i62 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



that, after the deatlis of New Zealand chiefs, wooden images, twenty 

 to forty feet high, were erected as monuments we cannot shut our 

 eyes to the fact that the figure of the dead man is an incipient idol. 

 Could we doubt, our doubt would end on finding the figure persist- 

 ently worshiped. J. d'Acosta tells us of the Peruvians that 



"each king had, while living, ... a stone figure representing himself, called 

 Guanqui [huanque] i. e., brother. This figure was to be worshiped like the 

 Ynca himself, during his life as well as after his death." 



So, too, according to Andagoya 



" When a chief died, his house and wives and servants remained as in his life- 

 time, and a statue of gold was made in the likeness of the chief, which was 

 served as if it had been alive, and certain villages were set apart to provide it 

 with clothing, and all other necessaries." 



And, similarly, Cogolludo testifies that the Yucatanese " worshiped 

 the idol of one who is said to have been one of their great captains." 



That we may understand better the feelings with which a savage 

 looks at a representative figure, let us recall the kindred feelings pro- 

 duced by representations among ourselves. 



When a lover kisses the miniature of his mistress, he is obviously 

 influenced by an association between the appearance and the reality. 

 Even more strongly do such associations sometimes act. A young 

 lady known to me confesses that she cannot bear to sleep in a room 

 having portraits on the walls ; and this repugnance is not unparalleled. 

 In such cases, the knowledge that portraits consist of paint and can- 

 vas only, fails to expel the suggestion of something more. The vivid 

 representation so strongly arouses the thought of a living personality, 

 that this cannot be kept out of consciousness. 



Now, suppose culture absent suppose there exist no ideas of attri- 

 butes, law, cause no distinctions between natural and unnatui-al, 

 possible and impossible. This associated consciousness of a living 

 presence will then persist. No conflict with established knowledge 

 arising, the unresisted suggestion will become a belief. 



Beliefs thus produced in savages have been incidentally referred 

 to. Here are some further examples of them. Kane states that the 

 Chinooks think portraits supernatural, and look at them with the same 

 ceremony as at a dead person. According to Bancroft, the Okanagans 

 "have the same aversion that has been noted on the coast " to hav- 

 ing their portraits taken. We learn from Catlin that the Mandans 

 thought the life put into a picture was so much life taken from tho 

 original. He also says : 



" They pronounced me the greatest medicine-man in the world ; for they said I 

 had made living beings they said they could see their chiefs alive in two places 

 those that I had made were a little alive they could see their eyes move." 



Nor do more advanced races fail to supply kindred facts. Concerning 



