Page:Myth, Ritual, and Religion (Volume 1).djvu/137

 no one individual becomes richer than another. On the other hand, it is difficult to understand how a chief can arise till there is property of some sort by which he might manifest and still increase his authority." In the same book, however, we get a glimpse of one means by which authority can be exercised. "The doctor-wizard of each party has much influence over his companions." Among the Eskimo this element in the growth of authority also exists. A class of wizards called Angakuts have power to cause fine weather, and, by the gift of second—sight and magical practices, can detect crimes, so that they necessarily become a kind of civil magistrates. These Angekkok or Angakut have familiar spirits called Torngak, a word connected with the name of their chief spiritual being, Torngarsak. The Torngak is commonly the ghost of a deceased parent of the sorcerer. "These men," says Egede, "are held in great honour and esteem among this stupid and ignorant nation, insomuch that nobody dare ever refuse the strictest obedience when they command him in the name of Torngarsak." The name of this quasi-deity, derived from the name of ghosts, is the more remarkable, because the name of the Hottentot quasi-deity, Morimo, is also apparently nothing but a form of Molimo, that is, ancestral spirits. The importance and actual existence of belief in magic has now been attested by the evidence of institutions, even among Australians, Fuegians, and Eskimo.

It is now necessary to pass from examples of tribes