1

are supposed to become evil and wandering spirits.» 1 The Blackfoot Indians imagine that enemies killed in battle become evil spirits who cause diseases among men. 2 In certain parts of Finland drowned persons as well as those who have been murdered and buried in a field, without thus in either case being interred in consecrated ground, are believed to become spectres. Also the ghosts of suicides, misers, and criminals are supposed to walk after death. 3

In some cases, what becomes of persons after death seems merely to be determined by the character which they bore while living. M. Banzarof writes with reference to the beliefs of the Mongols, that only those persons become Ongons, or spirits, after death who have made themselves renowned in life by their good or evil qualities. People who render their race great services pass into benevolent Ongons, whereas wicked men are thought of as malevolently disposed also after death. Of certain tribes in Western India it is remarked that »the death of any well-known bad character is a source of terror to all in his neighbourhood, as he is sure to become a Bhûta or demon, as powerful and malignant as he was in life.» 5 M. Fustel de Coulanges, referring to the ancestor-worship of the Romans, says that it was not even necessary to have been a virtuous man to be deified; the wicked, as well as the good man, became a god, but he retained in the second life all the evil propensities which had characterized him in the first. "

3

Allardt, 'Nyländska folkseder och bruk, vidskepelse m. m.,' in Nyland, iv. 113, 114.

4

Банзаровъ, "Шаманство у Монголовъ, р. 32.

5 Walhouse, 'On the Belief in Bhutas,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. v. 409.

1

As an idea kindred to that mentioned above, we must regard the belief that the manes of bad priests and sorcerers become malignant spirits. It has been shown that by the Rautia in India, exorcists are supposed to appear after death as Bhuts. The Páháriás, a tribe of Rajmahal, bury their priests in an exceptional way in the forest, because their ghosts are believed to be exceedingly troublesome if the bodies are laid in the village cemetery. 2 Among the Yakuts the shamans are thought to be transformed after death into evil spirits, and among the Eskimo about Bering Strait, thieves, sorcerers and bad shamans, witches, and the people who practise certain forbidden customs are thought to be uneasy after death. The Patagonians believe that the souls of their wizards after death are of the number of the demons. 5

4

3

Whilst ancestor-worship tends to centralize the cult within families, or kindred groups, no such tendency is manifested by mere nature-worship. 6 These two forms of religion, however, are, among most peoples, intermingled to a very great extent. Depending on the more or less

1

2

3

Risley, Tribes and Castes of Bengal, ii. 207.

Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 274.

Приклонскій, "Три года въ Якутской Области, in Хивая Старина, і, 4. р. 63.

4 Nelson, The Eskimo about Bering Strait,' in Smithsonian Reports, xviii. pt. i. p. 423.

5

6

Falkner, Description of Patagonia, p. 116.

The most important and detailed treatise of worship of gods in nature is given by Dr. Tylor in Primitive Culture. Different forms and manifestations of nature-worship have also been made the objects of careful investigations by De la Sayssaye, Manual of the Science of Religion, pp. 102-111; Goblet d'Alviella, Lectures on the Origin and Growth of the Conception of God, pp. 122 sqq.; Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, Chapter xvii; and Oldenberg, Die Religion des Veda, pp. 39–53. Cf. Goblet d'Alviella, op. cit. p. 82. Fustel de Coulanges, La Cité Antique, pp. 136 sqq.

7

general occurrence of the phenomena which give rise to the belief in gods of nature, such gods are likely to be worshipped within larger or smaller divisions of mankind. with little or no precedence given to certain kindred groups. So, too, the worship of ancestral gods is, as a rule, conducted by one of the descendants of the gods, and the priority of the relatives as regards the priesthood only disappears in proportion as the memory of the origin of the gods gradually fades. But it is obvious. that the origin of the priesthood connected with the gods of nature cannot be in the same sense ruled by any regard to family ties. Relationship is of little or no consequence in nature-worship. These tendencies constitute. the principal difference between ancestor-worship and nature-worship with regard to their respective influence upon the origin of priesthood. But on account of the fact that in most cases ancestral gods and the gods of nature are worshipped indiscriminately, our investigation must be directed to the first appearance of priesthood. as a whole..

