PRAYER (OF. priere, Fr, prWre, from ML. precaria, prayer. from Lat. precari, to entreat; connected with ()Church Slay. prositi. Skt. praeh, to ask, Goth. frah, I asked, OHG. foigi'n, Ger. Owen. AS. fripnau•, prow. Eng. fruit,, to ask). In its broadest sense, a verbal address made to a spiritual being. Such a communication usually embodies a petition, but may also contain con fession. apology. thanksgiving. tidings. explana tion. or meditation. From the point of view of comparative religion the main characteristics of prayer may be arranged under several heads. (1) rairersality.—It would seem that the act of prayer must he as general as belief in spirits, that is to say common to humanity, but this view has been contested. Lubbock maintained that lower forms of religion are almost independent of prayer. which, in his opinion, involves a belief in the divine goodness. Ile cited statements made by Park and Livingstone in relation to Africans. who were not inC111101 io offer petition to the deity, considering him too exalted to listen to hu man appeals. Other travelers have given similar reports concerning Bushmen, Eskimo, and other tribes. The African observers, however. seem to have bad in mind habitual worship of a nature similar to that practiced by Christians and Mo hammedans; at any rate, later writers have given abundant testimony to the frequency of prayer in heathen Africa. As to the greater deities, it is frequently held that they are inac cessible to ordinary persons, but should be ad dressed through the medium of an intercessor. Alinor gods, on the other hand, are open to ap peal from any quarter. Prayer is offered also to the departed souls of the family, who are sup posed to exercise a sort of guardianship over their kindred. In all lands, probably, hunters and fishermen entreat the particular patron of their craft, or the spirit which resides in the fetish they carry. Thus. African boatmen. while crossing a river, otter prayer to a crocodile as a divine being. In Australia also it is said that any person whosoever may approach the abode of a spirit, to whom is addressed information and advice, on which the latter is expected to act. From such testimonies it may be inferred that prayer. in a wide sense, is universal, and that supposition of its absence has arisen from preju dice, misunderstanding, or limitation of the prac tice to one familiar type. (2) Ethical Character. —The view is frequently maintained that in lower stages of culture prayer is quite unethical, and that only at higher levels does it encourage virtue and restrict vice. It. is indeed true that prayers of savages are usually direct and simple requests for temporal blessings, and it is thought to be only in early civilizations that we begin to find repentance for sins committed. Yet it may be doubted whether the beginnings of ethical prayer are not to he found in a much earlier social state.
It is at any rate certain that petitions of bar barians are by no means prompted simply by selfish considerations, hut, on the contrary, that these also are inspired by affection, sentiment, and sense of natural and spiritual beauty. Among American Indians, for instance, ceremonial pray ers are full of poetry, feeling for nature, and desire for communion with the gods. (3) Impre eation.—As prayer is employed in to obtain benefits for the pleader, so by a natural antithesis it is used to injure enemies, on whom it invokes the divine anger. This function of cursing is as ancient and universal as that of blessing. It is the regular business of shamans and medicine men to bring disaster on foes, cause their injury and death. blight their crops, and destroy their armies. In the same manner prayer is employed to undo the evil spirits, as in old Babylonian exoreistie formulas. (4) Formalism.—ln parts of Africa prayers addressed to the gods are not any stereotyped form, hut worshipers ask for what they desire in natural language, with a cer tain amount of added adulation, just as they might prefer a petition to a chief. Here prayer has not reached that stage of development in which it is always offered in certain formulas, which, becoming traditional. are after a time be lieved to possess some peculiar efficacy of them selves, and to be as it were incantations or charms. Yet it is likely that even in the most savage religions this process has already begun, and that prescribed or traditional prayers are ev erywhere to he found. (5) Posture.—The atti tude and gesture of prayer are conventional, and have greatly varied. The principles seem to be two: first, the closest possible contact with the being addressed; secondly, the adoption of such position as is considered to belong to a suppliant. The belief that the divine being resides in the firmament, widely spread in all periods and con ditions of culture, often causes the worshiper to raise eyes and hands toward heaven. This prac tice was common in ancient Greece; but the pos ture was affected by circumstances. In supplica tion at the altar, the hands might be made to touch the sacred relics or images; if the appeal was made to 'he powers below, the hands might be placed on the earth; the suppliant might em brace the knees of the statue, in the prescribed attitude of entreaty. The Roman veiled his head, either as a symbol of concentration, or for the purpose of shutting out ill-omened sights and sounds; he might bow the body or prostrate him self. Lifted hands, prostration, or kneeling, and covered head were also the attitude of prayer among the 'Jews. A common medheval position was kneeling with palms joined and hands ex tended; the folding of hands seems to have been of more recent adoption.