ABSTRACT
From time to time there are to be found natures inclined to criticism, less amenable to accepted conventions than the rest, even in some cases going as far as scepticism and unbelief. The very general enquiry which this chapter attempts naturally leaves out of account the differences in detail observable in primitive communities, even in those nearest to each other and most closely related. It shows how infinite agglomeration of concepts and customs relating to the unseen powers proceed from the primitive's mental constitution and ordinary habits of thought. The chapter takes into account many of these ideas and customs in their essential characteristics to find fresh confirmation of its analysis of primitive mentality. To study the primitives' idea of the supernatural world and their relations with it, it should never be forgotten that it is the subject of continual experience, at all times inseparable from the ordinary experience of life.
