LITERARY NOTICES. 



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that would perplex a more developed intel- 

 ligence, for the facts seem to him beyond 

 question, and he is familiar with many 

 changes in Nature the appearance and 

 disappearance of clouds, the blowing of the 

 wind, the waxing and waning of the moon 

 not at all less mysterious. His idea is 

 confirmed by occasional instances of som- 

 nambulism ; and the phenomena of swoon, 

 apoplexy, and other forms of insensibility, 

 are most readily explained by assuming that 

 the body has been temporarily deserted by 

 its ghost. In death the other self, which 

 is upbraided before its departure by the 

 friends of the dying man, says farewell ; 

 but it continues to exist, sometimes in its 

 old haunts, sometimes in the neighboring 

 woods, sometimes in the country whence 

 the tribe originally came. It may even re- 

 turn to the body, and with a view to this 

 contingency the latter is often carefully pro- 

 tected, and in many instances there are 

 elaborate processes for arresting decay ; if 

 revival is dreaded, an exactly opposite 

 course is pursued. In the earliest stages 

 of development the ghost is a copy of the 

 body, and may, like it, die ; but tribes a 

 little more advanced attenuate its substance 

 until at length it is completely etherealized. 

 It then has an enduring existence, and side 

 by side with the world of the living is the 

 more populous world of the dead. Ghosts 

 continue to act as ordinary men, and are 

 provided with food, weapons, canoes, horses, 

 dogs. They are the cause of every unusual 

 occurrence, and, entering bodies which they 

 find temporarily vacant, occasion epilepsy 

 and convulsions, delirium and insanity, dis- 

 ease and death. Every involuntary act, 

 like sneezing or yawning, is due to them ; 

 and the necessity of controlling them gives 

 rise to the class of exorcists and sorcerers. 

 If friendly, they inspire the possessed, 

 whose words are accepted as a revelation 

 of higher wisdom. They are, of course, re- 

 garded with intense awe, and worship of 

 them is, according to Mr. Spencer, the first 

 manifestation of the religious sentiment. 

 He goes much further than this, and finds 

 in ancestor-worship the origin of all wor- 

 ship whatever. Idols are simply rude im- 

 ages of the dead, which ghosts are in some 

 mysterious way believed to inhabit ; hence 

 food is given to them, and the family re- 



spectfully waits that is, fasts until they 

 have eaten internally. A fetich is any ob- 

 ject in which a ghost is supposed to dwell; 

 and no object strikes the senses in a strange 

 manner without having its peculiarity at- 

 tributed to ghostly presence. This view 

 of the fetich is not' in accordance with cur- 

 rent ideas ; but it is confirmed by the fact 

 that in cases in which the ghost-theory has 

 not been evolved there is no fetich-worship, 

 whereas the latter abounds where the former 

 exists. But animals, plants, natural objects 

 and forces, are also worshiped : how can 

 these be in any way connected with ances- 

 tor-worship ? Mr. Spencer applies his prin- 

 ciple with unfaltering confidence even to 

 these phenomena. Serpent-worship is the 

 most general of all forms of animal-wor- 

 ship ; it originates in the haunting of 

 houses by certain kinds of snakes believed 

 to be possessed by the ghosts of departed 

 ancestors, who thus enter their old homes. 

 In India the cobra is a common intruder in 

 houses, and it is everywhere sculptured as 

 a god ; the Egyptian asp affords an instance 

 equally remarkable. Bats and owls, which 

 haunt caves and other burying-places, are 

 also taken for metamorphosed ancestors. 

 Some striking peculiarity will often secure 

 for a man the name of an animal whose 

 character his resembles. Unaccountable as 

 it seems to us, the savage who hears his an- 

 cestor talked of as ' The Tiger ' concludes 

 that he is descended from one of those 

 creatures ; so that the tiger naturally be- 

 comes an object of reverence. The like is 

 true of all animals, insignificant and strong 

 alike, the names of which are applied to 

 savages either in ridicule or respect by 

 their neighbors. In this misapprehension 

 of the meaning of words Mr. Spencer like- 

 wise finds the chief explanation of Nature- 

 worship and plant-worship. A man is called 

 Cotton or Tobacco, the Dawn, the Sea, the 

 Moon, or the Sun. His descendants, taking 

 the word literally, do not hesitate to regard 

 the natural power or plant, whichever it 

 may be, as their ancestor, and present it 

 with the usual ofierings. To civilized men 

 this seems almost incredible ; but it must 

 be remembered that to the savage nothing 

 seems impossible, because he has not at- 

 tained to the idea of regular sequence in 

 i the \\orld. And his language is so imper- 



