1*8 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



either case he was believed to have been changed after 

 death into a pine-tree. 1 Dr. Frazer has marshalled a 

 number of arguments whence it is probable that Attis 

 was originally a tree-spirit. Perhaps we may go one 

 step further back and suggest that the worship was at 

 first that of a sacred tree, and that the connection of 

 this tree with a human being or an anthropomorphic 

 divinity was a subsequent development. 2 Be that as 

 it may, the legend as we have it, the worship as it is 

 recorded for us, implied a belief in metamorphosis as a 

 possible and actual occurrence consequent upon death. 

 This belief must have descended to classic times from 

 savagery. 



Already we have seen that the belief in metamor- 

 phosis of this kind arises in savagery. Like many 

 another belief equally baseless it survives under re- 

 ligious associations into higher stages of culture. 

 Of the belief and its survival I proceed to give a few 

 more illustrations, selected from an endless number 

 found all over the world. Nor shall I distinguish 

 between metamorphosis and metempsychosis. Before 

 this branch of the inquiry is closed I shall consider the 

 relation between such cases ; in the meantime we may 

 treat them as equivalent. 



The pious ./Eneas, beholding the gorgeous snake 



that crept from his father's tomb and tasted his 



offering, was at a loss whether to recognise in the 



reature the genius of the place or an attendant on his 



1 Frazer, Adonis, 163 sqq. ; the authorities are there collected and 

 discussed. 



2 So the sacred trees of many countries are believed to be dwelt 

 in by spirits, sometimes non-human, sometimes human. Annamite 

 sacred trees include examples of both (Anthropos, ii. 959). They 

 were probably sacred before they were thus haunted. 



