[Note: this transcription was produced by an automatic OCR engine]
TOTEMISM 539 from shooting tit nivinggeum tang,‘ nor might the people of Tomman Island (in the days when that islet was still inhabited) lrill or eat the dove nivimar.“ _;.. Sometimes there is a closer bond between the members of a yillage and such a totem, and the lives of the men are regarded as linked with the lives of the animals. The people ot booremew may not shoot the small bird nevilaln, and if a flight of these alight on the house of a man of this group it is a sign that he will shortly die. The locust, naambei, holds the same position for the people of Ndawu. If people see a lot of locusts flying about, or exceptionally active, they know that a man of this village has died. It is explained that the creatures‘ activity is the result of the spirit of the deceased having entered into them.‘ The locust is not touched by people of this clan nor is it killed by them, for it is held that should this happen then a man of Ndawu will die. , Further, the " parent â€ù village of every clan has its sacred place in which almost always there is a sacred stone in which resides a spiritual being. These are mostly concerned with the my/aw or “ harvest festival" at the clan, but in some villages at least the indwelling spirit is that of the totem. A temes nanmbei inhabits the sacred stone of Ndawu, while in the tabu— place of the village of Iumhalilong the owl nivinbant lives. When a man of this group is about to die this owl comes and sits on the roof of the doomed man's house and hisses. No owl may be killed by a person of Iumhalilong. 1 Certain villages not only respect their totems but claim origin lrom them, and it is possible that it we had more data we should ï¬Ånd this to be an universal belief in these districts. The men of Tenemet and Lembwilavi are, for instance, descended from a pig ; the ancestors of Loorlanggalat came forth from the nettle»tree (ninggalat) which split open, and members of this group avoid cutting it therefore. Similarly the people of Maur trace their descent to a naur tree of which the pith was full of 1 It is noteworthy that this is the nlune oi the gong-rhythm bi the clan ni Loorha. ' According to one myth which tells cl the Ambat brothers, the eldest Arnbat when be died took on the farm bi the nivimar and flew back to Tomman Island. It l8 not clearly stated uni he was the rnrcrnmr Of the people 01 Tomman Isle, and indeed he ix never mentioned as having any children at all, but never- theless it seems very possible. if not probable, that it is this association between the Anibal and the mi/imar that ninlrrn the latter a sacred bird there,»-C. ll. W. ' cl. below the rats bl lllrnloor. '7 1 V _. J... 1 .v.- _._,~ ;¢‘_'F4.)~ K m*:3 ,4 “ht » -A A
