8 
INTRODUCTION 
clan and are therefore free to partake of his totemic animal or 
plant. Apparently, though we are not told so expressly, the 
notion is that by eating of the totemic animal or plant a 
man identifies himself with his totem and so acquires the 
power of multiplying it. Thus the eating of the totem is in 
a sense a totemic sacrament, such as the genius of William 
Robertson Smith divined the existence of long before any 
clear case of it had been discovered in practice. 
Such are in brief outline a few of the outstanding dis¬ 
coveries which have rendered Baldwin Spencer’s work epoch- 
making in the history of science, because they reveal the 
mental condition and social activities of man at a lower stage 
of evolution than any other in which his life has been 
described for us by competent observers. It is very im¬ 
probable that any similar revelation of primitive humanity 
awaits us in the future; for the circle of living savagery— 
that preserve of ancient man—is rapidly shrinking through 
the perpetual encroachments of civilization, which threatens 
before long to swallow it up altogether. Hence the record of 
Central Australian savagery, which we owe primarily to the 
genius of Baldwin Spencer, is likely to remain for all time 
the standard by reference to which, more than to any other 
documents, future inquirers will attempt to estimate the 
comparative antiquity of forms of society and to trace them 
to their origin in times which lie far beyond the reach of 
history. Thus the work of Spencer promises to provide a 
firm and solid basis for all future researches into the early 
phases of the mental and social evolution of our species. 
If we ask what were the qualities which enabled Spencer 
to accomplish his great work, the answer would seem to be 
that they were a lively curiosity and insatiable thirst for 
knowledge, first-rate powers of observation, inexhaustible 
patience, and an entire freedom from the bias of preconceived 
ideas, all combined with and reposing on an iron will, great 
