ABSTRACT
Messrs. Hose and McDougal state in their "Payasi Tribes of Borneo" that they do not believe that the customs of the tribes of Borneo can be regarded as institutions surviving from a fully developed system of Totemism fallen into decay. The earliest Mongol families spread over Asia, North and South, and as no doubt Borneo was at one time part of the mainland. They intermarried with the native tribes already in Borneo and imposed upon them the higher cults, which in time caused the original natives to abandon some of their Totemic ceremonies and rites. There is in Africa a tribe of Nilotic Negroes who have the same traditions and practices as the Todas—Hero Cult people, with the Cow or Buffalo as their Totem. The Todas were originally Hero-Cult Nilotic Negroes; they offer supplications and sacrifices to the "Gods" or "Heroes" for help and protection—as well as to Ancestral Spirits or Spirits of the departed.
