Introduction to the History of Religions Part 23

+885+. Magic is a science of sequences, but only of sequences supposed not to be explicable from ordinary experience. When the savage puts his hand into the fire or receives a spear-thrust in his body he recognizes visible and familiar causes of pain, and accepts the situation as a fact of life, calling for no further explanation. But when the pain comes from no familiar tangible source he is driven to seek a different sort of source. A cause there must be, and this cause, though superhuman, must follow definite methods--it must have the will to act, and it must have knowledge and skill to carry out its designs. To discover its methods man must observe the processes of nature and imitate them, and must at the same time have in mind familiar human modes of action. The savage scientific explanation of mysterious facts is that superhuman Powers are intellectually akin to human beings; the question of motive in such Powers (except in the case of developed G.o.ds) seems not to be considered. The basis of magical procedure is imitation of nature and of man. This principle is supplemented by the conception of the unity of the world, a feeling at first vague, that all things have the same nature and are bound together in a cosmos; animals and men, trees, stones and waters, and fragments of all these are parts of one great whole, and each feels, so to speak, what is done to or by one of the others. This feeling, derived from observation and reflection, is not formulated, but is influential in the construction of the unconscious philosophy of the savage.

+886+. The methods of man's magical procedure follow these principles; they are as various as the sequences that savage man thinks he observes.[1537] Many of them are suggested by natural phenomena. Since rain was observed to fall from the sky, it was held that in time of drought it might be obtained by casting water into the air and letting it fall, or by dipping a stone in water and letting it drip; in general, by any process in which water falls on the ground. The wind might be raised by ejecting air from the mouth (as by whistling). Or ordinary human actions might be imitated: a stick thrown or pointed toward an enemy, it was believed, would cause a spear to enter his body;[1538] a hostile glance of the eye, indicating desire to inflict injury, might carry ill luck.[1539] In such cases the fundamental conceptions are the sympathy that comes from unity and the activity of the pervasive mana.

These conceptions are visible in procedures in which action on a part of the human body, or on an image or picture of it, was supposed to reach the body itself. The possession of a piece of the bone, skin, hair, or nail of a man might enable one who had knowledge of superhuman laws and processes to affect the man with sickness or even to cause his death.

Contact of objects naturally suggests their unity, but the sympathy between them was not held to be dependent on contact; a man's bone remained a part of him, however far it might be separated from him. A dead body did not lose its virtues; the qualities of a dead warrior might be acquired by eating his flesh. The mysterious unity of things seems to have resided, in savage thought, in the omnipresent mana, a force independent of human limitations. Not that there was a definite theory on the subject, but something of this sort seems to be a.s.sumed in the ideas and usages of many low tribes.[1540]

On the other hand, a magical effect may be set aside by magic. A sick man, believing his sickness to be the work of a magician (the usual savage theory of the cause of bodily ills), sends for another magician to counteract the evil work; and a magician, failing to cure his patient, ascribes his failure to the machinations of a powerful rival.

In all such cases the theory and the methods are the same; the magic that cures is not different in principle (though it may differ in details) from the magic that kills.

+887+. The facts observed by practicers of magic probably contributed to the collections of material that furnished the starting-point for the scientific study of physical phenomena. The interest in the facts arose at first simply from their relation to magical procedure--it was from them that certain laws of supernatural action were learned, and men thus got control of this action. Magic is essentially a directive or coercive procedure and differs in this respect from fully formed religion, which is essentially submissive and obedient.

+888+. It is true that coercion of divine beings appears in well-developed religions. A Babylonian G.o.ddess (Nana) was carried off by the Elamites to their land that she might there do duty as divine protector; restored to her proper home 1635 years later, she resumed her old functions.[1541] The Egyptians are said by Plutarch to have slain their divine animals if these failed to avert or remove calamity.[1542]

Prometheus and certain Homeric heroes are victorious over G.o.ds. In some savage tribes divine kings are put to death if they fail to do what is expected of them. A G.o.d was sometimes chained or confined in his temple to prevent his voluntary or constrained departure. A recusant deity was sometimes taunted or insulted by his disappointed wors.h.i.+pers.[1543]

There is, however, a difference between the two sets of coercive acts.

