Chumfo, the Super-sense 



According to these natives, every natural animal, 

 man included, has the physical gifts of touch, 

 sight, hearing, taste, smell, and chumfo. I must 

 still use the native term because it cannot be 

 translated, because it implies all that we mean by 

 instinct, intuitive or absolute knowledge and (a 

 thing which no other psychology has even hint- 

 ed at) the process by which such knowledge is 

 acquired. 



This chumfo is not a sixth or extra sense, as we 

 assume, but rather the unity or perfect co-ordina- 

 tion of the five senses at their highest point. I 

 may illustrate the matter this way, still following 

 Crawford, whose record contains many curious 

 bits of observation, savage philosophy, woods lore 

 and animal lore, many of them written by the 

 camp-fire and all jumbled together pell-mell: 



For ordinary perception at near distances the 

 eye or the ear is sufficient, and while engaged in 

 any near or obvious matter the five senses work 

 independently, each busy with its own function. 

 But when such observation is ended or at fault, 

 and the man retreats, as it were, into his inner self, 

 then in the quiet all the senses merge and harmo- 

 nize into a single perfect instrument of perception. 

 (Here, in native dress, is nothing more or less than 

 the psychologist's subconscious self, with its mys- 

 terious working.) At such moments the whole 



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