flesh he eats rests upon the belief that this flesh contains the soul-substance of the animal. A similar belief underlies both cannibalism and head-hunting, human flesh being eaten in order to add the soul-substance of the victim to that of the eater, while the heads of enemies are obtained in order to utilize the store of soul-substance which they contain.
The Indonesian beliefs which I have described thus provide a concept which links together customs of the most varied kind. Soul-substance may be regarded as a principle underlying the magico-religious beliefs and customs of the Indonesian which is as comprehensive in its sphere as is our own principle of gravity in the explanation of the material universe. The customs which are thus referred to the working of a common principle are not special to Indonesia, but are among the most widely distributed beliefs and customs of mankind. We are forced to ask whether the concept of soul-substance is limited to Indonesia and is the product of the Indonesian mind, or whether it has a wider distribution and underlies the magic, the medical art, the artificial kinship, the cannibalism and head-hunting of other peoples.
In a recent book[1] Mr. Perry has shown reason to believe that the concept of soul-substance was introduced into Indonesia by immigrants who brought with them the cultural use of stone, the cult of being connected with or residing in the sun, the belief in a home of the dead in the sky and other customs which he associates with the use of megalithic monuments. If, as seems certain, these immigrants came from the west, it becomes the task of the ethnologist to inquire whether, westwards of Indonesia, there is any evidence of a concept corresponding with the soul-substance of this region. To certain aspects of soul-substance there are clear parallels in the west, and I shall consider later the relation between the Indonesian belief
- ↑ The Megalithic Culture of Indotiesia. Manchester (1918).
