Some of the theories of physical causation traditionally ascribed to Pythagoras are entirely of a piece with the practical rules which passed under his name. Thus, according to him, the air was full of spirits, which he called demons and heroes; the airy sounds from which men drew omens were the voices of the spirits;[1] and he said that when people heard the wind whistle, they should worship the sound of it.[2] Compare with this the view of the Esquimaux who live at Point Barrow, almost the northern extremity of the continent of America. “To them,” says an American officer who wintered among them a few years ago, “to them earth and air are full of spirits. The one drags men into the earth by the feet, from which they never emerge; the other strikes men dead, leaving no mark; and the air is full of voices; often while travelling they would stop and ask me to listen, and say that Tuña of the wind was passing by.”[3] Again, according to Pythagoras, the tinkling of a brass pot is the voice of a demon imprisoned in the brass.[4] A traveller in the Sahara was once informed by one of his savage escort that he had just killed a devil. It appeared that the devil was the traveller’s watch, which the savage had found, and hearing it tick, had concluded that there was a devil inside. Accordingly he smashed it by hurling it against a tree. This was in the desert, where it would have been unsafe to quarrel with his escort. So the traveller concealed his anguish under a smiling face till he reached the next town, where he took steps which rather damped the joy of that savage.[5] Yet the savage did no more than Pythagoras, if he had been true to his principles, might have done in the same circumstances.
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