THE KWAKIUTL INDIANS. 337 



Later on, a chief of the (^Joe'xsot'enox wanted to have the carved 

 Ho'Xhoq. His name was LEk*amii'xot. He tried to find out liow to 

 obtain it, and learned that he had to marry the daugliter of Vc/iiio- 

 Lalasamc in order to obtain it. Then he engaged himself to marry 

 Ma'xalayuqoa, that chief's daughter. Ye/iqoL;llasame agreed, and they 

 were married. Still later i*^Eqa'p'Enk-Em, chief of the K"kwa'kum of 

 the Guc'tEla, obtained the Ho'Xhoq from the Qoc'xsot'enox by mar- 

 riage. 



The first part of this legend shows again the close analogy to the 

 acquisition of the manitou; the end shows how the privilege of using 

 the carving was acquired, first by one tribe, then by the other. 



It is not necessary to multiply these examples. There exists, how- 

 ever, another class of traditions, according to which the crests or 

 emblems of the clan are not accpiired in this manner, but brougiit 

 down by the ancestor of the clan from heaven or from the underworld 

 or out of the ocean, wherever he may have derived his origin. This is 

 the case with the Sl'sinLae, whose emblem is the sun (fig. 1). Here 

 also belong the numerous tales of ancestors who came down from 

 heaven, took off their masks, and became men, for in all these cases 

 the mask has remained the crest of the clan. To this class belong the 

 traditions of the G-i'g-ilqam of the Q'o'moyuc, of the Ts'E'nts'Enx*qaio, 

 and many others. 



There is still another class of privileges connected with these tradi- 

 tions, to which, however, I will only briefly refer at this place, as I have 

 to treat them more fully later on. I mean the membership in secret 

 societies. Many ancestors, when obtaining their manitous, were giveu 

 the right to perform certain dances, or they were given secret songs, or 

 the power to eat human flesh. These rights have also become hereditary, 

 but they difl'er from the crest in so far as the character of the initiating 

 spirit (the manitou) has been more clearly preserved. Each individual, 

 who by descent or marriage is entitled to membership in one of the 

 secret societies, must nevertheless, be initiated by its presiding spirit 

 before joining the society. 



In all festivals references to these traditions are very frequent, and it 

 is quite necessary to be acquainted with them in order to understand 

 the proceedings and speeches, as will appear in the further progress of 

 this description. 



Summing up the preceding considerations, we may say that the 

 Kwakiutl consisted in olden times of a series of village communities 

 among which descent was counted in the iiateiiial line, and the mem- 

 bers of each community were considered descendants of one ancestor. 

 These communities combined in groups, but the composing elements of 

 the groups kept a certain degree of independence and continued to be 

 considered as relatives. Each clan, as we may call the composing ele- 

 ments of the tribe, developed a clan tradition, which was founded upon 

 the acquisition of a manitou by the mythical ancestor, the manitou 

 NAT MUS 95 22 



