236 TOTEMISM AND EXOGAMY 



to what kind of spirit of the dead this may be and, 

 as a totem of one kind only belongs to any special 

 spot, it must be obvious that the totem of the 

 child is thus decided by the accident of position 

 at a given moment. This accidental acquisition of 

 the totem explains the absence of its connexion 

 with marriage systems. 



Now, before discussing this view and its rivals, 

 the opportunity may be made use of for giving 

 two warnings to those whose interest in early 

 customs leads them to read the books of explorers 

 and writers on such things. The first of these is that 

 nothing can be a more difficult task than to get at 

 the exact meaning of a savage's ideas through the 

 medium of a probably difficult and almost cer- 

 tainly only half-understood tongue. Can we, in 

 the case under consideration, feel quite certain 

 Spencer and Gillen really got at the full meaning 

 of the Arunta customs through the interpreter 

 whom they employed ? This is a question of crucial 

 importance, and it is brought more prominently 

 before us by the fact that the writings of Mr. 

 Strehlow, a Lutheran missionary working in the 

 same district, do not seem, in some important 

 particulars, to bear out the views of the gentlemen 

 mentioned nor those which Professor Frazer has 

 founded upon them. The Professor does not attach 

 as much importance to the missionary's views as 

 others would, because the missionary's object is 

 to turn the heathen from their ways, about which, 

 therefore, one might suppose that he must first 

 know something. But the Professor has utilized, 

 as needs must be, a great deal of missionary 



