Note 436.3 — Chapter XV · THE COUVADE AND OTHER ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE STRENGTH OF THE BLOOD-TIE—CONCLUSION OF THE INQUIRY INTO THE THEORY OF THE LIFE-TOKEN.

In strict analogy, it may be remarked, to the human kin is the view entertained in the lower culture of the kinship of some orders of brutes. Every species is a kindred united by a bond as close as that which binds a human clan, so that sorcery may be wrought on all the members by operating on one or two specimens. Is a garden in Hesse infested with caterpillars, it suffices to go round it and crush a caterpillar at each of three corners. From the fourth corner another is taken and hung up in the chimney to dry in the smoke. As it dries up, the caterpillars in the garden will wither and die.436.3 Possibly this mode of treatment only applies to such creatures as it would be difficult to deal with individually. The subject may be worth further inquiry: I can do no more than allude to it here in passing.