Themis, a study of the social origins of Greek ... - Warburg Institute

66 The Kouretes, Thunder-Rites and Mana [oh.
But before examining Magic it is interesting to note that this
CS£ ve : have seen to be the result of man's .notion
, nfthP 'sacred' which we have resolved into the fearful and
t jeetd inio external nature, is wide-spread amongJ—
Loples and has given rise to an instructive terminology. It *
Sed in examinSg this terminology that we best seize and h
~ i. ~? tKo '
snored We nave so tai iocuseu
the Protean shape ot the saraeu. <
jilnmiattention
on the Bull-Koarer because it is a singularly ilium
TatiTistance „f sanctity, and of a sanctity actually observable
"
Gi'ece b„t we must now extend the field of vision to a more
comprehensive sanctity as expressed in savage languages. Almos
ah savages have some word by which they express a force or
power wUch seems to them uncanny, something which arr ts
Their attention and rouses in them a feeling of awe. One or two
of these words will repay a closer investigation.
We betrin with the word orenda' in use among the Iroquois of
*\e beP a " 11
seems least mysterious,
North America, which m some , ^
ToTthtgfaTmrr -tonality, yet remaining impersonah
1S m you to feel and no
the medicine-man learns ft. secrete ot
^
Ore/ido ]s
nowise confined to man
£££„*>«** is preparing its
action. When a stoim is brewing
^
"trJZZZ r::: of mln it pJed against the
::i h
f t^
—£-£•£n-j ss
is pitted against that of another
£
^^ (
. E. S. Hartland, Presidential AMress to ^^f^TZnloX^
Association, York, 1906, p. 5, quoting J. N. B. tie
N.S. iv. p- 38.