daily life of those hideous spectres of superstition such as served to guide the pitiful gropings of the intellectual and moral life of Europe three centuries ago. The man who should speak lightly of necromancy or deny the existence of spirits of every shade of malignity presiding over the affairs of society, or question the propriety of cutting off the heads of sorcerers, would be, in the ordinary affairs of life, untrustworthy, in religion a heretic, and in legislation a candidate for the honor of decapitation. Average Laos credulity—and the Laos are all average—will accept any absurdity, however monstrous, provided only it be supernatural. Consequently, any operation of nature outside of the most ordinary is satisfactorily accounted for by reference to some demon or spirit, or some other equally plausible account is given in explanation of the phenomenon. So the uprooting of a tree by a hurricane is the work of an enraged spirit; an earthquake is produced by an immense fish moving its fins; while a horde of demons preside over the mountains, the forests, the fields and streams. A special divinity is supposed to preside over each forest, and the hunter who collects the honey of the wild bee must make an offering to this divinity to ensure a good yield of honey. Indeed, almost every transaction of social or domestic life must be effected with direct reference to one or another of a multitude of spirits.
