登陆注册
26504500000052

第52章 THE MENTAL CONDITION OF SAVAGES--CONFUSION WITH NA

"The conception of Brewin is about as near as the Kurnai get to the idea of a God; their conferring of his name on a powerful sorcerer is therefore a point of importance and interest". Mr. Howitt's later knowledge demonstrates an error here.

Bosman in Pinkerton, xvi. p. 401.

Aborigines of Australia, i. 197.

In Victoria, after dark the wizard goes up to the clouds and brings down a good spirit. Dawkins, p. 57. For eponymous medicine-men see Kamilaroi and Kurnai, p. 231.

Lady of the Lake, note 1 to Canto iv.

P. 112.

The sorcerer among the Zulus is, apparently, of a naturally hysterical and nervous constitution. "He hears the spirits who speak by whistlings speaking to him." Whistling is also the language of the ghosts in New Caledonia, where Mr. Atkinson informs us that he has occasionally put an able-bodied Kaneka to ignominious flight by whistling softly in the dusk. The ghosts in Homer make a similar sound, "and even as bats flit gibbering in the secret place of a wondrous cavern, . . . even so the souls gibbered as they fared together" (Odyssey, xxiv. 5). "The familiar spirits make him" (that Zulu sorcerer) "acquainted with what is about to happen, and then he divines for the people." As the Birraarks learn songs and dance-music from the Mrarts, so the Zulu Inyanga or diviners learn magical couplets from the Itongo or spirits.

Callaway, Religious System of the Amazules, p. 265.

On all this, see "Possession" in The Making of Religion.

The evidence of institutions confirms the reports about savage belief in magic. The political power of the diviners is very great, as may be observed from the fact that a hereditary chief needs their consecration to make him a chief de jure. In fact, the qualities of the diviner are those which give his sacred authority to the chief. When he has obtained from the diviners all their medicines and information as to the mode of using the isitundu (a magical vessel), it is said that he often orders them to be killed. Now, the chief is so far a medicine-man that he is lord of the air. "The heaven is the chief's," say the Zulus; and when he calls out his men, "though the heaven is clear, it becomes clouded by the great wind that arises". Other Zulus explain this as the mere hyperbole of adulation. "The word of the chief gives confidence to his troops; they say, 'We are going; the chief has already seen all that will happen in his vessel'. Such then are chiefs; they use a vessel for divination." The makers of rain are known in Zululand as "heaven-herds" or "sky-herds," who herd the heaven that it may not break out and do its will on the property of the people. These men are, in fact, , "cloud-gatherers," like the Homeric Zeus, the lord of the heavens. Their name of "herds of the heavens" has a Vedic sound.

"The herd that herds the lightning," say the Zulus, "does the same as the herder of the cattle; he does as he does by whistling; he says, 'Tshu-i-i-i. Depart and go yonder. Do not come here.'"Here let it be observed that the Zulus conceive of the thunder-clouds and lightning as actual creatures, capable of being herded like sheep. There is no metaphor or allegory about the matter,

and no forgetfulness of the original meaning of words. The cloud-herd is just like the cowherd, except that not every man, but only sorcerers, and they who have eaten the "lightning-bird" (a bird shot near the place where lightning has struck the earth), can herd the clouds of heaven. The same ideas prevail among the Bushmen, where the rainmaker is asked "to milk a nice gentle female rain";the rain-clouds are her hair. Among the Bushmen Rain is a person.

Among the Red Indians no metaphor seems to be intended when it is said that "it is always birds who make the wind, except that of the east". The Dacotahs once killed a thunder-bird behind Little Crow's village on the Missouri. It had a face like a man with a nose like an eagle's bill.

Callaway, p. 340.

Callaway, Religions System of the Amazules, p. 343.

Ibid., p. 385.

Schoolcraft, iii. 486.

Compare Callaway, p. 119.

The political and social powers which come into the hands of the sorcerers are manifest, even in the case of the Australians.

Tribes and individuals can attempt few enterprises without the aid of the man who listens to the ghosts. Only he can foretell the future, and, in the case of the natural death of a member of the tribe, can direct the vengeance of the survivors against the hostile magician who has committed a murder by "bar" or magic.

Among the Zulus we have seen that sorcery gives the sanction to the power of the chief. "The winds and weather are at the command" of Bosman's "great fetisher". Inland from the Gold Coast, the king of Loango, according to the Abbe Proyart, "has credit to make rain fall on earth". Similar beliefs, with like political results, will be found to follow from the superstition of magic among the Red Indians of North America. The difficulty of writing about sorcerers among the Red Indians is caused by the abundance of the evidence.

Charlevoix and the other early Jesuit missionaries found that the jongleurs, as Charlevoix calls the Jossakeeds or medicine-men, were their chief opponents. As among the Scotch Highlanders, the Australians and the Zulus, the Red Indian jongleur is visited by the spirits. He covers a hut with the skin of the animal which he commonly wears, retires thither, and there converses with the bodiless beings. The good missionary like Mr. Moffat in Africa, was convinced that the exercises of the Jossakeeds were verily supernatural. "Ces seducteurs ont un veritable commerce avec le pere du mensonge." This was denied by earlier and wiser Jesuit missionaries. Their political power was naturally great. In time of war "ils avancent et retardent les marches comme il leur plait".

