sometimes happens, it is true, that women form an exception to this general rule : there are tribes where they are believed to have no souls.1 If Dawson is to be believed, it is the same with young children in the
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tribes that he has observed.1 But these are exceptional and probably late cases;2 the last one even seems to be suspect and may well be due to an erroneous interpretation of the facts.3
It is not easy to determine the idea which the Australian makes of the soul, because it is so obscure and floating ; but we should not be surprised at this. If someone asked our own contemporaries, or even those of them who believe most firmly in the existence of the soul, how they represented it, the replies that he would receive would not have much more coherence and precision. This is because we are dealing with a very complex notion, into which a multitude of badly analysed impressions enter, whose elaboration has been carried on for centuries, though men have had no clear consciousness of it. Yet from this come the most essential, though frequently contradictory, characteristics by which it is defined.
In some cases they tell us that it has the external appearance of the body.4 But sometimes it is also represented as having the size of a grain of sand ; its dimensions are so reduced that it can pass through the smallest crevices or the finest tissues.5 We shall also see that it is represented in the appearance of animals. This shows that its form is essentially inconsistent and undetermined;6 it varies from one moment to another with the demands of circumstances or according to the exigencies of the myth and the rite. The substance out of which it is made is no less indefinable. It is not without matter, for it has a form, howsoever vague this may be. And in fact, even during this life, it has physical needs : it eats, and inversely, it may be eaten. Sometimes it leaves the body, and in the course of its
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travels it occasionally nourishes itself on foreign souls.1 After it has once been completely freed from the organism, it is thought to lead a life absolutely analogous to the one it led in this world; it eats, drinks, hunts, etc.2 When it nutters among the branches of trees, it causes rustlings and crackings which even profane ears hear.3 But at the same time, it is believed to be invisible to the vulgar.4 It is true that magicians or old men have the faculty of seeing souls ; but it is in virtue of
1This is the case with the Gnanji; see Nor. Tr., pp. 170, 546 ; cf. a similar case in Brough Smyth, II, p. 269.
1Australian Aborigines, p. 51.
2There certainly was a time when the Gnanji women had souls, for a large number of women's souls still exist today. However, they never reincarnate themselves; since in this tribe the soul animating a new-bom child is an old reincarnated soul, it follows from the fact that women's souls do not reincarnate themselves, that women cannot have a soul. Moreover, it is possible to explain whence this absence of reincarnation comes. Filiation among the Gnanji, stfter having been uterine, is now in the paternal line : a mother no longer transmits her totem to her child. So the woman no longer has any descendants to perpetuate her; she is the finis families sues. To explain this situation, there are only two possible hypotheses ; either women have no souls, or else they are destroyed after death. The Gnanji have adopted the former of these two explanations; certain peoples of Queensland have preferred the latter (see Roth, Superstition. Magic and Medicine, in N. Queensland Ethnog., No. 5. § 68)...
3"The children below four or five years of age have neither soul nor future life," says Dawson. But the fact he thus relates is merely the absence of funeral ntes for young children. We shall see the real meaning of this below.
4Dawson. p. 51 ; Parker. The Euahlayi, p. 35 ; Eyimann, p. 188.
5Nor. Tr.. p. 542 ; Schurmann, The Aboriginal Tribes of Port Lincoln, in Woods, p. 235.
6This is the expression used by Dawson, p. 50.
1Strehlow, I, p. 15, n. I ; Schuize, loc. cif., p. 246; this is the theme of the myth of the vampire.
2Strehlow, I, p. 15 ; Schuize, p. 244 ; Dawson, p. 51. It is true that it is sometimes said that souls have nothing corporeal; according to certain testimony collected by Eyimann (p. 188), they are ohne Fleisch und Bluf. But these radical negations leave us sceptical. The fact that offerings are not made to the souls of the dead in no way implies, as Roth thinks [Superstition, Magic, etc., § 65), that they do not eat.
3Roth, ibid., § 65 ; Nor. Tr., p. 530. It sometimes happens that the soul emits odours (Roth, ibid.. § 68).
4Roth, ibid., § 67 ; Dawson, p. 51.
special powers which they owe either to age or to a special training that they perceive things which escape our senses. According to Dawson, ordinary individuals enjoy the same privilege at only one moment of their existence : when they are on the eve of a premature death. Therefore this quasimiraculous vision is considered a sinister omen. Now, invisibility is generally considered one of the signs of spirituality. So the soul is conceived as being immaterial to a certain degree, for it does not affect the senses in the way bodies do : it has no bones, as the tribes of the Tully River say.5 In order to conciliate all these opposed characteristics, they represent it as made of some infinitely rare and subtle matter, like something ethereal,6 and comparable to a shadow or breath.7
It is distinct and independent of the body, for during this life it can leave it at any moment. It does leave it during sleep, fainting spells, etc.8 It may even remain absent for some time without entailing death; however, during these absences life is weakened and even stops if the soul does not return home.9 But it is especially at death that this distinction and independence manifest themselves with the greatest clarity. While the body no longer exists and no visible traces of it remain, the soul continues to live : it leads an autonomous existence in another world.
