In this way the dog came to be the sacred animal of the Parsees. The apple was among the first to fall into this category it was never eaten by the Levantine peoples.Ĩ8:1.4 (967.6) If an animal ate human flesh, it became a fetish. When plants and fruits became fetishes, they were taboo as food. Fire and water were also among the early fetishes, and fire worship, together with belief in holy water, still survives.Ĩ8:1.3 (967.5) Tree fetishes were a later development, but among some tribes the persistence of nature worship led to belief in charms indwelt by some sort of nature spirit. Many tribes had fetish stones, but few have survived as have the Kaaba and the Stone of Scone. Early man regarded shooting stars and meteors as indicating the arrival on earth of special visiting spirits.Ĩ8:1.2 (967.4) The first fetishes were peculiarly marked pebbles, and “sacred stones” have ever since been sought by man a string of beads was once a collection of sacred stones, a battery of charms. Volcanoes, but not mountains, became fetishes comets, but not stars. Objects connected with dreams were likely to be converted into fetishes. The same thing is true of the reputation of many medicines and the chance methods of treating disease. A man is sick, something happens, and he gets well. Belief in FetishesĨ8:1.1 (967.3) Primitive man always wanted to make anything extraordinary into a fetish chance therefore gave origin to many. And so the fetish cult eventually incorporated all of the primitive ideas of ghosts, souls, spirits, and demon possession. The savage does not necessarily worship the fetish he very logically worships and reverences the spirit resident therein.Ĩ8:0.2 (967.2) At first, the spirit of a fetish was believed to be the ghost of a dead man later on, the higher spirits were supposed to reside in fetishes. This doctrine of spirit possession is nothing more nor less than fetishism. 88:0.1 (967.1) THE concept of a spirit’s entering into an inanimate object, an animal, or a human being, is a very ancient and honorable belief, having prevailed since the beginning of the evolution of religion.
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