Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, July 1899: Volume LV, No. 3, July 1899Various
Religion
Appletons' Popular Science Monthly, July 1899: Volume LV, No. 3, July 1899
Various
Science -- Periodicals; Technology -- Periodicals
_proprium_ of the savage mind is an utter insensibility to evidence,
or rather a lack of all power of conceiving what evidence is, and
therefore a total incapacity for feeling any need of it. The
scientific man, on the other hand, feels that he needs it every hour
and every moment.
It may be interesting to quote the description given by Mr. Frazer,
after Messrs. Spencer and Gillen, of the ceremonies performed by the
men whose totem is the "witchetty grub," a creature much prized as an
article of diet by the natives.
"The men of the witchetty-grub totem repair to a shallow cave in a
ravine where lies a large block of quartzite, surrounded by some small
rounded stones. The large block represents the full-grown grub; the
small stones stand for the eggs. On reaching the cave the head man of
the totem group begins to sing, while he taps the large block with a
wooden trough, such as is used for scooping the earth out of burrows.
All the other men at the same time tap it with twigs of a particular
gum tree, chanting the while. The burden of their song is an
invitation to the insect to go and lay eggs. Next, the leader takes up
one of the smaller stones, representing an egg, and strikes each man
in the stomach with it, saying, 'You have eaten much food,' after
which he butts at the man's stomach with his forehead.... Ceremonies
of the same sort are performed at ten different places. When the round
has been completed the party returns home. Here, at some distance from
the camp, a long structure of boughs has been got ready; it is
designed to represent the chrysalis from which the full-grown insect
emerges. Into this structure the men, each with the sacred design of
the totem painted in red ochre and pipe clay on his body, enter and
sing of the grub in the various stages of its development. After
chanting thus for a while they shuffle out of the mock chrysalis one
by one, with a gliding motion, singing all the time about the
emergence of the real insect out of the real chrysalis, of which
their own performance is clearly an imitation."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account