ABSTRACT
Among the unseen forces constantly engaging the primitive's attention, he is not likely to lose sight of the "dispositions" of the beings and things that surround him. He desires therefore, as a rule, to ascertain what these dispositions may be, and in this matter dreams, unusual occurrences, divination in its various forms all provide him with information which he takes care not to lose sight of. There is a wide expanse of hopes and fears before him, and, in practical matters, of innumerable forms of propitiation, entreaty, prayer, magical coercion, etc., and the primitive can nowhere escape it. This chapter examines in turn the way in which primitives act with regard to the dispositions of members of their own group, then with regard to those of the living beings and things around them, and lastly, with those of the dead, their ancestors and spirits.
