f our highest faculties". Descent
of Man, p. 69.

(2) See Custom and Myth, "Star-Myths".

This method of interpreting a certain element in mythology is, we must
repeat, no new thing, though, to judge from the protests of several
mythologists, it is new to many inquirers. We have seen that Eusebius
threw out proposals in this direction; that Spencer, De Brosses, and
Fontenelle unconsciously followed him; and we have quoted from Lobeck
a statement of a similar opinion. The whole matter has been stated as
clearly as possible by Mr. B. B. Tylor:--

"Savages have been for untold ages, and still are, living in the
myth-making stage of the human mind. It was through sheer ignorance and
neglect of this direct knowledge how and by what manner of men myths
are really made that their simple philosophy has come to be buried under
masses of commentator's rubbish..."(1) Mr. Tylor goes on thus (and his
words contain the gist of our argument): "The general thesis maintained
is that myth arose in the savage condition prevalent in remote ages
among the whole human race; that it remains comparatively unchanged
among the rude modern tribes who have departed least from these
primitive conditions, while higher and later civilisations, partly by
retaining its actual principles, and partly by carrying on its inherited
results in the form of ancestral tradition, continued it not merely in
toleration, but in honour".(2) Elsewhere Mr. Tylor points out that by
this method of interpretation we may study myths in various stages
of evolution, from the rude guess of the savage at an explanation of
natural phenomena, through the systems of the higher barbarisms, or
lower civilisations (as in ancient Mexico), and the sacerdotage of
India, till myth reaches its most human form in Greece. Yet even in
Greek myth the beast is not wholly cast out, and Hellas by no means "let
the ape and tiger die". That Mr. Tylor does not exclude the Aryan
race from his general theory is plain enough.(3) "What is the Aryan
conception of the Thunder-god but a poetic elaboration of thoughts
inherited from the savage stage through which the primitive Aryans had
passed?"(4)

(1) Primitive Culture, 2nd edit., i. p. 283.

(2) Op. cit., p. 275.

(3) Primitive Culture, 2nd edit., ii. 265.

(4) Pretty much the same view seems to be taken by Mr. Max Muller
(Nineteenth Century, January, 1882) when he calls Tsui Goab (whom the
Hottentots believe to be a defunct conjuror) "a