§ 173^ Do we not in these observances see the beginnings of a Worship? If tihe East Africans^ as Livingstone tells us> think the souls of departed chiefs enter into liond and lender them sacred; we may conclude that sacredness will equally attach to i^e animals whose human souls were aneesttlaL If the Cotigo people^ holding this belief aboiHt lions^ tiiink '' the lion spares thosd whom he meets^ when he is courteously saluted^'; the implication is that there will be propitiations of the beast-chief who was the pmgenitor of the tribe. Prayers and offerings may be expected to develop into a cult^ and the animal-namesake to become a deity.
When^ therefore^ among the North American Indians^ whose habit of naming from animals still continues^ and whosd legends of animal-progehitors are so specific, we find animals taking rank as creators and divinities — when wt3 read in Bancroft that " ' raven ' and ' wolf ' are the names of t-fae two gods of the Klinkits, who are supposed to be the foukiders of the Indian race '* 5 we have just the result to he anticipated. And when of this tribe we further t*ead that " the Baven trunk is agi^ divided into sab-clans, called the Progj the Goose) the Sea-Lion^ the Owl, and the Salmon,'* while '' thte Wolf family comprises the Bear, Eagle> Dolphin, Shark, and Alca ^^; we see that deification of the ancestor under the animal form follows the same course as deification of the ancestor under the human form. In either case, more recent progenitors of sub-i^ibes acquire a sacredness second to that of the ancient progenitors of the entire tribe.
Guided by these various clues, we cannot, I think, hesitate AKlMAL-WORSHH?. 8^7 to infer tbat much of the diaveloped amixiaU);<^orBhi{> of the ancient historic racB8> grew ottt of this misinterpretation of nicknames. Even noW, among partialiy-oivilized peoples^ the re-genesis of such worship is shown OBt In the appendix to Fmir Years in Ashantiee^ wid read that certain of the kihg's attendants) whose duty il is to p)*aise him^ or *'give him names/' cry out *imong other titles— *'• Bore/' (the name of a Venomous serpent) '' you are most l^eantiful, but your bite is deadly/' As these Afrloian kingd oidinarily undergo apotheosis — as this laudatory titl\e ''Bore/' may he ejqpected to sUl^ve Vilong with the oilier titles^ and to be used in propitiations — «« th© Zulus^ #ho> led by another suggestion, think dead men become 6nakes> distinguish certain Venomous snakes as chiefs $ w\d Inust adm^t that from this complimentary nickname of a king who became a god, may readily grow tip the worship of a sei-pent — a serpent who, neverthetess, had a hutoian history. Similarly when we h&k What is likely to happeh from the animal-name by which the king is honoured in Madagascar.
As Ellis tells us in his history — ^ ' God is gon\6 to the west — Eadama is a mighty bull,' Were expi-essions used by the Malagasy women in their songs in piraise of their king, who was absent on a warlike expedition." Here we have the three titles simultaneously applied — the god> the kin|^, the bull. If, then, we read that by the Egyptian*, evten in their later times, the king was deified^ — ^it the same papyrus which shows us Bameses II. invoking hi6 father as a god, also cbntains the title ^' conquering bull," giVeA to Bameses by thfe subjugated; can We doubt that ficoto like occurrences in earlfer times arose the Worship of Apis T Can We doubt that the bovine deities of the Hindus, the Assyrians, and bther ancient peoples, similarly origiuated f So that misinterpretation of metaphorical titles which inevitably occurs in early speech, being given, the rise of animal-worship is a natural sequence. Mammals, birds, rfeptiles, fishes, all yield nicknames; are all in one place or 868 THE DATA OF SOOIOLOOT.
other regao^ded as progenitors; all acquire^ among this or that people^ a sacredness rising in many cases to adoration. Even where the nickname was one of reproach — even where the creature is of a kind to inspire contempt rather than respect^ we see that identification with the ancestor explains worship of it. The Veddahs, who are predominantly ancestor-worshippers, also worship a tortoise. Though among them the reason is not traceable, we find an indication of it elsewhere. Mr. Bates, during his Amazon explorations, had two attendants sumamed Tortoise; and their surname had descended to them from a father whoso slowness had suggested this permanent nickname. Hero we see the first step towards the formation of a tortoise tribe; having the tortoise for ancestor, totem, deity.
§ 174. Some strange facts, completely explicable on the hypothesis above set forth, may be added. I refer to the worship of beings represented as half man half brute.
