[938] Between Baiame, Bunjil and Daramulun on the one hand, and Altjira on the other, there is the difference that the latter is completely foreign to all that concerns humanity; he did not make man and does not concern himself with what they do. The Arunta have neither love nor fear for him. But when this conception is carefully observed and analysed, it is hard to admit that it is primitive; for if the Altjira plays no rôle, explains nothing, serves for nothing, what made the Arunta imagine him? Perhaps it is necessary to consider him as a sort of Baiame who has lost his former prestige, as an ancient god whose memory is fading away. Perhaps, also, Strehlow has badly interpreted the testimony he has gathered. According to Eylmann, who, it is to be admitted, is neither a very competent nor a very sure observer, Altjira made men (_op. cit._, p. 134). Moreover, among the Loritja, the corresponding personage, Tukura, is believed to celebrate the initiation ceremonies himself.
[939] For Bunjil, see Brough Smyth, I, p. 417; for Baiame, see Ridley, _Kamilaroi_, p. 136; for Daramulun, see Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, p. 495.
[940] On the composition of Bunjil's family, for example, see Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, pp. 128, 129, 489, 491; Brough Smyth, I, pp. 417, 423; for Baiame's, see L. Parker, _The Euahlayi_, pp. 7, 66, 103; Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, pp. 502, 585, 407; for Nurunderi's, Taplin, _The Narrinyeri_, pp. 57 f. Of course, there are all sorts of variations in the ways in which the families of these great gods are conceived. The personage who is a brother here, is a son there. The number and names of the wives vary with the locality.
[949] According to certain myths, he made men but not women; this is related of Bunjil. But then, the origin of women is attributed to his son-brother, Pallyan (Brough Smyth, I, pp. 417 and 423).
[963] _J.A.I._, XXI, pp. 292 ff.
[965] Lang, _ibid._, p. 331. The author confines himself to stating that the hypothesis of St. Paul does not appear to him "the most unsatisfactory."
[966] The thesis of Lang has been taken up again by Father Schmidt in the _Anthropos_ (1908-1909). Replying to Sydney Hartland, who had criticized Lang's theory in an article entitled _The "High Gods" of Australia_, in _Folk-Lore_ (Vol. IX, pp. 290 ff.), Father Schmidt undertook to show that Baiame, Bunjil, etc., are eternal gods, creators, omnipotent, omniscient and guardians of the moral order. We are not going to enter into this discussion, which seems to have neither interest nor importance. If these different adjectives are given a relative sense, in harmony with the Australian mind, we are quite ready to accept them, and have even used them ourselves. From this point of view, omnipotent means having more power than the other sacred beings; omniscient, seeing things that escape the vulgar and even the greatest magicians; guardian of the moral order, one causing the rules of Australian morality to be respected, howsoever much these may differ from our own. But if they want to give these words meanings which only a spiritualistic Christian could attach to them, it seems useless to discuss an opinion so contrary to the principles of the historical method.
[967] On this question, see N. W. Thomas, _Baiame and Bell-bird--A Note on Australian Religion_, in _Man_, 1905, No. 28. Cf. Lang, _Magic and Religion_, p. 25. Waitz had already upheld the original character of this conception in his _Anthropologie d. Naturvölker_, pp. 796-798.
[971] Brough Smyth, I, pp. 425-427.
[974] "The world was created by beings called Nuralie; these beings, who had already long existed, had the forms of crows or of eagle-hawks" (Brough Smyth, I, pp. 423-424).
[975] "Bayamee," says Mrs. Parker, "is for the Euahlayi what the Alcheringa is for the Arunta" (_The Euahlayi_, p. 6).
[976] See above, pp. 257 f.
[977] In another myth, reported by Spencer and Gillen, a wholly analogous rôle is filled by two personages living in heaven, named Ungambikula (_Nat. Tr._, pp. 388 ff.).
[979] Parker, _The Euahlayi_, pp. 62-66, 67. This is because the great god is connected with the bull-roarer, which is identified with the thunder; for the roaring of this ritual instrument is connected with the rolling of thunder.
[980] Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, p. 135. The word meaning totem is written _thundung_ by Howitt.
[981] Strehlow, I, pp. 1-2 and II, p. 59. It will be remembered that, among the Arunta, the maternal totem was quite probably the real totem at first.
[984] Ridley, _Kamilaroi_, pp. 136, 156. He is represented in this form during the initiation rites of the Kamilaroi. According to another legend, he is a black swan (L. Parker, _More Aust. Leg. Tales_, p. 94).
[986] Brough Smyth, I, pp. 423-424.
