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.» 1 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.» Among the Kamchadales, although they have a kind of shamans, everybody who feels inclined practices the same art. 4 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 horde conducted the rites. 8 The nomadic Semites, to whom

7

1

Hale, 'Ethnography and Philology,' in Narrative of the U. S.

Exploring Expedition, vi. 98.

2 Codrington, Melanesians, p. 127.

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.

7

Waronen,

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.» 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

5

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.

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

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.» 2 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,.

1

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

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

3 Dalton, Ethnology of Bengal, p. 25.

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,

1

Parkinson, Im Bismarck-Archipel, p. 142.

2 Codrington, Melanesians, p. 127.

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. 5 With the Sereros in West Africa and the Gallas 7 it is the same, save that among the former people the oldest female member of a family may also officiate at the sacrifices.

6

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.

* Ib., p. 213.

5

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

6

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

Paulitschke, Ethnographie Nordost-Afrikas, ii. 61.