(1) There seems to be some incertitude as to the complete absence among the natives of any knowledge regarding the physiology of procreation. We read in Strehlow,[588] "Übrigens wissen die alten Männer, wie mir versichert wurde, dass die cohabitatio als Grund der Kinderkonzeption anzusehen sei, sagen aber davon den jüngeren Männern und Frauen nichts." This phrase might evoke some doubts as to whether we should attribute so much importance to the alleged ignorance.[589] But according to subsequent information in the same publication,[590] we must not attach to this phrase too much weight. Possibly the knowledge of the old men comes from alien sources; at any rate we see from the explanation given below by Frhr. von Leonhardi that this phrase does not rest on any concrete facts, or any well-founded information. From the point of view of collective ideas it must always be remembered that it is in the social institutions of a given people and in the whole of their beliefs that we must look for the foundation and confirmation of a given creed. It would be a superfluous digression to point out how deeply the totemic theory of conception is connected with all the other beliefs and the whole social life of the Australian aborigines--as this has been done by so many students of the subject, and pre-eminently by Prof. Frazer in his recent work on _Totemism and Exogamy_. Some doubts might also arise from the fact that the natives apparently know the real process of propagation in the case of the animals. There is undoubtedly some difficulty here; and additional information on this point would be most valuable. Nevertheless the case is not quite hopeless: if we assume that this correct physiological knowledge is of a relatively late origin, it is quite natural that it would arise first in relation to the animal world, because the ideas about man, being the most important and elaborate, would be the most conservative. Anyhow this point requires further elucidation.[591] [588] _Loc. cit._, ii. p. 52, footnote 7. [589] Attention was drawn to this phrase by P. W. Schmidt in his article in _Zeitschrift für Ethnologie_ (1908), p. 866 _sqq._, where the theory of conception among the Arunta is discussed. He doubts: "Ob wirklich eine vollständige Unkenntniss des Zusammenhanges von Koitus und Konzeption in primitivem Zustande vorhanden ist."--_Loc. cit._, p. 883. [590] Strehlow, iii. pp. x., xi. [591] Frhr. von Reitzenstein shares the view here accepted; comp. his review of Mr. Hartland's "Primitive Paternity" in _Zeitschr. f. Ethnologie_, 43 Jhg. (1911), p. 175.