TOTEM. An early stage in religious progress is that which may be called totemism, or the worship of natural objects. The savage does not abandon his belief in fetishism, from which, indeed, no race of men has yet entirely freed itself, but he superinduces on it abelief in beings of a higher and less material nature. In this stage everything may be worshipped,—trees, stones, rivers, moun tains, the heavenly bodies, plants, and animals. A family, for instance, which was called after the bear would come to look on that animal -first with' interest., then with respect, and at length with a sort of awe. The habit of calling children after some animal or plant or gem, is very com mon. In China the name is frequently that of a flower, animal, or such like thing. In India, amongst tbe slave girls of the Muhammadan harems, the nargas, the sosau, the narcissus, the lily, etc., are in coramou use as names. In Australia, the totem, or, as it is there called, koboog, is almost in the very moment of deifica tion. Each family, says Sir G. Grey, adopts some animal or vegetable as their crest or sig,,n, or kobong as they call it ; but it is more likely that these have been named after the families, than that the families have been named after them. A certain mysterious connection exists between the family and its kobong, so that a member of the family will never kill an animal of the species to which his kobong belongs should he find it asleep; indeed, he always kills it reluctantly, and never without affording it a chance of escape. This
arises froin the family belief t.hat some one indi vidual of the species is their nearest friend, to kill whom would be a, great crime, and to be carefully avoided. Similarly, a native of Australia who has a vegetable for his kobong, may not gather it under certain circumstances, and at a particular period of the year. Here we see a certain feeling for the kobong or totem, though it does not amount to worship. In America, on the other hand, it has developed into a veritable religion. The clan name of a Rajput race, Sesodia, is from the hare. So also among the Khonds of India, the different tribes take their designation from various animals, as the bear tribe, owl tribe, deer tribe, etc. The Kol of Nagpur also are divided into keeli ' or clans, generally after animals, which, in consequence, they do not eat. Thus the eel, hawk, and heron tribes abstain respectively from the flesh of these animals.—Lubbock, Origin of Civil. p. 173.