Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 28, 1917.djvu/295

Rh means the belief in personal beings superior to man—was preceded by and evolved out of what he speaks of as "nascent religion." And the intichiuma ceremonies would, I suppose, be in Dr. Marett's view an instance of "the stage of cult or ritual (if so it may be termed)" which may be spoken of as "nascent religion." The Archbishop of Upsala regards these ceremonies as "nascent religion." He quotes (Das Werden des Gottesglaudens, p. 194) the following passage from Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, and asks the reader to decide for himself whether what is described in the passage is or is not religion. The passage (from The Northern Tribes of Central Australia, p. 33), cf. pp. 177 ff.), runs as follows:

"Attention may be drawn to one striking feature of savage life, so far as the men are concerned. During his early years, up till perhaps the age of fourteen, the boy is perfectly free, wandering about in the bush, searching for food, playing with his companions during the daytime, and perhaps spending the evening watching the ordinary corroborees. From the moment of his initiation however his life is sharply marked out into two parts. He has first of all what we may speak of as the ordinary life, common to all the men and women, and associated with the procuring of food and the performance of corroborees, the peaceful monotony of this part of his life being broken every now and again by the excitement of a fight. On the other hand, he has what gradually becomes of greater and greater importance to him, and that is the portion of his life devoted to matters of a sacred or secret nature. As he grows older he takes an increasing share in these, until finally this side of his life occupies by far the greater part of his thoughts. The sacred ceremonies which appear very trivial matters to the white man are most serious matters to him. They are all connected with the great ancestors of the tribe, and he is firmly convinced that, when it comes to his turn to die, his spirit part will finally