Page:Journal of American Folklore vol. 12.djvu/405

 Bibliographical Notes. 73

stone, which accordingly is dropped in the locality ; this is searched for, and becomes the amulet or Churinga of the babe. If not found, then another is made from the Nanja, that is, the tree or stone in which the spirit formerly resided. The Nanja tree is connected with the life of the child ; if it were cut down, some evil would befall him : any creature on the tree is sacred. The Churinga of the child is deposited in the cave or crevice called the Ertnatulanga, which belongs to each totem centre, along with the other Churinga of members of the totem, and is called the Churinga nanja ; no woman may approach the place, or even take a path passing in the neighborhood. The Ertnatulunga become havens for wild animals, which in their locality may not be injured. The spot is also the rudiment of a city of refuge, for a person pursued by others may not be touched while he remains near. A resemblance to modern European usage may be noted, in that the scrapings of the Churinga, mixed with water, are used for medicine (as in Ireland is grave-dirt from the resting-place of a holy man). Robbery of an Ertnatulunga is a rare occurrence ; where such removal has taken place, mourning ensues as if for the dead.

With the totems are associated certain sacred ceremonies called Inti- chiuma, performed at the season associated with the multiplication of the totem animals or plants, and having for their object the promotion of such increase.

In connection with the rites of the kangaroo totem it is made clear that, according to native conception, in the Alcheringa existed animals as well as men : an aged man of the Okira totem is taken to be the reincarnation of a famous kangaroo of the ancient time, who was hunted by wild dogs, killed, and reanimated ; in the rites this event is celebrated. Two blocks of stone supposed to represent kangaroos are rubbed, and a rock-painting made to indicate the fur and bones of the animal. Veins are opened in the arms of young persons, and the blood made to spirt on the ceremonial stone.

Each totemic group, say the authors, is supposed to have a direct control over the numbers of the animal or plant the name of which it bears, and in theory at least have the first right to the animal or plant. But eating of the totemic animal is done sparingly, and as a rite calculated to confer power rather than with the purpose of giving sensual pleasure. The authors, however, conceive that originally there was no tabu against consumption of the totem, such freedom being indicated by the traditions.

An elaborate account is given of initiation ceremonies, which include circumcision. In these may be noted that the candidate is instructed in the events of his totem in the Alcheringa ; thus, in a kangaroo ceremony, the youth was informed of the manner in which, in a given place, the ancestral kangaroo man died, his spirit at a later time passed into the body of a woman, and was born again as a man of the totem having the ancestral name ; it is for the old men to decide what particular spirit is embodied in any given individual, and has the secret and sacred name corresponding. These Alcheringa histories are represented in the sacred pole or cross- framework, by decoration thoroughly conventional, and changing meaning according to the ideas to be represented, as also by dramatic action and

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