In our own century it was a medicine-man, Ten Squa Ta Way, who by his magical processes and superstitious rites stirred up a formidable war against the United States. According to Mr.

同类推荐
热门推荐
  • 仙参

    仙参

    作为一个成功的人参,石小参压力很大。兔羊、过路的、采药的、练武的、修真的、妖仙圣佛等等,无论是强是弱,是正是邪,都想拿他打牙祭、炼丹。我草!招你惹你了?上来就是一口!虽然拥有再生神技,可我还要济世行医,养家糊口,岂能让尔等随便啃之……来来,收费。“李员外,治好此病,需黄金十两。”“紫霞仙子,你要炼丹,好说好说,传我个百年道行先”“猴哥!猴哥你就是我的偶像!想救紫霞?行!偶像打个折,金箍棒切一半给我铸剑……”主角是舍身饲虎、慈航普度的善仙。身修长青仙诀,背负定海神剑,行善诛恶,浪迹天涯,上天入地,拖家带口……且看——《仙参》————————————————————————————————————满地打滚要推荐,作死甩脸求收藏!
  • 狼族异能者

    狼族异能者

    狼族女孩爱上了一个人类男孩,世世追随,但是最后男孩的父亲为了得到狼族的超能力,利用男孩.....
  • 择一城,等一人

    择一城,等一人

    片段一:“陌老头,你看月丫头那不服输的劲,多像我啊”沈腾拿起白色棋子落下,欧阳陌有点鄙视沈腾,不就是收了一个天才孙女嘛,那么得瑟“是啊,跟当初的我们挺像的”门口处,一个穿白色T恤,牛仔短裤的沈寒月说,“老头~我有你这么丑吗?”片段二:一袭红袍拖地,脸上戴着妖艳的红面具,面具将脸遮住,只露出眼睛和嘴巴以下的地方,目光冷冽,她一闪就到君后位置掐着她的脖子,慢慢将她从座位上抬起,众人都没来的及反应,仙君第一个回神道“魔主大人未免太放肆了些”众大臣心惊‘不愧是魔界魔主啊’
  • 阿列斯——恶魔游戏

    阿列斯——恶魔游戏

    妹妹卷入失踪事件,作为兄长的时晓自然要找回妹妹。因此,时晓和危险的游戏——阿列斯相遇了。时晓救妹记
  • 重生再来:逆遍天下

    重生再来:逆遍天下

    她,活泼幸福,十五岁的一天,所有的同学亲人都死了,孤员无助,无意间知道了原因,原来身边的生活竟如此危险,加入了仇人的仇人杀手团队,大仇报,得爱人,本以为此生无遗憾,却无意间了解组织秘密,原来世界真有玄幻,可最后,为什么杀我的是你!。。。穿越,重生,来到玄幻世界,至此,我将重新崛起
  • 青春禁区

    青春禁区

    茶凉曾经说过“每个人即是教授又是学生,总是有意无意的在上与被上之间徘徊,每当你不经意间,就会被人跑到身边,先是给你一个甜蜜的拥抱,然后给你甩了一个响亮的耳光,此时你脸上还堆满着傻笑,泪水却早已溜出了眼角,你捂着胸口呆在原地,看着那个上了自己的人高傲的离去,而你.......继续
  • 国家命运

    国家命运

    作品叙写我国“两弹一星”工程,从艰难起步的草创阶段,经过多年的坎坷发展,苦心经营,终于成长壮大并取得重大成就的整个历史过程。作品气势磅礴,结构宏大,人物众多,各具神采,是一部全景式表现我国国防战线的史诗性巨著。
  • 神的传记

    神的传记

    古城现,神灵出,带你揭开众神消失的秘密,带你探寻地球远古的奥秘。神灵复苏解开地球上古的封印,并开启了一个新的时代,重现上古仙魔乱舞的景象。
  • 西游风云传

    西游风云传

    西游再起风云。一个小混混在西游世界大战孙悟空,收服牛魔王,征服女儿国,推到白骨精……重生西游,昊天壮志踌躇,豪气干云。他在练功房YY着,怎么与斗战胜佛孙悟空大战三百回合的时候。家族要求他成为“人种”……欲为人种,昊天心头鹿撞,喜笑颜开。他在闺房中YY着,第一个新娘是小萝莉还是御姐的时候。一个彪悍的寡妇把他推到了……晋升仙人,逃离氏族,成为天兵。昊天雄心万丈,意气飞扬。他在军营中YY着,怎么从一个小天兵爬上天王宝座,甚至成为天庭之主,掌控三界(天界、凡界、阴界)的时候。如来佛祖领导的大雷音寺,对天庭西天门发动了雷霆袭击……
  • 霸气明星:顾少小心点

    霸气明星:顾少小心点

    (这是一个霸气和更霸气的故事)她,是全校公认的丑女,却被顾大少爷纠缠。她,本是平凡的人,顾大少爷帮她找到了身世。真相揭开,她,是全国公认的美女。她,是皇族之女霸气侧漏。她,成了全校的校花。三年后,她成为全国牛逼哄哄的明星,被爱情所伤,隐退了好久。六年后,她带着萌宝华丽回归。萌宝:“爹地,我要妹妹!”“好,马上。”某女天天揉着腰抱怨道:“禽兽!”顾少无辜的看着某女。(认为不好看的不要说脏话,直接删除)