The force used by developed religion is physical, that employed in magic is psychological and logical. When a G.o.d is chained or carried off, it is only his body that is controlled--he is left to his own thoughts, or it is a.s.sumed that he will be friendly to his enforced locus. Magic brings the supernatural Power under the dominion of law against which his nature is powerless. Religion, even when it employs force, recognizes the protective function of the deity; magic is without such acknowledgment, without emotion or wors.h.i.+p. While it has, on one side, a profounder conception of cosmic force than appears in early religion, it is, on the social side, vastly inferior to the latter, to which it has necessarily yielded in the course of human progress. Nevertheless, if religion in the broadest sense includes all means of bringing man into helpful relations with the supernatural world, then magic is a form of religion.

+889+. The much-discussed question whether magic was the earliest form of religion is not susceptible of a definite answer for the reason that we have no account of man's earliest conceptions of his relations with the world of invisible forces. There is some reason to hold, as is remarked above,[1544] that in the lowest stage of life known to us men were logically indifferent spectators of the world, but in general stood in awe of phenomena, so that fear was their prevailing feeling. It may be surmised that this feeling would engender a sense of antagonism to such superhuman Powers as came to be conceived of, on which would naturally follow a desire to get control of them. Yet it is impossible to say at what stage of social development the necessity would be felt of establis.h.i.+ng friendly relations with the Powers. The two lines of effort may have begun and gone on side by side, the two springing from the same utilitarian impulse, but each independent of the other--a coexistence that actually appears in many tribes; finally the coercive effort tends to yield to the kindly influences of organized society.

There is no ground for calling magic a "disease of religion." The presumption, from the general law of progress, is that, when there is a chronological difference, the socially lower precedes the socially higher. Religion and magic come to be mutually antagonistic, except in cases where religious authorities adopt magical procedures, giving them a theistic and socially useful coloring. Magic has been a natural, if not a necessary, step in the religious organization of society.[1545]

+890+. Since religion and magic have in common the purpose to establish relations with extrahuman Powers the dividing line between the two is in some cases not easily fixed--the same procedure may be held to belong in the one category or the other, according as it invokes or does not invoke the aid of a G.o.d in friendly and submissive fas.h.i.+on. We may thus be carried back to a time when a sharp distinction between the two did not exist, as there was a time when such a distinction is not visible between "G.o.ds" (friendly divine members of the human community) and "demons" (unfriendly outside beings), both cla.s.ses being regarded simply as agents affecting human life. Even when some fairly good form of organization has been reached it is often hard to say to which cla.s.s a particular figure belongs. The Hawaiian Pele (the "G.o.ddess" of the great and dangerous volcano) is often vindictive, and then differs little or not at all from a demon that sends sickness and death.[1546] The Babylonians gave the same name (_shedu_) to a cla.s.s of demons proper and to the divine or half-divine winged beings (to which, apparently, the Hebrew cherubs are allied) that guarded the entrances to temples, sacred gardens, and palaces.[1547] The Navaho beings called _yei_ and _anaye_ seem to hover on the border line between the divine and the demonic cla.s.ses.[1548] The difference between the two seems to be merely that the one cla.s.s (the G.o.ds) has been adopted (for reasons not originally ethical) into the human community, while the other has not received such adoption.[1549] In such a case a given figure may easily pa.s.s from one cla.s.s into the other. According to the Thompson River folk-lore the sun was once a cannibal but became beneficent.[1550] The early Christians converted the Graeco-Roman G.o.ds (_daimonia_) into "demons."[1551] There being this fluid relation between supernatural beings, it is not strange that such a relation should exist between procedures intended to act on them.[1552]

+891+. Magic, as we have seen, is based on the observation of sequences, and before the development of reflection and the acquisition of a knowledge of natural law the disposition of human beings is to regard all sequences as exhibiting the relation of cause and effect. A typical example is that of the anchor driven ash.o.r.e, a piece of which was broken off by a man who died soon after; the conclusion was that the anchor caused his death and therefore was divine, and accordingly it received religious wors.h.i.+p.[1553] In the course of ages thousands of such sequences must have been observed, and these, handed down from one generation to another, would shape themselves into a handbook of magic.

