* * * * *

For the moment we have to note that the Greek word for rite, _dromenon_,
"thing done," is not strictly adequate. It omits a factor of prime
importance; it includes too much and not enough. All "things done" are
not rites. You may shrink back from a blow; that is the expression of an
emotion, that is a reaction to a stimulus, but that is not a rite. You
may digest your dinner; that is a thing done, and a thing of high
importance, but it is not a rite.

One element in the rite we have already observed, and that is, that it
be done collectively, by a number of persons feeling the same emotion. A
meal digested alone is certainly no rite; a meal eaten in common, under
the influence of a common emotion, may, and often does, _tend_ to become
a rite.

Collectivity and emotional tension, two elements that tend to turn the
simple reaction into a rite, are--specially among primitive
peoples--closely associated, indeed scarcely separable. The individual
among savages has but a thin and meagre personality; high emotional
tension is to him only caused and maintained by a thing felt socially;
it is what the tribe feels that is sacred, that is matter for ritual. He
may make by himself excited movements, he may leap for joy, for fear;
but unless these movements are made by the tribe together they will not
become rhythmical; they will probably lack intensity, and certainly
permanence. Intensity, then, and collectivity go together, and both are
necessary for ritual, but both may be present without constituting art;
we have not yet touched the dividing line between art and ritual. When
and how does the _dromenon_, the _rite done_, pass over into the
_drama_?