an five pounds as
compensation for the murder of the woman, whose soul or second self had
been in that hippopotamus. (C.H. Robinson, "Hausaland" (London, 1896),
pages 36 sq.) Similarly at Ndolo, in the Congo region, we hear of a
chief whose life was bound up with a hippopotamus, but he prudently
suffered no one to fire at the animal. ("Notes Analytiques sur les
Collections Ethnographiques du Musee du Congo", I. (Brussels, 1902-06),
page 150.)

Amongst people who thus fail to perceive any sharp line of distinction
between beasts and men it is not surprising to meet with the belief that
human beings are directly descended from animals. Such a belief is often
found among totemic tribes who imagine that their ancestors sprang from
their totemic animals or plants; but it is by no means confined to
them. Thus, to take instances, some of the Californian Indians, in whose
mythology the coyote or prairie-wolf is a leading personage, think that
they are descended from coyotes. At first they walked on all fours; then
they began to have some members of the human body, one finger, one toe,
one eye, one ear, and so on; then they got two fingers, two toes, two
eyes, two ears, and so forth; till at last, progressing from period to
period, they became perfect human beings. The loss of their tails, which
they still deplore, was produced by the habit of sitting upright. (H.R.
Schoolcraft, "Indian Tribes of the United States", IV. (Philadelphia,
1856), pages 224 sq.; compare id. V. page 217. The descent of some, not
all, Indians from coyotes is mentioned also by Friar Boscana, in (A.
Robinson's) "Life in California" (New York, 1846), page 299.)
Similarly Darwin thought that "the tail has disappeared in man and the
anthropomorphous apes, owing to the terminal portion having been injured
by friction during a long lapse of time; the basal and embedded portion
having been reduced and modified, so as to become suitable to the erect
or semi-erect position." (Charles Darwin, "The Descent of Man", Second
Edition (London, 1879), page 60.) The Turtle clam of the Iroquois think
that they are descended from real mud turtles which used to live in a
pool. One hot summer the pool dried up, and the mud turtles set out to
find another. A very fat turtle, waddling after the rest in the heat,
was much incommoded by the weight of his shell, till by a great effort
he heaved it off altogether. After that he gradually developed into a
man and became the progenit