No,VEM:pER- 14, 1907] 



■NA TURE 



4-5 



Herr Leonhardi writes : — " Among the most noteworthy 

 of the discoveries of Spencer and Gillen was the idea that 

 each man is the reincarnation of a totemic ancestor, and 

 that after death, each soul returns to its totem centre, 

 where the spirit individuals spend the time between the 

 two incarnations. These child-germs enter the women, 

 conception by means of men being unknown. In the neigh- 

 bourhood of whichever totem centre a woman first feels 

 pregnant, that becomes the totem of the child. 1 was not 

 a little astonished when Herr Strehlow wrote that he could 

 not find any reincarnation theory among the blacks, and 

 that it must be a misunderstanding ; but Spencer and 

 Gillen are so positive, ' In every tribe without e.xception 

 the belief in reincarnation is universal.' " Strehlow 

 writes : — " I have made careful inquiries concerning the 

 points raised. I have inquired of different blacks at 

 different times, among others of three witch doctors, who 

 are regarded as guardians of tradition, who grew up in 

 heathendom. They all declare these ideas to be wrong. 

 In different places there are numerous ratapa (origins of 

 men, unborn men, who have body and soul, but are in- 

 visible). The male origins are in rocks, trees, or in the 

 mistletoe growing on the latter; the female mostly in clefts 

 in rocks. Each ratapa belongs to a certain totem, and the 

 ratiipas of the same totem are collected in one place. This 

 was caused by the totem-ancestors ' getting tired ' of their 

 long wandering, and their bodies changed into rocks, trees, 

 &c., and their souls collected in an underground cave. The 

 child-germs are in these rocks and trees, and they go forth 

 thence. If now a woman, who conceives, passes such a 

 mistletoe branch or rock cleft, a ratapa enters as a grown 

 youth or girl with body and soul, into her body, causing 

 pains. The ratapa grows smaller in the woman's body 

 until later it is born as a child. If an apma (snake) 

 ratapa enters into a woman, the child belongs to the apma 

 totem. 



"When a man dies his sour (e(ano) goes, not to the 

 totem centre, but to the island of the dead, where it re- 

 mains for a time. Eventually it returns to its earlier dwell- 

 ing place on the earth and says to its former friends, ' Be 

 careful, lest you meet such a fate as mine ! ' If the dead 

 man has left behind on the earth a small child, his soul 

 enters into it and lives there until the child has grown up 

 and has a beard, when the father's soul departs again, or it 

 enters into his grandson in the same manner. It is finallv 

 destroyed by a flash of lightning. Thus one cannot speak 

 of a reincarnation, but only of the temporary dwelling of 

 the soul of the father or grandfather in his son or grand- 

 son." Strehlow assures Leonhardi that all the Arunta 

 have the same belief. 



" There are other means by which the children enter the 

 women. The atua ngaiiija (souls of totem ancestors dwell- 

 ing in underground caves) can also enter into the women, 

 if they wish to return to this earth, though their final 

 fate is utter annihilation. A child can enter its mother 

 in animal or plant form. If a woman feels the first 

 intimations of pregnancy immediately after seeing a 

 kangaroo, which runs off and disappears, there is no doubt 

 but that her child will be a kangaroo child. 



" Each individual has relationship with two totems, he 

 belongs to the one by birth, or rather by conception, this 

 totem he calls runga. The other totem belongs to him, is 

 bound up with him, has communion (altja) with him, so 

 he calls it altjira. Thus the totem animal or plant of 

 his mother which is forbidden to her to eat is his altjira, 

 which belongs to him, of which he can eat as he will. 

