T11E RISE OF A PRIESTHOOD. 735 



were &quot; all Yncas of the blood royal ;&quot; it becomes clear that 

 this establishment of a local priesthood of Ynca-blood, illus 

 trates the development of a priestly caste from the ancestor- 

 worshipping members of a conqueror s family. 



609. In verification of the foregoing conclusions, some 

 evidence might be added showing that in tribes which lead 

 peaceful lives, and in which considerable advances have 

 been made without the establishment of strong personal 

 governments, and therefore without the rise of apotheosized 

 chiefs serving as village gods, there is but a feeble marking 

 off of the priest-class. Among the Bodo and Dhimals, for 

 example, the priestly office is not hereditary, and is parti 

 cipated in by the elders of the people. 



It is scarcely practicable, however, and would not be very 

 profitable, to trace further this rise of a priesthood. Influ 

 ences of sundry kinds tend everywhere to complicate, in one 

 way or other, the primitive course of development. While 

 we see that worshipping the spirit of the dead chief, at first 

 carried on by his heir, is in his heir s absence deputed to a 

 younger brother while we see that temporary assumption of 

 the function by a brother or other member of the family, 

 tends to become permanent where the business of the chief 

 increases while we see that migrating parts of a tribe, are 

 habitually accompanied by some of the village god s direct 

 or collateral descendants, who carry with them the cult and 

 perform its rites, and that where conquest of adjacent com 

 munities leads to an extension of rule, political and eccle 

 siastical, members of the ruling family become local priests ; 

 we find at work sundry causes which render this process 

 irregular Besides the influence which the chief or his 

 priestly relative is supposed to have with powerful super 

 natural beings, there is the competing influence ascribed to 

 the sorcerer or rain-maker. Occasionally, too, the tribe is 

 joined by an immigrant stranger, who, in virtue of superior 

 knowledge or arts, excites awe ; and an additional cult may 