They would, however, be constantly reexamined and sifted under the guidance of wider experience and a better acquaintance with natural causes, and this process, carried on by experts, would give rise to the science of magic as we find it among lower tribes.

Magic, like religion, is a social product. The two, as is remarked above, may coexist in the same community. But when a State religion is established to which all citizens are expected to conform, the pursuit of magic a.s.sumes the aspect of departure from, and hostility to, the tribal or national cult. It is then under the ban, and can be carried on only in secret[1554] (as is the case with prohibited religions also).

Secrecy of practice is not of the essence of magic; among the Australian Arunta, for example, magical ceremonies const.i.tute the publicly recognized business of the community acting through its accredited representatives; the partial exclusion of women and uninitiated boys from these ceremonies (and from political councils) is due mainly to the desire of the elders to keep the power in their own hands. The State religion may sometimes be forced by public opinion to adopt particular magical procedures.

+892+. It was natural that the specific study of sequences and laws should fall into the hands of special persons and cla.s.ses of men. The human agent in the discovery of laws is the magician (sorcerer, shaman), who, since he was generally a physician also, sometimes received the name of "medicine man." As the office of chief arose for the direction of social culture and political affairs, so the office of magician arose naturally for the direction of supernatural relations. He may have been the earliest religious teacher and guide.[1555] He knows the will and nature of the supernatural Powers and is therefore a necessity to men.

He is specifically in charge of all that relates to the control of these Powers.

+893+. In the course of time there arises a differentiation of functions, and, when religion becomes friendly, the office of priest is created. The priest, like the magician, understands the will of the G.o.ds, but his procedure is intended simply to propitiate them or to discover their will in particular cases.[1556] He is a development out of the magician in so far as friendly religion is a development out of magical religion.[1557] The prophet also, in the role in which he appears among the Greeks, is a development out of the old magician; he knows the will of the G.o.ds and is thus able to predict events. This is the character of the old Hebrew seer; the Hebrew prophet, originally a seer, a.s.sumed in the course of time a quite different character--he became a preacher of ethical religion.

+894+. The office of magician, once established, became subject to all the rules that govern official persons in barbarous, half-civilized, and civilized societies. Of the way in which the position was attained in the earliest times we have no information, but in relatively low tribes it appears that it is attained in various ways. There is sometimes a suggestion of vocation in a dream or a vision.[1558] Among some tribes a candidate for the office has to undergo a process of education, that is, of training in the signs by which the presence of superhuman Powers is recognizable and of the way of dealing with disease and other evils.[1559] It is not unusual that the candidate is required to submit to a test, sometimes of physical endurance (as is required also in the case of the young warrior), but chiefly of susceptibility to supernatural influences and capacity of insight, and of the conduct of magical operations.[1560] Generally in the lower tribes the office comes by free choice of the individual, or by choice of the body of magicians, without regard to the social position of the man. In West Africa, says Miss Kingsley, everybody keeps a familiar spirit or two for magical purposes; this is unlawful only when the spirit is harmful.[1561]

+895+. In somewhat more advanced societies the office falls into the hands of families and descends from father to son, in which case the younger man is instructed by the older in the secrets of the profession.[1562] In some higher religions magical performances are in the hands of certain clans or tribes. In most of these cases women as well as men may be masters of the art. In the more advanced systems it is often the case that it is especially women who are considered adepts; so it was in Babylonia;[1563] in the Old Testament Saul seeks the woman of Endor;[1564] Thessalian witches were famous;[1565] women who tie magical knots are provided against in the Koran by a special form of prayer;[1566] in Europe, medieval and later, the practicers of magic have generally been women.

+896+. The grounds for the ascription of magical superiority to women--whether from their supposed greater susceptibility to demoniac influence, or for some other reason--are not clear. In the lowest tribes sorcerers are commonly men[1567]--the profession is an influential and honored one, and naturally falls into the hands of leading men; the magician is often the most powerful man in the community.

