with
knowledge, the general method of accounting for social division
remaining, however, the same. As a rule, the center of the distribution
of mankind is the territory of the particular tribe in which the myth
originates. There is always the conviction, expressed or implied, that
the tribe in question is the center of the world and the favorite of the
creative Power;[1444] it being established in its place, the rest of the
world is divided among other tribes--a conception that survives among
civilized peoples of antiquity.[1445]

+840+. The ethnogonic history generally takes the form of a
genealogy--every tribe or other group is derived from a mythical
ancestor, who among savages is frequently a beast, or half-beast
half-human, or even in some cases a rock or a stone. Familiar examples
are the genealogical systems of the Australians, the Maoris of New
Zealand, the Samoans, the American Indians;[1446] but the conception
appears to be universal. There was indeed no other natural way of
accounting for the origin of a tribe: as an existing family would reckon
its beginning from the grandfather, so the tribe would come from some
remote person, and so at a later time the nation, and then finally the
human race. As there were no historical records of such beginning, the
scientific imagination of early peoples constructed the first parents in
various ways, often by personifying the tribe and transferring its name
to the mythical ancestor. It is in this way that the genealogical lists
of the post-Mohammedan Arabians arose; it is certain that they had no
records of the past extending further than a few generations, and in
some cases the origins of the names in genealogical lists may be fixed.
The Greek method of naming ancestors is simple and obvious: the sons of
Hellen are Dorus, Xuthus, AEolus; the sons of Xuthus are Achaeus and Ion;
and these are all descended from Deucalion. In like manner the
Pelasgians are carried back to the ancestor Pelasgus, and the
Peloponnesians to Pelops. The Roman Romulus, Remulus, Remus, are natural
inventions based on the name of the city.

+841+. Genealogical elaboration was carried out more fully by the
Hebrews than by any other ancient people. Not only were tribal names,
Jacob, Israel, Judah, Joseph, Ephraim, and the rest, personified, but
they were arranged in a well-shaped family system; and, the same method
being applied to all the nations known to them, these were carried up to
the three