can make it grow in the inside of the eater, and so cause his death. Therefore when a man eats of his totem he is careful to eat it all or else to conceal or destroy the remains.[1] In Tana, one of the New Hebrides, people bury or throw into the sea the leavings of their food, lest these should fall into the hands of the disease-makers. For if a disease-maker finds the remnants of a meal, say the skin of a banana, he picks it up and burns it slowly in the fire. As it burns the person who ate the banana falls ill and sends to the disease-maker, offering him presents if he will stop burning the banana skin.[2] Hence no one may touch the food which the King of Loango leaves upon his plate; it is buried in a hole in the ground. And no one may drink out of the king’s vessel.[3] Similarly no man may drink out of the same cup or glass with the King of Fida (in Guinea); “he hath always one kept particularly for himself; and that which hath but once touched another’s lips he never uses more, though it be made of metal that may be cleansed by fire.”[4] Amongst the Alfoers of Celebes there is a priest called the Leleen, whose duty appears to be to make the rice grow. His functions begin about a month before the rice is sown, and end after the crop is housed. During this time he has to observe certain taboos; amongst others he may not eat or drink with any one else, and he may drink out of no vessel but his own.[5]
We have seen that the Mikado’s food was cooked
- ↑ Native Tribes of South Australia, p. 63; Taplin, “Notes on the mixed races of Australia,” in Journ. Anthop. Inst. iv. 53.
- ↑ Turner, Samoa, p. 320 sq.
- ↑ Dapper, Description de l’Afrique, p. 330.
- ↑ Bosnian’s “Guinea,” in Pinkerton’s Voyages and Travels, xvi. 487.
- ↑ P. N. Wilken, “Bijdragen tot de kennis van de zeden en gewoonten der Alfoeren in de Minahassa,” in Mededeelingen van wege het Nederlandsche Zendelinggenootschap, xi. (1863) 126.