If, in the genealogy of future Ashantee kings, tradition preserves the statement that their ancestor was the venomous serpent " Bore " — ^if there goes down to posteriiy the fact that '' Bore '* was a ruler, a law-maker, an articulate speaking person — ^if legend says both that he was a snake and that he was a man; what is likely to happen? Believing implicitly all he is told by his seniors, the savage will accept both these assertions. In some cases he will sit down contentedly under the contradiction; in others he will attempt a compromise. Especially if he makes a graphic or sculptured effigy, will he be led to unite the incongruous characters as best he can — ^will produce a figure partly human and partly reptilian. It cannot be reasonably doubted that if Malagasy stories and songs tell of the conquering Badama as " a mighty bull,'' as a king, as a god, development of the resulting cult, joined with development of the plastic arts, may end in a representation of the god Radama either as a man or as a bull, or as a bull-headed AKIMAL-WOBSHIF. 869 man, or as a creature having a bovine body with a human head.
In another way is this type of deity suggested by misinterpretation of metaphorical titles. Ancestors who survive in legends under their animal-names, and of whom the legends also say that they took to wife ancestors bearing either different animal-names or human names, will be supposed to have had offspring combining the attributes of both parents. A passage from Bancroft's account of the Aleutians shows us the initial stage of such a belief.
" Some say that in the beginning a Bitch inhabited Unalaska, and that a great Dog swam across to her from Eadiak; from wMch pair the human race have sprang. Others, naming the bitch-mother of their race Mahakh, describe a certain Old Man, called Iraghdadakh, who came from the north to Tisit this Mahakh. The result of this visit was the birth of two creatures, male and female, with such an extraordinary mixing up of the elements of nature in them that they were each half man half fox."
Now such a legend, or such a kindred one as that of the Quiches concerning the descent of mankind from a cavedwelling woman and a dog that could transform himself into a handsome youth, or such a one as that of the Dikokamenni Kirghiz, who say they are descended " from a red greyhound and a certain queen with her forty handmaidens,'' can hardly fail to initiate ideas of compound gods. Peoples who advance far enough to develop their rude effigies of ancestors placed on graves, into idols inclosed in temples, will, if they have traditions of this kind, be likely to represent the creators of their tribes as dogheaded men or human-faced dogs.
An intelligible origin for the hybrid deities which so many semi- civilized people have had, is thus furnished. The Chaldeans and Babylonians had in common their god Nergal, the winged man-lion, and also Nin, the fish-god — a fish out of which grew near its head a human head, and near its tail human feet: the adjacent Philistines, too, having their kindred god Dagon, with the face and hands of a man BB BB and the tail of a fish.. Then in Assyria there was the winged man-bnll^ representative of Nin; and in Phoenicia there was Astarte^ sometimes represented as partially human and partially bovine. Egypt had a great variety of these compound supernatural beings. In addition to the god Ammon^ figured as a man with a ram^s head, Horus, with the head of a hawk, the goddesses Muth and Hathor with that of a lion and that of a oow, Thoth with that of an ibis, Typhon with that of an ass, and brute-headed demons too numerous to mention; we have the various sphinxes, which to a lion^s body unite the heads of men, of rams, of ikawks, of snakes, etc. We have also more involved compounds as winged mammals with hawks' heads, and winged crocodiles with hawks' heads. Nay, there was even one named Sak, which, says Wilkinson, " united a bird, a quadruped, and a vegetable production in its own person.'^ Such grotesque conceptions, of which otherwise there seems no feasible explanation, are explicable as due to the misinterpretation of several metaphorical names borne by the same person. We have seen that to the present king of Ashantee both '^ Lion '' and '^ Snake '* are given as names of honour 5 and as we shall presently see, the multiplication of such names of honour was cckrried to a great extent by the Egyptians.
§ 175. To abridge as &r as may be what remains of this long exposition, I will merely indicate the additional groups of supporting facts.
The Egyptians, whose customs were so persistent and whose ancestor-worship was so elaborate, show us, just where we might expect them, all the results of this misinterpretation. They had clans whose sacred animals differed, and who treated each other's sacred animals with abhorrence and enmity: a fact pointing to an early stage when these animals gave the names to chiefs of antagonistic tribes. Animal-naming, thus indicated as primitively practised.
ANIMAL-WOBSHIP. 871 continned down to late periods in their history: after their kings had human proper names^ they had still animal-names joined with these. They had sacred animals; and some of the names of these were identical with those given in honour. They embalmed animals as they embalmed men. They had animal-gods; they had deities half brute half human; they had figures of other compound beings.
