future by an interpretation of their own dreams.1 Several other tribes in India attribute dreams to the displeasure of deceased relatives who appear to them and prescribe offerings if not propitiated. 2 It frequently happens among the Amazulu, as the Rev. H. Callaway informs us, that the gods are thought to warn the people in dreams, and the author supplies several instances of such beliefs. By the Nootkas dreams are believed to be the visits of spirits or of the wandering souls of some living person. The Selish Indians believe that a familiar spirit directs their actions by dreams or presentiments. 5 Among the Wotyaks sick persons are believed to be informed in a dream what sacrifice is necessary for their recovery, and generally, among the same and other Finns, various wishes and instructions were supposed to be communicated in dreams by the gods."

4

Besides giving warnings in dreams, the gods are believed to announce their wishes and guide mankind in other ways. It is well known that among several European peoples in former times, divine signs were looked for in the entrails of certain animals, in the flight and cry of birds, etc. Similar auguration is still practised among certain wild peoples, as for instance the Guaranies

1 Rowney, Wild Tribes of India, pp. 89 sq.

2 Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, ii. 84, 138 sq., 221, 285. Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, ii. 208.

3 Callaway, Religious System of the Amazulu, pp. 228–231.

4 Bancroft, Works, i. 203.

5

Wilson, 'Indian Tribes in the Vicinity of the 49:th Parallel,' in Trans. Ethn. Soc. N. S. iv. 303.

• Wichman, "Tietoja Votjaakkien mytologiiasta,' in Suomi, Series iii. Pt. vi. p. 32. Buch, 'Die Wotjäken,' in Acta Soc. Scient. Fenn. xii. 608. Aminoff, 'Reseberättelse,' in Öfversigt af Finska Vetenskaps-Societetens förhandlingar, xxi. 230. Waronen, Suomen kansan muinaisia taikoja,

i. 1 (Ancient Finns).

3

in Brazil,1 the Tahitians, Hervey Islanders, New Zealanders, certain inhabitants of the Malay Archipelago and many other peoples. 5 Among the tribes of the interior of Eastern Africa, according to Lieutenant Becker, >>les tremblements de terre passent pour être provoqués par les efforts d'une ombre royale cherchant à entr'ouvrir la croûte du sol, pour annoncer malheur à quelqu'un de ses descendants.» The Rev. J. Shooter reports concerning the Kafirs of Natal that if a wild animal enter a kraal, which it is supposed it would not do of its own accord, it would be regarded as a messenger from the spirits to remind the people that they had done something wrong.» 7

6

Finally, diseases are often regarded as signs of the displeasure of the gods in the case of some neglect of religious duty. The gods, being sharp disciplinarians, are believed on such occasions to deal out all sorts of sufferings. Beliefs like this are reported of a great number of peoples. 8

1 Southey, History of Brazil, ii. 371.

2 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 373.

Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, p. 35.

Taylor, The Ika a Maui, p. 104.

Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua, p. 413 (People of Kaisar or Mikasar). Hickson, 4 Naturalist in North Celebes, p. 255. Haddon, Head-Hunters, pp. 55 sq. (Murray Islanders). Moura, Le Royaume du Cambodge, i. 180. Приклонскій, "Три года въ Якутской Области,' in Хивая Старина, і, 2. р. 31 (Yakuts). Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 25 (Abors), a. o.

Inseln

6

Becker, La vie en Afrique, ii. 298.

7 Shooter, Kafirs of Natal, p. 162.

8 Cf. Mariner, Natives of the Tonga Islands, ii. 100. Meinicke, des Stillen Oceans, ii. 251 (Marquesans). Ellis, op. cit. i. 349 (Tahitians). Hunter, The Annals of Bural Bengal, i. 183 (Santals). Macpherson, 'Religious Opinions of the Khonds,' in Jour. Roy. As. Soc. vii. 194. Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, ii. 93, 220 (Dravida

The signs given by the gods to mankind are, however, as a rule, very difficult for ordinary people to understand. They have therefore to put the wisdom of their priests into requisition when desirous of interpreting the divine directions. Speaking of the Gallas, Professor Paulitschke expounds how to the savage mind the mysteries of animate and inanimate nature, of the sky and of human life require an interpreter who is able, through his wonderful power and genius, to pronounce the will and intentions of the supreme being. This interpreter, he says, is the sorcerer or magician. 1 According to Professor Robertson Smith and Professor A. Bertholet, the Arabs believed that the skilled could read the omens in which the voice of the god might be uttered, and they listened to that voice in the inspired rhymes of the soothsayers. 2 With reference to the belief of the Bafióte in Congo, Chavanne says that it is not everyone who is able to interpret the language and utterances of the fetish; this is the function of the priest. Among the Zulus, as shown by Kielland, the priests play a very important part as interpreters of communications from the spirits. The gods appear to men in the shape of a snake, and only the priests understand the tongue of that creature. In accordance

