98 ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA 



which is strictly in harmony with all lines of evidence upon the point, 

 and may well be regarded as the true origin. We have seen that names 

 mean vastly more to the savage than to ourselves. A name with him, 

 as I have shown, is a " mystery " thing, not a mere mark or label ; and 

 he who assumes or takes the name of a thing, animate or inanimate, 

 animal, plant, object or element, is thought to partake of the nature 

 of the spirit of that object, and to be bound to, or connected with, it in 

 a very special and mysterious manner. As Miss Fletcher has shown, 

 the personal totem name indicates the protecting presence of a deity 

 or tutelar spirit and close connection with it ; and as the attitude, as we 

 have seen, of the member of a group towards the common totem is 

 always the same as that of the individual to his totem, it may justly be 

 inferred that the relation is the same and arose in like manner; and 

 that the group name is the totem name of the ancestor who founded 

 the family, group, or clan, and transmitted the totem or protecting pre- 

 sence and powers of the tuitelar spirit. The character of the group- 

 totem is everywhere seen to be the same as that of the personal totem, 

 therefore, the explanation of the one m^ay justly be regarded as the 

 explanation of the other, more particularly, as I have shown that the 

 personal totem undoubtedly does give rise to the family and group- 

 totem. 



If Dr. Haddon, Mr. Lang and other European anthropologists 

 will study the nature and signjificance of nomenology as it is found 

 among^ American tribesmen, I am fain to believe they will be led to 

 take the views here advocated. It may be observed that it is no argu- 

 ment to urge that names are not regarded by savages in other countries 

 as they are by the American tribesmen, for we are not at all certain 

 that they are not, and the probability is that they are. Other savage 

 races have not received the same close study as those of this continent, 

 and it was not till students had spent many years of investigation 

 among the American Indians, that they began to understand and per- 

 ceive the deep significance names 'had for them. 



I desire finally to say that I have been prompted to the writing of 

 this paper by the desire to assist European students of totemism to 

 understand better the view commonly held by American students; for I 

 think it is clear from the criticisms upon Major Powell's article in 

 Man,'^ that the evidence upon which that view is founded has not been 



'^ The purport of this article has been somewhat misunderstood. It was 

 never intended as a deliberate presentation of the views taken of totemisim 

 In America, but was written in consequence of, and immediately after, the 

 appearance of Dr. Frazer's article on the discordant data from Australia in 

 the Fortnightly Review for April and May, 1899, although not published till 

 last year in Man, and should be read in the light of that article. Its intention 

 was rather to show that when totemism Is rightly regarded as a system of 



