[HILL-TOUT] TOTEMISM : ITS ORIGIN AND IMPORT 99 



diily appreciated by European anthropologists, nor received the con- 

 sideration at their bands that it merits. Perhaps I am presmnptuous 

 in undertaking the task; but if a decade's contact with savage races and 

 a close study of their hal)its, customs and modes of thought be any 

 qualificatian for the undertaking, I may, at least, claim that. 



naming, in the sense in w^hich the savage regards name,s, and not as a system 

 of social rules and regulations, as 'held by most European students, the data 

 from Australian and other sources which compelled the majority of European 

 anthropologists to reconsider their position, fall naturally into place in the 

 American conception of things, and cause no embarrassmeint to the American 

 student whatever; and in this, as I have tried to show, he was quite right. 



