Recent years have brought rich additions to the materials for the
study of early religion, ritual, magic, and myth. In proportion to the
abundance of information has been the growth of theory and hypothesis.
The first essay in this collection, 'Science and Superstition,' points
out the danger of allowing too ingenious and imaginative hypotheses to
lead captive our science.
As, like others, I have not long since advanced a provisional theory
of my own, the second and third essays are designed to strengthen my
position. The theory is that perhaps the earliest traceable form of
religion was relatively high, and that it was inevitably lowered in
tone during the process of social evolution. Obviously this opinion may
be attacked from two sides. It may be said that the loftier religious
ideas of the lowest savages are borrowed from Christianity or Islam.
This I understand to be the theory of Mr. E. B. Tylor. It is with much
diffidence that I venture, at present, to disagree with so eminent and
sagacious an authority, while awaiting the publication of Mr. Tylor's
Aberdeen Gifford Lectures. My reply to his hypothesis, so far as it has
been published by him, will be found in the second essay, 'The Theory
of Loan-Gods.' Secondly, my position may be attacked by disabling the
evidence for the existence of the higher elements in the religion of
low savages. Mr. Frazer, in the second edition of his 'Golden Bough,'
has advanced an hypothesis of the origin of religion, wherein the
evidence for the higher factors is not taken into account. Probably
he may consider the subject in a later work, to which he alludes in
his Preface. 'Should I live to complete the works for which I have
collected and am collecting materials, I dare to think that they will
clear me of any suspicion of treating the early history of religion
from a single narrow point of view.'[1]
Meanwhile, however, Mr. Frazer has advanced a theory of the origin of
religion wherein evidence which I think deserving of attention receives
no recognition. I hope, therefore, that it is not premature to state
the evidence, or some of it, which I do in the third essay, 'Magic and
Religion.'
Fourth comes a long criticism of Mr. Frazer's many hypotheses, which
are combined into his theory of the origin, or partial origin, of the
belief in the divine character of Christ. This argument demands very
minute, and, I fear, tedious examination. I fear still more that my
labour has not, after all, been sufficiently minute and accurate. It
seems to be almost impossible to understand clearly and represent
fairly ideas with which one does not agree. If I have failed in these
respects it is unconsciously, and I shall gratefully accept criticism
enabling me to recognise and correct errors.
Fifthly, I examine, in 'The Ghastly Priest,' Mr. Frazer's theory of
the Golden Bough of Virgil as connected with the fugitive slave who
was 'King of the Wood' near Aricia. I offer a conjecture as to the
origin of his curious position, which seems to me simpler, and not less
probable, than Mr. Frazer's hypothesis that this outcast 'lived and
died as an incarnation of the supreme Aryan god, whose life was in
the mistletoe or golden bough.' But my conjecture is only a guess at a
problem which, I think, we have not the means of solving.
There follow an essay, 'South African Religion,' and another on the old
puzzle of the 'Cup and Ring' marks on rocks and cists and other objects
all over the world.
Next I consider the subject of 'Taboos,' with especial reference to
the theory of Mr. F. B. Jevons. An essay follows on the singular rite
of the Fire Walk, with the alleged immunity of the performers. This
curious topic I have treated before, but now add fresh evidence.
Of these essays the second, in part, appeared in the 'Nineteenth
Century,' and most of 'The Ghastly Priest' was published in 'The
Fortnightly Review,' while 'Cup and Ring' first saw the light in
'The Contemporary Review.' My thanks are due to the Editors of those
periodicals for permission to republish. The essay on the 'Fire Walk'
was in the 'Proceedings of the Society for Psychical Research,' though
the topic does not appear to be 'psychical.' All the other papers are
new, and three Appendices on points of detail are added.
The design on the cover is drawn by Mr. Donnelly, the discoverer of the
Dunbuie and Dumbuck sites and relics, from an Australian design, in
Messrs. Spencer and Gillen's 'Native Tribes of Central Australia.'
For permission to reproduce this drawing I have to thank the kindness
of Messrs. Macmillan & Co. The designs of feet, on the back of the
volume (a subject found in Australia), and the 'Jew's harp' ornament
(common to Scotland and Hindustan), are also by Mr. Donnelly, from
Scottish rock carvings.
[1] _Golden Bough_, i. xvii, 1900.