  54.    liv.  vu.  6.    Grote,  <Hist  of  Greeoe,*  toL  z.  p.  589^ 
flee  715. 


BITES  AKD  CEBEM0NIK3.  37? 

<mshed  maize  and  seed ;  ^  the  Poljuesian  deities  coming 
incarnate  in  the  bodies  of  birds  to  feed  on  the  meat-offerings 
find  carcases  of  human  victims  set  out  upon  the  altar* 
scaffolds;'  the  well-fed  sacred  snakes  of  West  Africa,  and 
local  fetish  animals  like  the  alligator  at  Dix  Cove  which 
will  come  up  at  a  whistle,  and  follow  a  man  half  a  mile  if  he 
carries  a  white  fowl  in  his  hands,  or  the  shark  at  Bonny 
that  comes  to  the  river  bank  every  day  to  see  if  a  human 
victim  has  been  provided  for  his  repast ; '  in  modem  India 
the  cows  reverently  fed  with  fresh  grass,  Durga's  meat- 
offerings laid  out  on  stones  for  the  jackals,  the  famous 
alligators  in  their  temple-tanks.^  The  definition  of  sacred 
Animftl  from  this  point  of  view  distinctly  includes  man* 
Such  in  Mexico  was  the  captive  youth  adored  as  living  re- 
presentative of  Tezcatlipoca,  and  to  whom  banquets  were 
made  during  the  luxurious  twelvemonth  which  preceded  his 
sacrifice  at  the  festival  of  the  deity  whom  he  personated : 
such  still  more  definitely  was  Cortes  himself,  when  Monte- 
zuma supposed  him  to  be  the  incarnate  Quetzalcoatl  come 
back  into  the  land,  and  sent  human  victims  accordingly  to 
be  slaughtered  before  him,  should  he  seem  to  lust  for  blood.^ 
Such  in  modem  India  is  the  woman  who  as  representative 
of  Badha  eats  and  drinks  the  offerings  at  the  shameless 
orgies  of  the  Saktas.®  More  usually  it  is  the  priest  who  as 
minister  of  the  deities  has  the  lion's  share  of  the  offerings 
or  the  sole  privilege  of  consuming  them,  from  the  Fijian 
priest  who  watches  for  the  turtle  and  puddings  apportioned 
to  his  god,^  and  the  West  African  priest  who  carries  the 
allowances  of  food  sent  to  the  local  spirits  of  mountain,  or 


<  Rochefort,  '  lies  AntiUes,*  p.  367. 

«  Ellis,   'Polyn,  Ees/  voL  i  pp.  336,  858.    Williams,  *Fyi,'  voL  i.  p. 
220. 

»  Bosman,  'Guinea,*  ia  Pinkerton,  vol  xvL  p.  494;  J.  L.  Wilson,     'W. 
Afr.*  p.  218  ;  Burton,  *  W.  &  W.  fr.  W.  Afr.'  p.  881. 

*  Ward,  'Hindoos,*  vol.  iL  p.  195,  etc. 

*  Clayigero,  'Messico,'  vol.  iL  p.  69.    J.  G.  MiUler,  p.  681. 

*  Ward,  voL  IL  p.  194 ;  '  Mem.  Anthrop.  Soc.*  vol.  i.  p.  832. 
y  Williams,  '  Fyi,*  voL  L  p.  226. 


S80  RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

Tiyer,  or  grove,  which  food  he  eats  himself  as  the  spirit'^ 
proxy^^  to  the  Brahmans  who  receive  for  the  divine  ancestors, 
the  oblation  of  a  worshipper  who  has  no  sacred  fire  to  con- 
sume it^  ''for  there  is  no  difference  between  the  Fire  and  a- 
Brahman,  such  is  the  judgment  declared  by  them  who  know 
the  Veda/*  ^  It  is  needless  to  collect  details  of  a  practice 
so  usual  in  the  great  systematic  religions  of  the  worlds  where 
priests  have  become  professionalministers  and  agents  of  deity, 
as  for  them  topartake[of  the  sacrificial  meats.  It  by  no  means, 
follows  from  this  usage  that  the  priest  is  necessarily  supposed 
to  consume  the  food  as  representative  of  his  divinity ;  in  the 
absence  of  express  statement  to  such  effect,  the  matter  can 
only  be  treated  as  one  of  ceremonial  ordinance.  Indeed, 
the  case  shows  the  caution  needed  in  interpreting  religious- 
rites,  which  in  particular  districts  may  have  meanings^ 
attached  to  them  quite  foreign  to  their  general  intent. 

The  feeding  of  an  idol,  as  when  Ostyaks  would  pour  daily 
broth  into  the  dish  at  the  image's  mouth,'  or  when  the 
Aztecs  would  pour  the  blood  and  put  the  heart  of  the 
slaughtered  human  victim  into  the  monstrous  idol's  mouth,^ 
seems  ceremonial  make-believe,  but  shows  that  in  each  case 
the  deity  was  somehow  considered  to  devour  the  meal.. 
The  conception  among  the  lower  races  of  deity,  as  in  dis- 
embodied spiritual  form,  is  even  less  compatible  with  the 
notion  that  such  a  being  should  consume  solid  matter.  It 
is  true  that  the  notion  does  occur.  In  old  times  it  appears, 
in  the  legend  of  Bel  and  the  Dragon,  where  the  footprints 
in  the  strewn  ashes  betray  the  knavish  priests  who  come  by 
secret  doors  to  eat  up  the  banquet  set  before  Bel's  image.^ 
In  modem  centuries,  it  may  be  exemplified  by  the  negroes 
of  Labode,  who  could  hear  the  noise  of  their  god  Jimawon^ 
emptying  one  after  another  the  bottles  of  brandy  handed  in 

»  J.  L.  "VTilaon,  *  W.  Afr.'  p.  218. 

'  Maim,  iii.  212.    See  also  'Avesta,'  tr.  by  Spiegel  and  Bleek,  voL  iu. 
p.  2. 

*  Tsbrants  Idea,  *  Reize  naar  China/  p.  38.     Meincrs,  vol.  i.  p.  162. 
*•  Clavigero,  vol.  ii.  p.  46.     J.  G.  Miiller,  p.  681. 
'  Bol  and  the  Dragon. 


RITES  AND  CEBEMONIES.  381 

at  the  door  of  his  straw-roofed  temple;^  or  among  the 
OstyakSy  who,  as  Pallas  relates,  used  to  leave  a  horn  of  snuff 
for  their  god,  with  a  shaving  of  willow  hark  to  stop  his 
nostrils  with  after  the  country  fashion ;  the  traveller 
describes  their  astonishment  when  sometimes  an  imbeliev- 
ing  Russian  has  emptied  it  in  the  night,  leaving  the  simple 
folk  to  conclude  that  the  deity  must  have  gone  out  hunting 
to  have  snuffed  so  much.'  But  these  cases  turn  on  fraud, 
whereas  absurdities  in  which  low  races  largely  agree  are  apt 
to  have  their  origin  rather  in  genuine  error.  Indeed,  their 
dominant  theories  of  the  manner  in  which  deities  receive 
sacrifice  are  in  accordance  not  with  fraud  but  with' facts,  and 
must  be  treated  as  strictly  rational  and  honest  developments 
of  the  lower  animism.  The  clearest  and  most  general  of 
these  theories  are  as  follows. 

When  the  deity  is  considered  to  take  actual  possession  of 
the  food  or  other  objects  offered,  this  may  be  conceived  to 
happen  by  abstraction  of  their  life,  savour,  essence,  quality, 
and  in  yet  more  definite  conception  their  spirit  or  soul. 
The  solid  part  may  die,  decay,  be  taken  away  or  consumed 
or  destroyed,  or  may  simply  remain  untouched.  Among 
this  group  of  conceptions,*  the  most  materialized  is  that 
which  carries  out  the  obvious  primitive  world-wide  doctrine 
that  the  life  is  the  blood.  Accordingly,  the  blood  is  offered 
to  the  deity,  and  even  disembodied  spirits  are  thought 
capable  of  consuming  it,  like  the  ghosts  for  whom  Odysseus 
ontering  Hades  poured  into  the  trench  the  blood  of  the 
sacrificed  ram  and  black  ewe,  and  the  pale  shades  drank  and 
spoke  ;•  or  the  evil  spirits  which  the  Mintira  of  the  Malay 
Peninsula  keep  away  from  the  wife  in  childbirth  by  placing 
her  near  the  fire,  for  the  demons  are  believed  to  drink 
human  blood  when  they  can  find  it.^  Thus  in  Virginia  the 
Indians  (in  pretence  or  reality)  sacrificed  children,  whose 

>  BSmer,  *  Gainea,'  p.  47. 

*  Bastian,  'Mensch,'  part  ii.  p.  210. 

'  Homer,  Odyas.  xL  xiL 

"*  'Joxan,  Ind.  Archipw*  toL  L  p.  270. 


382  BITES  AND  CEBEBCONIES. 

blood  the  oki  or  spirit  was  said  to  suck  from  their  left, 
breast.^  The  Kayans  of  Borneo  used  to  offer  human 
sacrifice  when  a  great  chief  took  possession  of  a  newly  built- 
house ;  in  one  late  case,  about  1847,  a  Malay  slave  girl  wa& 
bought  for  the  purpose  and  bled  to  death,  the  blood,  which 
alone  is  efficacious,  being  sprinkled  on  the  pillars  and  under 
the  house,  and  the  body  being  thrown  into  the  river.'  The 
same  ideas  appear  among  the  indigenes  of  India,  alike  iir 
North  Bengal  and  in  the  Deccan,  where  the  blood  ^one  of 
the  sacrificed  animal  is  for  the  deities,  and  the  votary 
retains  the  meat.'  Thus,  in  West  Africa,  the  negroes  of 
Benin  are  described  as  offering  a  cock  to  the  idol,  but  it 
receives  only  the  blood,  for  they  like  the  flesh  very  well 
themselves  ;^  while  in  the  Yoruba  country,  when  a  beast  is. 
sacrificed  for  a  sick  man,  the  blood  is  sprinkled  on  the  wall 
and  smeared  on  the  patient's  forehead,  with  the  idea,  it  is- 
said,  of  thus  transferring  to  him  the  victim's  life.^  The 
Jewish  law  of  sacrifice  marks  clearly  the  distinction  between 
shedding  the  blood  as  life,  and  offering  it  as  food.  As  the 
Israelites  themselves  might  not  eat  with  the  flesh  the  blood 
which  is  the  life,  but  must  pour  it  on  the  earth  as  water^ 
so  the  rule  applies  to  sacrifice.  The  blood  must  be 
sprinkled  before  the  sanctuary,  put  upon  the  horns  of  the 
altar,  and  there  sprinkled  or  poured  out,  but  not  presented 
as  a  drink  offering — "  their  drink-offerings  of  blood  will 
I  not  offer."  « 

Spirit  being  considered  in  the  lower  animism  as  some- 
what of  the  ethereal  nature  of  smoke  or  mist,  there  is  an 

^  Smith,  'Virginia,'  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xiil  p.  41 ;  see  J.  G.  Miiller,  p. 
148  ;  Waitz,  vol.  iii.  p.  207.  Comp.  Meiners,  vol.  ii.  p.  89.  See  also 
Bollaertin  'Mem.  Anthrop.  Soc'  vol.  ii.  p.  96. 

*  *  Journ.  Ind.  Archip.*  vol.  iii  p.  146.  See  alto  St.  John,  '  Far  East,'  voL  i. 
p.  160. 

»  Hodgson,  'Abor.  of  India,'  p.  147;  Hunter,  'Kural  Bengal,' p.  181; 
Forbes  Leslie,  'Early  Baces  of  Scotland/  vol.  ii.  p.  45S. 

^  Bo&man,  'Guinea,'  letter  zzi. ;  in  'Pinkerton,'  vol  xvi.  p.  j>81.  See 
also  Waitz,  vol.  iL  p.  192. 

'  Bastian,  'Pflychologie,'p.  96. 

'  Levit.  i.,  etc. ;  Dcuteron.  zii.  23 ;  Psalm  xrL  4. 


BITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  383 

obvions  reasonableness  in  the  idea  that  offerings  reduced  to 
this  condition  are  fit  to  be  consumed  by,  or  transmitted  to^ 
spiritual  beings  towards  whom  the  vapour  rises  in  the  air.. 
This  idea  is  well  shown  in  the  case  of  incense,  and  especially 
a  peculiar  kind  of  incense  offered  among  the  native  tribes  of 
America.  The  habit  of  smoking  tobacco  is  not  suggestive 
of  religious  rites  among  ourselves,  but  in  its  native  country, 
where  it  is  so  widely  diffused  as  to  be  perhaps  the  best  point 
assignable  in  favour  of  a  connexion  in  the  culture  of  the 
northern  and  southern  continent,  its  place  in  worship  is 
very  important.  The  Osages  would  begin  an  undertaking 
by  smoking  a  pipe,  with  such  a  prayer  as  this :  '^  Great 
Spirit,  come  down  to  smoke  with  me  as  a  friend!  Fire 
and  Earth,  smoke  with  me  and  help  me  to  overthrow  my 
foes !  "  The  Sioux  in  Hennepin's  time  would  look  toward 
the  Sun  when  they  smoked,  and  when  the  calumet  was 
lighted,  they  presented  it  to  him,  saying :  ''  Smoke,  Sun  !  ** 
The  Natchez  chief  at  sunrise  smoked  first  to  the  east  and 
then  to  the  other  quarters ;  and  so  on.  It  is  not  merely, 
however,  that  puffs  fi'om  the  tobacco-pipe  are  thus  offered 
to  deities  as  drops  of  drink  or  morsels  of  food  might  be. 
The  calumet  is  a  special  giffc  of  the  Sim  or  the  Great 
Spirit,  tobacco  is  a  sacred  herb,  and  smoking  is  an  accept- 
able sacrifice  ascending  into  the  air  to  the  abode  of  gods 
and  spirits.^  Among  the  Caribs,  the  native  sorcerer  evoking 
a  demon  would  puff  tobacco-smoke  into  the  air  as  an  agree- 
able perfume  to  attract  the  spirit ;  while  among  Brazilian 
tribes  the  sorcerers  smoked  round  upon  the  bystanders  and 
on  the  patient  to  be  cured.'  How  thoroughly  incense  and 
burnt-offering  are  of  the  same  nature,  the  Zulus  well  show, 
burning  incense  together  with  the  fat  of  the  caul  of  the 
slaughtered  beast,  to  give  the  spirits  of  the  people  a  sweet 

'  Waitz,  Tol.  iii  p.  181.  Hennepin,  'Voyage,'  p.  802.  Charlevoix,  «Nou- 
Telle  France,'  vol.  v.  p.  811,  vi.  p.  178.  Schoolcraft,  *  Ind.  Tribes,'  part  i. 
p.  49,  part  ii.  p.  127.  Catlin,  vol,  i.  pp.  181,  229.  Morgan,  *  Iroquois,'  p. 
164.    J.  O.  Muller,  p.  68. 

«  Kochefort,  'lies  AntUles,'  pp.  418,  507.  Lery,  « Voy.  en  Bresil.'  p.  268. 
8ec  also  Musters  in  *  Joum.  Anthrop.  Inst'  vol.  i.  p.  202  (Patngonians^ 


S84  RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

Bavoor.^      As  to  incense  more  precisely  of  the   sort  we 
are  familiar  with,  it  was  in  daily  use  in  the  temples  of 
Mexico,  where  among  the  commonest  antiquarian  relics  are 
the  earthen  incense-pots  in  which  "copalli"  (whence  our 
word  copal)  and  bitumen  were  burnt*    Though  incense  was 
hardly  usual  in  the  ancient  religion  of  China,  yet  in  modem 
Chinese  houses  and  temples  the  ''joss-stick  *'  and  censer  do 
honour  to  all  divine  beings,  from  the  ancestral  manes  to  the 
great  gods  and  Heaven  and  Earth.'    The  history  of  incense 
in  the  religion  of  Greece  and  Rome   points  the   contrast 
between  old  thrift  and  new  extravagance,  where  the  early 
fumigations  with  herbs  and  chips  of  fragrant  wood  are  con- 
trasted with  the  later  oriental  perfumes,  myrrh  and  cassia 
and  frankincense.^    In  the  temples  of  ancient  Egypt,  num- 
berless representations   of  sacrificial  ceremony  show  the 
burning  of  the  incense-peUets  in  censers  before  the  images 
of  the  gods ;  and  Plutarch   speaks  of  the  incense  burnt 
thrice  daily  to  the  Sun,  resin  at  his  rising,  myrrh  at  his 
meridian,  kuphi  at  his  setting.''    The  ordinance  held  as  pro- 
minent a  place  among  the  Semitic  nations.    At  the  yearly 
festival  of  Bel  in  Babylon,  the  Chaldseans  are  declared  by 
Herodotus  to  have  burned  a  thousand  talents  of  incense  on 
the  large  altar  in  the  temple  where  sat  his  golden  image.^ 
In  the  records  of  ancient  Israel,  there  has  come  down  to  us 
the  very  recipe  for  compounding  incense  after  the  art  of 
the  apothecary.     The  priests  carried  every  man  his  censer, 
and    on    the    altar    of     incense,     overlaid     with     gold, 
standing  before  the  vail  in  the  tabernacle,    sweet  spices 

^  CallEwaji  <  Religion  of  Amamlii,'  pp.  11,  141,  177.  See  also  Casali^ 
*Ba8ato0,'p.  258. 

'  Clayigeio,  'Measico,*  yoL  ii.  p.  39.  See  also  Piedrahlta,  part  L  lib.  i.  c- 
8  (Kayacas). 

'  PUth,  'Religion  der  alten  Chinesen,*  part  ii.  p.  81.  Dodlittle, 
'  Chinese.' 

*  Porphjr.  de  Abstinentia,  iL  5.  Amob.  contra  Gentes.  vii.  20.  Heineis, 
ToL  ii  p.  14. 

*  Wilkinson,  'Ancient  Egyptians,'  vol  v.  pp.  815,  888.  Plutarch,  de  Li. 
et  Osir. 

*  Herodot.  L  188. 


BITES  AND  C£B£MONIES.  885 

ifere  burned  mom  and  even,  a  perpetual  incense  before  the 
Lord.^ 

The  sacrifice  by  fire  is  familiar  to  the  religion  of  North 
American  tribes.  Thus  the  Algonquins  knew  the- practice 
of  casting  into  the  fire  the  first  morsel  of  the  feast ;  and 
throwing  fat  into  the  flames  for  the  spirits,  they  would  pray 
to  them  '^  make  us  find  food."  Catlin  has  described  and 
sketched  the  Mandans  dancing  round  the  fire  where  the  first 
kettleful  of  the  green-corn  is  being  burned,  an  offering  to 
the  Great  Spirit  before  the  feast  begins.*  The  Peruvians 
burnt  llamas  as  offerings  to  the  Creator,  Sun,  Moon,  and 
Thunder,  and  other  lesser  deities.  As  to  the  operation  of 
sacrifice,  an  idea  of  theirs  comes  well  into  view  in  the 
legend  of  Manco  Ccapac  ordering  the  sacrifice  of  the  most 
beautiful  of  his  sons,  ''cutting  off  his  head,  and  sprinkling 
the  blood  over  the  fire,  that  the  smoke  might  reach  the 
Maker  of  heayen  and  earth."  ^  In  Siberia  the  sacrifices  of 
the  Tunguz  and  Buraets,  in  the  course  of  which  bits  of 
meat  and  liver  and  fat  are  cast  into  the  fire,  carry  on  the 
same  idea.^  Chinese  sacrifices  to  sun  and  moon,  stars  and 
<;onstellations,  show  their  purpose  in  most  definite  fashion  ; 
beasts  and  even  silks  and  precious  stones  are  burned,  that 
their  vapour  may  ascend  to  these  heavenly  spirits.^  No  less 
significant,  though  in  a  different  sense,  is  the  Siamese  offer- 
ing to  the  household  deity,  incense  and  arrack  and  rice 
steaming  hot ;  he  does  not  eat  it  all,  not  always  any  part  of 
it,  it  is  the  fragrant  steam  which  he  loves  to  inhale.^  Look- 
ing now  to  the  records  of  Aryan  sacrifice,  views  similar  to 
these  are  not  obscurely  expressed.  When  the  Brahman 
bums  the  offerings  on  the  altar-fire,  they  are  received  by 

^  Exod.  zzx.,  zxxviL    Ley.  x.  1,  zri  12,  etc. 

*  Smith,  <  Yirgiuia,'  in  '  Pmkerton,'  vol.  ziii.  p.  41,    Le  Jeonein  '  Bel.  des 
Jes.'  1684,  p.  16.     Catlin,  *N,  A.  Ind.'  vol.  i.  p.  189. 

'  *  Bites  and  Laws  of  Incas,'  p.  16,  etc.,  79 ;  see  'Ollanta,  an  ancient  Tnca 
Prama,'  tr.  by  C.  R.  Markham,  p.  81.    Garcilaso  de  la  Yega,  lib,  L  iL  vL 

*  Klemm,  'Cnltur^Ge8ch.'voL  iii  pp.  106,  114. 

•  Flath,  part  ii.  p.  65. 

•  Latham,  «Descr.  Eth.'  vol,  L  p.  191. 

VOL.  II.  C  c 


S86  RITES  AND  CEREMONIES, 

Agni  the  divine  Fire^  mouth  of  the  gods^  messenger  of  the 
All-knowing,  to  whom  is  chanted  the  Vedic  strophe,  "Agnit 
the  sacrifice  which  thou  encompassest  whole,  it  goes  unto 
the  gods  !  "^  The  Homeric  poems  show  the  plain  meaning' 
of  the  hecatomhs  of  old  barbaric  Greece,  where  the  savour 
of  the  burnt  offering  went  up  in  wreathing  smoke  to  heaven,. 
*'KvfcT<n]  V  ovpavbv  Xk€v  tXiaa-oiiivri  irepl  Kowvy/'  Passed  into 
a  far  other  stage  of  history,  men's  minds  had  not  lost  sight 
of  the  archaic  thought  even  in  Porphyry's  time,  for  he 
knows  how  the  demons  who  desire  to  be  gods  rejoice  in  the^ 
libations  and  fumes  of  sacrifice,  whereby  their  spiritual  anrl 
bodily  substance  fattens,  for  this  lives  on  the  steam  and 
vapours  and  is  strengthened  by  the  fumes  of  the  blood  and 
flesh.' 

The  view  of  commentators  that  sacrifice,  as  a  reli^ou-^ 
rite  of  remote  antiquity  and  world-wide  prevalence,  was 
adopted,  regulated,  and  sanctioned  in  the  Jewish  law,  is  in 
agreement  with  the  general  ethnography  of  the   subject. 
Here  sacrifice  appears  not  with  the  lower  conception  of  a 
gift  acceptable  and  even  beneficial  to  deity,  but  with  the 
higher  significance  of  devout  homage  or  expiation  for  siiu 
As  is  so  usual  in  the  history  of  religion,  the  offering  con> 
listed  in  general  of  food,  and  the  consummation  of  th& 
sacrifice  was  by  fire.      To  the  ceremonial  details  of  the 
sacrificial  rites  of  Israel,  whether  prescribing  the  burning  of 
the  carcases  of  oxen  and  sheep  or  of  the  bloodless  gifts  of 
flour  mingled  with  oil,  there  is  appended  again  and  again 
tJbie  explanation  of  the  intent  of  the  rite ;  it  is  '*  an  offering^ 
made  by  fire,  of  a  sweet  savour  unto  the  Lord."     The 
copious  records  of  sacrifice  in  the  Old  Testament  enable  u& 
to  follow  its  expansion  from  the  simple  patriarchal  forms  of 
a  pastoral  tribe,  to  the  huge  and  complex  system  organized 
to  carry  on  the  ancient  service  in  a  now  populous  and 
settled  kingdom.    Among  writers  on  the  Jewish  religion » 

>  '  Rig-Veda,'  L  1,  4. 

*  Homer,  11.  i.  817.  * 

*  Porphyr.  De  Abstinentia,  iL  42 ;  see  58, 


RIT2S  AND  CERKMONIES,  387 

Dean  Stanley  has  vividly  pourtrayed  the  aspect  of  the 
Temple^  with  the  flocks  of  sheep  and  droves  of  cattle  crowd- 
ii^  its  courts^  the  vast  apparatus  of  slaughter,  the  huge 
&ltar  of  burnt-offering  towering  above  the  people,  where  the 
carcases  were  laid,  the  drain  beneath  to  carry  off  the  streams 
<^  blood.  To  this  historian,  in  sympathy  rather  with  the 
spirit  of  the  prophet  than  the  ceremony  of  the  priest,  it  is  a 
congenial  task  to  dwell  upon  the  great  movement  in  later 
Judaism  to  maintain  the  place  of  ethical  above  ceremonial 
religion.^  In  these  times  of  Hebrew  history,  the  prophets 
turned  with  stem  rebuke  on  those  who  ranked  ceremonial 
ordinance  above  weightier  matters  of  the  law.  "  I  desired 
mercy  and  not  sacrifice,  and  the  knowledge  of  God  more 
than  burnt  offerings."  '^  I  delight  not  in  the  blood  of 
bullocks,  or  of  lambs,  or  of  he  goats  •  •  •  Wasti  you, 
make  you  clean;  put  away  the  evil  of  your  doings  from 
before  mine  eyes.     Cease  to  do  evil,  learn  to  do  well." 

Continuing  the  enquiry  into  the  physical  operation 
ascribed  to  sacrifice,  we  turn  to  a  different  conception.  It 
is  an  idea  well  vouched  for  in  the  lower  culture,  that  the 
deity,  while  leaving  apparently  untouched  the  offering  set 
out  before  him,  may  nevertheless  partake  of  or  abstract 
ishat  in  a  loose  way  may  be  described  as  its  essence.  The 
Zulus  leave  the  flesh  of  the  sacrificed  bullock  all  night,  and 
the  divine  ancestral  spirits  come  and  eat,  yet  next  morning 
everything  remains  just  as  it  was.  Describing  this  practice, 
a  native  Zulu  thus  naively  comments  on  it :  "  But  when  we 
ask,  ^  What  do  the  Amadhlozi  eat  ?  for  in  the  morning  we 
still  see  all  the  meat,'  the  old  men  say,  '  The  Amatongo  lick 
it.'  And  we  are  imable  to  contradict  them,  but  are  silent, 
for  they  are  older  than  we,  and  tell  us  all  things  and  we 
listen ;  for  we  are  told  all  things,  and  assent  without  seeing 
clearly  whether  they  are.  true  or  not."^     Such  imagination 

*  Stanley,  'Jewish  Clinrch,'  2d  Ser.  pp.  410,  424.    See  Ealisch  on^Loviti- 
cni ;  Barry  in  Smith's  'Dictionaiy  of  the  Bible,'  art.  '  sacrifice.' 

'  Callaway,  'Religioo  of  Amazulu,' p.  11  (amadhlozi  or  amatongo  =:ance9- 
tnl  spirits). 

0  c  2 


388  BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

was  familiar  to  the  native  religion  of  the  West  Indian 
islands.  In  Columbus'  time,  and  with  particular  reference 
to  Hispaniola,  Boman  Pane  describes  the  native  mode  of 
sacrifice.  Upon  any  solemn  day,  when  they  provide  much. 
to  eat,  whether  fish,  flesh,  or  any  other  thing,  they  put  it  all 
into  the  house  of  the  cemis,  that  the  idol  may  feed  on  it. 
The  next  day  they  carry  all  home,  after  the  cemi  has  eaten* 
And  God  so  help  them  (says  the  friar),  as  the  cemi  eats  of 
that  or  anything  else,  they  being  inanimate  stocks  or  stones. 
A  century  and  a  half  later,  a  similar  notion  still  prevailed 
in  these  islands.  Nothing  could  show  it  more  neatly  than 
the  fancy  of  the  Caribs  that  they  could  hear  the  spirits  in 
the  night  moving  the  vessels  and  champing  the  food  set  out 
for  them,  yet  next  morning  there  was  nothing  touched ;  it 
was  h^lld  that  the  viands  thus  partaken  of  by  the  spirits 
had  become  holy,  so  that  only  the  old  men  and  considerable 
people  might  taste  them,  and  even  these  required  a  certain 
bodily  purity.^  Islanders  of  Pulo  Aur,  though  admitting 
that  their  banished  disease-spirits  did  not  actually  consume 
the  grains  of  rice  set  out  for  them,  nevertheless  beUeved 
them  to  appropriate  its  essence.'  In  India,  among  the 
indigenes  of  the  Garo  hills,  we  hear  of  the  head  and  blood 
of  the  sacrificed  animal  being  placed  with  some  rice  under  a 
bamboo  arch  covered  with  a  white  cloth ;  the  god  comes 
and  takes  what  he  wants,  and  after  a  time  this  special  offer- 
ing is  dressed  for  the  company  with  the  rest  of  the  animal.' 
The  Ehond  deities  live  on  the  flavours  and  essences  drawn 
from  the  offerings  of  their  votaries,  or  from  ftninmls  or  grain 
which  they  cause  to  die  or  disappear.^  When  the  Buraets 
of  Siberia  have  sacrificed  a  sheep  and  boiled  the  mutton^ 
they  set  it  up  on  a  scaffold  for  the  gods  whUe  the  shaman  ia 

1  Roman  Pane,  ch.  xvi  in  *  Life  of  Colon,'  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  ziL  p.  8d. 
Rochefort,  *Iles  Antilles,'  p.  418  ;  see  Meiners,  vol.  ii  p.  516  ;  J.  G.  Mfill0r» 
p.  212.- 

*  *  Joum.  Ind.  Arcblp.'  vol.  iv.  p.  194. 
»  EUot  in  'As.  Res.'  vol  iii.  p.  30. 

*  Macpherson,  *  India,'  pp.  88,  100. 


lUTES  AND  CEUEMONI£S,  389 

chanting  his  song,  and  then  themselves  fall  to.^  And  thus, 
in  the  folklore  of  medicBval  Europe,  Domina  Abundia  would 
come  with  her  dames  into  the  houses  at  night,  and  eat  and 
drink  from  the  vessels  left  uncovered  for  their  increase- 
giving  visit,  yet  nothing  was  consimied.' 

The  extreme  animistic  view  of  sacrifice  is  that  the  soul 
of  the  offered  animal  or  thing  is  abstracted  by  or  trans- 
mitted to  the  deity.  This  notion  of  spirits  taking  souls  is 
in  a  somewhat  different  way  exemplified  among  the  Binua 
of  Johore,  who  hold  that  the  evil  Biver-spirits  inflict 
diseases  on  man  by  feeding  on  the  '  semangat,'  or  unsub- 
stantial body  (in  ordinary  parlance  the  spirit)  in  which  his 
life  resides,'  while  the  Karen  demon  devours  not  the  body 
but  the  ''  la,"  spirit  or  vital  principle ;  thus  when  it  eats  a 
man's  eyes,  their  material  part  remains,  but  they  are  blind/ 
Now  an  idea  similar  to  this  furnished  the  Polynesians  with 
a  theory  of  sacrifice.  The  priest  might  send  commissions 
by  the  sacrificed  human  victim;  spirits  of  the  dead  are 
eaten  by  the  gods  or  demons;  the  spiritual  part  of  the 
sacrifices  is  eaten  by  the  spirit  of  the  idol  (i.  ^.,  the  deity 
dwelling  or  embodied  in  the  idol)  before  whom  it  is  pre- 
sented.^ Of  the  Fijians  it  is  observed  that  of  the  great 
offerings  of  food  native  belief  apportions  merely  the  soul  to 
the  gods,  who  are  described  as  being  enormous  eaters ;  the 
substance  is  consumed  by  the  worshippers.  As  in  various 
other  districts  of  the  world,  human  sacrifice  is  here  in  fact 
a  meat-offering ;  cannibalism  is  a  part  of  the  Fijian  religion, 
and  the  gods  are  described  as  delighting  in  human  flesh.' 
Such  ideas  are  explicit  among  Indian  tribes  of  the  American 
lakes,  who  consider  that  offerings,  whether  abandoned  or 
consumed  by  the  worshippers,  go  in  a  spiritual  form  to  the 

'  Klemxn,  'Cultnr-Gesch.*  voL  ill  p.  114. 
'  Grimm,  'Deutsche  Myth.'  p.  264. 
'  '  Jonni.  Ind.  Archip.'  vol.  i  p.  27. 

*  Mason,  '  Karens,'  L  c  p.  208. 

»  Bastian,  '  Mensch,'  vol.  ii.  p.  407.    Ellis,  '  Polyn.  Res.*  vol.  i.  p.  358. 
Taylor,  *  New  Zealand,'  pp.  104,  220. 

•  Williams,  'Fyi,'  vol.  L  p.  231. 


390  RIT£S  AND  CEREMONIES. 

spirit  Uiey   are  devoted  to.     Native  legends   affoird   ike 
clearest  illustrations.     The  following  is  a  passage  from  aa 
Ottawa  tale  which  recounts  the  adventures  of  Wassamo,  he 
who  was  conveyed  by  the  spirit-maiden  to  the  lodge  of  her 
father,  the  Spirit  of  the  Sand  Downs,  down  below  the 
waters  of  Lake   Superior.     ''  Son-in-law/'  said  the  Old 
Spirit,  "  I  am  in  want  of  tobacco.    You  shall  return  to  visit 
your  parents,  and  can  make  known  my  wishes.     For  it  is 
very  seldom  that  those  few  who  pass  these  Sand  Hills,  offer 
a  piece  of  tobacco.    When  they  do  it,  it  immediately  comes 
to  me.    Just  so,*'  he  added,  putting  his  hand  out  of  the 
side  of  the  lodge,  and  drawing  in  several  pieces  of  tobacco, 
which  some  one  at  that  moment  happened  to  offer  to  the 
Spirit,  for  a  smooth  lake  and  prosperous  voyage.     ^^You 
see,*'  he  said,  ''every  thing  offered  me  on  earth,  comes 
immediately  to  the  side  of  my  lodge."     Wassamo  saw  the 
women  also  putting  their  hands  to  the  side  of  the  lodge, 
and  then  handing  round  something,  of  which  all  partook* 
This  he  found  to  be  offerings  of  food  made  by  mortals  on. 
earth.     The  distinctly  spiritual  nature  of  this  transmission 
is  shown  immediately  after,  for  Wassamo  cannot  eat  such 
mere   spirit-food,   wherefore  his  spirit-wife  puts   out  her 
hand  from  the  lodge  and  takes  in  a  material  fish  out  of  the 
lake  to  cook  for  him.'    Another  Ottawa  legend,  the  already 
cited  nature-myth  of  the  Sim  and  Moon,  is  of  much  interest 
not  only  for  its  display  of  this  special  thought,  but  as  show- 
ing clearly  the  motives  with  which  savage  animists  offer 
sacrifices  to  their  deities,  and  consider  these   deities   to 
accept  them.     Onowuttokwutto,  the  Ojibwa  youth  who  has 
followed  the  Moon  up  to  the  lovely  heaven-prairies  to  be 
her  husband,  is  taken  one  day  by  her  brother  the  Sun  to 
see  how  he  gets  his  dinner.     The  two  look  down  together 
through  the  hole  in  the  sky  upon  the  earth  below,  the  Sun 
points  out  a  group  of  children  playing  beside  a  lodge,  at 
the  same  time  throwing  a  tiny  stone  to  hit  a  beautiful  boy* 
The  child  falls,  they  see  him  carried  into  the  lodge,  they 

^  Sclioolcnift,  *  Algio  Kcsearcbcs,'  vol.  ii,  p.  140  ;  see  190. 


BITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  891 

hear  the  Bound  of  the  sheesheegwun  (the  rattle),  and^e 
song  and  prayer  of  the  medicine-man  that  the  child's  life 
may  be  spared.     To  this  entreaty  of  the  medicine-man,  the 
«Sun  makes  answer,  '^  Send  me  up  the  white  dog."     Then 
the  two  spectators  above  could  distinguish  on  the  earth  the 
iiurry  and  bustle  of  preparation  for  a  feast,  a  white  dog 
icilled  and  singed,  and  the  people  who  were  called  assembling 
at  the  lodge.    While  these  things  were  passing,  the  Sun 
4iddressed  himself  to  Onowuttokwutto,  saying,  *'  There  are 
:among  you  in  the  lower  world  some  whom  you  call  great 
medicine-men ;  but  it  is  because  their  ears  are  open,  and 
they  hear  my  voice,  when  I  have  struck  any  one,  that  they 
4vre  able  ,to  give  relief  to  the  sick.     They  direct  the  people 
to  send  me  whatever  I  call  for,  and  when  they  have  sent  it, 
I  remove  my  hand  from  those  I  had  made  sick.'*    When 
he  had  said  this,  the  white  dog  was  parcelled  out  in  dishes 
for  those  that  were  at  the  feast ;  then  the  medicine- man 
when  they  were  about  to  begin  to  eat,  said,  "  We  send  thee 
this.  Great  Manito.**    Immediately  the  Sun  and  his  Ojibwa 
companion  saw  the  dog,  cooked  and  ready  to  be  eaten, 
rising  to  them  through  the  air — and  then  and  there  they 
dined  upon  it.^    How  such  ideas  bear  on  the  meaning  of 
iiuman  sacrifice,  we  may  perhaps  judge  from  this  prayer  of 
the  Iroquois,  offering  a  human  victim  to  the  War-god :  '*  To 
thee,  0  Spirit  Arieskoi,  we  slay  this  sacrifice,  that  thou 
mayst  feed  upon  the  flesh,  and  be  moved  to  give  us  hence- 
forth luck  and  victory  over  our  enemies  !  "  '     So  among  the 
Aztec  prayers,  there  occurs  this  one  addressed  to  Tezcatli- 
poca-Yautl  in  time  of  war :  "  Lord  of  battles ;  it  is  a  very 
certain  and  sure  thing,  that  a  great  war  is  beginning  to 
make,  or4ain,  form,  and  concert  itself;  the  War-god  opens 
iiis  mouth,  hungry  to  swallow  the  blood  of  many  who  shall 
die  in  this  war ;  it  seems  that  the  Sun  and  the  Earth-God 
TlatecutU  desire  to  rejoice ;  they  desire  to  give  meat  and 
^drink  to  the  gods  of  Heaven  and  Hades,  making  them  a 

*  Tanner's  *  Xarrative,'  pp.  286,  31&    See  also  Waitz,  yoL  iiL  p.  207. 
«  J.  G.  Mailer,  p.  142 ;  see  282. 


392  BITCS  AND  CEB£&(ONI£S. 

banquet  of  the  flesh  and  blood  of  the  men  who  are  to  die  iir 
this  war,"  &c.^      There  is  remarkable  deimiteness  in  the 
Pemyian  idea  that  the  souls  of  human  victims  are  trans- 
mitted to  another  life  in  divine  as  in  funeral  sacrifice ;  at 
one  great  ceremony,  where  children  of  each  tribe  were  sacri- 
ficed  to  propitiate  the  gods,  ''  they  strangled  the  children, 
first  giving  them  to  eat  and  drink,  that  they  might  not  enter 
the  presence  of  the  Creator  discontented  and  hungry."^ 
Similar  ideas  of  spiritual  sacrifice  appear  in  other  regions  of 
the  world.     Thus  in  West  Africa  we  read  of  the  tree-fetish 
enjoying  the  spirit  of  the  food-offering,  but  leaving  its  sub- 
stance, and  an  account  of  the  religion  of  the  Gold  Coast 
mentions  how  each  great  wong  or  deity  has  his  house,  and 
his  priest  and  priestess  to  clean  the  room  and  give  him 
daily  bread  kneaded  with  palm-oil,  '^  of  which,  as  of  all  gifts, 
of  this  kind,  the  wong  eats  the  invisible  soul."  '     So,  in 
India,  the  Limbus  of  Darjeeling  make  small  offerings  of 
grain,  vegetables,  and  sugar-cane,  and.  sacrifice  cows,  pigs,, 
fowls,  &c.,  on  the  declared  principle  ''the  life  breath  to  the- 
gods,  the  flesh  to  ourselves.''  ^    It  seems  likely  that  such 
meaning  may  largely  explain  the  sacrificial  practices   of 
other  religions.     In  conjunction  with  these  accounts,  the. 
imequivocal  meaning  of  fimeral  sacrifices,  whereby  offerings 
are  conveyed  spiritually  into  the  possession  of  spirits  of  the 
dead,  may  perhaps  justify  us  in  inferring  that  similar  ideas 
of  spiritual  transmission   prevail  extensively  among  the 
many  nations  whose  sacrificial  rites  we  know  in  fact,  but 
cannot  trace  with  certainty  to  their  original  significance. 

Having  thus  examined  the  manner  in  which  the  operation 
of  sacrifice  is  considered  to  take  physical  effect,  whethei" 
indefinitely  or  definitely,  and  having  distinguished  its  actual 
transmission  as  either  substantial,  essential,  or  spiritual^ 

^  Sahagon,  lib.  yi.  in  Eingsborough,  voL  y. 

'  '  Bites  and  Laws  of  Tncas,'  tr.  and  ed.  by  C.  R.  Harkliani,  pp.  55,  58^ 
166.    See  ante,  p.  885  (possible  connexion  of  smoke  with  soul). 

*  Waitz,  vol.  ii  pp.  188,  196.     Steinhauser,  L  c  p.  136.    See  also  Schlegel^ 
*£we-8piache,'  p.  xv. ;  Magyar,  'Siid-Afrika,'  p.  278. 

*  A.  Campbell  in  'Tr.  EtL.  Soc'  vol.  vii.  p.  153. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  393 

let  ns  now  follow  the  qaestion  of  the  saciificer^s  motive  in 
presenting  the  sacrifice.  Important  and  complex  as  this 
problem  is,  its  key  is  so  obvioas  that  it  may  be  almost 
thronghoat  treated  by  mere  statement  of  general  principle* 
If  the  main  proposition  of  animistic  natural  religion  be 
granted,  that  the  idea  of  the  human  soul  is  the  model  of 
the  idea  of  deity,  then  the  analogy  of  man's  dealings  with 
man  ought,  inter  alia,  to  explain  his  motives  in  sacrifice* 
It  does  so,  and  very  fiilly.  The  proposition  may  be  main- 
tained  in  wide  generality,  that  the  common  man's  present 
to  the  great  man,  to  gain  good  or  avert  evil,  to  ask  aid  or  to 
condone  offence,  needs  only  substitution  of  deity  for  chiefs 
and  proper  adaptation  of  the  means  of  conveying  the  gift  to 
him,  to  produce  a  logical  doctrine  of  sacrificial  rites,  in 
great  measure  explaining  their  purpose  directly  as  they 
stand,  and  elsewhere  suggesting  what  was  the  original 
meaning  which  has  passed  into  changed  shape  in  the  course 
of  ages.  Instead  of  offering  a  special  collection  of  evidence 
here  on  this  proposition,  it  may  be  enough  to  ask  attentive 
reference  to  any  extensive  general  collection  of  accounts  of 
sacrifice,  such  for  instance  as  those  cited  for  various  pur- 
poses in  these  volumes.  It  will  be  noticed  that  offerings  to 
divinities  may  be  classed  in  the  same  way  as  earthly  gifts. 
The  occasional  gift  made  to  meet  some  present  emergency, 
the  periodical  tribute  brought  by  subject  to  lord,  the  royalty 
paid  to  secure  possession  or  protection  of  acquired  wealth, 
all  these  have  their  evident  and  well-marked  analogues 
in  the  sacrificial  systems  of  the  world.  It  may  impress 
some  minds  with  a  stronger  sense  of  the  sufficiency  of  this 
theory  of  sacrifice,  to  consider  how  the  transition  is  made 
in  the  same  imperceptible  way  from  the  idea  of  substantial 
value  received,  to  that  of  ceremonial  homage  rendered, 
whether  the  recipient  be  man  or  god.  We  do  not  find  it 
easy  to  analyse  the  impression  which  a  gift  makes  on  our 
own  feelings,  and  to  separate  the  actual  value  of  the  object 
from  the  sense  of  gratification  in  the  giver's  good-will  or 
respect,  and  thus  we  may  well  scruple  to  define  closely  how 


S94  lOTES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

uncultured  men  work  out  this  very  same  distinction  in  their 
•dealings  with  their  deities.  In  a  general  way  it  may  be 
held  that  the  idea  of  practical  acceptableness  of  the  food  or 
valuables  presented  to  the  deity,  begins  early  to  shade  into 
the  sentiment  of  divine  gratification  or  propitiation  by  a 
reverent  offering,  though  in  itself  of  not  much  account  to 
so  mighty  a  divine  personage.  These  two  stages  of  the 
saciificial  idea  may  be  fairly  contrasted,  the  one  among  the 
Karens  who  offer  to  a  demon  arrack  or  grain  or  a  portion 
of  the  game  they  kill,  considering  invocation  of  no  avail 
without  a  gift,^  the  other  among  the  negroes  of  Sierra 
Leone,  who  sacrifice  an  ox  ''  to  make  God  glad  very  muchy 
iind  do  Kroomen  good."  * 

Hopeless  as  it  may  be  in  hundreds  of  accounts  of  sacrifice 
to  guess  whether  the  worshipper  means  to  benefit  or  merely 
to  gratify  the  deity,  there  are  also  numbers  of  cases  in  which 
the  thought  in  the  sacrificer*s  mind  can  scarcely  be  more 
than  an  idea  of  ceremonial  homage.  One  of  the  best- 
marked  sacrificial  rites  of  the  world  is  that  of  offering  by  fire 
or  otherwise  morsels  or  libations  at  meals.  This  ranges 
from  the  religion  of  the  North  American  Indian  to  that  of 
the  classic  Greek  and  the  ancient  Chinese,  and  still  holds 
its  place  in  peasant  custom  in  Europe.^  Other  groups  of 
cases  pass  into  yet  more  absolute  formality  of  reverence. 
See  the  Guinea  negro  passing  in  silence  by  the  sacred  tree 
or  cavern,  and  dropping  a  leaf  or  a  sea-shell  as  an  offering 
to  the  local  spi«t;^  the  Talein  of  Birma  holding  up  the 
dish  at  his  meal  to  offer  it  to  the  nat,  before  the  company 
fall  to ;  ^  the  Hindu  holding  up  a  httle  of  his  rice  in  his 


*  0*Riley,  in  '  Jonrn.  Ind.  Archip.'  vol.  iv.  p.  592.  Bastian,  '  OestL  AsieB,* 
ToL  ii  p.  12. 

*  R.  Clarke,  *  Sierra  Leone,*  p.  43. 

*  Smith,  *Vii:ginia,'  in  'Pinkerton,'  voL  xiii.  p.  41.  "Welcker,  'Griech. 
ddtterlehre,'  vol.  ii.  p.  693.  Legge,  '  Ck>Dfacias,'  pw  179.  Grohmami, 
'  Aberglanben  aus  Bdhmen,*  p.  41,  etc. 

^  J.  L.  Wilaon,  *W,  Afr.'  p.  218 ;  Bosman,  'Guinea,'  in  *Pinkcrton,*  voL 
xvi.  p.  400. 

*  Bastian,  « Oertl  Aaen/  vol.  U.  pb  887. 


] 


J 


lUTES  AND  CEBEMONIES.  395 

fingers  to  the  height  of  his  forehead,  and  offering  it  in 
ihoaght  to  Siva  or  Vishnu  before  he  eats  it.^  The  same 
argument  applies  to  the  cases  ranging  far  and  wide  through 
religion,  where,  whatever  may  have  been  the  original  intent 
of  the  sacrifice,  it  has  practically  passed  into  a  feast.  A 
banquet  where  the  deity  has  but  the  pretence  and  the  wor- 
shippers the  reality,  may  seem  to  us  a  mere  mockery  of 
sacrifice.  Yet  how  sincerely  men  regard  it  as  a  religious 
ceremony,  the  following  anecdote  of  a  North  American 
Indian  tribe  will  show.  A  travelling  party  of  Potawatomis, 
for  three  days  finding  no  game,  were  in  great  distress  for 
iivant  of  food.  On  the  third  night,  a  chief,  named  Saugana, 
liad  a  dream,  wherein  a  .person  appearing  to  him  showed 
him  that  they  were  suffering  because  they  had  set  out  with- 
out a  sacrificial  feast.  He  had  started  on  this  important 
journey,  the  dreamer  said,  ''  as  a  white  man  would,"  without 
making  any  religious  preparation.  Therefore  the  Great 
Spirit  had  punished  them  with  scarcity.  Now,  however, 
^twelve  men  were  to  go  and  kill  four  deer  before  the  sun  was 
thus  high  (about  nine  o'clock).  The  chief  in  his  dream  had 
seen  these  four  deer  lying  dead,  the  hunters  duly  killed 
Ihem,  and  the  sacrificial  feast  was  held.'  Further  illustra- 
tive ^i  examples  of  such  sacred  banquets  may  be  chosen 
through  the  long  range  of  culture.  The  Zulus  propitiate 
the  Heaven-god  above  with  a  sacrifice  of  black  cattle,  that 
they  may  have  rain ;  the  village  chiefs  select  the  oxen,  one 
is  killed,  the  rest  are  merely  mentioned ;  the  flesh  of  the 
slaughtered  ox  is  eaten  in  the  house  in  perfect  silence,  a 
token  of  humble  submission ;  the  bones  are  burnt  outside 
the  village;  and  after  the  feast  they  chant  in  musi- 
cal sounds,  a  song  without  words.^  The  Serwatty 
Islanders  sacrifice  buffalos,  pigs,  goats,  and  fowls  to  the 
idols  when  an  individual  or  the  community  undertakes  an 
^air  or  expedition  of  importance,  and  as  the  carcases  are 

>  Roberts,  'Oriental  lUnstrations,' p.  545. 

