MAGIC AND SCIENCE
§ 1. THEIR COMMON GROUND
It is not infrequently said that Science is derived from Magic, and
the tenet is strengthened by eminent names; nor is it displeasing to
some bystanders whose attitude toward Science is one of imperfect
sympathy; but it seems to me to involve a misunderstanding of the
matter. Magic and Science have, indeed, some common ground; for both
are products of our poor human mind, which is sorely pestered in
explaining its experiences by the notion of “forces” that somehow
bring about events, and which cannot get on at all without assuming
uniformities of relation. Magic supposes constant connexions of events
due to the agency, force, influence or virtue of charms, rites and
spells; which connexions, however, are found only to be tendencies of
some events to excite others, inasmuch as they may be frustrated by
counteracting charms, rites or spells. This reads like a caricature
of scientific ideas. Not long ago, too, “forces” had a considerable
vogue amongst scientists; and such mysteries as “vital force” and
“psychic force” are still to be met with. But it is plain that we never
know more than that under certain conditions a change takes place;
and when we try to explain the change by analysing the conditions,
we never find any “force” distinct from the collocation and motion
of bodies or particles. “Force” may be technically and formally used
in various propositions, but the idea never contributes anything to
the explanation of events; whilst the fact that with many people it
seems to do so, often makes it a nuisance. That it seems to carry some
explanation with it is due to the continuous influence of Magic which,
though always the antithesis of Science, was yet for very many ages
associated with Science. Magic is entirely constituted by notions
of force, sometimes violent, as in the discharge of an enchanted
spear; sometimes subtle, like the efficacy of an opal; intangible,
invisible, and operating at a distance through space and time, like a
witch’s spells that eclipse the sun or moon. These forces have only a
one-sided relation to the workaday world; they meet with no resistance
from what we take to be the “properties of matter,” such as weight
and impenetrability; but are themselves entirely exempt from natural
law: what we call the “real world” has no hold upon them; they live
in a world of their own. They are absolutely immeasurable; and hence
the causation, which is certainly implied in the notion of their
operation, is indefinite, and becomes vaguer and vaguer as the magical
system develops; and all this is the opposite of what happens in the
history of Science. In spite of having a necessary common ground in the
human mind, Magic and Science are contrasted from the first, in their
development grow wider and wider apart, in their methods and ideas
more and more opposed. If either can be said to precede the other, it
is Science (at least, in its earliest and crudest form) that precedes
Magic.
We had better begin, however, by considering a third something which is
earlier than either of them, and which I have called Common-sense: I
mean the accumulation of particular items of positive knowledge (which,
as such, is the first form of Science) acquired by primitive man,
and in less measure by the higher brutes: facts about cold and heat,
sunshine and rain, the powers of water and fire, the life of trees and
animals, the properties of wood and stone, and so forth, which are
unfailingly confirmed by further experience. Examination of the life
of savages discovers that this positive knowledge of theirs amounts
to a great deal, and that they are able to use it “and reason not
contemptibly.” From this Common-sense Science and a good deal of Magic
are differentiated, and they expand at very unequal rates in opposite
directions. Each of them starts from it; but whilst Magic rapidly
distorts, perverts and mystifies it out of recognition in innumerable
imaginations, Science slowly connects its fragments together,
corrects, defines and extends it, without ever altering its original
positive character. The difference between Magic and Science lies (as
we have seen) in the causes that establish belief in them; in the
character of their ideas—respectively, incoherent and vague, coherent
and definite; and, as a consequence, in their respective falsity and
truth.
§ 2. THE DIFFERENTIATION
Whilst Magic, amongst savage and barbarous people, is practised
more or less by almost everybody, it is especially developed by
the professional wizard, and in his art and tradition it is most
conveniently studied. The wizard, or (at least) a leader amongst
wizards, is a man of superior ability, penetration and enterprise;
liable to be misled by a sanguine and ambitious temperament into
extravagant imaginations and impostures, but with much more real
knowledge than the rest of the tribe. He often takes pains to increase
his knowledge, for it is the true basis of his power: “the power of
the Angoqok,” says Mr. Turner, writing of the Esquimo,[560] “has some
basis in experienced weather-lore, and knowledge of the habits of
animals, by which he advises hunters.” But this knowledge is often the
starting-point of his delusions, not altogether by any fault of his
own, but as a result of his attempts to apply knowledge to new cases
without any appreciation of the need of caution or of the conditions
of sound inference and of proof and disproof. He never knows why he
is right or why he is wrong. Hence, beside the modest edifice of his
real knowledge, he builds out in one direction a few genuine additions
warranted by sound inference and observation; whilst in the other
direction he raises, largely by analogy, with the help of “sympathy”
and spiritual powers, a towering structure of imaginations, which
throws his little hut of Common-sense quite into the shade.
(_a_) For example, the wizard is often literally a medicine-man or
physician, and knows the use of certain drugs; and he may discover
other drugs and more uses for them, and in that direction lies
Pharmacology. But in the other direction he adopts on altogether
fanciful occasions a great many other recipes that serve no purpose but
charlatanry and mystification. Pliny, much of whose _Natural History_
is a handbook of ancient medicine, describes hundreds of remedies
derived from animals, vegetables and minerals; and Burton[561] cites
Galeottus as having enumerated 800 medicinal herbs and other drugs.
Some of these were good and are still in use, but most were useless
or worse than useless. The difference between these two classes of
drugs depended on a difference of method in determining their uses: a
difference that existed but was not yet understood (namely), on the one
hand, proof by experience, giving in the smaller class the rudiments
of medical science; and, on the other hand, acceptance on the strength
of superficial likeness, or of the doctrine of qualities, virtues and
signatures, which made the larger class essentially magical.
Thus all sorts of precious stones and metals were believed to be
medicinal, not because they had been known to cure any disease, but
because it seemed obvious in those days that precious things must
have all sorts of desirable effects by some occult virtue. Gold, the
most perfect of all substances (according to the alchemists), must in
particular be a propitious and powerful restorative. So Chaucer says of
his Doctour of Phisik:
“For gold in phisik is a cordial,
Therefore he lovede gold in special.”
And throughout India at the present day gold is a trusty item in any
prescription. Belief in the virtue of precious stones probably goes
back to very early times; since we find that in Australia crystals are
not only magically powerful but the great primary sources of Magic, by
having which inside him the wizard acquires and maintains his power.
With herbs, again, whilst the utility of some, such as quinine or
senna, was a matter of experience, others were equally prized out
of pure fancy. Dracunculus, a plant spotted with various colours,
like a viper’s skin, was supposed to be a remedy for all kinds of
snake-stings.[562] The Cherokees gave their children a concoction of
burs to strengthen their memories; for as a bur will stick to anything,
the mind of a man with bur inside him will cling to all kinds of useful
information. The same Amerinds had other remedies which illustrate
the character of magical physic. They concocted a vermifuge of the
red fleshy stalks of chickweed, which somewhat resemble worms, and
therefore must have some influence upon them; and they steeped in
this concoction a flint arrow-head, that its sharpness, communicated
to the brew, might cut the worms in pieces. Biliousness, marked by
the vomiting of yellow bile, was cured by four herbs—all yellow in
root, or stalk, or flower. To ward off smallpox they ate the flesh of
the buzzard: that bird being, in their opinion, exempt from smallpox,
because its foul stench keeps the disease-spirit at a distance. To cure
snake-bite, they said, rub the place in the direction contrary to that
in which the snake coils itself (to the right); because this is the
same as uncoiling it.[563] But here there seems to be some hiatus in
the thought, for how does uncoiling the snake counteract its poison?
