Introduction to the History of Religions Part 65

[1554] So among the old Hebrews, according to 1 Sam. xxviii, 9. For Rome cf. Fowler, _Religious Experience of the Roman People_, lecture iii.

[1555] Cf. above, -- 889.

[1556] In some cases the priest is a magician (Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_, p. 114 ff.)--he acts as the mouthpiece of a G.o.d, and in sympathy with the G.o.d. Cf.

Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, ii, 658. On a connection between the magician and the poet see Goldziher, in _Proceedings of the Tenth International Congress of Orientalists_.

[1557] Cf. above, -- 889.

[1558] Dixon, _The Northern Maidu_, p. 267 f.; id., _The Shasta_, 471 ff.

[1559] Ellis, _Tshi_, p. 120.

[1560] Dixon, _The Shasta_, loc. cit.; Miss Fletcher, _Indian Ceremonies_, p. 280.

[1561] M. Kingsley, _Studies_, p. 136.

[1562] Grey, _Polynesian Mythology_, p. 278.

[1563] Jastrow, _Religion of Babylonia and a.s.syria_, p. 267 f.

[1564] 1 Sam. xxviii.

[1565] Apuleius, _Metamorphoses_, bk. ii f.

[1566] Sura cxiii.

[1567] Women, however, are sometimes shamans in such tribes, as in the California Shasta (while in the neighboring Maidu they are commonly men). See Dixon, _The Shasta_, p. 471; _The Northern Maidu_, p. 267 f.

[1568] Tiele, _Elements of the Science of Religion_, ii, 140; cf. Spiegel, _Eranische Alterthumskunde_, iii, 564 f., 587 f.; Jackson, in Geiger and Kuhn's _Grundriss der iranischen Philologie_, ii, 630, 671, 692.

[1569] Sophocles, _OEdipus Tyrannus_, 387; Euripides, _Orestes_, 1498. Hence the term 'magic' as the designation of a certain form of procedure.

[1570] So in the _Thousand and One Nights_, pa.s.sim.

[1571] Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i, 113 ff.; Castren, _Finnische Mythologie_, pp. 186 ff., 229; Skeat, _Malay Magic_, p. 162; Rivers, _The Todas_, p. 263; Crooke, _Popular Religion and Folklore of Northern India_, ii, 283 ff. For modern usages see Wuttke, _Der deutsche Volksaberglaube der Gegenwart_, 2d ed., pp. 131, 241.

[1572] A magician, as a man of special social prominence and of extraordinary power over the forces of the world, becomes, in some cases, the political head of his community (as a priest sometimes has a like position). Where the divinization of men is practiced, the magician may be recognized as a G.o.d. But no general rule can be laid down.

The office of king had its own political development, and a G.o.d was the natural product of the reflection of a community. The elevation of the magician to high political or ecclesiastical position was dependent on peculiar circ.u.mstances and may be called sporadic. Cf. Frazer, _Early History of the Kingship_, p. 107 ff. and lecture v.

[1573] Cf. Frazer, _Golden Bough_, 2d ed., Index, s.v.

_Kings_.

[1574] See Lord Avebury, _Marriage, Totemism, and Religion_, chap. iv.

[1575] The plant or animal may be a totem, but its magical power is not derived from its totemic character. Magical potency may dwell in nontotemic objects; in magical ceremonies connected with totems (as in Australia) it is the ceremony rather than the totem that is efficacious. Cf.

Marett, _Threshold of Religion_, p. 22 f.

[1576] Cf. Marett, "From spell to prayer," in his _Threshold of Religion_, p. 33 ff.

[1577] Cf. J. H. King, _The Supernatural_, Index, s.v.

_Charm_; Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, ii, 148; article "Charms and Amulets" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_.

[1578] Eng. tr. by Bloomfield, in _Sacred Books of the East_.

[1579] L. W. King, _Babylonian Magic and Sorcery_.

[1580] _Records of the Past_, first series, vols. ii, vi; Griffith, article "Egyptian Literature" in _Library of the World's Best Literature_; Maspero, _Dawn of Civilization_, p. 212 ff.; Breasted, _History of Egypt_, Index, s.v.

_Magic_.

[1581] Cf. Macdonald, _Religious Att.i.tude and Life in Islam_, Index, s.v. _Magic_.

[1582] Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire des antiquites grecques et romaines_, article "Magia"; cf. articles "Medeia" and "Kirke" in Roscher's _Lexikon_.

[1583] Apuleius, _Metamorphoses_; Gibbon, _Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire_, ii, 535 ff.; Friedlander, _Roman Life and Manners under the Early Empire_ (Eng. tr.), i, 260 f.; Fowler, _The Religious Experience of the Roman People_, p.

57 ff.; cf. c.u.mont, _Astrology and Religion among the Greeks and Romans_, Index, s.v. _Magic_.

[1584] 1 Sam. xxviii; Isa. viii, 19.

[1585] In the later Judaism Solomon is the great master of magic; see the story of the Queen of Sheba in the Second Esther Targum; Baring-Gould, _Legends of Old Testament Characters_. For the Arabian legends of Solomon (borrowed from the Jews) see _Koran_, sura x.x.xviii; _History of Bilkis, Queen of Sheba_, compiled from various Arabic sources, in Socin's _Arabic Grammar_ (Eng. tr., 1885).

[1586] Lecky, _History of the Rise and Influence of the Spirit of Rationalism in Europe_; Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, Index, s.vv. _Magic_ and _Witches_.

[1587] These Powers, including mana, may all be called "divine" as distinguished from the purely "human."

[1588] A superhuman phenomenon, if produced by a deity, is called a "miracle," and is held to be beneficent; if produced by a nontheistic process, it is called "magical,"

and is looked at doubtfully.

[1589] Cf. Westermarck, _Origin and Development of the Moral Ideas_, ii, 696; Hobhouse, _Morals in Evolution_, Index, s.v. _Magic and Morals_.

[1590] Ultimately, in early religious theory, all objects are divine or abodes or incarnations of divine beings and capable of independent action; sometimes, doubtless, the recognition of the natural character of a thing (as of courage and other qualities in animals) coalesces with the belief in its guiding power.

[1591] Cf. article "Magia" in Daremberg and Saglio, _Dictionnaire des antiquites grecques et romaines_, p. 1496.

[1592] Rivers, _The Todas_, p. 254.

[1593] Cf. article "Bantu" in Hastings, _Encyclopaedia of Religion and Ethics_, p. 358.

[1594] 1 Sam. x, 5; xix, 24.

[1595] Breasted, _History of Egypt_, p. 513 f. The envoy not only failed to procure cedar for the sacred barge of Amon but was ordered by the prince to leave the city; the youth intervened successfully (ca. 1100 B.C.).

[1596] So Teiresias (_Odyssey_, x, 492 ff.; _OEdipus Tyrannus_, 92) and Samuel (1 Sam. ix).

[1597] Mic. i, 8; cf. 2 Kings iii, 15 (music as a preliminary condition of inspiration).

[1598] As among the Hebrews, the Greeks, and other ancient peoples.

[1599] Formerly, says Cicero (_De Divinatione_, i, 16), almost nothing of moment, or even in private affairs, was undertaken without an augury.