ABSTRACT
The varying ideas of spirits and gods formed by man in the course of evolution may be of great psychological interest, but, at this formation, the intellectual faculties of the human mind mainly have been at work, whereas it is in rites and observances that religious sentiment can be most clearly seen. The practical religion of primitive peoples consists partly in the magical rites directed to the control of demons who cause disease and death and other evils, partly in a worship of nature-spirits or spirits of dead ancestors in which the magical element may be more or less strongly represented. Where a cult connected with “Supreme Being” is found, it falls as a rule into the category of “ancestor worship”. The cult of the dead will be considered separately later. This chapter deals with other spiritual beings who, whether in origin disembodied souls or not, are at any rate conceived as supernatural beings of a more general character.
