rshipers had satiated themselves with lamentations over the death
of the god then the priest would go round anointing them with oil and
whispering, "Be of good cheer, O Neophytes of the new-arisen God, for to
us too from our pains shall come salvation." (4)

(1) According to accounts of the Wiradthuri tribe of Western
Australia, in their initiations, the lads were frightened by a large
fire being lighted near them, and hearing the awful sound of the
bull-roarers, while they were told that Dhuramoolan was about to burn
them; the legend being that Dhuramoolan, a powerful being, whose voice
sounded like thunder, would take the boys into the bush and instruct
them in all the laws, traditions and customs of the community. So he
pretended that he always killed the boys, cut them up, and burnt them to
ashes, after which he moulded the ashes into human shape, and restored
them to life as new beings. (See R. H. Matthews, "The Wiradthuri
tribes," Journal Anthrop. Inst., vol. xxv, 1896, pp. 297 sq.)

(2) See Catlin's North-American Indians, vol. i, for initiations
and ordeals among the Mandans.

(3) De Errore, c. 22.

(4) [gr Qarreite, mustai ton qeou seswsmenou,]
[gr Estai gar hmin ek ponwn swthria.]

It would seem that at some very early time in the history of tribal and
priestly initiations an attempt was made to impress upon the neophytes
the existence and over-shadowing presence of spiritual and ghostly
beings. Perhaps the pains endured in the various ordeals, the long
fastings, the silences in the depth of the forests or on the mountains
or among the ice-floes, helped to rouse the visionary faculty.
The developments of this faculty among the black and colored
peoples--East-Indian, Burmese, African, American-Indian, etc.--are well
known. Miss Alice Fletcher, who lived among the Omaha Indians for thirty
years, gives a most interesting account (1) of the general philosophy
of that people and their rites of initiation. "The Omahas regard all
animate and inanimate forms, all phenomena, as pervaded by a common
life, which was continuous with and similar to the will-power they were
conscious of in themselves. This mysterious power in all things they
called Wakonda, and through it all things were related to man and
to each other. In the idea of the continuity of life a relation was
maintained between the seen and the unseen, the dead and the living,
and also between the fragment of anything and its entirety." (2) Thus an