PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS. 681 



lie for wlioiii each of tliose objects, human and non-human, living and noMiving-, 

 is invested in a preater or less degree with orenda, will naturally and instinctively 

 on the one band avail himself of his own orenda, and on the other hand will 

 dread and endeavour to turn to account the orenda of others. But this very 

 endeavour to turn others' oretida to account is an exercise by prayer or compulsion 

 of his own. I can see no satisfactory evidence that early man entertained any 

 great faith in the order and uniformity of nature. The personal will and orenda 

 of himself or some other object were the origin of all causation. If he took aim 

 at his enemy and ilung his spear, or whatever primitive weapon served the same 

 purpose ; if it hit the man, and he fell ; he might witness the result, but the mere 

 mechanical causation, however inevitable in its action, would be the last thing he 

 would think about. Conscious of his own will, of his own effort, of the words, 

 perhaps, with which he had accompanied and directed the spear, he would 

 attribute the result to such causes as these. His own orenda felt in his passion, 

 his will, his effort, and displayed hi his acts and words, the orenda of the spear, 

 either inherent in itself, conceived as a personal being, or conferred hy its maker, 

 and manifested in the keenness of its point, the precision and the force with which 

 it flies to its work and inflicts the deadly wound — these would be to him the true 

 causes of his enemy's fall. His orenda is mightier than his enemy's, and over- 

 comes it. So, when the enemy is absent and he cannot visibly reach him, his 

 orenda may yet suffice to inflict the desired injury. By a psychological process 

 which Mr. Marett has acutely analysed he is led to perform in pantomime all the 

 acts of murder in the absence of the victim, either silently or to the accompani- 

 ment of a chant or of spoken words. His foe, who is as convinced as himself of 

 the power of such a performance, if it come to his knowledge, falls a victim to the 

 terror it inspires, unless he can call in the aid of some other person, objective or 

 imaginary, whose orenda is more powerful still. Nor would the belief lack vindi- 

 cation even in the case of the victim's ignorance; for any chance misfortune or 

 sickness would be put down to a hostile orenda ; and if he did escape, it would be 

 due to his own superior orendn. 



Thus magic is primarily an application of orenda. By his orenda a man 

 bewitches his enemy (or, for a consideration, someone else's enemy), causes rain or 

 sunshine, raises and protects the crops, gives success in hunting, divines the cause 

 of sickness and cures it, raises the dead, spells out the future. His incantations, 

 his gestures, his apparatus — whether of plants, stones, animal products, magical 

 drawings or moulded figures, or whatever else it may be — would be of no avail 

 without this. In Central Australia the Arunta magician arms his ' pointing bone ' 

 with arunyquiltha. In Central Alrica the Murundi wizard impregnates his 

 magical implements with evil influence by means of his imprecations, his incanta- 

 tions and his evocation of spirits. That is, he puts into them his orenda or the 

 orenda of the spirits: until then they are absolutely powerless and indifferent.' 

 This influence, this orenda or arungqidltha, is the nexus — the copula, as it has been 

 called — which links the subject, the magician, to the object, the result. But man 

 is not the only being who possesses orenda. The orenda of his quarry sometimes 

 foils his own. The cicada chirping in the field ripens the maize for the Iroquois : 

 the orenda of the rabbit controls the snow and fixes the depth to which it must 

 fall. The awful mountain, the treacherous sea, those mighty beings who command 

 the winds, who send forth the storm, who rule in the darkness and mystery of the 

 forest, possess an orenda surpassing man's. It is useless to pit his orenda agaXnsX 

 theirs. Therefore he must adopt a different course. He must lay down his 

 orenda and submit it to theirs. This is the literal meaning of the Iroquoian phrase 

 which signifies in modern usage ' He habitually prays,' expressive of an habitual 

 attitude of humility towards the higher powers.^ He must take such a course as 

 he would take to obtain assistance from a human being (say, a powerful chief) or 

 to^ conciliate an enemy. By gift, by abasement, by abstinence, by self-torture, by 

 cajolery he must win this powerful orenda to his side. Of these efforts abstinence 



' J. M. M. van der Burgt, Un Grand Penple de VAfrique Eqnatoriale, p. 65. 

 * Hewitt, pp. cit., p. 40. 



