d by
all belonging to him, was the family surname. Years passed before I
learned that the real surname was Cameron; that the father was called
Croshek, after the name of his cottage, to distinguish him from other
Camerons employed about the premises; and that his children had come to
be similarly distinguished. Though here, as very generally in Scotland,
the nickname was derived from the place of residence, yet had it been
derived from an animal, the process would have been the same:
inheritance of it would have occurred just as naturally. Not even for
this small link in the argument, however, need we depend on inference.
There is fact to bear us out. Mr. Bates, in his _Naturalist on the River
Amazons_ (2d ed., p. 376), describing three half-castes who accompanied
him on a hunting trip, says--"Two of them were brothers, namely, Joao
(John) and Zephyrino Jabuti: Jabuti, or tortoise, being a nickname which
their father had earned for his slow gait, and which, as is usual in
this country, had descended as the surname of the family." Let me add
the statement made by Mr. Wallace respecting this same region, that "one
of the tribes on the river Isanna is called 'Jurupari' (Devils). Another
is called 'Ducks;' a third, 'Stars;' a fourth, 'Mandiocca.'" Putting
these two statements together, can there be any doubt about the genesis
of these tribal names? Let "the Tortoise" become sufficiently
distinguished (not necessarily by superiority--great inferiority may
occasionally suffice) and the tradition of descent from him, preserved
by his descendants themselves if he was superior, and by their
contemptuous neighbours if he was inferior, may become a tribal
name.[30]

"But this," it will be said, "does not amount to an explanation of
animal-worship." True: a third factor remains to be specified. Given a
belief in the still-existing other self of the deceased ancestor, who
must be propitiated; given this survival of his metaphorical name among
his grandchildren, great-grandchildren, etc.; and the further requisite
is that the distinction between metaphor and reality shall be forgotten.
Let tradition fail to keep clearly in view the fact that the ancestor
was a man called "the Wolf"--let him be habitually spoken of as "the
Wolf", just as when alive; and the natural mistake of taking the name
literally will bring with it, firstly, a belief in descent from an
actual wolf, and, secondly, a treatment of the wolf in a manner likely
to pro