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.There can be little doubt that there is a common tradition backof all these myths.Is it, however, the one and only mythologicaltradition of our species, so that we may expect to find that itsthemes and motifs have been coextensive with human thought?If so, then perhaps we should accept without further ado Bastian'stheory of the elementary and ethnic ideas.* But if it should appear,on the other hand, that this mythological tradition, though broadlydiffused and of prodigious import, is but one of many, or even oneof two, completely disparate traditions, then we must inquire whenand where it may have originated and what experiences or insightscan have brought it forth; likewise, when and where the othertraditions originated and from what different experiences or in-sights.Furthermore, with respect to this particular mythology, arewe to think of it as having been diffused, at some remote butdeterminable period of the past, from the centers of a highercivilization to Australia, where, on flinty soil, a regressive meta-morphosis reduced the imagery to its present form; or did a reverseprocess take place, the material being sublimated from its primitiveto the higher forms through centuries of progressive transforma-tion? Or does it represent, rather as some of the leadingtheological students of the problem have suggested the vestigesof a primitive Revelation vouchsafed to man at the commencementof his career on earth?An early theory of this kind was proposed in the first part ofthe nineteenth century by the Romantic philosopher FriedrichW.J.von Schelling (1775-1854), who claimed that man wascreated in the "Center of Godhead," where he beheld all things asthey are in God, which is to say, in terms of their essential order;and in this view there was no room or need for myth.But whenman had moved from this center to the periphery, his unity in the* Cf.supra, p.32.112 PRI MITIVE MYTHOLOGYcenter being gone, his vision was no longer superior to things, forhe had sunk to the level of being a mere thing himself; and it wason this level that the various polytheistic mythologies arose asuncentered man's dreams of his own lost state of being.Schellingbelieved, however, that man's original unity in God had beenimperfect, since in this state he had not yet had the experience oftesting his own freedom.Hence, the polytheistic mythologiesrepresent a stage (or rather, series of stages) in a historicalprogress toward the manifestation of the Second Adam in theultimate religion of Christ.In the heathen religions Christ isimplicit; in the Old Testament, prophesied; and in the NewTestament, revealed.Thus Christianity is innate in human lifeand as old as the world.82Such an idea could have been developed from a reading ofcertain passages of the early Church Fathers; for example, Tertul-lian's statement (c.160-230 A.D.) that "the soul is naturallyChristian" (anima naturaliter Christiana).But Schelling mightalso have developed his thought independently; for the phenom-enology that gave rise to Bastian's theory of elementary ideas hasbeen observed by many throughout the history of the intercourse ofthe races.Analogies even minute analogies exist far too numer-ously between the mythological traditions of the higher and lowercultures to be dismissed as the mere fall of chance; and thoseweaving a net of common strands between the Christian liturgyand such barbarous rites as those of our severely shaken Arandalads are particularly strong.Let us return, therefore, to themystery of their resurrection.When the boys have died their death to childhood and survivedtheir painful metamorphosis into incarnations of the originalandrogynous being, they are told that they have no further opera-tions to fear.There is one more extremely interesting event instore, however, when, following a season of some four full monthsof continuous dancing and viewing of the world-establishingmythological age of the cosmic "dream time," they will be shown in a very mysterious way a particularly important doubleTHE I MPRI NTS OF EXPERI ENCE 113tjurunga, after which they will be roasted on a hot, thoughsmothered, fire, and finally sent back to the women's camp to bereceived by their waiting brides as fully tested and warrantedAranda males.The great festival of initiatory rites at the conclusion of whichthe double tjurunga is exposed is known as the Engwura ceremony,and the detailed account of its pantomimes in the work of Spencerand Gillen occupies more than a hundred pages.The ceremoniesare conducted by a number of tribal groups, which have cometogether with some eighteen or twenty young men to be initiated,and the festal spirit, growing greater and greater from week to week,keeps the whole company, by some miracle of the gods, fromcollapsing in sheer fatigue.The daytime temperature at timesreaches a broiling hundred and fifty-six degrees Fahrenheit;83nevertheless, the rites go on unabated, and if anyone dies of sun-stroke the blame is placed on the black magic of some alien tribe.A supernatural being called Numbakulla, "Eternal," is supposedto have fashioned the original tjurungas, and then, by splittingthese, to have made pairs.The pairs were then tied together, onehaving a man's spirit and one a woman's, the two being mates.Andthe name of these double tjurungas is ambilyerikirra.84"The ceremonies," write Spencer and Gillen, "now became veryinteresting.The leader of the Engwura remained in camppreparing, with the aid of the men of his locality, a special sacredobject which consisted of two large wooden tjurunga, each threefeet in length.They were bound together with human hair stringso as to be completely concealed from view, and then the upperthree quarters were surrounded with rings of white down, put onwith great care, and so closely side by side, that when completethe appearance of rings was quite lost.The top was ornamentedwith a tuft of owl feathers [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]