Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 23, 1912.djvu/128

106 of marriage by capture. Two neighbouring tribes, say Kroki and Kumit, obtained wives from one another by capture. Gradually there would be a number of Kroki women and their children among the Kumits, and of Kumit women and their children among the Krokis. The two tribes would be more and more closely associated. The unmarried women under my suggestion would find their position inferior to that of those who were married. But by long, and perhaps immemorial, custom Kroki had married Kumit and Kumit had married Kroki. Hence, even if the two tribes more or less coalesced, and marriage by capture in reality was gradually replaced by amicable arrangements, still Kroki would marry Kumit and Kumit would marry Kroki. Moreover, as years rolled on, the rule would acquire more and more force.

But, then, Mr. Lang asks,—"How does Lord Avebury explain the fact that, in the Buandik tribe, no one of the Ti-tree, Owl, and Root totems may marry a person of the Fish-hawk, Pelican, Crow, and Snake totem?"

My suggestion is that the original phratries, to use the term suggested by Mr. Lang, became inconveniently large, and were broken up into several totems. The prohibition against the original phratry would then naturally be extended to the fractions.

Religion.—I now come to the question of Religion. I have maintained that the lowest races have nothing that can be called a Religion. Mr. Lang considers that they have.

Whether a savage has or has not any ideas of a Deity, of Creation, etc., the moment he is questioned, the moment a missionary attempts to teach him, ideas are put into his head, which may or may not have occurred to him before. Moreover, one of the first things a missionary would attempt to teach would be the Creation of the World.

As Mr. Kidd says of the Kaftirs, "though they believe a very great deal, they do not quite know what they actually believe, for they never sit down and reflect on their beliefs. And the moment you try to find out what the Kafir believes, your very questions, unless carefully thought out beforehand, are sure to suggest to them ideas which they can easily fit in with their other ideas.