228 TOTEMISM AND EXOGAMY 



real relation of the man to his totem ? On this 

 point there seems to be no very great reason 

 for doubt that in a number of cases a tribe believes 

 itself to be actually descended from the totem it 

 bears. Thus, for example, " the Cray-Fish clan 

 of the Choctaws were originally cray-fish and lived 

 underground, coming up occasionally through the 

 mud to the surface. Once a party of Choctaws 

 smoked them out, and, treating them kindly, 

 taught them the Choctaw language, taught them 

 to walk on two legs, made them cut off their toe- 

 nails and pluck the hair from their bodies, after 

 which they adopted them into the tribe, But the 

 rest of their kindred, the cray-fish, are still living 

 underground " (i, 5). From this view as to the 

 kinship between a man and his totem would seem 

 to arise the idea, which, by the way, is not in any 

 way universal, that a man must not eat his totem- 

 animal. The man, in fact, pays to the totem some- 

 thing like the same respect and consideration 

 which he pays to his obviously human relatives, 

 " hence, when his totem is an edible animal or 

 plant, he commonly, but not always, abstains 

 from killing and eating it, just as he commonly, 

 but not always, abstains from killing and eating 

 his friends and relations " (iv., 5). Even where the 

 idea of descent is absent or obscured there is, or 

 may be, an obvious recognition of a relationship 

 between the man and his totem, and, on the man's 

 side, a kind of feeling of camaraderie, coupled, at 

 least at times, with the belief that he can, by the 

 exercise of magic bring his influence to bear on 

 the totem animal with which he is connected. 



