LATERAL DEVELOPMENT, PHYSICAL MAN 41 



countries, Congo and Nigeria, as we have seen, credit 

 stones and trees as the cause of their conception. At 

 a later stage of the African's development he noted 

 the order of the seasons which he recognised worked 

 in sympathy with the order of procreation. Gradually 

 perhaps, but finally, in the animistic stage of his 

 existence certain physical features became associated 

 with, and symbolical of, certain powers which he 

 recognised as existing and affecting him. 



Then man became cognisant of a struggle between 

 his physical and moral nature, and so became conscious 

 of what we call good and evil. This lesson, I think, 

 he learnt from the struggle between the wind that 

 brought rain, which helped the earth to produce, and 

 that which drove this beneficent wind away : the 

 struggle also between the cruel wind that brought the 

 lightning that killed him, and the beneficent wind that 

 drove that cruel one away. He realised that his 

 nervous system was subject to shock, and connected 

 these shocks with certain warnings given by birds, 

 snakes, and vermin, which we call omens. 



He procreated like the animals, and noted that the 

 only apparent difference between him and them was 

 that he could speak and was conscious of powers 

 above him, whom he bent down to and respected. 

 These powers, or the God over these powers, 

 objected to his acting as some animals do, and 

 punished him when he did so. These prohibitions 

 became the commandments which we find the Bavili 

 has divided into five distinct sections ; we shall have 

 more to say about them later on. 



