OcTOBER 2, 1902] 
NATURE 
565 
The remarkable researches of Messrs. Spencer and Gillen in 
Central Australia prove that it is the function of the kinsmen of 
a particular totem to perform what are known as zatichium 
ceremonies, the object of which is to cause the abundance of 
the species of animal or plant which is the totem of that kin. 
The descriptions of these ceremonies are well known to students.! 
I have adduced further evidence of a like nature,” and from 
what Mr. Roscoe has found in Uganda we may expect other 
examples from Africa. 
It may be that in some, possibly in all, of the instances of 
sympathetic and symbolic magic there is a belief that wind or 
sun, animal or plant, or whatever the objects may be, are 
animated by spirits akin to those of humankind ; but even so, as 
Dr. Frazer® points out, the action of the magician is a direct 
one ; it does not imply the assistance of other powers who can 
control the body or spirit of those objects. The data from 
Australia and Torres Straits point to the conclusion that there 
is a magical aspect of totemism, which is of great economic 
importance, and there is no evidence that the officiators at these 
ceremonies acknowledge the assistance of spiritual powers resi- 
dent either within the objects themselves or in the form of inde- 
pendent, more or less supreme beings. The existing data do 
not deny their existence, they simply ignore them in the cere- 
monies, and so far they are practically non-existent. 
According to the suggestion I have ventured to make, the 
primitive totemic groups ate their associated animals or plants ; 
indeed, these were their chief articles of diet. Messrs. Spencer 
and Gillen point out* that while amongst most Australian 
tribes a man may not eat his totem, amongst the Arunta and 
other tribes in the centre of the continent there is no restriction 
according to which a man is altogether forbidden to eat his 
totem. On the other hand, though he may, only under 
ordinary circumstances, eat very sparingly of it, there are certain 
special occasions on which he is obliged by custom to eat a small 
portion of it, or otherwise the supply would fail. The Arunta 
are a peculiar people, while they may be primitive in some re- 
spects ; in others they are not so, as also has been pointed out 
by Durkheim (‘‘L’Année Sociologique,” v. 1902). According 
to the strict definition of the term, they are not even a totemic 
people. Judging from the evidence of the legends of the 
Alcheringa time and the traces of group marriage and mother 
I have barely touched upon the relation of social organisa- 
tion, with its marriage taboo, to totemism. It is by no means 
certain that the social regulations and customs, which are so 
much in evidence in a fully developed totemic society, were 
primitively connected with totemism. So far as the Arunta are 
concerned, Messrs. Spencer and Gillen believe ( Jo. Anthrop. 
Inst., xxvili. 1899, pp. 277, 278) the ‘‘ totemism appears to 
be a primary, and exogamy a secondary, feature . . . and that 
exogamic groups were deliberately introduced so as to regulate 
marital relations.” But is this primitive ? 
If one admits that mankind was originally distributed in 
small groups, which must have consisted of near kin, it does 
not seem difficult to imagine that marriage would more likely 
take place between members of contiguous groups rather than 
within the groups themselves. The attraction for novelty must 
always have operated, and in the struggle for existence there 
was always one advantage to be gained by alliances between 
neighbouring groups, not only from a commissariat point of 
view, but for offensive and defensive purposes. There is, of 
course, the converse of this, as wife-stealing would lead to 
feuds ; perhaps daughter-abduction was more frequent, and 
| this probably was not regarded as an offence so serious that a 
right, Mr. Hartland (‘* Folk-lore,” xi. 1900, pp. 73-75) is of | 
opinion that the present disregard by the Arunta of the totem 
in marriage is a stage in the sloughing of totemism altogether, 
whereas the evgwzra, or final initiation ceremonies, indicate 
that ‘‘ the organisation is undergoing a slow transformation into 
something more like the so-called secret societies of the British 
Columbian tribes.” 
The eating of what are evidently the totem animals by the 
Arunta may possibly bea persistence from an earlier phase, but, 
without doubt, the totem taboo is characteristic of totemism in 
full sway. We have evidence to show that under certain con- 
ditions the totem taboo may break down, but this is a later 
transformation, and indicates a breaking up of the rigid — jarge turtle-shell (tortoise-shell) mask representing respectively 
observance of totemism. 
