And the relationship with the totem could only have arisen from the fact that they ate it.

The belief in a common life could not possibly arise in the totem-clan towards any animal or plant which they did not eat or otherwise use.

These they would simply disregard.

Nor would savages, destitute at first of any moral ideas, and frequently on the brink of starvation, abstain from eating any edible animal from sentimental considerations; and, as already seen, the first totems were generally edible.

They could not either have in the first place eaten the totem ceremonially, as there would be no reason for such a custom.