[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]

TOTEMISM 607
. On the basis of an incomplete list oi villages with their totems
and merew objects, Deacon wrote in a letter: " This nature
fertility magic. neerew, so far as my analysis goes, is deï¬Ånitely
connected : (I) with the object in the tabu-place of the clan;
(2) with the kind of totemism typical of the southern districts.
_An inspection of the table shows, I think, deï¬Ånitely the existence
of the connection between totem neerew and tabu-place.â€ù It
would seem clear, however, from a study of the complete list
that though there are strong grounds ior the presumption‘ of
such an interdependence the correlation is by no means complete.
Mnwrm
. Concerning totemism in Mewun the data arc very scanty.
Herc, as in Seniang, each clan appears to be associated with some
plant, animal, or natural object from which it traces its descent.
The names of only three such totems, however, have been recorded,
The people of Alou village are descended from a ninduo tree
which split open and produced a man. This man married a
woman who was the daughter of a certain species of snake. The
inhabitants of this village behave, therefore, with respect to
both the ninduo tree and the snake. The former may not be
touched or cut, and this, since it is e tree which provides wood
much used in carving, is a serious prohibition. The snake may
not be killed, and is believed to be friendly towards its human
rclativcs. These will not speak its name, but refer to it by the
term used for mother-in-law and show it further deference by
saying when giving it food, not “ gubrm " (“ eat “) but "guJi_1> â€ù
(“ take ").1 The tabu on speaking the name of the totem appears
to be the same here as in Seniang, so that a woman who is the
wife of a man of Alou refrains from saying the name of the tree
ninduo, since it is said to have the samc statusas the husband's
parent} and this restriction is, in Mewun,‘ also extended to a
man who is the husband of a woman of this group. No similar
restriction is recorded as being observed towards the snake.
The people of Loutagha are descended from a mwangke
bird which was in turn given birth to by a stone, They refrain
I cr. avoidance oi the mother-in-law, pp. as-7. This tolerance seems
to suggest that oï¬Åorings were sometimes made to members Oi the toielnic
Ipecies.—C. H. w.
»= The wt of the tree-n.n¢eSh)r was -not speciï¬Åed.*A. B. D.
Lil
ii
| 1 r
W ii
3
,i
1
1
fl
1! =9