liarities appear in the Solomon Islands. While there is
the usual regard for the sacred objects (called _buto_), so that these
are not to be eaten (in some cases not to be touched or seen), the names
of the classes are not always those of the sacred things, and there is
difference of opinion among the natives as to whether the latter are
ancestors or merely associated with an ancestor: a man (particularly a
chief) may announce that after death he will be incarnate in a given
thing, as, for example, a banana--this then becomes sacred. But in some
cases[830] the god of the class is regarded as the ancestor; instead of
a number of sacred animals there is a theistic system with regular
worship--a state of things quite distinct from totemism.[831]

+480+. In the New Hebrides group there is mention of a slight magical
ceremony performed by a member of a class to attract a class animal, but
there is no rule against eating the object whose name the class bears.
The usage in the Santa Cruz group in regard to eating, and the belief as
to descent from the sacred object, differ in different islands; they are
sometimes lax and vague, sometimes strict and definite.

+481+. Belief in a vital connection between a man and some object chosen
by himself is found in the Banks Islands; there is an obvious similarity
between such an object and the North American manitu. Further, the
belief is reported by Rivers that in these islands the character of a
child is determined by an edible object from which the mother, before
the birth of the child, received some sort of influence; the child will
resemble the object or be identified with it, and will not, throughout
life, eat of it.[832]

+482+. In the easternmost group, the Fijian, the relation between the
tribes and their associated sacred animals and plants was, and is,
various. The rule was that these should not be injured, and, if edible,
should not be eaten. But alongside of such sacred objects real gods are
found; these dwell or are incarnate in certain birds, fish, and plants,
and sometimes in men. In one district, in the interior of the large
island Viti Levu, Rivers learned that every village had its deity, which
in many cases might turn into an animal, and the animal would then
become taboo;[833] the familiar custom of not eating a sacred thing was
thus extended to any new object of this sort. The functions of the
tribal sacred animals approached in some points those of gods: they were