But howsoever real this duality may be, it is in no way absolute. It would show a grave misunderstanding to represent the body
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as a sort of habitat in which the soul resides, but with which it bas only external relations. Quite on the contrary, it is united to it by the closest bonds ; it is separable from it only imperfectly and with difficulty. We have already seen that it has, or at least is able to have, its external aspect. Consequently, everything that hurts the one hurts the other; every wound of the body spreads to the soul.1 It is so intimately associated with the life of the organism that it grows with it and decays'with it. This is why a man who has attained a certain age enjoys privileges refused to young men; it is because the religious principle within him has acquired greater force and efficacy as he has advanced in life. But when senility sets in, and the old man is no longer able to take a useful part in the great religious ceremonies in which the vital interests of the tribe are concerned, this respect is no longer accorded to him. It is thought that weakness of the body is communicated to the soul. Having the same powers no longer, he no longer has a right to the same prestige.2
There is not only a close union of soul and body, but there is also a partial confusion, of the two. Just as there is something of the body in the soul, since it sometimes reproduces its form, so there is something of the soul in the body. Certain regions and certain products of the organism are believed to have a special affinity with it: such is the case with the heart, the breath, the placenta,3 the blood,4 the shadow,5 the liver, the fat of the liver, the kidneys,6 etc. These various material substrata are not mere habitations of the soul; they are the soul itself seen from without. When blood flows, the soul escapes with it. The soul is not in the breath ; it is the breath. It and the part of the body where it resides are only one. Hence comes the conception according to which a man has a number of souls. Being dispersed in various parts of the organism, the soul is differentiated and broken up into fragments. Each organ has individualized, as it were, the portion of the soul which it contains, and which has thus become a distinct entity. The soul of
5Roth, ibid., § 65.
6Schiirmann, Abwig. Tr. of Port Lincoln, in Woods, p. 235.
7Parker, The Euahlayi, pp. 29, 35 ; Roth, ibid., §§ 65, 67, 68.
8Roth, ibid., § 65 ; Strehlow, I, p. 15.
9Strehlow, I, p. 14, n. I.
1Frazer, On Certain Burial Customs, as Illustrative of the Primitive Theory of the Soul. in J.A.I., XV, p. 66.
2This is the case with the Kaitish and the Unmatjera ; see Nor. Tr., p. 506; and Nal. Tr., p. 512.
3Roth, ibid., §§ 65, 66. 67, 68.
4Roth, ibid., § 68 ; this says that when someone faints after a loss of blood, it is because the soul is gone. Cf. Parker, The Euahlayi, p. 38.
5Parker, The Euahlayi. pp. 29, 35 ; Roth, ibid.. § 65.
6Strehlow, I, pp. 12, i4. In these passages he speaks of evil spirits which kill "ttle children and eat their souls, livers and fat, or else their souls, livers and tadneys. The fact that the soul is thus put on the same plane as the different v»ecera and tissues and is made a food like them shows the close connection it "as with them. Cf. Schuize. p.
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the heart could not be that of the breath or the shadow or the placenta. While they are all related, still they are to be distinguished, and even have different names.1
Moreover, even if the soul is localized especially in certain parts of the organism, it is not absent from the others. In varying degrees, it is diffused through the whole body, as is well shown by the funeral rites. After the last breath has been expired and the soul is believed to be gone, it seems as though it should profit by the liberty thus regained, to move about at will and to return as quickly as possible to its real home, which is elsewhere. Nevertheless, it remains near to the corpse ; the bond uniting them has been loosened, but not broken. A whole series of special rites are necessary to induce it to depart definitely. It is invited to go by gestures and significant movements.2 The way is laid open for it, and outlets are arranged so that it can go more easily.3 This is because it has not left the body entirely ; it was too closely united to it to break away all at once. Hence comes the very frequent rite of funeral anthropophagy ; the flesh of the dead is eaten because it is thought to contain a sacred principle, which is really nothing more than the soul.4 In order to drive it out definitely, the flesh is melted, either by submitting it to the heat of the sun,5 or to that of an artificial fire.6 The soul departs with the liquids which result. But even the dry bones still retain some part of it. Therefore they can be used as sacred objects or instruments of magic;7 or if someone wishes to give complete liberty to the principle which they contain, he breaks these.8
But a moment does arrive when the final separation is accomplished; the liberated soul takes flight. But by nature it is so intimately associated with the body that this removal cannot take place without a profound change in its condition. So it takes a new name also.9 Although keeping all the distinctive traits of the individual whom it animated, his humours and his good
For example, among the peoples on the Pennefather River (Roth, ibid.. § 68), there is a name for the soul residing in the heart (Ngai), another for the one in the placenta (Cho-i), and a third for the one which is confounded with the breath (Wanji). Among the Euahlayi, there are three or even four souls (Parker, The Euahlayi, p. 35).
