62 Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal. [March, 1909. 
conception of the sending of the soul into the child’s body is 
not a primitive one but has been influenced by the teachers of 
Islam, if not of the other organized creeds which preceded the 
comparatively late introduction of Mohammadanism into Malaya. 
This is very clearly shown by ascertaining what is believed to 
be the process of development in the case of the soul of a made 
object, the gradual perfecting of which is more readily under- 
stood than the slow and hidden processes of embryology. It is 
extremely rare among primitive tribes to find definite statements 
that every object has some kind of an essential spirit, provided 
only it has a form and even a simple organization. The nature 
of these thing souls I will discuss later, at present I am con- 
regarded as existing until the planks of the boat had been put 
together in their proper order. There again the phrase ‘‘it be- 
comes of itself” was used, and, though the human soul is believed 
destined abode. In fact, it seems that it and its abode are 
really one, the very develo 
“electric fluid.” Yet we find that the native tribes of Australia, 
perhaps the _least cultured human beings whose beliefs are 
known to us in detail, have very definite and peculiar views re- 
e must remember, however, 
: : studied in a manner afford- 
ing evidence both more detailed and more reliable than that 
imiti to use di her 
primitive religions, » use regarding most ot 
