[1010] Nor. Tr., pp. 518 f.; Howitt, Nat. Tr., p. 449.
[1011] Spencer and Gillen, Nat. Tr., p. 498; Schulze, loc. cit., p. 231.
[1012] Spencer and Gillen, Nat. Tr., p. 499.
[1013] Howitt, Nat. Tr., p. 451.
[1014] If the alimentary interdictions which concern the totemic plant or vegetable are the most important, they are far from being the only ones. We have seen that there are foods which are forbidden to the non-initiated because they are sacred; now very different causes may confer this character. For example, as we shall presently see, the birds which are seen on the tops of trees are reputed to be sacred, because they are neighbours to the great god who lives in heaven. Thus, it is possible that for different reasons the flesh of certain animals has been specially reserved for the old men and that consequently it has seemed to partake of the sacred character recognized in these latter.
[1015] See Frazer, Totemism, p. 7.
[1016] Howitt, Nat. Tr., p. 674.—There is one interdiction of contact of which we say nothing because it is very hard to determine its exact nature: this is sexual contact. There are religious periods when a man cannot have commerce with a woman (Nor. Tr., pp. 293, 295; Nat. Tr., p. 397). Is this because the woman is profane or because the sexual act is dreaded? This question cannot be decided in passing. We set it aside along with all that concerns conjugal and sexual rites. It is too closely connected with the problems of marriage and the family to be separated from them.
[1017] Nat. Tr., p. 134; Howitt, Nat. Tr., p. 354.
[1018] Spencer and Gillen, Nat. Tr., p. 624.
[1019] Howitt, Nat. Tr., p. 572.