up the sorcerers and
sorceress!' It is the gods that are prayed to that the word of the
sorceress 'shall turn back to her own mouth; may the gods of might
smite her in her magic; may the magic which she has worked be crumbled
like salt.'

Thus these Maklu petitions are not counter-spells, as at first sight
they may appear; nor are they properly to be treated as being
themselves spells for the purpose of counteracting magic. They are in
form and in fact prayers to the gods 'to undo the spell' and 'to force
back the words' of the witch into her own mouth. But though in the
form in which these Maklu petitions are preserved to us, they appear
as prayers to the gods, and not as spells, or counter-spells; it is
true, and important to notice, that, in some cases, the sentences in
the optative mood seem quite detachable from the invocation of the
gods. Those sentences may apparently have stood, at one time, quite
well by themselves, and apart from any invocation of the gods; that
is to say, they may originally have been spells or counter-spells, and
only subsequently have been incorporated into prayers addressed to the
gods.

Let us then assume that this was the case with some of these Maklu
petitions, and let us consider what is implied when we make the
assumption. What is implied is that there are some wishes, for
instance those embodied in these Maklu petitions, which may be
realised by means of spells, or may quite appropriately be preferred
to the gods of the community. Such are wishes for the well-being of
the individual worshipper and for the defeat of evil-doers who would
do or are doing him wrong. When it is recognised that individuals--as
well as the community--may come with their plaints before the gods of
the community, the functions of those gods become enlarged, for they
are extended to include the protection of individual members of the
community, as well as the protection of the community, as such; and
the functions of the community's gods are thus extended and enlarged,
because the members of the community have become, in some degree,
individuals conscious of their individuality. The importance, for the
science of religion, of this development of self-consciousness is that
the consciousness of self must be realised before self can
consciously be abandoned, that is before self-will can be consciously
surrendered.

As is shown by the Maklu petitions, there may come, in the course of
the evolution of religio