648 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1895. 



owe my iuformation regarding tlie clans, and who is a member of the 

 gens lalo'stimdt of the Talio'mx-, stated that he had received the raven 

 when he gave his first potlatch. At his second pothitch he received 

 the eagle. He hoped that his mother would give him the whale at his 

 next potlatch, and would at the same time divulge to him the secrets con- 

 nected with it. In course of time, he said, he might get even others 

 from his brother; but if the latter's children should prove to be ver^^ 

 good, and develop very rapidly, his brother would probably give his 

 secrets to his own children. At festivals, when a person acquires a new 

 secret, he changes his name. Each person has two names, a kii'siut 

 name, which remains through life, and a Xe/mtsioa name, which is 

 changed at these festivals. Thus, Nusk'Elu'sta's (which is his ku'siut 

 name) Xe'mtsioa name was AL'iLEmuE'Ius'aix', but at his next pot- 

 latch he intended to take the name of Kalia'kis. These names are 

 also the property of the various clans, each clan having its own names. 

 When a man jjossesses several sisau'k* secrets, he will distribute them 

 among his children. When a girl marries, her father or mother may, 

 after a child has been born to her, give one or several of their sisau'k- 

 secrets to her husband, as his children make him a member of her clan. 

 When a person grows old, he gives away all his sisau'k- secrets. After 

 any secret has been given away the giver must not use it any more. 

 The crest and the sisau'k- carvings must not be loaned to others, 

 but each person must keep his own carvings. The only exceptions are 

 the carved headdresses and the raven rattles, which are not the 

 property of any particular clan. 



The laws regarding the potlatch are similar to those of the Kwakiutl. 

 The receiver of a present becomes the debtor of the person who gave 

 the potlatch. If the latter should die, the debts become due to his 

 heirs. If the debtor should die, his heirs become responsible for the 

 debt. Property is also destroyed at potlatches. This is not returned, 

 and serves only to enhance the social position of the individual who 

 performed this act. It is not necessary that all the property given by 

 a person in a potlatch should be owned by him. He may borrow part 

 of it from his friends, and has to repay it with interest. I was told, 

 for instance, that a man borrowed a large copper plate and burnt it at a 

 potlatch. When doing so, he had to name the price which he was going 

 to pay the owner in its stead. Since that feast he died, and his heirs 

 are now responsible for the amount named at the potlatch. 



The ku'siut is i)resided over by a female spirit, called Anafdikuts'- 

 ai'x-. Her abode is a cave in the woods, which she keeps shut from 

 February till October, remaining all the while inside. In October she 

 opens the door of her cave and sits in front of it. A w^oman is said to 

 have been the first to find her. Anaidikuts'ai'x* invited her into her 

 cave and taught her the secrets of the ku'siut. She wore ornaments 

 of red cedar bark around her head, waist, and ankles; her face was 

 blackened, her hair strewn with eagle down. She commanded the 



