Maech 4, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



297 



secondly, what these totems stood for in the 

 tribal structure. 



There will be no attempt in this paper to 

 treat the subject of totems in a world sense ; 

 the experience of many years of research 

 within a limited area has shown the writer 

 that close, careful studies of the various 

 tribes and races of the two hemispheres are 

 as yet too few to afford sufficient evidence 

 for a final summing up, from which to de- 

 duce points held in common' or the equally 

 important lines of divergence found in the 

 beliefs and customs involved in the use of 

 totems. 



It is proper to call attention at the outset 

 to a few of the perplexities of a research at 

 first hand in a matter as recondite as that 

 under consideration. There is the difii- 

 culty of adjusting one's own mental atti- 

 tude, of preventing one's own mental atmos- 

 phere from deflecting and distorting the 

 image of the Indian's thought. The fact 

 that the implications of the totem are so 

 rooted in the Indian's mentality that he is 

 unconscious of any strangeness in them, 

 and is unable to discuss them objectively, 

 constitutes a grave obstacle to be overcome. 

 Explanations of his beliefs, customs and 

 practices have to be sought by indirect 

 rather than by direct methods, have to be 

 eliminated from a tangle of contradictions, 

 and verified by the careful noting of the 

 many little unconscious acts and sayings of 

 the people, which let in a flood of light, re- 

 vealing the Indian's mode of thought and 

 disclosing its underlying ideas. By these 

 slow processes, with the analysis of his 

 songs, rituals and ceremonies, we can at 

 last come upon his beliefs concerning nature 

 and life, and it is upon these that the totem 

 is based. 



There were two classes of totems known 

 among the Omahas: the Personal, belong- 

 ing to the individual ; and the Social, that 

 of societies and gentes. 



The Personal Totem. — The question first 



to arise is : How did the individual obtain 

 his totem ? We learn that it was not re- 

 ceived from an ancestor, was not the gift of 

 any living person, but was derived through 

 a certain rite by the man himself. 



In the Legend of the Sacred Pole of the 

 Omahas, which has been handed down from 

 generations, and which gives a rapid his- 

 tory of the people from the time when 

 ' they opened their eyes and beheld the 

 day ' to the completed organization of the 

 tribe, we are told : '' The people felt them- 

 selves weak and poor. Then the old men 

 gathered together and said. Let us make 

 our children cry to Wa-kon'-da. * * * 

 So all the parents took their children, cov- 

 ered their faces with soft clay, and sent 

 them forth to lonely places. * * * The old 

 men said. You shall go forth to cry to Wa- 

 koji'-da. * * * When on the hills you shall 

 not ask for any particular thing, * * * 

 whatever is good, that may Wa-ko?i'-da 

 give. * * ^ Four days and nights upon the 

 hills the youth shall pray, crying, and when 

 he stops shall wipe his tears with the palms 

 of his hands, lift his wet hands to heaven, 

 then lay them on the earth. * * * This was 

 the people's first appeal to Wa-ko?i'-da." 



This rite, called by the untranslatable 

 name 'Non'-zhin-zhon, has been observed up 

 to the present time. When the youth had 

 reached the age of puberty he was in- 

 structed by his parents as to what he was 

 to do. Moistened earth was put upon his 

 head and face, a small bow and arrow given 

 him, and he was directed to seek a secluded 

 spot upon the hills, and there to chant the 

 prayer which he had been taught, and to 

 lift his hands wet with his tears to heaven, 

 and then to lay them upon the earth ; and 

 he was to fast until at last he fell into a 

 trance or sleep. If, in his trance or dream, 

 he saw or heard anything, that thing was 

 to become the special medium through 

 which he could receive supernatural aid. 

 The ordeal over, the youth returned home 



