[46] Guinnard, Three Years’ Slavery among the Patagonians, p. 144.
[47] Monier-Williams, Brāhmanism and Hindūism, p. 350. For criminal-worship in Sicily, see Peacock, ‘Executed Criminals and Folk-Medicine,’ in Folk-Lore, vii. 275.
[48] Lane, Arabian Society in the Middle Ages, p. 49. Westermarck, ‘Sul culto del santi nel Marocco,’ in Actes du XII. Congrès International des Orientalistes, iii. 153 sqq. Idem, The Moorish Conception of Holiness, p. 77 sqq.
[49] Muir, Life of Mahomet, i. p. lxv. sq. Bosworth Smith, Mohammed and Mohammedanism, p. 19. Sell, Faith of Islám, p. 218.
The dead are objects of worship much more commonly than are the living. Whilst the human individual consisting of body and soul is as a rule well-known, the disembodied soul, seen only in dreams or visions, is a mysterious being which inspires the survivors with awe. Mr. Spencer and Mr. Grant Allen even regard the worship of the dead as “the root of every religion.”[50] But this is to carry the ghost theory to an extreme for which there is no justification in facts. The spirits of the dead are worshipped because they are held capable of influencing, in a mysterious manner, the welfare of the living; but there is no reason to assume that they were originally conceived as the only supernatural agents existing. We have noticed that even the lower animals show signs of the same feeling as underlies the belief in supernatural beings; and we can hardly suppose that they are believers in ghosts.
[50] Spencer, Principles of Sociology, i. 411. Grant Allen, The Evolution of the Idea of God, pp. 91, 433, 438, &c.
On account of their wonderful effects medicines, intoxicants, and stimulants, are frequently objects of veneration. Most of the plants for which the American Indians had superstitious feelings were such as have medical qualities;[51] tobacco was generally held sacred by them,[52] and so was cocoa in Peru.[53] The Vedic deification of the drink soma was due to its exhilarating and invigorating effects.[54]
[51] Dorman, op. cit. p. 298 sq. Dorsey, ‘Siouan Cults,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xi. 428.
[52] Mooney, ‘Myths of the Cherokee,’ in Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn. xix. 439. Dorman, op. cit. p. 295.
[53] Dorman, op. cit. p. 295.