heroes with the origin of
totems--a common procedure. One hero, Kwoiam of Mabuiag, is said to have
been a real man, and to have been almost deified; divinization of dead
men is not unusual in Polynesia.

+476+. _New Guinea._ In the eastern portion of British New Guinea the
peculiarities of organization are[826] that the people live in hamlets;
that there is generally a combination of totems in a clan; and that
special regard is paid to the father's totem. There is no report of
belief in descent from the totem.[827] The hamlets tend to become family
groups, but clan exogamy is observed. The system of "linked totems"
seems to be designed to secure superhuman aid from all departments of
the nonhuman world: ordinarily there will be a bird, a fish, a snake,
and a plant--the bird has come to be the most important of these. A man
may kill his own totem but not his father's--a rule that has arisen
perhaps from a displacement of matrilineal descent (according to which a
man's totem is that of his mother) by descent through the father. So far
as appears, there are no magical ceremonies for increase of the supply
of food. In both New Guinea and the Straits the fact that old customs
are disappearing under foreign influence increases the difficulty of
determining whether certain usages are primitive or decadent.

+477+. _Melanesia._ The social organization in the vast mass of islands
called Melanesia[828] has not been fully investigated, but the existence
of some general features has been established. Society is divided not
into clans or tribes, but into exogamous classes, and the classificatory
system of relationships is general. The rules governing marriage are
less elaborate than in Australia, the method of initiation is simpler,
and the political organization is more definite. In regard to other
usages commonly associated with totemism the reported details are not
numerous. There appears to be a movement away from Australian totemism,
growing more pronounced as we go eastward, and culminating in Fiji, in
which totemic features are very rare.

+478+. In the Bismarck Archipelago every class has connected with it
certain animals regarded as relatives, but in New Britain, apparently,
not as ancestors.[829] In New Ireland dances imitating the movements of
the sacred animals are performed. Such animals are treated with great
respect, and the relation to them constitutes a bond of union between
members of a class.

+479+. Some pecu