"Nothing," says Robertson Smith, "appeals so strongly as religion to the conservative instincts." "The history of religion," once exclaimed Dr.Frazer, "is a long attempt to reconcile old custom with new reason, to find a sound theory for absurd practice." At first sight one is apt to see nothing but the absurdities in savage custom and religion.

After all, these are what strike us most, being the curiosity-hunters that we all are.
But savage custom and religion must be taken as a whole, the bad side with the good.

Of course, if we have to do with a primitive society on the down-grade--and very few that have been "civilizaded," as John Stuart Mill terms it, at the hands of the white man are not on the down-grade--its disorganized and debased custom no longer serves a vital function.

But a healthy society is bound, in a wholesale way, to have a healthy custom.

Though it may go about the business in a queer and roundabout fashion, it must hit off the general requirements of the situation.