bylonians gave the same name (_shedu_) to a class of demons proper and
to the divine or half-divine winged beings (to which, apparently, the
Hebrew cherubs are allied) that guarded the entrances to temples, sacred
gardens, and palaces.[1547] The Navaho beings called _yei_ and _anaye_
seem to hover on the border line between the divine and the demonic
classes.[1548] The difference between the two seems to be merely that
the one class (the gods) has been adopted (for reasons not originally
ethical) into the human community, while the other has not received such
adoption.[1549] In such a case a given figure may easily pass from one
class into the other. According to the Thompson River folk-lore the sun
was once a cannibal but became beneficent.[1550] The early Christians
converted the Graeco-Roman gods (_daimonia_) into "demons."[1551] There
being this fluid relation between supernatural beings, it is not strange
that such a relation should exist between procedures intended to act on
them.[1552]

+891+. Magic, as we have seen, is based on the observation of sequences,
and before the development of reflection and the acquisition of a
knowledge of natural law the disposition of human beings is to regard
all sequences as exhibiting the relation of cause and effect. A typical
example is that of the anchor driven ashore, a piece of which was broken
off by a man who died soon after; the conclusion was that the anchor
caused his death and therefore was divine, and accordingly it received
religious worship.[1553] In the course of ages thousands of such
sequences must have been observed, and these, handed down from one
generation to another, would shape themselves into a handbook of magic.
They would, however, be constantly reexamined and sifted under the
guidance of wider experience and a better acquaintance with natural
causes, and this process, carried on by experts, would give rise to the
science of magic as we find it among lower tribes.

Magic, like religion, is a social product. The two, as is remarked
above, may coexist in the same community. But when a State religion is
established to which all citizens are expected to conform, the pursuit
of magic assumes the aspect of departure from, and hostility to, the
tribal or national cult. It is then under the ban, and can be carried on
only in secret[1554] (as is the case with prohibited religions also).
Secrecy of practice is not of the essence of magic; among the Australian
Ar