TRIBAL SOCIETY 255 



known origin, who wandered about in the mythical period 

 (alcheringa). They were possessed of superhuman 

 power, and became the ancestors of the totemic groups. 

 A great carpet-snake individual gave rise to the carpet- 

 snake group. In their wanderings over the country 

 these strange individuals performed sacred ceremonies. 

 At places where they stopped and went into the ground, 

 a rock or water-pool arose to mark the spot. Here a 

 number of spirit individuals came into being who became 

 transformed into men and women, the first totemites. 

 In the Aranda alcheringa there were no human beings 

 but only incomplete creatures of various shapes. "They 

 had no distinct limbs or organs of sight, hearing, or smell, 

 did not eat food, and presented the appearance of human 

 beings all doubled up into a rounded mass, in which just 

 the outline of the different parts of the body could be 

 vaguely seen. ' ' 37 The Ungambikula ( ' ' Out-of -Nothing, ' ' 

 "Self-Existing") took hold of these creatures, and by 

 means of a complicated surgical operation shaped them 

 into men and women. 



In Australia, the taboo plays an important part in con- 

 nection with the totemic system. A member of the 

 Arabana must not eat the totem animal, but can kill it 

 and hand it over to the members of other totem groups 

 to be eaten by them. 38 A kangaroo man must not kill a 

 kangaroo with any show of brutality. He is only per- 

 mitted to hit it on the neck. Then he can eat its head, 

 feet, and liver ; the rest he must leave to his friends. The 

 mosquito man may neither kill nor eat insects. The rain 

 man must use water moderately, and when it rains must 



37 Spencer and Gillen. The Northern Tribes of Central Australia, 1904, 

 pp. 145-146, and The Native Tribes of Central Australia, 1899, p. 388. 

 ss Spencer and Gillen, The Northern Tribes, etc., p. 149. 



