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tion of the doctors and wizards of several aboriginal tribes. 1 From different parts of the continent, other investigators report of medicine-men, wizards or enchanters, and describe their functions. 2

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In one of the few statements which exist concerning the religion and magic of the Bushmen, it is said that they believe in evil spirits, sorcery and amulets, and think certain persons endowed with special power to conjure the spirits and wizards. »3 Lichtenstein ports of the same people that »there are among them, as among the Caffres, people who are considered as magicians, and who are believed to have the power of commanding rain, wind, and thunder, at their pleasure.»> Of the Hottentots Th. Hahn states, that they have a class of sorcerers who are chiefly occupied in making rain, and he also mentions practitioners of witchcraft among them. 5 Kolben says that they have a priest who »presides at their offerings, and has the Ordering and Conducting of all Ceremonies of Worship. He performs the Marriage and the Funeral Ceremonies,» etc. This author also states that their physicians cure pains by means of amulets.

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As regards the Andaman Islanders E. H. Man makes mention of seers or medicine-men »credited with

sq.

2

1 In Jour. Anthr. Inst. xvi.

Eyre, Journals of Expeditions into Central Australia, ii. 359 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 522553 and Northern Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 481-88. Stanbridge, 'Tribes in the Central Part of Victoria,' in Trans. Ethn. Soc. N. S. i. 300. Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, i. 463 &c.

Tribes Dieyerie,' etc., in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xxiv. 170.

Gason, 'Of the
Bonwick, 'The

Australian Natives,' ib. xvi. 208 sq. Oldfield, 'Aborigines of Australia,' in Trans. Ethn. Soc. N. S. iii. 236, 243, a. o.

3 Fritsch, Die Eingeborenen Süd-Afrika's, p. 427.

• Lichtenstein, Travels in Southern Africa, ii. 61.

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5 Hahn, The Supreme Being of the Khoi-Khoi, pp. 83, 87.

Kolben, Present State of the Cape of Good-Hope, i. 88, 133.

Himo

prelet

Magician,

Sometimes medicle

the power of communicating in dreams with the invisible powers of good and evil, and also of seeing the spirits of the departed, or of those who are ill.» They are supposed to exercise supernatural power and to possess a mysterious influence over the fortunes and lives of their neighbours. 1 And Mr. Portman declares that their >>wise men» are thought able »to foretell the future, and know what are the intentions of the Deity, and what is passing at a distance.»> 2

Respecting the Veddahs in Ceylon we are still without positive intelligence as to the extent of their beliefs. No priests are mentioned, and it is also uncertain in what degree magicians proper occur among them. Emerson Tennent, however, says they have »devil dancers who drive away evil spirits while in a state of great excitement, and Le Mesurier tells us that, in cases of sickness, the Yakdesa, or demon priest, is sent for to dance and chant certain incantations before the sick person.

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As regards the Fuegians there are reports of wizards or conjuring doctors, whose functions, however, are very incompletely known. Admiral Fitzroy says that each Fuegian party has a doctor-wizard with much influence over his companions. 5 An exactly similar report is given by Darwin, 6 and also Mr. Snow mentions a wizard man among them. According to Mr. Bridges, they have doctors who are believed to communicate with

1 Man, 'Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 97; xi. 289.

2 Portman, Our Relations with the Andamanese, i. 39 sq.

3

Emerson Tennent, Ceylon, ii. 442.

4 Le Mesurier, 'The Vedda's of Ceylon,' in Jour, of the Ceylon

Branch of the Roy. As. Soc. ix. 341.

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5 Fitzroy, Surveying Voyages of Adventure and Beagle, ii. 178.

Darwin, Voyage of Beagle, p. 214.

Snow, 'Wild Tribes of Tierra del Fuego,' in Trans. Ethn. Soc... N. S. i. 264.

fabulous beings, and to have the power of killing persons in their dreams. 1 The same author also tells us of sorcerers supposed to possess unlimited magical power who are much feared by the people.

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The Angakoks of the Eskimo are comparatively well known, and we owe to several investigators more or less detailed descriptions of their offices and perform

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Thus the origin of priests and sorcerers evidently refers to a very early period of human evolution. Wherever, among uncivilized races, we meet with religious or magical acts, we may, indeed, consider the performers, whether they are professional or not, as illustrating, in some way or other, the rise or development of a priesthood. If we search for the first indicatory beginnings of that order, we may trace them back to the very origin of magical and religious practices.

