v BELIEF AND EVIDENCE 117 



existence of prehistoric man in an early stage of culture, 

 it was easy to believe anything as to human origins. 



It was the absence of methods of accurate observation 

 and critical inquiry, and the subservience of mind to 

 authority, that led to many fables and beliefs being 

 handed down as natural truths for hundreds of years. 

 Among such beliefs mentioned by Prof. L. C. Miall in 

 his Early Naturalists are : that the crocodile weeps 

 when it has eaten a man ; that the hedgehog sticks ripe 

 grapes upon its prickles, and so carries them home to its 

 children ; that the crab waits till the oyster gapes and 

 then puts a stone between the shells, so that he may 

 gnaw the oyster's flesh ; that an oar dipped into water 

 seems to be broken because of the swift moving of the 

 water ; that the chameleon feeds on air ; that during 

 the winter swallows lie hidden at the bottom of lakes 

 and rivers, two together, mouth to mouth, and wing to 

 wing ; that buried crabs produce scorpions ; that the 

 hind legs of the frog are formed by the splitting of the 

 legs of the tadpole ; that barnacles are transformed 

 into geese, goats are milked by the nightjar, and that 

 gryphons, harpies, phoenixes, rocs, and like legendary 

 creatures actually exist. 



Most of these beliefs probably had their origins in the 

 casual observation and hasty conclusion which are anti- 

 thetic to scientific methods of inquiry and thought. The 

 literature of the ancients is full of fabulous statements 

 and misinterpretations of natural things ; and many of 

 the paradoxes and fallacies contained in it persist to the 

 present day. 



The belief that when a horsehair is left in a stream or 

 lake for a little while it assumes life, and finally becomes 

 an eel, is an instance of an error due to superficial 

 observation. There is a species of thread-worm which 