One easily appreciates the exultation of the wizard to whom this idea
first revealed itself, and his contempt for the dull process of working
it out, when its place in the harmony of things was self-evident.
In some of these cases we find the assumption (tacit with primitive
practitioners, but explicit in Mediæval Medicine) that “like causes
like”: the adhesiveness of the bur is communicated to the memory, the
sharpness of the flint arrow-point to the vermifuge, the buzzard’s
immunity from smallpox to the eater of the buzzard. And this is
intelligible: because, first, there are many examples (superficially
considered) of like causing like, such as animal generation, the
spread of fire; hot things heat, and cold things cool, and so forth:
and, secondly, qualities such as stickiness and sharpness, are thought
of by savages as fine material, like curses and ghosts, which may
be transferred from one thing to another. But in other cases it is
assumed that “like cures like,” as chickweed cures worms, and yellow
herbs biliousness (as in Europe turmeric was long believed to cure
jaundice); and this is a very different matter—equivalent to “like
expels or annuls like.” In ordinary experience, there seem to be no
obvious examples of it: but in primitive medical practice it is found
that fomentation reduces inflammation, rubbing with snow is good for
frost-bite, an emetic cures sickness, and castor oil diarrhœa; and such
may be the experiential ground of these magico-medical fancies.
The power of herbs may depend upon rites observed at their gathering:
when a Cherokee wizard pulled up a plant for medicine, he dropped a
bead into the hole to compensate the earth for the theft;[564] and
when a Greek physician gathered the _Panaces Asclepion_, which was
a remedy for all diseases, he filled the hole with various kinds of
grain by way of expiation.[565] In employing medicinal herbs it is
also important to remember _when_ they should be procured, as on the
eve of the summer solstice, at the new or the full moon, or at the
turn of the tide; _by whom_—a child or a virgin; and _where_—on a
mountain-top or at a grave. Hierabotane was so potent that whoever
rubbed himself with it obtained whatever he desired; and in gathering
it, you first offered honey to the earth in expiation, then traced
a circle around it with iron, and—taking care that neither sun nor
moon should shine upon it—at the rising of the Dog Star, you pulled
it up with the left hand, and dried separately in the shade the root,
the stem and the leaves.[566] Indeed the conditions under which a
drug can be legitimately obtained so as to ensure its efficacy, may
be so numerous, minute and exigent as to make the satisfying of them
almost impossible; so we need not wonder if the remedy sometimes fails.
Prescriptions often include the flesh or juices of dead bodies, or
their pounded bones, or other foul and repulsive ingredients related to
Black Magic—much trusted, and still traditional in some strata of this
country, where the belief is inexpugnable that medicine, the nastier it
is, is the more efficacious.
If any one wonders how such prescriptions can have held their ground
for ages, it was because patients did not always die. Recovery was
credited to the drastic medicine, and death to evil Magic; and the _vis
medicatrix naturæ_, that staunch ally of honest physic, was sometimes
too strong for the wizard’s whole pharmacopœia.
(_b_) Again, the wizard is a surgeon, and knows something of the
construction and working of the human body, and this is the beginning
of Anatomy and Physiology. He was especially well informed in these
matters in such a country as Fiji, where he had access to two great
sources of anatomical knowledge—frequent wars and cannibalism. He
also knows certain ways of treating wounds and other lesions, such
as bandages, ligatures, splints, slings, massage and fomentations,
which all admit of rational development and have been continuously
practised to this day. Could he be content to abide by the facts, all
might be well; but he is tempted to extend his methods in various
directions to cases which, on very slight grounds, he believes to be
similar. The best known example of the erroneous extension by analogy
of a sound method is the sucking-cure. It is, or has been, practised
all over the world, and obviously rests on the proved utility of
suction in extracting from the flesh thorns or poisons. In Australia
snake-bite is sometimes cured by sucking the wound and rinsing the
mouth with water.[567] But the operation is gradually applied to other
cases until, whatever pain you suffer, it is attributed to something
like poison, or a thorn (or, later, a spirit), that has got inside
you, though by an invisible wound, and may be sucked out. The wizard,
accordingly, undertakes to suck it out, and he sometimes exhibits it to
you—a piece of wood or bone, which he brought to your bedside in his
waistband. Sometimes a medicine-man enjoys great suctorial powers by
having a lizard in his own body.[568]
For getting a foreign body out of a man a method alternative to suction
is pressure. Mr. Howitt[569] reports a remarkable prescription for
curing headache. Cut out of the ground a circular turf, place the
sufferer’s head in the hole and the turf upon his head; then sit or
stand upon it. He may presently declare that he feels relief; but
perhaps he only desires it. It is a fact that a patient sometimes feels
better after such treatment, though the cause of his pain was nothing
that could possibly yield to suction or pressure: that is to say, his
mind yields to suggestion. But not all savages are equally suggestible,
any more than we are. Dr. Coddrington says[570] that, in Pentecost
Island, witches profess to cure pain with a leaf-poultice, and in
taking it off to remove with it the cause of pain, perhaps a snake
or a lizard. “But,” said a native, “no one sees the things but the
woman, and the pain remains”—one of those troublesome sceptics! Yet
it is possible that had he just undergone the operation, he would not
have denied that the pain was better. There is a state of mind between
suggestibility and sane judgment, namely, assentation: unwillingness or
unreadiness to form or state one’s own opinion, and, consequently, an
appearance of acquiescing in another’s assertion. There is confusion
and conflict, from which assent is the easiest relief. This state of
mind for the immediate purpose of medicine-man or orator may serve as
well as suggestibility; but may soon pass off when the patient recovers
his faculties, and should be distinguished from the suggestibility
that takes a relatively permanent impression from the pretensions of a
mountebank. The power of suggestion, however, is one of the facts that
the wizard has observed, and he counts upon its aid. He has also learnt
to practise hypnotism; and seeing how mysterious these things have been
to the most enlightened moderns, we need not wonder that he employs
them in magical therapeutics—dancing, drumming, shouting to overpower
his patient and to incite himself to put forth his utmost energy.
Nowhere, probably, in the whole range of his art, is the difference
between Reality and Magic so obscure to himself.
