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MAGGIORE, LAGO (Lacus Verbanus of the...
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See also:MAGGIORE, LAGO (Lacus Verbanus of the See also:Romans; Fr. See also:Lac Majeur; Ger. Langensee) , the most extensive of the lakes that extend along the See also:foot of the See also:Alps in See also:Lombardy, N. See also:Italy. Its See also:area is about 83 sq. m., its length 37 m., its greatest width 52 m., and its greatest See also:depth 1198 ft., while its See also:surface is 646 ft. about See also:sea-level. It is mainly formed by the See also:Ticino (See also:Tessin) See also:River, flowing in at the See also:north and out at the See also:south end, on its way to join the Po, but on the See also:west the See also:lake receives a very important tributary, the Toce or Tosa River, which flows down through the Val d'Ossola from the mountains around the Simplon Pass. Other important affluents are the Maggia (N.W.) and the Tresa (E.). The upper end of the lake (about 16 sq. m.) is in the Swiss See also:canton of Ticino (Tessin). See also:Locarno, at the See also:northern or Swiss end, is 14 M. by See also:rail S.W. of See also:Bellinzona on the St Gotthard See also:line. There is a railway along the south-eastern See also:shore, from Magadino (rot m. S.W. of Bellinzona) to Sesto Calende (361m.), at the See also:southern end of the lake and 20 M. by rail from See also:Novara. The See also:east shore of the lake is reached at Luino by a See also:steam See also:tramway from See also:Ponte Tresa on the lake of See also:Lugano (8 m.), while the See also:direct Simplon line runs along the west shore of the lake for 152 M. from near Pallanza past See also:Baveno and See also:Stresa to See also:Arona, which is 23 M. by rail from Novara. On the east shore are Luino (Ital. Luvino) and Laveno. On the west shore are (reckoning from N. to S.) Cannobio, Pallanza, Baveno, Stresa and Arona. Opposite (S.E.) Baveno are the famous See also:Borromean Islands, on the largest of which (Isola Bella) are very remarkable gardens (formed about 1617), wherein many tropical See also:plants flourish abundantly, while south-west of Baveno rises the glorious view-point of the See also:Monte Mottarone (4892 ft.) between Lago Maggiore and the northern end of the Lake of See also:Orta. In the See also:morning the tramontana See also:wind blows from the north down the lake, while in the afternoon the inverna, blowing from the south, prevails. The first steamer was placed on the lake in 1826. (W. A. B. C.) MAGIC'. (i.e. "See also:art magic "; See also:Lat. ars magica), the See also:general See also:term for the practice and See also:power of wonder-working, as depending on the employment of supposed supernatural agencies. Etymologically the Gr. µayafa meant the See also:science and See also:religion of the magi, or priests of Zoroaster, as known among the Greeks; in this sense it was opposed to yonreia (? See also:necromancy) and c/sapisarceia (the use of drugs) ; but this distinction was not universally recognized, and yonreia is often used as a synonym of µayeia There is no general agreement as to the proper See also:definition of " magic," which depends on the view taken of " religion." I.—NATURE OF MAGIC Theories of Magic.—Existing theories of magic may be classified as See also:objective or subjective. The objective school regards magic as a thing by itself, entirely distinct from religion, recognizable by certain characteristics, and traceable to a definite psychological origin. Magic, on this view, is a See also:system of See also:savage science based on imaginary See also:laws supposed to operate with the regularity ascribed to natural laws by the science of to-See also:day. If practices prima facie magical See also:form See also:part of the recognized See also:ritual of religion, it is because the older ideas have persisted and at most assumed a See also:veneer of religion. For the subjective school, on the other See also:hand, only those See also:rites are magical which their practitioners qualify with the name of magic; there is no inherent quality which makes a rite magical; practices based on a belief in the See also:law of sympathy may be religious as well as magical; rites may pass from the See also:category of religion to that of magic when public recognition is withdrawn from them. '. For what is often called " magic," but is really See also:trick-performance, see See also:CONJURING. a. For E. B. See also:Tylor the distinguishing characteristic of magic is its unreality; it is a confused See also:mass of beliefs and practices, and their unity consists in the See also:absence of the See also:ordinary nexus of natural cause and effect. Under the general See also:head of magic he distinguishes (i) a spiritual and (ii) a non-spiritual See also:element. (i) The former is made up of such rites as involve the intervention of spiritual beings, ghosts of the dead, demons or gods; hence, in Tylor's view, this form of magic is merely an inferior See also:branch of religion. (ii) The non-spiritual part, but for which the category of magic would be unnecessary, depends on imagined See also:powers and correspondences in nature; it is merely imperfect reasoning, the mistaking of an ideal connexion for a real one. When the See also:American See also:Indian See also:medicine See also:man draws the picture of a See also:deer on a piece of bark and expects that See also:shooting at it will cause him to kill a real deer the next day, he mistakes a connexion which exists only in the mind of the sorcerer for a real See also:bond See also:independent of the human mind. b. In J. G. Frazer's view all magic is based on the law of sympathy —i.e. the See also:assumption that things See also:act on one another at a distance through a See also:secret See also:link, due either to the fact that there is some similarity between them or to the fact that they have at one See also:time been in contact, or that one has formed part of the other. These two branches of " sympathetic magic " Frazer denominates " homoeopathic magic " and "contagious magic." Homoeopathic or imitative (mimetic) magic may be practised by itself, but contagious magic generally involves the application of the imitative principle. (i) One of the most See also:familiar applications of the former is the belief that an enemy may be destroyed or injured by destroying or injuring an See also:image of him. (ii) Under the head of contagious magic are included such beliefs as that which causes the See also:peasant to anoint the weapon with which he has been injured, which, according to Frazer, is founded on the supposition that the See also:blood on the weapon continues to feel with the blood in the See also:body. (iii) Implicitly Frazer seems to distinguish a third See also:kind of magic; " the See also:rain-See also:charm," he says, " operates partly or wholly through the dead . in See also:Halmahera there is a practice of throwing stones on a See also:grave, in See also:order that the See also:ghost may fall into a See also:passion and avenge the disturbance, as he imagines, by sending heavy rain." Here there is no assumption of an invariable course of nature set in See also:motion by magical rites; See also:save that it is coercive and not propitiatory, the