Supernatural Agents. — In § 118, 1 suggested that the water-sprte was originally the ghost of a drowned person, sopposed to Innkt the place of death, and to be characterized by the malice habitosDj ascribed to ghosts which have not been propitiated by the nsmMl funeral sacrifices. I had then met with no fact sapporting this inference; but the work of Mr. Bancroft on the ^cuioe Bae& 0f the Pacific States has since furnished me with oa& ** Lmviog thla locality and sabjdct, I may remark that the nalires Imrm named the Pdhono Fall, in the mmi yallej, after an eril apirit; man? pcisoas having baen swept over and dashed to pieces there. No native of the rkiaitf will 80 mach as point at this fall when going through the Talley, nor cooU anything tempt one of them to sleep near it; for the ghosts of the drovnei are tossing in its spray, and their waU is heard forever aboTe the hiae of iu rusbiag waters." — See vol. iii., p. 126.
Fetichism. — I believe M. Comte expressed the opinion that fetidbistic conceptions are formed by the higher animals. Holding, ^ I have given reasons for doing, that fetichism is not original bot derived, I cannot, of course, coincide in this vie^v. Neirertheles, I think the behaviour of intelligent animals elucidates the geoesis of it. I have myself witnessed in dogs two illustrative actions.
One of these actions was that of a formidable beast, half mastiff, half bloodhound, belongin}^ to friends of mine. While plajing with a walking-stick which had been given to him, and which he had seized by the lower end, it happened that iu his gambols he tbntst the handle against the ground: the result being that the eod he had in his mouth was forced against his palate. Giving a jelpi, he dropped the stick, rushed to some distance from it, and betrayed a consternation which was particularly laughable in so large and ferocious-looking a creature. Only after cautious approaches and much hesitation was he induced again to lay hold of the stick. This behaviour showed very clearly the fact that the stick, while displaying none but properties he was familiar with, was not regarded by him as an active agent; but that when it snddea!y inflicted a pain in a way never before experienced from an inanimate object, he was led for the moment to clasR it with animate objects, and to regard it as capable of again doing him injary. Similarly in the mind of the primitive man, knowing scarcely more of natural causation than a dog, the anomalous behaviour oi an object previously classed as inanimate, stiggests animation. Tlie idea of voluntary action is made nascent; and there arises a tendency to regard the object with alarm lest it should act in some other unexpected and perhaps mischievous way. The vague notion of • animation thus aroused, will obviously become a more definite notion, as fast a3 developinent of the ghost-theory famishes a specLSc agency to which the anomaloas behayioor can be ascribed.
A very intelligent and good-tempered retriever, much petted in the honse of certain other friends, had a habit which yields the second hint I have alluded to. On meeting in the morning, or after an absence of some hoars, one with whom she was on friendly terms, she joined wiih the asuai wogging of the tail, an unusual kind of salote, made by drawing apart the lips so as to produce a sort of smile or grin; and she then, if out of doors, proceeded to make a farther demonstration of loyalty. Being by her duties as a retriever led to associate the fetching of game with the pleasing of the person to whom she brought it, this had become in her mind an act of propitiation; and so, after wagging her tail and grinning, she wonld perform this act of propitiation as nearly as was practicable in the absence of a dead bird. Seeking about, she would pick np a dead leaf or other small object, and would bring it with renewed manifestations of friendliness. Some kindred state of mind it is which, I believe, prompts the savage to certain fetichistic observances of an anomalous kind. Occasionally, when seeking supernatural aid, the savage will pick up perhaps the first stone he sees, paint it red, and make offerings to it. Anxious to please some ghostly agent, he feels the need for displaying his anxiety 3 and he adopts this as the nearest fulfilment of a propitiatory act which circumstances permit. Ghosts are all about, and one may be present in anything — perhaps in this stone; very likely in this stone. And so the primitive man, with whom fancy passes easily into belief, adopts this method of expressing his sabordination. Daily occurrences among ourselves prove that the desire to do somet/iing in presence of an emergency, leads to the most irrelevant actions. " It may do good, and it can do no harm," is the plea for many actions which have scarcely more rationality than worship of a painted stone.
The Fetich-ghost.— The evidence given in §§ 159—163 that the snpematnral agent supposed to be contained in an inanimate object worshipped by the savage, was originally a human ghost, is, I think, tolerably conclusive as it stands. I have, however, met with still more conclusive evidence, in the work of Dr. Henry Kink on the Eskimo, named above. In the significant passage which I here extract, the two are identified by name.