+897+. Reputation for magical power appears sometimes to attach to a tribe or other body of persons as the representatives of a religion which is adopted by a lower community. Possibly this is the explanation of the role ascribed at an early period to the Mazdean Magi.[1568] The Magi (apparently Median of origin) formed the priestly tribe of the Mazdean religion, and we do not know that they played originally any part as sorcerers. But it seems that they were so considered in Greece as early as the fifth century B.C.,[1569] and after the Moslem conquest of Persia and the suppression of Zoroastrianism a fire-wors.h.i.+per or Magian is especially a representative of magic.[1570] On the other hand, it sometimes happens among adjoining tribes that the lower become the special pract.i.tioners of magic,[1571] which is then considered to be a mysterious art, alien to the official religion, and therefore proper to the ministers of the old mysterious cults.

+898+. The power exercised by the magician extends over the whole world of men and things, and is generally considered to be practically without limit. He guards men against diseases, noxious beasts, and all other forms of injury; he destroys one's enemies and guards one against plots of enemies, including other magicians; he is able to induce or destroy love, to give physical strength, to inflict disease, to kill, and to restore to life; he ascends to heaven or descends into the world below; he is able to coerce the G.o.ds themselves; in fact, he does everything that a G.o.d is commonly supposed to do--the tendency was to identify the magician and the G.o.d.[1572] Such identification is natural or necessary in early faiths, inasmuch as it was held that there was no difference of nature between men and G.o.ds. A G.o.d was as a rule the stronger. But how G.o.ds arose and how they gained their superior strength was not clear, and it might thus easily happen that a man should acquire powers equal to those of divine beings.[1573]

+899+. The methods employed by the magician to effect his purpose are various. In early times it is usual for him to fall into an ecstatic state; by drinking intoxicating liquors, by violent movements, or by contemplation he gets out of himself and comes into relations with the mysterious potencies. In such a condition he acts as his imagination suggests.[1574] But in the organized forms of magic long experience has devised various means of producing results beyond the power of ordinary men. Certain objects are magically charged with supernatural power (charms), and these worn on the person guard the possessor against malign influences. Various formulas are employed which are supposed to coerce the Powers; these are sometimes names of ordinary objects regarded as sacred, the name of some plant or animal.[1575] Names of divine persons have special potency. The name of a G.o.d was supposed to carry with it his power, and the utterance of his name secured all that he could secure; thus, in the early Christian times the tetragrammaton YHWH (Yahweh) had absolute power against demons.

+900+. Similar efficacy attached to sacred compositions, prayers,[1576]

and the like. The Mazdean pet.i.tion, Honover (Ahuna-Vairya), was so employed, and in Christian circles even the Lord's Prayer. Charms or incantations often took rhythmical form--verses, couplets, or quatrains were widely used. All such methods were the product of ages of experience.[1577] They were handed down from generation to generation, often in families or cla.s.ses of magicians, were modified or enlarged from time to time, and thus came at last to form a literature.

+901+. In the great civilized religions magical practice gradually a.s.sumed a tone somewhat different from that of the earliest times. It continued to be coercive toward evil Powers, but in regard to the good Powers it a.s.sumed rather to discover their modes of action. It was not anti-religious; it remained alongside of the official religious systems in friendly relations. It relied on the a.s.sistance of the good G.o.ds and not on that of the demons. There was good magic and bad magic, white magic and black magic, as these came to be called. A procedure of white magic can thus, from the point of view of religion, hardly be distinguished from prayer to a deity. The difference between the two appears to be that the magic produces abnormal or violent effects, which experience taught could not reasonably be expected from the deity. It is the old crude science brought (as the lesser divine Powers were brought) into a relation of subordination to the chief G.o.d of the community.

