of approaching the
Powers appear in the material known to us, and these may be mentioned
without attempting exact chronological arrangement.

+1019+. One of the earliest methods of establishing a relation with the
Powers is by certain processes--acts or words. The most definite
example of a mere process is that found among the Central Australians,
the nature of which, however, is not yet well understood. They perform
ceremonies intended to procure a supply of food. It is not quite clear
whether these ceremonies are merely imitations of animals and other
things involved, or whether they contain some recognition of a
superhuman Power. In the former case they are magical, not religious in
the full sense of the term. But if they involve a belief in some force
or power with which man may enter into relation, however dim and
undefined this conception may be, then they must be regarded as
belonging definitely in the sphere of religion. A certain direct effect
is in many cases supposed to issue from ritualistic acts, a belief that
is doubtless a survival of the old conception of mana.[1832]

+1020+. In many cases efficacy is attached by savages to singing--the
word "sing" is used as equivalent to "exert power in a superhuman way."
It is not the musical part of this procedure that is effective--the
singing is simply the natural tendency of early man--the power lies in
the words which may be regarded as charms. A charm is primarily a form
of words which has power to produce certain results with or without the
intervention of the gods.[1833] In the form of an invocation of a deity
the charm belongs to a comparatively late stage of religion; but where
its power lies wholly in its words, it involves merely some dim sense of
relation, not necessarily religious. Obviously the idea of law underlies
all such procedures, but the law may be a sort of natural law and the
charm will then not be religious. Religious charms are to be sharply
distinguished from prayers; a prayer is a simple request, a charm is an
instrument of force.[1834] The history of the growth of savage charms it
is impossible for us to recover; it can only be supposed that they have
grown up through a vast period of time and have been constructed out of
various signs and experiences of all sorts that appeared to connect
certain words with certain results. There is no evidence that they came
originally or usually from prayers that had lost their petitionary
character, pe