The fear of evil spirits, the fear of witchcraft, and the fear of malicious spiritual agencies have been the pests of credulous, fear-obsessed humanity in all the ages of its existence. The crusades, and religious wars have shown us the blight suffered by humanity, obsessed by the impulse of self-preservation and the fear instinct. _Fear_ or _pretended Love_ of the great spirit, under whatever name, is used for the avoidance of fears and evils. Sir E. F. im Thurn describes the Indian of Guiana as haunted by the omnipresence of malicious ghosts and spirits. “The whole world of the Indian swarms with these beings. If by a mental effort, we could for a moment revert to a similar mental position, we should find ourselves surrounded everywhere by a host of harmful beings.... It is not therefore, wonderful that the Indian fears to move beyond the light of his camp-fire after dark ... nor is it wonderful that occasionally the air round the settlement seems to the Indian to grow so full of beings, that a sorcerer is employed.” The Indians of Paraguay “live in constant dread of supernatural beings and if nothing else contributed to make their life miserable, this ever present dread would be in itself quite sufficient to rob it of most of its joys.” Professor Powell writes of the Indians: “The Indians believed that diseases were caused by unseen evil beings and by witchcraft, and every cough, every toothache, every headache, every fever, every boil and every wound, in fact all their ailments were attributed to such a cause. Their so-called medical practice was a horrible system of sorcery and to such superstition human life was sacrificed on an enormous scale....” Similarly, the malignant spirits of the Maori are “so numerous as to surround the living in crowds.” The Maori claims: “the spirits throng like mosquitoes, ever watching to inflict harm.” The Melanesian “sees himself surrounded at every step by evil spirits and their influences.” The Papuans “people land and sea with mysterious, malignant powers which take up their abode in stones and trees or in men, and cause all kinds of misfortunes, especially sickness and death.” The Bakua of New Guinea are in constant fear of spirits.... “Of forest spirits the number is infinite; for it is above all in the mysterious darkness, the tangled wilderness of the virgin forests that the spirits love to dwell.... The spirits are never bent on good, they live in evil places. At night-fall the native hears the voices of the spirits, they make inroads into human habitations, and drive man crazy.” In Java, the people are firmly convinced that “the number of spirits is innumerable, they are a source of fear and anxiety.” The natives of Sumatra are possessed of “fear of unknown powers.... Every misfortune bespeaks the ill-will of hostile spirits. The whole world is a meeting place of demons.” The Batakas “live in perpetual fear of evil spirits.”