“ It is always a little disconcerting to be told at the outset that a case has been proved, and it is apt to raise uneasy doubts in a student’s mind as to the writer’s acquaintance with the nature of proof if his own limited opportunities of investigation have chiefly impressed him with the difficulty of arriving at more or less probable inferences. But Miss Murray has no such unworthy timidity. ”

“ But it is equally possible for the scientific student to become obsessed with an idea: thus anthropology has often been in danger of being made ridiculous by a failure to remember that observation and interpretation are distinct operations. ‘It would seem,’ Miss Murray tells us, ‘that the witches, like the adorers of animal gods in earlier times, attempted to become one with their god or sacred animal by taking on his form.’ It may be a correct interpretation, though we do not think that it is, but two preliminary questions have to be asked. ”

“ How far do the cases open to observation suffice for any conclusion at all? What inference would an unprejudiced observer draw? It requires far more than isolated, even if parallel, instances to prove a continuous cultus, a definite organization, an established ritual. ”