Note 132 — Chapter IV · ANIMAL-WORSHIP.

The goose or swan is possibly an illustration of what may be a tribal totem. It is said in the Bhâgavata Purâna that at one time there existed one Veda, one god Agni, and one caste. This we learn from the commentator was in the Krita age, and the one caste he tells us of was named Hansa or Swan. The Hansas are, again, in the Vishnu Purâna, said to be one of four castes or tribes existing in a district exterior to India, and finally we learn from the Linga Purâna that Hansa was a name of Brahma himself. It is reasonable to suppose that we have a swan tribe in the Indian Hansas.132 As an argument in favour of the theory that the Hansa was a tribal totem, we find that the Kalhans Râjputs of Oudh are said to take their name from the Kâla Hansa or Black Swan; that Râjputs nowadays will not eat it; and that the same respect is shown to a bird of allied type, the Brâhmani Duck, and its mate, the Chakwa, Chakwi of our rivers. They were once two lovers, separated by fate, changed into ducks, and all through the night they call sadly to each other across the broad stream of the Ganges, which keeps them apart.