412 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



which their own performance is 

 clearly an imitation." 



The Emu men have their own 

 ceremonies, equally elaborate and 

 quite as well adapted to promote the 

 multiplication of emus as those of 

 the witchetty-grub men to produce 

 an abundance of witchetty grubs. 

 The earnestness which is thrown into 

 these ceremonies is beyond all ques- 

 tion; and it seems to be clear that 

 each totemic group in turn takes up 

 its own burden of social responsibil- 

 ity : each has its duty to the tribe as 

 a whole, and performs it to the best 

 of its ability. Through their united 

 efforts, as they firmly believe, the va- 

 rious processes of Nature are main- 

 tained in satisfactory activity; the 

 succulent grub comes forth in due 

 season and in reasonable quantity; 

 the emu, the kangaroo, the bandicoot, 

 and other useful animals keep up 

 their numbers and continue to fur- 

 nish food for the community; the 

 hakea flower and the manna of the 

 mulga tree grow in normal abun- 

 dance; the winds blow; the streams 

 flow; the clouds yield rain and the 

 sun goes on shining by day and the 

 stars by night, with, on the whole, an 

 admirable regularity. A more satis- 

 factory system it would really be dif- 

 ficult to conceive. How absurd, not 

 to say profane, it would be for any 

 one to suggest that ceremonies which 

 were so abundantly justified by 

 results might without danger be 

 omitted! Skepticism is indeed very 

 much out of place in certain stages 

 of human development. 



The interesting feature, however, 

 as Mr. Frazer holds, in the descrip- 

 tions given by the two Australian 

 writers we have named is the proof 

 they afford that totemism, instead of 

 being an irrational, unexplainable 

 aberration of the nascent intellect of 

 man, was really a scheme for secur- 

 ing the greatest possible multiplicity 

 of benefits for the savage community. 

 The whole tribe was divided into 

 groups, and each group undertook to 



look after some function of Nature 

 and keep it up to the mark. Here 

 was a notable step in the direction of 

 division of labor. How it came 

 about that the particular animal or 

 plant which was the totem of a group 

 became wholly or partially taboo to 

 the group is not very easily ex- 

 plained; but it seems not impossible 

 that some sense of tribal duty, gradu- 

 ally developed, kept those who were 

 credited with providing any particu- 

 lar food element from being them- 

 selves greedy consumers of it. So 

 far as that article was concerned they 

 may have felt themselves as sustain- 

 ing somewhat the character of hosts 

 or entertainers of the tribe, and it 

 may thus have became the custom 

 that they should either not partake 

 at all of that special thing, or partake 

 of it only sparingly. If so, we find 

 the foundations already laid both of 

 politeness and of morality. It is an 

 interesting question how far the no- 

 tions which have been described have 

 died out of modern civilized society. 

 That they are wholly extinct it would 

 be rash to affirm. There are many 

 traces, indeed, of the surviving influ- 

 ence of symbolism, and here and 

 there lingering tendencies toward a 

 belief in magic are easily discover- 

 able. Perhaps the wisest of us may 

 learn to understand ourselves a little 

 better by studying the operations of 

 the human mind in its very earliest 

 stages, before reason had yet shaken 

 itself free from the random sugges- 

 tions of sense. 



THE BOSTON PUBLIC LIBRARY AND 

 SCIENCE. 



APROPOS of the recent notable 

 issue, by the Boston Public Library, 

 of a comprehensive Bibliography of 

 the Anthropology and Ethnology of 

 Europe, to accompany Professor Rip- 

 ley's Races of Europe, the twofold 

 and diversely opposed interests of a 

 great institution of this sort are 

 called to mind. On the one hand are 

 its manifold obligations to the great 



