Note 83 — Chapter II · Man and his Place in the Universe

Realising this, we are prepared to find that the Malay theory of Animism embraces, at least partially, the human race,83 animals84 and birds,85 vegetation86 (trees and plants), reptiles and fishes,87 until its extension to inert objects, such as minerals,88 and “stocks and stones, weapons, boats, food, clothes, ornaments, and other objects, which to us are not merely soulless, but lifeless,” brings us face to face with a conception with which “we are less likely to sympathise.”