practice does not differ from ordinary religious rites. In his theory of the origin of magic Frazer follows the associationist chool. But, as R. R. Marett has pointed out in a See also:criticism of the associationist position, it is proved beyond question that even in the individual mind association by similarity, contiguity or contrast, is but the passive See also:condition, the important element being See also:interest and See also:attention. Frazer assumes that magic has everywhere preceded religion : man tried to See also:control nature by using what he conceived to be immutable laws; failing in this he came to believe in the existence of higher powers whom he could propitiate but not coerce; with this transformation religion appeared on the See also:scene; the See also:priest supplanted the magician, at least in part, and the first blows were struck in the perennial warfare of magic and religion. Frazer recognizes, how-ever, that magical and religious rites are at the See also:present day, and have been in See also:historical times, frequently intermingled; it should be noted that for him religion means propitiation and that he does not recognize the existence of anything beyond magic among the See also:aborigines of See also:Australia. His theory is based on a selection of facts, and not on the whole body of beliefs and rites recognized as magical, among which are many wherein See also:spirits figure. Frazer's position appears to be that such rites are relatively See also:late and may be neglected in framing a definition of magic. It may be perfectly true that the See also:idea of magic has been progressively extended; but belief in transformation is also for Dr Frazer magical; this belief is certainly See also:primitive; yet sympathy will not explain it, as it should if Frazer's theory is correct. c. L. Marillier distinguished three classes of magic: (i) the magic of the word or act; (ii) the magic of the human being, independent of rite or See also:formula, &c.; (iii) the magic which demands at once a human being of See also:special powers (or in a special See also:state) and the use of certain forms. (i) Under the first head he included such rites as mimetic dances, rain-making, disease-making, and sympathetic magic generally. Some of these rites are conceived to affect the course of nature directly, as by influencing winds or the See also:sun, others do so through the intermediary of a See also:god or spirit, who controls the course of nature, and is himself coerced by man with magical acts and incantations. (ii) Other rites cannot be performed by all and sundry: ceremonial purity, See also:initiation or other conditions may be needed to make the charm effective. (iii) Individuals are found who are invested with magical power (mana), whose will rules the universe, whose See also:simple words bring rain or See also:sunshine, and whose presence gives fertility to the See also:fields. Sometimes this power is an attribute of the individual, sometimes it is See also:bound up with the See also:office which he fills. In many cases the magical powers of both men and other See also:objects, animate and inanimate, are put down to the fact that a god resides in them. d. See also:Hubert and Mauss have made the most See also:complete and systematic study of magic which has yet appeared. They hold that, implicitly at any See also:rate, magic is everywhere distinguished from other systems of social facts; in order to be magical an act or belief mustbe See also:common to the whole of a society; the acts which the whole of a See also:group does not regard as efficacious are not, for this school of thought, magical: consequently the practices of gamesters, &c., do not come under the head of magic. Magic is essentially traditional; a distinguishing characteristic of primitive thought is that the individual mind is markedly unoriginal; and this feature is as prominent, if not more so, in magic as in technology or any other important element in human See also:life. The See also:correspondence between magic and technology can be traced far; for the gestures of the craftsman are as strictly prescribed as the ritual acts of the magician or priest: but in magic the results of the gestures are not of the same order as the results of the craftsman's movements, and herein lies the distinction between magic and technic. The distinction between magic and religion is to be sought not in the sympathetic See also:character of the former, nor in any supposed necessary sequence of cause and effect, nor yet in its maleficent character. Religion is prescribed, See also:official, an organized cult. Magic is prohibited, secret; at most it is permitted, without being prescribed. Three important laws may be traced in the machinery of magical operations—magical power flows along channels determined by the contiguity, similarity or contrast of the See also:object of the act and the object to be affected; but these laws do not suffice to explain magic: equally insufficient are the demonological theory and the theory of properties inherent in the objects used in magical operations. The underlying idea of magic is dynamical; to this power may be given the name of mans (see below), of which sanctity is a special development. This mans operates in a milieu different from the ordinary material See also:world; distance is no obstacle to contact; wishes are immediately realized; but law reigns in the milieu in question, necessary relations are conceived as existing. The notion of time as it is found in the world of magic is even more See also:alien from See also:European ideas; the notion of sanctity enters into it, but time in magic and religion is qualitative rather than quantitative. The homogeneity of periods of time not depending on their duration, conventional See also:numbers are employed; successive periods of time apparently equal are not so for the primitive consciousness; and both in magic and religion periods are homogeneous by See also:reason of occupying the same position in the See also:calendar. e. For A. See also:Lehmann magic is the practice of superstitions, and his explanation of magic is purely psychological. Relying mainly on See also:modern See also:spiritualism for his examples, he traces magic back to illusions, prejudices and false precepts due to strained attention. This is ultimately also the view of Hubert and Mauss, who hold that " at the See also:root of magic are states of consciousness which generate illusions; and that these states are not individual but collective and arise from the amalgamation of the ideas of a given See also:person with those current in the society of which he forms a part." The See also:reunion of a group supplies a See also:soil in which illusions flourish readily, and it is important to See also:note that in magic and religion attention is above all necessary for the success of a rite, See also:witness the frequent See also:rule imposing silence; but this concentration of attention is precisely calculated to favour illusions; it is indeed the ordinary condition of successful See also:hypnotism; even in civilized countries collective hallucinations without verbal See also:suggestion are not unknown.
