ABSTRACT
An analysis of the preceding facts that can easily be confirmed by many others, leads yet again to the conclusion that the primitive's mentality is essentially mystic. Divine judgments of mediaeval times, or even the ordeals of Ancient Greece, is to condemn oneself to non-comprehension, and to be, as the missionaries of West and South Africa were ages ago, overcome with astonishment at the unfathomable folly of the poor negroes. The primitive mind is anxious to find the reasons for what happens, but it does not seek these in the same direction as we do. In Bantus, the wife's barrenness is a real misfortune, and it is sufficient reason for a breach of the marriage contract. The primitive stories, legends, and myths are full of tales that infer that he does not know the part played by coition. Even when he knows it, he does not believe that conception really depends upon it.