The wizard, then, acquired in his medical functions (and in others) a
certain empirical knowledge of some obscure facts in Psychology, and
this knowledge persisted in his profession in shady quarters to our own
time; but with the growth of positive Science, its mysteriousness was
mistaken for quackery, until quite recently, when the facts forced
themselves on the attention of some men, who needed great courage
to confess their conviction. A crude Physiological Psychology, too,
resulted from savage observation of a connexion between the agitations
of body and mind. Very early sundry mental powers—skill, courage,
affection—are located in special parts of the body—the heart, spleen,
kidneys, bowels—as they still are in popular language. Apart from the
bare observation that the bowels and heart are disturbed during emotion
(which is true and important), these doctrines are not Science; nor
are they exactly Magic, but belong to the region of ideas ancillary to
Magic—ideas of qualities as material things. The savage, always eager
to apply his supposed knowledge to practice, utilises his Physiological
Psychology for the improvement of his mind, and misses no opportunity
to make a meal upon an enemy’s (or perhaps a relative’s) heart or
spleen or kidney or tongue or eye, in order to appropriate the quality
for which the deceased had been conspicuous.
(_c_) Savages (as we have seen in the chapter on Omens) are familiar
with a great many natural signs by which to judge of things not now
present, but that have happened, or are about to happen. Every hunter
must have a great stock of such knowledge, inasmuch as the pursuit of
game entirely depends upon it. This knowledge of natural signs is, on
the one hand, a genuine contribution to Natural History; it increases,
is handed down from generation to generation, and forms the nucleus
of Botany and Zoology. But, on the other hand, there is reared upon
it, under the influence of hope and fear, the belief in Omens that
give warning of good or ill success in all the affairs of life. Omens,
at first merely signs mysteriously connected with events, are later
regarded as the sendings of spirits or gods, whose oracles forecast the
fate of heroes and nations. At first, perhaps, the wizard may do no
more than other tribesmen to promote this particular superstition; but
it is he who works out the great art of Divination, without which Omens
would have been a matter of much less consequence.
The most famous branch of Divination, namely, Astrology, was the
invention of a comparatively late age, and it was, of course, long
preceded by the discovery of the rudiments of Astronomy as part of
the common sense of agriculture: some knowledge of the regularity of
the motions of the sun and moon and of the constancy of the stars
in contrast with the planets. This is plainly presupposed by the
comprehensive system of predictions based on sympathetic Magic,
arbitrary assumptions and fanciful analogies which, for the last four
or five thousand years, has promised to disclose to any mother the
career of her infant, or to any monarch the future of his kingdom. But
what now seems fanciful or arbitrary once seemed reasonable. The sun
manifestly rules all things; the waxing and waning of the moon must
strengthen and weaken all things; the signs of the Zodiac are certainly
connected with the seasons; the planets partake of the nature of the
gods.[571] If there are gods they must, as the Stoics argued, have some
way of communicating with men; and what way can be more congruous with
their nature than by writing on the face of the heavens? But generally
the ideas of Astrology were magical rather than animistic. Having
determined the powers and dispositions of the heavenly bodies, let us
consider only what must necessarily follow from their influences in
conjunction or opposition and various relations in trine, quartile and
sextile. Thus they dreamed and speculated, but at the same time made
many exact observations on the sky. And so Astronomy made some progress
in spite of Magic.
(_d_) More widely prevalent than Astrology and far more ancient is the
art of controlling the weather, especially rain; for rain, from its
uncertainty in many countries and its indispensableness, is a matter of
deeper interest and anxiety than even the sun himself. “Rain-making,”
as it is called, common in Australia and other regions of lowly
culture, survives when society has risen to higher levels, becomes the
function of the most eminent wizards or priests, sometimes the duty of
kings, and is not extinct amongst ourselves. But from what knowledge of
fact or common sense can “rain-making” be derived? I conjecture it was
from facts observed in the behaviour of fire.
The making of fire was the first great chemical experiment and the
foundation of all Chemistry. Having made fire, the most wonderful of
all achievements, there would be little excuse for astonishment if men
had then thought they could also make rain; but probably they never
thought so. It seems to me a misconception of rain-rites to describe
them as endeavours to “make” rain; for they plainly aim not at making,
but at inducing, instigating or propagating it. The Swazies, we are
told explicitly, try to procure rain by throwing water high into the
air, expecting that the falling drops will stimulate the clouds in
sympathy with them.[572] Savages may be said to “make” fire; for until
they rub their sticks, or knock their flints together, it does not
exist. But in the so-called “making” of rain there is nearly always
some water to begin with; and the essence of a rain-rite is the
splashing of water into the air, or the pouring of it out, sometimes on
a particular stone, or on a particular person, with many variations.
In rare instances the water has been forgotten: the Kurnai, instead
of water, let blood, and throw down into the air for clouds; but in
another rite they fill their mouths with water and squirt it out in one
direction or another (according to the clan) and sing a spell: to stop
the rain they throw up fire-sticks.[573] Those who practise such rites
hope that the spilling of a little water will bring on a great downfall
or outpouring of water, namely, rain; and this agrees with the fact
that a wizard will not operate except when the rainy season approaches.
Now this inducing of much by little is not, indeed, analogous to the
_making_ of fire; but it is analogous to the spread or propagation of
fire; when, having produced a few sparks, these spread through tinder
to the firewood, and thence a conflagration may be communicated to the
prairie or to the forest. My conjecture is, then, that not the making
(which is never attempted) but the inducing, or propagation of rain is
based on the analogy of the propagation of fire, and belongs to the
class of exemplary or incentive rites; which are to be understood not
as intending the direct causation of events, but rather as instigating
Nature to bring it about: the class described in Chap. IV. § 8, such
as the furthering of crops by fertility-rites, or the ensuring of
successful hunting or warfare by a dramatic dance.
Rain-rites being very apt to fail of their purpose, the wizard is in
danger of losing his reputation, or of some worse fate. His attention
is, therefore, drawn to the signs of the weather, the character and
course of the seasons, the connexion of rain with the aspect of the
sky and direction of the wind; so that he learns to operate for rain
only when rain may reasonably be expected. He has then laid out the
rudiments of Meteorology, but by observation, not by hocus-pocus.
§ 3. WHY MAGIC SEEMS TO BE THE SOURCE OF SCIENCE
In no case, then, is Science derived from Magic, but Science on the one
hand and Magic on the other are differentiated from Common-sense,[574]
and Science is much nearer akin to Common-sense than Magic is, being
of the same substance and only formally different. And in that sense
it is earlier than Magic, and sometimes formally earlier, as in the
case of Astronomy and Astrology. The illusion that Magic is the earlier
is due to the misinterpretation of two facts: (_a_) Magic and Science
are, for the most part and during many ages, worked out by the same
men—magicians or priests; and all that they do is mistaken for Magic,
even by themselves. And (_b_) Magic in most of its branches undergoes
immense development, whilst the Sciences remain rudimentary; grows old
and even decrepit, whilst they are still in infancy; so that, on first
emerging into public notice, they seem to issue from the matrix of
Magic.