When comparing the origin of priesthood with that of other classes, we become aware of the remarkable fact that priests and sorcerers everywhere differ from the mass of the population at an earlier period of culture than any of the lay classes. This conclusion may be drawn from the fact that priests or sorcerers are, as a rule, found among all peoples, also among those without any other distinction of classes, whereas, on the other hand, there are no instances whatever of peoples which were divided into classes of laymen but devoid of priesthood.

1 Bridges, 'Manners and Customs of the Firelanders,' in A Voice for South America, xii. 212.

p. 332.

2 Id., 'Das Feuerland und seine Bewohner,' in Globus, 1885,

3 Murdoch, 'Ethnological Results of the Point Barrow Expedition,' in Smithsonian Reports, ix. 430 sq. Boas 'The Central Eskimo,' ib. vi. 583-600. Hall, Arctic Researches, pp. 572 sqq. Crantz, The History of Greenland, i. 209–217. Astrup, Blandt Nordpolens Naboer, pp. 283-287, a. o.

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We have already pointed out that the Australians, Bushmen, Hottentots, Andaman Islanders, Veddahs, Fuegians and Eskimo have no (lay classes, although they have priests or magicians. To these instances others. may be added. Mr. Bonwick states that among the Tasmanians prevailed »>the equality of that democratic mode of existence which appears prevalent among all Papuan people, and some of the aboriginal tribes of India.» Yet there were among them certain »wise men or doctors >> of whom they stood in awe. These could not only mitigate suffering, but inflict it, and in their hands the sacred bone or stone wrought marvels. They were the exorcists of the tribes and mesmerists by profession, and the utterance of some verbal charms of theirs had

a medical power. 1 »Les Ghiliaks,» M. Deniker writes

of those natives on the lower Amur river, sont tous.
égaux entre eux et jamais il n'y a eu parmi eux d'es-
claves». The same author says there are shamans among
them. 2
Of the Bodo and Dhimál people, Mr. Hodgson
affirms that >>among their own communities there are
neither servants nor slaves, nor aliens of any kind; and
whilst their circumstances tend to perpetuate equality of
means, neither their traditions, their religion nor their
usages sanction any artificial distinction of rank
all Bodo and Dhimáls are equal absolutely so in right
or law
wonderfully so in fact.» Of the well distin-
guished priesthood of that tribe, a description is given
by the same author. By Dr. Svoboda we are told that
among the Nicobar Islanders there exists no state of
subordination, all inhabitants occupying the same rank.
There are, however, among them witch-doctors who are
believed to possess the faculty of seeing and command-

1 Bonwick, Daily Life and Origin of the Tasmanians, pp. 81, 175.

2 Deniker, 'Les Ghiliaks,' in Revue d' Ethnographie, ii. 309.

Hodgson, 'Kócch, Bodo and Dhimál People,' in Jour. of the As. Soc. of Bengal, xviii. 717, 721.

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ing the evil spirit. They also cast out the spirits of deceased persons who take possession of the living. Bancroft, writing of the lower Californians, maintains that neither government nor law is found in their region, >every man is his own master; and administers justice in the form of vengeance as best he is able.» He mentions medicine-men among them and says that the usual juggleries attend the practice of medicine. 2

When taking into consideration the priesthood of various peoples, we become aware of the universal fact that the priesthood everywhere differs in a peculiar way from the rest of the population. In classifying the miscellaneous ranks of a community we may hesitate when considering to which of them a certain individual or group should be referred, but hardly, if ever, do we need to doubt whether they belong to the priesthood or not. In comparison with priesthood, the various classes seem in many cases to be founded on conventional or arbitrary distinctions, however carefully they may be upheld as fixed gradations. A great number of ranks is met with, for instance, among the natives of West Africa, in certain parts of the Malay Archipelago, and throughout Polynesia. The many petty classes and sub-classes of these peoples hardly display any decided characteristics by means of which their respective ranks become conspicuous. 3 It is beyond doubt that these classes are

1

Svoboda, 'Die Bewohner des Nokobaren Archipels,' in Internationales Archiv für Ethnographie, v. 191, 192; vi. 10.

3

2 Bancroft, Works, i. 564, 568, 569.

As regards the classes in these parts of the world, see: Bosman, Description of the Coast of Guinea, pp. 132 sq. Wilson, Western Africa, pp. 75 sq. (Mandingoes). Caillie, Travels through Central Africa to Timbuctoo, i. 98-106 (Moors on the Senegal). Schwaner, Borneo, pp. 167 sq. (Barito river tribes). Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 251 (Natives of the Arru group). Id., 'De Topantunuasu of oorspronkelijke volksstammen van central Selebes,' in Bijdragen tot de taal-, land- en volkenkunde van Nederlandsch Indië, V, 1

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