Note 325 — Chapter III · SYMPATHETIC MAGIC

Spencer and Gillen, Northern Tribes of Central Australia, pp. 353 sq. Some of the dwarf tribes of the Gaboon, who practise circumcision, place the severed foreskins in the trunks of a species of nut-tree (Kula edulis), which seems to be their totem; for the tree is said to have a certain sanctity for them, and some groups take their name from it, being called A-Kula, “the people of the nut-tree.” They eat the nuts, and have a special ceremony at the gathering of the first nuts of the season. See Mgr. Le Roy, “Les Pygmées,” Missions Catholiques, xxix. (1897) pp. 222 sq., 237.