After treating of the nature of totems, I propose to explain the object of totemism as a system, and to show its origin. I am not aware that this has yet been attempted in an adequate manner, although the subject has been referred to, as I shall have occasion to show, by several writers of authority. The late Dr. J. F. M’Lennan, who first dealt with the subject of totemism, which indeed he made his own, did not profess to explain its origin, notwithstanding certain remarks bearing on this question made in the course of his inquiries. The first point to be considered is the nature of a “totem,” and this is shown by the meaning of the name itself. The word is taken from the language of the Ojibwas, a tribe of the widespread Algonkin stock, living near Lake Superior, in North America. It signifies the symbol or device of a gens or tribal division, that by which it is distinguished from all other such divisions. The kind of objects used as totems by the aborigines of North America may be seen from the names of the gentes into which the Ojibwa tribe is divided. These are twenty-three in number, and the totemic devices belonging to them comprise nine quadrupeds (the chief of which are the Wolf, the Bear, the Beaver, and the Turtle), eight birds, five fishes, and one reptile, the snake. There are numerous other totems among the American tribes, and they are not taken from the animal kingdom only. Thus, there are gentes with vegetable totems, such as _Corn, Potatoe, Tobacco-Plant, and Reed-Grass_. Natural objects, such as _Sun_, _Earth_, _Sand_, _Salt_, _Sea_, _Snow_, _Ice_, _Water_, and _Rain_, give names to other tribal divisions. Among natural phenomena, _Thunder_ is widely spread as the name of a gens, while _Wind_ is used among the Creek Indians; and the Omahas have a name meaning _Many Seasons_. _Medicine_, _Tent_, _Lodge_, _Bonnet_, _Leggings_, and _Knife_, have given titles to other gentes, and so also has _colour_. Thus, we have _Black_ and _Red_ Omahas, and _Blue_ and _Red-Paint_ Cherokees. Names denoting qualities have been taken by some gentes, such as _Beloved People_ of the Choctas; _Never Laugh_, _Starving_, _Half-Dead_, _Meat_, _Fish-Eaters_, and _Conjurers_ of the Blackfeet; and the _Non-Chewing_ of the Delawares. How some of those ideas could be represented pictorially as totems is not very apparent, and Mr. Lewis Morgan very properly suggests, in relation to some of the terms, that nicknames for gentes may have superseded the original names; to which may be added that probably many of the totems are of comparatively modern origin.