uld be changed into an
arktos, a she-bear . . . placed by Zeus, her lover, in the sky' as the
Bear?

Nothing could be more natural to a savage; they all do it. {144b} But
that an Aryan, a Greek, should talk such nonsense as to say that he was
the descendant of a bear who was changed into a star, and all merely
because 'Areas reminded the Arcadians of arktos,' seems to me an extreme
test of belief, and a very unlikely thing to occur.

Wider Application of the Theory

Let us apply the explanation more widely. Say that a hundred animal
names are represented in the known totem-kindreds of the world. Then had
each such kin originally an eponymous hero whose name, like that of Areas
in Arcady, accidentally 'reminded' his successors of a beast, so that a
hundred beasts came to be claimed as ancestors? Perhaps this was what
occurred; the explanation, at all events, fits the wolf of the Delawares
and the other ninety-nine as well as it fits the Arcades. By a curious
coincidence all the names of eponymous heroes chanced to remind people of
beasts. But _whence come the names of eponymous heroes_? From their
tribes, of course--Ion from Ionians, Dorus from Dorians, and so on.
Therefore (in the hundred cases) the names of the _tribes_ derive from
names of animals. Indeed, the names of totem-kins _are_ the names of
animals--wolves, bears, cranes. Mr. Max Muller remarks that the name
'Arcades' _may_ come from [Greek], a bear (i. 738); so the Arcadians
(Proselenoi, the oldest of races, 'men before the moon') may be--Bears.
So, of course (in this case), they would necessarily be Bears _before_
they invented Areas, an eponymous hero whose name is derived from the pre-
existing tribal name. His name, then, could not, before they invented
it, remind them of a bear. It was from their name [Greek] (Bears) that
they developed _his_ name Areas, as in all such cases of eponymous
heroes. I slightly incline to hold that this is exactly what occurred. A
bear-kin claimed descent from a bear, and later, developing an eponymous
hero, Areas, regarded him as son of a bear. Philologically 'it is
possible;' I say no more.

The Bear Dance

'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