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and bad qualities,1 still it has become a new being. From that moment a new existence commences for it.
It goes to the land of souls. This land is conceived differently by different tribes ; sometimes different conceptions are found existing side by side in the same society. For some, it is situated under the earth, where each totemic group has its part. This is at the spot where the first ancestors, the founders of the clan, entered the ground at a certain time, and where they live since their death. In the subterranean world there is a geographical disposition of the dead corresponding to that of the living. There, the sun always shines and rivers flow which never run dry. Such is the conception which Spencer and Gillen attribute to the central tribes, Arunta,2 Warramunga,3 etc. It is found
1See the description of the Urpmilchima rite among the Arunta (Nat. Tr.. pp. 503 ff.).
2Spencer and Gillen, Nat. Tr., pp. 497 and 508.
3Nor. Tr., pp. 547, 548.
4Ibid., pp. 506, 527 ff.
5Meyer, The Encounter Bay Tribe, in Woods, p. 198.
6Nor. Tr., pp. 551, 463 ;
7Nat. Tr., p. 553.
8Nor. Tr., p. 540.
9Among the Arunta and Loritja, for example (Strehlow, I, p. 15, n. 2 ; II. p. 77). During life, the soul is called gumna, and liana after death. The Itana of Strehlow is identical with the ulthana of Spencer and Gillen (Nat. Tr.. pp. 514 ff.). The same is true of the tribes on the Bloomneld River (Roth Superstition, etc., §66).
1Eyimann, p. 188.
2Nat. Tr., pp. 524, 491, 496.
3Nor. Tr., pp. 542, 504.
again among the Wotjobaluk.4 In other places, all the dead, no matter what their totems may have been, are believed to live together in the same place, which is more or less vaguely localized as beyond the sea, in an island,5 or on the shores of a lake.6 Sometimes, finally, it is into the sky, beyond the clouds, that the souls are thought to go. " There," says Dawson, " there is a delectable land, abounding in kangaroos and game of every sort, where men lead a happy life. Souls meet again there and recognize one another."7 It is probable that certain of the features of this picture have been taken from the paradise of the Christian missionaries;8 but the idea that souls, or at least some souls, enter the skies after death appears to be quite indigenous ; for it is found again in other parts of the continent.9
In general, all the souls meet the same fate and lead the same life. However, a different treatment is sometimes accorded them based on the way they have conducted themselves upon earth, and we can see the first outlines of these two distinct and even opposed compartments into which the world to come will later be divided. The souls of those who have excelled, during life, as hunters, warriors, dancers, etc., are not confounded
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with the common horde of tne others; a special place is granted to them.1 Sometimes, this is the sky.2 Strehlow even says that according to one myth, the souls of the wicked are devoured by dreadful spirits, and destroyed.3 Nevertheless, these conceptions always remain very vague in Australia;4 they begin to have a clarity and determination only in the more advanced societies, such as those of America.5
II
Such are the beliefs relative to the soul and its destiny, in their most primitive form, and reduced to their most essential traits. We must now attempt to explain them. What is it that has been able to lead men into thinking that there are two beings in them, one of which possesses these very special characteristics which we have just enumerated? To find the reply to this question, let us begin by seeking the origin attributed to this spiritual principle by the primitive himself: if it is well analysed, his own conception will put us on the way towards the solution.
Following out the method which we have set before ourselves, we shall study these ideas in a determined group of societies where they have been observed with an especial precision; these are the tribes of Central Australia. Though not narrow, the area of our observations will be limited. But there is good reason for believing that these same ideas are quite generally held, in various forms, even outside of Australia. It is also to be noted that the idea of the soul, as it is found among these central tribes, does not differ specifically from the one found in other tribes ; it has the same essential characteristics everywhere. As one effect always has the same cause, we may well think that this idea, which is everywhere the same, does not result from one cause here and another there.
4Mathews, Ethnol. Notes on the Aboriginal Tribes of N.S. Wales and Victoria, in Journal and Proc. of the Roy. Soc. of N.S. Wales, XXXVIII, p. 287.
