PROFESSIONAL INSTITUTIONS. 435 



laureates or bards " kept at the Dahoman court, can not utter 

 their praises in chorus without having these praises rhythmically 

 arranged. So, too, in Ashanti and among the Mandingos, the 

 laudations shouted before their chief men, having assumed the 

 form of songs, must have verged into speech more measured than 

 usual. Other uncivilized peoples show us the official orator and 

 poet giving to his applause a musical form which must, by impli- 

 cation, be rhythmical. Atkinson says : 



'' The Sultan ordered his poet to sing for us. The man obeyed, and 

 chanted forth songs, describing the prowess and successful plundering 

 expeditions of my host and his ancestors, which called forth thunders of 

 applause from the tribe." 



Among these African peoples, however, and the nomadic peoples 

 of Asia just named, eulogies of the living ruler, whether or not 

 with rhythmical words and musical utterance, are but little, or 

 not at all, accompanied by eulogies of the apotheosized ruler, hav- 

 ing a kindred form but with priests in place of courtiers. Why 

 is this ? There appear to be two reasons, of which perhaps one is 

 primary and the other secondary. We have seen that among the 

 Negro peoples in general, ideas about life after death, where they 

 exist, are undeveloped. The notion is that the double of the dead 

 man does not long remain extant : when there are no longer any 

 dreams about him he is supposed to have perished finally. Con- 

 sequently, propitiation of his ghost does not grow into a cult, as 

 where there has arisen the notion that he is immortal. And, then, 

 possibly because of this, African kingdoms are but temporary. It 

 is remarked that from time to time there arises some powerful 

 chief who conquers and consolidates neighboring tribes and so 

 forms a kingdom ; but that after a generation or two this ordi- 

 narily dissolves again. We have seen how powerful an aid to con- 

 solidation and permanence is the supposed supernatural power of 

 a deceased ruler ; and hence it appears not improbable that the 

 lack of this belief in an immortal god, and consequent lack of the 

 established worship of one, is a chief cause of the transitory nature 

 of the African monarchies. 



This supposition harmonizes with the facts presented to us by 

 ancient civilized societies, in which, along with praises of the 

 living ruler, there went more elaborate praises of the dead and 

 deified ruler. 



Egypt furnishes instances of poetic laudations of both. Pre- 

 ceding a eulogy of Seti I, it is written : 



" The priests, the great ones, and the most distinguished men of South 

 and North Egypt have arrived to praise the divine benefactor on his return 

 from the land of Ruthen." Then follows a song " in praise of the king and 

 in glorification of his fame." 



