e
cases cited, that the objects he saw were really a collection of
distinct individuals. He would naturally consider them as all one,
just as children would think a field of grass or corn to be one great
plant until they were told otherwise. But there was no one to tell
him, nor any means by which he could find out his mistake. He had no
plural number, and no definite or indefinite articles. Whether he
saw one or a hundred tigers together, he could only describe them
by the one word tiger. It was a long time before he could even say
'much tiger,' as the Australian natives still have to do if they see
more animals than five together, and the Andamanese if they see more
than two. The hypothesis therefore seems reasonable that at first man
considered each species of animals or plants which he distinguished
to have a separate single life, of which all the individuals were
pieces or members. The separation of different parts of one living
body presented no difficulties to his mind, since, as already seen, he
believed the life to continue in severed fractions of the human body.

A connection between individuals, apparently based on the idea that
they have a common life, has been noticed in other cases. Thus at the
commencement of the patriarchal state of society, when the child is
believed to derive its life from its father, any carelessness in the
father's conduct may injuriously affect the child. Sir E.B. Tylor notes
this among the tribes of South America. After the birth of a child
among the Indians of South America the father would eat no regular
cooked food, not suitable for children, as he feared that if he did
this his child would die. [130] "Among the Arawaks of Surinam for some
time after the birth of a child the father must fell no tree, fire
no gun, hunt no large game; he may stay near home, shoot little birds
with a bow and arrow, and angle for little fish; but his time hanging
heavy on his hands the only comfortable thing he can do is to lounge
in his hammock." [131] On another occasion a savage who had lately
become a father, refused snuff, of which he was very fond, because
his sneezing would endanger the life of his newly-born child. They
believed that any intemperance or carelessness of the father, such as
drinking, eating large quantities of meat, swimming in cold weather,
riding till he was tired and sweated, would endanger the child's life,
and if the child died, the father was bitterly reproached with hav