ker and deals with each phenomenon as it presents itself, and
particularly as it shows itself to be connected with his interests. He
is constantly on the alert to distinguish between the profitable and the
unprofitable, the helpful and the injurious. He himself is the center of
his whole scientific and religious system, and the categories into which
he divides all things are determined by his own sense of
self-interest.[428]

+228+. It is often by accident that one object or another displays
itself as helpful or harmful, just as, in a later and higher form of
religious belief, a theophany is often, as to time and place, a matter
of accident. Indeed, most manifestations of extrahuman power in the
earliest times may be said to come to man incidentally, since he does
not generally demand them from the gods or make experiments in order to
discover them. But in the nature of the case many things meet him as to
which he is obliged to use judgment, and of these a certain number
appear to him to be powerful.

+229+. These objects are held by him to be in some sort akin to man.
This seems to be his view of certain dead things in which a mysterious
power is held to reside. When such objects are parts of animals (bones,
feathers, claws, tails, feet, fat, etc.), or of vegetables that are used
as charms, it may be supposed that they simply retain the power resident
in the objects of which they are parts--objects originally living and
sacred. In other cases an indwelling supernatural being is assumed, as,
for example, in minerals whose shape and color are remarkable.

+230+. Fetish objects in West Africa are believed to be inhabited by
spirits.[429] The Australian sacred object called _churinga_--a thing
of mysterious potency--is believed to be the abode of the soul of an
ancestor endowed with extraordinary power. Many such fetish objects are
found all over the world.

+231+. Further, the conception of a life-force, existing in many things
(perhaps in all things), appears to have been prominent in savage
religious systems. Life implies power; but while it is held to reside in
all things, its manifestations vary according to the relations between
things and human needs. The life-force in its higher manifestations has
been isolated in thought by some more advanced savages, especially in
North America and Polynesia, and has been given a definite name; in
Polynesia and Melanesia it is called _mana_, and other names for it
occur elsew