64 A Note on some Hill Tribes [No. 169. 



spirit of the streams of the Hoosalong* ; Oh ! spirit of the surges of 

 the Kolakf ; Oh ! lords of the mountain peaks]: ; One, two, three, 

 four, five, six, seven, eight times ; take ye this my offering." 



Every object which is in motion they conceive to be so, in virtue of 

 a spirit, and a motion of its own : in fact to be animate. This is a 

 belief which has been shared by all primitive and savage tribes ; and 

 is one that will at once appear to be most natural. The simple savage, 

 judging from the movements of his own person, gives a spirit and a will, 

 as inherently the cause of movement in all things. It is the predi- 

 lection of the modern mind to count all as phoenomena ; the cold results 

 of causal agencies beyond. And when in this its last stage the mind 

 carries itself back to the first ; when it spiritualizes the dull realities of 

 this every-day world ; and writes down every sensuous object in nature 

 as impelled by a spirit and motion like its own ; then, having achieved 

 a communion with all existing things, it becomes seized of the highest 

 poetry, and purest ideality. This is the simple reason why the poetry of a 

 rude age is to us, as rich in its ideality as is that of the most polished 

 epoch. In this respect the human mind may be conveniently classed into 

 three stages — The 1st and savage, where it believes all objects whatever to 

 have life and spirit. The 2nd, where it has so far advanced as to accord 

 a separate individuality to the spirit, and to hold that, like a guardian, it 

 presides and watches over the inanimate. And finally, the 3rd and last, 

 that which we have above described. Those peculiarities which are the 

 source of poetry in the last, are unideal, mere common place matters of 

 belief in the first. And even in poetry, such as that of Homer, which we 

 may look upon as the annals of the mind in what we have described as its 

 second stage, many of those wondrous figures which appear to us, the 

 living transcripts of mysterious portraitures traced upon the secret wall 

 of the chambers of the poet's imagery, may in reality be but the simple 

 and unimaginative record of the beliefs of his every day existence. 



The Khumis have no religious superiors, although they pay a certain 

 respect to some who, profess to have converse with familiar spirits. 



* The name of a stream among the Hills. 



f The original is vom of the Kolak, the latter being the name of a stream ; vom, 

 in their dialect is a place partaking of a character of both, a waterfall and a rapid : at 

 the mouth of the Kolak, the river rattles its way over a shallow rapid, and being im- 

 peded in its course by a great number of ridges of rock, it has the appearance of a 

 huge seething chaldron. 



X Here they generally enumerate the most remarkable peaks. 



