The Golden Bough - The Original Classic Edition. Frazer Sir

up to the highest pitch of apparent frenzy, the muscles of the limbs seemed

       convulsed, the body swelled, the countenance became terrific, the features distorted, and the eyes wild and strained. In this state he

       often rolled on the earth, foaming at the mouth, as if labouring under the influence of the divinity by whom he was possessed, and,

       in shrill cries, and violent and often indistinct sounds, revealed the will of the god. The priests, who were attending, and versed in

       the mysteries, received, and reported to the people, the declarations which had been thus received. When the priest had uttered the

       response of the oracle, the violent paroxysm gradually subsided, and comparative composure ensued. The god did not, however,

       always leave him as soon as the communication had been made. Sometimes the same taura, or priest, continued for two or three days

       possessed by the spirit or deity; a piece of a native cloth, of a peculiar kind, worn round one arm, was an indication of inspiration,

       or of the indwelling of the god with the individual who wore it. The acts of the man during this period were considered as those of

       the god, and hence the greatest attention was paid to his expressions, and the whole of his deportment... . When uruhia (under the

       inspiration of the spirit), the priest was always considered as sacred as the god, and was called, during this period, atua, god, though

       at other times only denominated taura or priest."

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       But examples of such temporary inspiration are so common in every part of the world and are now so familiar through books

       on ethnology that it is needless to multiply illustrations of the general principle. It may be well, however, to refer to two particular

       modes of producing temporary inspiration, because they are perhaps less known than some others, and because we shall have oc-

       casion to refer to them later on. One of these modes of producing inspiration is by sucking the fresh blood of a sacrificed victim.

       In the temple of Apollo Diradiotes at Argos, a lamb was sacrificed by night once a month; a woman, who had to observe a rule of

       chastity, tasted the blood of the lamb, and thus being inspired by the god she prophesied or divined. At Aegira in Achaia the priestess of Earth drank the fresh blood of a bull before she descended into the cave to prophesy. Similarly among the Kuruvikkarans, a class of bird-catchers and beggars in Southern India, the goddess Kali is believed to descend upon the priest, and he gives oracular

       replies after sucking the blood which streams from the cut throat of a goat. At a festival of the Alfoors of Minahassa, in Northern

       Celebes, after a pig has been killed, the priest rushes furiously at it, thrusts his head into the carcase, and drinks of the blood. Then

       he is dragged away from it by force and set on a chair, whereupon he begins to prophesy how the rice-crop will turn out that year. A

       second time he runs at the carcase and drinks of the blood; a second time he is forced into the chair and continues his predictions. It

       is thought that there is a spirit in him which possesses the power of prophecy.

       The other mode of producing temporary inspiration, to which I shall here refer, consists in the use of a sacred tree or plant. Thus in the Hindoo Koosh a fire is kindled with twigs of the sacred cedar; and the Dainyal or sibyl, with a cloth over her head, inhales

       the thick pungent smoke till she is seized with convulsions and falls senseless to the ground. Soon she rises and raises a shrill chant, which is caught up and loudly repeated by her audience. So Apollo's prophetess ate the sacred laurel and was fumigated with it before she prophesied. The Bacchanals ate ivy, and their inspired fury was by some believed to be due to the exciting and intoxicating properties of the plant. In Uganda the priest, in order to be inspired by his god, smokes a pipe of tobacco fiercely till he works himself into a frenzy; the loud excited tones in which he then talks are recognised as the voice of the god speaking through him. In Madura, an island off the north coast of Java, each spirit has its regular medium, who is oftener a woman than a man. To prepare herself for the reception of the spirit she inhales the fumes of incense, sitting with her head over a smoking censer. Gradually she

       falls into a sort of trance accompanied by shrieks, grimaces, and violent spasms. The spirit is now supposed to have entered into her, and when she grows calmer her words are regarded as oracular, being the utterances of the indwelling spirit, while her own soul is

       temporarily absent.

       The person temporarily inspired is believed to acquire, not merely divine knowledge, but also, at least occasionally, divine power. In Cambodia, when an epidemic breaks out, the inhabitants of several villages unite and go with a band of music at their head to look for the man whom the local god is supposed to have chosen for his temporary incarnation. When found, the man is conducted to the altar of the god, where the mystery of incarnation takes place. Then the man becomes an object of veneration to his fellows, who implore him to protect the village against the plague. A certain image of Apollo, which stood in a sacred cave at Hylae near

       Magnesia, was thought to impart superhuman strength. Sacred men, inspired by it, leaped down precipices, tore up huge trees by the roots, and carried them on their backs along the narrowest defiles. The feats performed by inspired dervishes belong to the same

       class.

       Thus far we have seen that the savage, failing to discern the limits of his ability to control nature, ascribes to himself and to all men certain powers which we should now call supernatural. Further, we have seen that, over and above this general supernaturalism, some persons are supposed to be inspired for short periods by a divine spirit, and thus temporarily to enjoy the knowledge and power of

       the indwelling deity. From beliefs like these it is an easy step to the conviction that certain men are permanently possessed by a deity, or in some other undefined way are endued with so high a degree of supernatural power as to be ranked as gods and to receive the homage of prayer and sacrifice. Sometimes these human gods are restricted to purely supernatural or spiritual functions. Sometimes they exercise supreme political power in addition. In the latter case they are kings as well as gods, and the government is a theocracy. Thus in the Marquesas or Washington Islands there was a class of men who were deified in their lifetime. They were supposed to wield a supernatural power over the elements: they could give abundant harvests or smite the ground with barrenness; and they

       could inflict disease or death. Human sacrifices were offered to them to avert their wrath. There were not many of them, at the most one or two in each island. They lived in mystic seclusion. Their powers were sometimes, but not always, hereditary. A missionary has described one of these human gods from personal observation. The god was a very old man who lived in a large house within an enclosure. In the house was a kind of altar, and on the beams of the house and on the trees round it were hung human skeletons, head down. No one entered the enclosure except the persons dedicated to the service of the god; only on days when human victims were sacrificed might ordinary people penetrate into the precinct. This human god received more sacrifices than all the other gods; often

       he would sit on a sort of scaffold in front of his house and call for two or three human victims at a time. They were always brought, for the terror he inspired was extreme. He was invoked all over the island, and offerings were sent to him from every side. Again, of the South Sea Islands in general we are told that each island had a man who represented or personified the divinity. Such men were called gods, and their substance was confounded with that of the deity. The man-god was sometimes the king himself; oftener he

       was a priest or subordinate chief.

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       The ancient Egyptians, far from restricting their adoration to cats and dogs and such small deer, very liberally extended it to men.

       One of these human deities resided at the village of Anabis, and burnt sacrifices were offered to him on the altars; after which, says

       Porphyry,