[989] Brough Smyth, I, pp. 417-423.
[991] There are phratries bearing the names Kilpara (crow) and Mukwara. This is the explanation of the myth itself, which is reported by Brough Smyth (I, pp. 423-424).
[992] Brough Smyth, I, pp. 425-427. Cf. Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, p. 486. In this case, Karween is identified with the blue heron.
[995] See above, p. 145. Cf. Father Schmidt, _The Origin of the Idea of God_, in _Anthropos_, 1909.
[996] _Op. cit._, p. 7. Among these same people, the principal wife of Baiame is also represented as the mother of all the totems, without belonging to any totem herself (_ibid._, pp. 7, 79).
[997] See Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, pp. 511 f., 513, 602 ff.; Mathews, _J. of R.S. of N.S. Wales_, XXXVIII, p. 270. They invite to these feasts not only the tribes with whom a regular _connubium_ is established, but also those with whom there are quarrels to be arranged; the vendetta, half-ceremonial and half-serious, take place on these occasions.
[999] There is one form of ritual especially which we leave completely aside; this is the oral ritual which must be studied in a special volume of the _Collection de l'Année Sociologique_.
[1000] See the article _Taboo_ in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_, written by Frazer.
[1001] Facts prove the reality of this inconvenience. There is no lack of writers who, putting their trust in the word, have believed that the institution thus designated was peculiar to primitive peoples in general, or even to the Polynesians (see Réville, _Religion des peuples primitifs_, II, p. 55; Richard, _La Femme dans l'histoire_, p. 435).
[1003] This is not saying that there is a radical break of continuity between the religious and the magic interdictions: on the contrary, it is one whose true nature is not decided. There are interdicts of folk-lore of which it is hard to say whether they are religious or magic. But their distinction is necessary, for we believe that the magic interdicts cannot be understood except as a function of the religious ones.
[1005] Many of the interdictions between sacred things can be traced back, we think, to those between the sacred and the profane. This is the case with the interdicts of age or rank. For example, in Australia, there are sacred foods which are reserved for the initiated. But these foods are not all sacred to the same degree; there is a hierarchy among them. Nor are the initiated all equal. They do not enjoy all their religious rights from the first, but only enter step by step into the domain of religious things. They must pass through a whole series of ranks which are conferred upon them one after another, after special trials and ceremonies; it requires months and sometimes even years to reach the highest rank. Now special foods are assigned to each of these ranks; the men of the lower ranks may not touch the foods which rightfully belong to the men of the superior ones (see Mathews, _Ethnol. Notes_, etc., _loc. cit._ pp. 262 ff.; Parker, _The Euahlayi_, p. 23; Spencer and Gillen, _Nor. Tr._, pp. 611 ff.; _Nat. Tr._, pp. 470 ff.). So the more sacred repels the less sacred; but this is because the second is profane in relation to the first. In fine, all the interdictions arrange themselves in two classes: the interdictions between the sacred and the profane and the purely sacred and the impurely sacred.
[1014] If the alimentary interdictions which concern the totemic plant or vegetable are the most important, they are far from being the only ones. We have seen that there are foods which are forbidden to the non-initiated because they are sacred; now very different causes may confer this character. For example, as we shall presently see, the birds which are seen on the tops of trees are reputed to be sacred, because they are neighbours to the great god who lives in heaven. Thus, it is possible that for different reasons the flesh of certain animals has been specially reserved for the old men and that consequently it has seemed to partake of the sacred character recognized in these latter.
[1016] Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, p. 674.--There is one interdiction of contact of which we say nothing because it is very hard to determine its exact nature: this is sexual contact. There are religious periods when a man cannot have commerce with a woman (_Nor. Tr._, pp. 293, 295; _Nat. Tr._, p. 397). Is this because the woman is profane or because the sexual act is dreaded? This question cannot be decided in passing. We set it aside along with all that concerns conjugal and sexual rites. It is too closely connected with the problems of marriage and the family to be separated from them.
[1022] Among the Wiimbaio (Howitt, _ibid._, p. 451).
[1031] Wyatt, _Adelaide and Encounter Bay Tribes_, in Woods, p. 165.
[1036] For example, the hair belt which he ordinarily wears (Spencer and Gillen, _Nat. Tr._, p. 171).
[1040] This act takes on a sacred character, it is true, when the elements eaten are sacred. But in itself, the act is so very profane that eating a sacred food always constitutes a profanation. The profanation may be permitted or even ordered, but, as we shall see below, only on condition that rites attenuating or expiating it precede or accompany it. The existence of these rites shows that, by itself, the sacred thing should not be eaten.
