Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/390

 370 The Origin of Totem Names and Beliefs.

beliefs. They have a god of agriculture, and, of course, are therefore remote from the primitive ; being rice-farmers. They respect Nyarongs, or " spirit-helpers," though Mr. Hose lived among them for fourteen years without knowing what a Nyarong is. " It seems usually to be the spirit of some ancestor, or dead relative, but not ahvays so .... " The spirit first appears to an Iban in a dream, in human form, and the Iban, on awaking, looks for the Nyarong in any casual beast, or quartz crystal, or queer root or creeper. So far the Nyarong is a fetish. Only about two per cent, of men have Nyarongs. If the thing be an animal, the Iban respects the other creatures of the species. " In some cases the cult of a Nyaro?ig will spread through a whole family or household." Australian individuals have also their secret animal friends, like nyarongs and naguals, but these are never hereditary. What is hereditary is the totem of the kin, which may not be altered, or so seldom that it would be hard to find a modern example ; though changes of totems may have occurred when, in the pristine " treks " of the race, they reached regions of new fauna and flora. "The children and grandchildren," our authors go on, " among the Ibans, will usually respect the species of animal to which a man's Nyarong belongs, and perhaps sacrifice fowls or pigs to it occasionally." Of course " primitive " man has no domesticated animals, and does not sacrifice anything to anybody. " If the great grandchildren of a man behave well to his Nyarong, it will often befriend them just as much as its original protege." It is not readily conceiv- able that among very early men and where the names of the dead are tabued, the wisest great-grandchild knows who his great-grandfather was. Still, though the great-grand- father was forgotten, his Nyarong — it may be said — would be held in perpetual memory, and become the totem of a group. But this is not easily to be conceded, because there would be the competition of the Nyarongs of each genera- tion to crush the z.wcx^wi Nyarong : moreover, the totem, in