282 PRIMITIVE PATERNITY 



next step of investigation therefore was to inquire 

 into the range and meaning of stories in which the 

 hero passes through series of transformations by means 

 of death and a fresh birth. These tales, like the 

 others previously examined, were found to be prac- 

 tically universal in their distribution, and in a very 

 large number of cases seriously believed. They were 

 inseparably connected too with widely extended 

 beliefs, often compendiously but not quite accurately 

 designated the Belief in Transmigration of Souls and 

 the Belief in Reincarnation. Both in the tales and in 

 the creeds (if creeds they may be called) it was by no 

 means uncommon to find that the new birth took 

 place independently of procreation by the union of the 

 sexes, and in no few instances by the mere volition 

 of the personage thus to be born again. 



These stories and beliefs amount together to a great 

 body of traditional philosophy, confined not to one 

 race or country but common to mankind. To all 

 appearance this philosophy must be based on ignorance 

 of the physiological law of reproduction. Ignorance 

 so profound however seems to us incredible. We 

 therefore proceeded to examine social institutions in 

 order to ascertain whether they gave any countenance 

 to the hypothesis. It was not necessary to inquire 

 how kinship first came to be recognised. What- 

 ever the history of its recognition kinship can only 

 be reckoned in one of three ways. It may be reckoned 

 through the father only, through the mother only, 

 or through both parents. In all the higher civilisa- 

 tions kinship is reckoned through both parents, but 

 where the earlier stages of culture have not been 

 passed kinship is usually reckoned only through one. 