[1043] Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, p. 674. Perhaps the rule against talking during the great religious solemnities is due to the same cause. Men speak, and especially in a high voice, during ordinary life; then, in the religious life they ought to keep still or talk in a low voice. This same consideration is not foreign to the alimentary interdictions (see above, p. 128).
[1045] Since there is a sacred principle, the soul, within each man, from the very first, the individual is surrounded by interdicts, the original form of the moral interdicts which isolate and protect the human person to-day. Thus the corpse of his victim is considered dangerous for a murderer (Spencer and Gillen, _Nat. Tr._, p. 492), and is taboo for him. Now the interdicts having this origin are frequently used by individuals as a means of withdrawing certain things from common use and thus establishing a property right over them. "When a man goes away from the camp, leaving his arms and food there," says Roth, speaking of the tribes on the Palmer River (North Queensland), "if he urinates near the objects he leaves, they become _tami_ (equivalent to taboo) and he may be sure of finding them intact on his return" (_North Queensland Ethnography_, in _Records of the Australian Museum_, Vol. VII, No. 2, p. 75). This is because the urine, like the blood, is believed to contain some of the sacred force which is personal to the individual. So it keeps strangers at a distance. For the same reasons, the spoken word may also serve as a vehicle for these same influences; that is how it becomes possible to prevent access to an object by a mere verbal declaration. This power of making interdicts varies with different individuals; it is greater as their character is more sacred.
Men have this privilege almost to the exclusion of women (Roth cites one single case of a taboo imposed by women); it is at its maximum with the chiefs and old men, who use it to monopolize whatever things they find it convenient to (Roth, _ibid._, p. 77). Thus the religious interdict becomes a right of property and an administrative rule.
[1046] See below, this book, ch. ii.
[1049] See Hubert and Mauss, _Essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice_, in _Mélanges d'histoire des religions_, pp. 22 ff.
[1050] Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, pp. 560, 657, 659, 661. Even the shadow of a woman must not fall upon him (_ibid._, p. 633). Whatever he has touched must not be touched by a woman (_ibid._, p. 621).
[1052] The word Jeraeil, for example, among the Kurnai, or Kuringal among the Yuin and Wolgal (Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, pp. 518, 617).
[1066] One may compare these ascetic practices with those used at the initiation of a magician. Just like the young neophyte, the apprentice magician is submitted to a multitude of interdictions, the observation of which contributes to his acquisition of his specific powers (see _L'Origine des pouvoirs magiques_, in Hubert and Mauss, _Mélanges d'histoire des religions_, pp. 171, 173, 176). The same is true for the husband and wife on the day before and the day after the wedding (taboos of the betrothed and newly married); this is because marriage also implies a grave change of condition. We limit ourselves to mentioning these facts summarily, without stopping over them; for the first concern magic, which is not our subject, and the second have to do with that system of juridico-religious rules which relates to the commerce of the sexes, the study of which will be possible only in conjunction with the other precepts of primitive conjugal morality.
[1067] It is true that Preuss interprets these facts by saying that suffering is a way of increasing a man's magic force (_die menschliche Zauberkraft_); from this expression, one might believe that suffering is a magic rite, not a religious one. But as we have already pointed out, Preuss gives the name magic, without great precision, to all anonymous and impersonal forces, whether they belong to magic or religion. Of course, there are tortures which are used to make magicians; but many of those which we have described are a part of the real religious ceremonies, and, consequently, it is the religious state of the individuals which they modify.
[1068] Preuss, _Der Ursprung der Religion und Kunst_, in _Globus_, LXXXVIII, pp. 309-400. Under this same rubric Preuss classes a great number of incongruous rites, for example, effusions of blood which act in virtue of the positive qualities attributed to blood and not because of the suffering which they imply. We retain only those in which suffering is an essential element of the rite and the cause of its efficacy.
[1070] _Ibid._, p. 335. A similar practice will be found among the Dieri (Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, pp. 658 ff.).
[1071] Spencer and Gillen, _Nat. Tr._, pp. 214 ff.--From this example we see that the rites of initiation sometimes have all the characteristics of hazing. In fact, hazing is a real social institution which arises spontaneously every time that two groups, inequal in their moral and social situation, come into intimate contact. In this case, the one considering itself superior to the other resists the intrusion of the new-comers; it reacts against them is such a way as to make them aware of the superiority it feels. This reaction, which is produced automatically and which takes the form of more or less grave cruelties quite naturally, is also destined to shape the individuals for their new existence and assimilate them into their new environment. So it is a sort of initiation. Thus it is explained how the initiation, on its side, takes the form of hazing. It is because the group of old men is superior in religious and moral dignity to that of the young men, and yet the first must assimilate the second. So all the conditions for hazing are given.
