Considering the feelings to which even the cultured mind is susceptible with reference to a mischievous beast, it is not difficult to understand the attitude of the ignorant. The savage, not only momentarily, while in a rage, but permanently and in cold blood, obliterates the boundaries between man and beast. He regards all animals as practically on a footing of equality with man. He believes that they are endowed with feelings and intelligence like men, that they are united into families and tribes like men, that they have various languages like human tribes, that they possess souls which survive the death of the bodies just as is the case with human souls. He tells of animals that have been the ancestors of men, of men that have become animals, of marriages that take place between men and beasts. He also believes that he who slays an animal will be exposed to the vengeance either of its disembodied spirit, or of all the other animals of the same species which, quite after human fashion, are bound to resent the injury done to one of their number.[51] Is it not natural, then, that the savage should give like for like? If it is the duty of animals to take vengeance upon men, is it not equally the duty of men to take vengeance upon animals? [Footnote 51: Tylor, _Primitive Culture_, i. 467 _sqq._ Frazer, _Golden Bough_, ii. 389 _sqq._ Liebrecht, _Zur Volkskunde_, p. 17. Achelis, _Moderne Völkerkunde_, p. 373 _sqq._ _Idem_, 'Animal Worship,' in _Open Court_, xi. 705 _sq._ Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, ii. 180 (Negroes). von den Steinen, _Unter den Naturvölkern Zentral-Brasiliens_, p. 351. Im Thurn, _Among the Indians of Guiana_, p. 350 _sqq._ Dorman, _Origin of Primitive Superstitions_, pp. 223, 253. Lumholtz, _Unknown Mexico_, i. 331 (Tarahumares). Mooney, 'Myths of the Cherokee,' in _Ann. Rep. Bur. Ethn._ xix. pp. 250, 261 _sq._ Nelson, 'Eskimo about Bering Strait,' _ibid._ xviii. 423. Hose and McDougall, 'Relations between Men and Animals in Sarawak,' in _Jour. Anthr. Inst._ xxxi. 173 _sqq._, especially p. 205 _sq._]