The modern conception of the savage is that of a lazy creature lying about under a tree, or, where there are no trees, in the shade of his hut; his wife, the beast of burden and the work horse for the family. It is needless to say that this picture does not accord with the facts. Primitive man in his own environment is a very much occupied person. As far as observations go, almost every moment of his time is taken up with the pursuit of his livelihood and with endeavors to provide diversion for these hostile influences. There is no rest from his vigil regarding the unseen powers. An astonishing amount of time is consumed in his religious practices. A successful hunt or a plentiful harvest must needs be followed by an offering of first game or first fruits to the gods.

Savage life is seldom as unvaried as commonly supposed. Seasonal occupations relating to game or to planting and the harvest, the preparation for the elaborate rites and their celebration, the various festivals, sometimes in an almost unbroken series,-all serve to vary a life which otherwise might be monotonous. There are far wider and richer interests in the life of primitive man than in that of many of the modern workers in an industrial community. The "immediacy of interest" is always present. "The play of the emotions along the scale of want, effort, success, or failure," writes Dewey, in speaking of a hunting race, "is the very type, psychically speaking, of the drama. The breathless interest with which we hang upon the movement of play or novel are reflexes of the mental attitudes evolved in the hunting vocation." 1

I do not follow Dewey when he adds that in the agricultural stage of society, when the emotions of the

hunt are gone, the drudgery of field labor is handed over to the women and the men take up war to supply the excitements formerly furnished by the hunt. It seems to me that altogether too much attention is paid to warfare as an habitual occupation of primitive peoples.

The observances occurring in the history of an individual which are to be discussed here, center around the crises of life, birth, adolescence, marriage, and death. Rites are undertaken at each of these times,-"rites of passage," as Van Gennep calls them, conducting the individual from one state or situation to another. If each society is considered a sort of house divided into chambers, in civilized life passage from room to room is easy; whereas in primitive society the compartments are isolated from each other and movement from one to another is difficult. Rites are necessary in passing from one room to the next. Even among more developed peoples the ceremonies of baptism, confirmation, marriage, and death, are, in many respects, "rites of passage."

Reflection and discussion regarding these inevitable crises lead to some idea of supposed cause and effect, and various "controls" are undertaken which play a part in the development of magic, that which corresponds to science, and the general idea of souls and spirits. The medicine man, the sorcerer, the physician, the priest, the judge, the teacher, and the artist, often owe a large part of their development to these crises.2

The "rites of passage" abundantly illustrate the two fields of magic: contagious and symbolic, both founded upon the misapplication of the laws of cause and effect;

the first based upon the idea of contagion, and the second upon the belief that like produces like.

BIRTH

[It seems safe to say that among a few peoples pro

creation is not understood to be the result of sexual intercourse. Attis was the Adonis of Western Asia, a god of vegetation. His mother, Nana, was a virgin, who conceived by putting a ripe almond or a pomegranate in her bosom. Such tales of virgin mothers are common. In Phrygian cosmogony, an almond figured as the father of all things. In Palestine, to this day, it is believed that a woman may conceive by the spirit of her dead husband. In the Finnish epic, the Kalevala, conception is brought about by eating a cranberry,

Among some of the tribes in central and northern Australia, conception is believed to be the result of the entrance into the body of the woman of an animal spirit. The child is thus the reincarnated spirit of this animal. The spirit may be induced to enter the body of the female of its species, and thus animal birth is accounted for in the same way as human nativity. Among the Kiriwina of British New Guinea the origin of conception is traced back to the soul of a dead person entering the body of a woman as a spirit child.

Pregnancy is a time of great concern, far more for the welfare of the community and of the future child than for the health and comfort of the woman. A special place of residence is often demanded for the expectant mother. She is abnormal socially quite as much as physically, and various prophylactic measures must be taken to prevent her from working harm. Isolation is

only one of the precautions taken. Tabus are usually necessary at this time.

The old-fashioned idea of pre-natal influence is seen in some of the prohibitions. Among the northwest Amazons a pregnant woman must not eat the meat of the capibara, a rodent, else the child will have teeth like the rodent. Paca is tabu, or the child will be spotted like this animal.

There is a rather widespread belief that knots and closed objects are objectionable at the time of childbearing. Among the Saxons of Transylvania, there must be no knots on the garments of a woman in labor, because they would interfere with delivery. All the locks in the house, on boxes or on doors, are unlocked for the same reason. Roman religion required that the women who took the part of the goddess of childbirth should have no knot tied on their persons.

[Tabus must, in some cases, be observed by the husband as well as by the wife. He may not be allowed to cover his eyes during his wife's pregnancy, and Pliny tells us that to sit with clasped hands beside a woman in this condition was enough to cast a malignant spell on her. On the principle of symbolic magic, this would thwart the free course of events. Among the Yukaghir, a Siberian tribe, the fat of the cow or of the reindeer or larch gum are forbidden at this time, but horse's fat may be eaten. The woman must raise her feet high in walking, and must push stones away from her path, symbolizing the removal of obstructions at childbirth. She must never turn back on setting out for a certain place.

The woman is usually considered unclean during this period, and a quarantine may exist both before and after

the birth of a child. She cannot usually be reinstated in her home and social group until she has passed through some purification ceremony. This is entirely comparable with the "churching of women" in the Christian Church. This is a liturgical form of thanksgiving after childbirth, borrowed from the Jewish Church, and originating in the Mosaic regulation as to purification as given in Leviticus, XII.

"And the Lord spake unto Moses, saying, Speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a woman have conceived seed, and borne a man child, then she shall be unclean seven days; according to the days of the separation for her infirmity shall she be unclean. . . And she shall then continue in the blood of her purifying three and thirty days; she shall touch no hallowed thing, nor come into the sanctuary, until the days of her purifying be fulfilled." This contagion of uncleanliness, a pollution, is, of course, exactly similar to the contagious character of holiness met with in many parts of the religious ritual. Birth itself is mysterious. Much has been made of the ease with which children are brought into the world by primitive people. Owing to the large number of skeletons of newly-born babies found in archæological excavations, and the bodies of gravid mothers with the fœtus, we realize that infant mortality was probably greater than is commonly supposed. In general, however, it may be said that the danger at childbirth is mainly a spiritual one.

The period of quarantine observed by the woman is often extended to include the newly-born infant. There is a double cause for the precautions taken; to prevent the contamination of society by the child, and to preve harm from coming to him. The evil spirits are especia