The reasons for the relative backwardness of Science, again, are
chiefly three: (_a_) For ages it is in the hands of wizards who, though
highly valuing knowledge, are mainly eager for power and prophecy. It
is true that Science gives power, and the hope of power is a reasonable
incentive to the study of Science; but it must be a remote incentive,
in the actual work of research rigorously excluded. There, unless
truth is the sole end in view, the procedure will not be clean, will
be confined to immediate utility. But this is a recent discovery. The
wizard has no such ideas: he is governed by his desires and traditions.
Hence for verification he is content with coincidences; negative
instances he neglects, or regards failure merely as an occasion for
excuses. He accepts connexions of events remote in space and time, and
is very slow to see the necessity of connecting events in the closest
possible sequence. Moreover, having no understanding even of the facts
he knows (such as the making of fire), the mysteriousness of any
relation of events constitutes no objection to his acceptance of it; as
the magical side of his practice grows, so does its mystery; until at
last mysteriousness is a strong recommendation, and becomes a character
of the apperceptive mass that assimilates and confirms all magical
beliefs. This state of mind always offers strong resistance to positive
explanation.
(_b_) Another reason of the backwardness of Science is the slow
elucidation of the idea of Causation—long obscured by the
impressiveness of coincidence and by fallacious imaginations of magical
and spiritual forces: a process still incomplete. Until this idea had
made considerable progress in definiteness (in antiquity, say, with
Archimedes, and in modern times with Galileo), it was impossible that
the indispensableness of analysis and elimination should be understood,
that absolute respect should be felt for negative instances and that
any gap in a series of events should always be regarded as an instant
problem. And, finally (_c_), for scientific progress it was necessary
that reasoning by analogy should be abandoned, and a methodology
discovered of parallel and equational reasoning, with the apparatus
that makes exact investigation possible.
As the Sciences grow in comprehensiveness, precision and solidarity,
they constitute their own apperceptive mass, assimilation with which
is the supreme test of all relevant beliefs; and this, together with
a methodology that has become a habit of mind, tends to establish a
social atmosphere in which Magic is no longer thinkable. Exact habits
of thought in commerce and industry contribute greatly to this result.
So we are tempted to ridicule our benighted predecessors; but a study
of the conditions of their life shows that darkness was no more their
fault than illumination is our merit.
The nearest approach that can be truthfully made to the position that
Science is derived from Magic, is to say that the scientist is derived
from the wizard (or wizard-priest), on that side of his activity in
which he relied upon fragments of positive knowledge; but this was,
in nature, always opposed to his Magic. In the course of thousands of
years some men grew more interested in the positive than in the magical
side of their profession, and became scientists; whilst others adhered
to the fanciful and mystical. It is remarkable that, as sceptics occur
in the most unsuspected quarters, so pure scientists may sometimes
be found as an institution in barbarous or even savage communities.
In a Bantu tribe there is a class of doctors that claim no powers by
the aid of spirits or Magic, but without any ceremony dispense a few
well-known drugs—aloes, nux vomica, castor-oil, fern-root, rhubarb,
and the bark of various trees, purgative or emetic.[575] The Kanyahs of
Borneo have a weather-prophet to determine the right time for sowing;
he is not expected to cultivate padi, but is supplied with it by the
rest of the village. Not knowing how many days there are in a year,
and finding that the seasons do not correspond with any certain number
of lunar months, he depends entirely upon observation of the altitude
of the sun by means of an upright pole, whose upper end is carved into
a human figure.[576] Except the carving on his pole, there is nothing
to indicate that either Magic or Animism perturbs the method of this
Astronomer Royal. Hence the adventure, though most wonderful, is not
unexampled in a humbler world, by which eminent citizens amongst
the Greek laity, with minds almost free from Magic and Animism,
established for ever Philosophy and the Sciences as liberal studies.
§ 4. ANIMISM AND SCIENCE
Animism is opposed to Science, as well as to Magic,[577] by its
rejection of uniformity. A spirit, indeed, has some character (though
it may be very faintly marked); for he is, or is assimilated to, a
human ghost. But although he is supposed to have reasons or motives
for his actions, they are often unintelligible. Until he is brought
under the control of magical rites and formulæ, he may reject offerings
and prayers, as if by pure caprice or free-will. His interventions
are incalculable. Hence he may be the unseen agent in anything that
happens; and the habit is formed of putting upon him, or one of his
kind, every occurrence whose cause is not obvious: diseases, deaths,
storms, droughts, noises in the forest, unusual behaviour of animals. A
spirit-being with its body of soul-stuff capable of taking any shape, a
material thing exerting mechanical power, there is nothing that may not
be imputed to it. But being entirely imaginary, its supposed agency can
only satisfy the imagination by the assimilation of each intervention
by the animistic apperceptive mass. It is never seen or known to do any
one of the actions attributed to it; for the understanding, based on
perception and the classification and analysis of perceptions, it is
nothing. Moreover, so far as the actions of a spirit are of free-will,
or motiveless, or pure caprice, there is no distinct imagination of
even a spiritual cause. When a man, suffering from disease, or hearing
an unfamiliar noise, refers it to a spirit, there is usually nothing in
his mind but the word of vague meaning and a feeling of awe, wonder,
or dread. He gets no further in the understanding of the fact, and
curiosity is paralysed. To say “a spirit did it” becomes, therefore,
a means of avoiding the labour of explanation; it is a good example
of the “principle of least effort.” But in another direction his wits
may get to work. He is full of fear, and objectless fear must invent
a danger, which is easily done by supposing that the spirit has
been actuated by wrath. Then something must have been done to enrage
him: a taboo has been broken, his rites have been neglected, sin has
been committed—according to the customary ideas of the tribe. There
must be lustration, propitiation, expiation, perhaps with horrible
cruelty. Again, then, shall we say the man has been diverted from the
important inquiry into the causes of disease or drought? But this is
laughable: how can he set about such a task? It is the tragedy of the
world that for thousands of years the speculative powers of man—of
some men—expanded without any power, except in the classical age, of
discriminating sense from nonsense. Therefore, looking back, we see
everywhere else superstition and the kingdom of darkness.
Animism can never have directly enriched Science with a single natural
law; but, indirectly, it has instigated many investigations. With the
development of Religion, the building of temples and the regulation
of sacrifices and festivals according to their seasons, necessitated
at least the empirical study of Geometry, Arithmetic and Astronomy;
and the preservation of the ancient language of the sacred formulæ of
ritual required a knowledge of prosody, phonetics and grammar. For
thousands of years erudition was confined to the priestly orders.
They also practised, or were the chief patrons of, all the fine arts,
Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Music and Poetry; and by their
connexion with government they left in Egypt and Assyria, in monuments
and inscriptions, History, or the materials of History. Indirectly,
the progress of mental culture, both in learning and in æsthetics, has
depended almost entirely on the development of Animism; and this in
turn has depended on the aid which Animism gave to government and to
the extension of law and order, however imperfect, over wide regions
of the earth. This is the fundamental utility which, first, Magic and,
afterwards, Animism subserve, and for the sake of which—unconsciously,
of course—they arise and prevail. Mankind has been subdued through
imagination; because the peoples that had the cast of imagination
requisite for their political organisation and co-operation had an
advantage over others.
