2i6 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



jackals have dragged the body towards the mother's 

 house, she considers it a bad omen, saying: " Ah ! 

 she is coming back that means another girl." But if 

 it be dragged away from the home, she is glad, saying : 

 "The brother will come." 1 Among the Andaman 

 Islanders every child conceived has had a prior 

 existence ; and " if a woman who has lost a baby be 

 about to become a mother, the name borne by the 

 deceased is bestowed on the foetus in the expectation 

 that it will prove to be the same child again, Should 

 the infant at birth prove to be of the same sex as the 

 one who had died, the identity would be considered 

 sufficiently established." 2 



The belief with which we are now concerned is 

 common in China, and stories are found in the liter- 

 ature of that country, of children who have remembered 

 and related incidents of their previous life ; and on 

 inquiry made the truth of their statements is said to 

 have been proved. " A dissolute son squandering the 

 possessions of his family and disgracing it by a licentious 

 and criminal life is often taken for a man who, being 

 wronged by the father or by some ancestor, had him- 

 self re-born as that son, thus to have his cruel ven- 

 geance. Conversely, an excellent child, which is the 

 glory of its family, generally passes for a reincarnation 

 of some grateful spirit." A tale is told of a father who, 

 while engaged in drowning a second unwelcome little 

 daughter, heard a voice from the water-tub exclaim : 

 " This is the second time you drown me ; but now it 

 is my turn to destroy both you and your sons." In a 



1 Mrs. Steel, Panjab N. and Q. i. 51. 



2 Sir R. C. Temple, Census of Ind. 1901, iii. 63 ; E. H. Man, 

 /. A. I. xii. 155. 



