250 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1888. 



istence of totemism where ancestry is vaguely or not at all recognized, 

 would seem in itself to call for some other solution. 



Does not the theory of anthropomorphism, the childish and natural 

 philosophy of all phenomena, as suggesed by Prof. O. T. Mason, account 

 for totemism 1 Belief in the possibility of human descent from natural 

 objects exists universally amongst primitive people. This has undoubt 

 edly been strengthened by the credibility of the reality of experience in 

 dreams, which, as a sequence, is followed by a belief in the possibility 

 of sexual relations with objects of nature also founded on dreams. The 

 existence of customs in Bengal, Servia, and Greece of marrying bride 

 and groom to trees before marriage to each other is an illustration of 

 the survival of such belief.* 



Clearly, before we can have a recognition of ancestry, we must have 

 a recognition of paternity; and a misinterpretation of names and con- 

 founding of ancestry with natural objects can not precede a belief in 

 the possibility of sexual relations and descent from natural objects. It 

 seems not unreasonable therefore to trace the origin of the belief last 

 named to the well-known anthropomorphism and credulity of savages 

 in the reality of dreams. This is simply here suggested as a partial 

 solution of the question. 



POLITICAL ORGANIZATION. 



Chiefs and Petti/ Chiefs. — In the sense in which the term is ordinarily 

 used, there is no absolute chiefship. The family is the sociological unit. 

 The head of that household in the village, which, through inheritance, 

 wealth, numbers, and influence, predominates over the others, is nomi- 

 nally chief of the village. His authority is shadowy, and his power is 

 largely due, aside from wealth, good birth, and family influence, to his 

 prowess in war, or to personal and rnasterful qualities. Now and then, 

 through various causes, a chief may rule a village with absolute or des- 

 potic sway, but the power is not so much due to headship, in itself, as 

 to personal and aggressive qualities in the individual. Eank is prin- 

 cipally dependent on wealth and good birth, although the latter in itself 

 implies inheritance of rank and wealth. Personal qualities count for 

 what they are worth in addition. General recognition and consensus 

 of opinion settle the question of rank. That is to say, it is about what 

 the individual can make it by all the arts of assertion, bargain, intrigue, 

 wealth, display, and personal prowess. 



Besides the principal chief, there are others, who are the heads of the 

 other principal clan totems or households of the village. Their rank 

 or claim to distinction and respect is relative to that of the chief in 

 the degree of their wealth, age, superiority of natural understanding, 

 the number of persons of which their household consists, and the gen- 

 eral good fortune and prosperity of the group of persons of which they 



* Frazer, Toteuiisin, p. :}4. 



