PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS—SECTION F. POT 
after the supply of kangaroos is just what appears to be the 
natural thing to the savage mind, but at the same time we have 
to note the fact that, while he can cause, by his magic, kan- 
garoos to increase, he is the very man who does not benefit by 
the act. On the other hand, while our native is a kangaroo man, 
and so is debarred from eating the animal because it is his 
totem, and as in many tribes a man must only very sparingly 
eat the latter, he, in his turn, profits by the magic ceremony 
of, say, a witchetty grub man, who causes the grub to increase, 
and provides a food supply for the kangaroo man, just as he has 
done for the grub man. Right through the tribes, which occupy 
a very large area in the centre of the continent, we find first, that 
at the present day, a man eats only sparingly of his totem, and 
secondly, that he is charged with performing magic ceremonies 
for the increase of the animal or plant. It is just possible that 
things have not always been thus, and that there was a time 
when this restriction did not hold good. Even at the present 
time there is a ceremony performed, which seems to indicate 
very clearly the fact that the members of any totem are regarded 
by the other people as having the first right to the totem. 
If we take the kangaroo totem again, what happens is this. 
After the Intichiuma ceremony has been performed, the men— 
those who belong to the totem and those who do not—go out in 
search of kangaroo; when one is found it is killed and brought 
in to the old men of the totem, who eat a little, and then 
anoint with fat the bodies of those who took part in the cere- 
mony. This is repeated on a second day, and after that, then, 
but not until then, the men who do not belong to the totem may 
eat it freely, while the men of the totem will scarcely touch it. 
In the case of all totems we have ceremonies the equivalent of 
this one, which can only be interpreted, along with other facts, 
as indicating that theoretically the members of the totem have, 
and are acknowledged to have, the first right to the animal or 
plant, the name of which they bear as their totemic name. 
In connection with the totems there are one or two matters, 
concerned with magic, which are of some interest. Suppose our 
native to belong, say, to the Euro totem; now, he must not 
himself go out hunting euros, but at the same time he has no 
objection to helping a friend to do this, provided, of course, 
that the friend does not belong to the totem. For his purpose 
he charms, by singing over it, one of the sacred Churinga, and 
gives it to the friend. He himself being a euro man, has special 
influence with the animal, and this Churinga will in some magic 
way help the man who carries it to come close up to the animal 
without disturbing it. 
In some cases we find that the Churinga representing certain 
animals are supposed to be endowed with special magic power. 
If our native is desirous when a young man of promoting the 
