LAST WORDS ABOUT AGNOSTICISM. 313 



hahitanV * Such being the case, there can be no proof that the wor- 

 ship of the objects themselves was primordial, unless it is found to exist 

 where the ghost-theory has not arisen ; and I know no instance show- 

 ing that it does so. But while those facts given in the "Descriptive 

 Sociology " which imply worship of inanimate objects, or ascription of 

 supernatural powers to them, fail to support Mr, Harrison's view, be- 

 cause always accompanied by the ghost-theory, sundry of them directly 

 negative his view. There is the fact that an echo is regarded as the 

 voice of the fetich ; there is the fact that the inhabiting spirit of the 

 fetich is supposed to " enjoy the savory smell " of meat roasted before 

 it ; and there is the fact that the fetich is supposed to die and may be 

 revived. Farther, there is the summarized statement made by Beech- 

 am, an observer of fetichism in the region where it is supposed to be 

 specially exemplified, who says that : — 



The fetiches are believed to be spiritual, intelligent beings, who make tlie re- 

 markable objects of nature their residence, or enter occasionally into the images 

 and other artificial representations, which have been duly consecrated by cer- 

 tain ceremonies. , , , They believe that these fetiches are of both sexes, and 

 that they require food. 



These statements are perfectly in harmony with the conclusion that 

 fetichism is a development of the ghost-theory, and altogether incon- 

 gruous with the interpretation of fetichism which Mr, Harrison accepts 

 from Comte. 



Already I have named the fact that Dr. Tylor, who has probably 

 read more books about uncivilized peoples than any Englishman living 

 or dead, has concluded that fetichism is a form of spirit-worship, and 

 that (to give quotations relevant to the present issue) 



To class an object as a fetish, demands explicit statement that a spirit is con- 

 sidered as embodied in it or acting through it or communicating by it.t 



... A further stretch of imagination enables the lower races to associate the 

 souls of the dead with mere objects.}: 



. . . The spirits which enter or otherwise attach themselves to objects may 

 be human souls. Indeed, one of the most natural cases of the fetish-theory is 

 when a soul inhabits or haunts the relics of its former body.* 



Here I may add an opinion to like effect which Dr. Tylor quotes 

 from the late Prof. Waitz, also an erudite anthropologist. He 

 says : — 



According to his [the negro's] view, a spirit dwells or can dwell in every 

 sensible object, and often a very great and mighty one in an insignificant thing. 

 This spirit he does not consider as bound fast and unchangeably to the corporeal 

 thing it dwells in, but it has only its usual or principal abode in it.| 



* Dr. Henry Rink, " Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo," p. 37. 



f Tylor, "Primitive Culture," vol. ii, p. 133. 



i Ibid., p. 139. # Ibid., p 137. i Ibid., p. 144. 