 .\ man named Ebalanga belongs to the iguana totem, so 

 all iguanas are regarded as his friends, or even as his 

 relations, for according to the ideas of the blacks he is 

 himself an iguana. He may kill iguanas but sparingly, 

 and eat only the tail and legs. The wild duck is his 

 mother's totem, this is bound up with him, is his guardian, 

 on whose flesh he feeds." .'Vs Leonhardi points out, "the 

 great interest in these new facts is that we have here 

 clearly a totem inherited through the mother. It may be 

 that here is preserved a relic of earlier times, when the 

 totem was inherited directly from the mother, as among 

 so many other .Australian tribes, and that the peculiar 

 belief about the conception of children was a later develop- 

 ment. As to the primitiveness of the Arunta and their 



NO. 1985, VOL. 77] 



neighbours, there has been much discussion, and the above 

 facts may give new aspects to the controversy." 



A word of warning seems desirable. The. Arunta in- 

 vestigated by Herr Strehlow appear to have been 

 Christianised, and some of their statements may have been 

 influenced by the new teaching ; also there may be slightly 

 different beliefs among various sections of the Arunta. 

 Doubtless these points will be fully discussed in the final 

 publication. A. C. H. 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL 

 INTELLIGENCE. 



Cambridge. — At the request of the special board for 

 biology and geology, the general board is proposing to 

 establish a demonstratorship in petrology. This demon- 

 strator will be paid by fees, and not directly by the 

 University. 



The same board has also received a communication 

 from the special board for biology and geology requesting 

 that the title " Readership ' in Animal Morphology " 

 (recently vacated by the election of. Mr. Adam Sedgwick 

 as professor of zoology) be changed to " Readership in 

 Zoology." This will widen the subject of the readership 

 so that it will include such subjects as variation and 

 heredity, and will enable the University to provide for the 

 teaching of these subjects, which for the last few years 

 has been given by Mr. Bateson as deputy for the pro- 

 fessor of zoology.' The general board proposes that the 

 annual stipend attached to the readership should be 100/., 

 to be paid from a common university fund, and that the 

 readership be attached to the board for biology and 

 geology. 



The Senate has sanctioned an alteration to the Previous 

 Examination of some moment, although it excited no com- 

 ment and little interest in the University. In future it 

 will be possible for a candidate to take a _ paper on 

 elementary heat and chemistry as an alternative to the 

 papers on' Paley's "Evidences" and elementary logic. In 

 the same part of the examination a single combined paper 

 on arithmetic and algebra will in future be set instead 

 of the separate papers on those subjects. 



There was a discussion last week on the proposal of the 

 medical board to institute a third first M.B. Examin- 

 ation (chemistry, physics, and elementary biologyl by 

 holding one at the commencement of the October term. 

 The proposal met with little opposition, though it was 

 pointed out that the time of year was rather inconvenient. 

 Supporters of the scheme hope that in time the October 

 examination will largelv take the pl.ice of the one held at 

 present in December, and that the latter will ultimately 

 disappear. 



The electors to the Isaac Newton studentship give notice 

 that the election to a studentship will be held in the Lent 

 term, 1908. The studentships are for the encouragement 

 of research and study in astronomy. Persons eligible are 

 members of the University who have been admitted to the 

 degree of Bachelor of Arts, and who shall be under the 

 age of twentv-five on January 21, iQoS. The studentship 

 is usually of the value of 200/. per annum. 



Prof. W. F. M. Goss, one of the leading .-Xmerican 

 authorities on railway engineering, has been appointed 

 Dean of the college of engineering of the University of 

 Illinois. 



The Civil Service Commissioners announce, in regard to 

 open competitive examinations for clerkships in the Upper 

 Division of tlie Civil Service, that, after next year,^ geo- 

 graphy, treated scientifically, will be added to the list of 

 subjects included under the head natural science of which 

 four may be taken up. 



A COURSE of eight lectures on the function of the mineral 

 constituents of the soil in the nutrition of plants, by Mr. 

 A. D. Hall, will be given, as part of the advanced lectures 

 in botany of the University of London, in the lecture room 

 of the Chelsea Physic Garden on Mondays and Thursdays, 

 beginning on November 11 at 5 p.m. Dr. O. Rosenheim 

 will give a course of three advanced lectures in physiology 



