[41] This curious recent development of most ancient experience is described by Dr. M. Bucke in the work, In Re Walt Whitman.
[42] The phenomena of “demoniac possession” are so remarkable, and so frequent in lower conditions of culture that they have been defended as the actual influence of evil spirits by intelligent modern observers (see the work of Rev. Dr. Nevins, Demoniac Possession in China, etc.). Bishop Calloway says most of the negro converts in Natal have such attacks after embracing Christianity (Jour. Anthrop. Society, vol. i., p. 171). Brough Smith describes such attacks among the Australians. Strong men are suddenly seized with violent convulsions. They dance wildly, scream at the top of their voices, foam at the mouth, and continue until utterly exhausted. They are homicidal when in this condition, and their companions fear to approach them (The Aborigines of Victoria, vol. i., p. 466).
[43] The most complete study of this subject in connection with the development of religions is the work of Dr. Otto Stoll, Suggestion und Hypnotismus in der Völkerpsychologie (Leipzig, 1894).
[44] Bishop Calloway, in Jour. Anthrop. Institute, i., p. 177; and in his Religious System of the Amazulu, p. 232. The Bushmen explain it as “a kind of beating of the flesh,” which tells them the future, and where lost things may be found. They add: “Those who are stupid do not understand this teaching.”—Bleek, Bushman Folk-lore, p. 17.
[45] A. E. Gough, Philosophy of the Upanishads, p. 243.
[46] Klemm, Allgemeine Culturgeschichte, Bd. ii., s. 337; A. M. Curr, The Australian Race, vol. i., p. 48.
[47] Curr notes this among the Australians, ubi supra, vol. i., p. 48; and it is general among American Indians.
[48] W. W. Gill, Myths and Songs from the South Pacific, p. 35.
[49] Middendorf, Keshua Wörterbuch, s. v.
[50] Proceedings of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, 1896. Sect. H.