18 JOHN FEASERj B.A.j LL.D. 



" crook." In India we find that Yama, the regent of the South, 

 has a name from a sacred staff or rod, and some religious 

 impostors wear as badges of sanctity a " staff " and a deer's 

 skin. The Magi of Persia carried the Barer.ma or barsom, a 

 divining wand as one of the badges of their ministry and the 

 magicians of Egypt similarly had rods in their hands when 

 they stood in the presence of Pharaoh. The traditions of 

 Peru speak of a sacred golden wand borne by the son and 

 daughter of the Sun. These are analogies ; but the nearest 

 approach to the use of the wand in the Bora is, I think, to bo 

 found in the Finnish Kalevala, where there is a reference to 

 a " celebrated wand " (evidently as in Peru a sun wand) which 

 protects its possessor from all spells and enchantments ; even the 

 gods are glad to use it against the powers of evil. (2) A new 

 name. Having now acquired a knowledge of sacred things, 

 the initiated is henceforth anew man, he is "twice born/' 

 and like his kinsman in Upper Guinea, already described, he 

 will come out to the world in a new character, renouncing his 

 former state. In India, a youth becomes one of the " twice 

 born," by investiture with the sacred cord, receiving thus 

 a spii'itual birth ; thereafter, like our "boombat," he passes 

 into the hands of religious preceptors, who teach him the sacred 

 prayers, mystic words, and devotional ceremonies. In more 

 modern times, when a monastic house or a nunnery receives, 

 from the world without, one more recluse, a new name is 

 given by which he or she may thenceforward be known in 

 religion. The underlying idea in all these instances is that a 

 religious profession gives one a new character and a new 

 relation to the rest of the world. And who will deny that this 

 is true, whether the professor be black or white ? (3) The 

 white stones. I am inclined to think that the "boombat" 

 receives only one of these at a time, and that the number of 

 them increases according to the number of Boras he attends 

 until he becomes a full and accepted master of the craft. In 

 any case they are used as talismans, and are carried in the belt 

 during the whole of the man's life. They are merely small 

 pieces of quartz crystals, but are so sacred that they must not 

 be shown to the women.* The negroes of Guinea use small 

 stones as fetishes, which they carry about their necks or under 

 their armpits. These the priests sell after a formal con- 

 secration. The white colour is a sun colour. It is beneficent 



"' Maori is the name for the white crystals. A Koradjie, in the presence 

 of a friend of mine, swallowed three or four small ones, saying, " That fellow 

 stick there." He believed that the crystals would give him more power as 

 a medicine-man. 



