Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 11.djvu/125

Rh that would perplex a more developed intelligence, for the facts seem to him beyond question, and he is familiar with many changes in Nature—the appearance and disappearance of clouds, the blowing of the wind, the waxing and waning of the moon—not at all less mysterious. His idea is confirmed by occasional instances of somnambulism; and the phenomena of swoon, apoplexy, and other forms of insensibility, are most readily explained by assuming that the body has been temporarily deserted by its ghost. In death the other self, which is upbraided before its departure by the friends of the dying man, says farewell; but it continues to exist, sometimes in its old haunts, sometimes in the neighboring woods, sometimes in the country whence the tribe originally came. It may even return to the body, and with a view to this contingency the latter is often carefully protected, and in many instances there are elaborate processes for arresting decay; if revival is dreaded, an exactly opposite course is pursued. In the earliest stages of development the ghost is a copy of the body, and may, like it, die; but tribes a little more advanced attenuate its substance until at length it is completely etherealized. It then has an enduring existence, and side by side with the world of the living is the more populous world of the dead. Ghosts continue to act as ordinary men, and are provided with food, weapons, canoes, horses, dogs. They are the cause of every unusual occurrence, and, entering bodies which they find temporarily vacant, occasion epilepsy and convulsions, delirium and insanity, disease and death. Every involuntary act, like sneezing or yawning, is due to them; and the necessity of controlling them gives rise to the class of exorcists and sorcerers. If friendly, they inspire the possessed, whose words are accepted as a revelation of higher wisdom. They are, of course, regarded with intense awe, and worship of them is, according to Mr. Spencer, the first manifestation of the religious sentiment. He goes much further than this, and finds in ancestor-worship the origin of all worship whatever. Idols are simply rude images of the dead, which ghosts are in some mysterious way believed to inhabit; hence food is given to them, and the family respectfully waits—that is, fasts—until they have eaten internally. A fetich is any object in which a ghost is supposed to dwell; and no object strikes the senses in a strange manner without having its peculiarity attributed to ghostly presence. This view of the fetich is not in accordance with current ideas; but it is confirmed by the fact that in cases in which the ghost-theory has not been evolved there is no fetich-worship, whereas the latter abounds where the former exists. But animals, plants, natural objects and forces, are also worshiped: how can these be in any way connected with ancestor-worship? Mr. Spencer applies his principle with unfaltering confidence even to these phenomena. Serpent-worship is the most general of all forms of animal-worship; it originates in the haunting of houses by certain kinds of snakes believed to be possessed by the ghosts of departed ancestors, who thus enter their old homes. In India the cobra is a common intruder in houses, and it is everywhere sculptured as a god; the Egyptian asp affords an instance equally remarkable. Bats and owls, which haunt caves and other burying-places, are also taken for metamorphosed ancestors. Some striking peculiarity will often secure for a man the name of an animal whose character his resembles. Unaccountable as it seems to us, the savage who hears his ancestor talked of as 'The Tiger' concludes that he is descended from one of those creatures; so that the tiger naturally becomes an object of reverence. The like is true of all animals, insignificant and strong alike, the names of which are applied to savages either in ridicule or respect by their neighbors. In this misapprehension of the meaning of words Mr. Spencer likewise finds the chief explanation of Nature-worship and plant-worship. A man is called Cotton or Tobacco, the Dawn, the Sea, the Moon, or the Sun. His descendants, taking the word literally, do not hesitate to regard the natural power or plant, whichever it may be, as their ancestor, and present it with the usual offerings. To civilized men this seems almost incredible; but it must be remembered that to the savage nothing seems impossible, because he has not attained to the idea of regular sequence in the world. And his language is so