. The history of mankind . the appearance of a supernatural knowledge. Naturally, this knowledge canalso be put at the service of the sovereign and of politics. The sanctity of traditionhad also the object of making it secure, and in this sense we can say that it replaceswriting. Writing and printing have damaged the position of the priest. The art oftradition had also been specially cultivated ; to it belongs the knowledge of tradi-tional signs and pictures in higher stages, the art of writing and reading, if possible,in a special script, as with the Egyptian priests. Special priests language
. The history of mankind . the appearance of a supernatural knowledge. Naturally, this knowledge canalso be put at the service of the sovereign and of politics. The sanctity of traditionhad also the object of making it secure, and in this sense we can say that it replaceswriting. Writing and printing have damaged the position of the priest. The art oftradition had also been specially cultivated ; to it belongs the knowledge of tradi-tional signs and pictures in higher stages, the art of writing and reading, if possible,in a special script, as with the Egyptian priests. Special priests languages recuramong the most different races of the earth ; the fundamental ideas of Shamanismare accompanied everywhere by details similar or agreeing even in the smallestpoints, of a kind which, in some respects, is not everywhere intelligible. Arrowsto be shot off at the completion of a conjuration in order to lay the evil spirit formpart of the sorcerers equipment on the Lower Amoor as well as in Africa,America, and Dice and amulets of a Bamangwato magician.(Ethnographical Museum at Munich.) 56 THE HISTORY OF MANKIND The employment of masks in religious ceremonies is widely spread in allcountries where the form of religion is polytheistic. Beast masks and humanmasks, monsters and complicated head-dresses, all find a use in religious perform-ances. They recur in China, Thibet, India, Ceylon, among the old Mexicans andPeruvians, as also among Eskimos, Melanesians, and African Negroes. TheAleutians put masks along with the bodies in the graves, with such comically dis-figured features that one is inclined to take them for dancing masks, which at onetime served a profane end, and now are connected with serious conceptions of lifeand return after death. Prognostications alone involve a complete science. Their number is so greatthat they teem through everything and hamper life on all sides. To give only afew examples from the Kaffirs. Eating milk products in a thunderstorm att
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1890, booksubjectethnology, bookyear18
