THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS. 333 



re^s^ion inhabited by the tribe or clan, and names of honor. There is a 

 decided tendency to substitute names of the hist class for others. 

 Thus the name Q'o'nioyue (the rich ones) is new. The Xa'xamatsEs 

 took the name Wa/litsum (the great ones) only twenty-five or thirty 

 years ago. I presume that the names (x'I''g-ihiam (those who receive 

 lirst), G-e'xsEm (chiefs), TE'niLtEmLEls (those under whom the ground 

 shakes), were adopted in a simihir way. Other changes of names 

 occur. Thus the I^imkish call themselves recently Lad'koatx, which 

 is the name of one of the tril)es of the west coast of Vancouver Island, 

 and the Lau'itsis are adopting the name Ts'a/mac, which is the name 

 of the Songish in the Comox dialect. 



The geographical names are more suggestive. We find among the 

 Nindiish a clan called Ne'nelk-'enox, the people from the head waters of 

 Ninikish Eiver. This would seem to indicate that the head waters of 

 the river was their ancient home, and that they have joined the rest 

 of the Ximkish. The same may be said of the O'manits'enox clan of 

 the L'n/sq'enox, the Qoe'qoaainox of the T'Eua'xtax, and the Ne'nelpae 

 of the Qoe'xsot'enox. 



In all cases where the dan name or the tribal name is a collective 

 form of the name of the ancestor, we may assume that the grouj) 

 formed at one time a single commauity. How this unit may be broken 

 appears in the case of the Ma'tilpe. We observe that (]uite a number 

 of such clan names are common to several tribes. Thus the Si'sinLae, 

 the descendants of Si'uLae, are found among the Groasi'la, Na/q'oaqtoq, 

 Gue'tEla, Lau'itsis, and Ximkish. The Yaai'x'aqEmae, the descend- 

 ants of Yix*n'qEmae, are found among the Q'o'moyue and T'Ena'xtax. 

 I believe that in all these cases part of the original clan has drifted 

 away from its original home, keeping its old name. This view is sus- 

 tained by the tradition that the clans were divided at the time of the 

 great flood, one part drifting here, another there. 



Still another case that gives evidence of the gradual development of 

 the present system of clans and tribes is furnished by the Ma'malele- 

 qala and Wi'weqae. Both these names are the collective forms of the 

 names of the ancestors. Nevertheless the Ma'maleleqara and Wi'wea- 

 qam, the Ma'leleqala grouj), and the We'qae group appear as subdi- 

 visions of these tribes. It seems to me that this proves that these 

 subdivisions must have formed the original stock, which the other clans 

 joined in course of time. 



All this evidence proves that the present system of tribes and clans 

 is of recent growth and has undergone considerable changes. 



The traditions of the clans show clearly what we must consider the 

 original unit of society among the Kwakiutl. Each clan derives its 

 origin from a mythical ancestor, who built his house at a certain place 

 and whose descendants lived at that place. In a great many cases these 

 places prove to be old village sites. In some, large accumulations of 

 shells are found, which show that they have been inhabited through 



