rganization. An
intermediate stage is represented by the sex-patrons of Southeast
Australia,[885] who embody a declaration of independence by the women.
In this region, moreover, among the Kurnai, not only shamans but all
other men have each his special "brother" and protector.[886] Naturally,
where the family, in distinction from the clan, is the social unit,
family protectors arise. The Koryaks of Northeastern Asia have a
guardian spirit for every family and also for every person.[887] A
curious feature of Dahomi religion is the importance that is attached to
the family ghost as protector, the ghost, that is, of a former member of
the family, ordinarily its head; he has a shrine, and becomes
practically an inferior deity. Still more remarkable is the worship that
the West African native, both on the Gold Coast and on the Slave Coast
(communities with well-developed systems of royal government), offers to
his own indwelling spirit;[888] the man's birthday is sacred to the
spirit and is commenced with a sacrifice.[889] In Samoa a guardian
spirit (conceived of as incarnate in some animal) is selected for a
child at its birth.[890] Some such custom is said to exist among the
Eskimo of the Yukon district in Alaska; a guardian animal is selected
by a boy when he arrives at the age of puberty, or it is selected for
him in his early childhood by his parents.[891]

+534+. While these examples indicate a tendency toward the adoption of
individual patrons, and may suggest that the custom is, or was, more
widespread than now appears, it is among the North American Redmen that
this sort of individualism is best developed and most effective socially
and religiously.[892] There are traces of it in the Eastern tribes; but
it is in its Western form that it is best known--it is explicit among
the Western Algonkins and the Siouan tribes, and on the Northwest
Pacific Coast. Most men, though not all, seek and obtain a guardian
spirit (usually represented by an animal) which shall protect from
injury and bestow prowess in war, success in love, and all other goods
of life. The spirit is, as a rule, independent of the clan totem--is
found, indeed, in nontotemic tribes; it is often identical with the
eponymous animal of some religious society. It is sometimes inherited,
but rarely--the essence of the institution is that the guardian shall be
sought and found. The preparation for the quest is by fasting; the
revelation of the guardian comes in