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24 method" (1915, p. 19). He argues that the highly complex artificial and megalithic culture arose very early in Egypt, and was conventionalised by 900, that it spread all round the world, eventually leavening the bulk of the vast original population of America.

The primary object of Mr. Perry, in his recent book, was to examine the literature dealing with the simple stone monuments of the East Indian Archipelago. The evidence led to the conclusion that stone graves, stone seats, memorial stones, and the like were not indigenous, but had been introduced by strangers, who also brought with them terraced irrigation, metal working, and the cultivation of rice. They founded lines of chiefs, an aristocracy or a warrior class, and priesthoods. They appear to have brought with them beliefs about a sky-world and a sun- cult, which were alien to the indigenous population. Mr, Perry adds, "the existence of megalithic monuments, terraced irrigation, mining sites, the sun-cult, and other elements of culture introduced by the stone-using immigrants has been recorded in all inhabited regions of the earth. The investigation undertaken in this book is therefore only a part of the wider inquiry into the distributions and associations of these and other cultural elements and into the mode of their dispersal."

So far I have indicated two phases in the history of folklore. One in which, owing to lack of knowledge, certain problems seemed insoluble. The other in which comparative studies transcending the usual range of folk-lore inquiry suggest the needed solution. I now proceed to examine some tales the distribution of which would have sorely puzzled the older school of folklorists, in order to see what assistance can be rendered by more recent information.

Remarkably widespread throughout the world is the conception that mankind originally was not doomed to die, and there are several types of tales relating how death came into the world.