f. R. R. Marett regards religion and magic as two forms of a social phenomenon originally one and indivisible; primitive man had an institution which dealt with the supernatural, and in this institution were the germs of both magic and religion, which were gradually differentiated; magic and religion differ in respectability; religion is always the higher, the accepted cult ; but between what is definitely religious and what is definitely magical lies a mass of indeterminate elements, such as " See also: This suggests that the consciousness of the educated Occidental, for which the See also:spheres of magic and religion in civilized society are sharply defined and contrasted, should be the ultimate arbiter; but here again we are confronted by a difficulty, for, to the educated man, the characteristic of magic is its unreality, and this does not help us to distinguish primitive magic and religion. We must, it appears, determine the relation of magic to religion by an analysis of the conceptions of those who believe in both; but in so doing we must consider that, like all other institutions, magic has a See also:history. Even if we go back to the 16th See also:century and take the view of magic then held by the See also:average European, it is still a complex idea. When we ask what the most primitive races now on the See also:earth regard as magic, we are applying to their ideas a touchstone made for a very different See also:age and culture; as well might we ask what their theory of knowledge is. If, however, we See also:reverse the See also:process and ask what elements of primitive institutions correspond most nearly to later conceptions of magic, we can at once say that the forbidden and private arts are the prototypes of the magic of later times. Magic is therefore the practice of maleficent arts which involve the use of religio-magical power, with perhaps a secondary idea of the use of private arts, which are to benefit, not the community as a whole, but a sirgle individual. Religion. in the lower stages of culture is essentially the tribal creed which all practise and in which all believe; if therefore an individual has a cult of his own, even if otherwise indistinguishable from a public cult, it is for this very reason on a lower See also:plane, and probably corresponds in a degree to what is later regarded as magic. But our See also:information as to the attitude of the uncivilized towards magico-religious rites in general is seldom sufficiently clear; our terminology is influenced by the prepossession of alien observers whose accounts cannot be assumed to correspond to the native view of the case. Magico-religious Force.—The See also:mere fact that we cannot draw an exact line between magic and religion suggests that they may have some fundamental feature in common. Both terms have greatly changed their See also:connotation in the course of their existence; religio seems to have meant originally Kara&&QµSs (magical spell), and See also:Pliny says that ,uayeia is a deceptive art compounded of medicine, religion and See also:astrology. Among the Greeks, on the other hand, µayela occupied a respectable position. More important is the fact that taboo (q.v.) is both religious and magical. There is a universal tendency to regard as magical the religions of alien races, as well as'See also:national religions which have been superseded; See also:Leland tells us that See also:witchcraft in Italy is known as la vecchia raligione. An examination of the ideas of primitive peoples shows that there is a widely found notion of a power which manifests itself both in religion and magic. Observers have often been content to describe ceremonies without attempting to penetrate to the fundamental ideas which underlie them; this is particularly the case with magic, and only recently have anthropologists realized that in many primitive societies exists a fairly well-defined idea of magico-religious power, to which the generic name of mana, from the Melanesian word, has been given.
a. Mana in See also:Melanesia is a force, a being, an See also:action, a quality, or a state; it is transmissible and contagious, and is hence associated withtaboo; it may be regarded as material and seen in the form of flames or heard; it is the power which is inherent in certain spirits, among which are included such of the dead as are denominated tindalos; it may also be a force inherent in some inanimate object, such as a See also: (iv) In See also:America these ideas are widely found; the orenda of the See also:Hurons has been elaborately described by J. N. B. See also:Hewitt; everything in nature, and particularly all animate objects, have their orenda; so have gods and spirits; and natural phenomena are the product of the orenda of their spirits. Orenda is distinct from the things to which it is attached; the cry of birds, the rustle of the trees, the soughing of the wind, are expressions of their orenda; the See also:voice of the magician is orenda, so are the prayer and the spell, and in fact all rites; orenda is above all the power of the medicine man. Among the Algonquins we find the word manitu, among the See also:Sioux wakanda, mahowa, &c., among the Shoshones pokunt; all of which seem to carry, at least in part, the same signification. In Central America, according to Hubert and Mauss, naual or nagual is the corresponding term. (v) Traces of similar ideas may be found in more advanced nations; the See also:Hindu See also:brahman is identified by Hubert and Mauss as the correlative of mana; in See also:Greece cSuvts is possibly the See also:echo of a similar idea; but we are yet far from having adequately fathomed the dynamical theories of pre-scientific days. Origin of Magic.—The associationist theory of magic sets out with the assumption that primitive man began with general conceptions; he started with certain means at his disposal—the law of sympathy—by which he could, in his own belief, See also:influence the See also:outer world. But it is more probable that he argued from See also:concrete instances and arrived little by little at abstract ideas of magical power. a. See also:Death and disease are universally regarded by uncivilized See also:people as due to so-called " magic," i.e. to non-natural causes. Primitive man was familiar with the wounds and bruises caused by See also:physical means; he would naturally attribute any See also:pain not so caused to the operation of analogous but invisible weapons, and eventually See also:attempt to discover how he himself could apply on his own behalf the forces thus used against him. Similarly he may have asked himself to what causes were to be attributed the superiority of one man over another; he may have decided the problem by referring it to the See also:superior power of the one, and then inquired in what way this power could in individual instances be increased. In fact we may say generally that man probably explained the already existing and happening by reference to the supernormal, and then endeavoured to See also:guide the supernormal for his own benefit, direct or indirect. b. Ritual, however (the primitive magico-religious plasm), is negative as well as See also:positive. The See also:corpse is uncanny, and man's dread of the corpse may well have been an See also:early development; this dread, become traditional, with accretions of various sorts, crystallized into taboo, the magico-religious See