[98] Quoted by Frazer, Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild, I. p. 105.
[99] W. Ellis, Polynesian Researches, II. p. 216
[100] F. M. Cornford in Miss Jane Harrison’s Themis, ch. vii.
[101] History of the Kingship, p. 38; cf. also The Magic Art, I. p. 235, and footnote: “faith in magic is probably older than a belief in spirits.”
[102] Skeat and Blagden, Pagan Races of the Malay Peninsula, I. p. 417.
[103] In the American Journal of Psychology, p. 83 (1919), E. S. Conkling has an instructive article on Superstitious Belief and Practice among College Students. Of a large group examined 53 per cent. entertained some superstition (40 per cent. M., 66 per cent. F.). At some time, now or formerly, 82 per cent. had been so affected (73 per cent. M., 90 per cent. F.). Half assigned their former superstitions to the age from twelve to sixteen. Twenty-two per cent. attributed the disposition to the suggestion of elders, 47 per cent. to social suggestion, 15 per cent. to social inheritance, and 15 per cent. to emotions and feelings beyond the control of reason.
[104] Among the Indians of Guiana, p. 354.
[105] Quoted by Ames, Psychology of Religious Experience, p. 60.
[106] Charms (and possibly rites and spells) are sometimes revealed in dreams (Howitt, The Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 378; and Hose and McDougall, Pagan Tribes of Borneo, I. p. 110). But this can only happen either where the belief in charms already exists (as in the cases cited), or by the coincidence of the dream with good or bad fortune. The connexion of events must first of all present itself as something observed: whether waking or dreaming is indifferent.
For further illustrations of the influence of coincidences in establishing a belief in Magic, see [ch. viii. § 5.]