^  M'Coy,  'Baptist  Indian  Missions^' p.  805. 

'  Callaway,  '  Religion  of  Amozula,'  p.  59.    See  Casalis,  p.  252. 


396  RITES  AKD  CEREMONIES. 

devoured  by  the  devotees,  this  ensures  a  respectable 
attendance  when  the  offerings  are  numerous.^  Thus  among 
rude  tribes  of  Northern  India,  sacrifices  of  beasts  are 
accompanied  by  libations  of  fermented  liquor,  and  in  fact 
sacrifice  and  feast  are  convertible  words.'  Among  the 
Aztecs,  prisoners  of  war  furnished  first  an  acceptable  sacri- 
fice to  the  deity,  and  then  the  staple  of  a  feast  for  the 
captors  and  their  friends ;'  while  in  ancient  Peru  whole 
flocks  of  sacrificed  llamas  were  eaten  by  the  people.*  The 
history  of  Greek  religion  plainly  records  the  transition  fi-om 
the  earl}*^  holocausts  devoted  by  fire  to  the  gods,  to  the  great 
festivals  where  the  sacrifices  provided  meat  for  the  public 
banquets  held  to  honour  them  in  ceremonial  homage.' 

Beside  this  development  from  gift  to  homage,  there 
arises  also  a  doctrine  that  the  gist  of  sacrifice  is  rather  in 
the  worshipper  giving  something  precious  to  himself,  than 
in  the  deity  receiving  benefit.  This  may  be  called  the 
abnegation-theory,  and  its  origin  may  be  fairly  explained 
by  considering  it  as  derived  from  the  original  gift-theory* 
Taking  our  own  feelings  again  for  a  guide,  we  know  how  it. 
satisfies  us  to  have  done  our  part  in  giving,  even  if  the  gift, 
be  ineffectual,  and  how  we  scruple  to  take  it  back  if  not. 
received,  but  rather  get  rid  of  it  in  some  other  way-*-it  is^ 
corban.  Thus  we  may  enter  into  the  feelings  of  the 
Assinaboin  Indians,  who  considered  that  the  blankets  and 
pieces  of  cloth  and  brass  kettles  and  such  valuables 
abandoned  in  the  woods  as  a  medicine-sacrifice,  might  be 
carried  off  by  any  friendly  party  who  chanced  to  discover- 
them;*  or  of  the  Ava  Buddhists  bringing  to  the  temples 
offerings  of  boiled  rice  and  sweetmeats  and  cocoa-nut  fried 

•*  Earl  in  *  Journ.  Ind.  Archip.'  vol.  iv.  p.  174. 

'Hodgson,    'Abor.   of  India,*  p.   170,   see    146;   Hooker,    'Himalayan 
Jonmals/  vol.  ii.  p.  276, 

•  Prescott,  '  Mexico,'  book  i.  cb.  iiL 

^  '  Rites  and  Laws  of  Yucas,'  p.  33,  etc. 

•  Welcker,  'Griecb.  Gottcrlchre,'  vol.  ii.  p.   60;  Panly,  •Eeal-Encyclo- 
pedie,*  a.  v.  *  Sacrificia.' 

•  Tanner's  '  Nar.'  p.  lU ;  see  also  Waita,  voL  iiL  p.  167. 


BIT£3  AND  CEREMONIES.  397 

ill  oil,  and  never  attempting  to  disturb  the  crows  and  wild 
dogs  who  devoured  it  before  their  eyes ;  ^  of  the  modem 
Moslems  sacrificing  sheep,  oxen,  and  camels  in  the  valley 
of  Muna  on  their  return  from  Mekka,  it  being  a  meritorious 
act  to  give  away  a  victim  without  eating  any  of  it,  whUe 
parties  of  Takruri  watch  around  like  vultures,  ready  to 
pounce  upon  the  carcases.^  If  the  offering  to  the  deity  be 
continued  in  ceremonial  survival,  in  spite  of  a  growing 
conviction  that  after  all  the  deity  does  not  need  and  cannot 
profit  by  it,  sacrifice  will  be  thus  kept  up  in  spite  of  having 
become  practically  unreasonable,  and  the  worshipper  may 
still  continue  to  measure  its  efficacy  by  what  it  costs  him. 
But  to  take  this  abnegation-theory  as  representing  the 
primitive  intention  of  sacrifice  would  be,  I  think,  to  turn 
history  upside  down.  The  mere  fact  of  sacrifices  to  deities, 
from  the  lowest  to  the  highest  levels  of  culture,  consisting 
to  the  extent  of  nine-tenths  or  more  of  gifts  of  food  and 
sacred  banquets,  tells  forcibly  against  the  originality  of  the 
abnegation-theory.  If  the  primary  motive  had  been  to  give 
up  valuable  property,  we  should  find  the  sacrifice  of  weapons, 
garments,  ornaments,  as  prevalent  in  the  lower  culture  as  in 
fact  it  is  unusual.  Looking  at  the  subject  in  a  general  view, 
to  suppose  men  to  have  started  by  devoting  to  their  deities 
what  they  considered  practically  useless  to  them,  in  order 
that  they  themselves  might  suffer  a  loss  which  none  is  to 
gain,  is  to  undervalue  the  practical  sense  of  savages,  who 
are  indeed  apt  to  keep  up  old  rites  after  their  meaning  has 
fallen  away,  but  seldom  introduce  new  ones  without  a 
rational  motive.  In  studying  the  religion  of  the  lower 
races,  we  find  men  dealing  with  their  gods  in  as  practical 
and  straightforward  a  way  as  with  their  neighbours,  and 
where  plain  original  purpose  is  found,  it  may  well  be  ac- 
cepted as  sufficient  explanation.  Of  the  way  in  which  gift 
can  pass  into  abnegation,  an  instructive  example  is  forth- 

^  Symes,  *  Ava,'  in  *  Pinkerton,'  vol.  ix.  p.  440. 

*  Barton,  '  Medinah,'  etc.  vol.  iiL  p.  802 ;  Lane,  '  Modem  E^grptian%'  toL  L 
p.  182. 


398  BITES  AND  CEREMOXIES. 

coming  in  Buddhism,  It  is  held  that  sinful  men  are  liablt? 
to  be  re-bom  in  course  of  transmigration  as  wanderings 
burning,  miserable  demons  (preta).  Now  those  demons 
may  receive  offerings  of  food  and  drink  from  their  relatives, 
who  can  further  benefit  them  by  acts  of  merit  done  in  their 
name,  as  giving  food  to  priests,  unless  the  wretched  spirits, 
be  so  low  in  merit  that  this  cannot  profit  them.  Yet  even 
in  this  case  it  is  held  that  though  the  act  does  not  benefit 
the  spirit  whom  it  is  directed  to,  it  does  benefit  the  person 
who  performs  it.^  Unequivocal  examples  of  abnegation  in 
sacrifice  may  be  best  found  among  those  offerings  of  which 
the  value  to  the  offerer  utterly  exceeds  the  value  they  can 
be  supposed  to  have  to  the  deity.  The  most  striking  of 
these,  found  among  nations  somewhat  advanced  in  general 
culture,  appear  in  the  history  of  human  sacrifice  among^ 
Semitic  nations.  The  king  of  Moab,  when  the  battle  wa» 
too  sore  for  him,  offered  up  his  eldest  son  for  a  burnt- 
offering  on  the  wall.  The  Phoenicians  sacrificed  the  dearest 
children  to  propitiate  the  angry  gods,  they  enhanced  theii* 
value  by  choosing  them  of  noble  families,  and  there  was  not^ 
wanting  among  them  even  the  utmost  proof  that  the  efficacy 
of  the  sacrifice  lay  in  the  sacrificer*s  grievous  loss,  for  ihey 
must  have  for  yearly  sacrifice  only-begotten  sons  of  their 
parents  {Kp6vff^  yap  ^o(vik€s  Ka0*  (Kaarov  Iros  lOvov  ra  iyamjTljt 
Kci  fiovoyevfj  t&v  riKvwv)*  Heliogabalus  brought  the  hideous. 
Oriental  rite  into  Italy,  choosing  for  victims  to  his  solar 
divinity  high-bom  lads  throughout  the  land.  Of  all  such 
cases,  the  breaking  of  the  sacred  law  of  hospitality  by 
sacrificing  the  guest  to  Jupiter  hospitalis,  Zc^s  $ivi0Sf  shows 
in  the  strongest  light  in  Semitic  regions  how  the  value  to 
the  offerer  might  become  the  measure  of  acceptableness  to 
the  god.^  In  such  ways,  slightly  within  the  range  of  the 
lower  culture,  but  strongly  in  the  religion  of  the  higher 

^  Hardy,  <  IfannAl  of  Baddhism/ p.  59. 

^  II.  Kings,  iiL  27.  Enseb.  Prsep.  Evang.  I  10,  iv.  156.  Land.  Constant 
xiii.  Porphyr.  De  Abstin.  il.  56,  etc.  Lamprid.  Helic^bal.  yii«  Mov«n^ 
'PhSnizier,'  yoL  i  p.  800,  eta» 


I 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  S09 

nations^  the  transition  from  the  gift-theory  to  the  abnegation- 
theory  seems  to  have  come  about.  Our  language  displays 
it  in  a  word,  if  we  do  but  compare  the  sense  of  presentation 
and  acceptance  which  *'  sacrificium  '*  had  in  a  Roman  temple, 
with  the  sense  of  mere  giving  up  and  loss  which  **  sacri- 
fice "  conveys  in  an  English  market. 

Through  the  history  of  sacrifice,  it  has  occurred  to  many 
nations  that  cost  may  be  economized  without  impairing  effi- 
mency.  The  result  is  seen  in  ingenious  devices  to  lighten 
the  burden  on  the  worshipper  by  substituting  something 
less  valuable  than  what  he  ought  to  offer,  or  pretends  to. 
£ven  in  such  a  matter  as  this,  the  innate  correspondence  in 
the  minds  of  men  is  enough  to  produce  in  distant  and 
independent  races  so  much  uniformity  of  development,  that 
three  or  four  headings  will  serve  to  class  the  chief  divisions 
of  sacrificial  substitution  among  mankind. 

To  give  part  for  the  whole  is  a  proceeding  so  closely  con- 
formed to  ordinary  tribute  by  subject  to  lord,  that  in  great 
measure  it  comes  directly  under  the  gift-theoiy,  and  as  such 
has  already  had  its  examples  here.  It  is  only  when  the 
part  given  to  the  gods  is  of  contemptible  value  in  propor- 
tion to  the  whole,  that  full  sacrifice  passes  gradually  into 
substitution.  This  is  the  case  when  in  Madagascar  the 
head  of  the  sacrificed  beast  is  set  up  on  a  pole,  and  the 
blood  and  fat  are  rubbed  on  the  stones  of  the  altar,  but  the 
sacrificers  and  their  friends  and  the  officiating  priest  devour 
the  whole  carcase;^  when  rich  Guinea  negroes  sacrifice  a 
sheep  or  goat  to  the  fetish,  and  feast  on  it  with  their  friends, 
only  leaving  for  the  deity  himself  part  of  the  entrails^; 
when  Tunguz,  sacrificing  cattle,  would  give  a  bit  of  liver 
and  fat  and  perhaps  hang  up  the  hide  in  the  woods  as  the 
god's  share,  or  Mongols  would  set  the  heart  of  the  beast 
before  the  idol  till  next  day.'     Thus  the  most  ancient  whole 

>  ElliB,  *  Madagascar/  yol.  i.  p.  419. 

^  Bdmer,  'Gninea,'  p.  59.    Bosmania  Pinkerton,  yoL  zri.  p.  899. 
'  Klemm,  ' Coltur-Gesch.'  vol.  iii.  p.  106;    Gastrin,  'Finn.  Myth.'  f» 
232. 


400  RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

burnt-offering  of  the  Greeks  dwindled  to  boming  for  the 
gods  only  the  bones  and  fat  of  the  slaughtered  ox,  while  the 
worshippers  feasted  themselves  on  the  meati  an  economic 
rite  which  takes  mythic  shape  in  the  legend  of  the  sly 
Prometheus  giving  Zeus  the  choice  of  the  two  parts  of  the 
sacrificed  ox  he  had  divided  for  gods  and  mortals,  on  the 
one  side  bones  covered  seemly  with  white  fat,  on  the 
other  the  joints  hidden  under  repulsive  hide  and  entrails.^ 
With  a  different  motive,  not  that  of  parsimony,  but  of  keep- 
ing up  in  survival  an  ancient  rite,  the  Zarathustrian  religion 
performed  by  substitution  the  old  Aryan  sacrifice  by  fire. 
The  Yedic  sacrifice  Agnishtoma  required  that  animals  should 
be  slain,  and  their  flesh  partly  committed  to  the  gods  by 
fire,  partly  eaten  by  sacrificers  and  priests.  The  Parsi 
ceremony  Izeshne,  formal  successor  of  this  bloody  rite^ 
requires  no  animal  to  be  killed,  but  it  suffices  to  place  the 
hair  of  an  ox  in  a  vessel,  and  show  it  to  the  fire.'  ' 

The  offering  of  a  part  of  the  worshipper*s  own  body  is  a 
most  usual  rite,  whether  its  intention  is  simply  that  of  gift 
or  tribute,  or  whether  it  is  considered  as  a  pars  pro  tola  I 

representing  the  whole  man,  either  in  danger  and  requiring 
to  be  ransomed,  or  destined  to  actual  sacrifice  for  another 
and  requiring  to  be  redeemed.  How  a  fiinger-joint  may  thus 
represent  a  whole  body,  is  perfectly  shown  in  the  funeral  J 

sacrifices  of  the  Nicobar  islanders;   they  bury  the  dead  i 

man's  property  with  him,  and  his  wife  has  a  finger-joint  cut  .! 

off  (obviously  a  substitute  for  herself),  and  if  she  refuses 
even  this,  a  deep  notch  is  cut  in  a  pillar  of  the  house.'  We 
are  now  concerned,  however,  with  the  finger-offering,  not  as 
a  sacrifice  to  the  dead,  but  as  addressed  to  other  deities. 
This  idea  is  apparently  worked  out  in  the  Tongan  custom 
of  tutu-nima,  the  chopping  off  a  portion  of  the  little  finger 
with  a  hatchet  or  sharp  stone  as  a  sacrifice  to  the  gods,  for 
the  recovery  of  a  sick  relation  of  higher  rank ;  Mariner  saw 

»  Heaiod.  Theog.  587.    Welcker,  vol.  L  p.  764 ;  voL  ii  p.  51. 

•  Hang,  'Pama,'  Bombay,  1862,  p.  288. 

*  Hamilton  in  'Ab.  Bes.'  yol.  ii.  p.  842. 


_i 


BITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  401 

children  of  five  years  old  quarrelling  for  the  honour  of 
haying  it  done  to  them.^  In  the  Mandan  ceremonies  of 
initiation  into  manhood,  when  the  youth  at  last  hung  sense- 
less and  (as  they  called  it)  lifeless  hy  the  cords  made  fast  to 
splints  through  his  flesh,  he  was  let  down,  and  coming  to 
himself  crawled  on  hands  and  feet  round  the  medicine-lodge 
to  where  an  old  Indian  sat  with  a  hatchet  in  his  hand  and  a 
huffalo  skull  before  him ;  then  the  youth,  holding  up  the 
little  finger  of  his  left  hand  to  the  Great  Spirit,  offered  ii;  as 
a  sacrifice,  and  it  was  chopped  off,  and  sometimes  the  fore- 
finger afterwards,  upon  the  skull.^  In  India,  probably  as  a 
Dravidian  rather  than  Aryan  rite,  the  practice  with  full 
meaning  comes  into  view ;  as  Siva  cut  off  his  finger  to 
Appease  the  wrath  of  Kali,  so  in  the  southern  provinces 
mothers  will  cut  off  their  own  fingers  as  sacrifices  lest  they 
lose  their  children,  and  we  hear  of  a  golden  finger  being 
allowed  instead,  the  substitute  of  a  substitute.'  The  New 
Zealanders  hang  locks  of  hair  on  branches  of  trees  in  the 
burying-ground,  a  recognized  place  for  offerings.*  That 
hair  may  be  a  substitute  for  its  owner  is  well  shown  in 
Malabar,  where  we  read  of  the  demon  being  expelled  from 
the  possessed  patient  and  flogged  by  the  exorcist  to  a  tree  ; 
there  the  sick  man's  hair  is  nailed  fast,  cut  away,  and  left 
for  a  propitiation  to  the  demon.^  Thus  there  is  some  ground 
for  interpreting  the  consecration  of  the  boy's  cut  hair  in 
Europe  as  a  representative  sacrifice.*  As  for  the  formal 
shedding  of  blood,  it  may  represent  fatal  bloodshed,  as  when 

*  Mariner's  'Tonga.  Is/ vol.  i.  p.  454;  vol  ii.p.  222.  Cook's  'SrdVoy.' 
ToL  i.  p.  403.  Details  from  S.  Africa  in  Bastian,  *  Menscb/  vol.  iii.  pp.  4, 
24;  Scherzer,  'Yoy.  of  Novara^'  vol.  i.  p.  212. 

'  Catlin,  *N.  A.  Ind.'  vol.  i.  p.  172  ;  Elemm,  *Cultur-Qesch.'  vol.  ii.  p. 
170.  See  also  Venegas,  'Noticiade  la  California,'  vol.  i.  p.  117  ;  Garcilaso 
•de  la  Yega,  lib.  ii.  c.  8  (Peru). 

'  Buchanan,  'Mysore, 'etc.,  in  'Plnkerton,'  vol.  viii.  p.  661 ;  Meiners,  vol. 
ii.  p.  472  ;  Bastian,  1.  c.     See  also  Dubois,  '  India,'  vol.  i.  p.  5, 

*  Polack,  'New  Zealand,'  vol.  i.  p.  264. 
'  Bastian,  'Psychologie,'  p.  184. 

*  Theodoret.  in  I^evit.  six. ;  Hannsch,  '  Slaw.  Myth.'  Details  in  Bastian, 
'Mensch,'  vol.  iL  p.  229,  etc. 

TOL.  II.  D  D 


402  BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

the  Jagas  or  priests  in  Quilombo  obIj  mai'ked  with  spears 
the  children  brought  in,  instead  of  running  them  through;^ 
or  when  in  Greece  a  few  drops  of  human  blood  had  come  to 
stand  instead  of  the  earlier  and  more  barbaric  human  sacri- 
fice ;*  or  when  in  our  own  time  and  under  our  own  rule  a 
Yishnuite  who  has  inadvertently  killed  a  monkey,  a  garada,. 
or  a  cobra,  may  expiate  his  offence  by  a  mock  sacrifice,  iir 
which  a  human  victim  is  wounded  in  the  thigh,  pretends  to 
die/  and  goes  through  the  farce  of  resuscitation,  his  drawn 
blood  serving  as  substitute  for  his  life.*     One  of  the  most 
noteworthy  cases  of  the  survival  of  such  formal  bloodshed 
within  modem  memory  in  Europe  must  be  classed  as  not 
Aryan  but  Turanian,  belonging  as  it  does  to  the  folklore  of 
Esthonia.     The  sacrificer  had  to  draw  drops  of  blood,  from 
his  forefinger,  and  therewith  to  pray  this  prayer,  which  was 
taken  down  verbatim  from  one  who  remembered  it: — "I 
name  thee  with  my  blood  and  betroth  thee  with  my  bloody 
and  point  thee  out  my  buildings  to  be  blessed,  stables  and 
cattle-pens  and  hen-roosts  ;  let  them  be  blessed  through  my 
blood  and  thy  might!"     "Be  my  joy,  thou  Almighty,  up- 
holder of  my  forefathers,  my  protector  and  guardian  of  my 
life  !    I  beseech  thee  by  strength  of  flesh  and  blood ;  receive 
the  food  that  I  bring  thee  to  thy  sustenance  and  the  joy  of 
my  body ;  keep  me  as  thy  good  child,  and  I  will  thank  and 
praise  thee.     By  the  help  of  the  Almighty,  my  own  God^ 
hearken  to  me  !     What  through  negligence  I  have  done 
imperfectly  toward  thee,  do  thou  forget !     But  keep  it  truly 
in  remembrance,  that  I  have  honestly  paid  my  gifts  to  my 
parent's   honour   and  joy  and  requital.     Moreover  falling 
down  I  thrice  kiss  the  earth.     Be  with  me  quick  in  doingr 
and  peace  be  with  thee  hitherto!***     These  various  rites 
of  finger-cutting,  hair-cutting,  and  blood-letting,  have  re- 
quired mention  here  from  the  special  point  of  view  of  their 

^  Bastian,  '  Mcnscb,*  vol.  iiu  p.  113  (see  other  details). 
'  Pausan.  viil  23  ;  ix.  8. 

.•  *Encyc.  Brit.'  art  /Brahma.*    See  'Asiat  Res.'  vol.  ix.  p.  387. 
^  Boeder,  *£hsten  AberglaUbische  GebraUche,'  etc.,- p.  L 


BITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  403 

coDnexion  with  saciifice.  They  belong  to  an  extensive 
series  of  practices,  due  to  various  and  often  obscure  motives, 
which  come  under  the  general  heading  of  ceremonial  muti- 
lations. 

When  a  life  is  given  for  a  life,  it  is  still  possible  to  ofifer  a 
life  less  valued  than  the  life  in  danger.  When  in  Peru  the 
Inca  or  some  great  lord  fell  sick,  he  would  offer  to  the  deity 
one  of  his  sons,  imploring  him  to  take  this  victim  in  his 
stead.^  The  Greeks  found  it  sufficient  to  oflFer  to  the  gods 
criminals  or  captives  ;^  and  the  like  was  the  practice  of  the 
heathen  tribes  of  northern  Europe,  to  whom  indeed  Christian 
dealers  were  accused  of  selling  slaves  for  sacrificial  purposes.^ 
Among  such  accounts,  the  typical  story  belongs  to  Punic 
histoiy.  The  Carthaginians  had  been  overcome  and  hard 
pressed  in  the  war  with  Agathokles,  and  they  set  down  the 
defeat  to  divine  wrath.  Kronos  (Moloch)  had  in  former 
times  received  his  sacrifice  of  the  chosen  of  their  sons,  but 
of  late  they  had  put  him  off  with  children  bought  and 
nourished  for  the  purpose.  In  fact  they  had  obeyed  the 
sacrificer's  natural  tendency  to  substitution,  but  now  in 
time  of  misfortune  the  reaction  set  in.  To  balance  the 
account  and  condone  the  parsimonious  fraud,  a  monstrous 
sacrifice  was  celebrated.  Two  himdred  children,  of  the 
noblest  of  the  land,  were  brought  to -the  idol  of  Moloch. 
*'  For  there  was  among  them  a  brazen  statue  of  Kronos, 
holding  out  his  hands  sloping  downward,  so  that  the  child 
placed  on  them  rolled  off  and  fell  into  a  certain  chasm  full 
of  fire."*  Next,  it  will  help  us  to  realize  how  the  sacrifice 
of  an  animal  may  atone  for  a  human  life,  if  we  notice  in 
South  Africa  how  a  Zulu  will  redeem  a  lost  child  fi'om  the 
finder  by  a  bullock,  or  a  Kimbunda  will  expiate  the  blood  of 
a  slave  by  the  offering  of  an  ox,  whose  blood  will  wash  away 


*  Bivero  and  Tachudi,  p.  196.    See  '  Rites  of  Yncas,*  p.  79. 
3  Bastian,  p.  112,  etc.  ;  Smith's  'Die  of  Qj^rvy^om.  Ant.*  art.  'Sacri< 
fidnm.' 
'  Grimm,  '  Deutsche  Myth. '  p.  40. 
**  Diodor.  Sic.  xx!  14. 

^"^  D  D  2 


404  BITES  AKD  CEREMONIES. 

the  other.^  For  instances  of  the  animal  substituted  for 
man  in  sacrifice  the  following  may  serve.  Among  the 
Khonds  of  Orissa,  when  Colonel  Macpherson  was  engaged 
in  putting  down  the  sacrifice  of  human  victims  by  the  sect 
of  the  Earth-goddess,  they  at  once  began  to  discuss  the 
plan  of  sacrificing  cattle  by  way  of  substitutes.  Now  there 
is  some  reason  to  think  that  this  same  course  of  ceremonial 
change  may  account  for  the  following  sacrificial  practice  in 
the  other  Khond  sect.  It  appears  that  those  who  worship 
the  Light-god  hold  a  festival  in  his  honour,  when  they 
slaughter  a  buffalo  in  commemoration  of  the  time  when,  as 
they  say,  the  Earth-goddess  was  prevailing  on  men  to  offer 
human  sacrifices  to  her,  but  the  Light-god  sent  a  tribe- 
deity  who  crushed  the  bloody-minded  Earth-goddess  under 
a  mountain,  and  dragged  a  buffalo  out  of  the  jungle,  saying, 
**  Liberate  the  man,  and  sacrifice  the  buffalo !"'  It  looks 
as  though  this  legend,  divested  of  its  mythic  garb,  maj 
really  record  a  historical  substitution  of  animal  for  human 
sacrifice.  In  Ceylon,  the  exorcist  will  demand  the  name  of 
the  demon  possessing  a  demoniac,  and  the  patient  in  frenzy- 
answers,  giving  the  demon's  name,  '^  I  am  So-and-so,  I  de- 
mand a  human  sacrifice  and  will  not  go  out  without ! "  The 
victim  is  promised,  the  patient  comes  to  from  the  fit,  and  a 
few  weeks  later  the  sacrifice  is  made,  but  instead  of  a  man 
they  offer  a  fowl.*  Classic  examples  of  substitution  of  this 
sort  may  be  found  in  the  sacrifice  of  a  doe  for  a  virgin  to 
Artemis  in  Laodicsea,  a  goat  for  a  boy  to  Dionysos  at  Potniae. 
There  appears  to  be  Semitic  connexion  here,  as  there  clearly 
is  in  the  story  of  the  ^olians  of  Tenedos  sacrificing  to 
Melikertes  (Melkarth)  instead  of  a  new-bom  child  a  new- 
bom  calf,  shoeing  it  with  buskins  and  tending  the  mother- 
cow  as  if  a  human  mother.^ 

One  step  more  in  the  course  of  substitution  leads  the 

1  Callaway,  *  Zola  Talea,*  vol.  i.  p.  88 ;  Magyar,  <  Sfid-Afrika,'  p.  266. 
^  Macpherson,  *  India,*  pp.  108,  187. 

*  De  Silva  in  Bastian,  *  Psychologie,'  p.  181. 

*  Details  in  Pauly,  *  Beal-Encydop.'  s.  v.  'Sacrificia' ;  Bastian,  ^Mensdiy* 
voL  iii.  p.  lU  ;  Movers,  *  Ph5ni2ier,'  vol.  i.  p.  800. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIE&  405 

worshipper  to  make  his  sacrifice  by  effigy.  An  instructive 
example  of  the  way  in  which  this  kind  of  substitution  arises 
may  be  found  in  the  rites  of  ancient  Mexico.  At  the  yearly 
festival  of  the  water-gods  and  mountain-gods,  certain  actual 
sacrifices  of  human  victims  took  place  in  the  temples.  At 
the  same  time,  in  the  houses  of  the  people,  there  was  cele- 
brated an  unequivocal  but  harmless  imitation  of  this  bloody 
rite.  They  made  paste  images,  adored  them,  and  in  due 
pretence  of  sacrifice  cut  them  open  at  the  breast,  took  out 
their  hearts,  cut  off  their  heads,  divided  and  devoured  their 
limbs.^  In  the  classic  religions  of  Greece  and  Rome,  the 
desire  to  keep  up  the  consecrated  rites  of  ages  more 
barbaric,  more  bloodthirsty,  or  more  profuse,  worked  itself 
out  in  many  a  compromise  of  this  class,  such  as  the  brazen 
statues  offered  for  human  victims,  the  cakes  of  dough  or 
wax  in  the  figure  of  the  beasts  for  which  they  were  presented 
as  sjrmboUc  substitutes.^  Not  for  economy,  but  to  avoid 
taking  life,  Brahmanic  sacrifice  has  been  known  to  be 
brought  down  to  offering  models  of  the  victim-animals  in 
meal  and  butter.^  The  modem  Chinese,  whose  satisfaction 
in  this  kind  of  make-believe  is  so  well  shown  by  their 
dispatching  paper  figures  to  serve  as  attendants  for  the 
dead,  work  out  in  the  same  fanciful  way  the  idea  of  the 
sacrificial  effigy,  in  propitiating  the  presiding  deity  of  the 
year  for  the  cure  of  a  sick  man.  The  rude  figure  of  a  man 
is  drawn  on  or  cut  out  of  a  piece  of  paper,  pasted  on  a  slip 
of  bamboo,  and  stuck  upright  in  a  packet  of  mock  money. 
With  proper  exorcism,  this  representative  is  carried  out 
into  the  street  with  the  disease,  the  priest  squirts  water 
from  his  mouth  over  patient,  image,  and  mock-money,  the 
two  latter  are  burnt,  and  the  company  eat  up  the  little  feast 


'  Clayigero,  'Messico,' yol.  ii.  p.  82;  Torquemada,  'MonarquU  Indiana,' 
X.  c.  29  ;  J.  G.  MttUer,  pp.  502,  640,  See  also  iWrf.  p.  879  (Peru)  ;  'Rites 
and  Laws  of  Yncas,'  pp.  46,  54. 

*  Giote,  YoL  y.  p.  366.  Schmidt  in  Smith's  '  Die  of  Gr.  and  Rom.  AntJ 
art  'Sacrificiom.'    Bastian,  1.  c. 

*  Bastian,  '  Oestl.  Asien/  vol.  iil.  p.  501. 


r 


406  BITES  AND  CEREMONIEa 

laid  out  ^or  tlie  year-deity.^  There  is  curious  historical 
significance  in  the  custom  at  the  inundation  of  the  Nile  at 
Cairo,  of  setting  up  a  conical  pillar  of  earth  which  the  flood 
washes  away  as  it  rises.  This  is  called  the  aruseh  or  bride, 
-and  appears  to  be  a  substitute  introduced  under  humaner 
Moslem  influence,  for  the  young  virgin  in  gay  apparel  who 
in  older  time  was  thrown  into  the  river,  a  sacrifice  to  obtain 
a  plentiful  inundation.^  Again,  the  patient's  offering  the 
model  of  his  diseased  limb  is  distinctly  of  the  nature  of  a 
sacrifice,  whether  it  be  propitiatory  offering  before  cure,  or 
thank-offering  after.  On  the  one  hand,  the  ex-voto  models  [ 
of  arms  and  ears  dedicated  in  ancient  Egyptian  temples  are  I 

thought  to  be  grateful  memorials,*  as  seems  to  have  been 
the  case  with  metal  models  of  faces,  breasts,  hands,  &c.  in 
Boeotian  temples.*  On  the  other  hand,  there  are  cases 
where  the  model  and,  as  it  were,  substitute  of  the  diseased 
part  is  given  to  obtain  a  cure;  thus  in  early  Christian 
times  in  Germany  protest  was  made  against  the  heathen 
custom  of  hanging  up  carved  wooden  limbs  to  a  helpful  idol  | 
for  relief,*  and  in  modem  India  the  pilgrim  coming  for  cure  | 
will  deposit  in  the  temple  the  image  of  his  diseased  Umb, 
in  gold  or  silver  or  copper  according  to  his  means.® 

If  now  we  look  for  the  sacrificial  idea  within  the  range  of 
modem  Christendom,  we  shall  find  it  in  two  ways  not  obscurely 
manifest.  It  survives  in  traditional  folklore,  and  it  holds  a 
place  in  established  religion.  One  of  its  most  remarkable 
survivals  may  be  seen  in  Bulgaria,  where  sacrifice  of  live 
victims  is  to  this  day  one  of  the  accepted  rites  of  the  land. 
They  sacrifice  a  lamb  on  St.  George's  day,  telling  to  account 
for  the  custom  a  legend  which  combines  the  episodes  of  the 
offering  of  Isaac  and  the  miracle  of  the  Three  Children. 

*  Doolittle,  *  Chinese,'  vol.  i.  p.  152. 

*  Lane,  'Modem  Eg.'  vol.  ii.  p.  262.    Moiners,  vol.  ii.  p.  86. 
'  Wilkinson,  'Ancient  Eg.'  vol.  iii.  p.  895  ;  and  in  Rawlinson*s  Herodotns, 

vol.  ii.  p.  187.    See  1.  Sam.  vi.  4. 
<  Grimm,  'Deutsche  Myth.' p.  1181. 

*  Ibid. 

*  Bastian,  vol.  iil  p.  116. 


I 

J 


BITES  AND  CERE3I0NIES.  407 

On  the  feast  of  the  Fanagia   (Virgin  Mary)  sacrifices  of 
lambs,  kids,  honey,  wine,  &c.,  are  offered  in  order  that  the 
children  of  the  house  may  enjoy  good  health  throughout  the 
year.     A  little  child  divines  by  touching  one  of  three  saints' 
candles  to  which  the  offering  is  to  be  dedicated ;  when  the 
choice  is  thus  made,  the  bystanders  each  drink  a  cup  of 
wine,  saying  "  Saint  So-and-so,  to  thee  is  the  offering.'* 
Then  they  cut  the  throat  of  the  lamb,  or  smother  the  bees» 
and  in  the  evening  the  whole  village  assembles  to  eat  the 
various  sacrifices,  and  the  men  end  the  ceremony  with  the 
usual  drunken  bout.^    Within  the  borders  of  Russia,  many 
and  various  sacrifices  are  still  offered ;  such  is  the  horse  vdth 
head  smeared  with  honey  and  mane  decked  with  ribbons,  cast 
into  the  river  with  two  millstones  to  its  neck  to  appease  the 
water-spirit,  the  Vodyany,  at  his  spiteful  flood-time  in  early 
spring ;  and  such  is  the  portion  of  supper  left  out  for  the 
liouse-demon,  the  domovoy,  who  if  not  thus  fed  is  apt  to 
turn  spirit-rapper,  and  knock  the  tables  and  benches  about 
at  night.^    In  many  another  district  of  Europe,  the  tenaci- 
ous memory  of  the  tiller  of  the  soil  has  kept  up  in  wondrous 
perfection  heirlooms  from  prflB-Christian  faiths.     In  Fran- 
conia,  people  will  pour  on  the   ground  a  libation  before 
•drinking ;  entering  a  forest  they  will  put  offerings  of  bread 
and  fruit  on  a  stone,  to  avert  the  attacks  of  the  demon  of 
the  woods,  the  "  bilberry-man ; "  the   bakers    will   throw 
white  rolls  into  the  oven  flue  for  luck,  and  say,  "  Here, 
devil,  they  are  thine !  *'     The  Carinthian  peasant  will  fodder 
the  wind  by  setting  up  a  dish  of  food  in  a  tree  before  his 
Jiouse,  and  the  fire  by  casting  in  lard  and  dripping,  in  order 
that  gale  and  conflagration  may  not  hurt  him.    At  least  up 
to    the  end  of  last  century  this  most    direct  elemental 
sacrifice  might  be  seen  in   Germany   at    the  midsummer 
festival  in  ihe  most  perfect   form;  some  of  the  porridge 

^  St  Clair  and  Brophy,  'Bolgaria,*  p.  43.  Compare  modem  Circassiaa 
.sacrifice  of  animal  before  cross,  as  substitate  for  child,  in  Bell,  '  Circassian* 
4roI.  ii. 

'  JEUlstoD,  '  Songs  of  Russian  People/  pp.  123,  153,  etc. 


408  BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

from  the  table  was  thrown  Into  the  fire,  and  some  into  run- 
ning water,  some  was  buried  in  the  earth,  and  some  smeared 
on  leaves  and  put  on  the  chimney-top  for  the  winds.* 
Relics  of  such  ancient  sacrifice  may  be  found  in  Scandi- 
navia to  this  day ;  to  give  but  one  example,  the  old  country 
altars,  rough  earth-fast  stones  with  cup-like  hollows,  are  still 
visited  by  mothers  whose  children  have  been  smitten  with 
sickness  by  the  trolls,  and  who  smear  lard  into  the  hollows 
and  leave  rag-dolls  as  oflferings.^  France  may  be  repre- 
sented by  the  country-women's  custom  of  beginning  a  meal 
by  throwing  down  a  spoonful  of  milk  or  bouillon ;  and  by 
the  record  of  the  custom  of  Andrieux  in  Dauphiny,  where 
at  the  solstice  the  villagers  went  out  upon  the  bridge  when 
the  sun  rose,  and  offered  him  an  omelet.^  The  custom  of 
burning  alive  the  finest  calf,  to  save  a  murrain-struck  herd, 
had  its  last  examples  in  Cornwall  in  the  present  century ; 
the  records  of  bealtuinn  sacrifices  in  Scotland  continue  in 
the  Highlands  within  a  century  ago ;  and  Scotchmen  still 
living  remember  the  comer  of  a  field  being  left  untiQed  for 
the  Goodman's  Croft  {i.e.,  the  Devil's),  but  the  principle  of 
"  cheating  the  devil "  was  already  in  vogue,  and  the  piece 
of  land  allotted  was  but  a  worthless  scrap.*  It  is  a 
remnant  of  old  sacrificial  rite,  when  the  Swedes  still  bake 
at  yule-tide  a  cake  in  the  shape  of  a  boar,  representing  the 
boar  sacrificed  of  old  to  Freyr,  and  Oxford  to  this  day  com-^ 
memorates  the  same  ancestral  ceremony,  when  the  boar*s. 
head  is  carried  in  to  the  Christmas  feast  at  Queen's  College,, 
with  its  appointed  carol,  "  Caput  apri  deiero,  Beddens 
laudes  Domino."^    With  a  lingering  recollection  of  the  old 

*  Wnttkc,  *  Deutsche  Volksaberglaube,*  p.  86.  See  also  Gximm,  *  Deatsche 
Myth.' pp.  417,  602. 

*  Hylt^n-Cavallius,  '  Warend  och  Wirdame,' part  i.  pp.  181,  146,  157,  etc* 

*  Monnier,  'Traditions  Populaires/  pp.  187,  666. 

^  R.  Hunt,  'Pop.  Rom.  of  W.  of  England,*  Ist  Ser.  p.  237.  Pennant, 
'Tour  in  Scotland,'  in  Piukerton,  vol.  iiL  p.  49.  J.  Y.  Simpson,  Address 
to  See.  Antiq.  Scotland,  1861,  p.  33  ;  Brand,  'Pop.  Ant.'  toI.  iiL  pp.  74,. 
817. 

»  Brand,  vol.  i  p.  484.  Grimm,  *D.  M.'  pp.  45,  194,  1188,  see  250;, 
'Deutsche  Rcchtsalterthfimer,'  p.  900  ;  Hylt^n-Cayallins,  part  i.  p.  175. 


BITES  AND  CEREMONIEa  40^ 

libations^  the  German  toper*s  saying  still  runs  that  heeltaps 
are  a  devil's  offering.^ 

As  for  sacrificial  rites  most  fully  and  officially  existing  in 
modem  Christendom,  the  presentation  of  ex-votos  is  one* 
The  ecclesiastical  opposition  to  the  continuance  of  these 
classic  thank-offerings  was  but  temporary  and  partial.  In 
the  5th  century  it  seems  to  have  been  usual  to  offer  silver 
and  gold  eyes,  feet,  &c.,  to  saints  in  acknowledgment  of 
cures  they  had  effected.  At  the  beginning  of  the  16th 
century,  Polydore  Vergil,  describing  the  classic  custom, 
goes  on  to  say :  **  In  the  same  manner  do  we  now  offer  up 
in  our  churches  sigillaria,  that  is,  little  images  of  wax,  and 
OBcilla.  As  oft  as  any  part  of  the  body  is  hurt,  as  the  hand,, 
foot,  breast,  we  presently  make  a  vow  to  God,  and  his 
saints,  to  whom  upon  our  recovery  we  make  an  offering  of 
that  hand  or  foot  or  breast  shaped  in  wax,  which  custom 
has  so  far  obtained  that  this  kind  of  images  have  passed  to 
the  other  animals.  Wherefore  so  for  an  ox,  so  for  a  horse,. 
so  for  a  sheep,  we  place  puppets  in  the  temples.  In  which 
thing  any  modestly  scrupulous  person  may  perhaps  say  he 
knows  not  whether  we  are  rivalling  the  religion  or  the 
superstition  of  the  ancients."^  In  modem  Europe  the 
custom  prevails  largely,  but  has  perhaps  somewhat  subsided 
into  low  levels  of  society,  to  judge  by  the  general  use  of 
mock  silver  and  such  like  worthless  materials  for  the  dedi- 
cated effigies.  In  Christian  as  in  prae-Christian  temples^ 
clouds  of  incense  rise  as  of  old.  Above  all,  though  the 
ceremony  of  sacrifice  did  not  form  an  original  part  of 
Christian  worship,  its  prominent  place  in  the  ritual  was 
obtained  in  early  centuries.  In  that  Christianity  was  re- 
cruited among  nations  to  whom  the  conception  of  sacrifice 
was  among  the  deepest  of  religious  ideas,  and  the  ceremony 
of  sacrifice  among  the  sincerest  efforts  of  worship,  there 
arose  an  observance   suited  to   supply  the  vacant  place*. 

»  Grimm,  '  D.  M/  p.  962. 

*  Beausobre,  vol.  ii.  p.  667.     Polyilonis  Vci^ius,  De  Inyentoribus  Rem 
(Basel,  1521),  lib.  v.  1. 


410  BITES  AKD  CEREMONIKS* 

^his  result  was  obtained  not  by  new  introduction,  but  by 
transmutation.  The  solemn  eucharistic  meal  of  the  primi- 
tive Christians  in  time  assumed  the  name  of  the  sacrifice 
of  the  mass,  and  was  adapted  to  a  ceremonial  in  which  an 
offering  of  food  and  drink  is  set  out  by  a  priest  on  an  altar 
in  a  temple,  and  consumed  by  priest  and  worshippers.  The 
natural  conclusion  of  an  ethnographic  survey  of  sacrifice,  is 
to  point  to  the  controversy  between  Protestants  and  Catho- 
lics, for  centuries  past  one  of  the  keenest  which  have 
divided  the  Christian  world,  on  this  express  question 
whether  sacrifice  is  or  is  not  a  Christian  rite. 

The  next  group  of  rites  to  be  considered  comprises 
Fasting  and  ceiiiain  other  means  of  producing  ecstasy  and 
other  morbid  exaltation  for  religious  ends.  In  the  fore- 
going researches  on  animism,  it  is  frequently  observed  or 
implied  that  the  religious  beliefs  of  the  lower  races  are  in 
no  small  measure  based  on  the  evidence  of  visions  and 
dreams,  regarded  as  actual  intercourse  with  spiritual  beings. 
From  the  earliest  phases  of  culture  upward,  we  find  religion 
in  close  alliance  with  ecstatic  physical  conditions.  These 
are  brought  on  by  various  means  of  interference  with  tihe 
healthy  action  of  body  and  mind,  and  it  is  scarcely  needful 
to  remind  the  reader  that,  according  to  philosophic  theories 
antecedent  to  those  of  modern  medicine,  such  morbid 
disturbances  are  explained  as  symptoms  of  divine  visitation, 
or  at  least  of  superhuman  spirituality.  Among  the  strongest 
means  of  disturbing  the  functions  of  the  mind  so  as  to  pro- 
duce ecstatic  vision,  is  fasting,  accompanied  as  it  so  usually 
is  with  other  privations,  and  with  prolonged  solitary 
contemplation  in  the  desert  or  the  forest.  Among  the 
ordinary  vicissitudes  of  savage  life,  the  wild  hunter  has 
many  a  time  to  try  involuntarily  the  effects  of  such  a  life 
for  days  and  weeks  together,  and  under  these  circumstances 
he  soon  comes  to  see  and  talk  with  phantoms  which  are  to 
him  visible  personal  spirits.  The  secret  of  spiritual  inter. 
course  thus  learnt,  he  has  thenceforth'  but  to  reproduce  the 
■cause  in  order  to  renew  the  effects. 


«ITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  411 

The  rite  of  fasting,  and  the  utter  objective  reality  ascribed 
to  what  we  call  its  morbid  symptoms,  are  shown  in  striking 
details  among  the  savage  tribes  of  North  America.  Among 
the  Indians  (the  accounts  mostly  refer  to  the  Algonquin 
tribes),  long  and  rigorous  fasting  is  enjoined  among  boys 
tmd  girls  from  a  very  early  age ;  to  be  able  to  fast  long  is 
tm  enviable  distinction,  and  they  will  abstain  from  food 
three  to  seven  days,  or  even  more,  taking  only  a  little 
water.  During  these  fasts,  especial  attention  is  paid  to 
<lreams.  Thus  Tanner  tells  the  story  of  a  certain  Net- 
no-kwa,  who  at  twelve  years  old  fasted  ten  successive  days, 
<:ill  in  a  dream  a  man  came  and  stood  before  her,  and  after 
-speaking  of  many  things  gave  her  two  sticks,  sajdng,  "  I 
^dve  you  these  to  walk  upon,  and  your  hair  I  give  it  to  be 
like  snow ;  "  this  assurance  of  extreme  old  age  was  through 
life  a  support  to  her  in  times  of  danger  and  distress.  At 
manhood  the  Indian  lad,  retiring  to  a  solitary  place  to  fast 
and  meditate  and  pray,  receives  visionary  impressions 
which  stamp  his  character  for  life,  and  especially  he  waits 
tiU  there  appears  to  him  in  a  dream  some  animal  or  thing 
which  will  be  henceforth  his  "  medicine,"  the  fetish-repre- 
sentative of  his  manitu  or  protecting  genius.  For  instance, 
■an  aged  warrior  who  had  thus  in  his  youth  dreamed  of  a 
bat  coming  to  him,  wore  the  skin  of  a  bat  on  the  crown  of 
his  head  henceforth,  and  was  all  his  life  invulnerable  to  his 
•enemies  as  a  bat  on  the  wing.  In  after  life,  an  Indian  who 
wants  anything  will  fast  till  he  has  a  dream  that  his  manitu 
will  grant  it  him.  While  the  men  are  away  hunting,  the 
children  are  sometimes  made  to  fast,  that  in  their  dreams 
they  may  obtain  omens  of  the  chase.  Hunters  fasting 
before  an  expedition  are  informed  in  dreams  of  the  haunts 
t>f  the  game,  and  the  means  of  appeasing  the  wrath  of  the 
bad  spirits ;  if  the  dreamer  fancies  he  sees  an  Indian  who 
has  been  long  dead,  and  hears  him  say,  ''If  thou  wilt 
sacrifice  to  me  thou  shalt  shoot  deer  at  pleasure,"  he  will 
prepare  a  sacrifice,  and  bum  the  whole  or  part  of  a  deer,  in 
honour  of  the  apparition.      Especially  the   "meda"   or 


412  RITES  AND  CEREMONIES* 

'*  medicine-maii "  receives  in  fasts  much  of  his  qualifioa- 
tion  for  his  sacred  office.  The  Ojibwa  prophetess,  known 
in  after  life  as  Catherine  Wabose,  in  telling  the  story  of 
her  early  years,  relates  how  at  the  age  of  womanhood  she- 
fasted  in  her  secluded  lodge  tiU  she  went  up  into  the 
heavens  and  saw  the  spirit  at  the  entrance,  the  Bright  Blae 
Sky  ;  this  was  the  first  supernatural  communication  of  her 
prophetic  career.  The  account  given  to  Schoolcraft  by 
Chingwauk,  an  Algonquin  chief  deeply  versed  in  the  mystic 
lore  and  picture-writing  of  his  people,  is  as  follows : 
*'  Chingwauk  began  by  saying  that  the  ancient  Tndians 
made  a  great  merit  of  fasting.  They  fasted  sometimes 
six  or  seven  days,  till  both  their  bodies  and  minds  became 
free  and  light,  which  prepared  them  to  dream.  The  object 
of  the  ancient  seers  was  to  dream  of  the  sun ;  as  it  was 
believed  that  such  a  dream  would  enable  them  to  see  every- 
thing on  the  earth.  And  by  fasting  long  and  thinking 
much  on  the  subject,  they  generally  succeeded.  Fasts 
and  dreams  were  at  first  attempted  at  an  early  age.  What 
a  young  man  sees  and  experiences  during  these  dreams  and 
fasts,  is  adopted  by  him  as  truth,  and  it  becomes  a  prin* 
ciple  to  regulate  his  future  life.  He  relies  for  success  on 
these  revelations.  If  he  has  been  much  favoured  in  his 
fasts,  and  the  people  believe  that  he  has  the  art  of  looking; 
into  futurity,  the  path  is  open  to  the  highest  honours. 
The  prophet,  he  continued,  begins  to  try  his  power  in 
secret,  with  only  one  assistant,  whose  testimony  is  neces- 
sary should  he  succeed.  As  he  goes  on,  he  puts  down. 
the  figures  of  his  dreams  and  revelations,  by  symbols, 
on  bark  or  other  material,  till  a  whole  winter  is  some* 
times  passed  in  pursuing  the  subject,  and  he  thus  has 
a  record  of  his  principal  revelations.  If  what  he  pre- 
dicts is  verified,  the  assistant  mentions  it,  and  the  record 
is  then  appealed  to  as  proof  of  his  prophetic  power  and 
skill.  Time  increases  his  fame.  His  kee-ke^-wina,  or 
records,  are  finally  shown  to  the  old  people,  who  meet 
together  and  consult  upon  them^  for  the   whole  nation 


BITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  41 


r» 


believe  in  these  revelations.  They  in  the  end  give  their 
approval,  and  declare  that  he  is  gifted  as  a  prophet — ^is 
inspired  with  wisdom,  and  is  fit  to  lead  the  opinions  of  the 
nation.  Such,  he  concluded,  was  the  ancient  custom,  and 
the  celebrated  old  war-captains  rose  to  their  power  in  this 
manner/'  It  remains  to  say  that  among  these  American 
tribes,  the  "jossakeed"  or  soothsayer  prepares  himself  by 
fasting  and  the  use  of  the  sweating-bath  for  the  state  of 
convulsive  ecstasy  in  which  he  utters  the  dictates  of  his 
familiar  spirits.^ 

The  practice  of  fasting  is  described  in  other  districts  of 
the  uncultured  world  as  carried  on  to  produce  similar 
ecstasy  and  supernatural  converse.  The  account  by  Roman 
Pane  in  the  Life  of  Colon  describes  the  practice  in  Hayti 
of  fasting  to  obtain  knowledge  of  future  events  fi'om  the 
spirits  (cemi) ;  and  a  century  or  two  later,  rigorous  fasting 
formed  part  of  the  apprentice's  preparation  for  the  craft  of 
"  boy6 "  or  sorcerer,  evoker,  consulter,  propitiator,  and 
exorciser  of  spirits.*  The  "  keebfet "  or  conjurors  of  the 
Abipones  were  believed  by  the  natives  to  be  able  to  inflict 
disease  and  death,  cure  all  disorders,  make  known  distant 
and  future  events,  cause  rain,  hail,  and  tempests,  call  up 
the  shades  of  the  dead,  put  on  the  form  of  tigers,  handle 
serpents  unharmed,  etc.  These  powers  were  imparted  by 
diabolical  assistance,  and  Father  Dobrizho£fer  thus  describes 
the  maimer  of  obtaining  them  : — "  Those  who  aspire  to  the 
office  of  juggler  are  said  to  sit  upon  an  aged  willow,  over- 
hanging some  lake,  and  to  abstain  from  food  for  several 
days,  till  they  begin  to  see  into  futurity.  It  always 
appeared  probable  to  me  that  these  rogues,  from  long 
fasting,  contract  a  weakness  of  brain,  a  giddiness,  and  kind 

^  Tanner's  *NaiTatiya,'p.  288.  Loskiel,  'N.  A.  Ind/part  i.  p.  76.  School- 
craft, 'Ind.  Tribes,'  part  i  pp.  84,  118,  860,  891 ;  partiii.  p.  227.  Catlin, 
*K.  A.  Ind.'  voL  i  p.  86.  Charlevoiz,  *  Nonv.  Fr.*  vol.  ii.  p.  170  ;  vol.  vi.  p. 
67.  Klemm,  'Cultiir-Qesch.'  vol.  iL  p.  170.  Waitz,  'Anthropologic,'  voLiii. 
pp.  206,  217. 