+902+. Elaborate magical systems are found in some of the ancient national religions. In India the Atharva-Veda, though it contains a ma.s.s of crude old material, is nevertheless recognized as one of the sacred books, standing by the side of the Rig-Veda, though of less authority and significance than that. The Atharvan was originally a priest of fire, but in this work he becomes simply a magician; the immense number of magical procedures in the book provided for all emergencies of life.[1578] The Babylonian magical formulas also go back to an early time, but they were preserved by the priests and recognized as a legitimate element in the religious practice.[1579] The old Egyptian stories introduce a number of magical proceedings, and the formulas have been preserved in treatises.[1580] Of the earliest periods of the Mazdean religion we have unfortunately no records; in the time of the decadence of the national religion, especially in the Thousand and One Nights, the fire-wors.h.i.+per or Magian is commonly a wicked magician, as was natural since he belonged to a faith hostile to Islam, and the practicer of good magic is generally a Moslem.[1581] The early Greeks and Romans appear not to have been greatly interested in magical practices, though these existed.[1582] But a great outburst of magic occurred in the Graeco-Roman world in the first and second centuries of our era, the magician being, however, generally not Greek or Roman, but of an inferior alien race.[1583] Among the old Hebrews we have no details of magical procedure except in the invocation of the dead;[1584]

this procedure was denounced by the prophets as hostile to the wors.h.i.+p of the national G.o.d, but it continued among the people a long time.[1585] The practice of magic existed abundantly among the early peoples of Europe, the Teutons, and others. The primacy, however, in magic belongs to the Finns and Lapps, alien races regarded as inferior in civilization.

+903+. The hold of magic on the minds of men is shown by the fact that it has persisted up to the present day. Its basis is a belief in occult powers and the conviction that man may attain to mastery over them.

Certain forms of this belief, called theosophical, are held by many at the present day; it is supposed that men are capable of transcending the ordinary limitations of humanity. In general, however, the whole system of magic yielded gradually to the organized religions, the essence of which was a friendly and rational relation with the deity. Religion has organized itself in accord with the general organization of human social systems. It has seen the necessity of getting rid of force, of depending on humane feeling, cultivating simply friendly relations, attempting a unity of work, a cooperation of divine and human forces. All this has worked against magic. In addition to these tendencies the constantly growing belief in the domination of natural forces has made it impossible in civilized societies to accept the powers called magical.[1586]

+904+. To sum up: magic is a means of securing superhuman results by adopting the methods of the superhuman Powers.[1587] It may be coeval with religion proper or may have preceded it in human religious organization. In any case it has been, up to the present day, the rival of religion, though more and more driven to take a secondary place. It has collected physical facts which have served as a basis for the study of physical science and have indirectly furthered the cause of religion by leading men to recognize natural law and also by necessitating a distinction between theistic and other superhuman results.[1588] In the absence of distinct religious systems it has been a bond of social union, and to that extent has been a civilizing influence. On the other hand, it has fostered belief in a false science of sequences and thus helped to introduce confusion into thought and the conduct of life. The aim of religion has been, and is, to banish magic from the world.[1589]

DIVINATION

+905+. Divination is the science that seeks to discover the will of the supernatural Powers by means of the observation of phenomena. Men desire to learn the causes of present and past misfortunes and the story of the future, that they may know at any moment what is the best course to pursue. The underlying supposition is that these things are indicated by the appearances and movements of the various objects of the world. It is in these phenomena that the purposes of superhuman forces become visible to man; the G.o.ds, it is held, cannot but so reveal themselves (for they produce all phenomena), and man's task is to discover the laws of phenomenal revelation. The question of the motive in this revelation is not distinctly raised, but it is taken for granted that the Powers are willing to help man by guiding his uncertain footsteps; their att.i.tude is so far friendly--they belong in feeling to the human community.[1590]

Divination has in common with magic the a.s.sumption of the unity of the world and its control by law, and the search for divine activity in the facts of life. But the two differ essentially in their aims. Divination seeks to learn the divine will in order to be guided; magic studies divine action in order to imitate it and accomplish divine results.

