ADMINISTRATIVK REPORT LXXXIIl 



animate life; that is, lie interi)ivts the phenomena of the world 

 from the standpoint of the l)elief that all bodies, like hnman 

 bodies, are endowed with mind and that they luvve motives 

 and enjin pleasures and feel pains and exereise will as men 

 do. The savao'e man interprets the enviroimient of Ixidies as 

 if they were human bodies. This is what has been called 

 anthropomorphism. 



With this view of the world savage man develojis a vast 

 body of stoi'v l()re which i'e\"eals liis thoughts of the iiatiu'e of 

 things with the causes and effects of events that constitute the 

 hi.story of life and change. This lore is mvth. liut more: By 

 agencies which are now well recognized in science, he believes 

 that every body has a dual existence, as gross body and 

 attenuated body, and that the attemiated body may enter the 

 gross body or depart from the gross body at will, ;nid tliat the 

 attenuated body maA* sojourn in one gross body or another at 

 will. 



The attenuated body is known in our lanofuag-e as <>-liost, 

 but every primitive language has a name of its own, as maj/lhi 

 in the Algonquian languages, and pokunt in the Shoshonc^an 

 lano'uao'es, and /rakamln in the Siouan lanffuao'es. This o-host 

 is held to l)e the cause of things. All events are caused by 

 ffhosts. Every distinct linguistic stock of the world lias a 

 body of mvth consisting of stories related about tlie doings 

 of human beino-s and mythic personaties, which always assume 

 that tlie ghosts of the other personages influence the ghosts of 

 men, or that the ghosts of men influence the gliosts of other 

 personages. '^Fhis is the essence of ))ai'l)nric myth or romance, 

 for in\tli and romance are one in this stage of cuhure. 



Power Di/jtJi — In the si-cond stage of m\th or roiuance we 

 discover a radical develo]iment in the ])ersonages of the story. 

 A new class of deities is found. From the same lingui.stic 

 cause, wliich \\c liave set forth, tiie t-onspicuoiis phenomena of 

 natiu'e are personitie(l as gods. The ])owei-s of the unixerse as 

 thcA' are known in that stage of societA' Ix-come tlie heroes of 

 mvth. Tlie animal "ods remain, and with them the human 

 beings; but all the gods of savagery are assigned minor parts, 

 and the new gods constitute a superior oi-der of heing.s. 