also:prohibition. The notion of the uncanny, once arrived at, may have been exploited positively; psychical abnormalities are present among savage races in very different degrees; but if they were See also:developed at an early See also:stage in human history they doubtless suggested the possibility that man might exploit them for the collective See also:advantage. But it by no means follows that beneficent rites were originally regarded as magical; and it should be noted that the initiator of the so-called magician in Australia is often the god of the tribe or nation. The limits of magic or its correlatives in the lower stages of culture are thus far undecided. c. Magic as it represents itself to the Occidental mind of the pre-sent day, and perhaps to the See also:great part of the inhabitants of the world, seems to be a thing of See also:gradual growth. (i) In the earlier stages there was probably no animistic feature about magic; it was essentially the prohibited." (ii) Then with the rise of animistic beliefs and practices came the association of the magician with demons—the spirits of the dead, or of animals, or unattached spirits—upon whose co-operation the powers of the magician are often now held to depend. These spirits were not in the position of gods; such recognition, See also:worship, or cult as they received was often not a social institution, but the See also:work of individuals, liable to fall into desuetude at the death of the individual, if not earlier. (iii) Again, the magical tends to be the less important and eventually the less respectable; therefore See also:ancient cults which are conquered, like the religion of See also:Rome by See also:Christianity, come to be reckoned as within the See also:sphere of magic and witchcraft. (iv) All non-animistic practices tend to become ipso facto magical; many ritual prohibitions fall under the head of negative magic. Religion is predominantly animistic, and with the rise of gods magic and religion become antagonistic. Thus rites of a neutral character, such as leechcraft, and perhaps agricultural ceremonies which are not absorbed by religion, tend to acquire the reputation of being magical, as also do all amulets and talismans, and, in fact, everything not directly associated with religion. We therefore arrive at a See also:period when magic is distinguished as white, i.e. the laudable, or at least permitted form, and See also:black, i.e. the prohibited form. Magic and See also:Demonology.—Primitive See also:psychology tends to anthropomorphize and personify; it is in many of its stages inclined to an animistic See also:philosophy. To this is due in part the difficulty of distinguishing magic from religion. In many rites there is no obvious indication that a spirit or See also:personal being is concerned. A portion of the ceremonies in which the spirits of the dead are concerned falls under the head of religion (see ANCESTOR WORSHIP), but in the very name " necromancy " (veicpos, corpse) lies an implication of magic; and dealings with the departed are viewed in this See also:light in many parts of the world, sometimes concurrently with a cult of ancestors. See also:Side by side with the human souls we find demons (see DEMONOLOGY); but on the whole only a small proportion of the world of spirits is recognized as powerful in magic; others, such as disease-spirits, are objects, not See also:sources, of magical influence. Magic is sometimes made to depend upon the activity of demons and spirits, and it is true that the magician usually if not invariably has a spirit helper, often an See also:animal; but there is no See also:evidence that magical power had ever been confined to those who are thus aided. It is not easy to define the relation of See also:fetishism (q.v.) to magic., Magic and Science.—It is a See also:commonplace that the sciences have developed from non-scientific beginnings; the root of See also:astronomy is to be sought in astrology (q.v.), of See also:chemistry in See also:alchemy (q.v.), of leechcraft in the practices of the savage magician, who depends for much of his success on suggestion, conscious or unconscious, but also relies on a pharmacopeia of no mean extent. The dynamical theory of magic and religion brings primitive man from one point of view far nearer to the modern man of science than was previously suspected, we may fairly say that the Australians have an idea not unlike that of the trans-formation and conservation of See also:energy, that this energy they See also:store in accumulators, transmit by means of conductors, and so on. The See also:discovery of these complicated ideas only serves to show how far the present-day peoples in the lower stages of culture have travelled from the primitive man who knew neither magic nor religion. But it is perhaps less in respect of abstract ideas than by its concrete investigations into properties, experiment and otherwise that magic has been the forerunner of science. Magic and See also:Divination.—Magic is an attempt to influence the course of events, divination (q.v.) to foresee them; but divination is frequently regarded as magical. It is certain that a large part of divination is religious, and the knowledge is explained as a See also:message from the gods; but necromancy, the practice of discovering the future by consulting the dead, is in many respects essentially magical. Perhaps the magical character of divination may be in part explained, when we regard it as a group of practices in many varieties of which See also:animism plays no part; for non-animistic ceremonies tend to be regarded as magical (cf. rain-making). Thus, heteroscopic divination seems to involve the idea of what may be termed a return current of magicoreligious force; the event is not influenced, but itself determines the issue of the diviner's experiment. II.—LAWS AND RITUAL OF MAGIC The practice of magic involves the belief in the operation of certain laws, and demands certain conditions. The number of positive rites is not unlimited; a certain rite tends to become See also:stable and is finally used for all sorts of purposes; and each magician tends to specialize in this respect. Just as there are well-marked See also:schools of magic, and the rain-maker is not the same as the fetish-man, so within the school there are various See also:groups, differentiated not by the purposes at which they aim nor by 'the powers they claim to possess, but by the ceremonies which they .practise. See also:Chief among the laws lying at the See also:base of magical practice is that of sympathy. Sympathy.