Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 16, 1905.djvu/126

 1 04 Reviews.

Moreover, the subdivision of the moieties into two or four sub-classes, and the sharing of the totems between the moieties, are unmistakable signs of conscious elaboration. If the elaboration were conscious, why not the original division? The motive for such a division is assuredly not beyond conjecture, at all events on the assumption of primitive pro- miscuity. There are grounds for believing that jealousy was by no means so fully developed in primitive times as later. Still, then as now, "individual likes and dislikes must have existed," and these, even in so scant a population as that of Australia, must have been the cause of quarrels, and possibly have "bred fruitful hot water for all parties." The division of the tribe into two exogamous moieties would not have been effectual in stopping all these. It would not have prevented the union of father and daughter; but it would have limited the right of connubhim to some extent. As the first step in organization, it was perhaps as far as conservative savages who had hitherto known no organiza- tion would or could go. It rendered possible future steps, and led ultimately to the recognition of blood-relationship. Even in an unorganized horde the power would rest with the men of maturity and experience. Bunjil or Daramulun would be a stranger to their dreams. Ancestor-worship would of course be as yet unknown. Yet their meditations on the quarrels and blood- shed among themselves, and their own personal insecurity from men who spoke their own dialect and with whom they were in frequent association, as well as from strangers, might in sleep have taken the form of visits from deceased victims whom they had known, with whom they had been in friendly intercourse, or whom perhaps they had slain in anger — visits the object of which was to suggest "a more excellent way." Without such visits, however, it is quite conceivable that the first step on the journey of civilization might have been devised, agreed on, and carried out, by men who had come to realize the evils of their present state and the possibility of amendment. The first step taken, the rest was easier. With every fresh step the authority of the elders would augment; and at later stages they would even be able to strengthen it, as Dr. Howitt conjectures, by superhuman commands which the tribe durst not disobey.