ar animal for totem may lead the survivors to expect his
reappearance in the form of that particular animal. The one fact of
importance for our present purpose is that at its origin the belief in
animal reincarnation had no necessary connection with the theory of
future punishments and rewards. At the stage of evolution in which the
belief in transmigration arose many animals were the object of genuine
respect because of the virtues of courage, etc., which were manifested
by them; or because of the position they occupied as totems.
Consequently no loss of status was involved when the soul transmigrated
from a {52} human to an animal form. No notion of punishment was
involved in the belief.

The doctrines of reincarnation and transmigration belong to a stage in
the evolution of belief, or to a system of thought, in which the
conviction that the death of the body does not entail the destruction
of the soul is undoubted, but from which the conception, indeed the
very idea, of another world than this is excluded. That conception
begins to manifest itself where ancestor worship establishes itself;
but the manifestation is incomplete. Deceased chieftains and heroes,
who have been benefactors to the tribe, are remembered; and the good
they did is remembered also. They are themselves remembered as the
doers of good; and their spirits are naturally conceived as continuing
to be benevolent, or ready to confer benefits when properly approached.
But thus envisaged, they are seen rather in their relation to the
living than in their relation to each other. It is their assistance in
this world that is sought; their condition in the next world is of less
practical importance and therefore provokes less of speculation, in the
first instance. But when speculation is provoked, it proves ultimately
fatal to ancestor worship.

{53}

First, it may lead to the question of the relation of the spirits of
the deceased benefactors to the god or gods of the community. There
will be a tendency to blur the distinction between the god and his
worshippers, if any of the worshippers come to be regarded as being
after death spirits from whom aid may be invoked and to whom offerings
must be made. And if the distinction ceases after death, it is
difficult and sometimes impossible to maintain it during life; an
emperor who is to be deified after death may find his deification
beginning before his death. Belief in such deification may be accep