—That the law of sympathy is an essential element of magic is admitted equally by the associationist school and by its critics. Under the head of sympathy are embraced the laws of contiguity or contagion, of similarity or See also:homoeopathy, and of contrariety or antipathy. a. In its simplest form the law of contiguity asserts that whatever has once formed part of a body continues to form part of it or to represent it for magical purposes; thus, by obtaining See also:possession of the parings of a person's nails, or the clippings of his See also:hair, and by working magic upon them, it is held to be possible to produce on the actual human body the effects which are in reality produced on the object of the magical rite. As is clear by the well-known case of the " life See also:index," the current of magical power may pass in either direction; if the life of a man is supposed to be bound up with the life of a See also:tree, so that any injury to the tree reacts on the man, it is equally believed that the death of the man will not fail to be See also:manifest by the state of the tree. In particular this sympathetic relation is predicated of wizards or witches and their animal familiars; it is then known by the name of " repercussion." It is not only upon parts of the body that contagious magic can be worked; anything which has been in contact with the body, such as clothes, anything which has been in part assimilated by the body, such as the remains of See also:food, and even representations of the body or of parts of it such as footprints, &c., may be used as objects of magical rites, in order to transmit to the human being some influence, maleficent or other-See also:wise. The contact demanded may be actual, or mediate, for in Australia it suffices to connect the magician and his patient by a See also:thread in order that the disease may be removed. (i) The use of clothes for magical purposes gives us perhaps the See also:clue to the wide-spread See also:custom of " rag–trees "; in nearly every part of the world it is the practice to suspend See also:wool or rags to trees associated with some spirit, or, in See also:Christian countries, with some See also:saint, in order to reap a benefit; similarly nails are driven into trees or images; pins are dropped into See also:wells, stones are See also:cast upon See also:cairns, and missiles aimed at various See also:holy objects; but it cannot be assumed that the same ex-planation lies at the root of the whole group of practices. (ii) This law may perhaps be taken as the explanation of the " See also:couvade "; in many parts of the world relatives, and in particular the See also:father of a new-See also:born child, are compelled to practise various abstinences, in order that the See also:health of the child may not be affected, member- See also:ship of the same See also:family therefore establishes a sympathetic relation. (iii) In this direct transference of qualities it exemplified another magical process, which may also be referred to the operation of the law of sympathy; it is a world-wide belief that the assimilation of food involves the transference to the eater of the qualities, or of some of them, inherent in the source of the food ; a South See also:African See also:warrior, for example, may not eat See also:hedgehog, because the animal is held to be cowardly and the eater would himself become a See also:coward; on the other hand, the flesh of lions is See also:fit See also:meat for brave men, because they at the same time See also:transfer its courage to themselves. b. The law of homoeopathy takes two forms. (i) The magician may proceed on the assumption that like produces like; he may, for example, take an image of See also:wax or See also:wood, and subject it to See also:heat or othes.influences under the belief that it represents the human being against whom his malefice is directed, and that without any contact, real or pretended ; so that any results produced on the image, which may be replaced by an animal or a portion of one, are equally produced in the human being. There need not even be any resemblance between the See also:representation and the person or thing represented; a pot may serve to represent a See also:village; hence step by step we pass from the representation to the See also:symbol. (ii) The law of homoeopathy also manifests itself in the formula similia similibus curantur; the Brahman in See also:India treated See also:dropsy with ablutions, not in order to add to, but to subtract from, the quantity of liquid in the patient's body. So, too, the yellow See also:turmeric was held to be a specific for See also:jaundice. c. Here we approach the third class of sympathetic rites; it is clear that a remedy produces the contrary, when it See also:cures the like; conversely, like by producing like expels its contrary. Some statements of the law of sympathy suggest that it is See also:absolute in its application. It is true that the current of magical power is sometimes held to be transmitted along lines indicated by the law of sympathy, without the intervention of any volition, places may be prescribed for the performance of the ritual; often human or otherwise; thus, the See also:crow which carries stray hairs away to weave them into the structure of its See also:nest is nowhere supposed to be engaged in a magical process; but it is commonly held that the person whose hair is thus used will suffer from head-ache or other maladies; this seems to indicate that the law of sympathy operates mechanically in certain directions, though the belief may also be explained as a secondary growth. In general the operation of these laws is limited in the extreme. For example, the See also:medieval See also:doctrine known as the Law of Signatures asserted that the effects of remedies were correlated to their See also:external qualities; See also:bear's grease is good for baldness, because the bear is a hairy animal. But the transference was held to terminate with the acquisition by the man of this single quality; in some magical books powdered See also:mummy is recommended as a means of prolonging life, but it is simply the age of the remedy which is to benefit the patient; the magician who removes a patient's pains or diseases does not transfer them to himself; the child whose parents eat forbidden foods is held to be affected by their transgression, while they themselves come off unharmed. The magical effects are limited by exclusive attention and See also:abstraction; and this is true not only of the kind of effect produced but also as to the direction in which it is held to be produced. The Magic of Names.—For primitive peoples the name is as much a part of the person as a See also:limb; consequently the magical use of names is in some of its aspects assimilable to the processes dependent on the law of sympathy. In some cases the name must be withheld from any one who is likely to make a wrong use of it, and in some parts of the world people have secret names which are never used. Elsewhere the name must not be told by the See also:bearer of it, but any other person may communicate it without giving an opening for the magical use of it. Not only human beings but also spirits can be coerced by the use of their names; hence the names of the dead are forbidden, lest the mention of them act as an evocation, unintentional though it be. Even among more advanced nations it has been the practice to conceal the real name of supreme gods; we may probably explain this as due to the fear that an enemy might by the use of them turn the gods away from those to whom they originally belonged. For the same reason ancient Rome had a secret name. Magical Rites.