Note 36 — Chapter III · TOTEMISM AND FETISHISM.

But it is, perhaps, simpler to believe with Sir A. Lyall36 that “when the Brâhmans convert a tribe of pig-worshipping aborigines, they tell their proselytes that the pig was an Avatâr of Vishnu. The Mînas in one part of Râjputâna used to worship the pig. When they took a turn towards Islâm they changed their pig into a saint called Father Adam, and worshipped him as such.” Mr. Frazer has pointed out that the “customs of the Egyptians touching the pig are to be explained as based upon an opinion of the extreme sanctity rather than of the extreme uncleanness of the animal; or rather to put it more correctly, they imply that the animal was looked on not simply as a filthy and a disgusting creature, but as a being endowed with high supernatural powers, and that as such it was regarded with that primitive sentiment of religious awe and fear in which the feelings of reverence are almost equally blended.”