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ANIMISM

OR,

THOUGHT CURRENTS OF PRIMITIVE PEOPLES,

BY

GEORGE WILLIAM GILMORE

BOSTON MARSHALL JONES COMPANY
MDCCCCXIX (1919)
Scanned at www.sacred-texts.com, September, 2000

PREFACE

THE result of recent historical studies, whether on anthropological,=20 sociological, archeological, or religious lines, has brought into ever = clearer=20 vision as the substratum of all civilizations that stage of culture from = which=20 this book takes its title. One consequence is: general recognition of = animism as=20 a life factor, the power of which is not yet exhausted, the study of = which=20 fascinates because of its almost infinite variety and its persistent = force. The=20 words "animism," "animistic," have come to fall ever so lightly from = tongue and=20 pen and meet us at every turn. Yet what animism is few who use the term=20 adequately realize. Though Sir E. B. Tylor in his imperishable monograph = on=20 Primitive Culture exhibited many of its phenomena and blocked out = the=20 main lines of investigation over forty years ago, comparatively few = understand=20 its significance or are acquainted with its manifestations even yet. = Fewer still=20 comprehend the doings and beliefs as actual or realize the state of=20 mind--operations of perception and reason--of those whose acts and = beliefs we=20 call animistic.

There seemed to be room, then, for a small volume which should = exhibit the=20 phenomena and the related and inferred beliefs of this complex stage in = a simple=20 manner, with sufficiently numerous citations to illustrate clearly, yet = without=20 the overlay of too abundant references. The references here given have = been=20 drawn almost entirely from very recent and authoritative sources = gathered in the=20 writer's own reading, easily accessible in the current of books on = travel now=20 pouring from the press. Most of the volumes to which reference has been = made in=20 this discussion belong to the twentieth century. Moreover these sources = are=20 primary. Recourse has seldom been had even to so valuable a collection = of facts=20 as Fraser's quite exhaustive Golden Bough in its third edition. The = facts there=20 adduced were employed by the talented author for quite another end than = the=20 present writer's, and this might easily have led to confusion.

What value a knowledge of the features of this agglomerate of facts = and=20 beliefs has becomes evident when it is remembered that over half the = population=20 of the globe is animistic in its main features of faith and action, that = a large=20 part of humanity entertains beliefs only one remove away from this and = regards=20 as fundamental a philosophy of life grounded in animistic thought, and = that at=20 least three basal tenets of Christianity itself are common to Christians = and=20 animists. Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, the larger part of the population = of=20 India, the North Asiatic tribes, Oceanicans, Africans, and American = Indians are,=20 or were recently, animists. No stage of culture, no great religion, has = ever=20 been able to disown some of the commonest heirlooms left by primitive = modes of=20 thinking. From the standpoints both of culture and of religion animism = may be=20 described (not defined) as the taproot which sinks deepest in racial = human=20 experience and continues its cellular and fibrous structure in the tree = trunk of=20 modern conviction. It is not less important than the surface roots of = accrued=20 beliefs that branch out on all sides, drawing a wide-sourced sustenance, = while=20 the taproot penetrates the subsoil of man's most intimate = soul-substance.

Hardly less interesting is the fact that in some = fundamentals--religious and=20 social--the advanced thought of the day is returning to some convictions = essential to animistic culture. One would not be drawing the long bow = were he to=20 affirm that in that stage every act in life had a religious aspect. = Nothing a=20 man could do but might be regarded as either pleasing to spirits or the = reverse.=20 One might say that animists went far beyond Matthew Arnold's dictum that = conduct=20 is three-fourths of life--for them it embraced the whole of life. That = is=20 precisely what advanced thinkers are maintaining today, and in that = tenet is the=20 best promise for improvement in modern conditions among all classes.

In another aspect, too, the social, we are returning to early = conceptions.=20 Under totemism, the foundation of which is an animistic view of things=20 non-human, the individualism that became so marked a feature in some=20 philosophies of the last centuries and gave impetus even to revolutions = was=20 unknown. The characteristic of totemic and derived society was much = nearer that=20 slogan which has now advanced beyond the circle of purely socialistic=20 propaganda: "Each for all and all for each."

Theologically also we find ourselves returning to old, old views of = man's=20 relation to the supernatural. The comparatively recent doctrine of sin = is being=20 discarded. The implacability of Deity, the notion of that Deity's = infinity as=20 the measure of offence, making of sin an enormity that clouds eternally = the face=20 of God and requires an infinite and exactly equivalent penalty, no = longer holds=20 the entire field. On the other hand, the act itself, its effect on the = doer and=20 his kind, its indelibility of effect on the one side, and the = propitiability of=20 the offended Spirit, his desire to have man reinstate himself in divine=20 favor--the willingness to come more than half way (to state the matter = in the=20 language of every-day life)--are now standing out in relief.

It seems hardly necessary to remark that, of course, in all these = cases the=20 effect is not that of the return of a circle's circumference into = itself. There=20 has been marked, if spiral, progress, progress comparable to that of the = earth=20 in the solar system toward its distant goal in the constellation of = Hercules.=20 The one encouraging result of this study is that from the beginning the = heart of=20 man was essentially sound, though his vagaries were many during the = centuries in=20 which he was feeling his way. To use a significant term, man has ever = been=20 essentially theotropic, though he was not always conscious of the = direction of=20 his tropism.

In studying this subject, then, we are engaged in discovering the = paths our=20 own ancestors have trodden, and our gratitude is due them for leading us = with=20 increasing certitude to a nobler way of thought, so that we see in the = heavens=20 not deities, but the work of One; and in the earth the effects of that = same=20 One's immanence, his gift to his sons and daughters.

The author takes this opportunity to acknowledge with gratitude the = kindness=20 of Mr. Francis Medhurst who has read all the proofs and offered many = valuable=20 suggestions.

CONTENTS

I. THE ANIMISTIC STAGE OF CULTURE--THE CASE STATED

II. THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOUL

III. THE SOUL'S NATURE

IV. THE EXTERNAL OR SEPARABLE SOUL

V. PARITY OF BEING

VI. BELIEF IN "FREE SPIRITS"

VII. "FREE SPIRITS"-THEIR CONSTRUCTION AND ACTIVITIES

VIII. LOGICAL CONSEQUENCES OF PARITY OF BEING

IX. DEATH NOT ALWAYS REGARDED AS INEVITABLE

X. THE CONTINUED EXISTENCE OF THE SOUL

XI. MODIFICATIONS OF THE IDEA OF CONTINUANCE

XII. CONDITION OF THE DISCARNATE SOUL

XIII. THE HOME OF THE SOUL

XIV. DESCENSUS AVERNI

XV. WORSHIP

XVI. RESIDUA OF ANIMISM

XVII. LITERATURE TO WHICH REFERENCE IS MADE IN THIS VOLUME

ANIMISM

I

THE ANIMISTIC STAGE OF CULTURE--THE CASE STATED

THE following narrative, taken from The Japan Weekly for March = 16,=20 1916, recounts the story of an event occurring in that land of "advanced = civilization" in the winter Of 1915-16, and some of the sequels.

DEATH OF THE SUMA SNAKE

"The huge snake that had been leading a precarious existence at the = Suma=20 Garden during the last three years--a captive in a different clime from = that in=20 which it was born--recently died, unable to bear the rigours of the = winter.=20 Although the reptile was a magnificent specimen of its species, as it = measured=20 25 feet in length and 28 inches round the thickest part, it never made = itself=20 unpleasantly obtrusive and most of its time at Suma was spent in = lethargic=20 retirement. When the demise of the snake was made known in the = neighbourhood=20 much sympathy was manifested among its many acquaintances, who asked the = management of the Garden to bury the snake in the vicinity with due = ceremony. It=20 was accordingly interred in the pine groves at the rear of the Kagetsu=20 restaurant.

"Someone made the discovery on looking at an almanac that the day on = which=20 the reptile died was a Day of the Snake, and remembered an old = superstition that=20 toothache may be cured by worshipping a snake. The grave of the Suma = snake=20 consequently began to be visited by the superstitious, who proclaimed to = the=20 world the supernatural means of healing toothache by worshipping there. = The=20 report has since travelled far and wide, and scores of people are = visiting the=20 grave every day, bringing much gain to the Hyogo tramway, who need no = faith to=20 be assured of the benefits accruing from the virtues of the departed = snake. Some=20 of the people whose toothache has been cured by the spirit of the snake = have=20 decided to build a shrine on the ground where the reptile was buried. = The place=20 has already been fenced in and a sign erected preparatory to the = commencement of=20 work."

The exhibit is therefore that of belief in the continued existence = and=20 exercise of benevolent activity on behalf of man of a snake which had = according=20 to our notions passed completely out of life and beyond any possible = potency to=20 affect human existence. It shows one of the characteristic phenomena of = the=20 stage of culture we are to examine, a stage which, as we shall discover, = is a=20 present fact over a large part of the globe.

In Gen. 28:10-22 occurs the interesting account of a night in Jacob's = life,=20 his interpretation of it, and the ensuing course of action. The two = noteworthy=20 events, from the present point of view, are (1) the dream, with Jacob's=20 conclusion that it revealed to him the fact that the place where he lay = was an=20 abiding place of deity; (2) the deity was evidently in the stone, or was = the=20 stone, as is shown by the anointing of it. This story could be = paralleled in its=20 essentials from many sources. Again, in Josh. 24: 27, Joshua is = represented=20 declaring of a certain stone: "it hath heard all the words, . . it shall = be=20 therefore a witness against you." And, once more, Acts 19:35 makes = mention of an=20 object of worship which "fell from Jupiter," i.e., evidently a = meteorite.

These three facts taken together, viz., the importance of a dream and = the=20 performance of worshipful ads upon or attribution of sentience to a = stone, bring=20 into notice a cultural condition, a method of thinking, which is by = common=20 consent called animistic. Animism is by many regarded as the earliest = form which=20 religion took, and as the root from which was derived all religious = beliefs=20 which the world has known, and was also the earliest basis of all that = is=20 dignified by the name of culture. Moreover, we may trace its effects and = its=20 action into the present.[1] Others, however, regard it as not the = primary, but=20 as a secondary, stage in mental and religious development, seeking the = primary=20 in a vaguer series of beliefs to which they give the name "naturism" or=20 "dynamism."[2] Our present concern is with Animism.

[1. McDougall, Body and Mind. A History and Defence of = Animism.

2. Cf. Clodd, Animism; and Leuba, A Psychological Study of=20 Religion.]

And what is this? Menzies defines it as "the worship of spirits as = opposed to=20 that of Gods."[3] To this E. B. Tylor, whose work [4] is facile = princeps=20 among the expositions of animism, might object that it supposes a sharp = dividing=20 line between spirits and gods which has no existence in fact and is = therefore=20 arbitrarily drawn. It is, perhaps, impossible to state where the worship = of=20 spirits stops and that of gods begins, to decide exactly where the = spirit shades=20 into the deity. Who can say exactly the moment when the conception of a = being=20 which has been but one of a host of spirits has passed into that of a = state of=20 divinity? Such transitions have been made.[5] Accordingly, Tylor would = define=20 animism as "the doctrine of spirits or of spiritual beings."[6] He = furthermore=20 proposes as a minimum definition of religion "belief in spiritual beings = ."[7]=20 While one may criticize this last as leaving out the objective result of = "belief=20 in spiritual beings" in worship or cult, Tylor

[3. History of Religion, p. 39.

4. Primitive Culture, new ed., London, 1903.

5. E.g., Enlil of Babylonia; cf. A. Sayce, Hibbert Lectures, = 1887, p.=20 103.

6. Primitive Culture, i. 425.

7. Ib., i. 324.]

is altogether right in asserting that, whatever the original = condition of=20 mankind, such belief is found among all races, even the lowest, = concerning whom=20 exact knowledge is possessed.

Just criticism may be passed, however, upon Tylor's definition of = animism as=20 so vague that it gives no grip upon the actual conditions which attend = an=20 animistic stage of thought or upon that thought itself. It is necessary, = therefore, to point out that the word represents a stage in the = psychological=20 development of man, in his cultural unfolding, in which his conceptions = (i) of=20 himself and (2) of the world about him differ essentially from those of=20 "civilized" man. From the point of view of modern psychology, he may be = said to=20 possess as yet only an unintegrated consciousness. He does not = distinguish=20 himself in kind from objects that are about him. As one writer = declares:

"A Central Australian pointing to a photograph of himself will say, = 'That one=20 is just the same as me, so is a kangaroo (his totem).' We say the = Central=20 Australian 'belongs to the kangaroo tribe'; he knows better, he is = kangaroo. Now=20 it is this persistent affirmation of primitive man in the totemistic = stage that=20 he is an animal or a plant, that he is a kangaroo or an opossum . . . = that=20 instantly arrests our attention," etc.[8]

To man in the advanced stage of thinking to which civilized peoples = have=20 attained such a condition as this appears almost unbelievable. And yet = expert=20 testimony to this effect is abundantly available. Thus Professor = Hobhouse says=20 of the thinking of men in this stage:

"One conception melts readily into another, just as in primitive = fancy a=20 sorcerer turns into a dragon, a mouse, a stone, and a butterfly without = the=20 smallest difficulty. Hence similarity is treated as if it were physical=20 identity. The physical individuality of things is not observed. The fact = that a=20 thing was mine makes it appear as though there were something of me in = it, so=20 that by burning it you make me smart. The borders or limits of things = are not=20 marked out, but their influence and their capacity to be influenced = extends, as=20 it were, in a misty halo over everything connected with them in any = fashion. If=20 the attributes of things are made too solid and material in primitive = thought,=20 things themselves are too fluid and undefined, passing

[8. Miss Harrison, Themis, p. 121.]

into each other by loose and easy identifications which prevent all = clear and=20 crisp distinctions of thought. In a word, primitive thought has not yet = evolved=20 those distinctions of substance and attribute, quality and relation, = cause and=20 effect, identity and difference, which are the common property of = civilized=20 thought. These categories which among us every child soon comes to = distinguish=20 in practice are for primitive thought interwoven in wild confusion, and = this=20 confusion is the intellectual basis of animism and of magic." [9]

The idea is expressed similarly by Aston:

"I would describe (primitive man's) mental attitude as a piecemeal = conception=20 of the universe as alive, just as he looks upon his fellow man as alive = without=20 analyzing him into the two distinct entities of body and soul."[10]

The "piecemeal conception of the universe" contains the idea that = animistic=20 man regards other objects in the world about him as being on a parity of = existence with himself in that they are conceived as having sentient and = volitional life. He interprets all things in terms of his own = consciousness. On=20 the

[9. Hobhouse, Morals in Evolution, ii. 20-21.