"The whole visibjo world is ruled by superoatural powers, or 'owners/ taken in a higher sense, each of whom holds his sway within certain limits^ and is called imia (viz., its or his, inuk, which word signifies * manf* a.nd also oumer or infutbitatU), " — P. 87.
The supposed possessing agent to which the powers of an object are ascribed, is thus called its man: the man in it, that is the man's ghost in it The ^' inue " of certain celestial objects were persona known bj name; and the implication Is tbat the "ume^ of <As objects are thought of as persons, bat not indiridoallj identifiei ReptiU- Worship. — ^Facts named in § 167 prored that, in wioos parts of the world, serpent-worship arises by IdeDtification of ho3s^ haanting snakes with returned ancestors. Some cases were addti of hoase-haanting lizards, which acquire sacrednes in the same manner; and I here append an instance since pointed oat to me:— *' The proTuioe of Samotigia abounds ia woods and foresta, in which liombk •ii;hta may occaaioiially be witaeased; for in them there dwell a cooaidenkk namber of idolators, who cherish, as a kind of household gods, a species d reptile, which has four short feet like a lizard, with a black flat Iwdj, w^ exceeding three palms in length. These animals are called 'giroitea,' aod oa certain days are allowed to crawl abont the hooae in search of the food vbii is placed for them. They are looked upon wiih griAt aaperstiiioD bf tiis whole family, until the time when, haying satisfied tbeir hunger, thej itXam to their own place.'' — Uerberitein, Ees MoscovU, (Mgor's tFan&latioo).
LotuS'Worship. — I have not included in the chapter on plantworship, the case of the Iotas; becaase I did not wish to eodanger the general argument by a donbtfal support The erideoce H however, saffieient to raise the suspicion tliat lotos -worship arose in the same way as did the worship of the soma.
Clearly some plant, or the product of some plant, haWog ti»t name, was eaten as a nervous stimulant, producing a state of bli^ f ul indifference; though among sundry plants which have g(fos ^/ the name, it is not decided which was the one. Farther, tfaere was in the East the belief in a divinity residiog in a water-plant kno«it as the lotus; and at the present time in Thibet, warship o! this divinity in the lotus is the dominant religion. As is stated in Mr. Wilson's Abode of Snow, the daily and hourly prayer is '*0m mani padme hauu," which literally rendered means, " O God! the jefftj in the lotus. Amon." The word mani^ here translated jewel, an^ meaning more generally a precious thing, is variously applJ^^ ^ sacred objects — to the long stone tumuli, to the prayer-mills, etc; so that, reading through the figurative expression to the origii^ thought, it would seem to be, *' O God! the precious or sacred power in the lotus." Difficulties in explaining the ancient legend about lotus-eating, as well as this existing superstition, nrlse Irom the fact that the plant now known as the lotus, has no toxic qu^l^-ties. There is, however, a possible solution. The lotus has a sveel root; and at the present time in Cashmere, this root is hooked np from the bottoms of the lakes and used as food. But a sweet root contains fermentable matters — both the saccharine and the f^J' laceous: even now alcohol is made from beetroot. Possibly, then, in early times the juice and starch of the lotus-root were usedjo^ as the sap of the pahn is in some places used still, for making i^ ilitoxicating beverage; and the beliefs concerning the lotos u'f liave sorvived in times when thu beverage was replaced by others more easily prodaced. The fact that m the early days of Somaworship the jaice was fermented, bat that in later days it was not (other kmds of intoxicating; liquors having come into use), yields additional reason for thinking so. Be this as it may, however, we have this evidence: — some plant yielding a product causing a pleasurable mental state, was identical in name with a plant regarded as sacred because of an indwelling god.
It is, indeed, alleged that in Egypt the lotus was sacred as a symbol of the Nile, and that the Indian lotus stood in like relation to the Ganges. I notice this interpretation for the purpose of remarking that I do not believe any early usage ever arose through symbolization. This is one of the many erroneous interpretations which arise by ascribing developed ideas to undeveloped minds. No one who, instead of fancying how primitive usages could have arisen, observes how tbey do arise, will believe that the primitive man ever deliberately adopted a symbol, or ever even conceived of a symbol as such. All symbolic actions are modifications of actions which originally had practical ends — were not invented but grew. The case of mutilations sufficiently exemplifies the process.
