PART I. 

 Introduction and General Considerations. 



WHEN we bear in mind the age of mankind as estimated by 

 the geologist, the recognition of man's true place in Nature must 

 seem a comparatively young, even modern, achievement. This 

 fact is certainly very striking, but is easily explained by the 

 circumstance that the question as to man's place in Nature is 

 indissolubly bound up with the question of man's origin. 



Ever since there have existed on our planet thinking beings 

 who have speculated as to the origin of the visible world, two 

 conflicting dogmas have found currency. " The world was 

 created," cried some ; " The world has grown," replied the others. 

 Thus it is but natural that the same difference of opinion has 

 prevailed from the earliest times on the subject of the origin of 

 man. The belief in a Creator of the world, and of man, is found 

 in its lowest form among certain savages, who hold the curious 

 doctrine that not the Creator himself but certain animals, acting 

 for him, created the world and man. According to the faith of 

 the Savo Islanders (Solomon Isles) it is to the shark that we 

 are indebted for the creation of the island, and of the men and 

 the mound-birds who inhabit it. Among the tribes of America 

 the idea of animal demiurges is strongly developed. They re- 

 gard animals as symbols of the divine force in Nature, and as 

 existing before the creation, and taking part in the production of 

 the world and of man. The principal part, however, is played 

 by a fabulous bird which is either a god itself or a revelation 

 (abode) of the same. 



Certain western tribes of North America imagine the earth 

 to have been created by a crow ; the people of Delaware and 

 Florida venerate the stag as a powerful spirit and creator of the 

 world and of man. Others, again, attribute the act to the hare, 



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