The world-wide custom of making an image of a man with intent to injure him arises from the same belief.

Since primitive man could conceive neither of an imitation nor of an inanimate object, the image of a man was to his view the man; there was nothing else which it could be.

And thus it contained part of the man's life, just as every idol of a god was the god himself and contained part of the god's life.

Since the man's life was common to himself and the image, by injuring or destroying the image it was held that the man's life would similarly be injured or destroyed, on the analogy already explained of injury to life being frequently observed to follow a hurt or wound of any part of the body.

Afterwards the connection between the man and the image was strengthened by working into the material of the latter some fraction of his body, such as severed hair or the earth pressed by his foot.