Where we find most dominant the practice of naming after animals^ and where there result these legends of descent from animals and regard for them as divinities^ we also find developed to the greatest extent^ the legends about animal-agency in human affairs. As Bancroft sayi^ concerning the Indians of the Pacific States — '^ Beasts and birds and fishes fetch and carry^ talk and act^ in a way that leaves even uffisop^s heroes in the shade.'' All the multitudinous fables of this class^ found among many peoples^ fall naturally into their places on the hypothesis here set forth.
His hypothesis explains^ also^ the cases in which the order of genesis is inverted. Bancroft tells us that '^ the Salish, the Nisquallies, and the Yakimas * * * aU hold that beasts^ fishes^ and even edible roots are descended from human originals.'' Clearly this is a conception which the misinterpretation of nicknames may originate. If ''the Bear " was the founder of a tribe whose deeds were preserved in tradition^ the alternative interpretations might be either that he was the bear from whom men descended^ or that he was the man from whom the bears descended. Many of the metamorphoses of classic mythology have probably arisen in a kindred way, when the human antecedents, either of parentage or adventures, were so distinct as to negative the opposite view.
Of course the doctrine of metempsychosis, thus initiated, becomes comprehensible j and its developments no longer look so grotesque. Where a man who had several animalnames was spoken of in this legend as the eagle and in that as the wolf, there would result the idea that he was BB 2 now one and now the other; and from this suggestion^ michecked credulity might not unnaturally elaborate the belief in successive transformations.
Stories of women who have borne animals^ similarly fall into their places. St. John says that ^'the Land Dyaks consider it wrong to kill the cobra de capella; because one of their female ancestors was pregnant for seven years^ and ultimately brought forth twins — one a human being, the other a cobra.'^ In like manner we are told by Cook that the Batavians "believe that women, when delivered of a child, are frequently delivered at the same time of a young crocodile as a twin, and that this is taken to the river by the midwife.'' May we not conclude that twins of whom one gained the nickname of the crocodile, gave rise to a legend which originated this monstrous belief f If the naming after animals was a mode of distinguishing individuals which preceded the use of human proper names — ^if, when there arose such proper names, these did not at first displace the animal-names, but were joined with them — if, at a still later stage, animal-names fell into disuse and the conventional surnames became predominant; then it seems inferable that the brute-god arises first, that the god half -brute and half-human belongs to a later stage, and that the anthropomorphic god comes latest. Amid the entanglements due to the survivals of old worships in the midst of newer ones, and due to the mixtures of mythologies^ it is difficult to show this; but there seems reason for suspecting that it has been so among peoples who originally practised animal-naming extensively.
§ 176. Sundry minor groups of facts thus join the major groups in upholding the belief that animal-worship is a disguised form of ancestor-worship. There are three ways in which the primitive man is led to identify the animal with the ancestor.
The other-self of the dead relative is supposed to como ANniAL-WOBSHIF. 873 back^ liabitually or occasionally^ to his old abode: how else is it possible for the survivors, sleeping there, to see him in their dreams f Here are creatures which commonly, unlike wild creatures in general, come into houses — come in, too, secretly in the night. The implication is clear. That snakes, which especially do this, are the returned dead, is inferred by peoples in Africa, Asia, and America: the haunting of houses being the common trait of the kinds of snakes reverenced or worshipped; and also the trait of certain insects and birds similarly regarded.
The ghost, sometimes re-visiting the house, is thought also to linger in the neighbourhood of the corpse. Creatures commonly found in caves which have been used for burials, hence come to be taken for the new shapes assumed by departed souls. Bats and owls are conceived to be winged spirits; and from them arise the traditional ideas of devils and angels.
Lastly, and chiefly, comes that identification of the animal with the ancestor, which is caused by interpreting metaphorical names literally. That primitive speech is unable to transmit to posterity the difEerence between an animal and a person named after that animal, has been shown. Hence the confusion of the two; hence the regard for the animal as progenitor; hence the growth of a worship. Besides explaining animal-gods, this hypothesis accounts for sundry anomalous beliefs — the divinities half -brute, half -human; fche animals that talk, and play active parts in human affairs; the doctrine of metempsychosis, etc.
By modification upon modification, leading to complications and divergences without limit, evolution brings into being products extremely unlike their germs; and we here have an instance in this derivation of animal-worship from the propitiation of ghosts.
CHAPTER XXm.
PLANT-WORSHIP.
