THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS. 323 



The Tlingit, Haida, Tsimsliiaii, and Heiltsuq have animal totems. 

 Tlie first of these have two phratries, the raven and wolf among the 

 Tlingit, raven (Q'oa'la) and eagle (G-itEna') among the Haida. The 

 Tsimshian have fonr totems — raven (Qauha'da), eagle (Laxskiyek), 

 wolf (Laxk-ebo'), and bear (G-ispawaduwE'da) ; the Heiltsuq three — 

 raven (Qo'ix-tenox), eagle (Wl'k'oaqx-tenox), and killer whale (Ha'lx'- 

 aix'tenox); the Xa-isla' six — beaver, eagle, wolf, salmon, raven, killer 

 whale. Animal totems in the pioper sense of this term are confined to 

 these five groups or tribes. They are not found among the Kwakiutl, 

 although they belong to the same linguistic stock to which the Xa-isla 

 and Heiltsuq belong. The clans of the northern tribes bear the names 

 of their respective totems and are exogamous. 



It must be clearly understood, however, that the natives do not con- 

 sider themselves descendants of the totem. All my endeavors to 

 obtain information regarding the supposed origin of the relation 

 between man and animal have invariably led to the telling of a myth, 

 in which it is stated how a certain ancestor of the clan in question 

 obtained his totem. The character of these legends is uniform among 

 all the peoi)les of this region ; even farther south, among the Kwakiutl 

 and the northern tribes of the Coast Salish, who have no animal 

 totem in the restricted sense of this term. The ideas of the Kwakiutl 

 regarding these matters will be described fully later on. As these 

 legends reveal the fundamental views the natives hold in regard to 

 their totem, I shall give abstracts of a few of them. 



The following is a legend of the Tsimshian : 



The Bear Clan. — An Indian went mountain-goat hunting, When he 

 had reached a remote mountain range, he met a black bear, who took 

 him to his home, taught him how to catch salmon, and how to build 

 canoes. For two years the man stayed with the bear ; then he returned 

 to his own village. The people were afraid of him, because he looked 

 just like a bear. One man, however, caught him and took him home. 

 He could not speak and could not eat anything but raw food. Then 

 they rubbed him with magic herbs, and gradually he was retransformed 

 into the shape of a man. After this, whenever he was in want, he 

 called his friend the bear, who came to assist him. In winter when 

 the rivers were frozen, he alone was able to catch salmon. He built a 

 house and painted the bear on the house front. His sister made a 

 dancing blanket, the design of which represented a bear. Therefore 

 the descendants of his sisters use the bear for their crest. 



It is evident that legends of this character correspond almost exactly 

 to the tales of the actpiisition of mauitows among the Eastern Indians, 

 and they are evidence that the totem of this group of tribes is, in the 

 main, the hereditary manitow of a family. This analogy becomes still 

 clearer when we consider that each man among these tribes acquires a 

 guardian spirit, but that lie can acquire only such as belong to his clan. 

 Thus, a person may have the general crest of his clan and, besides, use 

 as his personal crest such guardian spirits as he lias ac(| aired. This 

 accounts partly for the great multiplicity of combinations of crests 

 which we observe on the carvings of these people. 