*  Colombo,  'Yita,'  ch.  xzv.  Rochefort,  'lies  Antilles,'  p.  501.  See  also 
Meiners,  voL  ii  p.  143  (Gnyana). 


414  RITES  AND  CEREM0N1E& 

of  deliritim,  which  makes  them  imagine  that  they  are  gifted 
with  superior  wisdom,  and  give  themselves  out  for  magi- 
cians. They  impose  upon  themselves  first,  arid  afterwards 
upon  others."  ^  The  Malay,  to  make  himself  invulnerable, 
retires  for  three  days  to  solitude  and  scanty  food  in  the 
jungle,  and  if  on  the  third  day  he  dreams  of  a  beautiful 
spirit  descending  to  speak  to  him,  the  charm  is  worked.' 
The  Zulu  doctor  qualifies  himself  for  intercourse  with  the 
'*  amadhlozi,"  or  ghosts,  from  whom  he  is  to  obtain  direc- 
tion in  his  craft,  by  spare  abstemious  diet,  want,  suffering} 
castigation,  and  solitary  wandering,  till  fainting  fits  or  coma 
bring  him  into  direct  intercourse  with  the  spirits.  These 
native  diviners  fast  often,  and  are  worn  out  by  fastings, 
sometimes  of  several  days'  duration,  when  they  become 
partially  or  wholly  ecstatic,  and  see  visions.  So  thoroughly 
is  the  connexion  between  fasting  and  spiritual  intercourse 
acknowledged  by  the  Zulus,  that  it  has  become  a  saying 
among  them,  "  The  continually  stuffed  body  cannot  see 
secret  things."     They  have  no  faith  in  a  fat  prophet.' 

The  effects  thus  looked  for  and  attained  by  fasting  among 
uncultured  tribes  continue  into  the  midst  of  advanced  civili- 
zation.  No  wonder  that,  in  the  Hindu  tale,  king  Vasava- 
datta  and  his  queen  after  a  solemn  penance  and  a  three 
days*  fast  should  see  Siva  in  a  dream  and  receive  his  gra- 
cious tidings ;  no  wonder  that,  in  the  actual  experience  of 
to-day,  the  Hindu  yogi  should  bring  on  by  fasting  a  state 
in  which  he  can  with  bodily  eye&  behold  the  gods.*  The  jj 
Greek  oracle-priests  recognized  fasting  as  a  means  of  bring-  ti 
ing  on  prophetic  dreams  and  visions ;  the  Pythia  of  Delphi 
herself  fasted  for  inspiration ;  Galen  remarks  that  fasting 
dreams  are  the  clearer.^     Through  after  ages,  both  cause 

*  Dobrizhoffer,  *  Abipones,*  vol.  ii.  p.  68. 
^  St.  John,  *  Far  East,*  voL  i  p.  144. 

"  D<5hne,  'Zulu  Die'  s.  v.   'nyangaj'  Gront,   ' Zulu-land,' p.  158;  Calla- 
way, 'Beligion  of  Amazuln,'  p.  387. 

Somadeva  Bhatta,  tr.  Brockbaus,  vol.  ii.  p.  81.    Meiners,  vol.  ii.  p- 1^/* 

•  Maury,  * Magie,'  etc.,  p.  237 ;  Pausan.  i.  84 ;  Philostrat.  ApoUon.  Tyan.  J*  p 
Galen.  Comment,  in  Hippocrat.  i 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES,  4l5 

and  consequence  have  held  their  places  in  Christendom. 

Thus  Michael  the  Archangel,  with  sword  in  right  hand  and 

scales  in  left,  appears  to  a  certain  priest  of  Siponte,  wha 

during  a  twelvemonth's  course  of  prayer  and  fasting  had 

been   asking    if  he   would    have    a  temple  built  in  his. 

honour : — 

"  precibus  jejunia  longis 
Addiderat,  totoque  orans  se  afiOixerat  anno."  ^ 

Reading  the  narratives  of  the  wondrous  sights  seen  hy 
St.  Theresa  and  her  companions,  how  the  saint  went  in 
spirit  into  hell  and  saw  the  darkness  and  fire  and  unutter- 
able despair,  how  she  saw  often  by  her  side  her  good  patrons 
Peter  and  Paul,  how  when  she  was  raised  in  rapture  above 
the  grate  at  the  nimnery  where  she  was  to  take  the  sacra- 
ment, Sister  Mary  Baptist  and  others  being  present,  they 
saw  an  angel  by  her  with  a  golden  fiery  dart  at  the  end 
whereof  was  a  little  fire,  and  he  thrust  it  through  her  heart 
and  bowels  and  pulled  them  out  with  it,  leaving  her  wholly 
inflamed  with  a  great  love  of  God — the  modem  reader 
naturally  looks  for  details  of  physical  condition  and  habit 
of  life  among  the  sisterhood,  and  as  naturally  finds  that 
St.  Theresa  was  of  morbid  constitution  and  subject  to 
trances  from  her  childhood,  in  after  life  subduing  her  flesh 
by  long  watchings  and  religious  discipline,  and  keeping 
severe  fast  during  eight  months  of  the  year.*  It  is  needless 
to  multiply  such  mediaeval  records  of  fasts  which  have  pro- 
duced their  natural  effects  in  beatific  vision — are  they  not 
written  page  after  page  in  the  huge  folios  of  the  Bollandists  ? 
So  long  as  fasting  is  continued  as  a  religious  rite,  so  long 
its  consequences  in  morbid  mental  exaltation  will  continue 
the  old  and  savage  doctrine  that  morbid  phantasy  is  super- 
natural experience.  Bread  and  meat  would  have  robbed 
the  ascetic  of  many  an  angel's  visit ;  the  opening  of  the 
refectory  door  must  many  a  time  have  closed  the  gates  of 
heaven  to  his  gaze, 

*  Baptist.  Mantnan.  Fast,  ix,  S50. 

*  '  Acta  Sanctorum  BoUand,'    S.  Theresa, 


416  BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

It  is  indeed  not  the  complete  theory  of  fasting  as  a  reli- 
gious rite,  bat  only  an  important  and  perhaps  original  part 
of  it,  that  here  comes  into  view.  Abstinence  from  food 
has  a  principal  place  among  acts  of  self-mortification  or 
penance,  a  province  of  religious  ordinance  into  which  the 
present  argument  scarcely  enters.  Looking  at  the  practice 
of  fasting  here  from  an  animistic  point  of  view,  as  a  process 
of  bringing  on  dreams  and  visions,  it  will  be  well  to  mentioE 
with  it  certain  other  means  by  which  ecstatic  phenomena 
are  habitually  induced. 

One  of  these  means  is  the  use  of  drugs.  In  the  West  India 
Islands  at  the  time  of  the  discovery,  Columbus  describes 
the  religious  ceremony  of  placing  a  platter  containing  "  co- 
hoba"  powder  on  the  head  of  the  idol,  the  worshippers  then 
snuffing  up  this  powder  through  a  cane  with  two  branches 
put  to  the  nose.  Pane  further  describes  how  the  native 
priest,  when  brought  to  a  sick  man,  would  put  himself  in 
communication  with  the  spirits  by  thus  snuffing  cohoba, 
^'  which  makes  him  drunk,  that  he  knows  not  what  he  doeSi 
and  so  says  many  extraordinary  things,  wherein  they  affirm 
that  they  are  talking  with  the  cemis,  and  that  from  them  it 
is  told  them  that  the  infirmity  came."  On  the  Amazons, 
the  Omaguas  have  continued  to  modern  times  the  use  of 
narcotic  plants,  producing  an  intoxication  lasting  twenty- 
four  hours,  dming  which  they  are  subject  to  extraordinary 
visions ;  from  one  of  these  plants  they  obtain  the  "  curupa" 
powder  which  they  snuff  into  their  nostrils  with  a  Y-shaped 
reed.^  Here  the  similar  names  and  uses  of  the  drug  plainly 
show  historical  connexion  between  the  Omaguas  and  the  An- 
tiUes  islanders.  The  Californian  Indians  would  give  children 
narcotic  potions,  in  order  to  gain  from  the  ensuing  visions 
information  about  their  enemies ;  and  thus  the  Mundrucus 


*  Colombo,  *  Vita,'  ch.  Ixii. ;  Roman  Pane,  ibid.  cb.  rv. ;  and  in  Plnkertcn, 
voL  xii.  Condamine,  'Travels,'  in  Pinkerton,  vol.  xiv.  p.  226;  Martiiia, 
'  Etbnog.  Amer.*  vol.  i.  pp.  441,  681  (details  of  snuff-powders  among  Omagiua> 
Otomacs,  etc. ;  native  names  cnrupd,  paricd^  niopo,  nupa ;  made  from  seeds 
of  Mimosa  acacioideSy  Acacia  niopo). 


BITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  417 

of  North  Brazil,  desiring  to  discover  murderers,  would 
administer  such  drinks  to  seers,  in  whose  dreams  the 
criminals  appeared/  The  Darien  Indians  used  the  seeds  of 
the  Datura  sanguinea  to  bring  on  in  children  prophetic 
delirium,  in  which  they  revealed  hidden  treasure.  In  Peru 
the  priests  who  talked  with  the  *'  huaca  '^  or  fetishes  used 
to  throw  themselves  into  an  ecstatic  condition  by  a  narcotic 
^ink  called  ''  tonca,"  made  from  the  same  plant,  whence 
its  name  of  ''  huacacacha  "  or  fetish-herb.^  The  Mexican 
priests  also  appear  to  have  used  an  ointm^it  or  drink  made 
with  seeds  of  ''  ololiuhqui,"  which  produced  delirium  and 
visions.'  In  both  Americas  tobacco  was  used  for  such  pur- 
poses. It  must  be  noticed  that  smoking  is  more  or  less 
used  among  native  races  to  produce  fiill  intoxication,  the 
smoke  being  swallowed  for  the  purpose.  By  smoking 
tobacco,  the  sorcerers  of  Brazilian  tribes  raised  themselves 
to  ecstasy  in  their  convulsive  orgies,  and  saw  spirits ;  no 
v^onder  tobacco  came  to  be  called  the  "  holy  herb."  *  So 
North  American  Indians  held  intoxication  by  tobacco  to  be 
-supernatural  ecstasy,  and  the  dreams  of  men  in  this  state 
to  be  inspired.'^  This  idea  may  explain  a  remarkable  pro- 
ceeding of  the  Delaware  Indians.  At  their  festival  in 
honour  of  the  Fire-god  with  his  twelve  attendant  manitus* 
inside  the  house  of  sacrifice  a  small  oven-hut  was  set  up, 
-consisting  of  twelve  poles  tied  together  at  the  top  and 
•covered  with  blankets,  high  enough  for  a  man  to  stand 
nearly  upright  within  it.  After  the  feast  this  oven  was 
heated  with  twelve  red-hot  stones,  and  twelve  men  crept 
inside.  An  old  man  threw  twelve  pipefulls  of  tobacco  on 
these  stones,  and  when  the  patients  had  borne  to  the  utmost 

^  Manry, '  Magie,'  etc.  p.  425. 

^  Seemann,  '  Toy.  of  Herald,'  voL  L  p.  256.  Biyeio  and  Tschndi,  *  Pent- 
Tian  Antiquities,'  p.  181.    J.  G.  MiUler,  p.  897. 

'  Brasaenr,  *  lieziqne,*  yoL  iii.  .p.  558  ;  Clatjgero,  vol.  it  p.  40  ;  J.  O. 
Miiller,  p.  «56. 

«  J.  O.  HtOler,  '  Amer.  Urrelig;*  p.  277  ;  Henuaidez,'<Hiatori^  Mexicttu^* 
lib.  y.  a  51 ;  Puichas,  yoL  iy.  p.  1292. 

»  D.  Wilson,  •Prehirtoric  Man,'  vol.  I  p.  487.  ..      .    '. 

VOL.   II.  BR 


418  BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

the  heat  and  Buffocating  smoke,  they  were  taken  onti  gene- 
rally  flBdling  in  a  swoon.^  This  practice,  which  was  carried 
on  in  the  last  century,  is  remarkable  for  its  coincidence 
with  the  Scythian  mode  of  purification  after  a  funeral,  as 
described  by  Herodotus.  He  relates  that  they  make  their 
hut  with  three  stakes  sloping  together  at  the  top  and 
covered  in  with  woollen  felts ;  then  they  cast  red-hot  stones 
into  a  trough  placed  within  and  throw  hemp-seed  on  them, 
which  sends  forth  fumes  such  as  no  Greek  vapoar-bath 
could  exceed,  and  the  Scyths  in  their  sweating-hut  roar 
with  delight.* 

Not  to  dwell  on  the  ancient  Aryan  deification  of  an 
intoxicating  drink,  the  original  of  the  divine  Soma  of  the 
Hindus  and  the  divine  Haoma  of  the  Parsis,  nor  on  the 
drunken  orgies  of  the  worship  of  Dionysos  in  ancient 
Greece,  we  find  more  exact  Old  World  analogues  of  the 
ecstatic  medicaments  used  in  the  lower  culture.  Such  are 
the  decoctions  of  thalasseegle  which  Pliny  speaks  of  as 
drunk  to  produce  delirium  and  visions ;  the  drugs  men- 
tioned by  Hesychius,  whereby  Hekate  was  evoked;  the 
mediseval  witch-ointments  which  brought  visionary  beings 
into  the  presence  of  the  patient,  transported  him  to  the 
witches'  sabbath,  enabled  him  to  turn  into  a  beast.'  The 
survival  of  such  practices  is  most  thorough  among  the 
Persian  dervishes  of  oxir  own  day.  These  mystics  are  not 
only  opium-eaters,  like  so  large  a  proportion  of  tkeir 
countrymen ;  they  are  hashish-smokers,  and  the  effect  of 
this  drug  is  to  bring  them  into  a  state  of  exaltation  passing 
into  utter  hallucination.  To  a  patient  in  this  condition, 
says  Dr.  Polak,  a  little  stone  in  the  road  will  seem  a  great 
block  that  he  must  stride'  over;  a  gutter  becomes  a  leide 
stream  to  his  eyes,  and  he  calls  for  a  boat  to  ferry  Um 


»  Loekid,  '  lad.  of  N.  A-'  part  L  p.  42. 

«  Herodot.  iv.  78-5. 

*  Haury,  'Magie,'  etc.  L  c. ;  Plin.  xxiv.  102;  Hesycb.  8.  v.  *«Wtiv«. 
See  also  BoBtian,  'Henach/  voL  ii.  p.  152,  etc.;  Baiiog-Gonld,  'Were- 
wolTca,'  p.  14». 


I 

1 


BITES  AND  CEBEMONIES.  419 

across;  men's  voices  sound  like  thunder  in  his  ears;  he 
fancies  he  has  wings  and  can  rise  from  the  ground.  These 
ecstatic  effects^  in  which  miracle  is  matter  of  hourly  expe- 
rience, are  considered  in  Persia  as  high  religious  develop- 
ments ;  the  visionaries  and  their  rites  are  looked  on  as  holy, 
and  they  make  converts.^ 

Many  details  of  the  production  of  ecstasy  and  swoon  by 
bodily  exercises,  chanting  and  screaming,  etc.,  have  been 
incidentally  given  in  describing  the  doctrine  of  demoniacal 
possession.  I  will  only  further  cite  a  few  typical  cases  to 
show  that  the  practice  of  bringing  on  swoons  or  fits  by 
religious  exercises,  in  reality  or  pretence,  is  one  belonging 
originally  to  savagery,  whence  it  has  been  continued  into 
higher  grades  of  civilization.  We  may  judge  of  the  mental 
and  bodily  condition  of  the  priest  or  sorcerer  in  Guyana,  by 
his  preparation  for  his  sacred  office.  This  consisted  in  the 
first  place  in  fasting  and  flagellation  of  extreme  severity ;  at 
the  end  of  his  fast  he  had  to  dance  till  he  fell  senseless,  and 
was  revived  by  a  potion  of  tobacco-juice  causing  violent 
nausea  and  vomiting  of  blood ;  day  after  dlEiy  this  treatment 
was  continued  till  the  candidate,  brought  into  or  confirmed 
in  the  condition  of  a  "  convulsionary,"  was  ready  to  pass 
from  patient  into  doctor.^  -  Again,  at  the  Winnebago  medi- 
cine-feast, members  of  the  fraternity  assemble  in  a  long 
arched  booth,  and  with  them  the  candidates  for  initiation, 
whose  preparation  is  a  three  days'  fast,  with  severe  sweating 
and  steaming  with  herbs,  under  the  direction  of  the  old 
medicine-men.  The  initiation  is  performed  in  the  assembly 
by  a  number  of  medicine-men.  These  advance  in  line,  as 
many  abreast  as  there  are  candidates  ;  holding  their  medi- 
cine-bags before  them  with  both  hands,  they  dance  forward 
slowly  at  first,  uttering  low  guttural  sounds  as  they  approach 
the  candidates,  their  step  and  voice  increasing  in  energy, 
until  with  a  violent  ''  Ough ! "  they  thrust  their  medicine- 

'  Polak,  'Pernen/  yoL  ii  p.  245  ;  Yamb^iyin '  Mem.  Anthrop.  Soc.'  voL  ii. 
p.  20  ;  Meinen,  vol.  ii.  p.  216. 
-  Ucinen,  voL  ii.  p.  162. 

E  £  2 


4f20  RITES    AND  CEREMONIES. 

bags  at  their  breasts.    Instantly,  as  if  struck  with  an  electric 
shock,  the  candidates  fall  prostrate  on  their  faces,  their 
limbs  extended,  their  muscles  rigid  and  quivering.   Blankets 
:are  now  thrown  over  them,  and  they  are  suffered  to  lie  thus 
*  few  moments ;  as  soon  as  they  show  signs  of  recovering 
from  the  shock,  they  are  assisted  to  their  feet  and  led  forward. 
Medicine-bags  are  then  put  in  their  hands,  and  medicine- 
stones  in  their  mouths ;  they  are  now  medicine  men  or 
women,  as  the  case  may  be,  in  full  communion  and  fellow- 
ship ;  and  they  now  go  round  the  bower  in  company  with 
the  old  members,  knocking  others  down  promiscuously  by 
thrusting  their  medicine-bags  at  them.     A  feast  and  dance 
to  the  music  of  drum   and  rattle  carry  on  the  festival.^ 
Another  instance  may  be  taken  from  among  the  Alfums  of 
Celebes,  inviting  Empong  Lembej  to  descend  into  their 
midst.     The  priests  chant,  the  chief  priest  with  twitching 
and  trembling  limbs  txu^s  his  eyes  towards  heaven ;  Lembej 
descends  into  him,  and  with  horrible  gestures  he  springs 
upon  a  board,  beats  about  with  a  bundle  of  leaves,  leaps 
and  dances,  chanting  legends  of  an  ancient  deity.    After 
some  hours  another  priest  reUeves  him,  and  sings  of  another 
deity.     So  it  goes  on  day  and  night  till  the  fifth  day,  and 
then  the  chief  priest's  tongue  is  cut,  he  falls  into  a  swoon 
like  death,  and  they  cover  him  up.     They  fumigate  with 
benzoin  the  piece  taken  from  his  tongue,  and  swing  a  censer 
over  his  body,  calling  back  his  soul ;  he  revives  and  dances 
about,  lively  but  speechless,  till  they  give  him  back  the  rest 
of  his  tongue,  and  with  it  his  power  of  speech.^     Thus,  iB 
the  religion  of  uncultured  races,  the  phenomenon  of  being 
"  struck  **  holds  so  recognized  a  position  that  impostors 
will  even  counterfeit  it.     In  its  morbid  nature,  its  genuine 
cases  at  least  plainly  correspond  with  the  fits  which  historf 
records  among  the  convulsionnaires  of  St.  Medard  and  the 
enthusiasts  of  the  Cevennes.     Nor  need  we  go  even  a  gene- 

■  Schoolcraft,  *  Indian  Tribes,'  part  iii.  p.  286. 

^  Bastian,  'Mensch,'  vol.  ii.  p.  145,    Compan  'OestL  Asien,"  voLiLp' 
247  (Aracan). 


RIT£S  AND  CEREMONIES.  421 

ration  back  to  see  symptoms  of  the  same  type  accepted  as 
signs  of  grace  among  ourselves.  Medical  descriptions  of 
the  scenes  brought  on  by  fanatical  preachers  at  ''  revivals  " 
in  England,  Ireland,  and  America,  are  full  of  interest  to 
students  of  the  history  of  religious  rites.  I  will  but  quote  a 
single  case.  ''A  young  woman  is  described  as  lying  ex- 
tended at  full  length ;  her  eyes  closed,  her  hands  clasped 
and  elevated,  and  her  body  curved  in  a  spasm  so  violent 
that  it  appeared  to  rest  arch-like  upon  her  heels  and  the 
back  portion  of  her  head.  In  that  position  she  lay  without 
speech  or  motion  for  several  minutes.  Suddenly  she  uttered 
a  terrific  scream,  and  tore  handfuls  of  hair  from  her  un- 
covered head.  Extending  her  open  hands  in  a  repelling 
attitude  of  the  most  appalling  terror,  she  exclaimed,  '  Oh,, 
that  fearful  pit ! '  During  this  paroxysm  three  strong  men 
were  hardly  able  to  restrain  her.  She  extended  |^er  arm& 
on  either  side,  clutching  spasmodically  at  the  grass,  shudder- 
ing with  terror,  and  shrinking  from  some  fearful  inward 
vision;  but  she  ultimately  fell  back  exhausted,  nerveless> 
and  apparently  insensible.''^  Such  descriptions  carry  us 
far  back  in  the  history  of  the  human  mind,  showing  modem 
men  still  in  ignorant  sincerity  producing  the  very  fits  and 
swoons  to  which  for  untold  ages  savage  tribes  have  given 
religious  import.  These  manifestations  in  modem  Europe 
indeed  form  part  of  a  revival  of  religion,  the  religion  of 
mental  disease. 

From  this  series  of  rites,  practical  with  often  harmful 
practicality,  we  turn  to  a  group  of  ceremonies  whose  charac- 
teristic is  picturesque  symbolism.  In  discussing  sun-myth 
and  sun-worship,  it  has  come  into  view  how  deeply  the 
association  in  men's  minds  of  the  east  with  light  and  warmth, 
life  and  happiness  and  glory,  of  the  west  with  darkness  and 
chill,  death  and  decay,  has  from  remote  ages  rooted  itself  in 
religious  belief.  It  will  illustrate  and  confirm  this  view  to 
observe  how  the  same  symbolism  of  east  and  west  has  taken 
shape  in  actual  ceremony,  giving  rise  to  a  series  of  practices 

*  D.  H.  Tukc  in  'Journal  o  Mental  Science,'  Oct  1870,  p.  368. 


422  KITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

concerning  the  ]>osture  of  the  dead  in  their  graves  and  the 
living  in  their  temples,  practices  which  may  be  classed  under 
the  general  heading  of  Orientation. 

While  the  setting  sun  has  shown  to  men,  from  savage 
ages  onward,  the  western  region  of  death,  the  rising  son  has 
displayed  a  scene  more  hopeful,  an  eastern  home  of  deify. 
It  seems  to  be  the  working  out  of  the  solar  analogy,  on  the 
one  hand  in  death  as  sunset,  on  the  other  in  new  life  as 
sunrise,  that  has  produced  two  contrasted  rules  of  burial, 
which  agree  in  placing  the  dead  in  the  sun's  path,  the  line 
of  east  and  west.  Thus  the  natives  of  Australia  have  in 
some  districts  well-marked  thoughts  of  the  western  land  of 
the  dead,  yet  the  custom  of  burying  the  dead  sitting  with 
face  to  the  east  is  also  known  among  them.^  The  Samoans 
and  Fijians,  agreeing  that  the  land  of  the  departed  lies  in 
the  far  wast,  bury  the  corpse  lying  with  head  east  and  feet 
west;*  the  body  would  but  have  to  rise  and  walk  straight 
onward  to  follow  its  soul  home.  This  idea  is  stated  exr 
plicitly  among  the  Winnebagos  of  North  America ;  they  will 
sometimes  bury  a  dead  man  sitting  up  to  the  breast  in  a^ 
hole  in  the  ground,  looking  westward ;  or  graves  are  dng 
cast  and  west,  and  the  bodies  laid  in  them  with  the  head 
eastward,  with  the  motive  "  that  they  may  look  towards  the 
happy  land  in  the  west.***  With  these  customs  may  be 
compared  those  of  certain  South  American  tribes.  The 
Yumanas  bury  their  dead  bent  double  with  faces  looking 
toward  the  heavenly  region  of  the  sunrise,  the  home  of 
their  great  good  deity,  who  they  trust  will  take  their  sonb 
with  him  to  his  dwelling  ;*  the  Guarayos  bury  the  corpses 
with  heads  turned  to  the  east,  for  it  is  in  the  eastem  sky 
-that  their  god  Tamoi,  the  Ancient  of  Heaven,  has  his 
happy  hunting-grounds  where  the  dead  will  meet  again.* 


^  Groy, '  Anstralia/  voL  iL  p.  827. 

*  Turner, '  Polynesia,*  p.  280.    Seemann,  •  Viti,'  p.  151. 
-'  Schoolcraft,  '  Indian  Tribes/  part  iy.  p.  6i, 

^  Martins,  'Ethnog.  Amer.'voL  1.  p.  485. 

*  D'Orbigny,  'L'Homme  Americain,'  toL  ii.  pp.  819,  880. 


BITES  AND  CEBEMOmES.  428 

On  the  other  hand  the  Peruvian  custom  was  to  place  the 
dead  huddled  up  in  a  sitting  posture  and  with  faces  turned 
to  the  west.^    Barbaric  Asia  may  be  represented  by  the 
modem  Ainos  of  Yesso,  burying  the  dead  lying  robed  in 
white  with  the  head  to  the  east,  ^*  because  that  is  where  the 
sun  rises;"  or  by  the  Tunguz  who  bury  with  the  head  to 
the  west ;  or  by  the  mediaeval  Tatars^  raising  a  great  mound 
over  the  dead,  and  setting  up  thereon  a  statue  with  face 
turned  toward  the  east,  holding  a  drinking-cup  in  his  hand 
before  his  navel ;  or  by  the  modem  SiamesCi  who  do  not 
sleep  with  their  heads  to  the  west,  because  it  is  in  this 
significant  position  that  the  dead  are  burned.'  .  The  burial 
of  the  dead  among  the  ancient  Greeks  in  the  line  of  east 
and  west,  whether  according  to  Athenian  custom  of  the 
head  toward  the  sunset,  or  the  converse,  is  another  link  in 
the  chain  of  custom.^    Thus  it  is  not  to  late  and  isolated 
fancy,  but  to  the  carrying  on  of  ancient  and  widespread 
solar  ideas,  that  we  trace  the  well-known  legend  that  the 
body  of  Christ  was  laid  with  the  head  toward  the  west,  thus 
looking  eastward,  and  the  Christian  usage  of  digging  graves 
east  and  west,  which  prevailed  through  mediaeval  times  and 
is  not  yet  forgotten.     The  rule  of  laying  the  head  to  the 
west,  and  its  meaning  that  the  dead  shall  rise  looking  toward 
the  east,ture  perfectly  stated  in  the  following  passage  from 
an  ecclesiastical  treatise  of  the  16th  century:  *'  Debet  autem 
quis  sic   sepeliri,  ut  capite  ad  occidentem  posito,  pedes 
diriigat  ad  orientem,  in  quo  quasi  ipsa  positione  orat :  et 
innuit  quod  promptus  est,  ut  de  occasu  festinet  ad  ortum  : 
de  mundo  ad  seculum.'*^ 


>  Riyero  and  Tacliiidi,  *  Peruyian  Antiqaitles,'  p.  202.  See  ako  Arbonsset 
iind  Damnas,  *  Voyage,'  p.  277  (Eaftrs). 

8  Bickmore,  in  *  Tr.  Eth.  Soc.'  vol.  viL  p.  20.  Geoigi,  « Beise,'  rol.  i.  p.  266. 
Onl.  de  Bubraquis  in  Hakluyt,  yoL  L  p.  78.  Bastian,  ^OestL  Asieu,'  yoL  iii, 
p.  228. 

*  JElian.  Yar.  Hist  r.  14,  m  19  ;  Plutarch.  Solon,  x. ;  Diog.  Laert  Solon  ; 
liVelcker,  roLi  p.  404. 

*  Beda  in  Die  S.  Paachse.  Dnrand,  Rationale  Divinonim  Officionun,  lib.  vii. 
c  85-9.    Brand,  '  Popular  Antiqaities,'  vol.  iL  pp.  295,  818. 


424*  RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

Where  among  the  lower  races  sun-worship  begins  to  con* 
solidate  itself  in  systematic  ritual,  the  orientation  of  the 
worshipper  and  the  temple  becomes  usual  and  distinct. 
The  sun-worshipping  Comanches,  preparing  for  the  war- 
pathy  will  place  their  weapons  betimes  on  the  east  side  of 
the  lodge  to  receive  the  sun's  first  rays  ;  it  is  a  remnant  of 
old  solar  rite,  that  the  Christianized  Pueblo  Indians  of  New 
Mexico  turn  to  the  sun  at  his  rising.^  It  has  been  already 
noticed  how  in  old  times  each  morning  at  sunrise  the  San- 
chief  of  the  Natchez  of  Louisiana  stood  facing  the  east  at 
the  door  of  his  house,  and  smoked  toward  the  sun  first,, 
before  he  turned  to  the  other  three  quarters  of  the  world.* 
The  cave- temple  of  the  sun- worshipping  Apalaches  of 
Florida  had  its  opening  looking  east,  and  within  stood  the 
priests  on  festival  days  at  dawn,  waiting  till  the  first  rays- 
entered  to  begin  the  appointed  rites  of  chant  and  incense 
and  offering.*  In  old  Mexico,  where  sun-worship  was  the 
central  doctrine  of  the  complex  religion,  men  knelt  in  prayer 
towards  the  east,  and  the  doors  of  the  sanctuaries  looked 
mostly  westward.^  It  was  characteristic  of  the  solar  worship 
of  Peru  that  even  the  villages  were  habitually  built  on  slopes 
toward  the  east,  that  the  people  might  see  and  greet  the 
national  deity  at  his  rising.  In  the  temple  of  the  sun  at 
Cuzco,  his  splendid  golden  disc  on  the  western  wall  looked 
out  through  the.  eastern  door,  so  that  as  he  rose  his  first 
beams  fell  upon  it,  reflected  thence  to  light  up  the  sanc- 
tuary.^ 

In  Asia,  the  ancient  Aryan  religion  of  the  sun  manifests 
itself  not  less  plainly  in  rites  of  orientation.  They  have 
their  place  in  the  wearj^  ceremonial  routine  which  the  Brah- 

*  Gregg,  *  Commerce  of  Prairies,*  toL  L  pp.  270,  278  ;  vol.  ii.  p.  818. 

*  Charlevoix,  'Nouvelle  Franc©,*  toL  vi.  p.  178. 
.  *  Rochefort,  'lies Antilles, 'p.  365. 

^  Clavigero,  *  Messico,'  voL  ii.  p.  24 ;  J.  G.  Mttller,  p.  641.  See  Oviedor 
'Kicaragua,'  p.  29. 

»  J.  G.  Milller,  p.  863  ;  Prescott,  *  Peru,'  book  L  ch.  8.  Garcilaso  de  1» 
Vega,  'OommentariosBeales,'  lib.  iii.  c.  20,  says  it  was  at  the  east  end;  cf- 
lib*  tL  c.  21  OlBrntk  sacrificed  with  head  to  east). 


j 


RITES  AND  CEBEHONIES.  42» 

man  most  daily  accomplish.  When  he  has  performed  the 
dawn  ablution,  and  meditated  on  the  effulgent  sun-light 
which  is  Brahma,  the  supreme  soul,  he  proceeds  to  worship 
the  sun,  standing  on  one  foot  and  resting  the  other  against 
his  ankle  or  heel,  looking  toward  the  east,  and  holding  hi& 
hands  open  before  him  in  a  hoUow  form.  At  noon,  when 
he  has  again  adored  the  sun,  it  is  sitting  with  his  face  ta 
the  east  that  he  must  read  his  daily  portion  of  the  Veda ;  it 
is  looking  toward  the  east  that  his  offering  of  barley  and 
water  must  be  first  presented  to  the  gods,  before  he  turns- 
to  north  and  south ;  it  is  with  first  and  principal  direction 
to  the  east  that  the  consecration  of  the  fire  and  the  sacrifi- 
cial implements,  a  ceremony  which  is  the  groundwork  of  all 
his  religious  acts,  has  to  be  performed.^  The  significance 
of  such  reverence  paid  by  adorers  of  the  sun  to  the  glorious- 
eastern  region  of  his  rising,  may  be  heightened  to  us  by 
setting  beside  it  a  ceremony  of  a  darker  faith,  displaying 
the  awe-struck  horror  of  the  western  home  of  death.  The 
antithesis  to  the  eastward  consecration  by  the  orthodox. 
Brahmans  is  the  westward  consecration  by  the  Thugs,. 
worshippers  of  Kali  the  death-goddess.  In  honour  of  Kali 
their  victims  were  murdered,  and  to  her  the  sacred  pickaxe 
was  consecrated,  wherewith  the  graves  of  the  slain  were  dug.. 
At  the  time  of  the  suppression  of  Thuggee,  Englishmen 
had  the  consecration  of  the  pickaxe  performed  in  make- 
believe  in  their  presence  by  those  who  well  knew  the  dark 
ritual.  On  the  dreadful  implement  no  shadow  of  any  living 
thing  must  fall,  its  consecrator  sits  facing  the  west  to  per- 
form the  fourfold  washing  and  the  sevenfold  passing  through 
the  fire,  and  then,  it  being  proved  duly  consecrated  by  the 
omen  of  the  cocoa-nut  divided  at  a  single  cut,  it  is  placed 
on  the  ground,  and  the  bystanders  worship  it,  turning  to- 
the  west.* 

These  two  contrasted  rites  of  east  and  west  established 

'  ColebroQke,  'Essays,'  yoL  i.,  iy.  and  y. 

*  '  Illostrations  of  the  History  and  Practices  of  the  Thngs,'  London,  1837^ 
p.  40. 


426  BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

themselves  and  still  remain  established  in  modem  European 
religion.  In  judging  of  the  course  of  history  that  has 
brought  about  this  state  of  things,  it  scarcely  seems  that 
Jewish  influence  was  effective.  The  Jewish  temple  had  the 
entrance  in  the  east,  and  the  sanctuary  in  the  west.  Sun- 
worship  was  an  abomination  to  the  Jews,  and  the  orientation 
•especially  belonging  to  it  appears  as  utterly  opposed  to 
Jewish  usage,  in  Ezekiel's  horror-stricken  vision:  ^'and, 
behold,  at  the  door  of  the  temple  of  Jehovah,  between  the 
porch  and  the  altar,  about  five-and-twenty  men,  with  their 
backs  toward  the  temple  of  Jehovah,  and  their  faces  toward 
the  east,  and  they  worshipped  the  sun  toward  the  east."^ 
Nor  is  there  reason  to  suppose  that  in  later  ages  such 
orientation  gained  ground  in  Jewish  ceremony.  The  solar 
rites  of  other  nations  whose  ideas  were  prominent  in  the  early 
development  of  Christianity,  are  sufficient  to  account  for  the 
rise  of  Christian  orientation.  On  the  one  hand  there  was 
the  Asiatic  sun-worship,  perhaps  specially  related  to  the 
veneration  of  the  rising  sun  in  old  Persian  religion,  and 
which  has  left  relics  in  the  east  of  the  Turkish  empire  into 
modem  years  ;  Christian  sects  praying  toward  the  sun,  and 
Yezidis  turning  to  the  east  as  their  kibleh  and  burying  their 
dead  looking  thither.'  On  the  other  hand,  orientation  was 
recognized  in  classic  Greek  religion,  not  indeed  in  slavish 
obedience  to  a  uniform  law,  but  as  a  principle  to  be  worked 
out  in  converse  ways.  Thus  it  was  an  Athenian  practice 
for  the  temple  to  have  its  entrance  east,  looking  out  through 
which  the  divine  image  stood  to  behold  the  rising  sun. 
This  rule  it  is  that  Lucian  refers  to,  when  he  talks  of  the 
delight  of  gazing  toward  the  loveliest  and  most  longed-for 
of  the  day,  of  welcoming  the  sun  as  he  peeps  forth,  of  taking 
one's  fill  of  light  through  the  wide-open  doors,  even  as  the 

1  Ezek.  yiii  16.  Mishna,  'Sukkoth,*  y.  Soe  Feigusson  in  Smith's 
"*  Dictionaiy  of  the  Bible/  s.  y.  *  Temple.  * 

'  Hyde,  'Yeterain  Persanmi  Religionis  Hbtoria,'  cIl  iy.  Niebnliry 
-<  Reisebeschreibiuig  nach  Arabien,'  yol.  i.  p.  396.  Layaad,  'Nineyeh,*  voL  L 
«h.  iz. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  427 

ancients  built  their  temples  looking  forth.  Nor  was  the 
contrary  rule  as  stated  by  Yitruvius  less  plain  in  meaning  ; 
the  sacred  houses  of  the  immortal  gods  shall  be  so  arranged, 
that  if  no  reason  prevents  and  choice  is  free,  the  temple  and 
the  statue  erected  idl  the  cell  shall  look  toward  the  west,  so 
that  they  who  approach  the  altar  to  sacrifice  and  vow  and 
pray  may  look  at  once  toward  the  statue  and  the  eastern 
«ky,  the  divine  figures  thus  seeming  to  arise  and  look  upon 
them.    Altars  of  the  gods  were  to  stand  toward  the  east.^ 

Unknown  in  primitive  Christianity,  the  ceremony  of 
orientation  was  developed  within  its  first  four  centuries.  It 
became  an  accepted  custom  to  turn  in  prayer  toward  the 
esist,  the  mystic  region  of  the  Light  of  the  World,  the  Sun 
•of  Bighteousness.  Augustine  says,  '^When  we  stand  at 
prayer,  we  turn  to  the  east,  where  the  heaven  arises,  not  as 
though  Ood  were  only  there,  and  had  forsaken  all  other 
parts  of  the  world,  but  to  admonish  our  mind  to  turn  to  a 
more  excellent  nature,  that  is,  to  the  Lord.*'  No  wonder 
that  the  early  Christians  were  thought  to  practise  in  sub* 
stance  the  rite  of  sun-worship  which  they  practised  in  form* 
Thus  Tertullian  writes :  ^*  Others  indeed  with  greater  truth 

And  verisimilitude  believe  the  sun  to  be  our  God 

the  suspicion  arising  from  its  being  known  that  we  pray 
toward  the  region  of  the  east."  Though  some  of  the  most 
ancient  and  honoured  churches  of  Christendom  stand  to 
show  that  orientation  was  no  original  law  of  ecclesiastical 
Architecture,  yet  it  became  dominant  in  early  centuries. 
That  the  author  of  the  '  Apostolical  Constitutions '  should 
be  able  to  give  directions  for  building  churches  toward  the 
•east  {6  oXkos  t<rT(o  imiirji^s,  Kar  avaroXas  TerpafAfAivos),  just  as 
Yitruvius  had  laid  down  the  rule  as  to  the  temples  of  the 
£ods,  is  only  a  part  of  that  assimilation  of  the  church  to  the 
temple  which  took  effect  so  largely  in  the  scheme  of  worship. 
Of  all  Christian  ceremony,  however,  it  was  in  the  rite  of 
baptism  that  orientation  took  its  fullest  and  most  picturesque 

'  Lncian.  De  Domo,  yi.  Yitrny.  de  Architectnra,  ir.  5.  See  Welcker,  vol.  L 
p.  408. 


428  BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

form.  The  catechumen  was  placed  with  face  toward  the^ 
west,  and  then  commanded  to  renounce  Satan  with  gestures- 
of  abhorrence,  stretching  out  his  hands  against  him,  or- 
smiting  them  together,  and  blowing  or  spitting  against  him 
thrice.  Cyril  of  Jerusalem,  in  his  *  Mydtagogic  Catechism,^ 
thus  depicts  the  scene  :  '^  Ye  first  came  into  the  ante-room, 
of  the  baptistery,  and  standing  toward  the  west  {npbs  ra^ 
bvfTfihs)  ye  were  commanded  to  put  away  Satan,  stretching 

out  your  hands  as  though  he  were  present And. 

why  did  ye  stand  toward  the  west  ?  It  was  needful,  for 
sunset  is  the  type  of  darkness,  and  he  is  darkness  and  has^- 
his  strength  in  darkness;  therefore  symbolically  looking 
toward  the  west  ye  renounce  that  dark  and  gloomy  ruler." 
Then  turning  round  to  the  east,  the  catechumen  took  up  his 
allegiance  to  his  new  master,  Christ.  The  ceremony  and 
its  significance  are  clearly  set  forth  by  Jerome,  thus  :  *'  In 
the  mysteries  [meaning  baptism]  we  first  renounce  him  who* 
is  in  the  west,  and  dies  to  us  with  our  sins ;  and  so,  turning 
to  the  east,  we  make  a  covenant  with  the  Sun  of  righteous- 
ness, promising  to  be  his  servants."^  This  perfect  double 
rite  of  east  and  west,  retained  in  the  baptismal  ceremony  of 
the  Greek  Church,  may  be  seen  in  Bussia  to  this  day.. 
.The  orientation  of  churches  and  the  practice  of  turning  to- 
the  east  as  an  act  of  worship,  are  common  to  both  Greek 
and  Latin  ritual  In  our  own  country  they  declined  from 
the  Beformation,  till  at  the  beginning  of  the  present  century 
they  seemed  falling  out  of  use ;  since  then,  however,  they 
have  been  restored  to  a  certain  prominence  by  the  revived 
medisBvalism  of  our  own  day.  To  the  student  of  history^ 
it  is  a  striking  example  of  the  connexion  of  thought  and 
rite  through  the  religions  of  the  lower  and  higher  culture, 
to  see  surviving  in  our  midst,  with  meaning  dwindled  into 

>  Angnfitin.  de  Serm.  Dom.  in  Monte,  ii.  5.     Tertullian.    Contra  YalentiiL 
ill. ;  Apolog.  zvi.     Conatitationes  Apostolicae,  iL   57.     Cyril.  Catech.  Myst^ 
i  2.    Hieronym.  in  Amos.  yL  14  ;  Bingham,  *  Antiquities  of  Chr.  Church,** 
book  Yiii  ch.  3,  book  zL  ch.  7,  book  ziiL  ch.  S.    J.  M.  Keale,  '  Eastern; 
Church,'  part  I  p.  956  ;  Romanoff,  *  Greco-Russian  Church,*  p.  67. 


.RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  429 

symbolism,  this  ancient  solar  rite^  The  influence  of  the 
divine  Sun  upon  his  rude  and  ancient  worshippers  still 
subsists  before  our  eyes  as  a  mechanical  force,  acting 
diamagnetically  to  adjust  the  axis  of  the  church  and  turn 
ihe  body  of  the  worshipper. 

The  last  group  of  rites  whose  course  through  religious 
history  is  to  be  outlined  here,  takes  in  the  varied  dramatic 
acts  of  ceremonial  purification  or  Lustration.  With  all  the 
obscurity  and  intricacy  due  to  age-long  modification,  the 
primitive  thought  which  underlies  these  ceremonies  is  still 
open  to  view.  It  is  the  transition  £rom  practical  to  symbolic 
<;leansing,  from  removal  of  bodily  impurity  to  deliverance 
from  invisible,  spiritual,  and  at  last  moral  evil.  Our 
language  follows  this  ideal  movement  to  its  utmost  stretch, 
where  such  words  as  cleansing  and  purification^  have  passed 
from  their  first  material  meaning,  to  signify  removal  of 
<;eremonial  contamination,  legal  guilt,  and  'moral  sin. 
What  we  thus  express  in  metaphor,  the  men  of  the  lower 
•culture  began  early  to  act  in  ceremony,  purifying  persons 
and  objects  by  various  prescribed  rites,  especially  by  dipping 
them  in  and  sprinkling  them  with  water,  or  fumigating  them 
with  and  passing  them  through  fire.  It  is  the  plainest  proof 
of  the  original  practicality  of  proceedings  now  passed  into 
formalism,  to  point  out  how  far  the  ceremonial  lustrations 
still  keep  their  connexion  with  times  of  life  when  real 
purification  is  necessary,  how  far  they  still  consist  in  formal 
'Cleansing  of  the  new-born  child  and  the  mother,  of  the  man- 
slayer  who  has  shed  blood,  or  the  mourner  who  has  touched 
a  corpse.  In  studying  the  distribution  of  the  forms  of 
lustration  among  the  races  of  the  world,  while  allowing  for 
the  large  effect  of  their  transmission  from  religion  to  religion, 
and  from  nation  to  nation,  we  may  judge  that  their  diversity 
of  detail  and  purpose  scarcely  favours  a  theory  of  their  being 
all  historically  derived  from  one  or  even  several  special 
religions  of  the  ancient  world.  They  seem  more  largely  to 
exemplify  independent  working  out,  in  different  directions, 
of  an  idea  common  to  mankind  at  large.     This  view  may 


430  BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

be  justified  by  surveying  lustration  through  a  series  of 
typical  instances,  which  show  its  appearance  and  character 
in  savage  and  barbaric  culture,  as  being  an  act  belonging  to 
certain  well-marked  events  of  human  life. 

