[9] See Westermarck, ‘L-ʿâr, or the Transference of Conditional Curses in Morocco,’ in Anthropological Essays presented to E. B. Tylor, p. 361 sqq.
[10] I am indebted to my friend Mr. R. R. Marett for drawing my attention to this meaning of the word κατάδεσμος. So also the verb καταδέω means not only “to tie” but “to bind by magic knots” (Athenaeus, Deipnosophistæ, xv. 9, p. 670; Dio Cassius, Historia Romana, l. 5), and κατάδεσις is used to denote “a binding by magic knots” (Plato, Leges, xi. 933). See Liddell-Scott, Greek-English Lexicon, p. 754; Harrison, Prolegomena to the Study of Greek Religion, p. 138 sqq.
[11] Plato, Respublica, ii. 364.
That mystery is the essential characteristic of supernatural beings is proved by innumerable facts. It is testified by language. The most prominent belief in the religion of the North American Indians was their theory of manitou, that is, of “a spiritual and mysterious power thought to reside in some material form.” The word is Algonkin, but all the tribes had some equivalent for it.[12] Thus the Dacotahs express the essential attribute of their deities by the term wakan, which signifies anything which they cannot comprehend, “whatever is wonderful, mysterious, superhuman, or supernatural.”[13] The Navaho word dĭgĭ’n likewise means “sacred, divine, mysterious, or holy”;[14] and so does the Hidatsa term mahopa.[15] In Fiji “the native word expressive of divinity is kalou, which, while used to denote the people’s highest notion of a god, is also constantly heard as a qualification of anything great or marvellous.”[16] The Maoris of New Zealand applied the word atua, which is generally translated as “god,” not only to spirits of every description, but to various phenomena not understood, such as menstruation and foreign marvels, a compass for instance, or a barometer.[17] The natives of Madagascar, says Ellis, designate by the term ndriamanitra, or god, everything that exceeds the capacity of their understanding. “Whatever is new and useful and extraordinary, is called god…. Rice, money, thunder and lightning, and earthquakes, are all called god…. Taratasy, or book, they call god, from its wonderful capacity of speaking by merely looking at it.”[18] The Monbuttu use the word kilima for anything they do not understand—the thunder, a shadow, the reflection in water, as well as the supreme being in which they vaguely believe.[19] The Masai conception of the deity (ngăi), says Dr. Thomson, “seems to be marvellously vague. I was Ngăi. My language was Ngăi. Ngăi was in the steaming holes…. In fact, whatever struck them as strange or incomprehensible, that they at once assumed had some connection with Ngăi.”[20] Mr. and Mrs. Hinde use “the Unknown” as their equivalent of the word ngăi.[21]
[12] Dorman, Origin of Primitive Superstitions, p. 226. Parkman, Jesuits in North America, p. lxxix. Brinton, Religions of Primitive Peoples, p. 102. Hoffman, ‘Menomini Indians,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xiv. 39, n. 1.
[13] Schoolcraft, Archives of Aboriginal Knowledge, iv. 642. Dorsey, ‘Siouan Cults,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 366. McGee, ‘Siouan Indians,’ ibid. xv. 182 sq.
[14] Matthews, Navaho Legends, p. 37.
[15] Idem, Hidatsa Indians, p. 47 sq.
[16] Williams and Calvert, Fiji, p. 183.
[17] Best, ‘Lore of the Whare-Kohanga,’ in Jour. Polynesian Soc. xiv. 210. Dieffenbach, Travels in New Zealand, ii. 116, 118. The word tupua (or tipua) is used in a very similar way (Tregear, Maori-Polynesian Comparative Dictionary, p. 557).