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The yunbeai is a sort of alter ego; a man's spirit is in his yunbeai, and his yunbeai's spirit in him. A Minggah, or spirit-haunted tree of an individual, usually chosen from amongst a man's multiplex totems, is another source of danger to him, as also a help. As Mr. Canton says: 'What singular threads of superstition bind the ends of the earth together!
It seems not to exist among the Masai, a vigorous people with an interesting theistic system. The neighboring Nandi, who have clan totems, lay stress rather on the family than on the clan in their marriage laws, and their taboos include more than their totems; their excessive regard for the hyena may be due simply to their fear of the animal.
Also 'certain mythical ancestors, of the 'alcheringa, or dream-times, were celebrated; these real or ideal human beings appear to 'sink their identity in that of the object with which they are associated, and from which they are supposed to have originated. There appear also to be places haunted by 'spirit individuals, in some way mixed up with Totems, but nothing is said of sacrifice to these Manes.
Possibly, also, this climatic feature may account for the stricter rule of prohibition mentioned above; as the rule is sometimes relaxed when it is hard to get food, so, on the other hand, it may be strictly enforced when food is plentiful. The Dieri clans bear the names of their totems, from which also they think themselves descended, but they eat them freely.
The history of the cult of heroes in Yam and other Torres Straits islands is obscure, but from known facts the indications are that the hero figures have arisen independently of the totem figures and have been, by a natural process, identified with these. The peculiarity of the Rewa deities is that they assume animal forms at will, and such animals, not being eaten, are held to be totems.
But if the object of the rites is not to increase the number of mosquitoes, flies, and beetles, it need not in the first instance have been the object with which the rites were celebrated in the case of other totems.
The hypothesis here provisionally advocated makes no assumptions at all. It is a positive fact that among some of the lowest savages there exists, not a doctrinal and abstract Monotheism, but a belief in a moral, powerful, kindly, creative Being, while this faith is found in juxtaposition with belief in unworshipped ghosts, totems, fetishes, and so on.
Their confederation was a natural one, for they were of the same stock and spoke the same language, and all attempts to separate them had been in vain. Mohawks, Cayugas, Onondagas, Oneidas, and Senecas were each proud of their own totems and their own chiefs, but in war they were Iroquois, and the enemy of one was the enemy of all.
The incident of the recovery of the bride not found in all the stories New Zealand sagas Andrianòro Mother-right The father represented under a forbidding aspect Tasks imposed on the hero The Buddhist theory of the Grateful Animals The feather-robe a symbol of bride's superhuman character Mode of capture The Taboo Dislike of fairies for iron Utterance of name forbidden Other prohibitions Fulfilment of fate The taboo a mark of progress in civilization The divine ancestress Totems and Banshees Re-appearance of mother to her children The lady of the Van Pool an archaic deity.
I've had my eyes open and seen Injun sign mor'n once or twice either. I've hunted with her tribe afore, I guess, and old Bill ain't forgot all the totems and the war paint. After this Bill fresh lit his cigar, and wouldn't say any more. But I could see what he was driving at, and I settled to try all I knew to keep everything right and square till the time came for us to make our dart.