olds that a fetish is regarded, by believers in fetish, as a material
object and nothing more: everyone recognises that the material object
to which the term is applied is regarded as the habitation of a
spiritual being. The material object in question is to the fetish what
the idol of a god is to a god. If the material object, through which,
or in which, the fetish-spirit manifests itself, bears no resemblance
to human form, neither do the earliest stocks or blocks in which gods
manifest themselves bear any resemblance to human form. Such unshaped
stocks do not of themselves tell us whether they are fetishes or gods
to their worshippers. The test by which the student of the science of
religion determines the question is a very simple one: it is, who
worships the object in question? If the object is the private property
of some individual, it is fetish; if it is worshipped by the community
as a whole, it, or rather the spirit which manifests itself therein,
is a god of the community. The functions of the two beings differ
accordingly: the god receives the prayers of the community and has
power to grant them; the fetish has power to grant the wishes of the
individual who owns it. The consequence of this difference in function
is that as the wishes of the individual may be inconsistent with the
welfare of other members of the community; as the fetish may be, and
actually is, used to procure injury and death to other members of the
community; a fetish is anti-social and a danger to the community,
whereas a god of the community is there expressly as a refuge and a
help for the community. The fetish fulfils the desires of the
individual, the self; the god listens to the prayers of the community.

Let us now return to that stage in the evolution of the community
when, as yet, neither the language nor the thought of the community
had discovered or discriminated the existence of the individual self.
If at that stage there was in the common consciousness any idea,
however dim or confused, of powers superior to man; if that idea was
accompanied or coloured by any emotion, whether of fear or awe or
reverence; if that emotion prompted action of any kind; then, such
powers were not conceived to be fetishes, for the function of a fetish
is to fulfil the desires of an individual self; and until the
existence of the individual self is realised, there is no function for
a fetish to perform.

It may well be that the gradual development