of the divine presence by behaving in a strange way; he gapes, runs about, and performs a number of senseless acts. At first people laugh at him, but his sacred mission is in time recognised, and he is invited to assume his proper position in the state. this position is a distinguished one and confers on him Powerful influence over the whole community. In Some of the islands the god is political sovereign of the land; and hence his new incarnation, however

Generally

humble his origin, is raised to the same high rank, and rules, as god and king, over all the other chiefs.1 In time of public calamity, as during war or pestilence, Some of the Molucca Islanders used to celebrate a festival of heaven. If no good result followed, they bought a slave, took him at the next festival to the place of sacrifice, and set him on a raised place under a certain bamboo-tree. This tree represented heaven and had been honoured as its image at previous festivals. The portion of the sacrifice which had previously been offered to heaven was now given to the slave, who ate

and

drank it in the name and stead of heaven.

Hence

forth the slave was well treated, kept for the festivals of heaven, and employed to represent heaven and receive the offerings in its name. In Tonquin every village chooses its guardian spirit, often in the form of an animal, as a dog, tiger, cat, or serpent. Sometimes a living person is selected as patron-divinity. Thus a beggar persuaded the people of a village that he was their guardian spirit; so they loaded him with honours

and

entertained him with their best." In India "every

F. Valentyn, Oud en nieuw Oost

in Bastian's Allerlei aus Volks-und Indiën, lii. 7 sq. Kubary, "Die Religion der Pelauer," Menschenkunde, i. 30 $99.

Bastian, Die Völker des östlichen Asien, iv. 383.

king is regarded as little short of a present god." The Indian law-book of Manu goes farther and says that "even an infant king must not be despised from an idea that he is a mere mortal; for he is a great deity in human form." There is said to be a sect in Orissa who worship the Queen of England as their chief divinity. And to this day in India all living persons remarkable for great strength or valour or for supposed miraculous powers run the risk of being worshipped as gods. Thus, a sect in the Punjaub worshipped a deity whom they called Nikkal Sen. This Nikkal Sen was no other than the redoubted General Nicholson, and nothing that the general could do or say damped the enthusiasm of his adorers. The more he punished them, the greater grew the religious awe with which they worshipped him. Amongst the Todas, a pastoral people of the Neilgherry Hills of Southern India, the dairy is a sanctuary, and the milkOn being man (pâlâl) who attends to it is a god. asked whether the Todas salute the sun, one of these divine milkmen replied, "Those poor fellows do so, but I," tapping his chest, "I, a god! why should I salute the sun?" Every one, even his own father, prostrates himself before the milkman, and no one would dare to refuse him anything. No human being, except another milkman, may touch him; and he gives oracles to all who consult him, speaking with the voice of a god.'

The King of Iddah told the English officers of the Niger Expedition, "God made me after his own

1 Monier Williams, Religious Life and Thought in India, p. 259.

The Laws of Manu, vii. 8, trans.

by G. Bühler.

Monier Williams, op. cit. p. 259 sq. 4 Marshall, Travels among the Todas, pp. 136, 137; cp. pp. 141, 142; Metz, Tribes of the Neilgherry Hills, p. 19 sqq.

image; I am all the same as God; and He appointed me a king."

Sometimes, at the death of the human incarnation, the divine spirit transmigrates into another man. In the kingdom of Kaffa, in Eastern Africa, the heathen part of the people worship a spirit called Dedce, to whom they offer prayer and sacrifice, and whom they invoke on all important occasions. This spirit is incarnate in the grand magician or pope, a person of great wealth and influence, ranking almost with the king, and wielding the spiritual, as the king wields the temporal, power. It happened that, shortly before the arrival of a Christian missionary in the kingdom, this African pope died, and the priests, fearing that the missionary would assume the position vacated by the deceased pope, declared that the Dedce had passed into the king, who henceforth, uniting the spiritual with the temporal power, reigned as god and king. Before beginning to work at the salt-pans in a Laosian village, the workmen offer sacrifice to a local divinity. This divinity is incarnate in a woman and transmigrates at her death into another woman. In Bhotan the spiritual head of the government is a person called the Dhurma Raja, who is supposed to be a perpetual incarnation of the deity. At his death the new incarnate god shows himself in an infant by the refusal of his mother's milk and a preference for that of a cow. The Buddhist Tartars believe in a great number of living Buddhas, who officiate as Grand Lamas at the head of the most

1 Allen and Thomson, Narrative of the Expedition to the River Niger in 1841, L. 288.

G. Massaja, I miei_trentacinque anni di missione nell' alta Etiopia (Rome and Milan, 1888), v. 53 sq.

E. Aymonier, Notes sur le Laos,

p. 141 sq.

• Robinson, Descriptive Account of Assam, p. 342 sq.; Asiatic Researches, xv. 146.

When one of these Grand

important monasteries. Lamas dies his disciples do not sorrow, for they know that he will soon reappear, being born in the form of an infant. Their only anxiety is to discover the place of his birth. If at this time they see a rainbow they take it as a sign sent them by the departed Lama' to guide them to his cradle. Sometimes the divine infant himself reveals his identity. "I am the Grand Lama,' he says, "the living Buddha of such and such a temple. Take me to my old monastery. I am its immortal head." In whatever way the birthplace of the Buddha is revealed, whether by the Buddha's own avowal or by the sign in the sky, tents are struck, and the joyful pilgrims, often headed by the king or one of the most illustrious of the royal family, set forth to find and bring home the infant god. Generally he is born in Tibet, the holy land, and to reach him the caravan has often to traverse the most frightful deserts. When at last they find the child they fall down and worship him. Before, however, he is acknowledged as the Grand Lama whom they seek he must satisfy them of his identity. He is asked the name of the monastery of which he claims to be the head, how far off it is, and how many monks live in it; he must also describe the habits of the deceased Grand Lama and the manner of his death. Then various articles, as prayer-books, tea-pots, and cups, are placed before him, and he has to point out those used by himself in his previous life. If he does so without a mistake his claims are admitted, and he is conducted in triumph to the monastery.1 At the head of all the Lamas is the Dalai Lama of Lhasa, the Rome of Tibet. He is regarded as a living god 1 Huc, Souvenirs d'un Voyage dans la Tartarie et le Thibet, i. 279 sqq. ed.

12mo.