contact with the earth. Some of the aborigines of Victoria used to
regard the fat of the emu as sacred, believing that it had once been the
fat of the black man. In taking it from the bird or giving it to another
they handled it reverently. Any one who threw away the fat or flesh of
the emu was held accursed. "The late Mr. Thomas observed on one
occasion, at Nerre-nerre-Warreen, a remarkable exhibition of the effects
of this superstition. An aboriginal child--one attending the
school--having eaten some part of the flesh of an emu, threw away the
skin. The skin fell to the ground, and this being observed by his
parents, they showed by their gestures every token of horror. They
looked upon their child as one utterly lost. His desecration of the bird
was regarded as a sin for which there was no atonement."[30] The
Roumanians of Transylvania believe that "every fresh-baked loaf of
wheaten bread is sacred, and should a piece inadvertently fall to the
ground, it is hastily picked up, carefully wiped and kissed, and if
soiled, thrown into the fire--partly as an offering to the dead, and
partly because it were a heavy sin to throw away or tread upon any
particle of it."[31] At certain festivals in south-eastern Borneo the
food which is consumed in the common house may not touch the ground;
hence, a little before the festivals take place, foot-bridges made of
thin poles are constructed from the private dwellings to the common
house.[32] When Hall was living with the Esquimaux and grew tired of
eating walrus, one of the women brought the head and neck of a reindeer
for him to eat. This venison had to be completely wrapt up before it was
brought into the house, and once in the house it could only be placed on
the platform which served as a bed. "To have placed it on the floor or
on the platform behind the fire-lamp, among the walrus, musk-ox, and
polar-bear meat which occupy a goodly portion of both of these places,
would have horrified the whole town, as, according to the actual belief
of the Innuits, not another walrus could be secured this year, and there