160 Primitive Theories of the Origin of Man 



This sense of the close relationship of man to the lower creation 

 is the essence of totemism, that curious system of superstition which 

 unites by a mystic bond a group of human kinsfolk to a species of 

 animals or plants. Where that system exists in full force, the mem- 

 bers of a totem clan identify themselves with their totem animals in 

 a way and to an extent which we find it hard even to imagine. For 

 example, men of the Cassowary clan in Mabuiag think that cassowaries 

 are men or nearly so. "Cassowary, he all same as relation, he belong 

 same family," is the account they give of their relationship with the 

 long-legged bird. Conversely they hold that they themselves are 

 cassowaries for all practical purposes. They pride themselves on 

 having long thin legs like a cassowary. This reflection affords them 

 peculiar satisfaction when they go out to fight, or to run away, as 

 the case may be ; for at such times a Cassowary man will say to himself, 

 " My leg is long and thin, I can run and not feel tired ; my legs will 

 go quickly and the grass will not entangle them." Members of the 

 Cassowary clan are reputed to be pugnacious, because the cassowary 

 is a bird of very uncertain temper and can kick with extreme 

 violence 1 . So among the Ojibways men of the Bear clan are 

 reputed to be surly and pugnacious like bears, and men of the 

 Crane clan to have clear ringing voices like cranes 2 . Hence the 

 savage will often speak of his totem animal as his father or his 

 brother, and will neither kill it himself nor allow others to do so, 

 if he can help it. For example, if somebody were to kill a bird 

 in the presence of a native Australian who had the bird for his 

 totem, the black might say, " What for you kill that fellow ? that 

 my father ! " or " That brother belonging to me you have killed ; why 

 did you do it? 3 " Bechuanas of the Porcupine clan are greatly 

 afflicted if anybody hurts or kills a porcupine in their presence. 

 They say, "They have killed our brother, our master, one of our- 

 selves, him whom we sing of"; and so saying they piously gather 

 the quills of their murdered brother, spit on them, and rub their 

 eyebrows Avith them. They think they would die if they touched its 

 flesh. In like manner Bechuanas of the Crocodile clan call the 

 crocodile one of themselves, their master, their brother; and they 

 mark the ears of their cattle with a long slit like a crocodile's mouth 

 by way of a family crest. Similarly Bechuanas of the Lion clan 

 would not, like the members of other clans, partake of lion's flesh ; 

 for how, say they, could they eat their grandfather? If they are 



1 A. C. Haddon, "The Ethnography of the Western Tribe of Torres Straits," Journal 

 of the Anthropological Institute, xix. (1890), p. 393; Reports of the Cambridge Anthropolo- 

 gical Expedition to Torres Straits, v. (Cambridge, 1904), pp. 166, 184. 



2 W. W. Warren, "History of the Ojibways," Collections of the Minnesota Historical 

 Society, v. (Saint Paul, Minn. 1885), pp. 47, 49. 



3 E. Palmer, "Notes on some Australian Tribes," Journal of the Anthropological 

 Institute, xm. (1884), p. 300. 



