456 LECTURES AND ESSAYS [1880- 



gods forming subordinate deities, as in Peru. Thus little 

 by little the features of the original system may be 

 obliterated till the connection between the animal gods 

 and tribes bearing an animal name is no longer apparent. 

 In adopting as a legitimate hypothesis the opinion that the 

 ancient nations have passed through the totem stage, 

 Mr. M Lennan is partly guided by his previous and 

 independent conclusion as to the universal prevalence, at 

 one stage of society, of exogamy and kinship through 

 females ; but quite apart from this he has brought 

 evidence to prove that from the earliest times in very 

 many cases and in the most widely separated races 

 &quot; animals were worshipped by tribes of men who were 

 named after them and believed to be of their breed.&quot; 

 This conclusion, taken along with the prevalence of the 

 totem system in modern savage races over a very large 

 part of the globe, opens up a line of inquiry of the first 

 importance, and suggests points of view for the study of 

 ancient religions which may not perhaps prove to be so 

 universally applicable as Mr. M Lennan s hypothesis 

 assumes, but which at any rate claim to be taken into 

 account and put to the test whenever we have to deal with 

 a religion that acknowledges animal gods. 



I am not aware that any recent writer on Semitic 

 religions has directed his attention to the questions 

 suggested by Mr. M Lennan s speculations. There is a 

 controversy whether Semitic heathenism is purely astral 

 or whether it also includes telluric elements ; but the 

 latest advocate of the astral theory, Count Baudissin, 

 pursues his argument without any consciousness of the 

 important connection that subsists between plant or 

 animal worship and totem tribes. Nay, he puts the 

 animal worship of the Semites altogether aside, with the 

 remark that &quot; nothing is yet known of a sacred character 

 being ascribed to living animals among the Semites, and 

 when the gods are figured in animal form or accompanied 

 by animals, the animal can be more or less clearly made 



