knowledge of the point of view from which historical peoples
regard disease, make it more probable that the primitive
conception of human life did not include the idea of necessary
death. We are told that the Australian savage who falls from a
tree and breaks his neck is not regarded as having met a natural
death, but as having been the victim of the magical practices of
the "medicine-man" of some neighboring tribe. Similarly, we shall
find that the Egyptian and the Babylonian of the early historical
period conceived illness as being almost invariably the result of
the machinations of an enemy. One need but recall the
superstitious observances of the Middle Ages, and the yet more
recent belief in witchcraft, to realize how generally disease has
been personified as a malicious agent invoked by an unfriendly
mind. Indeed, the phraseology of our present-day speech is still
reminiscent of this; as when, for example, we speak of an "attack
of fever," and the like.

When, following out this idea, we picture to ourselves the
conditions under which primitive man lived, it will be evident at
once how relatively infrequent must have been his observation of
what we usually term natural death. His world was a world of
strife; he lived by the chase; he saw animals kill one another;
he witnessed the death of his own fellows at the hands of
enemies. Naturally enough, then, when a member of his family was
"struck down" by invisible agents, he ascribed this death also to
violence, even though the offensive agent was concealed.
Moreover, having very little idea of the lapse of time--being
quite unaccustomed, that is, to reckon events from any fixed
era--primitive man cannot have gained at once a clear conception
of age as applied to his fellows. Until a relatively late stage