The  purification  of  the  new-bom  child  appears  among 
the  lower  races  in  various  forms,  but  perhaps  in  some  par- 
ticular instances  borrowed  from  the  higher.  It  should  be 
noticed  that  though  the  naming  of  the  child  is  often  asso- 
ciated with  its  ceremonial  cleansing,  there  is  no  real  con- 
nexion between  the  two  rites,  beyond  their  coming  due  at 
the  same  early  time  of  life.  To  those  who  look  for  the 
matter-of-fact  origin  of  such  ceremonies,  one  of  the  most 
suggestive  of  the  accounts  available  is  a  simple  mention  of 
the  two  necessazy  acts  of  washing  and  name-giving,  as  done 
together  in  mere  practical  purpose,  but  not  as  yet  passed 
into  formal  ceremony — the  Eichtak  Islanders,  it  is  remarked^ 
at  birth  wash  the  child,  and  give  it  a  name.^  Among  the 
Yumanas  of  Brazil,  as  soon  as  the  child  can  sit  up,  it  is 
sprinkled  with  a  decoction  of  certain  herbs,  and  receives  a 
name  which  has  belonged  to  an  ancestor.^  Among  some 
Jakim  tribes  of  the  Malay  Peninsula,  as  soon  as  the  child 
is  bom  it  is  carried  to  the  nearest  stream  and  washed ;  it  is 
then  brought  back  to  the  house^  the  fire  is  kindled,  and 
fragrant  wood  thrown  on,  over  which  it  is  passed  several 
times.^  The  New  Zealanders'  infant  baptism  is  no  new 
practice,  and  is  considered  by  them  an  old  traditional  rite, 
but  nothing  very  similar  is  observed  among  other  branches 
of  the  Polynesian  race.  Whether  independently  invented 
or  not,  it  was  thoroughly  worked  into  the  native  religious 
scheme.  The  baptism  was  performed  on  the  eighth  day  or 
earlier,  at  the  side  of  a  stream  or  elsewhere,  by  a  native 
priest  who  sprinkled  water  on  the  child  with  a  branch  or 
twig;  sometimes  the  child  was  immersed.  With  this  lus- 
tration it  received  its  name,  the  priest  repeating  a  list  of 

1  Bfflings,  'N.  Russia,'  p.  175. 

^  Martins,  'Ethnog.  Amer.'vol,  L  p.  iSS. 

*  '  Journ.  Ind.  Archip.'  voL  ii.  p.  264. 


RITES  i!ND  CEREMONIES  431 

ancestral  names  till  the  child  chose  one  for  itself  by  sneez- 
ing at  it.     The  ceremony  is  of  the  nature  of  a  dedication^ 
and  was  accompanied  by  rhythmical  formtilas  of  exhortation.. 
The  future  warrior  was  bidden  to  flame  with  anger,  to  leap 
nimbly  and  ward  off  the  spears,  to  be  angry  and  bold  and 
industrious,  to  work  before  the  dew  is  off  the  ground ;  the 
future  housewife  was  bidden  to  get  food  and  go  for  firewood 
and  weave  garments  with  panting  of  breath.    In  after  years, 
a  second  sacred  sprinkling  was  performed  to  admit  a  lad 
into  the  rank  of  warriors.     It  has  to  be  noticed  with  i*efer* 
ence  to  the  reason  of  this  ceremonial  washing,  that  a  new- 
bom  child  is  in  the  highest  degree  tapu,  and  may  only  be 
touched  by  a  few  special  persons  till   the  restriction  is 
removed.^    In  Madagascar,  a  fire  is  kept  up  in  the  room 
for  several  days,  then  the  child  in  its  best  clothes  is  in  due 
form  carried  out  of  the  house  and  back  to  its  mother,  both 
times  being  carefully  lifted  over  the  fire,  which  is  made 
near  the  door.^    In  Africa,  some  of  the  most  noticeable 
ceremonies  of  the  class  are  these.     The  people  of  Sarac 
wash  the  child  three   days  after  birth  with  holy  water.* 
When  a  Mandingo  child  was  about  a  week  old  its  hair  was 
cut,  and  the  priest,  invoking  blessings,  took  it  in  his  arms, 
irhispered  in  its  ear,  spat  thrice  in  its  face,  and  pronounced 
its  name  aloud  before  the  assembled  company.^   In  Guinea, 
when  a  child  is  bom,  the  event  is  publicly  proclaimed,  the 
new-bom  babe  is  brought  into  the  streets,  and  the  headman 
of  the  town  or  family  sprinkles  it  with  water  from  a  basin, 
giving  it  a  name  and  invoking  blessings  of  health  and 
wealth  upon  it ;  other  friends  follow  the  example,  till  the 
child  is  thoroughly  drenched.^    In  these  various  examples 

^  Taylor,  'New  Zealand,*  p.  184 ;  Yate,  p.  82 ;  Polack,  voL  i.  p.  51  ; 
A.  S.  Thomaon,  vol.  I  p.  118;  Klemm,  '  Cultui^Gesch.'  voL  iy.  p.  804. 
See  Schiiren,  '  Wandenagen  der  Kenseelander,'  pp.  6Sf  188;  Shortland^ 
p.  145. 

>  Ellia,  'Madagascar,'  voL  i.  p.  152. 

*  Hunzinger,  *  Ost-Afiika,'  p.  887. 

*  Park,  'Travels,*  ch.  vi 

*  J.  L.  Wilson,  'Western  Africa,'  p.  899.     See  also  Bastian,  'Mensch,' 


432  RITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

of  lustration  of  infants,  the  purifications  by  fire  have  the 
most  importance  ethnologicallj,  not  because  this  proceeding 
is  more  natural  to  the  savage  mind  than  that  of  bathing  or 
sprinkling  with  water,  but  because  this  latter  ceremony  may 
have  been  imitated  from  Christian  baptism.  Thus,  while 
there  is  nothing  to  prevent  our  supposing  some  rites  of 
savage  baptism  to  be  of  native  origin,  it  seems  unsafe  to 
assert  this  in  any  individual  case. 

The  purification  of  women  at  childbirth,  etc.,  is  cere- 
monially practised  by  the  lower  races  under  circumstances 
which  do  not  suggest  adoption  from  more  civilized  nations. 
The  seclusion  and  lustration  among  North  American  Indian 
tribes  have  been  compared  with  those  of  the  Levitical  law, 
but  the  resemblance  is  not  remarkably  close,  and  belongs 
rather  to  a  stage  of  civilization  than  to  the  ordinance  of  a 
particular  nation.  It  is  a  good  case  of  independent  develop- 
ment in  such  customs,  that  the  rite  of  putting  out  the  fires 
and  kindling  "  new  fire  "  on  the  woman's  return  is  common 
to  the  Iroquois  and  Sioux  in  North  America,^  and  the 
Basutos  in  South  Africa.  These  latter  have  a  well-marked 
rite  of  lustration  by  sprinkling,  performed  on  girls  at 
womanhood.^  The  Hottentots  considered  mother  and  child 
tmclean  till  they  had  been  washed  and  smeared  after  the 
uncleanly  native  fashion.'  Lustrations  with  water  were 
usual  in  West  Afiica.*  Tatar  tribes  in  Mongolia  used 
bathing,  while  in  Siberia  the  custom  of  leaping  over  a  fire' 
answered  the  purpose  of  purification.^  The  Mantras  of  the 
Malay  Peninsula  have  made  the  bathing  of  the  mother  after 

voL  ii.  p.  279  (Watje) ;  'Anthropological  Review,'  Nov.  1864,  p.  24S 
(Mpongwe)  ;  Barker-Webb  and  Berthelot,  voL  ii.  p.  168  (Tenerife). 

»  Schoolcraft,  'Indian  Tribes,'  part  i.  p.  261  ;  part  iiL  p.  248,  etc 
Charlevoix,  'Nonvelle  France,*  vol.  v.  p.  425.  Wilson  in  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc* 
vol.  iv.  p.  294. 

3  Casalis,  'Basutos,'  p.  267. 

*  Eolben,  vol.  L  pp.  278,  288. 

<  Bosman,  in  'Pinkerton,'  voL  xvi.  pp.  423,  527;  Meiners,  vol  iL  ppt 
107,  468. 

»  Pallas,  'Mongolische  Volkerschaften,'  vol.  i.  p.  166,  etc  ;  Strahlcnbas. 
'  Siberia,'  p.  97. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  4S3 

childbirth  into  a  ceremonial  ordinance.^  It  is  so  among  the 
indigenes  of  India^  where  both  in  northern  and  southern 
districts  the  naming  of  the  child  comes  into  connexion  with 
the  purification  of  the  mother,  both  ceremonies  being  per- 
formed on  the  same  day.^  Without  extending  further  this 
list  of  instances,  it  is  sufficiently  plain  that  we  have  before 
us  the  record  of  a  practical  custom  becoming  consecrated 
by  traditional  habit,  and  making  its  way  into  the  range  of 
religious  ceremony. 

Much  the  same  may  be  said  of  the  purification  of  savage 
and  barbaric  races  on  occasion  of  contamination  by  blood* 
shed  or  funeraL  In  North  America,  the  Dacotas  use  the 
vapour-bath  not  only  as  a  remedy,  but  also  for  the  removal 
of  ceremonial  uncleanness,  such  as  is  caused  by  killing  a 
person,  or  touching  a  dead  body.'  So  among  the  Navajos, 
the  man  who  has  been  deputed  to  carry  a  dead  body  to 
burial,  holds  himself  unclean  until  he  has  thoroughly  washed 
himself  in  water  prepared  for  the  pm-pose  by  certain  cere- 
monies.^ In  Madagascar,  no  one  who  has  attended  a 
funeral  may  enter  the  palace  courtyard  tiU  he  has  bathed, 
and  in  all  cases  there  must  be  an  ablution  of  the  mourner's 
garments  on  returning  from  the  grave.^  Among  the  Basutos 
of  South  Africa,  warriors  returning  from  battle  must  rid 
themselves  of  the  blood  they  have  shed,  or  the  shades  of 
their  victims  would  pursue  them  and  disturb  their  sleep. 
Therefore  they  go  in  procession  in  full  armour  to  the  nearest 
stream  to  wash,  and  their  weapons  are  washed  also.  It  is 
usual  in  this  ceremony  for  a  sorcerer  higher  up  the  stream 
to  put  in  some  magical  ingredient,  such  as  he  also  uses  in 
the  preparation  of  the  holy  water  which  is  sprinkled  over 
the  people  with  a  beast*s  tail  at  the  frequent  public  purifica- 
tions. These  Basutos,  moreover,  use  fumigation  with  burn- 
ing wood  to  purify  growing  corn,  and  cattle  taken  from  the 

1  Bonrien  in  'Tr.  Eth.  Soc*  yoL  iii.  p.  81. 

>  Dalton  in  <Tr.  Eth.  Soc*  vol.  vL  p.  22 ;  Shortt,  ibid.  vol.  iii  p.  375. 

'  Schoolcraft,  *  Indian  Tribes/  part  i.  p.  255. 

*  Brinton,  '  Myths  of  New  World,'  p.  127. 

*  Ellis,  'Madagascar,*  vol.  i.  p.  241 ;  see  407,  419. 

VOL.    II.  V  V 


434  KITES  AND  CERBaiOKIES. 

enemy.  Fire  serves  for  purification  in  cases  too  trifling  to 
require  sacrifice ;  thus  when  a  mother  sees  her  child  walk 
over  a  grave^  she  hastens  to  call  it,  makes  it  stand  before 
her,  and  lights  a  small  fire  at  its  feet^  The  Zulus,  whose 
horror  of  a  dead  body  will  induce  them  to  cast  out  and 
leave  in  the  woods  their  sick  people,  at  least  strangers, 
purify  themselves  by  an  ablution  after  a  funeral.  It  is  to  be 
noticed  that  these  ceremonial  practices  have  come  to  mean 
something  distinct  from  mere  cleanliness.  Kafirs  who  wilt 
purify  themselves  from  ceremonial  uncleanness  by  washing, 
are  not  in  the  habit  of  washing  themselves  or  their  vessels 
for  ordinary  purposes,  and  the  dogs  and  the  cockroaches 
divide  between  them  the  duty  of  cleaning  out  the  milk- 
baskets.'  Mediseval  Tatar  tribes,  some  of  whom  had  con- 
scientious scruples  against  bathing,  have  found  passing 
through  fire  or  between  two  fires  a  sufficient  purification, 
and  the  household  stuff  of  the  dead  was  lustrated  in  this 
latter  way.* 

In  the  organized  nations  of  the  semi-civilized  and  civi* 
lized  world,  where  religion  shapes  itself  into  elaborate  and 
systematic  schemes,  the  practices  of  lustration  familiar  to 
the  lower  culture  now  become  part  of  stringent  ceremonial 
systems.  It  seems  to  be  at  this  stage  of  their  existence 
that  they  often  take  up  in  addition  to  their  earlier  cere- 
monial significance  an  ethical  meaning,  absent  or  all  but 
absent  from  them  at  their  first  appearance  above  the  reli- 
gious horizon.  This  will  be  made  evident  by  glancing  over 
the  ordinances  of  lustration  in  the  great  national  religions 
of  history.  It  will  be  well  to  notice  first  the  usages  of  twa 
Semi-civilized  nations  of  America,  which,  though  they  have 
scarcely  produced  practical  effect  on  civilization  at  large, 
give  valuable  illustration  of  a  transition  period  in  culture, 
leaving  apart  the  obscure  question  of  their  special  civiliza- 

>  Casalifc,  'Basutos^'p.  258. 

^  Groat,  'Zulu-land/  p.  147;  Backhouse,  'Mauritius  and  S.  Africa,'  ppw 
218,  225. 

*  Bastion,  'Menscb/  yo\  iii.  p.  75;  Bubruqnis,  in  Pinkerton,  yoL  tu.  jw 
12  ;  Piano  Carpini  in  Haklnyt,  toI.  i.  p.  87. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  435 

tion  haying  been  inflaenoed  in  early  or  late  times  &om  the 
Old  World. 

In  the  religion  of  Peru,  lustration  is  well-marked  and 
characteristic.     On  the  day  of  birth,  the  water  in  which  the 
child  had  been  washed  was  poured  into  a  hole  in  the  ground^ 
charms  being  repeated  by  a  wizard  or  priest ;  an  excellent 
instance  of  the  ceremonial  washing  away  of  evil  influences. 
The  naming  of  the  child  was  also  more  or  less  generally 
accompanied  with  ceremonial  washing,  as  in  districts  where 
at  two  years  old  it  was  weaned,  baptized,  had  its  hair  cere-^ 
monially  cut  with  a  stone  knife,  and  received  its  child-» 
name ;  Peruvian  Indians  still  cut  off  a  lock  of  the  child's 
hair  at  its  baptism.    Moreover,  the  significance  of  lustra- 
tion as  removing  guilt  is  plainly  recorded  in  ancient  Peru ; 
after  confession  of  guilt,  an  Inca  bathed  in  a  neighbouring 
river  and  repeated  this  formula,  "  O  thou  River,  receive  the 
sins  I  have  this  day  confessed  unto  the  Sun,  carry  them 
down  to  the  sea,  and  let  them  never  more  appear."  ^    la 
old  Mexico,  the  first  act  of  ceremonial  lustration  took  place 
at  birth.     The  nurse  washed  the  infant  in  the  name  of  the 
water-goddess,   to  remove  the   impurity  of  its  birth,   to 
cleanse  its  heart  and  give  it  a  good  and  perfect  life ;  then 
blowing  on  water  in  her  right  hand  she  washed  it  again, 
warning  it  of  forthcoming  trials  and  miseries  and  labours, 
and  praying  the  invisible  Deity  to  descend  upon  the  water, 
to  cleanse  the  child  from  sin  and  foulness,  and  to  deliver  it 
from  misfortune.     The  second  act  took  place  some  four 
days  later,  unless  the  astrologers  postponed  it.    At  a  festive 
gathering,  amid  fires  kept  alight  from  the  first  ceremony, 
the  nurse  undressed  the  child  sent  by  the  gods  into  this  sad 
and  doleful  world,  bade  it  receive  the  life-giving  water,  and 
washed  it,  driving  out  evil  from  each  limb  and  offering  to 
the  deities  appointed  prayers  for  virtue  and  blessing.     It 

'  Rlrero  and  Tschadi,   'Feniviau  Antiquities,'  p.   180;   J.  G.   MUller, 
'Amer.  Urrelig.'  p.  3S9  ;  Acosta,  'Ind.   Occ.*  v.  c   25;  Brinton,  p.   126.: 
See  aocoiuit  of  the  rite  of  driving  oat  sicknesses  and  evils  into  the  rivers,  '  Ritea 
jmd  Laws  of  Incas,'  tr.  and  cd.  by  G.  R.  Markham,  p.  22. 

F  F  2 


436  BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

was  then  that  the  toy  inBtruments  *of  war  or  craft  or  honse- 
hold  labour  were  placed  in  the  boy's  or  girl's  hand  (a  custom 
singularly  corresponding  with  one  usual  in  China),  and  the 
other  children,  instructed  by  their  parents,  gave  the  new- 
comer its  child-name,  here  again  to  be  replaced  by  another 
at  manhood  or  womanhood.  There  is  nothing  unlikely  in 
the  statement  that  the  child  was  also  passed  four  times 
through  the  fire,  but  the  authority  this  is  given  on  is  not 
sufficient.  The  religious  character  of  ablution  is  well 
shown  in  Mexico  by  its  forming  part  of  the  daily  service 
of  the  priests.  Aztec  life  ended  as  it  had  begun,  with 
ceremonial  lustration ;  it  was  one  of  the  funeral  ceremonies 
to  sprinkle  the  head  of  the  corpse  with  the  lustral  water  of 
this  Ufe.^ 

Among  the  nations  of  East  Asia,  and  across  the  more  civi- 
lized Turanian  districts  of  Central  Asia,  ceremonial  lustra- 
tion comes  frequently  into  notice ;  but  it  would  often  bring 
in  difficult  points  of  ethnography  to  attempt  a  general  judg- 
ment how  far  these  may  be  native  local  rites,  and  how  £ur  cere- 
monies adopted  from  foreign  religious  systems.  As  examples 
may  be  mentioned  in  Japan  the  sprinkling  and  naming  of 
the  child  at  a  month  old,  and  other  lustrations  connected 
with  worship  ;^  in  China  the  religious  ceremony  at  the  first 
washing  of  the  three  days'  old  infant,  the  lifting  of  the  bride 
over  burning  coals,  the  sprinkling  of  holy- water  over  sacri- 
fices and  rooms  and  on  the  mourners  after  a  funeral;^  in 
Birma-  the  purification  of  the  mother  by  fire,  and  the  Jtmnipl 
sprinkling-festival.*  Within  the  range  of  Buddhism  in  its 
Lamaist  form,  we  find  such  instances  as  the  Tibetan  and 


^  Sahagnn,  '  Nueva  Espafia/  lib.  vi.  ;  Torquemada,  '  Monarqnia  IndiaBa,*^ 
lib.  xii. ;  Clavigero,  vol.  ii.  pp.  39,  86,  etc. ;  Humboldt,  '  Vnes  des  Cor- 
dill^res/  Mendoza  Cod.  ;  J.  G.  Miiller,  p.  652. 

^  Siebold,  'Nippon/  y.  p.  22;  Kempfer,  'Japan,*  ch.  siiL  in  Pinkertoo, 
vol.  vii. 

*  Doollttle,  'Chinese,*  vol.  i.  p.  120,  voL  ii.  p.  278.  Davis>  toL  Lp- 
269. 

*  Bastian,  '  Oestl.  Asien/  vol.  ii.  p.  247  ;  Meiuers,  voL  ii.  p.  106  ; 
in  Pinkerton,  vol.  ix.  p.  435. 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  437 

Mongol  lustration  of  the  child  a  few  days  after  birth,  the 
lama  blessing  the  water  and  immersing  the  child  thrice,  and 
giving  its  name ;  the  Buraet  consecration  by  threefold  wash- 
ing ;  the  Tibetan  ceremony  where  the  mourners  returning 
from  the  funeral  stand  before  the  fire,  wash  their  hands  with 
warm  water  over  the  hot  coals,  and  fumigate  themselves 
thrice  with  proper  formulas.^  With  this  infant  baptism  of 
Tibetans  and  Mongols  may  be  compared  the  rite  of  their 
ethnological  kinsfolk  in  Europe.  The  Lapps  in  their  semi- 
Christianized  state  had  a  private  form  of  baptism,  in  which 
a  new  name  was  given  with  a  three-fold  sprinkling  and  wash* 
ing  with  warm  water  where  mystic  alder-twigs  were  put; 
thb  ceremony  they  called  by  the  name  of  "laugo"  or 
bathing,  a  word  not  of  Lapp  but  Scandinavian  origin ;  it 
might  be  repeatedly  performed,  and  was  considered  a 
thoroughly  native  Lapp  proceeding,  utterly  distinct  from 
the  Christian  baptism  to  which  the  Lapps  also  conformed.^ 
It  is,  however,  the  easiest  ethnographic  explanation  of  these 
two  baptismal  ceremonies  in  Central  Asift  and  Northern 
Europe,  to  suppose  imitation  of  Christianity  either  entirely 
bringing  in  a  new  rite,  or  adapting  a  previous  native 
one. 

Other  Asiatic  districts  show  lustration  in  more  compact 
and  characteristic  religious  developments.  The  Brahman 
leads  a  life  marked  by  recurring  ceremonial  pmification, 
from  the  time  when  his  first  appearance  in  the  world  brings 
uncleanness  on  the  household,  requiring  ablution  and  clean 
garments  to  remove  it,  and  thenceforth  through  his  years 
from  youth  to  old  age,  where  bathing  is  a  main  part  of  the 
long  minute  ceremonial  of  daily  worship,  and  further  wash- 
ings and  aspersions  enter  into  more  solemn  religious  acts^ 
till  at  last  the  day  comes  when  his  kinsfolk,  on  their  way 
home  from  his  funeral,  cleanse  themselves  by  a  final  bath 

>  Koppen,  '  Religion  dca  Buddha,'  vol.  ii.  p.  820  ;  Bastiaii,  *  Psychologie,* 
pp.  151,  211,  'Mensch,*  voL  ii.  p.  409. 

'  Leems,  *  Lapland,'  in  Pinkertou,  vol.  i.  p.  483;  Klemm,  'Cultur-Gesch." 
vol.  iii.  p.  77. 


438  BITES  AND  CEREMONIES. 

from  their  contamination  by  his  remains.  For  the  means 
of  some  of  his  multifarious  lustrations  the  Hindu  has  re* 
course  to  the  sacred  cow,  but  his  more  frequent  medium  of 
removing  uncleanness  of  body  and  soul  is  water^  the  divine 
waters  to  which  he  prays,  *'  Take  away,  O  Waters,  whatso- 
ever is  wicked  in  me,  what  I  have  done  by  violence  or  corse, 
and  untruth  !'*^  The  Parsi  religion  prescribes  a  system  of 
lustrations  which  well  shows  its  common  origin  with  that  of 
Hinduism  by  its  similar  use  of  cow's  urine  and  of  water. 
Bathing  or  sprinkling  with  water,  or  applications  of  "nirang** 
washed  olBT  with  water,  form  part  of  the  daily  religious  rites, 
as  well  as  of  such  special  ceremonies  as  the  naming  of  the 
new-born  child,  the  putting  on  of  the  sacred  cord,  the  pari- 
fication  of  the  mother  after  childbirth,  the  purification  of 
him  who  has  touched  a  corpse,  when  the  unclean  demon, 
^driven  by  sprinkHng.of  the  good  water  from  the  top  of  the 
Ihead  and  from  limb  to  limb,  comes  forth  at  the  left  toe  and 
'departs  like  a  fly  to  the  evil  region  of  the  north.  It  is, 
perhaps,  the  influence  of  this  ancestral  religion,  even  more 
than  the   actual  laws  of  Islam,  that  makes  the  modem  } 

Persian  so  striking  an  example  of  the  way  in  which  cere-  \ 

mony  may  override  reality.  It  is  rather  in  form  than  in 
fact  that  his  cleanliness  is  next  to  godliness.     He  carries  i 

the  principle  of  removing  legal  uncleanness  by  ablution  sa  i 

far,  that  a  holy  man  will  wash  his  eyes  when  they  have  been  • 

polluted  by  the  sight  of  an  infideL  He  will  carry  about  a 
water-pot  with  a  long  spout  for  his  ablutions,  yet  he  depopu- 
lates the  land  by  his  neglect  of  the  simplest  sanitary  roles, 
and  he  may  be  seen  by  the  side  of  the  little  tank  where 
•scores  of  people  have  been  in  before  him,  obliged  to  clear 
with  his  hand  a  space  in  the  foul  scum  on  the  water,  before  | 

he  plunges  in  to  obtain  ceremonial  purity.^ 

>  Ward,  'Hindoos,'  vol.  ii.  pp.  96,  246,  837;  Colebrooke,  'Essaya,* 
Tol.  ii.  Wuttke,  *Gc8ch.  des  Heidentbuins,*  vol.  ii.  p.  878.  *Rig-Ve«ift,'  i. 
22,  23. 

*  Avesta,  Vcndidnd,  v.-xii.  ;  lyord,  in  Plukerton,  vol.  viii.  p.  570 ; 
Naoroji,  *  Parsee  Keligiou  ;  *  Polak,  *  Persien,*  voL  i.  p.  865,  etc,  voL  iu  p. 
271.    Mciners,  vol.  ii.  p.  125. 


I 


RITES  AND  CEREMONIES.  439 

Over  against  the  Aryan  rites  of  lustration  in  the  religions 
of  Asia,  may  be  set  the  well-known  types  in  the  religions  of 
classic  Europe.  At  the  Greek  amphidromia,  when  the  child 
was  about  a  week  old,  the  women  who  had  assisted  at  the 
birth  washed  their  hands,  and  afterwards  the  child  was 
carried  round  the  fire  by  the  nurse,  and  received  its  name ; 
the  Roman  child  received  its  preenomen  with  a  lustration  at 
about  the  same  age,  and  the  custom  is  recorded  of  the  nurse 
touching  its  lips  and  forehead  with  spittle.  To  wash  before 
an  act  of  worship  was  a  ceremony  handed  down  by  Greek 
and  Roman  ritual  through  the  classic  ages ;  KaOapaXs  di  bp6&oi9p 
JL<f>vbpapdfA€voi  crT€ix€T€  vaovs  —  eo  lavatum,  ut  sacrificem* 
The  holy- water  mingled  with  salt,  the  holy- water  vessel  at 
the  temple  entrance,  the  brush  to  sprinkle  the  worshippers, 
all  belong  to  classic  antiquity.  Romans,  their  flocks  and 
herds  and  their  fields,  were  purified  from  disease  and  other 
iU  by  lustrations  which  show  perfectly  the  equivalent  nature 
of  water  and  fire  as  means  of  purification  ;  the  passing  of 
flocks  and  shepherds  through  fires,  the  sprinkling  water  with 
laurel  branches,  the  fumigating  with  fragrant  boughs  and 
herbs  and  sulphur,  formed  part  of  the  rustic  rites  of  the 
Palilia.  Bloodshed  demanded  the  lustral  ceremony.  Hektor 
fears  to  pour  with  unwashen  hands  the  libation  of  dark 
wine,  nor  may  he  pray  bespattered  with  gore  to  cloud- 
wrapped  Zeus ;  ^neas  may  not  touch  the  household  gods 
till  cleansed  from  slaughter  by  the  living  stream.  It  was 
with  far  changed  thought  that  Ovid  wrote  his  famous  reproof 
of  his  too-easy  countrymen,  who  fancied  that  water  could 
indeed  wash  off  the  crime  of  blood : — 

«  Ah  Tiimnim  facDes,  qui  tristia  crimina  csediB 
Fluminea  toUi  posse  patetis  aqua/' 

Thus,  too,  the  mourner  must  be  cleansed  by  lustration 
from  the  contaminating  presence  of  death.  At  the  door  of 
the  Greek  house  of  mourning  was  set  the  water-vessel,  that 
those  who  had  been  within  might  sprinkle  themselves  and 
be  clean;   while  the  mourners  returning  from  a  Roman 


440  RITES  AMD  CEREMONIES. 

fcineraly  aspersed  with  water  and  stepping  over  fire^  were  by 
this  double  process  made  pure.^ 

The  ordinances  of  purification  in  the  Levitical  law  relate 
especially  to  the  removal  of  legal  uncleanness  connected 
with  childbirth,  death,  and  other  pollutions.  Washing  was 
prescribed  for  such  purposes,  and  also  sprinkling  with 
water  of  separation,  water  mingled  with  the  ashes  of  the  red 
heifer.  Ablution  formed  part  of  the  consecration  of  priests, 
and  without  it  they  might  not  serve  at  the  altar  nor  enter 
the  tabernacle.  In  the  later  ages  of  Jewish  national  history, 
perhaps  through  intercourse  with  nations  whose  lustrations 
entered  more  into  the  daily  routine  of  life,  ceremonial  wash- 
ings were  multiplied.  It  seems  also  that  in  this  period 
must  be  dated  the  ceremony  which  in  after  ages  has  held  so> 
great  a  place  in  the  religion  of  the  world,  their  rite  of 
baptism  of  proselytes.'  The  Moslem  lustrations  are  ablu- 
tions with  water,  or  in  default  with  dust  or  sand,  performed 
partially  before  prayer,  and  totally  on  special  days  or  tO" 
remove  special  uncleanness.  They  are  strictly  religious 
acts,  belonging  in  principle  to  prevalent  usage  of  Oriental 
religion ;  and  their  details,  whether  invented  or  adopted  as 
they  stand  in  Islam,  are  not  carried  down  from  Judaism  or 
Christianity.*  The  rites  of  lustration  which  have  held  and 
hold  their  places  within  the  pale  of  Christianity  are  in  well- 
marked  historical  connexion  with  Jewish  and  Gentile  ritual. 
Purification  by  fire  has  only  appeared  as  an  actual  ceremony 

*  Detafla  in  Smith's  *  Die.  of  Gr.  and  Rom.  Ant.'  and  Panly,  *  Roal 
Encyclopedic/  s.  v.  '  amphidromia,'  Uustratio,'  'sacrificium,'  'ftums;* 
Meinen),  '  Gesch.  der  Religioncn/  book  viL  ;  Lomeyer,  *  De  Vetemm  Gcn- 
tiliom  Lnstrationibus  ;  *  Montfaucon,  '  L' Antiquity  Expliquee,'  etc.  Sx>ecial 
passages :  Homer.  II.  vi.  266 ;  Eurip.  Ion.  96  ;  Thcocrit  xxiv.  95 ;  Vir^. 
Ma,  ii.  719 ;  Plant.  Aulular.  iii.  6 ;  Pers.  Sat.  ii  31  ;  Ovid.  Fast  i.  669, 
iL  46,  iv.  727 ;  Festus,  s.  v.  'aqna  et  ignis/  etc.  The  obscure  subject  of 
lustration  in  the  mysteries  is  here  left  untonched. 

*  Ex.  xxix.  4,  XXX.  18,  xl.  12  ;  Lev.  viii.  6,  xiv.  8,  xv.  5,  xxii.  6 ;  Numb, 
xix.,  etc. ;  Lightfoot  in  *  Works/  vol.  xi.  ;  Browne  in  Smith's  *  Die,  of  X\\o 
Bible/  s.  V.  'baptism  ;'  Calmet,  *Dic'  etc. 

'  Belaud,  'De  Religione  Mohammedanica ; '  Lane,  'Modem  Eg.'  vol.  i.  p. 
08,  etc 


RITES  AND  CEBEMONIES.  441 

among  some  little-known  Christian  sects,  and  in  the  Euro^ 
pean  folk-lore  custom  of  passing  children  through  or  over 
fire^  if  indeed  we  can  be  sure  that  this  rite  is  lustral  and 
not  sacrificial.^  The  usual  medium  of  purification  is  water.. 
Holy  water  is  in  full  use  through  the  Greek  and  Boman 
churches.  It  blesses  the  worshipper  as  he  enters  the  temple^ 
it  cures  disease,  it  averts  sorcery  from  man  and  beast,  it 
drives  demons  from  the  possessed,  it  stops  the  spirit-writer's 
pen,  it  drives  the  spirit-moved  table  it  is  sprinkled  upon  to- 
dash  itself  frantically  against  the  wall ;  at  least  these  are 
among  the  powers  attributed  to  it,  and  some  of  the  most 
striking  of  them  have  been  lately  vouched  for  by  papal 
sanction.  This  lustration  with  holy  water  so  exactly  con- 
tinues the  ancient  classic  rite,  that  its  apologists  are  apt  to 
explain  the  correspondence  by  arguing  that  Satan  stole  it 
for  his  own  wicked  ends.^  Catholic  ritual  follows  ancient 
sacrificial  usage  in  the  priest's  ceremonial  washing  of  hands 
before  mass.  The  priest's  touching  with  his  spittle  the 
ears  and  nostrils  of  the  infant  or  catechumen,  saying,. 
"  Ephphetha,"  is  obviously  connected  with  passages  in  the 
Gospels;  its  adoption  as  a  baptismal  ceremony  has  been 
compared,  perhaps  justly,  with  the  classical  lustration  by 
spittle.'  Finally,  it  has  but  to  be  said  that*  ceremonial 
purification  as  a  Christian  act  centres  in  baptism  by  water. 
Lt  symbol  of  initiation  of  the  convert  whii  history  traces 
from  the  Jewish  rite  to  that  of  John  the  Baptist,  and  thence 
to  the  Christian  ordinance.  Through  later  ages  adult 
baptism  carries  on  the  Jewish  ceremony  of  the  admission  of 
the  proselyte,  while  infant  baptism  combines  this  with  the 
lustration  of  the  new-bom  infant.  Passing  through  a  range 
of  meaning  such  as  separates  the  sacrament  of  the  Boman 

^  Bingham,  '  Antiquities  of  Christian  Church,'  book  xi.  ch.  2.  Grimm, 
'Deutsche  Mythologie,'  p.  592  ;  Leslie,  'Early  Races  of  Scotland,'  Tol.  i.  p. 
113 ;  Pennant,  in  Pinkerton,  toI.  iii.  p.  S88. 

^  Rituale  Romanum ;  Qaume,  *  L*£au  B^nite  ; '  Middleton,  '  Letter  from 
Rome,'  etc. 

'  Rituale  Romanum.  Bingham,  book  x.  ch.  2,  book  xt.  ch.  3.  See  Mark 
Tii.  34,  Tiii.23  ;  John  ix.  6. 


442  BITES  Ain>  CEREMONIES. 

centurion  from  the  sacrament  of  the  Roman  cardinal,  becom* 
ing  to  some  a  solemn  symbol  of  new  life  and  faith,  to  some 
jan  act  in  itself  of  supernatural  efficacy,  the  rite  of  baptism 
has  remained  almost  throughout  the  Christian  world  the 
outward  sign  of  the  Christian  profession* 

In  considering  the  present  group  of  religious  ceremonies, 
iheir  manifestations  in  the  religions  of  the  higher  nations 
have  been  but  scantily  outlined  in  comparison  with  their 
rudimentary  forms  in  the  lower  culture.  Yet  this  reyersal 
of  the  proportions  due  to  practical  importance  in  no  way 
invalidates,  but  rather  aids,  the  ethnographic  lessons  to  be 
drawn  by  tracing  their  course  in  history.  Through  their 
varied  phases  of  survival,  modification,  and  succession,  they 
have  each  in  its  own  way  brought  to  view  the  threads  of 
continuity  which  connect  the  faiths  of  the  lower  with  the 
faiths  of  the  higher  world ;  they  have  shown  how  hardly 
the  civilized  man  can  understand  the  religious  rites  even  of 
his  own  land  without  knowledge  of  the  meaning,  often  the 
widely  unlike  meaning,  which*  they  bore  to  men  of  distant 
^es  and  countries,  representatives  of  grades  of  culture  fiic 
ilifferent  from  his. 


CHAPTEE    XIX. 

CONCLUSION. 

Fractical  results  of  the  study  of  Primitive  Culture — Its  bearing  least  upon 
Positive  Science,  greatest  upon  Intellectual,  Moral,  Social,  and  Political 
Philosophy — Language— Mythology — Ethics  and  Law — Religion — Action 
of  the  Science  of  Culture,  as  a  means  of  furthering  progress  and  removing 
hindrance,  elSective  in  tha  course  of  Civilization. 

It  now  remains,  in  bringing  to  a  close  these  investigations 
on  the  relation  of  primitive  to  modem  civilization^  to  urge 
the  practical  import  of  the  considerations  raised  in  their 
•course.  Granted  that  archieology,  leading  the  student's 
mind  back  to  remotest  known  conditions  of  human  life, 
^shows  such  life  to  have  been  of  unequivocally  savage  type ; 
granted  that  the  rough-hewn  flint  hatchet,  dug  out  from 
amidst  the  bones  of  mammoths  in  a  drift  gravel-bed  to  lie  on 
an  ethnologist's  writing-table,  is  to  him  a  very  type  of 
f)rimitive  culture,  simple  yet  crafty,  clumsy  yet  purposeful, 
low  in  artistic  level  yet  fairly  started  on  the  ascent  toward 
highest  development — what  then  ?  Of  course  the  history 
and  pre-history  of  man  take  their  proper  places  in  the 
general  scheme  of  knowledge.  Of  course  the  doctrine  of 
iJie  world-long  evolution  of  civilization  is  one  which 
philosophic  minds  will  take  up  with  eager  interest,  as  a 
^heme  of  abstract  science.  But  beyond  this,  such  research 
-has  its  practical  side,  as  a  source  of  power  destined  to 
influence  the  course  of  modern  ideas  and  actions.  To 
establish  a  connexion  between  what  uncultured  ancient  men 
thought  and  did,  and  what  cultured  modem  men  think  and 
do,  is  not  a  matter  of  inapplicable  theoretic  knowledge,  for 
it  xaiaes  the  issue,  how  far  are  modem  opinion  and  conduct 


444  CONCLUSION. 

based  on  the  strong  ground  of  soundest  modem  knowledge, 
or  how  far  only  on  such  knowledge  as  was  available  in  the 
earlier  and  ruder  stages  of  culture  where  their  types  were 
shaped.  It  has  to  be  maintained  that  the  early  history  of 
man  has  its  bearing,  almost  ignored  as  that  bearing  has 
been  by  those  whom  it  ought  most  stringently  to  affect,  on 
some  of  the  deepest  and  most  vital  points  of  our  intellectual, 
industrial,  and  social  state. 

Even  in  advanced  sciences,  such  as  relate  to  measure  and 
force  and  structure  in  the  inorganic  and  organic  w^orld,  it  is 
at  once  a  common  and  a  serious  error  to  adopt  the  principle 
of  letting  bygones  be  bygones.  Were  scientific  systems  the- 
oracular  revelations  they  sometimes  all  but  pretend  to  be, 
it  might  be  justifiable  to  take  no  note  of  the  condition  of 
mere  opinion  or  fancy  that  preceded  them.  But  the  inves- 
tigator who  turns  from  his  modem  text-books  to  the- 
antiquated  dissertations  of  the  great  thinkers  of  the  past,, 
gains  from  the  histoiy  of  his  own  craft  a  truer  view  of  the 
relation  of  theory  to  fact,  learns  from  the  course  of  growth 
in  each  current  hyx>othesis  to  appreciate  its  raisou  d'etre 
and  full  significance,  and  even  finds  that  a  return  to  older 
starting-points  may  enable  him  to  find  new  paths,  where 
the  modei*n  track  seems  stopped  by  impassable  barriers* 
It  is  true  that  rudimentary  conditions  of  arts  and  sciences 
are  often  rather  curious  than  practically  instructive, 
especially  because  the  modern  practitioner  has  kept  up,  as 
mere  elementaiy  processes,  the  results  of  the  ancient  or 
savage  man's  most  strenuous  efforts.  Perhaps  our  tool- 
makers  may  not  gain  more  than  a  few  suggestive  hints  fi*oni 
a  museum  of  savage  implements,  our  physicians  may  only 
be  interested  in  savage  recipes  so  far  as  they  involve  the 
use  of  local  drugs,  our  mathematicians  may  leave  to  the 
infant-school  the  highest  flights  of  savage  arithmetic,  our 
astronomers  may  only  find  in  the  star-craft  of  the  lower 
races  an  uninstructive  combination  of  myth  and  conunon- 
place.  But  there  are  departments  of  knowledge,  of  not  less 
consequence  than  mechanics  and  medicine,  arithmetic  and 


CONCLUSION.  445 

fistronomy,  in  whicli  the  study  of  the  lowest  stages,  as  influ- 
encing the  practical  acceptance  of  the  higher,  cannot  be 
thus -carelessly  set  aside. 

If  we  survey  the  state  of  educated  opinion,  not  within  the 
limits  of  some  special  school,  but  in  the  civilized  world  at 
large,  on  such  subjects  especially  as  relate  to  Man,  his 
intellectual  and  moral  nature,  his  place  and  function  among 
his  fellow  men  and  in  the  universe  at  large,  we  see  existing 
side  by  side,  as  if  of  equal  right,  opinions  most  diverse  in 
real  authority.  Some,  vouched  for  by  direct  and  positive 
evidence,  hold  their  ground  as  solid  truths.  Others,  though 
founded  on  crudest  theories  of  the  lower  culture,  have  been 
80  modified  under  the  influence  of  advancing  knowledge, 
as  to  afford  a  satisfactory  framework  for  recognized  facts ; 
and  positive  science,  mindful  of  the  origin  of  its  own 
philosophic  schemes,  must  admit  the  validity  of  such  a 
title.  Others,  lastly,  are  opinions  belonging  properly  to 
lower  intellectual  levels,  which  have  held  their  place  into 
the  higher  by  mere  force  of  ancestral  tradition ;  these  are 
survivals.  Now  it  is  the  practical  office  of  ethnography  to 
make  known  to  all  whom  it  may  concern  the  tenure  of 
opinions  in  the  pubhc  mind,  to  show  what  is  received  on  its 
own  direct  evidence,  what  is  ruder  ancient  doctrine  re- 
shaped to  answer  modern  ends,  and  what  is  but  time- 
honoured  superstition  in  the  garb  of  modem  knowledge. 

Topic  after  topic  shows  at  a  glimpse  the  way  in  which 
ethnography  bears  on  modem  intellectual  conditions. 
Language,  appearing  as  an  art  in  full  vigour  among  rude 
tribes,  already  displays  the  adaptation  of  childlike  devices 
in  self-expressive  sound  and  pictorial  metaphor,  to  ntter 
thoughts  as  complex  and  abstruse  as  savage  minds  demand 
speech  for.  "WTien  we  consider  how  far  the  development  of 
knowledge  depends  on  full  and  exact  means  of  expressing 
thought,  is  it  not  a  pregnant  consideration  that  the  language 
of  civilized  men  is  but  the  language  of  savages,  more  or  less 
improved  in  structure,  a  good  deal  extended  in  vocabulary, 
made  more  precise  in  the  dictionary  definition  of  words  ? 


446  CONCLUSION. 

The  deyelopment  of  language  between  its  savage  and 
cultured  stages  has  been  made  in  its  details,  scarcely  in  its 
principle.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  half  the  vast 
defect  of  language  as  a  method  of  utterance,  and  half  the 
vast  defect  of  thought  as  determined  by  the  influence  of 
language,  are  due  to  the  fact  that  speech  is  a  scheme 
worked  out  by  the  rough  and  ready  application  of  material 
metaphor  and  imperfect  analogy,  in  ways  fitting  rather  the 
barbaric  education  of  those  who  formed  it,  than  our  own^ 
Language  is  one  of  those  intellectual  departments  in  which, 
we  have  gone  too  little  beyond  the  savage  stage,  but  are- 
still  as  it  were  hacking  with  stone  celts  and  twirling- 
laborious  friction-fire.  Metaphysical  speculation^  Ag^y  ha» 
been  one  of  the  potent  influences  on  human  conduct,  and 
although  its  rise,  and  one  may  almost  say  also  its  decline 
and  faU,  belong  to  comparatively  civilized  ages,  yet  it£P 
connexion  with  lower  stages  of  intellectual  history  may  to 
some  extent  be  discerned.  For  example,  attention  may  be 
recalled  to  a  special  point  brought  forward  in  this  work,  that 
one  of  the  greatest  of  metaphysical  doctrines  is  a  transfer  to 
the  field  of  philosophy  from  the  field  of  religion,  made  whea 
philosophers  familiar  with  the  conception  of  object-phantom» 
used  this  to  provide  a  doctrine  of  thought,  thus  giving  rise 
to  the  theory  of  ideas.  Far  more  fully  and  distinctly,  the 
study  of  the  savage  and  barbaric  intellect  opens  to  us  the 
study  of  Mythology.  The  evidence  here  brought  together 
as  to  the  relation  of  the  savage  to  the  cultured  mind  in  the 
matter  of  mythology  has,  I  think,  at  any  rate  demonstrated 
this.  With  a  consistency  of  action  so  general  as  to  amount 
to  mental  law,  it  is  proved  that  among  the  lower  races  alL 
over  the  world  the  operation  of  outward  events  on  the 
inward  mind  leads  not  only  to  statement  of  fact,  but  to 
formation  of  myth.  It  gives  no  unimportant  clues  to  the 
student  of  mental  history,  to  see  by  what  regular  processes 
myths  are  generated,  and  how,  growing  by  wear  and  in- 
creasing in  value  at  secondhand,  they  pass  into  pseudo- 
historic  legend.     Poetry  is  full  of  myth,  and  he  who  will. 


conclusion:  447 

understand  it  analytically  will  do  well  to  study  it  ethno- 
graphically..  In  so  far  as  myth,  seriously  or  sportively 
meant,  is  the  subject  of  poetry,  and  in  so  far  as  it  is  couched 
in  language  whose  characteristic  is  that  wild  and  rambling 
metaphor  which  represents  the  habitual  expression  of  savage 
thought,  the  mental  condition  of  the  lower  races  is  the  key 
to  poetry — nor  is  it  a  small  portion  of  the  poetic  realm 
which  these  definitions  cover.  History,  again,  is  an  agent 
powerful  and  becoming  more  powerful,  in  shaping  men's 
minds,  and  through  their  minds  their  actions  in  the  world ; 
now  one  of  the  most  prominent  faults  of  historians  is  that, 
through  want  of  familiarity  with  the  principles  of  myth- 
development,  they  cannot  apply  systematically  to  ancient 
legend  the  appropriate  tests  for  separating  chronicle  from 
myth,  but  with  few  exceptions  are  apt  to  treat  the  mingled 
mass  of  tradition  partly  with  undiscriminating  credulity  and 
partly  with  undiscriminating  scepticism.  Even  more  in- 
jurious is  the  effect  of  such  want  of  testing  on  that  part  of 
traditional  or  documentary  record  which,  among  any  section 
of  mankind,  stands  as  sacred  history.  It  is  not  merely  that 
in  turning  to  the  index  of  some  book  on  savage  tribes,  one 
comes  on  such  a  suggestive  heading  as  this,  "  Beligion — see 
Mythology."  It  is  Ihat  within  the  upper  half  of  the  scale 
of  civilization,  among  the  great  historic  religions  of  the 
world,  we  all  know  that  between  religion  and  religion,  and 
even  to  no  small  extent  between  sect  and  sect,  the  narratives 
which  to  one  side  are  sacred  history,  may  seem  to  the  other 
mythic  legend.  Among  the  reasons  which  retard  the  pro- 
gress of  religious  history  in  the  modern  world,  one  of  the 
most  conspicuous  is  this,  that  so  many  of  its  approved 
historians  demand  from  the  study  of  m}i;hology  always 
weapons  to  destroy  their  adversaries'  structures,  but  never 
tools  to  clear  and  trim  their  own.  It  is  an  indispensable 
qualification  of  the  true  historian  that  he  shall  be  able  to 
look  dispassionately  on  myth  as  a  natural  and  regular  product 
of  the  human  mind,  acting  on  appropriate  facts  in  a  manner 
suited  to  the  intellectual  state  of  the  people  producing  it, 


448  CONCLUSION. 

and  that  lie  shall  treat  it  as  an  accretion  to  be  deducted 
from  professed  history,  whenever  it  is  recognized  by  the 
tests  of  being  decidedly  against  evidence  as  fad,  and  at  the 
same  time  clearly  explicable  as  myth.  It  is  from  the  ethno- 
graphic study  of  savage  and  barbaric  races  that  the  know- 
ledge of  the  general  laws  of  myth-development,  required  for 
the  carrying  out  of  this  critical  process,  may  be  best  or 
must  necessarily  be  gained. 

