researches for Irish folklore, and is mentioned quite
incidentally among other items, the collector himself not fully
perceiving the importance of his "find." This really enhances the
value of the evidence, because it destroys any possibility of an
objection to its validity--a really important matter, considering the
remarkable character of this survival of totem-stocks in Western
Europe. The exact words of Mr. Kinahan are as follows:--

"In very ancient times some of the clan Coneely, one of the early
septs of the county, were changed by 'art magick' into seals; since
then no Coneely can kill a seal without afterwards having bad luck.
Seals are called Coneelys, and on this account many of the name
changed it to Connolly."[402] The same local tradition is mentioned by
Hardiman in one of his notes to O'Flaherty's _Description of West or
H-iar Connaught_,[403] but the note is equally significant of
genuineness from the fact that the tradition is styled "a ridiculous
story." It strengthens Mr. Kinahan's note in the following passage:
"In some places the story has its believers, who would no more kill a
seal, or eat of a slaughtered one, than they would of a human
Coneely."

The clan Coneely is mentioned both by Mr. Kinahan and by Mr. Hardiman
as one of the oldest Irish septs; and that it is widely spread, and
not congregated into one locality, is to be inferred from the
description of the tradition as prevalent in Connaught, especially
from Mr. Hardiman's words, describing that "in some places" the story
has its believers now; and hence we may conclude that wherever the
clan Coneely are situated there would exist this totem belief.

The full significance of these facts may best be tested by reference
to the conditions laid down by Dr. Robertson Smith for the discovery
of the survivals of totemism among the Semitic races. These conditions
are as follows:--

"'(1) The existence of stocks named after plants and
animals'--such stocks, it is necessary to add, being
scattered through many local tribes; (2) the
prevalence of the conception that the members of the
stock are of the blood of the eponym animal, or are
sprung from a plant of the species chosen as totem;
(3) the ascription to the totem of a sacred character
which may result in its being regarded as the god of
the stock, but at any rate makes it be regarded with
veneration, so that, for example, a totem