328 W. H. R. Rivers, “Totemism in Polynesia and Melanesia,” _Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute_, xxxix. (1909) pp. 173-175. Compare _Totemism and Exogamy_, ii. 89 _sqq._ As to this Melanesian belief that animals can enter into women and be born from them as human children with animal characteristics, Dr. Rivers observes (p. 174): “It was clear that this belief was not accompanied by any ignorance of the physical _rôle_ of the human father, and that the father played the same part in conception as in cases of birth unaccompanied by an animal appearance. We found it impossible to get definitely the belief as to the nature of the influence exerted by the animal on the woman, but it must be remembered that any belief of this kind can hardly have escaped the many years of European influence and Christian teaching which the people of this group have received. It is doubtful whether even a prolonged investigation of this point could now elicit the original belief of the people about the nature of the influence.” To me it seems that the belief described by Dr. Rivers in the text is incompatible with the recognition of human fatherhood as a necessary condition for the birth of children, and that though the people may now recognize that necessity, perhaps as a result of intercourse with Europeans, they certainly cannot have recognized it at the time when the belief in question originated. M75 Australian beliefs as to the birth of children. Reincarnation of the dead in Central Australia. 329 Baldwin Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1904), p. 330, compare _id._ _ibid._ pp. xi, 145, 147-151, 155 _sq._, 161 _sq._, 169 _sq._, 173 _sq._, 174-176, 606; _id._, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_ (London, 1899), pp. 52, 123-125, 126, 132 _sq._, 265, 335-338. 330 B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Northern Tribes of Central Australia_, pp. 162, 330 _sq._ 331 B. Spencer and F. J. Gillen, _Native Tribes of Central Australia_, pp. 337 _sq._ M76 Reincarnation of the dead in Northern Australia.