Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 29, 1918.djvu/115

 Magic and Religion 105

these facts arc of widespread occurrence, I will pass on. to other items of Dr. Jevons's paper.

When we come to the question of mana, equal difficulties await Dr. Jevons. Let us take the case of tabu ! If a common man touches the head of a Polynesian chief, is the resultant disease or illness due to good mmia or bad } If it is to bad mana, where is the malevolent intention or the illicit character that is, according to Dr. Jevons, the mark of the non-religious element } Or, if this case be doubtful, let me cite the biblical example of the man who put out his hand to steady the ark and was struck dead. Will Dr. Jevons tell us that this was bad mana } If not, w'hat becomes of his dictum that we can decide whether mana is good or bad only by its effects }

Again, let us take the powers attributed to certain members of the Poro secret society, who are credited with the power to send tuinpan, a kind of mystic fire, through the air to kill people. There is no suggestion that Poro is regarded as illicit by the community ; it is not even prohibited by the British Government ; its officers there- fore cannot be classified as magicians, and punishmicnts inflicted by means of tumpan are as judicial as the killing of an enemy by a soldier ; the Poro society, so far from being under a ban, is actually an integral portion of the native polity, and gives support to the chief or restrains him, as the case may be. Prima facie, therefore, tuinpan is good mana or caused by good mana ; but if the sender of it lies down before it comes back, tiinipah may kill him ; is it still good mana } If not, will Dr. Jevons insist that the tinnpan which goes out to kill is not the same as the tnnipcin which flies back .'' For he has laid clown the axiom that the mana which produces good results is a different power from that which produces bad results.

Admitted that certain tribes have a special name for evil mana, there is nothing to show that this is not an outcome of reflection ; certain it is that the negro is apt