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or THE f UNIVERSITY 1 GREEK AND KOMAN MYTHOLOGY A. THE OEIGIN OF MYTHS 1. THE SOUL AND THE WORSHIP OF THE DEAD 1. Even in the earliest stages of civilization, before the human mind devoted any very careful study to its external surroundings, the instinct of self-love impelled man to investigate the processes that he saw going on in himself and in creatures like himself. Sickness and death were the first to attract his attention; for they interrupt the course of everyday life. Then dreams which sometimes, especially when attended by the night- mare, seem exceedingly real suggested the existence of beings which, though imperceptible to the senses, can yet affect human life, now agreeably, and again disagree- ably. These beings, accordingly, came to be regarded as the authors of certain phenomena, which were apparently inexplicable in any other way. Therefore, supported by the universal inborn desire for the continuance of per- sonal life after death, there grew up a belief in the exist- ence of the souls (ghosts) of the dead. Closely related to this was the belief in elves or fairies, a superstition B 1