'The dances of the maidens called [Greek], would receive an easy
interpretation. They were Arkades, and why not [Greek] (bears)?' And if
[Greek], why not clad in bear-skins, and all the rest? (ii. 738). This
is our author's explanation; it is also my own conjecture. The Arcadians
were bears, knew it, and possibly danced a bear dance, as Mandans or
Nootkas dance a buffalo dance or a wolf dance. But all such dances are
not totemistic. They have often other aims. One only names such dances
totemistic when performed by people who call themselves by the name of
the animal represented, and claim descent from him. Our author says
genially, 'if anybody prefers to say that the arctos was something like a
totem of the Arcadians . . . why not?' But, if the arctos was a totem,
that fact explains the Callisto story and Attic bear dance, while the
philological theory--Mr. Max Muller's theory--does not explain it. What
is oddest of all, Mr. Max Muller, as we have seen, says that the bear-
dancing girls were 'Arkades.' Now we hear of no bear dances in Arcadia.
The dancers were Athenian girls. This, indeed, is the point. We have a
bear Callisto (Artemis) in Arcady, where a folk etymology might explain
it by stretching a point. But no etymology will explain bear dances to
Artemis in Attica. So we find bears doubly connected with Artemis. The
Athenians were not Arcadians.
As to the meaning and derivation of Artemis, or Artamis, our author knows
nothing (ii. 741). I say, 'even [Greek] ([Greek], bear) has occurred to
inventive men.' Possibly I invented it myself, though not addicted to
etymological conjecture.