§ 177. WiiKTnBB produced by fastings feyer, hysteria^ or U\mu\iy, any oxtromo oxcitement is^ by savage and semicivilizod pooploM^ aHcribod to a possessing spirit: tbis we saw in (§ \2i)- -81. Kimilar is the interpretation of an nnasoal ninntal Niiiio causod by a nervous stimulant. It is thought thai a finpornaiural beings contained in the solid or liquid Mwallowol, produces it.
Hpcuiking of opium-eaters, V&mb6ry says — ^''What sarprinnil mo most was that those wretched people were regardod aH eminently religious, of whom it was thought that from ilioir love to God and the Prophet they had become mad, and Miupcflod themselves in order that in their excited nUiio i\wy might bo nearer the Beings they loved so well.'' Dawtian tollH us that the Mandingoes intoxicate themselves to (Miior into relation with the godhead: the accompanying b(ili(«f ovidonily being that the exaltation experienced is a divine inspiration. This was the view definitely expressed by the Arafura (Papuan Islander) who, when told about the (Ihrintian God, said — "Then this God is certainly in your arra(^lc, for I never feel happier than when I have drunk jiloniy of it."
May we not hence expect certain derivative beliefs re- PLANT-WORSHIP. 375 Bpecting plants wliioh yield intoxicating liquors f Obviously; and our search for them will not be fruitless.
§ 178. As a typical case may be taken the worship of the Soma. This plant, represented as growing in certain mountains, as gathered by moonlight, and as drawn with ceremonies to the place of sacrifice, was crushed between stones, and its juice expressed and filtered. When fermented, the juice (in some places described as sweet) produced an intoxicating liquor, which was drunk by the devotees; who, judging from the expressions, '' a rishi, a drinker of the Soma,'* were of the priestly class. After the manner indicated above, the exhilarating effects of the beverage were attributed to inspiration by a supernatural being, who was therefore lauded and adored. In his essay on the subject, partly translated by Dr. Muir, Windischmann describes the Soma as ''the holiest offering of the ancient TnfliftTi worship '*; or, in the words of Muir, " the rishis had come to regard Soma as a god, and apparently to be passionately devoted to his worship.'* Here, from the Sanscrit Texts of the latter writer, are passages showing the genesis of the belief. First may be placed some implying the exaltation caused by the fermented Soma-juice.
Kig Veda tI. 47, 3. '* This [soma] when drunk, stimnlates my speech [or hymn]; this called forth the ardent thought."
B. y. ix. 25, 5. "The ruddy Soma, generating hymns, with the powers of a poet.'* B. V. viii. 48, 3. " We have drunk the soma, we have become immortal, we have entered into light, we have known the gods," etc.
Not only the rishis are inspired by soma, biit also their deities. ''The gods drink the offered beverage," and are '' thrown into a joyous intoxication.'' Indra '' performs his g^eat deeds under its influence.'' It is said — " We summon his soul [that of Varuna] with Soma." Elsewhere the contained supernatural being is addressed personally.
R V. Ix. 110, 7. " The former [priests] having strewed the sacred grass, offered up a hymn to thee, O Soma, for great strength and food."
876 THE DATA OF 80CI0L00T.
R V. ix. 96, 11. " For throogh thee, O pure Soma, our wise forefathers of old performed their sacred rites."
R y. 96, 18. " Soma, rishi-minded, rishi-maker. bestower of good, master of a thousand songs, the leader of sages."
How literal was the belief that by a draagbt of soma the drinker became possessed^ is proved by the prayer — ^^ Soma * * * do thou enter into us, full of kindness/' And then, showing how the resulting mental power was regarded as a divine afflatus, revealing transcendent knowledge, we have the passage in R. V. ix, 97, 7 — ^^ Uttering, like Usanas, the wisdom of a sage, the god (Soma) declares the births of the gods/' Other passages, along with this deification of the Soma, join the belief that he is present in the beverage partaken of alike by the other gods and by men. Instance, in R. V. ix. 42, 2, the words — '^ This god, poured forth to the gods, with an ancient hymn, purifies with his stream/' Further, there are implied identifications of this supernatural being with a once-living person. One of the less specific in R. V. 107, 7, runs — " A rishi, a sage, intelligent, thou (Soma) wast a poet, most agreeable to the gods/' In other places his identity is more specifically stated. Thue, in the Taittiriya Brahmana, ii., 8, 10, 1, it is said — '' Prajapati created king Soma. After him the three Yedas were created/' And still more specific are the legends which describe king Soma as having wives, and narrate his disagreements with some of them. Much more exalted, however, is the character elsewhere given to him. ''He is immortal, and confers immortality on gods and men"; '' the creator and father of the gods "; '' king of gods and men/' Yet along with this ascription of supreme divinity goes the belief that he is present in the Soma-juice. Here is a passage combining all the attributes: — R Y. ix. 96, 5 and 6. " Soma is purified; he who is the generator of hynms, of Dayus, of Pritliivl, of Agni, of Suiya, of Indra, and of Vishnu. Soma, who is a brahman -priest among the gods (or priests), a leader among the poets, a rishi among sages, a buffalo among wild beasts, a PLANT-WOBSHIP. 877 fidcoQ among YultnreB, an axe amid the forests, advances to the filter with a sound."
