Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 15.djvu/803

 THE ROLE OF MAGIC 789

for the totem poles.) That primitive repulsion at the sight of blood, or of a corpse, is a thing so primitive that we share it with certain of the lower animals. Such things, somehow, cause a recoil which is as near instinct as we can come. It is but natural that the savage should feel this most intensely, with his perceptions sharpened and his reasoning still undeveloped. So he is surrounded on every side by countless such dangers. Cer- tain things are electric with mysterious power. They cause fear, awe, or wonder. There is both danger and blessing in the blood that is the symbol of life as well as the sign of death. It is the same with all "sacred" things; they may curse or bless. They merely discharge some power, some radiation in the psychic universe, and the man who comes in contact, whose nerves receive its shock, is its victim or beneficiary. Such motor forces are the basis of "contagious magic." The horrible and the wonderful, whatever shocks the primitive nerves, will set such forces going. How many of us inquire what is meant by "impurity" in a corpse? Or what is "virtue" in a saint? What emanations from a rock-crystal makes it efficacious in the hands of an Arunta medicine man? Most of all, in what does the "divinity" of Frazer's divine man consist? It is remarkable that although most of the phenomena cited in The Golden Bough are saturated with this uncanny essence, this mysterious, dangerous something which marks them off from the plain things of life, the author never felt its spell. For twenty years he has turned aside and left these questions unanswered, concentrating his attention upon the homeopathic processes by which the forces are handled. It is to be admitted that a study of the processes is worth while. For those occult forces have infinite possibilities for weal as well as for woe; like electricity they can not only be insulated, but be set to work for one's advantage. Already we see ahead of us the demand for medicine men — and theological seminaries — to direct its course.

It now transpires that savages the world over have gone farther in their analysis of their own actions than the Cambridge anthropologist. For even in about as primitive a state of culture as has yet been found, there is not only distinct recognition of