Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 24, 1913.djvu/189

 The Origin of Exogamy and Toteniisni. 173

Africa (p. 413). Mr. Frazer omits the passac^e in his account of "the Baboon totem" of the Bahurutsi.^-' Here, none the less, is his "strong evidence" that the process which he thinks is improbable, the complacent adoption of a derisive nickname, is thought actual by the people who bear the names.

On this point Mr. Stow, to whom Mr. Price wrote the letter just cited, remarks [p. 417]: —

" From the foregoing facts it would seem possible that the origin of the siboko among these tribes arose from some sobriquet that had been given to them, and that in course of time, as their super- stitions and devotional feelings become more developed, these tribal symbols became objects of veneration and superstitious awe, whose favour was to be propitiated or malign influence averted."

I quoted this passage, written before my own theory had occurred to me, from the Mss. in The Secret of the Totem (p. 26). Mr. Frazer does not allude to the facts, which prove that some totemists, or people, at least, with tribal totems, {siboko), are convinced that " groups of men had complacentl}' accepted nicknames bestowed on them in derision, by their often hostile neighbours."

Mr. Frazer continues his criticism: this strong evidence

" would be needed to convince us that any group of men had complacently accepted a nickname bestowed on them, perhaps in derision, by their often hostile neighbours, nay, that they had not only adopted the nickname as their distinctive title and badge of honour, but had actually developed a religion, or .something like a religion, out of it, contracting such a passionate love and admiration for the animals or plants after which they were nicknamed that they henceforth refused, at the risk of dying of hunger, to kill and eat them." ^3

This is somewhat exaggerated. Mr. Frazer has declared that totemism is not a religion.^* Again, I know no

^ Totemisni and Exogamy, vol. ii., p. 375.

^ Ibid., vol. iv., p. 51. '^Ibid., vol. iv., p. 5.