Divination is an inquirer, and its virtue is obedience; magic is an investigator, and its virtue is achievement. Both are self-seeking, but divination is the more reverent and allies itself more easily with religion. But both tend to become corrupt and decadent, and their roles are determined from time to time by the conditions of the communities in which they are found.[1591]

+906+. The organization of divination resembles that of magic in several respects. It comes to have its special functionaries, into whose hands all its authority falls. The divinatory power (like the magical) comes to a man sometimes as a gift of nature (that is, of a G.o.d) or in some mysterious external way, sometimes as a result of a course of training in which the significance of the various signs is learned. It is sometimes a property of a clan or a family and descends from father to son, always, however, under the condition of instruction of the young by the old. The diviner, like the magician, sometimes performs various ceremonies for the purpose of bringing himself into relation with the G.o.ds, and his utterances are frequently given in an ecstatic condition.

In this condition he is said in some instances (as among the Todas[1592]) to speak a language not his own, with which in his ordinary state of mind he is unacquainted, or to utter words that are not understood either by himself or by others. Ecstasy means possession by the deity; the interpretation of the diviner's words, which, in the ecstatic condition, are the words of a spirit or a G.o.d, is sometimes left to the bystanders, or, if unintelligible to them, must be recovered by the seer himself when he returns to his normal condition.

+907+. The highest development of ecstasy is found in the prophet proper. Originally the prophet was a foreteller and acted under the inspiration of a G.o.d, a divine seizure that was allied to madness. The ravings of the savage shaman[1593] are repeated in the ravings of Ca.s.sandra and in the excited utterances and bodily exhaustion of the early Hebrew prophets.[1594] A n.o.bler use of ecstasy is exhibited in the youth of Byblos, who rescued an unfortunate Egyptian envoy from insult and secured him honorable treatment.[1595] The more advanced thought tended to abandon the abnormal state of the diviner and make him simply a recipient of divine knowledge by the favor of a G.o.d--the G.o.ds came to choose thoughtful men instead of beasts as their intermediaries.[1596]

The Hebrew prophets whose utterances have been preserved, from Amos onward, are men of insight, essentially critics of the national life, and moral watchmen; but features of the old conception of divinatory power continue for some time to attach to them.[1597]

+908+. The differentiation of functions between magician, diviner, and priest appears to have taken place at a comparatively early period, though it is probable that in the earliest times all these characters might be united in a single person. As soon as an organized religion is established the priest acquires his specific function as intermediator between men and G.o.ds, often, however, retaining the power of discovering the will of the deity.[1598] Magic, as we have seen, tends to become an unsocial and hostile thing, and the magician is in later times punished or discountenanced by public opinion. The diviner, on the other hand, has generally retained possession of his public for the reason that he is in sympathy with the G.o.ds of the community and his work is held to be wholly friendly. In all stages of religious development, except the very highest, he has been recognized by public opinion and by law as a part of the religious const.i.tution of society and has often attained great civil and political power.[1599] Among civilized peoples he comes to be a man of learning, acquainted with many things besides the mere signs of the will of the G.o.ds.

+909+. Divinatory signs may be grouped in various cla.s.ses according as they belong to the outer world or to men's inward experiences, and according as they present themselves without or with preparation by man.

Outward signs in ordinary occurrences which, so far as human initiative is concerned, are accidental may be called, for convenience, "omens."

Uncommon occurrences may be called, if they appear in the forms of men and animals, "prodigies," and if they are seen in the physical world, "portents." These designations are arbitrary, and sometimes two or more of them may be appropriate for the same event. Inward signs are dreams, revelations in the ecstatic state, and prophetic inspirations.[1600] We may begin with divination from the observation of external objects, and consider first such as are accidental (omens, prodigies, portents).

+910+. Omens, prodigies, and portents are to be regarded as the product of ages of experience. The observations of early men seem to them to show that certain appearances are followed by certain events, and the details of experience, handed down and interpreted by successive generations, are in the course of time sifted, systematized, and formulated. In savage and half-civilized communities divinatory signs are usually simple, drawn from appearances of familiar objects and occurrences. They become more complicated in civilized times--they are mingled with elaborate astrological ideas. Divination becomes a science for the practice of which a technical education is required. Belief in omens and other signs survives among the highest civilized peoples long after the conceptions on which they rest have been abandoned. The origin of signs among savage peoples may often be traced with more or less probability; in the case of such as survive in periods of high culture the origin is necessarily obscured by the lapse of time and can be surmised only by comparison with earlier conceptions.

