Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/177

 From Spell to Prayer. 159

from mythology. The example, however, is not sufficiently primitive to bear close scrutiny as regards the thought it contains. On the other hand, the Australians are, in Dr. Frazer's eyes at least, as primitive as you please, and it is precisely amongst them that he finds a magic free of religion. Yet Australia presents us with a crucial case of the deification of the magical instrument.

To punish their enemies the Arunta prepare a magic spear. It is named the arungquiltha, this name, let us note, being equally applicable to the supernatural evil power that possesses anybody or anything, and to the person or object wherein it is permanently or for the time being resident. They then address it, " Go straight, go straight and kill him," and wait till the arungquiltha is heard to reply, "Where is he? " — being, we are told, " regarded in this instance as an evil spirit resident in the magic imple- ment." ^^ Thereafter a crash of thunder is heard, and a fiery appearance is seen streaking across the sky — a beautifully concrete image, by the way, of the projectiveness ascribed by the savage to his magic. It is but a step from this to the identification of the arungquiltha with comets and shooting-stars.*^ By a converse movement of mythologising thought, when a man wishes to charm a certain shell orna- ment, the lonka-lonka, so that it may gain him the affections of a woman, he sings over it certain words which convey an invitation to the lightning to come and dwell in the lonka-lonka. The supposed effect of this on the woman is precisely that we nowadays attribute to suggestion. She, though absent in her own camp, sees, with the inward eye as it were, since she alone sees it, the lightning flashing on the lonka-lonka, "and all at once her internal organs shake with emotion." *'' Now why these easy transitions of thought from the magical instrum.ent to a celestial portent, and vice

« Sp. aitd G., S48-9. " sp. and G., 545.
 * ^ sp, and G., 550.