ORIGIN OF TOTEMISM 405 



which actuated primitive men in the choice of their totems. I 

 have given elsewhere^ the account of an incident which occurred 

 in New Britain, showing that there are men to-day who still beheve 

 that they can become part of other objects. A sorcerer was visiting 

 a sick man, and whilst he was doing so " a large eagle-hawk came 

 soaring past the house, and Kaplen, my hunter, was going to shoot 

 it ; but the doctor jumped up, in evident alarm, and said, " Oh, 

 don't shoot ; that is my spirit (niog literally, my shadow) ; if you 

 shoot that, I will die." He then told the old man, " If you see a 

 rat to-night, don't drive it away, it is my spirit (niog), or a snake 

 which will come to-night, that also is niog." The eagle-hawk was 

 not the totem of the sorcerer, but he believed in his power to asso- 

 ciate himself with it and to use it for his own purposes. This 

 belief has continued from the days when primitive men chose their 

 first totems, and is in complete harmony with one of the essential 

 features of totemism, which is that of the identification of the indi- 

 vidual or the clan with his or their totem. 



The result of the continued assertion by an individual, such as 

 I have described, of the possession or supernatural powers, the 

 alleged proof given by him of the means of his communication with 

 them through the animal or bird chosen, aided, no doubt, by some 

 lucky results following upon the exercise of some of his powers, 

 would very soon establish a belief in the reality of his powers. 

 Such a man would, in all probability, be able to pass on some of his 

 influence and power to his brother, son, or other member of his 

 family who would, of course, use the same totem, and so we have the 

 development of hereditary totems from those chosen by individuals. 

 It is assumed, also, that other men would follow the example of the 

 man I have described with varying measures of success : that 

 there would therefore be several totem animals or plants some of 

 which would not go beyond the choice of the individual who selected 

 them, but others would become hereditary, as in the first instance. 

 I think it is very probable that the survival of some of these totems 

 is due to the fact of their being adopted as the totems of the 

 exogamous classes, though I quite agree with Dr. Frazer that there 

 is no necessary connection between the totem clans and the 

 exogamous classes. 



It is not possible, I think, to fix any period in which the indi- 

 vidual totems became hereditary and the common property of the 

 clan. In some cases they would become so almost from the 

 beginning ; in others only after the death of some great sorcerer • 

 and in many instances they would never become hereditary. As 

 a rule, however, totemism in Australia and Melanesia developed 

 regularly to hereditary clan totems, with some few exceptions. 



This theory of the origin of totemism accounts for all the 

 facts as simply and as completely as is claimed for the conceptional 

 theory.2 It, also, explains why people abstain from killing, eating, 



1" Melanesians and Polynesians," p. 177. 

 2" Totemism and Exogamy," vol. 4, p. 60. 



