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totem, Messrs. Spencer and Gillen have unearthed, so far as we know, no traditions accounting for the present restrictions. What, then, is the meaning of the stories of the ancestors feeding on the totem ? Messrs. Spencer and Gillen mention, only to reject it, the theory " that in the traditions dealing with the eating of the totem we have nothing more than another attempt to explain the origin of the totem name." M. Durkheim makes the following most ingenious suggestion. The ritual eating of the totem at the time of the Intichiuma ceremonies is really a sacramental com- munion. Now the traditions we are speaking of are nothing else than this rite, transported by popular imagination into the mythic period when the eponymous ancestors lived, and at the same time amplified by reason of the heroic and quasi-divine character of these ancestors. It was, in effect, inconceivable that such ancestors could have been subjected, as their descendants are, to such an obligation — indeed, one may almost say to such a physical necessity— as a sacramental communion with the totem. Nay, more. As an exceptional nature, a nature which is not that of common men, is attributed to them, it would appear proper that the means they would take to support it would be in accordance with their high religious dignity. Hence, and not because the totem was the exclusive, or even the usual aliment of the totem- clan, the traditions represent the latter as feeding on it. There is force in this reasoning ; but with regard to this, and indeed to all the traditions of the Arunta and the questions raised thereby, we must suspend final judgment until the publication of the results of the new expedition by the explorers to whom we owe all that we yet know of one of the most enigmatical tribes ever discovered. The Intichiuma rites remain to be considered. M. Durkheim distinguishes the rites themselves from their present inter- pretation. While admitting that they may have been prac- tised from primitive times substantially as they now are, he submits that the interpretation has changed with the changes above indicated. Now they are practised with a view to assure to the whole tribe a sufificiency of food. But this could not have been a primitive conception. It argues an organisation far above the capacity of primitive man, who could not have had the idea of co-ordinating so many diverse activities for the common good. It is an instance of extended and complex co-operation, which can only become effective when the sentiment of solidarity
