ocesses of
work. (Karl Bucher, "Arbeit und Rhythmus", Leipzig (3rd edition), 1902,
passim.) Repetition, regular and frequent, constitutes rhythm and rhythm
heightens the sense of will power in action. Rhythmical action may even,
as seen in the dances of Dervishes, produce a condition of ecstasy.
Ecstasy among primitive peoples is a condition much valued; it is often,
though not always, enhanced by the use of intoxicants. Psychologically
the savage starts from the sense of his own will power, he stimulates
it by every means at his command. Feeling his will strongly and knowing
nothing of natural law he recognises no limits to his own power; he
feels himself a magician, a god; he does not pray, he WILLS. Moreover
he wills collectively (The subject of collective hallucination as an
element in magic has been fully worked out by MM. Hubert and Mauss.
"Theorie generale de la Magie", In "L'Annee Sociologique", 1902--3, page
140.), reinforced by the will and action of his whole tribe. Truly of
him it may be said "La vie deborde l'intelligence, l'intelligence c'est
un retrecissement." (Henri Bergson, "L'Evolution Creatrice", page 50.)

The magical extension and heightening of personality come out very
clearly in what are rather unfortunately known as MIMETIC dances. Animal
dances occur very frequently among primitive peoples. The dancers
dress up as birds, beasts, or fishes, and reproduce the characteristic
movements and habits of the animals impersonated. (So characteristic is
this impersonation in magical dancing that among the Mexicans the
word for magic, navali, means "disguise." K. Th. Preuss, "Archiv f.
Religionswissenschaft", 1906, page 97.) A very common animal dance is
the frog-dance. When it rains the frogs croak. If you desire rain you
dress up like a frog and croak and jump. We think of such a performance
as a conscious imitation. The man, we think, is more or less LIKE a
frog. That is not how primitive man thinks; indeed, he scarcely thinks
at all; what HE wants done the frog can do by croaking and jumping, so
he croaks and jumps and, for all he can, BECOMES a frog. "L'intelligence
animale JOUE sans doute les representations plutot qu'elle ne les
pense." (Bergson, "L'Evolution Creatrice", page 205.)

We shall best understand this primitive state of mind if we study
the child "born in sin." If a child is "playing at lions" he does not
IMITATE a lion, i.e. he does not consciously try to be a thing more or
less like a