The belief in such signs may be traced over a great part of the world.

It is found among the ancient Egyptians, Babylonians, a.s.syrians, Hindus, Chinese, Hebrews, Greeks, Romans, Arabians, and at a later time among the Celtic, Slavic, and Teutonic peoples.[1601] At the present day it occurs most highly developed in Polynesia, Northern Africa, Southern India, and Central Asia; it is relatively unimportant in Western and Central Africa, North America, South America, and Australia. One difference between divination and magic thus appears to be that the latter is vigorous in savage communities that pay little attention to the former. Further collections of facts may require a modification of this statement; but, in general, it would seem that an organization of signs, demanding, as it does, orderly reflection on phenomena, is proper to communities that have advanced beyond the hunting and nomadic stages.

For the rest, there are few objects or occurrences that have not been regarded at some time by some people as indications of divine will in respect to present, past, or future events.

+911+. A fair ill.u.s.tration of the early belief in omens is afforded by the divinatory system that prevails in Samoa and the neighboring group of islands.[1602] It appears that all omens are derived either from the movements of animals that are regarded as incarnations of deities,[1603]

or from phenomena that are held to be produced immediately by deities.

The flight of owls, bats, or rails, according to its direction, indicates the result of a battle or a war; the howling of a dog is a sign of coming misfortune; if a centipede crawls on the top of a mat it is a good omen, if on the bottom of a mat it is bad; it is unfortunate when a lizard crosses one's path; if a basket be found turned upside down in a road, this is a sign of evil; the way in which sacred stones fall to the ground is an indication of the future. The animals mentioned above (and there are many other such) are all regarded as incarnations of deities. So as to portents: loud thunder, taken to be the voice of the great G.o.d Tangaloa, is a good sign; the significance of lightning (which also is sent by the G.o.d) depends upon the direction taken by the flash. An eclipse is regarded as a presage of death. A similar system of interpretation of signs is found elsewhere. The Masai and the Nandi draw omens from the movements of birds.[1604] In Ashantiland the cry of the owl means death.[1605] When in Australia the track of an insect is believed to point toward the abode of the sorcerer by whom a man has been done to death, the conception is probably the same. The modern Afghans hold that a high wind that continues three days is a sign that a murder has been committed.[1606] Examples from Brazil, Borneo, New Zealand, Old Calabar and Tatarland are given by Tylor.[1607] In the early Hebrew history it appears that a rustling in trees was looked on as a sign of divine intervention.[1608]

+912+. In ancient Babylonia and a.s.syria an elaborate system of interpretation of ordinary occurrences prevailed--the movements and appearances of various species of birds, of bulls, of dogs of all colors are noted, with minute interpretations.[1609] The Greeks recognized omens in the acts of various animals, especially in the flight and cries of birds; so important were these last that the words for 'bird' came to be employed for 'omens from birds' and even simply for 'omens';[1610]

Aristophanes, laughing at the Athenians, declares that they called every mantic sign 'bird'.[1611] Skepticism, however, appears in Hector's pa.s.sionate rejection of the signs of birds and his declaration that the best omen is to fight for one's country.[1612] A similar mantic prominence of birds appears in ancient Rome where the terms for the observation of birds (_auspicium_, _augurium_) came to signify 'omens'

in general. The preeminence thus accorded to birds was due perhaps to the fact that they move in a region above the earth, the larger species (??????) seeking the sky near the abode of the G.o.ds, as well as to the frequency and variety of their actions.[1613] The feeling of direct contact with the deity appears in the significance attached to the movements of a sacrificial animal: if it approached the altar willingly, this, showing accord with the deity, was a good omen, and unwillingness was a bad omen.[1614] Among the later Romans the entrance of a strange black dog into a house, the falling of a snake through the opening in the roof, the crowing of a hen were unfavorable signs which prevented the immediate undertaking of any new affair;[1615] these were all unusual and therefore uncanny occurrences. Some of the animals that furnish omens are totems, and in such cases the totemic significance coalesces with that of the omen; the animal that appears to the young Sioux candidate as his manitu has both characters--it is the sign of divine acceptance and the embodiment of the divine patron.[1616]

