MAGIC. The magic art is of ancient lineage and wide distri bution. Civilization even yet is not entirely devoid of all elements of magical belief and ritual. But for the savage magic is still a living reality, a serious practical means of commanding success in any critical human undertaking.
The importance of the magic art in primitive culture has pro voked an extensive theoretical discussion in which such authorita tive writers as Tylor, Frazer, Westermarck, Preuss, Hubert and Mauss, Marett, Lehmann, Lowie and Malinowski, have taken a prominent part. Sir James Frazer, in particular, in his great classical treatise The Golden Bough has formulated a distinct and coherent theory of magic on which all subsequent studies have largely been built. These various contributions have been re viewed by H. Hubert and Marcel Mauss, and by Dr. R. R. Marett.
As a preliminary, the useful distinction drawn by Sir James Frazer between magic and religion may be noted, its essence being that magic consists in the direct control by man of the forces of nature, while religion relies upon the propitiation of these and other higher powers.
(I.) The Sociology of Magic.—Magie, as Frazer has so fully shown, is not merely a type of belief or a piece of man's intellec tual apparatus, but an art in which theory and dogma at every step are translated into action. It is always a very practical affair. It has to bring rain to crops or game to the nets, to give stability to a house or lightness to a canoe, to inflict or ward off misfortune, disease or death, to win a loved one, to give skill in war, speed in travelling, beauty at the feast or the dance. It is distinctively a human art, in that it is practised only through man's agency and for his benefit. At the same time it involves a recog nition of the supernatural, a belief in the power of magic, wielded by man, to turn aside the normal operation of the forces of the external world. Its roots lie in the diversity of human activities; it is a way of handling the forces of nature, of bending them to man's will, of safeguarding his welfare and shaping his destiny.
Magic invests its practitioners with social power. In nearly all communities the magician is the one person who can be com pared with the chief in point of influence, prestige and authority. Magic thus acts as a force of social control. The important prac tices of the craft tend to be carried on largely by special experts, often constituting a distinct class in the community, and these, desiring to ensure the continuity of their knowledge, and prizing it as a thing of great value, transmit it only to their descendants. So magic is appropriated, forms the subject of well defined claims and privileges, and is handed down through families and clans in exclusive possession. The magic art is also of more purely eco
nomic interest, since its practitioners are usually remunerated by those who seek their services, while even the transmission of the lore is often a matter for compensation by a substantial pay ment. Magic on its traditional side is linked by mythology with the dim past of gods and heroes, with the origins of man, and the beginnings of the tribal culture. Legends of the miraculous deeds of ancestors bear witness to the power of the ritual, while their names are frequently cited in charm and spell.
(2.) Elements of the Magical Art.—As Dr. Bronislaw Ma linowski clearly shows, every act of magic is characterized by things said, things done, and a person officiating. Hence the spell, the rite and the condition of the performer are fundamentals.
(i.) The Spell. The spell, the uttering of words according to a formula, i.e., in a set order, is everywhere regarded as the out standing part of the magical act. In fact by some peoples the word for spell, as the Maori karakia or the Kiriwinian rnegwa, is used also to mean magic as a whole. The virtue of the magic lies primarily in the formula, which is believed to have been handed down from immemorial antiquity. Hence the insistence upon the correct recital of it, lest variation in the text render the magic of no avail. The customary rigidity of the formula does vary in dif ferent communities. Thus among the Polynesians any slip, any omission, any alteration of wording deprived the magic of its efficiency, and in the most important sacred ritual was thought to involve the death of the practitioner from supernatural causes. But elsewhere individual changes of wording within the main frame of the formula are permissible. Nevertheless, it is always well defined by tradition, variations are minor and of a customary kind, and no major extemporization is possible. Since the spell is in fact the backbone of magic, its language is naturally correlated with the aim of the ritual. There are constant references to ob jects or actions, the mention of which is supposed to influence the desired end. A Maori spell to give speed and grace to a canoe, for instance, speaks of the swiftness of a bird on the wing, the lightness of a sea-gull floating on the water, and gives the names of a number of woods noted for their buoyancy. Metaphor and simile are freely used, while onomatopoeic effect is introduced, as speed-noises or the wailing of the sea. References to traditional and mythological events are frequent, ancestral names are recited, and, coupled with the cryptic and archaic language in which the spell is often couched, are apt to render it obscure to any but those trained in this type of magical lore. Thus magic maintains its bond with tradition.