Mr. Frazer observes, ‘It is not as yet clear how far the particular theory of Totemism suggested by the Central Australian system is of general application, and ... in the uncertainty which still hangs over the origin and meaning of Totemism, it seems scarcely worth while to patch up an old theory which the next new facts may perhaps entirely demolish.’ He then cites the Arunta belief that their ancestors of ‘the dream time’ (who were men evolved out of animals or plants, these objects being their totems) kept their souls (like the Giant of the fairy tale) in stone _churingas_ (a kind of amulets) which they hung on poles when they went out hunting. We have thus a _va-et-vient_ between each man, and the spirit of the plant or animal out of which he, or his human ancestor, was evolved. That spirit (in origin the spirit of an animal or plant) is now handed down with the stone _churinga_, and is reincarnated in each child, who is thus, an incarnation of the original totem. Such is the Arunta theory, and thus each living Arunta is the totem’s soul-box, while, to savage reasoners, the totem soul may, perhaps, seem also to tenant simultaneously each plant or animal of its species. This is a theory of Totemism;[27] but, so far, we only know the facts on which it is based among one extraordinary tribe of anomalous development. We have still to ask, what was the original connection of the men with the plants and animals, which the Arunta explain by their myth? Was that connection originally one of magic-working, by each group, for its totem species, and, if so, why or how did the groups first select their plants and animals? Mr. Haddon’s theory, presently to be criticised, may elucidate that point of departure. SUGGESTION OF MR. N. W. THOMAS As I am writing, a theory, or suggestion, by Mr. N. W. Thomas appears in _Man_ (1902, No. 85). Mr. Thomas begins with the spirit which dwells in an African fetich, and becomes the servant of its owner. The magical apparatus ‘may be a bag of skin containing parts of various animals. Such an animal may be the familiar of the owner, his messenger, or an evil spirit that possesses him;’ similar beliefs are held about the wer-wolf. Now the American-Indian has _his_ ‘medicine bag.’ ‘The contents are the skin, feathers, or other part of the totem animal.’