40 PROCEEDINGS OF THE ANATOMICAL AND ANTHROPOLOGICAL 



improbable, for example, that primitive man had a power of seeing or other- 

 wise being aware of supernatural beings which the cultured man or the 

 dweller in cities has lost. This would suppose not merely a change in the 

 degree of power but also a difference in the kind of power possessed by the 

 two minds. " These experiences of mine," says Dr. Wentz, " lead me to 

 believe that the natural aspects of Celtic countries, much more than those of 

 most non-Celtic countries impress man and awaken in him some unfamiliar 

 part of himself call it the sub-conscious self, the sub-liminal self, the ego, or 

 what you will r which gives him an unusual power to know and to feel 

 invisible or psychical influence. What is there for example in London, or 

 Paris, or Berlin, or New York, to awaken the intuitive powers of man, that 

 sub-consciousness deep-hidden in him, equal to the solitude of those magical 

 environments of nature which the Celtics enjoy and love ? 



" Are city dwellers like these, nature's unnatural children, wearing out 

 their lives in an unceasing struggle for wealth and power, social position, and 

 even for bread, fit to judge nature's natural children who believe in fairies ? 

 Are they right in not believing in an invisible world which they cannot con- 

 ceive, -which, if it exists, they even though they be scientists are through 

 environment and temperament alike incapable of knowing ? "* It is true that 

 the unceasing struggle for life, or for wealth, blinds too much that might 

 otherwise be visible, in the beauty of nature for example, but it cannot be 

 supposed to have entirely quenched a source of knowledge such as this theory 

 implies. 



The general rules regarding the evolution of belief by which we shall be 

 guided, are (1) that in the relation of customs to beliefs, and of both to myths, 

 legends, and fairy tales, it is almost, if not quite, invariably true, that custom 

 precedes the rest, that belief is subsequent to custom, and that legend and 

 myth are interpretations of belief or of custom : legends and beliefs alike 

 change more rapidly than the custom or ritual on which they are based ; 

 (2) customs arose in the course of the ordinary efforts of men to face the 

 difficulties of their environment to secure food, shelter, clothing, for them- 

 selves and their families, to avoid enemies and natural dangers, such as 

 storms on laud or sea. When a given action proved successful in any one 

 of these cases, the action itself being either instinctive or adopted in a series 



"The r'iiiry-faith in Celtic countries" : Oxford University Press, 1911. Intro'!, p. 20 and p. 27. 



