790 



TOTEM 



[b. a. b. 



the patron or guardian, the tutelary or 

 protector, of a person, of a clan or a gens, 

 or of a society or tribe, hence to denote 

 the name, crest, brand, or symbol of a 

 clan, a man, a society, or a tribe, and, 

 finally, to the fetish or familiar of a per- 

 son. Its primary native use, with cer- 

 tain important limitations, makes it ap- 

 proximately equivalent to the English 

 term 'one's kinship.' 



The fact that the Indians themselves 

 distinguished the fetish, the personal tute- 

 lary or guardian, and the clan, gentile, or 

 society patron, one from another, by the 

 use of appropriate appellations, rites, and 

 observances, indicates, it would seem, a 

 consciousness on their part that the dif- 

 ferences in function, character, and mode 

 of acquirement of these several classes of 

 objects were sufficiently great to warrant 

 them in doing so. 



Among the Omaha and their conge- 

 ners, according to Miss Fletcher, a youth 

 at his initiation obtains his personal 

 tutelary — his so-called totem — directly 

 through the assumed efficacy of a definite 

 rite performed by the young person 

 himself: he does not inherit it from an 

 ancestor, and he does not receive it as a 

 gift from any living person. This cere- 

 mony of initiation into manhood rests 

 on the assumption that man's powers 

 and activities can be supplemented by the 

 elements and the animals only through 

 the grace of wakonda (q. v.), obtained 

 by the rite of vision consisting of ritual- 

 istic acts and a fervent prayer of humility,' 

 expressing a longing for something not 

 possessed, a consciousness of insufficiency 

 of self, and an abiding desire for some- 

 thing capable of bringing welfare and 

 prosperity to the suppliant. On reach- 

 ing the age of puberty, the youth, under 

 the instructions of his i)arents or other 

 patrons, begins his initiation by having 

 moistened earth placed on his head and 

 face, by having a small bow and arrows 

 given him, with directions to seek a se- 

 cluded spot among the hills. Having 

 reached such a place, he must chant the 

 prescribed prayer, uplifting his hands, 

 wet with his tears, to the heavens, and 

 then he must place his hands on the 

 earth; and he must fast until he falls 

 asleep or into a trance. Whatsoever he 

 sees or hears while in this state is the 

 being that will become the special medium 

 through which he can receive superhu- 

 man aid and comfort. Then, returning 

 home, he rests and partakes of food. 

 For four days he must speak but little, 

 and he must not in that time reveal his 

 vision under penalty of losing its pro- 

 ducer. Later he may confide it to some 

 old man, known to have had a similar 

 vision or dream. Then it is his duty to 

 seek until he finds the animal or bird 

 seen in his revelation, when he must slay 



it, selecting and retaining a small part of 

 it (in cases where no concrete form was 

 seen, symbols of it are made to represent 

 it). This token or memento is ever after 

 the sign of his vision or dream, the most 

 sacred thing he can ever possess. This 

 symbol may consist of the feather of a 

 bird, a tuft of hair or other part of an 

 aninjal or a bird, a black stone, or a 

 translucent pebble. This token or me- 

 mento, his personal tutelary, is never the 

 object of worship. It is the tie, the frag- 

 ment, connecting its possessor with the 

 potentiality and power of the entire 

 species represented by the being or form 

 seen in his vision or dream. Belonging 

 to various objects and beings, all tutela- 

 ries are not equally potent in the view of 

 the natives, for they can not exceed the 

 power of the particular species to which 

 they severally belong. Nevertheless, 

 when the novice is being instructed for 

 the rite of the vision, he is forbidden to 

 ask in his prayer for the sight of any 

 particular object. It is an opinion held 

 among the natives that although no one 

 may consciously choose his personal tute- 

 lary, natural gifts of mind and character 

 are apt to attract poweiful animals and 

 agencies. Usually, the tutelary referred 

 to members of the surrounding fauna — 

 the deer, the l)uffalo, tlie bear, the turtle, 

 the birds, and the reptiles; and to repre- 

 sentatives of the flora — the corn; and to 

 the elements — the thunder, the earth, 

 the water, and the winds. Nothing in 

 any manner connoted man himself. 

 There is, moreover, no indication of ances- 

 tor-worship, and no suggestion of a natu- 

 ral blood kinship subsisting between the 

 man and his tutelary. These statements 

 embody very briefly the chief character- 

 istics of the j>ersonal tutelary among the 

 Omaha and the tribes linguistically re- 

 latefl to them. 



The inrtuence of these guardian spirits 

 on the social, religious, and political in- 

 stitutions of the natives differs greatly 

 from tribe to tribe. Among the Omaha, 

 those who have received visions of the 

 same being or object usually unite into a 

 cult or religions society. The Bear Society 

 is composed of persons from every gentile 

 kinship group who have seen a bear in 

 the rite of the vision. The bond of union 

 here was not blood kinship, but a commu- 

 nal right in a common apparition. These 

 societies possess prescribed rites, rituals, 

 and suitable officers. Miss Fletcher sug- 

 gests that in the past the experience 

 gained in the conduct of these cult or re- 

 ligious societies was later made useful in 

 the formative period of the artificial so- 

 cial structure of the ton-iron-gdlwn, or 

 gens, of the Omaha. The native term sig- 

 nifies ' a place of dwellings where kindred 

 dwell together,' which is not essentially 

 different in meaning from the Algon- 



