[355] A. W. Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, p. 401.
[356] Quoted by Frazer, Totemism and Exogamy, I. pp. 489 and 495.
[357] A. W. Howitt, op. cit., p. 389.
[358] C. G. Seligman, op. cit., p. 188.
[359] VII. c. 16.
[360] The poet is closely allied at first to the wizard; for (besides that the greatest spells and oracles are versified) the poet is inspired. In Australia poets are sometimes carried by ghosts into skyland, where they learn songs and dances. Some compose awake; but the belief prevails that they are inspired in dreams by dead and kindred spirits. Their songs travel far amongst tribes that no longer understand the language. (Howitt, Native Tribes of South-East Australia, pp. 389 and 413.) Similarly in Fiji (Fiji and the Fijians, p. 98). “The poem is too wonderful for me”—such is the poet’s humility; “it was made by the gods”—such is his arrogance.
[361] Spencer and Gillen, Native Tribes of Central Australia, p. 526.
[362] Tylor, Primitive Culture, I. p. 125.
[363] Casalis, Les Bassoutos, pp. 299 and 340.
[364] Jounod, Life of a South African Tribe, I. 361. This “medicine” is the chief’s great store of magical force: its principal ingredients are the nails and hair of chiefs deceased, fixed together by a kind of wax.