n of the ceremonies
in which they figure. It is difficult, at least, to dissociate those
ceremonies from the ritual of first-fruits. The community may not eat
of the animal or plant, at the appropriate season, until the head-man
has solemnly and sparingly partaken of it. About the solemnity of the
ceremonial and the reverence of those who perform it, there is no
doubt. But, whereas in the ritual of first-fruits elsewhere, the
first-fruits are, beyond possibility of doubt or mistake, offered to a
god, a personal god, having a proper name, in Australia there is no
satisfactory evidence to show that the offerings are supposed, by
those who make them, to be made to any god; or that the totem-spirit,
if it is distinguished from the totem-species, is regarded as a god.
There has accordingly been a tendency on the part of students of the
science of religion to deny to totemism any place in the evolution of
religion, and even to regard the Australian black-fellows as
exemplifying, within the region of our observation, a pre-religious
period in the process of human evolution. This latter view may safely
be dismissed as untenable, whether we do or do not believe totemism to
have a religious side. There is sufficient mythology, still existing
amongst the Australian tribes, to show that the belief in gods
survives amongst them, even though, as seems to be the case, no
worship now attaches to the gods, with personal names, who figure in
the myths. That myths survive, when worship has ceased; and that the
names of gods linger on, even when myths are no longer told of them,
are features to be seen in the decay of religious systems, all the
world over, and not in Australia alone. The fact that these features
are to be found in Australia points to a consideration which hitherto
has generally been overlooked, or not sufficiently weighed. It is that
in Australia we are in the midst of general religious decay, and are
not witnessing the birth of religion nor in the presence of a
pre-religious period. From this point of view, the worship of the
gods, who figure in the myths, has ceased, but their names live on.
And from this point of view, the names of the beings worshipped, in
the totemistic first-fruits ceremonies, have disappeared, though the
ceremonies are elaborate, solemn, reverent, complicated and
prolonged; and religion has been swallowed up in ritual.

Even amongst the Aztecs, who had reached a stage of social
development, barbaro