number of deities out of pure abstractions--gods of peace, of
war, of fortune, and so forth. Why particular deities were invented, and
how they became attached to particular groups of phenomena, are
questions that it is often impossible to answer with any great degree of
certainty, but why there should be any gods at all is a question that
can be answered, I think, on the lines above indicated.

The way in which the primitive ghost worship probably paved the way for
some of the doctrines of the "higher" religions may be seen on taking a
story such as the death and resurrection of the Gospel Jesus. In his
treatise on "The Attis" Mr. Grant Allen made the ingenious suggestion
that the greater fertility of the ground on and near the grave, owing to
the food placed there to feed the ghost, would produce in the savage
mind the conviction that this increased fertility was due to the
beneficent activity of the double of the dead man. Reasoning from this
basis, it would be a simple conclusion that the production, or lack, of
crops was everywhere due to the action of good or evil spirits. In the
next place, it must be remembered that it is the act of dying which
raises the human being to the level of a guardian spirit or god; and
from this to the production of a god by ceremonial killing would be a
natural and an easy step. In this last respect, at least, we are upon
the firm ground of fact, and not on that of mere theory. If a reader
will take the trouble to peruse the numerous examples collected by Tylor
in the first chapter of his "Primitive Culture," and those provided by
Frazer in the "Golden Bough," he will find the evidence for this
overwhelming. Examples of the practice of killing a human being and
burying his body under the foundations of a castle or a bridge are very
common, and the modern custom of burying coins under a foundation-stone
is a harmless and interesting survival of this custom. In some parts of
Africa a boy and girl are buried where a village is to be established.
In Polynesia the central pillar of a temple was placed on the body of a
human victim. In Scotland there is the legend that St. Columba buried
the body of St. Oran under his monastery to make the building secure.
Any country will supply stories of a similar kind. Finally, we have the
amusing story of the manner in which Sir Richard Burton narrowly escaped
deification. Exploring in Afghanistan in the disguise of a Mohammedan
fakir, he received a fr