The  two  vast  united  provinces  of  Morals  and  Law  have 
been  as  yet  too  imperfectly  trei^^ed  on  a  general  ethno- 
graphic scheme,  to  warrant  distinct  statement  of  results. 
Yet  thus  much  may  be  confidently  said,  that  where  the 
ground  has  been  even  superficially  explored,  every  glimpse 
reveals  treasures  of  knowledge.  It  is  already  evident  that 
inquirers  who  systematically  trace  each  department  of 
moral  and  legal  institutions  from  the  savage  through  the 
barbaric  and  into  the  civilized  condition  of  mankind,  thereby 
introduce  into  the  scientific  investigations  of  these  subjects 
an  indispensable  element  which  merely  theoretical  writers 
are  apt  unscrupulously  to  dispense  with.  The  law  or 
maxim  which  a  people  at  some  particular  stage  of  its  his- 
tory might  have  made  fresh,  uccorcung  to  the  information 
and  circumstance  of  the  period,  is  one  thing.  The  law  or 
maxim  which  did  in  fact  become  current  among  them  by 
inheritance  from  an  earlier  stage,  only  more  or  less  modified 
to  make  it  compatible  with  the  new  conditions,  is  another 
and  far  different  thing.  Ethnography  is  required  to  bridge 
over  the  gap  between  the  two,  a  very  chasm  where  the  argu- 
ments of  moralists  and  legists  are  continually  falling  in,  to 
crawl  out  maimed  and  helpless.  Within  modern  grades  of 
civilization  this  historical  method  is  now  becoming  more 
and  more  accepted.  It  will  not  be  denied  that  English 
law  has  acquired,  by  modified  inheritance  from  past  ages,  a 
theory  of  primogeniture  and  a  theory  of  real  estate  which 
are  so  far  from  being  products  of  our  own  times  that  we 
must  go  back  to  the  middle  ages  for  anj'thing  like  a  satis- 
factory explanation  of  them;   and  as  for  more  absolute 


CONCLUSION.  449^ 

aurrivaly  did  not  Jewish  disabilities  stand  practically,  and 
the  wager  of  battle  nominally,  in  our  law  of  not  many 
years  back  ?  But  the  point  to  be  pressed  here  is,  that  the 
development  and  survival  of  law  are  processes  that  did  not 
first  come  into  action  within  the  range  of  written  codes  of 
comparatively  cultured  nations.  Admitted  that  civilized 
law  requires  its  key  from  barbaric  law ;  it  must  be  borne 
in  mind  that  the  barbarian  lawgiver  too  was  guided  in 
judgment  not  so  much  by  first  piinciples,  as  by  a  reverent 
and  often  stupidly  reverent  adherence  tp.  the  tradition  of 
earlier  and  yet  ruder  ages. 

Nor  can  these  principles  be  set  aside  in  the  scientific 
study  of  moral  sentiment  and  usage.  When  the  ethical 
systems  of  mankind,  from  the  lowest  savagery  upward,  have 
been  analyzed  and  arranged  in  their  stages  of  evolution, 
then  ethical  science,  no  longer  vitiated  by  too  exclusive 
application  to  particular  x>hases  of  morality  taken  um*ea- 
sonably  as  representing  morality  in  general,  will  put  its 
methods  to  fair  trial  on  the  long  and  intricate  world-history 
of  right  and  wrong. 

In  concluding  a  work  of  which  full  half  is  occupied  by 
evidence  bearing  on  the  philosophy  of  religion,  it  may  weU 
be  asked,  how  does  all  this  an:ay  of  facts  stand  toward  the 
theologian's  special  province  ?  That  the  world  sorely  needs 
new  evidence  and  method  in  theology,  the  state  of  reUgion 
in  our  own  land  bears  witness.  Take  English  Protestantism 
as  a  central  district  of  opinion,  draw  an  ideal  line  through 
its  centre,  and  English  thought  is  seen  to  be  divided  as  by 
a  polarizing  force  extending  to  the  utmost  limits  of  repul- 
sion. On  one  side  of  the  dividing  line  stand  such  as  keep 
firm  hold  on  the  results  of  the  16th  century  reformation,  or 
seek  yet  more  original  canons  from  the  first  Christian  ages ; 
on  the  other  side  stand  those  who,  refusing  to  be  bound  by 
the  doctrinal  judgments  of  past  centuries,  but  introducing 
modem  science  and  modern  criticism  as  new  factors  in 
theological  opinion,  are  eagerly  pressing  toward  a  new 
reformation.       Outside    these    narrower  limits,   extremer 

VOL.    If.  GO 


450  CONCLUSION. 

partizans  occupy  more  distant  ground  on  either  side.  On 
the  one  hand  the  Anglican  blends  gradaally  into  the  Roman 
scheme,  a  system  so  interesting  to  the  ethnologist  for  its 
maintenance  of  rites  more  naturally  belonging  to  barbaric 
culture ;  a  system  so  hateful  to  the  man  of  science  for  its 
suppression  of  knowledge,  and  for  that  usurpation  of 
intellectual  authority  by  a  sacerdotal  caste  which  has  at 
last  reached  its  climax,  now  tliat  an  aged  bishop  can  judge, 
by  infallible  inspiration,  the  results  of  researches  whose 
evidence  and  methods  are  alike  beyond  his  knowledge  and 
his  mental  grasp.  On  the  other  hand,  intellect,  here 
trampled  under  foot  of  dogma,  takes  full  revenge  elsewhere^ 
even  within  the  domain  of  religion,  in  those  theological 
districts  where  reason  takes  more  and  more  the  command 
over  hereditary  belief,  like  a  mayor  of  the  palace  supersede 
ing  a  nominal  king.  In  yet  farther  ranges  of  opinion, 
religious  authority  is  simply  deposed  and  banished,  and  the 
throne  of  absolute  reason  is  set  up  without  a  rival  even  in 
name  ;  in  secularism  the  feeling  and  imagination  which  in 
the  religious  world  are  bound  to  theological  belief,  have  to 
attach  themselves  to  a  positive  natural  philosophy,  and  to  a 
positive  morality  which  shall  of  its  own  force  control  the  acts 
of  men.  Such,  then,  is  the  boundless  divergence  of  opinion 
among  educated  citizens  of  an  enlightened  count]:7%  in  an  age 
scarcely  approached  by  any  former  age  in  the  possession  of 
actual  knowledge  and  the  strenuous  pursuit  of  truth  as  the 
guiding  principle  of  life.  Of  the  causes  which  have  brought 
to  pass  so  perplexed  a  condition  of  public  thought,  in  so 
momentous  a  matter  as  theology,  there  is  one,  and  that  a 
weighty  oue,  which  demands  mention  here.  It  is  the  partial 
and  one-sided  application  of  the  historical  method  of  enquiry 
into  theological  doctrines,  and  the  utter  neglect  of  the 
ethnographical  method  which  carries  back  the  historical 
into  remoter  and  more  primitive  regions  of  thought.  Look- 
ing at  each  doctrine  by  itself  and  for  itself,  as  in  the  abstract 
true  or  untrue,  theologians  close  their  eyes  to  the  instances 
which  history  is  ever  holding  up  before  them,  that  one  phase 


coNCLirsroN.  451 

of  a  religious  belief  is  the  outcome  of  another,  that  in  all 
times  religion  has  included  within  its  limits  a  system  of 
philosophy,  expressing  its  more  or  less  transcendental  con- 
ceptions in  doctrines  which  form  in  any  age  ^their  fittest 
representatives,  but  which  doctrines  are  liable  to  modifica- 
tion in  the  general  course  of  intellectual  change,  whether 
the  ancient  formulas  still  hold  their  authority  with  altered 
meaning,  or  are  themselves  reformed  or  replaced.     Christen- 
dom furnishes  evidence  to  establish  this  principle,  if  for 
example  we  will  but  candidly  compare  the  educated  opinion  of 
Borne  in  the  6th  with  that  of  London  in  the  19th  century,  on 
such  subjects  as  the  nature  and  functions  of  soul,  spirit,  deity, 
and  judge  by  the  comparison  in  what  important  respects  the 
philosophy  of  religion  has  come  to  differ  even  among  men 
who  represent  in  different  ages  the  same  great  principles  of 
faith.     The  general  study  of  the  ethnography  of  religion, 
through  all  its  immensity  of  range,  seems  to  countenance 
the  theory  of  evolution  in  its  highest  and  widest  sense.    In 
the  treatment  of  some  of  its  topics  here,  I  have  propounded 
special  hypotheses  as  to  the  order  in  which  various  stages  of 
doctrine  and  rite  have  succeeded  one  another  in  the  history 
of  religion.    Yet  how  far  these  particular  theories  may  hold 
good,  seems  even  to  myself  a  minor  matter.     The  essential 
part  of  the  ethnographic  method  in  theology  lies  in  admit- 
ting as  relevant  the  compared  evidence  of  religion  in  ftU 
stages  of  culture.     The  action  of  such  evidence  on  theology 
proper  is  in  this  wise,  that  a  vast  proportion  of  doctrines 
and  rites  known  among  mankind  are  not  to  be  judged  as 
direct  products  of  the  particular  religious  systems  which 
give  them  sanction,  for  they  are  in  fact  more  or  less 
modified  results  adopted  from    previous    systems.      The 
theologian,  as  he  comes  to  deal  with  each  element  of  belief 
and  worship,  ought  to  ascertain  its  place  in  the  general 
scheme  of  religion.     Should  the  doctrine  or  rite  in  question 
appear  to  have  been  transmitted  from  an  earlier  to  a  later 
stage  of  religious  thought,  then  it  should  be  tested,  like 

any  other  point  of  ctdture,  as  to  its  place  in  development. 

o  o  2 


452  COl^CLUSION. 

The  question  has  to  be  raised,  to  which  of  these  three 
categories  it  belongs  : — ^is  it  a  product  of  the  earlier  theology^ 
yet  sound  enough  to  maintain  a  rightful  place  in  the  later ; — 
is  it  derived  from  a  cruder  original^  yet  so  modified  as  to  be« 
come  a  proper  representative  of  more  advanced  views  ? — ^is 
it  a  survival  from  a  lower  stage  of  thought,  imposing  on  the 
credit  of  the  higher  by  virtue  not  of  inherent  truth  but  of 
ancestral  belief?  These  are  queries  the  very  asking  of 
which  starts  trains  of  thought  which  candid  minds  should 
be  encouraged  to  pursue,  leading  as  they  do  toward  the 
fttjbainment  of  such  measure  of  truth  as  the  intellectual  con- 
dition of  our  age  fits  us  to  assimilate.  In  the  scientifi*^ 
study  of  religion,  which  now  shows  signs  of  becoming  for 
many  a  year  an  engrossing  subject  of  the  world's  thought, 
the  decision  must  not  rest  with  a  council  in  which  the 
theologian,  the  metaphysician,  the  biologist,  the  physicist, 
exclusively  take  part.  The  historian  and  the  ethnographer 
must  be  called  upon  to  show  the  Jiereditazy  standing  of  each 
opinion  and  practice,  and  their  enquiry  must  go  back  as  fiur 
as  antiquity  or  savagery  can  show  a  vestige,  for  there  seems 
no  human  thought  so  primitive  as  to  have  lost  its  bearing 
on  our  own  thought,  nor  so  ancient  as  to  have  broken  its 
connexion  with  om*  own  life. 

It  is  our  happiness  to  live  in  one  of  those  eventful  periods 
of  intellectual  and  moral  history,  when  the  oft-closed  gates 
of  discovery  and  reform  stand  open  at  their  widest.  How 
long  these  good  days  may  last,  we  cannot  tell.  It  may  be 
that  the  increasing  power  and  range  of  the  scientific  method, 
with  its  stringency  of  argument  and  constant  check  of  fiiet, 
may  start  the  world  on  a  more  steady  and  continuous  course 
of  progress  than  it  has  moved  on  heretofore*  But  if  history 
is  to  repeat  itself  according  to  precedent,  we  must  look  for* 
ward  to  stiffer  duller  ages  of  traditionalists  and  commenta* 
tors,  ^hen  the  great  thinkers  of  our  time  will  be  appealed 
to  as  authorities  by  men  who  slavishly  accept  their  tenets, 
yet  <;annot  or  dare  not  follow  their  methods  through  better 
evidence  to  higher  ends.    In  either  case^  it  is  for  those 


CONCLUSION.  453 

among  us  whose  minds  are  set  on  the  advancement  of 
civilization,  to  make  the  most  of  present  opportunities,  that 
even  when  in  future  years  progress  is  arrested,  it  may  be 
arrested  at  the  higher  level.  To  the  promoters  of  what  is 
sound  and  reformers  of  what  is  faulty  in  modem  culture, 
ethnography  has  double  help  to  give.  To  impress  men's 
minds  with  a  doctrine  of  development,  will  lead  them  in  all 
honour  to  their  ancestors  to  continue  the  progressive  work 
of  past  ages,  to  continue  it  the  more  vigorously  because 
light  has  increased  in  the  world,  and  where  barbaric  hordes 
groped  blindly,  cultured  men  can  often  move  onward  with 
clear  view.  It  is  a  harsher,  and  at  times  even  painful,  office 
of  ethnography  to  expose  the  remains  of  crude  old  culture 
which  have  passed  into  harmful  superstition,  and  to  mark 
these  out  for  destruction.  Yet  this  work,  if  less  genial,  is 
not  less  urgently  needful  for  the  good  of  mankind.  Thus, 
active  at  once  in  aiding  progress  and  in  removing  hind- 
rance, the  science  of  culture  is  essentially  a  reformer's 
science. 


INDEX. 


AbMUB»  i.  270. 

Aooent^  L  178. 

Aoaphali,  L  890. 

Aomlles :— ▼ulnerable  apot^  i    858; 

dream,  L  444;  in  Had««,  iL  81. 
Acotta,  on  American  acebetypal  dei- 
ties, iL  244. 
Adam,  iL  812, 815. 
.^lian,  i.  872,  ii.  428;   on  Kynoke- 

phaU,  L  889. 
JEolua,  L  861,  iL  269. 
iEeculapiufl: — ^incubation  in  temple, 

iL  121 ;  serpents  of,  IL  241. 
AffirmatiTe  and  negative  partides,  L 

192. 
Afghans,  race-genealogy  of,  L  408. 
Agni,  iL  281, 886. 
Agreement  in  custom  and  opinion  no 

proof  of  soundness,  i.  18. 
A^cultore,  god  of,  iL  805. 
Ahriman,  iL  828. 
Ahurarif  azda,  iL  288,  328, 855. 
Alexander  the  Great,  L  895,  ii.  138. 
Alfonso  di  Liguoii,  St.,  bilocation  of, 

L447. 
Alger,  Rot.  W.  R.,  L  471,  484,  ii.  88. 
Algonquin  languages,  animate  and  in- 
animate genders,  i.  802. 
All  as  Thunder-god,  iL  264. 
All  Souls',  feast  of  dead,  iL  87. 
Allegory,  L  277, 408. 
Aloysius  Qonzaga,  St.,  letters  to,  iL 

122. 
Alphabet,  L  171 ;  by  rape,  L 145;  as 

numeral  series,  L  258. 
Amatongo,  L  448,  iL  115, 181,  818, 

867,  887. 
Amenti,  Egyptian  dead-land,  ii.  67, 

81,  96,  295,  811. 
Amj^dromia,  iL  439. 
Analogy,  myth  product  of,  L  297. 
Ancestors,  eponvmic  myths  of,  L  893, 

iL  284 ;  worship  of  divine,  iL  1 18, 

811 ;   see  Manes* worship,  Totem- 

woTthip. 
Ancestral  names  indicate  re-birth  of 

souls,  iL  5. 
Ancestiml  tablet,  Chinese,  iL    118, 

152. 


Andaman  Islanders^  mythic  origin  of, 
L  869,  889. 

Angsngy  omen  from  meeting  animal, 
i.  120. 

Angel,  see  Spirit;  of  death,  i.  295, 
IL  196.822. 

Angelo,  St,  legend  of,  L  295. 

Anima,  animua^  L  488,  470. 

Animals  :^mens  from,  L  120  ;  caUs 
to  and  cries  of,  177;  imitative 
names  from  cries,  etc,  206;  treated 
as  human,  L  467,  IL  230 ;  souls  of, 
L  469 ;  future  life  and  funeral  sa- 
crifice of,  L  469,  iL  75,  etc. ;  entry 
and  transmigration  of  souls  into 
and  possession  by  spirits,  iL  7, 152, 
161,  175,  231,  241,  878,  etc. ;  dis- 
eases transferred  to,  iL  147;  see 
spirits  inriaibie  to  men,  ii.  196. 

Animals,  sacred,  incarnations  or  re- 
presentatives of  deities,  ii.  281;  re- 
ceive and  consume  sacrifices,  378. 

Animal-worship,  L  467,  iL  229,  878. 

Animism : — defined,  L  424  ;  is  the 
philosophy  of  rdigion,  L  426,  iL 
856;  is  a  primitive  scientific  sys- 
tem of  man  and  nature  based  on 
the  conception  of  the  human  soul, 
L428,  499,  U.  108,  184,  856;  iU 
stages  of  development,  survival, 
and  decline,  L  499,  IL  181,  856. 
See  Soul,  Spirit^  etc.,  etc 

Anra-MaiDyu,  ii.  828. 

Antar,  tumulus  of,  iL  29. 

Anthropomorphic  conceptions  of 
spirit  and  deity,  u.  110, 184,  247, 
885. 

Antipodes,  L  892. 

Ape-men,  L  879;  apes  degenerate 
men,  376 ;  can  but  will  not  talk, 
379. 

Apollo,  ii.  294. 

Apophis-serpent,  iL  241. 

Apotheosis,  ii.  120. 

Apparitional  soul,  L  428 ;  its  likenes 
to  body,  450. 

AppariUons,  L  143, 440, 445,  478,  u. 
24,  187,  410,  etc. 

Archetypal  deities  and  ideas,  iL  343. 


4J6 


INDEX. 


Ares,  il  308. 

ArgoB  PlmopteB,  i.  820. 

ArgyllyDuke  of,  on  primsoval  man,i.60. 

Arithmetic,  see  Counting. 

Arriero,  L  191. 

Arrows,  magic,  i.  845. 

Artemidonis,  on  dream-omem,  i  122. 

ArtomLi,  ii.  802. 

Aryan  race  : — ^no  savage  tribe  among, 
i.  49 ;  antiquity  of  culture,  i.  64. 

Ascendant  in  horoscope,  i.  129. 

Ashera,  worship  of,  ii.  1G6. 

Ashes  stirewn  for  spirit-footprinta,  i 
455,  u.  197. 

Asmodeus,  ii.  254. 

Association  of  ideas^  fonndation  of 
magic,  i.  116. 

Astrology,  i.  128,  291. 

Atahentsio,  ii.  299,  309,  823. 

Atohocan,  il  824,  839. 

Atavism,  explained  by  transmigra- 
tion, ii.  8. 

Atheist,  use  of  word,  i.  420. 

Augury,  etc..  i  119.     See  il  179, 231 . 

Augustine,  St.,  i.  199,  441,  ii  54, 
427 ;  on  dreams^  L  441 ;  on  incubi, 
ii.  190. 

Augustus,  genius  of,  iL  202. 

Avatars,  il  239. 

Avemus,  Lake,  ii.  45. 

Ayenbite  of  Inwyt,  i  456. 

Baal-Shemesh,  ii.  295. 

Bacon,  Lord,  on  all^ory,  L  277. 

Bsetylfiy  animated  stones,  ii.  166. 

Baku,  burning  wells  of,  ii.  282. 

Baldr,  i.  464. 

Bale,  Bishop,  i.  384 ;  on  witchcraft^  i. 

142. 
Bandj,  clerical,  i.  18. 
Baptism,  iL  440 ;  orientation  in,  427. 
Bariog-Gould,  Hev.  S.,  on  werewolves, 

L314. 
Bastian,  Prof.  Adolf,  Mensch  in  der 

Oeschichte,  L  vL ;  ii.  209,  222,242, 

280,  etc. 
Baudet,  etymology  of,  i.  413. 
Seal,  IL  252,  408. 
Bear,  Great,  i  859. 
Beast-fables,  L  381,409. 
Bees,  telling,  i.  287. 
Bel  il  298,  880,  384. 
Berkeley,  Bishop,  on  ideas,  1 499  ;  on 

force  and  matter,  il  160. 
Bewitching  by  objects,  L  116. 
Bible  and  key,  ordeal  by,  L  128, 
Bilocation,  i.  447. 
Bird,  of  tfatmder,  i.  362 ;  bird  conveys 

spirit,  il  161,175. 


Blemmye,  headlen  men,  I  890. 
Blood :— related  to  soul.  I  481;   re- 

vives    ghoats,   il  48;    offered    to- 

deitiesy  881;    substitute   for  life, 

402. 
Blood-red  stain,    myths  to  account 

for,  I  406. 
Bloodsuckers,  il  191. 
Blow-tube,  I  67. 
Bo  tree,  il  818. 
Boar's  head,  ii.  408. 
Boats  without  iron,  myth  on,  I  374. 
Bochica,  1858,  ii.  290. 
Boehme,  Jacob,  on  man's  primiiive 

knowledge,  ii.  185. 
Bolotu,  il  22,  62, 810. 
Boni  Homines,  I  77. 
Book  of  D.ead,  Egyptian,  il  18,  96. 
Boomerang,  I  67. 
Boreas,  I  862,  ii.  268. 
Bosjesman,    etymolc^  of    word,  L. 

881. 
Bow  and  arrow,  I  7, 15,  64,  78. 
Brahma,  ii.  854,  425. 
Brahmanism: — funeral  rites,  i.  465, 

etc. ;     transmigration,    il    9,    SO,. 

97;    manes- worship,   119  ;    atone- 

worship,      164 ;     idolatiy,    178 ;. 

animal-worship,  288 ;  sun-wonhip^ 

292;  orientation,  425;  lustrataoo, 

487. 
Breath,  its  relation  to  soul  I  432. 
Bride-capture,  game  of,  I  78. 
Bridge,  nrst  crossing,  1 106 ;  of  dead,. 

i.  495,  u.  50,  94,  100,  etc 
Brinton,  Dr.  D.  Q.,  I  58,  861,  il  90,. 

342 ;  on  dualistic  myths,  ii.  320. 
Britain,  eponymic  kings  of,  i.  400; 

voyage  of  souls  to,  ii.  64. 
Brosses,  C.  de,  on  degeneration  and 

development,  I  36 ;  origin  of  lan- 
guage,   161;    fetishism,    ii.    144; 

species-deities,  246. 
Browne,    Sir    Thos.,    on    magnetic 

mountain,  1 875. 
Brutus,  evil  genius  of,  ii,  208* 
Brynhild,  i.  465. 
Buck,  buck,  game  of,  I  74. 
Buddha,  transmigrations  of,  i.  414,  iL 

IL 
Buddhism : — culture-tradition,  141;. 

saints  rise  in  air,  1 149 ;  tnuumi^ 

gration,  ii.  11,  20,  97;  nirvana,  il 

79;  tree-worship,  I  476,  il  217; 

serpent- worship,    240  ;     religioaa 

formulas,  872. 
Buildings,  victim  immured  in  fonnda- 

tiox\,  1.  104,  etc. ;  mythic  foondeia 

of,  l  894. 


INDEX 


457 


Bull,  BUhop,  on  guardian  angelfl,  ii. 
203. 

3ura  Pennu,  ii.  327, 350, 368,  404. 

Porial,  ghost  waaden  till,  ii.  27; 
corpse  laid  east  and  west,  423. 

Burning  oats  from  straw,  i.  44. 

Burton,  Capt.  R.  F.,  continuance- 
theory  of  future  life,  ii  75 ;  disease- 
spirits,  150. 

Burton,  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  in- 
cubi,  etc.,  il  191. 

Buscbmann,  Fk>of^  on  nature-sound,  i. 
223, 

Butler,  Bishop^  on  natural  religion,  IL 
356. 

GaoodflDmon,  il  188. 

Gnaar,  on  German  deities,  ii.  294. 

Capts,  L  1 15,  384. 

Calderwood,  Prof.,  i.  vii,  ii.  96. 

Calls  to  animals,  i  177. 

Calmet  on  spirits,  il  188,  etc. 

Calumet^  I  210. 

Candles  against  demons,  ii.  194. 

Cant,  myth  on  word,  i.  397. 

Cardinal  numbers,  i.  257. 

Cards,  Playing,  I  82,  126. 

Cassava  l  63 

Gastrin^  il  80,  155,  177,  245,  351. 

Cave-men,  condition  of,  I  59. 

Ceremonies,  religious,  il  362,  etc. 

Ceres,  il  306. 

Chances,  games  of,  their  relation  to 
arts  of  divination,  I  78. 

Chanticleer,  l  413. 

Charivari  at  eclipse,  1.  329. 

Pharms  :~objects,  I  118,  il  148; 
formulas,  their  relation  to  prayer8>, 
ii.  373. 

Charon,  I  490,  il  93. 

Chesterfield,  Lord,  on  customs,  I  95 ; 
on  omens,  1 118. 

Chic,  myth  on  word,  I  397. 

Childbirth-goddess,  il  305. 

Children,  numerical  series  of  names 
for,  i.  254 ;  suckled  by  wild  beasts, 
i  281 ;  receive  ancestors'  souls  and 
names,  il  4;  sacrifice  of,  il  398, 
403. 

Children's  language,  I  223. 

China»  religion  of: — funeral  rites, I 
464,  493;  manes-worship,  il  118; 
oultus  of  heaven  and  earth,  257, 
272,  352;  divine  hierarchy,  352; 
prayer,  370;  sacrifices,  385,  405. 

Chinese  culture-tradition,  i.  40;  re- 
mains in  Borneo,  i.  57. 

Chiromancy  or  palmistry,  I  125. 

Chirp  or  twitter  of  ghosts,  etc.,  i.  453. 


Christmas,  origin  of,  il  297. 

Chronology,  limits  of  ancient,  I  54. 

Cicero,  on  dreams,  I  444;  sun-gods, 
11294. 

Civilization,  see  Culture. 

Civilized  men  adopt  savage  life,  I  45. 

Civilization-myths,  I  39,  353. 

Clairvoyanoe,  oy  objects,  I  116. 

Clashing  rocks,  myth  of,  I  348. 

CUcks,ll71,192. 

Cocoa-nut^  divination  by,  I  80. 

Coin  placed  with  dead,  i.  490,  491. 

Columba,  St,  legend  of,  I  104. 

Columbus,  his  ques^  of  Earthly  Pkra* 
disc,  il  61. 

Comparative  theology,  il  251. 

Comte,  Augusta,  I  19 ;  fetishism,  i. 
478.il  144,354;  species-deities,  242. 

Confucius,  1 157;  funeral  sacrifice,  i. 
464,  ii.  42;  spirits,  206;  name  of 
supreme  deity,  352. 

Consonants,  i.  169. 

Constellations,  myths  of,  l  290,  356. 

Continuance-theory  of  future  life,  ii. 
75. 

Convulsions :— by  demoniacal  posses- 
sion, il  130 ;  artificially  produced, 
416. 

Convulsionnaires,  il  420, 

Copal  incense,  ii.  384. 

Cord,  magical  connexion  by,  1 117. 

Corpse  taken  out  by  special  opening 
in  house,  it.  26,  soul  remains  near, 
il  29,  150. 

Cortes,  I  319. 

Costume,  I  18. 

Counting,  art  of,  I  21,  240,  etc. ;  on 
fingers  and  toes,  244 ;  by  letters  of 
alphabet,  etc  258;  derivation  of 
numeral  words,  247;  evidence  of 
independent  development  of  low 
tribes,  271. 

Counting-games,  I  75,  87. 

Couvade,  in  South  India,  I  81. 

Cow,  name  of,  I  208 ;  purification  by 
nirang,  etc.  il  488. 

Cox,  Mr.  G.  W.,l  341,  846,  362. 

Creator,  doctrine  of,  il  249,  312,  321, 
etc. 

Credibility  of  tradition,  I  275,  370. 

Crete,  eaith  of,  fatal  to  serpents,  I  372. 

Cromlechs  and  menhirs  objects  of 
worship,  il  164. 

Culture  :--definition  of,  1 1 ;  scale  of, 
i.  26;  primitive,  represented  by 
modem  savages,  I  21,  68.  il  413, 
etc. ;  development  of,  I  21  etc.,  62, 
etc.,  237, 270, 4 17,  etc ,  il  35t>,  445 ; 
evidence  of  independent  pro^^resa 


4£8 


INDEX. 


from  low  stmiy  L  56,  eAa ;  rarrinJ 

in  culture^   70,  etc;  erideiioe  of 

early  eoltore  from  laoguage,  886 ; 

art  of  counting,  270;  myto,  284; 

nligion,  L  600.  iL  108,  184,  858, 
.   etc;  pnctioal  impart  of  itaidj  of 

oulture,  448. 
Ourtiui,  lUrooi,  leap  of,  iL  878. 
Curupa,  cohoba,  narootie  used  in  W* 

Ina.  and  S.  Ainer.,  iL  416. 
Cuftoms,  permanence  of,  L  70, 166 ; 

rational  origin  of,  04. 
Customs  of  Dahome,  i.  462. 
Cycle  of  Keoeasily,  iL  13. 
^dops,  L  801. 
Cyrus,  L  881,  286. 


Dancing  for  religious  excitement^  iL 
188,  420. 

Danse  Macabre,  myth  on  name,  L  897. 

Dante,  Divina  Commedia,  ii.  55,  220. 

Daphne,  it.  220. 

Dark,  evil  Bpirits  in,  iL  194. 

Darwin,  Mr.,  L  TiL^L  152,  223. 

Dasent,  Dr.,  L  10. 

DaYenport  Brothers,  L  152, 811. 

Dawn,  L  838,  844,  etc 

Day,  sun  as  eye  of,  i.  850. 

Day  and  Nigfat»  myths  of,  L  822,  887, 
etc,  u.  48,  328. 

Dead,  use  objects  aacrificed  for  them, 
L  485 ;  feasts  of,  ii.  29 ;  region  of 
future  life  of,  it  59,  74,  244 ;  god 
and  judge  o^  iL  75,  etc,  308. 

Deaf  and  Dumb,  counting,  L  244, 262; 
their  mythic  ideas,  L  298,  413. 

Death: — ascribed  to  sorcery,  L  188; 
omens  of,  i.  145,  449 ;  angd  of,  L 
295,  IL  196,  821 ;  personification 
and  myths  of,  L  295,  849,  855,  ii. 
46,  etc,  309;  death  and  sunset, 
myths  of,  L  885,  iL  48 ;  exit  of  soul 
at  death,  L  448,  iL  1,  etc ;  death  of 
soul,  iL  22. 

Death-watch,  L  146. 

Decimal  notation,  i.  261. 

Degeneration  in  culture,  L  85,  etc. ;  is 
a  secondary  action,  i.  88,  69;  ex- 
amples o^  in  Africa^  North  America, 
etc  L  47. 

Delphi,  oracle  of,  L  94,  iL  137. 

Demeter,  L  328,  iL  273,  306. 

Demooritus,  theory  of  ideas,  L  497. 

Demons:— souls  become,  ii.  27,  111, 
etc;  iron,  charm  against,  L  140; 
pervade  world, iL  111,  187, 185,etc; 
disease-demons,  126,  etc,  177,  192, 
215;  water-demons,  L  109,  iL  209; 


trse  and  lorest^demons,  iL  215, 288; 
possession  and  obsession  by  demons^ 
1. 98, 152, 809,iL  111,  123,  etc,  179, 
404  ;  expulsion  of,  L  103,  iL  185, 
488;  answer  in  own  name  through 
patient  or  medium^  ii.  124,  etc,  182| 
8<S6. 

Dendid,  creation-poem  of,  iL  21. 

Deodand,  origin  of,  L  287. 

Destruction  of  objects  saerijfieed  to 
dead,  L  483 ;  to  deities,  ii.  876,  etc 

Development  of  culture,  see  Cnltorc 

Development  myths,  men  from  apes, 
etc  L  376. 

Devil :— as  satyr,  L  307 ;  devilaT  tnMS, 
ii.  148 ;  devifdancerB,  ii.  188;  devil- 
worshippers,  ii.  829. 

Dice,  for  divination  and  gambling,  L 
82 

DiesVatelis,  iL  202,  297. 

DiiTerential  words,  phonetic  expreasioii 
of  distance  and  sex,  L  220. 

Dirge,  Lyke-wake,  L  495;  of  Hoe,  iL 
82. 

Disease : --personification  and  myths 
of,  L  295;  by  exit  of  soul,  L  486; 
by  demoniacal  possession,  etc,  L  1 27, 
iL  114, 123,  4U4 ;  disease-spirits,  ii. 
125,  etc.,  178,  215,  408;  embodied 
in  objects  or  animals,  146, 178^  etc; 
see  Demons,  Vampires. 

Distance  expressed  by  phonetic  modi- 
fication, L  220. 

Divination :  lots,  L  78 ;  symbolio  pro- 
cesses^ 81,  117;  augury,  etc,  119; 
dreams,  121 ;  haruspication,  124  ; 
swinging  ring,  etc,  126 ;  sstrolcgyy 
128;  possessed  objects,  L  125,  u. 
155. 

Divining  rod  and  pendulum,  L  187. 

Doctrines  borrowed  by  low  from  high 
races  :— on  future  Ufe,  iL  91 ;  dual- 
ism, 816 ;  supremacy,  888. 

Dodona,  oak  of,  ii.  219. 

Dog'headed  men,  L  889. 

Dolmens,  etc.,  myths  suggested  by,  L 
887. 

Domina  Abnndia,  iL  889. 

Dock,  ghost,  L  48a 

D*Orbigny,  on  religion  of  low  tribes^ 
L  419  ;  on  sun-worship,  iL  286. 

Dravidian  languages,  high  and  low 
gender,  L  802. 

Dreams : — omens  by,  L  121 ;  by  con- 
traries, 122 ;  caused  by  exit  of  soul, 
1.  440;  by  spiritual  visit  to  soul,  L 
442, 478 ;  evidence  of  future  life,  ii. 
84, 49, 75 ;  oracular  fasting  for,  410; 
narootixing  for,  416. 


INDEX. 


459 


jyriSt,  stone  implements  from,  L  58. 
Drirers*  and  Drovers'  words,  L  180. 
Drowning,  superstition  against  resou- 

ing  from,  L  107;  caused  by  spirits, 

109. 
Drags  used  to  produce  morbid  exdto- 

ment,  dreams,  visions,  etc.,  it  416. 
Dual  and  plural  numbers  in  primitive 

culture,  L  265. 
Dualism: — good  and  evil  spiriti^  iL 

186;  good  and  evil  genius,  202; 

good  and  evil  deity,  816. 
Dusii,  ii  190. 
Dwarfs,  myths  of,  L  885. 
Dyu,  ii  258. 


Earth,  myths  of,  L  822,  ete.,  364,  il 
270,  820. 

Earth-bearer,  i.  86i. 

Earth-goddess  and  earth-worship,  L 
822,  eto.,  ii  270,  806,  842. 

Earth-mother,  i  826,  eta,  865. 

Earthquake,  myths  of,  i  864. 

Earthly  Paradise,  ii  57,  etc. 

Earthly  resurrection,  ii  5. 

East  and  West,  burial  of  dead,  turn- 
ing to  in  worship,  adjusting  temples 
toward,  ii  883,  422. 

Eastor  fires  and  festivals,  ii  297. 

Eclipse,  myths  of,  i.  288,  329,  856 ; 
dnving  off  eclipse-monster,  i.  828. 

Ecstasy,  swoon,  etc : — by  exit  of  soul, 
i.  489;  by  demoniacal  possession, 
ii  130 ;  induced  by  fasting,  drugs, 
excitoment^  ii  ilO,  etc 

Edda»  i  84,  ii.  77,  etc 

Egypt,  antiquity  of  culture,  i  54; 
religion  of,  transmigration,  ii.  18; 
futuro  life,  96;  animal-worship, 
238  ;  sun-worship,  295,  311 ;  dual- 
ism, 327;  polytheism  and  supremacy, 
855. 

£1,  ii  855. 

Elsgabal,  Elagabalus,  Heliogabalus,  ii 
295,  898. 

Elements,  worship  of  the  four,ii  808. 

Elf-furrows,  myUi  of,  i  893. 

Elijah  as  thunder-god,  ii  264. 

Elysium,  ii  97. 

Embodiment  of  souls  and  spirits,  ii 
8, 128,  etc 

Emotional  tone,  i  166,  eto. 

Emphasis,  i  173. 

£ndor,  witch  of,  i.  i46. 

Eneigumens  or  demoniacs,  ii  189. 

Englishman,  Peruvian  myth  of,  i  854. 

Einigmas,  Greek,  i  93. 

Enoch,  Book  of,  i  408. 


Enthusiasm,  chaoged  signification  of, 
ii.  188. 

Epicurean  theory  of  development  of 
culturo,  i  87,  60 ;  of  soul,  456 ;  of 
ideas,  497. 

Epileptic  fits  by  demoniacal  posses- 
sion, ii.  130, 187;  induced,  419. 

Eponymio  ancestors,  eto.,  myths  o^ 
i  887,  898,  eto.,  ii  285. 

Essence  of  food  consumed  by  souls, 
u.  39  ;  by  deities,  881. 

Ethereal  substance  of  soul,  i  454 ;  of 
spirit,  ii  198. 

Ethnological  evidence  from  myths  of 
monstrous  tribes,  i  379,  etc;  from 
eponymio  race-genealogies,  401. 

Etiquette,  significance  of,  i.  95. 

Etymological  myths  :  —  names  of 
places,  i  895 ;  of  persons,  896 ; 
nations,  cities,  etc,  traced  to  epony- 
mio ancestors  or  founders,  898,  eto. 

Euhemerism,  i  279. 

ETans,  Mr.  John,  on  stone  implemento, 
i,  65 ;  Mr.  Sebastian,  i  106,  453. 

Evil  deity,  ii  816,  eto. ;  worshipped 
only,  820. 

Excitement  of  convulsions,  eto.,  for 
religious  purposes,  ii  133,  419. 

Exeter,  myth  on  name  of,  i  896. 

Kxoroism  and  expulsion  of  souls  and 
spirite,  i  102,  454,  ii.  26,  40, 125, 
etc,  146,  179,  199,  483. 

Expression  of  feature  causes  corres- 
ponding tone,  i  165, 183. 

Expressive  sound  modifies  words,  i. 
215. 

Ex-voto  offerings,  ii.  406,  409. 

Eye  of  day,  of  Odin,  of  Qraise,  i  350. 

Fables  of  animals,  i  381,  409. 

Familiar  spirite,  ii.  199. 

Fancy,  in  mythology,  i  815,  405. 

Farrar,  Rev.  F.  W.,  i  161,  ii  88. 

Fasting  for  dreams  and  visions,  i  806, 
445,  ii  410. 

Fauns  and  satyrs,  ii  227. 

Feaste,  of  the  dead,  ii.  80 ;  sacrificial 
banqueU,  895. 

Feralia,  ii  42. 

Fergusson,  Mr.,  on  tree-worship,  ii. 
218 ;  serpent-worship,  240. 

Fetoh  or  wraith,  i  448^  452. 

Fetish,  etymology  o^  ii.  143. 

Fetishism  .-—defined,  ii.  148 ;  doctrine 
of,  i  477,  U.  157,  eto.,  175,  205, 
215,  270,  eto. ;  survival  o^  ii  160; 
ite  relation  to  phUoaophical  theory 
of  force,  160;  to  nature-worship, 
205 ;  to  animal- worship,  281 ;  tran- 


460 


|NDEX< 


sitlon  to  polytheism,  243  ;  to  supre- 
macy, 885 ;  to  pantheism,  854. 
Fiji  and  8.  Africa,  moon-myth  com-. 

mon  to,  i.  855. 
Finger-joints  out  off  as  sacrifice^  u, 

400. 
fingers  and  toes,  counting  on,  i  242. 
Finns,  as  sorcerers,  L  81,  115. 
Fire,  passing  through  or  over,  L  S5, 
ii.  281, 429,  etc. ;  lighted  on  grave, 
i.  484;  drives  off  spirits,  ii.  194; 
ne^  fire,  ii.  278,    290,  297,  482; 
perpetual  fire,  278 ;  sacrifice  by  fire, 
888,  etc. 
fire-drill,  L  15,  50;  antiquity  of,  ii. 
280;  ceremonial  and  sportive  sur- 
vival of,  i.  75. 
Fire-god  and  fire-worship,  ii.  277,  870, 

etc.,  408. 
Firmament,  belief  in  existence  of,  L 

299,  iL  70. 
Firdt  Cause,  doctrine  of,  Ii.  885. 
Food  offered  to  dead,  i.   485.  ii  SO, 
etc ;  to  deities,  ii.  897  ;  how  con- 
sumed, ii.  89,  870. 
Footprints  of  souls  and  spirits,  ii.  197. 
Forest-spirits,  ii.  215,  etc. 
Formalism,  ii  803,871. 
Formulas  :~prayer8,  ii  871 :  charms, 

873. 
Fortunate  Isles,  ii  68. 
Four  winds,  cardinal  points,  i  861. 
Frances,  St.,  her  guardian  angels,  ii. 

203. 
French  numeral  series  in  English,  i. 

268. 
Fumigation,  see  Lustration. 
Funeral  procession  :  —horse  led  in,  i 
468, 474 ;  kill  persons  meeting,  464. 
Funeral    sacrifice  :— attendants    and 
wives  killed  for  service  of  dead,  i 
458;  animals,  472;  objects  depo- 
sited or  destroyed,  481 ;  motives  of, 
458»  472,  488;   survival   o^  4C8, 
474,  492 ;  see  Feasts  of  Dead. 
Future  Life,  i  419,  469,  480,  ii  1, 
etc.,  100;  transmigration  of  soul,  ii 
2 ;  remaining  on  earth  or  departure 
to  spirit-world,  22;  whether  races 
without  belief  in,  20;    connexion 
with  evidence  of  senses  in  dreams 
and    visions,   24,  49;   locality   of 
region    of    departed    souls,    74  ; 
visionary  visits  to,  46;  connexion 
of  solar  ideas  with,  48, 74, 811,  422; 
character  of  future  life,  74;  con- 
tinuance-theory,   75 ;    retribution- 
theory,  88;  introduction  of  moral 
element,  10,  S8 ;  stages  of  docttine 


of  future  life,  100;  its  practical 
effect  on  mankind,  104 ;  god  of  th» 
dead,  808. 

Gambling-numerals,  i.  268. 
Games : — children's  games  related  to- 
serious  occupations^  i  72;  counting- 
games,  74 ;  games  of  chance  relat^ 
to  arts  of  divination,  78. 
Gataker,  on  lots,  i  79. 
Gates  of  Hades,  Night,  Death,  i  847. 
Gayatri,  daily  sun-prayer  of  Brahmans, 

ii.  292. 
Genders,  distinguished  as  male  and: 
female,  animate  and  inanimate,  etc.^ 
L  801. 
Genghis-Khan,  worshipped,  ii  117. 
Genius,  patron  or  natal,  ii  199,  216;. 
good  and  evil,  203 ;  changed  signi- 
fication of  word,  181. 
German  and  Scandinavian  mythologsfc 
and  religion: — funeral  sa<nifice,  i 
464,491;  Walhalla,  it  70,88;  HeU 
i  847,  ii  88  ;  Odin,  Woden,  i  851 ; 
862,  ii  269 ;  Loki,  i  83, 865 ;  Thor,. 
Thunder,  ii.  266;  Sun  and  Moon, 
i  289,  ii  294. 
Gesture-hmguage,  and  gesture  accom- 
panying hinguage,  i.  168 ;  effect  of 
gesture  on  vocal  tone,  165 ;  gesture- 
counting  original  method,  i  246. 
Ghebers  or  Gours,  fire-worshippers, 

ii.  282. 
Gheel,  treatment  of  lunatics  at,  ii  148. 
Ghost:— ghost-soul,  i  142,428,  483, 
445,488;  seen  in  dreams  and  visions, 
440,  etc.  ;  voice  of,  452;  substance- 
and  weight  ot  453;  of  men,  animals, 
and  objects,  i29,  469,  479 ;  popular 
theory    inconsistent   and   broken- 
down  from  primitive,  479 ;  ghosts 
as  harmful  and  vengeful  demons, 
ii  27 ;  ghosts  of  unbiuied  wander, 
ii.  28 ;  ghosts  remain  near  corpse 
or   dwelling,  ii    29,  etc.;   laying 
ghosts,  ii  153,194. 
I   Giants,  myths  of,  i  886. 
Gibbon,  on  development  of  culture,  i.. 

S3. 
Glanvil,  Sadudsmus  Triumpbatug,  ii 

140. 
Glass-mountain,  Anafielas,  i  492. 
Godless  month,  ii  850. 
Gods: — seen   in   vision,   i   806;   of 
waters,  ii  209;  of  trees,  groves, 
and  forests,  215;  embodied  in  or 
represented  by  animals,  231 ;  gods 
of   species,  242;   higher  gods    of 
polytheism,  247,  etc ;  of  di 


INDEX. 


461 


816;  godfl  of  diffiBrent  religions 
compared.  250 ;  daaaified  by  com- 
mon attributes,  254. 

Oog  and  Msffog,  I  886,  etc. 

Goguet^  on  degeneration  and  derelop- 
menl^  i.  32. 

Oold,  worshipped,  ii.  154. 

Good  uid  evit  nidimentaiy  distinctiou 
ol^  it  89, 818  ;  good  and  eidl  spiiits 
and  dualistic  ddttea,  817. 

Goodman's  erofb,  iL  408. 

GraiA,  eye  o(  i  852. 

Oreai-eared  tribes,  L  388. 

Greek  mythology  and  religion:— 
nature-myths,  i.  320,  828,  349; 
funeral  rites,  464, 490 ;  future  life, 
ii  53,  68,  etc.;  nature-niirits  and 
polytheism,  206,  etc. ;  Zeus,  258, 
etc.,  355;  Demeter,  278,  806; 
Nereus,  Poseidon,  277;  Hephaistos, 
HesUa,  284 ;  Apollo,  294 ;  Hekate, 
Artenus,  802;  stone-worship,  165; 
sacrifice,  386, 896 ;  orientation,  426; 
lustration,  489. 

Grey,  Sir  George,  i.  822. 

Grote,  Mr.,  on  mythology,  i.  276, 400. 

GroYC-spirits,  ii  215. 

Guarani,  name  of,  L  401. 

Guardian  spirits  and  angels,  ii.  199. 

Gulf  of  dead,  il  62. 

Gunthram,  dream  of,  i.  442. 

Gypsies^  L  49,  115. 


Hades^  under-world  of  departed  souls, 
i.  835,  840,  il  65,  etc.,  81,  97,  809; 
descent  into,  L  340,  345,  ii.  45,  54, 
83 ;  personification  of,  L  340,  ii.  65, 
309  811 

Haetsh,  Kunchadal  ii.  46,  313. 

Hagiology,  ii  120,  261 ;  rising  in  air, 
i.  151 ;  miracles,  i  157,  371 ; 
second-sight,  L  449 ;  hsgiolatiy,  ii 
120. 

Hair,  lock  of,  as  offering,  ii.  401. 

Half-blood,  succession  of  forfaiddaD,  i 
20. 

Half-men,  tribes  of,  i  891. 

Ualiburton^  Mr.,  on  sneezing-rite,  i 
103. 

Hamadryad,  ii.  215. 

Hand-numerals,  from  counting  on  fin- 
gers, etc,  L  246. 

Hanuman,  monkey-god,  i  378. 

Hara  kari,  i  468. 

Harmodius  and  Aristogiton,  ii  68. 

Harpies,  ii  269. 

Harpocrates,  ii  295. 

Haruspication,  i  123,  ii.  179. 


Haryest-deity,  ii  805,  864,  868. 

Haahidi,  ii.  379. 

Head-hunting,  Dayak,  L  459. 

Headless  tribes,  myths  of,  i  390. 

Healths,  drinking,  i  ^6. 

Heart,  related  to  soul,  i  481,  ii  152. 

Heaven,  region  of  departed  souIb,  ii. 

70. 
Heaven  and  earth,  universal  fathw 

and  mother,  i  822,  u.  272,  345. 
Heaven-god.  and  heaven-worship,   i. 

806,   322,  ii  255,  etc.,   387,  etc., 

367, 395. 
Hebrides,  low  culture  in,  i.  45. 
Hekate,  i  150,  ii.  302,  418. 
Hel,  death-goddess,  i  801,  347,  ii.  88, 

311. 
Hell,  ii  56,  US,  97 ;  related  to  Hades, 

ii.  74,  etc.;    as  place  of  torment, 

not  conception  of  savage  religion, 

103. 
Hellenic  raoe-genealogy,  i  402. 
Hellshoon,  i  491. 
Hephaistos,  ii.  212,  280. 
Hera,  ii.  805. 
Herakles,  ii  294 ;    and  Hesione,  i. 

389. 
Hermes  Trismegiitus,  ii.  178. 
Hermotimus,  i.  439,  ii.  18. 
Hero-children  suckled  by  beasts,   i. 

281. 
Hesiod,  Isles  of  Blest^  ii  68. 
Hestia,  u.  284. 

Hiawatha,  poem  of,  i  845,  861. 
Hide-boiling,  i  44. 
Hierarchy,  polytheistic,  ii  248,  337, 

349,  etc. 
Hissing,  for  silence,  contempt,  respect) 

i  197. 
History,  relation  of  myth  to,  i.  278. 

416,  ii  447 ;  criUdsm  of.  i  280 ; 

similarity  of  nature-myth  to,  820. 
Hole  to  let  out  soul,  i,  453. 
HolocMist,  ii  385,  396. 
Holyoake,  Holywood,  etc.,  ii.  229. 
Holy  Sepulchre,  Easter  fire  at,  ii  297. 
Holy  water,  ii  188,  489. 
Holy  wells,  u.  214. 
Home  Tooke  on  interjections,  i.  175. 
Horse,  sacrificed  or  led  at  funeral,  i. 

468,  478. 
Horseshoes,     sgainst     witches    and 

demons,  i.  140. 
House  abandoned  to  g[host^  ii.  25. 
Uucklebones,  i  82. 
Huitulopochtli,  ii.  254,  807. 
Human  sacrifice : — funerals,  i.  458  ;  to 

deities.  U.  271,  8i<5,  889,  393,  408. 
Humboldt,  W.  v.,  on  continuity,  i. 


462 


INDEX. 


