Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 13, 1902.djvu/369

 The On'j^ui of Totem Names and Beliefs. 349

of more exceptions than he then knew. In a few cases and places, the animal selected by, or for, the private individual is found to descend to his or her children. In my opinion it is better, for the present at least, to speak of such protec- tive animals of individuals, by the names which their savage proteges ^w^ to them in each case: nyarongs (Sarawak), "bush-souls" (Calabar), naguals (Central America), mani- tus (?) as among the Algonquins, and so forth. '^ I myself here use "totem" only of the object which lends its name, hereditarily, to a group of kin.

Proposed Restriction of the use of the Word Totem.

This restriction I make, not for the purpose of simplifying the problem of totemism by disregarding " the individual totem," "the sex totem," and so on ; but because I under- stand that savaees evervwhere use one word for their here- ditary group-totem, and other words for the plant or animal protectors of individuals, of magical societies, and so forth. The true totem is a plant or animal, the hereditarv friend and ally of the group ; but all plant or animal allies of individuals or of magical societies are not totems. Though the attitude of a private person to his nagual, or of a magical society to its protective animal, may often closelv resemble the attitude of the group to its hereditary totem, still, the origin of this attitude of respect may be different in each case.

This is obvious, for the individual or society deliberately adopts an animal protector and friend, usually suggested in a dream, after a fast ; whereas we can scarcely conceive that the totem was deliberately adopted by the first mem- bers of the first totem groups. Savages look on animals as personalities like themselves, but more powerful, gifted

' So also Mr. Hartland writes, Alan, 1902, No. 84. But inaiiitii is perhaps too wide and vague a term. It usually connotes anything mystical or super- normal.