Note 586 — MENSIS IUNIUS.

I cannot agree with Mr. Jevons (Introduction to History of Religion, p. 186 foll.) when he makes the Roman genius a relic of totemism, simply because genii were often represented by serpents. The snake was too universally worshipped and domesticated to be easily explained as a totem. Mr. Frazer has an interesting example from Zululand, which is singularly suggestive in connexion with the doctrine of Genius (see Golden Bough, ii. 332), which can hardly be explained on a totemistic basis. The doctrine of Genius may certainly have had its roots in a totemistic age; but by the time it reaches us in Roman literature it has passed through so many stages that its origin is not to be dogmatized about.