—The magic of names leads us up to the magic of the spoken word in general. The spell or See also:incantation and the magical act together make up the rite. (a) The See also:manual acts are very frequently symbolic or sympathetic in their nature; sometimes they are mere reversals of a religious rite; such is the marching against the sun (known as widdershins or deisul) ; sometimes they are purificatory; and magic has its sacrifices just as much as religion. (b) There are many types of oral rites; some of the most curious consist in simply reciting the effect intended to be produced, describing the manual act, or, especially in See also:Europe, telling a mythical narrative in which See also:Christ or the apostles figure, and in which they are represented as producing a similar effect to the one desired; in other cases the " origin " of the disease or maleficent being is recited. Oral rites, which are termed spells or incantations, correspond in many cases to the oral rites of religion; they, like the manual rites, are a heterogeneous mass and hardly lend themselves to See also:classification. Some formulae may be termed sympathetic; it suffices to name the result to be produced in order to produce it; but often an incantation is employed, not to produce a result directly, but to coerce a god or other being and compel him to fulfil the magician's will. The See also:language of the incantations often differs from that of daily life; it may be a survival of archaic forms or may be a special creation for magical purposes. In many See also:languages the word used to See also:express the idea of magic means an act, a See also:deed; and it may be assumed that few if any magical ceremonies consist of formulae only; on the other hand, it is certain that no manual act in magic stands absolutely alone without oral rite; if there is no spoken formula, there is at least an unspoken thought. It is in many cases difficult to discover the relative proportions and importance of manual and oral acts. Not only the words but also the See also:tone are of importance in magic; in fact, the tone may be the more important. See also:Rhythm and repetition are no less necessary in oral than in manual acts. (c) As preliminaries, more seldom as necessary sequels to the central feature of the rite, manual or oral, we usually find a certain number of See also:accessory observances prescribed, which find their parallel in the sacrificial ritual. For example, it is laid down at what time of See also:year, at what period of the See also:month or See also:week, at what See also:hour of the day a rite must be performed ; the waxing or waning of the See also:moon must be noted ; and certain days must be avoided altogether. Similarly, certain the See also:altar of the god serves magical purposes also; but elsewhere it is precisely the impure sites which are devoted to magical operations —the cemeteries and the See also:cross roads. The See also:instruments of magic are in like manner often the remains of a See also:sacrifice, or otherwise consecrated by ,religion; sometimes, especially when they belong to the animal or See also:vegetable world, they must be sought at certain seasons, May Day, St See also:George's Day, Midsummer Day, &c. The magician and his client must undergo rites of preparation. end the exit may be marked by similar ceremonies. Magicians.—Most peoples know the professional worker of magic, or what is regarded as magic. (a) In most if not all societies magic, or certain sorts of it, may be performed by any one, so far as we can see, who has mastered the necessary ritual ; in other cases the magician is a specialist who owes his position to an See also:accident of See also:birth (seventh son of a seventh son) ; to simple See also:inheritance (families of magicians in modern India, rain-makers in New See also:Caledonia) ; to See also:revelation from the gods or the spirits of the dead (Malays), showing itself in the phenomena of possession; or to initiation by other magicians. (b) From a psychical point of view it may probably be said that the initiation of a magician corresponds to the " development " of the modern spiritualistic See also:medium; that is to say, that it resolves itself into exercises and rites which have for their object the creation or See also:evolution of a secondary See also:personality. From this point of view it is important to See also:notice that certain things are forbidden to magicians under pain of loss of their powers; thus, hot See also:tea is taboo to the Arunta medicine man; and if this seems unlikely to cause the secondary personality to disappear, it must be remembered that to the physiological effects, if any, must be added the effects of suggestion. Of this duplication of personality various explanations are given; in See also:Siberia the soul of the shaman is said to wander into the other world, and this is a widely spread theory; where the magician is supposed to remain on earth, his soul is again believed to wander, but there is an alternative explanation which gives him two or more bodies. Here we reach a point at which the familiar makes its See also:appearance; this is at times a secondary form of the magician, but more often is a sort of life index or animal helper (see See also:LYCANTHROPY) ; in fact, the magician's power is sometimes held to depend on the presence—that is, the See also:independence—of his animal See also:auxiliary. Concurrent with this theory is the view that the magician must first enter into a See also:trance before the animal makes its appearance, and this makes it a See also:double of the magician, or, from the psychological point of view, a phase of secondary personality. (c) In many parts of the world magical powers are associated with the membership of secret societies, and elsewhere the magicians form a sort of See also:corporation; in Siberia, for example, they are held to be See also:united by a certain tie of kinship; where this is not the case, they are believed, as in Africa at the present day or in medieval Europe, to hold assemblies, so-called witches' Sabbaths; in Europe the meetings of heretics seem to be responsible for the prominence of the idea if not for its origin (see WITCHCRAFT). The magician is often regarded as possessed (see POSSESSION) either by an animal or by a human or super-human spirit. The relations of priest and magician are for various reasons complex; where the initiation of the magician is regarded as the work of the gods, the magician is for obvious reasons likely to develop into a priest, but he may at the same time remain a magician; where a religion has been superseded, the priests of the old cult are, for those who supersede them, one and all magicians; in the medieval See also: The " medicine " of the Red Indian, originally carried as means of See also:union between him and his manito, is perhaps the prototype of many European charms. In other cases it is some specific quality of the object or animal which is desired; the See also:boar's tusk is worn on the Papuan Gulf as a means of imparting courage to the wearer; the Lukungen See also:Indians of See also:Vancouver See also:Island rub the ashes of wasps on the faces of their warriors, in order that they may be pugnacious. Some Bechuanas See also:wear a See also:ferret as a charm, in the belief that it will make them difficult to kill, the animal being very tenacious of life. Among amulets may be mentioned horns and crescents, eyes or their representations, and See also:grotesque figures, all of which are supposed to be powerful against the Evil See also:Eye (q.v.). Tylor has shown that the See also:brass objects so often seen on See also:harness were originally amuletic in purpose, and can be traced back to See also:Roman times. Some amulets are supposed to protect from the evil eye simply by attracting the glance from the wearer to themselves, but, as a rule, magical power is ascribed to them. Evil Magic.