240 PROTECTION OF ANIMAL LIFE 



prevalence of such a superstition, for the efficiency of 

 protection or destruction depends on its intensity relative to 

 the numbers of the species concerned, and it would take 

 much fortuitous slaughter to affect the insect hordes. But 

 nevertheless superstition and the side winds bf religious 

 cults have had a real effect in protecting, throughout the 

 world, certain creatures to which legend and tradition have 

 added new associations of piety or reverence, of awe or 

 dread. 