We must qualify this by observing that other imaginations, such as
devotion to the Family and Patriotism, with a much surer hold than
Animism has upon experience, have had a great and growing influence
upon the solidarity and civilisation of some branches of the human
race, especially the Nordic.
Philosophy has derived from Animism most of her problems—free-will
and predestination, final causes, creation and miracles, emanation
and intuition, idealism and materialism, immortality, the being and
attributes of God, eternity, infinity—in some of which, indeed,
magical ideas are deeply concerned: all of them the exercise of the
most eminent minds, exercise so delightful and so disappointing.
Considering their source, we cannot wonder that these problems remain
problems, and that philosophical discussion has, of late years, turned
from them to questions concerning the theory of knowledge.
* * * * *
A student of human origins is under no obligation to predict the
future. Fortunately: for several considerations make the task appear
altogether impossible. Of these I will mention three: (_a_) Whereas
nations have hitherto submitted to, and enforced, law and order, and
undertaken costly works of utility or splendour, in large measure under
the influence of animistic illusions, it is now everywhere noticeable
in the more civilised countries, that these illusions are being
dissipated, and it is very difficult to judge how people will behave
when they are gone. It is, indeed, true that our ordinary working life
has always depended chiefly on common sense, a knowledge of facts
within the range of ordinary experience and memory. Animistic or
magical rites and ceremonies associated with the working-life may have
increased the confidence and encouraged the co-operation of labourers,
but were not indispensable; although the association of Magic with
industry seems sometimes to have become so close, that to forget the
Magic was to destroy the industry. When, however, we turn to those
conditions of social life that are beyond the purview of common sense,
such as the preservation of tribal tradition and solidarity, and future
prosperity, loyalty to the king and obedience to his officers, it is
plain that something else than common sense was needed to reinforce
the interest of the whole against the tendency of the individual’s
self-assertion to overcome his social dispositions, and that this
control was found chiefly in Religion. It is also true that at present,
whilst some beliefs concerning supernatural things are being lost,
others are being resuscitated; but the lapsing beliefs are noble and
venerable and have exerted great public power and authority; whilst
those now eagerly propagated, are the raw infatuation of quacks, on a
level with the Animism of an Australian medicine-man and, indeed, much
inferior to his, as having no moral influence or authority. What must
come of this is so dubious, as to discourage one about the future of
the world.
(_b_) Reflection on the levity with which imagination-beliefs are let
slip and lost, or received and adopted, upon no evidence either way,
from mere shallowness of soul, brings forward a second consideration
that makes the future impredictable, namely, the low average
development of mankind in both intellect and character. This is the
consequence of our having depended, probably from the very beginning,
on leaders. A pack or tribe needed enough variability to produce able
leaders and enough average ability to follow and support them in a
crowd. Natural Selection, therefore, has operated first in producing
variability; and all tribes, even the lowest, produce relatively
eminent men. The average intelligence or ability of the crowd, in
which individuality is liable to be lost, is much less important. The
result is that each nation has its military affairs, organisation of
industry, science, invention, literature and art provided for it by
a small number of citizens; the rest fill the ranks, and learn what
they are taught. Thus arranged, the leading nations have of late years
made wonderful progress in science and in everything that can be done
by machinery; but there is no reason to suppose that anything has
been done towards raising the average intelligence and character; and
in default of that, in my judgment, nothing has been done to advance
civilisation. The world is no safer against war, revolution, demagogy,
despotism, degeneration. The greatest improvements have been made in
means of destruction; next we may put the invention of flying machines;
and their chief use has been destruction. Destruction now pauses, not
because the antagonists are satiated; they are only exhausted; and
there is more hatred in the world than was ever known before. How then
shall we judge of things to come?
(_c_) Speaking of the average man, we usually think of the European and
North American average; but in considering what changes may be expected
in the world, the people of India (800,000,000), China (350,000,000),
and the millions of the rest of Asia, the Eastern Archipelago, Africa
and South America cannot be left out; and to include them does not
raise the average. What will be their contribution to history? There
are two rational proposals for raising the average, namely, eugenics
and deliberate elimination of the unfit; and there are 1,600,000,000 on
whom to operate.
Any one who anxiously desires to foresee the future of our race is in
a position to sympathise with the ancients. Go, inquire at Delphi or
Dodona; or sleep in Stonehenge, or at the tomb of Merlin, or by the
barrows at Upsala, and dream of things to come; or consult the stars,
cast the nativity of Lycopithecus, and read in heaven the fate of his
posterity. If these methods are not very hopeful, any one of them is as
good as guessing. The only safe reflection is that he who lives longest
will see most.
FOOTNOTES:
[560] “Ethnology of the Ungava District,” _Am. B. of Ethn._, XI. p.
195. Other examples _ante_, ch. viii. § 3.
[561] _Anatomy of Melancholy_, Part II. Sec. IV. Mem. 1, Subsec. 3.
[562] Pliny, XXV. c. 6.
[563] J. Mooney, “Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees,” _Am. B. of Ethn._,
VII. pp. 323-39.
[564] J. Mooney, _op. cit._
[565] Pliny, XXV. c. 11.
[566] _Ibid._, XXV. c. 59.
[567] A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, p. 384.
[568] Spencer and Gillen, _Across Australia_, p. 339.
[569] _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, p. 381.
[570] _The Melanesians_, p. 199.
[571] For Proclus’ defence of Astrology see Whewell’s _History of the
Inductive Sciences_, Book IV. ch. iii., 1st ed., pp. 298-300.
[572] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, p. 114.
[573] A. W. Howitt, _Native Tribes of South-East Australia_, pp. 397-9.
[574] I do not mean that Magic is always a _direct_ derivative of
Common-sense: we have seen (ch. vi. § 5) that it sometimes comes from
Animism by retrogradation, and (elsewhere) often from coincidences.
[575] Dudley Kidd, _The Essential Kafir_, pp. 134-5.
[576] Hose and McDougall, _Pagan Tribes of Borneo_, I. p. 106.
[577] _Ante_, ch. vi. § 3.