10. Shinto, p. 26.]

other hand, practically all the data In our possession which bear = upon the=20 subject indicate that as far back as we can trace man, he had already = analyzed=20 his kind into body and soul. Even Neolithic man, and with great = probability also=20 Pal=E6olithic man, had the conception of a possessing or obsessing = spirit. The=20 trepanning done by Neolithic man during life is most easily explicable = on the=20 theory that disease was caused by a spirit which had obsessed the sick, = and was=20 to be conjured forth only after an incision had been made in the skull. = The fact=20 that Kabyles have been known within the memory of man to perform this = operation=20 for this reason, and that the modus operandi is in accord with = other=20 methods among primitive races, can lead at once to this conclusion. Up = to 1888=20 there had been discovered in France in the valley of the Torn over two = hundred=20 trepanned skulls, in many cases among these the trepanning was ante=20 mortem, with evident signs of healing. And in the Wellcome = Historical=20 Medical Museum in London there is a case of flint instruments some of = which=20 almost equal in sharpness of edge and point surgical instruments of our = own day,=20 used, it is believed for this purpose.[11] We shall find other reasons = for=20 believing in the early discovery by man of his own soul. Meanwhile to = prove that=20 is not our purpose here. What we are concerned with is man's outlook on = the=20 universe, his estimate of what we call nature.

"Man in that stage (i.e., the animistic) may hold that a stone, a = tree, a=20 mountain, a stream, a wild animal, a heavenly body, a wind, an = instrument of the=20 hunt or of labor or of domestic utility--indeed, any object within the = range of=20 real or fancied existence (and fancy looms large in this = domain)--possesses just=20 such a soul as he conceives himself to have, and that it is animated by = desires,=20 moved by emotions, and empowered by abilities parallel to those he = perceives in=20 himself."[12]

Testimonies to this fact might be adduced from many quarters and = illustrated=20 in many ways. Thus: "The African does not believe in anything soulless, = he even=20 regards matter Itself as a form of soul, low because not lively." = [13]

[11. Cf. New York Medical Journal, Oct. 16, 1909, p. 751; = British=20 Congregationalist, May 28, 1914; New Schaff-Herzog = Encyclopedia, iii.=20 193-194.

12. New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, iii. 194; cf. Bros, La = Religion=20 des peuples non-civilis=E9s, chap. II.

13. Miss Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 199.]

P=E8re Lejeune says that the savages of New France "se persuadent que = non=20 seulement les hommes et les autres animaux, mais que les autres choses = sont=20 amm=E9es."[14] E. S. Hartland puts it this way: "Starting from his = personal=20 consciousness, the savage attributes the like consciousness to = everything he=20 sees or feels around him."[15] And Reinach is equally emphatic:

"Animism gives a soul and a will to mountains, rivers, rocks, trees, = stones,=20 the heavenly bodies, the earth and sky. A tree, a post, a pillar, the = hollow of=20 a rock, are the seat or throne of invisible spirits. These spirits are = conceived=20 and figured at a later stage under animal form, and then under human = form. A=20 spring was . . . Pegasus, Apollo's horse. A river is a bull with a human = face.... The laurel was Daphne, whom Apollo had pursued; the oak was = Zeus=20 himself, before being the tree of Zeus, and Dionysos was supposed to = live in the=20 tree, after he had ceased to be himself the tree. The earth was Gaea, = emerging=20 from the soil in the shape of a woman who implores the sky to water=20 her."[16]

[14. Relations de la Nouvelle France, p. 199.

15. Legend of Perseus, ii. 441.

16 Orpheus, p. 79.]

Thus, to give one final testimony, Im Thurn says of the Indians of=20 Guiana:

"It is absolutely necessary to premise here that all tangible = objects,=20 animate . . . and inanimate alike, consist each of two separable = parts--a body=20 and a spirit; and that these are not only always readily separable=20 involuntarily, as in death, and daily in sleep, but are also, in certain = individuals, always voluntarily separable."[17]

The preceding, then, affords a prima facie basis for a = tentative=20 definition of animism, the justification or demonstration of which must = wait for=20 a later chapter. We assume that "animism" stands for a stage of culture = in which=20 man may regard any object, real or imaginary, as possessing emotional,=20 volitional, and actional potency like that he himself possesses. Things, = of=20 whatsoever sort, he may consider the subjects of feelings--likes and = dislikes,=20 appetites or disinclinations, affections or antipathies, desires and = longings;=20 of will--to help or injure, to act or refrain from acting; and of the = power to=20 act according to the promptings of these feelings and the determinations = of=20 will.

[17. Im Thurn, Indians of Guiana, p. 329.]

But-animism is thought. The enormous significance of these three = words must=20 not be overlooked. They mark the difference between man and the whole = creation=20 beneath him. The whole chain of acts implied in the word under = discussion=20 involves mental processes passing over into action with well defined = intention=20 having their issue in the future and being immeasurably removed from = instinct.=20 It is true that we shall find this thought at times pitifully infantile, = paralleled by the conceptions in some cases of four-year-olds of the=20 present;[18] but it is still thought. And we shall show that reason is = on the=20 throne. The outcome of this discussion will, it is believed, show the = general=20 logicality of primitive man's mental processes, once the basis from = which he=20 starts is granted. The beliefs in ghosts, spirits, gods, in = transmigration and=20 metempsychosis, are not the chance hit or miss conclusions of early man, = but=20 flow rationally from the premise we have assumed. That

[18. The Chicago Tribune reports that "during a sudden thunderstorm a = little=20 four-year-old came running into the Kindergarten, crying as if her heart = would=20 break. When the Kindergartner asked the cause of her trouble, she said, = 'O Miss=20 E., the sky barked at me.'"]

this reason is often aberrant in its premises, that it is not seldom = fitfully=20 inconsequent, may indeed appear. But what we find is reason, thought at = least of=20 a kind, and in many cases frightfully logical.

THE DISCOVERY OF THE SOUL

ON THE hypothesis that the method of man's creation was evolution, = that he is=20 the finest product of nature's forces working in continuous upward = striving, how=20 are we to explain man's arrival at the realization of soul or spirit, of = something which is intelligently and not merely instinctively directive = of=20 action? The possession of soul, in this sense, by even the highest = animals is=20 disallowed by scientists; though recognition is growing that elements = that are=20 acknowledged to belong to the intellectual and even to the moral powers = already=20 exist in brute psychology. Such elements are shame or chagrin, and fear = of what=20 seems to the animal what we might call the uncanny. The writer remembers = a scene=20 in Meadville, Pa., where as reminiscences of a former iron foundry there = exist=20 in some of the dooryards castings of dogs. One day notice was attracted = by a=20 street cur which had stopped a few feet distant from one of these = cast-iron=20 dogs. The cur was "pointing" at the image and wagging rapidly his short = tail in=20 the manner of dogs intimating friendly intentions towards another dog, = and=20 desire for acquaintance with it. Seeing no hostile demonstrations on the = part of=20 the acquaintance-to-be, he went up to the iron replica slowly, smelt of = it, and=20 at once dropped his apology for a tail and made off with chagrin plainly = stamped=20 in his entire demeanor. Mr. Romanes tells of a trick on a pet dog that = was fond=20 of playing with bones, which it would worry and toss and growl at, = evidently=20 making believe that they were alive. The owner tied a thin but strong = thread to=20 the bone with which it was one day playing, and after a little time, = when the=20 dog had cast the bone some distance away and was creeping up to it as to = an=20 object of prey, he began gently to pull the string. The manner of the = dog=20 changed at once, first evidently in surprise; then it continued to crawl = up to=20 investigate. But as the bone continued to retreat, the dog finally = withdrew and=20 hid under the furniture.[1] The animal evidently recognized (1) that the = bone=20 was lifeless, inert, therefore (2) unendowed with power of motion. But = (3) this=20 thing had moved, and fear (dread

[1. Cited by Clodd, in Animism, pp. 22-23.]

of the unknown) entered evidently as the result of a sort of rational = process. It will be noted that this case is to be differentiated from = those=20 where fear enters as the result of punishment, in which case the "fear" = may be=20 only the result of association of ideas and the formation of = "instinctive"=20 habit. There was manifestation of chagrin in the first case cited, for = such was=20 the clear impression furnished when the animal looked back at the = witnesses of=20 the scene as they burst into laughter; and of fear in the second case, = since the=20 animal showed what in a human being we should call superstitious = apprehension.=20 There is therefore no adequate reason for denying to primeval man a = large degree=20 of rationality, growing in extension and intension with enlarging = experience and=20 exercise. He was no longer sheer animal. Of course, it was by = achievement of=20 rationality, in however small degree, that be became man. He was no = longer a=20 mere observer--animals are observant--but a thinker, who reflected and = reasoned,=20 however faultily, upon his observations. The salient mark of his = differentiation=20 from the animal lies in his recognition of possession of this quality. = Before=20 this, relapse into sheer animality was perhaps possible; after it, such = relapse=20 is inconceivable. How then did this come about?

The answer most in favor with anthropologists is that it began (1) = with the=20 phenomena of sleep--(a) the evident difference between that state and = waking=20 life, combined with (b) the occurrence of dreams which often so closely = mimic or=20 deal with the active and conscious existence of the individual;[2] and = (2) in=20 the difference between the living and the dead. It is to be recognized = that (1a)=20 and (2) are compared and combined in the logic of the savage, and afford = new=20 ground for his belief in something apart from and different from the = body which=20 eventually becomes known as soul. Through observation often repeated, = and=20 through reasoning and reflection upon the facts thus presented, man = arrived at=20 the conclusion that he is himself a dual being, possessing body and = (what was=20 eventually recognized as) soul or spirit. Having arrived at this = conclusion, he=20 deduced from

[2. Cf. the dreams of Pharaoh's butler and of his baker, as narrated = in Gen.=20 39; each of the individuals dreams of matters connected with his = specific=20 duties.]

experience and observation, or else jumped to the conclusion, that = other=20 objects were similarly constituted; he might attribute life, soul, = intention,=20 and action to each and every object, to any object, that came under his=20 observation, no matter what its constitution. It may be remarked, en = passant,=20 that the dream life of man is separated from that of animals probably = only by=20 the character of the content of his dream, as it reproduces or = recomposes=20 experiences registered in the (conscious or unconscious, subliminal) = memory. It=20 is well known that some animals dream. The twitching of the muscles or = the=20 whining or even barking of a dog in sleep has often been noticed, and is = explicable best on the hypothesis of a dream. If animals dream and = exhibit=20 elements of consciousness, there is every reason to carry back to a very = early=20 period in human history the beginning of the chain of thinking that, on = the=20 hypothesis here presented, led to the conception of spirit or soul as = animating=20 physical objects.

How this could come about is abundantly illustrated from the = interpretations=20 of dream phenomena by primitive peoples. The dream life of a savage = being is=20 conditioned by his waking existence, it mirrors more or less perfectly = the life=20 he leads. It is very probable that the dreams of savages mimic even more = closely=20 the waking existence than those of man in a more advanced stage of = culture. The=20 reason for this is that the primitive mode of existence is less complex. = Fewer=20 elements of interest go to make up life, and the course of events is = more=20 uniform. Mr. F. Granger remarks: "If yesterday was like the day before, = and is=20 going to be repeated in a thousand tomorrows, the dreams which echo the = life of=20 the past will presage, with fair accuracy, the life of the days to come. = Add to=20 all this that the primitive mind distinguishes with difficulty [we = should prefer=20 to say, distinguishes not at all] between what is real and what is = imagined=20 [i.e., to the savage the dream and the vision of the night are equally = real with=20 the sights and experiences of his waking hours] and we can understand = why the=20 dream existence is often placed on a level with that of waking hours.[3] = Lying=20 down to rest, the savage dreams of the chase or of the search for = vegetable=20 food. On awaking he tells his

[3. Worship of The Romans, pp. 28-29; cf. Fiske, Myths and=20 Myth-makers, p. 18.]

companions that he has been away on a hunt or the like, and relates = the=20 adventures through which he believes he has passed. But his companions = assure=20 him that his body has been with them all the time, and both he and they=20 naturally deduce a dual existence-an invisible soul, usually inhabiting = but on=20 occasion leaving a visible body.[4] Here then is one almost certain = source of=20 the idea of soul.

How conclusive such reasoning is to the primitive mind, how firmly = the savage=20 believes in the dream as consisting of actual experience, may be seen in = the=20 comparatively exhaustive collection of cases by Dr. J. G. Frazer.[5] = Thus an=20 Indian dreamed that at his master's orders he had (during the night) = hauled a=20 canoe up a series of rapids, and next morning reproached the master for = making=20 him work so hard in the hours appropriated to rest.[6] To this savage = the dream=20 was real and the toll exhausting. Of the actuality of the belief in the = absence=20 of the soul during sleep there is abundant evidence. Numerous peoples in = a

[4. C.f. Budge, Osiris and The Egyptian Resurrection, ii. 122, = 135-136. Gomes, Seventeen Years among the Sea Dyaks of Borneo, p. = 177.

