[240] Nor. Tr., pp. 163, 169, 170, 172. It is to be noted that in all these tribes, except the Mara and the Anula, the transmission of the totem in the paternal line is only a general rule, which has exceptions.
[241] According to Spencer and Gillen (Nat. Tr., pp. 123 ff.), the soul of the ancestor becomes reincarnate in the body of the mother and becomes the soul of the child; according to Strehlow (II, pp. 51 ff.), the conception, though being the work of the ancestor, does not imply any reincarnation; but in neither interpretation does the totem of the child necessarily depend upon that of the parents.
[242] Nat. Tr., p. 133; Strehlow, II, p. 53.
[243] It is in large part the locality where the mother believes that she conceived which determines the totem of the child. Each totem, as we shall see, has its centre and the ancestors preferably frequent the places serving as centres for their respective totems. The totem of the child is therefore that which belongs to the place where the mother believes that she conceived. As this should generally be in the vicinity of the place which serves as totemic centre for her husband, the child should generally follow the totem of his father. It is undoubtedly this which explains why the greater part of the inhabitants of a given locality belong to the same totem (Nat. Tr., p. 9).
[244] The Secret of the Totem, pp. 159 ff. Cf. Fison and Howitt, Kamilaroi and Kurnai, pp. 40 f.; John Mathews, Eaglehawk and Crow; Thomas, Kinship and Marriage in Australia, pp. 52 ff.
[245] Howitt, Nat. Tr., p. 124.
[246] Howitt, pp. 121, 123, 124; Curr, III, p. 461.
[247] Howitt, p. 126.
[248] Howitt, pp. 98 ff.
[249] Curr, II, p. 165; Brough Smyth, I, p. 423; Howitt, op. cit., p. 429.