Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/244

 232 Animal Superstitions and Totemism.

[b) The Hahnenschlag.

[c) The Simple Form.

i. First seen, killed.

ii. Killed as talisman {a) on given date, (/S) at given season, (7) at all seasons. iii. Killed annually, no magic. {d) Torture Form. {e) Precipice Form. {/) Fire Form. I A. Procession.

2. Communion with the sacred animat. (a) By Distribution.

[d) By Eating—

i. The animal, ii. The "animal-cake." In the form of an appendix to III, I. I deal briefly with " Games of Sacrifice," including under this name Blind Man's Buff and Cock Warning.

I now proceed to consider the above points in detail.

I. I. The section of Descent from the Totem- Animal is, as might have been expected, the one in which I have least evidence to present. Such evidence as there is, however, is incontestable.

There are in the West of Ireland (and, I believe, in some of the Scotch islands)^ unmistakable traces of a seal-clan. The clansman is named after the seal, conceives himself to be of the blood of the eponym animal, and refrains from killing the seal or using it for food if he can possibly avoid it. According to another account, some of the clan (Con- neely) were once changed into seals, and since then no Conneely can kill a seal without incurring bad luck.^

We find in Ossory an almost parallel case of a local wolf clan. The account given by Giraldus is interesting as presenting a close resemblance to many werwolf legends.

In a third case — the cat-tribes of Ireland and Scotland — we have the descent from the eponym animal and its use as a crest.

'A, vi.. 223. " Joiirn. Ajith. hist, ii., 447.