Makch 4, 1898.] 



SCIENCE. 



301 



training and experience derived from the 

 working of these earlier societies had 

 taught the leaders among the Omahas and 

 their close cognates certain lessons in or- 

 ganization, by which they had profiled dur- 

 ing the formative period of the artificial 

 social structure of the To?i'-wo?i-gdho7i, or 

 gens. 



The Ton' -won- gdJion.— The word Ton'-won- 

 gdho« means a place of dwellings where 

 kindred dwelt together. There were ten 

 Tow'-wo?i-gdho»i u-zhu — dominant, ruling 

 To«'-wo?i-gdhow, or gentes, in the Omaha 

 tribe. These gentes practice exogomy, and 

 traced their descent only through the father. 

 Each gens had its particular name, which 

 referred directly or symbolically to its to- 

 tem, which was kept in mind by the prac- 

 tice of tabu. There was also a set of names 

 peculiar to each gens, all having the same 

 reference, one of which was bestowed upon 

 each child ; an Omaha's gentile name, there- 

 fore, would at once reveal his kinship group 

 or gens. This name was proclaimed at the 

 time of the ceremony attendant upon the 

 cutting of the first lock of hair. After this 

 ceremony the child's hair was cut in a 

 fashion to symbolize the totem of its gens, 

 and each spring, until it was about seven 

 years of age, this peculiar trimming of the 

 hair was repeated. The teaching of this 

 object lesson, so placed before the children, 

 was reenforced by their training in the strict 

 observance of the special tabu of their 

 gentes, holding ever before them the pen- 

 alties for its violation, of blindness, physical 

 deformity and disease. 



There were religious rites peculiar to each 

 gens in which the members did homage to 

 the special power represented by the gentile 

 totem. In these ceremonies the hereditary 

 chiefs of the gens were the priests. It is 

 easy to see why the totem was never for- 

 gotten, why its sign was borne through life, 

 and at last put upon the dead, in order that 

 they might be at once recognized by their 



kindred, and not wander as they passed into 

 the spirit world. 



Office of the Totem in the Gens. — In the early 

 struggle for existence the advantages accru- 

 ing from a permanent kinship group, both 

 in resisting aggression and in securing a 

 food supply, could not fail to have been 

 perceived ; and, if the people were to 

 become homogeneous and the practice of 

 exogomy continue, some expedient must 

 have been devised by which permanent 

 groups could be maintained and kinship 

 lines be defined. The common belief of the 

 people, kept virile by the universal practice 

 of the rite of the vision, furnished this ex- 

 pedient — a device which could be under- 

 stood and accepted by all — the concrete sign 

 of the vision, the totem of the leader, he 

 whose abilities and prowess evinced super- 

 natural favor and won for his followers 

 success and plenty. 



From a study of the minutiae of the 

 customs and ceremonies within the gens, it is 

 apparent that their underlying purpose was 

 to impress upon the people the knowledge 

 and the duties of kindred, and that one of 

 the most important of these duties was the 

 maintenance of the union of the gens. This 

 union of kindred we find to have been 

 guarded by the agency of the totem. The 

 name of the gens, the personal names of its 

 members and the practice of tabu — obliga- 

 tory upon all persons, except the hereditary 

 chiefs, while they were ofliciating in the 

 gentile rites pertaining to the totem — in- 

 dicate a common allegiance to a super- 

 natural presence believed to preside over 

 the gens by virtue of its relation to the 

 common ancestor. These rites did not im- 

 ply ancestor worship, but were a recog- 

 nition of the special power represented by 

 the totem. We also find that the gentile 

 totem did not interfere with a man's free- 

 dom in seeking his personal totem, nor of 

 his use of it when desiring help from the 

 mysterious powers. The gentile totem gave 



