The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-09
ORIENTAL MAGIC
 AND FOLKLORE
A Learned and Interesting Account
 of Their Mysteries.

LuHuOh II
 At the British Muesum Mir. w, St. Chad Boscawen delivered the first of a course, the special subject being the Mature and Character of Oriental Magic" He commenced by saying that hitherto the character of magic had been misunderstood, and it's value as a record of the earliest intellectual progress of the human race unrecog- nized It was to Adolph Bastian that we owed the first concise definition ot magic as the physics of mankind in state of nature. Man in the earliest stages of his intellectual progress thai recognized the mutual connection which existed throughout all nature. and sought to control and direct nature to his own ends. Thus in the desire to obtain for himself supernatural powers, man developed magic. His first problem was that of self; to for- mulate some satisfactory theory Of his own entity, and then, reasoning by analogy, to form one applicable to nature. How early man commenced to study these problems we do not know. But the prehistoric bronzes in Egypt and other ancient seats of civili- zation showed that at that remote time man had advanced considerably in his studies. The placing of food in the tombs, as we'll as weapons and articles of adornment, seemed to indicate a theory of the soul and life after death and the discovery of amulets in the form of slate tablete representing animals. birds, etc.. showed that he had attained to an elementary stage of magic.
 One curious custom pointed to the application of the soul theory to inani- mate nature, in that all the funeral furniture, pots, etc., were broken, in order that, they being dead, their souls might minister to the soul of the de- parted. It was this creed of animism that formed the beginning Of religious life both in Egypt and Chaldea, and Of this creed magic was the ritual. But another important psychic element re- mained to be considered. In the early days of linguist development mystic power had become attached to the per- sonal names, and this idea was round among all primitive tribes and lay at the basis of totemism. The name was something more than a mere appella- ion: 1t was the ark of mans existence, the cause of his being, and the knowl- edge of it was a great power over him. It was the magic act in creation the "pronouncing of the name." In the papyrus of Nesi Amsu in the British Museum we read the words or the creator god Khepera, "I uttered my own name as a word of power (magic), and straightway l evolved myself. In another magical papyrus at Turin was a charm against snake bites. rms uame-fidden secret was no doubt the Ka. or soul name. of any person or power in nature and the knowledge or 1t imported supernatural power to the magician. In the knowledge of these names of power was the beginning or magic and its ceremonies.
 It was the Ka name that the deceas- ed answered when called to the funeral feast at "the going forth or the voice. of the Ka priest. The ka name was the same as 'the good name borne by every Egyptian, which he as- sumed in heaven, as in the earliest texts we read, "Pepi Is happy in his name" and the same idea survived, no doubt, in the new name" of the Apocalypse. As soon as the magician found that the herbs, or substances ne used as charms, produced a beneficial effect, he attained, as it were, ma teria medica, and magic grew mo medicine. AS soon as the aStrologer recognized a cosmic law and order Tn nature he passed from pseudo-science to astronomy. Mir. Boscawen then pointed out how the two great magi- cal systems of the old world-Egypt and Chaldea-had given us the begin ming of medicine, astronomy and mathematics-the former from Egypt the two-latter from Chaldea. In con clusion, the lecturer observed that magic outlived the old creeds because it was part of the literary and religious pabulum of the populace. and at the present day, under the guise of palmis- try and Christian Science, l. attracted those whose intellectual ennui called for a new stimulant.