52 EVOLUTION AND RELIGION 



the hidden Yaka is brought out by the chiefs of the 

 offender's family. A doctor is called in consultation, 

 the Yaka is to be opened, and its ancestral relic con- 

 tents appealed to. At this point the fears of the offender 

 overcome him, and he privately calls aside the doctor 

 and the older members of the clan. He takes them 

 to a quiet spot in the forest and confesses what he has 

 done, taking them to the garden he has devastated, or 

 to the spot where he had hidden the remains of the 

 person he had killed. If this confession were made to 

 the public, so that the injured family became aware of 

 it, his own life would be at stake. But making it to his 

 Yaka, and to only the doctor and chosen representa- 

 tives of his family, they are bound to keep his secret; 

 the doctor on professional grounds, and his relatives 

 on the ground of family solidarity. The problem, then, 

 is for the doctor to make what seems like an expia- 

 tion." l 



SYMBOL- WORSHIP 



Over Symbol-worship, or the deification of the re- 

 productive powers of Nature, we need not linger long. 

 It again marks the infancy of our race, showing man's 

 inveterate tendency to deify whatsoever is mysterious 

 and unknown in connection with life, whatever is life- 

 giving, as well as what is terrible and death-compelling. 

 Its influence may be readily traced in the primitive 

 nature-religions of Egypt, India, Assyria, Phoenicia, 

 Greece, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, Mexico, Central 

 1 Nassau, Fetichism in West Africa, p. 163. 