—The object of " black " magic is to inflict injury, disease, or death on an enemy, and the various methods employed illustrate the general principles dealt with above and emphasize the conclusion that magic is not simply a See also:matter of sympathetic rites, but involves a conception of magical force. (a) It has been mentioned that contagious magic makes use of portions of a person's body; the See also:Cherokee magician follows his victim till he spits on the ground; See also:collecting the spittle mingled with dust on the end of a stick, the magician puts it into a See also:tube made of a poisonous plant together with seven earth See also:worms, beaten into a See also:paste, and splinters of a tree blasted by See also:lightning; the whole is buried with seven yellow stones at the foot of a tree struck by lightning, and a fire is built over the spot ; the magician fasts till the ceremony is over. Probably the worms are supposed to feed on the victim's soul, which is said to become " See also:blue " when the charm See also:works; the yellow stones are the See also:emblem of trouble, and lightning-struck trees are reputed powerful in magic. If the charm does not work, the victim survives the See also:critical seven days, and the magician and his employer are themselves in danger, for a charm gone wrong returns upon the head of him who sent it forth. (b) In homoeopathic magic the victim is represented by an image or other object. In the See also:Malay See also:Peninsula the magician makes an image like a corpse, a footstep See also:long. " If you want to cause sickness, you See also:pierce the eye and See also:blindness results; or you pierce the See also:waist and the See also:stomach gets sick. If you want to cause death, you transfix the head with a See also:palm twig; then you enshroud the image as you would a corpse and you pray over it as if you were praying over the dead ; then you See also:bury it in the See also:middle of the path which leads to the See also:place of the person whom you wish to charm, so that he may step over it." Sometimes the wizard repeats a form of words signifying that not he but the See also:Archangel See also:Gabriel is burying the victim; sometimes he exclaims, " It is not wax I slay but the See also:liver, See also:heart and See also:spleen of So-and-so." Finally, the image is buried in front of the victim's doors. (c) Very widespread is the idea that a magician can influence his victim by charming a See also:bone, stick or other object, and then projecting the magical influence from it. It is perhaps the commonest form of evil magic in Australia; in the Arunta tribe a man desirous of using one of these pointing sticks or bones goes away by himself into the See also:bush, puts the bone on the ground and crouches over it, muttering a charm: " May your heart be See also:rent asunder." After a time he brings the irna back to the See also:camp and hides it; then one evening after dark he takes it and creeps near enough to see the features of his victim; he stoops down with the irna in his hand and repeatedly jerks it over his See also:shoulder, muttering curses all the time. The evil magic, arungquillha, is said to go straight to the victim, who sickens and See also:dies without apparent cause, unless some medicine-man can discover what is wrong and save him by removing the evil magic. The irna is concealed after the ceremony, for the magician would at once be killed if it were known that he had used it. (d) Magicians are often said to be able to assume animal form or to have an animal familiar. They are said to suck the victim's blood or send a messenger to do so; sometimes they are said to steal his soul, thus causing sickness and eventually death. These beliefs bring the magician into See also:close relation with the See also:werwolf (See LYC_ NTHROPY). Rain-making.—In the lower stages of culture rain-making assumes rather the appearance of a religious ceremony, and even in higher stages the magical character is by no means invariably See also:felt. It will, however, be well to notice some of the methods here. (a) Among the Dieri of Central Australia the whole tribe takes part in the ceremony ; a hole is dug, and over this a hut is built, large enough for the old men; the See also:women are called to look at it and then retire some five See also:hundred yards. Two wizards have their arms bound at the shoulder, the old men huddle in the hut, and the See also:principal wizard bleeds the two men selected by cutting them inside the See also:arm below the See also:elbow. The blood is made to flow on the old men, and the two men throw handfuls of down into the See also:air. The blood symbolizes the rain ; the down is the clouds. Then two large stones are placed in the middle of the hut; these two represent gathering clouds. The women are again summoned, and then the stones are placed high in a tree; other men See also:pound See also:gypsum and throw it into a water-hole; the ancestral spirits are supposed to see this and to send rain. Then the hut is knocked down, the men butting at it with their heads; this symbolizes the breaking of the clouds, and the fall of the hut is the rain. I f no rain comes they say that another tribe has stopped their power or that the Mura-mura (ancestors) are angry with them. (b) Rain-making ceremonies are far from uncommon in Europe. Sometimes water is poured on a stone; a See also:row of stepping-stones runs into one of the tarns on See also:Snowdon, and it is said that water thrown upon the last one will cause rain to fall before See also:night. Sometimes the images of See also:saints are carried to a river or a See also:fountain and ducked or sprinkled with water in the belief that rain will follow; sometimes rain is said to ensue when the water of certain springs is troubled; perhaps the idea is that the rain-god is disturbed in his haunts. But perhaps the commonest method is to See also:duck or drench a human figureor puppet, who represents in many instances the vegetation demon. The See also:gipsies of Transylvania celebrate the festival of " See also:Green George " at See also:Easter or on St George's Day; a boy dressed up in leaves and blossoms is the principal figure; he throws grass to the See also:cattle of the tribe, and after various other ceremonies a pretence is made of throwing him into the water; but in fact only a puppet is ducked in the stream. Negative Magic.