[1077] Among the Warramunga, the operation must be made by persons favoured with beautiful hair.
[1078] Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, p. 675; this concerns the tribes on the lower Darling.
[1080] _Ibid._ [1081] References on this question will be found in our memoir on _La Prohibition de l'incest et ses origines_ (_Année Sociol._, I, pp. 1 ff.), and Crawley, _The Mystic Rose_, pp. 37 ff.
[1086] In addition to the ascetic rites of which we have spoken, there are some positive ones whose object is to charge, or, as Howitt says, to saturate the initiate with religiousness (Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, p. 535). It is true that instead of religiousness, Howitt speaks of magic powers, but as we know, for the majority of the ethnologists, this word merely signifies religious virtues of an impersonal nature.
[1094] On this question, see Robertson Smith, _Religion of the Semites_, pp. 152 ff., 446, 481; Frazer, art. _Taboo_ in _Encyc. Brit._, Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religions_, pp. 59 f.; Crawley, _Mystic Rose_, ch. ii-ix; Van Gennep, _Tabou et Totemisme à Madagascar_, ch. iii.
[1096] It is to be remembered that when it is a religious interdict that has been violated, these sanctions are not the only ones; there is also a real punishment or a stigma of opinion.
[1097] See Jevons, _Introduction to the History of Religions_, pp. 67-68. We say nothing of the recent, and slightly explicit, theory of Crawley (_Mystic Rose_, ch. iv-vii), according to which the contagiousness of taboos is due to a false interpretation of the phenomena of contagion. It is arbitrary. As Jevons very truly says in the passage to which we refer, the contagious character of sacredness is affirmed _a priori_, and not on a faith in badly interpreted experiences.
[1101] This has been well demonstrated by Preuss in his articles in the _Globus_.
[1102] It is true that this contagiousness is not peculiar to religious forces; those belonging to magic have the same property; yet it is evident that they do not correspond to objectified social sentiments. It is because magic forces have been conceived on the model of religious forces. We shall come back to this point again (see p. 361).
[1105] Of course the word designating these celebrations changes with the tribes. The Urabunna call them _Pitjinta_ (_Nor. Tr._, p. 284); the Warramunga _Thalaminta_ (_ibid._, p. 297), etc.
[1108] Of course the women are under the same obligation.
[1109] The apmara is the only thing which he brought from the camp.
[1112] _Ibid._ [1114] _Ibid._ [1115] We shall see below that these clans are much more numerous than Spencer and Gillen say.
[1119] _Ibid._, p. 206. We use the words of Spencer and Gillen, and with them, we say that "spirits or spirit parts of kangaroo" are disengaged from the rocks. Strehlow (III, p. 7) contests the exactness of this expression. According to him, the rite makes real kangaroos, with living bodies, appear. But this dispute is without interest, just as the one about the notion of the _ratapa_ was (see above, p. 252). The kangaroo germs thus escaping from the rock are not visible, so they are not made out of the same substance as the kangaroos which we see. This is all that Spencer and Gillen mean to say. It is quite certain, moreover, that they are not pure spirits such as a Christian might conceive. Like human souls, they have a material form.
[1121] A tribe on the east of Lake Eyre.
[1123] Howitt, _Nat. Tr._, p. 798. Cf. Howitt, _Legends of the Dieri and Kindred Tribes of Central Australia_, in _J.A.I._, XXIV, pp. 124 ff. Howitt believes that the ceremony is performed by the men of the totem, but is not prepared to say so definitely.
[1128] _Ibid._, p. 519.--The analysis of the rites which have just been studied is based solely on the observations of Spencer and Gillen. Since this chapter was written, Strehlow has published the third fascicule of his work, which deals with the positive cult and especially the Intichiuma, or, as he says, the rites of the _mbatjalkatiuma_. But we have found nothing in this publication which obliges us to modify the preceding description or even to complete it with important additions. The most interesting thing taught by Strehlow on this subject is that the effusions and oblations of blood are much more frequent than one would suspect from the account of Spencer and Gillen (see Strehlow, III, pp. 13, 14, 19, 29, 39, 43, 46, 56, 67, 80, 89).
