Duchess of Sutherland is styled in Gaelic 'The Great Lady of the
Cat,'" though totemism is probably not the origin of this title.


[1] E. Casalis, Les Bassoutos, 1859.


Casalis proceeds: "No one would dare to eat the flesh or wear the
skin of the animal whose name he bears. If the animal be
dangerous--the lion, for example--people only kill him after
offering every apology and asking his pardon. Purification must
follow such a sacrifice." Casalis was much struck with the
resemblance between these practices and the similar customs of
North American races. Livingstone's account[1] on the whole
corroborates that of Casalis, though he says the Batau (tribe of
the lion) no longer exists. "They use the word bina 'to dance,' in
reference to the custom of thus naming themselves, so that when you
wish to ascertain what tribe they belong to, you say, 'What do you
dance?' It would seem as if this had been part of the worship of
old." The mythological and religious knowledge of the Bushmen is
still imparted in dances; and when a man is ignorant of some myth
he will say, "I do not dance that dance," meaning that he does not
belong to the guild which preserves that particular "sacred
chapter".[2]


[1] Missionary Travels (1857), p. 13.

[2] Orpen, Cape Monthly Magazine, 1872.