4

tribes in Mirzapur). Paasonen, 'Matkakertomus Mordvalaisten maalta,' in Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne, viii. 141 and Waronen, Vainajainpalvelus muinaisilla Suomalaisilla, 16 sq. (Certain Finns). King, Babylonian Religion and Mythology, p. 201 sq.

1 Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas, ii. 56 sq.

2

Robertson Smith and A. Bertholet, Art. 'Priests,' in Cheyne and

Sutherland Black, Encyclopaedia Biblica, iii. 3839 sq.

staate,

3 Chavanne, Reisen und Forschungen im alten und neuen Kongo

with a similar belief, one of the first qualifications for the office of priest among the Bataks in Sumatra consists in an adequate skill in interpreting signs and omens. 1 Among the Sea Dyaks, too, the priests are supposed to understand the language of the invisible spirits. 2 In Minahassa in Celebes, and in New Zealand the priests have to interpret the omens in which the people believe.

3

The help of the priesthood is not only needed for protecting people against evil influences and for securing benefits from the gods. The vindictive nature of savages impels them continually to plot against their enemies, trying to bring upon them all the misfortunes in their power. For such purposes the aid of a powerful sorcerer is of great value. In Curr's report of the Australian race it is stated that the principal object to which sorcery is applied is the taking of the lives of enemies. 5 The doctors of Victoria are believed to be instructed by the spirits as to the mode of killing a man of a strange or hostile tribe." Ellis mentions that in Tahiti wizards were sometimes hired to destroy other persons. In Fiji, according to Williams, the evil-working power of wizards or priests may be purchased, and Seemann writes: If a Fijian wishes to cause the destruction of an individual by other means than open violence or secret poison, the case is put into the hands of one of these sorcerers, care being taken to let this fact be generally and widely

8

7

1

Burton, and Ward, 'Journey into the Batak Country,' in Trans. Roy. As. Soc. i. 500.

2

St. John, Life in the Forests of the Far East, i. 72.

3 Hickson, A Naturalist in North Celebes, p. 255.

+ Thomson, The Story of New Zealand, i. 115.

5 Curr, The Australian Race, i. 45.

-6

Brough Smyth, The Aborigines of Victoria, i. 463.

known. Similar practices are reported from Hawaii, 2 the Pelew Islands and Melanesia. Among the natives of the Upper Congo the fetishmen are resorted to, should any one desire to inflict evil upon his enemies. 5 The Cherokee medicine-men are said to destory life for hire." The sorcerers among the Tarahumare in Mexico accept payment for services of this kind, and among the aboriginal tribes of Brazil there are said to be such as will give the medicine-men charge to poison their enemies. 8

Considering the important services which the priests and sorcerers are able to render their tribesmen, it is no wonder that the sacerdotal office is looked upon with great veneration and awe. The universal need of mediation between mankind and the supernatural world is supplied by the priesthood, and, as intercessors with the unknown powers, the priests are constantly applied to for advice on all occasions of life. Thus, Burton and Ward say the Batakes of Sumatra will not engage in any undertaking, however trifling, without first consulting the priest." Thomson states of the New Zealand priests: >In war and peace, in the day of plenty and of famine,

1 Seemann, Viti, p. 189.

2 Jarves, History of the Hawaiian Islands, p. 27. Bechtinger,

Ein Jahr auf den Sandwich-Inseln, p. 86.

3 Kubary, in Bastian, Allerlei, i. 47.

+ Codrington, Melanesians, pp. 202 sq.

5 Möller, Pagels and Gleerup, Tre år i Kongo, ii. 85.

• Mooney, 'The Sacred Formulas of the Cherokees,' in Smithsonian

Reports, vii. 392.

p. 344.

7

9

Lumholtz, Unknown Mexico, i. 323.

8 Von den Steinen, Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens,

Burton and Ward, 'Journey into the Batak Country,' in Trans. Roy. As. Soc. i. 500.