Note 18 — Chapter XII · Race in Folklore and Myth

See Frazer’s article on ‘The Origin of Totemism’ in the Fortnightly Review for April, 1899, p. 649. The passage to which it refers will be found at p. 265 of Spencer and Gillen’s volume, where one reads as follows:—‘Added to this we have amongst the Arunta, Luritcha, and Ilpirra tribes, and probably also amongst others such as the Warramunga, the idea firmly held that the child is not the direct result of intercourse, that it may come without this, which merely, as it were, prepares the mother for the reception and birth also of an already-formed spirit child who inhabits one of the local totem centres. Time after time we have questioned them on this point, and always received the reply that the child was not the direct result of intercourse.’ It is curious to note how readily the Australian notion here presented would develop into that of the Lapps, as given at p. 658 from Jessen’s notes. ↑