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. 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*. 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 s0, 
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??” 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 with 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, x1x. (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. 
* BE. Palmer, “Notes on some Australian Tribes,” Journal of the Anthropological 
Institute, x1, (1884), p. 300. 
