Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/181

 Rh in him an Awe that I believe to be specifically religious both in its essence and in its fruits, whether Animism have, or have not, succeeded in imposing its distinctive colours upon it. Thus, when a thunderstorm is seen approaching in South Africa, a Kaffir village, led by its medicine-man, will rush to the nearest hill and yell at the hurricane to divert it from its course. Here we have Awe finding vent in what on the face of it may be no more than a simple straightforward act of personification. It is Animism in the loose sense of some writers, or, as I propose to call it, Animatism; but it is not Animism in the strict scientific sense that implies the attribution, not merely of personality and will, but of "soul" or "spirit," to the storm. The next case is but slightly different. The Point Barrow natives, believing the Aurora Borealis to do them harm by striking them at the back of the neck, brandish knives and throw filth at it to drive it away. Now I doubt if we need suppose Animism to be latent here any more than in the African example. Nevertheless the association of the Aurora's banefulness with a particular malady would naturally pave the way towards it, whilst the precautionary measures are exactly such as would be used against spirits. The following case is more dubious. When a glacier in Alaska threatened to swallow up a valuable fishing stream two slaves were killed in order to bring it to a standstill. Here the advanced character of the propitiatory rite probably presumes acquaintance with some form of the animistic theory. It may very well be, however, that sacrifice is here resorted to as a general religious panacea without involving any distinct recognition of a particular glacier spirit. And now let us take a couple of instances where the theory behind the religious observance is more explicit. The Fuegians