The Psychology of Magic 505 



magician, a god; he does not pray, he wills. Moreover he wills 

 collectively 1 , reinforced by the will and action of his whole tribe. 

 Truly of him it may be said, "La vie d^borde I'intelligence, 1'intelligence 

 c'est un retr^cissement 2 ." 



The magical extension and heightening of personality come out 

 very clearly in what are rather unfortunately known as mimetic 

 dances. Animal dances occur very frequently among primitive 

 peoples. The dancers dress up as birds, beasts, or fishes, and repro- 

 duce the characteristic movements and habits of the animals imper- 

 sonated. So characteristic is this impersonation in magical dancing 

 that among the Mexicans the word for magic, navali, means "dis- 

 guise 3 ." A very common animal dance is the frog-dance. When it 

 rains the frogs croak. If you desire rain you dress up like a frog and 

 croak and jump. We think of such a performance as a conscious 

 imitation. The man, we think, is more or less like a frog. That is 

 not how primitive man thinks ; indeed, he scarcely thinks at all ; what 

 he wants done the frog can do by croaking and jumping, so he croaks 

 and jumps and, for all he can, becomes a frog. "L'intelligence animale 

 joue sans doute les representations plutot qu'elle ne les pense V. 



We shall best understand this primitive state of mind if we study 

 the child " born in sin." If a child is " playing at lions " he does not 

 imitate a lion, i.e. he does not consciously try to be a thing more or 

 less like a lion, he becomes one. His reaction, his terror, is the same 

 as if a real lion were there. It is this childlike power of utter 

 impersonation, of being the thing we act or even see acted, this 

 extension and intensification of our own personality that lives deep 

 down in all of us and is the very seat and secret of our joy in the 

 drama, 



A child's mind is indeed throughout the best clue to the under- 

 standing of savage magic. A young and vital child knows no limit 

 to his own will, and it is the only reality to him. It is not that 

 he wants at the outset to fight other wills, but that they simply do 

 not exist for him. Like the artist he goes forth to the work of 

 creation, gloriously alone. His attitude towards other recalcitrant 

 wills is " they simply must." Let even a grown man be intoxicated, 

 be in love, or subject to an intense excitement, the limitations of 

 personality again fall away. Like the omnipotent child he is again a 

 god, and to him all things are possible. Only when he is old and 

 weary does he cease to command fate. 



1 The subject of collective hallucination as an element in magic has been fully worked 

 out by MM. Hubert and Mauss. "The'orie gen6rale de la Magie," in L'Annee Sociologique, 

 19023, p. 140. 



2 Henri Bergson, L'Evolution Crgatrice, p. 50. 



3 K. Th. Preuss, Archiv f. Beligionswissenschaft, 1906, p. 97. 



4 Bergson, L'Evolution Creatrice, p. 205. 



