68 MANNERS AND FASHION. 



the race of god-kings to the other world — a genesis illus- 

 trated in the Greek mythology, alike by the precise gene- 

 alogy of the deities, and by the specifically asserted apothe- 

 osis of the later ones — tends further to bear it out. It ex- 

 plains the fact that in the old creeds, as in the still extant 

 creed of the Otaheitans, every family has its guardian 

 spirit, who is supposed to be one of their departed rela- 

 tives ; and that they sacrifice to these as minor gods — a 

 practice still pursued by the Chinese and even by the Rus- 

 sians. It is perfectly congruous with the Grecian myths 

 concerning the wars of the Gods with the Titans and their 

 final usurpation ; and it similarly agrees with the fact that 

 among the Teutonic gods proper was one Freir who came 

 among them by adoption, "but was born among the Fanes, a 

 somewhat mysterious other dynasty of gods, who had been 

 conquered and superseded by the stronger and more warlike 

 Odin dynasty." It harmonizes, too, with the behef that there 

 are different gods to different territories and nations, as there 

 were different chiefs ; that these gods contend for supremacy 

 as chiefs do; and it gives meaning to the boast of neighbour- 

 ing tribes — "Our god is greater than your god." It is con- 

 firmed by the notion universally current in early times, that 

 the gods come from this other abode, in which they common- 

 ly live, and appear among men — speak to them, help them, 

 punish them. And remembering this, it becomes manifest 

 that the prayers put up by primitive i^eoples to their gods for 

 aid in battle, are meant literally — that their gods are exj^ect- 

 ed to come back from the other kingdom they are reigning 

 over, and once more fight the old enemies they had before 

 warred against so implacably ; and it needs but to name the 

 Iliad, to remind every one how thoroughly they believed the 

 expectation fulfilled. 



All government, then, being originally that of the 

 gtrong man who has become a fetish by some manifestation ol 

 superiority, there arises, at his death — his supj^osed dopar* 