19 ;  on  language^  236 ;  on  numerals, 

258. 
Hume,  Natural  History  of  Religion, 

i.  477. 
Huns,  as  giants,  L  886. 
Hunting-oalls,  L  181. 
Huzricane,  i.  868. 
Hyades,  i.  858. 
Hysteria,  eto.,  by  pooMSsion,  ii.  181, 

etc.;  induced,  419. 

lambUchus,  i.  150,  ii.  187. 

Ideas: — ^Epicurean  related  to  object- 
souls,  i.  497;  Platonic  related  to 
speoies-deitieB^  ii.  244. 

Idiots,  inspired,  ii.  117. 

Idol,  see  Image. 

Idolatry  as  related  to  fetishism,  ii. 
168. 

Images : — fallen  from  beayen,  i.  1 57 ; 
as  substitutes  in  sacrifice,  i.  463,  ii. 
405;  fed  and  treated  as  aliTC,  ii. 
170;  moving,  weeping,  sweating^ 
etc.,  171 ;  animated  by  spirits  or 
deities,  172. 

Imagination,  based  on  experience,  i. 
278, 298,  804. 

ImitatiYC  words,  L  200;  Terbs,  etc., 
of  blowing,  swelling,  mumbling, 
spitting,  sneezing,  eating,  etc.,  208, 
etc  ;  names  of  animals,  206 ;  names 
of  musical  instruments,  208 ;  verbs, 
etc,  of  striking,  cracking,  clapping, 
&lUng,  etc,  211 ;  prevalence  of  imi- 
tative words  in  sava^  language, 
212;  imitative  adaptation  of  woixls, 
214. 

Immateriality  of  soul,  not  conception 
of  lower  culture,  i.  456,  ii.  198. 

Immortality  of  soul,  not  conception  of 
lower  culture,  IL  22. 

Implements,  inventions  of,  i.  64,  etc 

Incasy  myth  of  ancestry  and  civiliza- 
tion, L  288,  854,  ii.  290,  801. 

Incense,  ii.  888. 

Incubi  and  succubi,  ii.  189. 

Indigenes  of  low  culture,  t.  50,  etc. ; 
considered  as  sorcerers,  113;  myths 
ot  as  monsters,  876,  etc. 

Indo-Chinese  languages,  musical  pitch 
of  vowels,  L  169. 

Indra,  i.  820,  U.  265. 

Infant,  lustration  o^  ii.  480,  etc 

Infemus,  ii.81. 

Innocent  VllL,  bull  against  witch- 
craft, i.  139,  ii.  190. 

Inspired  idiot,  iL  128. 

Interjectional  words: — verbs,  etc.,  of 
wailing,  laughing,  insulting,  com- 


plaining, fearing,  driving,  etc,  u 

187;    hushing:,    hissing,   loathhig, 

hating^  etc,  197. 
Interjections,    i.    175;    sense-words 

used  as,   176;   directiy  expressive 

sounds,  188. 
Intoxicating  liquor,  absence  of,  i.  63. 
Intoxication  as  a  rite,  iL  417. 
Inventions,  developmeint  of,  L  14,  62 ; 

myths  of,  89,  892. 
losoo,  loakeha  and  Tawisoara,  myth 

of,  L  288,  848,  il  823. 
Ireland,  low  culture  in,  i.  44. 
Iron,  chann  against  witohes,  elves, 

etc,  L 140. 
Islands,  earth  oi^  fatal  to  serpents,  i. 

872;  of  Blest,  U.  57. 
Italian  numeral  series  in  English,  i. 

268. 

Jameson,  Mrs.,  on  parables,  L  414. 

Januarius,  St.,  blood  of,  L  157. 

Jawbone,  mythic,  L  844. 

Jerome,  St.,  iL  428. 

Jew's  harp,  vowels  sounded  with,  L 

168. 
John,  St.,  Midsummer  festival  of,  ii. 

298. 
Johnson,  Dr.,  L  6,  ii.  24. 
Jonah,  L  329. 
Jones,  Sir  W.,  on  nature-deities,  ii. 

258, 286. 
Joss-sticks,  iL  884. 
Journey   to  spirit-world,   r^on    of 

dead,  i.  481,  iL  44,  etc 
Judge  of  dead,  iL  92, 314. 
Julius  Cssar,  i.  320. 
Jupiter,  L  850,  ii.  258,  etc. 

Kaaba,  black  stone  of,  ii.  166. 

Kalewala,  Finnish  epic,  iL  46,  80,  93, 
261. 

Kali,  iL  425. 

Kami-religion  of  Japan,  iL  117,  301, 
350. 

Kang-hi  on  magnetic  needle,  L  375. 

Kathenotheism,  iL  854. 

Keltic  counting  by  scores  oontinued  in 
French  and  English,  i.  268. 

Kepler  on  world-soul,  ii.  854. 

Kimmerian  darkness,  iL  48. 

Kissing,  L  63. 

Kitchi  Manitu  and  Matchi  Manitu, 
Great  and  Evil  Spirit,  ii.  824. 

Klemm,  Dr.,  on  development  of  im- 
plements, L  64. 

Kobong  or  totem,  ii.  285. 

Koran,  L  407,  ii.  77,  296. 

Kottabos,  game  of,  L  82. 


INDEX. 


463 


KronosBwallowtDg  children,  L  841. 
Kynokephali,  L  889. 

Lake^wellen,  i.  61. 

Language :  i.  17,  286,  ii.  445 :— di- 
rectly ezprewive  element  in,  L  160 ; 
corregpondence  of  thia  indifferent 

.  langoagea,  1 68 ;  interjeotional  f onus, 
175;  unitative  fonna,  200;  difib- 
lential  forma,  220 :  ehildren'a  lan- 
guage, 223;  origin  and  derelop- 
ment  of  language,  229;  relation  of 
language  to  mythology,  299; 
geiner,  801;  language  attributed 
to  birdfl,  etc.,  19,  469;  pkoe  of 
language  in  development  of  culture, 
iL445. 

Languedoc,  etc.,i.  193. 

Leat  breath,  inhaling,  L  483. 

Laying  ghoeta,  ii  25, 158. 

Legge,  Dr.,  on  Confuciua,  ii.  852. 

Leibnitz,  i.  2. 

Lewea,  Mr.  Q.  H.,  i.  497. 

Uebrecht,  Prof.  F.,)  i.  yii,  108,  177, 
848-9,  ii.  24, 164, 195,  etc 

Life  cauaed  by  aoul,  i  486. 

Light  and  durkneaa^  analogy  of  good 
and  evil,  ii.  824. 

Likeneaa  of  relatives  accounted  for  by 
re>1»rth  of  aoul,  ii.  3. 

LimbuB  Patrum,  ii.  83. 

Linnieua,  name  of,  ii.  229. 

Little  Hed  Riding-hood,  i.  841. 

Loki,  i.  88,  365. 

Lots,  divination  and  gambling  by,  i. 
78. 

Lubbock,  Sir  J. : — evidence  of  metal- 
lurgy and  pottery,  againat  degenera- 
tion-theoiy,  i.  57 ;  on  low  tribes  de- 
scribed as  without  religious  ideas,  i. 
421 ;  on  water-worship,  iL  210 ;  on 
totem-worship^  236. 

Luoian,  i.  149,  iL  13,  52,  67,  802,  426. 

Lucina,  ii.  802,  805. 

Lucretius,  i.  40,  60. 

Lunatics,  demoniacal  possession  of,  ii. 
124,  etc 

Lustration,  by  water  and  fire,  ii.  429, 
etc;  of  new-bom  children,  430 ;  of 
women,  482 ;  of  those  polluted  by 
blood  or  corpse,  433 ;  general,  484, 
etc 

Luther,  on  witches,  L 187;  on  guardian 
angels,  ii  203. 

Lyell,  Sir  C,  on  degeneration-theory, 
i57. 

Lying  in  state,  of  King  of  France,  ii. 
35. 

Lyke-wake  dirge,  i  495. 


H'Lennan,  Mr.,  theory  of  totemism, 

ii236. 
Macrocosm,  i  850,  ii.  854. 
Madness  and  idiocy  by  pooMSsion,  iL 

128,  etc,  179. 
Magic: — origin  and  development,  i. 
112, 132;  belongs  to  low  level  of 
culture,  112;  attributed  to  low 
tribesi  118;  based  on  association  of 
ideas,  116 ;  processes  of  divination, 
78, 1 18 ;  relation  to  Stone  Age,  127 ; 
see  FetijBhism. 
Magnetic     Mountain,     philosophical 

myth  of,  i.  874. 
Maine,  Sir  H.  S.,  L  20. 
Maistre^  Count  de,  on  degeneration  in 
culture^  L  35;  astrology,  128;  ani- 
mation of  stars,  291. 
Makrokephali,  L  891. 
Malleus  Maleficarum,  ii.  140, 191. 
Man,  primitive  condition  of,  i.  21,  ii. 

448 ;  see  Savage. 
Man  of  the  woods,  buahman,  orang- 
utan, L  881. 
Man  swallowed  by  monster,  nature- 
myth  of,  L  885,  etc 
Manco  Ccapac,  L  854. 
Manes  and  manes-worship,  L  98, 148, 
484,  ii.  8,  HI,  etc,  129, 162,  807, 
864^;  theory  of,  ii.  118,  etc ;  divine 
ancestor  or  first  man  as  great  deity, 
811,  847. 
ManioluDism,  ii.  14,  880. 
Manitu,  U.  249,  824,  841. 
Manoa,  golden  city  of,  iL  249. 
lianu,  laws  of  :  -  ordeal  by  water,  i. 

141;  pitriB,iL  119. 
Marcus  Curtius,  leap  of,  iL  378. 
Maisaret,  St,  L  340. 
Maikham,Mr.  C.R.,  L  viL,  u.  263, 837, 

866,  392,  etc 
Marriages  (n  May,  L  70. 
Mars,  iL  808. 

Martins,  Dr.,  on  duaUsm,  iL  825. 
Maruts,  Vedic,  L  862,  u.  268. 
Mass,  ii.  410. 
BCaster  of  life  or  breath,  ii.  60,  839, 

etc,  365. 
Materiality  of  soul,  i.  458 ;  of  spirit, 

ii.  198. 
Maui,  L  385,  843,  360,  ii.  258,  267, 

279. 
Maundevile,    Sir    John,   i.   875,    ii. 

45. 
Medicine,  of  N.  A.  Indians,  ii.  151, 

200,  283,  872,  etc.,  411. 
Meiners,  History  of  Religions,  ii.  27, 

48,  etc 
Melissa,  L  491. 


464 


INDEX. 


Men  descended  from  apes,  myUu  of, 
i.  876  ;  men  with  tails,  888. 

Menander,  guardian  genius,  ii.  201. 

Kent  and  demerit^  Buddhist^  iL  12, 98. 

Hesaalians,  i.  103. 

Metaphor,  i  234,  297 ;  myUis  from, 
406. 

Metaphysics,  relation  of  animism  to, 
i  497,  U.  242,  811. 

Metempsychosis,  i.  879, 409, 469^  476, 
ii.  2 ;  origin  of,  ii  16. 

Mioare  digitis,  i.  75. 

Middleton,  Dr.,  L  157,  ii.  121. 

Midgard-snake,  ii  241. 

Midsummer  festival,  ii.  298. 

Milk  and  blood,  saorifioes  of,  ii.  48; 
Sfifi  Blood. 

Milky  Way,  myths  of,  i.  859,  il.  72. 

Mill.  Mr.  J.  S.,  on  ideas  of  number,  i. 
24a 

Milton,  on  eponymio  kings  of  Britain, 
L400. 

Minne^  drinking,  1.  96. 

Minucius  Felix,  on  spirits,  eic^lL  179. 

Mineles,  i.  276»  871,  ii  121. 

Mithn,  i  851,  ii.  298,  297. 

Moa,  legend  of,  ii  50. 

Mohammed,  legend  of,  i  407. 

Moloch,  ii  281,  408. 

Money  borrowed  to  be  repaid  in  next 
life,  i  491. 

Monkeys,  presenred  as  dwarfii,  i  888; 
see  Apes. 

Monotheism^  ii  881. 

Monster,  driven  off  at  eclipse,  i  828; 
hero  or  maiden  devoured  by,  885. 

Monstrous  mythic  human  tribes,  i^>e- 
like,  tailed,  gigantic  and  dwarfish, 
noseless,  great-eared,  dog-headed. 
etCL,  i  876,  etc;  their  etlmolc^gicaf 
significance,  879,  etc 

Month's  mind,  i.  88. 

Moon  :  —  omens  and  influence  by 
changes,  i  1 30 ;  myths  of,  288, 854 ; 
inconstant,  854;  changes  typical 
of  death  and  new  life,  i.  854,  ii. 
800;  moon-myths  common  to  8. 
Africa  and  Fiji,  i.  854,  and  to  Bengal 
and  Malay  Peninsula,  856;  moon 
abode  of  departed  souls,  ii  70. 

Moon-god  and  moon-worship^  i  289, 
ii.  2;^9,  etc.,  828. 

Moral  and  sodal  condition  of  low 
tnbes,  i  29,  etc. 

Moral  element  in  culture,  i  28 ;  ab- 
sent or  scanty  in  lower  religions,  i 
4*z7,  ii  861;  divides  lower  from 
higher  religions,  ii  861 ;  introduced 
in  funeral  sacrifice,  i  495 ;  in  trans- 


migration, ii.  12;  in  future  life,  85, 
etc. ;  in  dualism,  81 6,  eta ;  in  prayer, 
878 ;  in  sacrifice,  886,  etc ;  in  lus- 
tration, 429. 

Morals  and  Law,  ii.  448. 

Morbid  imagination  related  to  myth, 
i  805. 

Morbid  excitement  for  religious  pur- 
poses, ii  416,  etc 

Morning  and  evening  stars,  myths  o^ 
i  844,  850. 

Morra,  game  of,  in  Europe  and  China, 
i76. 

Moizine^  demoniacal  pooBCssions  at,  i 
162,  ii  141. 

Mound-builders,  i  56. 

Mountain,  abode  of  departed  souls  on, 
ii.  60,  ascending  for  rain,  260. 

Mouth  of  Nieht  and  Death,  myths  of, 
i  847. 

Miiller,  Pro!  J.  G.,  on  future  life^  ii, 
90,  etc 

Miiller,  Prof.  Max:— on  language  and 
myth,  i  299;  funeral  rites  of  Brah- 
mans,  466;  heaven-god,  ii.  268; 
858;  sun-myth  of  Yama,  814; 
Chineee  religion,  852;  katheno> 
theiun,  854. 

Mummies,  iL  19,  84,151. 

Musical  instruments  named  from 
sound,  i  208. 

Musical  tone  used  in  language,  i  168, 
174. 

Mutilation  of  soul  with  body,  i  451. 

Mythology  :~i  28,  278,  etc. ;  forma* 
tion  and  laws  of,  273,  etc;  alle- 
gorical interpretation,  277;  mixture 
vrith  history,  278;  rationalization, 
euhemerism,  etc,  278;  olassific*- 
tion  and  interpretation,  281,  817, 
etc  ;  nature-myths,  284,  816,  etc; 
personification  and  animation  of 
nature^  285 ;  grammatical  gender  as 
related  to,  301 ;  personal  names  of 
objects  as  related  to,  808 ;  morbid 
delusion,  805 ;  similarity  of  nature* 
myths  to  real  history,  819;  his- 
torical import  of  mythology,  i.  416, 
ii.  446 ;  its  place  in  culture,  ii.  446; 
philosophioil  myths,  i.  866 ;  expla- 
natory legends,  892;  etymologiesl 
myths,  895 ;  eponymic  myths,  899 ; 
legendJB  from  fancy  and  metaphor, 
405  ;  realized  or  pragmatic  legends, 
407 ;  allegory  and  pwablea^  408. 

Myths : — myth-riddles,  i  98 ;  origin  of 
sneesing-rite,  101 ;  foundation-sacri- 
fice^ 104 ;  heroes  suckled  by  beasts, 
281 ;   sun,  moon,  and  stars,  288^ 


INDEX. 


465 


etc. ;  eclipse,  288;  water-spout,  292; 
saDd-piliar,  293;  rainbow,  293, 297 ; 
wateifalls,  rocks,  etc.,  295 ;  disease, 
death,  pestilence,  295 ;  phenomena 
of  nature,  297,  31:0;  heaven  and 
«arth,  i.  322,  il.  845;  sunrise  and 
sunset,  day  and  night,  death  and 
life,  L  885,  iL  48,  62,  822 ;  moon, 
inconstant^  typical  of  death,  i.  353 ; 
civilization-legends,  39,  353 ;  winds, 
i.  361,  ii.  266;  thunder,  i.  362,  ii. 
264 ;  men  and  apes,  development 
And  degeneration,  i  378 ;  ape-men, 
379;  men  with  tails,  382;  giants 
and  dwarfs,  885;  monstrous  men, 

-  889;  personal  names  introduced, 
394 ;  race-genealogies  of  nations, 
402  ;  bea<>tfables,   409 ;   visits  to 

•  «pirit-world,  ii.  46,  etc. ;  giant  with 
soul  in  egg,  153 ;  transformation 
into  trees,  219 ;  dualistic  myth  of 
two  brothers,  320. 

l^agas,  serpent-worshippers,  ii  218, 
240. 

Names:— of  children  in  numerical 
series,  i.  254 ;  of  objects  as  related 
to  myth,  808 ;  of  personal  heroes  in- 
troduced into  myths,  394 ;  of  places, 
tribes,  countries,  etc.,  myths  formed 
from',  896;  ancestral  names  given  to 
children,  ii.  4;  name-giving  cere- 
monials, iL  429. 

Natural  religion,  I.  427,  ii.  103, 356. 

Nature,  conceived  of  as  personal  and 
animated,  L  285,  478,  ii.  184. 

Nature-deities,  polytheistic,  ii.  255, 
876. 

Nature-myths,  i.  284,  316,  etc.,  326. 

Nature-spirits,  elves,  nymphs,  eta,  ii. 
184,  204,  etc. 

Necromancy,  i.  148,  312,  446;  see 
Hanes. 

Negative  and  affirmative  particles,  L 
192. 

Negroes  re  bom  as  whites,  iL  5. 

Neo  or  Hawaneu,  ii  383. 

Neptune,  ii  276. 

Nereus,  ii  274. 

Neuri,  i  313. 

New  birth  of  soul,  ii  3. 

Newton,  Sir  Isaac,  on  sensible  species, 
i498. 

Nicene  Council,  spirit-writing  at,  i. 
148. 

Nicodemns,  Gospel  of,  ii  54. 

Niebuhr,  on  origin  of  culture,  i  41. 

Night,  myths  of,  i  834,  ii  48,  61. 

Nightmare-demon,  ii.  189,  193. 

Nilsson,  Frof.,  on  development  of 
culture,  i  61, 64. 

VOL.  II. 


Nirvana,  ii  12,  79.^ 

Nic,  water-demon,  i  110,  ii.  213. 

Noma  or  Fates,  i.  852. 

Noseless  tribes,  i.  388. 

Notation,  arithmetical,  quinary,  deci* 
mal,  vigesimal,  i  261. 

Numerals : — low  tribes  only  to  8  or  5, 
i.  242 ;'  derivation  of  numerals  from 
counting  fingers  and  toes,  246; 
from  other  significant  objects,  251 ; 
series  of  number-names  of  children, 
254  ;  new  formation  of  numerals, 
255 ;  etymology  of,  259,  270 ; 
numerals  borrowed  from  foreign 
languages,  266 ;  initials  of  numerals, 
used  as  figures,  269 ;  see  Notation. 

Nympholepsy,  ii.  137. 

Nymphs:— water-nyuiphs,  ii  212; 
tree-nymphs,  219,  227. 


Objectivity  of  dreams  and  visions,  i 

442,  479  ;  abandoned,  500. 
Objects  treated  as  personal,  i.  286, 

477,  ii.  205 ;  souls  or  phantonyi  of 

objects,  i  478,  497»  ii-  9 ;  dispatched 

to  dead  by  funeral  sacrifice,  i.  481. 
Occult  sciences,  see  Magic. 
Odin,  or   Woden,  as   heaven- god,  i. 

851,  362,  ii  269;  one-eyed,  i  351. 
Odysseus,     unbinding    of,    i     153; 

descent  to  Hades,  i.  346,  ii  48,  65; 
Ohio,  Ontario,  i.  190. 
Ojibwa,  myth  of,  i  345,  ii.  46. 
Oki,  demon,  ii  208,  255,  842. 
Old  man  of  sea,  ii  277. 
Omens,  i  ii7, 118,  eto.,  145,  449. 
Omophore,  Manichsoan,  i.  365. 
One-eyed  tribes,  i.  891. 
Oneiromancy,  i  121. 
Opening  to  let  out  soul,  i  453. 
Ophiolatry,  see  Serpent-worship.       « 
Ophites,  ii  242. 
Oracles,  i  04,  ii.  411 ;  by  inspiration 

or  possession,  ii  124,  etc.,  179. 
Orangutan,  i  381. 
Orcus,  ii.  67,  80. 
Ordeal  by  firc^,  i.  85;  by  sieve  and 

shears,   128;   by    water,   140;   by 

bear*s  head,  ii.  231. 
Ordinal  numbers,  i  257. 
Oregon,  Orejones,  i.  389. 
Origin  of  language,  i.  231 ;  numerals, 

247. 
Orion,  i  358,  ii.  81. 
Orientation,  solar  rite  or  symbolism, 

ii.  422. 
Ormuzd,  ii  283,  328. 
Orpheus  and  Eurydike,  i.  346,  ii.  48. 
Osiris,  ii  67,  295 ;  and  Isis,  i.  289. 
Otiose  supreme  deity,  ii.  820,  336,  etc. 

u  u 


466 


INDEX. 


OutcftaU,  diaiinci  £rom  Bavages,  i.  43, 

49.     . 
Owain,  Sir,  Tisit  to  Purgatory,  iL  56. 

Pachacamac,  ii.  S37,  866. 

Pandora,  myth  of,  i.  408. 

Panotil,  i.  889. 

Pantheism,  ii.  882,  841,  854. 

Papa,  mamma,  etc. ,  i.  223. 

Paper  figures  suhstitutea  in  Bocrifice, 

i.  461,  493.  ii.  405. 
Parahlea,  i.  411. 

Para  pro  toto  in  BAcri£oe,  ii.  899. 
pATthenogeDeaia,  iL  1 90,  807. 
Particles,  affirmative  and  negative,  L 

192 ;  of  distance,  220. 
Passage  de  I'Enfer,  ii  65. 
Patrick,  St.,  L  872 ;  his  Fuigatory,  iL 

45,  55. 
Patroklos,  L  444,464. 
Patron  saints,  ii.  120 ;  patron  spirits, 

199. 
Pattern  and  matter,  ii.  246. 
Pennycomequick,  I  896. 
Periander,i.  491. 
Perliun.  Perun,  ii  266. 
Persian  race-genealogy,  i.  403. 
Persephone,  myth  of,  i.  821. 
Peisens  and  Andromeda,  i.  389. 
Personal  names,  in  mythology,  i.  808, 

894,  396. 
Personification  : — natural  phenomena, 

i.  285,  etc.,  320,  477,  ii.  205,  264  ; 

disease,  death,  etc.,  i.  295;  ideas, 

8C0;  tiibes,  cities,  countries,  etc, 

b£9 ;  Hades,  i.  339,  ii.  55. 
Pestilence,  personification  and  myths 

of,  i.  295. 
Peter  and  Paul,  Acts  of,  i.  872. 
Petit  bonhomme,  game  of,  i.  77. 
Petronius  Arbiter,  L  75,  ii.  261. 
Philology,  Generative,  i.  198,  230. 
FhiloBOpbical  myths,  L  868. 
Phrase-melody,  i.  174. 
Pillara  of  Hercules,  L  £95. 
Pipe,  i.  208. 
Pithecuea?,  i.  877. 

Places,  myths  from  names  of,  1.  895. 
Planchette,  L  147. 
Plants,  souls  of,  i.  474. 
Plath,Dr.  on  Chinese  religion,  iL  852, 

etc, 
Plato,  on  transmigration,  ii.  18;  Pla- 
tonic ideas,  244. 
Pleiades,  L  291,  358. 
Pliny  OB  magic,  i.  188;  on  eclipses, 

8;$4. 
Plurality  of  souls,  L  438. 
Plutarch,  visits  to  spirit-world,  ii.  53. 
Pnenma,  psyche,  i.  438|  487. 
Pointer-fncts,  i.  62. 


Polytheism,  ii.  247,  etc;  based  on 
analogy  of  human  society,  iL  248, 
837,349,852;  classification  of  deities 
by  attributes,  255 ;  heaven-god,  255, 

834,  etc.  ;  rain-god,  259 ;  thunder- 
god,  262;  wind-god,  ?66;  earUi- 
god,  270 ;  water-god,  274  ;  sea-god, 
275;    fire-god,  277;  sun-god,  286. 

835.  etc. ;  moon-god,  299 ;  gods  of 
childbirth,  agriculture,  war,  etc ,. 
804 ;  god  and  judge  of  dead,  808  ; 
first  man,  divine  ancestor,  811 ; 
evil  deity,  316;  supreme  deity» 
832 ;  relation  of  polytheism  to 
monotheism,  888. 

Popular  rhymes,  etc.,  i.  86 ;  sayings,  u 
19,  88,  122,  313,  iL  268.  358. 

Poseidon,  i.  365,  iL  277,  378. 

Possession  and  obsession,  see  Demons^ 
Embodiment. 

Pott,  Prof.,  on  reduplication,  i.  219  ; 
on  numerals,  261. 

Pottery,  evidence  from  remains,  i.  56  ; 
absence  of  potter's  wheel,  45,  68. 

Pozzuoli,  myth  of  subsidence  of,  L  872. 

Pragmatic  or  realized  myths,  i.  407. 

Prayer :  —doctrine  of,  ii.  364,  etc. ;  re- 
lation to  nationality,  871 ;  intro- 
ductaon  of  moral  element,  378; 
prayers, L  98,ii.  186,  208,  261,  280, 
292, 329, 338,  364,  etc., 435  ;  Tosasj, 
ii.  87*2 ;  prayer-mill  and  prayer- 
wheel,  872. 

Prehistoric  archoeology,  L  55,  etc. ;  ii. 
448. 

Priests  consume  sacrifices,  ii.  379. 

PrithivL  i.  327,  ii.  258, 272. 

Procopius,  voyage  of  souls  to  Britain, 
ii.  64. 

Progression  in  culture.  L  1 4,  32 ;  in- 
ventions, 62,  etc.;  language,  236; 
arithmetic,  270 ;  philosophy  of  re- 
ligion, see  Animism. 

Prometheus,  i.  865,  iL  400. 

Proverbs,  i.  84,  etc. ;  see  Popular 
Savings. 

Psychology,  L  428. 

Pupil  of  eye,  related  to  soul,  i.  481. 

Purgatory,  ii.  68,  92 ;  St.  Patrick's^ 
55. 

Purification,  see  Lustration. 

Puss,  i.  1 78. 

Pygmies,  myths  of,  i.  385  ;  connected 
with  dolmens,  387 ;  monkeys  as, 
388. 

Pythagoras,  ii.  13, 137,  187. 

Quaternary  period,  L  58. 
Quetelet,  M.,  on  social  laws,  i.  11. 
Quinary  numeration  and  notation,  L 
261 ;  in  Roman  numeral  letten,  268. 


INDEX. 


467 


Bacea  i^distributionof  culture  among, 
i  49 ;  culture  of  mixed  races,  Qaii- 
choB,  eta,  46,  52;  ethnology  in 
eponymio  genealogies,  401 ;  moral 
condition  of  low  races,  26;  con- 
sidered as  magiefams^  113 ;  as  mon- 
stera,  880. 

Bahu  and  Ketu,  eclipee-monstersy  i. 
879 

Bain-god,  iL  254, 259. 

Bainbow,  myths  of,  i.  yii.  293,  ii.  289. 

Balaton,  Mr.,  L  viL,  842,  ii  245,  etc. 

Kangi  and  Papa,  i.  822,  ii.  845. 

Bapping,  omens  and  communications 
by,  i.  144,  iL  221. 

Bationalization  of  myths,  i.  278. 

Bed  Swan,  myth  of,  i.  845. 

BedupUcation,  i.  219. 

Beid,  Dr.,  on  ideas,  i.  499. 

Belicii,  ii.  150. 

Bellgion,  i.  22,  ii.  857,  419 ;  whether 
any  tribes  without,  i.  4 1 7 ;  accounts 
misleading  among  low  tribes,  419 ; 
rudimentuy  definition  of,  424; 
adoption  from  foreign  religions,  fu- 
ture life,  it  91 ;  ideas  and  names 
of  deities,  254,  809,  831,  844; 
dualism,  816,  822 ;  supreme  deity, 
888;  natural  religion,  L  427,  ii 
108,  856. 

Besurrection,  ii.  5, 18. 

Betribution-theory  of  future  life,  ii. 
83;  not  conception  of  lower  cul- 
ture, 83. 

Betum  and'restoration  of  soul,  i.  486. 

Bevival,  in  culture,  i.  136, 141. 

Bevivals,  morbid  symptoms  in  re- 
ligious, ii  421. 

Beynard  the  Fox,  i.  412. 

Biddies,  i.  90. 

Bing,  divination  by  swinging,  i  126. 

Blring  in  air,  supernatural,  i  149,  u. 
415. 

Bites,  religious,  ii  862,  etc. 

Biver  of  death,  i  473, 480,  ii  28,  29, 
51,91. 

Biver-gods  and  river-worship,  ii.  209. 

Btver-spiriie,  i  109,  ii.  209,  407. 

Bock,  spirit  of,  ii  207. 

Boman  mythology  and  religion : — 
funeral  rites,  ii.  42;  future  life, 
45,  67,  81 ;  nature-spirits,  2^,227; 
polytheism,  251 ;  Jupiter,  258,265; 
Neptune,  277 ;  Vesta,  285 ;  Lucina, 
802,  805,  eta 

Boman  numeral  letters,  i  263. 

Bomulua,  patron  deity  of  children,  ii 
121 ;  and  Bemus,  i  281. 

Bosary,  ii  372. 

Saboaism,  ii.  296. 


Sacred  springs,  streams,  etc.,  ii.,209; 

trees  and  groves,  222 ;  animals,  231, 

878. 
Sacrifice :— origin  and  theory  of,  ii 

875,  etc.,  207»  269;  manner  of  con- 
sumption or  reception  by  deity,  216, 

876,  etc.,  see  89 ;  motive  of  sacri- 
ficer,  898,  etc. ;  substitution,  899 ; 
survival,  i.  76,  ii  214,  228,  406. 

Saint-Foix,  i  474,  u.  85. 

Saints,  worship  of,  Ii.  120. 

Samson's  riddle,  i  93. 

Sanchoniathon,  ii  221. 

Sand-pUlar,  myths  of,  i  293. 

Sanskrit  roots,  i  197,  224. 

Savage^  man  of  woods,  i  882. 

Savage  culture  as  representative  of 
primitive  cultu^: — i  21,  ii  443; 
magic,  witchcraft,  and  spiritual 
ism,  i  112,  etc.;  language,  i  236, 
ii  445 ;  numerals,  i  242 ;  myth, 
284,  821 ;  doctrine  of  souls,  499 ; 
future  life,  ii  102;  animistic  theory 
of  nature,  i  285,  ii.  I8O9  856;  poly- 
theism, 248 ;  dualism,  817 ;  supre- 
macy, 834;  rites  and  ceremonies, 
863,  875,  411,  421,  429. 

Savitar,  U.  292. 

Scalp,  i  460. 

Scores,  counting  by,  i.  263. 

Sea,  myths  of,  u.  275. 

Sea-god  and  sea-worship,  ii  275,  877. 

Second-death,  ii  22. 

Second-sight,  i  143,  447. 

Semitic  race,  no  savage  tribe  among, 
i  49 ;  antiquity  of  culture,  54 ; 
race-genealogy,  401. 

Sennaar,  i  895. 

Serpent,  emblem  of  immortality  and 
eternity,  ii.  241. 

Serpent-worship,  ii  8,  289,  810,  347. 

Sex  distinguiBhed  by  phonetic  modi- 
fication, i  222. 

Shadow  related  to  soul,  i  480,  435; 
shadowless  men,  85,  430. 

Shell-mounds,  i  61. 

Sheol,  ii  68,  81 ;  gates  of,  i  847. 

Shingles,  disease,  i  307. 

Shoulder-blade,  divination  by,  i  124. 

Sieve  and  shears,  oracle  by,  i  128. 

Silver  at  new  moon,  ii  302. 

Sing-bonga,  ii  291,  350. 

Skylla  and  Charybdis,  ii  208. 

Slaves  sacrificed  to  serve  dead,  i  458. 

Sling,  i  73. 

Snakes,  destroyed  in  Ireland,  etc,  i. 
872. 

Sneezing,  salutation  on,  i.  97;  con- 
nected with  spiritual  influence,  97. 

Social  rank  retained  in  future  life,  ii 
22,  84. 


468 


XNDEX. 


Sokratea,  it  137,  294 ;  demon  of,  202; 
prayer  of,  87S. 

Soma,  Haoma,  ii,  418. 

fioul,  doctriDeof, definition  and  general 
course  in  biaiory,  i.  428, 499;  cauee 
of  life,  428 ;  qualities  as  conceived 
by  lower  races,  428 ;  conception  of, 
rdated  to  dreams  and  visions,  L  429, 
ii.  24, 410 ;  related  to  shadow,  beart, 
blood,  pupil  of  eye,  breath,  i.  480 ; 
plurality  or  division  o^  484;  exit  of, 
i  809,  488,  etc.,  448,  iL  60 ;  resto- 
ration of,i.  486,475;  trance, ecstasy, 
489 ;  dreams.  440  ;  visions,  446  : 
soul  not  visible  to  all,  446 ;  likeness 
to  body,  L  460;  mutilated  with 
body,  451 ;  voice,  a  whisper,  chirp, 
etc.,  452;  material  substance  of 
«oul,  L  458,  ii  19*8 ;  ethereality  not 
immateriality  of,  in  lower  culture, 
i.  456 ;  human  souls  transmitted  by 
funeral  sacrifice  to  future  life,  i. 
458,  ii.  81 ;  souls  of  animals,  i.  467, 
iL  41 ;  their  future  life  and  trans- 
mission by  funeral  sacrifice,  L  469 ; 
souls  of  plants,  trees,  etc,  i.  474,  iL 
10 ;  souls  pf  objecto,  L  476,  IL  9, 76, 
158,  etc. ;  transmission  by  funeral 
sacrifice,  L  481 ;  conveyed  or  con- 
sumed in  sacrifice  to  deities,  iL  216, 
889 ;  object-souls  related  to  ideas, 
L  497 ;  existence  of  soul  after  death 
of  body,  i,  428,  etc,  iL  1,  etc; 
transmigration  or  metempsychosis, 
iL  2 ;  new  birth  in  human  body,  8 ; 
in  animal  body,  plant,  inert  object, 
9,  etc  ;  souls  remain  on  earth 
among  siurvivors,  near  dwelling, 
corpse,  or  tomb,  L  148,  447,  ii. 
25,  etc,  150;  souls  called  up  by 
necromancer  or  medium,  L  148,312, 
.  446,  ii.  186,  etc ;  food  set  out  for, 
iL  80,  etc.;  region  of  departed  souls, 
ii.  59,  etc,  78, 244 ;  future  life  of,  L 
458,  etc,  IL  74,  etc.;  relation  of 
soul  to  spirit  in  general,  iL  109;. 
souls  ][>asB  into  demons,  patron- 
spirits,  deities,  111,  124, 192,  200, 
864,  375  ;  manes-worship,  112,  etc ; 
souls  embodied  in  men,  animals, 
plants,  objects,  147, 158,  192,  232  ; 
mystic  meaning  of  word  soul,  859. 

Soul  of  world,  ii.  885,  etc,  855,  866. 

Soul-mass  cake,  ii.  43. 

Sound-words,  i.  281. 

Speaking  machine,  i.  170. 

Spear-thrower,  i.  66. 

Species-deities,  iL  242. 

Spencer,  Mr.  Herbert,  i.  vii.,  iL  236. 

Sphinx,  i.  90. 

Spirit : — course  of  meaning  of  word,  i. 


438,  iL  181,  206,  869;  animism, 
doctrine  of  spirits,  L  424,  iL  108, 
356 ;  doctrine  of  spirit  founded  on 
that  of  soul,  iL  109 ;  spirits  con- 
nected and  confounded  with  souls, 
iL  109,  868 ;  spirits  seen  in  dreams 
and  visions,  L  806, 440,  ii.  154, 189, 
194,  411 ;  action  of  spirits,  L  126, 
iL  111,  etc. ;  embodiment  of  spirits, 
iL  128';  disease  by  attack  of,  126; 
oracular  inspiration  by,  180;  whist- 
ling, etc.,  voice  of,  L  458,  iL  186  ; 
act  through  fetishes^  ii.  148,  etc ; 
through  idols,  167;  spirits  causes 
of  nature,  185,  204,  etc,  260;  good 
and  evil  spirits,  186,  819;  spirits 
swarm  in  dark,  fire  drives  ofT, 
194;  seen  by  animak,  196;  foot- 
prints of,.L  455,  IL  197;  eiJiereal- 
material  substance  of,  iL  198;  ex- 
clusion, expulsion,  exorcism  o^  126y 
199;  patron,  guardian,  and  familiar 
spirits,  199;  nature-qnrits  of  vol- 
canos,  whirlpools,  rocks,  etc.,  207 ; 
water^pirits  and  deities,  209,  407  ; 
tree-spirits  and  deities,  215 ;  spirits 
subordinate  to  great  polytheistic 
•  deities,  248,  etc.;  spirits  receive 
prayer,  863 ;  sacrifice,  876 ;  see 
Animism,  etc 

Spirit*  Great,<iL  256,  326,  836,  etc, 
858,  866,  895. 

Spirit-footprints,  L  456,  iL  197- 

Spiritualism,  modem  :— its  origin  in 
savage  culture,  i.  141,  165,  426,  ii. 
25,  89 ;  spirit-rapping,  i.  144,  iL 
193,  221,  407 ;  spirit-writing,  147 : 
rising  in  air,  149 ;  supernatural 
unbinding.  153;  moving  objects, 
etc,  L  439,  ii.  156,  319,  441 ;  me- 
diums, L  146,  312,  ii,  132,  410; 
oracular  possession,  i.  148,  iL  I869 
141. 

Spirit-world,  journey  or  visit  to,  by 
soul,  L  439,  481,  iL  44,  etc 

Spitting,  L  103;  lustration  with 
spittle,  iL  439,  441. 

Standing-stones,  objects  of  worship,  iL 
164. 

Stanley,  Dean,  iL  887. 

Stars,  myths  of,  L  288,  366 ;  souls  of, 
L291. 

Stauntoh,  William,  his  visit  to  Purga- 
tory, ii.  68. 

Stock-and-stone-worship,  iL  161,  etCy 
254,  888. 

Stone,  myths  of  men  turned  to,  L  363; 
stone-worship,  ii.  160,etc,  264,888. 

Stone  Age,  L  66,  etc ;  magic  as  be- 
longing to,  140;  myths  of  giants 
and  dwarfs  ns  belonging  to,  886. 


INDEX. 


469 


43tonn,  mjtbs  of,  L  822 ;  storm-god, 
L  82S,  ii.  269. 

Struts  162. 

.Subetitutes  in  sacrifice,  L  106,  468,  ii. 
89i),  etc. 

^Succiibi.  see  IncubL 

bucking  cure,  ii.  146. 

fiuiciile,  body  of,  staked  doim,  iL  29, 
J  98. 

.S'jn,  myths  of,  i.  2SS,  310,  835,  etc., 
ii.  48,  66,  323;  sunset,  myths  of, 
connected  with  death  and  future 
life,  i.  88.5,  845,  iL  48,  eta,  811  ; 
sun  abode  of  departed  souls,  ii.  69. 

•Sun-god  and  sun-worship,  L  99,  28S, 
868,  ii  268,  28fi,  828,  etc,  876, 
et&,  408,  422,  etc. ;  sun  and  moon 
as  good  and  evil  deity,  ii  824,  etc. 

'Superlative,  triple,  i.  265. 

Superstition,  casa  of  survival,  i  16, 
72,  etc 

.Supreme  deity,  ii  882,  867 ;  heaven- 
god,  etc.,  as,  255, 887,  etc. ;  sun-gud 
as,  290, 887.  etc. ;  conception  of,  in 
manes-worship,  884 ;  as  chief  of  di- 
vine hierarchy,  885,  etc. ;  first  cause, 
885. 

•  Survival  in  culture,  i  16,  etc,  70,  etc , 

ii  408 ;  children's  games,  i  72 ; 
games  of  chance,  eta,  78;  proverbs, 
89 ;  riddles,  91 ;  sneezing-salutation, 
98;  foundation-sacrifice,  194 ;  not 
save  drowning.  1 08  ;  magic,  witch- 
craft, etc.,  112;  spiritualism,  141; 
numeration,  262. 271 ;  deodand,  287 ; 
werewolves,  318;  eclipse-monster, 
880 ;  animism,  i  500,  ii.  856 ;  fune- 
ral sacrifice,  i  468,  474,  492 ;  feasts 
of  dead,  ii  85,  41 ;  possession,  140 ; 
fetishism,  169 ;  stone-worship,  163 ; 
water-worship,  218  ;  fire-worship, 
285 ;  sun-worship,  297 ;  moon-wor- 
ship, 802  ;  heaven-worship,  358 ; 
sacrifice,  406,  etc. 

*  Susurrus  necromanticns^  i  458,  ii  185. 
Suttee,  i.  465. 

Swedenborg,  spiritualism  of,  i  144, 
450,  ii.  Id.  204. 

Symbolic  connexion  in  magic,  eta,  i. 
116,  etc,  ii  144 ;  symbolism  in  reli- 
gious ceremony,  ii  862,  etc 
.  Symplegades,  i  850. 

Tabor,  i  209. 

Tacitus,  i  883,  ii  228,  278. 

Tailed  men.  i  888. 
'  Tangaroa,  Taaroa,  ii  845. 

Tan  Pennu,  ii,  271,  849,  868,  404. 

Taronhiawagon,  ii  256,  809. 

Tarots,  i  82. 
rrartarus.  ii  97. 

VOL.  II. 


(  Tatar  race,  culture  of,  i  51 ;  race- 
I       getiealttgy  of.  4j4. 

TatUx)mg,  mythic  origin  of,  i  898. 

Taylor,  Jeremy,  on  lots.  i.  79. 

Teeth-defacing,  mythic  origin  of,  i  31 8^ 

Temple,  Jewish,  ii  426. 

TertuUian,  i  456,  ii  188,  427. 

TescatUpoca,  ii  197,  844,  891. 

Theodorus,  St,  church  of,  ii.  121. 

Theophrastus,  ii.  165. 

Theresa,  St.,  her  visions,  ii.  415. 

Thor,  ii  266. 

Thought,  conveyance  of,  by  rocil 
tone,  i  166;  Epicurean  theory  of, 
497;  savage  conception  of,  ii  811. 

Thousand  and  One  Nights: — water* 
spout  and  sand-pillar,  i  292 ;  Mag* 
netic  Mountain,  874 ;  Abdallah  of 
Sea  and  Abdallah  of  Land,  ii  106. 

Thunder-bird,  myths  of,  i.  868,  ii 
262;  thunder-bolt,  il  262. 

Thunder-god,  ii  262,805,812, 887,etc 

Tien  and  Tu,  ii  257,  272,  852. 

TIaloc,  TIalocan,ii  61,  274,  809. 

Tobacco  smoked  as  sacrifice  or  in- 
cense, ii.  'J87,  848,  888 ;  to  cause 
morbid  vision,  etc ,  417. 

Tomgarsulc,  ii  840. 

Tortoise,  World-,  i  864. 

Totem-ancestors,  i  402,  ii  285;  to- 
tem-worship, ii  235. 

Traditions,  credibility  of,  i.  275,  280, 
870  ;  of  early  culture,  i  89,  52. 

Transformation-myths,  i  80S,  877,  ii 
10,  220. 

Transmigration  of  souls,  i  879,  409, 
469, 476,  ii  2,  etc ;  theory  of,  ii.  16. 

Trapezus.  i.  896. 

Trees,  objects  suspended  to,  ii .  1 50, 223. 

Tree-souis,  i  475,  ii  10,  215;  tree- 
spirits,  i  476,  ii  148,215. 

Tribe-names,  my thic  ancestors,  i  398; 
tribe-deities,  ii  234. 

Tribes  without  religion,  i  417. 

Tuckett,  Mr.,  i  878. 

Tumuli,  remains  of  funeral  sacrifice 
in,  i.  486. 

Tupan,  ii  263,  805,  883. 

Turks,  race-genealogy  o^  i  408. 

Turnskins,  i.  808.  etc 

Twin  brethren,  N.  A.  dualistic  myth, 
ii  820,  etc 

Two  paths,  allegory  of,  i  409. 

Uirscocha,  ii  838,  866. 
Ukko,  U.  257.  261,  265. 
Ulster,  mythic  etymology  of,  ii  65. 
Unbinding,  supematuril,  i  153. 
Under-world,  sun  and  souls  of  dead 
descend  to,  ii.  66 ;  see  Hades. 
;  Unkulunkulu,  ii  116,  813,  347. 

I  I 


470 


INDEX. 


Vampirep,  ii.  191. 

Vapour-bath,  narcotic,  of  Scytha  and 
K.  A.  Indians,  it  417- 

VaailisBa  the  Beautiful,  i,  342. 

TatnadsBla  Saga,  i.  439. 

Veda,  i.  55,  851,  862,  465,  iL  72,  265, 
281.  354,  871,  386. 

Vegetal,  senBitive,  and  rational  souls, 
i485. 

Ventriloquism,  i  453,  ii.  132, 182. 

Vergil,  Polydore,  it  409. 

Versipelles,  i.  308,  etc. 

Vesta,  ii  285. 

Vigesimal  notation,  i.  261 ;  survival 
in  French  and  £nglish,  263. 

Visions : — mythic  fancy  in,  i.  805  ; 
are  apparitions  of  spirits,  143,  445, 
478,  ii.  194,  410;  as  evidence  of 
future  life,  24, 49  ;  fasting  for,  410 ; 
use  of  drugs  to  cause,  416. 

Visits  to  spirit- world,  L  436,  481,  ii. 
46,  etc. 

Vitruvius,  on  orientation,  ii.  427. 

Vocal  tone,  i.  166,  etc. 

Voice  of  ghosts  and  other  spirits,  whis- 
per, twitter,  murmur,  L  452,  iL  134. 

Volcano,  mouth  of  underworld,  L  341, 
364,  ii.  69;  caused  by  spirits,  207. 

Vowels,  i.  168. 

Vuloan,  iL  280,  284. 

Wainamoinen,  iL  46, 93. 

Waitz,  Prol,  Anthropologic  der  Natur- 
volker,  L  vi. ;  fetishism,  iL  157,176. 

Walhalla,  i.  491,  iL  77,  88. 

Wor-god,  iL  306. 

Warriors,  fate  of  souls  of,  iL  87. 

WaaaaU,  i.  97,  101. 

Water,  spirits  not  cross,  L  442. 

Waterfalls  and  waterspouts,  myths  of, 
L  292,  291. 

Water-gods  and  water-worship,  ii. 
209,  274,  876,  407. 

Water-spirits  and  water-monsters,  i. 
110,  iL  208,  etc. 

Watling  Street,  Milky  Way,  L  360. 

Weapons,  i.  64,  etc. ;  personal  names 
given  to,  303. 

Wedgwood,  Mr.  Hensleigh,  on  imita- 
tive language,  L  161. 


1  Weight  of  soul,  L  455 ;  of  spirit,  ii. 
198. 

Well-worship,  ii.  209,  etc. 

Werewolves,  etc.,  doctrine  of,  i.  113, 
308,  eta  435,  iL  193. 

West,  mythic  conceptions  of,  as  re- 
gion of  night  and  death,  L  337,  343, 
iL  48,  61,  66.  311,  etc.,  422, etc; 
see  East  and  West. 

Whately,  Archbishop,  on  origin  of 
culture,  L  38,  42. 

Wheatstone,  Sir  C,  i  170. 

Wheel-lock,  L 15. 

Whirlpool,  spirit  of,  iL  207. 

Widow-sacrifice,  L  458.  ^ 

Wild  Hunt,  L  362,  ii  269. 

WUson,  Dr.  D.,  on  dual  and  plural,  i^ 
265. 

Wind  gods,  iL  266. 

Winds,  myths  of,  L  360. 

Witchcraft,  i.  116,  etc ;  origin  in 
savage  culture,  138  ;  mediaoval  re- 
vival, 138 ;  iron  charm  against,  140; . 
ordeid  by  water,  140  ;  rising  in  air, 
152;  doctrine  of  werewolves,  312; 
incubi  and  succubi,  ii.  190 ;  witch- 
ointment,  418. 

Woden,  see  Odin. 

Wolf  of  night,  L  341. 

Wong,  ii.  176,  205,  348. 

World  pervaded  by  spirits,  iL  137,. 
180, 185,  205,  25U. 

Worship  as  related  to  belief,  L  427,  ii. 
362. 

Wraith  or  fetch,  L  448,  451. 

Wright.  Mr.  T.,  iL  56,  65. 

