168 MYTH AND SCIENCE. 



mythical elaboration of spirits, their mode of life, their 

 influence and possible transmigrations. This elabo- 

 ration is indeed a product of the mythical faculty, but 

 in a rational order ; it is a logical process, mythical 

 in substance, but purely reflective in form. For 

 which reason it was impossible for animals to attain 

 to this stage. 



Some peoples remained in this phase of belief, 

 while others advanced to the ulterior and polytheistic 

 form. This may also be divided into two classes ; 

 those who classify and ultimately reduce fetishes into 

 a more general conception, and those whose concep- 

 tion takes an anthropomorphic form. Let us ex- 

 amine the genesis of both classes. 



When the popular belief in spirits had free de- 

 velopment, the number of spirits and powers was 

 countless, as many examples show. To give a single 

 instance the Australians hold that there is an in- 

 numerable multitude of spirits; the heavens, the 

 earth, every nook, grove, bush, spring, crag, and 

 stone are peopled with them. In the same way, 

 some American tribes suppose the visible and in- 

 visible world to be filled with good and evil spirits ; 

 so do the Khonds, the Negroes of New Guinea, and, 

 as Castren tells us, the Turanian tribes of Asia and 

 Europe. Consequently, fetishes, which are 'the incar- 

 nation of these spirits in some object, animate or 

 inanimate, natural or artificial, are innumerable, since 

 primitive man and modern savages have created such 