5. Taboo, chap. V.

6. pp. 36, 37; c.f. Gomes, Sea Dyaks of Borneo, p. = 161.]

lowly stage of culture use caution in awaking a sleeper. It is held = that his=20 soul is away, and that he must be aroused gradually so that the soul may = have=20 time to return; the same reasoning applies to infants.[7] Melanesians = explain=20 the phenomena of a fainting fit in the same way, holding that such cases = indicate premature death, but that the soul was not yet wanted in the = spirit=20 world and so was sent back to earth.[8]

A different source of the idea of soul is found in the phenomena of = death,=20 powerfully re=EBnforcing the deductions made from sleep and dreams. = While in the=20 one case there was seen the inertness of the body, perhaps with = breathing hardly=20 perceptible, which yet was experiencing dreams that were interpreted as = the=20 activity of the absent soul; in the other there was noted the expiring = breath=20 and the subsequent inertness of the body, only more pronounced than in = sleep,=20 passing into rigidity and finally into decay. Action had ceased with = that last=20 exhalation. If in sleep the dream was interpreted as absence of

[7. Frazer, Taboo, pp. 39-42; Roscoe, The Baganda, p. = 18;=20 Seligmann, Melanesians, pp. 189 ff.

8. Brown, Melanesians, pp. 192 ff.]

soul, much more applicable would that interpretation seem when the = bystanders=20 had noted the last breath and the (consequent) absence of motion, = action,=20 speech, life. Something had gone away with the last sigh, something = unseen, the=20 absence of which brought about a great change. That man lying = there--companion,=20 husband, father, brother, friend--used to live and move and talk and = breathe. He=20 was wont to respond to call and to react to the various stimuli about = him. Now=20 calls were unheard, appeals brought no reply, promptings met no = response. And=20 the difference was brought about (so men reasoned) by the absence of = that which=20 had issued forth unseen, never to return, at least to its former home, = as=20 survivors would observe.

But the full consequences of observance of the phenomena of death in = the=20 direction under investigation are not seen till we take into account = certain=20 other phases of human fallibility. Particularly is it necessary to note=20 primitive man's relatively smaller experience and confused perceptions, = and the=20 aberrant conclusions often drawn from these.[9]

Most men are and always have been deficient

[9. Granger, Worship of the Romans, pp. 28-29.]

in power both of observation and of deduction. (1) They assume as = real many=20 things that do riot exist, events that do not occur, and relations that = have no=20 reality. Illustrations are found in the belief in the existence of a = directive=20 power in the object picked up by the fetish worshiper, the superstition = of the=20 Celt that a fairy has left in the place of his own baby a fairy = changeling,[10]=20 and the belief in the descent of a human gens from, e.g., eagle, fox, or = snake,=20 as in totemism. Similarly boys of Mafulu, New Guinea, while making a = drum must=20 drink only what is found in axils of certain plants, else the embers = which are=20 to hollow out their drums will not burn-drinking any other water will = put it=20 out, or certain other restrictions are felt to be necessary.[11] (2) = They take=20 obvious facts and interpret them wrongly. Thus in the medi=E6val ordeal = of the=20 sacrament (a late example chosen only because of its familiarity, but=20 exemplifying perfectly earlier conditions-, the phenomena can be = parallelled in=20 any quarter of the world and every grade of culture) the sacramental = wafer was=20 employed

[10, Rhys, Celtic Folk-lore, p. 102.

11. Williamson, South Sea Savage, pp. 258-259.]

as a proof of innocence or guilt. Constriction of the throat and = inability to=20 swallow was often the result of the administration of the wafer. If it = did not=20 result, deity was held to have shown the innocence of the accused; if it = did,=20 guilt was declared manifest. How really irrelative this test was to the = facts is=20 shown by the frequent experience of inability to swallow a medicinal = pill or=20 tablet without the aid of a liquid to "wash it down." Yet here is no = question of=20 innocence or guilt. The explanation is that attention to the ad of = swallowing=20 (which is usually effortless and automatic) causes effort and so = constriction.=20 Swallowing in the ordeal was doubtless sometimes impossible just for the = reason=20 given here; but deity did not intervene, guilt or innocence was not = necessarily=20 revealed by this fact, nor did inability to swallow necessarily result = from=20 guilt-the innocent might also find the task difficult simply because of = the=20 attention directed to it.

On the difference in respect of observational and reasoning power of = savage=20 and highly civilized man let Grant Allen speak.

"To us the conception of human life as a relatively short period, = bounded by=20 a known duration, and naturally terminated at a fixed end, is a common = and=20 familiar one. We forget, however, that to the savage this is quite = otherwise. He=20 lives in a small and scattered community, where deaths are rare, and = where=20 natural death is comparatively infrequent. Most of his people are killed = in war,=20 or devoured by wild beasts, or destroyed by accident in the chase, or by = thirst=20 or starvation. Some are drowned in rapid rivers; some crushed by falling = trees=20 or stones; some poisoned by deadly fruits, or bitten by venomous snakes; = some=20 massacred by chiefs or murdered in quarrels with their own tribesmen. In = a large=20 majority of instances there is some open and obvious cause of death, and = this=20 cause is generally due either to the hand of man or to some other = animal; or=20 failing that, to some apparently active effort of external nature, such = as flood=20 or lightning or forest fires or landslip or earthquake."[12]

Man recognized his own volitional agency in causing death in the = chase or in=20 personal conflicts. So to each of the agencies which had produced = disaster he=20 attributed powers like his own--the volitional behind the

[11. Evolution of the Idea of God, pp. 44-45.]

physical. He had, perhaps, himself narrowly escaped the fate he had = seen=20 befall others and ascribed his escape to his own cleverness. But not all = of his=20 acquaintances had suffered what we should call a violent death. Some had = passed=20 away in disease or even in old age. Surely it was evident, one would = say, that=20 no external cause was at work there. But that was not his way of = thinking. He=20 knew of unseen powers that send or are the wind, the storm, the = lightning.[13]=20 And so the body that was racked with pain and eventually became inert in = death=20 was held to be tortured by an invisible something. In many cases, he = knew, death=20 resulted from external violence; in all cases, he reasoned, the great = change was=20 wrought by powers external to the victim, which sometimes worked with = invisible=20 weapons.[14]

Bearing in mind, then, the faulty observation and logic of = primitives, and=20 connecting the two sources of the idea of soul previously discussed, = viz. (1)=20 sleep and dreams, and (2) the phenomenon of death, together = with

[12. The Ekoi of South Africa regard thunder as a giant who strides = across=20 the heavens, while lightning is either his servant or his enemy. Talbot, = In=20 the Shadow of the Bush, p. 73.

13. See chapter IX for cases of disbelief in natural = death.]

(3) the inference therefrom of a something that leaves the body = either=20 temporarily in sleep or permanently in death, we are brought to notice = next what=20 apparently corroborated the evidence (as it would seem) respecting the = existence=20 of soul, that is, the appearance in dreams of those who had died. This = was in=20 all probability a more frequent occurrence with early than with modern = man,=20 because of the smaller content of his experience and the consequent more = frequent repetition of its elements. We have already remarked that the=20 distinction between reality and fancy, fact and the merely apparent, is = often=20 missed in early cultural stages. It was quite in accordance with natural = logic=20 to reason that the apparition in the dream was real. The dead, = therefore, still=20 lived, had been seen, and had possibly engaged in conversation, The = wandering=20 spirit of the dreamer had met the disembodied spirit; or the latter had = visited=20 his former friends while they slept.[15] The tremendous consequences = flowing=20 from these beliefs will be developed a little later.

By these various experiences, dovetailing and appearing to force a=20 conclusion, man

[15. Lang, The Making of Religion, pp. 54 ff.]

certainly in a very primitive stage of culture drew the inference = that he was=20 a duality - the body which he could see and feel, and a something of = which in=20 his conscious existence he knew nothing except that it existed. = Moreover, it is=20 demonstrable that among many primitive peoples the priority in = importance is=20 assigned to the spirit. Thus of the New Guineans it is affirmed: "These = and=20 other things [specified in the context] seem to show that a sharp = distinction is=20 drawn between body and spirit by the natives. Certainly the body gains = from long=20 associations virtues from the indwelling spirit; but it is the spirit = which is=20 the real man, higher than, and superior to, the body in which the spirit = dwells."[16]

One can not go far astray if he maintain that it was the discovery of = the=20 soul which was the most momentous in the history of the human race; to = it must=20 be traced all man's uplift in the millenniums of his existence.

[16. Newton, In Far New Guinea, p. 194.]

III

THE SOUL'S NATURE

AN important inquiry meets us at this point: How did man think of = this second=20 something that usually inhabited his body but sometimes left it for a = time and=20 at death left it permanently? For it would soon have been borne in upon = him=20 (even though he did not consciously recognize the soul's presence and=20 operations) that the permanent absence of soul meant death, and that = therefore=20 while he lived it was present. What did he think concerning the nature = of this=20 all-important part of him? It is very clear from a number of = circumstances that=20 the notion of the soul was governed by the phenomenon of death. Decisive = upon=20 this point is the wonderful accord of meaning in so many languages of = the word=20 which expresses this inner elusive reality. In the developed languages = we may=20 note the root idea of such words as the Latin spiritus, = anima,=20 animus, Irish anam, Sanskrit atman, Greek psyche,=20 pneuma, thumos, German Geist, Dutch geest, = English=20 ghost, Hebrew nephesh, ruah, Sumerian zid,=20 Babylonian napishtu, Egyptian kneph, all of which go back = to the=20 notion of breath, or of a gentle movement of air or wind. One may forage = at=20 large and observe the same root notion and a similar usage in many other = different regions, discovering the Australian wang, Mohawk=20 atonritz, Californian-Oregonian wkrisha, piuts, = Dakotan=20 niya, Javanese nawa, Aztec ehecatl, Nicaraguan=20 julio, Gypsy duk, and Finnish far. This line of = thought is=20 fortified by the conception of the insubstantiality of the soul, = expressed in=20 such words as skia, umbra, and "shade," used to denote the = disembodied spirit. Terms of similar content were used not only by the = cultured=20 Greeks and Romans, but are known to be employed among North American = Indians,=20 Zulus and Basutos in Africa, among the Calabars, and elsewhere. One = recalls the=20 Hebrew rephaim. The survival of the belief in the = insubstantiality of the=20 disembodied spirit till the Middle Ages is shown by Dante, for according = to him=20 the souls in purgatory knew that the poet had not passed through death = by the=20 fact that his figure cast a shadow. Indeed, the idea of communication by = a=20 disembodied spirit with the living in dreams was entrenched by the = reflection=20 that its very immateriality enabled it to hold communication with = sleeping=20 persons without arousing them from sleep.

How early man came to realize that this part which is designated by = breath or=20 puff of air is his real self is impossible to say. But what is = significant is=20 that in many languages the word meaning spirit, life, or breath has also = the=20 connotation "self," as has, e.g., the Hebrew nephesh. And how = natural=20 such a signification is can be illustrated by the concrete fact that = Laura=20 Bridgman, the blind-deaf-mute, is said to have expressed the thought of = death in=20 a dream by the statement that "God took away my breath to heaven." Among = the=20 Ekoi of Nigeria ghost and soul and breath are connected as phases of the = same=20 thing or as equivalents. One must not forget that the phenomenon of = death which=20 is most obvious is the expiring sigh or last breath, after the departure = of=20 which life ceases to exist. What more natural than that the breath thus = finally=20 exhaled should be associated with the soul or spirit, or, as in some = cases, be=20 thought to carry the soul with it? Since in dreams a person deceased has = been=20 seen and addressed while the body was known to have dissolved, the way = is direct=20 and the step short to the conclusion that the self, the real person, is = that=20 same breath or soul.[1]

But did primitive peoples endow the soul with form? The testimony to = this is=20 abundant and cogent.[2] The most natural and perhaps most common idea of = the=20 soul's shape is that it is a: miniature of the possessor's form. Among = those who=20 have held this belief are American Indians such as the Hurons, the = natives of=20 British Columbia, Alaska, and the Esquimaux of the districts adjacent to = Behring=20 Straits, islanders such as the Niassians near Sumatra and the Fijians, = and=20 continental dwellers such as the Malays and West Africans. To give a = single=20 example, Nigerian Etoi believe that "when a man's body decays a new form = comes=20 out of it, in every way like the man himself when be was above = ground

[1. Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush, p. 230.

2. It has been collected not only by Tyler in his Primitive = Culture,=20 but also by Frazer, Taboo, chap. II.

3. Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush, pp. 17, 230; cf. Frazer, = Taboo, p. 39.]

For the Egyptians abundant testimony is available as to the belief in = the=20 double, existing indeed from birth.[4] There is a picture in the Roman = catacombs=20 portraying the death of a Christian, in which the soul is represented as = leaving=20 the mouth of the dying in a cloud-like shape that takes his own form. = What is=20 practically a replica of this is found on the walls of the Campo Santo = at Pisa;=20 and in the east transept of Salisbury Cathedral on the sculptured = monument over=20 the tomb of Bishop Giles de Bridgport the soul appears as a naked figure = carried=20 by an angel.[5] The usual notion is that the soul is invisible. But as = in other=20 respects shamans or medicine men are credited with extraordinary powers, = so they=20 are supposed to be able to discern the spirits or souls moving about or=20 endeavoring to escape from the body. Sometimes the organ of detection is = the=20 ear, which can note the motion of the soul's wings. Or, the soul being = of human=20 shape, it leaves faint footmarks as indications of its presence, and=20 light

[4. A notable case among many is the bas-relief in the temple at = Luxor,=20 exhibiting the presentation at birth to Ra of the royal child Amenhotep = III and=20 his double. Cf. Budge, Osiris, etc., p. 119.

5. Clodd, Animism, p. 40.]

ashes strewn on the ground may betray its presence to the = keen-sighted=20 medicine man.

