Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 11, 1900.djvu/247

 Animal Superstitions and Totemisrn. 235

(iv.) We find certain animals associated with certain families, such as the spiders with the Bruces; in some cases they are also borne in the arms, and a story is frequently told to explain the connection, according to which the animal once helped a member of the family.^

(v.) To certain animals is assigned the important function of bringing the babies. I do not venture to lay much stress on this sub-section, for someone will probably inquire whether the gooseberry bush from which the English babies come is also a totem. The facts are nevertheless worthy of notice. The best known example is of course the stork ; but we find in addition the ladybird fulfilling this office in South Germany ; in Bohemia the crow and sometimes the kite ; elsewhere the cabbage-butterfly, or the frog, undertakes the task. According to a slightly different account the children come from the hare's nest,'"* or the ass's spring.^

(b) Animal Forms, etc.

(i.) Closely connected with the foregoing sub-section is the belief in the animal form of the soul. In the British Isles we find the following among the soul-animals — ant, butterfly, gull, moth, sparrow, goatsucker, cat, swan, and spider. In Germany we find — the bat, butterfly, bee, cricket, fowl, mouse, peewit, pigeon, raven, snake, swan, toad, and weasel."^ In Riigen it is believed that the seal is descended from drowned human beings.^

(ii.) Closely connected with the foregoing is the belief in the animal form of human beings, especially witches. In Germany they appear as bulls, butterflies, cats, donkeys,

' Swainson, Folklore of Birds, p. 486 ; cf. Frazer, Totetnism, p. 7 ; f/i ii.,

344 i^

^ Ploss, Das Kind, i., 12 ; Schulenburg, We?id. Volkstum, i., 94. ^ Mannhardt, Germ. My then, p. 411.


 * Meyer, passim ; Arck. Rev.y iii., 226 ; MS. notes, &c.

ii., 447.
 * Mannhardt, Genn. Myth., p. <j2', cf. Globus, xiv., 287; Jour. Anth. /.,