Wuttke,  Prof.,  L  456,  etc. 

Xerxes,  L  2S6,  ii.  378. 

Yamn,  iL  54,  814. 
Yawning,  possession,  L  102. 
YeseidLsm,  ii.  329. 

Zend-Avesta,  L  116,  851,  iL  98,  293,. 

328.  488. 
Zeus,  L  328,  350,  ii  258,  etc.,  353.] 
Zingani,  myth  of  name,  L  400. 
Zoroastrism,  ii  20,  98,  282,  319,  328,. 

354,  374, 400,  438. 


THE  END. 


BRADBrRT,   AOXF.W,   t  CO.,   PRUTTMU,  WHITKrRTAM. 


ftO,  Albbm ABLS  Btbbst,  Lohdov. 
February ,  1881. 


ME.  MURRArS 

GENERAL    LIST    OF    WORKS. 


ALBBRT  MBBiORIAL.     A  DeseriptiFe  and  lUasirated  Aeeonnt 

of  the  NAUonal  MonomMt  eroeted  to  the  PRINGB  C0N80UT  at 
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tloiM,  dealptursd  OroaiM,  SUtiMs,  Moaaleii,  M«talvork  Ac  With 
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ABBOTT  (Riy.  J.).  Memoirs  of  a  Church  of  Sngliuid  Mlarionary 
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AIDS  TO  FAITH:  a  Series  of  Essays.  Miracles;  Eyidenoea 
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Subscription;  The  Pentateuch;  Inspiration;  Death  of  Christ;  Borlptnrs 
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ALBERT  DiJRER ;  his  Life,  with  a  History  of  his  Art.  By  Dr. 
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AMBER-WITCH  (Tbb).  A  most  interesting  Trial  for  Witoh- 
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by  Tarlons  Writers.  Edited  by  Kbt.  PaoFSseoa  Wacs.  9  Vols. 
Medium  8to.  [/a  the  Pre$», 

ARISTOTLE.    See  Gboti,  Hatch. 

ARMY  LIST  (Tbb).    PMi^»ed  MaiMy  by  Autharity. 
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ARTHUR'S  (LiTTLB>  History  of  England.  By  Ladt  Calloott. 
Sew  MiUum,  comtiMtud  to  ISn,   With  86  Woodeuts.   Feap.Syo.    U.Sd, 

ATKINSON  (Dr.  R)  Tie  de  Seint  Aoban.  A  Poem  in  Norman- 
French.  Ascribed  to  Matthew  Paris.  With  Conoordaaoe,  Glossary 
and  Notes.    Small  4to.    I0§.6d, 

AUSTIN  (Johb).    Lboivbbs  ov  Obbbbal  Jurispbudbrob  ;  or,  the 
Philosophy  of  PosltlT*  Law.    £dlted  by  BoBaax  CAMrBBLL.    9  Vols. 
.    8to.    89<. 

^-7^  ^todbbt's  EninoR,  compiled  from  the  aboye  work, 

•'  ^  ^llOBnrrCAiiPBRZ.L.    Poetdro.    18«. 
— V-H^^. Analysis  ot  By  Qordob  Caiipbbll.  PostSvo.  6t. 


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Bosolta  of.    Vol.  I.  Zoology.    4to.    87«.  6d, 
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OMh. 

MAGNETICAL  AND  METEOROLOGICAL  OBSERYATIONS,  1844 

to  1877.    Royal  4to.    90«.«Mfa. 
MAGNETICAL  AND  METEOROLOGICAL  RESULTS,  1848  to  1877. 

4to.-    St.  Ofteh, 
APPENDICES  TO  OBSERVATIONS. 

1837.  Log&rithiMofSlneBuidCofllnMlnTlixM.  S$. 

184S.  Catalogae  of  1438  Stan,  from  Obearratloiia  mada  is  1638. 
1841.  U. 

184S.  LoDgltiideofValo&tU  (Cbraioiiiatrlcal).    3$. 

1847.  Deocriptlon  of  Altaslmuth.    St. 

DoMrlption  of  Photographic  ApiMcatu.  2«. 

1861.  MaakolyM's  Ledger  of  Stan.    St. 

18MI  I.  DeeeripttonoftheTruMitClrele.    St, 

1853.  Besiel*e  Refraetioa  Tables.    Sg. 

1854.  I.  DeecriptioQ  of  the  RoBez  Zenith  Tube.    St. 

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to  1863.    4t. 
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186S.  IL  Plan  of  Ground  and  Buildlngt  of  Boyal  Obterratory, 
Graenwkh.    St. 
III.  Longitude  of  Valeatia  (Oalvaale).    8«. 
1864.  I.  Moon't  Seml-dlMneter,  from  Occultatioiif.    St. 

II.  Kednetions  of  Planetary  Obterradont.    1831  to  1886.    St. 
1868.  I.  Correctloai  of  Elnnentt  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn.    2«. 

II.  Second  Seven  Years'  Catalogae  of  S760  Start.  1861-7.    4t. 
III.  Deteription  of  the  Great  EqnatoriaL   8i. 
1871.  Water  Teleicope.    St. 
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1876.  II.  Nine  Yean' CatAlogue  of  8S88  Stan.   (1861-67.)   4t. 

Cape  of  Good  Hope  Obterrationfl  (Star  Ledgen):  1866tol868L  St. 
. : 18B6.    6f. 


AttronomiealRetnlti.  1897  to  1868.  6t. 


Cape  Catalogue  of  1169  Stars,  reduced  to  the  Epoch  1860.    8«. 
Cape  of  Good  Hope  Astronomical  Retnltt.   1880  to  1800.    6t. 

1871  to  1878.    6t. 

1874  to  1876.    6t.eaeh. 

Report  on  Tenerilb  Attronomlcal  Experiment    1866.    fit. 
ParsmatU  Catalogae  of  7885  Start.    18SS  to  1816.    4t. 

REDUCnON  OF  THE  OBSERVATIONS  OF  PLAMBTS.   1760  to 
1830.   Royal  4to.    SOt.eaeh. 

LUNAR  OBSERVATIONS.   1760 


to  1880.    SVoli.    Royal  4tOb    SOf.eaoh. 
1881  to  1861. 


4to.    lQt.eaeh. 


GREENWICH  METEOROLOGICAL  OBBERVA- 

Chiefly  1847  to  1878.    fit. 
ISt.Sd. 

1770.    4tO.    fit. 


TI0N8. 
ARCTIC  PAPERS. 

BERNOULLI'S  SEXCENTENARY  TABLB. 
BESSEL'S  AUXILIARY  TABLES  FOR  HIS  METHOD  OP  OLBAR- 

INa  LUNAR  DISTANCES.    Sro.    St. 
ENCKE'S  BERLINER  JAHRBUCH,  lorlSSO.   JSMKIOIB.   Svo.    Ot. 
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PUBLISHED  BY  MR.  HURRAY. 


8 


Admibaltt  PuBLxcATioNs—eontinuei. 

LUNAR  OBSERVATIONS  at  GREENWICH.  1788  to  1819.  Comiwrad 

with  th«  Tabtoa.  1881.   4to.    7«.6(L 
MAOLEAR  ON  LACAILLE'S  ARC  OF  MERIDIAN.  S  Yds.  S0t.6aob. 
MAYER'S    DISTANCES    of    the     MOON'S    CENTRE    ftt»m     the 

PLANETS.   1822,  St.;  1828,  At.  M.    1824  to  1886.     8to.    4«.  oaoh. 

TABULJi  MOTUUM  SOLI8  ET  LUNiB.    1770.    6*. 

ASTRONOMICAL  OBSERVATIONS    MADE  AT  GOT- 

TINGEN,  from  1766  to  1761.    1826.    Folio.    7«.6d. 

NAUTICAL  ALMANACS,  from  1767  to  1888.    2t.  6d,  aaoh. 

—  SELECTIONS  FROM,  np  to  1818.   8ro.    Sa. 

1884^64.    6f. 

SUPPLEMENTS,  1888  to  1888^  1887  and  1888. 

TABLE  reqaisito  to  bo  used  with  tho  N.A. 

1781.    8yo.    6f. 
SABINE'S  PENDULUM  EXPERIMENTS  to  DmiMnri  nu  Fiodeb 

ovthbEabth.    1826.   4to.    40». 
SHEPHERD'S  TABLES  for  CoREBornra  Luvab  Dutavoss.    177^ 

Royal  4to.   81«.  ^ 

TABLES,   GENERAL,  of  th«  MOON'S   DISTANCE 

from  the  BUN,  and  10  STARS.    1787.    FoUo.   6«.6& 

TAYLOR'S  SEXAGESIMAL  TABLE.    1780.    4to.    16t. 

TABLES  OF  LOGARITHMS.    4to.    60«. 

TIARK'S  ASTRONOMICAL    OBSERVATIONS  for  the  Lcwammi 
ofMADBXEiL.    1882.    4to.    fit. 


8f.6ach. 


CHRONOMETRICAL  OBSERVATIONS  for  Dzfmnroas 

of  LovaiTUDs  between  Dovbb,  Pobtsmouth,  and  FAUonm.    1888. 

4to.    6«. 
VENUS  and  JUPITER:  OBSSETATioiie of,  oompaied  with  the  Tabus. 

lowioii,  1888.    4to.    S». 
WALES     AND    BAYLYS    ASTRONOMICAL     OBSERVATIONS. 

1777.    4to.    81«. 
REDUCTION   OF   ASTRONOMICAL    OBSERVA'nONS 

MADnXVTKBSOUTHBBVHBIXBFBBBB.  1764—1771.  1788.  4t0.  1O0.6«(. 

BABBAULD  (Mrs.).     Hymns   in    Prose    for    Children.     With 

100  lUoatrations.    IQmo.    8«.  6d. 

BARCLAY  (BISHOP).  Selected  Extracts  from  tbe  Talmud, 
chiefly  lllastratiog  the  Teaching  of  the  Bible.  With  an  latiodactloo. 
lUuHtrationB.   8to.    lit. 

BABKLEY  (H.  C).  Five  Years  among  the  Bulgarians  and  Turks 

between  the  Danube  and  the  Black  Sea.    Post  Sto.    lOt.  Od. 
Bulgaria  Before  the  War ;  during  a  Seven  Years' 

Experienee  of  European  Turkey  and  Its  Inhabltanta.    Foat  8to.    lOs.  6d. 
My  Boyhood  :  a  True  Story.    A  Book  for  School- 
boys and  others.    With  lUttstratlona.    PoetSvo.    6«. 
BABROW    (JoHjr).     Life,  Ezploita^  and  Voyages  of  Sir  Francis 

Drake.    PoatSvo.   it. 
BABBY  (Cahov).    The  Manifold  Witness  for  Clirist.    Being  an 

Attempt  to  Exhibit  the  Combined  Foroe  of  varioua  ETidenoes,  Direct  and 

IndlreetyOfChrietiani^.    8to.    l^. 

— — ^-  (Bdw.),  B.A.  Lectures  on  Architecture,  delivered  before 
the  Royal  Aoademy.    With  IlIuttration«.    8vo.  [/a  JYeparatioM. 

BATES  (H.  Vf .).  Beoords  of  a  Naturalist  on  the  Amasons  daring 
Eleven  Teara'  Adventare  and  TraTel.   lUoetratlona    Poet  8to.  It.  9d. 

BAX  (Capt.\    Bussian  Tartary,  Eastern  Siberia,  China,  Japan, 

Ac    A  Crolee  in  H.M.S.  Dwarf.    lUustrationa.     Cr.  8vo.    12% 
BELCHUB  (Ladt).     Aceonnt  of  the  Mutineers  of  the  'Bounty/ 
and  their  Deaeendante ;  with  their  Settlements  in  Piteaim  and  Norfolk 
Islands,    ninstiatlons.    PoatSvo.    12s. 

B  2 


LIST  OF  WORKS 


BELL  (Sim  Cha*.).    FMnilStr  Letters.    Portndt.    Poet  8to.    12«. 
•_  (Boim  €.)•    Kotlcee  of  the  Historic  Penons  buried  in 

the  Chap«l  of  81  Peter  ad  yinoiil%  in  the  Tower  of  London,  with  en 
ecoonnt  of  the  diaooTery  of  the  tuppoeed  remeins  of  Qoeen  Anne  Bdleya. 
With  Illaetretlons.    Crown  8to.    14«. 

BBSTBAK  (Jas.  O.).  Hanrest  of  the  Sea :  en  Account  of  British 
Food  Fiebe«,  ladndlDg  Fieherlee  end  Fieber  Folk.  lUnatntloas. 
FoetSro.   •». 

BIBLE   COMMENTARY.    Thi  Old  TiSTAimnp.    Ezp&ATAfOKT 

and  Cbitical.  With  e  Rsmioir  of  the  Tbamlatiot.  By  BI8HOP8 
•ad  CLERGY  of  the  ANGLICAN  CHURCH.  Edited  by  F.  C.  Cook, 
M.A,Cenon  of  Exeter.    6  Yoli.   Medium  8yo.    6<.1S«. 

[Job. 

I  EooLseiAsns. 
(doao  ov  SoLoaiov. 

{ItAIAM. 
Jbuhiail 

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Davisl. 
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( I.ATXOB. 


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Vels.n. 
endlU. 


IOBVB8I8. 
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MUIOBBS. 
Dbqtbboboiit. 

'josbva,  judobs,  ruth, 
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BICLBS,  EZBA,  MBBBMIAH, 

Ebth] 


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VoL  L 

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/•TBTeODOOnOB. 
J  8t.  MAtTHBTT. 

i  St.  Mabx. 

I.  St.  Lukb. 

C  St.  Johx. 
I  Acts. 


Thi    Studivt's   Editioh.     Abridged    and 

Edited  by    Johx   M.   Fuixbb,    lf.A.,  Vleer  of   Bezley.    (To    be 
eompleted  in  6  Yolnmes.)    VoUi.  I.  to  III.    Crown  Sro.    7$.  6d.  eech. 

BIGG-WITHER  (T.  P.).  Pioneering  in  Sonth  Braxil;  Three  Yean 
of  Forest  end  PreLrie  Life  in  the  Profvlnce  of  Perene.  Mep  end  lUnstra- 
tions.   8  vole.    Crown  8to.    Sle. 

BIRCH  (Saxuml).  a  History  of  Aneient  Pottery  and  PoreelaSn : 
Esyptlea,  Aesyrien,  GreelE,  Roman,  and  EtruaeBn.  With  Coloand 
PJBtaa  and  WO  niuateations.   Median  Svo.    4St. 

BIRD  (Ibabslla).  Hawaiian  Archipelago;  or  Six  Months  among 
the  Pelm  Grorea,  Coral  Reefii,  end  YokanJoea  of  the  Bandwieh  lataada. 
lUnatrationa.    Crown  6to.    7«.  64, 

«—  ITnbeaten  Tracks  in  Japan :  Trarels  of  a  Lady  in  the 
interior,  ioolndins  Vlaita  to  the  Aboriginea  of  Yeso  and  the  Shzinee  of 
NiUoandlae.  With  Map  and  Illuatratlons.  SVola.  Crown  8vo.  84«. 

-^—  A  Lady's  Life  in  the  Rocky  Mountains.  Ulostrations. 
PoetSro.    10$.  9d, 

BISSET  (Sib  Jobii).  Sport  and  War  in  Sonth  Africa  from  1884  to 
1887,  with  a  NarraUve  of  the  Dake  of  Edinbuxih'a  Viatt.  With 
Map  and  lUnatrationa.    Crown  8to.    lif. 

BLUNT  (Ladt  Avvi).  The  Bedonins  of  the  Eaphrates  Yall^. 
With  aome  aooonnt  of  the  Araba  and  their  Horaea.  With  Map  and 
lUnatrationa.    8  Yola.    Crown  Sto.    84«. 

-  A  Pilgrimage  to  Kejd,  the  Cradle  of  the  Arab  Race,  and 

B  Yialt  to  the  Conrt  of  the  Ax»b  Bmlr.   With  Map  imd  lUaBtratioDa. 
S  Yola.    Poet  Bro. 


PUBLISHED  BY  MB.  MURRAY. 


BLUNT  (Bit.  J.  J.).  Undeeigned  GoineidencM  in  the  Writings  of 
the  Old  And  NewTeftamenu^ui  Argument  of  their  Teneity.  Poet  8vo.  B$* 

HiBtoiy  of  the  ChriBtian  Church  in  the  Pint  Three 

Centuries.    PoetSro.   6«. 

Parish  Priest;  His  Doties,  Acquirements,  and  Obliga- 

tlonfl.    Poet  8to.    6«. 

University  Sermons.    Post  8vo,    6s. 

BOOK  OF  COMMON  PRAYER.  lUostrated  with  Oolonred 
Borders,  Inltiel  Letters,  and  Woodenti.   8to.    18*. 

BORROW  (QnoMB).  Bible  in  Spain;  or  the  Jonmeys,  Adyentores, 
end  Imprisonments  of  sn  Enriisbman  in  en  Attempt  to  elreolste  the 
Bcilptnrss  inthe  Peninsnle.    PoetSvo.   fis. 

Gypsies  of  Spain;  their  Manners^  CastomSy  Re- 
ligion, end  Lengnsge.   With  Portrait.    PostSvo.  6«. 

Layengro ;  The  Scholar — The  Gypsy— and  the  Priest. 

PoetSro.    6«. 

Romany  Rye — a  Seqnel  to  "  Layengro.*'  PostSyo.  Bs. 

Wild  Walk:  its  People,  Language,  and  Scenery. 

PofltSro.  fit. 

Romano  Layo-Lil;  Word-Book  of  the  Romany,  or 

English  Gypsy  Langoage;  with  Specimens  of  their  Poetry,  and  an 
ecconnt  of  eertain  Oypsyries.    Poet  8to.    IQt.  Od. 

BOSWELL'S  Life  of  Samuel  Johnson,  LL.D.  Including  the 
Tour  to  the  Hebrides.  Edited  by  Mr.  Cboub.  Swenth  JUtiHon. 
Portraits.    Ivol.    Medinmafo.    12«. 

BRACE  (C.  L.).     Manual  of  Ethnology;  or  the  Races  of  the  Old 

World.    PoetS^o.    Os. 
BREWER  (Rsy.  J.  S.).    English  Studies.    Cortihts.  '  New  Sources 
of  English  History.    Qreen's   History.    Royal   Supremaey.    Hatfield 
House.    The  Btaarts.    Shakespeare.     How  to  Study  English  History. 
Erasmus.    Ancient  London.   8vo.    lU. 

BRrnSH  ASSOCIATION  REPORTS. 
York  and  Oxford,  1881-88, 18i.  6d, 
Cambridge,  ISM,  18s. 


Edinburgh,  1884,  Ifis. 
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8to. 

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BRITOSCH  (PBonssoft).  A  History  of  Egypt,  under  the 
Pharaohs.  Derived  entirely  from  Monuments,  with  a  Memoir  on  the 
Exodus  of  the  Israelites.  Translated  by  Pbiup  Smith.  B.A.,  with 
new  preface  and  notes  by  the  author.    Maps.    8  yols.    Syo.   89*. 


6  LIST  OF  WORKS 


BUKBITILY  (B.  H.).  A  Hifltory  of  Ancient  Oeogniphy,  among  the 
QrMks  and  Romans,  from  the  Earliest  Ages  till  fbe  Fall  of  tke  Roman 
Emplro.    With  Index  and  20  Maps.    9  Vols.   8ro.    dS*. 

BUBBIDGE  (F.  W.).  The  Gardens  of  the  Snn:  or  A  Naiuraliat'a 
Journal  on  the  Mountains  and  In  the  Forests  and  Swamps  of  Romeo  and 
the  8uln  Archipelago.   With  Illnstrationa.   Grown  8to.  lis, 

BUBCKHARDT'3  Cicerone ;  or  Art  Qoide  to  PainUng  in  Italy. 
Translated  from  the  German  bj  Mns.  A.  Clodoh.  Mew  Edition,  levised 
byJ.  A.  Caows.    PostSro.    6§, 

BURN  (Col.).  Dictionary  of  Naval  and  Military  Technical 
Termi,  I^llsh  and  French— Freneh  and  SngUah.   Givwn  8to.   16f. 

BUTTMANN'S  LexUogos;  a  Critical  Bxaminatioii  of  the 
Meaning  of  numerons  Oreek  Words,  ohlafly  In  Homer  and  Haslod. 
Ry  Rev.  J.  R.  FiSHLAKn.    8to.    Us. 

BUXTOK  (Chabus).    Memoirs  of  Sir  Thomas  Fowell  Bnxton, 

Sart    Portrait.    8to.  Ids.  I\tpidar  BdUioit,    Feap.  Sro.    fif. 

(Stdhet  C).    a  Handbook  to  the  Political  Questions 

of  the  Day  i  with  the  Arguments  on  Either  Side.    Sro.    6«. 

BTLBS    (Sib  Johh).    Foundations  of  Religion  in  the  Mind  and 

Heart  of  Man.    PoM  8to.    Ba. 
BTR0N*3  (Loan)  LIFE  AND  WORKS  :— 

Lm,  Lbttsbs,  akd  Joubnals.  By  Thomas  Moobb.  Cabinei 
SdMoH,  Plates.  6  Vols.  Fcap.Sro.  18f. ;  or  One  Yolome,  Portraits. 
RoytJ  870.,  7».  6d. 

Lira  ABD    Poetical   Works.    Pqpfdar  Edition,    Portraits. 

S  vols.    Royal  Sro.     16«. 

PoBTiCAL  Works.  Library  Bdttian.  Portrait  6Tolf.  8yo.45a. 
Poetical  Works.  Cabinet  Edition.  Phttea.  10  Vols.  121no.  80«. 
PoBTioAL  Works.   Pocket  Ed,  8  Vols.   16mo.  In  a  case.  21«. 
PoBTicAL  Works.  Popidar  Edition,  Plates.  Royal  8vo.  7s.  6ci. 
PoBTiCAL  Works.    Pearl  Edition,     Crown  8to«   2$,  6dL 
Childb  Habolb.    With  80  Engrayings.    Crown  Sto.    12f. 
Childb  Habold.    16mo.    28, 8(2. 
Childb  Habold.    Vignettes.    16mo.    Is.      ; 
Childb  Habold.    Portrait.    16mo.    6d, 
Tales  ahd  Poehs.    16mo.    2s.  6dL 
Misobllahbous.    2  Tola.    16mo.    fo. 
Dbaxas  abd  Plats.    2.To1s.    IGmo.    6«. 
Dob  Juan  abd  Bbppo.    2  Tols.    ICmo.    5i. 
Beauties.    Poetiy  and  Prose.    Portrait.   Fcap.   8ro.   8s.  9d. 
CAMPBELL   (Loan).     Lord   Chancellon  and  Keepers  of  the 
Great  Seal  of  England.   From  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Death  of  Lord 
Eldoninl888.     10  Vols.    Crown  Sro.    6«.each. 

Chief  Jnstioes  of  England.    From  the  Kormaa 

Conquest  to  the  Death  of  Lord  Tentnrden.  4  Vols.  Crown  8?o.  St,  each. 
Life  and  Letters:  Based  on  his  Antobiography, 


Journals,  and  Correspondence.    Edited  hy  his  daughter,  Mrs.  Uai^- 
castle.    Portrait.    8  Vols.    Bro,    80«. 

(Thos.)    Essay  on   English  Poetiy.     With  Short 


Lives  of  the  British  Poets.    PoetSvo.    at.6cl. 
CABNARVOK    (Loan).     Portugal,    Ghdlida,  and   the   Basque 
Prorinees.   PostSro.   S§,6d, 

The  Agamemnon :    Translated  from    .fischylns. 

Bm.  Bro,    6«. 


PUBLISHED  BY  MB.  MUBBAT. 


CARNOTA  (CoHDB  t>l).  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Erentfal  Career 
of  P.M.  the  Dake  of  SftLdanha;  Soldier  and  BtAtesman.  With 
Seleetioaa  from  hie  CorrespoDdence.    SYols.   Svo.   82«. 

CARTWBIGHT  (W.  C).  The  JesniU:  their  Constitntioii  and 
Teaching.    An  Hietorlcal  Sketch.    8to.    9«. 

CAYALCASELLE'S  WORKS.    [See  Cbows.] 

CESNOLA  (Geh.).  Cyprus;  its  Ancient  Cities,  Tombs,  and  Tem« 
plee.  Recearehee  and  Ezcaratione  during  Ten  Years*  Residence  in  that 
Island.     With  400  lilostrations.    Medium  8to.    SOi. 

CHILD  (Chapliit).  Benedicite ;  or.  Song  of  the  Three  Children ; 
being  Illustrations  of  the  Power,  Benefloenoe,  and  Design  manifested 
hj  the  Creator  in  his  Works.    Post  Sro.  6«. 

CHISHOLM  (Mrs.).  Perils  of  the  Polar  Seas ;  True  Stories  of 
Aretie  Diseoverj  and  Adventure.    Illustrations.    Post  8yo.    6«. 

CHURTON  (Abohdiaooh).     Poetical  Remains,  Translations  and 

Imitations.    Portrait.    Post  8vo.    7«.  Sd, 

CLASSIC    PREACHBfiS    OF    THE    ENGLISH    CHURCH. 

St.  James's  Lectures. 


1877,  DosHB,    by  Bishop  of  Durham ;    Barrow,  by 

Prof.  Waoe:  South,  by  Dean  Lake;  Bivbbidox,  bv  Rer.  W. 
R.  Clark;  Wilson,  hj  Canon  Farrar;  Butlbb,  by  Dean  Qool- 
bum.    With  Introduction  bj  J.  E.  Kempe.    Post  Sro.    7a  8(2. 

1878,    Bull,    by  Bey.    W.   Warburton ;  Horslrt,    by 

Bishop  of  Ely ;  Tat  lob,  by  Canon  Barry;  Sakokbboit,  by  Bishop 
of  Derry ;  Tillotsok,  by  Rer.  W.  G.  Humphry ;  Avdebwxb,  by 
Rev.  H.  J.  North.    PoatSvo.    7a  6d. 

CLIYE'S  (Lord)  Life.    By  Bby.  G.  R.  Gimq.    Post  Sto.    8«.  6<t 

CLODE  (C.  M.).   Military  Forces  of  the  Crown ;  their  Administr»> 
tion  and  GovemmeoL    2  Vols.    8to.   21«.  each. 

Administration  of  Justice  under  Military  and  Martial 

Law,  as  applicable  to  the  Army,  Nary,  Marine,  and  Anziliary  Forees. 
8yo.    lU. 

COLERIDGE'S  (Samuu  Tatlor)  Table-Talk.  Portrait  12mo.  8«.  6d. 

COLONIAL  LIBBABT.    [See  Home  and  Colonial  Library.] 

COMPANIONS  FOB  THE  DEVOUT  LIFE.    A  Series  of  Lee- 
tares  on  well-known  Devotional  Works.    Crown  8to.    St.  i 
Db  mrrATiosrs  GnaisTi.  Canon  Farrar. 
Pairsan  or  Bulub  Pascal.     Dean    . 

Church.  I 

S.    Fbavcois    x>s     Salbs.      Dean    ' 

Goulbiim. 
Baztib'b  Saxbts'  Rb8t.    Archbishop 

of  Dublin. 
StAuousTiBB'sCoxyBssiOHB.  Bishop 

of  Derry. 
Jbbbxt  Tatlob'b  Holt  Lttiko  axd 

Drura.    Rev.  Dr.  Humphry. 


Thbolooia      Gbbicavioa.       Caoon 

Ashwell. 
FSmIlon's    (Euvbbs    Spibxtubllbs. 

Rev.  T.T.Carter. 
AxDBBWBs'  Dbtotiovs.     Biflhop  of 

Ely. 
CHaisTiAH  Ybab.     Canon  Barry. 
Pabadisb  Lost.   Rev.  £.  H.  BidoBr- 

steth. 
Filobim's  Pboobbss.  DesaHowaon. 
Pbatbb  Book.   Dean  Buivon. 

CONVOCATION  PBATBR-BOOK.    (See  Prayer-Book.) 

COOKE  (E.  W.).  Leaves  from  my  Sketch-Book.  Being  a  Seleo- 
tlon  firom  SketcheB  made  during  many  Tours.  With  DeseriptiTe  Text. 
60  Plates.    SYola.  Small  foUo.    81«.6d.each. 

COOKEBT  (MonxRR  DoxRsno).  Founded  on  Principles  of  Economy 
and  Praetleal  Knowledge.    By  a  Lady.    Woodeots.   Feap.  Sro.   6f. 


LIST  OF  WORKS 


CEABBE  (Bay.  Gboeob).    life  had  Poetical  Worki.    With  Ulna- 

timtiODB.   BojftI  8to.    7«. 

CBAWFORD  k  BAIjCABRES  (Earl  of).  Btniacan  Inacriptioni. 
Anaijm&A,  Tzanilattd,  and  Commented  upon.   8to.    ISf. 

CRIPPS  (Wilfud).  Old  EDgliab  Plafe  :  Ecclesiaatical^DeceratiTe, 
■od  Domestic,  Ite  Meken  and  Hai^a.  With  a  Complete  Table  of  Date 
Letteie,  Ac.    Kew  Edition.    Illuatratione.    Medium  8vo. 

.- Old  French  Plate;  Faraisbing  Tables  of  the  Paris  Date 

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CBOKER  (J.  W.).  ProgreaalTO  Geography  f6r  Children, 
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Boswell's  Life  of  Johnson.     Indnding  the  Tonr  to 


theHebildes.   Skventk  EUdon.    Portraits.   8to.    lis. 

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GILL  (Capt.  William),  R.  E.  The  Biver  of  Golden  Sand. 
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C<il.  U.  Yule,  C.B.    Maps  ana  iUiutratlona.    H  Vol«.    8vo.    BOt. 

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GLBIG  (G.  R.).  Campaigns  of  the  British  Anny  at  Washington 
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Story  of  the  Battle  of  Waterloo.    Post  8yo.     Ss.  M, 

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Gomm.    With  Portrait.    8vo. 

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GROTE'S  (Grorgi)  WORKS  :— 

History  of  Grbrob.  From  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  close 
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Aristotlr.    With  additional  Essays.    8vo.   18s. 

Miror  Works.     Portrait.   8yo.    lie. 

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Pbrsohal  Lifr.    Portrait.    8yo.    12«. 

GROTE  (Mrs.).    A  Sketch.    By  Lady  Eastlaki.   Crown  8yo.  8& 

HALL'S  (T.  D.)  School  Manual  of  English  Grammar.  With 
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PUBUSBED  BY  MR.  MURRAY.  19 


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Thb  Cohstitutiohaii  Histort  of  Eholakd,  from  the  Acoes- 
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HAMILTON  (Orh.  Sir  F.  W.).  Hutoryof  the  OreDadier  Ouards. 
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—  (Ardrrw).    Rheinsbeig :  Memorials  of  Frederick  the 
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HARrS  ARMY  LIST.    {Published  Quarterly  ondAimuaUy.) 
HATOH  (W.  M.).      The  Moral  Philosophy  of  Aristotle,  cod- 

slstliig  of  a  traDslatlon  of  th«  Nlehornsebean  Ethics,  and  of  the  Psra. 
phrase  attrlbut»d  to  Androniciis,  with  aa.Introdnotorf  Analysts  of  each 
hook.    8to.    l^s. 

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HAY  ^zm  J.  H.  Drumxohd).  Western  Barbaiy,  its  Wild  Tribes 
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HAYWARD  (A.V    Sketches  of  Eminent  Statesmen  and  Writera, 

with  other  Esttys.  |teprinted  from  tbe  *'  Qnarierly  Review/'  with 
Additions  and  Correetlon*.  Contents:  Thiers,  Bismarck,  Cavoar, 
Hettemieh,  Montalerabert,  Melbonrn«*,  Wellesley,  Byron  and  Tenny- 
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herryHIH.    8  Vols.    8vo.    881. 

HEAD'S  (Su  Frarou)  WORKS  :•- 

Thh  Rotal  Ehoirirr.    Illnstrations.    8ro.  12#. 
LiFi  Of  Sir  John  Burootvr.     Post  8to.    Ic 
Rafi9  J01TRNRT8  across  thh  Pampas.    Post  8to.    2a. 
BuRRLiB  FROM  THB  Bruhrrk  OF  Nassau.    Illustrations.    Post 
8vo.    7s.  6d. 

Stoxrrs  ard  Poxrrs;  or,  the  London  and  North  Western 
Bailway*    PostSvo.    8s. 

HEBER'S  (Bishop)  Journals  in  India.    2  Vols.    Post  8to.    7s. 

Poetical  Works.    Portrait.    Fcap.  8ro.    Ss.  6d 

■  Hymns  adapted  to  the  Church  Serrice.    16mo.    Is.  6d. 

HERODOTUS.  A  New  English  Version.  Edited,  with  Notes 
and  Essays,  Hlstorieal,  Ethnographieal,  and  Oeographieal,  hy  Cavoit 
RAWLDraoVy  Sib  H.  RAWLXvaoa  and  Sn  J.  O.  Wxlki>so«.  Maps  and 
Woodeats.   4  Vols.  Svo.   48s. 

BERRIES  (Rt.  Hon.  John).    Memoir  of  his  Public  Life  during 

the  Reigns  of  George  III.  and  I V^.,  William  IV.,  and  Queen  Viotorla. 
Foondcd  on  his  Letters  and  other  Unpnbliiihed  Documents.  By  bis 
SOD,  Edward  Berries,  C.B.    8  vols.    Svo.    84s. 

HERSGHEL'S  (Caroliri)  Memoir  and  OorrespondeDee.  By 
Mrs.  Jobv  Haasonsu    With  Portraits.    Crown  Svo.    7s.  6d. 


ji  LIST  OP  WORKS 


FOREIGN  HANDBOOKS. 

HAND-BOOK — TBAYEL-TALK.  Snglish,  French,  German,  and 

ItalUuB'    18mo.  8«.  6i. 

HOLLAND  AND  BELGIUM.     Map  and  Plana. 

_^^'!]^'NOkTH  GERMANY  and  THE  RHINE,— 
Th«  BUek  Foratt,  the  HartE.  Tbttrinftarwald,  Saxon  flwftzerland, 
R11|c«D,  the  Giant  Monntatns,  TaunuB.  Odenwald,  EUas,  and  Lotb- 
rioinn.    Map  and  Plana.    Post  8vo.    10«. 

SOUTH    GERMANY,  —  Wurtemburg,    Bararia. 


AnatrU,  Styria,  Balalmrg,  tba  Alps,  TttoI,  Hungary.  »nd  ttM  Danote, 
from  Ulm  to  tha  Black  Sea.  Mape  and  Plans.  Post  Svo.  10». 

PAINTING.  Gennan,  Flemiah,  and  Dnteh  Sehooli. 


Illastradons.  S  Vols.  Post  Sro.  Us.         _   „  .  ^,  ^   «,  «,,^„ 
LIYES  AND  WORKS  OF  EARLY  FLEMISH 


Painten.    Illostratlons.    PostSro.    7b.  Bd, 

SWITZERLAND,  Alpa  of  Saroy,  and  Piedmont. 


In  Two  Parts.    Maps  and  PUns.    Post  8vo.    10s.  ,      «        . 

FRANCE,  Part  ).  Normandy,  Brittany,  the  French 


Alps,  the  Loire,  Seine,  Garonne,  and  Pyieneea.     Maps  and  Plans. 
PostSvo.   7$.6d, 

Pari  IL    Central  France,  Anvergne,  the 


Cevennes,  Burgnndy.  the  Rhone  and  Saone,  Provence,  Nimes,  Aries, 
Maneilles,  the  Fnnch  Alps,  Alsaoe,  Lorraine,  Champagne,  Ac.  Maps 
and  Plans.    Post  8vo.    7*.  6rf. 

MEDITERRANEAN— ite  Principal  Islands,  Cities, 


Seaports,  Uarbontfv,  and  Border  Lands.    For  travellers  and  yachtsmen, 
-witli  nearly  50  Maps  and  Plans.   P^st  8to.    SOs. 

. ALGERIA    AND  TUNIS.    Algiera,  Constantine, 

Oran.  the  Atlas  Range.    Maps  and  Plans.    PostSvo.    10s. 

PARIS,  and  its  Environa.    Maps  and  Plans.    16mo. 

3$.  dd. 

SPAIN,  Madrid,  The  Castiles,  The  Basque  ProTinces,  / 


Map  and  Plan.    PostSro.    12«. 

NORTH    ITALY,    Tarin,    Milan,  Cremona,   the 


Italian  Lakes,  Bergamo,  Brescia,  Verona,  Mantna,  Vioensa,  Padna, 
FArrara,  Bologna,  KaTeona,  Rimini,  Piacenaa,  Genoa,  the  Riviera, 
Venice,  Parma,  Modena,'andRomagna.  Mapa  and  Plans.  PostSvo.  10s. 

CENTRAL  ITALY,  Florence,  Lucca,  Tuscany,  The 


liaroheSfUmbria,  &e.    Maps  aad  Plans.    PostSvo.  IDs. 

'ROME    Ann  its    ErriBon.    With  more  than  50 


Maps  and  Plann.    Post  Svo. 

SOUTH  ITALY,  Naples,  Pompeii,  Herculanenm, 


andVesnvins.    Maps  and  Plana.    PostSvo.    lOs. 
PAINTING.    The  Italian  Sehooli.    lUastrationa. 

« Vols.    Post  Svo.    30i.  _  _ 

LIVES  OF  ITALIAN  PAINTERS,  fbox  Czmabvb 


to  Babsaito.    By  Mrs.  Jaiosov.    Portraits.   Post  Sva    ISs. 

NORWAY,  Christiania,  Bergen,  Trondlyem.  The 


Fjelds  and  Fjords.    Maps  and  Plana.    PostSvo.    9s. 

SWEDEN,  Stockholm,  Upaala,   Gothenhnig,  the 


Shons  of  the  Baltic,    c     Mans  and  Plan.    Poet  Svo.   Sa. 


Leon.  The  Asturlas,  Gallcia,  Eatremadura,  Andalusia,  Ronda.  Granada, 
Murds,  Valencia,  Catalonia,  Aragon,  Navarro,  The  Balearic  Islands, 
Ac.  Ac   Maps  and  Plans.    Post  Svo.    90t.  j 

—  PORTUGAL,  LisBOH,  Porto,  Cint^^  Mafra»  ke. 


PUBLISHED  BT  MR.  MURRAY.  15 


HANDBOOK— DENMARK,  Sletwig,  HoUtein.  Copenlia^s,  Jat- 

Uod,  leeland.    llapB  and  PUofl.    Post  6to.    6«. 
RUSSIA,  St.  PBraBSBURo,  Moboow,  Polaso,  and 

Futlajto.    MapiandPUDK.    PostSro.     18>. 

GREECE,  the  loniaa  Islands,  Continental  Greece, 


Athens,  the  Peloponnesus,  the  Islands  of  tb«  ^gean  8«a.  Albania, 
Thessalf,  and  MsMdoala.    Maps,  Plans,  and  Views.    Post  8to.    16«. 

TURKBT  IN  ASIA— CovsTAVTuroPLi,    the    Boe- 


phornSf  Dardanelles,  Bronsa,  Plain  of  Trof ,  Crete,  Cypms,  flmjma, 
Ephesus,  the  Seven  Churches,  Coasts  of  the  Black  Sea,  Armenia, 
Euphrates  Valley,  Route  to  India,  Kce.  Haps  and  Plans.  Poet  8to.  16s. 
EGYPT,  inclnding  Descriptions  of  the  Course  of 


the  Nile  through  Egypt  and  Nubia,  Alexandria,  Cairo,  send  Thebes,  the 
Sues  Canal,  the  Pynmids,  the  Peninsula  of  Sinai,  the  Oases,  the 
Fyoom,  Ae.    In  Two  Parts.    Maps  and  Plans.   Post  Sro.    16«. 

HOLY  LAND-— Stria,  PiLssriira,  Peninsula   of 


BInai.  Edom.  Syrian  Deserts, Petra,  Damasous ;  and  Palmyra.  Maps 
snd  Plans.  Post  8to*  908,  *•*  Travelling  Map  of  Palestine.  In  a 
ease.    12t« 

INDIA.     Maps  and    Plans.     Post  8ro.     Part  L 

BoMBAT,  1S«.    Part  II.  Madsas,  16s.    Part  III.  Bbvoal. 


ENGLISH    HAND-BOOKS. 

HAND-BOOK—ENGLAND  AND  WALES.  An  AlphabeUcal 
Hand-Book.  Condensed  into  One  Volume  for  the  Use  of  Travellers. 
With  a  Map.    Post  Svo.    10s. 

MODERN  LONDON.   Maps  and  Plans.     16mo. 

BNTIKONS  OP  LONDON  within  ■  eirenit  of  20 

rnlle^.    8  Vols.    Crown  8to.    21c. 

ST.  PAUL'S   CATHEDBAL.     20   Dlostntions. 


Crown  8to     lOi .  (U. 

EASTERN  COUNTIES,  Chelmsford,  Harwich,  Col- 

eheater,  Msldon,  Cambridge,  Ely,  Newmarket,  Bury  St.  Edmunds, 
Ipsn^ieh,  Woodbrldge,  Felixstowe,  Lowestoft,  Norwich,  Yarmouth, 
Cromer,  &e.    Map  and  Plans.    Post  8to.    18s. 

CATHEDRALS  of  Oxford,  Peterborough,  Norwich, 


Ely,  and  Ltneoln.    With  90  Illastratlona.    Crown  8vo.    18«. 

KENT,  Canterbury,  Dover,  Ramegate,  Sheemess, 


Roelieeter,  Chatham,  Woolwich.    Maps  and  Plans.    PostSvo.    7«.6(C 
SUSSEX,  Brighton,  Chicheeter,  Worthing,  Hastings, 


Lewes,  Amndel,  te.    Mape  and  Plans.    PostSvo.    6s. 

SURREY  AND  HANTS,  Kingston,  Croydon,  Rei- 


cate,  GoDdford,  Dorking,  Boxhill,  Winchester,  Southampton,  New 
Forest,  Portsmonth,  Islx  of  Wight,  kc  Maps  and  Plana.  Post  8to. 
10s. 

BERKS,  BUCKS,  AND   OXON,  Windsor,  Eton, 


Beadlnf ,  Aylesbury,  Uzbridge,  Wycombe,  Henley,  the  City  and  Uni. 
▼erslty  of  Ozlbrd.  Blenheim,  and  the  Descent  of  the  Thames.  Maps 
and  Plans.    Poet  8to. 


WILTS,  DORSET,  AND  SOMERSET,  Salisbniy, 

Chippenham,  Wmiouth,  Sherborne,  Wells^  Bath,  Bristol,  Tannton, 
Ac    Map.    PostBTO.    IQf. 


DEVON,  Exeter,  Dfraeombe,  Linton,  Sidmonth, 

Dawlieh,Teignmonth,  Plymouth,  Deronport,  Torquay.  Maps  and  Plans. 
PoatSro.   TS.M. 


16  LIST  OP  WORKS 


HAKD-BOOK— CORNWALL,  LMnoeflton,  Penzanoa^  FalmoiiUi, 

tb«  LiBard,  Laad't  Mad,  Ae.    Maps.     Pom  8to.    6«. 

CATHEDRALS  of  Wincheiter,  Silisbiuy,  Exeter, 

WelU,  Chiehiftor.  Boehe<itar,  CuterbiuT,  and  St  AlbaiM.     With  180 
Illutiadooa.    SYola.    Cr.  Qro.  M«.    SU  Albaiu  wpanMjrcr.STo. 

OLOXrCBSTER,  HEREFORD,  avb  WORCESTER, 
CimMMtM',  CheltonbaiD.  Strood,  TewkMbury,  Laomlintar,  Rom,  Mai- 
T«n,  KlddHinliiattr,  Dndloj,  BromgioTa,  ETaiham.  Miy,  PomSto. 

CATHEDRALS  of  Briitol,  Gloaoefter,  Hereford, 


WMCMtor,aad  Liofallald.  With  60  lUastraUona.  CrovnSro.   Ifla 
NORTH  WALES,  Bangor,  CaxDuron, 


BoovdoQ,  LlaDbnla,  DolgaUjr,  Cadar  Idzla,  Conwaj,  Stc    Map.    PMt 
8fO.   ft. 


SOUTH  WALES,  Monmouth,    LUndaff,  Merthyr, 

ValaorNMtb,  Pemlwoka,  Cannarthoii,  Tanbj,  SvaoMa,  Tha  Wja,  Ae. 
Map.    PoMSvo.   Tf. 

CATHEDRALS     OF  BANGOR.    ST.    ASAPH, 


Uandaff.  and  St.  Darld'B.    With  Illastrations.    PootSro.    16t, 

NORTBAMPTONSHIRB     AND     RUTLAND— 

Northampton,  Poterboroogh,  TowcMtar,  Darantrf,  Market  Har- 
boroagb,  Kettoring,  Wallingboroagb,  Tbiapaton,  Blamford,  Uppiog- 
ham,  Oakham.    Maps.    PoMSto.    7«.  6d. 

DERBY,    NOTTS,    LEICESTER,    STAFFORD, 

Matlock,  Bakawoll,  Cbatiworth,  The  Peak,  Bnzton,  Hardwiek,  Dor* 
Dkle,  Aahbome,  Southwell,  Manefleld,  Retford,  Barton,  BelTolr,  Melton 
Mowbraj,  Wolverhampton,  lAehfield,  Waleall,  Tamworth.  Map. 
PoMSra    te. 

SHROPSHIRE  Aim  CHESHIRE,  Shrewibniy,  Lad- 


low,    Bridgnorth,   OewMtry,  ChMter,   Crewe,   Alderlej,   Btoekportp 
BIrkeohead.    Maps  and  Plans.    Post  8to.    6«. 

LANCASHIRE,    Warrington,    Butj,    Manehestar, 


LiTerpool,  Bamlej,  CUtheroe,  Bolton,  Blaekbam,  WIgaa,  Praeton, 
Roehdale,  Laneaatar,  Sduthport,  Blackpool,  Ae.  Mepe  and  Plane. 
PMt  Svo.    7«.  M. 

YORKSHIRE,  Doneaster,  Hnll,  Selby,  Beverley, 


SMrborongb,  Wbltby,  Harrogate^  Rlpoo,  LMde,  Wakeileld,  Bradfohl, 
HalUbz,  Hnddersfleld.  SheiBeld.    Map  and  Plane.    PMtSro.    ISc 

CATHEDRALS  of  York,  Ripon,  Bnriiam,  Garliale, 


ChMter,  and  Manehteter.  With  60  Illuetratlons.  t  Vola.  Gr.  8ro.  Sle. 
DURHAM    AID   NORTHUMBERLAND,     New- 


eeetle^  Darlington,  GatMhead,  Bishop  Aockland,  Stoektoo,  Hartlepool, 
Sunderland,  Shields,  Berwick-on-Tweed,  Morpeth,  Tynemonth,  Cold- 
strsam,  Alnwlek,  Ae.    Map.    PMtSvo.    9t. 

WESTMORLAND    Avn    CUMBERLAND— Lan- 


eastar,  FnmeH  Abber,  Ambleside,  Kendal,  Windermere,  Conlston, 
KMwlck,  Qnutmere,  Ulswater,  Carlisle,  Cookermouth,  Penrith,  Appleby. 
Map.    PMtSTO. 

*••  MtranAT's  Map  of  tbi  Lazv  DiaTBicr,en  eanvas.    8f.edL 

SCOTLAND,  Edinbnigh,  Melroae,  KelBo,  Olaagow, 


Dumfries,  Ayr,  Stirling,  Arran,  The  Clyde,  Obsn,  InTersrj,  Loeh 
Lomond,  Loch  Katrine  and  Troesaehs,  Caledonian  Canal,  Inveraees^ 
Perth,  Dundee,  Aberdeen,  Braemar,  Skye,  CalthneM,  Bess,  Snther- 
laad.Ae.-  Mape  and  Plans.    PMtSvo.   8c 

IRELAND,    Dublin,    Bel&at,  the  Oiaat'e  Cavse- 


way,  Donegal,  Oalway,  Wexford,  Cork,  Limerick.  Waterfori,  Killar- 
BfsytBsntry,  Qlengarui;  dw.    Mi^  and  Plans.    PMtSm.    lOi. 


PUBLISHED  BY  MR.  MURRAY. 


17 


HOMK  AND  COLONIAL  LIBRARY.  A  Series  of  Work* 
wUpted  for  all  elrolM  and  duws  of  lUadera,  harinf  hma  Mtoetod 
for  their  aokoowladged  iaterest,  and  abltitj  of  the  Authors.  Poet  8tow 
Poblished  at  S«.  and  8«.64.eaeh,  and  arranged  ander  two  dlstinetiTe 
heads  ae  foUowa  :— 

GLASS  A. 


HISTORY,    BIOGRAPHY, 

By 


1.  SIEOE  OF  GIBRALTAR. 
JOHV  DanrKWATsm.    it. 


B7 


5.  THE  AMBER- WITCH. 

Ladt  Dun  QoHDov.    8i. 

8.  CROMWELL  AND  BUNYAN. 

Bj  ROBKBT  8O0TBVT.     U, 

A  LIFE  OT  Sza  FRANCIS  DRAKE. 
Bj  Jom  BAaaow.    U. 

6.  CAMPAIGNS  AT  WASHING- 

TON. B7RxT.G.R.QLaza.  2«. 

