226 TOTEMISM AND EXOGAMY 



world. But it is by no means confined to the peoples 

 which once inhabited the prairies and mountains 

 of that vast area of land. Of late it has been care- 

 fully studied amongst the aborigines of Australia, 

 where it appears to have occurred universally. 

 It is met with amongst the western islanders of 

 Torres Straits and the coast tribes of British New 

 Guinea, very commonly amongst the Melanesians, 

 to some extent amongst the Polynesians, and, 

 perhaps, still more so among the Indonesians. 

 " In India it is widespread, and may well have 

 been at one time universal among the Dravidian 

 races, who probably form the aboriginal popula- 

 tion of Hindostan, and it appears to be shared by 

 some of the Mongoloid tribes of Assam. But on 

 the frontiers of British India the institution, or at 

 all events the record of it, stops abruptly " (iv. 1 1). 

 It is well known in Africa, as we have seen in 

 North America and, it may be added, in the south- 

 ern part of that continent as well. It will be ex- 

 pected that efforts have been made to show that it 

 formerly existed in other races now presenting 

 no traces of any such institution. Thus, Robertson- 

 Smith endeavoured to trace it amongst the Semites, 

 Reinach and others among the Celts and so on. It 

 cannot be said that these efforts have so far met 

 with any great success. The facts upon which these 

 theories are based are not always unassailable, and, 

 even when they may be taken as reasonably well 

 established, a wholly different conclusion from 

 that drawn by the totemists may with equal 

 reason and probability be adopted. Perhaps one 

 amusing instance of how these theories, based on 



