also to practise magical art, the more expert jugglers who managed to gain the confidence of their fellowtribesmen seem, in the course of time, to have attained to a certain preponderance above the rest. Mr A. B. Ellis, in his description of the Tshi-speaking peoples of Western Africa, admirably describes how the first appearance of priesthood has evidently taken place in this way. >> Before long,» he says, »it must have happened that some men, more fortunate or more cunning in their predictions, must have acquired a local celebrity in the art. Such men would soon be consulted by their neighbours, pupils or apprentices would be attached to them so that the art might be preserved, and thus would be gradually formed a special class, which would assume the functions of intermediaries between the people and the gods. >> 1

2

Many peoples supply instances which illustrate the very beginning of such a differentiation of priesthood. Although among the Shendoo people each man offers. his own sacrifice, they have men among them supposed to be special favourites and oracles of their gods, and at certain times and seasons these men become possessed or filled by the divinity.» We learn that the Abors in India have no hereditary priesthood, but that there are persons called Deodars who acquire the position of augurs. or soothsayers from their superior knowledge of omens and how to observe them.» 3 Nor have the Gonds any institution that may properly be called priesthood, yet there are among them men, who from supposed superior power or other reasons, are held to be entitled to take the lead in worship. In his account of the Bismarck Archipelago, Parkinson writes that there are no priests,

2

1 Ellis, Tshi-speaking Peoples, pp. 119 sq.

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

3 Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 25.

4 Hislop, Tribes of the Central Provinces, p. 19.

but that certain individuals profess to communicate with the gods and by their aid to make rain and plentiful fishing, to cause and heal diseases, and even to inflict death upon other men. They are said to be more or less listened to in their tribe. In Melanesia, where there is no priestly order, any man can have access to some object of worship, and Codrington says: - >>If the object of worship, as in some sacrifices, is one common to the members of a community, the man who knows how to approach that object is in a way their priest and sacrifices. for them all; but it is in respect of that particular function only that he has a sacred character.» It is a striking feature of the Arunta and Ilpirra tribes in certain parts. of Central Australia, that any native can use the pointing sticks by which magic is produced, »whereas in certain other parts there are only special individuals who can do so, and they act as sorcerers.>> Respecting the Mordvines, M. Mainof mentions that il pouvait bien arriver qu'un vieillard le plus vénéré ou même quelquesuns des pareils soient connus pour étant doués de capacité exclusive pour faire des offrandes plus habilement et plus strictement que les autres, ayant maintes fois servi d'exécuteur d'offrandes. The author, however, adds that such deputing of the religions functions did not constitute any general rule. Regarding the Koryaks it is said that those of the people who were believed to fathom the wishes of the spirits more easily than the others were called shamans.

5

3

Within the separate families, in which, as we have pointed out, ancestral gods are particularly worshipped,

3

Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 458.

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

la Société Finno-Ougrienne, v. 10.

5 Дитмаръ, ’О Корякахъ и Чукчяхъ, in Вѣстникъ Геогр. Общ. xvi, 1. р. 30.

one

member is generally invested with the duty of sacrificing for the whole family. Spencer thinks that >though in the earliest stages sacrifices to the ghost of the dead man are made by descendants in general, yet in conformity with the law of the instability of the homogeneous, an inequality soon arises: the propitiatory function falls into the hand of one member of the group.» 1 As a rule, the priestly functions are put into the hands of the paterfamilias, and the reason seems to be that he is the oldest and most experienced male member of the family, who is generally believed to stand in closer communication with the ancestors than the other members. Sometimes also the priestly office is made over to the oldest female member of the family. Instances of the father or mother performing the rites of religion for their families are frequently reported from different parts of the world.2

3

4

Of the Korwás in India it is stated that they only sacrifice to the manes of their ancestors, and this ceremony must necessarily be performed by the head of each family. Among the Santals »offerings are made at home by each head of a family,» and among the Râji, too, who have no priests, the religious rites are performed by the oldest male member of the family. With the Sereros in West Africa and the Gallas it is the same, save that among the former people the oldest female member of a family may also officiate at the sacrifices.

7

1 Spencer, Principles of Sociology, iii. 47.

2 Spencer gives a number of such instances, ib., iii. 47 sq.

3 Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 229.

5

Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and Oudh, iv. 213.

6. Corre, 'Les Serères,' in Revue d'Ethnographie, ii. 19.

7 Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas, ii. 61.

1

In New Zealand the heads of families in both the male and female line are said to form, as it were, the links of connection between the living and the spirits of the dead, and in Samoa »the head of every family was, ex officio, a priest, besides those especially dedicated to the sacred office.» 2 Parallel accounts are given of the priestly duties of the fathers of families in Tahati, 3 in the Pelew Islands and among the Chuvashes in Eastern Central Russia. 5 In ancient Rome each family was most completely independent as to the ritual for domestic religion; the father was the priest of the family. “

6

In a few cases we learn that not the head, but some other member of the family, officiated as the family priest. Crooke, in his description of tribes and castes in North-Western India, declares regarding the Barais that their »deities are worshipped only by that member of the family who is under the influence of the special divinity a fact shown by his getting into a state of ecstasy and uttering oracles.» And referring to some lower Dravidian tribes, the same author says that the family worship is conducted either by the head of the household or by the son-in-law or brother-in-law. 8 In the Tarawa and Apamama Islands, of the Kingsmill group, every family which has a tutelary divinity, has

7

1 Shortland, Traditions and Superstitions of the New Zealanders,

pp. 103 sq.

3

2 Pritchard, Polynesian Reminiscences, p. 106.

Ellis, Polynesian Researches, i. 342.

4 Kubary, in Bastian, Allerlei, i. 11.

5 Pallas, Reise, i. 91.

6 Fustel de Coulanges, La Cité Antique, p. 36.

7 Crooke, Tribes and Castes of the North-Western Provinces and

Oudh, i. 180.

8 Ib., ii. 143.

also a priest, whose office may be filled by any young man of free birth able to recite prayers. 1

3

There seems to be strong reason to associate the instances of fathers of families officiating as priests with those of rulers invested with similar duties. Mr. Herbert Spencer, Dr. Frazer and Dr. Jevons give, in their works, collections of data illustrating the combination of priestly and ruling powers. Instances of king-priests are in fact met with among a great many races. Throughout Polynesia and Melanesia the kings seem very generally to have been priests as well. Thus, in Tahiti, the king frequently »united in his person the highest civil and sacerdotal station in the land.» 5 In Samoa the office of village priests was held by the chief of the place, in Bowdich Island the king was also high priest, and in New Zealand, too, the offices of chief and priest were generally united and hereditary. Among the Hawaiians. >>it sometimes happened that a chief took the sacred offices upon himself,» 9 and among the Kingsmill Islanders, some of the chiefs are believed to hold communication with spirits, and to be able at times to foretell future events. » 10 In Fiji the chieftaincy and priesthood sometimes meet in the same person, although,

8

7

6.

1

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

2

Spencer, Principles of Sociology, iii. 55-57.

3 Frazer, The Golden Bough, i. 7 sq.

Jevons, Introduction to the History of Religion, pp. 290 sq.

5 Ellis, Polynesian Researches, iii. 94.

Meinicke, Inseln des Stillen Oceans, ii. 117.

6

10 Wilkes, Narrative of the U. S. Exploring Expedition, v. 88.