Men in the Sky. — Already the Esquimaux have furnished m the text, an illustration of the primitive belief that stars, etc., were originally men and animals who lived on the Earth (§ 190). In the above-cited work of Dr. Rink, I find a circumstantial account of their ideas concerning the physical connexion between the upper and lower worlds, and the routes joining them: — " The earth, with the sea nipported by it, rests upon pillars, and covers an nDder world, accessible bv various eutranoes frum the sea, as well as from jnountaia clefts. Above the earth an upper wurld is found, bejond which the bine sky, being of a solid consistence, vaults itself like au outer shell, aud. aa some say, revolves around some high mouotaiu-top in the far north. The upper wurld exhibits a real land with mountains, valleys, and lakes. After death, human souls either go to the upper or to the uuder world. The latter is decidedly to be preferred, as being warm and rich in fuod. There are the dwellings of the happy dead called arsiaaut — viz,, thuse wbo live in abundance. On the contrary, those who go to the upiiei wurid will suffer fiom cold and famine; and these are called arsaarttU, or ball- players, on accuuut of their playing at ball with a walrus head, which gives rise to the aurora borvalis, or northern lights. Further, the upper woild must be considered a continuation of the earth in the direction of height, although those individuals, or at least those souls tem])orariIy delivered from the body, that aie said to have visiced it, for the most part passed through the air. The upper world, it would seeiQ, may be considered identical with the mono tain round the top of which the vaulted sky is for ever circling— the proper road leading tu it from the foot of the niouutain upwards beiog itself either too far off or too steep. One of the tales aUo meutious a man going in his kayak [l>oat] to the border of the ocean, where the sky comes down to meet ir,"— pp. 87- S.
*'The upper world is also inhabited by several rulers besides the souIh of the deceased. Among these are the owners or inhabitants of cvkstiol budieS| ytlio, baviog once been men, were removed in their lifetime from the tasih, bat are etiU attached to it in different waya, and pay occasional riaits to iL They have aluo been representei as the celestial bjdies themselves, and not their inae •mly, the tales mentioaing them iti both ways. The owner of the m >oa oi^inaily was a man, called Aning^at, and the iitua of the sao was his Slitter. • • • rhe erdlaveersisaok — vis., the eatrAil-seiser — is a woman r^ silling oil the way to the moon, who takes out the eutrnils of every jpcma whom aha can tempt to laughter. The noffttU, or the three stars m Orioo'i belt, ware mm who were lost in going out to hunt on the ice.*' — ^pp. 48-9.
There coald scarcely be more specific evidence that the persoaalization of heavenly bodies has resulted from the supposed translation of terrestrial beings — ^msn and animals — ^to the sky. Here we have the upper world regarded as physically coatinnoos with the lower world and like it in character; and the migration to it after death parallels those migrations to distant parts of the Earth*s surface after death, which primitive races in general show as. While we have no evidence of nature-worship, we have clear endence of identification of celestial bodies with traditional persons. That is to say, personalization of the heavenly bodies precedes worship of them, instead of succeeding it, as mythologists allege. Joining these facts with those given in the text, the origio of names for constellations and the genesis of astrology, are made, I think, bufficiently clear.
Star- Gods. — While the proofs of these pages are ander correction^ I am enabled to add an important piece of evidence, har-Dionizing with the above, and supporting sundry of the eonelasioQS drawn in the text. It is furnished by a Babylonian ioscription (ill. RawL 53, No. 2, lines 36, etc.), which, as translated by ProL Schrader, runs thus: — '* The star Venus at sunrise is Ishtar among the god% The star Venus at sunset is Baaltis among the gods."
We have thus another case of multiple personality in a heavenly body, analogous to the cases of the Sun and Moon before pointed out, but differing in definiteness. For whereas, before, the belief in two or more personalities was inferred, we here have it directly stated. This belief, inexplicable on any current theory, we see to be perfectly explicable as a result of birth-naming.
Other- Worlds. — The speculation ventured in § lid, that conqnest of one race by another introduces beliefs in different other worlds, to which the superior and the inferior go, is supported by this passage:^ ** If there are strong caste-distinctions, the souls of the noble and chief mea are said to go to a better country than those of the rest. It is for this reason that in Cochin China, common p«N)ple do not entertain the sonls of their fnen<li on the same day or the A1I-S< nls' feast as that on whioh the nol^ty )mn in' t vited theirs; because otiienrise those aoals whea retarDiug would hare their former servants to cany the gifts receired." — BasHan, Vergl. PaychologU^ 89.
