610 APPENDIX. 



Page 579. 



Perhaps the lowest form of religion may be considered to be that 

 presented by the Australians, which consists of a mere unreasoning 

 belief in the existence of mysterious beings. The native who has 

 a nightmare, or a dream, does not doubt the reality of that which 

 passes, and as the beings by whom he is visited in his sleep are 

 unseen by his friends and relations, he regards them as invisible. 



In Fetichism this feeling is more methodized. The Negro en- 

 deavours to make a slave of his deity. Thus Fetichism is almost 

 the opposite of Religion ; it stands towards it in the same relation 

 as Alchemy to Chemistry, or Astrology to Astronomy. 



A further stage is that in which the superiority of the higher 

 deities is more fully recognized. Everything is worshipped in- 

 discriminately animals, plants, and even inanimate objects. In 

 endeavouring to account for the worship of animals, we must 

 remember that names are very frequently taken from them. The 

 children and followers of a man called the Bear or the Lion would 

 make that a tribal name. Hence the animal itself would be first 

 respected, at last worshipped 



" The Totem," says Schoolcraft, " is a symbol of the name of the 

 progenitor, generally some quadruped or bird, or other object in 

 the animal kingdom, which stands, if we may so express it, as the 

 surname of the family. Its significant importance is derived from 

 the fact that individuals unhesitatingly trace their lineage from it." 

 Totemism, however, is by no means confined to America, but occurs 

 also in India, Africa, and in fact almost everywhere,* often in con- 

 nection with marriage prohibitions. 



Mr. Fergussou has recently attempted to show the special pre- 

 valence of Tree and Serpent worship. He might, I believe, have 

 made out as strong a case for many other objects. It must be 

 remembered that the savage accounts for all action and movement 

 by life ; inanimate objects, therefore, have spirits as well as men ; 

 hence when the wives and slaves are slain, the weapons also are 

 broken in the grave, so that the spirits of the latter, as well as of 

 the former, may accompany their master to the other world. 



The gradually increasing power of chiefs and priests led to 



* Trans. Ethnol. Soc., N. S. vol. vi. p. 36. Lafitau, Mceurs des Sauv. 

 Amer. vol. i. p. 464. 



