STONE PALETTES—IMITATIVE MAGIC 305 
which seems to me, if ingenious, too ingenuous and too far- 
fetched. 
The palettes,! almost invariably presenting the profile of 
only those fishes, birds, or beasts that historic men pursued 
for food, were intended (by the aid of colours extracted from 
the malachite, galena, etc., crushed upon them) to establish 
an unpalpable, but, in human eyes, very serviceable connection 
between the fisher and his prey. 
One method of such connection consists in creating a 
likeness of the intended quarry. Such a likeness, by the 
belief that the simulacrum is actively en rapport with that 
which it represents, bestows on the possessor power over the 
original. ‘“‘Cases,’’ Bates correctly adds, “of this sort are the 
commonplaces of imitative magic.” Usually a hunting or 
fishing amulet which simulates the form of the quarry was 
worn by the owner, or attached to his gear. 
The palettes themselves played the part of mere paint- 
stones, but their supposed resident power might very effica- 
ciously be transferred to its proprietor by means of the paint 
ground upon i. 
“ Persons who go in pursuit of the crocodile,” says Pliny, 
“ anoint themselves with its fat.”’2 In the same way as the 
crocodile-hunter thus assimilates himself to his quarry by a 
direct contagion, so the owner of the palette could possess 
himself of the power in the slate likeness by painting himself 
with the “ medicine ’’ ground upon it. 
The validity, or otherwise, of the suggestion must be 
determined by expert mythologists. The theory, to my mind, 
appears too far-fetched, and breaks down from the introduction 
of an additional agency. 
The fisher wearing an amulet or attaching a charm to his 
tackle, and the fat-anointed crocodile hunter both supposedly 
have direct connection with his quest. 
But Bates’s solution demands four agents at work, the 
fisher, the prey, the portrayed profile of the latter, and the 
palette; from these the fisher extracts the desired power by 
1 Op. cit., 204 ff. 
2.N. H., XXX. 8. 
