rs are
half-human, half-animal, in the latter they are men who transform
half-human, half-animal beings. Such widespread variations point to
early differences in social conditions and in intellectual endowments
with the nature of which we are not acquainted.[807]

+452+. (d) _Refusal to kill or eat the totem._ The usages in regard to
killing or eating the totem are so diverse, and often so uncertain,
that it is not possible to lay down a general rule of prohibition. An
edible totem is only a peculiar sort of sacred animal or plant, and
respect for such objects often leads to refusal to kill or eat them--an
interdiction of this sort does not in itself show whether or not the
object in question is a totem. But within totemic areas the usage varies
in a remarkable manner, as, for example, in Australia. In the north
there is complete prohibition, sometimes including the totems of a man's
father, mother, and father's father. Among the central tribes a man
kills his clan totem only for the benefit of other clans, and eats a
little of it ceremonially. In the southeast the Dieri, it is said, kill
and eat their totems freely, while other tribes, the Wotjoballuk and
others, eat them only at a pinch.[808] The northeastern tribes have many
food taboos, which, however, relate not to the totemic clans but to the
exogamous subclasses. A modified regard for the totem or crest (kobong)
appears in West Australia, according to Sir George Grey's report[809];
it is not allowable to kill a family kobong while it is asleep, and it
is always with reluctance that it is killed.

+453+. Abstention from killing and eating the totem holds, as a rule, in
the Torres Straits islands, while in New Guinea the custom varies--the
totem is eaten by some tribes, not eaten by others.

+454+. In Melanesia the food restrictions connected with animal patrons
or friends of clans are less definite than in Australia. Here, also,
there are local differences of usage. Prohibition of eating or using the
totem (fish, grass, fowl, and so forth) was found by Rivers in the Santa
Cruz group (in Southern Melanesia) but not in the northern New
Hebrides.[810] In the central islands the prohibition refers to the
exogamous classes, and a similar usage is reported as existing in the
Duke of York group (in the north). The Fijians refrain from eating their
tribal sacred animals.

+455+. In Polynesia family gods appear instead of totems, and the
incarnations of gods (in animal