Mention has been made of the return of the soul of one deceased to = the haunts=20 of the body as evidenced by dreams. The form appearing in the dream was=20 recognized as that of a friend, again testifying to the assumed fact = that the=20 soul has the shape of the body. Further testimony to this belief is = found in the=20 faith that the soul is held to suffer in some degree the fate of the = body.=20 Brazilian Indians, for example, believe that the soul arrives in the = other world=20 hacked and torn, or uninjured, exactly as was the condition of the body = at=20 death.[6] Australians tie together the toes and bind together the thumbs = behind=20 the back, or mutilate the body and fill it with stones, or, again, they = lop off=20 the thumb of a slain enemy, that the ghost may not hurl shadowy spear or = pull=20 the bowstring in the land of spirits.[7] Chinese and Africans abhor = mutilation,=20 especially decapitation, as a punishment, for the latter produces = headless=20 ghosts.[8] And Shakespeare makes Macbeth cry out:

[6. Im Thum, Among the Indians of Guiana, passim.

7. Cases of the kind are cited in Frazer, The Dying God, pp. = 10-11;=20 and Howitt, Native Tribes, pp. 449, 474.

8. Cf. Roscoe, The Baganda, pp. 281-282.]

"Shake not thy GORY locks at me." The ghost retains the bloody form = in which=20 the body was left at its departure. From classical Greece and Rome the = evidence=20 for this same idea of the soul's form is abundant and cogent; and it = would not=20 be difficult to show, since so much has been revealed in the frescoes = and vase=20 paintings recovered in the Mediterranean region, that this idea comes = down from=20 very primitive times. In the paintings which represent Hermes = Psychopompus=20 directing the issue and return of souls, the latter are figured as = winged=20 mannikins, coming from or returning to burial jars.[9] The form of = Patroklos'=20 shade was that of the living hero.[11]

A notion closely akin to the foregoing is that which connects the = soul with=20 the shadow. While many curious ideas which gather around the = latter--such as the=20 Brahman belief that the shadow of a pariah falling on food defiles = it--do not=20 involve the identity of the two, in many cases there can be little doubt = that=20 soul and shadow are not only closely related but are regarded as = identical. Some=20 believe that an assault upon the shadow may be fatal

[9. Harrison, Prolegomena, p. 43, and Themis, p. 205.

10. Iliad, xxiii. 65 ff.]

to its possessor, or at least extremely harmful. The Indians of the = lower=20 Frazer River hold that man has four souls, of which one is the shadow. = The=20 Euahlayi of Australia believe that man has a dream spirit, a shadow = spirit,=20 perhaps an animal spirit, and one that leaves only at death.[11] Other=20 Australians consider that each individual has a choi, a sort of=20 disembodied soul, and a ngai, which lives in the heart. The = choi=20 awaits reincarnation after death, the ngai passes immediately = after death=20 into the children of the deceased. It is the latter that sometimes = leaves a=20 person temporarily in his lifetime, e.g., when he faints. The = choi has=20 some sort of vague relationship with the shadow.[12] The Kai of New = Guinea also=20 believe that man has two souls,[13] as do some of the Fijians, one of = these=20 being light (as a reflection in the water), the other dark, like the = shadow.[14]=20 Dyaks assert the possession of three or even of seven, souls; one may = leave the=20 body temporarily, the man dies only when all leave."

[11. Mrs. Parker, Euahlayi Tribe, p. 35.

12. Frazer, Belief in Immortality, i. 129.

13. Neuhass, Deutsch Neu-Guinea, iii. 112.

14. Williams, Fiji, i. 242.

15. Gomes, Sea Dyaks of Borneo, p. 177; cf. Hastings, = ERE, vi.=20 226.]

Gilyaks may have three souls. The Balong of the Cameroon think that = one may=20 have several souls, one in his own body and others in different animals. = The=20 death of one of these animals, say, at the hand of a hunter causes the = man's=20 death.[16] The equivalence of the shadow to the man himself is proved by = its use=20 (or that of its-dimensions, in a later stage of culture) in the same = manner as=20 the body in foundation sacrifice--to give stability to the structure. = After an=20 exactly similar manner of thought the reflection of a body in water or a = mirror=20 is regarded as the soul. Injury to reflection or shadow may result in = injury to=20 the corresponding member of the body. Among the Congo people shadow or = picture=20 or reflection is the equivalent of soul.[17] This whole manner of = thought=20 explains why in so many regions the natives do not willingly submit to = being=20 photographed or represented on canvas.[18]

While the usual mode of thought represents

[16. Globus, lxix (1896), 277, cited in Hastings, ERE, iv. = 412-13.

17. Weeks, Among Congo Cannibals, p. 162; cf. Talbot, In = the Shadow=20 of The Bush, p. 230.

18. Cases cited in Frazer, Golden Bough, Part II; = Taboo, ii.=20 77-100.]

the human soul as a mannikin, other ideas are found. Among the = ancient=20 Egyptians, in Brazil, in Melanesia, in Bohemia, Malaysia, Java, Sumatra, = Borneo,=20 and elsewhere the shape of the spirit may be that of a bird;[19] in = British=20 Columbia the bird is enclosed in an egg in the nape of the neck. Or the = soul may=20 take the form of a mouse (Brunswick, Transylvania, Swabia, Saxony), = which may=20 differ in color in different regions; or of a fly (Transylvania), a = lizard=20 (India), or an indistinct cloudy form (Scotland ).[20] Greeks and Serbs = thought=20 of the soul also as a butterfly, and the Greek name for one species of = this=20 insect is Psyche.

As to the constitution of this part of man's duality there is a wide=20 consensus along the lines already indicated. Primitive peoples = throughout the=20 world describe it as a vapor, a shadowy, filmy substance, related to the = body as=20 the perfume to the flower. It is pale and yielding to the touch, without = flesh=20 and bone, thin, impalpable, discerned as the figure in the human eye. = Its=20 movements may be

[19. Bros, La Religion des peuples non-civilisis, p. 54.

20. Miller, My Schools and Schoolmasters, pp. 106-107, cited = by=20 Frazer, Taboo, pp. 40-41; Brown, Melanesians, pp. 141 = ff.--here=20 bird, rat, lizard, etc., are forms the soul takes.]

as swift as the wind, and so it is sometimes regarded as winged. Yet = it has a=20 certain materiality, and consequently has necessities. After death, for=20 instance, it needs nourishment and partakes of the spirit, the essential = part,=20 of the material things sometimes provided for it. Egyptians, carrying = the idea=20 still further, provided pictures or models of food, furniture, and the = like,=20 which in a similar way became available to the spirit. The = semi-materiality of=20 the soul is illustrated by the fact of the return to his temple being = known by=20 marks alleged to be found in maize flour strewed on the threshold of his = temple-pyramid.[21]

[21 Spence, Civilization of Ancient Mexico, p. 47]

IV

THE EXTERNAL OR SEPARABLE SOUL

IF what precedes be accepted, it can be taken as; established that = primitive=20 man, or at least man in an early stage of culture, determined himself to = be a=20 duality, soul and body. But the two constituents did not appear to be=20 inseparably connected. The soul might leave the body, either temporarily = or=20 permanently, and in the latter case the body perished. The presence of = the soul=20 is therefore essential to life. But incidentally reference has been made = to the=20 absence of the soul for periods usually brief. In fact, primitive races = hold=20 that the soul absents itself voluntarily at times, goes on travels, = performs=20 tasks, and the like; and also that some have the power to send forth the = soul--their own or others'--for their own purposes. It may even happen = that the=20 soul is either lured forth or departs unwisely, and has to return. In = New Guinea=20 when a person faints, he is said to be dead; and when he revives, the=20 explanation is that he "died green," and perhaps because the soul was = not wanted=20 in the spirit land, it had to take up again its old life with the = body.[1] For=20 the wandering of the soul in dreams there is abundant testimony,--so = abundant,=20 in fact, that we will content ourselves with a single reference.[2] The = Japanese=20 are persuaded that this same constituent of personality leaves the body = that it=20 may sport itself untrammelled.[3] The satirist Lucian and the scientist = Pliny=20 relate the story of the seer Hermotimus, who sent forth his spirit to = explore=20 distant regions. At last, during an unwontedly long absence, his wife = supposed=20 him to be dead and burned his body, so that on its return the spirit = found no=20 dwelling for itself.[4] A slightly different case is that reported of = the=20 Scandinavian chief Ingimund, who shut up three Finns that their spirits = might=20 visit Iceland, discover the lie of the land where he proposed to settle, = and=20 report to him on their return. An instance

[1. Newton, In Far New Guinea, p. 220.

2, Kingsley, West African Studies, pp. 200 ff.

3. Griffis, Mikado's Empire, p. 472.

4. Cited by Tylor, Primitive Culture, i. 439; cf. Jevons,=20 Introduction, pp. 44 ff., and the cases there cited.]

like that of Hermotimus is the case of Epimenides, the Cretan prophet = and=20 magician, who was reputed to be able to dispatch his spirit in quest of=20 knowledge and recall it at will.[5] And Hermotimus had in recent years = an=20 African disciple, whose exploits were worthy, if reports are to be = credited, of=20 his unknown master.[6]

Since belief in the absence of the soul, at least for a temporary = period,=20 could be held over so wide an area and even among comparatively = developed=20 peoples, it is not surprising that there should arise a belief in the = existence=20 of the animating spirit seated not in the body, but in some place where = security=20 would be greater. The evidences are many of a belief that the soul might = reside=20 either from birth or from some later period in some object other than = its normal=20 home. This is the phenomenon known to anthropologists as the "external" = or=20 "separable" soul. A dilution of this is the form which is christened = "the life=20 token," in which the clouding of a liquid or the tarnishing of a weapon = is the=20 sign either of danger, sickness, or death of the

[5. Hesychius, Lexikon, under "Epimenides."

6. Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush, p. 231.]

person for whom the liquid or object stands. It can be shown, = however, in=20 most cases, that when the life token is the center of the story, it is = the=20 result of an advanced stage of culture, if it is not directly stated = that such=20 object is the residence of the soul.

The earliest example of this belief so far known to literature occurs = in the=20 Egyptian tale of "Anpu and Bata, or the Two Brothers."[7] The younger = brother=20 commits his soul apparently to the keeping successively of acacia = flowers, of a=20 bull, and then of two trees, while a chip from one of the latter causes=20 conception. Another view of the latter experiences, however, is that = they are=20 cases of transmigration. The case of the Balong of the Cameroons who = believe=20 that a man may have several souls, one in his own body and others in = different=20 animals of the jungle, has already been cited. It is quite usual for = them to=20 account for a man's sudden death by supposing that one of his = soul-containing=20 animals has been killed by a hunter.[8] Frequent in folk-lore is the = theme of=20 the wicked and oppressive ogre or giant or wizard who

[7. Petrie, Egyptian Tales, 2d series, pp. 48 ff.

6. Globus, 69 (1896), 277, cited in Hastings, ERE, 4,=20 412-413.]

holds in his power maiden or youth, and is invincible to ordinary = attack=20 because his soul is safe-guarded in an egg inside a duck that swims on a = pond in=20 a distant island guarded by a dragon within a walled and inaccessible = fortress.=20 Not until the many obstacles have been overcome and the egg obtained is = the=20 luckless maiden or youth released by the crushing of the egg and the = consequent=20 immediate demise of ogre, giant, or wizard. This theme of a receptacle = strongly=20 guarded (though in this case it is not a soul, but the "Book of Thoth," = a book=20 of magic) comes, curiously enough, in its earliest form from Egypt, and = suggests=20 that this idea of an object, and perhaps the separable soul, secured by = many=20 safeguards, may have been a particularly widely diffused idea. The "Book = of=20 Thoth" was in an iron box, which enclosed successively one of bronze, of = k=E9t=E9-wood, of ivory and ebony, of silver, and last of gold, the = entire nest=20 being in the middle of the river, surrounded by snakes, scorpions, and = "all=20 manner of creeping things," and above all by a snake that no man could=20 kill--which however a man did kill. In this case, as in most of those in = folk-lore where the soul is supposedly unassailable, the conquest is = effected=20 through magic.[9]

In many cases the story has to do with the miraculous birth (not = always=20 virgin birth, however) of twins or triplets, simultaneous with which = appears=20 some plant or tree or other copied which is the repository of the soul = or is the=20 "life-token." The fading or withering of bloom or plant here indicates = disaster.=20 Sometimes, instead of the plants, weapons (which undergo modernization = in=20 successive generations of story-tellers) spring up, or a spring wells = forth, and=20 in them reside the souls of the children. Then if hilt falls from sword = or sheen=20 tarnishes on blade, or if lock looses from gun or the clear water of the = spring=20 begins to run clouded, the event betokens danger or catastrophe to the = possessor=20 of the soul.[10] In the Ramayana, Garuda says to Rama: "I am thy = friend,=20 thy life free-

[1. The story of the Book of Thoth is told in Petrie, Egyptian = Tales,=20 ii. 89 ff.; Spiegelberg, Demotische Papyrus; and Murray, = Ancient=20 Egyptian Legends, pp. 31 ff.

2. A number of interesting cases exhibiting these phenomena, not = usually=20 cited in the books can be found in Parker, Village Folk Tales of Ceylon = (e.g.,=20 i. 164, 166-168, 190, et passim); Day, Folk-Tales of Bengal, pp. 2, 6, = 85-86,=20 189, 253, etc.; Indian Antiquary, i. 86, 117, xvii. 54; Steel, = Tales=20 of the Punjab, pp. 52, 55, 75, etc.]

ranging, external to thyself."[11] It may be sufficient here, without = going=20 further into details in this interesting subject, to note that a = considerable=20 number of folk-tales of this and kindred types have been brought = together and=20 their points of similarity and difference discussed in Hartland's = fascinating=20 volumes,[12] a work which is urged upon all who wish to note the salient = characteristics of this fertile field. It is interesting to remark that = a new=20 area for the existence of this curious belief has recently been = discovered in=20 the far north, since it is a part of the mental possessions of the = Tshimsheans=20 of Alaska.[13]

If it be objected that the principal evidence for all this is found = in the=20 region of M=E4rchen, of folk-tale, and therefore purely = imaginative, the=20 reply is: even were this all, it shows a mode of thought and = possibilities of=20 conception, of psychological activity. But above all this, we can adduce = the=20 fact that transition to actual belief is furnished by the many cases in = which a=20 tree is planted when a child is born, and the life of tree and child are = thought

[11. Nivedita, Myths of Hindus, p. 82.

