During the progress of culture many divergent views have been held about the source and location of life and mental and physical qualities, and the correct one that life is centred in the heart and brain, and that the brain is the seat of intelligence and mental qualities has only recently been arrived at.

We still talk about people being hard-hearted, kind-hearted and heartless, and about a man's heart being in the right place, as if we supposed that the qualities of kindness and courage were located in the heart, and determined by the physical constitution and location of the heart.

The reason for this is perhaps that the soul was held to be the source of mental qualities, and to be somewhere in the centre of the body, and hence the heart came to be identified with it.

As shown by Sir J.G.Frazer in _The Golden Bough_ many peoples or races have thought that the life and qualities were centred in the whole head, not merely in the brain.

And this is the reason why Hindus will not appear abroad with the head bare, why it is a deadly insult to knock off a man's turban, and why turbans or other head-gear were often exchanged as a solemn pledge of friendship.