Let us concentrate, now, our attention on the character of the genuine totem, the totem of the group or kin. It is not adopted by the savages on a dream-warning; each man or woman for himself or herself: nor is it chosen for each child at birth, nor by a diviner, like the _nagual_, bush-soul, _nyarong_ of Sarawak, or the _secret_ animal friend of each individual Australian. A savage _inherits_ his group totem name. The name of any plant or animal which he may adopt for himself, or have assigned to him as a personal name, by his parents, or, so to speak, god-parents, is _not_ his totem. My meaning is, I repeat, that my conjecture is only concerned with hereditary kin-totems and hereditary totem names of kindreds. No others enter into my conjecture as to origin. What some call ‘personal totems,’ adopted by the individual, or selected by others for him after his birth, such as the Calabar ‘bush-soul,’ the Sarawak nyarong, the Central American _nagual_, the Banks Island _tamaniu_, and the analogous special animal of the Australian tribesman (observed chiefly, as far as I know, by Mr. Howitt[38] and Mrs. Langloh Parker), do not here concern me. They are not _hereditary group names_. THE AUTHOR’S OWN CONJECTURE I now approach my own conjecture as to the origins of the genuine, hereditary, exogamous Totemism of groups of kin, real or imagined. Totemism as we know it, especially in some tribes of North America and in Australia, has certainly, as a necessary condition, that state of mind in which man regards all the things in the world as very much on a level in personality; the beasts being even more powerful than himself. Were it not so, the totem myths about human descent from beasts and plants: about friendly beasts, beasts who may marry men, and about metamorphoses, could not have been invented and believed, even to whatever extent myths _are_ believed. We may say that such beliefs are real, where they regulate conduct. So far, there is probably no difference of opinion, among anthropologists. THE CONNECTION BETWEEN GROUPS AND TOTEMS