THE LOWER RACES OF MAN. 355 



Hence, the savage considers the events in liis dreams as real as those 

 which happen when he is awake, and hence he naturally feels that he 

 has a S])irit which can quit the body — if not when it likes, at least under 

 certai n circumstances. 



Thus, Burton states, that, according to the Jorubans, a Western Afri- 

 can tribe, ''dreams are not an irregular action and partial activity of 

 the brain^ but so many revelations from the spirits of the departed." 



So strong, again, was the Xorth American faith in dreams, that on 

 one occasion, when an Indian had dreamed that he was taken captive 

 and tortured, he induced his friends to make a mock attack upon him, 

 and actually submitted to very considerable suifering, in the hope that 

 he would thus fulfill his dream. 



The Greenlanders also believe in the reality of dreams, and thiidc that 

 at night their spirit actually goes hunting, visiting, courting, and so on. 

 It is of course obvious that the body takes no part in these nocturnal 

 adventures, and hence it is natural to conclude that they have a spirit 

 which can quit the bod^'. 



Lastly, when thej' dream of their departed friends or relatives, savages 

 firmly believe that they are visited by the spirits of the dead, and hence 

 believe, not indeed in the immortality of the soul, but in the existence 

 of a sjurit which survives, or may survive, the body. 



Again, savages are seldom ill; their sufferings generally arise from 

 . Avounds; their deaths are generally violent. As an external injury 

 received, say, in war, causes pain, so when they suffer internally, they 

 attribute it to some enemy within them. Hence, when an Australian, 

 perhaps after too heavy a meal, has his slumbers disturbed, he is at no 

 loss for an explanation, and supposes that he has been attacked by some 

 being whom his companions could not see. 



This is well illustrated in the following passage from Captain Wilkes's 

 voyage: " Sometimes," he says, " when the Australian is asleep, Koin, 

 as they call this spirit, seizes upon one of them and carries Lim off. 

 The person seized endeavors in vain to cry out, being almost strangled. 

 At daylight, however, Koin departs, and the man tinds himself again 

 safe by his own fireside." Here it is evident that Koin is a personifica- 

 tion of the nightmare. 



In other cases the belief that man possesses a spirit seems to have been 

 suggested by the shadow. Thus, among the Feejeeans : " Some," says 

 Mr. Williams, " speak of man as haviug two spirits. His shadow is called 

 the 'dark spirit,' which they say goes to Hades. The other is his like- 

 ness reflected in water or a looking-glass, and is supposed to stay near 

 the place in which a man dies. Probably this doctrine of shadows has 

 to do with the notion of inanimate objects having spirits. I once placed 

 a good-looking native suddenly before a mirror. Ho stood delighted. 

 'Now,' said he softly, 'I can see into the Avorld of spirits.'" 



But though spirits are naturally to be dreaded, on various accounts, 

 it by no means follows that they should be conceived as necessarily 

 wiser or more powerful than man. Of this our spirit-rappers and table- 

 turners aiford us a familiar illustration. So also, the natives of the 

 Nicobar Islands put up scarecrows round their villages to frighten away 

 hostile spirits. The natives of Kamtchatka insult their deities if their 

 wishes are unfulfilled. They even feel a contempt for them. " If Kutka," 

 they say, " had not been stupid, would he have made inaccessible moun- 

 tains and too rapid rivers ?" 



The Lapps made images of their gods, putting each in a separate box, 

 on which was written the name of the deity, so that each might know 

 its own box. 



