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Totems, in their developed form, are revered, but rarely if ever worshiped. The term 'animal-gods' may mean either living animals regarded as divine, or animals believed to be the forms assumed by gods; in the latter case they may be taken to be real gods of an inferior type.
The savage who is breaking the laws of his tribe has all his world totems, tabus, earth, sky and all against him. He cannot be at peace with God. The position of the hero or martyr who defies his tribe for the sake of what he thinks the truth or the right can easily be thought out on these lines. He defies this false temporary Cosmos in loyalty to the true and permanent Cosmos.
For a man's totem may be in the likeness perhaps of an otter, and a man may pray, and if his totem be placable and watching over his man a noise may be heard at once like the noise that the otter makes, though it be but a stone that falls on another stone; and the noise is a sign. The four men's totems that stood so far away were in the likeness of the coney, the bear, the heron, and the lizard.
I do not know whether it has been observed that the totems are, as a rule, objects which may be easily drawn or tattooed, and still more easily indicated in gesture-language. In mentioning the Snakes, the hand imitates the crawling motion of the serpent, and the fingers pointed up behind the ear denote the Wolves.
It is so far inferred rather than demonstrated. Next I said that the evolution of the bear into the classical Artemis 'almost escapes our inquiry. We find nothing more akin to it than the relation borne by the Samoan gods to the various totems in which they are supposed to be manifest. This Mr. Codrington. Have I incurred Dr. Codrington's feud? He doubts or denies totems in Melanesia.
Some of the animals that furnish omens are totems, and in such cases the totemic significance coalesces with that of the omen; the animal that appears to the young Sioux candidate as his manitu has both characters it is the sign of divine acceptance and the embodiment of the divine patron. +913+. Prodigies connected with the birth of children are numerous.
That Moodai, Gouyou, Beewee, Maira, Yubbah are always Murree Kubbee Matha Kubbootha. Our blacks may and do eat their hereditary totems, if so desirous, with no ill effects to themselves, either real or imaginary; their totem names they take from their mothers. They may, in fact, in any way use their totems, but never abuse them.
Some adjacent tribes eat them only at a pinch, others refrain from them. The clans of the Narrinyeri are mostly localized, and the clan-names are not now those of the totems; the totems are eaten. The Kurnai show the greatest divergence from the ordinary type they have neither totemic clans nor exogamous classes; their rule of exogamy relates to districts.
"My thoughts were bent on no such vanities, but rather mingled in consolation with those of the maidens." "The time may come when you will not consider the knife of a savage such a despicable vanity," returned the scout, with a strong expression of contempt for the other's dullness. "Had they held their corn feast or can you say anything of the totems of the tribe?"
Even to-day the family ties are so strong that it was found possible, in compiling the genealogical tables, to trace back the family history five or six generations. These families are not distinguished by any totems, guardian spirits, or stories of supernatural origin, but the right to conduct the more important ceremonies is hereditary.
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