ORIGIN OF THERAPEUTIC BATHING 217 



fall as rain. Here actual facts are mixed with pure 

 animism and magic, for sea and river renew each other 

 in a perpetual cycle. It is difficult to get away from 

 proper magic. With knowledge man can do any- 

 thing. By killing a so-called heaven bird the Zulus 

 make the very sky weep. 



Of course many ceremonies for rain are properly 

 religious, not magical. They appeal humbly to the 

 ear of gods. This, however, is a late and a degenerate 

 plan. It is much better to be a sturdy magician, and 

 get the best of the many powers of water or of nature 

 by manly personal efforts. But enough has been said 

 to show that the savage mind, even of to-day, does not 

 regard water merely as a useful liquid. The physicists 

 say it is a mixture of hydrol, dihydrol, and trihydrol, and 

 they assert, moreover, that trihydrol or ice must exist 

 even in steam. This may be wonderful, but primitive 

 man knew long ago that water was a very dangerous 

 and wonderful fluid, capable of pulling the leg of any one 

 who swam in it. He knew it could even talk and 

 converse. Even now those of us who are not magicians 

 can fish a running stream and hear it utter faint lost 

 words, although they do not understand what it says, 

 and cannot control it. With a real magician it has to 

 behave, but as there were few thoroughly instructed 

 magicians, even in the most ancient times, not many 

 will insist that primitive man went for his morning dip 

 as a matter of course. Water had to be watched and 

 learnt. It was best for a bather to take a magician with 

 him when he swam. For some people it is even now 

 best to take one when bathing in the sea, or he may be 

 sent for to try artificial respiration. It may be said 

 that nothing whatever comes by nature. All assurance 



