[aizz-rour] ORIGIN OF THE TOTEMISM OF THE ABORIGINES 5 
hordes by each other, may afford us an explanation ofits origin. Later 
and more extended investigation of totemism would seem to show that 
its origin may be found in part in all these views ; but more particu- 
larly in that of Tylor. The study of the subject as it presents 
itself to the student in this region, particularly under the 
aspect of personal or “individual totems,” strongly confirms this 
view, as it is manifestly born of the animistic conceptions of the 
native mind. My own studies in this direction have led me to believe 
that the current conception of totemism stands in need of serious 
modification: and that up to the present time our study of it has not 
been deep or comprehensive enough to enable us to do more than 
formulate a merely provisional or very general definition of it. Since 
the publication of Frazer’s work, accounts have come in from different 
parts of this continent and from other portions of the world, particularly 
from Australia, which show that it is not that ideal and exact social or 
religious system of savage regimentation which some writers have en- 
deavoured to make it; that there are, indeed, scarcely any social pheno- 
mena more difficult to bring under rule and precise definition, than this 
same totemism, the “this is totemism” of Major Powell notwith- 
standing.? 
If we are to accept the definition of the Director of the American 
Bureau of Ethnology, as that of the prevailing totemism of North 
America, then we have a form of totemism on this coast strangely 
aberrant in character, which defies all attempts to bring it into con- 
formity with the normal type. It will be observed, however, that Major 
Powell makes no reference to other than clan totems, nothing is said 
respecting the personal totem. To understand the totemism of this 
coast aright it is of the primest importance to consider this phase of 

1 For confirmation of this, see amongst other publications the Reports of 
the Committee on the Physical Characteristics of the N.W. ‘tribes of Can., 
published by the B.A.A.S.; the Fourth Report of the Committee for the Eth- 
-nological Survey of Canada; “The Native Tribes of Central Australia,’’ by 
Baldwin Spencer, M.A., and F. J. Gillen, London, 1899; and more especially 
“Haglehawk and Crow: A study of the Australian Aborigines,’ by John 
Mathew, M.A., B.D., London and,New York, 1901; ‘“ The Melanesians: Their 
Anthropology and Folklore,’ by Dr. Codrington, London, 1891; and Miss Flet- 
cher’s articles on the Sioux in the Reports of the Peabody Museum, Mass. 
? Since the above was written I have learnt from Mr. Hartland, late pre- 
sident of the English Folklore Society, that, as a result of his presidential 
address to the members of the Society, which dealt largely with the later 
additions to our knowledge of totemism, the Society is printing a series of 
queries on this head for circulation among students of ethnology. The author 
of Totemism took part in the preparation of these queries, and he is there- 
fore plainly not satisfied that we have learnt all there is to know concerning 
totemism. 
