The Fortnightly Review: No. CCCCLXIII, New Series [‎654v] (199/239)

168
THE BEGINNINGS OF RELIGION AND TOTEMISM
misled by what a native tells you in regard to such a point as
this.” 14
As an example of the mistakes into which it is possible to fall
on this subject, we may take Mr. S. Gason’s statement that
the Mura-mura of the Dieri is a Good Spirit or Deity, 15 whereas
further inquiries have ascertained that the Mura-muras,
male and female, young and old, are nothing more than the
legendary predecessors or prototypes of the Dieri, who roamed
over the country, resembling the present natives in their customs
and mode of life, though they excelled them in their magical
powers and the wonderful feats they performed. 16 Yet Mr. Gason
was an honest man, and he enjoyed the best opportunities for
making himself acquainted with the beliefs of the Dieri, for he
lived among them on terms of intimacy for years, and he took a
special interest in their customs and ideas, bequeathing to us
accounts of them which, in spite of some grave mistakes, contain
much that is valuable. 17 His error as to the supposed 44 Good
Spirit ’ ’ of the Dieri only shows how easy it is even for an honest
inquirer, with the best intentions and the amplest means of ascer
taining the facts, to misinterpret savage ideas in accordance with
his own religious creed. Precisely the same mistake which Mr.
Gason made as to the Mura-muras of the Dieri, other people have
made as to the Balimo of the Basutos in South Africa. On this
subject an experienced missionary writes : 44 The Basutos, like the
Caffres in general, had no religious ideas before they came into
(14) Prof. Baldwin Spencer, in a letter to me dated 19th August, 1902. In
quoting from my friend’s letter I have struck out four words in accordance with
a wish expressed by him in another letter of 18th March, 1904. The omission
does not affect the sense of the passage.
(15) Native Tribes of South Australia (Adelaide, 1879), p. 260.
(16) A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, pp. 475-482,
644 sqq., 779 sqq.-, id., “Legends of the Dieri and Kindred Tribes of Central
Australia,” Journal of the Anthropological Institute, xxxiv. (1904), pp. 100-
129; Miss E. B. Howitt, in Folklore, xiii. (1902), pp. 403-417. Dr. Howitt’s
informant is the Rev. Otto Siebert, a German missionary to the aborigines at
Killalpanina, on the Cooper River, in Central Australia.
(17) The Manners and Customs of the Dieyerie Tribe of Australian Ab
origines,” in Native Tribes of South Australia, pp. 253-307; “Of the tribes
Dieyerie, Auminie, Yandrawontha, Yarawuarka, Pilladapa,” Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, xxiv. (1895), pp. 167-176. Compare A. W. Howitt,
“The Dieri and other Kindred Tribes of Central Australia,” Journal of the
Anthropological Institute, xx. (1891), pp. 30-104. Another grave blunder of
Mr. Gason’s, concerning the fundamental question of the descent of the totems
(murdus), was corrected by Dr. A. W. Howitt many years ago. See Journ.
Anthrop. Inst., xvii. (1888), pp. 185 sq.-, id. xix. (1890), p. 90. Further “Gason
supplied the information that only certain of the men were subincised, and that
only those who were purposely left alone could beget children. ... It is
absolute nonsense, and makes me regard Gason as very unreliable, especially
when taken m connection with his Mura-mura” (Prof. Baldwin Spencer in a
letter to me dated 18th March, 1904). ’