Page:The International Journal of Psycho-Analysis II 1921 2.djvu/8

 164 G. r6hEIM

The country of the Arunta is full of "Ertnatulunga", that is, small caves or crevices in some unfrequented spot amongst the rough hills with an entrance blocked up with stones so as to conceal it from the eyes of the profane. In these caves the ancestors of the tribe have deposited their sacred "churingas" the duplicate of their body which really represents their own self in the embryonic stage and where they continue to lead an existence which, like that of Barbarossa in the Kyffhauser,i is death and life at the same time. But while the return of these mythic heroes of European nations is projected into the far future the heroes of Aruntadom are continually returning in every child that comes forth from his mother's womb to welcome the light of day.

For these mystic caves are full of "ratapa" spirit children, and should a woman feel the first signs of being enceinte near one of them it is certain that a prehistoric member of that particular totem will be reborn through her.* We cannot reasonably hesitate tn calling these caves unconscious projections of the womb into the en- vironment;^ thus this incarnation theory expresses in a most pregnant manner, besides other things, the unity of life which pervades a given geographical area. In this case the symbol be- comes stronger than reality (or rather, we must say that it arises out of a repression of reality) and the totem clan of the child does not connect him with the real womb from which he was bom nor with the man who gave him life, but with a given locality. That is: the child's totem differs both from that of his father and mother and is determined by what we should call a mere accident. The concept of certain fixed associations between

S. 250; E. S. Hartland: The Science of Fairy Tales, 1891, p. 160, The Super- natural Lapse of Time in Fairyland; S. Baring-Gould: Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 1873, p. 93, The Seven Sleepers of Ephesus; P. M. Huber: Die Wanderlegende von den Siebenschiafern. 1910. The real meaning of the myth may incidentally rise into consciousness without being recognized as such: the Seven Sleepers in the cave are compared to the embryo in its mother's womb, iUd. p. 452, See also B. Heller: "A Kiffhauser mondafaj magyar vonatkozasai." (The Legend of the Kyffhauser and Hungary.) Ethno- grapkia, 1908, p. 12.
 * Cf. E. F. Lorenz: "Die Geschichte des Bergmanns Falun", Imago, 1914,

The theories which are advanced in the text on these questions will be^set forth in detail in my book on "Australian Totemism".
 * Spencer and Gillen: Native Tribes of Central Australia, 1899, pp. 133-5.

» Compare M. J. Eisler: "Cber einen besonderen Traumtyp." Imago, Bd. VI, especially S. 335.