loo PAGAN TRIBES OF BORNEO chap. 



which the various scattered groups now live. There 

 are no restrictions in the choice of a wife that might 

 indicate a rule of endogamy or exogamy. There 

 are no ceremonies to initiate youths into tribal 

 mysteries ; certain ceremonies in which the youths 

 take a leading part are directed exclusively to 

 training them for war and the taking of heads in 

 battle. We know of no instance of any group of 

 people being named after an animal or plant which 

 is claimed as a relative ; and in the case of the 

 more homogeneous tribes, such as the Kenyahs 

 and Kayans, all prohibitions with regard to animals 

 and all benefits conferred by them are shared 

 equally by all the members of any one community, 

 and, with but very few exceptions, are the same for 

 all the communities of the tribe. 



Lastly, we think it unnecessary to regard the 

 various animal superstitions of these tribes as 

 survivals of totemism, because it seems possible to 

 find a more direct and natural explanation of almost 

 every case. The numerous cases seem to fall into 

 two groups : the superstitious practices concerned 

 with the sacrificial animals, the pig and fowl on the 

 one hand, and all those concerned with the various 

 other animals on the other hand. These latter 

 may, we think, be regarded as the expression of 

 the direct and logical reaction of the mind of the 

 savage to the impression made upon it by the 

 behaviour of the animals. 



It has been admirably shown by Professor Lloyd 

 Morgan ^ how we ourselves, and even professed 

 psychologists among us, tend to overestimate the 

 complexity of the mental processes of animals ; and 

 there can be no doubt that savages generally are 

 subject to this error in a very much greater degree, 

 that, in fact, they make, without questioning and in 

 most cases without explicit statement even to them- 



^ Introduction to Comparative Psychology, and elsewhere. 