—There is also a negative side to magic, which, together with ritual prohibitions of a religious nature, is often embraced under the name of taboo (q.v.); this See also:extension of meaning is not justified, for taboo is only concerned with sacred things, and the See also:mark of it is that its violation causes the taboo to be transmitted. All taboos are ritual prohibitions, but all ritual prohibitions are not taboos; they include also (a) interdictions of which the See also:sanction is the wrath of a god; these may be termed religious interdictions; (b) interdictions, the violation of which will automatically cause some undesired magico-religious effect; to these the term negative magic should be restricted, and they might conveniently be called " bans "; they correspond in the See also:main to positive rites and are largely based on the same principles. (a) Certain prohibitions, such as those imposed on totem kins, seem to occupy an intermediate place; they depend on the sanctity of the totem animal without being taboos in the strict sense ; to them no positive magical rites correspond, for the totemic prohibition is clearly religious, not magical. (b) Among cases of negative magic may be mentioned (i.) the couvade, and prohibitions observed by parents and relatives generally; this is most common in the case of See also:young See also:children, but a sympathetic relation is held to exist in other cases also. In Madagascar a son may not eat fallen bananas, for the result would be to cause the death of his own father; the sympathy between father and son establishes a sympathy between the father and objects touched or eaten by the son, and, in addition, the fall of the bananas is equated with the death of a human being. Again, the wife of a Malagasy warrior may not be faithless to him when he is absent; if she is, he will be killed or wounded. Ownership, too, may create a sympathetic relation of this kind, for it is believed fn parts of Europe that if a man kills a See also:swallow his cows will give bloody See also:milk. In some cases it is even harder to see how the sympathetic bond is established; some Indians of See also:Brazil always hamstring animals before bringing them See also:home, in the belief that by so doing they make it easier for themselves and their children to run down their enemies, who are then magically deprived of the use of their legs. These are all examples of negative magic with regard to persons, but things may be equally affected; thus in See also:Borneo men who See also:search for camphor abstain from washing their plates for fear the camphor, which is found crystallized in the crevices of trees, should dissolve and disappear. (ii.) Rules which regulate See also:diet exist not only for the benefit of others but also for that of the eater. Some animals, such as the See also:hare, are forbidden, just as others, like the See also:lion, are prescribed; the one produces cowardice, while the other makes a man's heart bold. (iii.) Words may not be used; Scottish fishermen will not mention the See also:pig at sea; the real names of certain animals, like the bear, may not be used; the names of the dead may not be mentioned; a sacred language must be used, e.g. camphor language in the Malay peninsula, or only words of good See also:omen (cf. Gr. EbCA77g T ) ; or absolute silence must be preserved. Personal names are concealed; a man may not mention the names of certain relatives, &c. There are customs of avoidance not only as to (iv.) the names of relatives, but as to the persons themselves; the See also:mother-in-law must avoid the son-in-law, and vice versa; sometimes they may converse at a distance, or in See also:low tones, sometimes not at all, and sometimes they may not even meet. (v.) In addition to these few classes selected at See also:random, we have prohibitions See also:relating to numbers (cf. unlucky thirteen, which is, however, of See also:recent date), the calendar (See also:Friday as an unlucky day, May as an unlucky month for See also:marriage), places, persons, See also:orientation, &c; but it is impossible to enumerate even the main classes. The individual origin of such beliefs, which with us form the superstitions of daily life but in a savage or semi-civilized community See also:play a large part in regulating conduct, is often shrouded in darkness; the meaning of the positive rite is easily forgotten; the negative rite persists, but it is observed merely to avoid some unknown misfortune. Sometimes we can, however, guess at the meaning of our civilized notions of See also:ill See also:luck; it is perhaps as a survival of the savage belief that stepping over a person is injurious to him that many people regard going under a See also:ladder as unlucky; in the one case the luck is taken away by the person stepping over, in the other See also:left behind by the person passing under. History of Magic.—The subject is too vast and our data are too slight to make a general See also:sketch of magic possible. Our knowledge of See also:Assyrian magic, for example, hardly extends beyond the rites of See also:exorcism; the magic of Africa is most inadequately known, and only in recent years have we well-analysed repertories of magical rituals from any part of the world. For certain departments of ancient magic, however, like the See also:Pythagorean philosophy, there is no lack of illustrative material; it depended on mystical speculations based on numbers or analogous principles. The importance of numbers is recognized in the magic of America and other areas, but the science of the Mediterranean area, combined with the art of See also:writing, was needed to develop such mystical ideas to their full extent. Among the neo-Platonists there was a strong tendency to magical See also:speculation, and they sought to impress into their service the demons with which they peopled the universe. See also:Alexandria was the home of many systems of theurgic magic, and gnostic gems afford evidence of the nature of their symbols. In the middle ages the respectable branches of magic, such as astrology and alchemy, included much of the real science of the period; the rise of Christianity introduced a new element, for the Church regarded all the religions of the See also:heathen as dealings with demons and therefore magical (see WITCHCRAFT). In our own day the occult sciences still find devotees among the educated; certain elements have acquired a new interest, in so far as they are the subject matter of psychical See also:research (q.v.) and spiritualism (q.v.). But it is only among what are regarded as the lower classes, and in See also:England especially the rural See also:population, that belief in its efficacy still prevails to any large extent. Psychology of Magic.—The same causes which operated to produce a belief in witchcraft (q.v.) aided the creed of magic in general. Fortuitous coincidences attract attention; the failures are disregarded or explained away. Probably the magician is never wholly an impostor, and frequently has a whole-hearted belief in himself; in this connexion may be noted the fact that juggling tricks have in all ages been passed off as magical; the name of " conjuring " (q.v.) survives in our own day, though the conjurer no longer claims that his mysterious results are produced by demons. It is interesting to note that magical leechcraft depended for its success on the power of suggestion (q.v.), which is to-day a recognized element in medicine; perhaps other elements may have been instrumental in producing a cure, for there are cases on See also:record in which European patients have been cured by the apparently meaningless performances of medicine-men, but an adequate study of savage medicine is still a desideratum. I05-159. See also bibliography to TABOO and WITCHCRAFT. (N. W. Additional information and CommentsThere are no comments yet for this article.
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