422 



SCIENTIFIC NEWS. 



[Oct. 19, ii 



down into the depths of the mountain." The soul thus 

 following the sun, of course traverses those constellations 

 which, with some nations, were the Ram, the Bull, etc., with 

 others the Hawk, the Crow, etc. ; and thus the curious 

 anomaly is explained that the clansman who has to do with 

 only one totem animal while he lives, may have to do with 

 several in succession after death. 



It appears to be a half-forgotten tradition of the ancient 

 belief which lingers among the various barbarous tribes that 

 still believe in transmigration. The soul passing through the 

 zodiacal signs, one after another, would arrive at length at 

 its own clan-sign or totem ; and there, perhaps, it would 

 hope to stay, and enjoy felicity with its god. This is 

 apparently the latent essence of that article of faith among 

 Indians, that as the clan sprang from the totem, so each clans- 

 man at death reassumes the totem form. Thus the Moquis, 

 believing that the ancestors of the clans were respectively 

 rattlesnakes, deer, bears, sand, water, tobacco, etc., think 

 that at death each man, according to his clan, is changed into 

 a rattlesnake, a deer, etc. 



Amongst the Black Shoulder (Buffalo) clan of the Omahas a 

 dying clansman was wrapped in a buffalo robe with the hair 

 out, his face was painted with the clan mark, and his friends 

 addressed him thus: "You are going to the animals (the 

 buffaloes). You are going to rejoin your ancestors. You are 

 going, or your four souls are going, to the four winds. Be 

 strong."* Frazer quotes the Australian ceremony at initiation 

 of pretending to recall a dead man to life by the utterance of 

 his totem name. An old man lies down in a grave and is 

 covered up lightly with earth ; but at the mention of his 

 totem name he starts up to life. 



I anticipate an objection to the views of my paper, that 

 the theory seems to require a greater knowledge of 

 astronomy on the part of Australians and Red-men than they 

 or their ancestors are likely ever to have possessed ; and 

 perhaps a degree of religious culture, from which we should 

 have to suppose they had fallen. 



We have already heard witnesses to the fact that the 

 Australian blacks are better acquainted with the stars than 

 the average Englishman. They appoint men to study and to 

 teach ; and they find the knowledge useful on their journeys. 

 Moreover they have a mythology, in which the eagle-hawk, 

 and the crow are constellations. The Australians, then, 

 appear to be elevated enough for our purpose. It must be 

 allowed that they no longer carry out the religious and 

 military duties, the rotational performance of which I imagine 

 to be at the root of their class and clan distinctions, and they 

 probably cannot give any intelligible reason of their present 

 divisions, and their rules about marriage, totem animals, etc. 

 But then neither did the Greeks of two thousand years ago 

 understand the origin and meaning of their own mythology, 

 and there is not a civilised nation in the world which does 

 not retain some customs which it cannot explain, and which 

 has not, in some things, become degraded in practice and 

 belief. Besides, on any theory, the orgin of totemism 

 appears to be forgotten. We might expect at least some 

 obscure tradition of its origin to remain ; and if I am right, 

 we do actually find as much as this, in the idea that the 

 totem animal is the creator, that the archetype is in heaven, 

 and that men go to their totem god after death. 



The zodiacal origin of totemism — if it be a fact — goes far 

 to account for the widespread character of the institution. 

 Measures of self-defence would be adopted instinctively by 

 all tribes. The heavens are spread before all peoples ; the 

 seasons succeed one another in all continents ; the moon 

 divides the year into months universally. Thus Australian 

 natives and North American Indians might get started on the 

 same path independently ; and ancient Greeks and Egyptians 

 may have gone through similar stages of development in the 

 early ages. What has been common to them all was so much 

 observation of the star groups as to connect their periodical 

 rising with the habits of animals, etc., and some kind of 

 public duty to be performed by sections of the community in 

 rotation. 



* "Schoolcraft," Ind. Tr. iv. 86 ; Dalton, " Ethnol. of Bengal," p. 

 280. Quoted in Frazer, 36; Morgan, 179. 



If there be truth in my general view, the theory I offer of 

 the origin of totemism may not only be acceptable as an ex- 

 planation of facts and arrangements which have appeared 

 mysterious, but will indicate the following fresh lines of 

 inquiry. 



(1) What are the names of the constellations among bar- 

 barous and savage tribes? 



(2) What is it that has led the families of men in all parts 

 of the world to connect the constellations with animal and 

 other symbols ? I fancy the explanation may be that, accord- 

 ing to the country or district, the abundance of wolves or 

 hares, or of rain, would be the prominent feature of the 

 month ; and the sign of their coming would be the rising of 

 the group of stars which marked the month. Thus the con- 

 stellation which signalised the coming of the wolves would 

 soon be called the wolf constellation, and a fancied resem- 

 blance to a wolf be traced among its stars, though it required 

 a lively imagination to find it. Then the band of watchers 

 gets named after the constellation ; and all the rest follows. 



(3) If the true origin of totem clans be actually found in the 

 division of the year into seasons and months, and the corre- 

 sponding division of the heavens, we have a new instrument 

 in our hands for investigating the origin and significance of 

 the castes of India, the yevos in Greece, and the gens in Rome. 



— •^i^'^Stf-* — 

 CORRESPONDENCE. 



The Editor does not hold himself responsible for opinions expressed 

 by his correspondents, nor can he take notice of anonymous com- 

 munications. All letters must be accompanied by the name and 

 address of the writer, not necessarily for publication, but as a 

 guarantee of good faith. 



THE SPARROW. 



Sir, — In reply to your correspondent " Aruspex," I will 

 first say that I very much doubt if there are more sparrows in 

 this country than other birds, but because they congregate 

 where they can obtain food they are more conspicuous. I 

 again repeat that " the sparrow is not so prolific as it is gene- 

 rally supposed to be," and I beg to offer "Aruspex" some 

 figures for which I will vouch the accuracy. In the breeding 

 season of 1S87 I counted the young birds in 89 broods, and 

 found 278 young birds only, or 3 J to a brood. Again, if the 

 sparrow is so numerous, how was it that out of 500 small 

 birds massacred in two days whilst feeding at a corn stack, 

 there were scarcely any sparrows amongst the slain, the car- 

 nage falling upon the buntings, several kinds of finches, and 

 some starlings ? 



When "Aruspex '' advocates the destruction of the sparrow 

 to make room for the swallow, he must have forgotten that 

 the swallow feeds only on flies and moths, which are the 

 product of grubs and catterpillars, and it is from these pests 

 that we receive the greatest damage ; but if these are to be 

 allowed to live and turn into food for swallows, woe to all 

 our fruits and flowers ! 



I fear "Aruspex" cannot know what kind of bird the 

 American robin (Tardus migra tortus') is, or he would not 

 have quoted from S. A. Forbes' writing. The American 

 robin is a bird quite as large as our song thrush, and it 

 appears to me to be absurd to draw any comparison between 

 it and the sparrow. 



Having had considerable opportunities of watching the 

 habits of the sparrow, I must say that I have never seen or 

 even heard of its molesting the swallow, although I know 

 they will sometimes take possession of a martin's nest, and 

 as for their driving away " other true insectivorous birds, " it 

 is all mythical. Joseph P. Nunn. 



Royston, Oct. 13th, 1888. 



Snails Eating Stone. — M. Bretenniers has found in 

 Africa limestone rocks curiously perforated with cylin- 

 drical cavities, and in each there was a snail {Limax). 

 M. Gaudry agrees that those holes are really the work 

 of the mollusks. He has met with them a great many 

 times on Mount Pelegrino, near Palermo. 



