GENII, jeni-i, among the Romans, were protecting spirits, who were supposed to ac company every created thing from its origin to its final decay, like a second spiritual self. They belonged not only to men, but to all things ani mate and inanimate, and more especially to ,places, and were regarded as effluences of the divinity and worshipped with divine honors among the Romans and Greeks. Not only had every individual his genius, but likewise the whole people had theirs. The statute of the national genius was placed in the vicinity of the Roman forum and is often seen on the coins of Hadrian and Trajan. The genius of an indi vidual was represented by the Romans as a figure in a toga, having the head veiled and the cornucopia or patera in the hands; while local genii appear under the figure of serpents eating fruit set before them. Quite different are the genii whose Arabic name, Djinn or Jinn, was translated by the Latin term genius, for want of a better word, or from the casual similarity of the sounds. The Romans came to believe in evil genii who seem to have been little different from the good genii except in their intentions toward the person to whom each attached himself.
The idea of protecting spirits was not orig inal with the Romans and the Greeks, but has been held by most primitive races. Most of the tribes of American Indians believed that every one had his guardian spirit who played a very important part in his life. In India, Persia and Egypt the belief in guardian spirits was com mon; and the Mohammedans not only believe in personal guardian spirits but have classified them and given them various ranks and rulers. Christian theology made of the guardian spirit a guardian angel, retaining for the latter prac tically all the functions and powers of the genii of classical Greek and Roman times. Consult Bekker, •'Le Monde enchante' (Amster dam 1691) ; Conway, M. D.,