+913+. Prodigies connected with the birth of children are numerous. The complete or incomplete character of the infant's body, various marks and colors, and the number produced at a birth have been carefully noted by many peoples. The birth of twins seems to have been more commonly regarded in savage and half-civilized communities either as a presage of misfortune (as being unusual and mysterious) or as a sign of conjugal unfaithfulness (as indicating two fathers, one of whom might be a G.o.d).

Interpretations of births are given in Babylonian records.[1617]

Everywhere monstrous births, misshapen forms, and abnormal colors in the bodies of men and beasts have been regarded as indications of divine displeasure.

+914+. That the stars early attracted the attention of man is shown by the fact that constellations are recognized in some lower tribes--for example, in the New Hebrides Islands, among the Todas, the Masai, the Nandi, and elsewhere.[1618] Since all heavenly bodies were regarded originally as divine, and later as controlled by divine beings, sometimes also as the abodes of the dead or as the souls of the dead, it was natural that astral movements should be looked on as giving signs of the will of the G.o.ds. Astronomy appears to have been pursued in the first instance not from interest in the natural laws governing the movements of sun, moon, and stars, but from belief in their divinatory significance. How far this study was carried on all over the ancient world we have no means of knowing; but, as far as the records go, it was the Babylonians that first reduced astral divination to the form of a science,[1619] and it is probable that from them it spread over Western Asia and India, and perhaps into Europe. Babylonian and a.s.syrian doc.u.ments contain many accurate statements of the appearances of heavenly bodies; and in the third or second century B.C., as we learn from the Book of Daniel, the term 'Chaldean' was synonymous with 'magician.' While astronomy was pursued by the Egyptians with great success, whereby they made a notable construction of the calendar, they seem not to have cultivated astrology, though they a.s.sociated certain stars with certain G.o.ds and with lucky or unlucky days.[1620]

+915+. Of all divinatory methods astrology has played the greatest role in human history, and is still believed in and studied by not a few persons. It derived its prominence originally, no doubt, from the splendor and mystery of the sidereal heavens; the identification (by the Babylonians) of certain planets with certain deities gave it more definite shape. It was necessarily a learned pursuit, and, falling naturally into the hands of priestly bodies, was developed by them in accordance with the needs of the situation. Rules of interpretation were established that became more and more specific. In the early period of astrology it was concerning matters of public interest that information was sought--crops, wars, and the fortunes of the king as the head of the nation.[1621] At a later time, but before the beginning of our era, in accordance with the growth of ethical individualism, the stars were interrogated for the destinies of private individuals;[1622] the aspect of the heavens at the moment of birth, the horoscope, announced the fate of the nascent man.[1623]

In the hands of the Chaldeans astrology remained exclusively or largely a science of omens. An advance toward a higher conception, however, was made by their identification of certain planets with certain G.o.ds,[1624] whereby the regularity and certainty of movement of the astral world were carried over to the world of divine Powers. When, in the centuries just preceding and following the beginning of our era, Chaldean astrology was adopted by the Greeks and Romans, it was organized by them in accordance with their philosophy, and it entered into alliance with all the higher religious tendencies of the period. In the unchangeableness of stellar movements the Stoics saw a principle substantially identical with their doctrine of fate. Along various lines (in Judaism and Christianity, and in the mysteries of Mithra and Isis) men were moving toward the conception of a single supreme ruler of the world, and astrology fell into line with this movement. The starry universe was held to be the controller of human life, worthy of wors.h.i.+p, and able to call forth emotion. Thus astrology became a religion[1625]--it was adopted by learned and unlearned, its ethical and spiritual quality being determined by the character and thought of the various groups that professed it. For some centuries it was a religious power in the world; as a religious system it gave way gradually to more definite constructions, but it survived as a science long after it had ceased to be believed in as a life-giving faith.