INDEX
A
Abstract and general ideas in lower culture, 99-102, 163-4;
personified, 168
Actor and Wizard, 272-3
Adaptation, 30, 67
Affection for the dead, 179
Aggressiveness, 43
Agriculture, neolithic, 50;
as affecting natural selection, 64
Allen, Grant, on plant-spirits, 167
Analogy, 97-8
Animals give Omens, 236
Animatism, 120, 149, 151, 157
Animism, 35;
evil effects of, 67;
good effects, 69;
Chap. V. (145-86), see Contents;
and Magic and Common-sense, 110;
extended to plants and lifeless things, 150-3;
development of, 183-4;
deception in, 185;
how related to Magic, Chap. VI. (187-284), see Contents;
political advantage over Magic, 255;
and Totemism, 319-25;
and Science, 341;
and Fine Art, 341;
and Philosophy, 342
Anthropoids, habitat of, 5;
mentality and habits, 31-2;
skull capacity, 50;
character, 61
Apperceptive mass of Science and Common-sense, 81;
of Magic and Animism, 82, 126
Arbitrary Magic, 133, 142;
taboos, 133;
myths, 168
Archer, W., _Masks and Faces_, 273 _n._
Asia, southern, probable locus of Man’s origin, 23-4
Astrology, 239, 242, 335
Atkinson, J. J., on _Primal Law_, 38, 306
Avebury on making fire, 11;
baking clay, 13;
omens and Magic, 233 _n._
B
Baboons, 58
Belief, Chap. III. (71-107), see Contents
Belt, Th., on hairless dogs, 15;
habits of monkeys sleeping, 17
Berkeley on causality, 191
Black Magic, 107, 125, 129, 135-6, 139, 196, 211, 255, 287
Boas, Franz, on savage language, 100;
on Totemism, 298
Bogoras on the Shaman, 285
_Book of Daniel_, 219
Brain development in Man, 7, 26, 50;
in child and savage, 91
Brehm on baboons, 58
Bryant, E. T., on South African diviners, neurotic, 274
Buddhist _karma_, 175
Burton, R., on Moslem corpse, 170
Burton’s _Anatomy of Melancholy_ on drugs, 329
Butler, J., on Conscience, 64
C
Callaway on chiefs and diviners, 254
Cannibalism, 18
Canteleu, C. de, on wolves, 42
Casalis on Bassoutos, 251
Cats in the Oligocene, etc., 26
Causation tacitly assumed by savages, 101;
confused with coincidence, 101, 122;
implied in Magic, 113;
how the idea affected by Animism and Magic, 123;
origin of idea, 188-92;
its slow development, 338
Causes of belief, 80-4
Chadwick on treatment of Teutonic gods, 278
Charms, 111, 113, 130-1, 198
Chaucer on the Doctour of Phisik, 329
Cheiromancy, 239
Chief’s taboo, 132
Chronology of geologic ages, 3, 49
Cicero on the Delphic Oracle, 242;
on the Augurs, 248
Coddrington on savage thought, 89;
in Banks Islands, 149;
on _buto_, 322
Coincidence confused with causation, 101;
source of belief in Magic, 116-8, 124, 136, 193;
in Omens, 231-2;
confirms Wizard’s pretensions, 290-1
Common-sense, 67;
its limitations, 69, 292;
unlike superstition, 72, 110;
makes sceptics, 281-2, 291;
forced upon Wizard, 282-3;
relation to Magic and Science, 327, 337
Comparative Method, 304
Comte on early hunting life of Man, 4 _n._;
on stages of culture, 108-9
Confucius on attitude toward spirits, 196
Conkling, E. S., on superstitious beliefs among students, 115 _n._
Conscience, growth of, 62-4
Constructive impulse in anthropoids and men, 53
Contra-suggestibility, 84
Co-operation, in hunting, 8;
the ground of language, 9;
amongst wolves, 45
Criticism of beliefs hindered by relative dissociation, 90
Crystal a Magic source, 245, 263 _n._
Cushing, T. H., on dramaturgic Magic, 142 _n._
Czaplicka, A. M., on Siberian shaman, 270, 272, 274
D
Darwin, C., on teeth and jaws of Man, 7;
on sexual selection as cause of naked skin, 14;
on vermin as possible cause, 16;
on growth of moral sense, 63
_De Divinatione_, 227, 232
Deniker on races of Men, 20
Desire as cause of belief, 83
Diderot on actors, 273
Diet of Primates and hunters, 2
Differentiation of Man began in the Oligocene, 3, and _note_;
of Omens from other Magic, 232-3
Diviners, 234, 238, 240, 241, 247, 249
Dogs, naked varieties, 16;
primitive, 25;
likeness to Man, 40, 43, 44, 46, 57, 64
Dorsey, J. O., on Dakotas, 138, 149;
on Omaha, 146
Dramatic Magic, 134-5
Dreams and ghosts, 153-6, 159;
and Omens, 237, 245 _n._
Durkheim on Totem divinities, 319
E
Edda, 183
Ellis, W., on spirit-food, 162;
on Religion in Raiatea, 206, 220;
the idol-maker, 280
Emotion as cause of belief, 83, 86;
in religion, 185, 186
Emulation within the pack, 44;
in games, business, etc., 59
Endogamy, 307
Eoanthropus, 49, 55, 66, 67
Eoliths, 50, 53
Epictetus on divination, 248
Erect gait of Man, 5
Evil eye, 128
Exemplary Magic, 140-2, 336
Exogamy and Totems and Marriage Classes, 295, 305, 307-11
External soul, 173
F
Fate and Magic, 223;
and Omens, 235, 249;
and Causation, 249-50
Fear a cause of superstition, 83;
gives power to ghosts, 123;
of the dead, 178-9
Feeling as cause of belief, 83
Fetichism, 108
Fire, how first made, 11
Force, idea of, 100-1, 119-22, 163;
force and ghosts, 197-8;
in Magic and Science, 326-7
Forms of thought in primitive mind, 94, 95
Fowler, Ward, on Iguvian Magic, 202, 203;
on Roman prayers, 205, 221
Fraud, in what sense attributed to Wizards, 284
Frazer, J. G., on Magic and Animism, 109;
on driving out ghosts, 179 _n._;
on Magic and Religion, 193, 195;
on power of Wizard, 284;
on Totemism, 293, 299, 304;
first Hypothesis on Totemism, 313;
on Grass-seed Rites, 317;
second Hypothesis on Totemism, 317;
on Zoolatry, 324
Free-will and Animism, 223
Freud on _Totem und Tabu_, 38
Funerary rites, extravagance and economy, 180;
and Religion, 320
G
Galton, F., on dog and man, 40;
moroseness of savages, 46
Garner, R. L., on speech of chimpanzee, 9;
on polygamy of apes, 32 _n._
General ideas at savage level, Chap. III. § 7;
present though unnamed, 100
Generic consciousness of Primates, 30
Gesture, 54, 100, 121;
and Magic, 129
Ghosts and spirits alike, 169;
how imagined, 169, 173;
and corpse, 170;
may die or be killed, 176;
their way of life, 177, 183;
easily deceived, 181;
and Magic, 199
Ghost-theory, 163-7;
extended to animals, 157-60;
and soul-stuff, 161-4;
and spirits, 164-9
Gibbon on fanatics, 287
Gods from tools, etc., 152;
