136 PRIMEVAL MAN. 



only in a less degree ? — Cruel rites of 

 worship, and savage customs as regards 

 marriage and the relation of the sexes, 

 come under the same category.* Canni- 

 balism is only an extreme case of a general 

 law, and it is a crucial test of the fallacy 

 of a whole class of arguments commonly 

 assumed by those who support the Savage- 

 theory respecting the Primeval Condition of 

 Mankind. 



On the other hand, I think it cannot be 

 denied that the argument of VVhately is 

 equally defective in failing to recognise the 

 essential distinctions to which I have referred. 



* Much stress is laid on these by Sir J. Lubbock. Yet 

 many of the customs he refers to, such as Bride-catching, 

 although they may have arisen in very early times, cannot 

 possibly have been Primeval in the strict sense of that. term. 



