"GREAT-GREAT-GREATEST-GRANDFATHER!"[1]
Every little black piccaninny as soon as it is old enough to understand
is told by its mother what sort of a spirit it has inside it, for the
blackfellows all believe that their spirits have lived before and came
in the very beginning out of some animal or plant. So some children have
"kangaroo spirits," some "eagle spirits," some "emu spirits," and some,
perhaps, the "spirit of the rain."
The mothers know exactly what kind of spirit each baby has. If it came
to her in the kangaroo country then it has a kangaroo spirit and so on.
In some parts it doesn't matter a bit what kind of a spirit father or
mother may have. Father may have an emu spirit, mother an eagle hawk's,
but if the baby came in the snakes' country it will have a snake's
spirit.
Sometimes on the rocks in wild Australia you may see a rough picture of
a kangaroo drawn by some native artist in coloured clays. It is a
picture of the great-great-greatest-grandfather of the kangaroo men and
so also, of course, of any little child who has a kangaroo spirit,
because when he grows up he will belong to the kangaroo men. The story
which he will be told about his great-great-greatest-grandfather will be
something like this:--
"Ever so many moons ago" (for the blackfellows count all time by moons),
"a great big kangaroo came up out of the earth at such and such a place
and wandered about for a long time. After this he changed himself into a
man and then he amused himself making spirits. Of course as he was a
kangaroo man he could only make kangaroo spirits. These kangaroo spirits
did not at all like having no bodies, so as they had none of their own
they began to look about for other bodies to go into. (You will remember
how in the Gospel story the spirits who were cast out of the poor
demoniacs of Gadara were unhappy at the prospect of having no bodies,
and so asked to go into the swine.) So some went into kangaroos and some
into little black children who happened to come in their country. Then
one day great-great-greatest-grandfather called them all together--all
the kangaroos and all the little children with kangaroo spirits--and
told them that they all alike had kangaroo spirits and so were really
brothers and must never eat or harm one another. And so to-day all the
children with kangaroo spirits are taught to call the kangaroo their
brother, and they will never eat or harm a kangaroo, and as you all know
a kangaroo will never eat them."
If they have emu spirits they will never eat emu and so on.
The children are not told these stories by word of mouth as I have told
you, but they are taught chiefly by means of corrobborees, or native
dances, which you will read about later on.
The proper name of the animal or plant whose spirit they are said to
have is their _Totem_, and every man, woman, and child in wild Australia
belongs to some totem group and calls its totem its brother. You will
hear more about these totems later on.
When I saw a black man, as I did sometimes, who wouldn't eat iguana I
knew at once that he belonged to the iguana totem group and had an
iguana spirit; and, of course, his great-great-greatest-grandfather was
not a kangaroo but an iguana.
Now that you have learnt in this chapter something of what the little
black children of wild Australia are taught about where they came from
and the sort of spirits which they have you will, I hope, want to do
something to help to teach them the truth--that God made them all and
that not the spirit of an animal or plant but a beautiful bright spirit
fresh from God's own hand has been given them all, and that all have the
same kind of spirit and those spirits when they leave the body will not
wander about the earth again looking for some other body, but will
"return to God Who gave them." They, just as much as we, are meant to
live and enjoy God now and be happy with Him for ever hereafter.
FOOTNOTE:
[1] I owe this title and something of the contents of the chapter to Mrs
Aeneas Gunn's very interesting book for children, "Little Black
Princess."