1897.] GUSHING — REMARKS OX SIIA^[AXISM. 187 



personifying the various gods or wind-monsters of the several 

 quarters, and then of relating them to various divisions of his tribal 

 communities. We have seen how he imagines that each one of 

 these great world-breaths — productive as they are of effects so dif- 

 ferent — must proceed from beings of equally different character. 

 How, therefore, he first not only locates these monster beings defi- 

 nitely in the several quarters of the world whence the winds or 

 their breaths blow, but how also he imagines them to be beneficent 

 or evil according to the various effects of their breaths, and then 

 endows them with personalities corresponding to those of such of 

 the animals especially characteristic of these several regions, as by 

 their actions seem most closely to conform to these effects. The 

 connection this has with the sociologic organization of the tribe 

 may be explained without entering greatly into detail relative to 

 the constitution of Indian society. You are all aware that the 

 sociologic institutions of primitive peoples are almost universally 

 Matriarchal, that is, are based upon Clan organization and mother 

 descent. With them, each clan in the body politic is symbolized 

 by some totem, animal or plant. Now since the various animals 

 are supposed, according to their kinds, to be especially resident in 

 one region or another, not only is there attributed to the Great 

 Being or God of Wind in a particular region, a form more or less 

 like to that of his supposed kind of animal therein, but also, the 

 clans are organized with reference, in turn, to the supposed relation 

 of their totems to these various animals and animistic or mythic 

 beings of the special regions. And so, when, for example, a name 

 is to be conferred upon a child of one of these totems, some process 

 of divination must be entered into to determine what shall be his 

 relation to the creatures and the deific being of one region or another, 

 and correspondingly, of course, to his fellows among the clans. 

 For it is held to be essential that this sacred relationship be sym- 

 bolized, in some way or another, in the choice of his totemic 

 name, and ' thus — as well as for many reasons into a considera- 

 tion of which I cannot enter here — must be divined. Now in this 

 process of divination, various instrumentalities are employed. For 

 example, among the Zufiis, wands painted in diverse colors — each 

 color being symbolic of a special region and plumed with appropri- 

 ate bird feathers, — are sometimes set up in balls of clay, each placed 

 out on the floor in the direction of the region to which the color of 

 its wand relates it. Then it is noted which of the plumes waves most 



