114 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



lor in the second volume of his great work on 

 " Primitive Culture." In the lower stages of cul- 

 ture, the morbid phenomena of hysteria, epilepsy, 

 and mania are explained by the hypothesis of a 

 foreign spirit, which is supposed to have taken 

 temporary possession of the body or earthly taber- 

 nacle of the patient. In Christian cases of exor- 

 cism, this foreign spirit was naturally supposed to 

 be of diabolical character ; but in the cruder the- 

 ory of the barbarian no such uncanny suspicion 

 is attached to it. On the Contrary, the possessed 

 person is usually regarded as an exceptionally 

 valuable source of information concerning the su- 

 pernatural world to which the possessing spirit 

 belongs. Alike in the medicine-man of the Amer- 

 ican Indian, and in the Pythian priestess of Del- 

 phi, may be seen the close theoretical connection 

 between disease-possession and oracle-possession. 

 The Zulu diviners ascribe their hysterical symp- 

 toms to possession by " amatongo," or ancestral 

 spirits ; and the Siberian shamans select epileptic 

 children to be educated for the priesthood, which 

 is thus " apt to become hereditary along with the 

 epileptic tendencies it belongs to." In the prim- 

 itive theory, the diviner or prophet can give in- 

 formation from the supernatural world because 

 his own personality is for the time being sup- 