12. The Legend of Perseus, 3 vols.

13. Arctander, Apostle of Alaska, p. 93.]

to be intimately connected. The Maori bury the navel cord or the = placenta and=20 plant a tree over the spot, and the latter becomes the life token .[14]=20 Similarly, in Old Calibar the burial of the placenta and planting of a = tree are=20 conjoined.[15] In Pomerania a tree already growing is employed. Similar = beliefs=20 may be cited from Western Africa, Oceanica (e.g., Banks Islands [16]),=20 Madagascar, Russia, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and England, and even = in China=20 traces of like customs are found.[17] In these cases fate of tree and = person are=20 so bound together that withering of or damage to the tree results in or=20 indicates harm to the person. Thus certain Nigerian tribes hold that a = tree has=20 the life or breath of a person in it, and that harm to either may mean = death to=20 the other.[18]

[14 Taylor, Te Ika a Maui, p. 184.

15. Burton, Wit and Wisdom from West Africa, p. 411.

16. Rivers, Melanesian Society i. 155.

17. Cases are collected in Hartland, Legend of Perseus, ii. 28 = ff.

18. Thomas, Anthropological Report, pp. 29, 31, et=20 passim.]

V

PARITY OF BEING

THIS opens the way to the next branch of the subject. If the human = soul could=20 reside in objects, why should not these objects themselves possess = spirits? The=20 evident conviction of early and primitive races as to the existence, = form, and=20 substance of the human soul has, it is believed, been adequately = presented in=20 the foregoing. But is the possession of soul limited by these races to = humanity?=20 Do primitive peoples regard other beings as also so endowed? The = definition of=20 animism already furnished involves an affirmative answer, but we must = look a=20 little further into this phase of the subject. There is an "epigram of = Christian=20 pantheism" which declares that "God sleeps in the stone, dreams in the = plant,=20 awakens in the animal, and is self-conscious in man."[1] This expresses = in=20 some

[1. Basil Wilberforce, Steps in Spiritual Growth, p. 50.=20 61]

degree what primitive man thought of things about him, except that he = would=20 have demurred at the idea of mere sleep or dream of the sentient in the = world of=20 the non-human. He doubtless from the beginning made himself the measure = of=20 things. And so, as was briefly shown at the beginning of this = discussion,[2] any=20 object in nature might be conceived by primitive or savage as a duality, = like=20 himself, the body of which was visible and tangible, and the soul, like = his own,=20 invisible except to the soul itself or to the skilled shaman. With the=20 untutored, nothing exists in nature but may give occasion to this = conception of=20 possession of soul. Omaha Indians represent this by the statement that = all forms=20 mark where Wakonda has stopped and brought them into existence. "Man . . = .=20 becomes literally a part of nature, connected with it physically and = related to=20 it psychically." So endowments of animals may be transferred to man, and = Wakonda=20 helps in answer to prayer by sending the animal which has the endowment = proper=20 to the end desired. This explains in part the "animal totem," found in = almost=20 exactly parallel form among the Tamaniu of

[2. pp.10 ff., above.]

the Banks Islands.[3] Another statement of the fact is the = following:

"The quality of savage mind which perhaps most profoundly illuminates = our=20 subject is its hazy sense of personality, the difficulty it experiences = in=20 marking off its 'self' from other selves; in other words, the absence of = sharp=20 dualisms. This is revealed in creation myths, in primitive notions of = kinship=20 and relationship, in the almost universal savage belief in = metamorphosis, in the=20 savage's identification of 'self ' with the name, shadow, dream-self, = likeness,=20 clothing and other property. . . . And the = wide-spread=20 belief in 'possession' by good or evil spirits further confirms the=20 principle."[4]

More advanced peoples may own to a complete animism. Examples are = found in=20 the advanced philosophies and religions of India. "Only last summer in a = conversation with an orthodox Brahman in Kashmir I discovered that he = regarded=20 everything in nature, down to separate stick and stone and blade = of

[3. A. C. Fletcher and F. La Flesche, in Twenty-seventh Annual Report = of The=20 Bureau of American Ethnology, p. 600; Rivers, Melanesian Society, i. = 154.

4. Todd, The Primitive Family as an Educational Agency, pp. = 9-10.]

grass, as possessed by its own spirit."[5] It is not wonderful that = man=20 should endow with life, soul, and power the great objects of nature, the = heavenly bodies, for instance. Nor can we wonder that such objects as a = volcano=20 with its manifestation of mysterious force, a mountain range which seems = to=20 clothe itself in clouds and to launch forth the avalanche, the sea, with = its=20 varied moods and mystery, that appals even the modern experienced = traveler, the=20 river with its ceaseless flow and its occasional devastations, the = forest with=20 its reaches of silence or its monotone under the soughing of the wind, = call up=20 convictions of dread personality. These things alone suffice to suggest = that=20 primitive man felt himself ever in the presence of mystery. Few objects = there=20 were but seemed to possess each its own basis for arousing admiration or = fear.

It is necessary here to inquire somewhat more minutely into the drift = of the=20 thoughts of primitive man concerning the things he saw or felt or = imagined. And=20 in doing this we are to recall that three avenues are open along which = to=20 advance in this inquiry. First

[1. Professor Hervey D. Griswold, in The Biblical World, Sept. = 1912,=20 p. 165.]

there is the avenue of cult, where definite acts of devotion or gift=20 (sacrifice) unfailingly indicate belief in the sentient and potent = capabilities=20 of the object addressed. It is obvious that even the most naive of = savages pay=20 no attention of this sort to objects which they conceive to be without = the=20 qualities of life, sensation, emotion, and power. The second avenue is = that of=20 folk-lore and mythology. To some this may appear trivial and unworthy of = serious=20 attention. Yet these are "the sedimentary deposits of the traditions of = remotely=20 distant epochs."[6] just as children's games and festivals in May or in = harvest=20 season recall and are founded on practices that once obtained in real = earnest,=20 so folk-tales encyst, like a fly in the amber or a fossil in the rock, = the=20 indications of life in some cases long past. In other instances not a = few they=20 represent thought that still lingers, if we but knew where to look for = it.=20 Stories of men and women transformed into beasts, either voluntarily or=20 involuntarily, of cats or hares which prove to be the forms witches = assume for=20 mischievous ends, seem to us foolish; the tales of were-wolves, told = in

[6. Cox, Introduction to Folk-lore, pp. 3-4.]

earnest even yet in parts of Europe, seem to the educated impossible = and=20 merely laughable. Yet we shall see that the modern African believes = them, and at=20 times looks askance at his neighbor who has the reputation of being an=20 "elephant-man" or a "leopard-man." The third avenue is that of beliefs = still or=20 recently current among savages comparatively or completely unaffected by = the=20 higher civilizations. Even in India which has so long been in contact = with the=20 culture of the West, old beliefs linger, often in passive but effective=20 resistance to more enlightened ideas, while in Africa and among the = indigenes of=20 the Americas and of Australia and Oceanica native forms of thought = continue,=20 sometimes but little adulterated, as where relationship is claimed by a = clan or=20 tribe with this or that genus of plant or animal life.

1. INANIMATE OBJECTS IN NATURE POSSESS SOUL

It seems superfluous here to cite cases of the belief which has = existed so=20 nearly universally that the sun, the planets, and the stars are living = objects=20 possessed of soul. The stage in which a deity is supposed to inhabit or = to rule=20 or to have as his special sphere of control one of these heavenly = objects=20 registers, of course, an advanced culture, when pure animism has given = way to a=20 higher mode of thought and a truer perception of facts.[7] But that once = these=20 objects were regarded as sentient is clear from poetry, myth, and = remainder in=20 folk-lore and song. Among Oceanicans the sun is in form like a man, but=20 possessed of fearful energy. He has many legs, and various other members = in=20 excess.[8] Worthy of special notice in this connection is the conception = of the=20 earth as the great mother, a belief that was historical in Babylonia, = Asia Minor=20 particularly, and in Greece, where it influenced in especial manner = practice and=20 ritual. Speaking of the Sumerians Langdon says:

"The nourishing life of earth, warmed by the sunshine, refreshed by = the=20 rains, furnished

[7. On Zeus as an example of this, see Cook's Zeus, p. 3, note 2.

8. Westervelt, Legends of Maui, pp. 50, 52. For a collection = of=20 indications of worship of the sun (itself proof of the way in which this = luminary was regarded), see the author's article in The New = Schaff-Herzog=20 Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, xi. 137-45; for star-worship,=20 ib., xi. 68-69; and for worship of the moon among the Hebrews,=20 ib., vii. 492-494.]

the prehistoric Sumerians . . . with their first god. And this deity = who=20 fostered all life was conceived of as a mother, unbegotten, genderless,=20 producing animal and vegetable life as a virgin. But primitive peoples = do not=20 think in abstract terms, nor do they produce ideas as abstract = principles. They=20 conceived the earth goddess under that form of life with which they were = most=20 familiar. In the case of this people the grape vine appears to have been = the=20 plant which appealed to them as most efficiently manifesting the power = of the=20 great mother. Hence they called this goddess 'Mother Vine-Stalk,' or = simply=20 'Goddess Vine-Stalk.'"[9]

In Nigeria the ground is an object which underlies many taboos, and = to it=20 sacrifices are offered of many kinds.[10] The feeling among the = Ibo-speaking=20 peoples seems much like that, if not the same, which governed in Greece = and Asia=20 Minor before the personalizing of the Great Mother.[11] At the other = extreme the=20 sky is regarded as father, though in the Egyptian myth, which speaks of=20 the

[9. Langdon, Tammuz and Ishtar, p. 43.

10. Thomas, Anthropological Report, i. ii, et = passim.

11. Cf, for instance, Harrison, Prolegomena, pp. = 260-271.]

separation of earth and heaven (a myth that is characterized by its = diffusion=20 or else is indigenous in many regions), curiously enough in a way = adumbrating=20 the theory of the evolutionary origin of the worlds and appearing in = Gen. 1, the=20 respective genders of earth and sky are reversed.[12]

But such faith is not confined to celestial objects and the earth. = Things=20 terrestrial, tangible or intangible, had each its own spirit and life. = Thus, to=20 group a number of these, winds, lightning, mountains, and forests are = sentient=20 beings. Thus of some Africans it is said that they hold that: "The wind = talks to=20 the forest and the forest to the wind. The tornado is often nothing more = than a=20 quarrel between mountain and forest, lightning and wind which latter is = a=20 servant of something else]; and we ourselves the Africans] may get hit = with the=20 bits."[13] Pima Indians think of Wind and Storm-cloud (Rain-man) as = supernatural=20 persons who once did menial

[12. For a descriptive picture of this separation, cf. Brugsch, = Religion=20 und Mythologie der Aegypter, p. 210, reproduced in Homiletic = Review,=20 Oct., 1912, p. 275. For a crude form of this myth of the separation of = heaven=20 and earth, see Westervelt, Legend; of Maui, pp. 31 ff.

13 Milligan, Fetish Folk of West Africa, p. 215.]

service for mortals, while Thunder also possesses personality, owns = fire, and=20 detects the thief of fire (the essentials of the story of Prometheus are = here);[14] and the notions of the Omahas are quite similar. The = Uriankhai of=20 Mongolia deify mountains, rivers, and the wind.[15] The Zulus regard = their=20 rainmakers as operating upon clouds as the Greeks thought of Zeus the=20 Cloud-gatherer, and to them cloud and lightning are still sentient = beings, alive=20 and full of power, though controlled by the medicine men.[16]

The sea is regarded in the same way. Hartland cites the case of the = ancient=20 Celts reported by =C6lian, supported in substance by native evidence = from Celtic=20 tradition, who used to meet the overflowing sea with drawn swords and = menacing=20 spears, employing the same methods as those used towards human enemies." = Mr.=20 Hartland refers also to the same notion as exhibited by the Malays and = reported=20 by Skeat. It would be easy to adduce testimony to this same effect from = Africa,=20 where the

[14. Fewkes, 28th Annual Report of Bureau of Am. Ethnology, = pp. 43,=20 47; Fletcher and La Flesche, 22d Report, passim.

15. Carruthers, Unknown Mongolia, i. 243.

16. Lang, Myth, Ritual, and Religion, i. 109.

17 Hartland, Ritual and Belief, pp. 161 ff.]

natives of the West shore offer sacrifice to the sea in order to = induce it to=20 grant an easy landing. In folk-lore this idea is transformed later in=20 culture-history into the kelpies and what-not that inhabit the waters; = but=20 students of folk tales have no doubt that in the original form the sea = was=20 regarded as possessing full personality with all that is involved.