There is every reason to believe that in the earliest history of cult no proper priesthood existed. Although various kinds of priestly practitioners undoubtedly belong to a very early period of religious evolution, all conclusions point to the rule that originally everybody invoked the gods each for himself. Cult has therefore existed in some form or other before there were any professional men intrusted with the duty of conducting the different. religious observances. 1

1

According to information received from several sources, among certain peoples the custom that everybody

1

This is also the opinion of Dr. Lippert who points out that the idea of cult cannot be ascribed to the invention or discovery of the priesthood. On the contrary, a primitive cult may have existed before there were any priests, being at first administered without priests. Allgemeine Geschichte des Priesterthums, i. 47.

performed his worship for himself without the assistance of any priests seems to have subsisted. This is the case with the inhabitants of Makin, one of the Kingsmill Islands, where there are no priests, and the invocations. are usually made by the head of the family, or by each individual for himself In Melanesia »there is no priestly order, and no persons who can properly be called priests. Any man can have access to some object of worship, and most men in fact do have it, either by discovery of their own or by knowledge imparted to them by those who have before employed it.» 2 We are told of the Shendoo people in the neighbourhood of Chittagong that » they have no priests, each man performs his own sacrifice.» 3 Among the Kamchadales, although they have a kind of shamans, everybody who feels inclined practices the same + art. M. Mainof, describing the mythology of the pagan Mordvines in East Russia, among which there were no priests, states that chaque Mordvine pouvait se nommer oziavte ou sacerdoce.» Among the ancient Finns everybody, as a rule, sacrificed for himself, and a similar custom prevailed among the Laplanders in ordinary cases of sacrifice. Although there was a kind of priestly practitioners among the Patagonians. it sometimes happened that an ordinary member of a hoide conducted the rites. The nomadic Semites, to whom

1

8

7

5

Hale, 'Ethnography and Philology,' in Narrative of the U. $. Exploring Expedition, vi. 98.

6

3

Lewin, Wild Races of South-Eastern India, p. 285.

+ Steller, Beschreibung von Kamtschatka, p. 277.

5

Mainof, 'Les Restes de la Mythologie Mordvine,' in Journal de

la Société Finno-Ougrienne, v. 7.

6

Aspelin, Suomen asukkaat pakanuuden aikana, p. 91.

Suomen kansan muinaisia taikoja, i. 2.

Waronen,

7 Georgi, Russland, i. 14. Düben, Lappland och lapparne, p. 256.

the Hebrews belonged before they settled in Canaan, performed their simple acts of religion without any priestly aid.1

As in early times everybody was his own priest, so do surviving customs denote that he was also his own magician. It is a general belief among many peoples that almost everybody is able to practice magic. Respecting sorcery in New Zealand Taylor writes: »The power of bewitching was not confined to the priests, but was supposed to be possessed by every one, a simple wish often being sufficient,» 2 and another writer says that in the same country any uninitiated person may officiate for the purpose of bringing wind. 3 In the Arunta, Ilpirra and other of the Central Australian tribes »every man may have recourse to what is usually spoken of as sorcery, by means of which he may work harm of some kind to an enemy, and this power is not in any way confined to the medicine-men.» Among the Ygorrotes in Ysarog, >> physicians and magicians, or persons supposed to be possessed of secret powers are unknown; every one helps himself. » 5 Of the natives of Southern Central Africa it is reported that everybody is a sorcerer, or can make himself one. The Tehuelches in Patagonia by no means think that the wizard-doctors are alone able to practise sorcery, any man may become suspected of practising the art. 7

6

4

Among the number of people who in the earliest ages attempted to interpret the wishes of the gods and

1

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

Sutherland Black, Encyclopædia Biblica, iii. 3839.

2 Taylor, The Ika a Maui, p. 204.

* Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 530.

5

Jagor, Travels in the Philippines, p. 211.

• Serpa Pinto, Wanderung quer durch Africa, i. 124.

7 Musters, Unter den Patagoniern, p. 195.