[1198] See Spencer and Gillen, Nat. Tr., p. 188; Strehlow, III, p. 5.
[1199] Strehlow himself recognizes this: "The totemic ancestor and his descendant, who represents him (der Darsteller) are presented as one in these sacred hymns." (III, p. 6). As this incontestable fact contradicts the theory according to which ancestral souls do not reincarnate themselves, Strehlow adds, it is true, in a note, that "in the course of the ceremony there is no real incarnation of the ancestor in the person who represents him." If Strehlow wishes to say that the incarnation does not take place on the occasion of the ceremony, then nothing is more certain. But if he means that there is no incarnation at all, we do not understand how the officiant and the ancestor can be confounded.
[1200] Perhaps this difference is partially due to the fact that among the Warramunga each clan is thought to be descended from one single ancestor about whom the legendary history of the clan centres. This is the ancestor whom the rite commemorates; now the officiant need not be descended from him. One might even ask if these mythical chiefs, who are sorts of demigods, are submitted to reincarnation.
[1201] In this Intichiuma, three assistants represent ancestors "of a considerable antiquity"; they play a real part (Nat. Tr., pp. 181-182). It is true that Spencer and Gillen add that these are ancestors posterior to the Alcheringa. Nevertheless, mythical personages are represented in the course of the rite.
[1202] Sacred rocks and water-holes are not mentioned. The centre of the ceremony is the image of an emu drawn on the ground, which can be made anywhere.
[1203] We do not mean to say that all the ceremonies of the Warramunga are of this type. The example of the white cockatoo, of which we spoke above, proves that there are exceptions.
[1204] Nor. Tr., pp. 226 ff. On this same subject, cf. certain passages of Eylmann which evidently refer to the same mythical being (Die Eingeborenen, etc., p. 185). Strehlow also mentions a mythical snake among the Arunta (Kulaia, water-snake) which may not differ greatly from the Wollunqua (Strehlow, I, p. 78; cf. II, p. 71, where the Kulaia is found in a list of totems).
[1205] We use the Arunta words, in order not to complicate our terminology; the Warramunga call this mythical period Wingara.
[1206] "It is not easy to express in words what is in reality rather a vague feeling amongst the natives, but after carefully watching the different series of ceremonies, we were impressed with the feeling that the Wollunqua represented to the native mind the idea of a dominant totem" (Nor. Tr., p. 248).
[1207] One of the most solemn of these ceremonies is the one which we have had occasion to describe above (p. 217), in the course of which an image of the Wollunqua is designed on a sort of hillock which is then torn to pieces in the midst of a general effervescence.