Chapter Tooth and Egg to Touch of T by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

religion. Sometimes [the totem] is only a massive pole, with a bird or some weird animal at the top, ... the crest of the chief by whose house it stands. ... Sometimes it was so broad at the base as to allow a doorway to be cut through it. Usually the whole pole was carved into grotesque figures one above the other, and the effect heightened ... by dabs of paint- blue, red, and green.”- Nineteenth Century, December, 1892, p. 993.

Totemism Totem is the representation of a symbol by an animal, and totemism is the system or science of such symbolism. Thus, in Egyptian mythology, what is represented as a pig or hippopotamus by one tribe, is (for some totemic reason) represented as a crocodile by another.

“The apparent wealth of [Egyptian] mythology depends on the totemism of the inhabitants of the Nile Valley. ... Each district had its own special animal as the emblem of the tribe dwelling in that locality.”- Lockyer: Nineteenth Century, July 1892, p. 51.

Toto Coelo Entirely. The allusion is to augurs who divided the heavens into four parts. Among the Greeks the left hand was unlucky, and the right lucky. When all four parts concurred a prediction was certified toto coelo. The Romans called the east Antica, the west Postica, the south Dextra, and the north Sinistra.

“Even when they are relaxing those general requirements ... the education differs toto coelo from instruction induced by the tests of an examining body.”- Nineteenth Century, January, 1893, p. 23.

Totus Teres atque Rotundus Finished and completely rounded off.

Touch In touch with him. En rapport; in sympathy. The allusion is to the touchstone, which shows by its colour what metal has touched it.

Touch To keep touch - faith, fidelity. The allusion is to “touching” gold and other metals on a touchstone to prove them. Shakespeare speaks of “friends of noble touch” (proof).

“And trust me on my truth,
If thou keep touch with me,
My dearest friend, as my own heart,
Thou shall right welcome be.”
George Barnwell (1730).