TEACHER. 275 



communicated by the elder priests to the younger, or rather 

 by the actual priests to those who are to become priests. In 

 many cases, and for a long time, this is the sole teaching. 

 Only in the course of evolution, along with the rise of a 

 secular cultured class, does the teacher as we now conceive 

 him come into existence. 



TOO. Necessarily in early stages of all evolving aggre 

 gates the lines of organization are indefinite. In groups of 

 the uncivilized we cannot expect the function of educator 

 to have become distinctly marked off. Still we soon detect 

 that inculcation of secret and sacred things which, as above 

 indicated, constitutes the earliest kind of teaching : the 

 &quot; mystery men &quot; being the instructors. Says Bernau con 

 cerning the Arawaks : 



&quot;The son of a conjuror, as soon as he enters his twentieth year, or 

 even sooner, is made acquainted by his father with the art of conjura 

 tion, and enjoined the greatest secrecy concerning it.&quot; 



And whether the neophyte be a descendant or not, there is 

 always this injunction of silence respecting the communi 

 cated information, which invariably has reference to deal 

 ings with supernatural beings; so that, from the very first, 

 there is shown the rise of an esoteric cult such as the priest 

 hoods of early historic peoples show us. 



But in groups of savages we may trace an extension of 

 this sacred teaching, or rather part of it, to all young men on 

 their arrival at the fit age. The Australians, for example, 

 have everywhere an initiation ceremony during which the 

 youth, circumcised after a fashion, or in other cases having 

 a tooth knocked out, is thereby dedicated to a supernatural 

 being supposed to be present, as in the case of Daramulun, 

 who is doubtless the hero of the tribe : the dedications being 

 obviously akin in spirit to those of more civilized peoples. 

 On these occasions the medicine-men are the operators and 

 instructors. 



The more advanced of the uncivilized, whose medicine- 



