two stones are removed and
deposited again in the cemetery: they have done their work by bringing
to maturity the fruits which they resemble. This again is a piece of
pure homoeopathic or imitative magic working by means of mimicry; but
the magical virtue of the stones is reinforced by the spiritual power of
the dead, for the stones have been kept in a cemetery and prayers have
been addressed to the souls of the departed.[538]

[Sidenote: The "stone of the sun."]

Again, the natives have two disc-shaped stones, each with a hole in the
centre, which together make up what they call "the stone of the sun." No
doubt it is regarded as a symbol of the sun, and as such it is employed
to cause drought in a ceremony which, like the preceding, combines the
elements of magic and religion. The sun-stone is kept in one of the
sacred places, and when a sorcerer wishes to make drought with it, he
brings offerings to the ancestral spirits in the sacred place. These
offerings are purely religious, but the rest of the ceremony is purely
magical. At the moment when the sun rises from the sea, the magician or
priest, whichever we choose to call him (for he combines both
characters), passes a burning brand in and out of the hole in the
sun-stone, while he says, "I kindle the sun, in order that he may eat up
the clouds and dry up our land, so that it shall no longer bear fruit."
Here the putting of fire to the sun-stone is a piece of pure
homoeopathic or imitative magic, designed to increase the burning heat
of the sun by mimicry.[539]

[Sidenote: Stones to make rain.]

On the contrary, when a wizard desires to make rain, he proceeds as
follows. The place of sacrifice is decorated and enclosed with a fence,
and a large quantity of provisions is deposited in it to be offered to
the ancestors whose skulls stand there in a row. Opposite the skulls the
wizard places a row of pots full of a medicated water, and he brings a
number of sacred stones of a rounded form or shaped like a skull. Each
of these stones, after being rubbed with the leaves of a certain tree,
is placed in one of the pots of water. Then the wizard recites a long
litany or series of invocations to the ancestors, which may be
summarised thus: "We pray you to help us, in order that our country may
revive and live anew." Then holding a branch in his hand he climbs a
tree and scans the horizon if haply he may descry a cloud, be it no
larger than a man's hand. Should he be fortu