Note 25 — Chapter III · TOTEMISM AND FETISHISM.
Reading edition
The Bengal Bâwariyas take the heron as their emblem, and must not eat it.25 The Orissa Kumhârs abstain from eating, and even worship the Sâl fish, because the rings on its scales resemble the wheel which is the symbol of their craft.26 The peacock is a totem of the Jâts and of the Khândhs, as the Yizidis worship the Tâous, a half mythical peacock, which has been connected with the Phœnix which Herodotus saw in Egypt.27 The Parhaiyas have a tradition that their tribe used to hold sheep and deer sacred, and used the dung of these animals instead of cowdung to plaster their floors. So the Kariyas do not eat the flesh of sheep, and may not even use a woollen rug. The same prohibition of meats appears to be a survival of totemism in Arabia.28