DEEAMS AND ILLUSIONS. 311 



recognized a demoniac and deliberate power. For 

 this reason, dancing and the noise of rude instruments 

 generally accompanied solemn religious and civil 

 ceremonies, and any remarkable cosmic, astral, or 

 meteorological fact ; and in polytheistic times the 

 deities of poetry, dancing, and music served to 

 accentuate and classify ideas. 



The instrument became a fetish, and was invested 

 with a mysterious power resembling that which was 

 supposed to exist in all utterances of the animal 

 world. Indeed, instruments were, and still are among 

 savages, regarded as sacred and as an integral 

 part of public worship, so that each had its definite 

 function and office. This need not surprise us, 

 since for such men every object is a fetish, which con- 

 tains a soul. The Karens, a tribe in Burrnah, believe 

 that their arms, knives, utensils, etc., have all a kelap 

 or soul, w T hich is termed a ivong by the negroes of 

 West Africa. The same belief is found in a more 

 explicit form among the Algonquins, the Fijians, and 

 the aforesaid Karens, whose beliefs are characteristic 

 of all peoples which have reached this stage of 

 mythical conceptions. The different objects belong- 

 ing to a dead man, and his instruments, arms, and 

 utensils, are laid in his tomb, or burnt with his body, 

 and this is owing to the belief that the souls of these 

 objects follow their possessor into another life. The 

 same custom unfortunately extends to persons, and 

 there are instances of this evil practice among rela- 



