ABSTRACT
Paganism is aptly described by the Germans as “natural” religion, in the sense that it is not artificial, but grows up unobserved and uncriticised, like language. Like language, however, it is contagious, and the gestures, local cults, and stories of wonders and visions, are seen and heard, as they are enacted or repeated, with a sense that some magic or numinous influence envelops them. But these cults are local and ritualistic; the myths that are suggested by them are freely varied, and essentially poetical and fabulous. The sources of these magic influences are represented sometimes as animals, sometimes as human beings, but always more elusive in their substance and apparition. They are therefore splendid subjects for myths and for oracular admonitions, representing secret fears or hopes of perturbed minds.
