Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 15, 1904.djvu/228

204 " From the foregoing facts it would seem possible that the origin of the Siboko among these tribes arose from some sobriquet that had been given to them; and that in course of time, as their superstitions and devotional feelings became more developed, these tribal symbols became objects of veneration and superstitious awe, whose favour was to be propitiated, or malign influence averted, by certain rites and ceremonies, more or less elaborate, with ablutions and purification, with solemn dances and singing, the kindling and distribution of the sacred fire, and placing ashes on the forehead as a sign of grief." (MS. 819, 820.)

From MS. work entitled The Races of South Africa, their Migrations and Invasions, showing the Intrusion of the Stronger Races into the Hunting-Grounds of the ancient Abatwa or Bushmen, the Aboriginal Cave-dwellers of the Country; by [the late] George W. Stow, F.G.S., F.R.G.S., of the Geological Surveys of Griqualand West and the Orange Free State. Two vols., with Tribal Genealogies, Maps, and Illustrations Quoted by kind permission of Miss L. C. Lloyd, author A Short Account of Further Bushman Material Collected, (Third Report concerning Bushman Researches). D. Nutt, 1889. 

On this Mr. Lang comments as follows:

"The myths here given, and the remarks of Mr. Stow, anticipate my own hypothesis that group-names, given from without, were the germs of totemism. But the incidence is of no service to my argument. Tribal Siboko represent the extreme decadence, not the primal form, of totems, and are probably the survivals of the totem of the chief local totem groups in a tribe reckoning descent in the male line, as among the Arunta; a method remote from the primitive mode of transmitting totems by female descent. Siboko could not arise in the manner suggested by the myth, among an advanced agricultural African people.

"I may add that the name of the Arunta tribe means "White Cockatoos," so given by Mr. Curr in 1886. We do not hear that the whole tribe adores the White Cockatoo."

Mr. N. W. Thomas sends us the following note:

"The myth is clearly post-totemic and ætiological, and has no value as evidence of origin. It may be compared with that of the Banoukou kin of the Baperi given by Merensky (Beiträge, p. 133 n.). Dr. J. G. Frazer (Man, 1901, No. 111) has quoted