‘makes mythology mythological,’ as Mr. Max Muller says.  I was glad to have a predecessor in a past less remote than that of Eusebius of Caesarea.  ‘A briefer and better system of mythology,’ I wrote, ’could not be devised; but the Mr. Casaubons of this world have neglected it, and even now it is beyond their comprehension.’ {125b} To say this in this manner is not to ’admit that we have not got much beyond Fontenelle.’  I do not want to get beyond Fontenelle.  I want to go back to his ‘forgotten common-sense,’ and to apply his ideas with method and criticism to a range of materials which he did not possess or did not investigate.

Now, on p. 15, Mr. Max Muller had got as far as accepting Fontenelle; on pp. 197, 198 he burns, as it were, that to which he had ’gladly subscribed.’

Conclusion as to our Method

All this discussion of fetishes arose out of our author’s selection of the subject as an example of the viciousness of our method.  He would not permit us ‘simply to place side by side’ savage and Greek myths and customs, because it did harm (i. 195); and the harm done was proved by the Nemesis of De Brosses.  Now, first, a method may be a good method, yet may be badly applied.  Secondly, I have shown that the Nemesis does not attach to all of us modern anthropologists.  Thirdly, I have proved (unless I am under some misapprehension, which I vainly attempt to detect, and for which, if it exists, I apologise humbly) that Mr. Max Muller, on p. 15, accepts the doctrine which he denounces on p. 197. {126} Again, I am entirely at one with Mr. Max Muller when he says (p. 210) ‘we have as yet really no scientific treatment of Shamanism.’  This is a pressing need, but probably a physician alone could do the work—­a physician double with a psychologist.  See, however, the excellent pages in Dr. Tylor’s Primitive Culture, and in Mr. William James’s Principles of Psychology, on ‘Mediumship.’

THE RIDDLE THEORY

What the Philological Theory Needs

The great desideratum of the philological method is a proof that the ‘Disease of Language,’ ex hypothesi the most fertile source of myths, is a vera causa.  Do simple poetical phrases, descriptive of heavenly phenomena, remain current in the popular mouth after the meanings of appellatives (Bright One, Dark One, &c.) have been forgotten, so that these appellatives become proper names—­Apollo, Daphne, &c.?  Mr. Max Muller seems to think some proof of this process as a vera causa may be derived from ‘Folk Riddles.’

The Riddle Theory

We now come, therefore, to the author’s treatment of popular riddles (devinettes), so common among savages and peasants.  Their construction is simple:  anything in Nature you please is described by a poetical periphrasis, and you are asked what it is.  Thus Geistiblindr asks,