Descent of Man from, Animals 167 



Many other peoples of the Molucca Islands entertain similar beliefs 

 and observe similar taboos 1 . Again, in Ponape, one of the Caroline 

 Islands, "the different families suppose themselves to stand in a 

 certain relation to animals, and especially to fishes, and believe in 

 their descent from them. They actually name these animals 

 ' mothers ' ; the creatures are sacred to the family and may not 

 be injured. Great dances, accompanied with the offering of prayers, 

 are performed in their honour. Any person who killed such an 

 animal would expose himself to contempt and punishment, certainly 

 also to the vengeance of the insulted deity." Blindness is commonly 

 supposed to be the consequence of such a sacrilege 2 . 



Some of the aborigines of Western Australia believe that their 

 ancestors were swans, ducks, or various other species of water-fowl 

 before they were transformed into men 3 . The Dieri tribe of Central 

 Australia, who are divided into totemic clans, explain their origin by 

 the following legend. They say that in the beginning the earth 

 opened in the midst of Perigundi Lake, and the totems (murdus or 

 madas) came trooping out one after the other. Out came the crow, 

 and the shell parakeet, and the emu, and all the rest. Being as yet 

 imperfectly formed and without members or organs of sense, they 

 laid themselves down on the sandhills which surrounded the lake 

 then just as they do now. It was a bright day and the totems lay 

 basking in the sunshine, till at last, refreshed and invigorated by it, 

 they stood up as human beings and dispersed in all directions. That 

 is why people of the same totem are now scattered all over the 

 country. You may still see the island in the lake out of which the 

 totems came trooping long ago 4 . Another Dieri legend relates how 

 Paralina, one of the Mura-Muras or mythical predecessors of the 

 Dieri, perfected mankind. He was out hunting kangaroos, when he 

 saw four incomplete beings cowering together. So he went up to 

 them, smoothed their bodies, stretched out their limbs, slit up their 

 fingers and toes, formed their mouths, noses, and eyes, stuck ears 

 on them, and blew into their ears in order that they might hear. 

 Having perfected their organs and so produced mankind out of these 

 rudimentary beings, he went about making men everywhere 5 . Yet 

 another Dieri tradition sets forth how the Mura-Mura produced the 

 race of man out of a species of small black lizards, which may still be 



1 J. G. F. Riedel, De sluik- en kroesharige rassen tusschen Selebes en Papua (The 

 Hague, 1886), pp. 253, 334, 341, 348, 412, 414, 432. 



2 Dr Habl, " Mittheilungen iiber Sitteu und rechtliche Verhaltnisse auf Ponape," 

 Ethnologischex Notizllatt, Vol. n. Heft 2 (Berlin, 1901), p. 10. 



3 Captain G. Grey, A Vocabulary of the Dialects of South Western Australia, Second 

 Edition (London, 1840), pp. 29, 37, 61, 63, 66, 71. 



* A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia (London, 1904), pp. 476, 779 sq. 



* A. W. Howitt, op. cit., pp. 476, 780 sq. 



