220 REi.IGION OF THE liA-VEXJJA. 



totem auiinal is feared and venerated, eventually worshipped, 

 because every member of the clan is transformed into it, and 

 because in this way the ancestor gods have come to be 

 identified with it?' If such wero the orig-in of totemism and 

 its relation to ancestor worship, then the belief in the trans- 

 mig-ration of the souls of the deceased into the totem animal 

 ought to be considered as a primitive conception ; it could be 

 admitted that the more southern tribes have lost this connec- 

 tion and preserved a disfigured totemism without relation with 

 their religion, whilst all the Zulu-Thonga group has altogether 

 abandoned the totemistic idea. 



I have found an indication showing- that the evolution 

 has probably followed this course. Whilst I was thinking- that 

 the identification of the ancestor god and the totem M'as some- 

 thing quite new, I liapi)ened to read a book of a German 

 traveller, the Duke Adolf Fred, of Mecklenburg, entitled 

 " The Heart of Africa," where, speaking about the tribes 

 living in Central Africa, he says: "Each clan reveres a 

 totem, which in Kindjoro is called ' Umzimu.' Should the 

 totem take the form of an animal, it is forbidden to kill or 

 eat such animals. This interdiction ... is closely connected 

 with the belief of transmigration of souls ; for their creed 

 teaches that spirits of their departed relatives enter the body 

 of the object of their adoration. In Euanda the souls of the 

 deceased rulers are believed io dwell in the leopard, and to 

 continue to torment their people in that shape."" 



I need not emphasise the importance of this remarkable 

 correspondence between the Venda and the Central African 

 belief. The belief itself throws a very Avelcome light on the 

 whole subject of totemism, and the correspondence greatly 

 strengthens the hypothesis that the Venda tribe has come from 

 the heart of Africa, where the totem and the ancestor god are 

 so fully identified. 



No doubt a more complete study of the Ba-Venda will 

 yield some more surprises. 



* May I add that, since writing this paper, I liave seen " The 

 History of Melanesian Society," by W. H. Rivers, vol. ii, and that he 

 describes a condition of things amongst Melanesian people very similar 

 to the one 1 have just explained amongst the Ba-Venda. According 

 to that distingnished antliropologist, Melanesian totemism owes its 

 origin to the fact that the Kara people bronght witli tliem theii- belief 

 in the incarnation of their ancestors in animal form. This, he thinks, 

 was the starting point of Melanesian totemism. It is surprising to see 

 that in the kingship system also there are striking resemblances between 

 the tribes of Melanesia and Polynesia and our South African tribes. 