Mr. Lang (‘‘ Magic and Religion,” 1901, pp. 264, 265) has 
made a simple suggestion to account for the origin of the totem 
taboo. He says: ‘‘ These men therefore would work the magic 
for propagating their kindred in the animal and vegetable 
world, But the existence of this connection would also suggest 
that, in common decency, a man should not kill and eat his 
animal or vegetable relations. In most parts of the world he 
abstains from this uncousinly behaviour ; among the Arunta he 
may eat sparingly of his totem, and must do so at the end of 
the close-time or beginning of the season. He thus, as a near 
relation of the actual kangaroo or grubs, declares the season is 
open, now his neighbours may begin to eat grubs or kangaroos ; 
the taboo is off.” Dr. Frazer puts forth two suggestions 
(Fortnightly Review, 1899, pp. 838-40): the one is that as 
animals do not eat their own kind, so man thought it incon- 
sistent to eat his totem kin; the other is a hypothetical idea of 
conciliation. 
1 Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, ‘‘The Native Tribes of Central 
Australia,” 1899; cf also J. G. Frazer, Fortnightly Review, 1899, pp. 
Oe EE lore, xii. 1901, p. 230, and ‘‘ Report Camb. Anthrop. Expedi- 
tion to Torres Straits,” vol. v. (in the press). 
3 Loc. cit., 1899, p. 657. 
4 Loc. cit., pp- 73, 167 
5 I am fully aware that this appears to cut the ground from under my 
suggestion ; but the latter deals with incipient totemism, and I do not see 
why the totem taboo should not have arisen from several causes. 
NO. 1718, VOL. 66] 
| phratry. 
mild scrimmage would not set matters right. It would not take 
long for wont to crystallise into rigid custom, and custom is 
always supported by public opinion. 
Social regulations must be later than social conditions, and J 
suspect that the privileges and taboos which run through the 
social aspect of totemism first arose when totemic groups were 
in process of aggregation into more complex communities, and 
afterwards gradually became fixed into a system. 
Flero-cults. 
The facts to which I have hitherto directed your attention 
fall well within the sphere of totemism, but I wish now to in- 
dicate two interesting departures from typical totemism, both 
of which occur among the Western tribe of Torres Straits. 
I have alluded to the dual grouping of the totem kins at 
Mabuiag, and an analogous arrangement occurred in the other 
islands ; I propose to speak of each group of kins as a phratry. 
Strictly speaking, a phratry is a group of exogamous kins 
| within a community ; that is, no member of a group of kins (or 
phratry) could marry another person belonging to the same 
The evidence that this is or was the case in the 
Western tribe of Torres Straits is strong, but it is not abso- 
lutely proven. : 
In Yam, as in the other islands, there is at least one Zwod, or 
taboo ground, where sacred ceremonies were held. In the 
principal £wod in Yam there was formerly a low fence surround- 
ing a space about thirty-five feet square in which were the shrines 
of the two great totems of theisland. All that now remains is 
several heaps of great Fusus shells. 
Two of the heaps are about twenty-five feet in length. For- 
merly at the southerly end of each long row of shells was a 
a crocodile and a hammer-headed shark. These were decorated 
in various ways, and under each was a stone in which the life 
of the totem resided ; stretching from the front end of each 
mask was a cord to which numerous human lower jaw-bones, 
were fastened, and its other end was attached to a human 
skull, which rested on astone. Beside the shriné of the hammer- 
headed shark was a small heap of shells which was the shrine 
of a sea-snake, which was supposed to have originated from the 
shark. These shrines were formerly covered over by long low 
huts, which like the fence were decorated with large Fusus 
shells. 
Outside the fence were two heaps of shells which had a 
mystical connection with the shrine; they were called the 
“*navels of the totems.” ' 
I have referred to the ¢zz¢échzuma ceremonies of the Arunta 
tribe of Central Australia as being magical rites undertaken by 
certain kinsmen for the multiplication of the totems. In some 
| cases, apparently, the ceremonies may take place wherever the 
men happen to be camping; in other cases there are definite 
localities where they must be performed, as there are in these 
places certain stones, rocks or trees which are intimately con- 
nected with the magical rites. These spots may be spoken of 
as shrines. In the island of Mabuiag the magical ceremony for 
the alluring of the dugong was performed by the men of that 
kin in their own £wod, which was a fixed spot ; and doubtless 
this was the case in the other islands of Torres Straits, for even 
