Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/47

 development. This philosophy must first become a religion before it is etherealized as trope, which is the essence of modern poetry.

In the earliest poetry holopbrastic words are used as nouns or substantives with adjectives of quality in exclamatory sentences (remember the distinction between qualities and properties) to mark the time of a complement of steps in the dance of worship. In every clan or tribe in this stage of society there is a leader who is the master of the dance and who regulates it with rhythmic chant in which others may take part, when the solo of the shaman becomes the chorus of the people. The exuberance of dance and the inspiration of shout unite to produce emotion—wildly hilarious if it is a dance of praise, wildly vengeful if it is a dance of war, wildly wailing if it is a dance of mourning for the dead. Thus is produced an ecstasy of joy or hate or sorrow.

In the exclamatory phrases of song are named the personified objects that are supposed to be inspired with motives like those of men, and hence the adjective element of the song expresses the good or evil which is the theme of poetry. The earliest poetry in this manner involves a double expression, one of personification and another of qualification.

Similitude—In the second stage powers are personified as if they were bodies, and there is developed a new class of deities which are supposed to be superior to the old gods, and the old gods are called demons; not yet devils, mind you, but only demons. Now, there are many kinds of these demons, as elves, fairies, muses, sirens, and what not, while human beings are sometimes giants and pigmies. This is pertinent to the present exposition. Personification in this stage is the creation of invisible bodies out of pure forces that are supposed to exist independent of bodies: that is, properties can exist in some invisible state like that of ghosts. Man personifies not only bodies, but he also personifies qualities.

In this stage qualification is developed into similitude. That