from plants and meteors, 166-7;
from abstract ideas, 168;
subject to death, 176;
act by Magic, 213-5;
controlled by Magic, 219-23;
teach Magic, 309, 310;
from ancestors, 69, 255;
and Totems, 321-4
Gregariousness, 8, 34, 42
Grimm, J., on divine power, 215
H
Haddon, A. C., on Magic in Torres Straits, 127, 141, 150, 256;
on treatment of Wizard, 265;
Totemism, 299
Hallucination, 89, 92, 155
Hartland, E. S., 121 _n._
Hartmann, R., on character of anthropoids, 61
Hegel on sorcery, 194 _n._
Hepatoscopy, 239
Herd-life, the character it develops, 48
Herodotus on the army of Xerxes, 51;
on Egyptian prediction, 193;
on Persian law, 219;
on Omens, 225, 232;
on Dreams, 237, 241, 242
Hirn, Yrjö, on sympathetic Magic, 138;
Magic and Religion, 253
_History of Human Marriage_, 308-9
Hodson, T. C., on a Tanghul sceptic, 281
Hose and McDougall on Pagan tribes of Borneo, 124
Howitt, A. W., prowess in kidney-fat, 245;
on Medicine Man, 271;
to cure headache, 332
Hudson, W. H., on wolves, 44;
on dogs, 45
Humanity, growth of the sentiments, 61-2
Hume, J., _Natural History of Religion_, 108;
on future life, 177;
on causation, 190, 191
Hunting-life, influence of, 1, 2, Chap. I. §§ 2, 3 (see Contents),
33, 35, 37, 39, Chap. II. § 4 (see Contents);
on intelligence, 47, 66
Hunting-pack, its organisation, 36, 41, 45;
organisation lost, 68, 69
Hutton, J. J. H., on Leopard men, 214 _n._
Hyperphysical Animism, 145, 150
I
_Iliad_, 183, 279
Images or mental pictures, 73;
vivid in savages and children, 89
Imagination, Chap. III. § 4 (see Contents);
as unverifiable representation, 74
Imagination-beliefs, 67, 76;
mimic perception-beliefs, 103;
their power overrated, 103-4;
allied to play-belief, 104-6, 148;
often inconsistent, 181-2
Indirect Magic, 129, Chap. IV. §§ 6, 7 (see Contents)
Industry and Magic, 143
Initiation of Wizard, 203, 211, 263-5 _n._;
and disillusion, 277
Intelligence of Man, how developed, 10, 47-8;
of Anthropoids, 31-2;
its influence on morals, 65
Intichiuma, 129, 316
Intuition, 235
J
Jevons, F. B., on Totemism, 299
Jounod, H. A., on taboos, 133;
on photograph-soul, 138;
on divination, 249;
on Magician’s power, 263 _n._
K
_Kalevala_, 208, 262
Kant on free-will, 223
Keith, A., on epoch of Man’s differentiation, 3 _n._;
on length of intestine, 13;
on the genealogical tree of the Primates, 49;
capacity of skulls, 50;
on Neanderthal species, 52;
on speech-organs of Pithecanthropus and Eoanthropus, 56, 66-7
Kingsley, Mary, on soul-doctors, 155;
on four souls, 172
L
Lamentation and weeping, 61
Lang, A., on ghosts, 114;
on Animism, 147, 148;
on Totemism, 299, 304-7
Laughter, 60
Laws of Association of Ideas, 137
Lecky on Belief, 174
Leibnitz, 174
Leuba, J. H., 142
Levy-Bruhl on the primitive mind, 85-6
Livingstone on South African game, 27;
on South African doctors, 260
Love of the chase, 41
Lyall, Alfred, _Asiatic Studies_, 222
Lycopithecus, 8, 18;
his stature, 25, 26, 29
M
MacBride, E. W., on specialisation of Man, 4 _n._
McDougall, W., on self-abasement, 44, 124. _See also_ Hose and
McDougall
Magic, 35, Chap. IV., see Contents;
relation to government, 68-69, 253-4;
relation to Animism, Chap. VI., see Contents;
to Fine Art, 262;
to Religion, 194-7, 254-5;
to Omens, 227-34;
its equivalent for inspiration, 245;
relation to Totemism, 314-8;
to science, 111, Chap. X. §§ 1, 2, 3, see Contents;
to Medicine, 260, 328-31
Major premise of primitive reasoning, 94, 95, 98
_Mana_, 121, 122, 193
Marett, R. R., on Animatism, 120, 149
Marriage, seasonal, 13;
and Totemism, 307-11
Mathew, J., on source of magical power, 263 _n._
Maxim, H. S., on precedence, 45
Memory and Belief, 73, 80
Mercier, C., on paranoia, 276
Metamorphosis, 213-14, 314-15
Methodology, none for the primitive mind, 82, 117
Mill, J. S., on Comte, 108;
on induction, 117
Mimesis, principle of, 136
Minor premise not understood in primitive reasoning, 95-6
Mousterian culture, 13
Müller, Max, on Totemism, 299
N
Natural selection of best hunters, 4;
of the gregarious, 8;
of the intelligent, 11;
adapted Man to the hunting life, not to civilisation, 51;
except partially, 64;
within limits favoured the superstitious, 70, 114
Neanderthal Man, 49, 50, 52
Neolithic culture, 50, 51
Nordic Race, 19-20
O
Odour as soul-stuff, 139, 162
Oligocene supposed age of the differentiation of _Hominidæ_, 3, 24;
landscape, flora and fauna then, 22-8
Omen, magical or spiritual, 200, 204, Chap. VII., see Contents
Oracles, dreams and omens, 236-7;
in Greece, 241-3;
in Fiji, 243;
often obscure, 246
_Origin and Development of Moral Ideas_, 109, 309
P
Palæolithic Culture, 50
Panætius on Divination, 248
Participation, principle of, 136
Pausanias, 244
Pawnee chief on the good man, 64
_Pekin Gazette_, 222
Perception as source of belief, 79, 85;
among savages, 36, 137
Philosophy and Animism, 342
Photograph and soul, 312
Pithecanthropus, 49, 55
Pliny (the Elder) on Ancient Medicine, 329, 331
Plutarch, 242
Poet respected, 126;
inspired, 237 _n._;
and wizard, 267
Polybius on Roman Religion, 248
Positivism, 108
Possession, 210-11, 212, 237, 242-3
Prayers, at first seem dangerous, 195-6;
from spells, also spontaneous, 200, 201;
become spells, 204, 205
Precedence in the hunting-pack, 44;
amongst Australians, 45
Priest, 68-9;
and sorcerer, 254-5;
and learning, 341
_Primal Law_, 38, 306
Property, 43, 56-8
Psychology of the hunting-pack, Chap. II. § 4 (40-8)
Psychological Animism, 145, Chap. V. § 2 (147-53)
R
Races of Men, 19
Rain-rites, 202, 335-7
Ray, S. H., on the Lifuans, 142 _n._, 156
Reason and imagination, 74-5;
in immature minds, Chap. III. § 6
Reflection and ghost, 154, 158
Reinach, S., on sex-taboo, 56
Reincarnation, 174
Relations in savage thought, 101
Religion, 69;
meaning of word, 184;
and Magic, 193-7;
and Totemism, 321-5
Retrogradation, Ch. VI. § 4 (203-7)
_Rigveda_, 152, 168, 219
Rivera, W. H. R., on suggestibility in savages, 86;
on savage thought, 89, 100;
on Totemic gods, 167, 321-2;
