64 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



'\. Tlie name of a " medicine " or "religious " society. 

 2. The object or thing to which that society is devoted. 

 ^3. The emblem, symbol or representation of that object or thing. 



Now a brief examination of these categories shows us that the 

 same concept underlies them all. In each we have the same three 

 elements: name, object, and symbol. In each the object is the source 

 of the name, and in each the object is the same thing, viz., a tutelary 

 guardian spirit. It is in this concept of a ghostly helper ot tutelary 

 spirit t!hat we find the connecting link. This is tlie essential element of 

 totemism. " This is toteiiiism " in its pure and naked state, i.e., shorn 

 of its social accessories. And in applying the same name to all three 

 elements we are, as Major Powell has shown, but following the custom 

 of the natives themselves and regarding the subject from their point of 

 view. In the Algonquian's mind, we may be sure there was no confusion 

 in the application of the word totem to these several phenomena, for to 

 him they were but different exjDressions of one and the same thing; nor 

 need there be in the mind of the student when he has once rightly appre- 

 hended the concept which underlies the term. 



In the philosophy of savage man the 7iame of a thing is something 

 more than a mere label, or mark of distinction; it is an essential part 

 or attribute of the thing itself. It is of prime importance to appre- 

 ciate this fact for a right understanding of it makes clear a good many 

 strange and obscure customs and superstitions among primitive peo- 

 ples. To adopt or receive the name of an animal or plant or other 

 object, was in tbe mind of the savage to be endowed with the essence 

 or spirit oi that object, to be under its protection, to become one with 

 it in a very special and mysterious sense. This becomes clear from a 

 study of names and the custoims and superstitions connected with 

 them. Among these may be instanced the habit of avoiding personal 

 names in direct address. Major Powell has recorded an interesting 

 example of this. He was at one time travelling in company with a band 

 of Kaibab Indians, the young chief of whom was known to white men 

 by the name Frank. Major Powell sought on several occasions to learn 

 his Indian name, but could not succeed. He then endeavoured to notice 

 the term by which the chief was addressed by others of the tribe, but 

 invariably some kinship term was employed. One day, however, the 

 chief and his wife quarrelled, and in her anger the wife called him 

 Chuarumpik (" Yucca-heart '"). Later, Major Powell referred to the 

 subject and questioned the chief about it, who explained and apolo- 

 gized for the great insult his wife had heaped upon him by thus men- 

 tioning his name, but said that she was excused by the great provocation 

 he had given her. The '" insult " lay in calling tiim by his real or 

 " mystery " name. 



