Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/393

 The Origin of Totem Names and Beliefs. 373

ceivable that the fishers might come to be named " crab- men," "lobster-men," "cuttle-fish-men," by their neighbours, whom they would speak of as "grass-men," "plum-men," " kangaroo-men," and so on. When once these names were accepted (I presume), and were old, and now of un- known or rather forgotten origin, all manner of myths to account for the connection between the groups and their animal names would arise. When the myth declared that the plants and animals were akin to their name-giving creatures, superstitious practices would follow. We have seen two cases in which Australian totem-groups averred that they were named totemically after a small species of opossum, and a fish which their ancestors habitually ate. But that is an explanatory myth. Man cannot live on opossums alone, still less on sardines.

My own guess admits the possibility of this cause of giving plant and animal names to groups, among other causes. But I doubt if this was a common cause. In Australia, every thing that can be eaten is eaten by all the natives of a given area, each group having only a tendency to spare its own totem, while certain other tabus on foods exist. In this condition of affairs, very few groups could have a notable special variety of food^ except in the case of certain fruits, grass-seeds, and insects. For these articles the season is almost as brief as the season of the mayfly or the grannom. " When fruits is in, cats is out," as the pieman said to the young lady. During the rest of the year, all the groups in a large area will be living on the same large variety of reptiles, roots, animals such as rats and lizards, birds, and so forth. It does not seem probable that, except as between the Sea and Bush parts of a tribe, there could be much specialisa- tion in matters of diet, during the greater part of the year. Therefore I do not think that the derivation of totem-names from special articles of food can ever have been common. But local knowledge is necessary on this point. Are the totem-kins of Australia settled on lands peculiarly notable