THE PRIMITIVE IDEA OP GOD. 263 



of local colouring, but with less of complication with, 

 a developed system of idolatry, and, therefore, with a 

 more truly primitive aspect* We may well suppose 

 that similar traditions with similar local variations> 

 were repeated round the camp-fires of those hardy 

 wanderers who first penetrated into Europe after the 

 Post-glacial submergence, and served to explain the 

 bones of the gigantic men and still more gigantic 

 beasts that lay in the caves they inhabited* 



In some sort of connection with the belief in a 

 deluge was the belief of many American tribes that the 

 souls of drowned persons could not attain to paradise 

 until their bodies were recovered and buried with 

 certain sacrificial rites, consisting of the burning of 

 parts of the viscera before interment. This may also 

 be connected with the belief in malignant spirits of 

 the water the kelpies of our own ancestors; and 

 with the superstition in China and elsewhere, that it 

 is unlucky to rescue a drowning person. 



It may be said that the preservation of such a tra* 

 dition as that of the Deluge is impossible, since it is 

 held by some historical critics that an oral tradition 

 cannot survive with any degree of accuracy even for 

 a century. But the geologist knows that a footprint 

 in the sand, which in some circumstances must perish 

 in an hour, may in others survive for untold ages. So 

 with traditions. Among a rude people, with few ideas, 

 when fixed in a form of words, traditions may be 

 handed down indefinitely. If once reduced to picto- 

 graphs, like those of the Mexicans, or even recorded 



