ETHNOLOGY: ITS SCOPE AND PROBLEMS 563 



An interesting field for research will be found in the evolution 

 of literature, but even this cannot be culled from existing books, 

 as verbatim transliterations of tales, songs, and sayings are very 

 rare, and free renderings, and abbreviated accounts are of little value 

 from this point of view. 



Sophiology is a word invented by Major Powell to comprise 

 the study of "inferences, conclusions, abstractions, beliefs, and all 

 other forms of knowledge or pseudo-knowledge:" he denned it as 

 "A science of opinions, including the activities of promulgation 

 and acceptation." Although it is true we have a mass of material 

 dealing with these subjects, no one can admit that it is sufficient. 



Innumerable magical practices have been recorded, but even so, 

 more information is required as to the method in which they are 

 supposed to act. Dr. J. G. Frazer l regards religion as opposed in 

 principle to magic, and holds that an age of religion has everywhere 

 been preceded by an age of magic. Others, as Marett puts it, 2 con- 

 sider that "Magic proper is all along an occult process, and as such 

 part and parcel of the 'God-stuff' out of which religion fashions 

 itself." 



The problems of sophiology are fundamentally questions of 

 psychology, and they require to be studied by those who have had 

 a thorough training in that science. 



The appliances and ceremonies of religion are of the highest 

 interest, and should be described with great minuteness, and the 

 associated myths, which are probably always later than the observ- 

 ances for which they are supposed to account, deserve to be written 

 down. Of late years certain ceremonies have been described with 

 an admirable wealth of detail and illustration by American ethno- 

 logists such as G. A. Dorsey, J. W. Fewkes, Washington Mat hews, 

 J. Mooney, and H. R. Voth; and Baldwin Spencer, F. J. Gillen, and 

 W. Roth have done the same great service to science in Australia. 



After all, ritual is but the outward form of the more important 

 religious idea, and field-work undertaken by suitably trained observ- 

 ers is necessary before much advance can be made in tracing the 

 evolution and early vagaries of this idea. 



It is a matter for regret that, although a great deal is now being 

 written on symbolism and religious art, comparatively little of it is 

 the outcome of work in the field. 



To whatever department of ethnology we turn our attention, 

 wherever we glance over the map of the world, the fact is increas- 

 ingly evident that we need more extensive and more detailed obser- 

 vations. The data upon which students at home have to rely are 



1 J. G. Frazer, The Golden Bough: a Study in Magic and Religion (2d ed. 

 1900), i, pp. 63, 75. 



1 R. R. Marett, "From Spell to Prayer," Folk-Lore, 1904, xv, p. 160. 



