after carefully watching the natives during the
performance of their ceremonies and endeavouring as best we could to
enter into their feelings, to think as they did, and to become for
the time being one of themselves, we came to the conclusion that if
one or two of the most powerful men settled upon the advisability of
introducing some change, even an important one, it would be quite
possible for this to be agreed upon and carried out."

This passage is worth quoting at length if only for the admirable method
that it discloses. The policy of "trying to become for the time being
one of themselves" resulted in the book that, of all first-hand studies,
has done most for modern anthropology. At the same time Messrs. Spencer
and Gillen, it is evident, would not claim to have done more than
interpret the external signs of a high individuality on the part of
these prominent natives. It still remains a rare and almost unheard-of
thing for an anthropologist to be on such friendly terms with a savage
as to get him to talk intimately about himself, and reveal the real
man within.

There exist, however, occasional side-lights on human personality in
the anthropological literature that has to do with very rude peoples.
The page from a human document that I shall cite by way of example
is all the more curious, because it relates to a type of experience
quite outside the compass of ordinary civilized folk. Here and there,
however, something like it may be found amongst ourselves. My friend
Mr. L.P. Jacks, for instance, in his story-book, _Mad Shepherds_, has
described a rustic of the north of England who belonged to this
old-world order of great men. For men of the type in question can be
great, at any rate in low-level society. The so-called medicine man
is a leader, perhaps even the typical leader, of primitive society;
and, just because he is, by reason of his calling, addicted to privacy
and aloofness, he certainly tends to be more individual, more of a
"character," than the general run of his fellows.

I shall slightly condense from Howitt's _Native Tribes of South-East
Australia_ the man's own story of his experience of initiation. Howitt
says, by the way, "I feel strongly assured that the man believed that
the events which he related were real, and that he had actually
experienced them"; and then goes on to talk about "subjective
realities." I myself offer no commentary. Those interested in
psychical research will detect hy