164 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



which preceded the civilization of many peoples, and 

 among those which still remain in the stage of 

 fetishism we can trace the primitive form of a vague 

 impersonation of natural objects and phenomena.* 



As we have already seen, every animal and un- 

 familiar object is in this first stage of fetishism re- 

 garded as the external covering of a spiritual power 

 which has assumed what is believed to be the prim- 

 ordial form of the fetish ; this fetish takes the place 

 of the natural phenomenon, and is believed to be 

 capable of exercising a direct subjectivity which is 

 vague but perfectly real. 



We pass from this first form of fetish to the second, 

 namely to the veneration of objects, animals, plants, 

 and the like, in which an extrinsic power is supposed 

 to be incarnated. Many ages elapsed before man 

 attained to this second stage of fetishism, since it was 

 necessarily preceded by a further and reflex elaboration 

 of myth, namely, the genesis of a belief in spirits. 



Herbert Spencer and Tylor are among the writers 

 who have given a masterly description of this phase 

 of the human intellect, and history and ethnography 



* Fetishism may be obsenvd in the civilized Aryan races, but si ill 

 more plainly amojig the Cliimsr aiid cognate races, among the 

 Peruvians, Mexicans, etc. Castren, in his FinnixcJie Mijtlmlu/jie, 

 says that we find extraordinary instances of the lowest stage of 

 fetishism among the Samoeides, who directly worship all natural 

 objects in themselves. The Finns, who arc comparatively civilized 

 lii-athriis, have attained to a higher phase of belief. But numerous 

 examples, in every part of tin- \\nrld, \\ill occur to the iutelligeut 

 reader. 



