Lastly (ii. 403), when totems infected 'even those who ought to have been
proof against this infantile complaint' (which is not even a 'disease of
language' of a respectable type), then 'the objection that a totem meant
originally a clan-mark was treated as scholastic pedantry.' Alas, I fear
with justice! For if I call Mr. Arthur Balfour a Tory will Mr. Max
Muller refute my opinion by urging that 'a Tory meant originally an Irish
rapparee,' or whatever the word _did_ originally mean?
Mr. Max Muller decides that 'we never find a religion consisting
exclusively of a belief in fetishes, or totems, or ancestral spirits.'
Here, at last, we are in absolute agreement. So much for totems and sign-
boards. Only a weak fanatic will find a totem in every animal connected
with gods, sacred names, and religious symbols. But totemism is a fact,
whether 'totem' originally meant a clan-mark or sign-board in America or
not. And, like Mr. Sayce, Mr. Frazer, Mr. Rhys, Dr. Robertson Smith, I
believe that totemism has left marks in civilised myth, ritual, and
religion, and that these survivals, not a 'disease of language,' explain
certain odd elements in the old civilisations.