PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION G. 611 
of Australia and Tasmania.” Two vols. Melbourne, 
1878. 
24. Srrzevecki, P. E. De.—‘‘ Physical Description of New 
South Wales and Van Diemen’s Land.” Longman and 
Co., London, 1845. 
25. West, Joun.—‘ History of Tasmania.” Two vols. Laun- 
ceston, 1852. 
26. ‘Copies of Correspondence between Lieutenant-Governor 
Arthur and the Secretary of State for the Colonies on the 
military operations lately carried on against the aboriginal 
inhabitants of Van Diemen’s Land.” Ordered by the 
House of Commons to be printed, 23rd September, 1831. 
2.—TOTEMS IN MELANESIA. 
By the Rev. R. H. Coprineroy, D.D. 
THE word Totem is now very commonly used in the description of 
the ways of life by uncivilised people. The Totem, originally a 
mark of family or tribe among the Indians of North America, 
has been recognised far away from the birth-place of its name. 
Totemism has come to be the name of a system of savage beliefs 
and practices, and also of a system of arranging and interpreting 
such beliefs and practices. Both Totems and Totemism have an 
acknowledged place in the anthropology of Australia ; the present 
paper will contain an attempt to ascertain whether a place is 
equally due to them in Melanesia. 
Mr. J. S. Frazer, of Trinity College, Cambridge, the writer of 
the article “‘Totemism,” in the new edition of the Zxcyclopedia 
Britannica, gives the following descriptions and definitions of a 
Totem? :—‘“1. A Totem isa class of material objects which a 
savage regards with superstitious respect, believing that there 
exists between him and every member of the class an intimate 
and altogether special relation. 2. The connection between a 
man and his Totem is mutually beneficent ; the Totem protects 
the man, and the man shows his respect for the Totem in various 
ways, by not killing it if it be an animal, and not cutting or 
gathering it if it bea plant. 3. A Totem is never an isolated 
individual, but always a class of objects. 4. Totems being either 
common to a clan, or to to a sex, or belonging to a single indi- 
vidual, the clan Totem is reverenced by a body of men and women 
who call themselves by the name of the Totem, believe themselves 
to be of one blood, descendants of a common ancestor, 5. The 
members of a Totem clan call themselves by the name of their 
t“Totemism.” Edinburgh: A.and C. Black, 1887. 
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