orth American races. Livingstone's account(1) on the
whole corroborates that of Casalis, though he says the Batau (tribe
of the lion) no longer exists. "They use the word bina 'to dance,' in
reference to the custom of thus naming themselves, so that when you wish
to ascertain what tribe they belong to, you say, 'What do you dance?'
It would seem as if this had been part of the worship of old." The
mythological and religious knowledge of the Bushmen is still imparted in
dances; and when a man is ignorant of some myth he will say, "I do not
dance that dance," meaning that he does not belong to the guild which
preserves that particular "sacred chapter".(2)

(1) Missionary Travels (1857), p. 13.

(2) Orpen, Cape Monthly Magazine, 1872.

Casalis noticed the similarity between South African and Red Indian
opinion about kinship with vegetables and beasts. The difficulty in
treating the Red Indian belief is chiefly found in the abundance of the
evidence. Perhaps the first person who ever used the word "totemism,"
or, as he spells it, "totamism," was (as we said) Mr. Long, an
interpreter among the Chippeways, who published his Voyages in 1791.
Long was not wholly ignorant of the languages, as it was his business to
speak them, and he was an adopted Indian. The ceremony of adoption was
painful, beginning with a feast of dog's flesh, followed by a Turkish
bath and a prolonged process of tattooing.(1) According to Long,(2)
"The totam, they conceive, assumes the form of some beast or other, and
therefore they never kill, hurt, or eat the animal whose form they think
this totam bears". One man was filled with religious apprehensions, and
gave himself up to the gloomy belief of Bunyan and Cowper, that he had
committed the unpardonable sin, because he dreamed he had killed his
totem, a bear.(3) This is only one example, like the refusal of the
Osages to kill the beavers, with which they count cousins,(4) that the
Red Man's belief is an actual creed, and does influence his conduct.

(1) Long, pp. 46-49.

(2) Ibid., p. 86.

(3) Ibid., p. 87.

(4) Schoolcraft, i. 319.

As in Australia, the belief in common kin with beasts is most clearly
proved by the construction of Red Indian society. The "totemistic" stage
of thought and manners prevails. Thus Charlevoix says,(1) "Plusieurs
nations ont chacune trois familles ou tribus principales, AUSSI
ANCIENNES, A CE QU'IL PAROIT, QUE LEUR ORIGINE. Chaque tribu porte le
nom d'un ani