ropriate to the totem. In the drama of the Hakea flower
totem the actors pretend to make and drink the beverage brewed from
Hakea flowers; in the ceremony of the fish totem the actor feigns to be
a fish and also to catch fish; in the ceremony of the plum-tree totem
the actors pretend to knock down and eat plums; and in the ceremony of
the ant totem the actors make believe to gather ants for food.
Similarly, to take a few more examples, in a ceremony of the witchetty
grub totem of the Arunta tribe the body of the actor was decorated with
lines of white and red down, and he had a shield adorned with a number
of concentric circles of down. The smaller circles represented the bush
on which the grub lives first of all, and the larger circles represented
the bush on which the adult insect lays its eggs. When all was ready,
the performer seated himself on the ground and imitated the grub,
alternately doubling himself up and rising on his knees, while he
extended his arms and made them quiver in imitation of the insect's
wings; and every now and then he would bend over the shield and sway to
and fro, and up and down, in imitation of the insect hovering over the
bushes on which it lays its eggs.[153] In another ceremony of the
witchetty grub totem, which followed immediately the one I have just
described, the actor had two shields beside him. The smaller of the
shields was ornamented with zigzag lines of white pipe-clay which were
supposed to indicate the tracks of the grub; the larger shield was
covered with larger and smaller series of concentric circles, the larger
representing the seeds of a bush on which the insect feeds, while the
smaller stood for the eggs of the adult insect. As before, the actor
wriggled and flapped his arms in imitation of the fluttering of the
insect when it first leaves its chrysalis case in the ground and
attempts to fly. In acting thus he was supposed to represent a
celebrated ancestor of the witchetty grub totem.[154]

[Sidenote: Ceremony of the emu totem.]

The last example of such ceremonies which I shall cite is one of the emu
totem in the Arunta tribe. The body of the actor was decorated with
perpendicular lines of white down reaching from his shoulders to his
knees; and on his head he supported a towering head-piece tipped with a
bunch of emu feathers in imitation of the neck and head of an emu. Thus
arrayed he stalked backwards and forwards in the aimless fashion of the
bird.[155]

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