It seems superfluous almost to cite cases of rivers which have = personality,=20 since classic stories abound which bear out the claim. Yet it is useful = to show=20 that such ideas are not confined to the literature of Greece.[18] For = instance,=20 a traveler who was being conveyed by canoe and paddle up a river was = persuaded=20 by the Africans to turn back because a cloud appeared over the stream, = and they=20 supposed that it was caused by the river in displeasure at the = profanation of=20 its waters by a stranger. In other cases the river is simply possessed = by a=20 spirit, to which offerings should be made in

[18. For citations of rivers regarded as divinities by Greeks the = reader may=20 consult Halliday, Greek Divination, pp. 116-117. He will find = there that=20 springs also come under the same category. Thus the spring at Kolophon = rendered=20 inspired the priest who drank it (Tacitus, Annals, ii. 54; Pliny, = ii.=20 103, 232). One recalls inevitably the many sacred springs throughout the = world,=20 the sanctity being but the attenuated form in which the old belief has = come down=20 to us.]

order that no calamity may be suffered in the crossing." The survival = in=20 poetry of the thought of a river as a person may be illustrated from the = Ramayana, where a river becomes the wife of a king (xv. 20:13), or falls = in love=20 and bears a son (xiii. 2:18). The Ganges is a daughter and a goddess, = becomes a=20 spouse and bears a son. In the days of wife-capture, primitives would = see in a=20 torrent into which a maiden had fallen a male capturing his wife; or, in = case of=20 a man falling in, they might think of a fierce female seizing a husband. = It will=20 be recalled that the Egyptians thought of the Nile as a short ugly male = with=20 huge woman's breasts, symbolizing the fertility which the river brought = to the=20 land. In New Guinea the rivers are besought as persons to make gifts of = fish to=20 the Mafulu.[20] In Mongolia they are deified.[20a] The views of fire as = a=20 person, having attributes that correspond, might be easily supported by=20 reference to the Vedic and Brahmanic teaching respecting Agni, whose = name=20 reappears in the Latin as ignis, fire.

[19 Roscoe, Baganda, pp. 318-319.

20. Williamson, South Sea Savage, p. 231.

20a. Carruthers, Unknown Mongolia, i. 243.]

The Kai of German New Guinea assert deliberately that fine has = soul.[21] One=20 might with profit investigate the background of the Zoroastrian notion = of the=20 extreme sanctity of fire, and the Aryo-Indian conceptions already noted = would be=20 found lurking therein. Similarly Malabars hold that a flame has life and = spirit,=20 and fear the ghost of a flame that has suddenly been quenched.[22]

The evidence of belief in the life and power, even of the divinity, = of rocks=20 and stones is too abundant to be cited at any length. In the Semitic = sphere=20 William Robertson Smith has offered irrefutable evidence of worship of = such=20 objects-worship, it will be seen at once, being evidence of belief in = possession=20 of attributes equivalent to soul and spirit by the object of = devotion.[21] It is=20 among the curiosities of history that the stones of Carnac in France and = of=20 Rollright in England are said to leave their positions and to go down to = the=20 sea, or to a spring to drink.[24] Africans report that a large stone = near a=20 village patrols

[21. Neuhass, Deutsch Neu-Guinea, iii. 143-144.

22. Folk-lore, v. 297 ff.

23. Kinship and Marriage in Early Arabia, and Religion of the=20 Semites.

24. Folk-lore, v. 297 ff.]

the outskirts of that village during danger.[25] A great rock in the = African=20 region inhabited by the Baganda is deemed sacred and is an object of = worship and=20 propitiation, and the same is true of a meteorite.[26] The stone of = Nimm, an=20 Etoi goddess, is now an attar, and this is doubtless but a development = from the=20 conception of it as endowed with life, as might be abundantly = illustrated from=20 other sources.[27] In Mongolia stones are among the objects of = worship.[28] In=20 Melanesia stones and rocks of many sorts receive offerings, and are = regarded=20 either as the homes of spirits or as being the possessors of these--the = two are=20 not so far apart; also in the Solomon Islands spirit is associated with = stone.=20 In the New Hebrides large rocks are especially sacred. Banks Islanders = regard=20 certain long stones as so much alive that they can draw out a man's soul = if his=20 shadow fall on them. In Florida Island any peculiarly shaped stone may = have life=20 and soul attributed to it.[29]

[25. D'Alviella, Hibbert Leaures, p. 54.

26. Roscoe, The Baganda, pp. 271-272, 290.

27. Talbot, In the Shadow of The Bush, pp. 171-172.

28. Carruthers, Unknown Mongolia, i. 56ff.

21 Codrington, Melanesians, pp. 119, 140, 143, 169, et = passim;=20 Williamson, South Sea Savage, p. 178.]

In many cases of this sort the attitude toward them seems to imply in = them a=20 kind of sanctity, which is however but a more developed way of thinking = and is=20 evidential of an earlier and cruder mode of thought. A survival of this=20 character is in evidence near Laguna, New Mexico, where seven jagged = rocks are=20 the prisons of seven spirits.[30] The stone of the Omaha sweat lodge was = regarded anthropopathically.[31] The case of the Baganda meteorite cited = above=20 is but one of many instances of the kind in which veneration has been = paid. The=20 two stones of the Kaaba at once occur to the mind .[32] Acts 19:35 = furnishes a=20 notable instance. One may recall the very numerous cases from ancient = Greece-the=20 sacred stone at Delphi, that at Hyettos, the thirty worshipped by the = Phar=E6ans,=20 the many Herm=E6 along the Greek roads referred to so often by the = classical=20 writers." These were worshipped and anointed with oil--compare the = treatment=20 accorded Jacob's pillar (above, p. 5).

[30. Quoted by Wallis in JRP, July 1912, from Southern = Workman,=20 Nov. 1910.

31. Fletcher and La Flesche, 27th Report, etc., pp. = 575-578.

32. New Schaf-Herzog Encyclopedia, vi. 289.

33 Theophrastus, Characteres ethici, xvi.; Pausanias, ed. = Frazer,=20 VIII. xxxiv. 3; X. xxiv. 6, etc.]

At Aneiteum in Melanesia stones thought to resemble objects of desire = or=20 striving received worship from various classes of people. Thus one that = was=20 fish-shaped was venerated by fishermen.[34]

To catalogue here the various objects in nature which have had life=20 attributed to them would require much space. Mention will be made of = only the=20 following in addition to those already adduced. The rainbow is a thing = of life=20 in Australia, inhabiting deep waterholes in the mountains; it is seen = only when=20 it is passing from one of these to another. Approximately the same = notion=20 obtains in Africa." Among the Baganda of Africa, rainwater is a totem = (i.e., it=20 is either an ancestor or an ally).[36] By Arabs the resin or gum from = which the=20 frankincense of commerce is derived is regarded as the blood of a tree, = the soul=20 of which is a divinity, and the gathering of the gum is attended by = special=20 ceremonies.[37] The Tshemsheans of Alaska find their devotional spirit = awakened,=20 as in the presence of a

[34. Turner, Samoa, p. 327.

35. Mathew, Eagle-hawk and Crow, p. 146; Missions = Catholiques,=20 no. 239, p. 592.

36. Roscoe, The Baganda, p. 140.

37. Zehnpfund, in New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, iv. = 372.]

supernatural being, by precipices, tidal waves, or indeed almost any = object=20 or phenomenon that is strange to them.[38]

2. SOUL IN THINGS ARTIFICIAL

A rather noted controversy over theories of language, and = incidentally of=20 myth and religion, once took place between Professors Max M=FCller and = Whitney, in=20 which, a little after the event, the late Andrew Lang took a hand. The = Oxford=20 scholar saw in myth "a disease of language," and Mr. Lang replied that = what the=20 data showed was a disease of thought. By this Mr. Lang intended to = convey the=20 idea that man was astray either in his observations or in the deductions = he made=20 from them. How far astray from the truth man often was we have already = seen. But=20 notions even more strange are yet to be cited. One of the earliest = literary=20 testimonies to the class of ideas to be noted in this section is found = in one of=20 the minor prophets, who declares:

"They (men) sacrifice unto their net, and burn incense unto their = drags;=20 because by them their portion is fat, and their meat

[38. Arctander, Apostle of Alaska, pp. 100 ff.]

plenteous.[39]" Here we have a fact stated, as well as the reason for = the=20 fact which can be duplicated from many different quarters even in our = own day.=20 Objects which were the product of man's own handicraft, the genesis of = which and=20 whole production and mode of use he knew, received his homage. Hunting=20 implements and those used in agriculture are by man endowed with life = and power=20 before which he bows in reverence. In India there is a festival lasting = three=20 days, observed in October by Hindoos of all castes, including the = Brahmins,=20 which has to do with the worship of all sorts of tools and implements. = In many=20 cases it is doubtless but the survival of a custom; in very many others, = however, the original element of ascription of life or divinity still=20 inheres.[40] It is not so very difficult to see the reason for the = primitive=20 mind's being affected in this way. Why should the mere scratching of the = earth=20 with a rude hoe and the deposition of a seed produce so bountiful and, = to it,=20 strange results? What did early man know of the chemistry of nature? Was = it not=20 the spirit in the hoe

[39. Habakkuk 1:16.

40. Cf. Thurston, Omens and Superstitions, pp. = 174-175.]

that made the gift of the harvest? If we were to study fetishism, we = should=20 discover that man believes that he can bring together "odds and ends" in = a=20 bundle or bag, and that a spirit will take up its abode there. Why = should not=20 with easy plausibility the hoe or net or drag equally be or become = animate? It=20 is perhaps not at all wonderful that in India particularly, perhaps = elsewhere,=20 the fire-drill was an object of devotion and conceived to be divine. = When we=20 recall the fact, now so familiar to us, but remaining to the Hindoos for = millenniums one of the arcana of nature, viz., that from a place where=20 apparently there was no fire, fire may be evoked, literally called into = being,=20 we can begin to appreciate in some small degree man's awe before such = phenomena.=20 We can find the same awe existing in Fiji, where, besides stones, = houses, and=20 canoes, tools of various sorts are credited with souls and believed to = be=20 immortal.[41] In the same region so isolated and insignificant a thing = as a=20 whale's tooth is credited with life and immortality; so the Fijian ghost = in the=20 spirit land on occasion throws at a pandanus tree the

[41. Williams, Fiji, i. 241.]

ghost of the whale's tooth that was buried with his body.[42]

Not less curious than the foregoing is the fact that food and the = like have=20 been and still are regarded as animate and possessed of spirit. The = ancient=20 Egyptians provided for the ka, soul or double of the deceased, = articles=20 of food, drink, or clothing, so that it need not suffer hunger, thirst, = or cold.=20 But the ka, being ethereal, did not use the things themselves, = but only=20 the parts of them that stood in the same relation to the things as the = ka=20 did to the deceased, i.e., their souls or doubles. So that there a = conception=20 wondrously like that of spirit or soul is attributed to articles of = food, drink,=20 and clothing. In the earlier stages of Egyptian civilization, the things = devoted=20 to the deceased were purposely mutilated; and it requires no stretch of = the=20 imagination, had we no contemporaneous testimony to the fact, to see in = this=20 mutilation of the offerings the same process as we are familiar with In = another=20 connection, viz., the killing of the offerings.[43] Just as slaves and = wives=20 were sent through the gates of death

[42. Williams, Fiji, i. 243 ff.

43. Ancient Egypt, ii (1914), 123.]

to serve their dead lord, so were implements, weapons, ornaments and = food. In=20 Nigeria around funeral shrines are fragments of household belongings, = which have=20 been broken so that their astral forms may be set free to be carried by = the=20 owner's shade to its spirit home.[44] In perfect agreement with this = trend of=20 thought, the Dyaks of Borneo bury with the body various utensils, and = hold that=20 these have spirits which the deceased takes along with him to his new = home and=20 puts to good use.[45] In Central Africa baskets, hoe-handles, pots that = have=20 been perforated, broken cups and the like are placed at graves, having = been=20 killed by breaking that their spirits may go to the spirit land there to = do=20 service.[46] In like fashion the Bakongos endow bottles, cloths, = umbrellas and=20 similar articles with spirit.[47] Talbot learned in Africa that to a = cloth can=20 be imparted personal qualities, so that it breaks out into speech.[48] = Even=20 ornaments may have soul, according to the Melanesians

[44. Budge, Osiris and the Egyptian Resurrection, ii. 119-120; = Talbot,=20 In the Shadow of The Bush, pp. 6 ff.

45. Gomes, Sea Dyaks of Borneo, pp. 138, 142

46. Werner, Native Races, pp. 155, 159.

47. Weeks, Primitive Bakongo, pp. 269, 272.

46. Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush, p. 226.]

of New Guinea, and their souls, evaporated by fire, are offered to = disease=20 demons which have operated by extracting a human soul from its = abode.[49] The=20 Kai of German New Guinea offer food and viands to the ghosts of their = dead,=20 which considerately eat only the soul thereof and leave the substance to = those=20 who offer.[50] It would seem from certain passages in the Old Testament = that the=20 conception once existed that even a part of the body might have = individual life=20 and power. Witness the expression, "El (God) of my hand" (Gen. 31:29; = Deut.=20 28:32; Micah 2:1; Prov. 3:27; Neh. 5:5).[51] Even so abstract a = conception as=20 the year receives homage as a personality among the Ibo-speaking = peoples, who,=20 by the way, place rivers among the great powers which they name=20 Alose.[51]

[49 Seligmann, Melanesians, pp. 189 ff.

50. Neuhass, Deutsch Neu-Guinea, iii. 145 ff., 489 ff., 513 = ff.

51. B. D. Eerdmans, in Expositor, Nov. 1913, p. 386.

52. Thomas, Anthropological Report, pp. 27 ff.]

3. SOUL OR SPIRIT IN THE VEGETABLE WORLD

If things so obviously inanimate as those we have just noticed could = be=20 regarded as possessing the attributes of life and soul, it is no wonder = that the=20 vegetable world was thought to exhibit the same qualities. The plant has = the=20 power of producing pregnancy in the human species, since leaf and flower = from=20 certain specified kinds of plants, falling on a woman, get her with = child.[53]=20 In Melanesia the Cycas and the Casuarina are sacred, and in folk-lore = the Cycas=20 becomes a maiden. Children also are believed to have sprung from trees, = fruits,=20 and other vegetable growths." In Australia the cones of the Casuarina = are=20 supposed to have eidola which, when released by burning, attack the eyes = of=20 bystanders and cause blindness--in all probability the stinging = character of the=20 smoke is thus explained.[55] Trees have souls, feel pain, and even hold=20 conversation, and this is not confined

[53. Roscoe, The Baganda, p. 48.

