Page:Primitive Culture Vol 2.djvu/201

Rh unlimited. They fill all nature, in which no power or object, from the sea to the clods of the field, is without its deity. They are the guardians of hills, groves, streams, fountains, paths, and hamlets, and are cognizant of every human action, want, and interest in the locality, where they preside.' Describing the animistic mythology of the Turanian tribes of Asia and Europe, Castrén has said that every land, mountain, rock, river, brook, spring, tree, or whatsoever it may be, has a spirit for an inhabitant; the spirits of the trees and stones, of the lakes and brooks, hear with pleasure the wild man's pious prayers and accept his offerings. Such are the conceptions of the Guinea negro, who finds the abodes of his good and evil spirits in great rocks, hollow trees, mountains, deep rivers, dense groves, echoing caverns, and who passing silently by these sacred places leaves some offering, if it be but a leaf or a shell picked up on the beach. Such are examples which not unfairly picture the belief of the lower races in a world of spirits on earth, and such descriptions apply to the state of men's minds along the course of civilization.

The doctrine of ancient philosophers such as Philo and Iamblichus, of spiritual beings swarming through the atmosphere we breathe, was carried on and developed in special directions in the discussions concerning the nature and functions of the world-pervading host of angels and devils, in the writings of the early Christian Fathers. Theologians of modern centuries have for the most part seen reason to reduce within comparatively narrow limits the action ascribed to external spiritual beings on mankind;

1 Macpherson, 'India,' p. 90. See also Cross, 'Karens,' in ' Journ. Amer. Or. Soc.' vol. iv. p. 315; Williams, 'Fiji,' vol. i. p. 239.

2 Castrén, 'Finn. Myth.' p. 114, 182, &c.

3 J. L. Wilson, 'W. Afr.' p. 218, 388; Waitz, vol. ii. p. 171.

4 Philo, De Gigant. I. iv.

5 Iamblichus, ii.

6 Collected passages in Calmet, 'Diss. sur les Esprits'; Horst, 'Zauber-Bibliothek,' vol. ii. p. 263, &c.; vol. vi. p. 49, &c.; see Migne's Dictionaries.