Elude
Elude , transitive verb
[Latin eludere, elusum; e + ludere to play: compare French éluder. See Ludicrous.]
To avoid slyly, by artifice, stratagem, or dexterity; to escape from in a covert manner; to mock by an unexpected escape; to baffle; as, to elude an officer; to elude detection, inquiry, search, comprehension; to elude the force of an argument or a blow.
Me gentle Delia beckons from the plain,
Then, hid in shades, eludes he eager swain.
The transition from fetichism to polytheism seems a gradual process of which the stages elude close definition.