878 REPORT—1899. 
beasts of prey; (2) general exposure of the dead; (e) the question of the priority 
of burial to cremation; (f) transitions from burial to cremation, and wice versd ; 
(g) disposal of those dying in a state of taboo; () shelf or niche burial; 
(2) crouched or sitting burial; (7) disinterment of the cofpse; (4) jar or urn 
burial ; and (2) dismemberment of the corpse. 
4, Pre-animistie Religion. By R. R. Marert, IA. 
General Thesis—The term Religion denotes a state of mind embracing 
emotional and ideal constituents, whereof the former constitute the universal and 
constant, the latter the particular and variant element. Self-interpretation in 
ideal terms on the part of the religious emotion of the savage has found most 
complete and definite expression in Animism, the ‘Belief in Spiritual Beings.’ 
Animism, however, as compared with ‘Supernaturalism,’ namely, that state of 
feeling almost uncoloured by ideas which is the primary form taken by man’s 
Awe of the Supernatural (or extraordinary), is but as the strongest sapling in a 
thicket of heterogeneous growths, which, in the struggle for existence, has come to 
overshadow the rest and give a character tothe whole. The vagueness of primitive 
‘ supernaturalistic’ utterance is illustrated by, e.g., andriamanitra (Malagasy), ngat 
(Masai), mana (Melanesians), wakan (North American Indians), kalow (Fijians). 
A ‘pre-animistic’ validity as manifestations of religion thus attaches to a variety 
of special observances and cults; and it may therefore be interesting in the case 
of some of the more important of these to distinguish between the original basis 
of ‘ supernaturalistic’ veneration and the animistic interpretation that as the result 
of successful competition with other modes of explanatory conception (notably 
‘ Animatism,’ namely, the attribution of life and will, but not of soul or spirit, to 
material objects and forces) is thereon superimposed in accordance with the 
tendency of the religious consciousness towards doctrinal uniformity. The author 
illustrates his thesis as follows :— 
A. In regard to the Inanimate—(1) Selected instances show the transition 
through ‘ Animatism ’ and ‘animatistic’ mythology to Animism in the interpreta- 
tion of the religious awe felt in relation to extraordinary manifestations on the 
part of Nature-Powers ; (2) the cult of the Bull-roarer displays an almost complete 
absence of animistic conceptions in regard to the veneration of Daramulun, Mungun- 
ngaur, Turndun, Baiamat (Kurnai, Murrings, Kamilaroi, &c.); (8) in Stone- 
worship; sympathetic magic in connection with the use of ‘ guardian stones, &c., 
generates explanatory conceptions tending towards an animistic form. 
B. Inregard to the Subanimate and Animate.—(1) Plant and Animal Worships 
show how Totemistic Magic and, apart from Totemism, the desire for magical 
communion with extraordinary animals, invite explanations which need not be 
animistic, though they tend to become so. (2) Among observances connected with 
the phenomena of human life: (a) dream and trance are the special parent-soil of 
Animism ; (4) awe of the Dead Body, as such, is due to the instinct of self-preserva- 
tion, an influence which cooperates with the theory of the self-existent soul to 
bring about the ascription of the ‘potency’ of human remains to that of the 
surviving spirit; (c) Diseases taking the form of seizure, and those of a convulsive 
nature, lend themselves almost directly to animistic interpretation ; those ascribable 
to Witchcraft are not necessarily so explained, though the idea of Infection tends 
this way ; the awe of Blood, notably of an issue of blood, is analogous to the awe 
of the Dead Body, and a crucial proof that ‘ supernaturalistic’ veneration may, in 
regard to certain maladies, assert itself strongly in the absence of animistic 
colouring. 
5. The Thirty-seven Nats (or Spirits) of the Burmese. 
By Colonel R. C. Tempre, C.L.Z. 
The belief in the Nats, or supernatural beings who interfere in the affairs of 
mankind, is universal among all the native inhabitants of Burma of every race and 