Mountain Deities. — In § 114, I suggested two ways In which ancestor- worship originates beliefs in godbi who reside on the highest peaks and have access to the heavens. Burial of the dead on mountain crags, I indicated as one origin; and the occupation of mountain strong-holds by conquering races, as probably another origin. I have since met with verifications of both suggestions.
The first of them is contained in the recently-published Travels in the Philippines^ by F. Jagor. Showing that before the Spanish settlement the people had the ordinary ideas and customs of ancestorworshippers, he describes the sacred burial caves; and illustrates the survival of the religious awe with which these cares were originally regarded. He visited some of these caves at Nipa-Nipa; and says (p. 259) that '* the numerous coffins, implements, arms, and trinkets, protected by superstitious terrors, continued to be undisturbed for centuries. No boat ventured to cross over without the observance of a religious ceremony, derived from heathen times, to propitiate the spirits of the caverns, who were believed to punish the omission of it with storm and shipwreck." By way of proof, he tells us that the boatmen who went with the pastor of Basey to the cave to get remains, regarded a thunderstorm which broke on their way back, as *^ a pnni.*^hment for their outrsge." After tkus exhibiting the popular beliefs as they still exist, notwithstanding Catholic teaching, he proves, fi om early writers, what these beliefs originally were. It appears that men when dying often chose their burial-places; and he quotes one authority to the effect that '^ those who were of note ^ sometimes had their cofiQns deposited ^' on an elevated place or rock on the bank of a river, where they might be venerated by the pious." He says that Th^venot describes them as worshipping ^' those of their ancestors who had most distinguished themselves by courage and genius, whom they regarded as deities.
* * * Even the aged died under this conceit, choosing particular places, such as one on the island of Leyte, which allowed of their being interred at the edge of the sea, in order that the mariners who crossed over might acknowledge them as deities, and pay them respect.*' And he also quotes Gemelli Careri, who says that ^'the oldest of them chose some remarkable spot in the mountains, and particularly on headlunds projecting into the sea, in order to be worshipped by the sailors." This combination of facts is, I think^ amply significant. We have distinguished persons becoming gods after death; we see them providing for this apotheosis, and in a sense demanding worship; we fiud them choosing high and conspicuous burial-places to facilitate the worship; we see that approach to burial-places is regarded as sacrilege; and we see that the ghosts of the dead hare become deified to the exteat that they are supposed to rent their anger in thunderstorms. Here are ^ the elements from which might result a Philippine SinaL The instance to which I refer as showing that an invading race, seizing a high stronghold, may give origin to a celestial hierardij, whose residence is a mountain top, I tadke from Bancroft's yersioQ of the Qaich6 legend. It begins with a time when as jet there was no San (possibly a fragment of some still more ancient storj broaght southwards by dwellers in the Arctic regions); and in the first place narrates a migration ui search of the Sun.
** So the foar mea aad their people set oat for Talaa-Zaira, otherwise olkd the Sovea-oaves or SeFen-ravlaes, aad there they received gods^ each man ai head of a familT, a god; thoagh ioasoiach as the foarth mnji, Iqi- Baikal, had n.> ohU'lrea and foaaded ao faoiily, his god is aot asadly taken into aceooax.
• • • Maay other trials also thejr aadervreat in Talan, famines and soeh thinga, aud a general ddmpaess and oold, — ^for the earth fr<w moist, there being as yet no sua. • • • Tiiey determiaed to leare Tulan; and the greater part of them, nader the gaardiduishlp and diractioa of Tohil, set oat to se<9 where they shoald take ap their abode. Ttiey oontinaed on their way amid Uid moat extreme hardships for want of foo L • • • At last they came to a moantaia that they named H ica?itz, after one of their gods, and here they rested, ^or here they were by some means eiren to nnderstAnd that th«j shoald see the saa. • • « Aad the sao, ai^ the mooa, and the stars w«e njw all established. Tot was not the san then ia the bt^nniog the same as now; his heat wanted force, and he w^ bat as a rofl -clion ia a mirror. [This is explained if we sappose a soathem mimtioo.] • • • Another wonder whea the sua rose I The three tribal gods, Tohil, AWlix, and Uacarltz, vcre turned iuto stone, as were also the godd connected with the lion, the tigter, the 7iper, aad other fierce and daagnrous aoimals. • • • And the people moltipUed oi thi4 Hoaac Hicaritz, aal here they bailt their city. • • • Aad they worshipped the gods thit hid become