Moreover, the information given by Strehlow in regard to the cult must be taken carefully, for he was not a witness of the rites he describes; he confined himself to collecting oral testimony, which is generally rather summary (see fasc. III, Preface of Leonhardi, p. v). It may even be asked if he has not confused the totemic ceremonies of initiation with those which he calls _mbatjalkatiuma_, to an excessive degree. Of course, he has made a praiseworthy attempt to distinguish them and has made two of their distinctive characteristics very evident. In the first place, the Intichiuma always takes place at a sacred spot to which the souvenir of some ancestor is attached, while the initiation ceremonies may be celebrated anywhere. Secondly, the oblations of blood are special to the Intichiuma, which proves that they are close to the heart of the ritual (III, p. 7). But in the description which he gives us of the rites, we find facts belonging indifferently to each species of ceremony. In fact, in what he describes under the name mbatjalkatiuma, the young men generally take an important part (for example, see pp. 11, 13, etc.), which is characteristic of the initiation. Also, it seems as though the place of the rite is arbitrary, for the actors construct their scene artificially. They dig a hole into which they go; he seldom makes any allusion to sacred trees or rocks and their ritual rôle.
[1136] We have already cited one case; others will be found in Spencer and Gillen, _Nat. Tr._, p. 208; _Nor. Tr._, p. 286.
[1137] The Walpari, Wulmala, Tjingilli, Umbaia.
[1139] For the second part of the ceremony as for the first, we have followed Spencer and Gillen. On this subject, the recent fascicule of Strehlow only confirms the observations of his predecessors, at least on all essential points. He recognizes that after the first ceremony (two months afterwards, he says, p. 13), the chief of the clan eats the totemic animal or plant ritually and that after this he raises the interdicts; he calls this operation _die Freigabe des Totems zum allgemeinen Gebrauch_ (III, p. 7). He even tells us that this operation is important enough to have a special word for it in the Arunta language. He adds, it is true, that this ritual consummation is not the only one, but that the chiefs and old men sometimes eat the sacred plant or animal before the first ceremony and that the performer of the rite does so after the celebration. The fact is not improbable; these consummations are means employed by the officiants or assistants to acquire virtues which they acquire; it is not surprising if they are numerous. It does not invalidate the account of Spencer and Gillen at all, for the rite upon which they insist, and not without reason, is the _Freigabe des Totems_.
On only two points does Strehlow contest the allegations of Spencer and Gillen. In the first place, he declares that the ritual consumption does not take place in every case. This cannot be doubted, for there are some animals and plants which are not edible. But still, the rite is very frequent; Strehlow himself cites numerous examples (pp. 13, 14, 19, 23, 33, 36, 50, 59, 67, 68, 71, 75, 80, 84, 89, 93). Secondly, we have seen that according to Spencer and Gillen, if the chief does not eat the totemic animal or plant, he will lose his powers. Strehlow assures us that the testimony of natives does not confirm this assertion. But this question seems to us to be quite secondary. The assured fact is that the ritual consumption is required, so it must be thought useful or necessary. Now, like every communion, it can only serve to confer needed virtues upon the person communicating. It does not follow from the fact that the natives, or some of them, have forgotten this function of the rite, that it is not real. Is it necessary to repeat that worshippers are generally ignorant of the real reasons for their practices?
[1140] See _The Religion of the Semites_, Lectures vi-xi, and the article _Sacrifice_ in the _Encyclopædia Britannica_ (Ninth Edition).
[1141] See Hubert and Mauss, _Essai sur la nature et la fonction du sacrifice_, in _Mélanges d'histoire des religions_, pp. 40 ff.
[1142] See the explanation of this rule, above, p. 229.
[1143] See Strehlow, III, p. 3.
[1144] We must not forget that among the Arunta it is not completely forbidden to eat the totemic animal.
[1145] See other facts in Frazer, _Golden Bough_, pp. 348 ff.
[1146] _The Religion of the Semites_, pp. 275 ff.
[1147] _The Religion of the Semites_, pp. 318-319.
[1148] On this point, see Hubert and Mauss, _Mélanges d'histoire des religions_, preface, p. v ff.
[1149] _The Religion of the Semites_, pp. 390 ff.
[1150] Smith cites some cases himself in _The Rel. of the Semites_, p. 231.
[1151] For example, see Exodus xxix. 10-14; Leviticus ix. 8-11; it is their own blood which the priests of Baal pour over the altar (1 Kings xviii. 28).
[1153] At least when it is complete: in certain cases, it may be reduced to one of its elements.
[1154] Strehlow says that the natives "regard these ceremonies as a sort of divine service, just as a Christian regards the exercises of his religion" (III, p. 9).
[1155] It should be asked, for example, whether the effusions of blood and the offerings of hair which Smith regards as acts of communion are not real oblations (see Smith,_ op_. _cit._, pp. 320 ff.).