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Correspondence 



ANCIENT MAN IN BRITAIN 

 To the Editor of Discovery 



Sir. 



In his rambling remarks regarding my book A ncient 

 Man in Britain Mr. Fallaize adopts a tone which may be 

 regarded by some as proof of critical acumen. He would 



have your readers believe that although I have collected 

 a great mass of important evidence, I am not capable of 

 making effective use of it, being a somewhat irresponsible 

 " extremist." My chief fault appears to be that I refuse 

 to apply to antlu'opology the hazardous theory of sponta- 

 neous generation. In my opinion one must either accept 

 this theory or reject it. There is no " half-way house " — 

 no fence on which one can sit. One must be perfectly 

 frank and honest and have the courage of one's opinions. 

 Mr. Fallaize refers respectfully to the late Dr. W. H. R. 

 Rivers and to Professor Elliot Smith, both of w-hom have 

 rejected the theory of the spontaneous generation of the 

 same complexes in different parts of the world ; but, in 

 dealing with me, he attempts to ridicule a view which, as 

 it happens, met with the approval of Dr. Rivers. Mr. 

 Fallaize says I identify " a goddess of the Hebrides with 

 a goddess of Egypt tlirough a shell and milk cult, but," 

 as he puts it, " to point out an analogy is not necessarily 

 to prove a connection." What, then, is proved ? This 

 tree goddess could not have possibly had spontaneous 

 generation in the treeless Outer Hebrides. She has quite 

 evidently been imported, and when we find that she is 

 closely associated with a group of complex beliefs and 

 customs similar to those connected with the cult of the 

 fig-tree in Greece, one is not necessarily an extremist if 

 one favours the view that she was imported from the 

 Continent. Those who pretend to know much about 

 the greatest of all mysteries, the working of the human 

 mind, may think it " natural " that the ancient Hebrideans 

 should have associated sea-shells with milk and milk 

 with a tree, and shells and milk with certain precious and 

 semi-precious stones. But there is really nothing 

 " natural " about these arbitrary associations. The 

 so-called " analogy " remains to be accounted for. 

 It has a history. When we find that owing to a set of 

 fortuitous circumstances in ancient Egypt, the goddess 

 Hathor was associated with sea-shells, trees, the sky, 

 a domesticated animal, and certain precious and semi- 

 precious stones, one expects to find, if there is anji:hing 

 in the theory of spontaneous generation favoured by Mr. 

 Fallaize, that a similar set of fortuitous circumstances 

 brought into existence in the Outer Hebrides a complex 

 deity similar to the Egyptian Hathor. If some of your 

 readers are prepared to admit the possibility that the 

 ancient Hebrideans had precisely the same experiences 

 as the ancient Egyptians, it would be as well to remind 

 them that the same tree-shell-and-milk beliefs are found 

 in India and elsewhere in Asia, and that it is therefore 

 necessary to accept the view, apparently favoured by Mr. 

 Fallaize, in dealing with India and China as well as the 

 Outer Hebrides. Having done so, I can smile if I am still 

 called an " extremist." Mr. Fallaize even goes the length 

 of alleging that I do not " appear to have digested " my 

 " material thoroughly." Perhaps, after all, it is better 

 to have something left to digest than to have merely 

 an empty stomach. Yours, etc., 



Donald A. Mackenzie. 

 19 Merchiston Crescent, 



Edinburgh. 

 September 8, 1923. 



9 