stone, Tohll, Arilix, aad H icayitz. • • • They begin to wet their altars with the heart's blood of hamaa victims. From their moantaln hold they watched for lonely trarelets beiondag to the sarroandiog tribes, seised, oyerpowered, aad slew them f«ir a sacrHlce. • • • Tue hearts of the villagers were thas fatigaed within them, ?arsaing aakaowa eaemies. At last, however, it became plain that the gods ohil, Avillx, and Hacavitz, and their worship, were in some way or other the caase of this bareavemiat: so the people of the villager conspired ag^dnst them. Mao V attacks, b jth openly and by rases, did they make on tiie gods, and oa the loar mea, aad on the children and people coouected with them; bat not oace did they sacceed, so ^reat wm the wisdom, aad power, and oonrage of the foar mea and of their deities. • • • At last the war was finished. • • • And the tribes haaiiliated themselves before the face of Balam-Qaitzi, of B«lam* Agab, aud of Mahucutah. • • • Now it came to puss that the time of the death of B^m-Qaitze, Balam-Agab, Mahucatah, and lai-Bahun drew near. • • • Aud they said: we return to our people. • • • So the old men took leave of their soas aad their wives. • • • Then instantly the foar old mea were not; but in their place was a great buudle. • • • So it was called the Mijesty Eaveloped • • • and they bamed incense before it." [Such a buadle was said ** to contain the remains of Camaxlli, the chief sod of Tlascala.'1-Vol. iii, pp. 49 64.
" Gods and men" — Further grounds for taking the view expressed in § 200, respecting the *' gods and men ** of the Hebrew legend, have siDce been famished by the jast-issned Chaldean Account of Genesis^ by Mr. George Smith. Here is the passage: — " It appears from line 18 [of the tablet] that the race of hnraan beings up. ken of is the zcUmatqaqadi, or dark racfl, and in various other fragments of these legends they are culled Admi or Adami, which is exactly the name given to the first man in Genesis. • • • *' It has already been pointed out by Sir Henry Rawlinson that the Bdbylonians renngaized two principal races: the Adamn, or dark race, and the Sarkn, or light race, probably in the same manner that two races are mentioned in Genesis, the tons of Adam and the sons of God. It appears incidentally from the fragments of inscriptions that it was the race of Adam, or the dark race, which was believed to nave fallen." — pp. 85 6.
YeriGcation is also hereby afforded of the suggestion made in § 178 (note) that the forbidden frnit was the inspiriting and illaminating product of a plant which the conquering race forbade the subject race to consume. The objection^ not unlikely to be raised, that the words ^^ fruit " and '' eating " do not countenance this interpretation, would be sufficiently met by cases of our own metaphorical uses of these words (" fruit of the womb," " opium-eating'*); but it may be met more directly. Of the Zulus, Canon Callaway says — " The natives speak of beer as food — and of eating it. They also call snuff food, and speak of eating it."
Fijian Gods, — Since writing the comparison made in § 201, between the Qreek pantheon and the pantheon of the Fijians, an unknown correspondent has been good enough to forward to me a statement which bears, in an interesting way, on the question. It is contained in a parliamentary paper. Correspondence respecting the Cession of Fiji^ presented Feb. 6, 1875, p. 67; This document concerns the native ownership of land; and the passage I refer to appears to be appended by way of showing how the native idea of ownership is affected by their creed: — "Note.— Their fathers or their Gods.— It may not be ont of place in connection with the above memorandnm to advance one or two facts with the object of showing that the head of the tribe, i.e., its high(>Bt living male ascendant, was regarded as its father. He held alnolute authority over the persons, property, and lives of his people, and both before and after death had the same reverence shown to him as to a God.
" The Fijian language makes no distinction, in terms, between the marks nf respect and reverence rendered to a Chief and those rendered to a God. I will select a few words, with their meanings, from Hazelwood*s Fijian Dictionary. ' 1. Tama— a father. 2. Tama-ka— to reverence, to clap hands, or to make some expression of a God or Chief. 8. Cabora~to offer or present propertv to a Goa or to a Chief. 4. Ai sevn — the first dng yams, the first fmits, which are generally offered to the Gods and given to a Chief of a place. 6. Taavn, and Yeitanvn — LdteraUy, to have the same root, or sprang from the same sonree; need of people who wonhip the same God.' • • • '* The swearing of Fijians is like that of the High Asiatic peoples. Two men qnarrelling never swe ir at each other personally, nor even ntter their respective names; they will cnrse their fi^thera, their grandfathers, and their most remote ancestry. The reason being that to corHe a Fijian*8 father is to carse his r