404 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION F. 



everything which differentiates man from all other animals he is 

 a special creation of God. I believe this, amongst other reasons 

 which I need not mention now, because he alone has the religious 

 instinct, and that this is found amongst men everywhere, even 

 in the very lowest states of culture. But whatever opinions 

 there may be on this matter, there is, I think, a consensus of 

 opinion that the belief in magic is the first stage in the develop- 

 ment of the religious instinct, and it is in the belief and practice 

 of magic that we find, in my opinion, the origin of totemism. 



In considering this subject I have often put myself, as far as 

 possible, in the place of a primitive man, and with the knowledge I 

 have of native modes of thought, I have tried to mark out the 

 probable lines of development. I assume, in the first place, that 

 primitive men were conscious that they occupied a superior position 

 to all other animals and that they were conscious also of the posses- 

 sion of powers which were capable of increased development and use. 

 These men stood in awe of many of the great powers of nature, and 

 yet knew that in some cases they themselves could control and use 

 those powers. They were, at the same time, conscious that there 

 was some mysterious connection between those powers and them- 

 selves. Amongst such peoples there would ever and again be some 

 man possessed of more intelligence, or cunning, than his fellows — a 

 man who, by the repeated assertion of his powers of magic, gained 

 by his special and intimate connection with supernatural powers, 

 at length succeeded in inducing many of his people to believe that 

 he actually possessed them, and who probably honestly believed 

 that he did indeed in some way really exercise supernatural power. 

 I have often known men in Melanesia, where there are no hereditary 

 chiefs, wield great influence, and exercise great power, simply 

 because they so persistently claimed that they possessed excep- 

 tional powers of magic that men at length believed their assertions. 



Then, in the case of such a man as I have described, the neces- 

 sity w^ould soon be felt that, in order to make manifest the reality 

 of the connection with, and control of, these supernatural powers, 

 there must be some means of communication between them and the 

 individual — some channel through which the magic power could be 

 conveyed and received, and that this should be of such a nature as 

 to be apparent to the individual and also to the people themselves. 

 The object chosen would be an animal, plant, stone or what not. 

 This which we call a totem was, in the first instance, the choice of 

 the individual, and with this he associated himself in the close bonds 

 of relationship. Probably no belief has been so persistent as that 

 of the intimate association between the totems and the members of 

 the respective clans. Men still call the totem " our relative," as 

 they did in past ages, and still believe that they are connected with 

 it in the closest manner possible. The belief which men in primitive 

 stages of culture still have that they can project themselves into 

 certain animals, and that those animals can also be used as mediums 

 for the transmission to them of supernatural power, is the same belief 