54. Codrington, Melanesians, p. 187; cf. Talbot, In the = Shadow of=20 the Bush, pp. 133-135.

55. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-east Australia, pp. 363, = 366,=20 376-377, 453]

to the larger growths, being extended to plants or shrubs, and some = skilled=20 humans have had the knowledge of plant language.[56] The fertilization = of trees=20 may be regarded as the result of desire and voluntative action. Malays = believe=20 implicitly in the souls of trees and consider it appropriate to make = offerings=20 to them.[57] The tree as oracle in Ancient Greece and elsewhere is a = well known=20 fact--cf. the sacred oak at Dodona, whose character is standing evidence = of=20 belief in its divinity, and this in ancient times included the idea of=20 intelligent life and soul. One might produce abundance of evidence of = ascription=20 of these possessions to plants from the phenomena of totemism, the idea = here=20 being either descent from or alliance with some particular species of = plant,=20 treatment of which was always respectful and like that accorded to = members of=20 the human tribe or clan. Thus, to cite but a single instance out of the = many=20 available, such plants as the bean, mushroom, and yam

[56. Talbot, In the Shadow of the Bush, pp. 30-36, 177-178, = 181, 287,=20 299-300; D'Alviella, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 53 ff. In the tale of = Anpu and=20 Bata (Petrie, Egyptian Tales, 2d series, pp. 48 ff.) the tree has = power=20 of speech.

57. Skeat, Malay Magic, pp. 194; Homiletic Review, = July, 1912,=20 pp. 14-15; Hartland, Legend of Perseus, ii. 441.]

occur as totems among the Baganda.[56] Among the Ibo-speaking peoples = trees=20 known as Ojuku and Ngu belong to the powers known as Alose, and so akin = to man=20 are certain trees that in the process of reincarnation their souls may = animate=20 human bodies.[57] The worship of the tree has received attention so = frequent and=20 elaborate as here not to call for extended treatment. From the British = Isles=20 across Europe and Asia evidence of this cult is abundant, and has been = increased=20 in the excavations which have brought to light the ancient Mycenaean and = Mediterranean civilizations. How widespread this worship has been in = India may=20 be seen from the sculpture still in existence, some of which has been=20 illustrated and studied by Fergusson.[60]

Among the Mafulu of New Guinea the yam is regarded as having = personality, and=20 possessing a sweetheart plant.[61] One of the most remarkable = testimonies to the=20 feeling of primitive man in reference to the forest is the following = from Lange;=20 speaking of an Indian alone in the bush:

[58. J. Roscoe, The Baganda, pp. 138-140.

59. N. W. Thomas, Anthropological Report, i. 27, 28, 31, et = passim.

60. Tree and Serpent Worship; cf. Homiletic Review, = July,=20 1912.

61. Williamson, South Sea Savage, pp. 233 ff.]

"It appears to the Indian that he is beside himself; he feels strange = exterior influences of an almost overwhelming character, foreign to men = who are=20 only used to a civilized life and whose path is far away from the = wilderness. It=20 appears to him now that an invisible and almost irresistible force is = trying to=20 attract him, and to lead him deeper and deeper into the forest, perhaps = there to=20 perish. He feels the sense of fear; he argues with himself: 'The forest = wants to=20 destroy me, to kill me, to absorb me.' After he returns to his hut, he = says: 'I=20 was hunting, the forest wanted to kill me, and got me almost into its = power, but=20 I escaped and I have returned safely.'"[62]

4. SOUL OR SPIRIT IN ANIMALS

If the principle of "parity of being" involves the conception of life = and=20 soul in inanimate objects and in the plant world, a fortiori we should = expect=20 that animals would be endowed, in the mind of primitives, with the same=20 qualities. Here again no exhaustive examination and collection of cases = can be=20 presented,

[62. Lange, The Lower Amazon, p. 424.]

so extensive is the evidence. What will be offered will show simply = the range=20 of the idea and the completeness with which it is carried out.

"In all African fables the various animals are but thinly disguised = human=20 beings."[63] Even the lower forms of animal life, such as the starfish, = indeed=20 totally mythical examples of this species, have been regarded as = possessed of or=20 as being spirit. Thus in the Murray River region of Australia a huge = starfish is=20 supposed to be a spirit and to inhabit a deep water hole.[64] Animals = like=20 lions, leopards, crocodiles, sheep, reptiles, and others have ghosts = that are=20 dangerous after death and must be placated or guarded against.[65] Ainus = treat=20 as a god a captive bear, and when it is killed for food, some of its own = flesh=20 is offered to it as a sacrifice.[66] Many other peoples in different = quarters of=20 the world-American Indians, Malays, and so on-treat with pretended or = real honor=20 the game animal they slay, or attempt to cajole it or deceive = it,

[63. Milligan, Fetish Folk of West Africa, p. 215.

64. Taplin, Narrinyeri, p. 138.

65. Roscoe, The Baganda, pp. 288-289.

66. Batchelor, Ainus and Their Folk-lore, pp. = 486-496.]

just as they would attempt to cajole or deceive one of their own = species if=20 success seemed likely, in order that its spirit or its blood kin may not = avenge=20 its slaughter. Malays will cry out to a tiger which they have trapped = that=20 "Mohammed set the trap," so as to send its spirit on a false scent when = it=20 starts out for revenge.[67] Among the Dyaks the crocodile when caught = "is=20 addressed in eulogistic language and beguiled, so the people say, into = offering=20 no resistance. He is called a rajah among animals, and is told that he = has come=20 on a friendly visit and must behave accordingly. . . . Though the animal = is=20 spoken to in such flattering terms before he is secured, the moment . . = . he is=20 powerless for evil, they deride him for his stupidity."[68] Their = treatment of=20 bears and tigers is quite similar. Few facts could more emphatically = demonstrate=20 the complete parity of animals with man, as conceived by various races, = than the=20 remarkable one that animals have been credited with organization into = kinships,=20 families, societies, and governments, and

[67. Skeat, Malay Magic, p. 167; cf. Charlevoix, Journal = d'un=20 voyage dans 1'Am=E9rique septentrionale, v. 173.

68. Gomes, Sea Dyaks of Borneo, pp. 59-60.]

that they are held to perform even worship.[69] The extreme example = of what=20 Andrew Lang called "disease of thought" in this direction has already = been=20 noted, in the cases where man regards himself indifferently as a = cassowary or=20 some other totem gens, or on the other hand considers the animal species = as the=20 same as himself.[70] This curious operation of the mind may be further=20 illustrated by two other examples. The islanders of Mabuiag say of the = cassowary=20 that "he all same as relation, he belong same family," and Alaskans took = the=20 first Russians whom they saw for cuttle fish because of the buttons on = their=20 clothes." It is, after this, no subject for wonder if a Zuni Indian see = in a=20 turtle or rabbit or hedgehog the embodiment of one of his ancestors, or = that a=20 totem clan can trace origins back to planet or sun, to bird, beast, or=20 reptile.[72] The complete parity of different states of existence is = here in=20 evidence; and implicit

[69. Illustrations of monkeys performing the acts of worship are = abundantly=20 found in the sculptures of India; cf. worship of the sacred tree in = Fergusson's=20 Tree and Serpent Worship, and Homiletic Review, July, = 1912.

70. See p. 8.

71. Frazer, Golden Bough 2, ii. 388 ff.

72. F. Cushing, in Century Magazine, May, 1883; and Zuni = Tales,=20 passim.]

always, explicit most of the time, is the idea of possession of = spirit or=20 soul, though the conception is necessarily vague.

Further testimony is furnished by the peoples who hold that animals, = birds,=20 and the like understand human speech, have languages of their own, talk, = perform=20 the operations of reason, engage in trade, are subject to passions, = yield to=20 coaxing, blandishment or deception, play tricks on each other and on = humans,=20 scheme for each other's hurt or death, and perform many humanlike = actions.[73]=20 The Melanesians attribute to the snake the power of articulate speech; = and the=20 dog is equally well endowed, if we may listen to the Blacks of = Australia.[74]=20 Africans of the Niger region are not alone in giving speech and reason = to the=20 parrot, and they know that a hawk takes a tree as a wife.[75] These = cases are=20 curiously duplicated among the Pima Indians, where the dog used to have = the=20 power to speak, and

[73. Roscoe, The Baganda, pp. 467-483; cf. the collection of = cases in=20 Frazer, Taboo, ii. 169-273, 398-404, of incidents showing = treatment of=20 animals as though possessed of the sentimentalities, etc., of human = beings; note=20 the speech of cattle, etc., in the "Tale of Anpu and Bata," Petrie, = Egyptian=20 Tales, ii. 48 ff.

74. Codrington, Melanesians, p. 151; Fison and Howitt, = Kamilaroi=20 and Kutnai, p. 218.

75. Talbot, In the Shadow of The Bush, pp. 252, 253,=20 299-300.]

an eagle took the form of an old woman and seized and carried off a = girl as a=20 wife. A legendary personage also becomes a snake, and another named = Tonto drinks=20 "medicine" and becomes an eagle.[76] The folk-lore of India is rich in = this sort=20 of tale. Animals, led by the crafty jackal (which takes the place of the = fox in=20 the Occident), not only talk and lay deep plots, but ad in all ways like = humans.=20 And the same is true of the feathered tribes. It is of course not = strange that=20 the parrot should talk, but other birds are as well endowed, so the = report goes,=20 and, besides, know how to cure diseases. Wild elephants are worshipped = by the=20 Kadirs of India. The dogs, pigs, and other domestic animals of the dead = at=20 Tubetube, British New Guiana, have spirits which find their owners in = the spirit=20 land.[77]

A reader who knew nothing of the interpretation of the serpent in = Gen. 3=20 which has been current in Jewish and Christian circles

[76. Fewkes, 28th Report, etc., pp. 44, 45, 48, 52.

77. Cf. Day, Folk-Tales of Bengal, p. 134; Steel and Temple,=20 Wide-awake Stories, pp. 66-67; Thurston, Omens and = Superstitions,=20 p. 83; Parker, Village Folk Tales of Ceylon, pp. 113 ff. 122 ff., = p 209=20 ff., 213 ff., et passim; Brown, Melanesians and = Polynesians, pp.=20 443 ff.; Williamson, South Sea Savages, p. 65.]

would see in that deceiver an animal cast in the form of primitive = belief,=20 endowed with cunning and with power of speech--an animal, and nothing = more. The=20 reading which makes of it a form assumed by the devil for purposes of = guile=20 belongs to a much later age than the story itself. In many lands one may = find=20 stories parallel to this one regarded as an animistic "left-over." The = early=20 Egyptians could tell of a serpent tribe that had reason, speech, = organized=20 society, government, and manners that some modern nations might copy to = their=20 own credit and the comfort of their neighbours. They had stories that = dealt with=20 walking and winged serpents, such as Eve's beast apparently was before = the=20 curse. And in our own day the Ekoi of West Africa know of reptiles that = once had=20 hands and feet and led a family life.[78] In Melanesia the snake is (or = is=20 associated with) spirit." On the worship of the serpent much has been = collected,=20 and more is continually coming to light." The complete parity of this=20 animal

[78. Petrie, Egyptian Tales, i. 81 ff.; Talbot, In the = Shadow of=20 the Bush, pp. 374-377.

79. Codrington, Melanesians, p. 189.

80. Cf. the article "Serpent" etc. in The New Schaff-Herzog=20 Encyclopedia, x. 363-370; Schlegel, Schl=FCssel zur = Ewe-Sprache, p. 14;=20 Milligan, Fetish Folk of West Africa, pp. 233-234; and the two notable = volumes=20 of Miss Harrison, Prolegomena, and Themis, where the = dominance of=20 the serpent idea and its continuance are none the less markedly = exhibited in=20 that this particular phase is not at all the main thesis of her works, = and is=20 therefore incidental and the more striking.]

with man in these respects is illustrated farther by the fact that = the snake=20 may wed with mortals.[81]

[81. Thurston, Omens and Superstitions, p. 91.]

VI

BELIEF IN "FREE SPIRITS"

IT is not to be supposed that life, soul, spirit, possessing = emotional,=20 volitional, and factual potency, was limited in savage man's conception = to the=20 tangible and visible. If the soul of man was itself invisible, and if = soul were=20 a possession of plants, animals, and other natural objects, yet = perceived only=20 by its operations, why should there not be other souls "loose in the = universe,"=20 unseen and unfelt except as they revealed themselves by their activities = or=20 manifestations to the world of sense? So man seems to have reasoned, and = this=20 belief abides today in the minds of the mass of mankind, even in = Christendom.=20 Spirits, unfixed so to speak, having form and substance, indeed, but not = body,=20 roamed free and unfettered in air, on land, in the waters. They lurked = in nook=20 and cranny, behind bush and tree and rock; they came in storm and wind; = they=20 inhabited the woods, floated in the atmosphere, swam in the sea and in = lake and=20 stream, parched in the desert, bid in cave or roamed on mountain top. = Wherever=20 mystery is possible, there man imagines non-human spirits to exist. A = suggestion=20 of the enormity of the numbers of spirits whose existence is conceived = is given=20 by the following from the strongly animistic Shinto faith of Japan in=20 comparatively modern times.

