Peruvian wizards, called Camascas, who declared that their grace and virtue were derived from the thunder, saying that when a thunderbolt fell, and one of them was struck with terror, after he came to himself he proclaimed how the thunder had revealed to him the art of healing by means of herbs, and how to give answers to those who consulted him. Similarly, when any one escaped from some great danger, they said that the devil had appeared.1 When we read that the Munda Kolhs by various superstitious procedures find out the proper Pahan, or priest, to perform their sacrifices, for instance, by watching a frightened bull which stops before a certain house, 2 we must presume that the god was supposed to make his will known by those signs. The natives of the Gold Coast supply an instance of the priest being chosen in a direct way by the god. Mr. Bell relates that when an additional priest is wanted in a village, a general meeting of the inhabitants takes place, and a certain number of young men and women are made to stand in a circle. The fetish-priest, after certain weird and gruesome ceremonies, places on the head of each candidate a bundle of herbs and leaves. »While this proceeding,» the author tells us, »may have no effect on the majority, it happens, in most cases, that one or more of the youths and girls fall straightway into a sort of fit and appear to be possessed by some strange influence. This is taken as a sign that the Fetish has spoken, and that the deity has fixed on the person or persons so affected for his service.» 3 Among the various endowments which are requisite for aspirants to priesthood, we have in the first place to 1 Molina, The Fables and Rites of the Yncas, p. 14. 2 Jellinghaus, 'Munda-Kolhs,' in Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, iii. 334. 3 Bell, The Gold Coast Settlement, p. 19. 1 mention the faculty of wonder-working. Of many peoples we are in fact told that the would-be priests are expected to perform miracles, and that the candidate has to manifest his powers in that respect before he is admitted to the sacerdotal order. It is reported from the Isle of Pines that persons ambitious to become priests will pretend to have been told by some spirit of future events which are to happen: should any of their predictions relating to warlike expeditions, or other events which greatly interest the people, happen to come to pass, nothing more would be required to constitute the foreteller of such events a duly inspired priest and entitle him to the power and respect claimed by that class of persons. Hale tells us that the Fijians, by way of trying a novice, » desire him to consult the gods about some business in which they are engaged. If he goes through the ceremony to their satisfaction, and the oracle proves correct, he is forthwith installed in the vacant mbure,» or temple. 2 Another writer remarks of the priestly novices among the same people: >> He must take care that his maiden effort at divination is not too glaring a blunder. »> 3 Certain Andaman boys are looked upon by the people as coming medicine-men, and Man says their position is generally »in the first instance attained by relating an extraordinary dream, the details of which are declared to have been borne out subsequently by some unforeseen event, as, for instance, a sudden death by accident.» With the Málers or Hillmen of Rájmahál in India, before a priest is admitted to full orders, >>his ability to foretell events correctly must be verified, and 1 Cheyne, Western Pacific Ccean, p. 10. 2 Hale, 'Ethnography and Philology,' in Narrative of the U. S. + Man, 'Aboriginal Inhabitants of the Andaman Islands,' in Jour. Anthr. Inst. xii. 96 sq. he must prove by the performance of some stupendous work beyond the strength of one man, that he is supernaturally aided by the supreme being.»1 Among certain Siberian peoples, also, one of the powers required of those who wish to become shamans is that of foreseeing future events. 2 Before a Greenlander was acknowledged. as an Angakok he had to show his power by calling forth his familiar spirit, and during this interval »his state would sometimes be revealed by the fact of his feet sinking in the rocky ground just as in snow.» 3 Any young Apache can become a medicine-man; for that purpose it is, among other things, necessary to show that he is able to interpret, omens in a satisfactory manner, and to do other extraordinary things. * 3 Sometimes people believe it possible to judge from mere outward signs that certain persons possess mysterious powers and are able to act as sorcerers or priests. So, among the Ojebway Indians, »many receive the name of witches without making any pretensions to the art, merely because they are deformed or ill-looking.» All esteemed witches or wizards among these Indians are, as a rule, »remarkably wicked, of a ragged appearance and forbidding countenance.» Mr Reade states that in Congo >>all dwarfs and albinos are elevated to a priesthood.»> There is little doubt that the awe with which this class of men is generally regarded, in consequence of their outward appearance, also accounts for the belief that they are endowed with secret powers. Outward pecu Шашковъ, "Шаманство, in Записки Геогр. Общ. Rink, Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo, p. 59. Bourkie, 'Medicine-Men of the Apache,' in Smithsonian Reports, ix. 452 sq. 5 Jones, History of the Ojebway Indians, pp. 145 sq. liarities in children are in certain cases believed to denote that these are bound to become priests when grown-up. Some tribes in Central Australia think that children who are born with their eyes open have the power of seeing and communicating with the spirits when they arrive at maturity.1 The Tunguses in Siberia consider children who bleed at the nose or mouth to be destined by the gods to the profession of shamanism. 2 It has been mentioned that the principal qualification for priesthood is the ability to communicate with the gods. Among some peoples, before a man is acknowledged as a priest, he has to prove that the god is »in him», and the most general evidence is falling into a state of ecstasy. Thus in Ashanti the hereditary order of fetish-men is augmented by those who declare that the fetish has suddenly seized, or come upon them; a series of convulsive and unnatural bodily distortions establishes their claims. 3 The same is stated with reference to the fetish-men of the Gold Coast natives. Among the Manipuris in India, »a woman who chooses to declare herself inspired, and can give evidence of the afflatus by going into fits, may enter upon her noviciate as a priestess. »> 5 The universal occurrence of such ideas necessarily induces us to pay a somewhat closer attention to the mental disposition which is supposed to qualify a person for the priestly office. Undoubtedly we here meet with a significant feature characteristic of early priesthood. All that we learn in this matter points to the fact that the priests among a great number of peoples must 3 Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 515. Beecham, Ashantee, p. 189. Bowdich, Mission from Cape Coast Castle to Ashantee, p. 264. Kingsley, West African Studies, p. 145. display a considerable excitability of mind and that, consequently, certain qualifications of a pathological and psychological nature very generally characterize the priests and sorcerers of uncivilized races. From several parts of the world we are informed that individuals of a certain eccentric disposition are considered to be specially apt for the sacerdotal vocation. The peoples of Siberia supply numerous illustrations of the mental qualifications required of priests. With reference to the Mongolian shamans, M. Banzarof remarks that they were recruited from a class of men who were distinguished by their habits of contemplation and insight into mysteries as well as by their ardent imagination,1 and another another Russian investigator writes that the qualifications of a person for shamanhood were thought to appear in frequent fits of giddiness and fainting, besides other signs. 2 A similar idea regarding the mental disposition of shamans is by Professor Krohn attributed to the Finnish tribes in Siberia. The aborigines of the Altai district suppose that the influence of the evil spirit, which compels a person to become a shaman, makes itself known by continual yawning, shrieking and leaping round, &c. An incipient shaman of the Yakuts begins to see visions, endeavours to throw himself into the water or fire, and seizes knives to hurt himself with, after which he declares that the spirits have ordered him to become a shaman. 5 A Russian writer states of the same people that the most nervous and excitable 3 ii. 83. 1 Банзаровъ, Шаманство у Монголовъ, р. 36. 2 Шашковъ 'Шаманство,' in Записки Геогр. Общ. 3 4 Krohn, Suomen suvun pakanallinen jumalanpalvelus, p. 84. Вербицкій, Алтайскіе Инородцы, р. 45. 5 Bastian, Der Mensch in der Geschichte, ii. 132. |