the Australian Aborigines,' Fortnightly
Review, September 1905, p. 452.] But the social advance from maternal to
paternal descent of the totem, we have seen, is not necessarily an advance
at all, in Mr. Frazer's opinion. [IBID. p. 462.] The Arunta, for example,
he thinks, never recognised female descent of the totem. They have never
recognised, indeed, he thinks, any hereditary descent of the totem,
though in all other respects, as in hereditary magistracies, and
inheritance of the right to practise the father's totemic ritual, they
do reckon in the male line. By such advantage, however it was acquired,
they are more progressive than, say, the Euahlayi. But, progressive as
they are, they have not, like the more pristine tribes of the south-east,
developed 'the germs of religion,' the belief in a benevolent or ruling
'All Father.' Unlike the tribes of the south-east, they have co-operative
totemic magic. Each totem community does magic for its totem, as part of
the food supply of the united tribe. But the tribe, though so SOLIDAIRE,
and with its eight classes and hereditary magistracies so advanced, has
developed no germs of religion at all. Arunta progress has thus been
singularly unequal.

The germs of religion are spoken of as the results of social advance,
but, while so prominent in social advance, the Arunta have no trace of
religion. The tribes northward from them to the sea are also very
advanced socially, but (with one known exception not alluded to by Mr.
Frazer) have no 'All Father,' no germ of religion.

From this fact, if correctly reported, it is obvious that social
progress is not the cause, nor the necessary concomitant, of advance in
religious ideas.

Again, the influence of the sea, in causing a 'heavier rainfall, a more
abundant vegetation, and a more plentiful supply of food,' with an
easier and more reflective life than that of 'the arid wilderness of
the interior,' cannot be, as is alleged, the cause of the germs of
religion. [IBID. p. 463.] If this were the case, the coastal tribes of the
Gulf of Carpentaria and of the north generally would have developed the
All Father belief. Yet, in spite of their coastal environment, and richer
existence, and social advance, the northern coastal tribes are not
credited with the belief in the All Father. Meanwhile tribes with no
matrimonial classes, and with female descent of the totem--tribes
dwelling from five to seven hundred miles away from the southern se