ither kill it
himself nor allow others to do so, if he can help it. For example, if
somebody were to kill a bird in the presence of a native Australian who
had the bird for his totem, the black might say, "What for you kill
that fellow? that my father!" or "That brother belonging to me you
have killed; why did you do it?" (E. Palmer, "Notes on some Australian
Tribes", "Journal of the Anthropological Institute", XIII. (1884), page
300.) Bechuanas of the Porcupine clan are greatly afflicted if anybody
hurts or kills a porcupine in their presence. They say, "They have
killed our brother, our master, one of ourselves, him whom we sing of";
and so saying they piously gather the quills of their murdered brother,
spit on them, and rub their eyebrows with them. They think they would
die if they touched its flesh. In like manner Bechuanas of the Crocodile
clan call the crocodile one of themselves, their master, their
brother; and they mark the ears of their cattle with a long slit like a
crocodile's mouth by way of a family crest. Similarly Bechuanas of the
Lion clan would not, like the members of other clans, partake of lion's
flesh; for how, say they, could they eat their grandfather? If they are
forced in self-defence to kill a lion, they do so with great regret and
rub their eyes carefully with its skin, fearing to lose their sight if
they neglected this precaution. (T. Arbousset et F. Daumas, "Relation
d'un Voyage d'Exploration au Nord-Est de la Colonie du Cap de
Bonne-Esperance" (Paris, 1842), pages 349 sq., 422-24.) A Mandingo
porter has been known to offer the whole of his month's pay to save
the life of a python, because the python was his totem and he therefore
regarded the reptile as his relation; he thought that if he allowed
the creature to be killed, the whole of his own family would perish,
probably through the vengeance to be taken by the reptile kinsfolk of
the murdered serpent. (M. le Docteur Tautain, "Notes sur les Croyances
et Pratiques Religieuses des Banmanas", "Revue d'Ethnographie",
III. (1885), pages 396 sq.; A. Rancon, "Dans la Haute-Gambie, Voyage
d'Exploration Scientifique" (Paris, 1894), page 445.)

Sometimes, indeed, the savage goes further and identifies the revered
animal not merely with a kinsman but with himself; he imagines that one
of his own more or less numerous souls, or at all events that a vital
part of himself, is in the beast, so that if it is killed he must die.
Thus, the Balong tribe