Inhabiting the North-fTest Coast of America, 189 



Hindostan, they used, until lately, to bum their dead, a cere- 

 mony in which the widow of the deceased, although not sa- 

 crificed, was obliged to continue beating the breast of the 

 corpse until it was consumed on the funereal pile. Instead 

 of being burned, she was obliged to serve as a slave the re- 

 lations of her deceased husband for a series of years, during 

 which she wore around her neck a small bag containing a 

 portion of the ashes of her husband. At the end of the al- 

 lotted time a feast was held, and she was declared at liberty 

 to cast off the symbols of her widowhood. 



Another curious custom, of which, however, we have found 

 as yet only obscure notices of its existence on the north-west 

 coast, is what has been called the totem, among the Algonquin s, 

 among whom the institution exists in perfection. According 

 to this institution, an Indian tribe or nation is divided into va- 

 rious clans or families, each supposed to have a common de- 

 scent, bearing, as an emblem or surname, the appellation of 

 some animal or other object, which, among the Algonquins, is 

 called the totem of the clan. Individuals among the Indians 

 cannot marry within their own clan, but must seek a wife in a 

 clan bearing another totem ; and hence marriages into a close 

 degree of consanguinity are effectually prevented. The fe- 

 male children in many tribes follow the totem of the mother, 

 while the males follow that of the father. This system ap- 

 pears to be very general among the Indians, and even in 

 other barbarous nations ; and we find traces of it among the 

 Indians of the north-west coast. The Cheenooks generally 

 seek for wives among the Chiheelees, and vice versa ; and 

 thus Indian women may be found in places very remote from 

 the abode of their parents. Among the Koluschians and 

 northern tribes, there is the division of the dog and raven 

 clans, with numerous subdivisions. This system existed in 

 South as well as North America. Thus Piedrahita, in his 

 History of New Grenada, notices its occurrence among the 

 Panches, a tribe inhabiting that country. He says, " No 

 casaban los de uno pueblo con muger alguna del, porque 

 todos setenian por hermanos, y era sacro sancto para ellos e 

 impedimento de parentesco pero era tal su ignorancia, qui 

 si la proporia hermana nacia en deferenti pueblo, no escusaba 