5Strehlow, I, pp. 15 Я. Thus, according to Strehlow, the dead live in an island in the Arunta theory, but according to Spencer and Gillen, in a subterranean place. It is probable that the two myths coexist and are not the only ones. We shall see that even a third has been found. On this conception of an island of the dead, see Howitt, Nat. Tr., p. 498 ; Schiirmann, Aborig. Tr. of Port Lincoln, in Woods, p. 235 ; Eyimann, p. 189.
6Schuize, p. 244.
7Dawson, p. 51.
8In these same tribes evident traces of a more ancient myth will be found, according to which the dead live in a subterranean place (Dawson, ibid.}.
9Taplin, The Narrinyeri, pp. 18 f.; Howitt, Nat. Tr., p. 473 ; gtrehlow, I, P. 16.
1Howitt, Nat. Tr.. p. 498.
2Strehlow, I, p. 16 ; Eyiraann, p. 189 ; Howitt, Nat. Tr.. p. 473.
3These are the spirits of the ancestors of a special clan, the clan of a certain poisonous gland {Giftdrusenmdnner}.
4Sometimes the work of the missionaries is evident. Dawson speaks of a real hell opposed to paradise ; but he too tends to regard this as a European importation.
5Dorsey, XIth Rep., pp. 419-420, 422, 485. Cf. Marillier. La survwance de I'dnie et Vidte de justice chez les peuples non-civilises, Rapport de I'/icole des Haules Etudes, 1893.
So the origin which we shall be led to attribute to it as a result of our study of these particular tribes with which we are going to deal, ought to be equally true for the others. These tribes will give us a chance to make an experiment, as it were, whose results, like those of every well-made experiment, are susceptible of generalization. The homogeneity of the Australian civilization would of itself
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be enough to justify this generalization ; but we shall be careful to verify it afterwards with facts taken from other peoples, both in Australia and America.
As the conceptions which are going to furnish us with the basis of our demonstration have been reported in different terms by Spencer and Gillen on the one hand and Strehlow on the other, we must give these two versions one after the other. We shall see that when, they are well understood, they differ in form more than in matter, and that they both have the same sociological significance.
According to Spencer and Gillen, the souls which, in each generation, come to animate the bodies of newly-born children, are not special and original creations ; all these tribes hold that there is a definite stock of souls, whose number cannot be augmented at all,1 and which reincarnate themselves periodically. When an individual dies, his soul quits the body in which it dwelt, and after the mourning is accomplished, it goes to the land of the souls ; but after a certain length of time, it returns to incarnate itself again, and these reincarnations are the cause of conception and birth. At the beginning of things, it was these fundamental souls which animated the first ancestors, the founders of the clan. At an epoch, beyond which the imagination does not go and which is considered the very beginning of time, there were certain beings who were not derived from any others. For this reason, the Arunta call them the Altjirangamitjina,2 the uncreated ones, those who exist from all eternity, and, according to Spencer and GiUen, they give the name Alcheringa3 to the period when these fabulous beings are thought to have lived. Being organized in totemic clans just as the men of to-day are, they passed their time in travels, in the course of which they accomplished all sorts of prodigious actions, the memory of which is preserved in the myths. But a moment arrived when this terrestrial life came to a close ; singly or in groups, they entered into the earth. But their souls live for ever ; they are immortal. They even continue to frequent the places where the existence of their former hosts came to an end. Moreover, owing to the memories attached to them, these places have a sacred character ; it is here that the oknanikilla are located, the sorts of sanctuaries where the churinga of the clan is kept, and the centres of the different totemic cults. When one of the souls which wander about these sanctuaries enters into the body of a woman, the result is a conception and
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later a birth.1 So each individual is considered as a new appearance of a determined ancestor : it is this ancestor himself, come back in a new body and with new features. Now, what were these ancestors ?
In the first place, they were endowed with powers infinitely superior to those possessed by men to-day, even the most respected old men and the most celebrated magicians. They are attributed virtues which we may speak of as miraculous : " They could travel on, or above, or beneath the ground ; by opening a vein in the arm, each of them could flood whole tracts of country or cause level plains to arise ; in rocky ranges they could make pools of water spring into existence, or could make deep gorges and gaps through which to traverse the ranges, and where they planted
1They may be doubled temporarily, as we shall see in the next chapter : but these duplications add nothing to the number of the souls capable of reincarnation
2Strehlow, I, p. 2.
3Nat. Tr., p. 73, n. I
1 On this set of conceptions, see Nat. Tr., pp. 119. 121-127, 387 ff. ; Nor. Tr., pp. 145-174. Among the Gnanji, it is not necessarily near the oknanikilla that the conception takes place. But they believe that each couple is accompanied in its wanderings over the continent by a swarm of souls of the husband's totem. When the time comes, one of these souls enters the body of the wife and fertilizes it, wherever she may be (Nor. Tr., p. 169).