ough
it may be doubtful whether any race exists at present which does not
understand that death is the cessation of life in the body, indications
remain that this view was not primary and may not have been acquired
for some time. The Gonds apparently once thought that people would not
die unless they were killed by magic, and similar beliefs are held by
the Australian and African savages. Several customs also point to the
belief in the survival of some degree of life in the body after death,
apart from the idea of the soul.

53. The distribution of life over the body.

Primitive man further thought that life, instead of being concentrated
in certain organs, was distributed equally over the whole of the
body. This mistake appears also to have been natural and inevitable
when it is remembered that he had no name for the body, the different
limbs and the internal organs, and no conception of their existence and
distribution, nor of the functions which they severally performed. He
perceived that sensation extended over all parts of the body, and
that when any part was hurt or wounded the blood flowed and life
gradually declined in vigour and ebbed away. For this reason the blood
was subsequently often identified with the life. During the progress
of culture many divergent views have been held about the source and
location of life and mental and physical qualities, and the correct
one that life is centred in the heart and brain, and that the brain is
the seat of intelligence and mental qualities has only recently been
arrived at. We still talk about people being hard-hearted, kind-hearted
and heartless, and about a man's heart being in the right place, as if
we supposed that the qualities of kindness and courage were located in
the heart, and determined by the physical constitution and location of
the heart. The reason for this is perhaps that the soul was held to be
the source of mental qualities, and to be somewhere in the centre of
the body, and hence the heart came to be identified with it. As shown
by Sir J.G. Frazer in _The Golden Bough_ many peoples or races have
thought that the life and qualities were centred in the whole head,
not merely in the brain. And this is the reason why Hindus will not
appear abroad with the head bare, why it is a deadly insult to knock
off a man's turban, and why turbans or other head-gear were often
exchanged as a solemn pledge of friendship. The superstition against
walking under