record. Try to imagine the gradual genesis of such myths as the
Egyptian scarabaeus and egg, or the Hindoo theory that the world
stood on an elephant, the elephant on a tortoise, the tortoise on
that infinite note of interrogation which, as some one expresses it,
underlies all physical speculations, and judge: must they not have
arisen in some such fashion as that which I have pointed out?

This, I say, would be the culminating point of the wasp-worship,
which had sprung up out of bodily fear of being stung.

But times might come for it in which it would go through various
changes, through which every superstition in the world, I suppose,
has passed or is doomed to pass.

The wasp-men might be conquered, and possibly eaten, by a stronger
tribe than themselves. What would be the result? They would fight
valiantly at first, like wasps. But what if they began to fail?
Was not the wasp-king angry with them? Had not he deserted them?
He must be appeased; he must have his revenge. They would take a
captive, and offer him to the wasps. So did a North American tribe,
in their need, some forty years ago; when, because their maize-crops
failed, they roasted alive a captive girl, cut her to pieces, and
sowed her with their corn. I would not tell the story, for the
horror of it, did it not bear with such fearful force on my
argument. What were those Red Men thinking of? What chain of
misreasoning had they in their heads when they hit on that as a
device for making the crops grow? Who can tell? Who can make the
crooked straight, or number that which is wanting? As said Solomon
of old, so must we--"The foolishness of fools is folly." One thing
only we can say of them, that they were horribly afraid of famine,