BEFORE proceeding to examine the various forms and channels
into which the naturism of these Delta people has flowed, it
will be necessary to obtain a thorough and comprehensive
grasp of that spiritualism which is the vital principle, as it is
the distinguishing feature of all Delta religion.

In using this word * spiritualism/' I do so advisedly and
in its most comprehensive sense i.e. a belief in the existence
of a world outside of and as opposed to the material, to which
the souls of people who have lived in this world are bound to
go, but not entirely irrespective of circumstances or conditions.

That, in connection with these natives, I am justified in
using this broader and more catholic signification in preference
to the narrower and contracted term of demonism, the follow-
ing pages will in themselves bear sufficiently conclusive testi-
mony. Even animism, which is undoubtedly an expressive
word, is not sufficiently comprehensive, or at least does not
altogether express the full and literal conception of these
natives regarding their belief. For, as we shall see, to them
the whole conception of this animating or vitalising principle
rests entirely on the question of embodiment, which, when
human, is known as the soul, or when confined to other forms
of matter, or to the natural elements, as the spirit, disembodi-
ment still implying the animating principle, but a unified and
entirely evil aspect of it.