114 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



lor in the second volume of his great work on 

 &quot; Primitive Culture.&quot; In the lower stages of cul 

 ture, the morbid phenomena of hysteria, epilepsy, 

 and mania are explained by the hypothesis of a 

 foreign spirit, which is supposed to have taken 

 temporary possession of the body or earthly taber 

 nacle of the patient. In Christian cases of exor 

 cism, this foreign spirit was naturally supposed to 

 be of diabolical character ; but in the cruder the 

 ory of the barbarian no such uncanny suspicion 

 is attached to it. On the contrary, the possessed 

 person is usually regarded as an exceptionally 

 valuable source of information concerning the su 

 pernatural world to which the possessing spirit 

 belongs. Alike in the medicine-man of the Amer 

 ican Indian, and in the Pythian priestess of Del 

 phi, may be seen the close theoretical connection 

 between disease-possession and oracle-possession. 

 The Zulu diviners ascribe their hysterical symp 

 toms to possession by &quot; amatongo,&quot; or ancestral 

 spirits ; and the Siberian shamans select epileptic 

 children to be educated for the priesthood, which 

 is thus &quot;apt to become hereditary along with the 

 epileptic tendencies it belongs to.&quot; In the prim 

 itive theory, the diviner or prophet can give in 

 formation from the supernatural world because 

 \iis own personality is for the time being sup- 



