civilised people of the old world, exactly correspond in character, and
sometimes even in incident, with the star-stories of modern savages, we
have the choice of three hypotheses to explain this curious coincidence.
Perhaps the star-stories, about nymphs changed into bears, and bears
changed into stars, were invented by the civilised races of old, and
gradually found their way amongst people like the Eskimo, and the
Australians, and Bushmen. Or it may be insisted that the ancestors of
Australians, Eskimo, and Bushmen were once civilised, like the Greeks and
Egyptians, and invented star-stories, still remembered by their
degenerate descendants. These are the two forms of the explanation which
will be advanced by persons who believe that the star-stories were
originally the fruit of the civilised imagination. The third theory
would be, that the 'ridiculous tales' about the stars were originally the
work of the savage imagination, and that the Greeks, Chaldaeans, and
Egyptians, when they became civilised, retained the old myths that their
ancestors had invented when they were savages. In favour of this theory
it may be said, briefly, that there is no proof that the fathers of
Australians, Eskimo, and Bushmen had ever been civilised, while there is
a great deal of evidence to suggest that the fathers of the Greeks had
once been savages. {125} And, if we incline to the theory that the star-
myths are the creation of savage fancy, we at once learn why they are, in
all parts of the world, so much alike. Just as the flint and bone
weapons of rude races resemble each other much more than they resemble
the metal weapons and the artillery of advanced peoples, so the mental
products, the fairy tales, and myths of rude races have everywhere a
strong family resemblance. They are produced by men in similar mental
conditions of ignorance, curiosity, and credulous fancy, and they are
intended to supply the same needs, partly of amusing narrative, partly of
crude explanation of familiar phenomena.