[424] Cf. the ceremony of the pharmakos in the festival of the Thargelia (Miss Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 95 ff.).
[425] Frazer, Golden Bough 2d ed., ii, 337 ff.
[426] This period has been generally held to be calendary. Its calendary reality is denied by Legge (in Recueil des travaux, xxxi) and Foucart (in Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics, article "Calendar [Egyptian]").
[427] A noteworthy instance of this persistence appears in the history of the Bene-Israel, a body of Jews living in the Bombay Presidency (article "Bene-Israel" in Hastings, Encyclopædia of Religion and Ethics); they preserve the Jewish religious festivals, but under Indian names.
[428] See above, §§ 4, 7.
[429] The word "fetish" (from Portuguese feitiço, 'artificial', then 'idol, charm,'), devised originally as a name of charms used by the natives of the West African coast, is often employed as a general name for early religious practices. Its proper use is in the sense of a dead object, as a piece of clay or a twig, in which, it is held, a spirit dwells. The fetish is often practically a god, often a household god; the interesting thing about it is that the spirit, generally a tutelary spirit, can enter the object or depart at will, may be brought in by appropriate ceremonies, and may be dismissed when it is no longer considered useful.
[430] Algonkin manito or manitu (W. Jones, in Journal of American Folklore, xviii, 190); Iroquois orenda; Siouan wakonda; Chickasa hullo (Journal of American Folklore, xx, 57); cf. the Masai n'gai, 'the unknown, incomprehensible' (Hinde, The Last of the Masai, p. 99), connected with storms and the telegraph. Other names perhaps exist.
[431] Codrington, The Melanesians, Index, s.v. Mana.
[432] W. Jones, op. cit.
[433] It has therefore been compared to the modern idea of force as inherent in matter.