164 WARFARE IN THE HUMAN BODY 



possible, and who were at all times regarded purely as 

 enemies. It is very interesting to note that though Maine 

 obviously knew nothing of the Australian classificatory 

 system he yet remarks : " The history of political ideas 

 begins, in fact, with the assumption that kinship in blood 

 is the sole possible ground of community in political 

 functions ; nor is there any of those subversions of feeling 

 which we term emphatically revolutions, so startling and 

 so complete as the change which is accomplished when 

 some other principle, such as that, for instance, of local 

 contiguity, establishes itself for the first time as a basis 

 of common political action. . . . The earliest and most 

 extensively employed of legal fictions was that which per- 

 mitted family relations to be established artificially, and 

 there is none to which I conceive mankind to be more 

 deeply indebted " (H. S. Maine, Ancient Law, 1905, 

 pp. 129, 130). It may be noted, of course, that the two 

 groups, which I conceive as becoming one tribe under 

 external pressure, are locally contiguous and obviously 

 blood relations, however bitterly hostile. If during a period 

 of scarcity, distant and dreaded foes made an incursion 

 into territory in which the less hostile groups were situated, 

 there would be the strongest motive possible for at least a 

 temporary alliance. If it is objected that the inter-group 

 relations of marriage would not compensate for the hatred 

 aroused by cannibalism, it must be remembered, ex hypo- 

 thesi, that this was a state of things perfectly customary, 

 and not in any sense outrageous. There was then no such 

 thing as a moral horror of the practice. If such an alliance 

 took place, and was partially successful, it would tend to 

 continue, especially if the remodelling stress of the more 

 hated foe still remained as fear " in being." It is natural 

 enough to deduce from this that such a state of things 