The origin of these conceptions dates back to a time when the Aryan races had not widely diverged; for like conceptions occur in the Zendavesta. Though, instead of Soma, the name there nsed is Haoma, there is so general an agreement as to show identity of the plant and of the worship. Windischmann says the Haoma is '' not a plant • only, bnt also a powerful deity''; and also that "in both works (Zendavesta and Rig Veda) the conceptions of the god and the sacred juice blend wonderfully with each other.''
That certain plants yielding intoxicating agents come therefore to be regarded as containing supernatural beings, is a conclusion supported by other instances — ^that of the vine being one. Dr. Muir, speaking of Soma as ^' the Indian Dionysus," quotes from the BaeduB of Euripides certain passages showing analogous conceptions. Of Dionysus it is said: — " He discovered and introduced among men the liquid draught of the grape, which puts an end to the sorrows of wretched mortals." * * * * He, bom a god, is poured out in libations to the gods." ♦ ♦ ♦ " And this deity is a prophet. For Bacchic excitement and raving have in them much prophetic power. For when this god enters in force into.the body, he causes those who rave to foretell the future."
That the facts are to be thus interpreted is shown by certain allied but less developed beliefs found elsewhere. Garcilasso tells us that in Peru, tobacco " has been called the sacred herb" — a nervous stimulant was regarded with reverence. Similarly with another plant said to have an invigorating effect, the eoca. According to Markham, " the Peruvians still look upon it [coca] with feelings of superstitious veneration. In the time of the Yncas it was sacrificed to the Sun, the Huillac Umu, or high priest, chewing the leaf during the ceremony." Among the Chibchas, too, hnyo (coca) was used as an inspiring agent by the priests; and certain people chewed and smoked tobacco to produce the power of divination. In North Mexico, a kindred 378 THE DATA OF SOOIOLOGT.
notion is implied by a fact Bancroft gires — some of the natives " have a great veneration for the hidden virtues of poisonous plants, and believe that if they crush or destroy one, some harm will happen to them/' And at the present time in the Philippine Islands, as we are told by the recent traveller Jagor, the Ignatius bean, which contains strychnia and is used as a medicine, is worn as an amulet and held capable of miracles.* § 179. The attribution to a plant of a human personality, and the consequent tendency towards worship of the plants has other origins. Here is one of them.
In § 148, after giving some extracts from the cosmogony of the Amazulu, including the statement that XJnkulunkulu, their creator, descended from a reed, or a bed of reeds, I * As a eorollaiy from this group of belief^ let me here add a posuble explanation. Causing mental exaltation. Soma is described in the Vedie hymns as giving knowledge. We have the expressions — '* Soma of incomparable wisdom"; "the ruddy Soma" has "the understanding of a sage;" " we have drunk the Soma, • • • we have entered into light." By implication, then, the Soma is called, if not a "tree of knowledge," still, a plant of knowledge. Further, the Soma is said to have given life to the gods; and the rejoicing statement of the rishis is — " We have drunk the Soma, we have become immortal." As the source of an enlivening beverage the Soma is thus a "tree of life"; and how naturally such a notion results from the effect of a nervous stimulant, is shown to us by the calling alcohol eau de vm. Kow with these facts join the further fact» that wheire the supply of a valued commodity is small, a superior naturally forbids the use of it to inferiors — ^to the conquered, to slaves, to subjects. Thus in Peru, the nervous stimulant coca, or cuea, was limited to the royal class: " only the Ynca and his relations, and some Curaeas, to whom the Ynca extended this favour, were allowed to eat the herb called cuca." We thus discern a not improbable motive tor interdicting the use of a plant from the fruit or juice of which a stimulant producing mental exaltation is obtained — a motive much more comprehensible than U the desire that subject beings should continue to confound good and eviL A certain ancient legend is thus rendered comprehensible. (Since this was written I find that the sacred tree of the Assyrians, figured in their sculpturesy is considered by archssologists — having no hypothesis to Justify — ^to represent the palm-tree; and with this identification we may join the ftiCt that even still, in some regions, an intoxicating drink is made from fermented palmjuice,) PLANT-WOBSHIP. 879 cited the suggested interpretation of Canon Callaway; remarking that we should hereafter find a more natural one. This more natural one is not derivable from data furnished by the Amazulu themselves; but comparison of their traditions with those of neighbouring races discloses it.
