Page:American Anthropologist NS vol. 1.djvu/866

 NOTES AND NEWS 795

Figurines of Domesticated Animals in Austrian Folk-Re- ligion — The well-known ethnologist, Dr Wilhelm Hein, points out in the Berlin Zeitschrift fur Volkskunde, for 1899, a remarkable paral- lelism in the folk-religion of Austria and that of the Hopi Winter Solstice ceremony as described in a previous number of the Anthropologist In 1897 Dr Hein's attention was called to certain iron figures of do- mesticated animals in the collection of Dr Eugen Frischauf, and he later found other specimens, among which were seventy-five in the old half-ruined chapel of St. Agydius in Schwarzensee. On the first of September, a day dedicated to this saint, the country people from far and near flock to their chapel, where figurines representing horses, sheep, cattle, and other animals are placed on the altar. As to the use of these figures Dr Hein quotes from a letter of Herr Blau who has published an article on types of country churches in Austria. It appears from this letter that at Easter, in Bohemia, a country woman or maid carries one of these figurines to the altar on which an offering of four, five, or ten kreuzer is placed, and after a short prayer the figurine, generally that of a cow, is deposited on a table arranged for that purpose under the choir.

Dr Hein then refers to figurines of domesticated animals in the Hopi kivas at the Winter Solstice ceremony, calling attention to the parallelism in their use with that of the iron images. He points out that this Hopi festival, like Easter, is especially devoted to renewal of life, fertility of the earth, and increase of domestic animals. Near the close of his article Dr Hein recognizes a most significant principle in the use of objects on primitive altars, and makes an important dis- tinction when he points out that these figurines are not votive offerings, used in " Erfullung tines Gelubdcs" but are 4< Ausdriick tints Wunsches" a symbolic expression of prayer so constant in primitive religions. There are several types of prayer used in worship : Silent prayer, the highest form of communion of man with the " gods," where no words or other symbols are employed ; verbal prayer, implying an anthro- pomorphic or other conception of gods endowed with organs of hear- ing. The words used in this type may state the request directly or become symbols of wants or needs unexpressed. In verbal prayer the objects desired, or their symbols, are constantly employed in primitive religion. In a third type, pantomimic, or, as Powell suggests, gesture prayer, the worshiper shows the supernatural beings what he wishes by acting, always making use of objects or symbols of objects needed. Much of primitive ceremony, ordinarily called dramatization, is simply a complicated form of this last mentioned type of prayer which gener-

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