[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

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MAGIC 689
enters as an essential into every magical act; you can call it
‘ magical force ', ‘ power ', ‘ necessary psychological state ’, or
what you will. It seems to me to he the sort of entity that, for
instance, sin is in the Christian ‘ heretical ’ sects.‘ (I do not know
about Catholicism, where I think sin is more a parallel of tabus
of the parent~in-law variety.) The obsession with this ' necessary
psychological state ' in magic seems to me to be the same sort of
thing as the obsession in conversion with such ‘ powers ' or ‘ psycho-
logical states ' as ‘ sin ', ' the sacred heart ’, and ‘ Jesus ' in
Christianity, and corresponding entities in other religions."
SICKNESS AND ITS TREATMENT
Nearly all sickness and all deaths from sickness other than
those of the vory old are attributed to non-physical causes.
The very old are believed to die because their bodies have grown
rotten with age. All minor ailments, such as light attacks of
fever, lasting for two or three days ; most, it not all, illnesses
arising from injuries such as a fractured skull or limb bone, and,
in Lambumbu, clcphantiasis are, apparently allowed to be
“ natural", though it may well be that the accident which led
to the broken bones is regarded as the result of malevolent magic.
Apart from this there are four main causes of disease: maleï¬Åcent
magic operated against the patient by some cnerny ; rnaleï¬Åcent
magic reacting on its performer through some carelessness on
his part ; the misfortune of coming into contact with anything
appertaining to or touched by a ghost ; and the offence of having
brokcn an important tabu, as for instance eating some prohibited
food. Of these causes the ï¬Årst two are, in native belief, by far
the most common. The only instance recorded of a sickness
resulting from a broken tabu is that of Livaghas, the wife of
Wulvanu, chief of Liiwag, who was cramped in such a way that
she could not move her legs, and was forced to crawl about on
hands and knees. This was the result, it was said, of her having
eaten coco-nut when it was tabued.‘ In Mewun, too, one man
avoided cutting wild taro and treated it somewhat as though
it were an individual totem, because he found that whenever he
did cut it he soon after developed boils or abscessa on his legs.
Mention has already been made of the fear which the
, i rt i3 possible um in relsrriiig to these "Christian 'herl:£i(‘Al' sects
Deacon l-lad in mind certain oi the sircallerl " heretical s‘o1:tS “ iii the Rflflfllflll
Greek Churcilr-——C. H. W4
1 It will be remembered that the me-liar, i'.!l1'0lgh its association with
Hambat, is of very great sanctity in Lumbumbklt-—-Ci H. w.
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