gkras of the world. It was uni!# the influence of shdti a
sway that mental culture advanced among the Indo-Europeans,
as it had done in still earlier times among the Egyptians,
and that poetry and literature, and, in later timesj,
moral and physical sciences were developed. By poetry and
oral recitation memorials of the first ages of the world were
preserved until the invention of letters. When, afterwards,
literature had attained a certain degree of cultivation,
schools of moral-philosophy and of dialectics were formed
among the Hindoos and the Greeks, and, lastly, physical
sciences were cultivated by those nations as well as among'
the Etruscans and some other nations in the West.
Very different is the- history of the Allophylian races
Nearly destitute of any traditionary creed or doctrine, and
almost without recognised laws of morality, they*yet live
under a sort of instinctive religion, which consists in an
indefinite apprehension: of ills from the unknown agency
of retributive powers and unseen avengers. The dread of
some maleficent influence of material objects, underrthe
direction of a mysterious destiny, is the groundwork of
that superstition of fetisses which we have tracèd among
the native tribes of Africa, and on the same foundation, with
very little variety of developement, was formed; the Seha-
manism of the Siberian nomades. The best portrait of Scha-
manism that I have seen has been given by a Russian traveller
of great reputation. “ Schamanism,” says Baron von
Wrangell, “ has no dogmas of any kind; it is not a system
taught or handed down from one age to another: though
widely spread, it originates in every individual as the fruit of
a highly-excited imagination, acted upon by external impressions,
which are every where similar through the vast
wildernesses of northern Siberia. Shamans are not mere
impostors: they are persons born with excitable feelings
and ardent imagination, who grow up amidst a general belief
in ghosts, wizards, and mysterious powers in nature,
wielded by sorcerers. The youth conceives a strong desire
to partake in these supernatural gifts. No one teaches him.
His enthusiastic fancy is worked upon by solitude, by contemplating
the gloomy aspect of surrounding nature, by long
•.vigils, fasts, the use of narcotic drugs, till he becomes
persuaded that he has seen the shadowy beings who dwell
in the obscurity of forests and mountains, and whose voices
are heard in the winds of the desert. He then becomes a
Shaman, and is instituted with many ceremonies, which are
Jheld during the silence.of the night, and receives from his
order, tbeimagic drum. \ Still his actions are those of the individual
mind. A Shaman iS not a cool deceiver, but a psychological
phenomenon of a wonderful sort. When I have
seen them perform,” continues the same writer, “ they have
left a permanent gloomy impression on my mind. The wild
look, the blood-shot, eyeé, the labouring breast and convulsive
utterance, the apparently involuntary distortion of
the face and- body,: the streaming hair, even the hollow
sound of the drum contributes to this effect; and it may
welh be.imagined how the whole exhibition is regarded by
the rude spectators as thé work of goblins or unembodied
spirits.-^ " 1 ■"
Schamanism constitutes one chapter, and a very remarkable
one, mi th,e „history of humanrssuperstitions. It might
be termed the religion of nature, if the most degraded and
barbarised state of humanity were really the original and
natural one. It is that form of superstition which, is congenial
,>to. mankind when they have long lost or have as yet
not gained by art and skill a power over the physical elements,
and, like the inferior tribes of the creation, are still
their sport, and can only by a severe struggle maintain a
precarious existence../ Mental refinement begins with the
nomadic state, surrounded by fewer dangers and affording
leisure for reflection. With poetry and the culture of the
imagination mythology begins: the fierce spirits of the
storm become personified as gods of the firmament. Jupiter
and Indra, or even the Ilmarinen and Vaidamoinen
of the Finns* were a great advance on the indefinite and
monstrous conception! Minch terrify the wild Schaman and
his timid votaries. The tribes of; Siberia never rose far
above the rudeness of Schamanism. The festivals of the
Tanshu or emperor of the primitive Turks and the religious
rites of the ancient Ouigours, .as we have described them