TOTEMISM— HOPKINS. 581 



they serve us they should be requited. That whereby one is supported should 

 be his divinity ; hence we will make a festival in honor of our cows. 1 



This is exactly the Tocla point of view, though not the Toda rite 



The totemless Hindu here recognizes that the provider is the god 

 to him provided for. This is the general background of " real 

 totemism." It is found all over the earth and at times comes to the 

 point of gliding into true totemism. 



Thus, in Peru fish are deified on the seacoast and maize is not ; but 

 maize is deified inland, simply because it is the staple diet. This is 

 the first step in totemization. The giver of food is the giver of life ; 

 the giver of life is conceived either as father and as mother or as both 

 parents and god. Hence the maize is called not only divine but 

 mother. 



In the Boston statehouse there hangs to this day the effigy of a 

 huge codfish, an object of almost devout reverence. Why? Because 

 our Yankee ancestors got their, food supply to a very great extent 

 from this kind of fish. For that reason only was the cod elevated 

 to a position of such dignity. They did not worship it, but they 

 made it their "token." Their thought was "in Cod we trust," and 

 they expressed this thought openly in the idol of that fish. 



In Yezo a bear is sacrificed annually as a half-divine animal. It 

 is fed and nourished by the women and then " sent to its parents " 

 with every mark of sorrow and respect. Now this Yezo bear is not 

 a totem. The Ainu claim no clan blood-brotherhood with it. Yet 

 in this sacrifice we are at the very edge of true totemism; for the 

 bear is the food supply, hence divine, hence too, sacrificed, that it 

 may take a message to the bear clan, tell how well it has been treated, 

 and return next year. Compare with this the spring sacrifice made 

 by the Mayas of one animal of each species for the sake of getting 

 increase. Are not these (which are not examples of totemism) al- 

 most totemistic? The Yezo ceremony is like that of the British 

 Columbian Lillooet, who also sing a song of mourning to the bear 

 they kill and invoke it to send game of its own kind. Even the rais- 

 ing of the head on a pole is found here. 2 Yet this is not a " totemic " 

 clan. • 



But, it will be urged, why then the prohibition against eating the 

 totem? In Australia the prohibition against eating is, as I have 

 shown, a secondary stage, while in some cases there is merely a hy- 

 gienic restriction. In America many tribes eat their totem, while 



1 Giivo hi pujyiih * * * goyajfiam kfirayisyami, Hariv., 2, 16, 1 f. (3807-3851). 

 The cows are garlanded and sacrifice of meat and milk is made to the hills. It is grossly 

 explained in the sequel that god Krishna "became the hill" (transubstantiation) ; but 

 this is merely an orthodox trick to convert the rustic rite into one in honor of the 

 recognized divinity. 



2 Teit, Jesup Expedition, apud Goldenweiser, op. cit., p. 204. 



136650°— 20 38 



