[hill-tout] TOTEMISM : ITS ORIGIN AND IMPUKT 6S 



Everard F. im Thurn gives the following account of the name 

 system of the Indians of Guiana, " wliich/' says MaUory, " might have 

 teen written with equal truth ahout some tribes of North America " :— 

 " The system under which the Indians have their personal names is 

 intricate and difficult to explain. In the first place, a name, which 

 may be called the proper name is always given to a child soon after 

 birth. It is said to be proper that the peaiman or medicine-man, 

 should chose and give the name. . . . The word selected is generally 

 the name of some plant, bird or other natural object. But these 

 names seem of little use, in that owners have a very strong objection 

 to telling or using them, apparently on the ground that the name is 

 part of the man, and that he who knows the name has part of the 

 owner of that name in his power.^ 



The close relation between the person and his name is again seen 

 in the practices of shamans and witches. In their formulas relating 

 to love and killing or maiming, the name of the victim or of the per- 

 son whose affections it is desired to win, is always specifically mentioned; 

 for the Indian believes that injury will result from malicious handling 

 of his name as surely as from a wound inflicted on any part of his 

 physical organism. " This belief," wTites Mooney in his article on the 

 '■ Saored f o^rmulas of the Cherokees,' ^ " was found among the various 

 tribes from the Atlantic to the Paicific and has occasioned a number 

 of curious regulations in regard to the concealment and change of 

 names. Should his prayers have no apparent effect when treating a 

 patient for some serious illness the shaman sometimes concludes that 

 the name is affected and accordingly goes to water, with appropriate 

 ceremonies and christens the patient with a new name. He then begins 

 afresh using the new name." 



Teit, writing of the Thompson Indians says: "It is believed that 

 all animals have names of their own which may be revealed by the 

 guardian spirits. The knowledge Oif these names gives a person addi- 

 tional power over animals. A man who, knowing the name of the 

 grisly bear, for instance, addresses him, gains so muich more power 

 over him that the bear at once becomes gentle and harmless." ^ 



In a note upon " The Eeligious Ceremony of the Four Winds or 

 Quarters, as observed by the Santee Sioux," Miss Alice Fletcher 

 remarks : 



"A name implies relationship, and consequently protection; 

 favour and influence are claimed from the source of the name whether 



^ Tenth Report of Bureau of American Ethnology, 1888-89, pp. 44-5. 

 '' Seventh Anniua-l Report Bureau of Amer. Eth., p. 343. 



" The Thompsoin Indians of B.C. Memoirs of the Am>er. Mus. of Nat. 

 Hist., Vol. IT, p. 350. 



Sec. I., 1903. 5. 



