152 PRIMITIVE- PATERNITY 



country. In Yorkshire and Norfolk the same thing 

 is said of turkeys ; and it is reported from somewhere 

 in Siberia of the capercailzie. 1 No doubt it is a 

 widespread belief, founded upon a superficial observa- 

 tion of some of the habits of different species of 

 animals. 



As I have already pointed out, it cannot be asserted 

 that in every instance of the practices collected in the 

 present chapter pregnancy is believed to be caused, as 

 in the tales, by the means prescribed apart from sexual 

 intercourse. It is obvious however that even where 

 we cannot make this assertion the practices are in- 

 tended to have some effect. They must have origi- 

 nated at an early stage of culture when no clear notion 

 of cause and effect was possible, and when the distinc- 

 tion between natural and supernatural was hardly 

 drawn. At that stage man attributed to every object 

 in his environment, whether human or non-human, a 

 mystic potentiality, an atmosphere, which was greater 

 or less not always according to the actual qualities of 

 the object but according to his ignorance of it and his 

 hopes his fears his fancies concerning it. Hence his 

 relations with many of the non-human objects and 

 probably in some degree with all or nearly all of them 

 would be best described as religious or magical : they 

 would depend upon the performance of ceremonies and 

 the observance of ritual prohibitions and regulations. 

 We must not wonder therefore if we find ascribed to 

 many objects thaumaturgic powers and qualities we 

 now know to be impossible, and if to obtain the benefit 

 of those qualities and powers rites and observances 

 meaningless to us are deemed necessary. Among the 

 1 F. L. viii. 375 ; ix. 82. 



