Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/341

Rh special, and, though religious practices pervade the lives of those of ruder culture far more thoroughly than among ourselves, there is, in every practice which can be called religious, an element of separateness from the ordinary life which excites the attention and makes the action one likely to excite curiosity and wonder. Indeed, the element of separateness from ordinary life is one of the essential features of religion. Similarly, one who goes out hunting, even though he does so every day, is doing something which he is not always doing. He is entering upon a mode of activity which brings into being a special set of ideas and emotions. The fundamental social relations, on the other hand, those of the family or clan, for instance, are in far more constant action, and are at the same time less obtrusive. They are present as an integral part of every activity upon which a man enters, and there is no intermission in their action, Not even during the partial unconsciousness of sleep do they cease to play a part, but here, as in the waking state, they form only the setting for other appearances far more calculated to excite the speculative tendency.

It may be urged that there are events such as marriage, in which the social interest is dominant, which might be expected to awaken curiosity, and thus excite speculation concerning origin in a pre-eminent degree. Here again, however, it is not the purely social elements which are the most obtrusive. In marriage, for instance, the features of the occasion which are of the most fundamental social significance pass almost without notice. The relationship of bride and bridegroom and other purely social factors which serve to regulate the marriage as a social institution are so obvious that, though they must have attracted attention during the arrangement of the marriage, they will have become part of the established order by the time the marriage ceremonies are performed, and will sink into insignificance beside the more purely ritual features of the occasion.