2 34 Journal of American Folk-Lore.
who are left in the chaotic waters, and from whom come, first Seb and Nut, then Osiris and his race. As Shu and Tefnut are emanations of Ra, the latter is said to have become a trinity. Ra, mutilating himself, has left his sun-eye in the waters, issues to the earth, and makes for himself a new sun ; Shu and Tefnut follow him to earth, and bring to Ra his former eye. Ra weeps over it, and from the tears springs man. But Ra's eye is incensed at being superseded, and Ra is compelled to grant it the old place in his head ; now having two eyes, the double light from these lumi- naries burns the plants, and Ra is obliged to restore the withered vegeta- tion ; he then issues from the plants, and creates reptiles, good and bad. Thus the myth. A second version carries us on to the stage of mysticism ; Ra is now described as assuming the forms of Existence, hypostatized under the name of Chepera ; he is the Nine-in-One. The creation of life by self-pollution, and the divine pair, Shu and Tefnut, are alluded to in inscriptions from 3000 b. c. Wiedemann remarks that the origin of the myth is not from play on words, but from philosophical speculation. Egyptian religious thought not being fixed, the present scheme represents only one of many inconsistent speculations.
A. Haas offers interesting notices concerning Pomeranian beliefs respect- ing death and burial. Among the superstitions noted is that of telling the bees on the death of the owner of a farm. O. Knoop supplies a collec- tion of tales and beliefs concerning Pomeranian house spirits. M. Drago- mannov discourses on the " Taming of the Shrew," in the folk-lore of the Akraine. The volume contains an account of the persons chiefly con- nected with the Congress, and the address of Lieut. F. S. Bassett.
W. W. Newell
The Making of Religion. By Andrew Lang. New York : Longmans, Green & Co. 1898. Pp. 380.
A review of Mr. Lang's work would come late, were it not that the book has been the subject of discussion in recent numbers of " Folk-Lore." The author considers the modern science of the History of Religion to teach, that Man derived the conception of Spirit from reflection on phe- nomena of sleep, dreams, death, shadow, and experiences of trance and hallucination. Ghosts, thus obtained, became the first objects of belief and worship, and were gradually magnified into gods, of which, in the end, one became supreme ; on the other hand, from belief in the survival of the soul grew the notion of immortality. This system he proposes to study from fresh points of view. In the first place, he treats what he calls the X phenomena among savages, clairvoyance, crystalomancy, second-sight, demoniacal possession, and so on, giving examples to show the prevalence of similar experiences; he considers that their apparently supernatural character may have much to do with the theory of a separable soul, and ap- parently inclines toward a belief in the verity at least of the occurrences. The statements concerning the savage phenomena are not especially full, the account not undertaking to exhibit a complete view of the department. The second part of the treatise undertakes to supply a substitute for the
�� �
