In course of time certain bodies of men came to regard themselves as being in special alliance with some one animal, and as being descended from that animal as their common ancestor.

The existence side by side of various tribes, each with its definite totem, has not yet been fully proved for the Gaulish system, and may well have been a developed social arrangement that was not an essential part of such a mode of thought in its primary forms.

The place of animal-worship in the Celtic religion will be more fully considered in a later chapter.

Here it is only indicated as a necessary stage in relation to man's civilisation in the hunting and the pastoral stages, which had to be passed through before the historic deities of Gaul and Britain in Roman times could have come into being.

Certain of the divine names of the historic period, like Artio (the bear-goddess), Moccus (the pig), Epona (the mare), and Damona (the sheep), bear the unmistakable impress of having been at one time those of animals.
As for the stage of civilisation at which totemism originated, there is much difference of opinion.