6.  THE  FRENCH  IN  ALGIERS. 
Bf  Ladt  Duwv  Gobdov.    2t. 

f .  THE  FALL  OF  THE  JESUITS. 

6.  LIVONIAN  TALES.    i«. 

9.  LIFE  OF  C0ND£.  By  Lord  Ma- 

bom.    Z§.6d. 

10.  BALE'S    BRIGADE.     By  Rsr. 
G.  R.  Glbio.    i§. 


AND    HISTORIO   TALES. 

11.  THE    SIEGES    OF  VIENNA. 
By  Loan  EuuMinni.    S<. 

IS.  THE  WAYSIDE  GROSS.     By 
Capt.  Miucav.   9«. 

18.  SKETCHES  OF  GERMAN  LIFE. 
By  Soi  A.  GoBDOW.    8«.6A 

14.  THE  BATTLE  or  WATERLOO. 
By  Rsv.  G.  R.  Glbo.    Sf.6d. 

15.  AUTOBIOGRAPHY  OF  STEP- 
FENS.    2t, 

16.  THE    BRITISH    POETS. 
Thoicas  Cakpbslu    8«.64. 

ESSAYS. 
8«.6dL 

1&  UFE  OF  LORD  GLIYE. 
Rxv.  G.  R.  Glbig.   8«.6A 

19.  NORTH  -  WESTERN      RAIL- 

WAY. BySiBF.B.HiAD.    if 

90.  LIFE  OF  MUNRO.    By  Rbt.  G. 
R.  Glbio.    8«.M. 


17.  HISTORICAL 
LoBD  Mahob. 


By 
By 
By 


GLASS  B. 
VOYAGES,    TRAVELS.   AND   ADVENTURES. 


1.  BIBLE  IN  SPAIN.   By  Gbobob 
BoBBOW.    St.  6d. 

t.  GYPSIES  or  SPAIN.  ByGxoBoa 
BOBBOW.    8«.  6i. 

8  A  4.  JOURNALS  IN  INDIA.  By 
BiBBOP  Hbbbb.    8  Vols.    7«. 

6.  TRAVELS  nrTHB  HOLY  LAND. 
BylBBTandMABOLBS.    2t, 

6.  MOROCCO  AND  THE  MOORS. 

By  J.  Dbuioiovo  Hat.    2t. 

7.  LETTERS  FROM  thb  BALTIC. 

By  a  Ladt. 

8.  NEW  SOUTH  WALES.  ByMag. 

Mbbboxtb.   St. 

9.  THE  WEST  INDIES.  By  M.  G. 

Lbwib.    St. 

10.  SKETCHES  OF  PERSIA.     By 

SiB  Jomr  Malcolm.    8«.6A 

11.  MEMOIRS  OF  FATHER  RIPA. 

28. 

IS  A  18.  TYPEE  AND  OMOO.  By 
Hbbkavv  Mbltxllb.  S  Vole.  7«. 

14.  MISSIONARY  LIFE  IN  CAN- 
ADA.   By  Rbt.  J.  Abbott.   Sc. 


I 


16.  LETTERS  FROM  MADRAS.  By 
a  Ladt.    8«. 

16.  HIGHLAND     SPORTS.        By 

Cbablbb  St.  Jom.    8«.6A 

17.  PAMPAS  JOURNEYS.    By  SxB 

F.B.Ubao.    St. 

18.  GATHERINGS  FROM  SPAIN. 

By  RioHABD  FOBD.    9t.  6A 

19.  THE   RIVER   AMAZON.     By 

W.H.  EowABoe.    Si. 

50.  MANNERS   A   CUSTOMS  OF 

INDIA.  ByRBT.C.AoLABD.  St. 

51.  ADVENTURES    IN   MEXICO. 

By  G.  F.  RuxTOir.    St.  64. 

SS.  PORTUGAL    AND    GALICIA. 
By  LoBD  Cabvabtob.    8t.  6A 

S8.  BUSH  LIFE  IN  AUSTRALIA. 
By  Rbt.  H.  W.  Hatoabth.   St. 

54.  THE  LIBYAN  DESERT.      By 

Batlb  St.  JoBV.  St. 

55.  SIERRA  LEONE.    By  A  Ladt. 

8t.6d. 


V  Bach  work  nnay  be  had  eeparately. 


18  UST  OP  WORKS 


HOLLWAT  (J.  0.).    A  Month  In  Norway.    Fcap.  8to.    Si. 
HONXT  BfiB.    By  Rst.  Thomas  Jam  v.    Fcap.  8to.  Ic ; 
HOOK  (Diah).     Church  Dictionary.     8to.  16t. 

(Thsodou)  Life.  By  J.  G.  Lookhabt.    Fcap.  8to.    1«. 

HOPE  (A.  J.  Bbrssford).    Worship  in  the  Church  of  England. 

8to.    9«.,or,  Popular  Selrct  ions  from.    Bvo.    2«.  M. 

HORACE  fa  N^ew  Edition  o.  the  Text    Edited  by  Dsas  Milmam. 

Wltk  100  Woodeut*.    Gr  jwn  8vo.    7«.  Gi. 

HOUGHTON'S  (Lord)  Mooographs,  Personal  and  Social    ATith 

Portraits.    Crown 8vo.    '0.  6i. 
PoBTioAL  WoBKS.     CoUtcUd  Edition,    With  Por^ 

trait.    tVols.    Fcap.8vo.    12ji. 

H0U8T0IJN  (Mrs.).    Twenty  Tears  in  the  Wild  West  of  Ireland, 

or  Life  In  Connaught.    Post  8to.    9«. 
HUMS  (The  Student's).     A  History  of  England,  from  the  Inra- 
tlon  of  Jollas  Cesar  to  the  RoTolntloo  of  1688.    Nnw  Edition,  revised, 
corrected,  and  con  tinned  to  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  1878.    By  J.   8. 
Bbbwbb,  M.A.  With  7  Coloured  Maps  4k70  Woodcnta.  Poet  8to.  7e.6dL 

HUTCHINSON  (Gbh.).  Dog  Breaking,  with  Odds  and  Ends  for 
thoee  who  loye  the  Dog  and  the  Gun.  With  40  lllnstrations.  Crown 
8vo.    7i.  ed. 

BUTTON  (H.E.).  PrincipiaGrseca;  an  Introduction  to  the  Study 
of  Greek.  Comprehending  Grammar,  Delectus,  and  Rrnmiao  hoot, 
with  Vocahularies.    Sixth  EdUioft.    ISmo.    9t.M. 

HTMNOLOGT,  Dictiovart  of.    See  Julian. 

INDIA  in  1880.  By  Sir  Biehard  Temple,  Bart.  With  2  Maps.  8to. 

IBBY  AND  MANGLES'  TibtoIs  in  Egypt»  Nnhia,  Syria»  and 
the  Holy  Land.    Poet  8vo.    2«. 

JAMESON  (Mrs.).  Lires  of  the  Early  Italian  Painters— 
and  the  Progreea  of  Painting  In  Italy— Cimahne  to  Baseaao.  With 
60  Portraits.    Post  8vo.    12t. 

JAPAN.    See  Bird,  Mobsman,  Moubsbt,  Bbed. 

JENNINGS  (Louis  J.).    Field  Paths  and  Green  Lanes  in  Surrey 

and  Soesez.    Ilinstrations.    Post  8to.    10«.  6d. 

Ramhles  amoDg  the  Hills  in  the  Peak  of  Derbyshire 

and  on  the  Soath  Downs.  With  sketches  of  people  by  the  way.  With 
23  lUnstrations.    Post  8vo.    lU. 

JERYIS  (Bbt.  W.  H.).  The  Gallican  Church,  from  the  Con- 
cordat of  Bologna,  1616,  to  the  Revolatlon.  With  an  Introdnctloa. 
Portraits.    3  Vols.    8to.    S8«. 

JESSE  (Edwabd).  Gleanings  in  Natural  History.  Fcp.8T0.  Zs.td. 
JEX-BLAKE  (Be7.  T.  W.).    life  in  Faith:   Sermons  Preached 

at  Cheltenham  and  Rugby.    Fcap.  8vo.    8«.  9d, 

JOHNSON'S  (Db.  Samitbl)  Life.  By  Jamee  Boswell.  Including 
the  Tonr  to  the  Hebrides.  Edited  by  Mb.  Cbobxb.  ItoI.  Boyai 
8T0.    129.    Kew  EdiiUm,    Portraits.    4  Yols.   6to.      [Tu  PreparaUci^ 

^JULIAN  (Bby.  Johh  J.).     A   Dictionary  of  Hymnology.     A 

Companion  to  Existing  Hyion  Books.  Setting  forth  the  Origin  and 
Btstory  of  the  Hymns  eoatained  in  the  Principal  Hymnals  nned  by  the 
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Andent  Lights;    a  Book  for  ArehitectB,  Sonrejoray 

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KINO  EDWARD  VIth'b  Latin  Grammar.    ISmo.    Ss.  6(f. 
Itat    Latin    Book.    12mo.    2#.  6rf . 

KING  (R.  J.).  ArchflBology, Travel  and  Art ;  being  Sketches  and 
Stndies,  Hletorieal  and  DeeeriptiTO.    8ro.    lU. 

KIRK  (J.  Foennt).  History  of  Charles  the  Bold,  Dnke  of  Bnr- 
gnndy.    Fortimlt.    8  Vole.   8to.    its, 

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BuMLA  Lion.   By  a  Ladt.    Post  8to.  Zs,  td. 

LEVI  (LaoKi).  HUtory  of  BritiBh  Commerce :  and  Economic 
Progrew  of  the  Nation,  from  1T63  to  1878.    8ro.    18f  . 

LEX  SA.LICA;  the  Ten  Texts  with  the  Oloflsee  and  the  Lex 
Emendata.  Svnoptieftlly  edited  by  J.  H.  Hsflsus.  With  Notes  on 
the  Frankleh  Words  in  the  Lex  Sslios  by  U.  Kbrx,  of  Leyden.Jlto.  42t. 

LIDDBLL  (Diah).  Student'e  Histoiy  of  Rome,  from  the  earlieet 
Times  to  the  eatshllihment  of  the  Empire.  Woodeats.  Post  8vo.  T«.  9i» 

LI3PIN0S  from  LOW  LATITUDES ;  or.  the  Journal  of  the  Hon. 
ImpalstsGushington.  Edited  by  Low>DuFrsBiir.  WlthS4Plates.4to.SU. 

LIYINGSTONB  (Da.).    Popular  Account  of  hie  First  Expedition 

to  AfHea,  1840^.    lUostrmtions.    PostSve.    7s.  6d. 

Second  Expedition  to  Africa^  1858-64.    Illnitra- 

tlons.    PostSvo.  7«.6ii. 

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his  Death.  Contlnaed  by  a  NarratlTe  of  his  last  moments  and  SBfforlngs. 
ByReT.UoRACsWAi.i.cB.  Maps  and  Illustrations.    SVols.  8to.  15«. 

Memoirs  of  his  Personal  Life.    From  his  un- 


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LIT019IAN  TALES.    By  the  Author  of  "Letters  frx>m   the 

Baltfe."    PostSro.    St. 

LOCKHART  (J.  O.).    Ancient  Spanish  Balhids.     Historical  and 

Eomantia.    Translated,  with  Notes.    lUnstratlons.    Crovn  8to.   6«. 

Life  of  Theodore  Hook.    Fcap.  8vo.    1$, 

LOUDOK  (Mrs.).  Gardening  for  Ladies.  With  Directions  and 
Calendar  of  Operations  for  Every  Month.  Woodeats.  Fcap.  6vo.  3t.  6d. 

LTELL  (Sib  Cha&lbs).  Principles  of  Geology;  or,  the  Modem 
Changes  of  the  Earth  and  its  Inhabitants  considered  as  lllastratiTe  of 
Geology.    With  Illustrations.    SVols.   8vo.    88«. 

Student's  Elements  of  Geology.    With  Table  of  British 

Fosells  and  600  Illastrations.    Third  EdkUon,  Rerised.    Post  Byo.    9t, 
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(K.M.).     Geographical  Handbook  of  Ferns.    With  Tables 

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LTTTON  (Lord).  A  Memoir  of  Julian  Pane.   With  Portrait.  Post 

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MeCLINTOCK   (  Sib  L.).    KarraUTo  of  the   Biseoyery  of  the 

Fate  of  Sir  John  Franklin  and  his  Companions  In  the  Arotio  Sees. 
With  Illastrations.    PostSvo.    7i,9eU 

MACDOUGALL  (Col.).  Modem  Waitoe  as  Inflneneed  by  Modem 

Artillery.    With  Plans.    PoatSro.    ISs. 

MACGBEGOR  (J.).  Rob  Roy  on  the  Jordan,  Kile,  Red  Sea,  Gen- 
nesareth,  Ae.  A  Canoe  Cmlse  in  Palestine  and  Egypt  and  the  Wateie 
of  Daroasoos.    With  If  an  and  70  Illastrations.    Crown  Sro.    7s.  6d. 

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PUBLISHED  BT  MR.  MURIU.T. 


21 


MAHON  (LoB3>),  Bee  Stanhopi. 

MAINE  (Snt  H.  SumriB).  Aneient  Law :  its  Connection  with  the 
Early  HIatory  of  Society,  and  its  ReUtlon  to  Modern  Ideaa.    8to.   ISa. 

YilUge  Commnnitiefl  in  the  East  and  Weat    8vo.    12«; 

Early  History  of  Institations.     8vo.  12«. 

MALCOLM  (Sn  Johv).    Sketches  of  Persia.    Post  8to.    S«.  6dL 

MANSEL    (DiAv).     Limits  of  Beligious   Thought  Examined* 

PoetSvo.    8t.ed. 
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MANUAL  OF  SCIENTIFIC  ENQUIRY.  For  the  Use  of 
TraTenera.  Edited  by  Rbv.  R.  Mazv.  Post  8to.  St.  ed,  {FlMisMllg 
order  ofthM  LordM  qf  tk»  AdvniraUy.) 

MARCO  POLO.  The  Book  of  Ser  Marco  Polo,  the  Venetian. 
Coneemlae  the  KiBgdome  aod  Hanrels  of  the  East  A  oew  English 
VeraloB.  lUostrated  by  the  light  of  Oriental  Writera  and  Modem 
TrevelB.  By  Col.  Hsubt  Tdlb.  Maps  and  lUiutimtionfl.  8  Tola. 
Medtam  Sro.    63«. 

MARKHAM  (Mbb.).  History  of  England.  From  the  Fint  InT»- 
■ion  by  the  Romans.  Woodeata.  ISmo.  8«.  8<f. 

History  of  France.      From  the  Conquest  by  the 

Qauls.    Woodents.    ISmo.    8<.8tf. 
History  of  Germany.    From  the  Invasion  by  Marina , 

Woodents.    ISmo.    8«.AJ. 
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8to.    Us. 

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Woodents.    8vo.   4S«. 

MARSH  (G.  P.).    Student's  Manual  of  the  English   Language. 

Edited  with  Additions.    By  Db.  Wm.  Bmitb.    Post  8to.    7«.  9d, 

MASTERS  in  English  Theology.  The  King's  College  Lecturee, 
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MEREDITH  (Mas.  Chabub).  Kotea  and  Sketches  of  New  Sontfa 

Wales.    Post  Sro.   St. 
MICHAEL  ANGELO,  Sculptor,  Painter,  and  Architect.    His  Life 
and  Works.    By  C.  Hbath  WzLSoar.   Illnstratlons.    IKoyal  8yo.    Mr. 

MIDDLETON  (Chas.  H.)  A  Descriptire  Catalogue  of  the 
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22 


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flonfl.    Woodeots.    PostSvo.    7«.  6cC 

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TImM.    8  Vols.    PottSro.    18«. 

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Slater.    Map.    8vo.    li». 

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Hind  and  Matter.    8ro.    16*. 
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▲nlmale,  etpeelallj  Mammale.    With  nmnevons  Illaetiations,   8to. 

MOORE  (Thomas).  Life  and  Letters  of  Lord  Byron.  Cabinet 
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MORESBY  (Capt.),  R.N.  Discoveries  in  New  Guinea,  Polynesia, 
Torres  Btralts,  Ac.,  daring  the  eniise  of  U.M.S.  Basilisk.  Map  and 
Ulostrations.    Sro.    16«. 

MOSSMAN  (Saicubl).  New  Japan ;  the  Land  of  the  lUaing  Sun ; 
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Progress  of  the  Japanese  in  Western  Civilisation.  With  Map.  8to.16«. 

MOTLET  (J.  L.).  History  of  the  United  Netherlands :  from  the 
Death  of  WUUam  the  Silent  to  the  T  valve  Years' Tmoe,  1808.  PertraiU. 
4  Vols.    PostSvo.    8«.eaoh. 

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Predestination.    Crown  8vo.  0«. 
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Advocate  of  Vire.    Translated  and  Edited.    With  Portrait  and  lUiu- 
trations.   8vo.    91«. 

MUNRO'S  (Obbbbal)  Life  and  Letters.    By  Est.  O.  R.  Olbio. 

PostSvo.    8«.8d. 

MURCHISON  (Sib  Rodbriok).     Silnria ;  or,  a  HUtoiy  of  the 

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— ^— -^—  Memoirs.    With  Notices  of  his  Contemporaries, 
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Portraits.   2  Vols.  Svo.    80t. 

MURRAY  (A.  S.).  A  History  of  Greek  Sculpture, from  the  Earliest 

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War.    Portrait.    PostSvo.   9«. 
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Portrait.    Svo.   16<. 

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OWEN  (LiEUT.-CoL.).   Principles  and  Practice  of  Modem  Artillery, 

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Artillery  in  Warfare.    With  IllustraUons.    Svo.    Uc 
OXENHAM(Riiy.W.).  English  Notes  for  Latin  Elegiacs;  designed 

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Bnles  of  Composition  in  Elegiac  Metre.    ISmo.   8«.  6d. 
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Ireland.   Svo.    6f. 

PALLISER  (Mrs.).    Mottoes  for  Monuments,  or  Epitaphs  seleeted 

Qenena  Use  and  Study.    With  Illustntions.    Crown  Svo.   7«.  6d. 

PARIS  (Dr.)  Philosophy  in  Sport  made  Science  in  Earnest ; 
or,  the  First  Principles  of  Natural  Philosophy  inculcated  by  aid  of  the 
Toys  and  Sports  of  Yoath.    Woodcuts.  Post  Svo.  7$.9d. 

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PEEL*S  (Sir  Robbrt)  Memoirs.    2  Vols.    Post  Sro.    15s. 

PSNN  (Richard).  Maxims  and  Hints  for  an  Angler  and  Chest- 
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24  LIST  OP  WORKS 


PSBCT  (Jonr,  M.D.).  Hbtallurqt.  Fuel,  Wood,  Peat,  Coa!, 
Cbarooal,  Cok«.    Fin-CUys.     Illinttrations.    6to.    SOt, 

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PfiBBY  (Set.  Gabon).  Life  of  St.  Hngh  of  Aralon,  Bishop  of 
LiaoolD.    Post  8vo.     10«.  64. 

HUtory  of  the  English  Church.    See  Studkhts*  Manuals. 

PHILLIPS  (Jobk).  Geology  of  Yorkshire,  The  Coast,  and 
LimMtone  Dlatriet.  Platei.    S  Vols.    4to.    SU.  fid.  each. 

(Samuil).  Literary  Essays  from  **  The  Times."    With 

Portrait.    8  Vols.    Fcap.STO.    7$. 
POPE'S   (Auzassxb)  Works.     With  Introductions   and  Notes, 
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mata.    6vo.    10a.  6d.  each. 

PORTER  (Rbt.  J.  L.).  Damascus,  Palmyra,  and  Lebanon.  With 
TnTala  among  the  Giant  Cltiea  of  Baahaa  and  tbe  Uanran.  Map  and 
Woodanta.    PostSro.   7tf.M. 

PRITERpBOOK  (Illustratib),  with  Borders,  Initials,  Tig- 
nettaa,  &e.  Edited,  with  Noiaa,  by  Har.  Thos.  Jambs.  Mediam 
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PRINCESS    CHARLOTTE     OF    WALES.     A    Brief  Memoir. 

With  Selectiona  from  her  Correapondenee   and    other   anpubliahed 
Papers.    By  Ljldt  Rosa  Wxioall.  With  Portrait.   8vo.  8f.  6d, 

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by  O.  C.  Brodbigk  and  W.  H.  FsaMAHTLX.    8vo.    lOt.  6d. 

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the  Dean  of  Wells,  Canon  Elliott,  and  Canon  Cook.  Medium  8vo.  IQs.  Hd, 

PUSS  IN  BOOTS.  With  12  Illustrations.  By  Otto  {Sfxoktsb. 
10mo.     la.  fid.    Or  coloured.  2*.  fid. 

QUARTERLY  REVIEW  (Tna).    8to.    6s. 

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sion. Edited  with  Notaa  and  Eaaaya.  Maps  and  Woodont  4  Tola.  8to.  48*. 

Piye  Great  Monarchies  of  Chaldsea,  Assyria,  Media, 

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Seriea  of  Papers  on  the  Political  and  Geographical  Condition  of  Gtntral 
Asia.    Map.    8vo.    12a. 

REED  (Sir  E.  J.)  IronClad  Ships ;  their  Qualities,  Performances, 
and  Coat.  With  Chaptera  on  Turret  Ships,  Iron-Cled  IUm8,Ac.  With 
Illuatratlona.    8to.    18a. 

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REYNOLDS'  (Sxe  Joshua)  Life  and  Times.    Bj  C.  R.  LnLn. 

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Llfeaod 'Wtittnga.  By  J.  R.  IfCuLLOOH.   6vo.    10«. 
RIPA  (Fathbb).  Thirteen  Years  at  the  Court  of  Peking.    Post 

8vo.    S«. 

ROBERTSON  (Cavov).    History  of  the  Christian  Church,  from  the 

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ROBINSON  {BMW.  Dr.).    BibUcal  Researches  in  Palestine  and  the 

A (Uaosnt  RegloiM,  1888-^2.    Maps.  8  Vols.  8vo.  48#. 
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"CauMd  now  in  Action."    By  VBainBB.  Woodcots.   Crown  8vo.  6s. 

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into  EoRlisb  blanlc  verse,  Books  I— XII.    8vo.    12s. 
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their  migrations.    With  Map  and  IllustratioDB.    Crown  8vo.    14s. 

SELBORNE  (Lord).  Notes  on  some  Passages  in  the  Liturgical 
History  of  the  Refonned  English  Church.    8vo.    6s.    , 


26  LIST  OP  WORKS 


SHADOWS   OP  A  SICK  ROOM.       FrefiMe  bj  Canon  Lidmh. 

SHAH  OF  PKBSIA*S  Diarj  dnring  his  Tour  through  Rarope  in 
1878.  TraniUtad  from  the  Original.  By  J.  W.  Kbubodbb.  With 
Portrait  and  Coloared  Title.    Crown  8ro.    12f. 

SHAW  (T.  B.).  MAnma  of  Rnglish  LitefftUire.  Post  Sto.    7«.  6<2. 
■  Speeimeni  of  EngliBh  Literatore.     Selected  flrom  the 

Cbtef  Writers.    PortSvo.    T#.6i. 
(Robist).  YlAit  to  High  Tartarj,  Tarhand,  and  Eashgar 


(fonnarlT  ChtnMMTartacr).  and  Return  Journey  orer  the  Karakorom 
PaM.    With  Map  and  UluatraUona.    8vo.    16«. 

SIBRRA  LEONR ;  Described  in  Letters  to  Friends  at  Home.    Bj 
A  Laot.    Post  8^0.    St.  9d, 

SIMMONS  (Cm.).    Constitntion  and  PracUee    of  CoorU-Mar- 

tial.   870.   lit. 
SMILES'  (Saxubl,  LL.D.)  WORKS  :— 

British  Ehoikxbbs  ;  from  the  Earliest  Period  to  the  death  of 

ctM  Siepheniion*.    With  Illustrations.  6  Vols.  Crovn  8vo.   7s.  6d  each. 

Lifh  of  a  Bootch  NATuaALisr  (Thos.  Kdwakd).   Illabtrations. 

Crown  8to.    10^'.  &£. 
LiFS    OF  A  SOOTOH  GEOLOGIST    AlTD    BoTAHIST     (RoBBET  DiCe). 

Illustrations.    Crown  Bvo.    12«. 
Huguenots  in  England  and  Ireland.    Crown  8vo.   78. 6d. 

Self-Help.     With  Illustrations  of  Conduct  and  Persever- 
ance.   Post  8to.  6»,    Or  in  French,  6ji. 
Character.    A  Sequel  to  "  Sblf-Hblp."    Post  870.    6s. 
Thrift.    A  Book  of  Domestic  CounseL    Post  8vo.    6s. 
DuTT.  With  Illustrations  of  Oonrage,  Patience,  and  Endurance. 

Post  6vo.    6«. 

Industrial  Biography  ;  or,  Iron  Workers  and  Tool  Makers. 

Post  8vo.    6s. 
BoT*s  y  OTA  OB  Round  the  World.    Illustrations.    Post  870.  6s. 
SMITH  (Dr.  Gboroe)  Student's  Manual  of  the  Geography  of  India. 

Post  870. 

SMITHES  (Dr.  Wk.)  DICTIONARIES:— 

DioriONART  OF  THE  BiBLE ;  its  Antiqnlties,  Biography, 
Geography,  and  Natural  History.    lUustratloua.    8  Vols.  870. 106«. 

Concise  Biblb  Dictionart.  With  800  Illustrations.  Medium 
870.  sis. 

Smaller  Bible  Diotionart.  With  Illustrations.  Post 
870.    7«.  6(t 

Christian  Antiquities.  Comprisiog  the  History,  Insti- 
tutions, and  Antiquities  of  the  Christian  Church.  With  lUnstratlons. 
a  Vols.    Medium  870.    8A  I8s.  Qd. 

Christian  Biographt,  Litesaturb,    Sects,  and  Doctrines  ; 

from  the  Times  of  the  Apostles  to  the  Age  of  Charlemagne.  Medium  870. 
Vols.  I.  A  II.    Sit.  6<2.  each.     (To  be  oompleted  In  i  Vols.) 

Grbbk  and  Roman  Antiquities.     With  500  Illustrations. 

Medium  870.    S81; 
Greek  and  Roman  Bioorapht  ahd  Mxtholoot.     With  600 

Illttstratleus.    8  Vols.    Medium  87o.    41.  4t. 

Grbbk  and  Roman  Gbographt.    2  Vols.    With  500  Illastra- 

tlons.    Medium  870.   66«. 
Atlas  of  Ancient    Gbographt — Biblical   and   Classioal. 

Folio.   6<.6«. 


PUBLISHED  BY  MR.  MURRAY. 


27 


Smith's  (Dsl  Wm.)  DioTioirARiBS — continued, 

GlASSIOAL      DiCTIONA&T      of      MtTHOLOOT,      BiOORAPHT,      AMD 

Qboorapht.    1  Vol.    With  760  Woodcuts.  8yo.    18». 
Smallxb  Classioal  Diotiovart.    With  200  Woodcato.  Crown 

8to.    7«.  M. 

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eats.   CrowB  8to.   7«.6d. 
CoMPLSTB  Latin-English  Dictionart.     With  Tables  of  the 

Boman  Caleadsr,  Measares,  Wei^htii,  and  Money.    8to.    S1«. 
Smaller  Latin-Snolish  Dictionart.    12mo.    7«.  6d,   • 
Copious  and  Critical  Snolish-Latin  Dictionary.    8yo.    2U. 
Smaller  Enqlish-Latin  Dictionary.    12mo.  7«.  6^2. 
SMITH'S  (Dr.  Wm.)  ENGLISH  COURSE  :— 

School  Manual  of  English  Grammar,  with  Copious  Exercises. 

PostSro.    Sf.fkf. 
Primary  English  Grammar.    lOmo.     l5. 

Manual  of  English  Composition.     With  Copioas   Illustra- 

tioDS  and  Practical  Exercises.    12ino.  d«.  M. 
Primary  History  of  Britain.    12mo.    2«.  6(2. 
School  Manual    of    Modern    Geography,    Physical   and 

Folltieal.    PostSvo.    6«. 
A  Smaller  Manual  of  Modern  Geoorapby.    16mo.    2^.  Qd. 
SMITH'S  (Dr.  Wm.)  FRENCH  COURSE  :— 

Prench  Princtpia.      Part  I.  A   First  Course,  coutaimxig  a 

Qrammar,  Delectus,  ExerHses,  and  YocabuIariMi.    12mo.    8t.  6(1. 
,    Appendix  to  French  Principia.    Part  I.    Containing  ad- 
ditional Exercises,  with  Examination  Papers.    J2mo.  2«.  6(^ 
French  Principia.    Part  11.    A  Reading  Book,  coDtaining 

Fables,  Btorles,  and  Anecdotes,  Natural  History,  and  Scenes  from  the 
History  of  France.  With  Grammatical  Questions,  Notes  and  copious 
Etymological  Dietionary.    ISmo.    4«.  Sd. 

French  Principia.  Part  HL  Prose  Composition,  containing 
a  Systematic  Course  of  Exercises  on  the  Syntax,  with  the  Principal 
Rules  of  Syntax.   12mo.  [/«  the  Prtu, 

Student's  French  Grammar.     By  C.  Heron- Wall.    With 

Introduction  by  M.  Llttr^.    Post  8vo.    7«.  M. 

Smaller  Grammar  of  the  French  Language.     Abridged 
from  the  above.    ISmo.    8«.  6d. 
SMITH'S  (Dr.  Wm.)  GERMAN  COURSE  :— 

German  Principia.  Part  I.  A  First  German  Course,  contain- 
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German  Principia.  Part  II.  A  Reading  Book  ;  eontaining 
Fables,  Stories,  sod  Anecdotes,  Natural  Hlntory,  and  Soenss  from  the 
History  of  Oermany.  With  Grammatical  Questions,  Notes,  and  Dic- 
tionary,   limo.  St.  M, 

Practical  German  Grammar.    Post  8yo.    8s.  Qd* 

SMITH'S  (Dr.  Wm.)  ITALIAN  COURSE  :— 

Italian  Principia.  An  Italian  Course,  contalniDg  a  Grammar, 

Delectus,  ExexciBe  Book,  with  Vocabularies,  and  Materials  for  Italian 
Conversation.  By  Signer  Ricci,  Professor  of  Italian  at  the  City  of 
London  College.    12mo.    8s.  M, 

Italian  Principle.    Part  II.    A  First  Italian  Reading  Book, 

containing  Fables,  Anecdotes,  HistorT,  snd  Passages  from  the  best 
Italian  Authorp,  with  Grammatical  Qnestions,  Notes,  and  a  Copious 
Etymological  Dictionary.     By  Siomok  Ricci.    12mo.    8«.  6dL 

[Nearljf  rwiy. 


28  LIST  OF  WORKS 


SMITH'S  (Dr.  Wm.)  LATIN  C0TJR8B:-- 

Thb  You5G  BzaiHNSB's  FiBST  Latin  Book  :  Containing  the 

AndimenU  of  QrAmnoart  Euy  Grammatical  Quentions  and  Exercises, 
with  Vocabularies.  Being  a  Stepping  stone  to  ifrindpia  Latina,  Part  I., 
for  Young  Children.    ISmo.    8s. 

Thx  Young  Beoinnkb's  Sxoomd  Latin  Book  :  Containing  an 
easy  Latin  Retding  Book,  with  an  Analyitis  of  the  Sentences,  Notes, 
and  a  L  ictior arr.  Being  a  Stepping- stone  to  Principia  Latinap  Part  II., 
for  Young  Children.    Itmo.    Ss. 

Pbinoipia  Latina.    Part  I.  First  liatin  ConrBe,  eontaining  a 

Grammar,  Delec'us.and  Exercise  Book,  with  Vocabularies.  12mo.  Sg.Sd, 

*«*  In  tills  Edition  the  Cases  of  the  NounSi  A^JectiyeB,  and  Pronouns 

are  arranged  both  as  in  the  obdinaet  GBAmiAas  and  as  in  the  PtTBUO 

School  PamiB,  together  with  the  corresponding  Exercises. 

Appendix  to  Pbincipia  Latina.  Part  I.;  *^ing  Additional 
Exercises,  with  Examination  Papers.    12mo.    8i.  6dL 

P&iNCiPiA  Latina.  Part  II.  A  Reading-book  of  Mythology, 
Geography,  Bomau  Antiquities,  and  History.  With  Notes  and  Dio- 
tlonary.    ISmo.    St.  fUL 

Principia  Latina.    Part  III.    A  Poetiy  Book.    Hezametem 

and  Pentameters ;  Eclog.  Ovldlann ;  Latin  Prosody.  ISmo.    9».  6d. 

Principia  Latina.  Part  IT.  Prose  Composition.  Kulesof 
Syntax  with  Examples,  Explanations  of  Synonyms,  and  Exercises 
on  the  Syntax.     12mo.    8s.  Sd. 

Principia  Latina.    Part  T.  Short  Tales  and  Anecdotes  for 

Translation  into  Latin.    12mo.    8«. 

Latin-Enolish  Vocabulary  and  First  Latin-Ehglisb 
Dictiohabt  roR Phadbus,  Cobkeltus Nspob,  akdC^sae.  12mo.  S$.8d, 

Student's  Latin  Gravkar.  For  the  Higher  Forms.  Post 
Sto.   a*. 

Smaller  Latin  Grahiiar.    For  the  Middle  and  Lower  Forms. 

ISfflo.    Si.6d. 

Taoitvs,   Germanis,  Agricola,   &c.     With    English  Notes. 

12mo.    8s.  6<f. 

SMITH'S  (Dr.  Wm.)  GREEK  COURSE  ;— 

InitiaGrjbca.  Parti.  A  First  Greek  Course,  containing  a  Gram- 
mar, Delectus,  and  Exercise-book.    With  Vocabularies.    ISmo.  8*.  6tf. 

Appendix  to  Initia  Graoa.  Part  I.  Containing  additional 
Exereiiies.    With  ExaminMion  Papers.    PostSro.    is.9J. 

Tnitia  Orjkca.  Part  II.  A  Reading  Book.  Containing 
Short  Tales,  Anecdotes,  Fables,  Mythology,  and  Grecian  History. 
ISmo.    8«.  6<i. 

Initia  Graca.  Part  IIL  Prose  Composition.    Containing  the 

Rules  of  Syntax,  with  copious  Examples  and  Exercises.    tSmo.    St.  M, 
Student's  Greek  Grammar.    For  the  Higher  Forms.    By 

CuBTius.    Post  8to.    6t. 

Smaller  Greek  Grammar.  For  the  Middle  and  Lower  Forms. 

ISmo.    8s.  9d. 

Greek  Aocidence.    12mo.    2$.  6d. 

Plato,  Apology  of  Socrates,  &c.    With  Notes.    12mo.  3#.  6<f. 

SMITH'S  (Dr.  Wm.)  SMALLER  HISTORIES  :— 
Scripture  History.    Woodcnts.    16mo.     8«.  6d. 
Ancient  History.     Woodcnts.  16mo.   Zs,  td. 
Ancient  Gboqraphy.    Woodcuts.    16mo.    ds.  6d, 
Rome.    Modern  Geography.    Woodcnts.    16 mo.     8s.  6<2. 


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29 


SMITH'S  (Dr.  Wk.)  Sxallbb  UiffroRim^cofUinued,   \ 
G&BECB.    Woodcats.    16mo.    8^  9<L 
CL188I0AL  Mtthologt.  Woodcuts.    16mo.    8«.  6(2. 
Eholahp.  Woodcuts.    16mo.    3«.  6d. 
English  Literaturb.      16mo.     S«.  6d, 
Speoivkhs  of  Eholish  Litbraturs.  '  16mo.    2s,  6d. 

SMITH  (Gbo.).     Life  of  John    Wilion,    D.D.    (of  Bombay), 

Fifry  Ye«ra  MlMionary  «.nd  PbiUuthroplst.    Portrait.    Post  8vo.    9«. 
'  (Philip).  History  of  the  Ancient  World,  from  the  Creation 

to  the  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire,  a.d.  476.    8  Vols.    8vo.    8U.  6d. 

SOMERYILLE  (Mart).   Personal  Recollections  from  Early  Life 

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Phyucal  Geography.    Portrait.    Post  8vo.  9s. 

Connexion  of  the  Physical  Sciences.    Portrait 

PoatSro.    9f. 

Molecular  &  Microscopic  Science.     IllostrationF. 

pAtt  8vo.    21«. 


2  Vols. 

SOUTH  (JoBW  F.).  HoQsehold  Surirery  ;  or,  Hints  for  Emergen- 
cies. Wirh  ueir  Preface  and  Additions.  Witti  Woodcutc.  Fcap. 
8ro.    8s.  M. 

80UTHEY  (Kobt).  Lives  of  Banyan  and  CromwelL  Poet  Svo.   2s, 
STAEL  (Madamb  ds).     See  Steybsis. 
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WaodoatR.  Fcap.  8vo.    St.  6i. 

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Christian  Institutiobs.  Essays  on  EcclesiasUcal  Subjects.  8yo. 

ISf. 


80  U8T  OF  WORKS 


STEPHENS  (Rby.  W.  B.  W.).  Life  and  Times  of  St  John 
Chrjsofltom.  A  Sketch  of  the  Choreh  and  the  Empire  in  the  Fourth 
Century.    Portrait.    Bro.  1S« 

STSYENS  (Dr.  A.).  Madame  de  SU&el ;  a  Study  of  ber  Life 
and  Times.  The  Fint  BeTolutloB  end  the  FlntEmpin.  Portraita.  2 
YoU.    Crown  Rto.    94a. 

STRATFORD  db  REDCLIFFE  (Lord).    The  Eastern  Qnestion. 

Being  a  Selection  from  his  Writings  dnring  the  Isst  Fire  Tears  of  his 
Life.    With  a  PreAiee  hj  Dean  Stanley.     With  Map,    6to. 

STREET  <G.  E.).  Gothic  Architeetnre  in    Spain.     Illnstrations. 

Royal  8to.    80i. 
Italy,  chiefly  in  Brick  and 

Marble.  With  Notes  on  North  of  Italy.  Illnstrations.  Boyal  Svo.  Mt. 
STUART  (ViLLiBBs).  Kile  Gleanings:  The  Ethnology,  History, 
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69  Coloored  Illnstrations  Ac    Medium  8to.   8U.  M. 

STUDENTS'  MANUALS:— 

Old  TxsTiHERT  History  ;  from  the  Creation  to  the  Retnm  of 

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Nkw  Tbstamevt  History.  With  an  Introduction  connecting 
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EocLEsiiBTiCAL  HiSTORT.  The  Christian  Church  daring  the 
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of  the  Holy  Roman  Empire  and  the  Papal  Power.    Post  8to.    7s.  6d. 

HisTORT  OF  THE  Earlt  Erolish  Chttroh,  ffom  the  planting 
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Prbet.    Post  8vo. 

English  Church  Histort,  from  the  accesrion  of  Henry  yill. 
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PiBBY.    Post  8vo.    7«.  dd. 

Ahcieht  History  of  the  East;  Egypt,  Assyria,  Babylonia, 
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Ahciemt  Geoqraphy.     By  Canon  Beyav.    Woodcuts.    Post 

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History  of  Grseob  ;  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Roman 

Conquest    By  Wm.  Skitb,  P.C.L.     Woodcuts.    Crown  8vo.    7s.  Sd, 
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History  of  Rome  ;  from  the  Earliest  Times  to  the  Establish- 
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Gibbon's  Dbclihe  and  Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.  Woodcuts. 

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H Allah's    History    of    Europe   during  the  Middle  Ages. 

PostSve.    7s.  Bd. 

History  of  Modebn  Europe,  from  the  end  of  the  Middle 

Ages  to  the  Treaty  of  Berlin,  187&    Post  8vo.  [In  the  Press. 

Hallam's  History  of  England;  from  the  Accession  of 
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HuME*s  History  of  England  from    the  InTsaion  of  Julius 
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Enoush  Language.     By  Geo.  P.  Marsh.    Post  8yo.    7s,  6(f. 


PUBLISHED  BY  MR.  MURRAY. 


81 


STUDENTS'  KAHVAUB—continued. 

ExoLiaH  Ljtbilaturb.     Bj  T.  B.  Shaw,  M. A.  Post  8ro.  7s.  Qd, 
Spiciubitb  of  Ekolish  Litsraturb  from  the  Chief  Writers. 

By  T.  B.  Shaw,    fost  8ro.   7«.  Ad. 

MoDBKN  Okoorapht  ;  Mathematical,  Ph jBical  and  Deacriptiye. 

By CAVo:r Bbvav.  Woodeata.  PostSro.  7$.9tL 

Qbooraphy  of  IiiDiA.    By  Dr.  George  Skith,  LL.D. 
Moral  Philosopht.  By  Wm.  FLEMiira.     Post  8to.  7«.  6d. 
Blackstone  s  Cohxevtabiss  on  ihe  Laws  of  J£holahd.    By 

Malcolm  Kker.    PostSvo.    7«.  Sd. 

SUMNER'S  (Bishop)  Life  and  Episcopate  during  40  Tears.    By 

K6T.  O.  H.  SUMMBB.    Portrait.    8vo.    14^. 

SWAINSON  (Canoh).  Nicene  and  Apostles'  Creeds;  Their 
Literary  Uintory  ;  together  with  some  Aoeouat  of  "The  Creed  of  St. 
Athanasioa.'*    8vo.    Ids. 

SYBEL  (VoB)  History  of  Europe  daring  the  French  Beyolution, 

1789-1795.    4Vol8.    8to.    48«. 

8VM0NDS'  (RsY.  W.)  Records  of  the  Rocks;  or  Notes  on  the 

Oeolofty,  Natural  Hiatnry,  and  Antiquities  of  North  and  South  Wales, 
Siluria,  Devon,  and  ComwalL    With  lUnstrationi.  Crown  8vo.  12«. 

TALMUD.     See  Babclat  ;  Divtsch. 

TEMPLE  (Sir  Riohabd).   India  in  1880.   With  2  Maps.  8yo.  16s, 

THIBAUT'S  (Amtoikb)  Purity  in  Musical  Art.  Translated  from 
the  German.  With  a  prefatory  Memoir  by  W.  H.  Gladstone,  M.P. 
Post  8vo.    7s.  6d. 

THIELMANN    (Barob).     Jonmey    through   the    Caucasns   to 

Tabreez,  Kurdistan,  down  the  Tigris  and  Euphrates  to  Nineveh  and 
habylon,  and  across  the  Desert  to  Palmyra.  Translated  by  Cbaa. 
Ubxsaos.    Illustrations.    S  Vols.    Post  8vo.    18a. 

THOMSON  (Arobbi8H6p).    Lincoln's  Inn  Sermons.  8vo.  10s,  6d. 

Life  in  the  Light  of  God's  Word.    Post  8vo.    6s, 

Word,  Work,  &  Will :  Collected  Essays.  Crown  8to.  9s. 

TITIAN'S  LIFE  AND  TIMES.  With  some  account  of  his 
Family,  chiefly  from  new  an<?  unpublished  Records.  By  Gbowb  and 
Cavalcabbllb.    With  Poxtrait  and  Illustrations.    S  Vols.    8to.    42*. 

TOCQUEVILLE'S  SUte  of  Society  in  France  before  the  Rerolution, 
1789,  and  on  the  Gansea  which  led  to  that  Event.  Translated  by  Hbxbt 
Rbevb.    8vo.    14«. 

T0MLINS0N(Cha8.);  The  Sonnet;  Ito  Origin,  Structure,  and  Place 
in  Poetry.    With  translations  from  Dante,  PetmrRb,  &e.    PoetSvo.    |)«. 

TOZER  (Rbv.  H.  F.)  Highlands  of  Turkey,  with  Visits  to  Mounts 
Ida,  Athos,  Olympus,  and  Pelion.    S  Tola.    Crown  8vo.    S4«. 

Lectures  on  the  Geography  of  Greece.    Map.     Post 

Svo.    9«. 

TRISTRAM  (Cabon).  Great  Sahara.  Illustrations.  Crown  Svo.  Us. 

Land  of  Moab ;  TraTols  and  Discorerics  on  the  East 

Side  of  the  Dead  Sea  and  the  Jordan.  Illustrations.   Crown  8vo.  16«. 

TRURO  (Bishop  of).  The  Cathedral :  its  Necessary  Place  in 
the  Life  and  Work  of  the  Church.    Crown  8vn.    8«. 

TWENTY  YEARS'  RESIDENCE  among  the  Greeks,  Albanians, 
Turks,  Armenians,  and  Bulgarians.  By  an  Evqlish  Lady.  Edited 
by  Btablkt  Lams  Poolb.   2  Vols.    Crown  Svo.    8U. 


Sa      LIST  OF  WORKS  PUBLISHED  BY  MR.  MURRAY. 


TWI88'  (Horaob)  Life  of  Lord  Eldon.    2  Yolt.    Poet  8to.    21«. 

TYLOR  (B.  B.)  Reeeerches  into  the  Early  Hietory  of  Mankind, 
and  nerdopment  of  CI? Uimatioo.    8rd  Edition  Be? Ued.    Bro.    lU, 

Primitive  Caltnre ;  the  DeTelopnent  of  Mythology, 

PhiloMphj,  Eellgloii,  Art,  And  Coitom.   8  YoU.  8to.    S4«. 

VATICAN  COUNCIL.    See  Leto. 

YIECHOW    (PRorsssoB).     The    Freedom    of    Seionce   in   the 

Modem  state.    Feap.gTO.    St. 

WELLINGTON'S  Despatehee  dnring  hiB  Campalffne  la  India, 
Denmark,  Portogal,  Bpain,  the  Lov  Countries,  and  France.  8  Yola. 
8¥o.    SOf .  each.  • 

Supplementary  Deepatchea,  relating  to  India, 

Ireland,  Denmark,  Spanlah  Ameriea.  Spain,  Portagal,  France,  Gon- 
graea  of  Vienna,  Waterloo  and  Paria.  14  Tola.  8yo.  90«.  each. 
*«*  AniHdtx,    8vo.    90». 

CiYil  and  Political  Correepondenee.  Yols.  I.  to 

VIII.    8to.    so*,  each. 

Speeches  in  Parliament.    2  YoIb.    8vo.    42«. 


WHEELER  (G.).    Choice  of  a  Dwelling ;  a  Practical  Handbook  of 

Useftil  Information  on  Building  a  Houee.  Plans.    Post  Bvo.    T«.  6d. 

WHITE  (W.  H.).  Manual  of  Naval  Architecture,  for  the  use  of 
Naval  Ofllcem.  Shipowners,  Shipbuilders,  and  Yachtsmen.  Illustra- 
tions.  Sto.    Sif. 

WHYMPER  (Edwabd).   The  Ascent  of  the  Matterhom.    With  2 

Maps  and  100  Illiiittrations.     Medium  8vd.    lOi.  9i, 

WILBERFORCB'S  (Bishop)  Life  of  William  WUberforce.  Portrait. 
Croim  Bto.   Si. 

— — ^-^— (Samuel,  LIi.D.),  Lord  Bishop  of  Oxford  and 

Wluehester;  his  Life.  By  C^non  Asiiwell,  D.D.  With  Portrait 
and  Woodcuts.    Vols.  I.  and  II.    8to.    16«.  each. 

WILKINSON  (SiK  J.  G.).  Manners  and  Customs  of  the 
Ancient  EgyptlauR,  their  Private  Life,  T^wa.  Arto,  Religion,  Ac.  A 
new  edition.  Edited  by  Sajiuxl  Bibch,  LL.D.  Illustrations.  8  Vols. 
8vo.    84s. 

Popular  Account  of  the  Ancient  Egyptians.   With 

800  Woodcuts.     «Vols.     PostSro.    l«». 
WILSON  (JoHH,  D.D.),  of  Bombay,  Fifty  Years  a  Philanthropist 
and  Missionary  in  the  East;  his  Life.     By  Gsoaas  Skitb,  LL.D. 
Portrait    PostSvo.    9«. 

WOOD'S  (Captais)  Source  of  the  Oxus.    With  the  Geography 

ofthe  Valley  of  the  Ox  IIS.    By  Col.  Yulb.    Map.    8to.    ISs. 

WORDS  OF  HUMAN  WISDOM.    Collected  and  Arranged  by 

E.  8.    With  a  Preface  by  Gavoh  Liddon.    Fcap.  8vo.    8«.  9d. 

YORK  (Arohbishop  of).    Collected  Essays.    Contents.— Synoptic 

Gospels.  Dfath  of  Christ.  Oed  Exists.  Worth  of  Life.  Design  In 
Nature.  Sports  and  PasUmes.  Emotions  In  Preaching.  Defects  in 
Missionary  Work.    Limits  of  Philosophical  Enquiry.    Crown  8to.  9s. 

YULE  (Colohbl).  Book  of  Marco  Polo.  Illustrated  by  the  Light 
of  Oriental  Writers  and  Modem  Ttarels.  With  Maps  and  80  PUtes. 
8  Yols.    Medium  8vo.    63s. 

■  A.  F.     A  Little  Light  on  Cretan  Insurrection.    Post 

8vo.    2t.  Sd. 


BRADBUBT,  AOVEW,  ft  00.,  PRIKTKB8,  WHITBRIAB8. 


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