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.But it can beproduced without a special process.A Fijian priest, inspired by Degei, explained the fact thus: My ownmind departs from me, and then when it is truly gone, my god speaks by me. Inspiration and possessionare practically identical with temporary incarnation, which reveals itself as supernatural knowledge orpower. This, says Frazer, is world-wide, and a good instance is found in the priests of Mangaia, who28 were called god-boxes, and delivered oracles. Bali and Cambodia supply similar cases. The idea, hesays, of a god incarnate in human form has in it nothing very startling for early man, who sees in aman-god or a god-man only a higher degree of the same supernatural power which he arrogates in perfectgood faith to himself. He distinguishes two lines along which the idea of a man-god is reached; firstly,the savage thinks a god can become incarnate in his own person; secondly, according to the world-widebelief in magic, a man-god of the magical sort is merely a man who has higher powers than other men,and from a sympathy with nature can control her.He adds that we cannot trace the distinction withprecision in practice. As to a corollary of this belief, Frazer observes: Miracles are not regarded at thisstage of thought as breaches of natural law.Not conceiving the existence of natural law, primitive mancannot conceive a breach of it.A miracle is to him merely an unusually striking manifestation of acommon power. In the Marquesas there was a class of deified men who could give and withhold goodharvests, and received sacrifices accordingly.Frazer regards the savage witch-doctor and sorcerer asembryo gods.Permanent incarnation is often ascribed to kings and chiefs, as in Fiji; I am a god,Tuikilakila would say, and he believed it too. So the kings of Raiatea, Tahiti, Loango, Benin, Fernando-Po and Quitera, the Inca, the Pharaoh, the Pontiff of Iraca, the Korongs of Pelew, the dairymen of theTodas, the princes of India and of the Battas, the chiefs of Iddah, the Hovas and the Betsileo, were alldivine persons, deified during their lifetime.Montezuma, himself divine, thought Cortes was an incarna-tion of Quetzalcohuatl.The Dalai Lama is worshipped as a true and living god, an eternal and heavenlyfather. The Chinese and Japanese emperors are familiar examples, the latter monarch, the Chitome ofthe Congo and the high pontiff of the Zapotecs, are peculiarly instructive types; with their mystic powersand responsibilities, they are beings whose every movement influences the course of the world.Naturallaw is here envisaged as the arbitrary expression of personality in its most exaggerated form.Yet thesepersons are not autocrats; in the most literal sense they are the servants and saviours of the people.Important in connection with Christian origins are the pontiff-kings of Asia Minor, who ruled great citieslike Zela, and divine incarnations, such as Attis, whose annual sacrifice was so conspicuous a feature ofthe religions of Western Asia.King and Priest, Man and God, all meet in this early notion of incarnation.It is well known that many Christian sects held that Christ was incarnate in every believer; a view whichoften comes to the surface in orthodox thought It is not I that speak but Christ who dwelleth in me. In the Apocryphal Acts one of the commonest motives of legend is the sudden transfiguration of a saintor apostle into a complete identification with Christ; in a moment of enthusiasm the believer stretchesout his arms in the attitude of Christ on the Cross, and becomes for the moment, feature for feature,Christ Himself.Similarly the Brahman who performs the regular sacrifices becomes one of the deities;he who is consecrated draws nigh to the gods and becomes one of them. In modern times self-styledMessiahs are as frequent as they were in the early centuries; the phenomenon is not always deliberateimposture, nor is it ever a survival, but is due to the same primitive ideas, working in an unbalancedand uncritical consciousness.As a rule man feels an instinctive need to include among his objects of worship some ideal ofwomanhood or motherhood.In Catholicism this want is satisfied by the Blessed Virgin Mary.The Greekshad their Mater dolorosa in Demeter.The Virgo cSlestis, Venus, Isis with the Infant Horus, are divinenursing mothers.Greek and Roman syncretised religion is full of such.Virginity is commonly ascribed tothese mothers.Al-Lat, the mother of the gods, was the great goddess of the Arabs; she was a virgin orunmarried mother, and was worshipped in connexion with her son Dusares.Cybele is a familiar classicalexample.Artemis was both virgin and mother.Many an ancient statue of Isis and Horus is to be found incontinental churches, playing the similar rôle of Mary and the Child Jesus.India has representations ofKrishna nursed by his mother Devaki.29 One of the commonest beliefs in all stages of culture is that of conception through intercourse withspirits.At Epidaurus, a temple-inscription states that a barren woman, in answer to her prayer, conceivedby the god Asclepius.In the Aru and Babar Islands women are afraid of the evil spirit Boitai, who is wontto take the form of their husbands.In Nias, a pregnant woman who has been seduced will assert that shewas ravished by a spirit.The belief in the virgin-birth of divine persons is widely spread.It is generally regarded by students asdue to a natural instinct for magnifying and investing with the marvellous the entrance into life of earth sgreatest men.To be born by the ordinary physiological processes would have seemed derogatory to theirdignity.Attis, Mithra, Buddha, and Krishna were born of virgins.Miraculous details were related of thebirth of Confucius, Laou-tze, Zoroaster, Plato, and Mohammed.The belief that Augustus was born of avirgin formed part of the divine apparatus which was connected with his worship soon after its institution.In lower culture the idea is frequent.Heitsi-Eibib, the Hottentot god, was born of a virgin, who conceivedby eating a certain kind of grass.In early thought no contradiction is felt in the belief that a man can havetwo fathers, one human and the other divine.This belief is seen in the cases of Hercules, Alexander andAugustus.Some savage races explain the birth of twins in this way; and we may compare the story ofHercules and his twin brother.The Central Australians, we are told, do not regard sexual intercourse asthe direct cause of conception; it merely, as it were, prepares the mother for the reception, and birth also,of an already formed spirit-child. They believe that the spirits of their remote ancestors went afterdeath into the ground at certain defined spots, and from time to time, as opportunity offers, enter intowomen who pass by, whereupon conception takes place and reincarnation ensues
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