This origin of Totemism (namely, in animism, a man of influence tabuing, and bequeathing to his descendants for ever, the animal or plant that is to be his soul vehicle) is approved of, as the original cause of Totemism, by Dr. Wilken. But could it arise in a much lower state of society, wherein ‘men of much influence’ are rare, and are readily forgotten? Now in Melanesia, generally, a man’s fame, however great, perishes with those who remember him in his life.[9] Again, this sort of tabuing the banana affected ‘all the people’ of the isle Ulawa, and so could not be the base of an exogamous prohibition, unless all brides were to be brought in from foreign islands. If the prohibition was confined to known descendants of the banana man, then we have the patriarchal family, founded by a known ancestor, and exogamous. Now, in Ulawa, descent is reckoned in the male line, and there are no exogamous divisions.[10] ‘This is an exceptional state of things,’ says Dr. Codrington (p. 22), yet he thinks it (p. 32) ‘in all probability’--_plus_ the tabuing of an object by a dying patriarch--the cause of the _buto_ prohibition in the _kemas_ of Florida. Thus a solitary case from an isle without exogamous divisions (‘the only restriction on marriage is nearness in blood’), and with male descent, is supposed by Dr. Codrington to cause the _buto_ prohibition in an island with exogamous divisions, and with female descent.[11] His theory is manifestly inconsistent with his facts--moreover, it involves the existence of the patriarchal system at the time when totems first arose. On the whole, this reasoning does not convince, but, if Dr. Codrington is right, Melanesian institutions are shattered, dislocated, contaminated, and worn down to a remarkable degree. Yet, behind them, where the two, or the six exogamous divisions prevail, with descent counted in the female line, we can scarcely help recognising a basis of Australian customary law, with obsolescence of the totem, slowly tending towards inheritance through the father. ‘A chief’s sons are none of them of his own kin; and, as will be shown, he passes on what he can of his property and authority to them.’[12] In spite of the ‘generation names,’ ‘father,’ ‘brothers and sisters,’ ‘children,’ the real distinctions of own father, cousin, and so forth, are understood, and expressed, as they usually are, everywhere.[13]