.

+31+. It has been and is a widespread opinion in low tribes that the
life of a person is bound up with that of an animal or plant, or with
the preservation of something closely connected with the person. This
opinion springs from the conviction of the intimate vital relation
between men and their surroundings. From the combination of these
beliefs with the view referred to above[50] that a man's soul might
dwell in a beast or a plant, the idea of the hidden soul, common in
folk-lore, may have arisen[51]--the idea that one might conceal his soul
in some unsuspected place and then would be free from fear of death so
long as his soul remained undisturbed.[52] These folk-tales are products
of the popular imagination based on materials such as those described
above. From the early point of view there was no reason why the vital
soul, an independent entity, should not lead a locally separate life.

2. ORIGIN OF THE SOUL

+32+. Theories of a special origination of the soul belong only to the
more advanced cults. In early stages of culture the soul is taken as a
natural part of the human constitution, and though it is regarded as in
a sort an independent entity, the analysis of the man is not carried so
far as to raise the question of separate beginnings of the two
constituents of the personality, except as this is partially involved in
the hypothesis of reincarnation. The child is born into the world
equipped with all the capacities of man, and further investigation as to
how these capacities originally came is not made.

+33+. It was, however, thought necessary to account for the appearance
of man (a clan or tribe) on earth, and his creation was generally
ascribed to a supernatural being. Every tribe has its history of man's
creation--the variety in the anthropogonic myths is endless, the
diversities depending on the differences of general culture and of
surroundings; but the essential point is the same in all; some god or
other supernatural Power fashioned human creatures of different sex,
whether with well-considered aim or by caprice is not said.

+34+. The first pair is thus accounted for in a simple and generally
satisfactory manner. But the fact of the perpetuation of the tribe or
the race appears to have offered serious difficulties to the savage
mind. Some tribes are reported to be ignorant of the natural cause of
birth. Some Melanesian women believe that the origin or beginning of a
child is a plant (coconu