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kā. Young bamboo-sprouts (nó lău) are interdicted to the family Lầu. The bird me and the fish me (nôk me, pa me) form the taboo of the family Mè. The members of the family Tòng must avoid eating the turtle-dove (nôk său-tong), and must not wear on their caps a copper point (tong). The family Ma is not allowed to feed on the flesh of the horse (tô ma). The use of a fan (vi) is forbidden in the family Vi when rice is served during meals. While the linguistic relation of these interdictions is easily grasped, it is not apparent, however, or obscured in the following cases. The family Lèo is not allowed to eat the blackbird nôk iếng and the water-fowl nôk hăk. The family Lüong abstains from fungi growing on the trunk of a branchless tree. Or the family Kwàng does not partake of the flesh of cat, tiger, and panther. If one of these families eats any things tabooed, even unknowingly, he will lose his teeth. There is no expiatory ceremony known, and no rite is practised to raise the taboo.

In regard to the family Kwàng, to which his informant belonged, Maspero gives more particulars. This family owes its superior rank to the concept that its ancestor was the first to emanate from the primeval gourd which produced mankind; immediately after him appeared the ancestor of the Lüong. The Kwàng belong to the family of the tiger, which they name by a term of respect, “grandfather" (pu). The degree of relationship is not ascertained: they do not descend from a tiger, nor are the tigers descendants of a transformed ancestor of their own; but it is certain that there is some sort of affinity. For this reason cat and tiger flesh are prohibited; the cat represents a highly prized dish of the Black Tai. The members of the family are immune from attacks of the tiger, and are not allowed to attack him or to take part in a tiger-hunt. Solely as an act of self-defence may they kill him. When they note a dead tiger on their road, or when the villagers carrying a slain tiger pass their habitation, they must without delay perform a minor ceremony. Taking a small piece of white cloth and throwing it over the corpse, they signify by this act that they have entered into mourning in his honor, and that the term of mourning is over. The prayer said on this occasion is of great interest, for it reveals the inner relations of the family to the tiger and the latter's influence on their welfare and that of their progeny. It runs as follows:

"The grandfather is dead, leaving his children and grandchildren behind. The children and grandchildren ought to wear mourning in conformity with the rites, but the children and grandchildren were not able to go into mourning; the children and grandchildren terminate their mourning for the grandfather. There you are! [The piece of white cloth is then thrown over the tiger's corpse.] Protect your children, protect your grandchildren!

Those of you who survive, make them grow, let them prosper! In their work let them succeed, in their affairs let them do well! In their journeyings may they be without accident, wherever they may be, bless them! May they never see what is wrong, and never know bad omens! Let your children and grandchildren live long, ten thousand years, a hundred thousand harvests, eternally!"

On the other hand, the affiliation with the tiger also has its drawbacks. It causes the spirits to detest the members of this family. They have to keep aloof from sacred places. The field where the district festival (lông tông) is held to commemorate the commencement of agricultural pursuits, and the spot consecrated to the spirit of the district (Fi müòng), are interdicted to them at all times. During the festivals they take part in the offerings; but they are not permitted to enter, and may attend only outside. At their village ceremonies they have to keep behind the other families, and the functions of master of ceremony occupied by the old men are closed to them. Finally the priest of the district, whose office is hereditary in the Lüòng family for all the Black-Tai regions, must not marry a woman of the Kwang family; even his brothers fall within this rule. However, the affinity with the tiger is not transmitted by the mother, but solely by the father. Whether similar beliefs and ceremonies with reference to the taboos prevail among the other families, says Maspero, is not known to him; in the case of the family Vi it appears to him difficult to admit that the fan might play there the same rôle as the Kwang assign to the tiger. He thinks that among all peoples of southern China and northern Indo-China the tiger, from a religious viewpoint, is an animal so different from others, that it would be unwise to conclude the existence of similar rites in other families. This caution is praiseworthy, as is also the author's reserve in drawing any conclusions from his notes. He even avoids the terms "totem" and "totemism" and any theoretical discussion. His data, needless to add, are of intense interest to anthropology, and, if occasion offers, should by all means be completed. A complete list of all these Black-Tai families. should be drawn up, and their ancestral traditions should be placed on record. Meanwhile it may be useful to render accessible the available data on real or apparent totemic phenomena within the IndoChinese group.

Aside from the Black Tai, actual observations of totemic phenomena, as far as the Indo-Chinese are concerned, were only made among the Lolo, first by A. Henry. According to this author, "Lolo surnames 2 always signify the name of a tree or animal, or both tree and animal; 1 Journal Anthropological Institute, 33 (1903): 105.

* It is not correct to speak of Lolo surnames. The Lolo, like the Tibetans, did not have family names before contact with Chinese. The Sinicized Lolo adopted Chinese

surnames.

and these are considered as the ancestors of the family bearing the name. This name is often archaic. Thus the surname Bu-luh-beh is explained as follows: Bu-luh is said to be an ancient name for the citron, which is now known as sa-lu.1 The common way of asking a person what his surname is, is to inquire, 'What is it you do not touch?’ and a person of the surname just mentioned would reply, 'We do not touch the sa-lu, or citron.' People cannot eat or touch in any way the plant or animal, or both, which enters into their surname. The plant or animal is not, however, worshipped in any way." The Lolo are a widely extended group of tribes, and those studied by Henry are those of Se-mao and Meng-tse in Yün-nan.

