HISTORICAL EVOLUTION OF MYTH AND SCIENCE. 165 



have confirmed the accuracy of their researches and 

 conclusions. The shadow cast by a man's own body, 

 the reflection of images in the water, natural echoes, 

 the reappearance of images of the departed in dreams, 

 the general instinct which leads man to vivify all 

 he sees, produced what may be called the reduplication 

 of man in himself, and the savage's primitive theory 

 of the human soul. Originally this soul was multi- 

 plied into all these natural phenomena, but it was 

 afterwards distributed by the mythical faculty into 

 three, four, five, or more powers, personifying the 

 spirits. This belief in a multiplicity of souls in man 

 is not only still extant among more or less rude 

 peoples of the present day in Asia, Europe, Africa, 

 America, and Polynesia, but it is also the foundation 

 of the belief of more civilized nations on the subject, 

 including our own Aryan race. Birch and others 

 observe that the Egyptians ascribed four spirits to 

 man Ba, Akba, Ka, and Khaba. The Eonians give 

 three : 



" Bis duo sunt homines, manes, caro, spiritus, umbra." 



The same belief is found among nearly all savages. 

 The Fijians distinguish between the spirit which is 

 buried with the dead man and that more ethereal 

 spirit which is reflected in the water and lingers near 

 the place where he died. The Malagasy believe in 

 three souls, the Algonquin in two, the Dakotan in 

 three, the native of Orissa in four. 



Since a fetish, strictly so called, is the incarnation 



