472 ANNALS NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES 



customs of passing new-born children over or around the fire (c/. Greek 

 myths of children rendered immortal by this means); of leaping through 

 fires at certain seasonal festivals, as the Roman Palilia, the Johannisfeuer 

 celebrations, etc.; of employing fire as a fertility charm for crops and herds; 

 of celebrating essential parts of the marriage ceremony before the household 

 fire; of using fire in initiation rites. An analysis of these observances and a 

 consideration of the reasons actually given for certain of them by Iroquois 

 and Maori makes it probable that the sacred fire was by many races con- 

 ceived, not as a practical convenience, or as an unmotivated ancient cus- 

 tom, or as a device for frightening away demons, or as a negative purifying 

 agency merely, but as a vehicle of life force or magical energy — manitou, 

 wakonda or mana; that the health and prosperity of the household or tribe 

 was believed to depend in part on the fire's perpetuity, vitality and purity; 

 and that the fire, like all natural forces, was thought of as subject to periodi- 

 city, to a tendency to grow old and weak, and accordingly as in need of 

 periodic renewal. 



Dr. Lowie called attention to the services which scientific dream psy- 

 chology can render to the ethnologist. A knowledge of the investigations 

 carried on in this field will enable him to view critically the plausible but 

 inaccurate dicta of popular psychology. Knowing, for example, the theory 

 of dreams advanced by Delage, the ethnologist will not naively accept the 

 assumption of Wundt and Radestock that dreams of recently deceased 

 relatives have largely influenced the development of belief in a hereafter. 

 A positive benefit is derived when mythological figures of obscure origin, 

 such as dwarfs, gorgons, etc., are derived from the distorted images of 

 some dreams — Wundt's Fratzentraume — as a conceivable source. From 

 a purely psychological point of view, the speaker urged the desirability of 

 fuller dream-records, especially in regard to varieties of hypnagogic ex- 

 perience. 



The Section then adjourned. 



R. S. WOODWORTH, 



Secretary. 



BUSINESS MEETING. 



April 6, 1908. 



The Academy met at 8:15 P. M. at the American Museum of Natural 

 History, President Cox presiding. 



The minutes of the last meeting were read and approved. 



