To"tem (?), n. [Massachusetts Indian wutohtimoin that to which a person or place belongs.]
A rude picture, as of a bird, beast, or the like, used by the Nord American Indians as a symbolic designation, as of a family or a clan.
And they painted on the grave posts
Of the graves, yet unforgotten,
Each his own ancestral totem
Each the symbol of his household;
Figures of the bear and reindeer,
Of the turtle, crane, and beaver.
Longfellow.
The totem,the clan deity, the beast or bird who in some supernatural way attends tothe clan and watches over it.
Bagehot.
© Webster 1913.