Part 42 (2/2)

[127] -- We find that the practices of these people in connection with omens or auspices so closely resemble those of the early Romans that it seems worth while to draw attention to these resemblances, and we therefore quote in footnotes some pa.s.sages from Dr. Smith's DICTIONARY OF CLa.s.sICAL ANTIQUITIES, referring to the practice of the Romans: ”In the most ancient times no transaction, whether private or public, was performed without consulting the auspices, and hence arose the distinction of AUSPICIA PRIVATA and AUSPICIA PUBLICA.”

[128] -- See Chap. XXII.

[129] -- ”No one but a patrician could take the auspices.”

[130] -- ”Romulus is represented to have been the best of augurs, and from him all succeeding augurs received the chief mark of their office.”

[131] -- ”Hence devices were adopted so that no ill-omened sound should be heard, such as blowing a trumpet during the sacrifice.”

[132] -- ”The person who has to take them (the auspices) first marked out with a wand ... a division of the heavens called 'templum,'

... within which he intended to make his observations.”

[133] -- ”It was from Jupiter mainly that the future was learnt, and the birds were regarded as his messengers.”

[134] -- ”The Roman auspices were essentially of a practical nature; they gave no information respecting the course of future events, they did not inform men what was to happen, but simply taught them whether they were to do or not to do the matter purposed; they a.s.signed no reason for the decision of Jupiter, they simply announced -- Yes or No.”

[135] -- ”It was only a few birds which could give auguries among the Romans. They were divided into two cla.s.ses: Oscines, those which gave auguries by singing or their voice; and Alites, those which gave auguries by their flight.” ”There were considerable varieties of omen according to the note of the Oscines or the place from which they uttered the note; and similarly among the Alites, according to the nature of their flight.”

[136] -- ”They endeavoured to learn the future, especially in war, by consulting the entrails of victims.”

[137] -- This phrase as commonly used implies the exchange of greetings.

[138] -- See Chap. XII.

[139] -- Of the Romans it is said: ”When a fox, a wolf, a serpent, a horse, a dog, or any other kind of quadruped, ran across a person's path or appeared in an unusual place, it formed an augury.”

[140] -- JOURN. OF STRAITS ASIATIC SOCIETY, Nos. 8, 10, and 14.

[141] -- See Chap. XXII.

[142] -- See Chap. XVII.

[143] -- In the paper from which the greater part of this chapter is extracted this word was spelt NYARONG. It is now clear to us that it should be spelt as above, with the initial NG, a common initial sound in the Sea Dayak language. The most literal translation of the word is, the thing that is secret, or simply, the secret, or my secret.

[144] -- Almost every Iban possesses and constantly carries with him a bundle of such objects; they are regarded as charms and are called PENGAROH; but few probably claim to enjoy the protection of a secret helper.

[145] -- INTRODUCTION TO COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY, and elsewhere.

[146] -- Now that the sacrifice of human victims is forbidden, Kenyahs and Klemantans sometimes carve a human figure upon the first of the main piles of a new house to be put into the ground.

[147] -- See vol. ii., p. 4.

[148] -- Quoted in Mr. Frazer's TOTEMISM, 1st ed., 1887, p. 8.

[149] -- Aban Jau possessed a large curiously shaped pig's tusk which he wore on his person in the belief that any firearm fired at it would not go off. It is probable that his belief in this charm was connected with his belief in the dream-pig. The belief was very genuine, until in a moment of excessive confidence he hanged the tusk upon a tree and invited one of us to fire at it. The tusk was shattered. Aban Jau said nothing; but presumably a process of disintegration began in his mind; for after some hours he remarked that his charm had lost its power.

[150] -- Dr. Boas is of the opinion that the totems of the Indians of British Columbia have been developed from the personal MANITOU, the guardian animals acquired by youths in dreams. Miss A. C. Fletcher is led to a similar conclusion by a study of the totems of the Omaha tribe of Indians (IMPORT OF THE TOTEM, Salem, Ma.s.s., 1897). The facts described above in connection with the NGARONG of the Ibans and similar allied inst.i.tutions among other tribes of Sarawak would seem, then, to support the views of these authors as to the origin of totemism.

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