lution of the totem into a
true divine figure the evidence is not decisive. The identification of
heroes or gods with animals, their transformations into animals, and
their incarnations in animal forms may, indeed, suggest such an
evolution. Thus, in the island of Yam (between Australia and New Guinea)
two brothers, Sigai and Maiau, have their shrines, in which they are
represented by a shark figure and a crocodile figure respectively, and
to them food is presented, songs are sung, dances are danced and prayers
are offered. Other heroes, Kwoiam (a totem-bringer), Sida (an introducer
of the arts of life), Yadzebub (a warrior), and some unnamed are revered
in islands of Torres Straits.[927] In the Rewa district in Fiji every
village, it is said, has a deity, and these deities have the power of
turning into animals, which are then not eaten--that is, it may be
supposed, the god is a developed totem.[928] In the Wakelbura tribe of
Southeast Australia the totem animal is spoken of as "father," a title
frequently given to clan gods. Household gods are considered to be
incarnate in animals and other objects in some of the Caroline Islands,
in Tonga and Tikopia, and in Samoa, and in these islands, except Samoa,
the people are supposed to have descended from the animals in question.
Similar ideas seem not to exist in the Americas or in Africa; in India
the influence of Hindu cults has largely effaced or greatly modified
non-Aryan usages so that their original form cannot generally be
determined.[929]

+578+. The cases just mentioned are susceptible of other explanations
than that of an evolution from totem to god. The history of the cult of
heroes in Yam and other Torres Straits islands is obscure, but from
known facts the indications are that the hero figures have arisen
independently of the totem figures and have been, by a natural process,
identified with these.[930] The peculiarity of the Rewa deities is that
they assume animal forms at will, and such animals, not being eaten, are
held to be totems. Whether totems or not they are sacred and might
easily be identified with gods who stood alongside of them; an obvious
explanation of this identity would be that the god assumed the form of
the animal.[931] A similar explanation may be given of incarnations of
gods in animals--a metamorphosis is a temporary incarnation. The Samoan
Moso is incarnate in half a dozen different objects, and some deities
are incarnate in men. As for t