Semitic magic : its origins and development

UNWITTING SINS. 191
Similarly, eating * unclean ' beasts demands only puri-
fication (Lev. xi, 40), and this can easily be traced to its
primitive source. The * unclean ' beast is the totem-beast
which it is nefas to kill or eat, except on great occasions,
but there is often nothing inherently unclean or dangerous
about its flesh to produce sickness. Hence, accidental
experiment probably showed the savage that the spirit
infection or divine wrath did not follow as a matter of
course if he did eat it occasionally, and nothing more
was necessary to cleanse him from this breach than puri-
fication. Doubtless many things, without fins and scales,
were capable of making him very sick at certain seasons,
but there are obviously many totems which are absolutely
innocuous.
A most important question in these ' atonements ' is the
meaning of the * unwitting sins/ and, as this seems the
best point to discuss them, we must leave the explanation
of the other special tabus until later.
There are surely a hundred sins or breaches of tabu
that a man may commit daily in all innocence without
knowing that he has actually broken any of the tribal
laws, notably in the matter of contagion. If he has
done these ' unwittingly,' how will he know when to
bring his piacular ofiering, and even then, what is the
particular reason for the sacrifice ?
There must clearly be some physical and apparent result
from his breach of tabu. This is certain, otherwise the
Levitical law would never describe the action prior to the
atonement as an * unwitting ' sin. Hence, by applying
a hypothesis of the connection of demons with tabu and
sickness, the obvious explanation is that the man falls
sick and is at a loss to know what he has done that