old times, proverbially have their stronghold in religion. . . . This force of conservatism warns us that we must be careful in relating ideas to their environment, to take into consideration past as well as present environments” (pp. 402-404). Miss Morris goes on to say that while men worship the animals most useful to them “it must not be forgotten that there is also a negative [side], which leads to the worship of harmful animals, such as the snake, the crocodile and the shark” (pp. 409-410); being a crocodile myself I am not likely to be oblivious to this aspect of religion. “The animal [or plant] is worshipped because it is useful to the community, because they have a feeling of dependence for life upon it. And on the other hand, the animal [or plant] is sacrificed because, again, it is useful. Sacrifice is the giving up of something really valuable to the worshipper” (p. 422).
The broad economic conditions of a people imprint themselves on the customs and religious life of that people, for example, in Central and Western Asia and in Arabia the pastoral life of so many of the inhabitants affects the social grouping, and as we so commonly have a patriarchal organisation so a sublimated patriarch would readily be an attribute of a supreme god, who might persist for a long time as a tribal god. Should his followers become possessed with a lust of conquest and wide domain, the god follows suit, as in Islam. Should the followers of a tribal god, by captivity or otherwise, come into close relation with other forms of religion, their god may be freed from tribal shackles and become a god of a more universal nature. A fishing population projects its avocations into its magico-religious life. More markedly is this the case with sedentary agricultural peoples, and similarly in other cases. Certain peoples with mother-right, or those who have emerged therefrom, pay reverence to a mother goddess. Christianity, as is befitting to a religion that aspires to universal extension, is a regular museum of creeds and
