I

The aim of this Chapter is to show by a linguistic analysis of two magical texts, and by a general survey of a greater number, what sort of words are believed to exercise magical power. This, of course, does not mean that we are under the delusion that the composers or inventors of magic had a theory about the efficiency of words, and carried this theory into practice by inventing the formula. But, as the moral ideas and rules prevalent in society, though not codified, can be found out by analysing human behaviour; as we reach the underlying principles of law and social propriety by examining customs and manners; as in the study of rites, we see some definite tenets of belief and dogmas—so, in analysing the direct verbal expressions of certain modes of thinking in the magical formulæ, we are justified in assuming that these modes of thinking must have somehow guided those who shaped them. The exact manner in which we must imagine the relation between a typical way of thinking in a society on the one hand, and the fixed, crystallised results of this thinking on the other, is a problem of Social Psychology. For this branch of science we are, in ethnography, under the obligation of gathering material, but we need not encroach upon its field of study.

Thus much may, however, be put down, that, in whatever manner we might imagine a spell to have come into existence, it cannot be considered as the creation of one man; for as has been said before, if we examine any one of them, not with the eyes of the natives, but as outside critics, each spell shows unmistakable signs of being a collection of linguistic additions from different epochs. There is in practically every one of them a good deal of archaic material, but not a single one bears the stamp of having come down to us in the same form in which it must have presented itself a few generations ago. So that it may be said that a spell is constantly being remoulded as it passes through the chain of magicians, each probably leaving his mark, however small, upon it. It is the general attitude in matters of magical belief common to all of the successive holders which will be at the bottom of all the regularities, all the typical features found in the spells.

I shall adduce a formula of canoe magic and one of the spells belonging to the mwasila, choosing two texts of which a translation and a commentary of average quality have been obtained, and which show clearly the several characteristic features of verbal magic. Those who are not interested in linguistic technicalities and details of method, may omit the following division, and take up the trend of our argument at division XII.