TOTEMISM AND EXOGAMY 227 



insufficient evidence, break down when exposed 

 to expert criticism may here be given. The late 

 Mr. Grant Allen, in his book on Anglo-Saxon 

 Britain, which, with a real touch of humour, was 

 published by the S.P.C.K., included Worming- 

 ford among the Place-names leading to " the 

 almost irresistible inference that at some earlier 

 period the Anglo-Saxons had been totemists " 

 (p. 8 1, ed. 1891). In this hypothesis was, of course, 

 involved the idea that Wormingford was the ford 

 of the Wormings, and that the Wormings, after 

 Kemble's theory, were the family or people of the 

 Worm. Unfortunately for this view of things, Mr. 

 Horace Round has had no difficulty in proving 

 that Wormingford is, by a corruption of the name, 

 the " Widemondfort " of Domesday Book and 

 the " Withermundeford " of later charters and 

 has nothing to do with Wormings or Worms.* 



Respecting the races other than those included 

 in the list of undoubtedly totemistic peoples, 

 Professor Frazer concludes that, so far as he has 

 studied the evidence adduced to support these 

 conclusions, he has to confess that it leaves him 

 doubtful or unconvinced (iv., 1 3), and with this view 

 it is probable that most anthropologists will agree. 



However, in the vast field of undoubtedly 

 totemistic races there is abundant material for 

 study and sufficient underlying similarity of 

 custom to permit of scientific generalizations. 



What, it may in the first place be asked, is the 



* In a paper read before the Congress of Archaeological 

 Societies in Union with the Society of Antiquaries, 1900, and 

 subsequently published in his Commune of London and other 

 studies. 