The term "totemism" with reference to the Lolo was then actually employed by Bonifacy, who believed that certain animal legends, traces of exogamy, and certain taboos, might be considered as survivals of a very ancient totemic organization, but that the proofs are lacking. In my opinion, the data offered by the author reveal no survivals allowing of any conclusion as to former totemism. If, for instance, the newly-weds among the Lolo are not allowed to cut bamboo or to eat the young bamboo-sprouts, this is easily explained from the legend of the first couple who performed their marriage under a bamboo that made speech to them. Bonifacy's material on the Lolo, especially as to social and religious life, belongs to the best we have.

In the "Notes ethnographiques sur les tribus de Kouy-tcheou" (Kuei-chou), by A. Schotter, which must be taken with great reserve, we meet a heading "Totémisme chez les He-miao" (Hei Miao), but the notes appearing under this catch-word are disappointing. The author learned that a certain family of the tribe, Pan, abstains from beef, and received as explanation thereof the following story. One of the ancestors of the Pan was much taken by the charms of a young girl of the family Tien of the same tribe, whose hand was refused him nine times. Finally the condition was imposed on him that he should sacrifice an ox, but not partake of its flesh. The Pan family went beyond this request, and all its descendants avoid the meat of any sacrificed ox. Another piece of evidence: the Tien do not eat dog-flesh. A young mother died, leaving a small girl about to die for lack of milk. She was suckled by a bitch, and, out of gratitude to her nurse, never touched canine flesh, cursing those of her descendants who would not imitate her example. It is obvious that these two cases are simple taboos, the legends being invented in order to explain

This word is related to Nyi Lolo č'u-se-ma and Tibetan ts'a-lum-pa (see T'oung Pao, 17 [1916] : 45).

2 Bull. de l'Ecole française, 8 (1908): 550.

Anthropos, 6 (1911): 321.

them, and bear no relation to totemism. Finally also N. Matsokin,1 with reference to Schotter and some other sources, has spoken about totemism among the Lolo and Miao. It is notable that the two men who were best familiar with the life of the Lolo - Vial and Liétard, two Catholic missionaries - have nothing to report that might be interpreted as totemism. At all events, if totemism ever existed among the Lolo, only scant survivals of it have remained. The independent Lolo, who are not yet explored, may offer better guaranties in contributing to this problem.

I now proceed to place before the reader in literal translation some ancient Chinese records that speak for themselves, and that have the advantage of not being biased by any modern totemic theory. The numerous aboriginal tribes inhabiting the territory of southern and southwestern China are designated by the Chinese by the generic term "Man" or "Nan Man" ("southern Man"). The following legend is told in the Han Annals concerning the origin of the Man.3 "In times of old, Kao-sin Shi suffered from the robberies of the K'üan Jung. The Emperor, being grieved at their raids and outrages, attempted to smite them by open attack, but failed to destroy them. Thereupon he issued a proclamation throughout the empire: 'Whoever shall be able to capture the head of General Wu, the commander of the K'üan Jung, will be offered a reward of twenty thousand ounces of gold, a township comprising ten thousand families, and my youngest daughter as wife.' At that time the Emperor had raised a dog whose hair was of five colors [that is, manicolored], and whose name was P'an-hu. After the issue of

1 Materinskaya filiatsiya v vostočnoi i tsentralnoi Asii (The Matriarchate in Eastern and Central Asia), pt. 2 : 94-96 (Vladivostok, 1911).

2 Several conclusions of this author are inadmissible, owing to his blind faith in Schotter's uncritical data. He accepts from him the statement that "the antique form of the Chinese character for Miao represented a cat's head and signified a cat." Hence in Matsokin's mind the cat becomes a totem of the Miao. This is a sad illusion. The tribal name Miao is a native Miao word, and its significance cannot be interpreted from any arbitrary manner in which the Chinese please to convey this word to their writing. In fact, neither the word nor the Chinese character with which it is written has anything to do with the cat, which is mao, but not miao, in Chinese; and, even if the Chinese should etymologize the name in the sense of "cat," the conclusion as to a cat-totem among the Miao would be an utter failure. Nor is it correct, as asserted by Matsokin, that the

eagle is a totem of the Miao.

Hou Han shu, Ch. 116, p. 1.

♦ One of the early legendary emperors of China, alleged to have reigned about 2436 B.C. That is, "Dog Jung." "Jung" was a generic term for barbarous tribes in the west of China.

• The characters representing this name have the meaning "tray" or "plate" and "gourd." In explanation of this name, the Wei lio, written by Yu Huan in the third century A.D., has this anecdote: "At the time of Kao-sin Shi there was an old woman living in a house belonging to the Emperor. She contracted a disease of the ear, and, when the object causing the complaint was removed, it turned out to be as large as a silkworm

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