The eighth volume in The Golden Bough collection, and second volume of The Spirits of the Corn and of the Wild. The investigations into the superstitions and rituals to propitiate fertility in primitive agriculture are expanded further to cover the link between the belief in the dying and reviving gods to the transmutation of the souls of animals into crops. Frazer discusses his speculation of the evolution belief systems depending on the level of agricultural development between hunting, grazing, and farming, and the relics of totemism and taboo. Divine animals, Gods portrayed as and replenished from totem animals, rituals of hunting, gathering, harvesting, eating, and sacrifice, and special attention to man's relations with his favoured animals are addressed in depth. - Summary by Leon Harvey