Opening of the book
THE BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY
VOL. II
MACMILLAN AND CO., Limited
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TORONTO
THE
BELIEF IN IMMORTALITY
AND THE WORSHIP OF THE DEAD
BY
Sir JAMES GEORGE FRAZER, F.R.S.,
F.B.A.
FELLOW OF TRINITY COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE
HON. D.C.L., OXFORD; HON. LITT.D., CAMBRIDGE AND DURHAM; HON. LL.D.,
GLASGOW; DOCTOR HONORIS CAUSA OF THE UNIVERSITIES OF PARIS AND
STRASBOURG
VOL. II
THE BELIEF AMONG THE POLYNESIANS
MACMILLAN AND CO., LIMITED
ST. MARTIN'S STREET, LONDON
1922
COPYRIGHT
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
PREFACE
The first volume of this work, which comprised the Gifford
Lectures given by me at St. Andrews in the years 1911 and
1912, dealt with the belief in immortality and the worship
of the dead, as these are found among the aborigines of
Australia, the Torres Straits Islands, New Guinea, and
Melanesia. In the present volume I take up the subject at
the point at which I broke off, and describe the
corresponding belief and worship among the Polynesians, a
people related to their neighbours the Melanesians by
language, if not by blood. The first chapter formed the
theme of two lectures delivered at the Royal Institution
in 1916; the other chapters have been written for lectures
at Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1921 and 1922. But in
the book the lecture form has been discarded, and the
treatment of the subject is somewhat fuller than comports
with the limits imposed by oral delivery.
Should circumstances allow me to continue the work, I
propose in the next volume to treat of the belief in
immortality and the worship of the dead among the
Micronesians and Indonesians.
J. G. FRAZER.
No. 1 Brick Court, Temple,
London, 19th July 1922.
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