an Ojebway Indian. “I well remember,” says he, “when I was a little boy, being told by our aged people that I must never point my finger at the moon, for if I did she would consider it a great insult, and instantly bite it off.”[1] The reason, therefore, why a German bites his finger after pointing at a star is to make the star believe that he is himself biting off the offending finger, and that thus the star is saved the trouble of doing so. Thus the Ojebway Indian is here the best commentator on Pythagoras.
Again, Pythagoras said: “Do not look at your face in a river.”[2] So, too, said the old Hindu lawgiver. “Let him not,” says Manu, “let him not look at his own image in water; that is a settled rule.”[3] Neither the Greek philosopher nor the Hindu lawgiver assigns any reason for the rule. To ascertain it we must inquire of the Zulus and the black race of the Pacific, both of whom observe the same rule, and can give a reason for doing so. Here is the reason given by the Zulus in their own words: “It is said there is a beast in the water which can seize the shadow of a man; when he looks into the water it takes his shadow; the man no longer wishes to turn back, but has a great wish to enter the pool; it seems to him that there is not death in the water; it is as if he was going to real happiness where there is no harm; and he dies through going into the pool, being eaten by the beast. . . . . And men are forbidden to lean over and look into a dark pool, it being feared lest their shadow should be taken away.”[4] So much for the Zulus. Now for the Melanesians of the Pacific. “There is a stream in Saddle Island, or, rather, a pool in a stream, into which if anyone looks he dies; the malignant spirit takes hold upon his life by means of his