Abready it has been shown that in South Africa, as in other parts of the world, traditions obviously derived from ancestral troglodytes, refer to caves as places of creation. Instances before given may be supported by others. Respecting the Bechuanas, MofEatt says — " Moiimo [the native name for a god] as well as man, with all the different species of animals* came ont of a hole or cave in the Bakone country, to the north, where, say they, their footmarks are still to be seen in the indurated rock, which was at that time sand." Again, the beliefs of the Basutos are thus given by Casalis: — " A legend says that both men and animals came out of the bowels of the earth by an immense hole, the opening of which was in a cavern, and that the animals appeared £rst. Another tradition, more generaUy received among the Basutos, is, that man sprang np in a marshy place, where reeds were growing."
And now observe the unexpected way in which these two traditions of the Basutos are reconciled with one another, as well as with the traditions oi the Bechuanas and the Amazulu. Here is a passage from Arbousset and Daumas: — " This spot is very celebrated amongst the Basutos and the Liglioyas, not only because the likatus of the tribes are there, but because of a certain mythos, in which they are told that their ancestors came originally from that place. There is there a cavern surrounded with marsh reeds and mud, whence they believe that they have all proceeded." So that these several statements refer to the same place — the place where Unkulunkulu ''broke off in the beginning" — where he ''broke off the nations from Uthlanga " — -where the tribes separated (the word used means literally to separate). And while in some traditions the cave remained the dominant recollection, in others the surrounding bed of reeds acquired predominance; and in their imperfect speech this was confounded with a reed. Men came out of the reeds; men descended from reeds; became one form of the legend.
880 THE DATA OF SOCIOLOdT.
Among the Amaznlu there seems no resulting worship of the reed; and as, worshipping their near ancestors, they do not worship their remotest ancestor Unkalankala, it is consistent that they should not worship the plant whence he is said to have proceeded. Another South African race, however, worship a plant similarly regarded as an original ancestor. Of the Damaras, Galton tells us ''a tree is supposed to be the universal progenitor, two of which divide the honour'' (Andersson says there are several). Elsewhere he adds — ''We passed a magnificent tree. It was the parent of all the Damaras. * * * The savages danced round and round it in great delight.^' In another place he thus gives the Damara creed: — " In the beginning of things there was a tree, and out of this tree came Damaras, Bushmen, oxen, and zebras. * * * The tree gave birth to everything else that lives.'' Unconnected with anything further, this appears to be an unaccountable belief. But a clue to the origin of it is yielded by the following note in Andersson's Ngami. ''In my journey to the Lake Ngami, * * * I observed whole forests of a species of tree called Omumborombonga, the supposed progenitor of the Damaras." If now we make the reasonable supposition that these tribes descended from a people who lived in forests of such trees (and low types, as Yeddahs, Ju4ngs, and wild tribes in the interior of Borneo, are forest-dwellers), we see that a conf asion like that between a reed and a bed of reeds, originates this notion of descent from a tree.
The inference drawn from these two allied cases might be questionable were it unsupported; but it is supported by the inference from a much stronger case. We learn from Bastian that " the Congese proper, according to their traditions, have sprung from trees ''; and we also learn that " the forest from which a former reigning family of Congo was said to have come to subdue the country, was afterwards an object of veneration to the natives." Here, then, emergence from a forest is obviously confounded with PLANT-W0B8HIP. 881 descent from trees; and there is a consequent quasi^worship both of the forest and of a certain kind of tree which is planted in their market-places.
On recalling the fact pointed out on p. 313^ that eyen Sanscrit indiscriminately applies to the same process the words making and begetting; we shall not doubt that an inferior language will fail to maintain in tradition the distinction between coTning out of a forest of trees and coming out of trees; and that emerging from trees of a certain kind will be confounded with emergence from a certain kind of tree. Doubt, if any remains, will disappear when we come to sundry analogous cases of confusion between a locality whence the race came, and a conspicuous object in that locality, which so becomes the supposed parent of the race.