undoubtedly testifies to a condition of mind in which no hard and
fast line was drawn between man and animate and inanimate nature.
The discovery of the wide distribution of the social arrangements
based on this belief is entirely due to Mr. J. F. M'Lennan, the
author of Primitive Marriage. Mr. M'Lennan's essays ("The Worship
of Plants and Animals," "Totems and Totemism") were published in
the Fortnightly Review, 1869-71. Any follower in the footsteps of
Mr. M'Lennan has it in his power to add a little evidence to that
originally set forth, and perhaps to sift the somewhat uncritical
authorities adduced.[1]


[1] See also Mr. Frazer's Totemism, and Golden Bough, with chapter
on Totemism in Modern Mythology.


The name "Totemism" or "Totamism" was first applied at the end of
the last century by Long[1] to the Red Indian custom which
acknowledges human kinship with animals. This institution had
already been recognised among the Iroquois by Lafitau,[2] and by
other observers. As to the word "totem," Mr. Max Muller[3] quotes
an opinion that the interpreters, missionaries, Government
inspectors, and others who apply the name totem to the Indian
"family mark" must have been ignorant of the Indian languages, for
there is in them no such word as totem. The right word, it
appears, is otem; but as "totemism" has the advantage of possessing
the ground, we prefer to say "totemism" rather than "otemism". The
facts are the same, whatever name we give them. As Mr. Muller says
himself,[4] "every warrior has his crest, which is called his
totem";[5] and he goes on to describe a totem of an Indian who died