on Toda prayers, 205;
blindness of savages to deceit, 283;
on a custom at Mota, 301, 303
Roosevelt on dogs, 44, 45;
elephant and bear, 147
Roth, W. E., on prayer to Totem, 319
Roy, S. C., on Oraon rain-rites, 202
S
Sanderson, G. P., on Indian wild dogs, 43
Scapulomancy, 239
Schopenhauer on female beauty, 15
Scientists in barbarism, 339
_Secret of the Totem_, 305
Seligman on sex-taboo, 131;
on departmental experts, 257, 284
Selous, F. C., on the hunter’s joy, 41
Seneca on Omens, 249
Seton, Thompson, on Indians’ love of killing, 41;
on wolves, 42, 44, 56
Sexual selection as cause of naked skin, 14
Shadow and ghost, 154, 158
Shaman derivation of word, 274
Shamanism, 217-8, 254
Skeat and Blagden on the Semang, 149, 168;
on Malay Magic, 172, 261
Skin naked, 14-18
Skull changes in, 7;
capacity of, 50
Social life of Primates, 7, 32;
of Man, 8, 34-6, 37-8
_Social Origins_, 305
Societies of Wizards, 256
Sollas on geological time, 3 _n._, 49 _n._
Sorcerer and Magician, 252;
and Priest, 254
Sorcery, 129;
defined, 189
Soul and soul-stuff, 147, 151, 154, 155, 161-3, 171;
how many, 172;
origin and destiny of, 174-7;
of Totem and clansman, 312, 313
Southey, R., _The Curse of Kehama_, 265
Species of Man, 31
Speech in apes and men, 9, 54, 55
Speisser on Animism in Ambrym, 152
Spell, 68, 111, 113, 130;
tends to personify, 152, 156;
and prayer, 200, 201
Spencer, H., _Pol. Institutions_, 8, 59;
on Laughter, 60;
Sociology, 108;
on Animism, 153, 165, 167, 183;
on Totemism, 298
Spencer and Gillen on savage imagination, 83;
on Guanjis, 146;
on magic stones, 120-1, 263 _n._;
emotions of Australians, 244;
foreign Magic, 270;
account of a Wizard, 285;
list of Totems, 296
Spirits and ghosts, Chap. V. §§ 6-7 (164-73);
power of, 212-3;
controlled by Magic, 216-24;
and Omens, 234-8
Stages in development of Magic, 129
Stanbridge, W., on aborigines’ scepticism, 279
Standard of truth for savages, 89
Stefánson on Esquimo, 160
Stigand, G. H., on the Masai, 146
Stoics and divination, 248
Stoll, Otto, on self-suggestion, 274
Struggle over prey, 45-6
Substitution in Magic, 141
Suggestibility, 84, 275
Superstition, Chap. III., see Contents;
utility of, 69;
its dark side, 107;
innate disposition to, 114, 153
Syllogism and savage thinking, 92-7
Symbols, 139;
may fulfil Omens, 246
Sympathy, perceptive, contagious, effective in the pack, 48;
and moral sense, 63-4
T
Taboo, 68;
on persons and things, 131-2;
on words, 133;
names of dead and of spirits, 201;
on kings, 219;
connected with Totemism, 315, 316
Talisman, 68, 131, etc.
Testimony, 80, 82
Thompson, Basil, on Tongan rejection of coincidence, 291
Thurn, E. F. im, on savage belief, 116, 151, 155;
on the _peaiman_, 260
Torday, E., on Bahuana, 150;
dead cast no shadow, 154 _n._
Totemism, 68, 151, 166, 167, 173;
Chap. IX. (293-325), see Contents
Transmigration, 171, 175
Trotter on herd-instinct, 64
Turner, G., on Samoan gods, 322
Turner (_Am. B. of Ethn._) on Esquimo Angoqok, 328
Tylor, E. B., _Primitive Culture_, 108;
on Animism, 153, 183;
on motivation of Magic, 195;
on spell and prayer, 207
Tyndall on the _Scientific Uses of the Imagination_, 74
V
Ventriloquism practised by Wizard, 261
Vocation of Wizard, 267-9, 285
_Volsung Saga_, 213, 215 _n._
Voluntary action as cause of belief, 83;
supposed source of idea of cause, 188, 192
W
Wallace, A. R., on place of Man’s origin, 4 _n._;
on human brain, 11;
nakedness, 16; the Orang, 32, 33, 47
War, 58-9
Weeks, J. H., on _Congo Cannibals_, 127, 131;
the Bakongo, 130, 162, 168;
specialists in Magic, 257;
on character of wizard, 260, 271;
sorcerer not honoured at home, 270;
his trickery, 282
Westermarck, E., on seasonal marriage, 13;
primitive monogamy, 56;
on moral ideas, 64;
savage classification of phenomena, 109;
on sex-taboo, 132;
on averting the evil eye, 144;
descent in female line, 306;
Totemism and marriage, 308-9;
animal worship, 323
Whiffen, Th., on chief and medicine-man, 254;
medicine-man’s unscrupulousness, 271;
sceptics, 280
Wiedemann on Religion of Ancient Egyptians, 173, 267
Williamson, R. W., on the Mafulu, 201
Wizard, 68-9, 128;
the mind of, Chap. VIII. (252-92), see Contents;
and government, 253-4;
societies, 256;
his utility, 268;
and Pharmacology, 328, 331;
Anatomy and Physiology, 332;
Psychology, 333-4;
Botany and Zoology, 334;
Astronomy, 335;
Meteorology, 337
Wollunqua, 320
Wolves, 8, 11, 25, 36, 37 and note, 41, 42, 44, 45, 52, 53, 64
Wundt, W., on Körperseele, 170, 183;
on Animism and Magic and idea of cause, 187-92;
or retrogradation, 203
Transcriber’s note
Words in italics have been surrounded by _underscores_, and words in
small capitals changed to all capitals. Footnotes were renumbered and
moved to the end of the chapter they belong to.
Some minor corrections were made without note, such as missing
punctuation and missing page numbers in the index. Also the following
corrections were made, on page
13 “probaby” changed to “probably” (probably very much earlier)
93 “critisism” changed to “criticism” (incapable of comparison and
criticism)
224 “shephered” changed to “shepherd” (and a shepherd, sleeping by
the grave of Orpheus)
348 “McDougal” changed to “McDougall” (See also Hose and McDougall)
350 “unscupulousness” changed to “unscrupulousness” (medicine-man’s
unscrupulousness)
350 “Wiedermann” changed to “Wiedemann” (Wiedemann on Religion of
Ancient Egyptian).
Otherwise the original was preserved, including inconsistent spelling,
hyphenation, capitalization, and possible errors in foreign words.
Additional: The names of some of the quoted authors were spelled
inconsistently in the original, for example Codrington was spelled most
of the time with two d’s. Also the name of Vilhjálmur Stefánsson (who
was born as William Stephenson) was spelled in several different ways.
These have not been corrected. The also mentioned Stevenson is somebody
else. Also: The index has not been checked for errors, besides the ones
in the list above.