Spencer and Gillen.

On the other hand, among tribes of the south-east very far from the coast, we find the lowest grades of social progress, but we also find the All Father belief.

I am ready, of course, to believe that good conditions of life beget progress, social and religious, as a general rule.

But other causes exist; speculation anywhere may take crudely scientific rather than crudely religious lines.

Especially the belief in ancestral spirits may check or nullify the belief in a remote All Father.