Thus to the savage, who regards all living creatures as practically
on a footing of equality with man, the act of killing and eating an
animal must wear a very different aspect from that which the same
act presents to us, who regard the intelligence of animals as far
inferior to our own and deny them the possession of immortal souls.
Hence on the principles of his rude philosophy the primitive hunter
who slays an animal believes himself exposed to the vengeance either
of its disembodied spirit or of all the other animals of the same
species, whom he considers as knit together, like men, by the ties
of kin and the obligations of the blood feud, and therefore as bound
to resent the injury done to one of their number. Accordingly the
savage makes it a rule to spare the life of those animals which he
has no pressing motive for killing, at least such fierce and
dangerous animals as are likely to exact a bloody vengeance for the
slaughter of one of their kind. Crocodiles are animals of this sort.
They are only found in hot countries, where, as a rule, food is
abundant and primitive man has therefore little reason to kill them
for the sake of their tough and unpalatable flesh.
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