[230] See the tables collected by Strehlow, op. cit., II, pp. 61-72 (cf. III, pp. xiii-xvii). It is remarkable that these fragmentary totems are taken exclusively from animal totems.
[231] Strehlow, II, pp. 52 and 72.
[232] For example, one of these totems is a cave where an ancestor of the Wild Cat totem rested; another is a subterranean gallery which an ancestor of the Mouse clan dug, etc. (ibid., p. 72).
[233] Nat. Tr., pp. 561 ff. Strehlow, II, p. 71, note 2. Howitt, Nat. Tr., pp. 426 ff.; On Australian Medicine Men, J.A.I., XVI, p. 53; Further Notes on the Australian Class Systems, J.A.I., XVIII, pp. 63 ff.
[234] Thaballa means "laughing boy," according to the translation of Spencer and Gillen. The members of the clan which bear this name think they hear him laughing in the rocks which are his residence (Nor. Tr., pp. 207, 215, 226 note). According to a myth given on p. 422, there was an initial group of mythical Thaballa (cf. p. 208). The clan of the Kati, "full-grown men," as Spencer and Gillen say, seems to be of the same sort (Nor. Tr., p. 207).
[235] Nor. Tr., pp. 226 ff.
[236] Strehlow, II, pp. 71 f. He mentions a totem of the Loritja and Arunta which is very close to the serpent Wollunqua: it is the totem of a mythical water-snake.
[237] This is the case with Klaatsch, in the article already cited (see above, p. 92, n. 3).
[238] As we indicated in the preceding chapter, totemism is at the same time of interest for the question of religion and that of the family, for the clan is a family. In the lower societies, these two problems are very closely connected. But both are so complex that it is indispensable to treat them separately. Also, the primitive family organization cannot be understood before the primitive religious beliefs are known; for the latter serve as the basis of the former. This is why it is necessary to study totemism as a religion before studying the totemic clan as a family group.
[239] See Taplin, The Narrinyeri Tribe, in Curr, II, pp. 244 f.; Howitt, Nat. Tr., p. 131.