INTRODUCTION 
7 
of plants or animals, or water, or the sun, or what not), for 
the public good by means of imitative magic. Thus the whole 
tribe forms, as it were, a single great co-operative society, 
working together, by a system of co-ordinated activities, for 
the maintenance of nature in the interest of man; the aim 
and intention are thoroughly practical, and to all appearance 
the results are entirely satisfactory. For undoubtedly nature 
continues to pursue its regular course in Central Australia: 
edible plants still grow and edible animals still multiply; the 
sun still shines, and rain still falls, if only you wait long 
enough for it. What better proof could the Australian 
native desire of the efficacy of his magic ? 
This revelation of totemism as, in one of its aspects, an 
industrial system of co-operative magic for the supply of 
human wants is one of the great discoveries of Spencer and 
Gillen. No such system, at once social, industrial, and 
magical, so complete in its organization and so far-reaching 
in its aims, has yet been recorded in any other part of the 
world, though what may be isolated fragments of such a 
system have here and there been noted in the shape of 
magical rites for the maintenance or multiplication of totems. 
One particular feature of the Australian magical rites for 
the multiplication of totems is deserving of special notice. 
In general these Central Australians observe the common 
rule of totemism which forbids a man to kill and eat his 
totemic animal, or to gather and eat his totemic plant. But 
to this rule the savages in question make a very remarkable 
exception; before a man performs a magical ceremony for 
the multiplication of his totem, he is obliged to kill and eat 
a small portion of it, if it is an animal, or to gather and eat 
a little of it, if it is a plant. Should he not thus partake of his 
totemic animal or plant, it is believed that his magic would 
be ineffectual to produce a supply of it for the benefit of 
those members of the tribe who do not belong to his totemic 
