68 EOYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



man, the moat finished yet the lowest organism, at least, the lowest 

 becauise the most dependent and least mysterious. In just so far as 

 an organism, actual or imaginary, resembles his is it believed to be 

 related to him and correspondingly mortal; in just so far as it is mys- 

 terious is it considered removed from him, further advanced, powerful 

 and immortal. It thus happens tliat the animals, because alike mortal 

 and endowed with similar physical functions and 'Organs are considered 

 more nearly related to man than are the gods: more nearly related 

 to the gods than is man because more mysterious, and characterized by 

 specific instincts and powers which man does not of himself possess .... 

 In like manner the supernatural beings of man's fancy — the ' master 

 existences ' — are supposed to be more nearly related to the persion- 

 alities with which the elements and phenomena of nature are endowed 

 than to either animals or man; because like those elements and phe- 

 nomena and unlike man and animals they are connected with remote 

 tradition and, therefore, are considered immortal." 



To the ab'ove should be added the statement that all these beings 

 are given by the Zunis the forms either of animals, of monsters com- 

 pounded of man and beast, or of man. The animal gods comprise by 

 far the larger class. 



Mrs. Erminnie A. Smith, writing in the same Report upon the 

 " Myths of the Iroquois," remaries : " All the mysterious in nature, 

 all that which inspired thean with reverence, awe, terror, or gratitude, 

 became deities or beings like themselves endowed with supernatural 

 attributes, beings whose vengeance must be propitiated, mercy implored, 

 or goodness recompensed." Eiggs, writing on the Mythology of the 

 Dakotas, remarks : " Tbey pray to the sun, earth, moon, lakes, rivers, 

 trees, plants, snakes, and all kinds of animals and vegetables — many 

 of them say, to everything, for they pray to their guns and arrows — 

 to any object artificial as well as natural, for they suppose that every 

 object, artificial as well as natural, has a spirit which may hurt or 

 help." 1 



And Turner writes, concerning the beliefs of the Eskimo about 

 Hudson's Bay : " All the affairs of life are supposed to be under the 



control of spirits, each of which rules over a certain element 



Each person is supposed to be attended by a special guardian who is 

 malignant in character, ever ready to seize upon the least occasion to 

 work harm upon the individual whom it accompanies." - 



Bearing in minid, then, this attitude of savage man towards nature, 

 and his intense belief in the activity and omnipresence of the " ghosts " 

 of things, it is not ddfficult to perceive how the totem concept was 



^ Eleventh Annual Rept. Bur. Amer. Eth., 1889-90, p. 434. 

 » Ibid., p. 194. 



