LXXXII BlTRKAir OV AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY 



in sxicli terms tlint linguistic development leads to a cosmology 

 of space. 



In this manner primitive man is led to speak of seven elements 

 of space. There are the here, the center, the midworld; the ze- 

 nith, the above, the heaven world; the down, the lower world, 

 the nadir, the hell. The apparent rising of the sun in the east 

 and its apparent course to the west seem to divide the plane of 

 the earth into two parts. In speaking about tlie east, the eastern 

 direction, the eastern land gradually becomes an eastern world ; 

 and in speaking about the west, the western direction, the west- 

 ei'n land, it gradually becomes the western world. Then, as men 

 must still talk aliout the north and the south as distinct from the 

 east and the west they also become worlds. Thus we have 

 the cardinal worlds; these with the midworld, the zenith world, 

 and the nadir world constitute the seven worlds of the cosmology 

 of savager}-. 



The seven worlds are universal ; every savage and every bar- 

 baric tribe recognizes and believes in them, as they are inexora- 

 bly developed as notions in the mind through tlie power of the 

 language used to express thought about relations of space, 

 especially as it refers to commonplace geography. Every day 

 the savau'e man has to tell of his wanderino' or tlie wanderings 

 of *,tliers over the surface of the earth, or to give directions to 

 others how to find places and objects, so that in this use of 

 holophrastic terms he unconsciously reifies the relations of 

 space and makes them seven distinct worlds. In tribal life 

 the notions of se^'en worlds are intuitive as a habit of judg- 

 ment. 



If a man hal)itually speaks of an object in terms which 

 involve erroneous notions, the habit of forming the judgments 

 involved becomes intuitive. Persuade him that eating parsnips 

 on Wednesday is a taboo and may lead to bad consequences, 

 a constant avoidance of this habit will lead him to habitual 

 iudiiinents of evil, and he will believe that such iudii'ments are 

 intuitive, it is thus tliat qualities are generated in the inind 

 from tlie point of view of the individual. 



Beast fahU — Wildwood man worships the beasts as gods. 

 As we have already seen, he believes that all bodies have 