"Reverently adoring the great god of the two palaces of Ise (the = sun-goddess)=20 in the first place, the 800 myriads of celestial karma the 800 myriads = of=20 ancestral kami, all the 1,500 myriads to whom are consecrated the great = and=20 small temples in all provinces, all islands and all places in the great = land of=20 eight islands, the 1,500 myriads of kami whom they cause to serve them. = . . . I=20 pray with awe that they will deign to correct the unwitting faults = which, heard=20 and seen by them, I have committed, and, blessing and favouring me = according to.=20 the powers which they severally wield, cause me to follow the divine = example,=20 and to perform good works in the way."[1]

Examples at almost any length might be

[1. Quoted by Carpenter, Comparative Religion, p. 93, from a = morning=20 prayer by Hirata, a Japanese (1776-1843).]

cited from modern works of contemporaries. Only a few instances will = be given=20 here simply to illustrate the principle. Central Australians believe in = the=20 existence of Wullunqua, a dread spirit which inhabits a deep water = hole.[2] And=20 other tribes of that continent have similar traditions, such as the = Narrinyeri,=20 who know of a like spirit, the Mulgewauke.[3] By the inhabitants of New = Guinea=20 spirits, non-human, are supposed to inhabit any place with unusual = physical=20 charaderistics--waterfall, pool, queer-shaped rock, or the like.[4] Of = the=20 Guiana native Im Thum says:

"His whole world swarms with beings. He is surrounded by a host of = them,=20 possibly harmful. It is therefore not wonderful that the Indian fears to = be=20 without his fellow., fears even to move beyond the light of his = camp-fire, and=20 when obliged to do so, carries a fire-brand with him, that he may have a = chance=20 of seeing the beings among whom he moves."[5]

Truly the angelology and demonology of advanced faiths have a long=20 ancestry.

[2. Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes, etc., = passim.

3. Taplin, Narrinyeri, pp. 48, 91.

4. Williamson, Ways of South Sea Savage, p. 283

5. Among the Indians of Guiana.]

As already suggested, the groundwork for such a faith was already = laid in the=20 observations and deductions regarding man's soul. If in sleep his spirit = could=20 go forth unseen by companions who were near, in order that it might = perform the=20 deeds of the dream state so real to the savage; if it were true that a = faint=20 were caused by the temporary desertion of its home by the soul; if at = death it=20 could depart without detection by those intent in their watch over the = ailing,=20 and reveal its invisibility by going forth unseen to a disembodied = existence,=20 why should there not be numerous other spirits - either temporarily or=20 permanently and by nature bodiless - abroad in the universe? This would = be=20 normal reasoning, and was actual. The belief is so well known, evidences = of it=20 are so easily accessible, that direct demonstration here is hardly = obligatory.=20 As a matter of fact, in parts of our discussion yet to come, the proof = will=20 appear incidentally, so that to give it here would be but to duplicate = what is=20 both implicit and explicit in testimony on another but related line of=20 investigation.

In a recent paragraph the words "angelology" and "demonology" were = employed,=20 and in their use there is implicit a fundamental philosophy which has = swayed the=20 conceptions, awakened the hopes and aroused the fears, helped to form = the cults,=20 and controlled the actions of men in all ages and climes for which = direct=20 testimony is adducible. The dualism of substance, body and spirit, = inherent in=20 the notions of animism is paralleled by a coincident dualism of = character. There=20 were good spirits and bad, white spirits and black. And this character = was=20 determined by their supposed favor or disfavor toward man. There were = also good=20 spirits which by reason of their emotional natures were capable of = showing=20 inimical traits, while the bad might be pacified, rendered innocuous or = even=20 friendly, by the appropriate treatment.

This is, of course, but the reflection of men's interpretation of = their own=20 nature and experiences, the result of their reasoning about that nature = and=20 those experiences. Sometimes enterprises went awry without any cause to = them=20 discoverable; again, good fortune attended their ventures, and this in = spite of=20 what seemed to them legitimate fears and untoward beginnings. But on the = hypothesis of hosts of invisible beings all about them, good or ill = fortune was=20 fully accounted for by the direction or interference of these spirits in = man's=20 favor or against him. To any event or happening otherwise unaccountable = a cause=20 was assigned in the action of spirits which worked when, where, and how = they=20 pleased. And as the human being was amenable to gift or praise or = request, so=20 would the spirits yield to similar courses of treatment. As he was vexed = or=20 angered by opposition to his will or by actual harm, so, he reasoned, = the=20 spirits could be enraged by human doings contrary to their desires. Once = more,=20 just as he might, when angered, be placated by use of the proper means, = so would=20 the spirits be soothed and rendered benign were they properly = approached. As he=20 succumbed or gave way before force greater than his own or was overcome = by craft=20 and cunning, the spirits too must yield if force majeure could be = brought=20 to bear on them or if they could be outwitted.

VII

"FREE SPIRITS"-THEIR CONSTITUTION AND ACTIVITIES

THE existence and great numbers of spirits which are, so to speak, = "free" in=20 the universe have just been shown and discussed.[1] We have noted, too, = how=20 readily enters here all that we are accustomed to call miraculous. Only = we have=20 constantly to remember that what we call by that name is to primitive = people in=20 full accordance with nature as they understand it. The very conception = of=20 miracle implies arrival at the thought of a certain uniformity of = nature,=20 invariability of cause and effect outside of which the unexpected may = happen -=20 and does. It now remains to consider the constitution and activities of = the=20 "free" spirits referred to above. A poetical description, having its = origin in=20 Babylonia, may here be quoted and serve as a starting point.

[1. Above, pp. 97 ff.]

Great storms sent from heaven, are they,
The owl that hoots in the = city,=20 are they,
Of Anu's creation,[2] children born of earth, are = they,
The=20 highest walls, the broadest walls, like a flood, they pass,
From = house to=20 house they break through,
No door can shut them out,
No bolt can = turn them=20 back,
Through the door like a snake, they glide,
Through the hinge = like a=20 wind, they blow.[2a]

Indeed their substance is even more subtle than this account = indicates. They=20 can invade a body already possessed by its own spirit and dominate that = body for=20 good or evil, or even drive out the native spirit and autocratically = rule the=20 captured body. The capture may be temporary or permanent. The words = "demoniac"=20 in English, {=E9ntheos} and; {nymphtholeptos}[3] in Greek, = express=20 the two facts of "possession" for evil or for good. Similarly

[2. Assyr. lit. "outpouring," i.e., of semen.

2a. From cuneiform tablet V, lines 18-35, in the Utukki = Limnuti series=20 (Cuneiform Texts XVI. plate 2); translation kindly furnished by the Rev. = Professor Robert W. Rogers, D.D., LL.D., of Drew Theological Seminary, = Madison,=20 N. J.

3. Plato, Ph=E6drus, 238, 241.]

the word "ecstasy" (Greek {=E9kstasis})[4] sets forth the = belief in the=20 temporary departure from the body of its own spirit, sometimes for = communion=20 apart from the body with other spirits; and another Greek word,=20 {enthysiasm=F3s}, denotes the entrance into the human organism of = a=20 superhuman spirit and the consequent elevation of feeling and surge of = emotion.=20 Though the examples thus far cited register the conceptions of peoples = advanced=20 in culture, like Greeks, Romans, and Babylonians, they are not the = possession=20 exclusively of such; indeed they are survivals from a cruder age. = Primitive=20 peoples low in the scale of culture entertain them. Such folk think of = the=20 spirits as pervasive and subtle, to whom no doors are closed; as = entering with=20 equal facility portals barred with the grosser materials--wood, iron, or = stone--or with the living flesh.[5]

While thus in a manner insubstantial and ethereal in constitution, = like=20 discarnated human spirits, they have needs, wants, and preferences to = which the=20 material may minister. If the gods in the Babylonian epic of the

[4. New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia, iv. 71-72.

5. Murray, Ancient Egyptian Legends, pp. ii ff.]

deluge could smell the savor of the postdiluvian offering and "hover = like=20 flies over the sacrifice,"[6] not less susceptible to appeals offered by = material substance are the spirits now under consideration. They have = the=20 enjoyments and repulsions of the senses - smell, taste, even grosser = physical=20 passions,[7] and so are propitiable or susceptible of anger. While free = to roam,=20 they have chosen homes and haunts all their own,[8] though they may = become=20 localized in objects of nature, as in India,[9] where so often a stone = is the=20 seat of deity, and among the Fang and Mpongwe, so that it seems as if = nature is=20 lawless and hostile.[10]

As for disposition, since primitive man measures all things by = himself, only=20 intensifying the idea of power--through the use of his imagination, = where the=20 element of mystery enters--it would be expected that spirits would be = good,=20 evil, or neutral except when

[6. Rogers, Cuneiform Parallels, p. 98.

7 Frazer, Scapegoat, pp. 112-113; Gen. 6: 1-4; Tobit 8:1-3; = Skeat,=20 Malay Magic, p. 213; Gomes, Sea Dyaks of Borneo, pp. = 194-204;=20 Thomas, Anthropological Report, p. 127.

8. Keller, Madagascar, p. 98.

9. Methodist Recorder (London), July 10, 1913.

10 Milligan, Fetish Folk, p. 279.]

conciliated or offended,[11] that good spirits could be aroused to = wrath by=20 neglect or affront, while evil spirits could be appeased, mollified, or = at least=20 rendered harmless by right measures. Some of these spirits are portrayed = as=20 jealous and envious, particularly hostile to strangers, and disliking to = hear=20 praise of those mortals or their progeny who inhabit the land where = these=20 spirits live.[12] New Guineans, however proud of wife, children, or = possessions,=20 never praise them but always speak in deprecatory terms. They also = dislike to go=20 into the region of another tribe, even for medical treatment, lest the = spirits=20 there resident be offended and work them harm.[13] It will be seen at = once how=20 these beliefs affect habits of travel and social intercourse.

The varied names of different kinds of spirits are probably a legacy = from=20 very early times. We may gather something from our own folk-lore, which = mentions=20 fairies and pixies, gnomes, trolls, fauns, satyrs, and dwarfs, elves, = vampires,=20 and goblins, sirens, mermaids,

[11. Cox, Folk-lore, chap. III.

12 Parker, Village Folk Tales of Ceylon, i. 16, et = passim.

12. Newton, In Far New Guinea, pp. 86, 120.]

and kelpies, nymphs, dryads, and naiads, and all their ilk, whose = existence=20 and habits are better known to nurses and nursery children than to the=20 unimaginative scientist. While these creatures are not indeed the free = spirits=20 of whom we are speaking, they illustrate the belief in such spirits. For = these=20 familiars of childhood are no modern creation, they are survivals of=20 pre-Christian faith, and like the free spirits have all the variety that = wild=20 imagination could conjure.[14]

It must not be forgotten, moreover, that the same fate may overtake = them as=20 could threaten gods themselves in ancient Egypt-they were not above the = hap of=20 death. In Ceylon the Yaka (a sort of evil spirit) is mortal.[15] It may = be that=20 out of this thought grew some of the notions respecting the mentality of = spirits. We have seen that they are placable and conciliable; they are = also=20 compellable and beguilable--by bluff, magic, or threat or use of means=20 productive of results pleasant or repugnant to them.[16]

[14 Thomas, Anthropological Report, p. 27.

15. Parker, Village Folk Tales, pp. 143, 265, 274.

16. Tobit, 8:1-3; D'Alviella, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 87 ff.; = Batchelor,=20 Ainu, pp. 42-43; Furness, Head-hunters, pp. 16-17; Weeks, = Congo=20 Cannibals, pp. 267 ff.; Kloss, In the Andamans, pp. 230=20 ff.]

It will at once appear how fruitful this idea is in connection with=20 shamanism. Sometimes the only control of spirits and salvation of the = people is=20 through shamans.[17] The Wollunqua of Central Australia, a snake spirit, = can be=20 either pacified or coerced by magical ceremonies into doing no harm to=20 celebrants of certain rites.[18] The Narrinyeri often have a mock fight = in=20 pretense of avenging a death accredited to sorcery.[19] Some Australians = are=20 particularly assured that these spirits may be outwitted.[20] The = Ceylonese are=20 convinced that a Yaka (the man-eating demon referred to above).[21] may = be=20 bluffed into good behavior. The Ainu of Japan also regard spirits as=20 beguilable.[22]

If spirits are compellable, submissive to control by mortals such as = medicine=20 men and the like, the way is open for a whole series of attacks in which = not=20 only the wills of the spirits but those of mortals, friends, = and

[17. Carruthers, Unknown Mongolia, i. 150 ff.

18. Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes, p. 238.

19 Taplin, Narrinyeri, p. 21.

20. Curr, Australian Race, i. 87; Howitt, Native = Tribes, pp.=20 463, 473, 481.

21 Parker, Village Folk Tales, p. 149.

22 Batchelor, Ainu, pp. 42-43.]

enemies combine to the resultant weal or woe of human beings. = Wizardry and=20 sorcery, with their awful fears and dread results, enter by this as by = other=20 doors. And this is by no means always sheer imposture, as the following=20 shows.

"The sorcerer believes in his own power, and the people believe in it = too.=20 Certainly the New Guinea philosophy of life is that nothing happens to = man=20 without some cause; no man dies a natural death, all suffering and = sickness is=20 due to evil spirits which people this world, and as, like many of his = white=20 brethren, he is quite prepared to take the good things of life = unquestioning,=20 and only to look for causes when evil comes, there is no place in his = philosophy=20 for good spirits; the good is but the normal state undisturbed by the=20 machinations of evil spirits, and the evil spirits are usually set to = work by=20 some human agent. Though it seems that while the sorcerer may use = charms,=20 working through the hair that has been mislaid when the head was shaven, = or=20 through the footprints, he is powerful enough to work at times more = directly. He=20 is probably a man of stronger character than his fellows--like other = trades, it=20 runs in certain families -and the very fact that he believes in his = power, and=20 others believe in it, tends to make him independent and strong in = character. He=20 thrives on his reputation, and levies blackmail on all and sundry till = some evil=20 day when patience has been exhausted, and an opportunity offers to put = him out=20 of the way. Ordinarily he is safe, for no one will touch him or = interfere with=20 him unless he can be taken by surprise, and there are always sufferers = ready to=20 take the first chance of doing that. How they used to terrorize the = neighborhood=20 and take toll! One old ruffian, whose reputation had spread far and = wide, could=20 go to villages far from home, and walk off with anything he fancied, the = people=20 sitting mum not daring to say a word, or hiding and skulki