president's address — SECTION F. 213 



well as in New Caledonia and Fiji, where the system is barely traceable. 

 I attribute this to the influence of Polynesian immigrations, of which we 

 find abundant evidence. The Polynesians, a more highly developed 

 and intellectual race, have broken up the original system and modified 

 it to such an extent that at present it is difficult even to trace the 

 remnants of the original system. 



The Polynesians seem originally not to have known anything about 

 totemism. In their wandering towards the east they came, however, 

 across a darker race, who were' most likely very closely related to the 

 present tribes of the Bismarck Archipelago. These tribes were con- 

 quered and partly exterminated, but we may safely assume that many 

 of the women were spared, and taken as wives or concubines by the 

 conquerors. The Polynesian race of to-day is, therefore, a mixture 

 of the original Asiatic emigrants with a darker race who were very 

 similar to the present Melanesians, with woolly hair, and who had a 

 knowledge of the totem system. We may take it for granted that the 

 women of the conquered race, bringing forth children to husbands of 

 the conquering party, impressed on their offspring some of their old 

 original customs and views, and amongst these the custom of totem, 

 which must have been to them of the greatest importance. In later 

 periods the connection between totem sign and totem system was 

 gradually lost, but still recollections lingered, and the totem signs 

 were, by certain families or certain tribes, considered in the light of 

 an ancestor or ancestral deity. Many chief families in Polynesia, as 

 in Samoa and Tonga, and many Melanesian island tribes up to the 

 present date look upon certain birds or animals as being their fore- 

 fathers, or in some dim and inexplicable way to be connected with them 

 and their family. 



I have tried to show you in brief outline how far the totem system 

 extends at present over the islands of the Pacific, and that in remote 

 ages it in all probability extended to islands where to-day we find only 

 the faintest traces. I shall now try to explain to you the conclusions 

 I have formed concerning the origin of this widespread and singular 

 custom. 



We may take it for granted that in past, long-forgotten ages man 

 lived, as tribes or herds of the higher animals live up to the present clay. 

 It must have taken a long time before he realised that he belonged to a 

 higher species ; but gradually he raised his head, his eye brightened, 

 and his brow expanded, and he began to realise his superiority and to 

 take a greater interest in all that concerned himself and his fellow man. 

 Still he lived in small hordes, without any recognised family ties ; the 

 females brought forth children belonging to the tribe ; and if anv re- 

 lationship was recognised it must have consisted in the feeling thaib the 

 offspring belonged individually to the mother that had brought it forth. 

 It must, again, have taken ages before man realised that breeding 

 within a certain limited circle caused a gradual weakness of the off- 

 spring, and in consequence a weakness of the tribe ; and, arriving at 

 this conclusion, he must have come to beUeve that the weakness of the 

 offspring was caused by the unfitness of the females to bring forth strong 



