The means which the Australians
adopt to secure a plentiful supply of game appear to be primarily
based, not on conciliation, but on sympathetic magic, a principle to
which the North American Indians also resort for the same purpose.
Hence, as the Australians undoubtedly represent a ruder and earlier
stage of human progress than the American Indians, it would seem
that before hunters think of worshipping the game as a means of
ensuring an abundant supply of it, they seek to attain the same end
by sympathetic magic. This, again, would show--what there is good
reason for believing--that sympathetic magic is one of the earliest
means by which man endeavours to adapt the agencies of nature to his
needs.
Corresponding to the two distinct types of animal worship, there are
two distinct types of the custom of killing the animal god. On the
one hand, when the revered animal is habitually spared, it is
nevertheless killed--and sometimes eaten--on rare and solemn
occasions. Examples of this custom have been already given and an
explanation of them offered.
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